Tom Clancy's EndWar (game)

[kojak]

A new game by Ubisoft based on Tom Clancy's EndWar novel. (http://endwargame.us.ubi.com/)

Just reading the plot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endwar#Plot) and viewing a couple of trailers I have my doubts about the plausibility of the game, but hey, it's based on a Tom Clancy novel.

[Adam]

Hey, its also a game.:)

[Silverite]

Wow, just... wow. :cool:

[Pkmatrix]

Actually, I'm fairly sure the novel is based on Ubisoft's game. I picked it up a few weeks ago and tried reading, but couldn't get more than a few chapters in... it was just so BORING. You know there's a problem when all you've read has been "thrilling" action sequences and yet you're still too bored to care about any character.

Also, when did Tom Clancy stop writing his own books? "Tom Clancy's Endwar" is, if the cover is to be believed, "written by David Michaels". Who the HELL is David Michaels? If I am to assume that everything which has Tom Clancy's name before the title wasn't actually written by him, then that means the guy has only written 25 of the 60 books credited to him! :eek:

Man, what do I have to do to get a gig like that?

[Adam]

Meh, I was able to finish reading the book at Borders in under five hours. No need to buy it when it takes that amount of time to finish reading it. Some bits of it were interesting, but as you've said Pkmatrix, its boring overall.

[Silverite]

Interestingly enough, it says on the cover of the paperback that the book is based on Ubisoft's bestselling game.

How can it be called 'bestselling' when it isn't even out yet? :confused:

A clever ruse, perhaps?

[kojak]

I think David Michaels is a pseudonym for Tom Clancy. As for being based on the game, I read that too, but I think it's just a marketing tactic.

[Adam]

I think David Michaels is a pseudonym for Tom Clancy. As for being based on the game, I read that too, but I think it's just a marketing tactic.

Rubbish. Tom Clancy would've written longer and better than this David Michaels nobody. It was so short that I finished it in under five hours in the bookstore, as I've stated above. A normal Tom Clancy book would've taken me days to read finish.

That said, it is based on the game EndWar. There's even a reference to one of the first game trailer in it.

[kojak]

Then David Michaels is probably someone authorised by Tom Clancy to publish material and use the Tom Clancy trademark.

[Adam]

Then David Michaels is probably someone authorised by Tom Clancy to publish material and use the Tom Clancy trademark.

A ghost writer, basically. That's been Clancy since the debacle that was Teeth of the Tiger.

[mutt]

Tom Clancy has been out of circulation for a good 4 year's now, he took a break after TOTT, he didn't like it himself, to come up with fresh ideas, then when he got down to a new book in late 2006, bang he had a serious illness requiring surgery, he has only recently got back to writing.

[gtrof]

Tom Clancy has been out of circulation for a good 4 year's now, he took a break after TOTT, he didn't like it himself, to come up with fresh ideas, then when he got down to a new book in late 2006, bang he had a serious illness requiring surgery, he has only recently got back to writing.

I had heard Clancy was sick, what did he come down with?

Anyway I bought End War and it had some good parts it was not that exciting at all. And why is every Russian military unit called Spetsnaz? :mad: The Splinter Cell books by Michaels are better, especially the first two Splinter Cell and Operation Barracuda. I'm still looking forward to the game when it comes out.

[Pkmatrix]

Part of what annoyed me about Endwar is part of its basic premise... the background is that Iran and Saudi Arabia destroyed each other (and the world's oil supplies) in a nuclear war, leaving Russia the only major oil power. That is an interesting scenario and I'd like to see a book about that alone, actually. Unfortunately, Michaels treats the background story as "Oh good, that Arab distraction is finally over with. Let's get back to the REAL struggle: the good-old war between the heroic Americans and the dastardly Soviet/Russians!"

Honestly, is a retread of old Cold War tropes the best this guy can do?

[mutt]

I had heard Clancy was sick, what did he come down with?
Massive heart attack, and every unit's called Spetsnaz because well, the Russians have about 100 different unit's designated like that, it just means "unit of special purpose/designation" it could be anyone from the janitors to the Alpha group:)

[Euroman26]

Massive heart attack, and every unit's called Spetsnaz because well, the Russians have about 100 different unit's designated like that, it just means "unit of special purpose/designation" it could be anyone from the janitors to the Alpha group:)

Do You Guys think Putin did it? Made Clancy sick? So he couldn't write anymore books?

[Pkmatrix]

^ Maybe, although I think Putin normally thinks on a grander scale. Perhaps if Clancy had been struck by a sudden and mysterious case of Malaria...

[Pax Britannia]

Unfortunately, Michaels treats the background story as "Oh good, that Arab distraction is finally over with. Let's get back to the REAL struggle: the good-old war between the heroic Americans and the dastardly Soviet/Russians!"

Honestly, is a retread of old Cold War tropes the best this guy can do?

If you want an interesting conventional war which doesnt involve yet more Islamic militants then you have to find some way to get them out of the picture.

I'm kinda bored of preachy "oh when will the killing end?" post 9/11 war novels. Some Russian Bear baiting sounds good to me :D

[Adept Havelock]

Massive heart attack, and every unit's called Spetsnaz because well, the Russians have about 100 different unit's designated like that, it just means "unit of special purpose/designation" it could be anyone from the janitors to the Alpha group:)

IIRC, Spetsnaz is an army designation. "Alpha" is a (former KGB) unit and would be part of Osnaz.

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Actually, I'm fairly sure the novel is based on Ubisoft's game. I picked it up a few weeks ago and tried reading, but couldn't get more than a few chapters in... it was just so BORING. You know there's a problem when all you've read has been "thrilling" action sequences and yet you're still too bored to care about any character.
I've jsut picked it up, and I'm finding it kinda dull too. I do have to ask, though: how, precisely did the Americans get Strykers and Humvees into downtown Moscow in the middle of a war? I can't figure out how you'd deliver the stuff or rescue the teams afterward.

Personally, the biggest surprise came in the middle of the book when I read the reference to the trailer. I thought all the action was set in the buildup to the war, but apparently the war has actually been in full swing for the entire novel. The sad thing is, I couldn't even tell until it was pointed out to me.

I have got to stop reading these books. Why won't I ever learn?

[Redem]

I've jsut picked it up, and I'm finding it kinda dull too. I do have to ask, though: how, precisely did the Americans get Strykers and Humvees into downtown Moscow in the middle of a war? I can't figure out how you'd deliver the stuff or rescue the teams afterward.

Personally, the biggest surprise came in the middle of the book when I read the reference to the trailer. I thought all the action was set in the buildup to the war, but apparently the war has actually been in full swing for the entire novel. The sad thing is, I couldn't even tell until it was pointed out to me.

I have got to stop reading these books. Why won't I ever learn?

Well I get that reading when I read techno-thriller is how you feel conflict scale are dramaticly lesser than there world altering consequence. Probably cause its hard to make a war its in entirety and that you want the hero to make a dramatic turning point in the conflict. Otherwise it always feel like "always loosing/Always winning"

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Well, I finished it, and I’m not proud. It’s a tie-in novel for an RTS, so I didn’t expect that much at the outset. My biggest problem was that the book fell into the problem that “future war” have struggled with since the 1870s: if you make the good guys too powerful, you kill the drama. While I don’t care much for Dale Brown as a writer, I will say that he generally tries to keep the Americans on the defensive for the first two-thirds of his typical novel, which is usually enough to keep the story interesting enough for me to persevere through to the end. Here, it just seemed like Russians were being mown down constantly by the eternally better-equipped and prepared Americans, which really cut down the tension considerably. Fortunately, the Russian defeats never reached the levels of authorial sadism I seen in older works, so it wasn’t all bad.

I was a little confused by the use of Russian military terminology. I don’t think that the Ka-29 chopper used constantly in the book actually exists, but if it’s based on the actual Ka-50 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-50) chopper, which is an anti-tank chopper with no transport capacity, it isn’t really the thing you’d want to use in a drive through rural tundra and forest. I’d also agree that there’s been something of a confusion on the whole Spetsnaz issue. Back in the ‘80s, “Spetsnaz” was the name given to the Soviet army’s complement of airborne diversionary troops, whose job it was to parachute into enemy territory ahead of the main force and disable power plants, mine roads, assassinate key officials, and so on. From what I read, the Russian invasion force seemed to consist entirely of regular old airborne forces, or VDV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VDV).

Still, the one thing I can’t get over is how the Russian plan didn’t seem to make any damn sense. I mean, they just roll the airborne troops in, capture the Alberta tar sands, and that’s that? They expected them to hold it forever, and everyone would acquiesce? The Soviet rationale for invading Seattle in World of Conflict (force a American withdrawal from the European front to defend the homeland, swipe intel about the American SDI program at Fort Teller) made way more sense that the Russian plan does in this book.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Check the listing for the Ka-27. It's only mentioned in passing, but the Ka-29 is an assault transport helicopter with the capacity to transport 16 troops.

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Check the listing for the Ka-27. It's only mentioned in passing, but the Ka-29 is an assault transport helicopter with the capacity to transport 16 troops.

You're right. I knew some of the Ka-25 series of choppers were outfitted for transport and anti-submarine operations, but I mistakenly thought that they were unarmed otherwise.

Well, now I have one less thing to complain about in Endwar.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be enough things to complain about for the both of us.

[Ivan Druzhkov]

Don't worry, I'm sure there'll be enough things to complain about for the both of us.
The author's knife fetish, for one.

[Strategos' Risk]

They ought to novelize Command and Conquer: Generals just for the hell of it. The Tiberium series should get its own television show, and Red Alert needs to be made into movies.

[Georgepatton]

They ought to novelize Command and Conquer: Generals just for the hell of it. The Tiberium series should get its own television show, and Red Alert needs to be made into movies.
*slams shoe on table*
Motion seconded!:cool::D:cool:

[Redem]

Well General does have that techno-thriller feel in which warfare in which world altering warfare seem not be that hard

[Sachyriel]

*slams shoe on table*
Motion seconded!:cool::D:cool:

Third!

And...I still don'tget why the hell Canadians stood down as a nation... but wtf...the PM is all... calm.

Fuck that tar sands thing, we have uranium mines in Saskatchewan, wouldn't that be a better target? And if it takes so much tar sands to make one barrel of oil, I don't think it's a big deal.

I say most Canadians can totally make booby-traps way better. Where were the pipe bombs? The bear traps? The GOD DAMNED GANGSTERS! You know they would have gotten action in Edmonton and Calgary. Canadian Gangsters, better protection then the RCMP, that's fo sho.

[Ivan Druzhkov]

In order to wash the taste of this book out of my mind, I took the opportunity to read Red Army, Ralph Peter's 1989 novel chronicling a Soviet invasion of West Germany from the Russian perspective. While I admit that I’ve always been biased in favor of the Russians, I have to say that, from a literary standpoint Red Army is much better that EndWar. At least in Red Army, most of the characters resemble human beings, and the war depicted is far more modest and plausible than the one in EndWar. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a decent read.

[Adam]

I actually liked Ralph Peters' 2020, so I might check this one out.

[gtrof]

In order to wash the taste of this book out of my mind, I took the opportunity to read Red Army, Ralph Peter's 1989 novel chronicling a Soviet invasion of West Germany from the Russian perspective. While I admit that I’ve always been biased in favor of the Russians, I have to say that, from a literary standpoint Red Army is much better that EndWar. At least in Red Army, most of the characters resemble human beings, and the war depicted is far more modest and plausible than the one in EndWar. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a decent read.

Oh no contest Red Army is far superior to End War. I thought it was intriguing since it had the Soviets winning. The War in 2020 was also a good read loved the railgun equiped VTOLS :D

[Adam]

The War in 2020 was also a good read loved the railgun equiped VTOLS :D

Those were the stuff of futurewank awesome, since they could practically kill anything within hundreds of miles.:p

[Boom22]

I hate how books portray Canadians as cowards who bend down to a nation's whim. FFS I mean we are far more nationalist then Americans (no offence) and we would make life hell on anyone nearby who supported the occupation. HT did the best portrayal of Canadians in TL-191 (however flawed it was). I just wanna punch something.

[Adam]

I hate how books portray Canadians as cowards who bend down to a nation's whim. FFS I mean we are far more nationalist then Americans (no offence) and we would make life hell on anyone nearby who supported the occupation. HT did the best portrayal of Canadians in TL-191 (however flawed it was). I just wanna punch something.

You could try getting Making History (with the latest patch) and then setting up yourself a Canada-wank scenario in the editor.;)

[FloRida]

I thought they portrayed the canadians as pretty tough. I mean having well over 200 male citzens from a small town fight against Russians armed with helos and bmps. The prime minster is the one thats a pussy. I did have a hard time believing he would sit on his hands when it was his country being invaded. I agree the main problem with the book is that the main american characters rape through thousands of elite russian soldiers.

The americans that got to the heart of moscow were transported there through space transports. The whole idea of the Joint Strike force in the book is that they can strike anywhere in the world at anytime, or atleast from what I have read in the game.

It seems like it is atleast an intresting idea that should have been ellaborated more. The Russians had suposedly reach Paris (wtf happen to the germans?). They had used the extra oil money to update there arm forces, so to be on par with the US, which if they are in this book then I guess every american soldier and any canadian with a gun is about 10 times more effective a soldier than any russian alive.

To put it simply this book is nothing more than fast food. Short, Quick, a few moments of suspense, but for the most part way to many plot wholes and not enough is explained.