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Abyss
Abyss
2014 | Card Game, Mythology, Science Fiction
I am not a great swimmer. For several years of my life I would avoid water at all costs. I have since grown to love it, but would still freak out a bit if a crab came towards me. I’m kind of a baby like that. I do so love underwater scenes and the wildlife, so I was bound to enjoy Abyss. Throw in some of the most amazing artwork in all of gaming and you have a hit, right?


Abyss is a push your luck, set collection, hand management, fantasy card drafting game for two to four players. In it players are attempting to gain the most Influence Points to rule the underwater kingdom by recruiting allies and Lords, and controlling locations. The game ends once a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled.
To setup, lay out the board, shuffle the Exploration cards (starfish backs) and place in the upper left corner. Shuffle the Lord cards (trident backs) and place the deck in the lower left corner. Reveal Lords to each of the spaces drawn to the right of the deck. This is the Court. Shuffle the Monster tokens and place in a messy pile near the board. Next to these place all the Key tokens. Display the Threat Tracker board with the Threat token on the first space. Shuffle the Location tiles into a stack and reveal the first one. Give each player a pearl in a shell cup and the game is ready to begin!

On a player’s turn they will follow the basic structure of Plotting at Court (by spending pearls to reveal more Lords), Taking One Action (by Exploring the Depths, Requesting Support from the Council, or Recruiting a Lord), and Controlling a Location.

Plotting at Court is simply paying pearls to reveal more Lords at Court.

The action choices begin with Exploring the Depths. This is the push your luck portion of the game where players will reveal cards from the top of the Exploration deck one by one, offer the card to their opponents for purchase (payable to the active player in pearls), and then deciding to continue or take into hand. These cards include members of five allied races of underwater species numbered in strength from one to five and monsters. Fighting monsters is an auto-win and the spoils are what is reflected on the Threat Tracker. If players decide to pass, they will move the Threat token down by one level and improve the treasure won when destroying a monster. Any allies that are undrafted will be sorted by family and placed on the appropriate space on the board.

To Request Support from the Council players will take the entire stack from one family on the board. Again, these are made up of the cards that were undrafted from previous Exploring the Depths actions.

Finally, Recruiting a Lord players will be spending their Exploration cards to combine strength values and family types to appease the Lords they wish to recruit. Players will analyze the strength needed on the bottom left of the Lord card along with the number and color of bubbles above the strength number to determine from which families cards will need to be paid. Lords will have special powers that can be used throughout the game until you use them to Control Locations.

Lords and monster tokens afford players keys, and once players accumulate three keys they MUST Control a Location. To Control a Location players will draft a face-up Location tile or draw one to four tiles and draft one of them. Also, players will sacrifice their Lords (and their special powers) to, well, lord over Locations as super powerful property managers. This is done by covering up the special Lord powers with the Location tiles.


Play continues in this fashion of quick turns until a player recruits their seventh Lord or if the Lords cards run out before the Court can be refilled during a Plot at Court action.
Components. As I mentioned in my open, Abyss boasts some of the most magnificent art ever to grace a board game. The aesthetic coupled with the theme makes for a gorgeous game on the table. The cardboard is all good quality and thick, the cards are good quality as well. The black plastic shells and pearls they hold are so nice to play with and I find myself rolling those pearls as fast as I can within the shells and inevitably spilling them everywhere.

The game play is also quite solid. I like drafting games quite a bit and this delivers a lot of drafting in different locations. You draft Exploration cards and Location tiles to beef up your mini empire. Using the Lords as special power cards but having to cover them up to help control a Location is a clever mechanic and helps with any sort of runaway leader issue. I did not touch on a couple rules because they can be a little confusing to new players (ie the affiliation of allies), but even new gamers can appreciate what Abyss does and how beautifully it accomplishes its task.

I cannot overstate how gorgeous this game is and how much I enjoy being able to pull it off the shelf and set it up to people who have never seen it. I mean, even just the box cover, which is a giant face and no text, is very impressive and helps set the tone for the dark but interesting experiences held within. Purple Phoenix Games gives Abyss a boding 14 / 18. Pick it up, post a picture of which box cover you received, and tag us in the post so we can compare.
  
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
1984 | Comedy, Sci-Fi
Great comedic writing from Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd (4 more)
Imaginative ghost designs
Great chemistry between the stars
That iconic theme song from Ray Parker Jr.
Mostly everything is explained through science
Some special effects haven't aged all that well (2 more)
Some younger viewers may be frightened by some imagery- parental discretion is advised
Some sexual references.
Ghostbusters is a comedy horror film from 1984 directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis who also star in the film. The film follows three ex-university professors as they go into business to catch ghosts. This was Ghost Hunters before it was cool. One of their first clients, Dana Barrett played by Sigourney Weaver, hires Dr. Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray, to investigate a haunting in her apartment. The chemistry between Murray and Weaver here is great. Murray is clearly a womanizer and wants nothing more than to go out with Weaver. Weaver plays hard to get of course. The monster designs are very imaginative for the time, some of them being a little bit creepy. When the movie uses practical effects, it looks really good. But when it instead goes for other special effects, it really breaks the illusion that these monsters are real. You can really see it with the demon dogs if you know what to look for. There is one scene in which Dana Barrett is possessed by the demon known as Zuul where she tries to seduce Peter Venkman, but it never goes anywhere. There's another scene where a demon hand comes out of a lounge chair that Dana is sitting in. And it literally cops a feel. No joke. Go watch that scene. It really looks like Dana is getting molested there. I don't know why that is in there but there it is. Be warned. Some scenes may frighten younger children. Parents be advised. But nonetheless, Ghostbusters is still a classic to watch during Halloween. Cause I ain't afraid of no ghost.
  
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Mothergamer (1586 KP) rated the PlayStation 3 version of Dragon's Dogma in Video Games

Apr 3, 2019  
Dragon's Dogma
Dragon's Dogma
Action/Adventure
I have been having a blast with Dragon's Dogma. The story is excellent and gives you a great sense of high adventure. Strategy matters here because if you don't plan accordingly you will die fighting that chimera or a mob of bandits even on the easy setting. The battle system and menu options are great and quite user friendly. The scenery is simply breathtaking with views of seaside cliffs and spooky forests.


What a view!


 The star of the show for me is the incredible Pawn system. When you go adventuring in Dragon's Dogma, you get to create your own pawn, how it looks, job class, etc. and you can recruit two support pawns for your party. Other players can hire your pawn and you can hire theirs from an in town hub called The Rift. Pawns can be rated based on their skills, helpfulness, intelligence, and appearance. You can also give gifts to the pawn for their owner as a thank you for their service. If you're online, you will see pawns roaming the world on the road or in towns and you can hire them. Your main pawn's interaction depends on you and it will evolve based on your battle moves and what you tell it in the training chair at every town's inn, making it the helpful ally that a high adventurer needs. The pawns are quite vocal and will even yell out helpful tips about defeating a boss or that pesky golem giving you trouble. Pawns can be fighters, warriors, striders, rangers, mages, and sorcerers. This gives you quite a variety of choices in picking out a party that is suited to your battle style and tastes.


Great support pawns are wonderful to have.

Overall the game is a big win in my book for having not only great gameplay, but also for having a truly interesting story and side quests rife with epic mythical monster battles. Dragon's Dogma is game that you will enjoy playing again and again.
  
The Meg (2018)
The Meg (2018)
2018 | Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Jason
#themeg all be it a highly forgettable film manages to be an extreamly enjoyable #shark romp that ends just before it begins to out stay its welcome. Sitting somewhere between #Theshallows & #deepbluesea #meg is an an American-Chinese co-production & it shows. There's an incredible amount of #chinese cast members here witch is very refreshing to see in a big #American #blockbuster & they all do a fantastic job at acting too. China locations are also #beautiful to look at & there's a fantastic sense of depth to the #ocean visuals making for some gorgeously tense silent under #water scenes. Cgi is alright for the most part & does a good job with its highly detailed shark models. Surprisingly #jasonstatham is the star of the show here & when he wasnt on screen I was longing for more time with him rather than the shark itself. Not only is he extremely #charming & charismatic he's absolutely hilarious, clearly realising what type of movie he signed up for & just having a ton of fun. Its a very silly film which plays to its advantage but the problems come when it tries to get to serious, it just kills the flow & makes the film #grind to a halt at times. Over all the message was alright too with its themes of how the human ego leads us to being so #cocky & sure of ourselves that we believe we are superior & invulnerable only to be shot down or knocked off guard by something more primitive. Major influences from old #japanese #monster #movies are a nice touch & characters are all very likable but they seem to have no cares for each other at all which all though odd actually does work in the films favour. A bit repetitive after a while with an abrupt anticlimactic ending Meg is well worth a watch & a ton of #silly forgettable #fun. Way less violent than I expected too. #odeon #odeonlimitless #friyay #gore #horror #scary #themegmovie #review #filmbuff #sharknado
  
The Rules of Burken
The Rules of Burken
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Twenty-four-year-old Charlotte Stahl would do anything for her older brother, Ian. After all, he’d done everything for her growing up.He played Burken with her—a hide-and-seek game they made up as kids.He comforted her when their mom deserted them. He raised her when their dad went to prison for murder. To Charlotte, Ian is the only reason she’s still alive—he’s her rock. So when Ian asks her to play Burken in the isolated woods of Cadillac, Michigan, Charlotte feels she could use the nostalgia and agrees. Burken—it’s the one thing that never changes…
...until Ian threatens to kill her in the middle of the game.
More than the rules have changed as Brother turns to Predator, Sister turns to Prey, and she’s navigating the forests of Northern Michigan on foot with nothing but the clothes—and a target—on her back.
If Charlotte wants to stay alive, she knows she has to untangle the web of her haunting past to find out where things went wrong, and at what point she lost sight of reality. With no other choice but to reopen old wounds—and with Ian hot on her trail—Charlotte learns that sometimes evil has to manifest in order for good to succeed. Which makes her wonder…
Is Ian really a monster? Or her savior?

WOW!! This was a totally dark and twisted thriller that will keep you riveted until the very end.
This story was nothing that I expected.
I was literally on the edge of my seat while reading right from the start.
This book reveals in horrifying detail the unraveling of a seriously toxic family. Toxic for each other and those who come into contact with them.
The characters are intriguing and complicated. The plot is full of twists.
The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to.
Highly Recommend!!!

Many Thanks to the Publisher and NetGalley for a surprisingly superb read!!!