Hot Heart

Hrmph. I'm not fond of that version of "I Started A Joke".

You get to do it all twice.

Some gameplay from Nerd HQ at Comic Con (set as a link rather than embed because it has a specific timestamp).

I decided to have some pretty long sessions to work through the story some more. So, with the Arkham Knight's identity... Other than those bits, though, I've still really been enjoying it and it's as impeccably paced as ever. I'm just dreading trying to do all these Azrael challenges, if I have to win without being hit. I've never mastered blade dodge takedowns...

A longer Man from UNCLE trailer. I enjoyed his Sherlock films, and I'm a fan of spy stuff so I'm onboard even if nothing particularly grabs me there.

Yeah, I saw that. I dig some of it. My interest is piqued.

I think she's used okay in DoFP, but they definitely amped up her role as the one whose "soul" needs saving in this love triangle between Charles, Erik and her.

I was waiting for the "full" cut before purchasing. The film still has a heap of problems, but I liked it overall. Definitely felt nearly all the future stuff was pandering, so hopefully that means it's got a bit more substance.

Games night! Since it was a Friday and none of us had to be anywhere the next day, we decided to attempt Firefly in an evening. We went for the Desperadoes story card which involves getting the most money, with a player being able to call when they get over $15k; Illegal jobs pay an extra $1k and you start with a warrant. Same old deal with randomly dealt leaders and ships; I got Murphy in Serenity, and a couple of others got regular Fireflies too, while someone got the Artful Dodger (usually wins) and the final got the sloooow SS Walden. Because it hardly sees any action, I decided to start in the Blue Sun expansion area on Meridian and figured I might check out some Harrow jobs. The stuff there is expensive, but I think it's all great value. The game got going and we were quickly passing around doing our shopping and making work before setting off anywhere. I spent a little longer because I couldn't get an elusive third tech skill point (I remember Harrow jobs have higher requirements for starting them) but I snagged a fair few decent bits of gear and a solid crew, barring the aforementioned lack of tech. There's this cool guy on Meridian who you can discard as a Buy action to get a ship upgrade or drive core from any discard pile for half price; turns out I'd already revealed this great engine that increased my range and gave me a 50% chance of evading Reavers or Alliance before they got me. Score! Anyway, everyone else had got going, completing jobs and raking in $2-3k a job while I was still getting set up. I was worried, but then I finally got a person I needed (I had two great crew options turn up at the same time and had a tough choice between them) and got work underway. First was to pick up a whole mess of contraband and lug it across the length of the 'verse. I doubled up with these jobs so I was running with 7 right away. I got to the first drop-off point okay (after my engine saved me from a massive upset by the Alliance Cruiser) but messed up the delivery, earning an extra warrant but getting to keep the contraband (silver lining!) I carried onto the next drop-off, no problem and netted a tidy $3.7k before heading to Persephone, with that dreaded Cruiser nearby once again. Bought a few bits to enable me to do a job for Badger, and started another Harrow pick-up. This time, I was flying about with 3 leftover contraband, and another 7 from these two new jobs. Scared, I skirted round Alliance Space as much as possible to reach a nearby hospital heist ("as seen on TV!"), completing that for Badger and getting nearly $4k. The game had actually been going on a while at this point, and one guy was starting to get a little annoyed so we were trying to speed it up. So... at this point, I was weighing up my options. Since I'd completed a Badger job, I could now sell him contraband at $700 apiece, plus both my leader and middleman abilities meant an extra $200 per one sold. If I just ditched the two smuggling jobs and sold their goods, that would net me a cool $9k, putting me at around $14.7k; just short of the goal, but around $6k ahead of the nearest rival. Option 1. Head over to Patience, grab a crime job in the discard pile that starts nearby and hope I can knock that out in a couple of turns, not even pay the crew and then race to Badger to sell all the contraband Option 2. Race to Badger now and get rid of the contraband asap, then look for a new Badger job in the deck. The main risk was getting caught by the cruiser, while trying to get to Badger; that would've put me out of the running completely. Sensing I needed to ditch it asap, I skirted Alliance Space as much as I could to get back to him, dreading the flip of each of the three nav cards I had to draw in "blue" space. Turns out, things worked in my favour and I encountered a shrewd trader (or barterer, I forget) along the way who was selling contraband at $400 a pop. I only had space for one more, but took it, made it to Badger and sold the lot for $9.9k, putting me over the threshold. Woohoo! I also had hired a guy who gave me $500 whenever I took a goal token (which I could do by calling an end). The others were stunned and all checked to see if they could earn more than $7k in two turns (one after that, and one after I had a free action to call) but gave up. Victory! And all it took was selling Badger his own contraband and Harrow's! Then we had a go at DC Comics Deck-Building Game (catchy title) After playing Legendary, clearly my friend got a hankering for superhero deckbuilding and grabbed this while browsing our FLGS. It's actually pretty decent. It's a very different beast to Legendary, and is entirely competitive, with a focus in different areas. It seems like there's a lot more scope for pure deckbuilding (not so much with five players), but at the same time, it doesn't have a particularly strong identity. You have cards that give you 'power' which enable you to buy/beat one of the five cards in the line-up, adding beaten villains, heroes, superpowers, equipment, locations (ongoings), to your deck. Pretty much every card besides your starter one has victory point values, and it's about searching for combos or ones that benefit your particular hero character. Basic stuff like villains offering extra power, or attacks on other players while heroes and equipment can retrieve other cards or enable extra draws. Each player will be a unique hero, so Superman benefits from playing various superpowers in a turn; Batman the same but with equipment, but there's nothing to stop Superman buying a Batmobile, a Bat Signal or his own Wonder Woman and Arkham Asylum (yeah...) So, yeah, it plays okay and supports five people fairly well, but it doesn't have a special spark you might hope for.

I always liked Jin's themes the best. Couldn't decide which one out of the two was my favourite though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1WBdLUsjPw Probably this version, but I don't recall the intro going on that (too) long.

I really liked them in Asylum and City because they weren't too numerous and every single one had some sort of unique method of solving them, but the fact they're still repeating basic stuff like "stand on the thing and throw three batarangs simultaneously" is a touch dumb. I do enjoy them though. And the people saying the control towers stuff is like FarCry seem to be ignoring how much fun it is to "solve" them.

Light Beyond Nemesis can be good for Prison of Elders if you haven't got much else. I'm in the same boat, but trying to get Celestial Nighthawk. Got three Rams and all sorts of Titan helmets across three weeks, with just one unrequired Hunter helm, despite decrypting as my Hunter. EDIT: Score! Just got it.

Hadn't bought a new boardgame in a while (though I'll soon have 3 kickstarted ones on the way...)

How to draw Pikachu

I believe he means Zero Dark Thirty.

The other thing with that bit in Jurassic World is...

I'm actually pretty pleased with my Hunter and Warlock appearances for general stuff. It's just that the PoE gear has some real fugly pieces, but you'd really want them to face the harder challenges. I tend to forego the gloves because I don't necessarily need 'increased reload speed' with special weapons when I could have it for different primary weapons (scout rifle and hand cannon these days) so I ascend those instead. Right now, I'm gearing up to face the 35 PoE. This week, I guess if I can get my vs. Fallen buff stuff up, it should see me through.

It sounds like the release might be slipping a little later, but I'd rather they take the time to get it right rather than rush it. They are adding a bunch of cool stuff, it sounds like. Should get more details after SDCC too. In the meantime, a little more on: Crew loyalty & combat skills Crew talents

We talking the jump up and smackdown move? Swear I was doing that yesterday and it's :PSX: or B, A, A

Vroom boom

Couldn't comment on Downton, but he's really good in this.

The Guest I'd heard good things, and it's certainly the sort of film where you don't want to know too much going in. Anyway, it's a great thriller with a dark sense of humour and anchored by a charismatic performance from Dan Stevens. Makes sense that he beat off all those American men to get the part.

I'm okay with the batmobile stuff... so far. I've only been playing in short stretches (which I think suits it better) so everything's varied. Though, I think some of the "defend the bomb" stuff gets a little tedious when you're shooting 20+ tanks in a go and I am worried about this stealth stuff mentioned later on. I do like how it's implemented in the story moments though (Surprise! Remote control!), and you feel like a badass just driving it around.