Search

Search only in certain items:

40x40

Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated Bastion in Tabletop Games

Jul 30, 2020 (Updated Jul 30, 2020)  
Bastion
Bastion
2015 | Fantasy
The Strategy (3 more)
Think Ten Steps Ahead
Replay Value
Different Scenarios
Excellent Tower Defense Game With A Twist
Bastion is a cooperative strategy game for one to four players. Taking inspiration from extremely popular tower defense video games, Bastion subjects players to an unrelenting stream of attacks by an army of vicious monsters. By channeling the sources within the city’s districts, defense towers, and citadel, players work together to defend its borders, all the while gaining useful spells from the enemies they defeat. Only by properly managing their mana, spells, and rituals will they have any hope of withstanding the onslaught.

In Bastion, you and your friends are the city’s last hope. Only you can stem the tide of the invading hordes. The tension constantly mounts during each game as a new card is drawn from the enemy deck and advances along the city walls after every player’s turn. You must clear them all from the walls by spending mana tokens if you hope to stem the tide. Players win or lose together, so make sure to coordinate your actions before the city is overrun. It will take a careful balance between channeling mana, moving throughout the city, and defeating enemies to claim victory.

Staring down a horde of vicious monsters is intimidating for even the most experienced of heroes. Luckily for you, defeating enemies converts their life-force into powerful spells that can provide an advantage at critical moments. Reduce an enemy to dust with a powerful fireball spell or use the plenty spell to give yourself a quick influx of extra mana tokens. Determining the best time to use these spells is up to the you, of course, but waiting for perfect moment can turn the tide of battle in your favor.

Once you’ve mastered the introductory game, there are even more ways to play Bastion. More powerful enemies await those seeking even more of a challenge, including the fearsome Black Knight or the revolting Knellerwyrm. In turn, the heroes respond to this increased threat by harnessing the power of ancient rituals that make it easier to obtain mana of the color they need. On top of the extra monsters, Bastion also includes four unique scenarios that add special rules and more variety. Can you handle an enemy army made up of flying creatures? What would happen if you arrived at the city after the enemy forces? Each scenario demands new strategies and offers a unique spin on the Bastion experience. The enemy is at the gates. Take up arms and fight for victory!

Its a excellent strategy game and has a excellent replay value with the different scenarios, you can go solo or play with others. Its a excellent twist on the tower defense genre. If you want to learn more go to BoardGameGeek, Dice Tower Reviews or Rahdo Walkthroughs. I learn about it through Dice Tower Reviews and bought it right away. Its a excellent game.
  
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
2004 | Action, Sci-Fi
Everything but the Nagashidai
Almost wholly nuts kaiju-SF movie originally produced for the 50th anniversary of Godzilla's first appearance. It actually does a pretty good job of having something for everyone - everyone who's ever enjoyed a Godzilla film, anyway. The plot is certainly reminiscent of some of the 60s movies - aliens from Planet X (seriously) turn up and initially pretend to be friendly, but turn out to be intent on taking over the world, using their ability to control almost all of Earth's monsters. Naturally, Godzilla is immune, and the desperate human characters resort to releasing Godzilla from the prison he's been in for years so he can sort the invaders out - even if this will mean him having to fight virtually every other monster on the planet almost single-handed.

All very promising, if you like this sort of thing, but the director's clear desire to actually be making a Matrix sequel is a bit intrusive - there's a lot of human-on-human martial arts action which isn't what I personally turn up to a Godzilla movie for. The sheer knowing silliness of the film may also be off-putting for some viewers.

But set against all that, there's a bit where Mothra battles Gigan! There's a fight between proper Japanese Godzilla and the mutant iguana pretender from the Roland Emmerich version! You get to see Baby Godzilla sitting in the cab of a pick-up truck during an unexpected subplot about hitch-hiking! And much more. (Keith Emerson's soundtrack is very atypical for a Godzilla film, but actually pretty funky.) The sheer profusion of monsters - nearly every Toho beastie makes at least a cameo, the only big-name absentee being Mechagodzilla - and the cheerful craziness of the story make this, if not quite an entirely worthy tribute to Godzilla's first fifty years, then certainly a very hard film to completely dislike.
  
Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley | 2016 | Fiction & Poetry
7
7.7 (27 Ratings)
Book Rating
Contains spoilers, click to show
It's been a while since I read this book but I remember why I did and did not enjoy this book. Firstly, the book it worth the read. It may seem slow to start with but you do get rewarded in the end. It is just that, unfortunately, Victor Frankenstein is a very boring character. He is just so boring and, lets face it, a little bit fickle. He spent his life working towards this goal, leaving his family and loved ones behind, practically, all to be able to resurrect the dead back to life. He accomplishes it only to realise what an abomination he has created. So what does he do? He runs away.

The most interesting part about the book actually comes from the perspective of the monster himself. It is here where we see true voice, character, and emotion. We see the monsters side of things and realise he is not in fact a monster. He is a product of his surroundings. He was treated like a monster and so he became one.


To me, it spreads an important message about love and acceptance. The monster would not have become evil is Victor had remained with his creation and helped him instead of fleeing and leaving the monster, new to the big wide world, by himself.


Although I believe Mart was trying to give us a different, more religious message, about the dangers of man performing a woman's role of giving birth and how that is an abomination to mankind, I think the message I stated beforehand is better and stronger.


If you can get through Victor's boring and annoying personality then the book is worth the read. If not, then maybe just read the middle of the book-- from the monsters perspective, although it would probably seem a little weird and out of context without the rest of the story.
  
Megashark vs Crocasaurus (2010)
Megashark vs Crocasaurus (2010)
2010 | Action, Adventure, Comedy
5
4.3 (9 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Decent concept (0 more)
Poor execution (0 more)
Is this B Monster Movie worth the watch?
Megashark vs Crocasaurus has a decent concept behind it as far as B Monster Movies go. 2 ancient giant animals somehow survived, hidden away, only to wake up for what is hopefully an epic clash. But does it deliver?
The acting amd writing is about what you'd expect from a movie like this. It's passable most of the time, but sometimes, not so much. That being said, top notch acting amd writing is not why anyone watches movies like this.
The movies biggest downfall is it's monsters. They look absolutely terrible and have inconsistent size from scene to scene. Let me break each one down.
The Megashark: this may be the least intetesting "giant monster" I've seen brought to screen, and unfortunately, itbis the star of the franchise (yes there is more than one Megashark movie). Terrible CGI aside, it's kills were extremely underwhelming, mostly resorting to flopping out of the water, to smash ships with it's tail as it hurtles over them, causing little CGI explosions. As an example of the inconsistent size, when it's fin sticks out of the water upon approaching a ship, it is about the size of the whole shark when it is seen flopping out of the water.
The Crocasaurus: This one is marginally more interesting with a wider range of terribly animated kills and the ability to be on both land and water.
The Clash: This was a laughably bad "battle between the two monsters. Most of it consisted of them forming a circle, both with the others tail it it's mouth, as the military poured missiles into them.
Overall, it's not at all a good movie, but I'm pretty sure that's intentional to a point. It has its moments where it reaches levels of fun for fans of the genre. If you catch it on TV ir maybe a streaming service (it's on Amazon Prime now), it might be worth a watch, but I don't recommend spending money on it.
  
    The Fairyland

    The Fairyland

    Games and Stickers

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Did you ever dream like this? In the dream you are an alone traveler who lost in the space and time....

Gypsy Blood (All The Pretty Monsters #1)
Gypsy Blood (All The Pretty Monsters #1)
Kristy Cunning | 2020 | Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
193 of 200
Kindle
Gypsy Blood ( All the pretty monsters book 1)
By Kristy Cunning

 
I'm not all that special, really. Or uncommon. I'm sure there are a lot of girls with old gypsy blood who see the dead, have killer cults hunting their family, and turn into something that gets scary when they panic. Yep. Completely unoriginal, if I do say so myself.
Move along. Nothing to see here. Nope. I'm just an ordinary girl.

I wish people would believe that.

I've been labeled as one thing or another for most of my life:
Death Girl.
Crazy Gypsy Girl.
Gothic Chick.
Monster...

It took my mother's death for me to finally start getting answers about what's really been going on. Unfortunately, most of the answers come from men...who aren't just men. Somehow, I've gone and landed myself in a world truly filled with monsters, and I'm starting to think this is where I should have been all along.

Only...I don't understand what's going on. I'm walking into the middle of a story that's thousands of years old, and I'm the new girl on the block who doesn't have a clue how this world even works. My only guides happen to be the most lethal of the bunch.

They decide who lives or dies. They decide who gets stabbed or tortured.
Yeah...

I've gone and drawn attention to myself, and the ones paying attention are the ones everyone else seems to fear.

How do these things always happen to me?


I didn’t know what to except but found myself totally involved! I love the idea of these alphas and I love her Gypsy powers and how she still has so much to learn! We get to learn with her because this is written so you want to keep going! Anna her ghost is so bloody funny I laughed quite a bit woke my husband several times from sleep! I do think Ace was a bit obvious and she was a bit stupid there but now things get a bit more interesting
  
Monster Trucks (2016)
Monster Trucks (2016)
2016 | Animation
7
4.8 (6 Ratings)
Movie Rating
It’s safe to say that movies nowadays are either remakes of beloved classic movies, based off a book, or are a sequel. Original ideas and story lines are few and far between. When I first heard about this so-called movie Monster Trucks, I thought it was going to be about those hug trucks you see at Monster Jam shows driving over cars with their loud engines entertaining crowds. This film is far from anything of the sort. It’s based off the idea from a 4 year old about monster trucks actually having monsters in the trucks.
Set in a small oil drilling town in North Dakota, Tripp (Lucas Till), a troubled high school student, befriends an extraterrestrial squid-like creature that takes up residence in the hood of Tripp’s truck. After an accident occurs at a nearby drilling site displacing this creature, it doesn’t take long for the oil company to realize if they don’t locate this creature, they will have to cease drilling which affects their bottom line. With the help of his friend Meredith (Jane Levy), Tripp realizes he must take his new friend back to his home before the villainous oil company CEO ( Rob Lowe) catches them.
If you take the movie for what it is: trucks, monsters, friends, and good guy/bad guys-it’s an entertaining film with some great laugh out loud moments that also attempts to tug at the heartstrings from a pair of unlikely friends. Dig deeper and try to analyze every piece of the movie, you’ll only see the outlandish, unrealistic, and far fetch concept with underdeveloped character relationships. All in all, I enjoyed the film. The friendship between Tripp and the creature he named Creech was similar to that of Elliott and E.T. with less drama. It brought me back to my childhood. It taught my son the meaning of friendship, sacrifice, and loyalty.
  
    Doodle Jump

    Doodle Jump

    Games and Entertainment

    5.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    BE WARNED: Insanely addictive! "possibly the best iPhone game ever created" - Touch Arcade From...

    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

    Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links

    Games and Entertainment

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Take on global Duelists in real-time and while on the go with "Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links"! - Star-studded...