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The First Betrayal

2008-08-10

Josan is a monk living in the remote islands as a lighthouse keeper. He was sent there five year previous after barely surviving a life-threatening fever that stole his memories. His rehabilitation has been slow, but successful, and he’s ready to return to the city where he can continue his scholarly studies. Unfortunately, one night he’s attacked by an assassin—and lives—and begins to suspect that the conflicting memories in his head hint at a past life he’s not only forgotten, but had wanted to leave behind.

The Dark Knight

2008-08-05

Christian Bale once again does a spectacular job portraying a Batman who is dangerously balancing between doing what is right and giving in to his emotions and doing something rash. He seamlessly goes from playboy gone corporate worker to a man who will do anything it takes to do what he thinks is right. However, what we think is right isn't always right. Does this lead him down a path of darkness?

The First Law trilogy

2008-07-16

Logan Ninefingers is a rebel fighting against his king, his berserking ability a dark secret that has caused nothing but trouble in his life. Jezal dan Luthar is a spoiled rich kid training for the Contest, a yearly fencing match full of glory, who also falls in love with the wrong woman. Sand dan Glokta is a questioner for the king’s inquisition, horribly crippled after surviving enemy prisons. And Ferro Maljan is a woman on a quest for revenge, whose demon lineage makes her almost unstoppable.

Penguin Revolution volume 1

2008-07-14

Yukari has a dream: she is going to ace her classes, get into university, and become a public servant. Not an average girl's dream, but Yukari hasn't lived an average life. Her father has scheme after scheme, and Yukari has lived on a roller coaster of being terribly wealthy and then terribly poor. Still, she's doing well, and she tries not to think about the glowing gold wings she sometimes sees on people. But one set of these wings leads her to discover that the beautiful student body vice-president Ryoko is actually Ryo, a boy.

Blood Alone volume 1

2008-07-07

I love vampire stories. They're one of my secret shames. But I think I would like Blood Alone even if I weren't a fan of vampires. Kuroe, who is human, had his sister taken by a vampire and now has the ability to see supernatural things. He lives with Misaki, a young girl newly turned into a vampire and left in his care. Their relationship and the way they interact with the world around them is the crux of these stories.

The Hob's Bargain

2008-07-02

Magic in Aren’s world is generally mistrusted. It doesn’t help that the bloodmages go a little crazy in the process of using their magic, nor that they take gifted children from among the population to train in their questionable practices. Many years ago the bloodmages bound the land’s natural magics to control it, because they and the rulers feared it; what good is it to have a populace with as much magic as those in charge? But in the process they banished all magical creatures—ghosts, goblins, and other ghouls—and it seemed like a fair tradeoff.

King of Thorn volume 1

2008-07-02

The Medusa Virus is killing everyone. It petrifies their bodies, almost as if they are turning to stone. When a cryogenic chamber is set up to freeze one hundred sufferers until a cure can be found, Kasumi is chosen by lottery to take a place. Her twin sister Shizuka, however, is not. Kasumi takes her place already filled with survivor's guilt for the sister who will most likely die while Kasumi is in cryogenic sleep. But things are never that simple.

Heroscape: Ticalla Jungle

2008-06-30

Ticalla Jungle is a terrain expansion for Heroscape, similar to Thaelenk Tundra and the Road to the Forgotten Forest. I was a little concerned about it inititially, because all it contains are three trees and six bushes—it seemed very unlikely that such a small selection of foliage would make any kind of significant difference to a typical Heroscape layout. Thankfully, and rather wonderfully, I was mistaken. Ticalla Jungle is a fantastic expansion, perfectly sized and very fairly priced. It seems stupid to gush over a set of plastic trees, but seriously—this set is awesome.

Let’s consider looks first: I was initially worried that nine pieces would be too few to make the board look good—that it would just look sparse and deforested, instead of all cool and jungle-y—but it ends up looking very good indeed. It’s a nice balance of trees and open spaces, and because the heights of the trees and bushes are not all uniform it gives the battlefield an appropriately organic look. The trees and bushes themselves are also very nice-looking individually, with a leafy, layered look that works really well. Certainly these trees look endlessly better than the pine trees from Road to the Forgotten Forest, which aren’t bad to begin with. But regardless of how good the trees look on they’re own, the important part is the overall effect they have on the battlefield, and again I have to say that the effect is excellent. If you want your terrain to look three-dimensional and interesting, grab a set of Ticalla Jungle; you won’t be disappointed.

Next we’ll look at the tactical considerations the set adds to your game, because Heroscape is, after all, a game. Heroscape’s very liberal line-of sight system is very wargame-y, following the classic table-top idea of “if I can see you, I can shoot you.” That works very well in hobby games like Warhammer and Warmachine, where you can make your own terrain, but it’s less effective in the stylized world of modern games such as Heroscape and Heroclix. A set of nine trees and bushes is not enough to actually hide behind—most figures, from almost any vantage point, will still have a clear line of sight to you no matter how hard you try. Ticalla Jungle answers this problem with an appropriately stylized rule: if you are adjacent to a tree or bush, you get an extra defense die every time you are attacked from range. While this can get kind of silly when the tree doesn’t actually interpose between the two figures, it ends up working quite well overall and makes the trees more tactically meaningful than you would expect (especially when you consider that most squad units just have two or three defense dice anyway—one extra free one is a big boost). You end up with a very nice sense of shooting through brush and running cover, and too many trees would actually spoil this effect. Once again, the size of the set ends up being very appropriate, with just right amount of effect on the battlefield.

All this talk of good set size is not intended to say that you will never have need for more than one set—my nine trees work really well with my two-master set terrain collection, but I recently added a third master set and I’m thinking I might want a second set of jungle trees to help keep up with the growth. Players with more (and there are many players with much, much more) might want to invest in a handful of jungle sets.

Along with the trees comes a trio of spiders, who I saved until last because they’re pretty peripheral—people are going to buy this for the trees, but the spiders are an okay bonus. They are not especially awesome, but they bond with the giant bug from the new Large Expansion Set, who is especially awesome, so that makes them that much better. Because they are common squad figures, and because they get better in multiples, they seem perfectly designed for the people who buy a ton of jungle sets and play all their spiders together: you get a ton of free turns with your giant bug, and you might (maybe) slow down the other team with a bunch of extra spider webs from your massive swarm. With just one squad, though, I was underwhelmed.

I would love to give this set a perfect score, and I almost did: it adds so much to the game, and does it so well, that it really is a foundational shift in the way we play Heroscape. If the spiders were a little more useful, this would be a six-clock review, but I’m almost supernaturally stingy with my 6-clock scores, and I’m limiting myself in this case to 5.5. But keep in mind that 5.5 is defined in our review guidelines as “perfect,” so this is still a glowing review—Ticalla Jungle is an excellent expansion to a very fun game, and I recommend it very highly.

Night Shift

2008-06-27

Sometimes the world can be a dark and frightening place. Jill Kismet knows all about just how dark and frightening, because when all hell breaks loose she’s the one turning back the tide. Jill Kismet is a hunter with an edge, one that’s almost as dangerous to her as the things she hunts. She walks a very narrow line between the good guys and the bad guys, never knowing if she’ll tumble over the edge.

WANTED

2008-06-25

Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann
Screenplay by Michael Brandt & Derek Haas and Chris Morgan
Based on characters created by Mark Millar and J.G. Jones
Directed by Timu Bekmambetov