Hot Heart

I finished the first series of Hap & Leonard, which first had me intrigued because of its setting and cast. It's really good and definitely feels like a book, in the best possible way. It starts off fairly breezy before escalating into something quite tense and violent. It has interesting characters and a strong central relationship between the two of them.

I think it's being done facetiously.

This album is now 30 years old. Yikes.

Update on some board game purchases. Dominare Kind of hard to track down but totally worth it game based in the "Tempest universe" (most people will know Love Letter). Highly thematic game of trying to seize ultimate control of the city itself. An area control/influence game where you recruit and add agents to your operation who then allow influence over particular areas of the city as well as possible extra abilities for... well, fucking with the other players usually. It's very tight, tense and aggressive, and there are so many cool touches and little options for how you go about winning that it's worth bearing in mind that a) your first game will probably take quite a while and b) you won't fully grasp everything on the first go. In fact, it was pretty hilarious to watch the guy who had been making bold moves with a super powerful agent to take control of a couple of areas find that the areas wound up not worth that much and the exposure it gave him, lost him a ridiculous amount of points, putting him into last place, if i recall. Very meaty and thinky game but very satisfying. I was going over all the gameplay possibilities for days after, which is usually a good sign. Also, I was reminded how much I enjoy 7 Wonders and seeing as I last bought an expansion in (I think) 2014, I decided it was time to grab the others: Leaders & Babel (as well as the Wonders Pack with a few extra player boards). I think they'll shake things up and get people exploring some different approaches, so I can't wait to try them.

I haven't seen Prometheus or Covenant but this confirms that I really shouldn't.

I hadn't looked at it on this one but if it works the same as the original then it might switch up the "tools" (in solo, Lara has the special glowy staff whereas maybe another player gets it normally?) and slightly alter some of the puzzles so you need to alternate pressure switches, set up zip-line tight ropes for each other, etc. The combat can get a bit hectic but it's never truly challenging, especially if you hunt out some of the health and ammo upgrades, and the boss fights are more about puzzling them out than dexterity. It's also got an incredibly generous checkpoint system so there should be minimal frustration. However, that said, there are some puzzle areas that can prove tricky because of the reliance on reflexes or good timing. Then again, that was mostly in the optional Challenge Tombs and it's probably alleviated somewhat with the co-op aspect. Also, the way it's designed, the actual challenge is the optional things it sets for each tomb like finding all the little secrets, beating a time limit, etc. Give it a try.

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris One of those games I'd started a long while back but then never finished. Decided to get it out of the way over the weekend. I really liked the first one and this seems just as good, although I was playing solo here whereas the puzzles tend to change with multiple players. It has some smart and atmospheric levels with some cool chase sequences and boss fights.

A couple of films that I got really cheap on Blu-Ray, and I guess I can see why... 14 Blades A Donnie Yen film set in olden Ming dynasty days about a special sort of "secret police" (Jinyiwei), but without the negative connotations as such. The title comes from a box full of blades with all sorts of mechanical shenanigans, so he can shoot them at people and stuff. He can also grapple like a crappy version of Batman. Anyway, the story is decent enough, as Yen's character is involved in a secret rebellion plot and betrayed by someone in his ranks. He goes on the run but won't rest until he fulfills his duty to the Emperor. Therefore, you get him working to unravel and disrupt the plot while getting into some fights along the way. It all sounds pretty good, except the actual editing of the film is so poor that you might be confused for the first ten minutes and the the fight scenes are equally a bit of a mess. There are moments where you'll suddenly zoom into the box of blades just to watch some poor CG renderings of cogs turning. Overall, it's an alright watch but disappointing in some aspects. The Emperor and the White Snake First of all, the title is dumb and misleading. Why they changed it from the original "The Sorceror and the White Snake", I don't know. Even that's not entirely accurate but at least it cues you into the magical nature of it. Anyway, I sort of knew what to expect going in. It's based on a Chinese legend about a snake demon who falls in love with a human. She can take human form, obviously. Problem is, it goes against "the laws of nature" and there is a highly capable group of monks, led by Jet Li, who hunt and imprison or destroy demons. It starts off as an almost lighthearted romantic comedy, where it shines, albeit with some ridiculously bad CGI and eventually turns into a romantic tragedy, action fest with ridiculously bad CGI. There are some neat moments in the action and I kinda dug the whole mystical thing, but it's got so much dumb stuff in there.

Well, this looks fun.

The final one was done March this year. Which reminds me that I need to pick these up again. I keep starting and restarting.

I think the Forza games are the only things that make me wish I had an Xbone.

Like when he was going on about his inauguration crowds in front of the CIA memorial wall. Jesus, there is so much stupid shit he has done already. Funnily enough, it actually hit me today when I saw a car in London with an "FBI" licence plate (probably not actually the FBI, although, it looked pretty official and was near the US Embassy...) how utterly absurd it is that the US gave such a fucking idiot any degree of responsibility.

So, having watched all of the reveal/presentation/whatever, I like it. Nothing exactly has me in awe but then I'm not sure what would. Clearly, Bungie listen to feedback and they always want to please people as best they can so there are lots of positive changes. I think the big one for people will be the in-game clan/LFG "Guided Games" system where clans can essentially create lobbies where they're looking for people to join for certain raids/raid sections or whatever and solo players get a sort of matchmade list which they can browse. The new powers look cool but they feel like tweaks on old ones. I noticed the warlock has a rift option which can heal or "empower" so it's kind of like the options for a Titan bubble... without the protective bubble. I was hoping they'd go more "specialised" with the classes and really make them stand out from one another, which is probably the one thing that really would impress me, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I suppose you can't fault Bungie for prioritising the shootybangs. Latter Destiny strikes went for the "raid-lite" approach, which was nice (although the blind, raging ogre one was shite), and that seems to have carried through here. All crucible modes will be 4v4. I'm not sure how I feel about this. It is definitely better for some things, but I feel stuff like Control is better as a 6v6. The big negative for me though is how the story feels. It's essentially "back to square one" because it's the jumping on point for new players. Oh, look, a new threat invading threat we have to kill plus we're "rebuilding" and getting stronger. I dunno, it feels a bit wrong to complain about that sort of thing in an RPG-ish game, but I was interested in all this Rasputin business, the Vex business, the Golden Age secrets and going outside of the solar system not fighting to survive again.

Battle.net? Guess no one will be playing it day one then.

Found this, which I drew and painted way back in secondary school. It was the brother of the cat who recently died (he died back in 2004, I think) and I quickly sketched him while he slept on the end of my parents' bed one evening then used watercolour "accents" inspired by some guy who did some watercolour sketches of big cats while on safari in Africa. It's not great, but it's probably the best thing I ever did and I'm proud of it at least. And my parents liked it so they got it framed and now I'll find somewhere to hang it. As a kid, I had a dream of becoming a cartoonist but actual art classes at school were complete bullshit and put me off it forever. So much time deliberately aping other people's styles just sapped my motivation completely. I did start to do one of his sister that was meant to have a blue or green background, and I've still got the sketch in a book somewhere, but I doubt I'll ever finish it.

Noooo, I haven't even 100%ed the first one yet!

Been replaying Jade Empire, which I'd been meaning to do since probably ten years ago. It's also sort of inspiration/research for a board game I'm attempting to design. A sort of deck building game where you have different fighting styles that offer unique special moves (activated by combinations of the cards in your hand/deck) within an adventure game framework. Probably overreaching a little but I'm enthused about it and it's not like I'm rushing to meet a deadline. Also, someone should make a new Jade Empire-style game since The Witcher 3 shows you can make decent action combat combined with RPG elements.

Damn if this track doesn't get me going everytime

Ip Man A few people had said these were good and they star Donnie Yen. I had watched a different Ip Man film before and, compared to that, this seems far more "realistic" although I believe neither are actually truly biographical. As expected, it's got some good action - Yen pulls off the "calm" style very well - and a decent enough story. It's on Netflix (in the UK at least) if you want to catch it.

Yeah, I think I liked it more on repeat viewings whereas some don't hold up as well. However, while I do like it, I can't say I enjoy it more than the Avengers, Guardians or latter Cap films.

Been a while since I've done a ranking, I think. Let's see... 1. The Avengers 2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 3. Captain America: Civil War 4. Avengers: Age of Ultron 5. Guardians of the Galaxy 6. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 7. Iron Man 8. Thor: The Dark World 9. Doctor Strange 10. Thor 11. Iron Man 3 12. Captain America: The First Avenger 13. Ant-Man 14. Iron Man 2 Still (and probably will forever remain) unseen: The Incredible Hulk.