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The Resistance: Avalon
The Resistance: Avalon
2012 | Bluff, Card Game, Deduction, Fantasy, Medieval
Excellent gateway game (1 more)
Amazing for playing with large groups
Can be frustrating with certain player numbers, such as 5, 9 or 10. (0 more)
Great Bluffing Game!
Avalon is an enhancement to the Resistance,l (which in turn is a revision of Mafia/Werewolf) as it includes special player roles. This card game requires players to select a card each, which tells them if they are a good character (loyal servant of King Arthur) or a bad character (minion of Mordred), which defines how they play the game. As a good guy, you must try and succeed 3 of 5 missions, whilst the bad guys will try to make the missions fail. No one knows who the other good guys are, except for the player who receives the Merlin card. Merlin knows who the good guys are, and will therefore try to persuade the group towards ensuring only the good guys go on missions. However, there is a special role for the bad guys too. If the bad guys lose, the player who is the Assassin has a last chance to claim victory for the bad guys, if the Assassin can guess who Merlin is. Therefore, Merlin has to be subtle, otherwise the bad guys will win.

This is essentially a bluffing game where you just convince others that you are good and, inevitably, accuse others of being bad. This game, for the right group, is hours of fun! You need a ln engaged group of people who are willing to chat and be enthusiastic about engaging with this; the game and fun C Mrs from this interaction, and layer dissecting who was good and bad and how they fooled or misled everyone. I thoroughly recommend this game for gateway gamers i.e. those making the transition from everyday well known games such as Monopoly, to more designer games that have flourished over the past 20 years or so.

This game, whilst great, falters at lower or highest playcounts. At the lower end, it is very difficult to play as a bad guy, unless you use other roles included in the game. At the higher gamecount, things get very confusing and overly exhausting. However, this is an exceptional game and is likely only bettered as a bluffing game by the soon to be released Blood on the Clocktower.

I have played this hundreds of time, with the same group of people. Whilst I am now fatigued by the game, given this game only costs around £15, it is a solid investment for so many hours of fun.
  
3 Days To Kill (2014)
3 Days To Kill (2014)
2014 | Mystery
Contains spoilers, click to show
Story: 3 Days to Kill starts as we meet CIA agent Ethan Renner (Costner) who along with his team is about to take down one of the biggest threats in the world The Wolf (Sammel) by eliminating his closest associate The Albino (Lemarquis) only the mission gets compromised when Ethan’s health catches up with him as he learns he only has 3 months to live.

Released by the CIA Ethan sets out on cleaning up his own personal affairs wanting to build a relationship with daughter Zooey (Steinfeld) through his ex-wife Christine (Nielsen) after years of times apart working. With everything going badly Ethan knows that it will become difficult but when fellow agent Vivi Delay (Heard) offers him a chance to live longer Ethan comes out of retirement for one last assignment.

 

Thoughts on 3 Days to Kill

 

Story – The story for this film tries to balance a dying man’s final months with his family and his CIA life that he has meant to have walked away from. The CIA story does feel very generic of this modern day slick hitman style which is all fine. The dying man’s wish story ends up feeling like an awkward comedy in places. The story also feels very long and doesn’t seem to end up deciding if it wants to be serious or not.

Action/Thriller – The action is all very good and entertaining with the opening sequence looking like it set the tone but in the end if just turns into another slick hitman film.

Characters/Performance – I can’t find anything wrong with Costner’s performance as well as Steinfeld or Neilsen, it is the Heard performance that doesn’t make sense because she doesn’t suit the character and the character doesn’t suit the movie. The movie tries to make all the characters fit into everyday experiences but for some reason Vivi character is wildly over the top for no apparent reason.

Settings – The settings are mostly all in Paris which all works for the film which is trying to make us have a location we want to visit but showing that crime can happen there I guess.

Special Effects – The Special effects are mostly used for the action sequences and they all come off to the level you need them too.

Final Thoughts –This is an overlong action thriller that ends up getting caught up in the middle of comedy too often for its own good.

 

 

Overall: Solid action film that starts too strong for its own benefits.
  
A Monster Calls (2016)
A Monster Calls (2016)
2016 | Drama, Fantasy
Story – The story here is clear for everyone watching, this is one family a son, mother, grandmother and dad dealing with the impending death of a loved one. We get to see how Conor the son deals with everything in his own way that means he doesn’t get punished for anything, we get to see how the mother must stay strong for her son until the very end and how the grandmother must deal with the upcoming death of her daughter while being the only one there for grandson. This will make you cry it is as simple as that because his is one of the hardest hitting emotional punches you will ever receive.

Fantasy – We are thrown into a fantasy world that Conor creates to help him deal with the tragic events that are happening within his life, we are left to decide for ourselves which side of the story is real or not with the fantasy element too.

Characters/Performance – Conor is a character that we could see in so many situations when a parent is terminally ill, he struggles to find his place when he knows his future but can’t face it. When we look at the adults we get to see the struggling mother with her health, the father who isn’t around and the grandmother who doesn’t really know how to act because she will be losing her daughter but needing to be strong for her grandson. The tree monster is a great character in its own right, even if it is created to help Conor deal with the problems in his life.

When you look at the performance youngest Lewis MacDougall is brilliant in this role going through the full range of emotions while the bigger name actors let him take the centre stage.

Settings – The settings used make us feel like this is just a normal family that has had to deal with its ups and downs but now it will be taking on the biggest down. We don’t get any iconic settings but we get everything we need to feel the pain the characters go through.

Special Effects – The special effects here are brilliant making us fully believe there is in fact a monster with Conor helping him through this difficult time.

Final Thoughts – This is easily one of the most heart-breaking films of the year but shows just how difficult the situation would be for a young boy.

 

Overall: Bring your tissues to this film that will leave you emotional exhausted by the end.

https://moviesreview101.com/2017/01/26/a-monster-calls-2016/
  
    Unpossible

    Unpossible

    Games

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    Unpossible will test your skills, your reflexes, and even your memory. It will make you smile. It...

Jamaica: The Crew
Jamaica: The Crew
2017 | Nautical, Pirates, Racing
In the expansion review series, we take a look at a game expansion to discuss whether it is a necessary purchase/addition to one’s collection.

This breakdown is for the expansion for the popular pirate game Jamaica called The Crew. It is sold in a box in similar size to Jamaica’s main box, just a bit thinner.


This expansion will add a bevvy of new pirate characters to the game that can be recruited once a player pays the full amount at a port town (if you are unaware of the Jamaica base rules, read our review here). The red bottle of rum token in The Crew’s box acts as the main recruitment pawn by allowing any pirate adjacent to it to be recruited. The bottle may also be moved by paying one gold doubloon per space moved. Once recruited the pirate will command a space on one of the recruiting player’s ship’s hold and be treated like any other resource. Each recruited crewperson, however, will also furnish the player with special abilities and bonus points at the end of the game (more bonus points for crossing the finish line, less otherwise).
Should all owners of Jamaica run out and also grab The Crew in order to enjoy Jamaica? Maybe. Jamaica may evolve into a game that can become “samey” with many plays. Adding The Crew will inject a whole new aspect of play and various levels of new strategies to be applied. Having another resource to manage during the game may become more stressful, but those same resources, this time in the form of crewpersons, provide bonuses that range from helpful to immediate victory after special conditions are met.

Official recommendation: I love the base game of Jamaica. I never really thought I would NEED an expansion for it. In fact, I only picked this up because it was on sale and I saw many players enjoyed it. When I added it to my game my eyes were opened, and Jamaica became a new beast altogether for us. I say that if your games of Jamaica are becoming less and less enjoyable, then you should definitely grab a copy of The Crew. My only gripe is the box art. Why is it a book now instead of continuing with the treasure chest theme? It’s brown and has the Jamaica logo on it, but that’s where the similarities end. I wish they looked better together, that’s all I am saying.
  
BW
Black Wings
Megan Hart | 2019
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Hooked like I didnt think I would be!

I first need to thank the author and publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

"Briella Blake has always been wicked smart. When she's invited to attend a special school for gifted students, she finally has the chance to focus on a project that begins to consume her - the ability to recreate and save copies of a person's entire set of memories. Her friendship with a raven that's as smart as she is leads to conflict with her mother Marian, who is no longer able to deny that there's something wrong with her child."

This is a real page turner!
I do not want to give too much away so I am really unable to elaborate; but this is a wonderful book.
Well-constructed and written book, touched on subjects of motherhood that are often called taboo or women are made to feel they can’t talk about or feel.
When I first started reading the book
I had my suspicions about Briella - I tried to like her but I really couldn't. She just had something about her and I turned every page thinking to myself how creepy she made me feel and wondering who she would kill first.
This is a real page turner, made all the more unsettling by the presence of the enigmatic creepy Briella. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes suspenseful thrillers and would also suggest fans of horror give this one a go as well. I feel like this could make a good creepy film if done right!