Zombie 15" is a really good Zombie game. My view of it might just be colored by the fact that this is the first time-based game I have played, I am a sucker for a well-themed game or I really like co-operative games, but Zombie 15" has been the stand-out game that I have played in 2014. And there were allot of new games that I have played over 2014.
Zombie 15" is a co-operative game for 2-4 players. It is played on a modular board, with tiles set-up that can be changed to create different scenarios. Each player takes the role of a teenager with some different powers as they try to survive and outrun the main zombie horde. In each game, you have a goal to achieve in 15", often involving cutting a path through some zombies to a finishing tile.
The main strength of this game is right there in the title. Zombie 15" is played over 15 minutes. At certain times (depending on the scenario, every minute or 40 seconds), more zombies appear on whoever's turn it is. There are no traditional turn limits- just however many action you can fit into 15". This encourages the game to keep moving fast and analysis-paralysis is severely punished. It also means that no games ever drag, as you know that each game will last 15 minutes. The set-up time is also only approximately 10-15 minutes.
The artwork and plastic figures for the game are great and really match the exciting, upbeat tone of the game. They are colourful and never take themselves too seriously. The only complaint is some of the Zombie figures seem quite flimsy, but this is a minor complaint. The board, character cards and item cards all look fantastic and are of god quality.
One thing the game could improve upon is the co-operative aspects of the game. Most the scenarios just degenerate into each player leap-frogging the previous player and trying to kill zombies to clear a path. However, with a modular board and custom scenarios, I anticipate that the replay value of this game will go up. I have already been thinking of rules to put the Left 4 Dead Zombies in the game (especially the Witch and Tank) or to modify some of the tower defence-based scenarios, and the game encourages you to make up your own custom scenarios. There is a website where they will post them, although how flexible the core game is to allow custom scenarios remains to be seen.
Overall, Zombie 15" is my stand-out board game of 2014. Although I have played more serious games and games that ran longer, Zombie 15" has a strong, colourful theme to make it stand-out and is always allot of fun whenever we break it out for a game or 4.
4 out of 5 hordes of waffles.
Friday, 23 January 2015
Saturday, 17 January 2015
Movie Review: Street Fighter- The Legend of Chun-Li
After the original street fighter movie was generally regarded as a flop and overall horrible movie, there was an attempt a few years back to try to reboot the Street Fighter name with The Legend of Chun-Li. This movie effectively answers the question of what happens when you take a campy-fun movie and remove the camp from it.
This movie is effectively an origin story about Chun-Li. It stars the usual suspects as the villains of Balrog, Vega and M. Bison. Zangief was conspicuously absent as his performance in the original Street Fighter provided ample entertainment. Some other characters are also introduced and I wasn’t sure whether they were from the expanded Street Fighter universe, such as Gen as Chun-Li’s trainer.
The story, however, seems to be very ashamed of the silly-fun that the original movie had and tries to take it too far the other way. There are very few moments of fun and levity in the movie and most the characters don’t seem to be enjoying themselves. The exception to this is Balrog as he seems to be having allot of fun in his role as big, strong guy.
Outside of Balrog and possibly Chun-Li, most of the actors seem to be miscast. Gen as Chun-Li’s trainer looks far too young to invoke the Karate Kid type training vibe they tried to go with. Vega looks menacing but is never really given much to do. Bison doesn’t really have the air of menace or gravity that he is meant to, no matter how many sound effects they play when he is on screen. The worst acting is by far the actor and actresses that played the police inspectors tracking down Bison.
Maybe most of the miscast actors would have been passable if the story was more compelling. They turned a villain who was meant to be insane into a property mogul to try to ground him in reality. Bison also only has one weakness: The White Rose. The White Rose ends up being the good part of Bison’s soul but it is never explained why this is a weakness. When Chun-Li and friends get the White Rose, they don’t even use it to defeat Bison. There is an element of mysticism in what Gen, Chun-Li and Bison can do (i.e. fireballs and super strength) but it is often ignored until it is convenient. In short, the story is a mess that tries to have it both ways (i.e. a grounded story and mysticism) and ends up failing in both departments.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a bad movie. It is, in effect the worst of both worlds, with none of the silly fun from the original Street Fighter and a poor story that makes no sense. Most of the acting is bad and the actors and actresses are miscast, for the most part. The attempt to reboot the series into a grounded movie feels like they attempted to make it like Batman, and they failed horribly. It’s only saving graces are Balrog and that it is only 90 minutes long.
1 out of 5 Waffle Hadoukens
This movie is effectively an origin story about Chun-Li. It stars the usual suspects as the villains of Balrog, Vega and M. Bison. Zangief was conspicuously absent as his performance in the original Street Fighter provided ample entertainment. Some other characters are also introduced and I wasn’t sure whether they were from the expanded Street Fighter universe, such as Gen as Chun-Li’s trainer.
The story, however, seems to be very ashamed of the silly-fun that the original movie had and tries to take it too far the other way. There are very few moments of fun and levity in the movie and most the characters don’t seem to be enjoying themselves. The exception to this is Balrog as he seems to be having allot of fun in his role as big, strong guy.
Outside of Balrog and possibly Chun-Li, most of the actors seem to be miscast. Gen as Chun-Li’s trainer looks far too young to invoke the Karate Kid type training vibe they tried to go with. Vega looks menacing but is never really given much to do. Bison doesn’t really have the air of menace or gravity that he is meant to, no matter how many sound effects they play when he is on screen. The worst acting is by far the actor and actresses that played the police inspectors tracking down Bison.
Maybe most of the miscast actors would have been passable if the story was more compelling. They turned a villain who was meant to be insane into a property mogul to try to ground him in reality. Bison also only has one weakness: The White Rose. The White Rose ends up being the good part of Bison’s soul but it is never explained why this is a weakness. When Chun-Li and friends get the White Rose, they don’t even use it to defeat Bison. There is an element of mysticism in what Gen, Chun-Li and Bison can do (i.e. fireballs and super strength) but it is often ignored until it is convenient. In short, the story is a mess that tries to have it both ways (i.e. a grounded story and mysticism) and ends up failing in both departments.
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is a bad movie. It is, in effect the worst of both worlds, with none of the silly fun from the original Street Fighter and a poor story that makes no sense. Most of the acting is bad and the actors and actresses are miscast, for the most part. The attempt to reboot the series into a grounded movie feels like they attempted to make it like Batman, and they failed horribly. It’s only saving graces are Balrog and that it is only 90 minutes long.
1 out of 5 Waffle Hadoukens
Saturday, 10 January 2015
Wednesday, 7 January 2015
MOVIE REVIEW: THE IMITATION GAME (2015)
Kicking off 2015 with a bang, The Imitation Game seems to be getting things off to a good start. A pseudo-documentary about World War 2 and The Enigma Code, this movie sees Benedict Cumberbatch starring as a troubled mathematician who delights in solving puzzles, including the most complicated puzzles of the time.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, a gifted cryptographer and mathematician who is tasked by the Allied Governments to solve the "puzzle" of Enigma, the German code language. Set in three time periods (his childhood, during the war and post war), this movie sets Alan up as a tragic figure, not able to understand much of the world around him and always unintentionally insulting everyone around him.
The movie then follows Alan through his trials of trying to work with his team to solve Enigma by making a computer. This includes his charismatic former boss, generals who are beholden to the chain of command (who Alan uses against them) and being a homosexual in a time that they were persecuted. Benedict Cumberbatch puts in his normal solid performance into this role. The only criticism is in some scenes he seems to overact his part.
This may be a product of the screenplay, however. As the movie moves towards its tragic final note, the writers seem to want to make more speeches and actions by Alan monumental speeches or actions. Where the movie could have used a scene or two more in between of Alan being a bit more laid back to contrast against the rising intensity, instead the next speech by Alan seems to try to outdo the previous one in terms of showing his detachment from the world or being suitable "quotable". This is a very minor quibble and, for the most part, the movie is well paced until its endings.
The endings are where the tragedy of Alan's life plays out. This movie goes the Lord of the Rings route of having about 4-5 different end points. Every ending, however, continues to be more tragic and depressing than the previous one. This movie definitely decided to not end on an uplifting note celebrating post-war Brittain, but the rest of the movie set the foundations well for this depressing ending.
4 out of 5 Mysteries Trapped Within Enigmatic Waffles.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, a gifted cryptographer and mathematician who is tasked by the Allied Governments to solve the "puzzle" of Enigma, the German code language. Set in three time periods (his childhood, during the war and post war), this movie sets Alan up as a tragic figure, not able to understand much of the world around him and always unintentionally insulting everyone around him.
The movie then follows Alan through his trials of trying to work with his team to solve Enigma by making a computer. This includes his charismatic former boss, generals who are beholden to the chain of command (who Alan uses against them) and being a homosexual in a time that they were persecuted. Benedict Cumberbatch puts in his normal solid performance into this role. The only criticism is in some scenes he seems to overact his part.
This may be a product of the screenplay, however. As the movie moves towards its tragic final note, the writers seem to want to make more speeches and actions by Alan monumental speeches or actions. Where the movie could have used a scene or two more in between of Alan being a bit more laid back to contrast against the rising intensity, instead the next speech by Alan seems to try to outdo the previous one in terms of showing his detachment from the world or being suitable "quotable". This is a very minor quibble and, for the most part, the movie is well paced until its endings.
The endings are where the tragedy of Alan's life plays out. This movie goes the Lord of the Rings route of having about 4-5 different end points. Every ending, however, continues to be more tragic and depressing than the previous one. This movie definitely decided to not end on an uplifting note celebrating post-war Brittain, but the rest of the movie set the foundations well for this depressing ending.
4 out of 5 Mysteries Trapped Within Enigmatic Waffles.
Saturday, 3 January 2015
FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2014
The festive season is gone, along with the hangover from New Years. Seem like no better time to reflect back on the year that was. Clearly have a bad memory because there were heaps of good films release this year. I didn't get down with many indie or art house films, sometime feel like a movie bogan. Only sticking to a diet of blockbuster titles. That a subject for another day.
Only doing my top 5 movies for 2014. These are the films that I personally enjoyed.
Guardians of the Galaxy
Every year I over hype myself up or a movie. This year it was Guardians of the Galaxy. It was just pure delightful fun with a soundtrack that I’m still listening to.
How to train your dragon 2
A kids movie where the character actually grow up. Everything about this movie was bigger. From the dragons to the personal moment. After seeing this movie I dream about dragon and vikings for days.
Noah
This movie blow my expectation away. It took artistic liberties with the story of Noah. So glad they did.
The Lego Movie
Everything is AWESOME !!
Banksy Does New York
Was actually an HBO documentary. Which explored Banksy New York residence. Showed how crazy people are for art for numerous different perspectives.
Friday, 26 December 2014
TV REVIEW: BLACK MIRROR, WHITE CHRISTMAS
Black Mirror, a show that regularly applies imagined technology from the not-so-distant future against the cracks of human weakness. In Charlie Brooker’s dystopian British Christmas special, extrapolates how Google Glass and implanted tech might dilute our sense of humanity in the most disturbing of fashion. Black Mirror episodes usually run around forty-five minutes; just enough time to introduce characters, and delve deeply and thoroughly into one central concept. At nearly twice that length, “White Christmas” has more space to kill. splitting up the running time into three interlocking tales and a frame story. All of which ultimately connect together to tell one big story. We learn the consequences of humans using technology to reform how we see the world and to force those closest to us into new roles or contexts. This special is supremely disturbing but necessary holiday viewing.
As sad-sack Joe wakes up, dazed, in a snowbound cottage, with the radio and Jon Hamm (Mad Men’s Don Draper) preparing Christmas lunch. You want to know what on earth is going on?
Seems these two people have been stuck with each other in a desolate place of the earth. There uncomfortable body language and dull conversation gives a sense that they have both done something wrong if their former lives. Being Christmas Matt (Jon Hamm) a good-looking man with charisma. Feels they need to open up and conversate more. Joe is hesitant about making conversation at all. So Matt open up first proceedings , explaining that he used to have a hobby helping men attract women, counselling them in real time. This segment introduces augmented Google Glass. People now have Z-Eye implants let them control and share what they see.
It’s in this kind of technological advance - one that doesn’t seem far off in the realm of possibility but that has the potential to shatter human relationships. We learn that Matt is a dubious character, he is a seedy pickup artist, who coaches loser into getting woman. All while conducting to a voyeuristic choir of online pervs. Yet one of his clients, upon meeting a glamorous but severely disturbed woman at a Christmas office party, had unwittingly persuaded her to kill both him and herself – to silence the voices in their heads. We saw the fellow vainly insisting that the voice in his bonce was real. “No one understands what that’s like!” she smiled, as her fatally spiked drinks claimed them both.
Hamm gives Matt this atmosphere of being all nice, friendly and good-natured. Both those facts make you want to trust him. He is also has this perfect kind of swaggering, smug Yank. That first story helps breakdown his character. You become invested in this story. Like Joe you become more intrigued about this what this handsome man has done. Where lured into his story web. As he asked Joe “What do you think my real job was ?”
The next interwoven story. Tell us of his previous actual job. Starts of in a hospital with what seem like a simple procedure. Then turns all kind of dark and twisted. We are introduced to a beautiful porcelain-skinned spoilt brat. That has make a cookie of herself in order to run her digitally controlled house. Trouble is the copy is completely sentient. Matt job is to break this digital doppelgangers into obedient slaves. Forever trapped in the dwelling’s circuitry with nothing to do but draw blinds and make toast. What are our responsibilities to the people who provide our consumer luxury? And is digital enslavement something we should be signing a petition about anytime soon? You’ll never again take your phone’s “intelligent personal assistant” for granted again. This was the darkest of the 3 stories. At this point in proceedings, Matt is the villain of the piece. He’s manipulative, deceitful and views people by category.
We jump back to the cabin in the snow. With Matt confessing all this horrible sins. Joe finally open up about what he did. Turns out that the former’s girlfriend fell pregnant, had permanently blocked him and vanished. Why? Because, as he eventually learnt, in an appallingly tense scene, the baby wasn’t his. Joe kills the grandfather and left the tot to freeze, he had been found by police, unwilling to talk. The slack is quickly picked up by the final segment, which ties all the elements of the previous hour with deft efficiency, twist and unblinking bleakness.
If you thought there was something fishy about Matt and Joe confines, you were right. This was in fact an artificial construct. As Matt being digitally sent in by police to tease a confession out of Joe’s cookie. Like an episode of any procedural cop drama. Matt was only helping to gain freedom. Although he might have gain it, he’s still being punished for his previous, illicit hobby. Now being universally blocked, reducing the rest of humanity to indistinct, inaudible pixels. But, as the real Joe languished in jail, his cookie had a yet worse deal, incarcerated for millennia in the digital snow-globe in which it had been all along, with I Wish it Could Be Christmas Everyday playing on a never-ending loop.
It was thrilling stuff: escapist entertainment with a very real-world sting in its tail. Like the stronger of the previous Black Mirrors, it exaggerated present-day technology and obsessions to subtle but infernal effect, a nightmare-before-Christmas reminder that to revere our digital gizmos is to become their pathetic slave
5 out of 5 dystopian Christmas waffles
Tuesday, 23 December 2014
MOVIE REVIEW: THE HOBBIT- BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES (2014)
Concluding the second trilogy set in the Lord of the Rings universe, the question is: does The Battle of Five Armies provide a satisfying conclusion to The Hobbit trilogy. Added to this, there is the added pressure of providing a conclusion that lives up to the previous Lord of the Rings trilogy. Under all this pressure, The Hobbit unfortunately buckles, often feeling bloated and full of pointless action sequences while missing the emotional investment necessary to make the action sequences worthwhile.
The Battle of Five Armies picks up where the previous Hobbit movie lets off, with the dwarves awakening the dragon and failing to kill it, setting it on a rampage on the human settlement close by. Gandalf has also just been captured by the Necromancer and an army of Orcs is ready to march upon the good people of middle earth. Add into this an army of elves and dwarves coming to try and claim the treasures in Smaug's horde, it appears as if all the pieces are in place for a grandiose conclusion to The Hobbit Trilogy.
And this is where the movie begins to fall over. With a rampaging dragon serving as the prologue and the titular Battle of Five Armies, this movie has allot of action. It begins with the dragon fight, with Smaug rampaging through the human settlement. This battle scene starts the movie on the right path, as the characters and emotional investment has been established from the previous movies. After this, we have Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel stage a rescue of Gandalf and defeat of the Necromancer which is also really cool.
And then there is a giant lull in the action as we are teased with a possibility of the dwarves fighting the elves and humans, which we know is never going to happen. This part is meant to establish the characters involved in the final battle and their internal struggles, but it just feels bloated. And that is exactly how the final battle feels. The Orcs never feel as a threat as main characters just seem to go through them like a hot knife through butter. It doesn't help that most of the main battle sequences are concluded off screen. This is because the movie often focuses on individual characters that we don't care about. This movie feels like it goes out of its way to show how cool all there characters are as opposed to showing the characters and the battles progress more naturally.
This is a movie that the Lord of the Rings production crew seems to have used to take a victory lap of showing characters being cool and pandering to them. It tries to do major battle sequences, but it never feels like the characters are in any danger. Compared to Return of the King with its tighter focus and much more engaging battle sequences, the Battle of Five Armies feels like an unsatisfying conclusion to the Hobbit trilogy. Even as a standalone movie, it feels like an over bloated action movie that is ineffective in establishing an emotional connection with the audience which is only saved by a couple of cool sequences towards the beginning of the movie.
2 out of 5 Dragon-toasted Waffles.
The Battle of Five Armies picks up where the previous Hobbit movie lets off, with the dwarves awakening the dragon and failing to kill it, setting it on a rampage on the human settlement close by. Gandalf has also just been captured by the Necromancer and an army of Orcs is ready to march upon the good people of middle earth. Add into this an army of elves and dwarves coming to try and claim the treasures in Smaug's horde, it appears as if all the pieces are in place for a grandiose conclusion to The Hobbit Trilogy.
And this is where the movie begins to fall over. With a rampaging dragon serving as the prologue and the titular Battle of Five Armies, this movie has allot of action. It begins with the dragon fight, with Smaug rampaging through the human settlement. This battle scene starts the movie on the right path, as the characters and emotional investment has been established from the previous movies. After this, we have Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel stage a rescue of Gandalf and defeat of the Necromancer which is also really cool.
And then there is a giant lull in the action as we are teased with a possibility of the dwarves fighting the elves and humans, which we know is never going to happen. This part is meant to establish the characters involved in the final battle and their internal struggles, but it just feels bloated. And that is exactly how the final battle feels. The Orcs never feel as a threat as main characters just seem to go through them like a hot knife through butter. It doesn't help that most of the main battle sequences are concluded off screen. This is because the movie often focuses on individual characters that we don't care about. This movie feels like it goes out of its way to show how cool all there characters are as opposed to showing the characters and the battles progress more naturally.
This is a movie that the Lord of the Rings production crew seems to have used to take a victory lap of showing characters being cool and pandering to them. It tries to do major battle sequences, but it never feels like the characters are in any danger. Compared to Return of the King with its tighter focus and much more engaging battle sequences, the Battle of Five Armies feels like an unsatisfying conclusion to the Hobbit trilogy. Even as a standalone movie, it feels like an over bloated action movie that is ineffective in establishing an emotional connection with the audience which is only saved by a couple of cool sequences towards the beginning of the movie.
2 out of 5 Dragon-toasted Waffles.
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