Hot Heart

'Simpsonized' Game of Thrones (plus some GoT vs. Star Wars)

Yeah, and the only reason it went so 'quickly' is because there were enough of us to carry out all the other tasks for running the game (restocking resources, determining play order based on number of cities and highest value power station, sorting out power station auction, bank) Kinda glad I missed my friends playing Planet Steam, since I think that took 5 hours between the three of them and plays very much the same.

Of course I'm listening to it!

Pfft, like you wouldn't hit that...

You'd think, but they've made Raph more of a brute since he's all close-range, and Leo's the balanced one. So speedwise it's Mikey > Leo > Raph > Don. Then there's other base stats like Health, Toughness (damage/knockdown resistance) and Attack. Raph fares pretty well in all the other departments.

In case anyone is interested. Forgot to mention I played a full game of Power Grid the other night. It took TWO. AND. A. HALF. FRICKIN. HOURS. The main amusement was two of the guys teaming up to dick over the guy who takes it too seriously by stockpiling all the resources he needed, so he couldn't actually power his cities come the endgame.

TMNT: Out of the Shadows. Was really excited for this for months beforehand, and being honest, I was disappointed, initially. However, I've played a bit more and it has improved quite dramatically. I can see why so many people have been dismissing it as slow and clunky...because the game starts you severely gimped. I think releasing a demo with the turtles at their most basic, un-upgraded state, was a terrible idea and will probably have put a lot of people off. Once you get up a few levels, you'll unlock a few extra things that make life a lot easier; particularly the 'Team' upgrades that improve your speed, toughness, attack strength, etc. Of course, some of it depends on the enemy types (as Raph, too many of the early enemies are knocked over quite easily, making it difficult to maintain a combo) and learning the rhythm (can't attack relentlessly and then block at the last second like in the Arkham games, you have to anticipate enemy attacks because timing plays into whether you counter or just block/deflect). There's quite a bit of depth to the system and I can see myself really wanting to try and master it; I've already been stringing together 40+ hit combos, even with slower turtles like Raph and Donnie.

IKNOWRIGHT?!

Finally appeared on Steam (after I finished giving the XBLA trial a go). If there had been some 4-pack deal I was feeling generous.

Launch trailer.

On the plus side, they should be separate unlock codes, so you don't have to activate them.

Elysium. A fairly by-the-numbers blockbuster with a bit of Blomkamp flavour, i.e. gritty sci-fi with ridiculously powerful and gory weapons. People will explode. I really disliked the crap and unnecessary 'chosen one' trope (District 9's Wikus was a relatively ordinary guy) and associated half-assed, blunt symbolism. Jodie Foster was pretty terrible (that accent!) and I didn't buy Matt Damon as the downtrodden man (he just looked a little peeved at times) but everyone else was pretty good, even with some dreadful lines. So, it has some interesting elements and some entertaining moments, but doesn't particularly do anything outstanding. Barely scrapes above 'crap', if I'm honest.

The A-Team Was on TV and I was feeling lazy so I gave it a watch. Does a decent enough job of updating the premise, and Sharlto Copley is pretty amusing; can't really expect more from it. It does get pretty ridiculous at points (tank 'flying'), but that doesn't really detract from it overall. Funny that it came out the same summer as The Losers, with both films sharing certain similarities in their source material, so it's another one of those weird doubles.

Voice-acting sounds a bit crap (and the old TMNT soundtrack music is an odd choice for the trailer), but the gameplay's where it's at.

I meant during your day job.

Tried a game against Iron Legacy in Sentinels of the Multiverse. That guy is pure evil. After his second turn, 3 of the 4 heroes were already incapacitated.

Agents of SHIELD to be shown on Channel 4 in the UK (a freeview/terrestrial channel). Though, as has been said, there's a good chance a subscription channel like Sky will buy it up if it gets to a third season.

T-Next spends most of his time outrunning zombies.

Yeah. Looks confusing from just the rulebook but I only scanned it, and I guess it becomes clearer when playing. If it manages to capture the theme, then it could be good but I've played so many games where the theme is just window-dressing...or I just plain don't like the mechanics in relation to it.

Oh, then I'm in good company.

Wish you guys played Sentinels of the Multiverse so you would understand this epic two-hour game I played yesterday. It's safe to say that, like many a great leader before, I found my strategy undone because...I didn't anticipate dinosaurs.

So we're just going to ignore the fact that FDS also thought it took someone three days to play through Thomas Was Alone?

FDS ARE YOU DRUNK

I remember when the Ultimate Universe had a Loeb-written finale, tying together all the titles, and it was one of the worst things ever. And I believe it was called 'Ultimatum' (technically, making it 'Ultimate Ultimatum'...) Though, I know this is now the 'Ultimate Comics' banner (even if it follows the same continuity as the last one), and I always enjoyed Bendis' previous work on the series (Bendis' USM and Powers = good, Bendis Marvel Crossover Events = bad)