Saarya, Eitan, Tal, and I were supposed to see Harry Potter 4. But it turned out that HP4 was sold out until the 10:30 pm showing, which was just too late. Eitan suggested Narnia. That was a surprise, seeing that his form of entertainment is usually Death Metal music; the previous evening he saw Sammael in concert and loved it. I think he saw the previews of Narnia and liked the look of the battle scenes.
So no HP4 review. Instead, Narnia.
It was good. Narnia is an old fashioned book and it shows in the movie. The major battle is intense and drawn out like in other modern movies, but there is nothing in the way of the ugliness and gore that you normally get. Instead you get a lot of unbelievable scenes of children wielding swords and being brave. It was kind of nice that way.
Also, the movie didn't try to batter you with scene after scene of action, rushing, comedy, and so forth. It had a nice balance of story elements. The acting was good. And the major heroine was a pudgy and not particularly pretty girl who acts like a young girl, for the most part. Different.
The effects of the talking animals were also good. However, you could see just a bit from the brightness contrasts when scenes were filmed in front of a blue drop. The same for King Kong, actually. They don't quite have that effect down, yet.
I can't really think of anything negative to say; it didn't aim to be a much greater and grander movie than it was. Maybe if you wanted to see something larger it will be a bit simplistic for you. Instead, you get a simple vignette which fulfills what it sets out to do: a fantasy story about temptation, betrayal, sacrifice, compromise, loyalty, love, and bravery.
Yehuda
Technorati Tags: Narnia, Narnia movie, movie+review
Friday, December 30, 2005
Best of Blogospere Moving
Alfred's Best of the Blogosphere is moving to http://boardgames.blogsome.com/ (feed: http://boardgames.blogsome.com/feed/), but you all already knew that, I bet.
Good. That's the way it should be.
Yehuda
Good. That's the way it should be.
Yehuda
Domain Name Blues Continued
So it seems that the registrar Freewebs had the wrong email address for me, which is basically my fault. After three emails, the domain name jergames.com expired and is now in a "redemption period" where, instead of the usual $20 renewal fee, it will cost me $80 to renew. No way.
At the end of the redemption period it will be up for grabs again unless it was already auctioned off (I don't know how that works), which it appears to have been. I will just have to wait and see if it becomes available again.
In the meantime, jergames.com is now defunct. Everyone should point their link to www.freewebs.com/jergames while I figure out what to do about it. I will probably just create jsgc.blogspot.com (I already started it). Only, I don't like having all my stuff on blogspot, either. What if something happens to them? It's a Google company, but who knows.
Urg.
-----
Someone offered to send me a game to review. That's nice. My second. My first was Oceania from Guido Teuber. He said he was also going to send me Candamir, but then he never got back to me.
I also got some more emails generated from the board game awards (go nominate, now!): look at this site, help me submit a nomination, and so on. Busy busy.
And Rachel came home happy from her teaching at Limmud. And she may have gotten a scholarship from Hebrew U. Yay!
Yehuda
At the end of the redemption period it will be up for grabs again unless it was already auctioned off (I don't know how that works), which it appears to have been. I will just have to wait and see if it becomes available again.
In the meantime, jergames.com is now defunct. Everyone should point their link to www.freewebs.com/jergames while I figure out what to do about it. I will probably just create jsgc.blogspot.com (I already started it). Only, I don't like having all my stuff on blogspot, either. What if something happens to them? It's a Google company, but who knows.
Urg.
-----
Someone offered to send me a game to review. That's nice. My second. My first was Oceania from Guido Teuber. He said he was also going to send me Candamir, but then he never got back to me.
I also got some more emails generated from the board game awards (go nominate, now!): look at this site, help me submit a nomination, and so on. Busy busy.
And Rachel came home happy from her teaching at Limmud. And she may have gotten a scholarship from Hebrew U. Yay!
Yehuda
Domain Name Blues
Somehow my domain name jergames.com has expired and was snatched up by another registrar (GoDaddy). Now I don't know what is happening to it. The old registrar (Freewebs) thinks I have to talk to whomever owns it, and the new one thinks it doesn't own it and have to talk to the original owners.
In the meantime, my site is still there, but it is at http://www.freewebs.com/jergames instead of www.jergames.com . Some formatting is lost, but all the content still works.
I think I may just move it all to a blog. I was thinking of syndicating my session reports, anyway, and there's not much more to my site than the reports and all of my variants.
Yehuda
In the meantime, my site is still there, but it is at http://www.freewebs.com/jergames instead of www.jergames.com . Some formatting is lost, but all the content still works.
I think I may just move it all to a blog. I was thinking of syndicating my session reports, anyway, and there's not much more to my site than the reports and all of my variants.
Yehuda
Thursday, December 29, 2005
December Gaming at the JSGC
We return to a full month of gaming after missing some sessions in November (while I was at BGG.con). As usual, the following list represents only games played at the club, and not my personal plays.
Alhambra - This game is not enjoyed, as I mentioned last time. We tried it again and still found no particularly interesting decisions, although it is slightly better with less players. You can't plan, because what you want is gone by the time it gets to you (a small expansion slightly fixes that problem). And while I can see in theory why you wouldn't want to buy something with exact change, it hasn't happened in practice. There is another expansion planned that looks like it could help.
Billabong - A highly abstract and chaotic game on first impression. It was interesting enough. Like Chinese Checkers on speed.
China Moon x 2 - I was pleasantly surprised to find this game enjoyable when I first played it, but it loses its luster (as well as all semblance of player control) if played with four people, and probably loses it even more if played with five.
Domaine - Our group found this a bit dry, although I liked it. I introduced it to some new players at the club who loved it.
Dvonn x 3 - Excellent game which I also originally thought was too chaotic. Fine fine game.
El Grande - A classic that hasn't seen much play since the last time when it took people six hours to finish. Yarch. This time took a balmy two and a half.
Evo - Also not enjoyed by the club. They felt the whole thing was silly (the same people who like Primodial Soup). Personally, I liked it except for all aspects of the game having to do with the dice. Introduced to some new players who loved it (more than Primordial Soup).
Havoc - A fine game, but just a tad long as a waiting game, and a tad short for a meaty game. In any case, likely to be played again soon.
La Strada x 2 - We felt that this was only half a game, like a single mechanic was taken out of another game and left unfinished. Plays quick, easy enough, left us unsatisfied.
Lo Ra (Ra) - This is a homebrew imitation of Ra rethemed to be about the Jewish temple. Ra is another fine game, and this plays about the same. "Lo" means "not", so the game translates at "Not Ra", and "Ra" means "bad", so the game can also translate as "Not bad".
Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation - I have played this a few times and liked it, although it is basically a very very short card driven war game, and I don't really like war games.
The Menorah Game x 3 - Played on Hannukah, of course. Also enjoyed as a quick opening filler game.
Modern Art - I really liked this, and some of the members liked it, while others were not convinced. The only problem we all had was that it seemed like the double auction cards affect the game too much, and therefore those who don't get any feel left out.
Primordial Soup x 2 - The first play with three players felt a little dry, while the second one with four players was sweeter. Another good game, with a mild runaway leader problem. Looking forward to trying it with alternate gene options.
Puerto Rico - The game. Period.
San Juan x 2 - Always a good filler game.
Taj Mahal - Excellent game for a main course. Plays well equally with 3-5 players.
Tikal - I think it's great, others think it is somewhere between very good to ok. Since our group tends to have analysis paralysis, this makes sense.
Yinsh - Another excellent game. It is more initially accessible for new players than Dvonn, but I think I like Dvonn better.
Yehuda
Technorati Tags: board game, board games, games, gaming, Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club, game club, session report, Jerusalem, Israel
Alhambra - This game is not enjoyed, as I mentioned last time. We tried it again and still found no particularly interesting decisions, although it is slightly better with less players. You can't plan, because what you want is gone by the time it gets to you (a small expansion slightly fixes that problem). And while I can see in theory why you wouldn't want to buy something with exact change, it hasn't happened in practice. There is another expansion planned that looks like it could help.
Billabong - A highly abstract and chaotic game on first impression. It was interesting enough. Like Chinese Checkers on speed.
China Moon x 2 - I was pleasantly surprised to find this game enjoyable when I first played it, but it loses its luster (as well as all semblance of player control) if played with four people, and probably loses it even more if played with five.
Domaine - Our group found this a bit dry, although I liked it. I introduced it to some new players at the club who loved it.
Dvonn x 3 - Excellent game which I also originally thought was too chaotic. Fine fine game.
El Grande - A classic that hasn't seen much play since the last time when it took people six hours to finish. Yarch. This time took a balmy two and a half.
Evo - Also not enjoyed by the club. They felt the whole thing was silly (the same people who like Primodial Soup). Personally, I liked it except for all aspects of the game having to do with the dice. Introduced to some new players who loved it (more than Primordial Soup).
Havoc - A fine game, but just a tad long as a waiting game, and a tad short for a meaty game. In any case, likely to be played again soon.
La Strada x 2 - We felt that this was only half a game, like a single mechanic was taken out of another game and left unfinished. Plays quick, easy enough, left us unsatisfied.
Lo Ra (Ra) - This is a homebrew imitation of Ra rethemed to be about the Jewish temple. Ra is another fine game, and this plays about the same. "Lo" means "not", so the game translates at "Not Ra", and "Ra" means "bad", so the game can also translate as "Not bad".
Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation - I have played this a few times and liked it, although it is basically a very very short card driven war game, and I don't really like war games.
The Menorah Game x 3 - Played on Hannukah, of course. Also enjoyed as a quick opening filler game.
Modern Art - I really liked this, and some of the members liked it, while others were not convinced. The only problem we all had was that it seemed like the double auction cards affect the game too much, and therefore those who don't get any feel left out.
Primordial Soup x 2 - The first play with three players felt a little dry, while the second one with four players was sweeter. Another good game, with a mild runaway leader problem. Looking forward to trying it with alternate gene options.
Puerto Rico - The game. Period.
San Juan x 2 - Always a good filler game.
Taj Mahal - Excellent game for a main course. Plays well equally with 3-5 players.
Tikal - I think it's great, others think it is somewhere between very good to ok. Since our group tends to have analysis paralysis, this makes sense.
Yinsh - Another excellent game. It is more initially accessible for new players than Dvonn, but I think I like Dvonn better.
Yehuda
Technorati Tags: board game, board games, games, gaming, Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club, game club, session report, Jerusalem, Israel
Blip in my site hosting
Something just happened to my website http://www.jergames.com . It is hosted by freewebs, and it just disappeared. Now I get a page for a parked domain on GoDaddy.
I'm trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, my pictures were hosted there, so this blog looks a little naked without them.
But I'm mostly concerned about more than two years of session reports, game variants, and so on. Yikes! I think the last backup I made was only a month ago, but that's still a lot to lose.
Yehuda
I'm trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, my pictures were hosted there, so this blog looks a little naked without them.
But I'm mostly concerned about more than two years of session reports, game variants, and so on. Yikes! I think the last backup I made was only a month ago, but that's still a lot to lose.
Yehuda
Session Report Up
Games played: The Menorah Game x 2, China Moon, Billabong, San Juan, Evo, El Grande, Domaine.
Happy Hannukah and Happy Holidays,
Yehuda
Don't forget to nominate your favorite sites for the Gone Gaming: Board Game Internet Awards!
Happy Hannukah and Happy Holidays,
Yehuda
Don't forget to nominate your favorite sites for the Gone Gaming: Board Game Internet Awards!
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