Hot Heart

Mad Max: Fury Road Yes, yes, yeeeees. The hype is right. This is the best Mad Max film and totally feels like the one Miller always wanted to make. It's definitely got the same approach as 2 & 3, but without the need for the "origin story" of 1. It's got superb visuals, a heavy dose of great, crunchy, meaty action throughout (the pace almost never lets up) and still places value in developing its characters, building its world and establishing Max's "mythical" quality. Theron is brilliant (always has been) and the rest of the cast does a good job. It's actually got a neat array of characters thrown together with their own motivations and tensions. If anything, Hardy's actually the weakest part. Not that he's bad at all, just that everytime he speaks there's something "off" like he's bothering with the accent only half the time. Also, you see him like this And, from then onwards, my brain can't help hearing this.

Yeah, I'm not sure I use a single TDB exotic weapon besides 4th Horseman (and even that's more as a joke or when you absolutely positively want to fuck someone up with arc damage... like the new Fallen bounties)

Plus, those are going free to everyone when HoW hits anyway. I really like Cauldron, mainly because I do well on that one. Oh, dang. I totally forgot that Ruin Wings and Obsidian Mind are TDB! IF YOU ARE A TITAN OR WARLOCK YOU WANT THE DARK BELOW. (Are the only other two those crappy dance boots and that useless spider helmet?)

As Strangelove said, it really depends. If you're a fan of Halo and really dig Bungie's finely-honed shooter mechanics, it's enjoyable enough but to get the most out of it really requires a long-term commitment. That you've got a friend to play with regularly bodes well, but you'd be best with a third person for the endgame stuff. As a straight-up campaign shooter it's passable. The "fun" really comes in when you start taking on the tougher challenges and begin to experiment and optimise character/team builds. I enjoy trying out different setups, weapon combos, etc. to perfect a playstyle, and it can be fun to take a high/max-level character and just wreck low-level enemies, but you will be doing a lot of the same stuff over and over. Having both pieces of DLC will alleviate that somewhat, I imagine, but it won't eliminate it. And if you do decide to buy the game, I'd probably skip The Dark Below and go for House of Wolves at this point. Sure, you're missing out on some great weapons from the Raid (and the free one they give you), but other than that there's a couple of okay extra Strikes and some Story missions that don't really do much. The Crota's End raid itself can be enjoyable at first but now no one really plays it "properly" and I am absolutely fucking sick of doing the last bit on hard difficulty. Especially because it's hard to find a decent six-man team without so many little things that can completely fuck up your run anyway, plus it doesn't help that there's only one thing I'd even want from completion and then that's dictated by RNGesus. With the new update on Tuesday, all the weapon and gear changes will mean you'll be able to catch up to Dark Below levels without the expansion and you'll have a more replayable Prison of Elders activity rather than Crota's End. Also, I'm more fond of the Fallen aesthetic than the Hive one. I, uh... hope that helps.

Yeah, all my regular Destiny-playing friends are picking it up despite never having played one before or knowing much about it. I've been sure to educate them though.

GET HYPE

Finally fought some actual dragons in our Descent campaign. Some shadow dragons! Had to take a picture of them in all their majesty before we wiped out those fuckers in no time at all.

Nip out for a cheeky bit of nosh

"The Archbishop of Banterbury" sits in that weird place between my love of puns and my utter hatred of the word "banter"

Cor blimey, guvna! After them blighters!

Never played an MGS since the first and I don't give a fuuuuuck *urrrp*

Yeah, my friend bought that ages ago. I think we've only played it a few times though. First game, we used the "family" rules (I think that's what it was called) which was, basically, easy mode. There was still a bit of tension a few times but we beat it, no problem. After that, we've played "regular" difficulty (or whatever it's called) which really turns up the heat (LOL!). Involves hazmats, flare-ups and some such. Essentially, you are fucked from the word go as everything just lights up and things explode before you've even entered the building. We've lost both times and it just feels crushingly difficult. Seems as if you need a perfect blend of roles to even stand a chance. I definitely enjoyed it more as a "relaxing" game of heroism than a punishing lesson in triage (both with rescuing, and "treating" fires).

Played a few games last night. Firstly, took Port Royal for a spin. Neat little game that does a fair amount with nothing more than a deck of 120 cards. The theme is that you're an entrepreneur at Port Royal, looking to find fame and fortune. This is done by filling up your own personal display of cards worth victory points, which can be done in a variety of ways. Twelve points triggers the end, and everyone gets an equal amount of turns as the active player. A turn is simple, you reveal cards from the top of the deck until you wish to stop or you are forced to forfeit by revealing two ships of the same colour (there are five different colours, ten of each ship). If you didn't forfeit, this creates a harbour display from which you may trade with ships or hire people. Trading with a ship puts it into the discard pile and gives you the coins shown, whereas hiring people involves paying the hiring cost, but then gives you their ongoing ability. After you have taken a card, it then proceeds clockwise as other players get a chance to trade or hire; however, since it is still your turn, one coin must go to you if they take a card. it is permissable for another player to do something like trade with the green ship pictured above, taking three of the four coins themselves and giving you one. The characters you hire along the way will help you form strategies and approaches in the way they work during your turn and others. Drawing lots of cards can be risky, since there's an increased chance you'll forfeit by drawing two ships of the same colour, but if you manage to get four different colours into the display, you can then take two cards instead of one. Get all five different colours and you can take three cards. In addition to that, you can hire sailors and pirates with sword icons, which can repel the ships (in the image above the black ship only requires two swords present in your display, the green requires five) giving you a little more control over the draw. There are other characters which give you extra money if you (or someone else) gets enough cards into the display, one that rewards you whenever someone forfeits, and others you can send on expeditions if you collect the required set. There's also the occasional "tax card" which essentially punishes players for stockpiling too much money by halving anything over 12 (rounded down) and resolves as soon as it's drawn. And further complicating things is the fact that the card backs double as money, so you'll constantly be adjusting the dynamic of the deck whenever you take money or even spend it. So it's a mxiture of engine-building, set-collecting and press-your-luck. A lot of stuff with one deck of cards. Anyway, I enjoyed it, but it can drag with new players (or the maximum number of five), especially if they keep 'busting' instead of sticking. One player managed to get to 12 but right on the last turn someone just managed to eke out a tie-breaker victory with a card purchase and having more money. Scores overall were pretty close, and it came down to a few desperate card searches. Cool stuff. Then onto Machi Koro with the Harbour expansion. Not a particularly big fan of this game anyway, but at least this diversifies approaches and prevents the "cheesecake factory" issue. However, it really randomises the setup so makes it tricky to actually form a coherent strategy. I tried a single die, big attack approach but it's not enough to prevent whatever fishing boats were doing for one player and it didn't help when others mistakenly bought two copies of a building I wanted which were completely useless to them. And after the couple of friends who share a flat left, we had a go at three-player Homeland. This was a completely new game to these guys, but they picked it up pretty quickly. The setup involves two loyal agents, one political opportunist and one terrorist mole, with one going back in the box without looking at it as usual, so there's always that question of what isn't in the game. Things progressed fairly comfortably for a while and we were neutralizing all the threats, so it looked like we had a game of two loyal agents and, most likely, a political opportunist. I was a loyal agent, so my job would be beating the other two on points and hopefully convincing them that I was a terrorist so they make a false accusation if possible. It got to about round four and a big row of threats was up, when things started going a little wrong... and it definitely wasn't me screwing up other people's stuff. I'd been playing it fairly straight (and to be honest, I'd gotten fairly lucky with cases I'd claimed, plus others were really helping mine) but keeping my rep/clout tokens lean by purchasing a lot of assets instead. Assets are good because they're worth points and offer certain personal or global abilities, but they also mean that you aren't recruiting agents/soldiers to help in other areas, plus you are spending all those potential rep/clout points that a good guy would want. This can arouse suspicion in others. Which I wanted. I was quite fortunate in what I drew, managing to find someone who lets me get people from the discard pile, and another who let me purchase assets for one fewer token. I managed to get Brody but then kept Jessica "deactivated" (face-down) when I found her. It meant I couldn't use her ability (not that it was worth it for me), but there is a Mike > Jessica > Brody chain of asset-stealing which that prevented, and someone already had Mike. A few successful terrorist plots gifted me a couple more soldiers (thanks to an asset), which I then used to drone strike someone else's case (removes it completely, doesn't resolve good or bad) which I'd suspected was going south or would at least help them more than I wanted. The agency track was nearly full, and one player was concerned that I'd win outright on assets... unless I were a terrorist. That player winds up exposed (reveal all your intel cards, and any assets are instantly "activated") and puts a gold "threat neutralised" card under one of my upcoming cases. I should have it in the bag next round... Another case goes wrong (not mine or my doing) and then we get to mine which we beat, ending the game and putting us into the accusation phase. Ooh, fun! You get a case lead card for every player, including yourself, and then play one face-down for who you want to accuse. Play your own and you opt out of accusing anyone. Correct accusation = +6VP, Incorrect = -3VP. This is where all sorts of interesting dynamics come in, particularly with so few people. The terrorist track was over half full, which meant any of us as a terrorist, with all our assets would win as long as no one accused us. So, play it too safe as a breed of "good guy" and you could still lose. However, when things are so close, a wrong accusation can cost you the victory too. I'm suspicious of the guy with a lot of political clout and a fair few assets, both others are suspicious of me (but one far less so than the other). We revealed our accusations: I opted out, playing my own card. The other person I'd suspected of being a loyal agent did the same. The third player, who I'd had my suspicions about, accused me. Ahahaha. Yes! We all reveal our loyalties. I'm the loyal agent, the other guy is too, and the final player is a political opportunist! Final scores. Me 25, Political Opportunist 21, Loyal Agent #2 19 I'd almost accused the political opportunist of being a terrorist (partly because I thought he was "forgetting" what a terrorist needs to win by keep asking), but he had so much clout that I felt safe enough he wasn't. If, however, I'd accused him and he'd played it safe, he would've won. In addition to that, it turns out the case of his that I'd drone-striked would've resolved badly and probably given him enough to win even with a wrong accusation. And if the other player had rescinded his automatic win card on my case, things could've turned out drastically different. And if a terrorist had been in the mix, provided they weren't me, they could've played exactly the same and won. Very cool game and such a smart balance of elements in its design. Definitely my favourite of all the social deduction games. It can be a little more chaotic with more players (and obviously an increased playtime) but I think it sits comfortably in that mid-weight experience, plus it's something you'd need to play a few times anyway.

Everything? They need to hurry up and cast Yvonne Strahovski as Ms. Marvel already. Then I can die happy. Just kidding. I'm never happy.

Urgh, I bet you're one o' them "feminists" Get yourself checked for cooties, bro.

This is an eye-opening and, once you get far down, quite frightening read: https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/shaun-lawson/polls-and-all-but-one-of-forecasts-were-wrong-ed-miliband-was-nowhere-near-b

No, no, no! Cyclops isn't supposed to be boring or a dick (at least not back then). It's just one of the things the Singer films fucked up.

^^ Reported.

There is a rumour that Joss Whedon has been approached for a Star Wars, because it seems everyone is (I can just imagine some execs sending out emails "Wanna do a Star Wars?"). While that sounds plausible, it sounded more like he wanted to step away from big studio pictures and focus on writing his own thing again.

I was in a Marvel-y mood for some reason or other. It's a big buy on its own, but worked out much cheaper than getting everything separate at RRP. Guy says it's in pristine condition; which looks and sounds legit since he seemed to take care of it and even made up a bunch of dividers (a nice little extra too)

Yeah, the Russo's did an amazing job on Winter Soldier. Weird to think that these were guys doing Arrested Development and Community beforehand. Speaking of Community, everyone spots the Abed "cameo" in Winter Soldier, but having listened to the commentary, there's also that debate opponent playing the SHIELD guy who Sharon defends from Rumlow. Plus, he reappears in AoU as the "Number six is topped and stopped, uh, stopped, topped...it's full of people" guy.

Hey, it wouldn't be fair. They've just had a new arrival. Maybe next time...

Walt Disney presents: Game of Thrones

It's my current Destiny BGM.

The games already had an option to turn off fills, which does exactly what you wanted; so I hope that remains. It keeps the section to play along to but it doesn't matter if you mess up. That's how I always played it, so this still sounds pretty good. As for the starting a song thing, I could see it working as just showing a constant row of green notes (because obviously a drummer's still got to count you in in time) but you can play around until you hit 4 consecutive greens (or whatever works for that song's time signature)