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Until Dawn
Until Dawn
2015 | Action/Adventure
Engrossing (1 more)
Good jump scares
The constant recaps. (0 more)
This game is phenomenal! I sat and played the entire thing in one go. In the dark. Alone. If your in it for the scares definitely play it in the dark. If you are a bit more nervous play with the lights on. And a friend.


The spooks were good. They gave you enough time to chill and breathe before you had to react to the situation but not too much, you were still kept on your toes.

The graphics are incredible. They are realistic and engaging. The story was fantastic and took a supernatural twist I was not expecting but it just added a whole other level to the game. It felt like being in a movie.

The game mechanics were also very good. Having to swipe the touch pad on your controller to open the characters phones, having to hold the controller completely still to keep the sensor in the center in order to keep the characters still. All of these things add stress to the gamer but make it way more engaging than just pressing buttons.

The only real downfall for me was the constant recaps. About every 20 minutes there were recaps you couldn’t skip. If you only played for twenty minutes a time that’s great but most people don’t only sit down for 20 minutes to play a game so it is incredibly annoying. Apart from that this game was one of my favourites I played last year and I would absolutely recommend it for those who want a good engaging horror game.
  
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Christen (28 KP) rated KleptoCats in Apps

Apr 30, 2018  
KleptoCats
KleptoCats
Entertainment, Games
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
App Rating
Cute cats that can be customized. (1 more)
Fun environments to decorate with your cats.
Can be tedious waiting for the cats to come back. (1 more)
Hard to get gems to buy certain items for the cats. Unless you use real money.
When I saw KleptoCats in the app store I fell in love with the cute art style and the concept that you send out cats to bring back treasures. The first few hours of gameplay are fun. You send out your first cat and you play silly games to earn some more coins to customize them while you wait. When they come back they have some oddball treasure for your room. Then once you have collected a few items it takes a lot longer for the cats to come back and the mini-games you were playing get a little old. The gem currency is a little off. It takes 250 coins for 1 gem or you can use real money to buy more gems. Gems can be used to buy accessories for the cats or new environments. The most gems you can buy is 200 for $9.99. This is not that bad compared to other games. All that aside I really enjoy the game. It's a cutesy, fun, relaxing, game and would recommend for anyone.
  
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
Dumb and Dumber (1994)
1994 | Comedy
Jim and Jeff (0 more)
The bad guy (0 more)
Buddy comedy done weird
Contains spoilers, click to show
This is a laugh a minute comedy with arguably the best comedy actor of the time Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in his first real comedy role. They play Lloyd and Harry two lovable bumblers who travel across America to return a briefcase to an attractive socialite named Mary Swanson played by Lauren Holly. Mary is delivering the briefcase as part of a ransom but Lloyd sees her leave it and grabs it before the goons can pick it up. It's revealed that the kidnapper is a friend of Mary's family. Through their shenanigans Lloyd and Harry travel to many places on their way to Aspen to deliver the briefcase. I won't spoil any of them but rest assured you will laugh. The jokes are very fast paced and hit most of the time. My only real problem with the film is the main bad guy he's dull and not very interesting. The soundtrack is great. The song choices work with the film well. Overall I give it 4 stars out of 5 of you haven't seen it before then please check it out, if you have seen it see it again you know you want to.
  
As technology advances and virtual reality becomes a standard in gaming - the storyline of Eye of Minds becomes more possible. All you have to do is lay down, let these wires invade your body and the virtual becomes your reality. It simulates pain, hunger and all other aspects of daily life. You can play games similar to Call of Duty by running around and pulling the trigger yourself rather than mashing controller buttons. You can spend real world money to upgrade your games or yourself. Whether your virtual self actually resembles you or not is a matter of personal preference.

We meet Michael, Sarah, and Bryson in the VirtNet. They are best friends even though they have never met before in "the wake" or real life. The three get drafted by the VNS, VirtNet Security, to find a dangerous man called Kaine who has been destroying people' virtual and waking lives.

Their coding abilities and determination are put to the test in a series of trials. They don't make it out unscathed and their lives are changed forever. A must read if you're a fan of the author, books involving technology or action, or just YA novels in general. I definitely recommend it and can't wait to finish the series.
  
Shooting At The Moon by Kevin Ayers
Shooting At The Moon by Kevin Ayers
2015 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"This is from that same period. He's such an unusual artist. I could have chosen the first album but I'll choose Shooting At The Moon because I saw him play when I was in Coventry and it was just absolutely extraordinary. It was the group that had Herbie Flowers, David Bedford, Mike Oldfield... This was another John Peel thing. I heard 'Joy Of A Toy', 'The Lady Rachel', 'Stop This Train' with Robert Wyatt playing drums, and all that early Soft Machine stuff which he liked. It's beautiful, things like 'May I?', incredibly gentle, beautiful love songs. Sexy. That gentle and sexy thing has always been there in Wire. When you think of 'Blessed State', which is Bruce's song, absolutely beautiful. There's always that temptation to make it simple; Colin with his white hat and us with our black hats, that's the tension. It's not as if we haven't been accused of being obscure on occasion, or opaque. But usually it's the things that people think are opaque are the things that are straight reportage. People do it, you see it, you write it. Real life is stranger than fiction but it seems as if in popular song it's not - it makes real life really dull and not about love, negotiation, and mess, and passion."

Source
  
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Marc Riley recommended Fun House by The Stooges in Music (curated)

 
Fun House by The Stooges
Fun House by The Stooges
1970 | Punk, Rock
8.9 (9 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"The first Stooges album came and went, it was a band finding its feet, learning how to play, being part of a scene, being influenced by the MC5, and it's really amazing. But Fun House… just listen to the difference between the two records. You have to wonder what happened in between; was it mind-bending psychedelic drugs? That's what you'd think, isn't it? It's psychedelic, there's jazz in there, it's an unfathomable album and it's been very influential. It was produced by Don Gallucci from The Kingsmen, which seems like a really weird combination. They had real problems recording it, which is why there are so many different versions you can get of it. And nothing was working so they ended up stripping everything out of the studio and just doing it as a gig. So it's Iggy with a handheld mic and the band are just amped up and really going for it. And there are real punk songs on there like 'Down On The Street'. That is prototype punk: like the blueprint for punk. It's a benchmark album, and the fact that they produced it in 1970 is even more amazing. Imagine being a kid in 1970 when that landed… it didn't sound like anything else on Earth."

Source
  
Reef
Reef
2018 | Abstract Strategy, Nautical
Ahh ze coral reef. How beauteous is her expanse, and so nurturing for her oceanic inhabitants. We must endeavor to protect her and rebuild her as best we can to foster wildlife and entreat Mother Nature. We shall do this by selecting only the best coral combinations to satisfy the dying environment.

Reef is an abstract hand management, pattern building game that challenges the players to become coral reef architects and rebuild our fragile underwater ecosystem. This is a lofty goal, as our coral reefs in the real world are hurting for rejuvenation something fierce.

DISCLAIMER: I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rule book, 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 from the publisher directly or from your FLGS. -T

Setup is easy: shuffle the player mats and deal one to each player. The player that received the one board containing the starfish will be the starting player. Deal the players one of each colored coral piece, two cards from the deck, and 3 VP tokens. Place your reef chunks in the middle of your board in any order and you are ready to play!

On your turn you can do one of two things: draw a card or play a card. There are three cards face up to form the offer row, or a player can pay a VP token to the card with the lowest printed VP total to take the face up card on top of the draw pile (a la Small World). When you play a card, you immediately take the coral pieces on the card and place them on your play mat. The pieces can be stacked on other pieces of the same or different color, or on a blank spot on the mat. Once done, you check the card you played for any scoring conditions you may have met from your play mat. I will not go into detail about scoring, but there are several types of scoring that are employed in a game of Reef. The game continues in this manner until all of one color of coral pieces are used up. Players finish the round and then count their VP tokens. The winner is the player with the most VPs.

Components. The box is, what, normal sized? And the art on it is wonderful. So colorful and instantly recognizable. In fact, the art on the game in its entirety is truly amazing. I love it! The cards are of fine quality, but since they are handled a bit I sleeved mine. The VP tokens are of good quality, and I like that the pieces aren’t just perfect circles. It’s not a huge deal, but it helps with immersion just that much more. Same for the player mats. They could have been just as effective with square mats, but just that bit of wave makes it more enjoyable to play on for me. The big chunky coral pieces are so fun to play with, and handle, and, honestly, drop. They are very satisfying and great for those with colorblindness since they are all different shapes for the different colors they represent. All in all, Next Move Games knocks it out of the park on components AGAIN!

As you can tell by our score, we really like this game a lot. The first time I played it, my father-in-law used an interesting strategy and won the game. The next time I played it, I tried to use that same strategy and came in 3rd place. So, I chalked that win up to luck of the (card) draw and am now seeking more varied strategies to become the King of Reef. This is perhaps what also keeps the game from being a Golden Feather Award winner – I can play my game strategy and you can play yours, but that’s it. There is no real player interaction. As one Duke of Dice Alex would sing it, Reef is actually just “multiplayer solitaire.” While that is completely appropriate and non-offensive, I believe that with some more player interaction I would be more apt to bump this one to a 6. That said, we at Purple Phoenix Games give Reef a well-deserved bubbly score of 15 / 18. Emerson has himself another hit and I am proud to have it in my collection. You should grab it too, maybe.
  
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Erika (17788 KP) rated Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes in Apps

May 11, 2019 (Updated May 11, 2019)  
Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes
Star Wars™: Galaxy of Heroes
Games
8
8.2 (9 Ratings)
App Rating
One of my friends had been trying to convince me for a year to start playing this mobile game. So, luckily, when I started playing, he gave me a ton of tips to level up faster.
There is a huge variety of characters, and I like that you get to choose, for the most part, which ones you want, rather than it being a random draw like some other mobile fighting games. The key is definitely trying to get Phoenix Squad AKA all of the characters from Star Wars: Rebels.

To be honest, it's a great game to play at work, since there is an option for auto-battles. It definitely fills the time.

Side note: I never, ever pay for any boosts/packs, etc with real money. I'm sure it's a hindrance, but I don't plan on being number 1.
  
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Andy Bell recommended Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes in Music (curated)

 
Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes
Violent Femmes by Violent Femmes
1983 | Alternative, Rock, Punk
8.0 (2 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"A real teenage classic, very American rock album. I don’t know much about the band but I loved ‘Blister in the Sun’ and ended up getting the album taped off someone. I was into this at the same time as the Cure stuff and I just used to play it all the time. If I ever hear a song from this album randomly, I can just start joining in with all the lyrics; it’s imprinted on my brain. I remember thinking that a song like ‘Add It Up’ was really sophisticated and kind of had a whole story to it, which definitely influenced my own songwriting. It’s full of great songs, and there’s an incredible song at the end of the album ‘Good Feeling’ that is kind of like a great ballad Lou Reed never wrote."

Source
  
The Night House (2020)
The Night House (2020)
2020 | Horror, Thriller
5
6.5 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating
Rebecca Hall (0 more)
Slightly disappointing plot (1 more)
Weak ending
OK Chiller Thriller
Been wanting to see this for a while as it didn't get a long cinema run, currently on Disney+. From the trailer it looked intriguing, a smart Thriller different from the norm. I really thought the House would play a bigger role in the plot, some things are hinted at without a great deal of explanation. It starts well and one scene will send a chill down the spine and hairs stand up. Later though the plot starts to unravel in a more trusted way. Probably more in common with the likes of What lies beneath for an idea of the type of film it is.
An OK Chiller, Thriller that had real potential to be something more ground breaking runs out of steam before the end.