Dominion is the ground breaking card game that release in 2008. It is build on an innovative deck building mechanic which leads to a lot of others similar game come out after it. So how’s the game play? It is base on an abstract theme of building a dominion somewhere during the middle age of Europe. The basic gameplay is about building a deck and trying to incorporate as many Victory points as you can.

In turns, players complete 4 phases:
A. Action phase: play an Action card
B. Buy phase: buy a card
C. Clean-up phase: discard played and unplayed cards, and draw five new cards.

It’s really that simple, just A, B, C! You’ll quickly work through your deck, shuffling up the discards, and repeating. As the game progresses, your deck will start to take form, and you’ll try to put together card combinations that maximize your income and the purchase of victory points. Who has the highest victory points win at the end of the game.

Lets go with the pros: with 25 Kingdom cards & using randomly 10 in each game, it has good replayability, its plays quickly with just around 30 minutes per game, scale well from 2-4 players, easy to learn with not much learning curve, interesting decisions to make although in shortgame, all games play differently with different cards combo & tactics.

Cons that were noticeable include require lots of shuffling, can play on auto pilot mode, game impaired by luck (can be a pro for different gamer). The game did do a great job on every card, they are balance & each are useful in different tactics. For this base set there are only 25 kingdom cards, which aren’t really enough, but don’t worry, tons of expansion are release or ready to be release. So below rating are just for base game, with each additional superb expansions, rating will definitely keep increasing.

My Rating: 7.0  

晚清末年，内忧外患，中华民族到了危亡之际。以孙中山为首的革命派，决心以革命推翻满清政府，建立共和体制。1895年至1910年，革命党人先后发动了多次起义，秋瑾等一批革命党先驱先后牺牲，革命陷入低潮。1910年底，孙中山再次于海外召集同盟会骨干，黄兴组织武装力量，再次准备在广州发动起义．．．辛亥革命，中华民族付出了巨大的代价，结束了两千八百年的封建统治，开创了亚洲第一个共和体制。当然，电影只是说到这里，往后的历史中华民族更要付出更多巨大的代价才走到今天这一步（袁世凯闹复辟，军阀混战，国共内战，日本侵华，文化大革命等）。

《辛亥革命》的时间聚焦于1911年黄花岗起义到1912年孙中山辞任临时大总统为止，前后只是接近一年的时间，并不像《建党伟业》般快速地排述一段不短的历史，比较有从容的时间去布置陈述剧情。电影画面精雕细镂，是最值得肯定之处。这已经是赵文瑄第N次饰演孙中山了，而黄兴低调实干地辅助孙中山的作风，也很贴合成龙的感觉。

《辛亥革命》有一定的历史感，但革命思想并不算深刻，有部分剧情拍不出效果，由于故事的局限性，也拍不出大历史的激荡丕变。

My rating: 6.0

这是一个小人物发奋追梦的故事，他们拼尽全力，豁出尊严甚至生命，追寻一个荒谬但却非常现实的梦：五十万首期。禄蓝(王祖蓝饰)、捷寿(王祖蓝饰)、福祥(阮兆祥饰)，三人是劳工署之友，三个什么工作都肯做，偏偏就是什么工作都做不长。然而禄蓝人穷志不穷，他还是打算成家立室，向女友求婚后，居然得到答允，然而想要娶得美人归，要的不单是爱情，外父的要求很简单，就是要蓝禄拿出足以成家的证明，房子的首期！五十万首期，说多不多说少不少，禄蓝偏偏就是交不出！走投无路之下，他们听取了捷寿的建议，到西洋菜街卖艺。为了吸引途人，三人把心一横，做前人所不敢做的，在石屎地表演打摔角！

无线近两年来推出不少电影，保持非常港式，而且很无线的感觉。告别周星驰时代后，有素质的搞笑片真是买少见少，无线推出的这几部还是值得一看（HK开心万岁，72家租房客等），至少比王晶这几年的那堆好。＜劲抽福禄寿＞同＜Laughing Gor＞如出一辙。电视台收得，顺势在戏院搅套剧场版再下一城。电影版加入不少戏剧元素，福禄寿都加上了人物描绘，人人都身份地位，各有人物线发展。

不过，故事素质认真麻麻，好笑场面已经在预告篇都放了，映像质素太电视式，放在大银幕中始终未达水平，也就得过且过吧。 

My rating: 4.5

Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) has traveled to the desolate region for the expedition of her lifetime. Joining a Norwegian scientific team that has stumbled across an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, she discovers an organism that seems to have died in the crash eons ago. But it is about to wake up. When a simple experiment frees the alien from its frozen prison, Kate must join the crew’s pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. And in this vast, intense land, a parasite that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human (Cylons!!) as it tries to survive and flourish.

This is a prequel/remake of the classic same name movie in 1982, while i had watched a bit of that while young, i couldn’t remember much except snow white background & horrible stuff busting, so i couldn’t compare between the two. But this new version as an independent one really delivers, probably the best movie of surviving horror genre in recent years.

The Thing works because it respects the basic premise of movie of its kind. And it exhibits a little patience, doling out its nastiest moments in ways that make them stick. It was made by people who understand what the horror audience wants and don’t treat us like a bunch of brain-dead people. It’s a solid, entertaining surviving horror/monster movie that, at its best, recalls not only its 29 years old same name version but “Alien” as well.

my rating: 8.0

Year first published: 2008
Number of players: 3-6p
Playing time: 180 minutes

Battlestar Galactica is a US TV series, it already had a couple of seasons. This game is based on this TV series, as I had not watch even 1 episode of it, I will  first get some back ground story summary & post it as below:  The Battlestar Galactica is a battleship that guards what’s left after some nasty robots (Cylons) all but wiped out the human race with a surprise nuclear attack. 40,000 humans remain, and they can barely stay civil with one another, let alone fight the Cylons. The Battlestar Galactica is guiding these civilian ships towards the planet Kobol, which will lead them to their final destination: Earth. Now, the Cylons are not just metal robot kill-machines, they have evolved and have created certain models that appear human. In fact, some have be programmed to believe that they are human until their programming goes off and their true nature is revealed. The Cylons are attempting to eradicate humanity completely and outright attack the humans, but also have infiltrated the ship with Cylon agents who may or may not yet know their true identity. The first couple of seasons are full of paranoia, suspicion, and people getting shot out of airlocks or thrown in the brig whenever they act funny and are accused of being Cylons. Of course, some of them really are Cylons, but you don’t ever quite know who is and who isn’t.

And that’s pretty much the essence of the game, which capture the theme supremely well. A ship full of people who don’t really get along, trying to get away from robots who want to kill them, and guessing who among them might be traitorous Cylons. The components of the game are good as all the games that published by Fantasy Flight.

Battlestar Galactica is label as a cooperative game, but I don’t think it is, it is a team cooperative game where human as a whole vs the hidden Cylons. Officially numbers of players are 3-6p, but 5p is the best, follow by 4 or 6p. Playing time is between 2-3 hours. I would not cover game play & rules, where you can find them on Fantasy Flight website. Mechanics involve in this game are card drafting, dice rolling, hand management, partnership & variable player powers.

There are 1-2 Cylons in every game according to number of players, you will have total different feel when playing as human or Cylons. Playing as a Cylon maybe more exciting & playing options, also the game balance slightly gear towards Cylon victory, but being a human can be fun too, how to outwit the Cylons & work together with other humans to a more difficult victory may prove to be more satisfying. The theme incorporated into the game superbly, skill checks are exciting, political maneuver & accusing others are good stuff. The games are always close thus endgame tension is always there.

How bout the cons? Well you need the right group to really enjoy this game, there are just some personalities who would not enjoy this game. Also everyone needs to play their role well, if some too layback or there is an idiot Cylon or human not on their toes, game interest can wane. Other notables are some characters are more enjoyable than others, no enemy ship occur for long stretch can be dragging, being as sympathizer is boring, etc. All in all, this is a brilliant game in many aspects.

my rating: 8.0

Below are pics of some other people customize/self paint components of the game:

Year first published: 2005
Number of players: 1-8p
Playing time: 240 minutes

Arkham Horror is a medium-weight, theme-heavy, cooperative-play game. It’s medium-weight means it has some depth & require strategies but relatively simple strategies & not heavy on depth.

The game very much relies on its heavy theme which derived from H.P. Lovecraft’s (An American author of horror, fantasy & science fiction in the 1920s) Cthulu setting. Each player is a resident or visitor in the town on Arkham, Massachusets during the 1920s. The game’s various player-characters, which range from gangsters to college professors, have each begun to notice mysterious and disturbing goings-on around town, and each has his or her own reasons for investigating further. They discover a nefarious cult attempting to awaken a great evil, and to prevent an invasion from other realms, they must seal off access to Arkham. In the process, of course, many foul minions try to thwart their efforts. To survive, players equip themselves with all manner of items, weapons, and spells, searching for clues to aid them in their mission.

The 16 characters:

The game support 1-8 players, though in practice it works best for 2-5 (too much time for playing more than 5). Gametime varies from 2-6 hours depend of number of players. It’s a cooperative-play game, players win or lose together, racing to prevent imminent doom. The game had a lot of dice rolling (my record are 26 dices at once), hence luck plays a main part. Other important mechanics are hand management, point to point movement & variable player powers.

2 of 8 great evil one (the ancient ones):

I wouldn’t go over the rules as there are 24 pages + a lot of FAQ of them you can download from the publisher website. Components that come with the game consist of 1 huge game board, rulebook, 30 sheets, 400 cards & “too many to count” numbers of various tokens & markers. The presentation of the game is fantastic, artwork, components qualities, attention to details, all are top-notch, as are most of the game from this publisher (Fantasy Flight).

Some minions/monsters:

This game has some pros as i mentioned above, there are also some cons. The 1st one is the length of the game, when playing with multiple players, game could be in the 4-6 hours range, sometimes there’s just not enough time to finish it or take all of your time in a game session. Also downtime in the game is pretty high, the best part of the game is when things get from bad to worse, the ancient ones is getting closer to awake, but these moments doesn’t happen enough or sometimes not happen at all, also the mechanics of the game are not so tight, with such a long-playing time, players focus & interest level really drop from time to time.  

This game really shine in the 1st few plays, but after you master all the mechanics, you will find out a lot of choices (location, items, strategy) are just bad choices (so there are quite a lot of undesired stuff which had no impact on the game), which leave you with just an optimal path to victory. Applying it to the game & you win most of the time, that’s why i guess Fantasy Flight is shelving out expansion one after another other than making more money (total 7 now as far as i know). Thus the base game re-playability wasn’t good & my interest wane pretty fast. Till i get a hold of an expansion & try it out, i just have to say there are some disappointments in this base game but still a good board game.

My rating: 6.5

Board games are a general name for all kinds of table top game even if the game doesn’t consist of a board, i am sure all of you know or played board games such as Chess, Go, Monopoly, Clue, Battleship, Risk, UNO, etc. before, what you may not know is there are a whole bunch of adult catered euro/US board games published every year since the last 10-15 years. One of the re-ignition of board games is by a collectible card game: Magic the Gathering which 1st published on 1993, since then the market of board games had risen each & every year around the globe which in turn involve more games published & more people playing. Although there are a lot of crappy games, there are a lot of brilliant games as well, if you are itching for board games info, you can get everything you ask for in boardgamegeek website, where there is also the most influential board game rank located.

Up until recent years in Malaysia, it is difficult to buy these games here as there aren’t any retail shops around, the best way is just order from overseas & pay for the additional shipping cost. Nowadays it’s easier, there are a few good retail options in Klang valley (not sure about other states), the one that i had bought from are Meeples at Subang Jaya (which has the most complete/quantities of games), boardgamecafe at Cheras & Times bookstore.

I had always been fond of board games, the designs, mechanics, interaction, fun are all important aspect that i look for in a game, & brilliant board games do deliver on those. Also board games are in fact a social experience which differs itself from video games & so on, a good one can really heightened it. For various reasons, i actually just picked up board games this year, & plan to thrive with them for the future. As so, i will output board game reviews in this blog, games that i own or play, i will only do review after some quantity of plays of the same game as you will need more plays to justify the game. Hope you like them.

An ex-Marine haunted by a tragic past, Tommy Riordan (Tom Hardy) returns to his hometown of Pittsburgh and enlists his father (Nick Holte), a recovered alcoholic and his former coach, to train him for an MMA tournament awarding the biggest purse in the history of the sport. Tommy’s brother, Brendan (Joel Edgerton), a former MMA fighter unable to make ends meet as a public school teacher, returns to the amateur ring to provide for his family. Even though years have passed, recriminations and past betrayals keep Tommy bitterly estranged from both Brendan and his father. But when Brendan’s unlikely rise as an underdog sets him on a collision course with Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront the forces that tore them apart, while waging the most intense, winner-takes-all battle of their lives.

MMA (mix martial art) had been such a hit in US in recent years, its fitting that here comes a very good movie base on it. Warrior is a powerful, moving and brilliant sports-family drama. It is a long movie (140 min) but doesn’t feel that way, the drama scenes are emotional & intense, the MMA action are well done & ferocious. All 3 main characters are compelling, Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom), Tom Hardy (Inception), Nick Holte pull off their role extremely well. Although a bit flaw (melodrama, a bit unbelievable), whenever you try to resist, the movie keeps coming back to grip you.

My rating: 8.0

Contagion follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.

Director Steven Soderbergh is the master of ensemble a group of all-star cast & delivers an intelligent thriller (Ocean’s 11 to 13, Traffic, etc.). Although these characters in Contagion doesn’t had enough material to work with, the cast (Jude Law, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Ehle, Marion Cottilard, Laurence Fishburne) did make the best out of it.

This is a gripping, chilling & high minded movie. The 1st half of the movie is really good, although the 2nd half fade a bit. The movie is more like a documentary drama, it is the best pandemic topic movie ever made. The plot evolves around Jude Law character, although not much clear interaction with the normal plot of cure & control the pandemic, is quite enthralling with spreading panic, people behaving badly, internet misuse issue. Sadly, that is no surprise in reality if events like this ever happen.

My rating: 7.5

As promise, below are my 2011 movie ratings for those movies i had watched more than 2 months ago, for more recent one, i will review & rate them one at a time. 2011 movie only means that i watched them during 2011, not that they start screening worldwide during 2011, as you aware, some of those earlier movies were actually start screening during 2010, but i only manage to gain access to them this year.

Reiterate on my ratings system, a number out of 10, with .5 as the minimal difference. The list below is in time descending order,  which start from the later one to the early year one, here we go:

Win Win – 7.0
Soul surfer – 4.5
窃听风云2 – 7.5
Whistleblower – 6.0
Rise of the Planet of the Apes – 8.0
Cowboy & Aliens – 5.5
Captain America – 5.5
Winter’s Bone – 6.5
The Pirates of the Caribbean_on stranger tides – 5.0
Last Night – 4.0
The Resident – 3.5
You will Meet a tall dark Stranger – 6.0
Prom – 6.0
Winnie the Pooh – 6.5
Beautiful Boy – 6.0
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows P2 – 7.5
Horrible Bosses – 6.5
Transformer 3 Dark of the Moon – 2.5
武侠 – 7.5
Cars 2 – 6.5
Greenberg – 5.0
Henry’s Crime – 5.0
Bad Teacher – 4.5
Super 8 – 7.0
X-Men First Class – 8.0
赵氏孤儿 – 5.0
The Switch – 5.5
十三人刺客 – 5.5
Kung Fu Panda 2 – 7.0
Thor – 5.5
The Beaver – 6.5
Fast & Furious 5 – 5.5
让子弹飞 – 6.0
Morning Glory – 4.0
Inside Job – 8.5
Love & other Drugs – 6.0
The Kids are All Right – 7.0
建党伟业 – 3.5
Rabbit Hole – 6.5
Tamara Drewe – 4.5
Animal Kingdom – 8.0
Hereafter – 6.5
Black Swan – 9.0
单身男女 – 2.0
Dylan Dog Dead of Night – 3.0
Water for Elephants – 6.0
The Conspirator – 7.0
Rio – 5.0
Hanna – 4.5
Source Code – 7.5
Insidious – 4.5
Paul – 3.0
Lincoln Lawyer – 6.0
Limitless – 6.0
Blue Valentine – 9.0
倩女幽云 – 3.0
Due Date – 4.5
Conviction – 6.5
关云长 – 6.5
Battle Los Angelas – 5.0
The Fighter – 9.5
127 Hours – 7.0
True Grit – 9.0
Splice – 7.5
Frozen – 4.5
The Killer Inside Me – 7.5
Casino Jack – 5.0
The Ghost Writer – 7.0
The Town – 7.0
Machete – 5.0
Rango – 7.5
Adjustment Bureau – 5.0
Hall Pass – 5.5
Unknown – 5.0
The Eagle – 6.0
The King’s Speech – 9.5
Stone – 4.5
Gnomeo & Juliet – 3.5
Sanctum – 2.5
新少林寺 – 3.5
HK 开心万岁 – 5.5
The Rite – 4.5
The Way Back – 6.5
Company Men – 5.5
The Tourist – 3.5
Season of the Witch – 2.5