Here's an interesting one I ran into a few days ago on the way home.
Bus Driver: Miss? Miss? Yes, you sitting beside the gentleman with the long hair. Are you going to pay your fare? Everyone else tapped on (card system), don't think I didn't notice you when you just walked in and sat down.
Woman: Hi! I have no money and I'm not going to spend three hours walking just to get home. If you single me out and just make us run late, I'm going to report you to your company for not doing your job.
Bus Driver: I -am- doing my job.
Who would you support in this situation?
Tuesday, 10 July 2018
Sunday, 8 July 2018
El Grande - Big Box Edition
You can't be the King, but you can rule!
I've had the El Grande - Big Box for awhile now and I think I've finally had enough plays of this territory control game to give it a decent review. The game play is simple enough, first every one places an "initiative" card if you like which determines who gets to act first. Higher numbers trump lower numbers, but lower numbers gain more troops than higher numbers.
Afterwards you pick from a small selection of actions to take to best conquer as much of Spain as you can while simultaneously blocking the other players. The King makes this interesting as you can only deploy in areas adjacent to him (or the tower) but his region itself is taboo and cannot be altered in any way.
It can have a problem of a runaway winner though, as I saw recently where I almost lapped my opponents on the scoreboard.
Of the expansions we've only played Grand Inquisitor and Colonies which adds France, Africa and America to the board opening up the options for points gaining and makes for a good "alternate" game play. This and the base game are good fun, and I can easily recommend them to competitive gamers.
I've had the El Grande - Big Box for awhile now and I think I've finally had enough plays of this territory control game to give it a decent review. The game play is simple enough, first every one places an "initiative" card if you like which determines who gets to act first. Higher numbers trump lower numbers, but lower numbers gain more troops than higher numbers.
Afterwards you pick from a small selection of actions to take to best conquer as much of Spain as you can while simultaneously blocking the other players. The King makes this interesting as you can only deploy in areas adjacent to him (or the tower) but his region itself is taboo and cannot be altered in any way.
It can have a problem of a runaway winner though, as I saw recently where I almost lapped my opponents on the scoreboard.
It's a pretty big board.
Of the expansions we've only played Grand Inquisitor and Colonies which adds France, Africa and America to the board opening up the options for points gaining and makes for a good "alternate" game play. This and the base game are good fun, and I can easily recommend them to competitive gamers.
Saturday, 7 July 2018
Hacksaw Ridge
Good thing no one thought of cutting the rope ladder.
Desmond Doss (played by Andrew Garfield) grows up a man of faith who takes the commandment of not killing very seriously. This doesn't stop him from enlisting in the army for World War II as a pacifist medic and conscientious objector (one who refuses to wield a weapon or take lives).
The film does a good job showing all the trials poor Desmond has to go through for being different, and also does a decent job depicting war is hell. I especially liked Hugo Weaving's portrayal of a character who already lived through the first World War in this respect.
Effects wise it's decent too with the blood,gore and explosions, though it does get a bit Hollywood at the end where the enemies can't hit a barn door and hip shots from good guys nail opponents each time. I'd still watch this inspirational flick again though, and give it three and a half Saturdays out of five.
Desmond Doss (played by Andrew Garfield) grows up a man of faith who takes the commandment of not killing very seriously. This doesn't stop him from enlisting in the army for World War II as a pacifist medic and conscientious objector (one who refuses to wield a weapon or take lives).
Ofcourse he's good with ropes - he's Spiderman!
The film does a good job showing all the trials poor Desmond has to go through for being different, and also does a decent job depicting war is hell. I especially liked Hugo Weaving's portrayal of a character who already lived through the first World War in this respect.
Effects wise it's decent too with the blood,gore and explosions, though it does get a bit Hollywood at the end where the enemies can't hit a barn door and hip shots from good guys nail opponents each time. I'd still watch this inspirational flick again though, and give it three and a half Saturdays out of five.
Friday, 6 July 2018
Re-review: The true horror of Eldrich Horror
The answer is time.
I think I view Eldrich (and probably Arkham) Horror with rose tinted glasses, as they fill that whole "everything is doomed" bill so nicely. Only now that I'm getting them replayed or maybe because I'm trying to design a game of my own do I see the flaws more clearly.
Even after cutting Arkham's game time by half, "It is a long game," is still an easy phrase to throw around. Yes the amount of components make it long to set up, but the "long" part that is poorly designed - at least time management wise - are the actual encounter cards.
What!? But those give the story and the theme of the game! Yes they do, and they are fantastic. But they only apply to ONE player at a time - and I see now that it's a pretty big draw back. It's almost like everyone plays together in the fast "action" phase, then the momentum stops again when reading out the cards or indeed, fighting monsters.
Even if said encounter only takes 2 minutes, in a six player game that's 10 minutes of each player idling while the others have their encounter. In Police Precinct, you similarly have individual encounters but every other player has an opportunity to assist you. It doesn't make sense logically, but game play wise it keeps everyone invested in what's happening. Glasses off, score adjustment: -0.5.
I think I view Eldrich (and probably Arkham) Horror with rose tinted glasses, as they fill that whole "everything is doomed" bill so nicely. Only now that I'm getting them replayed or maybe because I'm trying to design a game of my own do I see the flaws more clearly.
Even after cutting Arkham's game time by half, "It is a long game," is still an easy phrase to throw around. Yes the amount of components make it long to set up, but the "long" part that is poorly designed - at least time management wise - are the actual encounter cards.
You look at the clock. Roll for sanity!
What!? But those give the story and the theme of the game! Yes they do, and they are fantastic. But they only apply to ONE player at a time - and I see now that it's a pretty big draw back. It's almost like everyone plays together in the fast "action" phase, then the momentum stops again when reading out the cards or indeed, fighting monsters.
Even if said encounter only takes 2 minutes, in a six player game that's 10 minutes of each player idling while the others have their encounter. In Police Precinct, you similarly have individual encounters but every other player has an opportunity to assist you. It doesn't make sense logically, but game play wise it keeps everyone invested in what's happening. Glasses off, score adjustment: -0.5.
Thursday, 5 July 2018
Neverwinter Online: Ravenloft First Impressions
So misty. So cool. So Strahd.
Just before my internet conks out for the next two weeks I thought I'd give my first impressions of Neverwinter's latest module: Ravenloft, which has a pretty cool intro cinematic. After a cheesy quest hook that lets everyone traverse the "unescapable" mists (which is mandatory in an MMO I suppose), we finally get to the beautifully spooky land of Barovia which just oozes of theme. I especially like how Strahd's castle is literally just so close to everything.
The weekly bounty thing from Chult is here and the repeating quests are a bit more time consuming not only because of the slightly tougher baddies but also because said tasks are just slightly longer. Instead of killing 20 things, its now kill 20 of these AND 5 of those. Instead of get the 4 doohickeys, its get the 4 doohickeys AND put them somewhere afterwards.
Best parts for me so far are the night and day cycle which changes the spawns slightly. It's definitely scary to know that theStalker from Warframe Night Terror (miniboss) shows up randomly each night to terrorize some unlucky adventurer. Then there are the hunts which are amazing! No more grinding for bait, now you just hop into an instance with a difficulty of your own choosing, ala Mabinogi Quest Boards.
My personal favorite so far is using increase aggro range cards, the higher the better. This means the baddies aren't stronger but they come marching out for you from all over. While I first did it for a laugh, it's turned out to be a valid farming tactic since all those mobs can then drop more cool hunt cards. The bad part - I'm hunting all the time, and not actually progressing in the campaign! :P
Just before my internet conks out for the next two weeks I thought I'd give my first impressions of Neverwinter's latest module: Ravenloft, which has a pretty cool intro cinematic. After a cheesy quest hook that lets everyone traverse the "unescapable" mists (which is mandatory in an MMO I suppose), we finally get to the beautifully spooky land of Barovia which just oozes of theme. I especially like how Strahd's castle is literally just so close to everything.
It's nice that Strahd shows up early too.
The weekly bounty thing from Chult is here and the repeating quests are a bit more time consuming not only because of the slightly tougher baddies but also because said tasks are just slightly longer. Instead of killing 20 things, its now kill 20 of these AND 5 of those. Instead of get the 4 doohickeys, its get the 4 doohickeys AND put them somewhere afterwards.
Best parts for me so far are the night and day cycle which changes the spawns slightly. It's definitely scary to know that the
My personal favorite so far is using increase aggro range cards, the higher the better. This means the baddies aren't stronger but they come marching out for you from all over. While I first did it for a laugh, it's turned out to be a valid farming tactic since all those mobs can then drop more cool hunt cards. The bad part - I'm hunting all the time, and not actually progressing in the campaign! :P
Wednesday, 4 July 2018
The Sound of Music
My heart wants to sing every song it hears.
Truly a musical classic of love and change (with a dash of Nazis). I'm not sure how they shot the film to make it so vibrant but the locations, sets, casting and music are all top notch. Julie Andrews really is amazing as Maria, and many of the songs will stay with you for sometime after a viewing.
There are a few parts that I do find a bit slow and a few songs that go a little long but for the most part it's quite entertaining. I quite enjoyed the reprised songs in the later half of the movie too. I'm guessing all of you have seen this already anyway, but I'm going to give it four whistles out of five. Watch again? Maybe in a year or so.
Truly a musical classic of love and change (with a dash of Nazis). I'm not sure how they shot the film to make it so vibrant but the locations, sets, casting and music are all top notch. Julie Andrews really is amazing as Maria, and many of the songs will stay with you for sometime after a viewing.
Everything is so pretty, even the stairs!
There are a few parts that I do find a bit slow and a few songs that go a little long but for the most part it's quite entertaining. I quite enjoyed the reprised songs in the later half of the movie too. I'm guessing all of you have seen this already anyway, but I'm going to give it four whistles out of five. Watch again? Maybe in a year or so.
Monday, 2 July 2018
July 2018 Status: Need to Catch up!
As expected last month was quite hectic for me. Fun too, but with significantly less compy and internet time (whose allotment is almost gone this month - I'm not on an unlimited plan). This already hampers July as "the catch up" month as I'm again reduced to dial up speed and means I'll be one month behind on Ravenloft's release as well as more mini-posts for awhile longer - though I'm kinda liking those now. On the plus side it should let me focus on the items that don't need a connection.
So much for dropping the back log section too, as a handful more items have found their way there recently! The list now looks as follows:
End the year with less weight (-2.2 kg from last month, running total: -1.9 kg)
Draw 12 drawings of anything (7/12 - no progress)
Make board game prototype (no progress)
Complete web comic chapter 1 (no progress)
Clean out wardrobe (no progress)
+Complete NWO: Ravenloft (0/2 not happening with slow internet)
+Prep Eador Story
+Board game re-review
+Witcher board game redemption trial?
+Update Facebook pictures (2 years behind lol)
Backlog Update:
FROM GIFTS (or freebies)
Sims 3
Eador: Masters of the Broken World (done)
+Astroneer
+Hand of Fate 2
+Sniper Elite 4
+Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
+Hyper Light Drifter
+Battletech
+Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown
COMPY CAN'T RUN (but I want to play)
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
Alien Isolation
Shadow of Mordor (oops: this is meant to be Shadow of War)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Satellite Reign
Assassins Creed Unity
So much for dropping the back log section too, as a handful more items have found their way there recently! The list now looks as follows:
End the year with less weight (-2.2 kg from last month, running total: -1.9 kg)
Draw 12 drawings of anything (7/12 - no progress)
Make board game prototype (no progress)
Complete web comic chapter 1 (no progress)
Clean out wardrobe (no progress)
+Complete NWO: Ravenloft (0/2 not happening with slow internet)
+Prep Eador Story
+Board game re-review
+Witcher board game redemption trial?
+Update Facebook pictures (2 years behind lol)
Backlog Update:
FROM GIFTS (or freebies)
Sims 3
+Astroneer
+Hand of Fate 2
+Sniper Elite 4
+Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
+Hyper Light Drifter
+Battletech
+Shadowrun Chronicles: Boston Lockdown
COMPY CAN'T RUN (but I want to play)
Batman: Arkham Knight
Dying Light
Alien Isolation
Shadow of Mordor (oops: this is meant to be Shadow of War)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
Satellite Reign
Assassins Creed Unity
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