Epic Battles

Played a few games of Sentinels of the Universe (a cooperative superhero-themed card game) t'other day, including one that was truly epic. The heroes were facing off against Grand Warlord Voss, one of the toughest villains in the basic set. He incapacitated two of the five heroes before the heroes had managed to damage him at all! The third hero fell after getting him down to a 'mere' 80 hit points, but by that time the remaining two heroes were in the single digits each. But The Visionary (herooftheage) managed to draw *just* the right card combo. He had an ongoing card that did (a small amount of) damage to all enemies on each of his turns, and he drew a card that made him completely immune to damage, but also prevented him from taking any actions during his turn. But the already-played ongoing card wasn't an action, so could gradually chip away at the baddie. Bunker was still in play, and managed to get her hit point total to exactly equal The Visonary's, which was great, because any time the baddies did damage to either "the hero with the highest HP" *or* "the hero with the lowest HP", The Visionary could opt to take it, and have the damage bounce off. It took a lot of rounds, and Bunker did very nearly fall before the end, but at last the forces of Goodness prevailed!

Also had an epic battle in Xenoblade Chronicles recently. One of the benefits of insanely-lengthy JRPGs, when well done, is that they get you *really* familiar with an aspect of the game, and then upend your expectations. This works for story elements in obvious ways, but also can be applied to gameplay. On rare-but-excellent occasions, it can be both at once. Minor spoilers follow:( Read more... )

In honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day

teenybuffalo, kestrell, and I are going to watch my favorite version of Treasure Island. It's relatively obscure, having originally been a 1990 TV movie, but is a truly excellent film, and more faithful to the book than any other adaptation I've seen.

Charlton Heston does a brilliant job as Long John Silver, the original archetypal pirate that everyone else talks like on this day. He's got the sincerity and conviction to deliver those oft-heard lines without sounding like he's reciting cliches, and he also pulls off the difficult character mix of charisma and villainy.

Also notable in the cast are Oliver Reed as Billy Bones, Christopher Lee in a brief-but-memorable turn as Blind Pew, and an extremely young Christian Bale as Jim Hawkins. The rest of the cast may not be quite as awesome as these, but nobody does a bad job. The soundtrack is by The Chieftains, and adds well to the atmosphere.

Very Highly Recommended.