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The Chocolate Lady (94 KP) rated Last Christmas in Paris: A Novel of World War I in Books
Oct 5, 2020
In the summer of 1914, when England went to war with Germany, both the solders and the loved ones they left behind, were certain it would end quickly - by Christmas. Unfortunately, it took over four years for peace to come, and the only small respite both those at home and those away had, were letters to and from their loved ones. In this novel, Heather Webb and Hazel Gaynor bring us a story of just such correspondence. Read more about this lovely book in my review here.
https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2017/09/22/matching-wartime-messages/
https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2017/09/22/matching-wartime-messages/
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated The Quest Kids: Matching Adventure in Tabletop Games
Mar 25, 2021
Those of you with kids: you know how you are just aching for a good game to come out that will satisfy your 3-year-old’s interest, keep their attention throughout, and even get them talking about board games afterward? At least a game that isn’t super-basic and boring? Well have I a treat for you today. I may have just found the game for us!
The Quest Kids: Matching Adventure (can I please just call it MA from here please?) is a tile matching game based off the old evergreen Memory mechanic. However, this isn’t your gramma’s Memory. In it players are recruiting The Quest Kids to scare off the silly bad guys by matching tiles and collecting treasures. The player with the most stars at the end of the game will be the winner! But in actuality, all the players will be winners because all will have had a great time.
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, 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 a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, shuffle the brown tiles, forest tiles, and river tiles separately. Lay out the brown treehouse tiles face-down into a 5 x 4 grid. Around these brown tiles will be placed the river tiles and forest tiles, the numbers of which are dependent upon how lengthy the players wish the game to be. Add the appropriate types of treasure tokens to the provided treasure chest and the game is ready to begin! We ALWAYS let our little go first. They like that.
On a turn each player will attempt to recruit a Quest Kid Hero from the brown treehouse tiles. Once a match has been found the player may begin taking their hero on an adventure! Adventures can only be attempted when a player has matched two Hero tiles from the treehouse. An adventure consists of finding a matching pair of bad guys, one each from the forest and river. For example, in order to find the matching Honey Beard bad guy tiles a Hero would need to search the river for one tile AND the forest for its match.
When bad guys are matched they provide the player with a certain number of treasures, as printed on their tile. The player reaches into the treasure chest and pulls out the correct number of treasures (my son’s favorite part). These treasures provide a number of stars (VP) depending on whether the player has matched a specific hero or not. Less stars are awarded if the appropriate hero is absent, more stars if that hero has been matched by the player.
Some treehouse tiles contain Quest Kid Allies. These Allies provide stars, but also very helpful special abilities to be used on a future turn. When these Allies are matched, the active player keeps the tile with stars and gives away the matching tile to another player. So that other player may also use the Ally for its special ability on a future turn. Alliances with a 3-year-old? I can dig it! Alliances that do not involve said 3-year-old? Watch out for the forthcoming tantrum.
Play continues in this fashion of matching tiles, scaring away bad guys and receiving treasures, and utilizing Ally special abilities until all tiles have been matched and claimed. Players all add up their stars on their collected tiles and treasures, and the most stars collected wins the game!
Components. This game is a ton of tiles and treasure tokens. That equates to, well, a whole bunch of thick cardboard in a box. The material quality is very good, but I am most impressed with the art style. I love game art that can be cartoony while also being interesting and detailed. Such is the art here. The characters are really well illustrated and each have their own personality. I have one gripe about the components: the treasure tokens feature a small picture of the Hero that allows it to be worth more stars. That Hero picture is very very tiny and details do not really transfer well to the small space, so it IS difficult to know which Kid will power up the treasure. I did find a workaround if players are not colorblind: each Hero is featured along with a color. That same color is used as the token icon and can more easily be matched to the Hero. It may save some headache if players are able to use the color as the indicator instead of the tiny picture.
In a nutshell this is Memory with strategy. The main game mechanic is memory – matching up the tiles in order to collect them. However, by throwing in the randomness of treasure token pulls and the Ally special abilities, MA just becomes a thousand percent more compelling for children and adults alike. At the end of the game my son is having a great time and almost always asks to play again. The adults are also impressed that Memory can be so much fun!
So if you are looking for that game to introduce to your youngster that actually challenges their little minds, then I strongly recommend The Quest Kids: Matching Adventure. Yes, it’s Memory, but it’s Memory that is actually fun. It’s Memory with a theme, and a kid-based theme at that. It gives the littles an opportunity to look up to these kid heroes and lets them imagine being heroes themselves. Any game that helps to empower my children will definitely be a well-loved addition to my collection. Purple Phoenix Games (well, my wife, my son, and I) give this one a victoriously heroic 16 / 18. I won’t say that I will beat you every time, but my son may. I dare you to play against him. Just make sure you throw all your extra Allies to him or he will get real mad real quick.
The Quest Kids: Matching Adventure (can I please just call it MA from here please?) is a tile matching game based off the old evergreen Memory mechanic. However, this isn’t your gramma’s Memory. In it players are recruiting The Quest Kids to scare off the silly bad guys by matching tiles and collecting treasures. The player with the most stars at the end of the game will be the winner! But in actuality, all the players will be winners because all will have had a great time.
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, 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 a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, shuffle the brown tiles, forest tiles, and river tiles separately. Lay out the brown treehouse tiles face-down into a 5 x 4 grid. Around these brown tiles will be placed the river tiles and forest tiles, the numbers of which are dependent upon how lengthy the players wish the game to be. Add the appropriate types of treasure tokens to the provided treasure chest and the game is ready to begin! We ALWAYS let our little go first. They like that.
On a turn each player will attempt to recruit a Quest Kid Hero from the brown treehouse tiles. Once a match has been found the player may begin taking their hero on an adventure! Adventures can only be attempted when a player has matched two Hero tiles from the treehouse. An adventure consists of finding a matching pair of bad guys, one each from the forest and river. For example, in order to find the matching Honey Beard bad guy tiles a Hero would need to search the river for one tile AND the forest for its match.
When bad guys are matched they provide the player with a certain number of treasures, as printed on their tile. The player reaches into the treasure chest and pulls out the correct number of treasures (my son’s favorite part). These treasures provide a number of stars (VP) depending on whether the player has matched a specific hero or not. Less stars are awarded if the appropriate hero is absent, more stars if that hero has been matched by the player.
Some treehouse tiles contain Quest Kid Allies. These Allies provide stars, but also very helpful special abilities to be used on a future turn. When these Allies are matched, the active player keeps the tile with stars and gives away the matching tile to another player. So that other player may also use the Ally for its special ability on a future turn. Alliances with a 3-year-old? I can dig it! Alliances that do not involve said 3-year-old? Watch out for the forthcoming tantrum.
Play continues in this fashion of matching tiles, scaring away bad guys and receiving treasures, and utilizing Ally special abilities until all tiles have been matched and claimed. Players all add up their stars on their collected tiles and treasures, and the most stars collected wins the game!
Components. This game is a ton of tiles and treasure tokens. That equates to, well, a whole bunch of thick cardboard in a box. The material quality is very good, but I am most impressed with the art style. I love game art that can be cartoony while also being interesting and detailed. Such is the art here. The characters are really well illustrated and each have their own personality. I have one gripe about the components: the treasure tokens feature a small picture of the Hero that allows it to be worth more stars. That Hero picture is very very tiny and details do not really transfer well to the small space, so it IS difficult to know which Kid will power up the treasure. I did find a workaround if players are not colorblind: each Hero is featured along with a color. That same color is used as the token icon and can more easily be matched to the Hero. It may save some headache if players are able to use the color as the indicator instead of the tiny picture.
In a nutshell this is Memory with strategy. The main game mechanic is memory – matching up the tiles in order to collect them. However, by throwing in the randomness of treasure token pulls and the Ally special abilities, MA just becomes a thousand percent more compelling for children and adults alike. At the end of the game my son is having a great time and almost always asks to play again. The adults are also impressed that Memory can be so much fun!
So if you are looking for that game to introduce to your youngster that actually challenges their little minds, then I strongly recommend The Quest Kids: Matching Adventure. Yes, it’s Memory, but it’s Memory that is actually fun. It’s Memory with a theme, and a kid-based theme at that. It gives the littles an opportunity to look up to these kid heroes and lets them imagine being heroes themselves. Any game that helps to empower my children will definitely be a well-loved addition to my collection. Purple Phoenix Games (well, my wife, my son, and I) give this one a victoriously heroic 16 / 18. I won’t say that I will beat you every time, but my son may. I dare you to play against him. Just make sure you throw all your extra Allies to him or he will get real mad real quick.
Lumos (380 KP) rated Kingdomino in Tabletop Games
Mar 21, 2018
This is a fun little game. It is similar to dominos in that each tile has 2 sides to it but, instead of numbers, the tiles have plots of land. You place the tiles matching the land types to accumulate as many points as possible. The catch is that you only have so much space to place your tiles in. I can't remember how big of a grid you can go, but I think it is a six by six space. If you miss place a tile, you will end up being left with a hole in your plot and won't be able to maximize points. On the first play though, we each had a hole and knew what to fix for the next time.
Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated A Bad Moms Christmas (2017) in Movies
Sep 25, 2019
A whole festive light display, matching hair styles, and a request for money. When Amy, Kiki and Carla's mums (sorry moms) turn up out of the blue they quickly realise that this time they need to take back Christmas.
First Christmas film of the season... if we're not including the fact I watched Die Hard the other day. The first one was such fun that I had to go and see this one. This one is perfect girl's night viewing. I don't know what to say to this one, it's funny, and it's got a gorgeous stripping Santa... ladies, if that doesn't do it for you then I don't know what will. (Oh wait... Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot in Justice League.)
First Christmas film of the season... if we're not including the fact I watched Die Hard the other day. The first one was such fun that I had to go and see this one. This one is perfect girl's night viewing. I don't know what to say to this one, it's funny, and it's got a gorgeous stripping Santa... ladies, if that doesn't do it for you then I don't know what will. (Oh wait... Jason Momoa and Gal Gadot in Justice League.)
Beckie Shelton (40 KP) rated Broken Dolls in Books
Feb 8, 2018
This was a dark disturbing read that I was glued to from the beginning, two broken souls that come together and don't fix each other more sooth and adhere themselves as a coping mechanism, don't know if I would call this love more a connecting of brokenness. Mia is a tragic, scared, vulnerable figure and Brian sees a kindred spirit in her, an extension of himself, protecting Mia eases his own demons and with a matching set of scars Brian puts himself in the role of Mia's protector. I never thought I would see Brian in any redeemable light but I do, don't get me wrong the man is still wired wrong a complete sadist but with mia he becomes so much more as well. A very dark thought provoking read loved it.
Awix (3310 KP) rated Big Hero 6 (2014) in Movies
Mar 12, 2018
Slightly oddball product of Disney's acquisition of Marvel - this started life as a comic book featuring characters from the X-Men - ends up as a typically witty and accomplished animation. Youthful genius has to form super-team to stop a supervillain from misusing one of his inventions.
Now, obviously if you're a purist, you can find things to complain about here - no mutant powers, no Silver Samurai, the whole thing is set in a science-fantasy future - but for everyone else this is an engaging, well-told story that comes close to matching The Incredibles when it comes to evoking the thrill and invention of classic superhero stories. Witty and imaginative; looks gorgeous; thoroughly enjoyable (though you have to wait until after the credits for the obligatory Stan Lee cameo).
Now, obviously if you're a purist, you can find things to complain about here - no mutant powers, no Silver Samurai, the whole thing is set in a science-fantasy future - but for everyone else this is an engaging, well-told story that comes close to matching The Incredibles when it comes to evoking the thrill and invention of classic superhero stories. Witty and imaginative; looks gorgeous; thoroughly enjoyable (though you have to wait until after the credits for the obligatory Stan Lee cameo).
Gisell Middleton (189 KP) rated Deadpool 2 (2018) in Movies
Oct 17, 2018
Nowhere near as good as the first but still entertaining
The anticipation for Deadpool 2 was great. The reality, not so great. The movie spends 2 hours regurgitating bits of other movies that you have just enough time to recognize, and wonder why, before they zoom off to the next. It comes across as a quilt made of pieces torn from other weird, ugly and not at all matching or coordinating quilts. Deadpool is still funny but he seems to try too hard at making things stick. Some characters are strange additions or recurrences while others are just plain lost, wandering around the set, just getting paid. That said, it does provide some mindless entertainment and a few parts are genuinely funny.
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated The Last Wish in Books
Sep 25, 2021
157 of 250
Book
The Last Wish ( The Witcher book 1)
By Andrzej Sapkowski
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
Geralt de Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin.
And a cold-blooded killer.
His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world.
But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good
. . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.
I’m so glad I decided to start these books! This is a selection of short stories to open up the wither world and Geralt. I loved them all and it made so much more sense matching these shorts to the Tv series. Looking forward to getting stuck into the next book. It also helps I now have Henry Cavil stuck in my head for Geralt!
Book
The Last Wish ( The Witcher book 1)
By Andrzej Sapkowski
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
Geralt de Rivia is a witcher. A cunning sorcerer. A merciless assassin.
And a cold-blooded killer.
His sole purpose: to destroy the monsters that plague the world.
But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good
. . . and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth.
I’m so glad I decided to start these books! This is a selection of short stories to open up the wither world and Geralt. I loved them all and it made so much more sense matching these shorts to the Tv series. Looking forward to getting stuck into the next book. It also helps I now have Henry Cavil stuck in my head for Geralt!
Red Otter (340 KP) rated Azul in Tabletop Games
Jun 12, 2019
If I had to pick an abstract to start someone off, I'd pick Azul almost every time. It may appear as a simple tile laying game, but with time you learn how to predict what an opponent needs and how you can change their best laid plans. The game is simple. Every round a selection of tiles ( with five different colors) based on player size is placed on factory tiles in the centre. Players take turn grabbing all of one color of tiles from either a factory tile or the factory floor, with any ungrabbed tiles being placed into the floor. These tiles are then placed into variously sized rows with a catch, only one color can be placed into a row at a time, no mixing and matching allowed! You can partially fill these rows and hope you can grab enough later to fill it up. Any unplaced tiles go into the garbage, forcing you to lose points. The round ends when all tiles have been grabbed. It's possible to make opponents grab tiles that they can't use, forcing them to lose points.
Next is scoring. At the end of every round, every player checks to see if any of their rows are filled, if so, they can empty their row and place one of the tiles on its matching space/row on a 5x5 scoring grid.
Scoring is all about placing contingious tiles, with more points for how many tiles are next to the tile when it's placed. The game ends when someone fills up an entire row, with additional points for having five tiles of a color, a filled row, and filled coloumns.
Azul is very somple and easy to each, but has depth when trying to predict what tiles will be coming out next and what your opponents will be going for. The component quality is excellent, with the tiles providing a great tactile feel to picking them up. I love this game and am never sad when it hits the table
Next is scoring. At the end of every round, every player checks to see if any of their rows are filled, if so, they can empty their row and place one of the tiles on its matching space/row on a 5x5 scoring grid.
Scoring is all about placing contingious tiles, with more points for how many tiles are next to the tile when it's placed. The game ends when someone fills up an entire row, with additional points for having five tiles of a color, a filled row, and filled coloumns.
Azul is very somple and easy to each, but has depth when trying to predict what tiles will be coming out next and what your opponents will be going for. The component quality is excellent, with the tiles providing a great tactile feel to picking them up. I love this game and am never sad when it hits the table
Sapphire Jane Sawkins (3 KP) rated Tinder in Apps
Feb 5, 2018
People can't message you without you matching with them (1 more)
It's easy to block people
Having met my past 2 serious relationships on Tinder, I feel that I have to give it a good rating. Without going into details, my past relationship ended due to reasons well away from Tinder. The bonus of this app is that people cannot message you unless you have expressed an interest in them. I guess you could also say this is a downside... if you think somebody sounds like your ideal partner, you cant message them unless they too have liked you.
I think it is safe to say that these days most people are too busy to go out and people the 'traditional' way, therefore online dating is the way forward. I know many people who have successfully used this app, whatever their desired outcome may be.
Online dating definitely has its drawbacks... but then does traditional dating not?
I think it is safe to say that these days most people are too busy to go out and people the 'traditional' way, therefore online dating is the way forward. I know many people who have successfully used this app, whatever their desired outcome may be.
Online dating definitely has its drawbacks... but then does traditional dating not?