Vader's Little Princess

I was out and about today, and I stumbled across a fun little book that made my day.

Vader's Little Princess, Written and illustrated by Jeffery Brown, is a collection of comic images that focus on the theory that Darth Vader raised Princess Leia from toddler to teenager and the trials and tribulations that they would have faced. Back in May, it actually spent some time on the NY Times Bestsellers list.

The illustrations are simple, yet work well with the quirky sense of humor inherent in the book.
As the father of a young, independent, strong-willed little "princess" of my own, and a huge Star Wars fan, I appreciated where both Vader and Brown are coming from.

Below are a couple of images from the book, just to give you a sense of what's in store.

Do yourself a favour and buy a copy for yourself and the little princess in your life!

AND MY PERSONAL FAVOURITE:

The Last Of Us

I am a huge fan of Naughty Dog studios and their work on the Uncharted franchise for the PS3. The visuals are stunning, the plots are top notch, and the play control is intuitive, all ingredients for a first rate game.

I just had the chance to play through the early access demo for Naughty Dog's newest offering, The Last of Us, which drops later this month on June 14.
Having seen the trailer, I knew that they were shifting focus to more of a post zombie apocalypse survival style of play, as opposed to the "Indiana Jones" Fortune Hunter game style that Uncharted did so well.
On first trial, this game looks and feels great. Naughty Dog has nailed the visuals. The collapsing buildings, overgrown vegetation, dynamic weather, all combine to create an environment taken straight out of the pages of Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead.
While they don't give of the plot away in the demo, the interactions between the characters are interesting, and they hint at enough of the story to hook you in.
The controls took a little getting used to, specifically the melee attack, but ultimately I enjoyed the gritty sense of the combat. I generally tend to rely on a balance of stealth avoidance, and long ranged scoped attacks for most zombie encounters in other games, so I imagine that I will do the same with this if the opportunity presents itself. In my mind, toe to toe combat with a zombie is only a last resort!
And now for what I thought was the most interesting aspect of this demo, the zombies themselves. Naughty Dog has chosen to take a slightly different approach to the concept, and rather than the outbreak being caused by a viral or bacterial infection, if my guess is correct, the zombies are in fact infected hosts of a mutated form of parasitic Cordyceps fungus. Cordyceps fungus is a real world fungus that infects insects, replacing the hosts tissue with its own, and effectively overtakes the hosts central nervous system to further its own reproductive cycle, before releasing spores into the atmosphere that then hunt out and destroy their next host.
So Naughty Dog has basically taken a real world parasite, and by tweaking its ability to affect humans, created a feasible back story for a zombie apocalypse. Add to this fact, that they have devised different stages of infection to create various "types" of zombies, many of which can effectively hunt, and run at terrifying speeds, and this is a perfect recipe for one seriously deranged zombie survival story that will keep me up at night. It is my sincere belief that Zombies can not run. If zombies can run, or climb, or god forbid, hunt using echo-location like some of these creepy bastards devised by Naughty Dog, then every member of the human race may as well just dig a hole, lay down in it and wait to die, because that is game over for us as a species.

Tsuro - The Game of The Path

Got out last night with a new group of folks who introduced me to a number of new board games, many of which I had never before experienced. The game that resonated most with me was a simple yet stylish offering called Tsuro.

In Tsuro, each character is a wind dragon (not to be confused with the luck dragon from The Neverending Story).

Played on a sqaure board, laid out as a grid, each dragon starts at a separate point along the exterior of the game board, and then each player in turn places a tile down infront of their dragon, which dictates the path that the dragon will follow. Each player receives 3 tiles to begin the game, and draws a new tile from the deck after a tile is laid. The point of the game is to lay down tiles so that your dragon avoids flying off of the board, or colliding with other players dragons. Last player standing wins.

The artwork of the game board and box draw heavily on Asian dragon symbolism, and very clean, simple lines. The game play, while seemingly simple, can become relatively complex once a player starts to manipulate the paths of their opponents. Ofcourse, choices are dictated by the tile cards in a players hand, but how a player chooses to utilize these tiles leaves significant room for varied play styles.

Game play moves very quickly, with a four player game lasting under 10 minutes.   Our game ended in a draw with a spectacular head on collisio between two dragons.  Because we had other games to sample, we didn't play a second round, but the game obviously caught my interest as I found myself contemplating strategy later in the evening. After our play test, our host mentioned that he had first discovered Tsuro through Wil Wheaton's online show: Table Top. I immediately decided that I would need to find the episode, just to see Wil Wheaton's approach to the game. As I expected, the episode of Table Top featuring Tsuro, featured 2 other mini games as well, Zombie Die, and Get Bit.

If you aren't familiar with Table Top, the premise is simple.   Wil and his compatriots play test various board games, for the sheer joy of playing. It was entertaining to watch their game unfold and compare the various play styles of Wil's playtesters to the players that I had played with earlier in the evening.  Wil took the master startegist approach, attempting to gain control of the center of the game board early on.  Unfortunatley, it was all for naught, a he failed to secure the victory.

I love that such a seemingly simple, yet remarkably complex game has still got me thinking about it 24 hours later. This will definitely be a box that I will be adding to my games closet very soon.

What do you mean there is no new Game of Thrones this week???

Okay, I am the first to admit that I can get a little bit wrapped up in the television shows that I follow.  Notice I say follow as opposed to watch, because to me it is an active event.  I get invested and involved with the plots and characters of the shows I love, and it pains me to no end when the network "takes a break" mid season for no good reason.  LOST used to be the worst for that kind of ridiculious douche-wafflerey, but most shows do it eventually.  However, most of them have the decency to warn their viewers the week before it happens. This was not the case this week with Game Of Thrones.  It's bad enough that GoT only does 10 episodes per season, but taking an unscheduled (or at least unannounced) break after 8 episodes just leaves the fans with a really bad taste in our mouths.  It's not like we don't know what is coming, we have all read the books.  There should be no surprises...BUT we do want to see it.  The magical thing about this show is how closely it has captured the essence of the world created by George R.R. Martin. And while we all wait 5 more years for book 6, the HBO series is an incredible way to re-experience the magic of this convoluted and wonderfully complex story So get back to what is important to the fans and air the next episode already!  I am not sure I can wait 6 days....three words: The Red Wedding!

Jennifer Lawrence looks fantastic as Mystique

Bryan Singer, the Director for the upcoming X-Men film: Days of Future Past, just posted this teaser photo of Jennifer Lawrence on his twitter feed.  Here's hot young commodity Lawrence, in full make-up as Mystique in her natural form.
A sequel to X-Men: First Class, Days of Future Past borrows its subtitle directly from the comics, and with any luck, will share some of the major plot points, including the introduction of Bishop, and split and divergent time lines.
But back to what's important.  Jennifer Lawrence looks HOT as a yellow eyed ginger, covered only in blue prostetics. Sadly, not as hot as Rebecca Romijn Stamos from the original X-Men films, but hot enough that a lot of people are going to take notice.
I know I did, and this taught me something interesting about myself.

Star Trek - Into Darkness

Last night I attended an Opening Night screening of Star Trek Into Darkness with a few friends. This is another one of the block buster summer movie offerings that alot of people have been waiting for, and it lives up to the hype.
The theatre was packed with an eclectic mix from all walks of life, not just the sterio-typical, socially awkward young men that often get tied to "trekkie" fandom. Nope, these day this franchise has a little something for everyone.
The cast is stellar, lead by Chris Pine in the role of James Tiberius Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and Benedict Cumberpatch as the shadowy villan, this epic action movie has alot of depth. The characters are all still recognizable from the original series, but with the help of the writers, this generation of actors lends them a remarkable realism. The multi-faceted relationships that emerge between characters are honest and natural.
The Plot is solid, with Benedict Cumberpatch anchoring the forces of Darkness against the crew of the Enterprise. The true identity of Cumberpatch's villain is one of the best kept secrets of the film, so far from it to be my job to ruin the reveal for anyone. There are also a couple of solid twists that keep the movie moving at a lightning pace.
As in any movie of this nature, the special effects are what bring people in, and this film is a shining example of the levels of integration that can now be achieved using computer generated imaging. The futuristic cityscapes of earth look and feel incredible, and the ships look fantastic. When the Enterprise jumps to warp speed you can feel it in your soul.
This franchise has always attempted to expand the human experience by challenging us to boldly go where no man has gone before, striving to explore new horizon's, and pursue new discoveries. This film once again embodies that idealism and also reminds us that with great power comes great responsibility.
With all of these elements combining to create a Dreadnaught Class juggernaught, this block buster is not to be missed.

NBC renews Community for a 5th Season

Lets be very clear. We were all told right from the beginning that Season 4 of Community was going to be it. After Season 3 aired, the show went on an extended hiatus and underwent a pretty major shake up of its creative team. Series Creator Dan Harmon was given the ol' heave ho! But we did eventually get a 4th season, and now, less than 24 hours after the final episode of Season 4 aired last night, NBC has announced that they have renewed quirky cult hit for a surprise 5th season. Cool, Cool, Cool. Sadly Chevy Chase will likely no longer be involved with the project, since they treated him like a little bitch throughout season 4...however, rumours abound that he was a little bitch throughout the process...so I guess that is just old fashioned Karma doing its job. Other things to look forward to in season 5? At least 13 more episodes tag lines of "Troy and Ahbed in the Morning." More Paintball. More exploration of the darkest timeline. More run ins with the Dean of City College, since that was never actually resolved. More Changnesia?!? POP! POP!