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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Independence Incident in Tabletop Games
Jul 2, 2021
Nicolas Cage is a very polarizing actor, I know, but I kinda like him. Maybe he wasn’t the best Ghost Rider, but I cannot imagine anyone else playing Benjamin Franklin Gates from the National Treasure series of movies. I am a huge fan of those movies, and I will never pass up a chance to watch it or engage in anything remotely similar in real life. Enter The Independence Incident.
The Independence Incident is a 4th of July(ish)-themed escape room type card game. It consists of 18 cards and I will be darned if it isn’t just great.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook (as there is none), but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase from your FLGS. -T
To setup, open the flaps of the box containing the cards, navigate to the provided website to launch a web-based companion app, and the game may officially begin!
As I do not wish to spoil anything about the game, I will merely state here that following directions, completing puzzles, and knowing a little something about American history will benefit players immensely. Sorry I cannot say more, I would rather you all experience it for yourselves.
Components. This game consists of 18 double-sided cards and a nifty little box to hold it all. The cards are all nice quality, and feature very specific artwork on them. I have no complaints about the components at all here. Grand Gamers Guild always provide great quality games.
Ok, be mad at me if you like, but I just cannot bring myself to go into great detail about the game mechanics, how to play, or what is really included. Just know that this is probably a game you will play once and pass along, or keep several years between plays so that it doesn’t become too repetitive and easy to solve.
That said, this is a great little card game filled with puzzles I can actually solve! Yes, I needed hints a few times (perhaps a few times too many, as my final score would indicate), but with plenty of time, a little help from some friends, and Trevor Rabin’s soundtrack in the background, I could have score way better.
If you are someone who enjoys escape room-style games and also a lot of Americana thrown in, this one is a must-buy. While you don’t get to steal the Declaration of Independence in the game, you still get the feeling of traipsing across Washington, D.C., to help solve the case/riddle/game. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a stressful 5 / 6. If you are a fan of anything I have mentioned thus far, pick yourself up a copy today!
The Independence Incident is a 4th of July(ish)-themed escape room type card game. It consists of 18 cards and I will be darned if it isn’t just great.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook (as there is none), but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase from your FLGS. -T
To setup, open the flaps of the box containing the cards, navigate to the provided website to launch a web-based companion app, and the game may officially begin!
As I do not wish to spoil anything about the game, I will merely state here that following directions, completing puzzles, and knowing a little something about American history will benefit players immensely. Sorry I cannot say more, I would rather you all experience it for yourselves.
Components. This game consists of 18 double-sided cards and a nifty little box to hold it all. The cards are all nice quality, and feature very specific artwork on them. I have no complaints about the components at all here. Grand Gamers Guild always provide great quality games.
Ok, be mad at me if you like, but I just cannot bring myself to go into great detail about the game mechanics, how to play, or what is really included. Just know that this is probably a game you will play once and pass along, or keep several years between plays so that it doesn’t become too repetitive and easy to solve.
That said, this is a great little card game filled with puzzles I can actually solve! Yes, I needed hints a few times (perhaps a few times too many, as my final score would indicate), but with plenty of time, a little help from some friends, and Trevor Rabin’s soundtrack in the background, I could have score way better.
If you are someone who enjoys escape room-style games and also a lot of Americana thrown in, this one is a must-buy. While you don’t get to steal the Declaration of Independence in the game, you still get the feeling of traipsing across Washington, D.C., to help solve the case/riddle/game. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a stressful 5 / 6. If you are a fan of anything I have mentioned thus far, pick yourself up a copy today!
Ross (3284 KP) rated Killer Dungeon (Euphoria Online Book 3) in Books
Jan 4, 2019
So much of the previous books is lost (3 more)
Sudden epic scope creep
Loose ends
deus ex machina abounds
I am (slightly) disappoint
I loved the first two books in this trilogy. The narrative was so detailed and descriptive that you truly lived the action along with the protagonist, you felt every blow, you were part of every strategy, you celebrated every unlikely victory. We knew we were in an epic online world that we hadn't explored yet but were happy with the dangerous little corner we knew inside out.
The book starts off with Chris, low-ranked newbie with a knack for strategy, being the new leader/castellan of Castle Winter, charged with defending, repairing and upgrading the castle, caring for its inhabitants, fending off the nearby army of the undead and still trying to discover the hidden treasure in the dungeon.
This change in his status obviously precipitated a change in focus for him, which is understandable - a castellan with all these responsibilities can't still go off exploring. But this started to feel like those boring aspects of games like the Witcher/Red Dead Redemption where you have to go shopping, play card games, train a horse, collect herbs etc and was relatively dull.
While a raft of super-strength gamers try to tackle the seemingly unbeatable Dungeon, Chris decides he needs to buy goods and services in-game with the help of the deus-ex style pot of money he suddenly inherits. He is taken to explore some of the online world in order to do so. This is where I started to lose interest, as the shopping and political aspects of the world and narrative now takes over, when all you want to do is get into that dungeon (you know, the one mentioned in the title of the book) with the rest of the true gamers.
In all the dungeon is just sort of solved. It just happens. We are treated to a re-telling of the action from some of those gamers but this was totally unsatisfactory. Three perilous rooms are in that dungeon and we get to see next to none of the action in solving them.
There is something of a race against time as Chris has a deadline looming to find the treasure hidden in the dungeon to deliver to the lord of the undead. This adds to the thrill somewhat but then the genre-required conspiracy starts to grow (the game was designed by the all-powerful AI to help save mankind from itself), and then the book loses a lot of its original charm for me.
I loved this trilogy, but can't help but feel Tucker had designed a massive world for the story to take place in, and suddenly realised two books in that he hadn't explored any of it (the first two books were very narrow in scope considering the size of the online world but did not suffer for that) and was nearing the end of the three books he had planned. In my view this story had at least another two or three books in it, I would have loved to have seen the dungeon rooms solved in the same detailed manner as the puzzles in the first two books, and would have liked a lot less metaphysical elephant-god mumbo jumbo. I can't help but feel Tucker realised he had set himself up with unsolvable situations and a character who couldn't really put himself in those positions.
In short: Great story, rushed ending ("sod it, say everyone else does the hard work and then an elephant god solves the unsolvable")
The book starts off with Chris, low-ranked newbie with a knack for strategy, being the new leader/castellan of Castle Winter, charged with defending, repairing and upgrading the castle, caring for its inhabitants, fending off the nearby army of the undead and still trying to discover the hidden treasure in the dungeon.
This change in his status obviously precipitated a change in focus for him, which is understandable - a castellan with all these responsibilities can't still go off exploring. But this started to feel like those boring aspects of games like the Witcher/Red Dead Redemption where you have to go shopping, play card games, train a horse, collect herbs etc and was relatively dull.
While a raft of super-strength gamers try to tackle the seemingly unbeatable Dungeon, Chris decides he needs to buy goods and services in-game with the help of the deus-ex style pot of money he suddenly inherits. He is taken to explore some of the online world in order to do so. This is where I started to lose interest, as the shopping and political aspects of the world and narrative now takes over, when all you want to do is get into that dungeon (you know, the one mentioned in the title of the book) with the rest of the true gamers.
In all the dungeon is just sort of solved. It just happens. We are treated to a re-telling of the action from some of those gamers but this was totally unsatisfactory. Three perilous rooms are in that dungeon and we get to see next to none of the action in solving them.
There is something of a race against time as Chris has a deadline looming to find the treasure hidden in the dungeon to deliver to the lord of the undead. This adds to the thrill somewhat but then the genre-required conspiracy starts to grow (the game was designed by the all-powerful AI to help save mankind from itself), and then the book loses a lot of its original charm for me.
I loved this trilogy, but can't help but feel Tucker had designed a massive world for the story to take place in, and suddenly realised two books in that he hadn't explored any of it (the first two books were very narrow in scope considering the size of the online world but did not suffer for that) and was nearing the end of the three books he had planned. In my view this story had at least another two or three books in it, I would have loved to have seen the dungeon rooms solved in the same detailed manner as the puzzles in the first two books, and would have liked a lot less metaphysical elephant-god mumbo jumbo. I can't help but feel Tucker realised he had set himself up with unsolvable situations and a character who couldn't really put himself in those positions.
In short: Great story, rushed ending ("sod it, say everyone else does the hard work and then an elephant god solves the unsolvable")
Darren (1599 KP) rated Prospect (2018) in Movies
Jul 22, 2019
Verdict: Slow Paced
Story: Prospect starts when a father Damon (Duplass) and his daughter Cee (Thatcher) are travelling through space, looking to make a big discovery, thrown off path they land on an alien moon, setting out to explore the area.
When the pair run into Ezra (Pascal) another prospector on the moon, things turn to deals with the tension amped up to see who will leave the moon with the treasure on the moon, or whether leaving is a better option and soon they will learn of the other dangers on the moon.
Thoughts on Prospect
Characters – Cee is the teenager girl that has been travelling through space with her father, she does want to make a place her home, always wondering if she can get home, she must work with her father and a stranger to survive her time on this latest moon, proving she is ready to step up to do the more difficult tasks in life. Damon is Cee’s father, he has been searching space for valuable treasures so he can get out of this desperate lifestyle, his greed is his biggest weakness. Ezra is a stranger that the two run into, he is after the same thing and must earn their trust to survive and trust them to get survive the threats the moon has to offer.
Performances – Sophie Thatcher as the teenager does everything she can in her role, she doesn’t get to shine on the levels she could, but this falls back into the writing, Jay Duplass really doesn’t get the time to make an impact in this film, while Pedro Pascal is the highlight of the acting, because he must carry large parts of the dialogue in the film.
Story – The story follows a father and daughter prospector pairing that land on a new moon in search for their own richest only to find themselves in a battle to survive against rivals and the moon itself. This story is easily borrowing the idea of the early days of prospectors around the world, people that travelled great distances in hope of becoming rich, we get to see what is more important, riches or family, all in a position which has threats around every corner. The weakness of this story comes from the idea that moon is dangerous, though we only get environmental issues, with all the other problems being human, it would also have been nice to understand just how big the travelling is in this universe, we just casually follow on ship, is this one of the absolute poorest, is Earth uninhabitable now, there are so many questions about the universe we are entering that feel unanswered.
Sci-Fi – The sci-fi side of the film does just seem to be the characters wearing helmets, we barely get anything that makes this as ambitious as it could be.
Settings – The settings are beautiful though, the opening spaces, the closed woodland, yes it could easily be anywhere on Earth, but the visuals make this look like an alien moon in every shot.
Special Effects – The effects are used to add environment to the mon, but outside of this for a space based movie, we get very little to work with.
Scene of the Movie – First exploring of the moon.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is very slow.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the films that could have been a lot more interesting that we get, the pacing of the film does hold everything up and the fact we don’t learn more about the universe doesn’t help us understand just what is going on.
Overall: Keep searching for the treasure.
Rating
Story: Prospect starts when a father Damon (Duplass) and his daughter Cee (Thatcher) are travelling through space, looking to make a big discovery, thrown off path they land on an alien moon, setting out to explore the area.
When the pair run into Ezra (Pascal) another prospector on the moon, things turn to deals with the tension amped up to see who will leave the moon with the treasure on the moon, or whether leaving is a better option and soon they will learn of the other dangers on the moon.
Thoughts on Prospect
Characters – Cee is the teenager girl that has been travelling through space with her father, she does want to make a place her home, always wondering if she can get home, she must work with her father and a stranger to survive her time on this latest moon, proving she is ready to step up to do the more difficult tasks in life. Damon is Cee’s father, he has been searching space for valuable treasures so he can get out of this desperate lifestyle, his greed is his biggest weakness. Ezra is a stranger that the two run into, he is after the same thing and must earn their trust to survive and trust them to get survive the threats the moon has to offer.
Performances – Sophie Thatcher as the teenager does everything she can in her role, she doesn’t get to shine on the levels she could, but this falls back into the writing, Jay Duplass really doesn’t get the time to make an impact in this film, while Pedro Pascal is the highlight of the acting, because he must carry large parts of the dialogue in the film.
Story – The story follows a father and daughter prospector pairing that land on a new moon in search for their own richest only to find themselves in a battle to survive against rivals and the moon itself. This story is easily borrowing the idea of the early days of prospectors around the world, people that travelled great distances in hope of becoming rich, we get to see what is more important, riches or family, all in a position which has threats around every corner. The weakness of this story comes from the idea that moon is dangerous, though we only get environmental issues, with all the other problems being human, it would also have been nice to understand just how big the travelling is in this universe, we just casually follow on ship, is this one of the absolute poorest, is Earth uninhabitable now, there are so many questions about the universe we are entering that feel unanswered.
Sci-Fi – The sci-fi side of the film does just seem to be the characters wearing helmets, we barely get anything that makes this as ambitious as it could be.
Settings – The settings are beautiful though, the opening spaces, the closed woodland, yes it could easily be anywhere on Earth, but the visuals make this look like an alien moon in every shot.
Special Effects – The effects are used to add environment to the mon, but outside of this for a space based movie, we get very little to work with.
Scene of the Movie – First exploring of the moon.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – It is very slow.
Final Thoughts – This is one of the films that could have been a lot more interesting that we get, the pacing of the film does hold everything up and the fact we don’t learn more about the universe doesn’t help us understand just what is going on.
Overall: Keep searching for the treasure.
Rating
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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated WALL-E (2008) in Movies
Aug 14, 2019
To be honest, I didn’t put much faith in a movie about a robot who could only say, “Wa-AA-lleee….” Especially one that’s been by himself for 700 years. Then again, the last Pixar release of talking machines wasn’t exactly a stellar production, either. Give me talking rats or talking fish, at least they had personality. But talking cars? C’mon, now. But maybe Pixar learned from its mistake of verbosity in Cars and decided limited dialogue would bring back the luster of Pixar’s blinding three dimensional success. If that’s how WALL*E came about, then kudos to Pixar. WALL*E not only kept me fascinated, it made me giggle throughout and left me sighing.
In this new offering from the same team who brought you Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Earth is a virtual wasteland, and no longer inhabited by humans. The humans are all aboard a space colony called Axiom, pampered and waited on in robot-assisted existence. Left behind is WALL*E, a hardworking Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth class robot, has done what he was programmed to do, compact trash and stack it neatly, cleaning the planet one trash cube at a time. Apparently the passing of years all alone has given this clunky, rusty, dented and creaky machine, time to develop a sense of curiosity, a playful personality, and a love for “Hello, Dolly” showtunes and choreography. His best friend is a cockroach, he’s managed to amass a treasure trove of junk, is seemingly content, albeit lonely.
Then along came EVE. A sleek, state-of-the art egg-shaped robot deposited on earth by an Axiom spacecraft to scan its surroundings as an Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. WALL*E is instantly enthralled and admires EVE’s speed, versatility and gracefulness from a tentative distance. She exudes efficiency and focus and comes with a laser she’s not afraid to use. EVE has a classified directive and WALL*E, after he’s overcome his fear of her laser, befriends her and inadvertently helps EVE achieve her goal. EVE has to return to the Axiom to report her findings, but WALL*E is desperate to build on this new found friendship. Who can blame him? If you’d been alone for 700 years, wouldn’t you be reluctant to say good bye to a new friend? So WALL*E becomes an accidental tourist of the galaxy, embarking on a thrilling adventure that makes him an anxious stowaway aboard a ship of advanced machines and lazy humans.
Under the direction of by Academy Award(r)-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton, the gifted storytellers and artists who brought charm and innovation to The Incredibles and Ratatouille, elevated their game by enabling WALL*E to convey in beeps and tones and soulful eyes a gamut of emotions that captivates the viewer. Limited dialogue was definitely on the menu, at least between robots. Which makes WALL-E all the more enchanting. It’s up to the viewer to draw on simple exchanges and the robots’ varying intonations of each other’s names to interpret their growing affection for one another.
With its breathtaking animation and deft rendering of heartwarming characters, CGI-animated features don’t get much better than this.
A fantastic voyage with an eco-friendly warning wrapped in a poignant love story, WALL*E restored my faith in Pixar’s well-deserved, acclaim.
In this new offering from the same team who brought you Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille, Earth is a virtual wasteland, and no longer inhabited by humans. The humans are all aboard a space colony called Axiom, pampered and waited on in robot-assisted existence. Left behind is WALL*E, a hardworking Waste Allocation Load Lifter – Earth class robot, has done what he was programmed to do, compact trash and stack it neatly, cleaning the planet one trash cube at a time. Apparently the passing of years all alone has given this clunky, rusty, dented and creaky machine, time to develop a sense of curiosity, a playful personality, and a love for “Hello, Dolly” showtunes and choreography. His best friend is a cockroach, he’s managed to amass a treasure trove of junk, is seemingly content, albeit lonely.
Then along came EVE. A sleek, state-of-the art egg-shaped robot deposited on earth by an Axiom spacecraft to scan its surroundings as an Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. WALL*E is instantly enthralled and admires EVE’s speed, versatility and gracefulness from a tentative distance. She exudes efficiency and focus and comes with a laser she’s not afraid to use. EVE has a classified directive and WALL*E, after he’s overcome his fear of her laser, befriends her and inadvertently helps EVE achieve her goal. EVE has to return to the Axiom to report her findings, but WALL*E is desperate to build on this new found friendship. Who can blame him? If you’d been alone for 700 years, wouldn’t you be reluctant to say good bye to a new friend? So WALL*E becomes an accidental tourist of the galaxy, embarking on a thrilling adventure that makes him an anxious stowaway aboard a ship of advanced machines and lazy humans.
Under the direction of by Academy Award(r)-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton, the gifted storytellers and artists who brought charm and innovation to The Incredibles and Ratatouille, elevated their game by enabling WALL*E to convey in beeps and tones and soulful eyes a gamut of emotions that captivates the viewer. Limited dialogue was definitely on the menu, at least between robots. Which makes WALL-E all the more enchanting. It’s up to the viewer to draw on simple exchanges and the robots’ varying intonations of each other’s names to interpret their growing affection for one another.
With its breathtaking animation and deft rendering of heartwarming characters, CGI-animated features don’t get much better than this.
A fantastic voyage with an eco-friendly warning wrapped in a poignant love story, WALL*E restored my faith in Pixar’s well-deserved, acclaim.
Night Reader Reviews (683 KP) rated The Boy Caught in the Starlight in Books
Feb 29, 2020
Honest Review for Free Copy of Book
The Boy Caught In The Starlight by Michael J H Taylor is a wonderful adventure where the heroes never go any farther than a cabin a little ways from home. This tale is expected to be the first in a series.
Jake lives with his mother who loves bragging about him a little too much. He is smothered by her overwhelming pressure to be perfect and longs for adventure. However, there really is not much in the lines of adventure for a young teenager these days. So being board Jake asks his mother if he can spend the weekend with his father, mostly for a change. Jake goes with his father to pick up an old Bubble Car that his father recently purchased from Professor Septimus Kneebone, self-proclaimed genius. It is this trip that sets Jake on the course for the dangerous adventure that he so longs for.
It turns out that the Bubble Car is no longer a car but a very special machine. This machine has the unique ability to show images of things past to those who know how to work it. Although no one can interact with the images in anyway they can show wondrous things, such as the location of treasure. As luck would have it a gang of thieves know about the machine and have been using it to find long lost treasurer to get rich. Yet what would such a gang do when they discover the Professor has decided to dismantle the machine forever.
This book was surprisingly unique. It offered multiple turns that I did not expect. The story brought me to many different theories along the way to discovering the truth. I hope the promised second book is just as entertaining as the first. What I did not like was that at first, I pegged this book to be much like back to the future. As it turns out I was wrong. This is a problem because the description of the book comes off differently. I just don’t want anyone to go into this book with the wrong expectations.
Young adults and children alike will enjoy this tale. Though a little on the long side for very young children a tale of adventure such as this would be good spread out over multiple days as a wonderful bedtime story. I rate this book 3 out of 4. I was very happy with this book. The slightly misleading description lost a rating point for me, but other than that I found no major complaint. I believe this book to be a good story for all who pick it up.
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Jake lives with his mother who loves bragging about him a little too much. He is smothered by her overwhelming pressure to be perfect and longs for adventure. However, there really is not much in the lines of adventure for a young teenager these days. So being board Jake asks his mother if he can spend the weekend with his father, mostly for a change. Jake goes with his father to pick up an old Bubble Car that his father recently purchased from Professor Septimus Kneebone, self-proclaimed genius. It is this trip that sets Jake on the course for the dangerous adventure that he so longs for.
It turns out that the Bubble Car is no longer a car but a very special machine. This machine has the unique ability to show images of things past to those who know how to work it. Although no one can interact with the images in anyway they can show wondrous things, such as the location of treasure. As luck would have it a gang of thieves know about the machine and have been using it to find long lost treasurer to get rich. Yet what would such a gang do when they discover the Professor has decided to dismantle the machine forever.
This book was surprisingly unique. It offered multiple turns that I did not expect. The story brought me to many different theories along the way to discovering the truth. I hope the promised second book is just as entertaining as the first. What I did not like was that at first, I pegged this book to be much like back to the future. As it turns out I was wrong. This is a problem because the description of the book comes off differently. I just don’t want anyone to go into this book with the wrong expectations.
Young adults and children alike will enjoy this tale. Though a little on the long side for very young children a tale of adventure such as this would be good spread out over multiple days as a wonderful bedtime story. I rate this book 3 out of 4. I was very happy with this book. The slightly misleading description lost a rating point for me, but other than that I found no major complaint. I believe this book to be a good story for all who pick it up.
https://www.facebook.com/nightreaderreviews/
https://smashbomb.com/nightreader
https://nightreaderreviews.blogspot.com/
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