[Games] The Question of Mythwind

As of the time of this writing, the Kickstarter project for the Mythwind board game has about 5 days to go before the project closes. Given nearly 9,000 backers and has raised almost 10 times their funding goal, it's well on its way to a successful culmination of things. 

And I'm still uncertain if I want to back this project.

So I figured it might be fun to blog about this little conundrum as a nice little change of pace from my monthly reading progress updates. And maybe someone will stumble across this post and share that pivotal piece of advice that will help me decide if I should really get behind this project.

[RPGs] Dice Satisfaction

First blog post of the year! I still haven't quite figured out what I want to do with this site nor have I picked up the pen with respect to my creative writing, but I'll get there.

So in an effort to write something other than a review (you can go to my GoodReads for my book stuff), I thought I'd take some time to talk about a quirky aspect of the tabletop gaming hobby - how good it feels to roll dice.

[TV] Castlevania: Season 2 Review

I was not a big  Castlevania fan growing up. I knew of the game franchise and I had played one or two of them here and there but I never got all that invested in the franchise and its story. Despite that I got through the first season of Netflix's Castlevania animated series generally happy and now better informed of what makes the series so great.

This second season proved to be a lot harder to keep up with given the greater diversity of characters who just appear and don't exactly get properly introduced or fully explained, if you catch my meaning. A lot of stuff felt more like it relied on knowledge of the series to just keep up with the plot and that's not a great way to continue to draw in new fans to the franchise through a different medium like this.

Don't get me wrong, it still had its fun moments. But at the same time this franchise does bear a rather heavy weight because of all of its lore and backstory that has been developed in one way or another across the different games and other expanded media. It's a bit of a mess.

[Movies] Rampage (2018) Review

There's a certain stigma around video game movies as they rarely seem to translate well to the big screen. There are two extremes when it comes to the more problematic side of these movies - good games that are twisted into bad movies or games with very thin plots that become odd movies. This is definitely one of the latter ones.

Rampage is based on a now obscure game that really didn't have much of a plot - if anything it barely had a premise. But somehow we ended up with a big budget movie that hopes to capitalize on nostalgia somehow but really the average movie-goer is too young to even remember the game existed.

To top it all off we have Dwayne Johnson in the movie. He's not a bad actor and in fact he can be quite funny. But his main challenge is that he doesn't always pick the most fulfilling roles for himself. At the very least he seems to have fun with all of his movie projects though.

[Games] Carcassonne: Abbey & Mayor Review

I recently picked up a few mini-expansions for Carcassonne and that got me remembering the fact that I still haven't written reviews for all the sets that we do have. There's still a lot to cover, but I'll eventually get around to it I'm sure.

Carcasonne: Abbey & Mayor is one of those expansions that we don't get to play with as much as it's a little more straightforward to explain the mechanics of other expansions more than this one. This doesn't necessarily make this a bad one to add to you collection, just one that feels a little tricky but also doesn't quite add someting mind-blowing to the game either.

I'm expecting to see more expansions released in the coming months given how the English publising license has moved from Rio Grande Games to Z-Man Games. We've already seen a subtle change to the look and feel of the tiles with the new releases and I'm on the fence about it. But I am curious to see what German-only releases they'll eventually publish in English.

[Games] Legendary Encounters: Firefly Review

So when you're as deep down the Legendary hole as we are, your biggest problems include storage, sourcing card sleeves and not being able to say no to another  new Legenary release. Not that these new games are bad - we're players who enjoyed their Big Troube in Little China release after all. But there are just so many of them exploring more and more entertainment franchises.

But man, when they said they were making a release based around the Firefly universe, we knew that there was no saying no to this particular game. And as much as we love these Legendary deck building games, this one was particularly shiny.

[Games] Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China Review

For the most part the Legendary Deck Building game had focused on two main paths - the main line following the adventures of various characters from the Marvel Universe and the Legendary Encounters line that seemed to initially focus on science fiction horror properties like Aliens and Predator. And this already felt like a great expansion of the line while still focusing on the Deck Building flavor that has been distinct to this line.

And then Legendary: Big Trouble in Little China came out.

This was not something I had ever expected to happen. I appreciated the movie as a cult classic of sorts but for it to merit the sort of investment that comes with a game like this felt almost surreal. But it just went to show the sort of quirkiness that appealed to the team and it's a brand of entertainment we're totally game for.

[Games] Legendary: Deadpool Review

It's hard to remember to write reviews for games since we're often too busy actually playing the games. And given how our typical game nights cover at least 3-4 games at a time, it's easy to get lost.

Andd thus this late review for Legendary: Deadpool, yet another expansion for one of our favorite deck building games. Sure it could have been just another movie tie-in product for a franchise game, but thankfully it wasn't. Instead it's quite the celebration of the Merc with a Mouth and all his 4th wall breaking insanity.

As a smaller expansion, it's easy to underestimate this sort of thing. And when you focus on a single character, it's also easy to assume that the cards will involve a lot of variants on the same guy. But instead we got a pretty colorful set that toys around with different aspects of Deadpool's history and translate them into a really fun game.

Not all small box expansions for Legendary have been quite as fun as this one.

[Games] Legendary: Noir Review

So Upper Deck continues to scrounge all of the Marvel Universe for more content to feed it's never-endering Legendary Deck Building game system. I thought we had reached peak crazy with things like the Deadpool-themed expansion, but we also got ourselves a Legendary game devoted to the cult classic Big Trouble in Little China.

So yeah, the announcement for Legendary: Noir based on the Marvel Noir universe wasn't something that I had expected. I was familiar with the comics given I at least read Spider-Man and Daredevil. But that didn't quite feel like enough to really create a whole game expansion around.

But hey, looks like I was wrong and here we are with Legendary Noir, which is a surprisingly good expansion and one that ads a nice flavor to your games. This also marks the first time Uppder Deck has decided to release promo cards with first edition releases as a way to drive up initial sales I guess.

Good thing we got a copy early.

[Videos] 107 Facts About Cuphead

Cuphead was the posterchild of the indie scene last year as an odd run and gun game that celebrated the old Fleischer cartoons in terms of aesthetic and styling. Boss fights just seem to keep coming one after the other as you get through this rather challenging game.

So it was only a matter of time that ChannelFrederator's The Leaderboard would get around to running a 107 facts video to celebrate this truly novel game.


107 Cuphead Facts YOU Should Know!!! | The Leaderboard

[Games] Through The Ages: A New Story of Civilization Review

In my Terraforming Mars review I made reference to this game, Through the Ages, and then realized I had not reviewed it yet. What the heck right? This is one of the main gaming highlights for my 2017 gaming year and I guess I was too busy playing it to actually write about it. Life can be funny that way.

As an old school gamer who grew up during the rise of various PC strategy games, I was a big fan of the original Civilization. And what struck me the most about Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilzation is the fact that it does feel like a very clever tabletop version of that same computer game. It's not the official board game for the franchise, but it might as well be given how amazingly it captures that feel.

This game changes lives for serious board game places, to use the probaby inappropriate term. It's just so darn good, but I recognize it's also not quite for everyone.

[Games] Terraforming Mars Review

For quite a while we were lost in our mania over Through the Ages as it is a spectacular game that feels like classic Civilization captured in a board game. Have I reviewed that game yet? Ack, maybe I haven't. Better address that soon.

Anyway, one of the games that now competes for Through the Ages time is Terraforming Mars. The game is rather compelling given the relative complexity of the game's strategies yet the generally straightforward approach of the game rules.

Repeated plays have revealed different potential strategies and paths to victory and quite the rewarding experience as well. As much as the card art can leave something to be desired at times, the game itself is a true gem and one that scratches a particular niche for tabletop strategy games.

[Videos] Of Monsters and Zombies

By now you folks should realize that I've come to enjoy the various 107 Facts videos by ChannelFrederator and it's affiliated channels on just about any topic. I have a particular love for the ones about cartoons and particular video game franchises and today's blog post sort of celebrates that fact.

Through a sheer coincidence of timing of new videos on ChannelFrederator and The Leaderboard  has resulted in two great videos over the weekend about two subjects of a good amount of interest to me.


107 Aaahh!!! Real Monsters Facts YOU Should Know! - Nickelodeon Cartoon Facts! (107 Facts S7 E21)


107 Plants Vs Zombies Facts YOU Should Know | The Leaderboard

[Games] LEGO Dimensions Wave 9 Trailers

So it's been a while since I've had a chance to talk about LEGO Dimensions and admittedly it's been a while since I've even had a chance to play with my many figures because that's real life for you. It doesn't help that it seems local gaming shops haven't really been stocking the new figures, making it a lot harder to keep up-to-date.

But thankfully the internet is a thing that exists and there are some great game trailers announcing some of the most awaited releases for this year.

I had previously posted the news of the Teen Titans Go! figures for LEGO Dimensions and they look wicked cool. I've yet to see them hit local retail so I suspect I'll need to secure my figures through online sellers once again.


The Powerpuff Girls Join LEGO Dimensions!
But we now also have the big release trailer for The Powerpuff Girls sets for LEGO Dimensions as well! I'm really liking how they've captured the look and feel of the show yet still with that LEGO Dimensions twist to things.

Like with the Teen Titans release, The Powerpuff Girls have been divided into a Fun Pack and a Team Pack to give you those lovely heroes of Townsville.

[TV] Castlevania: Season 1 Review

While I was never a die hard Castlevania fan growing up, I don't think many folks in my generation could have escaped playing at least one game in the long-running franchise or at least heard about it. And the Castlevania story is pretty far-reaching given years of development and so it's a prime basis for any number of adaptations.

 I didn't  have much advance warning of the release of the Netflix Castlevania series, but that's just as well. It helped me get into the series without too much advanced research so I just dove into the experience.

But man it's a short experience though. Clearly Netflix was hedging its bets when it gave the green light for this series. Who runs a half-hour animated series with only four episodes? Were they that eager to release it without finishing the story? Did they want to see how the first four episodes would perform before going ahead with the remaining episodes?

Why did Netflix go into this so hesitantly? Because that's what it looks like to me.

[Games] Batman: The Enemy Within Trailer

I still haven't found the time to finish the action adventure game Batman: The Telltale Series and already they've released a trailer for a new sequel for the franchise, this being Batman: The Enemy Within. The enemy in focus this time around is the Riddler, although the trailer makes it quite clear that "John Doe" will continue to prove to be a problem for the dark knight.

The game is looking pretty good! Now I need to finish the first series.


Batman: The Enemy Within - OFFICIAL TRAILER

[Videos] Blizzard Games Trivia

Around the time that I started playing Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, another real-time strategy came out  called WarCraft. It had a very different spin on the genre with a unit limit imposed  on the game. But that game helped put Blizzard on the radar for a lot of us and now they're one of the biggest brands in gaming with some pretty popular, long-running game franchises.

So it's nice that the folks at The Leaderboard have put out a few videos celebrating the wonderful world of Blizzard games and I thought it would be fun to gather the ones released so far here:


107 Blizzard Entertainment Facts YOU Should Know | The Leaderboard



107 Warcraft III Facts YOU Should KNOW | The Leaderboard



107 Diablo Facts YOU Should Know | The Leaderboard



107 Starcraft Facts YOU Should Know! | The Leaderboard



107 World of Warcraft Facts YOU Should Know! | The Leaderboard



107 Hearthstone Facts YOU Should Know! | The Leaderboard



107 Heroes of the Storm Facts YOU Should Know | The Leaderboard



107 Overwatch Facts YOU Should Know | The Leaderboard

[Videos] 107 Facts About Ratchet and Clank

After I shared The Leaderboard's various videos related to various Playstation platform games, I had remarked about the lack of a video for Ratchet and Clanks, which remains to be one of my favorite action platform games. And it boggles the mind to consider the game is about 15 years old now.

And here we are! And this is a fun little roundabout of a lot of bits of trivia about our intrepid heroes that spans their many, many titles released across various platforms. We get fun little tidbits as to why Clank is named Clank or a whole host of rejected titles for some of the expansions. And of course there are all these other Easter Eggs in the various games that make things even more entertaining.

So let's stop delaying and here's the video!


107 Ratchet & Clank Facts YOU Should Know! | The Leaderboard

[Games] Full Throttle Remastered Released

Guys, we're living in a magical time when all of my favorite games are coming back from the dead...in HD! We already got Day of the Tentacle Remastered and Grim Fandango Remastered and now we get the most badass game of them all - Full Throttle Remastered. With the completion of this game, I think this just about rounds out the efforts to restore all of Tim Schafer's greatest adventure games from the 90's during his LucasArts period.


Full Throttle Remastered - Full Intro Video
The game is available for multiple platforms including PC, PS4, and PS Vita with other platforms to follow.

[Movies] WarCraft (2016)

Video game movies tend to have a bit of a stigma related to them almost automatically given the long history of many, many video game movies that just plain sucked. Whether it's because of how he stories behind these games are shallow to begin with and not fit for movies or we get great video game stories mangled into something else entirely to make it more cinematic, the end results are often strange. Video game enjoyment does not automatically translate into movie enjoyment.

I never had high hopes for WarCraft as a movie. I don't think anyone really asked for this to be made and Blizzard's stories have always been complex but not exactly groundbreaking either. A literal translation of the video game story into a movie might have been decent, but not amazing, at least in my mind. What we got instead was both familiar and yet even more confusing at the same time.

I can't even say that the movie is visually fulfilling as is often the consolation for certain titles. It has striking moments, sure, but it felt more like the quirky Dungeons and Dragons movies without the humor.