Total Recall

Warning:  I try to avoid blatant spoilers in the first part of this review, but it's impossible to discuss the movie without giving something away, so proceed at your own risk.  I will give another warning when I get to anything that I consider to be a major spoiler.  Short version is that this movie has good and bad points, but I enjoyed it for the visuals.

I went to go see the new Total Recall with my wife and while it wasn't a great movie, it wasn't a terrible one either.  The biggest strength of the movie is its visuals.  I'm not sure I've seen better images of a cyberpunk dystopia since Blade Runner.  Quaid's apartment and the surrounding areas of the Colony have a classic cyberpunk feel, and the early scenes that take place in that area are worth the price of admission just for the virtual tourism.

The later scenes in the United Federation of Britain (UFB) are less dystopian and cyberpunk and more standard urban sci-fi.  The visuals aren't bad, but nothing really stands out, which I suppose may have been what they were going for in contrasting the dynamic Colony with the bland UFB.

Unfortunately, despite some excellent visuals, there are some real problems with the rest of the movie.  The biggest being major holes in both the plot and the science.  First, the science.  I realize that different people will have different thresholds for their suspension of disbelief, but the movie passed a couple of mine.  The world has been devastated by chemical warfare, but there's no explanation as to why certain areas of the globe have avoided that devastation.  It's understandable why Australia might have come through unscathed, but Britain and parts of Europe survived where Africa and South America didn't?  That requires some explanation that is never provided.  There's also no explanation as to why the UFB never becomes contaminated from the adjacent blighted zones.  There's no sign of a dome or energy field keeping the blight at bay.

The second hole in the science is the gravity train known in the film as "The Fall."  The idea of a transportation system passing through the center of the planet is an old one (going back to the 17th Century according to Wikipedia), but it has some significant problems that the movie does not address.  The two biggest being the molten core of Earth and the friction inherent in any system that isn't a vacuum.  Neither of these are addressed in the film.  There's also the problem that if such a system actually worked, it would take around 42 minutes to get from one side of the planet to the other, not the 17 mentioned in the film.

So much for the science.  The plot has similar holes.  

Warning:  OK, past this point I'll be discussing the plot of the movie, so major spoilers ahead.

There's never any explanation as to how Cohaagen originally planned to use Quaid to expose Matthias.  It's clearly stated that the Rekall incident was unexpected, yet that's the only thing that triggers Quaid to go looking for Matthias!  So why was Cohaagen keeping Quaid around?  It wasn't to turn him back into a loyal Houser, because he obviously could have done that at any time based on his ability to try to do it after Matthias is dealt with.  The whole thing makes no sense as presented in the film.

While we're on the subject of the plot, I want to touch on the point that some involved in the production of the film claim it was based on the short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale," rather than the previous film. That's obviously false. It may have drawn some inspiration from the short story, but it's arguably further from the source than the original film, and it shares various elements from the first film that aren't present in the short story, including the protagonist's name of "Quaid."  It's "Quail" in the short story. This is a minor point for me, since I think the short story would actually make for a lousy film, but I find it annoying that some would claim it as an influence where it obviously wasn't.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. It wasn't perfect, but it had some good action scenes and the great visuals I mentioned before.  Still, the first film, with all it's Schwarzenegger cheesiness and dated special effects, is the better one.  Although I do think the new version has a better triple-breasted whore.

What I've Been Modelling Lately

No, I haven't picked up the X-acto or the paint brush lately, but I have been putting together miniatures for use in a tabletop wargame. That game is Mobile Frame Zero. It's a game of mecha combat using miniatures and terrain made out of Lego. I'll go over the game itself some time after I've had a chance to play it, but for now I want to share some of the mecha I've put together.

The core frame is called a "chub" and was designed by a gentleman who goes by the name of [Soren]. I got a parts list as one of the updates from backing the Mobile Frame Zero Kickstarter and then ordered parts to build a few through Lego's Pick-a-Brick service. I understand that I could probably have gotten them cheaper and with a greater variety of colors through Brick Link, but I've ordered direct from Lego before, and so went with the service I know.

The accessories are largely my own designs, and have been put together with pieces from kits I've purchased.  Mostly those $5-$6 baggies you see at the checkout lines.

In the end, the model cost is comparable to or less than that of equivalently sized GW models if you only buy the pieces you need, and that's without factoring in the cost of paints and other hobby supplies. Since games are played with no more than eight frames per side, and can be taken apart and reassembled into different configurations with ease, the overall cost to play the game is significantly less. It's still a miniatures game though, so it will still cost more to get started than most board games. Of course, if you already have a good selection of Lego, that cost may be lessened considerably.

So, here's some of what I've done so far:

You can see a few more on my Flickr album, but these give a good impression of what I've been up to.

Dice Tower Awards 2011 Nominees

Apparently Tom Vasel over at the Dice Tower is having difficulty getting so called "serious" gaming news sites to post anything regarding the Dice Tower Awards.  This is a shame as those same sites will regularly post news about the travesties that are the Origins Awards and other lists of "best games" that make people who actually play a lot of games go "WTF?"

As a result, Tom has sent out a call for bloggers to post this year's nominee listing in an effort to get greater visibility for the awards, and I'm more than happy to oblige given that the Dice Tower Awards have consistently provided a better look at the truly deserving games out there than any other award I'm aware of aside from possibly the Diana Jones Award, which is both broader in what it covers, and narrower in the sense that there is only a single winner each year.

So, on to the nominees (note, I'm not providing links or pictures, if you want those click through to the link to the Dice Tower Awards):

Best Game of the Year:

• Eclipse
• Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
• Quarriors!
• Risk Legacy
• Star Trek: Fleet Captains
• King of Tokyo
• Die Burgen von Burgund
• Mage Knight Board Game
• The Ares Project

Best Family Game:

• Flash Point: Fire Rescue
• Kingdom Builder
• King of Tokyo
• Quarriors!
• Say Anything Family Edition

Best New Game Designer:

• Jason Little for Blood Bowl: Team Manager
• Kevin Lanzing for Flash Point: Fire Rescue
• Brian and Geoff Engelstein for The Ares Project
• Christopher Baddell and Paul Bender for Sentinels of the Multiverse
• David Gregg for Nightfall

Best Game Reprint:

• Can't Stop
• Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War
• Evo
• A Game of Thrones:  The Board Game (Second Edition)
• Puerto Rico: Anniversary Edition

Best Production Values:

• Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game
• Mansions of Madness
• Risk Legacy
• Super Dungeon Explore
• Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon Board Game

Best Small Publisher:

• Indie Boards and Cards for Flash Point: Fire Rescue
• Plaid Hat Games for Dungeon Run
• Rallyman for Rallyman
• Greater Than Games, LLC for Sentinels of the Multiverse
• Fireside Games for Bears!

Best Party Game:

• Crappy Birthday
• Dixit Odyssey
• Reverse Charades Junior Edition
• Faux*Cabulary
• Train of Thought

Best Game Expansion:

• Ticket to Ride Map Collection: Volume 1 - Team Asia & Legendary Asia
• Thunderstone: Dragonspire
• Small World Underground
• 7 Wonders: Leaders
• Summoner Wars: Master Set

Most Innovative Game:

• The Ares Project
• Ascending Empires
• Paperclip Railways
• Quarriors!
• Risk Legacy

Best Game Artwork:

• Dixit Odyssey
• The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game
• Mansions of Madness
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue
• A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (Second Edition)

Best War Game:

• Sekigahara: Unification of Japan
• Band of Brothers
• A Few Acres of Snow
• Julius Caesar
• Sergeants Miniatures Game

Best Game Theme:

• Dungeon Petz
• Flash Point: Fire Rescue
• Last Will
• Yggdrasil
• Takenoko

Best Digital Boardgame:

• Asension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
• Ticket to Ride
• Forbidden Island
• Ghost Stories
• Elder Sign

There you have it, the 2011 Dice Tower Awards Nominees... a far more deserving list of games than you're likely to see from any of the other more established awards this year.

Kickstarter: One Year and 33 Projects Later

Do by Daniel Solis launched on Kickstarter in early April of last year, and I signed on in the first couple of days as a backer. Since then, I've backed a total of 33 projects with pledges ranging from $10 to $175 (I'm not going to post the total amount I've pledged on the off chance that my wife reads this post...). Most of the projects I've backed have been either board game or RPG related, but I've backed a few other projects along the way.

Here's the breakdown:

RPGs:  9
RPG Adventures: 1
RPG Accessories: 1
RPG Fiction:  3
Board Games: 11
Board Game Expansions: 1
Computer Games:  3
Miscellaneous:  4

Funded:  30
Ongoing:  3 (2 RPG Fiction, 1 Computer Game)
Failed:  0

Received:  14 (5  Board Games , 6 RPGs, 1 RPG Accessory, 2 Miscellaneous)
Pending:  15 (6  Board Games, 1 Board Game Expansion, 3 RPGs, 1 RPG Adventure, 2 Computer Games, 2 Miscellaneous)
Special Status:  1 RPG Fiction which is an ongoing project for which I have received the first installment

Out of everything so far, the only category I've been displeased with is the board games.  So much so, that I've decided to refrain from further board game pledges unless it's a game that I already have solid information on.  For example, a reprint of an existing game, a game by an established designer that I trust, or an expansion for a game that I know is good.

A preview of the game, even by a normally reliable source, just isn't going to cut it anymore.  For the record, out of the five board games I've received, I've only really been pleased with one of them.  The others have all either had poor production quality or simply failed to be good games.  The latter is subjective, and I know that some people appear to be perfectly happy with games that I am less than pleased with (edit:  the average user rating on BGG for the four games I disliked is 5.69, while the one I liked has a 7.48 rating, so while subjective on a personal level, it's obviously a subjective view shared by others).  That's true of just about any game, but the problem is magnified by the Kickstarter model.

A traditionally published game will usually have a lot of information out there even before it's available, with reports from Essen and elsewhere being posted in various forums so that a little research will generally give you enough information to let you know whether or not you would like a game before you have to commit money to it.

With Kickstarter projects, there's rarely anyone who has played the game outside of the designer's playtest group prior to your pledge being finalized.  In those rare cases where someone else has played it, it's generally been in the form of a paid preview rather than a critical review.  This means that any glaring deficiencies tend to be glossed over.

For example:  Miskatonic School for Girls.  This was a game that got a lot of hype, largely due to theme, good artwork, and the fact that it's a deck building game that was Kickstarted when deck building games were near the height of their popularity.  I finally gave in to the hype near the end of the pledge period, and now wish I hadn't.

Two glaring problems with the game were immediately apparent when I opened the box and read the rules.  First, it relies on a player elimination mechanic to determine the winner.  That's been unacceptable in any game involving more than two players since at least the beginning of the millennium (werewolf and its clones being the exception that proves the rule).  Second, players draw new cards at the beginning of their turn instead of the end of their turn, which means you can't plan your next turn while the other players are taking theirs.  This inevitably leads to more downtime and longer games.

In hindsight, I can go back and look at the Kickstarter page and see where they talk about the sanity loss mechanic that eliminates players from the game, but nowhere do they explicitly say that this results in players being removed from the game before it is over.  This would be the kind of thing that should be emphasized in just about any objective review of the game.

Even when a game does have solid information available on it, I am still less likely to pledge than I once was.  Both Steve Jackson's Ogre Designer's Edition, and the Sentinels of the Multiverse expansion and re-print are projects that meet my criteria, and which I would have pledged to a few months ago.  Now though, I am likely going to pass on  both of them due to my general dissatisfaction with board games on Kickstarter, combined with a decision to spend less on board games in general.

On the other hand, I will continue to pledge to RPGs happily.  I haven't had a single RPG dud come from Kickstarter.  Admittedly, there are probably a couple of games I will never get to the table among the ones I've backed, but even there I've enjoyed reading through the books and feel that I got my money's worth.

It's too soon for me to tell whether RPG fiction or computer games are worth supporting on Kickstarter, but the comparatively low buy-in price to get a complete digital copy of either makes taking a gamble on them a better bet than board games.

So that's my stand on Kickstarter after a year:  great for RPGs, not so great for board games, and I don't have enough experience to have an opinion on any other categories.  I will say that I haven't had a single negative experience in terms of being scammed.  Even the projects I've ultimately been unhappy with have had more to do with communication issues or factors outside of the publisher's control than any deliberate attempt to make a sub-par product.  As with all of commerce, caveat emptor applies, and you should do your best to find out what you're getting into before committing to it.

Marvel Comics Digital Failure

This is a follow up to my earlier post about Marvel Comics Season One.  This is a look at Marvel's digital pricing policies, and how I think they fail both the company and the customer.

As I get back into reading some comics, I've decided not to go back to having boxes and boxes of physical comics to store and care for.  So I'm doing my comic reading digitally, on my iPad.  I started with Atomic Robo, which is a great comic with some really affordable collections available digitally.  I then decided to check out a few DC titles to see how their "New 52" was.  I'll save my conclusions on that for later, but whatever I felt about the re-boot, I was really impressed by their digital pricing scheme.  It's a simple scheme:  full price for the latest issue, but all back issues are $1.99, with the price falling to that level as soon as a new issue comes out.

As long as I don't mind being a month behind on my comics, I can keep up in an affordable manner.  Possibly more important for DC, if I want to get into a new series digitally, I have an affordable way to catch up on back issues, which has always been one of the big obstacles to starting a new comic.

Then Marvel Heroic Roleplaying comes out, and I decide to check out some of Marvel's current comics.  Until I see what they want me to pay.  The new price for Marvel digital comics is $1 more than that of DC, and they have issues that are a couple of years old still priced at that full price.   The result is that even though I'm specifically looking to check out Marvel comics, I've still probably spent ten times as much on DC.

This might make some sense if they were trying not to undercut the sales of their reprint volumes, but in many cases those reprint volumes themselves are out of print!

A rather glaring example of the stupidity of Marvel's digital pricing is with the Season One comics I discussed before.  I was going to buy them online, but they are charging $20 for what was essentially a collection of four issues (five if you count the "current" issue, but I didn't care about that one).  Then I checked on Amazon, and found that they are going for less than $15 for a hardcover physical copy!  In addition, each physical copy comes with  a code you can redeem for a free digital copy!

It's cheaper for me to buy a physical copy and throw it away in order to get my digital copy than it is to just buy my digital copy!

As an aside, I've read comments from publishers that it isn't fair to compare the price of a digital copy to the price Amazon charges, because they can't control the price that Amazon charges for their books.  I actually somewhat agree with that argument to a point, but unfortunately for those publishers, this is a case of life not being fair.  Pretty much every consumer out there is going to compare the cost of the digital copy to the lowest cost they can get a new copy of the physical book for, and that cost is usually the one Amazon charges.

More signs that Marvel doesn't really get digital pricing come up once I redeem my digital code.  First, I have to redeem the code on Marvel's site instead of through the Comixology site that I've been using for most of my digital comics.  That's annoying, but not a big deal, as I just have to download an extra app to use it.  The bigger issues is that when I sign up for Marvel Online, I start getting offers from them.  The problem is not the offers themselves, which I can opt out of, but the nature of those offers:  if I buy a particular digital comic they will give me a $5 coupon... for use at a local comic store to buy physical comics!  Clue time:  I don't want physical copies, that's why I'm buying digital!

All this together seems to point towards Marvel being one of those publishers that would just rather the whole issue of digital publishing would go away, and that's too bad, because with the new game out and the movies doing so well, there's a real chance to increase their sales online if they just made the slightest effort to give people what they want.