Search
Search results
MOBI Reader - Reader for mobi, azw, azw3, prc
Book and Productivity
App
The BEST application for reading mobi, azw, prc books. Format 100% supported by the application,...
Lonely Planet Discover Maui
Lonely Planet, Amy C. Balfour and Paul Stiles
Book
Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet's Discover Maui is your...
Bike Fast Fit
Health & Fitness and Sports
7.0
Rate It
App
"Overall, this app is pretty cool. Mostly because it’s actually useful..." - Ray Maker, DC...
Safe Lock - lock photos hide pictures and videos.
Photo & Video and Utilities
App
Personal security is a critical and crucial component of any men's life. Keep the vault locked even...
Cloud Music - Offline Mp3 Music Audio Player
Music and Entertainment
10.0
Rate It
App
Import your favorite Mp3 Music to your drives and listen anytime anywhere! Play OFFLINE, No LIMITS! ...
MOBILES APP STORE
Business and Social Networking
App
Let your clients and prospects see your business through an App when designing and developing...
California Roads - CHP Traffic Reports & Cameras
Travel and Navigation
App
Live CHP traffic reports and cameras for California. View up-to-the-minute California Highway Patrol...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Cosmic Run: Regeneration in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2019
One of the best parts of the board gaming experience is finding a fun group of people with whom to play! Sometimes, though, coordinating a game night is easier said than done. We all must occasionally forego the group experience and face the world as the Lonely Only. But fear not! The world of solo-play is a vast and exciting realm! What follows is a chronicle of my journey into the solo-playing world – notes on gameplay, mechanics, rules, difficulty, and overall experience with solo variations of commonly multiplayer games! I hope this will provide some insight as you continue to grow your collection, or explore your already owned games!
Space – the Final Frontier. Well, not anymore. You’re living in the year 2123, and space travel is not a novel idea. In fact, Earth has become uninhabitable, and the human race must find a new planet to call home! You and your team of explorers have taken to the galaxies to find a suitable replacement for the future of mankind. By befriending aliens and outmaneuvering rival explorers, your team will be credited with the discovery of new colonies on these distant planets. It’s a literal Space Race, so kick on that hyper-drive and take to the stars!
Cosmic Run: Regeneration is a competitive or cooperative dice-rolling game in which players are racing to earn the most victory points by being the first to discover new planets. It’s a Yahtzee-style push-your-luck game where you must roll certain sets of identical dice to advance your ships on the individual planet tracks. Dice can also be used to ‘hire’ aliens or find crystals, which can give you special abilities once per game. The planets must be discovered in a timely manner, though, because passing meteors could cause damage to, or even completely destroy, these planets – this is space, after all. Players earn victory points in three ways – by being the first to discover a planet, based on their position on a planet’s track if they are not the first to discover it, or by retiring sets of aliens. The player with the most victory points once all 6 planets are discovered is the winner! When playing solo, the game is played essentially the same way, with some minor differences. If the solo player discovers all 6 planets before any one is destroyed or before the meteor deck runs out, they win! However, if even a single planet is destroyed or they are not all discovered before the meteor deck runs out, the solo player loses.
I enjoy playing Cosmic Run: Regeneration as a solo game because it’s simple, but not easy. You’re just rolling dice, but you need a strategy. Do you try to advance quickly on the easiest tracks, or do you commit dice to more difficult tracks and hope that the dice rolls will be on your side? Be careful – once you commit a die to a certain track, it cannot be moved. I’ve played so many games where I commit dice to Planet 2 (2-of-a-kind) and end up rolling 3 more of the same number that could’ve been used on Planet 5 (5-of-a-kind) if I’d just committed them there in the first place! A lot of the game is dependent on the luck of the roll, but I feel like you still need a solid strategy to be successful. There’s a good balance between the two – I still feel like I’m in control of the game even though I can’t control how the dice will roll.
The one main difference between solo and group play is that the solo player is allowed to spend VPs to create ‘forcefields’ around planets. This is because in group play if a planet is destroyed, players score points for their track progress, and the game continues. For the solo player, however, if a planet is destroyed, the game is over. When playing solo, I can choose to spend either 5 or 10 VPs to create a forcefield around either 1 or all planets to protect them from meteors for one turn. Without this option in solo play, it would be impossible to win. The first 4 cards of the meteor deck are guaranteed to hit 4 different planets, so right off the bat you are starting at kind of a disadvantage. Each planet only takes 3 hits to be destroyed, so depending on how well the meteor deck is shuffled, the game would be over quickly if I weren’t able to create forcefields. It all comes back to strategy – you have to decide when to spend those VPs and what planets need protecting at any given point in the game.
That being said, scoring VPs is not really easy in solo play. To score points for a planet, you have to physically reach the planet surface – and that can take a while depending on how well you are rolling. You can hire/retire aliens for VPs, but alien cards have a die cost, so if you are hiring aliens all the time, those are dice you are not using to advance on planet tracks. And each turn, planets get closer to destruction if you don’t advance on their tracks fast enough. You can earn VPs when you land on a VP token space – you do not pick up the token if you pass it, you must land exactly on it. So all in all, you can’t afford to protect every planet every turn. You have to strategize carefully about how to risk your hard-earned VPs. The most frustrating thing is when I pay VPs to protect a planet that isn’t even the one that gets hit! 5 VPs gone that I usually can’t get back in a single turn. But that’s all part of the push-your-luck isn’t it? There’s no reward without risk, and sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m usually not a very risky game player, but in this game I have to be. Playing it safe is not an option when I’m racing against the meteor deck.
Cosmic Run: Regeneration is a game of strategy with some healthy helpings of luck and risk-taking. You need a solid strategy, but one that is flexible enough to adapt to your dice rolls on any given turn. No game is a guaranteed win – if I win it’s usually at the last possible second. This game is easy to play, but not necessarily easy to win and that’s what keeps me coming back to play. Even as a solo game, it’s engaging and I think it’s pretty fun too!
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/solo-chronicles-cosmic-run-regeneration/
Space – the Final Frontier. Well, not anymore. You’re living in the year 2123, and space travel is not a novel idea. In fact, Earth has become uninhabitable, and the human race must find a new planet to call home! You and your team of explorers have taken to the galaxies to find a suitable replacement for the future of mankind. By befriending aliens and outmaneuvering rival explorers, your team will be credited with the discovery of new colonies on these distant planets. It’s a literal Space Race, so kick on that hyper-drive and take to the stars!
Cosmic Run: Regeneration is a competitive or cooperative dice-rolling game in which players are racing to earn the most victory points by being the first to discover new planets. It’s a Yahtzee-style push-your-luck game where you must roll certain sets of identical dice to advance your ships on the individual planet tracks. Dice can also be used to ‘hire’ aliens or find crystals, which can give you special abilities once per game. The planets must be discovered in a timely manner, though, because passing meteors could cause damage to, or even completely destroy, these planets – this is space, after all. Players earn victory points in three ways – by being the first to discover a planet, based on their position on a planet’s track if they are not the first to discover it, or by retiring sets of aliens. The player with the most victory points once all 6 planets are discovered is the winner! When playing solo, the game is played essentially the same way, with some minor differences. If the solo player discovers all 6 planets before any one is destroyed or before the meteor deck runs out, they win! However, if even a single planet is destroyed or they are not all discovered before the meteor deck runs out, the solo player loses.
I enjoy playing Cosmic Run: Regeneration as a solo game because it’s simple, but not easy. You’re just rolling dice, but you need a strategy. Do you try to advance quickly on the easiest tracks, or do you commit dice to more difficult tracks and hope that the dice rolls will be on your side? Be careful – once you commit a die to a certain track, it cannot be moved. I’ve played so many games where I commit dice to Planet 2 (2-of-a-kind) and end up rolling 3 more of the same number that could’ve been used on Planet 5 (5-of-a-kind) if I’d just committed them there in the first place! A lot of the game is dependent on the luck of the roll, but I feel like you still need a solid strategy to be successful. There’s a good balance between the two – I still feel like I’m in control of the game even though I can’t control how the dice will roll.
The one main difference between solo and group play is that the solo player is allowed to spend VPs to create ‘forcefields’ around planets. This is because in group play if a planet is destroyed, players score points for their track progress, and the game continues. For the solo player, however, if a planet is destroyed, the game is over. When playing solo, I can choose to spend either 5 or 10 VPs to create a forcefield around either 1 or all planets to protect them from meteors for one turn. Without this option in solo play, it would be impossible to win. The first 4 cards of the meteor deck are guaranteed to hit 4 different planets, so right off the bat you are starting at kind of a disadvantage. Each planet only takes 3 hits to be destroyed, so depending on how well the meteor deck is shuffled, the game would be over quickly if I weren’t able to create forcefields. It all comes back to strategy – you have to decide when to spend those VPs and what planets need protecting at any given point in the game.
That being said, scoring VPs is not really easy in solo play. To score points for a planet, you have to physically reach the planet surface – and that can take a while depending on how well you are rolling. You can hire/retire aliens for VPs, but alien cards have a die cost, so if you are hiring aliens all the time, those are dice you are not using to advance on planet tracks. And each turn, planets get closer to destruction if you don’t advance on their tracks fast enough. You can earn VPs when you land on a VP token space – you do not pick up the token if you pass it, you must land exactly on it. So all in all, you can’t afford to protect every planet every turn. You have to strategize carefully about how to risk your hard-earned VPs. The most frustrating thing is when I pay VPs to protect a planet that isn’t even the one that gets hit! 5 VPs gone that I usually can’t get back in a single turn. But that’s all part of the push-your-luck isn’t it? There’s no reward without risk, and sometimes it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’m usually not a very risky game player, but in this game I have to be. Playing it safe is not an option when I’m racing against the meteor deck.
Cosmic Run: Regeneration is a game of strategy with some healthy helpings of luck and risk-taking. You need a solid strategy, but one that is flexible enough to adapt to your dice rolls on any given turn. No game is a guaranteed win – if I win it’s usually at the last possible second. This game is easy to play, but not necessarily easy to win and that’s what keeps me coming back to play. Even as a solo game, it’s engaging and I think it’s pretty fun too!
https://purplephoenixgames.wordpress.com/2019/01/25/solo-chronicles-cosmic-run-regeneration/
BankofMarquis (1832 KP) rated Tenet (2020) in Movies
Jan 2, 2021
Nolan's PhD Thesis on time
And…on the first day of 2021…the BankofMarquis viewed the best film of 2020.
Christopher Nolan’s TENET is dense, beautifully shot, confusing, wonderfully acted, well staged, mind bending…and brilliant.
Starring John David Washington (Denzel’s kid - more on him later), TENET is Christopher Nolan’s “Spy Movie”. Much like what he did with the Murder Mystery genre (MEMENTO), the Heist Genre (INCEPTION), the Sci-Fi flick (INTERSTELLAR) and the war picture (DUNKIRK), Nolan takes the Spy film and turns it upside by playing with the one thing we all take for granted - time.
While all of these previous films were Nolan’s “warm up” to this film, TENET is Nolan’s PhD Thesis on playing with time - and the audience’s expectations of how time works. Not only does Nolan play with moving people and action forward and backwards through time, he also plays scenes where you don’t realize that the two folks talking are actually speaking at 2 different places in time.
It is a mind-bender to be sure - and I cannot imagine what the filmmakers, stunt personnel and actors went through in making it - but there is one thing I can guarantee you - you will be confused for (at least) the first part of the film while you retrain your mind to forget all preconceived notions on how time works.
But, if you are able to get your mind around this, Director Nolan has crafted a strong, well-acted, beautiful, exciting and action packed film that, in the end, is very satisfying.
Let’s start with the acting - top to bottom the performances are stellar. John David Washington (BLACK KkKLANSMAN) is “The Protagonist” (that is how he is billed, we never learn his name) and he is a charming and charismatic screen presence to experience this film with. Washington is a former professional football player and he uses this physicality throughout the film. But he is not a “lumbering brute”. He is intelligent and thoughtful as he learns things and adapts his plans as the audience learns them and helps lead us through the often complex plot and concepts throughout.
Elizabeth Debicki builds on her strong work in 2019’s WIDOWS (if you haven’t seen this film, check it out). Her character is much, much more than a “Femme Fatale” and goes mano-a-mano with the men in this film and more than holds her own. Nolan favorite Michael Caine (ALFIE) shows up as does Himesh Patel (INCEPTION), Dimple Kapadia (a major Bollywood star) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (KICKASS) - all 3 of them bring their “A” game to this film and supports the story very very well.
Kenneth Branagh (TV’s WALLANDER) shows that he still has his fastball - when he is interested - as the film’s main villain. He has some very intense scenes where he just acts the pants off the others in the room (this is a compliment). Sir Kenneth has had a long, storied career (including many, many Shakespearean roles) and he plays the villain as a Shakespeare villain - and is very successful doing so. I’m glad he didn’t waste his “villain turn” on a Marvel or James Bond flick - he saved it for the right film.
Special notice should be made to the work of Robert Pattinson (TWILIGHT) - he has spent his “post-Twilight” years reinventing himself as a performer, mostly working in small, actor-led independent films, and this performance bears the fruits of those efforts. He is charming and mysterious as The Protagonist’s partner and proves that he can, indeed, act.
Like most Nolan films, the Cinematography is mesmerizing and beautiful to behld. Hats off to frequent Nolan Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema who was able to create a mood and feeling of evil riding just under the surface of beauty - as well as to be able to distinguish those that are going forward in time versus those that are going backwards all while framing shots that are pictures of artistic beauty.
Nolan did not work with frequent musical collaborator Hans Zimmer on this film. He stated he felt that this film needed a “new, more modern” sound and turned to Ludwig Goransson (the Disney+ series THE MANDALORIAN) and he was smart to do so. The music/sound of this film is another character and helps drive the story forward in so many ways.
But make no mistake about it, this film is Nolan’s baby - and it is very “Nolan-y”. The action scenes are smartly put together, the plot and concepts are strong - but very dense - and the performances are strong. All trademarks of my favorite Director working today.
This film is not for everyone. The complexities of the plot are going to be too much for some folks, but if you just “roll with the flow” when your mind can’t quite catch up to the concepts, you will be rewarded with a very rich - very original - film experience. One that, I am sure, will become deeper and richer on the many, many re watches this film deserves.
Letter Grade: A
9 stars (out of 10) - and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)
Christopher Nolan’s TENET is dense, beautifully shot, confusing, wonderfully acted, well staged, mind bending…and brilliant.
Starring John David Washington (Denzel’s kid - more on him later), TENET is Christopher Nolan’s “Spy Movie”. Much like what he did with the Murder Mystery genre (MEMENTO), the Heist Genre (INCEPTION), the Sci-Fi flick (INTERSTELLAR) and the war picture (DUNKIRK), Nolan takes the Spy film and turns it upside by playing with the one thing we all take for granted - time.
While all of these previous films were Nolan’s “warm up” to this film, TENET is Nolan’s PhD Thesis on playing with time - and the audience’s expectations of how time works. Not only does Nolan play with moving people and action forward and backwards through time, he also plays scenes where you don’t realize that the two folks talking are actually speaking at 2 different places in time.
It is a mind-bender to be sure - and I cannot imagine what the filmmakers, stunt personnel and actors went through in making it - but there is one thing I can guarantee you - you will be confused for (at least) the first part of the film while you retrain your mind to forget all preconceived notions on how time works.
But, if you are able to get your mind around this, Director Nolan has crafted a strong, well-acted, beautiful, exciting and action packed film that, in the end, is very satisfying.
Let’s start with the acting - top to bottom the performances are stellar. John David Washington (BLACK KkKLANSMAN) is “The Protagonist” (that is how he is billed, we never learn his name) and he is a charming and charismatic screen presence to experience this film with. Washington is a former professional football player and he uses this physicality throughout the film. But he is not a “lumbering brute”. He is intelligent and thoughtful as he learns things and adapts his plans as the audience learns them and helps lead us through the often complex plot and concepts throughout.
Elizabeth Debicki builds on her strong work in 2019’s WIDOWS (if you haven’t seen this film, check it out). Her character is much, much more than a “Femme Fatale” and goes mano-a-mano with the men in this film and more than holds her own. Nolan favorite Michael Caine (ALFIE) shows up as does Himesh Patel (INCEPTION), Dimple Kapadia (a major Bollywood star) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (KICKASS) - all 3 of them bring their “A” game to this film and supports the story very very well.
Kenneth Branagh (TV’s WALLANDER) shows that he still has his fastball - when he is interested - as the film’s main villain. He has some very intense scenes where he just acts the pants off the others in the room (this is a compliment). Sir Kenneth has had a long, storied career (including many, many Shakespearean roles) and he plays the villain as a Shakespeare villain - and is very successful doing so. I’m glad he didn’t waste his “villain turn” on a Marvel or James Bond flick - he saved it for the right film.
Special notice should be made to the work of Robert Pattinson (TWILIGHT) - he has spent his “post-Twilight” years reinventing himself as a performer, mostly working in small, actor-led independent films, and this performance bears the fruits of those efforts. He is charming and mysterious as The Protagonist’s partner and proves that he can, indeed, act.
Like most Nolan films, the Cinematography is mesmerizing and beautiful to behld. Hats off to frequent Nolan Cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema who was able to create a mood and feeling of evil riding just under the surface of beauty - as well as to be able to distinguish those that are going forward in time versus those that are going backwards all while framing shots that are pictures of artistic beauty.
Nolan did not work with frequent musical collaborator Hans Zimmer on this film. He stated he felt that this film needed a “new, more modern” sound and turned to Ludwig Goransson (the Disney+ series THE MANDALORIAN) and he was smart to do so. The music/sound of this film is another character and helps drive the story forward in so many ways.
But make no mistake about it, this film is Nolan’s baby - and it is very “Nolan-y”. The action scenes are smartly put together, the plot and concepts are strong - but very dense - and the performances are strong. All trademarks of my favorite Director working today.
This film is not for everyone. The complexities of the plot are going to be too much for some folks, but if you just “roll with the flow” when your mind can’t quite catch up to the concepts, you will be rewarded with a very rich - very original - film experience. One that, I am sure, will become deeper and richer on the many, many re watches this film deserves.
Letter Grade: A
9 stars (out of 10) - and you can take that to the Bank(ofMarquis)