Darkest Dungeon Early Game Review

I have a long and frustrating history with "Rogue-like" games. I love them and I suck at them in equal measure as I mentioned in my iNethack2 review. That being the case, of course I was interested in Red Hook Studio's Steam early access game, Darkest Dungeon. The game started life as a Kickstarter campaign, getting fully funded and delivering.

Darkest Dungeon is a role-playing dungeon-crawler in which you try to reclaim your ancestral home and lands around it from the corruption and evil that has taken root. You do this by recruiting heroes and going off on weekly missions getting ever closer to the next hurdle in your path to your ultimate goal. Simple, right?

Where Darkest Dungeon shines is how it takes the simple dungeon-delving premise and twists it up and makes it brutally hard. Think Lovecraft madness/mental trauma mixed in with X-Com's permanent death along with the base management. Or maybe it is a bit like 10000000 where every run gets you some resources you can use to upgrade your home base (the Hamlet) before going out again. But I get ahead of myself.

Darkest Dungeon takes the usual risk-reward system found in most RPGs and ramps it up to 10. Every time your adventurers go out on a mission, they become stressed. That stress can be caused by their encounters, other party members or just the build up of being used multiple times and leads to them collecting phobias, maladies, diseases and any mess of issues that will make them less effective until they have a chance to rest. Resting and treatment can't take away all of the effects. One of my characters is paranoid, which affects some of her stats, while another became so despondent on a trip to the ruins that he started to make defeatist comments during every battle that stressed out the rest of the party. Based on this and the limited resources available to you, a balance has to be made between taking "fresh" party members out or bringing along a higher level one who is a little bit whacky.

That risk vs reward is built upon by choosing what materials you want to take with you on your mission, more food and torches might be good. What if your characters are hit by monsters and start bleeding? Better stock up on some bandages, etc. All of those items will take pack slots from potential treasures you find on the mission that you want to bring back with you. Then you have to make the choice between upgrading buildings that help relieve stress or those that upgrade your characters' weapons, skills or armor. It's all a set of trade-offs that you will get to work through as you play Darkest Dungeon.

The game-play itself can be managed with mouse or keyboard only and the combat is turn-based with your characters taking turns against the monsters you encounter based on an initiative-like system. You can't rely that you will always get to go first. To make matters more difficult, each being in a battle lines up X X X X vs Y Y Y Y with each position being important. Some of your attack skills will only work from certain positions and can only hit certain other ones on the other team. Have a ranged attack? You probably want to place that character far to the left of your line and they will be able to hit the middle to far right of the enemy's line. This gives you strategic options in how you compose your team so that you can best wipe out the enemies you face. I have found that having a healer, someone who can stun the front ranks of the enemy, someone who can stun the back ranks of the enemy and a tank out front is the best at early levels. What options you will have will depend on the characters that arrive via coach to the Hamlet for you to recruit.

All of this fun is presented in a moody hand-drawn-esque style that is great. The music adds to the macabre feel of the game - like you are playing a horror role-playing game. The only drawback I have seen so far is that the combat and missions do get a little repetitive. Though that is offset by the tactical management of your resources and the depth of options you have at your disposal as you take your characters off to their death, which as I mentioned is permanent.

If you like Rogue-like perma-death games with town upgrades, resource and character management where you have to min-max your way to success, which can fall from your grasp at any moment, then you should be playing Darkest Dungeon right now! I give Darkest Dungeon 4.5 horror-filled screaming adventurer Mick Happies. I wonder if there is any room at the bar for my tippler of a jester?

Armada Review

For those who have read this blog for a long time, you might remember that I loved Ready Player One by Ernest Cline when I wrote my review for it back in 2011. Effortlessly mixing pop culture with a futuristic scavenger hunt plot, that book was great. I have definitely been waiting for the movie to come out and I was glad to hear that there was a second book by Mr. Cline for me to try, Armada.

Armada is not a sequel to Ready Player One, it is a standalone novel set on Earth in the near future. In Armada, the story is told by Zack Lightman, a high school student and world-class player of the game Armada. In the Armada game and its companion game, Terra Firma, Zack (and millions of people around the world) fly drone fighter planes or drone robots and use them to try and stop a fictional alien invasion of Earth. Things get interesting from there.

Armada is dripping with references to science fiction video games, movies, TV shows and books just like Ready Player One. In the first chapter alone, you will lose count of how many nods there are to (if you are a certain age) the games you loved growing up. (Where is Missile Command on my iPad? Did I miss it in the app store?).  To go along with that, you have the typical hero's journey going on here. Zack is a kid with only one parent, having lost his dad when he was very little, who has skills but little direction as to what he wants to do with himself and over the course of the book is plucked out of his comfort zone and forced to step up and achieve his potential.

Armada is a fun book. Mr. Cline knows how to weave the nostalgia and geekery into the broader story and while some of the plot twists are telegraphed a little too much, they aren't disappointing when they happen as you think they might. Not as unique a story as Ready Player One, Armada still satisfies and is a fine addition to Mr. Cline's growing body of work. If you like video games, science fiction tropes and a fun story, go get a copy of Armada right now. We may even get a movie of it like we may for Ready Player One. Armada gets 4 Mick Happies. Now I am off to play a video game.

The Magicians Review

There I am, reading on my iPad. That is how I read most books these days. Having a light at night to read a paper book happens to bother my wife (in my mind) so there you go. A device to read is brilliant. Recently, I loaded up that iPad mini with The Magicians, Lev Grossman's first novel in his Magicians trilogy from Viking Press. (By the way, it is still discounted in e-Book form if you want to check it out).

I was interested in picking up the book because I had heard reviews that liked it very much and also that a TV series was going to be made by SyFy. I don't know if it is better to read the source material before watching a TV show, but it has worked for Game of Thrones, so there you go. Very primitively, you could say this was an urban fantasy about a collegiate Hogwarts and the students who go there. That would only be scratching the surface. Below is my non-spoilery review.

The main character of the books is Quentin Coldwater, a Brooklyn teen who is brilliant but self-centered and doubting. Quentin is going out for interviews with college recruiters when he is whisked away to a very special exam for entrance to Brakebills, a college of magic on the Hudson river. What follows is Quentin's immersion into the hidden world right outside our normal sight, of magicians.

Obviously there are other students we meet and characters from Quentin's pre-Brakebills life that are interspersed within the story. In the background of the narrative is Quentin's love for the fictional series of children's books about a magical land called Fillory (similar to Narnia). The Fillory books are an obsession for Quentin and thus he is well primed to jump deep into his new Brakebills life.

The best parts of The Magicians involve the reader's discovery of this magical world along with Quentin. All of the best parts of Harry Potter series with a more modern take and geeky references to games and books that any fan of fantasy will notice. There are several make you smile moments there. What I found disappointing is that Brakebills and the years that Quentin spends there is only a portion of the book. The last third of the novel deals with Quentin's life after completing his studies at Brakebills and is a little poorer for feeling rushed and like it could have justified its own book by itself.

Be warned, you will get a lot of teenage/early twenties angst and petty behavior here as well. I can't say that the behavior didn't fit the story, though, it just makes you want to smack the backs of some character's heads. The other two books in the series are already available and I have read The Magician King the sequel to The Magicians, which is also good. Lev Grossman has a deeply thought-out world for the series and takes what readers who grew up on Harry Potter loved and made it fresh, more grounded in the world the reader is familiar with and added more modern sensibilities in the character interactions. If you are looking for a fantasy set in the modern world, give The Magicians a try, it gets 4 Mick Happies.

Silicon Valley Season 2 Review

It was only a couple months ago that I posted my review of Silicon Valley season 1. Silicon Valley is Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky's comedy from HBO about tech entrepreneurs trying to achieve success in the tech Mecca of America, Silicon Valley. In the first season we saw Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) and his team at Pied Piper working to get funding and that their app had what it took to be successful. Season 2 shows many of the challenges that come with (modest) success - more funding issues as they seek Series A financing, lawsuits, competition and growing pains.

One of the highlights of Season 2 is the new character of Carla who joins the team. She is a friend of Gilfoyle and Dinesh (who are both still the funnier parts of the show with Jared) and has the chops to stand toe-to-toe with both of them when it comes to the game of pranks they like to play. She also provides plenty of awkward moments as Jared (Zach Woods) tries, unsuccessfully, to integrate a woman into the team. Another is the continuing journey of Big Head (Josh Brenner) as he continues to demonstrate no discernible skills other than his honesty as he rises at Pied Piper competition, Hooli.

Unfortunately, after those positives, there is not nearly as many funny or interesting highlights as you would expect from Season 1's success. The jokes are couched in incompetence and stupid actions by the Pied Piper team members rather than on awkwardness and naiveté that was prevalent in Season 1. I can only watch the team shooting themselves in the foot so many times before it just becomes painful. Plus there is not enough of Monica's character this season and probably too much of Erlich and Jian-Yang.

If you have HBO and some free time, you will find some laughs in Silicon Valley Season 2, but not nearly as many as Season 1. For our house, my wife is out and stopped around episode 6 unable to take any more. Given how the season ends, there is only about one way that the writers can get me back on board with the show and I doubt they will go there. Silicon Valley Season 2 gets 2 Mick Happies. Really bums me out as Season 1 was one of my favorite shows.

Game of Thrones Season Five Review

Jon and Ghost

It is probably fitting that on the fourth anniversary of starting this blog and the 150th post overall, we revisit the same topic as the very first post. I started the blog back in 2011 with a post about the first season of Game of Thrones on HBO. Having just finished watching season 5 on HBO Now, the timing was perfect.

For those who have lived away from media of any kind, Game of Thrones is the TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. The story of the political intrigues and conflict for the throne of Westeros, a fictional fantasy kingdom, where magic and violence are all too real. For four seasons, Game of Thrones has followed the story from the books and in season five we finally see the TV show catch up with the source material.

Both Mr. Martin and the show runners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, have stated that the show and the book series will tell the same story but will do so in different ways. In season five of Game of Thrones, we see this happening more than ever before. Without giving away spoilers, the TV show tightens up many of the various storylines from the novels by excluding characters from the story and having major events in book 5 happen to other characters. In the changing, the story doesn't lose any of its impact. In fact, some beats in the story are even more horrifying due to the characters involved in them than in the books.

What continues to shine in the story are the landscapes and cinematography, which is beautiful. We get all of the sweeping vistas, castles, ruins and, of course, dragons! Season 5 even brings more new characters to the story, interesting ones who bring new conflicts for fan favorites to overcome. Some of my favorites were the feisty Sand Snakes (daughters of Oberyn Martell). We also get to see epic moments for many of our favorites (both bad and good).

If you are looking for happy, happy, fun time, you should know to look elsewhere than Game of Thrones. If you want a complex story that is gritty and, at times epic and awesome, and in others crushing and horrible, then Game of Thrones will deliver it. Can't wait to see what happens in Season 6 or Book 6, whichever comes first. Both are great and will tell different stories, so I will end up reading/watching both. Game of Thrones Season 5 gets 5 Mick Happies.

Does Not Commute Review

Mediocre AB's Does Not Commute won one of Apple's design awards at the 2015 WWDC. Quite an honor and the game is in some distinguished company with other award winners. I am not surprised to find it winning awards. Let me tell you why.

Does Not Commute is the strategy game based on trying to help citizens of a town get where they need to go on their daily commute. On each level of the game, you are given the top-down view of that section of the town. You are given a commuter, a little bit of their story about who they are and where they need to go and are shown the direction they need to go to exit the screen. From there you help them get to their destination by turning left or right by touching the screen on the left or right. The cars auto-drive forward. If you run into anything, the car will be damaged and slow down. Get all of the commuters to their destinations before you run out of time, you reach the next checkpoint and start the next screen (with any remaining time available from the last screen being your starting time for the next one).

A simple premise, right? Wrong. As you help each commuter, they still drive over the same path you took them down last time as you are trying to drive another car! You will end up with a snarl of traffic and have to plan ahead to make sure each car can get where it needs to be. As you complete levels, you will unlock power-ups that can be used to help each commuter. Faster speed, better traction control, armor are all earned in the first few levels and really come in handy. You can only have one activated at the start of each commuter's run. There are additional time power-ups you can collect during the commute of one of the cars if you drive to the right place.

Beyond the simple gameplay and deep strategy that it brings with the layering of each car moving across the level, Does Not Commute has really nice graphics and a quirky storyline going one. You get a voyeuristic view into the sleepy little town these people are commuting across. Most are funny and weird but all are interesting. All of this comes together into a really fun game.

Does Not Commute is free on iOS (also available on Android) and you can play the whole game free if you make it all in one go. To unlock the use of checkpoints that you earn by completing levels, you will need to make a one-time in app purchase to get the premium version of the game. If you like it after the first few runs, I am sure you will find the couple dollars to be well spent.

For me, driving controls on touchscreen and even console games just don't work as well. There isn't the force-feedback you get driving a real car, so I tend to be awful at them and over-correct or over-aggressively turn. I wish that Does Not Commute had a Draw Race 2 mode where you could draw the route you wanted each car to go rather than real-time trying to drive them. If that mode was available, this would be a 5 Mick Happy game for me. As it is, Does Not Commute if 4.5 Mick Happies. Well worth checking out. See you on the commute.

The Boxtrolls Movie Review

Archibald Snatcher

On Netflix the other night I finally sat down and watched The Boxtrolls. For those who don't know, it is the latest stop-motion animated film from Laika, the production company behind Coraline and ParaNorman. The Boxtrolls is the story of the town of Cheesebridge where the Victorian-esque town is thought to be besieged by trolls who wear boxes and come out at night to steal.

The story really begins with a child being taken away by the Boxtrolls and a man named Archibald Snatcher using that as an opportunity to get what he has always wanted, a white hat, by exterminating the Boxtrolls. You see, people in Cheesebridge wear hats according to their station and a white hat puts you at the top of society and earns you access to the tasting room where you can sample all of the best cheeses. It is a really weird place where cheese and hats are the priority. Beneath Cheesebridge you have a world built by the Boxtrolls that is like a scavenged, recycled Steampunky wonderland. It is in this world that a boy called Eggs grows up and lives with the Boxtrolls all under the specter of the Exterminators, led by Snatcher, who are capturing Boxtrolls to rid the town of their menace.

Like their other two movies, The Boxtrolls has an amazing visual style and to know someone made everything by hand is unbelievable. I mean take a look at this behind the scenes featurette about the making of the film.

That is crazy detailed and I can't imagine how painstaking that work actually is. Oh to be that artistic.

The things that work well in The Boxtrolls, besides the visuals are the interactions with some of the characters. Though they don't talk much, the Boxtrolls themselves are very expressive and interactive and caring with each other. One of the best bits of interaction between characters actually comes between Richard Ayoade's Mr. Pickles and Nick Frost's Mr. Trout who work for Snatcher. They are constantly questioning whether what they are doing would get them seen as heroes or villains. Very self-aware stuff that doesn't quite break the fourth wall.

There are themes of creativity, caring, and empowerment in the story. Especially how Winnie, Elle Fanning, the daughter of the town's lord steps out and takes matters into her own hands when her parents and other adults can't be bothered to think beyond their own needs/wants. Of course there is also selfishness, greed, and malevolent behavior on the part of the bad guy, Snatcher, and his crew. Since this is a kid's movie, the bad guy even looks like a bad guy to make it easier to spot.

Does the story have some ups and down, sure. However, the visually stunning and creative way the movie is shown more than covers those up. You would have a hard time finding something else to spend ~90 minutes watching. Take a break and go get immersed in the world of Cheesebridge, it will be worth your time. The Boxtrolls gets 4 Mick Happies.

Jamiroquai Game

My daughter rocks as a furniture dodger

It isn't often that some game comes along that my wife actually asks me to download for her. Yesterday, the Jamiroquai Game by Buncho Games came across her Twitter feed. Being a big Jamiroquai fan, she was intrigued. A half hour later both she and the daughter were dodging blocky furniture in a sterile white room as Jay Kay from the band just like in the Virtual Insanity video. Laughter ensued.

The free indie game is available via Game Jolt for PC computers - here. It is a recreation of the video mentioned above in that you walk around the room as black furniture comes sliding along at your (from the back or left or right). You just need to dodge as long as possible. The game keeps score of how many pieces of furniture you dodge.

It is a very simple game and uses the Virtual Insanity song as the sound track. You can move using the WASD or arrow keys and can restart the game anytime by hitting the space bar. It's that simple. Where it becomes brilliant is the crashing sound and physics of the avatar once he is mowed down by one of the sliding black seats. He flops to the ground in a broken heap still twitching.

The game is simple and addictive and fun. It won't hold your attention long, but you will have fun with it. I imagine a swipe or tilt powered mobile version would be downloaded millions of times just because it is that type of easy to play type of game. Good work on Buncho Games for making this one. If you have a PC, go give it a try. I give it 5 Mick Happies for the laughter it brought at our house. Here is a recreation of my wife's first game.

Daredevil Season 1 Review

2015 is turning out to be a big year for Marvel properties. With an Avengers movie, Ant-Man, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter and two new series via Netflix, A.K.A. Jessica Jones and Daredevil. You can't find a place to avoid superheroes these days. I am actually getting a little burnt out on the genre and formula. Why does everything have to culminate in a "Save the World" level climax? Luckily, Daredevil is a little bit different on that account.

Daredevil is a 13-episode series from Netflix, Marvel and series creator, Drew Goddard, is based on the comic of the same name starring a blind lawyer with exceptional senses who fights crime in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in New York City. Matt Murdoch, Daredevil, is played by Charlie Cox (Stardust) and is joined by his law partner, Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (Elden Henson). Together they work to be scrupulous lawyers in a town fraught with criminals. They are helped by their assistant, Karen Page, who is played by Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood). Karen also gets help during the series from a reporter, Ben Urich, who is played by Vondie Curtis-Hall. Okay, enough introductions.

At a young age, Matt Murdoch saves a man from being hit by a car but is hurt himself in the accident, which leaves him blind due to a chemical spill. Murdoch's father is a bruiser of a boxer who does his best for his family while having to deal with the corruption around his sport. This is all seen in flashbacks in the first two episodes. When we first really meet Murdoch, he is preparing to defend his and Foggy's first client, Karen Page, who is accused of murdering a co-worker.

From there the story twists and turns through 13 episodes where we find that the city is being overrun by criminal elements all associated with one Wilson Fisk played by Vincent D'Onofrio. Fisk has pulled together a coalition of heroin producing Chinese, drug dealing Russians, Yakuza and a money-laundering business man. Together they are working to re-make Hell's Kitchen into a better future. What isn't clear is who's better future that will be. Maybe the drugs and crime are just a means to an end.

Over the course of the season, we get to see Murdoch become a vigilante hero who uses his martial arts training and heightened senses to do some truly amazing things. They even provide an explanation of sorts as to how it happens. We also get to see the motivations of the criminal element, who are just as deep and flawed as some of our heroes. The entire season is essentially one big story told in 13 parts. There are ups and downs in how well the story is told, but it comes to a satisfactory (if a little rushed) ending.

One of the challenges of the show is that it is very dark and gritty. Probably best watched in a dark room where some of the black edges of each frame will be a little more visible. Watching on my iPad mini in a bright room wasn't always the best choice. Daredevil also has more than its fair share of violence, but it seems to fit the grounded, not over-the-top powers of the main hero. On the plus side, D'Onofrio is fantastic as Fisk and truly scary at times. One of the other standouts is Rosario Dawson as Claire Temple, a nurse who saves Murdoch a time or two. Toby Leonard Moore as James Wesley, Fisk's right hand man, is fantastic and cultured and stable while his boss seems complete unstable at times. Another great thing, which is funny to say, is the opening credit sequence (seen in the photos here) where parts of the city are drawn with flowing blood. Amazing stuff right on par with Game of Thrones' intro.

When I started watching the show, my wife asked me "Why do you like these superhero shows?" I really don't have an answer. Maybe it is the escapism or the idea that a flawed person can overcome those issues to make a difference. In the case of Daredevil, I liked that it wasn't solely about destroying everything (though there is a lot that goes boom). Hard to say what it is I like, but I did enjoy it and will be back for more.

If you are looking for realism, you will need to suspend disbelief a few times as Daredevil chases cars by running over rooftops or heals quickly after taking beatings. What you do get is a more grounded story than most superhero shows/movies and while there is an ultimate battle for Hell's Kitchen, the whole world isn't at stake. In the next season, I hope we get even more of Nelson and Murdoch as lawyers and broaden the story to encompass more than one main villain. At the end of the day, this is a very good show. It won't be for everyone, but it has a lot going for it and Cox is convincing as the blind lawyer and ultimately, hero. I am hopeful for the other Netflix/Marvel shows coming in the next year or two. Daredevil gets 4.5 Mick Happies.

The Martian Review

In my family, we have a tradition. If you drop something, break something, fall down or otherwise injure yourself, but will be all right, you just call out, "I'm Okay!" That way everyone knows we don't need to rush over and run off to the hospital. The Martian by Andy Weir is a bit like that just about every chapter and it's great.

The Martian started as a self-published serial novel on Andy Weir's website, then a $0.99 e-book on Amazon and later was "discovered", published by Crown Publishing Group and optioned for a movie directed by Ridley Scott. The New York Times Bestselling book is the story of a manned mission to Mars, the third such mission in fact, and begins with our main character, Mark Watney, in mortal danger. Things just continue to be dire for Mark from there.

At its heart, this is a castaway story of survival. Mark, a botanist and mechanical engineer, has to find a way to survive everything Mars can dish out with limited supplies and only a sliver of hope of rescue. What is great about the book is the way Mr. Weir weaves solutions based on real-world science (most everything is plausible). Math is applied along with chemistry and plain old ingenuity. I really liked the feel of old-school space exploration with more modern references as well as a dash of 1970s nostalgia (which also fit well with the space exploration background - anyone of a certain age has the two pretty well intertwined in their brain).

I heard of this book through the Sword & Laser podcast, so I knew much of the story ahead of actually reading it. I also knew that a movie was in the works, starring Matt Damon, so I found myself visualizing how the story would translate to the screen (very well in my opinion). I am sure there will be parts of the story that will be cut to allow the movie to fit the time limits of film, therefore you should read the book before seeing the movie.

Pick up a copy of The Martian. The iTunes e-book version had a Q&A with the author, an essay about writing the book and questions for readers groups as extras. I can't recommend this book highly enough. It has reinforced the fact that though I read a lot (A LOT) of fantasy, books set in space are my favorite. The Martian gets 5 Mick Happies. Can't wait to see the movie now.

Silicon Valley Season 1 Review

One of the benefits of having access to HBO Now is the ability to stream HBO's previously aired shows. That meant that I was able to share the entirety of Season 1 of Silicon Valley with my family before Season 2 began. Silicon Valley follows the trials and successes of a small tech start up as they try to bring their new software to market. Incubated in the house of Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller), Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) is joined by Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) when his compression algorithm is shown to be revolutionary.

Together the four work with "Jared" (Zach Woods), who has an understanding of business organization the others lack, and Monica (Amanda Crew), the lead from the venture capital firm that has given them seed money. They fight to develop the algorithm into a suite of products before a large tech firm, Hooli, can beat them to the punch. Season 1 ends with a major showdown between Hendricks' company, Pied Piper, and Hooli.

This is a mature audiences-focused half-hour comedy. One of Gilfoyle's lines in the premiere regarding the liquid shrimp he has just eaten nearly made my wife spit-take her mouthful of water across the room and she was hooked. Silicon Valley is the brain child of Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky. In this case, the show probably is more reminiscent of Judge's Office Space than Beavis and Butthead, but there are shades of both in the humor and character interplay (especially Dinesh and Gilfoyle). Overall this is a show about young brilliant people who struggle to handle the success and opportunity they have earned.

Thomas Middleditch, who I thought was one of the best parts of the movie Fun Size, is great as the incredibly smart but socially inept Richard Hendricks dealing with situations he just isn't equipped to handle. Probably the funniest characters in the show are Jared (Woods) who is completely straight-laced compared to the others and Martin Starr is very good as he delivers the deadpan and dry humor as Gilfoyle. Season 1 is 8 episodes long and the first four episodes are very funny and while there is a bit of a lull during episodes 5, 6 and 7, stick with it. The season finale is some of the funniest television I have ever seen. We were all struggling for breath by the time it ended. Luckily, Silicon Valley has already been picked up for season 3 so Richard and the team will be working together for quite a while.

If you are looking for a mature comedy about twenty-somethings trying to make it as entrepreneurs, give Silicon Valley a shot. At times the show is some of the funniest television out there and overall is extremely good. Silicon Valley gets 4.5 Mick Happies. Can't wait for another episode to air tonight.

In Real Life Review

Like many gamers, I have played Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) at some point in my past. For me it was Multi-User Dungeons like Valhalla (now rebuilt as Asgard's Honor) and Genocide. I never got into the World of Warcraft (WoW) and Everquest games. My daughter did play around in WoW a little and that always made me smile a bit. Now I do play Path of Exile which falls nicely into this genre. I do know that there are a lot of problems that have evolved with the MMORPG format. Not the least is bullying of players and real-money economies building up around the game where those with time sell the fruits of their efforts to those with little time and lots of money. I was then pleasantly surprised to find out that Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang had combined to develop a young adult focused graphic novel, In Real Life,  that explored these subjects all with a girl protagonist.

The story focuses on Anda, a young girl who's family has just moved to a new town. There she hears about an online game, Coarsegold Online, and convinces her parents to let her play. After that we follow the story as Anda meets other players and learns a lot about the world of Coarsegold Online, our world and the impact of one's actions.

The artwork by Jen Wang is vibrant and fully enhances the story being told. This is a great book for anyone with children that are getting ready to play online games. It broaches the subjects I mentioned before as well as opens up the opportunity to talk about those topics with your kids. Along the way they can learn for themselves the best way to interact with other people online where doing what is right or wrong is sometimes more than just a choice of following the rules or not.

Pick up a copy of In Real Life, read it and share it with someone else. You will be glad that you did. Written with a young adult audience in mind, there is still enough depth and story here for adult readers and, again, I think it is best when thought of as a story you read together with a teenager for the dialogue it will raise. Once you finish In Real Life, there is a short story on Tor.com called Con/Game with the same characters. Due to the short length of Con/Game, I don't recommend reading it first as you will not have an understanding of the characters or backstory and thus Con/Game will not be as entertaining as it could be. In Real Life, 4 Mick Happies, is available digitally and in paper form at all booksellers. Enjoy.

HBO Now Review

The family and I have been sans cable TV for nearly 4 years now. One of the things we have always said is that we have no problem paying for the content we want to see. We just don't want to be paying $60 - $100 a month for a bunch of channels we will never watch. Don't even get me started on commercials as well. We bought 3 apple TV boxes for our televisions and started streaming Netflix (we already were paying for Netflix on top of our monthly cable TV bill). We supplemented Netflix by buying season passes through iTunes to any TV shows we wanted to watch. Upside was access to shows the day after they aired without any commercials. It even felt like we were saving money when we used credit card points to get iTunes cards. Since then we have purchased replacement apple TV boxes twice but overall we probably have saved a few thousand dollars by not having cable TV. On thing that always bothered me was that we couldn't access shows like Game of Thrones because a) HBO wouldn't allow season passes for the show on iTunes and b) they wouldn't allow viewing of their content without a cable subscription, until now.

This past week saw the rollout of HBO Now, a standalone HBO streaming service available without cable subscription. For $14.99 a month, you have unlimited access to HBO series and whatever movies they are currently offering. Though a bit pricey over all when compared to Netflix's streaming service, HBO Now does offer some things Netflix can't.

With HBO Now, you get access to content like Game of Thrones, Sex in the City, The Sopranos and Entourage (along with others). All available right after they originally air (no waiting for the season to end or the DVDs to be released a year later). You also get access to a mix of older and recently released movies, most of which are not available on Netflix. There are also the sports (mainly boxing), comedy and documentary specials that HBO has produced. HBO Now is accessible by computer, an app on Apple TV as well as a mobile device app (I have been using it on my iPad Mini). There is also one feature in the app that is unique compared to Netflix, the +10 button, allowing you to fast forward 10 seconds, which is so much better than trying to track forward using the scrolling bar - which always leads to buffering delays on Netflix.

HBO Now interface

As with any new service, there are some drawbacks that you should be aware of. The first movie we streamed on our Apple TV, The Heat, had a lot of stuttering in the video playback - no problems with the sound. The user interface on the mobile app is a little limited on the home screen when you first open the app, I find using the menu button the best way to navigate. The other drawback compared to Netflix is that content rotates on and off the service much faster than with Netflix (not including HBO-specific shows and specials). The monthly cost is also a little on the high side for the total amount of content provided, but the free first month helped mitigate some of that cost.

Main front screen for HBO Now - the 3 menu button upper left is your friend

I was able to sign up and register my device quickly through the iPad app using my iTunes account. This means I can pay the monthly fee through iTunes and not worry about my credit card being hit (as long as I keep an iTunes balance up). You can stop the subscription renewal at any time, it only renews one month at a time. Want to see all of a given show, sign up for a month after it has aired and stream it all then let the subscription lapse.

HBO Now is exactly what all content providers should be moving toward. There is no need for a "middle man" cable provider curating a large number of channels - we want and will pay for access to specific content we want to watch. It is cheaper for the viewer and directly benefits content providers who offer what we want to see. Is the service perfect, no, is it a good start, yes. Especially with the free first month, you should jump in and give it a try. HBO Now gets 4 Mick Happies. Now back to watching The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Misenchanted Sword Review

Back in the 1980s I was reading most any fantasy book I could get my hands on. There were epic fantasies like the Lord of the Rings, more pulpy fare like Gary Gygax's books centered on Gord the Rogue and others. Somewhere in that mix, my dad and I read The Misenchanted Sword by Lawrence Watt-Evans. The Misenchanted Sword was something different from the other fare of the time and has become one of my favorite books.

The Misenchanted Sword is a standalone novel and first in what would become the Legends of Ethshar  series. This is the story of Valder, a scout, in the middle of a Great War that has been going on for generations who finds himself lost behind enemy lines. He finds a hut to shelter in, but some of his enemies come and burn the place down. He survives and runs into the owner of the hut, who is very angry to see his place ruined. The man who owns the hut turns out to be a wizard and enchants Valder's sword to help get Valder to leave. The rest of the book is about Valder and the sword and how his life is changed by the wizard's choice to help him.

What is different about the book is how quickly you become immersed in the world and the story. The book is not long, but you get a pretty meaty story about Valder and his challenges (I am trying to avoid spoiling anything). It also introduces you to a world that is fleshed out and vast, having started life as a role-playing campaign setting before becoming the backdrop for many novels. Lawrence Watt-Evans also has an easy style to his writing that blends humor and irony with nice twists, good for readers just getting started with fantasy.

Like the Discworld series, The Legends of Ethshar novels take readers to different parts of Ethshar and focus on different characters in almost every book. There are a couple that continue the story of one character or another for move than one book but in the early novels they are usually standalone. However, each peels back another layer in the overall world. There is war, magic, adventures, politics and more to be found in the stories. Overall, as of right now, there are 13 novels and one short story collection in the series. The most recent books having been written by the author as part of a reader-funded experiment on his website. He seems to be done with that experiment, but hopefully not done with writing in Ethshar.

Over the years, I have owned two copies of the book and loaned or gifted both away to try to share the story with other readers. It may be hard to find, but I think the Del Rey version has the best cover art, but any copy is good. If you like fun adventures with neat twists and imaginative world-building, you should give The Misenchanted Sword a try. Compared to the door stopper sized books in Fantasy today, you may find the shorter, but no less enjoyable, Legends of Ethshar books to be a breath of fresh air. Plus with as many of them as there are, people liking longer series will be covered as well. Here's hoping there are more Legends coming. The Misenchanted Sword gets 5 Mick Happies.

iNethack2 HD Review

@

The @ symbol has a lot of meaning for me and quite a few older gamers. Long before it was a part of user names on Twitter or even widely known as part of everyones email addresses, it was your player character in one of the best games ever, Rogue (1980). Yes, THE Rogue that is referred to when someone says (or writes) that a game is Rogue-like. Rogue begat Hack (1985) and Mike Stephenson made NetHack (1987). All of them share the same premise of an adventurer trying to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor from deep in a dangerous dungeon. They all sported the same ASCII graphics with the @ as your character you moved through the dungeon. If you haven't heard of them, they are the precursor to games like Diablo.

iNethack was the original version of NetHack to grace the App Store, but it was removed in 2014. It is now back as iNethack2 due to the hard work of Future Shock Software to update the code and get it back out there for players. As a free download, there is no reason why this isn't already on your device. It is compatible with iPhone, iPod and iPad. Or play the latest version of NetHack online here.

Pick a class, any class

The basics of the game are simple. You tap the screen in the direction you want to go. Double-tap and you move in that direction until you run into something or a monster shows up. Run into a monster and you attack it with your weapon. Have a ranged weapon, use the correct command letter in the command bar at the bottom to throw something (or zap if you have a wand or spell) at the monster. Kill it and you gain experience. Don't and you likely are going to die. To help you in your travels you start the game with a pet (kitten or puppy) who can also fight for you in some cases. Warning, your pet can die. You will die. Horribly and often. All of the Rogue-likes share one thing, death is easy and permanent. With the right settings chosen you might even run into your ghost in the dungeon one day.

The Quest

DawnHack tileset and UI

Sounds simple right? It is and it isn't. You have to manage your hit points, collect enough food not to starve, and solve puzzles to make it all the way to the bottom of the dungeon and get the Amulet let alone make it back out again. I have been playing for 30 years and I have never won. I have never even had the Amulet in hand. Even using wiki pages or downloaded guides, I have never ever even been close. It is that hard. I have also never stopped playing. It is that good a game.

Sometimes you take a risk and a Water demon crushes you.

So, dungeon crawl, permadeath and deep gameplay are all here. You choose between a number of character classes and races at the beginning of the game. Your choice determines your starting stats and general equipment. Rangers start with ranged weapons and food, Wizards with wands, rings and spells, etc. Your pet can help you find out if anything you find in the dungeon is cursed or not (a pet will only reluctantly step on a cursed item). Your pet can even help you steal from shops you find along your journeys - you just have to train him or her to do so (by throwing them food when they do something you like). Wish for the right thing and you can have Excalibur in your hand, polymorph objects to change them into better ones, use Genocide scrolls to get rid of extremely dangerous monsters like the Basilisk. Pray to your god for help. Eat what you kill to stay alive. It is all up to you and all in the game.

Here's a death. A sad pathetic one.

Worried that ASCII, old school graphics aren't your thing, you can change it in your settings to something more modern. (Exit the game, go to Settings on your device, find iNethack2, scroll down to Tileset to find a new one. You can also change your character name there or make other adjustments to the gameplay. The game has in-game help to get you started on what the commands do. Don't forget to use s to search as there are hidden traps and doors all over the place.

Here's a better death.

Here's everything I killed on my dungeon crawl.

Don't take my word for it. iNethack2 and its predecessors are some of the best games ever. They are free due to the awesome work of very smart people making them available that way. Go get a copy or play online. You won't regret it. iNethack2 gets 5 Mick Happies. If you like it, buy a copy of Future Shock Studios' Interplanetary Drift to say thank you for making it available on iOS again.

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies Review

Trailer

I remember reading The Hobbit when I was growing up and again later at least once or twice. I watched the Arthur Rankin and Jules Bass animated movie many times growing up. It is probably that version of The Hobbit that is most visually imprinted into my mind when I think on the novel or any movies. I own at least two different versions of each of the Lord of the Rings movies (standard and extended) and enjoyed them quite a bit. The Hobbit trilogy, however, has been a bit of a mixed bag for me and here is why.

Visually, The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies and the preceding two films are amazing. The sweeping landscapes, the depth and awe-inspiring views are fantastic. Peter Jackson knows how to do a sweeping shot, such as looking up the vale from Laketown to Erebor. You can practically feel the distance and weight and breadth of the world. The sound is also exceptional and puts you right there with the characters on screen.

In addition, the source material is beloved, making me predisposed to loving the films. Unfortunately, as the Hobbit was stretched out to 3 films, so much had to be added that wasn't part of the Hobbit story that it became something different. The story grew in the telling as it were and ultimately what we get in The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies feels slow and plodding at times and rushed and incomplete in others.

Let's get through the things that didn't work for me (or my family) first. When we first see Legolas on screen my wife said, "Who's that?" and after I told her, "What did they do to him? He looks like a Ken doll." It took me another hour of the film to figure out why that was. I think it has to do with the frame rate or the way the movie was filmed, but the characters are all hyper-clear on screen and it makes everything look very odd overall. It is almost like the characters are super-imposed on the background at times (and maybe they were), but it took me out of the film at times because the world looked real, but the people didn't. They just didn't blend together right.

Another issue was the characterization. In order to build tension we have Thorin, Thranduil and others all being complete jerks. This actually drove my wife and daughter away - they left about an hour into the film to go play Chihuahua-opoly with lots of laughter ensuing. Of course the tension and characterization was in the original book - things are going on with these characters that cause them not to get along, but a lot of screen time is given to it that would have been better suited to use later in wrapping up the battle itself or giving others their due. For instance, we don't get enough of Beorn or wrap up of the overall battle. Also, why do dwarves gear up for battle and then take off a lot of the armor before actually going out to fight? Crazy.

Okay, deep breath, there are good things here as well. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Bard (Luke Evans) shine as good people in a bad situation. Both of them actually carry a lot of the real emotion in the movie (okay, Tauriel - Evangeline Lilly - does as well), but we get to spend a lot more time with Bilbo and Bard and none of that time feels wasted. Again, the visuals and sound are amazing - just what you would expect given the high bar that Peter Jackson has set with earlier films in Middle Earth. In addition, the very end of the film at Bag End is a lot of fun and much like I pictured in my mind.

Is The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies a great film? Not quite. Is it a decent film that gives us one last go-around in Middle Earth - absolutely. The film links up well with the Lord of the Rings in a way and getting to go on the journey with Bilbo has been nice. While I would have wanted more in some areas and less in others, I think the trilogy would have been best served by being 2 films, There, and a sequel, And Back Again. Maybe someday it will be tried or edited from the 3 films we did get. Three Mickhappies.

Motorsport Manager Review

We like cars and motorsports around our home. Occasionally watch F1, look at the new car models just about every year and play driving video games. One favorite has been Grand Prix Story by Kairosoft. I was excited to try out Motorsport Manager by Christian West.

Motorsport Manager is a racing simulation game where you take control of your own racing team. You make all the calls - where to invest, who to hire, who to fire, what strategy to use during the race, what pitting and tire strategy, etc. It's all in the game. Motorsport Manager is available for iOS and Android.

Motorsport Manager starts you off with modest amount of money and a low tech car and facilities. You choose between two low racing leagues to compete in with your two cars. You take on sponsors to help your team earn money from each race in order to reinvest in either facilities and staff or your young driver program. At the end of each race season you will earn prize money based on your position in the Constructor's Championship.

The game is split into 3 main areas, the management of your team, qualifying and each race. Prior to the race, you can make all of the team decisions - do you invest in manufacturing, aerodynamics or design. Each one will help improve your team's performance by either improving reliability or speed or acceleration or handling. Everything is a balance though as you have limited money and each time you improve an area it can increase the monthly cost of running your team.

During qualifying, you have to make choices between how you will setup your car - do you focus on cornering or straights, do you focus on top speed or acceleration or go neutral in your settings? Each may be better depending on the track that you happen to be racing on. Then what weather conditions will you experience, is it better to put your drivers out with soft, hard or wet tires? All these choices are yours and, along with the driver's skills and your car's capabilities, will determine if you get pole position for the race or languish back mid-pack.

Once the race starts, you are locked into the strategy you chose right before the green light drops. From there, your tactical choices include when to pit, the tires you put on the car and whether or not to push for faster lap times (at the expense of more tire wear). The difference between a podium place for one of your drivers and a mid-pack finish may be determined by your tire/pitting strategy. Soft tires are great on dry, cool days but wear much faster while hard tires are slower (except on hot, hot days) but will last  up to 8 laps or more. It's all up to you.

On my iPad mini with Safari and iBooks open in the background, the game does slow down and stutter during the races at times. You will also find yourself fast-forwarding the speed during the race and qualifying - which will make a race last less than 5 minutes. Take your time when you first start out, upgrade as much as you can and stay in the lower leagues until you have bought everything you can afford. Even when you are dominating the lowest racing leagues, you will be a middle of the road team in the next level. However, the next level will bring significantly better staff and drivers along with the toiling to try to improve (there is a lot more sponsor money at higher leagues, too, but the expectations are much higher). Don't worry that you can only improve your car through investment in your facilities as you will periodically be given a dilemma that may allow investment into immediate improvements to one aspect of your car or another (at a cost). If you aren't patient, the game also offers in-app purchases for more in-game dollars to invest, but it isn't necessary at all.

Motorsport Manager is a worthy racing simulation that feels like you are managing a racing team with the right level of granularity that it doesn't feel like you have to micro-manage. The races are bite-sized enough that you can play one in 2 - 5 minutes…which fits the mobile space well. Overall, it fits in the same sporting simulation space as Football Manager and Out of the Park Baseball. Motorsport Manager gets 4.5 Mick Happies. Well worth your time.

Star Realms Digital Card Game Review

A recent Humble Bundle was focused solely on card games. I picked it up and one of the games I was interested in giving a go to was Star Realms. I had it installed on my iPad mini for a while but hadn't started playing. Since the bundle gave me a full unlock to the base game, I was happy to spend some time playing around.

Star Realms is a deck building game from some of the same designers that made Ascension, several of whom were also professional Magic: the Gathering players back in the day. In a deck building game, both players start with a similar set of basic cards and there is a shared deck of advanced cards that they can select from on each turn. Cards are purchased from a "trade row" with resources gained by playing cards from your hand. See the pictures below - they show the cards in hand and the play space. As a player runs out of cards, they reshuffle their discard pile and start drawing cards again. In that way, cards from the trade row end up in their deck and are available to be played.

Basic game layout - my hand on bottom, my bases to the left

Star Realms gets increasingly complex from there. In the game each player has authority (hit points) and generate trade or combat points that are used to attack your opponent or to buy cards from the trade row of cards. The object of each game is to reduce your opponent to 0 authority. Simple enough, right? The game packs a lot of complexity from there. Individual cards may offer trade, combat or authority or any combination of them. Further, some cards are associated with factions like the Federation or Machine Cult or Blob and may, if multiple cards from a faction are played on the same turn it can result in additional effects. At times these effects might be more trade or combat or force an opponent to discard a card or you to draw a card. The cards in the trade row are either ships or bases; the difference being that bases stay in play once played until they are destroyed. Ships are played and then discarded at the end of each turn.

Mid-turn play

One of the great things about deck building games is that they add the additional strategy of choosing the right cards that come up to build an effective deck throughout the game rather than honing a deck prior to the game. This makes it easy to jump into a new game and makes each game different. The digital app for the physical card game, which is available on PC or iOS and Android devices allows you to play the basic game against the AI or a human opponent. It also includes a campaign of crafted scenarios where your starting deck or modifiers are added to make the game more challenging. Some of them can be quite difficult and are available in normal and hard version. There are also expansions available adding more cards and variety to the base game deck. The only drawback I have found is that the visuals are little small on the iPad mini, but that is more an effect of the device not the game. You can zoom in on any of the cards you want easily.

 Campaign chapters

Scenario description

If you are a fan of card games and want to have it available on the go, Star Realms is a great option. If you want an easily accessible but deep game, give it a try. Star Realms gets 4.5 Mick Happies.

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