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The Marinated Meeple (1853 KP) rated Terraforming Mars in Tabletop Games
May 22, 2018
I love the science behind the cards (4 more)
fun to imagine
Building an engine and working with the cards
finding and exploiting synergies
managing your resources and timing.
can feel lucky based on cards that come up or don't come up. (1 more)
NEEDS to have an aftermarket system of keeping the cubes in place.
One of my favorite games right now.
I adore this game. I have so many good tings to say about it. The fact that all the cards are based on hypothetical science is amazing. Who doesn't love the Idea of throwing asteroids at the planet, or building a city with a dome, or even shooting lasers. The boards require an extra component in my mind and that is a board with raised edges to keep the cubes from accidentally moving around. This is the biggest detriment. You can find them online for about $5 -10 a piece. I love this game, and it's much better with these and I found it absolutely worth it. But I think if I was lukewarm on it, this might piss me off. Definitely try before you buy, but it's an amazing game. And there is an APP being developed now for it, so be on the lookout for that soon.
Awix (3310 KP) rated The Darkest Hour (2011) in Movies
Jun 2, 2018 (Updated Jun 2, 2018)
Ferociously generic hot-young-things-are-chased-by-high-concept-monsters movie. (Winston Churchill does not appear, by the way.) Various American, Australian and Swedish characters bump into each other in a Moscow nightclub, hit it off (or not), then find the evening takes a bit of a turn when aliens made of invisible electricity arrive and start eating people. Lots of sneaking about and tension; it's not that difficult to guess who the aliens are going to chow down on before the end of the film, and in what order.
I suppose it looks okay, and many members of the cast have gone on to marginally better things (remakes of Judge Dredd and Robocop, plus TV work for Marvel), but the whole thing seems to be actively trying to be as forgettable as possible. The film's big innovation - the Moscow setting - ends up contributing nothing to the film, really; actual Russian characters are kept peripheral. Ultimately just a very, very bland film: Olivia Thirlby deserves some kind of mention for actually making you care slightly about her character. Apart from that this is the kind of SF film that brings science fiction into disrepute. And science. And quite probably fiction, come to that.
I suppose it looks okay, and many members of the cast have gone on to marginally better things (remakes of Judge Dredd and Robocop, plus TV work for Marvel), but the whole thing seems to be actively trying to be as forgettable as possible. The film's big innovation - the Moscow setting - ends up contributing nothing to the film, really; actual Russian characters are kept peripheral. Ultimately just a very, very bland film: Olivia Thirlby deserves some kind of mention for actually making you care slightly about her character. Apart from that this is the kind of SF film that brings science fiction into disrepute. And science. And quite probably fiction, come to that.
David McK (3705 KP) rated Dauntless (The Lost Fleet, #1) in Books
Jan 30, 2019
While I doubt this novel is going to win any awards for literature, I have to say that it is a good enough read: not brilliant, but not terrible either.
Written by a ex-navy man, it's easy to see the influnece of his career in the pages: this is 'real' science-fiction, not science-fantasy, with the space battles obeying the laws of physics as we know them. The plot outline is also somewhat remniscient of the new series of BattleStar Galactica, with a smaller rag-tag force being chased by a numerically superior foe. Ironically, this book was first released at around the same time as that series came on TV, with (in this edition) the author claiming that that WAS NOT an inspiration (in the interview at the end), as if he'd been thinking of BSG it woud've been the older series.
With the way the book opens I must also admit that, at first, I thought I'd missed something: the best corollary I can think of is as if the film Aliens (that's the one with the 'S') had started without the whole prologue of them finding Ripleys life pod: you'd be able to infer what had happened, but would be feeling a bit lost at first.
Written by a ex-navy man, it's easy to see the influnece of his career in the pages: this is 'real' science-fiction, not science-fantasy, with the space battles obeying the laws of physics as we know them. The plot outline is also somewhat remniscient of the new series of BattleStar Galactica, with a smaller rag-tag force being chased by a numerically superior foe. Ironically, this book was first released at around the same time as that series came on TV, with (in this edition) the author claiming that that WAS NOT an inspiration (in the interview at the end), as if he'd been thinking of BSG it woud've been the older series.
With the way the book opens I must also admit that, at first, I thought I'd missed something: the best corollary I can think of is as if the film Aliens (that's the one with the 'S') had started without the whole prologue of them finding Ripleys life pod: you'd be able to infer what had happened, but would be feeling a bit lost at first.
Sara Cox (1845 KP) rated Plastic Sucks! You Can Make a Difference in Books
Jul 8, 2019
Just wow! What an inspiring book. This book is aimed at young people and it is written perfectly for them. The language is set at just the right level. It tackles difficult aspects at a level kids will understand. It includes information boxes to explain some science, which are simplified yet accurate (I'm a science teacher and vouch for them 😉). The best part of this book, I think, is the part of ways you can swap plastics out in different rooms of your house. I am definitely inspired. I also liked the section that described the different types of plastics and how easy or difficult they are to recycle. However, I do feel that the cluster of interviews towards the end may seem a little tedious for the target audience. When, nearer the beginning of the book, the interviews were scattered I feel that children will be more likely to read them. I know it must be hard to have so many inspirational people that have so many amazing things to say and include them all, and they really did say some amazing things. I'm hoping I can get a copy of this for the school library as soon as!
What will you swap out?
What will you swap out?
Sarah (7800 KP) rated Cube 2: Hypercube (2002) in Movies
Apr 5, 2020
A little too out there
The first Cube film for me was always an underrated low budget cult classic, and definitely a precursor for the likes of Saw etc. The original was a great idea with just enough maths and science to make it believable and not completely ridiculous. Sadly the same can’t be said about this sequel.
They’ve gone far too over the top on the science that whilst it does make some sense, it makes the whole idea of the cube a completely silly and ridiculous idea. And the ending itself as far as the cube goes is just laughably bizarre. There’s also the general plot and story, which seems to have left out all of the bits from the original that made it interesting - like the scary traps and numbered doors. Some of the characters are interesting, others are just carbon copies from the original or completely pointless and forgettable. You can tell they’ve got a bigger budget with the amount of CGI in this, it’s just a shame it’s rather poor and lacks the punch of the physical traps used in the original.
This is a rather sorry excuse for a sequel, and not one I’d recommend watching. The third film and prequel Cube Zero is a much better watch.
They’ve gone far too over the top on the science that whilst it does make some sense, it makes the whole idea of the cube a completely silly and ridiculous idea. And the ending itself as far as the cube goes is just laughably bizarre. There’s also the general plot and story, which seems to have left out all of the bits from the original that made it interesting - like the scary traps and numbered doors. Some of the characters are interesting, others are just carbon copies from the original or completely pointless and forgettable. You can tell they’ve got a bigger budget with the amount of CGI in this, it’s just a shame it’s rather poor and lacks the punch of the physical traps used in the original.
This is a rather sorry excuse for a sequel, and not one I’d recommend watching. The third film and prequel Cube Zero is a much better watch.
EE
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