BOARD GAME REVIEW- LORDS OF VEGAS

Lords of Vegas is a game I enjoyed the first few times I played it. And then it started to be less enjoyable. This isn't to say it is a bad game, but there are games out there which I prefer for a board-gaming experience.

In Lords of Vegas, you are trying to build up your Casino's along the glittering strips of Las Vegas. To do this, you draw a random tile, then can decide to construct at this location, sprawl to another location, and gamble to try to get more money (or takeover a casino). If you draw a certain type (colour) of casino, players who have developed that type of casino get points.

The game looks great for what it is, and I think that may be what attracted me to it originally. The random drawing kept the game tense the first few times I played it, especially the choice to do an expensive sprawl just to be taken over by an opponent. Of course, my brain then decided it to compare to Settlers of Catan.

To me, if you took Settlers of Catan and compared it to Lords of Vegas, Lords of Vegas does not stand up well. Instead of trading, you now gamble (roll a dice and see if you or your opponent gets more money). Instead of choosing how to expand, you randomly get told where you can expand. To sprawl, you pay allot and another player can randomly take it without earning it at all. This wouldn't be a problem if sprawling wasn't so expensive to be randomly taken away from you (costs twice as much).

The whole game seems to have party-game type mechanics but, unfortunately, it seems to be far too long to be a party game. There is also an artificial score limiter that seems designed to help the party flavour and to address balance issues (this being that there is limited point to building more than single-tile casinos if they, once again, don't randomly fall on your lap). This keeps scores artificially closer, but once again seems to Band-Aid the game balance rather than truly addressing the issue.

Some people can argue that Lords of Vegas is meant to be this sort of game, but I don't play board games for this much randomness. This may simulate the gambling aspect of Las Vegas, but at the expense of player skill. There is some timing and player luck mitigation, but with so many more games out there that have done this thing better in the past (right back to Settlers of Catan), I will be trying to avoid this where possible.

1 out of 5 glitter-strip waffles.

BOARD GAME REVIEW: KEYFLOWER (2012)

Keyflower is a bit of a funny game. On the surface of it, it shouldn't work. It is part worker placement, part bidding and bluffing, part city building, part resource management, part randomiser. And somehow it does, being a relatively fast paced game that combines just the right amount of these elements so that nothing feels too tacked on.

Keyflower is the story of you trying to establish your colony. Every season, new resources come in and new buildings are available to build. Players then either have the option to bid on these tiles or utilise them. Once everyone is out of moves, winning bidders get to place the tiles in their villages to be utilised and upgraded by themselves (or others) later by moving resources to them. At the end of the 4th season (winter), most points is the winner.

This game has allot of cool mechanics going on. For example, you can move your bidding pieces if you are the losing bid, and your 'secret' victory point conditions are actually things you can choose to bid on (rather than automatic bonus'). For a game with so many disconnected elements, it comes together really well.

There are only two criticisms I have with it. For the most part, the theme of the game comes through really well. However, some mechanics are (by balancing and gameplay necessity) slightly disconnected from the theme. For example, why can you utilise tiles before anyone has built them and why don't workers return after utilising opposing players tiles?

The other criticism is that if a player is prone to 'analysis paralysis', there turn can drag out. This is also true if someone is the first player, not paying attention and planning during other players turn, or if there planned move is taken away at the last minute.

However, these complaints are minor. For the most part, the artwork and elegance of the game match the theme (new workers arrive every turn). The game flows really well and their are allot of paths to victory and options you can take on your turn. The game doesn't drag with allot of players

5 out of 5 Penal Colony Waffles.

MOVIE REVIEW: THE MARTIAN (2015)

The Martian is a movie that goes for 2+ hours and yet feels very short. It is also a movie that has no business in being as good as it is especially seeing as it eschews allot of the modern trappings of current similar movies.

Set sometime in the future, humanity is doing manned missions to Mars. However, during one of these missions, Mark (Matt Damon) is left stranded on Mars after his crew departs. Now it is up to Mark to survive on Mars until he is rescued. And if that sounds simple, it is because it is.

Jumping between NASA and Mark on Mars, this story is a very simple one. It doesn't have a big villain or mystery. All it comes down to is a bunch of people each trying to do their best to save the life of Mark. It also has no tragic backstory or the like, with the filmmakers correctly guessing that surviving on Mars alone is a big enough villain for this movie. Gravity and San Andreas should've taken some notes.

All the actors in the movie bring exactly what they need to. In fact, this whole movie is a bunch of parts (music, acting, etc.) coming together and doing exactly what they need to for the whole to be good. And it ends up being very good.

By the time I got out of the cinema, I was feeling like the movie was very short. This was until I checked the time and discovered it went for 2+ hours. The pace and story of The Martian were that good that it kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. And that is saying something because this is the sort of movie where the result is never in doubt.

5 out of 5 International Watered Down Martian Waffles.

Movie Review: Self/Less

Self/Less is a 2015 movie that has it's moments, but is an ultimately flawed movie. Starring Ryan Reynolds in the lead role, the film often relies on co-incidences and false mysteries rather than having faith in its story.

The premise of Self/Less is that an old man, a leader in his field, approaches the end of his life. However, he learns of a technology where he can be put in the consciousness of a younger body that has been grown in a vat. This was originally to allow him to continue his good work but instead he starts using his body for a good time.

Instead of exploring the premise of what people would really do with a second chance, it instead switches gears. From a philosophical opening, it morphs into a standard action/mystery thriller which leaves all potentially deeper musings behind (until the climax, where the tonal shift is quite unexpected).

As an action/thriller, it doesn't really hold up. All the mystery's are easily predicted and tend to fit standard tropes. Although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, Self/Less doesn't really offer anything in its place. the action scenes aren't really that engaging and the characters aren't really anything to invest in. A billionaire who can buy his way out of aging and someone who is so obviously telegraphed as being the bad guy aren't really anyone that I could emphasise with.

t the end of the day, Self/Less starts by looking at some of the deeper questions but ends up being a sub-par action/mystery with nothing much to offer.

1.5 out of 5 Selfish Waffles.

MOBILE GAME REVIEW: SAMURAI SIEGE (SPACE APE)

In the world of clone games to the ever popular Clash of Clans, Samurai Siege is an offering from Space Ape games. It follows the usual Clash of Clans formula of training troops and then attacking other players bases while waiting for time-based upgrades and collecting resources.

Samurai Siege has a bright, colourful aesthetic set in feudal japan. Your troops include samurai, ninjas and mongols. Most of these troops fit in a standards trope of the tank, the glass cannons, the heavy but expensive troop. However, there are some characters that add interesting wrinkles in the formula. These include a commander, who can boost or change the targets of nearby troops, or alternate weapon upgrades for some troops.

However, the bright colours also serve to work against it. Newcomers may find it hard to pick different defences out when looking at bases to attack. By the very nature of the game, you don't spend allot of time looking at bases so it is easy to miss things when you are assaulted by a wall of colour. Another hard thing for newcomers is that the matchmaking isn't particularly good, often being matched with opponents who have been at it for awhile.

The things that make this game stand-out are the interesting aesthetics and some of the new ideas behind some of the units. It isn't particularly welcoming of newcomers however, and this is likely to continue as the game is still being updated, leading to bigger gaps between the new players and veterans. Newcomers aren't helped that the waiting times seem to scale quickly. While Clash of Clans tends to have a long time before you feel like you are just waiting around for upgrades, Samurai Siege seems to reach this point allot quicker.

Overall, the game is interesting and you will like it if you like Clash-style games and some of the new ideas it brings. However, it won't change your mind if you don't and the entry level seems to be quite high.

3 out of 5 sword-tapping waffles.

Book Review: Luxe (Anna Godbersen)

Luxe is a novel set in a Victorian-American era. It follows the back story of some socialites as several of their worlds are turned upside-down. All the lies and all the back-stabbing is exposed during the course of the story.

Luxe follows the story of the Holland family, Elizabeth in particular, and the Schoonmaker family. After the death of Elizabeth's father, the family is left in dire straights. To counteract this, Elizabeth must marry Henry Schoonmaker, son of a wealthy soon-to-be politician and notorious local playboy. This is where things start to get complicated. As various lies and crushes come to the fore, as well as scheming, this plan starts to fall apart.

Luxe is well written. It is written in short bursts from multiple characters points of view. No chapter is more than 3 to 4 pages in length and this gives it a real sense of brevity and pace. That being said, some of these chapter definitely feel like filler. Also some plot points are brought up but never resolved or never feel like they go anywhere.

Overall, it is an interesting story. But too often it seems to choose the narrative path of least resistance. I did discover during the end of reading this that it is the first book in a series. So it does build up characters and the world around them quite well. But as a stand-alone book, it doesn't serve too much up except for some lazy Sunday noon entertainment.

2 out of 5 Waffle of High Social Standing.

Board Game Review: Tiny Epic Defenders

Tiny Epic Defenders reminds me most of the hero siege-style games that were made popular by the Warcraft 3 custom maps. That is, without the 3-hour play time. From the same developers (Gamelyn Games) who made Tiny Epic Kingdoms, a game which brought a 4x game down to 15 minutes, Tiny Epic Defenders reduces a long, tower-defence style game down by a similar margin.

In Tiny Epic Defenders, you arrange a series of cards to form outlying regions around a capital city. On your turn, you can move your hero around these regions, healing them or defending them from monster attacks. On the enemy turn, the monsters attack the outlying regions and, if destroyed, they attack the city. Once the city is destroyed, it is game over. If you survive long enough for the boss monster to come out and you defeat them, you win.

That is about it. There are a few special rules about which hero you are using or which monster appears, but the mechanics are very simple. And like Tiny Epic Kingdoms, the simplicity doesn't stop the fun. The randomness in the turn order and the set-up gives it replayability and like all good co-operative games, there are never enough turns. From turn 1 or 2 you are started to put out fires for when the hordes eventually build up. And on top of this, when the big boss comes out, you have to deal with even more effects (like moving regions involuntarily at the beginning of your turn).

Tiny Epic Kingdoms takes up to 4 players but can be played solo. It is fully co-operative and players have nothing to gain by not helping your team. And once you survive, you definitely feel a sense of achievement. And if not, well, it only takes 15-20 minutes to play again.

One criticism is that hero abilities and items gained don't really work to differentiate your heroes very much sometimes. Especially if the draw and enemies means that your abilities may be useless for the game. And if you choose to play on hard difficulty, your abilities need to be used to the fullest. Another criticism is that the randomness can feel very unfair. On one turn, all your actions may be towards the start of the turn. Next turn, all your actions at the end. So it is very quick to go from not having many problems to being in a near-hopeless situation. However, to take away these elements is to take away some of the charm.

4 out of 5 Tiny Epic Pancakes that don't fill you up at all.