Projects – Page 66

Sorry!

You have to say Sorry with that sardonic, nasally voice. Learn how not to be sorry with this popular children’s game from the 1930s. Sorry may be derivative of the classic game Pachisi, but it’s a modern classic in its own right.

We apologize, but we interrupt this review for technical details.

The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Paul T. Haskell, Jr. and William Henry Storey
Publisher: Parker Brothers
Date Released: 1929
Number of Players: 2-4
Age Range: 6 and up
Setup Time: nominal
Play Time: around 30 minutes
Game Mechanisms:
Card Drafting
Point to Point Movement
Roll/Spin and Move

Sorry! Overview

Game Flow:
Players pick a color. Each player starts the game in an area, matching the color they chose. Players must navigate the board and send their pieces to their base at the opposite end of the board from their starting area. To accomplish this, players draw cards from a communal deck and move their pieces in accordance to the cards. The first player to get all their pieces in their base wins.

Review:
I give Sorry some credit for replacing the dice movement of Pachisi with cards. But that’s all I can say for it. Sorry still uses a roll/spin and move mechanism just without the rolling or spinning, and the card draw actually makes it worse for me. At least when I’m rolling a die or spinning a wheel, I have the tactical goodness of those two activities. The deck of cards eliminates the joy of rolling or spinning. Plus, some cards make you go backwards. While that’s a good thing in the early going, you don’t want to go backwards when you’re almost home.

Close-up of Sorry! card

And then there’s the title. You’re not sorry when you bump into someone, but that’s what the card says, so that’s what people say (in that sarcastic, nasally voice I talked about earlier) when they take your piece off the board. You could give Sorry the tagline: teaching children how to be punks since 1929.

Verdict:
How this game remains a family favorite for as long as it has is beyond my comprehension. There are so many better activities you could do instead of Sorry, like reading a book or taking a walk on thin ice.

Quiz Answers: Modern-Age Comic Book Characters 2 Timeline

The eighties and nineties saw a lot of anti-heroes. Were you anti enough to get this timeline right? Let’s see how we did.

All 6 correct) No one has a pointer head than you. And if you aren’t gonna point out which heroes came when, who will?

4-5 correct) So you got a couple of them wrong. There’s always room for a little mischief.

2-3 correct) You would’ve been sharper, but someone cut off your horns.

0-1 correct) You could always travel back in time and have a do-over.

7 Wonders

Take control of one of history’s most accomplished city/states and lead them to victory as a civilization that’ll stand the test of time. Okay, the last bit came from Civilization the video game, but that’s because 7 Wonders plays like a half-hour, tabletop version of Civilization. The one thing that keeps me from playing more Civ is the game length (and I’m sure the same holds true for many of you), so 7 Wonders steers like a dream. Or does it?

We’ll get to the game review in a bit, but we have to pay homage to the game detail demigods first.

The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Antoine Bauza
Publisher: Asmodee
Date Released: 2010
Number of Players: 2-7
Age Range: 10 and up
Setup Time: about 10 minutes
Play Time: around 30 minutes
Game Mechanisms:
Card Drafting
Set Collection
Simultaneous Action Selection
Variable Player Powers

Game Flow:
Players either choose their city/states or pick them at random. A game of 7 Wonders is split into three rounds—or, eras. At the beginning of each era, players get dealt seven cards – for seven wonders, get it? – from a unique deck for each era, and these cards yield building materials, manufactured products, or straight-up victory points.

7 Wonders Overview

Once a round – err, era – gets going, you select one card from your hand and pass the rest to the player on your left (if it’s the first or third era) or to your right (if it’s the second era). Before picking up their new hand of cards, players reveal which card they chose from their previous hand and play it, then they repeat the process until only one card remains in each players’ hand. These last cards get discarded to a communal pot (there are player abilities that allow you to snatch cards from this communal discard pile).

After all three eras are complete, tally victory points to determine the winner.

Review:
7 Wonders plays fast, real fast. You have so many ways to win that you can fall prey to analysis paralysis, a condition where you can’t decide which card to pick and play. But despite the many varied ways to win, some victory points are easier to come by than others.

Era 1 Resource Cards

Military conquest only requires basic resources, so if you have a warlike city/state, it’s real easy to rack up points this way. Science victory points take a longer build. There are city/states that emphasis science, but it’s a lot trickier to accrue more points than your opponent(s). Cultural victory points are the ones you get straight up from cards. These don’t stack like military and science points, but you don’t need them to stack. Then, there’s a hidden set of victory points available only during the third era: guild cards. These cards piggyback on whatever your opponents have built throughout the game.

Eight 7 Wonders City-States

7 Wonders has fantastic balance. But the guild cards can disrupt this equilibrium. I’ve played plenty of games where I built a stellar city/state only to have my neighbor construct guilds that give them victory points for the number of science cards I had or for my cultural achievements. I’ve also built these guilds myself. These cards feel like catch-up cards, and the victories they give paint your win hollow.

7 Wonders Guild Cards

I’m all for close games. A 16-15 extra innings win in baseball is a lot more interesting to watch than a 20-0 shellacking, but 7 Wonders doesn’t need this. Every game doesn’t have to be close. I can withstand the occasional beat down in exchange for a well-earned win. The game only lasts at most thirty minutes. There’s always the potential of a rematch.

One last minor gripe: 7 Wonders lacks a strong theme. Don’t get me wrong, the game’s gorgeous, and it looks like you’re building one of these famous city/states, but you could strip away the theme and add a new one, and it’d work. Fortunately, underneath the pretty is a world-class card-drafting game.

Verdict: Light on theme but strong on gameplay, 7 Wonders deserves its Spiel des Jahres Kennerspiel (Connoisseurs Game of the Year).

Debut Games for French Game Designers

German game designers may have started the modern tabletop Renaissance, but the last decade has seen the rise of a French coalition. Can you match these French tabletop game designers with their debut games?

Quiz Answers: Debut Games for French Game Designers

Bruno Cathala: Lawless (Sans Fol Ni Loi)

Bruno Faidutti: Baston

Antoine Bauza: Chabyrinthe

Serge Laget: Le Gang des Traction-Avant

Ludovic Maublanc: Ca$h ‘n Gun$

Geekly TV: February 9, 2015

Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review
Bob’s Burgers is at its best when its characters have vastly different realities. It’s all about perception. Bob and Linda’s wild, romantic week of Valentine’s Day gestures illustrates this best in this week’s “Can’t Buy Me Math.”

And the best scene stems from what should be a simple bubble bath. Linda dumps an entire bottle of suds into the tub and finds the all-bubble bath as the most romantic thing possible, while Bob comments on how the bath water is more of a bath paste and that it stings his eyes. The scene turns nuclear when Gene and Louise have to use the bathroom while their parents are in the tub. The presence of the two kids spoils the mood—for Linda—and effectively ends the dispute of whether or not the bath is romantic, but the Belchers live like the Brady Bunch and only have one toilet, so when Louise says she’ll use the other toilet, she means the bath tub and asks her parents to move to one side. Yikes!

But the show gets its title from Tina’s story thread. Tina had her own chance to shine in this episode, but she doesn’t need the frenetic pace of the other characters. Her deliciously one-track mind works to perfection when paired with the smart and witty Darryl. Long story short, she and Darryl reheat the Can’t Buy Me Love plot and get others to fall in love with them by pretending to be in love with each other, but Tina warns Darryl that he could fall in love with her—per the Can’t Buy Me Love story—and even though Darryl catches the reference and moves on to his next thought, Tina repeats the entire Can’t Buy Me Love plot a second, third, and fourth time. This serves as an excellent reminder of the character development from Bob’s Burgers early episodes.

Verdict: Another great episode for what could be Bob’s Burgers’ best season.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review
John continued to assemble Voltron this week, but his new team member was a character we know from several episodes: the angel Manny.

It wasn’t the best idea to clip Manny’s wings. As Manny said, “he can’t communicate with the divine,” so John’s in with the big man upstairs went away. Before I get to questioning John’s reasons, I’ll say that adding Manny to the team proved satisfying. Constantine has developed an arc—they even increased the amount of time Manny spent with John per visit—that it made sense that he’d take a more hands on approach to John’s guidance. But one thing bothered me. John put the kibosh on Manny’s flight because he cared for Zed.

I get that John’s changed since his days in Newcastle, but he hasn’t known Zed for that long and her appearances on the show have been hit and miss. Even when she’s in an episode, it doesn’t mean that she accompanies John. We’re on episode twelve, and the two have had six episodes together at best, and it was only two or three appearances ago that John questioned Zed’s loyalty to him.

Now I would buy John forcing Manny to help because he didn’t want another Newcastle debacle. Constantine flirted with this reasoning, but ultimately landed on the feelings for Zed angle. So close.

But don’t misinterpret my reservations of John’s motives as a knock on the acting—you can only work with what you’re given. Kudos all around. I especially liked the chemistry between Harold Perrineau (Manny) and Angelica Celaya (Zed). Matt Ryan (John Constantine) gave a fine performance as well. And one thing I did like about the writing was that they brought back the idea of magic has its price. Zed’s visions were caused by a brain tumor.

There’s still no word as to whether or not NBC plans to cancel or renew Constantine, but SyFy has expressed interested to continue the show as the original title Hellblazer.

Verdict: A small bump in the road—as far as John’s motives are concerned—couldn’t derail this overall solid episode.

Travel further down the infernal trail with our Constantine secrets page.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review
This season of Grimm has had a lot of movement. I don’t know if that equates to character development—there have been some nice threads like Juliette—but the season has kept my interest. I’ll get to the good stuff in a bit but I want to illustrate what I mean by a lot of movement. Let’s use Sergeant Wu’s story arc as example.

Wu is already a full-fledged member of Team Grimm as he knows as much about the Grimm world as Hank, who found out about Wesen in the first season. I’ll admit that it took time, but while the transition took time, it should have taken more. Wu spent time in a mental institution for his Wesen encounter late last season, and he flipped out at a bar five or six episodes ago. Five or six episodes is roughly a month and half. Would he be able to take on Wesen so soon? It takes more time to recover from what Wu experienced in order to get to the point he’s at now, but it doesn’t feel like it’s only been five or six episodes, and that’ because Grimm has crammed so many things in short order: a kidnapping, a honeymoon, and Nick getting his Grimm back. But the biggest thing going right now is the two or three episode Juliette as a Hexenbiest.

Speaking of which Juliette discovered that she’s the most powerful Hexenbiest in Portland this week—not bad for an infant witch. She met with the grand master Hexenbiest—that’s my title for her, since Grimm gave context for her—and the grand master hex told Juliette that there’s no going back to human for her. Figures. This same grand master hex also told Juliette that she should keep her Hexenbiestness to herself. Wasn’t that convenient?

But that wasn’t as convenient as the Wesen of the week. A new manticore threatened Portland, but he did little more than prove that Wu was a fulltime member of Team Grimm and that Juliette was the most powerful Hexenbiest. Throw in the return of Adalind and the reintroduction of the magic baby, and you get one episode with a lot of fireworks. But do fireworks count as development or just movement?

Verdict: A lot happened—maybe not enough character development—but this episode of Grimm managed to tie many things together, or at least get all the major characters together in the same city.

Constantine Secrets Page: February 9, 2015

Dark Matter for a Black Heart
The little piece of pure evil featured in this episode made its first appearance in House of Secrets #61 in 1963. The Heart of Darkness has torn its way through the DC Universe for years, and its origins have morphed timed and time again, but at some point it fell into the hands of Bruce Gordon (the combination of Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon), who would become the villain Eclipso.

“I know, I know, I can’t smoke here.”
This is a nudge-nudge, wink-wink jab at NBC, who told Constantine that they couldn’t film John smoking. To be fair John didn’t inhale. No, really. He let the cigarette dangle from his lips.

Did we see a Flash/Constantine crossover?
Not exactly. The ill-tempered patient Morris was reading a science magazine in the hospital, and the title of magazine was the same—but the issue different—as the one Barry Allen used to shield his head from rain in The Flash pilot.

Coming Around Full Circle
The cover story in the science magazine Morris is reading just happens to be written by Bruce Gordon (aka the future Eclipso).

Click here if you want to return to our Constantine review.

Jim’s Week in Comics: February 4, 2015

Well, there’s a bit to talk about in the world of comics these days. This week, the new Velvet came out, and I continue to enjoy the vintage feel of the book, the solid–if somewhat familiar–characters, and the never-disappointing art. One thing Brubaker continues to do so well is tell a complex story while managing to keep his word-count in check. That’s something that’s irked me about Scott Snyder’s writing on Batman. He is so wordy, so exposition-heavy that Capullo’s art is covered in word bubbles.

Speaking of Batman, the new issue dropped last week, and the revelation about Joker had me pretty upset. I won’t mince words. There’s the possibility that this will prove to be another of the character’s ploys, but if DC lets this stand as canon, I think it will be an unforgiveable mistake that changes the character and surrenders the interesting dynamic he’s shared with Batman over the last three-quarters of a century.

I will say that issue #2 of Star Wars was another very solid entry, and I’m now convinced to add the title to my pull file at the comic shop. The characters are rendered near to perfectly, their voices come through in the writing of the dialogue, and I even think they’ve managed to us C3PO effectively, as his speech patterns are actually conducive to delivering exposition.

You may have heard about the changes in Superman. If you haven’t seen the costume changes yet, I can tell you they’re somewhat overblown in the press. The changes are actually pretty minimal, which is probably for the best, as a radical change to the look of the character would probably not sit well. As for the new power, “Super Flare,” it’s explained in typical, ambiguous comic-book-science terms, but the whole close to the Ulysses arc felt rushed. There wasn’t nearly enough build-up or pay-off to the debut of the new power, but I can at least say I’m not whole-heartedly against it.

The Arrow Secrets: February 6, 2015

Wildcat
Ted Grant took to the streets as Wildcat. Too bad it didn’t go well. Wildcat made his first appearance in 1942 in the same issue of Sensation Comics #1 that also introduced us to Wonder Woman. Since his introduction, Wildcat has been a part of the Justice Society as the one who trains the members in hand to hand combat.

Rumble in The Glades
This week’s episode drew inspiration from the comics. Only that time, Green Arrow and Brick fought side by side. I guess Felicity was wrong. Arrow will work with shady characters to get the job done.

The Outsiders
This wasn’t mentioned by name, but Green Arrow and Katana have been members of The Outsiders. I had to smile when Katana waxed poetic about her swordcraft. She does that sort of thing in the comics.

Red Streak
This one was kind of obvious if you watch both Arrow and The Flash. One of Brick’s men asks Arsenal, “Are you that red streak I’ve been hearing about?” That’d be a no. Red Streak was Flash’s nickname before you declared himself The Flash.

Arsenal
Captain Lance mocks Arsenal’s name, “What are they, just picking names out of a hat now?” Fans have been saying the same thing about the show as Arrow has switched his name between Speedy, Arsenal, Red Arrow, and just Roy Harper.

And speaking of Roy Harper as the other archer, the idea that Lance knew who Roy was all the time and just withheld it is similar to what many fans think of Batman and Jim Gordon’s relationship.

Who is David Maclean?
If you looked closely at the Starling City Sentinel that mentions the murder of Merlyn’s wife, you’ll notice that the reporter’s name is David Maclean, who died during the Undertaking. But the coincidences don’t stop there. The character in the show was named after a storyboard artist who works on Arrow and The Flash.

Are they using the same dialogue?
If it sounded familiar when Tommy told Oliver at his mother’s funeral that, “I don’t want her to be an angel, Ollie. I want her to go back to being my mom,” it should. Caitlin recently said on The Flash that she didn’t want Ronnie to be a hero, she wanted him to be her husband.

Want to head back to the review?

The Flash Secrets: February 6, 2015

Peek-a-Boo, we see you
This week’s episode of The Flash introduced us to the meta-human Peek-a-Boo. The show called her Shawna Baez, but comic fans know her as Lashawn. Even though she’s considered a villain, her crimes revolve around helping the ones she cares about. The Flash knows this and being the great guy that he is, often tries to intercede on her behalf.

Meet Dr. Firestorm?
Ronnie hasn’t been himself because he’s sharing brain space with Dr. Martin Stein. Firestorm often has his two personalities talk with each other. It’ll be interesting to see if we get some of these monologues. Or are they dialogues?

Meet Linda Park
She was rather forward, but most DC Comics reporters are. In one DC Universe, she married The Flash, but The Flash she married was Wally West, not Barry Allen. Conversely, Iris West was the one-time wife—depending on which reality to subscribe to—of Barry Allen. We don’t know if Linda Park is an attempt to further complicate Iris and Barry’s relationship, or if she’s a real suitor for Barry.

In other news, Linda Park joined a television program named The Scene—which was similar to the real-life The View—and she cohosted the show with Vicki Vale (of Batman fame), Tawny Young (who covered the Green Lantern Corps), and Lia Briggs (a.k.a. The Looker from the Outsiders: see our Arrow secrets page for more Outsiders info).

Alligators don’t live in the Sewers…
Gorilla’s do. Are we a week closer to Grodd?

“Faster than a Speeding Bullet…”
Nice reference. (Wink-wink.) (Nod-nod.)

Cisco has the Vibe
Jim mentioned Vibe in his review, and it bears mentioning that in the comics, Cisco harnesses sonic waves to fight crime as Vibe. But Vibe is a metahuman. I’m not sure if Team Flash intends to change his origin or if they want Cisco to just be Cisco. They’ve already said that they’ll take it cool approach with Caitlin Snow as Killer Frost (more on her in a bit), so we may be at least a season or two away from full on Vibe.

Interesting note: comic legend George Perez left as the JLA artist because of Vibe. He said in a 1985 interview with Heidi MacDonald that, “I have a certain bigotry towards Vibe…I sincerely say he’s the one character who turned me off the JLA. If nothing else, every character that was introduced was an ethnic stereotype.” Perez so hated the character that when he drew the JLA/Avengers crossover and every member of both teams had to be depicted at least once, Vibe’s cameo was just of his legs as he fell off panel.

I hope Perez enjoys this rendition of Cisco. Carlos Valdes’s portrayal of the character adds some much needed depth and he doesn’t come off as an ethnic stereotype.

Caitlin Snow’s as Cold as Ice
Like Cisco, Caitlin Snow is more than she appears. In the comics, she’s the latest person to assume the mantel of Killer Frost, but while most Killer Frosts were outright villains, Caitlin Snow’s Killer Frost has a more tragic reason for hurting others. She’s a heat vampire.

Dr. Snow is a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist sent to Outpost #72 in the Artic to work on a thermodynamic engine. Long story short, she gets trapped inside the engine, and she rips off the coolant system, which then merges her body with ice. After the accident, Snow needs to feed on the heat of others in order to live, and eventually she discovers that Firestorm’s blasts can temporarily heal her condition, so she clings to Firestorm for obvious reasons.

I like how The Flash gives Firestorm and Snow a past prior to them getting their powers. This eventual symbiotic relationship they’ll share should feel more organic. But fans may have to wait a couple of years before this happens. The Flash’s producers have already said that, “they want Caitlin to be Caitlin for a while.”

Want to head back to our review? Click Here.