A Quiet Place I and II

The biggest danger is stupid kids.

Hostile alien beasts have crash landed on Earth and despite being blind are really sturdy and fast to the point that they've become the apex predator on this planet. These films follow a small family of survivors (starring John Krasinski and Emily Blunt) and how they get by in a world where silence is golden, and the answer is - really easily, because they are smart and resilient. Unfortunately their kids do not share those same traits.

As you might expect these are quiet movies that make use of sign language (expect to read sub titles) and the monsters are actually nicely done and don't hide in the dark distance all the time. Interestingly, while there is certainly a lot of killing most of it happens off screen so there's not too much gore here - but plenty of things to still make the viewer squeamish. Worth watching both - recommended!

Warhammer 40K: Darktide

Purge the heretics!

This horde shooter is very much in the same vein as the less futuristic Vermintide and Left 4 Dead with scores of Nurgle worshipers and their special units to dispatch (like one that pounces and then you need help from some one else to get up and another that you need to quietly avoid) while doing random tasks like bringing fuel cans power cells to designated spots, scanning for demon residue (shouldn't that just be everywhere) or hacking with very faulty equipment.  

The major difference with this one is almost 50% of your opponents now come with guns, and those really do hurt! Either you'll need to out snipe them as a veteran, block the damage as a mighty ogryn, cleverly draw them close (or just charge like a maniac) as a zealot, or pop their heads with your mind powers as a psyker - at the risk of popping your own head too - void powers are fun that way. Those are the current four classes available and you do missions in squads of four.

The most annoying parts though are the market, which sells you a random assortment of weapons every hour just to make sure the odds of you finding the one you want are low - and this is worsened by the ridiculous login time which Archer rightly quipped "takes three business days to get in". It's fun enough when you can get to play though its a bit repetitive, a bit grindy and a bit thin on content (though more is said to be on the way). Make sure to have a book or blog site open to read while waiting to actually get into the game.

Willow (Season 1)

The power to control the universe is in which finger?

Years after the movie of the same name takes place, a great evil once again stirs and now it is up to the children of the movie heroes, their friends, some acquaintances and the titular Nelwyn sorcerer Willow (Warwick Davis) to face it (with a strong dash of "rescue mission" for Season 1).

This fantasy series is very odd. Yes it feels like it has diversity for diversity's sake just like Witcher: Blood Origin but it also has present day slang, out of place music tracks, odd cuts in the cinematography, an unexpected amount of denim, and twirling... way too much twirling. That said it is also quite funny and entertaining.

As long as you aren't expecting a grand fantasy tale that takes itself seriously and are more in the mood for some cosplayers doing a D&D quest then, you might actually enjoy this. We'll definitely look out for season two if it goes ahead.

"Solved" Board Games

Tips to increase your odds of winning.

Much like that Sky Force Reloaded tip previously, I thought I'd put some quick ones for games I'm familiar with. Obviously some spoilers and some obvious ones below!

All D&D Adventure systems games: always open tiles if you can

Castle Panic with Engines of War / Wizards Tower: Use the catapult and the magic spells

Crokinole: try flick froma 90 degree angle above for a straight shot

Cthulhu Death May Die: rush the objectives when you can

Dark Souls Card Game: 2 battles, campfire, boss 1, campfire, then try for boss 2

Five Minute Dungeon: play with max players to avoid getting "stuck"

Forbidden Sky: only put wiring once you have all the conduits ready

The Grizzled: first hand is most important while everyone has abilities, go big

Horrified: save villagers when you can as the reward cards are very strong

Last Bastion: fight from corners, switch the flag

Legends of Andor: spy glass the fog and focus on the mission

Legends of Andor 2: use the boat a lot, it saves moves if everyone is on it

Maximum Apocalypse: try end on tiles with numbers on the edges of a 2D6 spectrum

The Night Cage: try not to open tiles that are in line with allies

Operation Flashpoint: Fire Rescue - save people closest to the exits, make use of fire truck

Paleo: seek out scenario cards, they usually have painting pieces

Police Precinct: focus on murder investigation

Robinson Crusoe: avoid rolling dice

Shadowrift: if going for walls, go all in and never pollute your deck with anything other than might or heroism. Otherwise you are going for rifts (even if you declare going for "both", you really mean rifts in this case) which everyone should prep for.

Shadows over Camelot: collect lots of cards first and do grail quest together

The Witching Hour Mod: one player (usually dwarf) ignore your quests and farm requirements for allies

Xenoshyft: don't waste money on cheap units and keep strong guys at both sides of line

Zombicide (all variants): keep track of remaining figures, you don't want to open a big area and have things get lots of extra moves

Warrior Nun and Witcher: Blood Origin

Girl power fantasy!

Warrior Nun

This two season show follows a girl (Alba Baptista) resurrected by a holy plot device who is then pressured to become the titular Warrior Nun to use her blessed powers and lead an order of murderous nuns into battle against the forces of hell.

While there are some nice and gory fight scenes the story and a noticeable amount of the acting is quite shaky, with multiple occurrences of forgetting simple logic and plot holes galore. As long as you set your bar low and expect the protagonist to be almost useless most of the time you might yet enjoy it.

Witcher: Blood Origin

"Diversity!" is the first word that comes to mind when trying to explain this four episode show that prequels the Witcher which explains the world before the conjunction.  

That magical world which only contained elves of all kinds (like, American Elves, Asian Elves, European Elves, Black Elves, Elves of various disabilities etc) and exactly one dwarf was not so magical. These elves are industrious city builders and field toilers that enjoyed political manipulation and warring among each other. No tree hugging Scoia'tael here!

It falls upon a small group of protagonists to try stop an evil empire (who have a severe soldier shortage) and their plans to leverage magical obelisks that can open gateways to other worlds. Props to them for acknowledging their short content to fit everything into four episodes and while it is a bit wierd and possibly lore breaking, its an OK ride with some nice singing. I always give extra points for music. :P

By no means does that make this mandatory viewing though, not even for Witcher fans.

Sky Force Reloaded

 Expect to die a lot again!

This vertically scrolling (bullet hell in later levels) shooter tasks players with earning medals by doing various things during missions: rescuing everyone, not taking damage, killing a % of enemy etc. Earning enough medals unlocks harder modes of the same mission and unlocks later levels too which might require you to have earned x number of medals.

While it's addictive, the upgrades to your craft which become mandatory for some of those medals, quickly becomes a grind and an incentive to use the cash shop. Since I've played this on an ipad where pressing your finger moves your plane around, there is a nice feature included that helps with reaction time: lift your finger and everything goes into slow mo. Sure you can't move, but it gives you precious time to think of where the next opening would be.

In contrast to Rogue Legacy this game lets you keep all the currency you earned, and even better - often offers to double it on a failed run! This alone makes it a million times better than that Rogue Legacy garbage. Unfortunately the levels get repetitive here too so that decreases its longevity somewhat.

Ecosystem (Card Game)

In this little card drafting game up to 6 players are trying to create the best ecosystem they can by playing a 5x4 grid of 20 cards. Each type of card unique points based on what they are or are not next to which sounds messy at first, but its actually super simple to tally up at the end. Best of all (for me) that while it is competitive, there are no direct attacks against other players.

There is a simple elegance in how it is played - everyone gets 10 cards, picks one to play, then passes their entire hand clockwise and so on. After all 10 are done, everyone gets another 10 cards to do the same again, except the cards are now passed counter clock wise. As a result this goes rather quickly and is fast to setup and take down.  Recommended!