My Board Game Obsession

My love of board/card games recently only seems to be swelling every day. But not just because I'm developing a game myself. A couple of months ago I started reading my back issues of Knights Of The Dinner Table, which I'm planning to resume purchasing after a three year hiatus from reading it.

Even though the characters in the comic are bellying up to a table to play role-playing games, the kind of chatter and fun that happens during an RPG is similar to what I experience while playing board games. KODT also has a great feature called "The Lost Game Safari", in which out of print board games worth a second look are reviewed. Combine that with the store available at boardgamegeek.com and ebay, and a world of awesome board games suddenly becomes available!

Today I'm on the hunt for boardgame podcasts. I'm not normally a podcast listener, but a recent change in my habits (which I'll probably talk about on Wednesday) means that I'm now looking for something interesting to listen to during my lunch breaks. Boardgamegeek.com has an index of board game podcasts, but there is quite a lot to sift through. So if you know of a good boardgame podcast, I'd love to hear about it!

My Brain Falls Short!

A buddy of mine pointed out that he saw a special feature using "before and after" footage to show the "re-sizing" effects of Captain America on his copy of the Blu-ray. I double checked mine and discovered that the feature was in fact on there!

Not sure how I missed it, but I checked it out tonight and it has some great "before and after" footage that is really cool! So please disregard most of my previous post. (Though the filmmaker commentary is still pretty dry.)

Sorry!

Captain America Blu Ray Features Fall Short

Picked up the Captain America Blu Ray yesterday and immediately popped it in to check out the special features. It has a handful of behind the scenes documentaries on the making of the movie that are pretty interesting, and one documentary about the origin of the comic book character. But I'm half way through the commentary and it's pretty dry.

The commentators are pretty sedate as they talk about the flick and there are no actors involved. Personally, I like commentaries where those involved feel free to joke around a bit, and enjoy actors being involved because they are closely associated with the illusion of the film presents, which I enjoy looking behind.

But the biggest ball dropped in the special features surrounds the amazing effects used to shrink the buffed up Chris Evans into the scrawny Steve Rogers for the first 30 minutes of the movie. (Chris Evans filmed all of those scenes after buffing up to play Cap, and they shrunk down and reshaped his body digitally to make him look skinny.) I saw more about these effects in TV and web specials before the movie was released. I really wanted to see some before and after shots for the "shrinking process", and although they describe how it was done in the commentary, there are no visuals with which we can appreciate this amazing digital feat. What a shame.

My Sister Is In Town!

Woohoo! This week my older sister, Jhannea, and her family are visiting from Grand Forks, North Dakota. A great excuse to take a little time off work and bum around with her at my parents house. (Bound to get some free meals out of it, too!)

I wonder if she remembered to bring her copy of "Circus Atari"? I'm pretty sure I still hold the record on that.

DC Universe Online: Free To Play "Coming Soon"?

Although DCUO was supposed to go "Free To Play: on October 19th, the banner on the site still lists the change as "coming soon". What's up, guys?

I'm getting hosed by Xbox Live's lame security (they're STILL fixing my hacked account) and can't play the game I want to because of it.

It's still a week and a half before Lord Of The Rings: War In The North comes out, which is still just a "maybe" for me until I see reviews.

Elder Scroll 5 doesn't hit stores until November 11th!

What does DC expect me to do in the meantime? Spend money? Be productive? Read a book? Totally unacceptable.

Maybe I can use the extra time to develop my superhero character concept: Theme Music Man!

Okay, I can't take credit for that one. And if you've never read the short story, you're missing out.

Batman: Year One (Blu Ray Review)

In 1986, DC published Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns", which arguably re-established Batman as a grim and gritty character and influenced the way Batman stories were told forever after. One year later, DC hired Miller to retell Batman's origin in a story entitled "Batman: Year One". Unlike "The Dark Knight Returns", this story was part of official DC Universe continuity, and even further established the dark tone that this well-known character is defined by. "Year One" served as source material for a number of great comic book stories, and was drawn from heavily in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" movie.

Now, the DC animated studios have turned their attention to "Batman: Year One" and set out to create an animated version of this iconic story. I'm pleased to report they succeeded wonderfully.

The character driven story is what really sells this movie so well. Surprisingly, for those who haven't read the original comic, this story is more about James Gordon than it is about Bruce Wayne. Gordon has just transferred to Gotham with the rank of police lieutenant, and is having to survive as an honest cop amidst a corrupt police force. His stance for honesty and justice put both himself and his family in danger, and his only ally may just be the vigilante he is trying to capture!

Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne is discovering his calling and what it really takes to fight crime in Gotham City. This is Batman well before he becomes the seasoned veteran with a plan for every situation. He makes mistakes and suffers the consequences, resulting in injuries he's forced to suffer through and "back to the wall" situations he has to think his way out of on the fly.

With Zack Snyder's "Watchmen" being the only exception, I think DC's animated version of "Batman: Year One" is the single most faithful adaptation of specific comic book pages to the screen. Fans of the comic will recognize numerous panels that have been brought to life, though with a cleaner look and a few more colors added to the palette.

The cast performances were solid, though not perfectly suited to the project. Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli captured the grim despair of noir. And though this film aims to retain that feel, the 1st person voice-overs, representing the thoughts of James Gordon and Bruce Wayne, have a little too much inflection from time to time. I also thought that the voice of Batman, while appropriately young sounding given the age of the character in this story, was having to try a little too hard to achieve that natural, guttural sound that makes the best Batman voices work.

The animation and lines are beautiful on Blu Ray, and the the character of Gotham City deserved its own credit. The original artwork was clearly the basis for the visual design, and with just a few enhancements, the original visuals translate wonderfully.

The run-time is once again pretty short at only 64 minutes. But it's more than enough time to tell this story well. And the numerous great features on the Blu Ray(creator commentary, round table with current Batman creative staff, documentary on the original comic, Catwoman short feature and more!) easily make up for any perceived brevity in the main feature.

Although it may not lead to conversation after watching the movie, a major theme in James Gordon's story is doing the right thing, even when it hurts. Gordon is a flawed man, but strives for most of the movie to make the right decisions, despite the pain it brings him. When contrasted with the modern pop-philosophy of "do what feels right" or "follow your heart", Gordon's pursuit of honesty and justice is refreshing and inspiring, whether it impacts the entire city, or just his relationship with his wife.

For those interested in an introduction to the Batman comics mythos who aren't quite ready to flip through an actual comic book, this is as good as it gets. A solid, serious representation of Batman with a grounded, human story that even many non-genre fans will appreciate.

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sexual material.

Quality: 9.0/10
Relevance: 7.5/10

For information about my scoring system, visit spiritblade.net/reviewscores
You can also listen to this review this weekend at spiritblade.net/podcast

Green Lantern Extended Cut

As you might have guessed, I rushed to the store on Friday to get my copy of the extended Bluray version of the Green Lantern movie.

For those wondering, the added footage is great and adds appreciated depth to character arcs, though it doesn't fix any shortcomings you may or may not have felt in the flow of the story as a whole.

What it DOES do is give us more reason to invest in Hal and in his fight to overcome fear. The added 14 minutes is almost all in one section at the beginning, which flashes us back to Hal's childhood. We see his childhood connection to both Carol and Hector and experience with more vulnerability the death of Hal's dad.

With a little more time and less freshness to my first viewing experience, I might modify my quality score to an 8.5, which I don't think this extended cut improves enough to bring it back up to 9. But the degree to which I personally enjoy the film still hasn't changed. (LOVE it!)

In fact, now months later, with the responsibility to write an unbiased review well behind me(and failed anyway), there are aspects of the movie that I'm even allowing myself to be more forgiving in. I'm even more impressed with the CGI suits now that I've seen the "making of" and know how much work went into them. And Blake Lively's portrayal of Carol Ferris, while no better, is one I'm "adjusting to".

Everything else I loved about the movie: the constructs, the action, the performances (Peter Sarsgaard is AWESOME as Hector Hammond!), they're all still fantastic. A great flick!

The Thing (Movie Review)

I'm a big fan of monster movies. And the more creative the monster, the better. I'm a sucker for that tried and true formula of mysterious frightening deaths, followed by glimpses of a creature, followed by progressively revealing looks and information about the creature and culminating in a terrible, expansive revelation of the creature in the climax. It worked in Jeepers Creepers, Alien, Predator and my choice for "King Of All Monster Movies", John Carpenter's The Thing (a 1982 pseudo remake of 1951's "The Thing From Another World").

This awesome flick was unfortunately in theaters at the same time as E.T. and was essentially a box office failure. But it has gained a wild cult following on television and home video and you can consider me a card carrying member of that cult.

What I love about the 1982 film is the great character performances and use of suspense and paranoia to carry the film, rather than the creature effects. But the creature effects could have easily carried this film by themselves. Grotesque and gory, The Thing is the most bizarre creature I have ever seen on screen. And although the movie was made long before the use of CGI in films, the very fact that almost every effect was in camera still gives the film a tangible quality today that is lacking in so many CGI flicks whose effects look to my eye like glorified cartoons. (Even giants like the Lord of The Rings Trilogy have many phony CGI moments to my eye.) CGI is something I tolerate, and sometimes enjoy, but am rarely fooled by.

When I heard they were making a prequel to my favorite monster flick, I was immediately stoked. But as the time drew closer and I saw some obvious CGI effects in the trailers, I started to prepare myself to be let down and resolved to just enjoy the movie as best as I could. All things considered, I had zero cause for concern. This movie nailed it.

A Norwegian team of scientists have discovered a spacecraft buried in the antarctic ice for thousands of years and hire an American female paleontologist and a few other Americans to help them excavate it. But as is often the case in movies like this, the scientists make reckless decisions out of impatience and pride that lead to disaster and horror as they unleash a terrifying creature that is far more than they are prepared to deal with.

It's hard not to compare this movie to the 1982 film, because it draws so heavily from it. Both films occur in some of the same locations and the producers of the new film obviously used the 1982 production documents as source material. In many ways the plot uses the same skeleton as the original film as well, but is fleshed out in different ways and somehow still feels very original.

This was due largely to the fact that, like the first film, this one keeps you guessing until the very end regarding who is human and who is The Thing. The sense of isolation feeds the paranoia, and the performances by the cast keep the tension levels high throughout the movie. It's this attention to character and the pace of the script and editing that kept me hugging my shoulders for much of the 103 minute run time.

The creature design is a major selling point of the film. As The Thing absorbs and imitates other life forms, it transforms in gruesome and gory ways, contorting the human form into horrific shapes that just plain give you the willies to look at. Although this movie could stand on its tension-setting alone, when The Thing literally bursts onto the scene, it pays off the mounting tension to jaw-dropping effect.

My only point of criticism, the only way I could think to make this movie any better, would be the CGI effects. The film uses some great practical effects to portray The Thing, but also uses CGI now and then, some parts of which look better than others. I would have preferred that they go practical the entire film. But the creature design still looked creepy and bizarre, and even the original movie switched over to some questionable stop-motion animation at the climax of the film.

For fans of the original flick, there are a multitude of connections to the original film. So many in fact that after the last sequence during the credits, which re-creates the opening shots of the original movie, you'll want to go home and watch the 1982 movie.

Ever wonder what led to that crazy "two person meld" they find in the original movie? This flick tells the whole story. There are bits like that throughout the film, although they are handled in such a way as to not be obvious "inside jokes" to old-school fans, such as those peppered throughout the last Indiana Jones movie. This isn't nostalgia film-making, but it does honor the original movie and even enhances the experience of watching it again.

Never seen the original? No worries. This film doesn't depend on that a single bit and stands completely on its own, a modern creature horror masterpiece. But you may just find yourself looking for a copy of the old one as you leave the theater!

Although I always look for something of real-world importance in the themes of the movies I watch, this movie was just pure escapist entertainment. It's not making any philosophical statements. It just wants to scare the pants off of you. As far as I'm concerned, mission accomplished!

Rated R for strong creature violence and gore, disturbing images, and language.

Quality: 9.5/10

Relevance: 3.0/10

For information about my scoring system, visit www.spiritblade.net/reviewscores
You can also listen to this review this weekend at www.spiritblade.net/podcast

A Golden Age Of Gaming

It's very possible that I have just hit the "Golden Age" of gaming for myself in this console cycle. By that I mean that there are more good games to play than I have time to give for them. For me it usually comes around 1/2 to 3/4 through the life of a console.

Part of the reason for the timing is that I wait until some games, which I'm not as desperate to play, have come down in price on the used games market. Part of the reason is that game producers have learned how to better use the technology of the current crop of consoles.

Usually I have a pretty even flow of gaming, playing just one game at a time and not having more than a few weeks between games, or a month if it's an especially dry spell.

Dry spells are more common than I'd like, but unavoidable when I limit myself to RPGs. But for awhile now I've had a string of games that I've really enjoyed. And with my new laptop, some other gaming options have opened up that I plan to explore. (Which may now even include World Of Warcraft, since they've gone free to play up to level 20.)

Here's a quick rundown of what I've been playing on my 360 for the first time in the last 2-3 months and what I'm looking forward to playing (or at least trying out) either on my 360 or laptop:

Torchlight
Two Worlds ($4.99 used at Gamestop!)
Two Worlds 2
Fable 2 ($4.99 used at Gamestop!)

(Playing Soon!)
DC Universe Online (Free to play starting October 19th!)
The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North(Action RPG by the makers of "Champions Of Norrath"? Suh-WEET!)
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrum (Wetting my pants in anticipation)
World Of Warcraft (It can't REALLY be that addictive, can it?)
Crimson Alliance
Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning
Mass Effect 3

And that's just through March of 2012! Let the Golden Age begin!

X-Files Replaced By Chuck

Recently I've been looking for a show I can watch on DVD/Bluray while making dinner or just spontaneously killing time. I developed an interest in The X-Files, given the dark and serious tone of the show, the long-term "mythos" elements that reward viewer investment, and the fact that I'd never seen it before outside 10 minutes here and there and both movies.

Although I enjoyed a handful of episodes from the first season, it was far from a consistently enjoyable experience for me. Still, I got season 1 and 2 for just over 10 bucks each, so it was hard to complain. But more than halfway through season 2 I realized that, although I was more than willing to pay the price in cash, the price in time was not worth it. I've just gotten too much of a taste for more character driven stories, and X-Files, like many sci-fi shows, was more concept driven. (AKA, "freak of the week")

So I took both of my X-Files seasons to the used bookstore and used the cash to help buy season 1 of Chuck.

This show has been recommended to me by several people for years. But I've been burned too many times by shows I enjoy getting cancelled before they resolve the plot. (The 4400 and The Sarah Connor Chronicles both come to mind) I've resolved, except for rare exceptions like AMC's "The Walking Dead", to wait until TV shows are completely finished before watching them. But now that Chuck is in its final season and the creators will be able to end the show the way they want to, I've given myself the "green light" to start watching this show from the beginning.

I'm only three episodes in, and while the humor dips into a strong lack of realism from time to time (Chuck flies a helicopter because he played a helicopter video game??), the characters are what this show seems to be about, which I love. And of course the many geek-culture references rock. (I understand they are a staple of the show, which I'm looking forward to.)

Speaking of geek-culture crossover with Chuck, the actress that plays Sarah looked VERY familiar to me. Soon after the pilot started I turned to my wife and said, "She looks JUST like this character in Mass Effect 2." Suddenly, a foggy memory I'd once filed under "irrelevant" because I wasn't watching Chuck at the time resurfaced (much like Chucks unfortunate "memory flashes") and I remembered that she actually served as the voice and model for a character in the game.

Anyway, in just three episodes I'm already hooked and regretting that I offered to "save" each episode for viewing with my wife. She's not so good at taking down-time, so it may be painfully slow going.

Still Cut Off From Xbox Live

It's been two months now since my Xbox Live account was hacked. They told me on the phone that they were very backed up and so there would likely be a delay. A month later I got an e-mail from them telling me they were still backed up. They gave me a code I could use to create a free, temporary gold account. Perfect for me, since I don't play games online.

For awhile, it was no big deal to not have my account working. But now I've got some games I've purchased in the marketplace I'd like to re-download to play, and some other games that will only work when I'm connected to Xbox Live so they can verify I own my DLC. (An entirely different element of stupidity in modern gaming.) And unless I feel like repurchasing stuff I've already bought so I can use it while I wait for my account to be repaired, that free month of gold is still useless.

Lame.

Just sent them an e-mail on Tuesday and haven't even gotten an auto-response. Looks like I'll be listening to their hold music again sometime soon.

My PC Is Lame

A couple of weeks ago I got a new laptop to replace one that died. I bought my PC about 8 or 9 years ago and it's really showing its age sitting next to my new laptop. It's actually been really good to me, but over the years has just gotten slower and slower.

I keep up with anti-virus software, registry cleaning, and de-frag (mostly), but it seems to recover a little less every time.

I imagine I can still squeeze a couple more years out of it, but it's clear the time has come yet again, especially before I start recording or mixing for another project, to figure out every trick I possibly can to get it running faster.

So if anyone has any suggestions on things I can do to get my PC running better, outside what I've already mentioned, I'd love to hear them! (And FREE options are what I'm mostly aiming for.)

The Evolution Of My Hobby

FROM THIS...












TO THIS...


















TO THIS...





















Although I started out as a HeroQuest gamer, as soon as I discovered real role-playing games during my first year of college, I was hooked. And I usually wasn't content to just be a player either. I wanted to be the game master. The one who holds all the cards, crafts the story (or at least runs it) and doesn't have just one little character to play, but sometimes a dozen in one night!

My game of choice was (contrary to the D&D image posted above) DC Heroes by Mayfair games. The rules were extremely flexible and pretty easy to learn. If I were to ever design a "Spirit Blade" paper and pencil RPG, I would probably look into licensing that rules system.

Great memories of not just playing the game, but pulling out my tattered notebook between lame college classes to add more details and choices to the adventures I created for my players.

My RPG habit took a break for a couple years after our group went separate ways. A year or two into marriage I introduced an entirely new group of friends to role-playing. We started out using the DC Heroes rules for a Matrix RPG, which was a huge blast. That naturally led to playing the DC Heroes game again.

But alas, life and responsibilities made it harder and harder to get the group together, and that season of life never quite returned. A few years later I had one more gaming group that lasted a year, maybe two. But for me the magic had been lost, for no fault of the players. I just didn't have the time to give to game preparation anymore. Even the time needed to read and get familiar with a pre-written adventure was more than I could spare.

So I turned to boardgames like "HeroQuest", "Descent: Journeys In The Dark" and "Doom: The Board Game". These fantastic games had the RPG elements of a "gamemaster" and players, instead of the usual competitive nature of most boardgames. They also required no prep time except to set the game up on the table!

My buddy Mark and I had long since exhausted any published adventures for HeroQuest, but I could take advantage of a TON of player-made quests online and even modify them to fit my own tastes if I wanted. But when Fantasy Flight started putting out Descent and Doom, I knew HeroQuest had just been replaced. These games had amazing game components and detailed rules that suddenly gave our strategic minds workouts they hadn't had in years. A golden age of board gaming had begun!

That lasted for about 5 years. In that time, with each expansion released for "Descent", more rules were added and games became longer. The release of a "campaign" play mode was intended to shorten the required length for a single game, but it never seemed to have that effect for me and my friends. Setting up the table alone took about 30 minutes or more. Aside from my "gaming weekends" 2-3 times a year, I could never find time in my schedule AND another person's schedule to play a game. And even with playing sessions spaced months apart, I began to show signs of burnout in the last year. On my most recent gaming weekend I concluded that I would need to play something different after we finish the campaign we're working on.

For gaming weekends, finding a new game won't be tough. But I also want to be able to scratch that gaming itch more regularly, even when me and my wife or a buddy only have 30-60 minutes.

A couple of years ago I started collecting DC Hero Clix. Just individual figures to get the ones I wanted. Then I use the point building system to create games that can be played in a "Player/Game master" style. Games usually run less than 60 minutes (and HAVE to if you use the official rules, which I don't in that regard), but as more figures are added to the board the complexity does grow some, and games can start taking longer and longer. So my attention has turned now to card games.

Early in our marriage, my wife and I played "Magic: The Gathering" together. A fantastic card game with great production value, rules that are easy to learn and tough to master, and a game is usually played in 30 minutes or less. Two major downsides though, and they both start with "C". Competitive and Collectible.

I am terrible at losing, because I tend to (wrongly) identify my self-worth with my performance. So losing seriously bums me out. That's why I enjoy RPGs so much, because as the game master, I'm just trying to make things fun and challenging. I'm not trying to "beat" anybody, nor am I bummed when the bad guys are beaten. (They're SUPPOSED to be!)

I also like to buy a game once, with options for expanding to make things more fun, not forced expansion to make me a better player. In collectible games, there are two routes to success. Be a better player or spend more money. If I can't do either of those, I face defeat again and again. So returning to Magic is not an option I've even considered, despite loving many other things about the game.

And because of the competitive nature of most card games, my search for a co-op or player/game master type card game that can be played in 30-60 minutes has been largely unsuccessful.

I've been told I should check out "Space Hulk", so that is certainly on my list. "Dungeon Run" is (I think) the name of another that was recommended to me. But my search has barely begun and there's no guarantee that either of those games will be the right fit. Any suggestions?

I dunno. Maybe I should just create my own card game...