tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56454885273672523662024-03-13T12:11:52.417-05:00A Blogging for all MSTingsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-35622753576989900622019-03-11T23:34:00.000-05:002019-03-11T23:35:14.319-05:00#2LR: Captain Marvel<br />
Her energy beams travel in straight lines, her morality is as straight as an arrow, and so are the fighter jets that she flies. Now that there are a few vacancies to fill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe we welcome to the screen <i>Captain Marvel</i>. Just as her twin-from-another-service-branch Captain America is unflinching and unswerving upon introduction so too is our dear Captain Marvel -- almost one archetype in two slightly different pajamas. Film noir this most decidedly is not.<br />
<br />
Because of the way that this movie has been constructed, like the Superfriends glass Citadel of Truth, any real discussion I have of this movie has to come with copious amounts of <span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE</span>. I'll have some comments below this to give my opinions of the action but seriously, if you are planning to watch this and don't want to know any of the plot beforehand please skip to the end marker below.<br />
<br />
<br />
<i>Captain Marvel</i> is well-constructed to be one of the capstones of the progress that has been made throughout the 2010s. Within the first five minutes this movie jumps through the Bechdel test swimmingly. We meet Veers, the future Captain Marvel, on the Kree homeworld meeting the Supreme Intelligence while getting worked over in a sparring match by her slightly smug trainer. Shortly after both her and Sensei Douchebag get called into a covert op.<br />
<br />
Sensei Douchebag happens to also be Colonel Douchebag, the leader of this covert op, as this group of Kree are taking on some Skrulls to exfiltrate an embedded agent on another planet. Veers gets captured by the Skrull so that they can tickle her medial temporal lobe with the <a href="https://i.imgur.com/ix2AoxW.jpg" target="_blank">machinery that Syndrome left over</a> from <i>The Incredibles</i> a few years back.<br />
<br />
After getting a few images out of her mind, Veers (so-called until she grabs the superhero mantle later) breaks free to try to kill some of the more expendable Skrulls. She plus four Skrulls ends up crash-landing onto Earth since the Skrulls had indications from Veers' memory that this was where they needed to go.<br />
<br />
They happened to crash-land on Earth in the mid-90s. Between this and the <i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> films, there are times that it feels like superhero movies are both nostalgia trips as well as chronicles of adults cruelly arrested in their development by outside factors. After getting all misty-eyed at both the Blockbuster and the Radio Shack in the mini-mall, more action scenes unfold.<br />
<br />
It is here on Earth that we also meet Young M*thaf*cka, Samuel L. Jackson, who is made up as if he's straight out of the 90s too. He looks young enough to be Morgan Freeman's great-grandnephew. After a car/train chase including some shapeshifting Skrulls, Nick Fury and Veers make it back to SHIELD HQ to witness an alien autopsy and work on their plans from there.<br />
<br />
The next setpiece has to do with the airforce base where the previous Carol Danvers used to be a test-pilot on a rather secret project. She pulls records along with yet another action sequence, where it's established that the Skrulls have infiltrated SHIELD. Also tagging along at this point is a pleasantly plump orange tabby cat. After this checkpoint, we move on to Louisiana to one of her coworkers and former friends, RAMBO! Well, it's her name but it's not the Sylvester Stallone one you might be thinking of. By the way, at this point Indiana Jones would be jealous of all of the various hops that the movie has taken. I almost wish they'd included a map.<br />
<br />
Here in Louisiana we find out the one and only real swerve that the movie gives us, other than "Rambeau" not being spelled with an X at the end. (Come on Marvel, product placement!!) If you haven't respected the SPOILER SPACE warnings above, you may want to make sure to skip from here...<br />
<br />
last warning...<br />
<br />
In this movie, the Skrulls are attempting to be peaceful. Yeah, it doesn't match very well with what they were doing in any of their earlier setpieces from the space station to the car chase to the airbase. Don't think about the first half of the movie when they start talking here. It'll just make you kind of head-hurty. They had plenty of opportunites to not act like overly-militaristic death squads but well, y'know, they didn't.<br />
<br />
Anyway, we find out more of Veers' swiss-cheesed memory (cut to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Leap" target="_blank">Sam Beckett nodding sagely</a>) where it turns out that she was a test-pilot for Earth technology that was probably three full jumps ahead in the tech tree than Earth could have handled or was capable of. Of course the research is manned by an alien, "Mar-velle", but still she's working with late-80s technology here -- this backstory happened just a bit after Li'l Petey Jason Quill was yoinked. After a convenient plot device where one of the Skrulls upfits a US Air Force plane for extraterrestrial flight, we get some SPAAACE.<br />
<br />
So now that we have the Kree and the Skrull effectively doing their respective heel and face turns, Captain Marvel now comes into being. She, RAMBOeauxxx, and M*thaf*cka all go up to a hidden spaceship orbiting Earth which happens to have a ton of other Skrulls hanging out as refugees. (Where's the beef here? Or the veggies? Or fruit? Are they cannibals?) The Covert Ops Kree team follows behind, another action sequence follows, and then we finally get the last pieces of the plot of the abduction of Carol Danvers -- after she crashed her plane on the last go-round testflight she destroyed the core that would power light-speed flight. The resulting radiation all seeped into her (rather than Sensei/Colonel Douchebag) and instead of destroying her, gave her microwaves shooting from her hands.<br />
<br />
After she destroys the Denver Boot keeping some of her powers in check she wipes the floor with the Kree and sends what Skrull are left on their merry way as Team Marvel blasts off again! Nick Fury on the other hand has had his superhero cherry completely popped and starts descending on his path to paranoid spymaster, but not without some KITTIE SCRITCHIES first.<br />
<br />
Ordinarily I would put up the "over" sign here but I really have to discuss the Kree/Skrull flipflop first. I can't discuss this outside of the spoiler space though because it really is the only swerve in what is otherwise one of the straightest drives in cinematic history. This is not Se7en, this is not Inception, this is a plate of cheeseburger plus macaroni. It's not even gouda mac or anything. You're either going to like it or hate it. It is what it is and it won't compromise for you.<br />
<br />
I had to reach back to my childhood for the next reference, but the Kree are at least protrayed as stereotypical star-bellied Sneetches. If you don't have that Kree star on your chest you're not worthy. The Skrull are definitely putting up a massive fight on their end too, and the movie did not do a great job of defining what either side is "for" other than Skrull desire to not be ruled by Kree. There are white hats and black hats in this movie but that's all they are... without the extensive comic backstory you wouldn't think anything of this switch really.<br />
<br />
I don't know how much of the extended metaphor will apply -- the Kree and Skrull-eetch battle may just be one of aesthetics only while the universe burns elsewhere for instance. As well, Skrulls are rather famously previous antagonists and frankly it still seems as if there's time for them to be antagonists once again... but if you're looking for that level of nuance you're not in the right spot.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE OVER</span><br />
<br />
The point in this movie though is that you're not coming into the theater for a rich plot. You're coming into this theater for action, possibly for some amount of 90s nostalgia, maybe for Marvel being "brave" enough to send a woman to lead a film ten years after they really should have to keep their street cred and two years after Warner/DC proved that it can be done exceptionally successfully.<br />
<br />
It's just that this is pretty much the last major film before the last Avengers film comes out in literally a month. This movie effectively introduced a character and *possibly* some sort of basis for further plot development, but really it's up to the next movie to carry the story far more than they should have to. There's some comedy in here, quite a crapload of action, and the actors (Brie Larson and Sam L. M*thaf*cka) do well in their roles.<br />
<br />
The moment of truth -- is this film worth your money? For the first time, sure. This is a summer blockbuster walking amongst the crocuses of March and there's a reason that they put so much budget into blockbusters. You're not coming for the writing though, you're coming for the kicking and for Samuel L. Jackson's immaculately <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bondo_(putty)" target="_blank">Bondo'ed</a> face -- which probably took a third of that budget.<br />
<br />
To this reviewer art is more impactful if it can be savored more than once and brings something fresh, new, and novel to a conversation. Will this movie do that? Naw. You will rewatch this film under two circumstances -- viewing the entirety of the MCU or if you want to see a rock-em sock-em action flick. It is what it is. This movie travels into a straight line, like Captain Marvel's punches or Captain Marvel's energy beams or Captain Marvel's morality.<br />
<br />
Without the allure of the MCU I would rank this movie closer to a 2. It gets extra points as well for the action stuff when you just want to shut your brain down after a full day of adulting.<br />
<br />
Final Rating -- 2.8<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-10623237054395899862019-03-03T22:38:00.000-05:002019-03-03T22:38:48.113-05:00#2LR - How to Train Your Dragon 3 - The End Credits<br />
<br />
Hello again all!<br />
<br />
I'm going to be resurrecting the #2LR Too Late Reviews for at least a little while -- I miss writing them and the main conceit of the concept (writing reviews "too late" to warn you) actually will be going by the wayside because I now have a reliable source for free movie watching. I do apologize for the hiatus and I hope that you all don't mind.<br />
<br />
When you want to go to a place to sit, relax, and drink coffee you can choose national chain stores or also the little cafe nooks that people sometimes tip you off to when taking time to actually meet up with a friend. The national chains bring a certain level of quality. Those lucky few have found a nice place that makes even better coffee and is far preferable to visit.<br />
<br />
This movie series has always reminded me of the coffee place that's about fifty miles out of your way that your friend brought you to sometime. The first cup of coffee you got here turned out surprisingly good and hopefully you'll get another cup just as delicious. You wouldn't be there unless you're in town for some sort of other errand. It's not your preferred home place that makes the best brew that you can count on, but it's at least better than the BarStucks. <br />
<br />
There will be copious amounts of <span style="background-color: red;">spoiler space</span> from this part, so feel free to jump ahead to the closing bracket for a few comments about the movie if you want to watch this yet also want to be surprised.<br />
<br />
The town of Berk has undergone some major changes since the opening credits of "How to Train Your Dragon" lo these many years ago. It's so lousy with dragons that it looks like your grandmother's dirty finch cage. Seriously, at least fifteen percent of the human population has to pick up dragon guano on a minute-by-minute basis. While they are near the ocean, water-dumping that amount of dragon dung would have killed all the fish in a fifty-mile radius.<br />
<br />
As with How to Train Your Dragon 2, the dragons are back under attack. In this movie though the denizens of Berk seem to be on the offensive first, as they are shown liberating a series of dragons from a veritable flotilla of ships. The Vikings who had their ships raided (oh the irony!) appeal to a master dragon hunter for their aid in... well, capturing them all back? They really did not go into a ton of reason WHY the dragons were needed really, and the dragon hunter is absolutely clear that he just wants to kill the main dragon of the series Toothless. And yes, unclear motivations for the antagonists is a bit of a pet peeve of mine, almost as large as New Zealand being left off of world maps.<br />
<br />
In order to avoid the dragon hunter the citizens and dragons all find an island elsewhere to live on that isn't as well-known as their previous location. The main characters also presumably stop freeing dragons to try to keep their location hidden. The dragon hunter has another plan though, which is to entrap Toothless with another (the only?) of his type for him to become enamored with. The plan works and through various circumstances Toothless is ensnared. After plenty of action sequences though, the movie along with the trilogy ends with a finality reminiscent of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">**spoiler space over**</span><br />
<br />
Seriously, this movie felt as if they recycled large amounts of How to Train Your Dragon 2. The conflicts of both movies feel exceptionally close to each other. You have a main protagonist who is bent on subjugation of others for nefarious ends. Both movies featured plans straight out of the <a href="https://i.imgur.com/PjSqvS9.jpg" target="_blank">Underwear Gnomes'</a> playbook. The question marks in these plans was hiding quite a bit of stuff.<br />
<br />
It seemed that there wasn't even a world beyond the universe of Berk, Dragons, and Bad Dudes. The Bad Dudes are more often than not on boats... we never even see another *town* in this movie series. What does this world consist of, one town of dragon-loving Vikings and effectively Waterworld throughout the rest of the world? What are the dragons going to be used for? Where are the stakes here? The first movie in the set didn't really need to introduce more of the world than just the town of Berk because the conflict was so very localized, but once the movie series started importing antagonists from abroad the antagonists seemed to forget to import the rest of their world.<br />
<br />
How to Train Your Dragon 3 was different in one major way though. This movie was designed to be the last in the series and the writers placed certain plot points as barricades for anyone else ever resurrecting the main storyline of the movie. I did not put this under "spoiler space" because the director has been saying for multiple years that they had designed the trilogy to be shut after three movies. Crazily enough it was reported that they would be happy to allow spin-off stories in the same universe but I honestly don't see how they can do that because this universe is just so tiny.<br />
<br />
Which is why your fifty-mile-away coffee shop is good really only for those times you are in the area. The coffee there is pretty decent, it's worth going to when you're a few blocks away, but to intentionally drive for an hour and thirty minutes there-and-back for a cup of coffee? Why? To sit for an hour and a half through the third installment of this series... if you have a good reason for it, by all means.<br />
<br />
And without further ado, feel free to watch this movie IF:<br />
<br />
1. You enjoy watching stilted cougar-chasing straight out of the Stiffler's Mom playbook. Seriously, it was even more delusional in this movie than it sounds as I type it. I am totally not lying about this either.<br />
<br />
2. Being better together rather than apart is a perfectly fine message for you and you're not species-ist... both main protags got their brides but can only ever visit each other from now on.<br />
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3. You have some pressing need for closure of the "How to Train Your Dragon" universe and have zero interest in thinking about how the village goes on living afterward... being without their primary antagonist/allies for the last 300 years.<br />
<br />
4. Rewatching How to Train Your Dragon 2 isn't possible because you've worn through your DVD rewatching it already and you want something just slightly newer.<br />
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5. You still don't really mind that they gave characterization to effectively two characters in the whole series, three maybe if you could Hiccup's Dad who was killed in #2 but still manages to have a sizable supporting role in this movie as well.<br />
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(special points to Hollywood in this day and age, with the #MeToo movement and everything, giving about as much depth of writing to Hiccup's love interest over three movies as they gave to the girl-dragon they hooked Toothless up to in only one movie)<br />
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I have a four-point scale that I usually grade movies on, it's pretty simple really...<br />
<br />
0 - totally unredeemable<br />
1 - I might watch parts of it on TV, depending on the scene.<br />
2 - I might watch the rest of it on TV if halfway through but not intentionally cue it up.<br />
3 - I would get a copy and watch it occasionally.<br />
4 - I would get a copy and watch it often.<br />
<br />
This movie is pretty close to a 1, if only because I'd probably sit down for the last scene. The battle scenes are meh, the message is internally inconsistent, and the universe itself hobbled. Epilogue is fine though. I would imagine that fans of the series would probably place this into a three trending to four, but unless you're a fan I wouldn't really bother.<br />
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(Crossposted at <a href="http://www.rebornknights.com/">www.rebornknights.com</a>)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-3484168232670536622015-12-14T13:29:00.001-05:002015-12-14T23:32:12.567-05:00Mystery Science Theater is... coming back?<br />
For those not in the know by now, Joel Hodgson started a Kickstarter campaign in November in order to fund a new production season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The principals have been cast -- Jonah Heston as the human riffer, Baron Vaughn and Hampton Yount as Tom Servo and Crow respectively, and Felicia Day alongside Patton Oswalt as the new Mads Kinga Forrester and TV's Son of TV's Frank.<br />
<br />
The Kickstarter raised $6.3 million dollars between direct donations ($5.7MM) and add-on purchases ($600k) over the typical thirty-day open solicitation period. The amount raised set a record for film/television projects, but just barely... by only a few thousand over the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Mars_(film)">Veronica Mars film</a>. Joel Hodgson set a graduated goal, stating that $2 million was necessary just to get on the board with three episodes but that the ultimate target was a twelve-episode season, which would end up costing $5.5M. Joel received that and a bit more, with all of the extra money raised going into creating two additional episodes to bring the first season up to fourteen episodes. The final amount was gained through one of the goofiest trainwrecks of a telethon you'd ever watched. This was even more awkward and technical-issue-ridden than the fake fictional one that "Weird Al" Yankovic envisioned in his movie "UHF". Far less money, too... And if there ever was a quintessential Joel moment, it was when he looked drowsy when announcing that the Kickstarter hit his *first* stretch goal of $5.9MM to get the thirteenth episode. It was like watching him helm the Satellite of Love twenty years ago.<br />
<br />
At present, there is no outlet for broadcasting these episodes. However, being fully-funded for one season was Joel's goal so that he could literally bring "free" content to a provider and show the support of the show. The provider would receive any sort of advertising revenue, with the hope that the advertising from the provider would induce the provider to fund more seasons, while being able to sell the show's audience to advertisers. This brings us to the present day with the situation, awaiting Joel's post-mortem tomorrow.<br />
<br />
So, the last month really did happen. Fifteen years have passed since the Sci-Fi Network decided that they would not fund more episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Oddly enough, every single one of the principals from MST3k ended up going on to do projects that were.... just MST3k in different forums other than television. Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy seem to be making a very good living from Rifftrax since 2006 (nine years!). Joel reformed the old guard into Cinematic Titanic, which ran for another six years between 2007 and 2013.<br />
<br />
It was always odd to me that these side projects ran for such a long time yet there was no ability or way to get MST3k on the air again. Cable television has exploded with so many channels through the last five years, and now that Netflix and Yahoo are creating new content for delivery via internet there's even more media options available. On top of that, according to Joel, MST3k was always a low-budget affair. The very last time Joel was onscreen as principal riffer, "Mitchell", the crew simulated static on a video feed by literally tossing white shredded paper in the shot... they couldn't even afford the extra monitor and camera to film while degrading the signal in 1993.<br />
<br />
Now, some outlet or another will get the opportunity to bid on this show... and they'll have a reel of fourteen episodes, multiplied by ninety minutes of footage -- twenty-one hours of content of a fully realized show, fully funded by fans, and all they have to do is add advertisements. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2015/11/10/joel-hodgson-did-a-reddit-ama-heres-what-we-learned-about-his-quest-to-bring-back-mst3k/">Joel's Ask Me Anything</a> said that he conceives that the show can last another thirty years with support. It seems though that the the only current support are the fans... who by the way ponied up an average of $120 per person in order to fulfill the Kickstarter campaign.<br />
<br />
I can't help but be apprehensive for where this project will end up going. New riffers means that there will also be people that need to learn how to write riffs for movies. Joel made the point that he tapped people from a wide range of previous occupations to write for him (and yes, sadly neither of your blogging hosts are on the list....), and these people will need to get up to speed. Every single character is new and will need to be fleshed out, given a solid voice, and will need the sympathy of an audience in order to get away with some of the funniest riffs... putting three Donald Trumps in a shadowramma would end the show very quickly. And this is on top of the fact that the show is cheap, has a built-in audience, and has had multiple successful online knockoffs through the last decade and a half but has not been brought back to television in any way, even by someone that was considered to have a business acumen (Jim Mallon).<br />
<br />
One last point to make about the reboot is that this is happening with what seems to be an all-West Coast cast. All of the guest-stars and guest-writers are also in the showbiz mold, having earned fame from other projects. I don't know a whole lot about the new writing crew, bit the hope is that they can bring some balance to the finished project. The writers used to be proud that they were performing in a "midwestern puppet show", and I am not sure how it will go if they lose the sense of confrontation and being wayyyy outside the halls of coolness that Minneapolis brought them.<br />
<br />
This is not to say that I didn't put my money down on the table. I anted up for this project, and I don't exactly have a lot of pocket change that I can devote to things like this... and the main reward that I was looking for from the Kickstarter will not be available until fifteen months from now. Joel is helming the project and I am hoping that he can train up the next denizens of the Satellite of Love and Deep 13 into a fighting force. And to be perfectly truthful, when I heard that Patton Oswalt was involved, it made me feel at least a little bit better.<br />
<br />
So the Satellite of Love will float on. I also hope that it will float on for many years to come... I love the characters, I love the concept, and I do still enjoy writing my own content within the idea of the show even if there's not a lot of time to produce free content within my schedule anymore. I may even meta-MST some of these new episodes if the time and fancy strikes.<br />
<br />
Though apprehensive, I am hopeful that this is the right time for Mystery Science Theater 3000 and that the show will work well. In this day and age a provider only needs to market to perhaps two million people to get enough support and profit in order to keep a production going. Even with the likes of Rifftrax around, I hope that both Rifftrax and Mystery Science Theater 3000 will be able to find the audiences and support it needs to do battle with pop culture into next Sunday A.D. (And yes, I'm still available to write! Follow the link above to my portfolio!)<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-35553754945431599522015-12-13T01:18:00.001-05:002015-12-13T01:25:07.296-05:00#2LR Too Late Reviews -- Europa Universalis IV (EU 4)<br />
Weirdly enough, strictly speaking this is not one of my too-late reviews... the thoughts that I have below are directly related to changes that Europa Universalis IV has undergone since I've purchased the game in March of 2015. I bought EU4 during one of the discounted Steam sales. I had heard that it was more complex and interesting than Civilization V, which is definitely one of my favorite strategy games of all time. The reviews weren't kidding, EU4 was complex and it has a learning curve associated with it. This learning curve was not helped by the fact that I had an extremely hard time finding any sort of instructions for the game... I played it for about two months until I realized that I could do diplomatic annexations of vassals, for instance.<br />
<br />
I was finally getting the hang of the game though, until I ran into the dreaded update cycle. The developers pushed out an update to the gameplay of EU4 (titled "Common Sense"). When I read about the update it seemed like it would bring a lot of interesting things to the game. But when I opened the game and started to play it, I was even more confused over what was happening in the game, going to the forums to try to figure out how things were happening, even going to Youtube. And that's when I found out that unless you paid for the "full" DLC upgrade rather than just getting the pushed-out half-updates, you wouldn't get all of the interesting benefits. And as far as I can tell, waiting out any of the DLC is not worth it... the developers will still charge for the previous DLC even though they've pushed out a new DLC, so there's no benefit to try to hang on through the game's updates when you don't have much money to spend.<br />
<br />
I have played EU4 for a bit over 100 hours, while I have played Civ 5 for somewhere close to 1500 hours. And there are two reasons that I can play Civ 5 for far more time and have started far more Civ 5 games. The first is that while the Civ 5 folks have put out paid DLC upgrades to the game, they don't alter the gameplay for the people who don't want to pay for the DLC upgrades. And the second is that I feel that Civ 5 has a lot of replayability compared to EU4, in that Civ 5 has multiple different ways to "win" the game, where you have to manipulate all of EU4's different strategies in service to basically one goal, expansion... for instance, I have won games in Civ 5 with only one city, but I do not believe that it's possible in any way to "win" a game of EU4 with only one province, or to build a military purely to dissuade others from attacking.<br />
<br />
The last note might be related to only having played EU4 for a bit over 100 hours and only against the computer on "normal" difficulty. However, I would have thought that by this time I would have understood the mechanics of the game much better. I continue to end up with bad beats rolling dice on military expeditions. There are more than a few times that I have declared war as a stronger country against a weaker country only to find out in the next forty-five minutes that I can't win... and when I restart the game and try to use the knowledge I just gained from the previous forty-five minutes, I'll get defeated in a new and less creative way. I can tell stories of armies skirting my main force, of getting beat to a province by a day but getting the complete and full crossing penalties in the subsequent fight, of defeating a lesser force to only 5% of their morale only to have a far larger force join in the nick of time to completely upend the battle, of having better generals and equal forces yet losing anyway, and having my allies never consolidate their forces with mine against my foes when my foes consolidated all their forces the whole time.<br />
<br />
TL;DR: I had thought that I was right in the wheelhouse of this game's target audience. I love history, I love geography, and I enjoy the alternate histories that EU4 can spawn. However, between an inability to learn the game over 100 hours, not being able to pay for each DLC that comes out, and the fact that the game is somewhat broken without the DLCs, it's not worth playing unless you have a LOT of time and the money to keep up with the updates.<br />
<br />
This review has been cross-posted to some Steam board or another as a review.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-6689400658513445672015-01-24T22:03:00.001-05:002015-01-24T22:03:17.257-05:00#2LR Too Late Review: Puella Magi Madoka Magica<div class="MsoNormal">
I suppose if anything was going to get me to write Too Late
Reviews again, it would be a show that I obtained a couple years ago and didn’t
bother attempting to watch for thirty months.
Better yet, I finished watching this show about two months ago and didn’t
bother writing anything about it until now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The anime series that I will review today is the show
“Puella Magi Madoka Magica”. Yeah, it’s not
the best title for an anime. I’m going
to be quite hampered in writing this review by the fact that this show is one
of the best misdirection shows that I’ve run across. I suppose that the best thing to do in order
to review the show is to write a paragraph describing the things that the show
does generally and then to put up a “spoiler space” sign below so that I can
discuss the plot on more depth.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The back-of-the-envelope summary of this show is that it is
a magical-girl anime. Middle-school girls are tasked with the protection of the
world against creatures that would do havoc to the people around them. While the animation in the “real world”
segments of the show is conventional, when the magical girls are fighting their
foes, the animation changes to a hybrid of CGI and the previous 2D, and the
segments are very interesting as a fan of design. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The other point to make about this show is that it is very
short, only twelve episodes. This is an
anime that can be consumed in a very short time, over a single Saturday if you
so choose. The shortness does help, it’s
a complex show and the viewer may very well want to rewatch the show, I know
that I really wanted to see it again when I finished the first time. If I may though, I think that the best method
is to watch one episode every day or perhaps two at the most, because it’s also
a show that needs to be digested. Its short
length means that the plot goes by pretty quick and if you run it through too
quick, you may miss a couple of rather important points. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s hard to come up with a good analogy with this show,
because it is legitimately one of the first shows of its kind that I
watched. This show is like watching a
building come together. The show builds
a solid foundation, gets to work on its first floor, builds out a fascinating
plot, and then next thing you know you realize that the foundation is
completely different than you realized at first, but that the building is that
much more fascinating as a result. As previous warning, about the only
complaint that I had about this show would be its ending… but the complaint is
minor, and the show itself is worth watching just for the imagination put into
the plot and the design work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE HERE</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As before, this IS a magical girl anime. Madoka is the sweet little girl of a rich
family in Japan, whoise mother is a kick-butt VP and her father is a
stay-at-home dad to her baby brother.
She goes to school at a rich private academy with all the latest in
school gadgets. A new student comes in,
who has been “sick” for the last couple semesters, and she (Akemi) takes an
immediate interest in Madoka. While
Akemi needs medicine at the nurses station (and knows where it is, oddly) she
also manages to be the best athlete.
Akemi also manages to drop cryptic warnings to Madoka about only being
who she should be.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Madoka ends up getting into trouble later and runs into the
‘cute anime mascot’, Kyube (think Q-Bay), who was hunted by someone. It turns out that the hunter is a huntress –
Akemi. Akemi lets Kyube go, but not
without more warnings to Madoka. In the meantime, one of the evil beings in
this anime – witches – shows up and causes havoc. Madoka and Kyube watch as
Mami, a magical girl, takes care of the problem. Mami and Kyube know each
other, and Mami serves as the first backstory guide.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In essence, Kyube helps these girls to become magical girls,
and also gives the girl a wish in exchange for her services. The girl then starts to fight these witches,
who when defeated drop “grief seeds” that allow the Puella Magi to recharge their
magic. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mami is rather clear-headed about the whole process, talking
to Madoka and her friend about the choices that they have to make about
becoming Puella Magi. Madoka is content
to listen mostly to Akemi’s warning, but her friend does decide that she’s
going to become a Puella Magi, and uses her wish to wish that a classmate she
has a crush on is healed from his injuries in an accident, allowing him to play
the violin again. With that, Madoka is
pulled ever more deeper into the story… even though she’s not defeating any
witches, or having any of the story elements affecting her… … yet…<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE OVER</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The plot starts running fast and furious at this point, and
I really can’t do this show justice if I keep reviewing the action. Suffice it to say that this is one of the few
shows that display actual consequences to characters’ actions and that this is
also one of the few shows that I have seen that really raises the stakes and
ends up being somewhat of a roller-coaster through the end of these twelve
episodes, including the redemption of characters that come straight out of
left-field. Practically everything in
this show is explainable and logical, and for someone who reads thin plots as a
matter of fandom, I was floored. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is no sequel planned for this show. In a way, that is
actually somewhat satisfying, because if ever there was a self-contained story
with few loose ends, this is it. If you
are a person that wants to find out what happens to the characters “after”
though, you might be slightly disappointed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This review might not be as humorous as past reviews, but I
definitely want to show how much I regard this show. It receives a 4.0 on my
four-point scale. This is because if you’re
anything like me, you’ll <b>want</b> to
watch this show again to see all of the little clues that added up to the ending
that was written for the show and realize the subtlety that the writers and director
used… and if you’re a writer or similar, you might find some awesome hints for
good writing in the future. This show is
highly recommended.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-71803192802585942862014-10-24T16:24:00.001-05:002014-10-24T16:25:42.948-05:00Let's Play/MST... Witch Night<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvW-_X8HlX1r2C4lG-G8eBYTu95JJkoZfaDp6AEadzacMdHsr__Za5gBk1-HIzWc-j7Pbgnh9w9cCv700OCzJyE2H6f4AqaVu_-Rsc57JCKGQa-_m8Mz3f3u1SDCHkJxVFSBX7QXM5WB4P/s1600/Witch_Night.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvW-_X8HlX1r2C4lG-G8eBYTu95JJkoZfaDp6AEadzacMdHsr__Za5gBk1-HIzWc-j7Pbgnh9w9cCv700OCzJyE2H6f4AqaVu_-Rsc57JCKGQa-_m8Mz3f3u1SDCHkJxVFSBX7QXM5WB4P/s320/Witch_Night.png" /></a>
<br />
Hey guys, long time no post!<br />
<br />
It's been a busy last few months for me but the last couple of weeks have been busily spent producing my second Let's Play of the AGS Game 'Witch Night' in time for and in honor of Halloween. Zoogz and I both wrote the script and my sister KizzyCaspy and I performed the voices. You can find both the Let's Play and the Blooper Reel on YouTube at the following links:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/KlsZXdAH7G8">http://youtu.be/KlsZXdAH7G8<br /></a> -- Let's Play... Witch Night<br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/YpHz4jlBphc">http://youtu.be/YpHz4jlBphc<br /></a> -- Blooper Reel<br />
<br />
All comments and criticisms are greatly appreciated and we sincerely hope you enjoy it. :)<br />
<br />
Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Megane 6.7 and Zoogz<br /> Megane 6.7http://www.blogger.com/profile/18263836213902211097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-14219522813537060712014-04-02T20:11:00.001-05:002014-04-02T20:33:07.643-05:00Post-mortem of the #CancelColbert situation:I very rarely get exercised about things as they happen nowadays. My whole presence on the Internet is predicated on trying to analyze things after-the-fact, to try to come up with new ways of looking at old movies, or fanfiction that has been published before. After all, writing a too-late review means that there's something to try to add to the discussion that happened months/years/<a href="http://mstings.blogspot.com/2012/03/movie-review-roger-me.html" target="_blank">decades</a> ago...<br />
<br />
In some ways though, I'm more than happy to write about an issue related to Twitter that happened only six days ago. This is the Internet, and as far as the Internet is concerned the issue is pretty much over. It's Twitter after all.<br />
<br />
The issue in question is the #CancelColbert tag that was propagated over the weekend by quite a few Internet activists. I read about this story from more than a few angles, and I might suggest reading the Wikipedia page of the originator of this line of tweets, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suey_Park" target="_blank">Suey Park</a>, in order to get some of the story behind her and what she does to bring issues to the attention of others. The link section has some articles, though if you're reading this more than a couple months in the future they may already be down.<br />
<br />
There is an alternate point of view to the articles as well, which are fairly sympathetic to Suey Park's point of view. Another person on Twitter posted about Suey Park's past tendencies and Tweets, and the article can be found by through going to her blog, Joslyn Steven's <a href="http://joslynstevens.com/2014/03/30/cancelcolbert-politics-offended/#.Uzyp0fldUrU" target="_blank">Opt Out</a>.<br />
<br />
The issue can be summed up rather quickly. On <i>The Colbert Report</i>, Wednesday March 26, Stephen Colbert reported on the Washington Redskins (football team) owner Dan Snyder. The Redskins were named the Redskins in the 30s by their owner back then. In this more enlightened day and age, the Redskins have obviously never changed their team nickname, despite at least some pressure to do so. Snyder very recently set up The Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation in order to provide financial support to Native Americans. Colbert told a joke on his show which compared this act to setting up the "Ching-Chong Ding Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever". In the show, he also topped it off by doing his impression of a man trying to be as racist against Asians as possible.<br />
<br />
The show on Wednesday didn't cause the ruckus... a follow-up tweet on Thursday Night that included the following did: "I am willing to show #Asian community I care introducing the Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals or Whatever". At this point, the #FireColbert tag was instigated by Suey Park, posting on Twitter by retweeting this tweet and telling her followers to "trend it".<br />
<br />
The aftermath of the situation included Colbert disavowing the tweet, which was honest... it originated from a Comedy Central staffer, as the tweet was an official "show account" rather than Colbert's personal account. Colbert took to the air on Monday to address the situation, saying that he bore no responsibility for the tweet, and the "show account" was quickly removed.<br />
<br />
So.... why am I here then? What dog do I have in the fight? Well, my largest issue in this matter is this; I have watched <i>The Colbert Report</i> and I enjoy Stephen Colbert's work <u style="font-style: italic;">as well as his writers</u> -- the list of whom can be found at Wikipedia <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Colbert_Report_writers" target="_blank">here</a>, they really deserve a lot of credit for Stephen's ability to tell good jokes consistently.<br />
<br />
I have never heard of Suey Park prior to this, and while some of the research on her was not positive (such as what was posted by Joslyn Stevens), when I viewed her Twitter account, she was using her bandwidth to try to raise money for charity rather than making any money from all of this. She also did endure a bit of a backlash from people who were not the most respectful in tone.<br />
<br />
<br />
It's not as if there's a clear-cut "bad guy" in this. Stephen Colbert tried to illustrate how ridiculous Dan Snyder's attempt at healing is when he's not willing to do more than token efforts. Suey Park tried to illustrate how racism is sadly pervasive, because the joke that Stephen Colbert used has been utilized in the past to demean others. And after all of this, Dan Snyder manages to get off the hook for his own tone-deafness, while Colbert is obligated to try to defend himself.<br />
<br />
What can someone do to try to reconcile their thoughts and feelings about this? Well, it's to realize that not everyone will be right 100% of the time, no matter what. (I'm sure you've noticed that of me and my typos over the years.) My thought is that Suey Park should use more of her bandwidth to explore ways that she can call out people who are <i>directly benefitting</i> from racism. Stephen Colbert's racism amounted to one joke out of the... near to how many thousands that he's told on the show. He is not making a single dime from the "Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation"... meanwhile, Snyder is raking in quite a bit of money from all sorts of shirts, mugs, and other memorabilia emblazoned with a racist caricature, and refuses to change this. There's got to be some sort of level where the pervasive, money-grubbing, profit-seeking racism gets seen as a far larger issue than the joke that serves to HIGHLIGHT the money-grubbing, profit-seeking racism.<br />
<br />
By the same token though, satire doesn't get to be utilized as a complete get-out-of-jail-free shield. Of course Colbert was trying to highlight how tone-deaf Snyder's move was, but it's not as if this joke was the ONLY joke that could be told in this situation. There's a full room of writers in the back, and there's times that they have to realize that yes, even the cringe-inducing jokes that elicit a weak chuckle might not need to be said. Worse yet was Stephen Colbert's reaction to this. Yes, he did not tweet it, but he absolutely did say it. Yes, it was out of context... but that's what needs to be addressed.<br />
<br />
Overall, I feel that the worst offender in this situation is Twitter in general as well as the news media that reports about Twitter. There's too little actual reporting about what goes on in this country, ways that people gain their money either illegally or immorally... but we can absolutely stop our 24/7 coverage of the Malaysian Airlines crisis in order to cover this... non-news. There's no context on Twitter because it's the very nature of Twitter. This post is not 140 characters for a reason. There's shades of gray that can't be drawn in only 140 characters. Those shades of gray are absolutely vital to this issue, but they are completely absent.<br />
<br />
Just know, that in this world there's space for satirists to call out the abuses of others AND there's space in this world for the viewers of this world to call out the satirists when one too many lines are crossed. We need the Colberts to work on the big issues of the day. We want the efforts of Suey Park and others to shine a light on our discourse, <u style="font-style: italic;">even if we think it is unnecessary or incorrect</u>, so that we can reevalute if the joke is worth it, or if there's ways that we can try to help everyone, not just the people who "get the joke".<br />
<br />
At least, that's my 7,086 characters.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-20552265754756796642014-03-04T22:36:00.000-05:002014-03-05T19:20:57.637-05:00#2LR Too Late Reviews -- Star Trek Into Darkness and the art of the reboot.<br />
Sequels have been around for pretty much forever in the annals of storytelling. Even the <i>Iliad</i> had its <i>Odyssey</i> following it. The continuity of characters and of relationships or situations makes it easy for viewers of the original to be able to relate to the sequel very quickly. Of course, the authors of sequels are helped as well, as they've already created the groundwork for the story to go forward, they can then spend less time on the nuts and bolts and get to the plot, the rising action that will allow their readers or viewers to really enjoy what they're seeing.<br />
<br />
Reboots, however, are a more recent vintage. It's thought that the term literally comes from the computer term for "reboot", where a computer system comes up after being shut down. There are BIOS instructions for the computer system to set up and run an operating system so that it will act as if it did before, and it will clear up any errors that may have been introduced in the RAM by other programs.<br />
<br />
It's a fairly apt term when applied to the literary equivalent and most recently, movie equivalent. Comic books had to deal with this constantly even decades ago... when artists move on but leave their creations, it's a property that has already been invested in and built up. When a new artist comes to fill in on that continuity, what are they to do?<br />
<br />
A reboot is not necessarily a remake... remakes have been happening for ages. It's not as if the original actors of <i>Hamlet</i> can come out of retirement to show us how it's done. A reboot is in a different world its own. A remake may be straightforward or it may reimagines the source material in a different light and introduces few if any plot changes. The remake might emphasize or deemphasize certain aspects of the source work, but overall it does not vary nor is there much added to the source work plot-wise. A reboot keeps the characters and some of the situations of the original work, but ends up moving off in a completely different direction, managing to make up its own plot distinct from the work that it first used as its basis.<br />
<br />
With that said, how do reboots work, and what do they do right? I recently had a chance to rewatch <i>Star Trek Into Darkness</i> and felt that talking about the high points and low points of reboots would be the right thing to do in the context of this movie.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: red;">[Spoiler Space ahead]</span><br />
<br />
<br />
The movie opens up on Spock being lowered into a volcano and Kirk and Bones fleeing a group of pale-skinned natives on a planet. It turns out in the prologue that the volcano is literally slated to destroy the planet that they're on and without Spock's direct assistance this rock might never see the miracle of cheez in a can realized someday.<br />
<br />
To escape the natives running after, the two end up taking a flying leap off of a cliff into the water below where we find the Enterprise curiously "docked". (Ha?) Why the heck it was placed near the planet's surface instead of safely orbiting I don't honestly remember... much less the nerdy objections to how it can operate in a pressure-filled environment when it is supposed to be in a pressure-less environment. Or, if the volcano is imminent to explode, why have the starship anywhere near the surface?? Technerd objections aside, Kirk and Bones appear in the airlock and Kirk immediately asks about Spock. Spock, meantime, is doing his level best to reenact the Mount Doom sequences from <i>Lord of the Rings</i>.<br />
<br />
The plot contrivance volcano is giving off too much "magnetism" for the Enterprise to just beam Spock back aboard. The crew theorizes that they need to get into "line of sight" with Spock, so they have to lift the starship out of the ocean. Spock vehemently vetoes the idea as he places the Prime Directive above his own safety but Kirk overrules him. Spock is picked up in the nick of time, the planet's natives start to worship a picture of a starship instead of their previous artifacts, and the Enterprise is returning to Earth at warp-speed.<br />
<br />
On Earth, Kirk is caught lying on the report of the incident by Spock counter filing his own report. Kirk gets busted down to first officer and Spock gets reassigned. (Here's one of the two spots that I'm highlighting below.) At around this time one of Starfleet's libraries gets bombed and that draws in the senior command for a meeting. Kirk rightly figures out that the library bombing was purely a feint to get senior command together in one spot. Too late though... just as he figured it out, the bullets start flying and the body count continues to grow.<br />
<br />
The perpetrator escapes. He leaves behind one major clue... he's going to the Klingon homeworld to hide out. Starfleet comes up with a massively cockamamie idea to shoot missiles at the Klingon homeworld from neutral space, even providing 72(!!) of them. Kirk's crew has major misgivings, from Spock's protestations that it is a military rather than exploratory mission and Scotty's resignation over not knowing the missile's contents. Kirk cares less as it was shown that Captain Pike, who pulled him into Starfleet and gave him his first commission, was one of the casualties of the terrorist attack. Kirk just wants blood. Chekov replaces Scotty as head engineer because they didn't train a SINGLE PERSON in Engineering how to work ALL the parts at once.<br />
<br />
The Enterprise gets to the neutral zone point but then warp core problems start. (I think it was sabotage, at least it would have made more sense to the plot, but I don't remember exactly how). Kirk, Spock, and Uhura then take a shuttlecraft to the Klingon home world... all the while Uhura and Spock are fighting because Uhura thought it insensitive that Spock considered the Prime Directive over HER FEELINGS. (If the dude was literally ready to die in order to not break the rules, I think that the relationship was like second place...) After the odd snit, they manage to get captured by the Klingons... but then the fugitive shows up and takes out about thirty of them via hand-held phaser and massive phaser cannon. The fugitive asks Kirk about how many missiles are pointed at his head. When Kirk answers "72", he immediately surrenders... and tells us his name is Khan.<br />
<br />
(Sigh. Yes, Khan's back.)<br />
<br />
At this point things get even weirder. First, one of the missiles is opened and it turns out to be a cryogenic pod containing one of Khan's crewmembers. All of these dudes are packed in those tubes and it is Khan's intention to recover them to recreate his own group of followers. He also tells Kirk of the skunkworks he worked at somewhere around Jupiter where one of the Starfleet admirals (Marcus) was creating major weapons of war. Khan has been helping to design and build battlecruisers. I didn't quite catch if it was the case, but it may have been verboten by agreements with other groups (e.g. Romulans, Klingons, etc.). Kirk messages Scotty back on Earth to investigate Khan's story.<br />
<br />
Marcus wants Khan dead because Khan knows too much... and now by association, so does the Enterprise. Kirk first attempts to run, but the battleship is just as fast and can shoot at them while in warp-speed travel. After enough of the Enterprise is beat up, Kirk stops near Earth, but is unfortunately far enough away for anyone to figure out what's going on.<br />
<br />
The Enterprise is helpless... the engines are out, shields are out, and weapons are offline. Kirk's love-interest, Carol Marcus, pleads with her father to spare the Enterprise. Marcus responds by transporting her to his battleship and continues to prime the weapons. It turned out that Scotty had managed to sneak his way onto the battleship and has disabled the weapons in order to spare the Enterprise, even briefly. Since there's no way to do anything to the battleship from the Enterprise, Kirk and Khan decide to don spacesuits to get from one to the other via space.<br />
<br />
Scotty opens a porthole, both fly in, and then they make their way to the bridge. Kirk and Khan manage to subdue the skeleton crew of the battleship including Marcus. Kirk then swings his phaser around to stun Khan. Khan does not stay stunned. Khan takes control of the bridge of the warship, parlaying with Spock for the return of his crew. Spock instead pulled all of the cryotubes from each of the missiles and replaced them with explosives, wired to detonate when transported to the battleship. The weapons explode and both starships are sent towards Earth's gravity.<br />
<br />
The Enterprise can't escape gravity because their engines are still down. Kirk does his best imitation of one of those human fly performers to climb up the warp core. At the top he literally kicks one of the two "contacts" in the core to bring them back in alignment. I am amazed that there are not septuple-redundant systems to do this NOT within the warp core, as going in will subject him to Chernobyl-level radiation doses and death. He does anyway... and he and Spock reenact the scene at the end of the original "Wrath of Khan", but in reverse... Kirk inside and Spock outside. Yes, there will be complaints below.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Khan manages to crash the battleship into Starfleet headquarters in San Francisco, and even manages to survive and run away from *this*. Spock (and Uhura) ends up chasing him down, capturing him, and returning him *to a cryopod*.<br />
<br />
Hokay, I've got to take a break to address this. Hey, movie, mind executing the dude who massacred many civilians by crashing a starship into the middle of a city? Not to mention the library explosion, a squad of killed Klingons, the senior command shooting in the beginning? Heck, what about the skeleton crew of what looked like Blackwater contractors flying the Starfleet dreadnought, that were all "stunned" rather than killed and ended up perishing in the final crash? No, you need him for future sequels? *sigh* <br />
<br />
Last but not least, we find out that Khan's blood has "regenerative properties"... I suppose Wolverine is still alive and kicking somewhere in the universe's equivalent of a Yellowknife dive bar. This time though it doesn't take another movie to bring Kirk back, just a plot contrivance. Yeah, I know that Khan's blood was needed for Bones' super-serum to heal Kirk (hey Starfleet, who will you be sharing THAT formula with...), but there's TONS of time afterward to execute him. THIS is why reboots end up becoming necessary, by the way, these throwaway "super serums" that end up mucking up a continuity.<br />
<br />
As the movie rolls further past the two-hour mark the epilogue is a rededication of the Enterprise, which I am surprised even managed to get *re*built... I would have absolutely believed "built again" considering the massive hull holes that sucked out numerous people.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: red;">The summary</span> for this movie is over... though some people may consider the below discussion of the nuts and bolts of the ending spoiler space as well. I've attempted to hide as much as possible, but it can't all be pulled from view. You've been warned...<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I wanted to point out the best reason for a reboot. It was in the beginning when Chris Pine's Kirk and Zach Quinto's Spock are getting dressed down for the actions they took in the prologue to the movie. Spock protests that Admiral Pike is not considering the overall details of the mission, how it was supposed to have happened, and what then subsequently made the mission fail. Pike dismisses Spock's concern by telling him that they were merely technicalities... Spock then not only tells Pike that technicalities are the soul of a Vulcan, but managed to get into the technicalities of the technicalities. I absolutely loved the scene even if it was just a minor thing, and to me this showed the heights that a reboot can provide... it may be a new person writing Spock, but they're trying to stay as true to his character (or perhaps Quinto was improvising?) and I thought that it was a cool touch.<br />
<br />
However, the reboot has the awkward task of *reminding* people of the original while not hewing too closely. I can respect that they would bring back not only old characters but also old villains. That's fine and fair game to me. However, the scene between Kirk and Spock that I marked with complaints above is getting mentioned here. I thought it was not only really unnecessary, it was almost as if the movie had to contort its plot just to make sure that the scene could be included.<br />
<br />
See, the problem for me was that getting Kirk into the situation was not easy. They also had a very tough time trying to establish the stakes of the situation... firstly, Kirk's "killer" was much like the "killer" from <i>The Happening</i>... silent, invisible, and "deadly". There was an "against the clock" situation accompanying it (as the starship was currently non-operational), but according to the internal logic, the moment that Kirk stepped inside he signed his death warrant. I remain extremely surprised that the equipment to be able to deal with the situation was not present, especially since it seemed that the problem he fixed was something that could possibly happen in other contexts. This is Starfleet. There should be systems backing up systems backing up systems... unless of course, the problem Kirk fixed can be dealt with by a few Ensign Throwaway redshirts.<br />
<br />
I couldn't find this final scene even halfway believable either. After two new Star Trek movies, there'd be no way that they'd kill off one of the marquee stars this easily. So it was almost as if the movie telegraphed the fact that it would be breaking its own continuity. And it did, in pretty spectacular form. At this point, they put in the scene between Spock and Khan at the end of the movie. There was a lack of suspense in knowing that they would bring back James T. Kirk, but you even knew during the *fight scene* who would win because of it. So, this scene destroyed the suspense for BOTH of the resolutions.<br />
<br />
The screenwriters knew that they couldn't spend a movie bringing Kirk back (like the original series did by bringing Spock back in <i>Star Trek 3</i>), so why even attempt it? And lo and behold, it wasn't attempted. As above, they used a method that was outlandish for even comic books to bring Kirk back in about fifteen minutes flat.<br />
<br />
This is what I just can't get behind with a reboot. If you're going to have to change your story to try to incorporate plot points, make sure that it's going to fit in your overarching plot. Yes, there's a touch of the technerd in me, but it felt like they had to open up a few holes in the fabric of the story in order to get these aspects into the movie... and I can't get behind that. Give me more "The Universe Hates Jim Kirk's Face" compared to this.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: red;">[spoiler space officially over]</span><br />
<br />
<br />
It's gotta be the first time that I nested spoiler space warnings. As far as the more generic judging of the movie, I did feel that it went on about twenty to thirty minutes too long (at almost 2:15, it really could have used an editor or two). Looking back, the previous <i>Star Trek</i> film was just over the two-hour mark at 127 minutes... but the first film also had to carry the task of introducing the whole reboot setup, so I can forgive it the extra time. This one really didn't have to carry the introduction issues.<br />
<br />
I already explained my love-hate relationship with reboots in general and in the plot of this one in specific. Please don't think that I disliked the movie though... just like in the <i><a href="http://mstings.blogspot.com/2013/01/2lr-august-rush.html" target="_blank">August Rush</a></i> review I posted, I enjoyed the movie but felt that it could have worked out even better. As far as my scale goes, I popped it into my DVD player only yesterday, so that satisfies the level 3 criteria really well. However, I will also say that I stopped it about three-quarters the way through the movie... and I'm perfectly fine stopping it where I have it, as I remember enough of the rest of the film. So, it occupies a weird area where I sincerely enjoy the first one hundred ten minutes and can take or leave the last twenty.<br />
<br />
So, I suppose that I will give it a flat 3, as an average of the 3.5 that it sustains for an hour and change and the 2.3 that it finishes with. It's not as if it's the modern equivalent of <i>The Girl in Lovers' Lane</i>, but it does get my nitpicky hackles rising... if you want to lose yourself in the action sequences or the twisty-turny plot, then you'll enjoy it.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-53044335099511689582014-03-02T12:10:00.000-05:002014-03-02T12:10:10.071-05:00#2LR Meta Navel-Gazing Part 2 -- InspirationIn the first meta navel-gazing post, I tried to go into part of the reason that I write these reviews... wanting to talk about art to other people, finding methods that make movies / television shows / anime series / video games work or not work, and wanting to share my opinions of such. In this post though, I wanted to go into the idea of inspiration a bit more, and to discuss a bit of how it works as far as a critic (slash MST3k writer) goes.<br />
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Firstly, I absolutely love Wikipedia. I collect trivia like other people collect shotglasses, spoons, or other knickknacks. There's just a wide range of amazing stories... such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Chicago_Fire" target="_blank">Great Chicago Fire</a> happening the same day as massive fires in both <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_Fire" target="_blank">Wisconsin</a> and in two different <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Huron_Fire_of_1871" target="_blank">places</a> in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Michigan_Fire" target="_blank">Michigan</a>. One of these many places happens to be my hometown, yet I hadn't the slightest idea that this coincidence existed until reading Wikipedia articles.<br />
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Another favorite story is about an eighteenth-century queen of Denmark, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Matilda_of_Great_Britain" target="_blank">Caroline Matilda</a>. In twenty-three short years, she managed to provide an heir to the Danish throne (plus a daughter), ended up taking some sort of charge of the kingdom when her husband became mentally infirm, going as far as to dress as a man to rally the troops, embroiled in scandal when it was implied that the king's doctor was the true father of both her children... it's really just a fascinating story to me, and it happened in only a few short years. At some point, I think I need to find more books about this because I'm sure that the backstory will be even more surprising.<br />
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Cruising Wikipedia became my go-to for stories about accidents and other catastrophes for a while too... for me, I enjoyed reading the accounts of aircraft accidents or other disasters, finding out which decisions were the fateful ones, realizing that there's sometimes just that thin thread even if it didn't seem thin at the time. I wrote a whole post describing more of my enjoyment of <a href="http://mstings.blogspot.com/2013/04/2lr-air-emergency-seconds-from-disaster.html" target="_blank">"disaster porn"</a> that can be found at the link.<br />
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I suppose that one of my favorite subjects recently has been reading the articles posted about music. The Beatles in specific have been covered quite a bit, but there are more than a few other artists that have articles up about their songs on Wikipedia. I'm interested by these because I really enjoy hearing about the creative process... pulling just the most random thoughts out of midair, adding lyrics and music to these thoughts, and then bringing them to life to the point that millions of people want to hear more and more. In all frankness, I've never been a big fan of the Beatles, but hearing the stories behind their work has actually encouraged me to listen a bit closer to their music, and I have been slowly becoming more and more of a fan.<br />
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It's really odd where one finds their inspiration, yet I think that the parallel activities of writing MST3k treatments of fanfiction and writing reviews of various types of media dovetails quite nicely. As I look back, I find myself wanting to comment most on what other people have done, or said, or played, or acted... it's almost like I care just as much about the execution of the idea as I care about the idea itself being shown. My inspiration and enjoyment comes in writing humor about creative situations, or commenting about the creative situations, and trying to find the thin line between the creators and their creation on one side and how the creations are perceived by the other.<br />
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I'm not sure if I'd ever really write anything original, at least not at present. I suppose I would need to figure out a way to get inspired by my own thoughts, by bringing life to something completely internal rather than something that piques my interest because of how it affects me and makes me feel.<br />
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At present though, I'm more than happy to offer my thoughts on the experiences I share with others. I certainly can understand the critics' soul far more than I did before I started doing this... right now, I'm comfortable in telling what audience we have my thoughts on watching/listening/playing, and hopefully we'll get a few interesting conversations scraped together sometime about how things will work for some but not for others.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-21185233389995340532014-02-23T00:38:00.000-05:002014-02-23T00:42:32.654-05:00Did Snoopy Invent The Hurricane Kick???Holy crap! I was watching PawDugan's <i>'<a href="http://auditorydumpling.com/flashbeagle/">review</a>'</i> of the 1984 Peanuts Special/Musical <i>'Flashbeagle'</i> and I made an amazing discovery!<br>
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Are you ready for this? It turns out Snoopy may have been the original inventor of the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku (Hurricane Kick) THREE years before Ryu and Ken started using it in Street Fighter! Don't believe me? See it and judge for yourself! ;P<br>
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<i>'<a href="http://youtu.be/6hawrJn3kV0">Snoopy Hurricane Kick</a>'</i> Megane 6.7http://www.blogger.com/profile/18263836213902211097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-68282373474241793942014-02-19T08:34:00.001-05:002014-02-19T08:34:58.072-05:00#2LR Too Late Review: Read or Die the TV seriesReview: <i>Read or Die</i> the TV Series:<br />
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I'm not sure that I can come up with much of an introduction to this anime series, because what I need to say pretty much comes after the summary in order to be understandable. For those who want to hew to <span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE</span>, I'll try to obfuscate as many of the spoilers as I can get to.<br />
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The story of <i>Read or Die</i> is not really reading per se, but the story of paper. In the great Southern Woods... oh, actually, in Hong Kong, a famous Japanese author, Nenene Sumiregawa, found herself in a bit of trouble. She was saved by a group of women called "The Three Sisters Detective Agency". The three women are Michelle, Maggie, and Anita. All three of the sisters have the power to make paper bend to their will, to fold itself and stick itself together, and to move as they want it to. Michelle's power is primarily in making a bow/arrow, Maggie's power is to make animal shapes and activate them much like golems, and Anita's power is to be able to use paper in its deadliest form... to cut others.<br />
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The three sisters take Nenene back to Japan, and end up acting as her bodyguards so that Nenene can finish her latest book. Anita is still young enough to need to go to school, so she enrolls. One of the other students<br />
there is a very effeminate boy, "Junior", who can walk through walls and/or floors without any problems.<br />
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To introduce the remaining characters and their backstory are Nenene's agent, the first evil conglomerate "Dokusensha", and the second evil conglomerate -- the British Library (?!) As well, Nenene's on the search<br />
for one of the teachers that she most learned from, Yomiko Readman (pun likely intended by the Japanese writers).<br />
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The story has quite a few twists and turns... Dokusensha, while paying off the Three Sisters to complete jobs on the side, ends up using Nenene's agent to kidnap her. It seems that they want to use a set of artifact<br />
books to try to rewrite Nenene's brain. Their plan goes south when the Three Sisters realize what is happening and mount a rescue mission back to Dokusensha's main offices in Hong Kong to get her back. As probably predicted, they are successful. The interesting wrinkle is that they're labeled "terrorists" for causing all this damage to the building, so there is a bit of the cloak-and-dagger involved in the rest of the show. It almost would have been interesting, but it got relegated to the memory-hole within only a couple episodes.<br />
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After those events the Three Sisters end up finding Yomiko Readman, in the halls of the Library of Japan based off of a tip from a local bookstore owner. Yomiko's in there along with another woman, Nancy, who seems as meek and mild as a mouse. Both turn out to be hiding from the British Library, the arch-enemy of Dokusensha, as both turned out to be agents. Yomiko can also paper-bend, and not just to make little folded footballs during class.<br />
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And that's when the plot really ends up going off the rails. See, the British's power from the mid-15th century through World War II was due to "Mr. Gentleman", who they managed to keep alive all those centuries. He's dead now, and as a result the British Library hatched a plan to "bring him back", as it were, through the use of Junior's body as a vessel. There's really very little reason for Nenene to be involved, except as we find out later... the British Library (and their aptly title leader, "Mr. Joker") need her to write the Gospel of Mr. Gentleman once he revives... as no one knew who Jesus was except through the record of the Bible. Of course, Mr. Gentleman will bring the British back to prominence, even at the expense<br />
of historical allies such as the U.S. of A.<br />
<br />
Wow. Well, in the final encounter, Joker *literally* invites all of the main characters save Nancy and an American heavy they picked up along the way to see his "moment of triumph", without really even restraining them much. In this case, it was Nenene who managed to hide the Three Sisters' paper-based ammunition on herself, only to bring it out in order to save Junior at the end. And it also turned out that Nancy was like Double-O Eight, though in a far-tighter (and far more revealing) catsuit than James Bond ever had.<br />
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I'm pretty much skipping the sideplot of Anita going to school, but that's because you would've cared even less than I did had you watched it yourself.<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">[Spoiler space OVER]</span><br />
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I suppose that I've been spoiled by a few series lately, even finding some good stuff out of series that would pretty much be one-note (<i>Rosario + Vampire</i>). I can pretty much say that this series was watched out of sheer dedication to finishing rather than any desire to find out what happens. I obtained the first few DVDs from the local library, and I literally had three of the discs sit on my dresser for almost four weeks before I finally watched all of the twelve episodes contained therein.<br />
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There was exactly one good moment, which was finding out which character was responsible for kick-starting the action portion of the first section of the show (the Dokusensha section). I had to admit that the writers/animators did a good job hiding who it was, though it wasn't as if there was a huge trail of bread crumbs or anything... it was just one of those left-field surprises that catches you offguard and keeps your attention because of it.<br />
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After that though, the whole thing pretty much fell apart. How to characterize why it fell apart may be difficult except to say that it was way too unbelievable. I couldn't summon the suspension of disbelief needed for the second half's Macguffin to work with any sort of clarity. I think it was because even the show was pretty unclear as to how it was supposed to work.<br />
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The segments of Anita going to school in Japan were also really... boring. I couldn't have cared less, and it's not like there was emotion overwhelming and the sequences didn't exactly add any depth or plot or anything to the story. Late in the series, Anita gets into a fight with Michelle, and I realized why I couldn't have cared less about these school segments... it's because the character of Anita is screechy, rather unredeemable, and there's really no character arc to her to rehabilitate any of those features. Of course she had a tragic backstory (in these things, who doesn't?) but... well, as a character who ended up becoming a... or really, *the* main protagonist... mark me as uninterested.<br />
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Of course, that just leads me into the last "unbelievable" comment. Even after the backstory which was way too out there to be believable, there's two situations (one involving a helicopter, and then the final encounter) where it's so patently obvious what has happened. I find it annoying when you can see the bait-and-switch the writers are attempting to write as it is happening on the screen. It's almost like watching a magic trick when you know the secret behind it. I wish that at some level, they either A) went for smaller stakes / more permanent *results* in the helicopter thing and then B) had another episode or two to do a far better job of resolving the final conflict, as the ten-minute resolution really sucked. The final assault should have been at least two episodes... dammit, there's four paper-benders and two special agents assaulting a building that had a fricking LAKE built around it and plenty of airborne and mecha defense. Yet they find the train that goes right up to it and trick the idiot security guard, even as the evil organization's fantastical defenses make mincement out of a US carrier wing. Screw that.<br />
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Yeah, I know, I should be warning you about the spoiler space, but this is pretty basic stuff that the writers of an anime should look into rectifying, especially if you're going to show how many books all the main characters read... yet the writer(s) go for the massive cliche instead of anything new... and that really becomes the basis of the complaint.<br />
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Feel free to watch this show for the action sequences, they're kind of cool. The interplay between Nenene and the Three Sisters is enjoyable especially in the beginning. Other than that... it's old ground tread upon for the umpteenth time, much like watching pretty much anything on American network TV anymore. And about the only "dying" you'd do in <i>Read or Die</i> is breaking your neck falling through a plothole.<br />
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<br />
Final rating: <b><u><i>1.4</i></u></b><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-21934233070571351392014-02-17T19:00:00.000-05:002014-02-17T19:00:05.996-05:00#2LR Meta Navel-GazingThrough seven years now we've posted about seventy or so #2LR Too Late Reviews on this blog. I wanted to write the post in order to try to collect my thoughts about criticising movies, video games, and television shows/anime in one place.<div>
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Before I start though, I'd like to thank Megane 6.7 for writing #2LRs for recent video games. I'm not as plugged into the videogame scene as I once was... and the recent Civilization V review and subsequent strategy guide that I posted to GameFAQs is pretty much the sum total of my hardcore gaming through a couple years now.</div>
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One of the most major reasons that I started doing the Too Late Reviews postings is that I've noticed something about movie reviews personally. When I read a movie review, especially a good movie review, its almost as much art as the movie itself. A movie review even with a summary isn't the whole movie... but I find that the best reviews not only hit on the high points, but they give me an idea of the movie other than just the main plotline.</div>
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I've strived to write these reviews so that you, our readers, will get an idea of not only the movie but to understand some of the things underlying the movie. As with the most recent Oz review, which was a bit desultory, the point behind it was that the movie was somewhat desultory as well. I want to give you an idea when things go right of why they went right... for instance, writing about <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i>, in order to tell you why a movie that may be relentless and gripping and depressing is worth watching, the things that the movie did so right that you can't easily find in other movies. I want to highlight the high points and the low points and to give you an idea of the <i>why</i> behind the reasoning that they're high points or low points. </div>
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Ultimately, I want to try to peel back the story to show an aspect of storytelling, writing, moviecraft... anything that will hopefully give you more of an insight. I'm certainly no movie insider... but I am someone who tries to notice detail, even the smallest ones. The training for this is the fifteen years or so that I've been writing Mystery Science Theater treatments of fanfics and constantly trying to focus not only the words on the screen in front of me, but what they symbolize.</div>
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One of the most recent MSTings that Megane 6.7 and I are working on is a story that is rather technically competent 'fic. It's a crossover between two series that Megane 6.7 and I seem to keep returning to. When we requested permission, the authors expressed a bit of surprise... they thought their 'fic was good. Well, their 'fic was good. I loved it because the concept behind it is an interesting read, and hopefully our jokes will add with the interest factor of the 'fic to make it even better.</div>
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That's my goal with the #2LR series. I want to make whatever you watch or play a better experience, whether or not it's something you've already watched. Not only that, I want to express why something worked, or why something didn't, and my goal is to not only enjoy what I watch but to really concentrate on it, to figure out why I liked it, and then to find similar examples.</div>
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Alternately... above all, whether it's good or it's bad, I'll do my level best to make the reviews interesting whether through humor or insight.</div>
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We hope you continue to enjoy reading these reviews, our blog in general, and our website. Speaking for both Megane 6.7 and myself, we feel honored to have you spend your time reading our work, and we hope that you enjoy.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-71775268566792731752014-02-15T08:00:00.000-05:002014-02-16T00:07:08.230-05:00#2LR Movie Review: Oz, the Great and Powerful<span style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, so here's how lazy I am... this was written about six weeks ago and not posted. I have the <em>Read or Die</em> posting scheduled to run midweek as well.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Today’s 2LR is for the movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oz. The Great and Powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>In
full disclosure, I probably have seen <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Wizard of Oz </i>perhaps once or twice in my childhood, but it was a movie that
I was not really crazy about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I
was creeped out by the Munchkins, or perhaps the Tin Woodsman.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that said, take any opinions I have
against the world of Oz with a grain of salt, or perhaps a brick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">(Spoiler space ahead.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The movie begins at a fairground in 1905, where a traveling
magician is about to put on his act at the fair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a bit of issue with the local
townsfolk, and then an issue with some of the sideshow acts, the traveling
magician – Oz, short for Oscar -- takes off in a hot-air balloon to run
away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, being 1905 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kansas</i>, he ends up sucked into a
tornado.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">You can probably guess where Oz the Magician ends up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, the image on the screen goes from
black-and-white to color at this point, and the image finally fills the
screen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know why the director did
this, but it doesn’t mean that I liked it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At any rate, Meg from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Family Guy</i>
meets up with the crashed balloon, and she takes our erstwhile shyster to the
Emerald City, for it was foretold that the savior of Oz would crash into Oz,
and also have the same name.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, we meet another witch who helps run the Emerald City,
who seems nice but quite doubts Oz’s qualifications. She shows him the gold
that the King of Oz is entitled to, and Oz’s eyes go wide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She then tells him that he has to defeat
(e.g. kill) a wicked witch, and gives him directions to get there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">After that, Oz is going down the yellow-brick road on his
way to kill the witch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, we
find out that Meg’s older sister is a bit mean… especially once we find out
that Oz was sent to kill Glinda, the Good Witch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems that she was chased off from the
Emerald City by the death of her father, the king.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The older sister then starts on Meg Griffin,
telling her that Oz (who she mysteriously was taken with) is now interested in
Glinda.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Older sis uses Meg’s temper
against her, tricking her into eating a green apple, which turns her green and
ensures that she will turn into Margaret Hamilton in negative seventy years,
give-or-take.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Glinda shows Oz the townspeople who they are trying to
defend, and then mentions to him that they need to figure out a way to defeat
the witches without killing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seems
a tall task, but if ever you need someone to resort to trickery, use a
con-man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oz plans out ways to use
sleight-of-hand style tricks and devices to defeat both the Flying Monkeys as
well as the “Winkie Guards” (see, this is why I can’t take Oz overly
seriously).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He also creates the famous
smoke machine, fakes his own death so that the people of Oz treat it as if his
spirit is coming back from the grave to help them, and manages to freak out
both witches sufficiently to get them running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Glinda takes care of the other advisor by breaking her magic necklace
and starting a <i> Raiders of the Lost Ark</i> sequence on her, and
Meg just flies off cackling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">(spoiler space over)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">What did we learn?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Good question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All I know is that
in human history, it’s usually not a good idea to turn the governance of a
country over to a con-man, no matter how “reformed” he seems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As for the movie itself, I feel rather
ambivalent towards it. I suppose it’s a decent waste of ninety minutes, though
it’s not as if you’ll be overcome by the story of Oz’s magical conversion to
the most honest con-man who’s still really a massive con-man, nor Meg Griffin’s
descent into madness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suppose the best
message to come out of this movie is, “Never eat a green apple.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Final review: 1.9</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-1313222026945457372014-02-10T19:36:00.001-05:002014-02-10T19:36:54.992-05:00New FAQ posted at GameFAQs:Yeah, you know all those super-long posts about Civ V? I organized them as best and possible and posted them as a strategy guide/FAQ to GameFAQs.com. You can check it out by clicking on the link <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/707664-sid-meiers-civilization-v-brave-new-world/faqs/68620" target="_blank">here</a>. By all means, if you have any comments or suggestions I'm more than willing to put them in the guide.<br />
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Coming in a couple days... a review for the anime <i>Read or Die</i>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-30649697633975738942014-01-28T00:02:00.000-05:002014-01-28T00:03:24.021-05:00Civilization V Tips and Walkthrough / Part 3 of 3<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Walkthrough / tips for Civilization V:
Brave New World</div>
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Episode 3/3(?)</div>
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So much for organizing my thoughts.
Most of what I posted is beginning- and midgame tips and tricks.
There's still some residual beginning-game material, but most of what
is below will apply to the mid- and end-game, and your potential
victory.</div>
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1. Happy Faces</div>
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Just a short blurb about this, because
it is super-important. Happy faces pretty much control the game.
Happier civs do more than unhappier civs, just like people in real
life. Happy civs get to have golden ages, which increase money and
production. Happy civs also get to add more population to the
game... and as I've played, a civ's population goes a very long way
to telling whether or not they'll win a game.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Happy Faces, More Cities, More
Population:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It's not exactly a newsflash that Civ winners are the ones that have more population than others.
Having most of the population means that you are gaining the most
science, or the most gold, or the most culture, or the most
everything. Having more population means that you can generate Great
People quicker as well... and cultural Great People benefit both
tourism and culture (with the Culture discussion below).
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Getting population points for all of
these benefits requires the happy faces. If the happiness even dips
below 0, all cities in a Civ take an immediate -75% in growth rate.
There will be no new population born at this point... and you can bet
that at the higher levels, none of the other civs will have this
problem. (They'll likely be on their way to getting another Golden
Age and further leaving you in the dust). If you're not growing in
this game, you're on the path to not winning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On top of that, in Brave New World
rules, production takes a hit too... you lose 2% production per
unhappy face, and I believe that you lose 2% of gold per unhappy face
as well. So, if you get caught while building your colloseum, it may
even take you an extra turn to finish it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Building cities will give you an
automatic -4 to your happiness meter, and it will also make your
culture and Golden Age meters reset to higher numbers too. This
isn't a build-and-forget game anymore, and especially in the
beginning of the game you need to be super-careful where the next
couple cities go, so that you can continue to be happy and growing.
Also keep in mind that cities typically go from 1 to 2 in size
extremely quickly, and from 2 to 3 in size fairly rapidly too... and
typically as each point of population equals another unhappy face,
planting a city without working on happiness (e.g. building
Circuses/Colloseums, developing luxuries) will result in a -7
unhappiness within a short period of time.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Methods for keeping happy:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are quite a few easy ways to keep
happy in the game. First and foremost is to develop all your
luxuries as soon as possible. Each +4 that you can gain off of a
luxury is four more citizens that could be gaining you production.
Closely related to the luxuries are natural wonders, such as the
Fountain of Youth (+10), Old Faithful (+3), and Mount Kailash (+2),
though these are pretty rare to run across. Each natural wonder you discover
gives you a permanent +1, so exploring a normal-sized map should give
you a permanent +7/+8 or so depending on the terrain.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Building the happiness buildings is
also important, such as Circuses / Colosseums. Circus Maximus is a
national wonder, unlockable through building Colosseums in all towns,
and gives an additional +5 happiness... so prioritize Colosseums over
circuses when possible.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Trading luxuries is also an option in
the beginning of the game, and through the game depending on how you
play. There's no guarantee that the computer players will have
luxuries to provide to you, so stay diligent in finding out when
they're available! Luxuries can go one-for-one (e.g. I give you my
spice for your pearls) with friendly/neutral civs and three-for-one
with "guarded" civs. It's actually a good deal to get
luxuries for luxuries compared to luxuries for money, because getting
+4 citizens will give you more production than the 7 gold per turn
you get maximum... but on the other hand, if you're close to 0 and
the luxury is not renewed, going negative is definitely not helpful.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Happy faces can come in groups from the
Culture tree as well. The main ones that provide happy faces include
Tradition, 1/2 of capital population... Liberty, for number of cities
connected to the capital... Honor, for troops stationed in each
city... Patronage, which gives a +2 for all luxuries provided by a
city-state, including copies... Commerce, which gives a +2 to all
different luxuries you own... Exploration, which gives a +1 for all
ocean-based improvements (lighthouse, harbor, seaport). The
Ideology-based happy faces are Freedom, which is -50% unhappiness for
all specialists, Order which provides +2 per monument, and Autocracy
which provides +3 per Courthouse and +1 per defensive building (wall,
castle, etc.), and all three are entitled to the "National
Healthcare" policy of +1 happy face per national wonder (e.g.
palace, National College, etc.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Note though that you will not be able
to access all of the happiness-based cultural bonuses. For instance,
to get to the Commerce cultural bonus, you have to open the Commerce
track and get two additional bonuses. There is nowhere near enough
culture in the game to be able to obtain all of the happiness
bonuses, so you have to pick your culture bonuses carefully.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
City-states provide happy faces too.
Be on the lookout for mercantile city-states because there is a +3
for just being their friend (30 influence). Being a full ally can
net you +11 -- +3 from the friend bonus, +4 through their "special
resource" (typically porcelain or jewelry) AND +4 from their land-based
luxury. Allying other city states will get you the +4 for luxuries
as long as it's not a luxury that you currently have. Try to
cultivate relationships if at all possible, and allying city-states
may not even cost any money. If you do have to pay off a city-state,
keep in mind that the 1000 it takes for +50 influence may be better
served in buying a colosseum somewhere, especially if it's the last
city before you can build the Circus.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Religion can fill some of the gap,
especially depending on the bonuses. Buildings bought with faith
usually give at least +1 happiness, such as the mosque and cathedral,
and the pagoda will give +2 happiness. Other powers include
happiness based on temple/worshipper availability, or the number of
cities if you created a religion and follow the specific tenet.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wonders will provide happy faces, or at
least decrease unhappiness. The biggies are Notre Dame, for +10
happiness, and the Eiffel Tower which gives you +5. Later in the
game, the CN Tower gives +1 happiness and +1 population point per
city... sometimes they do cancel each other out, but depending on the
way your cities are built it can give extra happy faces. There is
also the Taj Mahal, which offers a +4, and Chichen Itza also provides
a +4. The Mosque of Djenne gives a +1 happy face (as it functions as
"a mosque"). Neuschwanstein gives +1 happiness and +1 gold
and +2 culture for all castles in a civ. Prora gives happy faces for
those following the Autocracy ideology, +2 base and +1 for every two
culture bonuses that you've earned. And building the Forbidden
Palace will decrease unhappiness by 10%, but requires Patronage to be
opened.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Lastly... free additional happy faces
can come from the International Games World Project, which can be
voted on in the World Congress. The International Games can give you
a +6 permanent happiness if you finish silver and bronze -- which
means if you get enough production to get up and over a certain
number, whereby silver will follow bronze because bronze will be
earned on the way to silver.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
2. Culture (again?)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Yep, because there's more than just
"build it in the beginning". Not only is culture the key
to your culture tree bonuses, but it's also the key to defending
yourself (and especially your government type) against
touristy-takedowns and possible second- or third-place status. There
are likely a couple things that I may have mentioned previously, but
this will keep everything in one spot.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--The Culture Tree: Early Game</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This is the area that I still have
problems with myself. It feels sometimes that I don't play this part
of the game very effectively... so feel free to take all of this with
a grain of salt.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Firstly, I tend to stick with either
the Tradition or the Liberty values in the beginning. Honor is good
for maps with tons of barbarians, and you need to have a force in
order to collect all that sweet, sweet culture. The Piety track...
is somewhat surprisingly replacable without tons of extra effort, in
my opinion. At the higher levels, the tradition track and the
Republic track allow you to get happy faces and maximize production
-- either through the food / Wonder bonuses with Tradition, or the
increased worker / quickbuild of settlers setup with Republic. Both
Tradition and Liberty give instant culture bonuses by just starting
with the track, which makes both rather attractive too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Tradition will do best on fragmented
maps (e.g. archipelago), where you know full well that your city
count will be anywhere up to about eight. Liberty does better at
numbers larger than eight, though you have to work hard to make sure
that your military keeps up with the settlers that you are pumping
out. It would be good for continent or pangaea maps.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Honor does have bright spots, typically
on the pangaea maps. Additionally, if you are an early militant Civ
(such as those Huns or Aztecs we spoke about), Honor can help you nab
cities early on, forgoing the necessity of settlers and even workers
entirely -- when I play Civ V, invariably I will get a worker along
with a city whenever invading as the computer players tend to pull
their workers back. Just keep in mind that the only happy faces that
the Honor track generates now is if you station your troops within a
city, and that going to war may trigger your unhappy faces if your
army is not large enough.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Piety track offers pretty much zero
in the way of food, or production, or even culture. You get a gold
benefit with temples, and the end of the Piety track gives you both a
Great Prophet and a reformation bonus. The Piety bonuses track well
with Civs with larger numbers of cities. If you're feeling like you
might get steamrolled with another civ's religion, choosing to open
the Piety track (half-price temples/shrines) and choosing the
Organized Religion bonus (+1 Faith from religious buildings) will
stem some of the tide, but it won't completely put you in the clear.
By that time anyway, you can choose between the next set of
unlockable paths, the Patronage/Aesthetics/Commerce/Exploration
group, which lead to better bonuses.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---The Culture Tree: Mid-Game</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course, the same decision presents
itself in the middle-game, and there are far more factors when
deciding which of the PACE culture tracks to open.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The biggest and brightest line that I
can draw is to tell you that the Patronage bonuses ARE NOT THE SAME
anymore. In previous Civ V rulesets (Vanilla, Gods & Kings) you
could open the patronage track, select "consulates", and
when the resting influence points for all city-states reset to +20,
you could then offer them protection, which gave you an extra ten
points and allowed you to "friend" all city-states for
free. No more! Offering protection only nets you a +5 for
city-states, which makes it completely useless as a tactic...
protection will NOT make your influence drop any slower, and is only
really useful if a city-state asks for your protection (which rarely
happens). Whichever update comes next needs to address this, as they
need to have some sort of replacement for breaking this portion of
the game.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unless you're a Civ with specific
city-state bonuses (Greece, Thailand) or if you've got a ton of
city-states around you that aren't worth the time and effort to kill
off, then and only then would the Patronage track be of any use. At
least note that the Patronage track helps if you're building Wonders
and want to put up the Forbidden Palace, though also note that the
vote benefit that the Forbidden Palace gives you lasts perhaps two
World Congress votes, depending on how early the World Congress
starts.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Aesthetics helps those who are already
playing culturally, or who need to catch up culturally.
Half-production cultural buildings (monuments, amphitheaters, etc.)
are really useful, especially if you're putting up more and more
cities as you go along.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Commerce can help those who weren't
able to get to the Caravan wonders (Petra, Colossus). Additionally,
this style helps quite a bit if you want to field a larger army, or
if you already have quite a few luxuries... gaining an extra +2 happy
faces per luxury if you're already sitting on eight or ten can trip a
quick Golden Age. Note that weirdly enough, there are science
bonuses in the Commerce track (just like, weirdly enough, there are
cash money bonuses in the Rationalism track) so it's pretty decent
and well-rounded.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Exploration shines best on an
archipelago map, especially one from medium to large size. Getting
ships where they need to go is so important, it can make or break
your war efforts (or defense efforts). Also, there are happy face
bonuses, gold bonuses, and production bonuses within the track.
Hidden Antiquity sites are also very helpful, especially since I've
unearthed Great Works (not artifacts, but an example would be a Great
Work of Writing) underneath a hidden antiquity site, and making
monuments can really help your Culture score out too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It takes a couple extra turns to get to
the Rationalism bonuses. If your Science score needs a boost, then
the Rationalism track can certainly help. You absolutely have to
play in a certain fashion to get the Rationalism bonuses to work best
for you though; you need to both be friendly to other Civs as well as
rake in cash to take advantage of the research agreement boost. If
you build the Porcelain Tower, there's TWO research agreement boosts
that won't do you any good unless you sign research agreements. As
well, the Rationalism unlock bonus is +10% science when your empire
is happy. So... you cannot let your empire get into the unhappy
faces, or the Rationalism bonus is kaput.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---The Culture Tree: End-Game</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Once you pop up three factories, you
can choose your own ideology. There are three flavors -- Freedom,
Order, and Autocracy. They track rather closely with the
Tradition-Liberty-Honor decision that you already looked at. Yes,
the Freedom matches best with Tradition, and the Order matches best
with Liberty. You'll find out why soon.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Typically, the Freedom track will
assist best with small empires, as there will be happy face bonuses
based on the number of specialists you have as well as bonuses for
any Great Person improvements. There's a hidden bonus on the Freedom
ideology that provides for six free supported units, and gives you
six Foreign Legions (strength: 42) free. These six units get a 20%
bonus outside home lands too, like the old French specialized unit.
They can make a good defense force and an even better offensive unit.
As you may note, this path would be best with cities that are >15
because those are the cities that have a high food value and can
support the numerous specialists... also, these are the cities that
were more likely to have generated the Great Persons with which the
improvements were gained.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Order track does best with large
Civs. The main happy-face bonus here is a +2 for all monuments. If
you have a fifteen-city wide Civ, and considering monuments are the
easiest building to build, that's a +30 in happiness. Pairing the +2
Monument bonus with the +1 per connected city bonus (along with the
5% happier bonus), this brings the cost of each additional city down
to one unhappy face... which is easily overcome with
luxuries/happiness buildings. One of the other hidden bonuses with
Order is a tourism bonus for other civs following Order, and there's
a couple Science bonuses lurking. One is the original factories add
25% knowledge from the old culture-track setups. The other is
allowing you to finish spaceship parts via Great Engineers rather
than having to take all that time to build them yourself.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Autocracy track does best if you've
been gunning for a Domination victory for most of the game. This
track is where you find the +1 happiness per defensive structure
(walls, castles, etc.) that used to hide in the Honor track.
Additionally, all courthouses generate an additional +3 happiness.
Even better, all barracks, armories, and military academies give you
a +2. If you have only two or three original cities and have
depended on your military to take other cities, this is the way to
go. There's also a hidden surprising Tourism bonus in this track,
which gives you an extra Tourism boost each time an
Artist/Musician/Writer is used. The Autocracy track also contains
the +20% for 50 turns military buff that used to be in the original
Autocracy track.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Keeping your government, taking
someone else's government:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Opening one of the ideologies first
gives the Civ an extra two Culture bonuses on that specific path.
Because of the first-one bonus, you often see all three ideologies
used in the end-game by different civilizations. However, this is
where the culture push matters, in the end-game. Civs that are
culturally dominant over another civilization will have their
government choice imposed on the other civilization too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
What is the penalty? Why, it's those
same happy faces that limit your ability to spread all over the map.
Depending on how culturally dominant one civ is over another,
additional unhappiness is generated, all the way from "dissidents"
to "complete revolution". For example, on "dissidents"
level, you will take an unhappy-face penalty hit of 1 per city or 1
per every ten population points, whichever is *greater*. Worse yet,
if you happen to be first to adopt an ideology but another Civ who is
more culturally dominant than you adopts a different ideology, those
unhappy faces will still appear and possibly derail your whole plan.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Losing your ability to choose your
best-fit government is the reason that culture and tourism need to be
focused on throughout the whole game. You also need to know soonest
which enemy Civs are focusing on cultural victories, especially since
one of the Culture bonuses in the Aesthetics side is a +15% tourism
conversion bonus for either the shared religion, trade route, or open
borders conditions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
On a recent game, I was only 8%
influential over a Civ, while the Civ in turn was 23% influential.
Neither was enough for "familiar" status, but this still
caused my favored government type to be hit with the dissidents.
There were two things that submarined me: one was that the enemy Civ
went cultural, kept building the tourist Wonders and obtained the
+15% tourism bonus. The other was, like a fool, I converted their
cities to my religion early on in the game, so that I could reap the
+1 happiness per every two cities bonus for my religion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The options to deal with this include
-- money to city-states for luxuries to make up the gap, increased
tourism/culture to dilute the impact of the foreign civilization,
voting your specific ideology as the "favored government"
in the World Congress, or... you guessed it, war to wipe them out.
If war is your answer, make sure you're aware that for an immediate
impact, every single city needs to be wiped out. If you make peace,
then you will have to wait for your culture to stabilize against the
enemy civ. If you manage to take their capital and/or their major
culture/tourism generating cities, you will have to wait additional
turns because then your culture will dwarf their own, but everyone
still has their same slider bars until they don't exist.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This game is <i>super</i> picky about the
culture gain/growth. If anyone anywhere near you has a higher
percentage, even by a few points, that is enough to get your civ into
a dissidents situation. In another recent playthrough on Emperor
level (6), I was only 14% culturally beholden to the nearby Iroquois,
whereas they were roughly 8% culturally beholden to me. <u>This was enough to give me -12 happiness based on dissidents.</u> This became a
major situation because I was sandwiched between two strong
militaries and could not sacrifice the -12 happy faces in order to
ensure that they were weakened enough. So, my major tip here is to
make sure to completely eliminate any Civs who might be a problem to
your ideology going forward, or at least weaken them so much that
their culture will crater while yours will recover in time to
invalidate the unhappy faces.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I will admit though, this situation is
completely ridiculous and should be rectified. The other half of
this is that their tourism number was a grand total of 1400, whereas
my tourism number to them was 1100. Big felching deal, right? The
"however" though is that the Iroquois in my playthrough
went up the Aesthetics tree and obtained the +15% tourism bonus.
This should not be enough for me to crater my own happiness though,
you stupid game. Better to take anyone out that could have the same
effect before any real damage happens.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you happen to be in the position of
culturally dominant over others, then you get to not only choose your
government but also make sure that you can influence others to choose
the same. The for-instance is that there are gold bonuses for trade
routes between Freedom civs, or tourism bonuses between Order civs.
As well, if someone decides to choose a different path, then they
will likely have a massively unhappy population, making them an easy
target for conquest, unable to grow, or even more interesting
enough... allowing someone to pick off their cities culturally.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Which leads to.... there are such
things as culture flips for cities once again! This used to happen
in Civ 3 quite a bit, and could in Civ 4 (IIRC), but was not possible
in Civ 5... until now. Getting below -20 happiness will start the
timer going, and in a set number of turns unless the victimized civ
gets back above -20 happiness, the Civ who is most culturally
dominant over that unhappy civ will receive one of the unhappy civ's
cities. I have been on both sides of this equation, in receiving
cities as well as having lost cities this way. Keep in mind that if
you desperately want your city back and can't seem to get back to the
-20 you need, you can park your military around your city that will
flip to immediately take it back again. The penalty to this is that
you will end up at war with the culturally advanced civ, you will
lose half your population, and lose a majority of the buildings that
you built in the city previously. I like this dynamic as a
historically-accurate possibility, as getting a city back after a
revolt could cause a war with another civ, and how many times in
history have revolts been speedily crushed with only a portion of the
persons left.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Culture conclusion:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are quite a few things that you
can do with culture even through the end of the game. If you get to
specific Wonders (Eiffel Tower, Broadway, Great Firewall) and/or
specific technologies (e.g. Internet), your tourism numbers can shoot
up like a skyrocket. However, playing against someone culturally
depends on more than just your tourism number, you need to pay
attention to that culture number throughout the whole game. Culture
exerts your will in the end-games, prevents others' tourism from
victimizing you, and is pretty necessary for a victory.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
3. Playing to conquer, defending
against conquering:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In order for a Civ to win militarily,
they must control all other enemy capitals. Compared to previous
games, where you had to literally wipe all other cities from the map,
this is a far-easier requirement. I have had to chase Civ cities
from Arctic to Antarctic in games long past, which turned into a
slogging mess.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Defending against a
playing-to-conquer player:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Is the easiest thing in the game,
really. Just make sure you have enough military to keep your
territory and capital. You can get cities all the way up to 200+
defensive strength through buildings and culture. Defend everything
you can with ranged units, best would be through the hand-carried
range weapons -- e.g. the archer/compound archer/crossbowman/gatling
gun vector. These units combine the ability to go offensive without
taking damage along with the ability to take a hit without dying.
However, once the pure siege units get to artillery stage, set up
three of those behind a town in danger to wipe out the better part of
a front-line unit per turn.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you know where your invasion vectors
are, don't be shy in setting up either forts or the Great General
special building fortresses. Fortresses can stand tall for a good
while with a good front-line defensive unit, and can be made
effective putting an archer or other sort of ranged unit inside too.
I kept the Aztecs off of me (and bottled up!) for an entire game just
through setting up a fort on a hill directly in front of my town, and
keeping it manned at all times. It did lose me one shield per turn
production through the game, but by the end of the game the Aztecs
only kept three cities and were completely swayed by my culture
regardless.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Playing-to-conquer civs have a rough
time with culture, with happiness, and with cash flow. If you see a
civ that is bullying other civs around and amassing a large empire
militarily, make sure that you can equal or beat their culture first
and foremost. Past that, you can funnel troops to city-states that
are embroiled in the current war, especially if it is a city-state
warring against the big behemoth in another corner of the map. I
have conquered other computer Civs that end up paying attention to
the city-state thorn in their side, not seeing the headman's axe
swinging to their neck. If you have enough production that you can
supply a city-state, allying with them and declaring war on a large
behemoth can give you a country that is in a two-front war that they
likely don't want to be in.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Playing-to-conquer civs will also have
problems with world opinion, though there's a caveat. The
playing-to-conquer civ will sometimes have friends that benefit from
the conquering civ, and the playing-to-conquer civ can sometimes
squash world opinion in their direction. World Congress world
opinion can be swayed by your money though too, and you can certainly
weaken a military civ through the World Congress (e.g. standing army
tax, specific luxury embargoes, World's Fair, culture bonuses for
Wonders, etc.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Winning through military:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you're playing to conquer, you see
the weaknesses you will encounter above. You need to neutralize the
happiness issue first, foremost, and constantly. Secondly is the
money issue, especially when other Civs can buy off city-states and
make them into thorns for your sides. Thirdly is the World Congress
issue, with the same tourist/culture/luxury embargoes that can
cripple your war effort. And of course, trying to keep up culturally
is important, though your military can snuff out the cultural
threats.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Note that playing to conquer actually
has a benefit in starting early. Waiting for ranks of artillery
pieces to strafe the opposition will piss off everyone else in the
world immediately... but if you catapult an enemy civ into
submission, especially one that did not have contact with other Civs
early in the game, then your world opinion will be far higher because
you will not receive the warmonger penalty. What's out of sight is
out of mind for the most part in the beginning of the game. Though,
I did run into an issue in one previous game...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As the Ottomans, I conquered a
continent which held the Byzantines and Venetians. Both fell before
the might of my catapults and swords. After finishing off the
Byzantines, I had a challenge on my hands to take down a puppeted
Venetian city that was well-guarded by hills, and I knew I could not
take too much damage if I wanted to still take Venice while at the
same time continue to compete culturally with the rest of the
unexplored map. While positioning my troops, Venice got alarmed and
asked if I was going to declare war. I said "no, of course
not!", finished my positioning three turns later, and declared
war. I did not take any sort of warmonger hit for defeating both
Venice and Byzantium... but for the rest of the game I took the sneak
attack hit to my diplomacy. So, remain honorable while beating up
the other members of your continent, or you will have the same
diplomacy hit.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The sooner that you can direct a
continent's worth of cities against other, smaller civs, the more
effect you will be able to achieve.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Continuing with the "sooner"
theme, you have to make sure that if a civilization is running away
from you technologically that if you're planning to go after them
with military, you do it as soon as possible. The longer you wait,
the more technologically backward you will be. Better yet, if you
declare on a country and they can get their military at you, you'd
rather destroy their war machine in your own home territory (where
they can't heal as quickly and where you can have your cities hit
them just as hard), so that you can march against their lands and
either extract a diplomatically-won city or continue pressure and
occupy more lands.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Waiting though is logarithmic...
typically, technologically advanced civs can come after you not only
with more advanced units, but can also produce them quicker due to
production-bonus buildings (e.g. factories, Ironworks, etc.) gained
through technology. Waiting an age could then mean that there are
33% more troops and they're 33% stronger, instead of one or the
other. Additionally, civs in peace will feel free to pursue science
maximization, whereas civs at war will not turn production to
"science" and gain additional test tubes in that fashion.
It's even okay to declare war, wait for them (or threaten them along
your/their borders), just to get them on a war footing to weaken them
going forward.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Technology slingshots:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When a new technology comes available
for you, especially if it is a siege technology, you need to
capitalize on it as soon as possible for greatest benefit. Having
spare money around is extremely important for the upgrade
possibilities that this provides. Planning invasions around mass
technology upgrades will also give your army an edge in defeating an
enemy sooner... there's nothing more frustrating than ineffective
bombardment against an enemy city that newer technology could
complete far sooner (and with less casualties), especially since
every turn you spend in enemy territory kills your units that much
quicker.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For what its worth, obtaining Flight
first will also give you a bit of an advantage, especially against
foes that are stubbornly resistant to shellings from artillery
pieces. Just keep in mind though that new planes are prohibitively
expensive (recent game on King, each bomber was 980) and bombers do
take damage when attacking, unlike the siege pieces that are out of
range. At this point though, just as Flight comes available, it is
possible to hammer a city through six to eight turns with one
artillery piece to ensure a city cannot heal plus the two planes
(hopefully with the City bombing bonus) alternately shelling and
healing... enabling you to take the city with either a cavalry unit
or a boat at the end.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If I were to characterize, on offense
it is more important to get your siege units upgraded than it is your
front-line units (e.g. musketmen, riflemen, great war infantry,
infantry). On another recent game, I ran into this very situation,
where it ended up being cavalry (at 34 strength) against infantry (at
70 strength), and the difference was the fact that I could aim four
artillery units at the infantry and drop it in one turn... then go
back to shelling the city. Of course you do not want to find
yourself in this position too many times, but I also knew that this
was the one civilization that was more advanced than other civs and I
wouldn't be having the same problem as my war machine marched on to
the next civ.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
For archipelago maps or extended sea
battles, stock at least three or four privateers. They <i>capture ships</i>! It's so crucial to be able to not only down someone else's
ship, but to be able to use it against them. In a recent game
against England, who must've sent the better part of fifteen Ships of
the Line against me, my Privateers managed to capture and keep about
four or so. Important because Computer England kept building naval
units to send against me, while I was free to build both Eiffel Tower
and Broadway to ruin their cultural victory approach.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Privateers work even better against
lower-level ships, triremes and galleases get taken very easily. Why
is this part of the technology slingshot section? Taking the
computer's galleases can transform your all-melee navy into a ranged
force with melee escorts. Better yet, advance once from galleases to
get frigates. Advance twice to get battleships. Only paying ~650
gold or so per battleship? For four battleships, 2600 gold, that's
about ten turns or so of good gold generation, and you haven't even
wasted a single turn of production making them. Battleships have a
65 ranged attack and a 3 range, so you've pretty much got an invasion
fleet with those self-same privateers running sub interference,
though you'd better get your own subs in the water shortly
thereafter. For those playing militarily, privateers are amazing on
archipelago/continental maps.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Try to make the privateer take the
killing blow on all ships everywhere unless your privateer is too
short of health. You can capture bigger and better ships with the
privateers (example: the previously mentioned Ships of the Line),
though make sure you don't send your privateers too far forward if
you want to keep them, and defintely do NOT count on them winning
ships because it's never a sure thing.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you can find a barbarian camp that's
pumping out ships? It may as well be your own personal shipyard,
especially since you get a combat bonus against barbarians and more
often than not, they're pumping out lower-level boats. If you find
any of these places in the polar regions, feel free to send a
privateer or two to "recruit" a few barbarians into the
national navy. Dutch Sea Beggars are especially good for this, since
they also come with the "Supply" promotion, allowing you to
heal +15 outside of friendly waters. (The "Supply"
promotion is pretty key for all naval melee units, really.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Technology slingshots also work if
you're not playing militarily. Keeping four triremes close by until
you can research astronomy will enable you to gain four caravels for
roughly ~1000 gold... and more importantly, zero *delay*. Better
yet, have one or two settlers plus one or two front-line troops plus
a worker or two ready to embark at the same time, and you can build
two pretty solid cities and hopefully beat everyone else to any prime
spots. (Note -- if Spain, disregard and just build your
Knight+Settler Conquistador units as you were before) Plus, now that
the World Congress is unlocked via finding all civs, if you're on a
continent or archipelago map with unexplored space and a possible Civ
lurking, then you could reap the benefit of the caravels even further
via opening the World Congress in your own capital. At the very
least, those same Caravels can find you the Natural Wonders, upping
your happiness, and perhaps gaining influence with City-States.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---International opinion:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Getting into war, especially in the
later stages of the game, will mean that other civs will like you
less. This will increase the costs of luxuries (or decrease the
selling prices of your luxuries). This will also mean that the World
Congress votes will increasingly be against you, such as luxuries
that will be banned, or ideologies that aren't yours being voted
upon. There's ways to make them like you more... and ways to get
them so hopping mad that they wash their armies up against your
cliffs like so many waves.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you are warlike but also want to
keep some friends, the best way to keep it civil is to accept when
other civilizations ask you to declare war on third civs. This is
ideal, because then you have an ally going in as well... and the
civilization asking you to go to war will not hold it against you in
the future (that I have found). There are times that I've been asked
to go to war and found myself pretty much squishing another civ to
dust, because EVERYONE has been called in and we've made it a world
war. Those are ideal, especially if you can win the prize (the enemy
capital) at the end. Note though that there's a set number of turns
that you have to remain at war against another country, you can't ask
for peace immediately after declaring.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you want to get the rest of the
world pissed off at you quickly... find a well-liked , well-protected
city state and pound them into submission. At that point, it's all
military, all the time for a good ten-twelve turns, if not more. You
will take an extreme warmonger hit too... but if you want a way to
gain quick territory and weaken everyone's army, this is the method.
More territory will come when you completely neuter a civ's army and
march menacingly towards their lands, as the computer will often (but
not always) panic and offer cities to placate you. If gaining
nonspecific cities is your goal, then invest in cavalry units to keep
pressure on these other civs and pillage land, and that will make
them even more likely to offer territory for peace.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
4. Playing to win culturally -
defending against a cultural loss:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Culture is a game-long phenomenon, and
if you are trying to play culturally you need to start early. I
would counsel that you play most games as if you're going to try to
dominate culturally, because you can step into a cultural victory
depending on the late-game circumstances, and making sure that you
have the culture will lessen another Civ's tourism hold on you.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Defending against a cultural Civ</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
To be honest, this is one of the harder
things I can think of in the game. A civ that is trying to win
culturally is using their production advantage over you in the best
possible way. They are researching and gaining techs with less
Science points than you need, and they are producing buildings with
less production points than you need. There are two very good pieces
of news when defending culturally.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} You only typically have to defend
against one.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If two or more Civs are playing
culturally, the Tourism points will not be anywhere near the point
that you will be in cultural danger. Spreading out the tourism
wonders (Parthenon, Louvre, Uffizi, Sistine Chapel) among two, three,
or even four different Civs will not give them anywhere near enough
tourism points to mess with your culture.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
BUT.... be very careful you know who is
who. If there are more than one cultural civs against you, it's well
within the game mechanics for one to invade another and seize all of
the culture. At this point, it's directed against you, and you
better have a Plan B going.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} It's hard to build the culture AND a
military</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unless you're WAY up the difficulty
chart, the computer will have a hard time building both culture and
military. This is your chance to come at them sideways, so to speak.
They may think that they're in a battle with you to get as much
culture as possible. Declaring war on them has the benefit of making
them now build military, whether or not you advance into their lands
or defend your own. They'll also research militarily, which will
keep them from the cultural/touristy Wonders. You'd better advance
at SOME POINT if you want to force them, though, or they may take the
threat very casually and either not build military or research
military tech.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At this point, you can use the benefit
you have in spades... the computer's inability to fight very well.
Your production deficit will be made up for in spades by your ability
to general, your ability to PROTECT YOUR TROOPS, and the computer's
inability to come after them with a cohesive front.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Typically, playing culturally means
that you are going up a different side of the technology tree than
most other people. The biggest for-instance is that it takes quite a
few technologies to earn artillery pieces when you could be
researching printing press / architecture and gaining the wonders
available from both. If you are aware that someone is playing
culturally and you KNOW full well that they will get those wonders
done, go up the military side of the tech tree to take those wonders
away.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Be careful though, if a nation is rich
they can conclude multiple research agreements quickly... also, if
they are scientific and just building culture when it's available
because they can, there's no guarantee that you will beat them to any
specific research. It could be a planes versus artillery piece
battle, and in that situation you will lose miserably.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Going nuclear</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
...I'm assuming. I've never tried, but
to be honest there were a couple of times that I should have, as I
was losing anyway. Make sure that you have the troops to be able to
capture a city after you go nuclear at least, as I'm not entirely
sure a Civ can win if they have lost their original capital. I might
update this one, especially if I playtest a couple of those previous
games mentioned to find out how this dynamic works.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
---Winning a cultural victory:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When winning a cultural victory, you
should have a few things in place:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} The Aesthetics culture bonuses.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The +40%, double Theming bonuses,
ability to purchase Great Persons with faith, and the +25% generation
rate will give you quite a leg up on your competition. Similarly, if
any of the computer players are playing this way, sniff it out as
soon as possible and mitigate/neutralize it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Wonders, wonders, wonders</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There's a couple of National wonders
that carry theming bonuses, including the Hermitage and Oxford
University. Those two together are nowhere near enough for you to
gain a victory, especially if only one other computer player is
hogging all of the Tourism wonders. There's a couple of tactics you
could attempt if you are having problems getting the tech and
production in time:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Send spies to the cultural civ's
cities-</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Spies can pull their technology, and if
you're behind you'd better at least make sure you can get to the
technology previous if you need to try to take theirs.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Research agreements-</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This means you have to be nice to other
people... I'm guessing that if you're having a problem with research,
it's because you have a smaller empire than others... well, the small
non-threatening ones are the ones most likely to have friends too.
Start shifting your productions toward gold in at least one city so
that you can give gifts, or give away extra luxuries, or anything
else to get others to like you. After the friending, ask for those
research agreements as soon as possible. Multiple research
agreements can pop a technology or two.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Rationalism track-</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There's no happy faces down this way
anymore, so only do this when necessary. As stated above, make sure
your empire is happy to get the full benefit of Rationalism policies.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-Great Engineers-</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
By setting one of your cities to pure
production along with filling the Workshop slot, you can generate a
Great Engineer... who can rush a project to completion in one turn
(or to five remaining turns late in the game) in any city you wish.
Just make sure that you spy out your competition to confirm that
THEY'RE not building your same Wonder, there's nothing more useless
than rushing a Wonder project to have another Civ build it on the
same turn.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Gardens (next to river/lake) will give
you more Great Persons, as will the National Epic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Great artists/writers/musicians</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
In order to win culturally, make sure
that you're generating as many of these units as possible. Each is
worth a +2 in tourism without any theming bonuses, and all three are
actually fairly useful even if all of your slots are filled...
artists pop Golden Ages, writers give you a one-time Culture boost
that should get you more than halfway to the next Culture bonus, and
Musicians give you a Tourism boost by sending to another civ (with
open borders!). Again, maximise their appearance with gardens and/or
the National Epic.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Build those cultural buildings
quickly</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Getting the Hermitage should be high on
your list of priorities, and the other culture buildings give you the
slots you need to fill with your Great Artists/Writers/Musicians.
The Aesthetics bonus of quick-building cultural buildings should help
quite a bit as well.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Artifacts</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
When Archaeology is obtained, you can
start producing archaeologists and sending them abroad. My typical
method is to build the archaeologist, then the museum... you can send
an archaeologist to foreign lands first to take artifacts that other
people would get to while "guarding" your own ruins by
placing units on them. But, make sure that you have the spots for an
artifact first! There's nothing worse than an archaeologist on the
back edge of nowhere that ends up with a built shrine that no one can
use.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
So, keep in mind a couple of things...
you can pause your archaeologist in the course of their excavations
by interrupting him, just like you would a worker. Make sure that
there's a place for the resulting artifact, and then get back to
work. Another thing is that it's not always bad to "gift"
a cultural landmark to either an enemy Civ or to a city-state.
Gifting cultural landmarks to other Civs is a permanent good
check-mark in your box, and if you are playing against another
cultural player it can make the Civ you give the landmark to more
resistant to cultural takeover. It can also hopefully give you a
friend to conduct more research agreements with, or to trade with.
City-states will get a +50 (?) or so as a one-time influence bonus,
which can certainly go most of the way to an alliance. Just make
sure you're choosing the choice you want, because giving any
artifacts away like this is a -2 to culture and a -2 to tourism that
you could be earning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Hotels / National Visitor Center /
Airport</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Hotels will convert culture obtained
via Wonders into Tourism points. As you can imagine, if you've been
building nothing but Wonders in a city, a Hotel will dramatically
raise your Tourism score. The National Visitor Center is a national
Wonder that requires a Hotel in every town and will raise your
Tourism score much higher. And the Airport will also give you an
extra 50% Tourism (if I remember the bonus correctly). The Airport
also has military implications as an automatic tube for your troops
(to go from one town with an airport to another town in only one
turn) as well as expanding space in your town to support more than
four aircraft units.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Great Firewall / Internet</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Great Firewall is a wonder that can
allow you to make up a gap in tourism, especially if the game gets as
far as The Internet. Internet is a technology that can be researched
now, which will double your Tourism score permanently. The Great
Firewall will ensure that the Internet bonus is invalidated for the
Civ that builds it. As you can probably imagine, if the Great
Firewall falls into the wrong hands, you'll have a rough time earning
a Culture Victory over that other Civ.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Cultural Endgame:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I've noticed, on King level, that when
I play culturally that I will typically end up winning before
Internet. I don't know how that is possible so often except for the
fact that I involve my military quite a bit, especially to deal with
the Civ that's either in first or in second place. If you have
pretty much every Tourism wonder, a group of computer players that
haven't cared about culture at all and one last computer player that
cared but had all their culture taken from them at the point of a
gun, the Culture victory actually becomes rather easy and earned even
before the game counter reaches 2000AD (on Standard turns mode). I
have also noted that when I make it this far culturally, there's
typically not a Civ that can stand with me militarily, nor
technologically, nor financially either... I can pretty much choose
my method of winning.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Last notes:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you are not playing culturally, I
would suggest paying at least slight attention to the tourism of your
civ, and trying to at least match the tourism rating of the best
enemy Civ. This will ensure that you will not have governmental
problems, it should allow you to operate your spies easier, and the
culture that you will generate should give you quite a few bonuses
that will make the game easier to win. Additionally, if you match
the best tourism Civ, it will ensure that the best tourism Civ will
not be able to win a Cultural victory, freeing your resources to win
in another method.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
5. Playing to win financially --
defending against a financial civ</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Diplomatic victory in Civ V
requires pretty much every single vote you can glom from the
city-states in a game. There's ways to buff your vote (build/capture
Forbidden Palace, vote for world ideology, vote for world religion),
but the vast majority of the votes for you will come from the
city-states. Almost always, you need to buy the heck out of these
votes, though there are tips and tricks you can use to help you with
your vote.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Of course, there's the first level of
this...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Defending against a Diplomatic
victory.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are a variety of tricks that you
can use in order to defend against a civ gunning for a diplomatic
victory. First and foremost is your ability to ally with other
city-states to block their votes going to the enemy Civ in the lead.
At some point, the money does run out for the enemy Civs and if you
can manage to keep a few of the city-states from their hands, that
will make their victory much more difficult.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you are having a problem with the
sheer financial weight that the enemy Civ is putting on those
city-states, then you do have an alternative. Make sure you can ally
with at least a couple of city-states to block, and then declare war
on the larger Civ. You will absolutely have to reposition your
caravans / cargo ships as they will be taken wholesale by all the
other city-states who remain allied with the enemy Civ, but declaring
war will make them "peace-blocked" with the city-states
that you just allied with, and leave them a few votes short of the
goal. Just remember though, they'll likely be in charge of the World
Congress and they will start to use it politically against you... try
to get as many other civs on your side as you can, and defend against
the city-states(!) that will be sending units to your shores/borders.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you do declare war on the enemy Civ,
then take the opportunity to try to blockade them. You may not be
able to get all of the caravans/cargo ships going to their shores
from other Civs, but you can absolutely plunder the enemy Civ's trade
routes in an attempt to cripple them financially.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The last alternative is to start
conquering City-States that are allied with the enemy Civ. I have
heard tell that there is a bit of a strategy to this.... in that if
you have to take four or five of them, you already know that your
honor will take a massive hit... so bribe some of the other civs with
the city-states that you take. All you care about is that their +2
votes are wiped out... and you don't want to take massive hits to
your happiness, but you are stuck with city-states because they can't
be razed. If you give them to other civs, then you can be sure that
they will get involved if the enemy Civ tries to free the city-state
and you'll have somebody on your side. Just make sure that if you
start giving away city-states that it can be reasonably defended by
the third Civ you give it to. Also make note of the fact that your
influence will take a permanent hit for all other city-states if you
do this too much, so you'd better go quite a distance towards that
goal or not at all, because allying (and therefore blocking)
city-states will cost more gold.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Winning a diplomatic victory:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The diplomatic victory depends on tons
of gold and tons of happiness from your city-state friends, as well
as your ability to defend them in times of trouble. As a result, the
following methods are pretty decent:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Always have max caravans/cargo ships</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You need to make as much money as
possible, which means caravans and cargo ships. On top of that,
caravans/cargo ships will give you the ability to earn Influence with
city-states as they ask periodically to receive trade from you, and
fulfilling their wish gives you a +40, two-thirds the way to allying
(or forty further turns of happiness). Make sure that you have the
requisite buildings (caravansary, harbor, East India Company) in the
towns that you base the caravans in, and that those towns are as
well-developed by workers as possible.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Complete the majority of their
quests</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
This means having a decently strong
military in the early-going to hunt out those barbarians. Beating up
barbarians also nets you gold and there is the off-chance that they
will have a city-state worker in their camps... if you complete a
camp-clear and give the civilian worker back to the city-state, it's
an automatic alliance.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Keeping the decently-strong military is
a must, especially since there are some civs in the game that prey on
city-states... Mongols especially, as their natural Civ bonus is +30%
strength against city states. You need to be able to either feed
military to the city-state being attacked or to be able to fight off
the Civ with the strong military attacking the weak city-state.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you're able to do so, there are
scientific, faith, and culture-collection bonuses for the city-states
as well. They're a free +40 in influence for you not having to do
anything, though you have to have the ability to collect the
requisite resource.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Free the city-state!</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If a city-state is taken, it's not the
end of the world... it's actually not a bad thing, because at any
time during the game you can swoop in and liberate the city-state.
On top of that, you not only get zero war-monger penalty for the
city-state liberation, you get any current war-monger penalty erased
because of your magnanimous nature in bringing the city-state back.
I am almost positive that you get a massively high influence bump
from the military action, but I can honestly say that I do not
remember whether or not you receive their votes on all future
"leader" elections in the World Congress.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
[Quick tangent... once upon a time, I
was finishing conquest of Austria, who had allied and then
diplomatically married city-state Sydney. I went after Sydney before
going after Vienna, and freed Sydney because I did not want to carry
the extra unhappy faces from a puppeting. Immediately, Sydney
declared war on me. See, Sydney had been allied with Austria prior
to my liberation of Sydney due to the marriage function, and I was
still at war with Austria. Point being... make sure that you know
what the status of the city-state was prior to your liberation of
said city-state, especially if it was obtained via Viennese
marriage.]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Religion:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are a couple of religious tenets
that you can use to help your relationships along with your
city-state brethren. One is to spread your religion at double-rate
within city-states, and another provides additional influence to
city-states. Just keep in mind that as long as you share a religion
with a city-state that your influence will fall less quickly, by
about 25%. Additionally... it doesn't necessarily have to be *your*
religion, just a religion, so if you find a Civ going hog-wild with
the converting, just go along for the ride (yet protect yourself
against the enemy Civ's possible cultural victory). Additionally,
using your city-state friends to establish a world religion will give
you an extra +2 votes if you follow that world religion.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Culture Tree:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are two tracks that you
absolutely need when playing towards a diplomatic victory. The first
is the Patronage track, which will magnify the bonuses you receive
from befriending all of those city-states, and the second is
Commerce. You need all that gold to keep being nice to the
city-states, right? One of the Commerce bonuses include the ability
to create Great Merchants, which still can perform trade missions to
give you gold and influence boosts... or you can just park the
Merchant at home as a Customshouse to reap additional gold.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
I prefer Freedom for a diplomatic
victory as an ideology, for a couple reasons. One is that you will
get happy faces for cash-based buildings (markets, banks, etc.).
Another is the New Deal bonus, giving extra abilities to Great
Person-improved tiles... because if you've already gone down the
Patronage track, you should hopefully have received more than a
couple of Great Persons from your city-state allies. On top of that,
all of your cities should get the happy-face bonus from having pretty
much permanent workers in your banks and stock markets.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Wonders:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are a couple of financial wonders
and also an influence wonder, but oddly enough this set of wonders is
the most dependent on outside factors.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Netting Colossus is extremely important
in the early-going, as having that extra caravan slot as well as the
gold that the Colossus generates naturally and via the trade route
bonus is super-important...... but you need to have a city on the
ocean in order to build this Wonder.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Obtaining Petra can be helpful, and it
is straight up the tree where you need to be (it's on Currency) in
order to earn more gold. However, you not only need to have a city
in desert, but this is a Wonder that other Civs typically prioritize
because of its ability to turn a terrible desert city into a
well-producing city. It nets you an additional Caravan route, so if
you do not get it, you're not going to be overly affected.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Machu Picchu is also rather helpful, as
it will give you an extra 25% gold from all of your connected cities
to your capital. Machu Picchu requires a mountain nearby though, and
there's no guarantee that you can find one... it's oftentimes less
accessible than Colossus, and I have played games where there was
pretty much only one legal mountain to build this Wonder on, and as a
result it was not completed until the 1800s. Weird, weird.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Popping Golden Ages can help immensely,
and having them last 150% of their time is rather helpful... so
building Chichen Itza can be a good idea for this method of victory.
Also, Taj Mahal gives an immediate golden age plus happy faces for
growth.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Obtaining the Forbidden Palace is
extremely helpful as well, because that will provide +2 extra votes
as long as you hold it... and getting to the high number needed for
your diplomatic victory means that you need to obtain every single
vote that you can.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Great Persons
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Obviously, the previously mentioned
Great Merchant is a big help, both as an ongoing source of gold and
as a one-time influence boost. Great Artists can also help, as they
will enable Golden Ages for large gold boosts and you can replace all
artist tourism slots with artifacts.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Other civs:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Declaring war in a Diplomatic game is
not the best of ideas. Of course, if you have a war declared on you
there's not much you can do about it, but whenever war is about, the
caravans and cargo ships are the first to go. A strong enough
military should dissuade most civs from going after you... but you've
got to be smart about it, because military costs gold upon gold, and
you're trying to funnel it to the city-states, remember?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
With all the gold though, make sure to
befriend and to conduct research agreements. Getting behind in
science can cost you gold on the military end, as the military cost
is per-unit (if I remember correctly). As well, you can at least use
that military to guard your trade routes if necessary too.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You do need to keep a lookout for
spies. More and more influence prevents spies from coups, but
there's always that chance that a successful coup can pull a
city-state away from you for free. Station spies in city-states that
you know another civ is competing for, or in city-states where a few
extra influence could put you up and over the top of ally status.
(Bonus, go on the offensive with your spies in city-state lands... if
you lose a coup attempt, five turns later you get your replacement)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Feel free to move spies about... what's
nice is that there's the omnipresent counter for the World Congress,
and spies can be useful in enemy capitals as diplomats... you can
trade for votes and get a good idea how an enemy civ will vote. The
more culturally-influential with a Civ you are, the quicker your
diplomats set up shop.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Globalization -- discussed below.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-- Cultural endgame:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Globalization technology will boost
the available votes by the number of spies you have working as
diplomats in enemy civ capitals. It comes right at the end of the
game (as with Internet). And same with Internet, you'll have to be
ready for either using Globalization to your advantage or negating
its effects when it comes up. Having all the gold in the game will
make production quite easier, especially with the Big Ben wonder, so
your difficulty in making sure you're militarily and technologically
caught up should be minimal. Just remember though, it's not a
percentage of votes that is necessary for Diplomatic victory, but a
number... so even if you gain three votes via spies, if another civ
gains five and gets up-and-over the number necessary, you're still
sunk.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
-- Last notes:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Greece and Thailand are the biggest
profiteers of city-state bonuses and will often play
diplomatically... but don't get suckered in. Greece will often play
militarily first, diplomatically second, and the Thailand "Naresuan's
Elephant" is deadly in bunches. Oddly, I don't see the computer
players often playing diplomatically... so there aren't too many
instances that you'll have to defend against it.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There are very few other Civs that have
natural benefits to playing diplomatically. Portugal, perhaps, due
to their "feitoria" bonus has a stake in making sure each
city-state stays free and independent, and the monetary bonuses that
the Moroccans receive would help them quite a bit towards
obtaining/maintaining influence.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you're making money hand-over-fist
and have a bunch of City-States as your thralls because you have good
religion and/or good culture, then it may just be the best option
going.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
6. Playing to win technologically --
defending against a space race loss.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Unlike some of the other methods,
playing for the space-race win means that you're not going to
hamstring your other efforts overly much. The way that the tech tree
shakes out, you need to get both purely military (e.g. dynamite) as
well as purely aesthetic (e.g. archaeology) technologies in order to
gain the technologies for building the Space modules. The danger
here is that the major cultural bonus technologies and the major
diplomatic bonus technologies veer off from the space technologies at
the end, so you need to defend your culture and defend diplomatically
while at the same time building your Hamdinger pod. [/MST3k]</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Defending against a space race loss:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The space race is a weird duck because
after a while, you can earn technology by yourself and it's not
dependent on others. The diplomatic victory is dependent on other's
ability earn gold and/or deploy spies, and the cultural is dependent
on obtaining those bonuses... without them, your culture numbers will
still probably be larger than another civ's.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The other bad news is that a
technologically advanced civ probably managed to get to many techs
first and likely put up at least a few Wonders, so they may not be
very weak culturally. You do still have a chance though, even if the
enemy Civ managed to get four of the six modules done.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The most major weakness for the Space
Race provision is that all of the parts go to the capital.
Therefore, if the capital is taken, all of the parts to the spaceship
are also taken. I do not know if it is weak to a nuclear attack, I'm
sure that at some point there will be a nuclear addendum to all these
posts.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
At any rate, going after a Civ
militarily will tie up the most important thing for them, which is
production. If you can't pile up the shields necessary for each of
the spaceship parts, then you won't be able to gain the win. Just
make sure that if you can't win quickly that you draw the computer
into enough of a stalemate that you can survive many turns this way
and keep the computer from completing what they need to complete.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If another civ is already on their way
to a technological victory, remember that there's a shortcut lurking
in the Order culture track. One of the third-level bonuses (which
takes three first-level plus two second-level bonuses to unlock) is
the ability to rush spaceship parts with Great Engineers. If you
have taken care of your faith through the game, you may find yourself
with enough to purchase multiple Great Engineers (given the correct
policy track) and therefore finish multiple spaceship parts. There
is a similar shortcut in the Freedom track, where you can use money
to pay for spaceship parts, though I don't have a whole lot of
information about this possibility at present.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--Winning a space-race victory:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As with all of the other victory types,
in order to win a space-race victory you need to have a few ducks in
a row. Some of the more specific ducks are...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Technology gathering</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
You need to have cities bring in the
better part of 100 science per turn toward the latter part of the
modern era in order to get the science you need to get to the space
technologies first. Of course, make sure that you load up one of
your towns with all of the latest in tech gear, including your
libraries, universities, public schools, and research labs. Make
sure you prioritize those technologies so that you can set up your
researchers as soon as possible.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Getting everyone else's technologies</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Send spies to try to clean up the techs
on the tech tree that you don't need just to make sure you are
keeping up, leading to...</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Don't forget to keep researching
militarily</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
There's nothing worse than trying to
fight off riflemen with crossbowmen. It's absolutely not worth it.
If you get left in the dust a bit too much militarily, prepare to get
invaded.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} But make sure you have friends.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Friends that want to conduct research
agreements, at least. Of course, in the discussion above about
culture, it applies to the military side as well... you don't want
civs getting too overly comfortable, or their
production/food/technology bonuses will shortly overwhelm yours. Two
of the Rationalism culture bonuses -- the ability to build the
Porcelain Tower as well as one of the specific bonuses -- give +50%
for research agreements, and you don't want to miss out on that.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Don't get left behind culturally</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
If you do, you will lose some ability
to choose your final Ideological government, and leave yourself open
to losing culturally. Try to at least keep up tourism-wise and make
sure that you can keep ahead of any civs trying to play for a Culture
win by rejecting things that you can *keep track of*, such as making
sure you can reject open-border treaties as well as changing
religions if at all necessary/possible.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Culture bonuses to pursue:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The Rationalism track is a must. As
well, try to get as many happy faces as you can, both for keeping the
+10% research bonuses as well as continue growing, as your citizen
count goes a long way towards your science gathering. I would also
suggest that a good bonus to pursue would be the Patronage bonus. If
you are able to sign up a bunch of city-states to your cause, they
all donate 25% of their science output to your research. Getting
this research, especially from about six to eight cities, would be
almost like getting an extra two cities' worth of science. Getting
the occasional great scientist through the great person bonus would
also be extremely helpful. As well, this will hopefully help you to
implement the World Congress policies that you will be looking for,
including the scientific research bonus and the International Space
Station (though, stay away from the "visiting scholars"
bonus as that will allow the computer to catch up to you quicker.)</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
{} Religion:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
The best path to follow here is to
obtain the Religious Dialogue power, which allows your missionaries
to generate science when they spread religion to cities with an
established religion. I've seen missionaries generate +200 science
at times using this power. Another interesting bonus is when you
complete the Piety track to gain a Restoration power... the Jesuit
Education power allows you to build science buildings via faith.
This can be helpful because you don't have to take a few turns to
switch your production from science to shields... but the on the
other hand, through the Commerce track, you can just build the
buildings via cash money instead. You may as well stick to the
Patronage track.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
--End game and notes:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
It is very possible that the special
technologies to upgrade culture (Internet) and diplomatic
(Globalization) wins will come available to other civs before you
manage to uncover all the techs you need for the various spaceship
parts. This means that you need to be just as concerned defending
against those as getting your tech win. Make sure to sniff out
cultural threats as soon as humanly possible, and if at all possible
drag other civs against the forty-pound gorilla to make sure that you
can score the victory. Keep expanding in the method that you've
chosen (through growth, or militarily) and don't lose too many
opportunities.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
7. Outro</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
Wow, this really swelled, didn't it? I
stayed true to my word, it is a three-part series... as long as you
ignore the fact that part one was perhaps half this size or less.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
As I said in one of the previous
walkthroughs, to me this is really the ultimate puzzle game, with so
many moving pieces... it masquerades as a world-building game, but it
could as easily be Alpha Centauri with completely different,
redesigned civilizations. Heck, since they already redid
Colonization with the Civ IV engine, couldn't they redo Col with Civ
V along with redoing Alpha Centauri?</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
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At any rate, feel free to discuss,
question, or blow raspberries. So far these tactics have done well
for me, as I've made the move from level 5 (king) to level 6
(emperor)... and hopefully I'll continue swimming rather than
sinking. Maybe some additional strategies will come from this... as
above, there are more than a couple places that are unfinished, and I
may update them once I find out more.</div>
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In summation... terrific, complex game
that will keep you thinking about all of the possible paths. Highly
recommended... and it will be difficult for the designers to top this
for the next Civ 5 expansion, or the inevitable Civilization 6.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-73887549219747448182014-01-20T16:00:00.000-05:002014-01-20T16:01:19.045-05:00Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Review (XBOX 360 Version)(Note: My review of the previous Assassin's Creed games can be found <i>'<a href="http://mstings.blogspot.ca/2012/11/assassins-creed-3-series-review.html">here</a>'</i>.)<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">(Warning: Spoilers Follow)</span><br />
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After the overall disappointment of <i>'Assassin's Creed III'</i>, I was both anticipating and dreading this latest chapter of this series. Anticipating because it looked like the ship battles, which I felt were the best feature of <i>'Assassin's Creed III'</i>, were going to be expanded upon and made the main focus of the gameplay rather than a side mission. Dreading because of how many other things <i>'Assassin's Creed III'</i> got wrong and I feared would simply be continued with this game as well.<br />
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Well, thankfully it looks like Ubisoft listened to the fans for the most part because <i>'Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag'</i> is a significant improvement. It fixes many of the problems I personally had with Part III and more importantly, it's a great deal more fun to play. It's not without its flaws, to be sure, but I personally enjoyed it and it gives me good feelings and hope for the next part as well.<br />
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<i>'Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag'</i> takes place in the Caribbean during the latter era of the golden age of piracy. You play as Edward Kenway, father of future Templar, Haytham Kenway and grandfather of future Assassin, Ratonhnhaké:ton from <i>'Assassin's Creed III'</i>. Edward is a pirate who claims to be solely motivated by gold but as we learn from flashbacks during the course of the game, he is hell bent on providing a better life for his wife, despite her insistence that she loves him regardless and that she wanted him to get a normal job and live a normal life, something Edward refuses to accept.<br />
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Fate leads Edward into the path of a turncoat Assassin, whom he is forced to kill and decides to assume his identity in order to scam his way into more gold. Unfortunately this decision leads to him helping the Templars and causing much harm to the Assassins.<br />
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Edward tries to ignore the consequences of his actions by focusing on tracking down the location of a place called 'The Observatory', which he convinces himself will lead to riches beyond imagination, by seeking out a mysterious 'Sage' that knows the location. This single-minded obsession leads to tragedy after tragedy, even as Edward's ship grows strong and his wallet grows fat. Will he be able to change his course before it's too late or will he sail himself and everyone else who follows into hell?<br />
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Meanwhile, back in the real world, Miles Desmond and Warren Vidic are dead, (Thank RICHARD for that!), and the protagonist is now... well, you. You are a playtester for a software company called Abstergo Entertainment, testing out the genetic memories of Edward Kenway, which will be turned into a sort of virtual reality pirate game. Gee, how meta. ^_^;<br />
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Of course it's all a front for Abstergo and the Templars to discover the location of the Observatory, even though they practically run the entire world as it is, or so the games keep telling us, but I guess they have to weed out the Assassins somehow.<br />
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"You", however, are blissfully unaware of any of this, as you cheerfully go about your job, until you're contacted by a mysterious stranger and asked to start hacking into Abstergo's computers. As your security clearance is increased, you'll learn a little more about Abstergo, the origins of Warren Vidic and Subject Zero and Desmond’s thoughts before his death.<br />
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It's mildly interesting I guess, but I kinda already knew Warren Vidic was a bastard and Desmond is still dull as dishwater so yeah, don't really care. I did laugh though at the shameless attempts to sully the previous protagonists of 'Assassin's Creed' games by Abstergo, bitter much? ;P<br />
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Sadly, Shaun and Rebecca only have small roles in this game, which is a shame because Shaun especially was a highlight of <i>'Assassin's Creed III'</i> and made the historical material in that game less dry to read with his snarky editorials. The "programmers" bantering back and forth during the descriptions in <i>'Assassin's Creed IV'</i> came off more meta and occasionally too obnoxious for me. Here's hoping Shaun and Rebecca can come back strong in the next game.<br />
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Back to Edward's world for a moment, there were many characters to interact with, several of them from actual history such as Blackbeard, Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Sted Bonnet and Black Bart to name a few. And while the above names made an impression, there were others that I could barely remember later when they reappeared and the story lost me a few times, I remember thinking in those times <i>"Who the hell are you again?"</i> ;P<br />
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OK, I admit I'm not as knowledgeable on the history of pirates as I am other eras but some of the characters were difficult for me to distinguish from others and it hurt my immersion into the game at times.<br />
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As mentioned before, many of the problems I had with the previous game have been addressed. The Assassination missions now have more of a purpose than simply "Kill Templars Dead!" and require more skill and stealth to kill your targets, as in <i>'Assassins' Creed II'</i>. There are also Naval Missions which usually involve you destroying certain ships or attacking convoys and stealing their cargo.<br />
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The ship mechanic is now a central feature in the game and it is SOOOO much fun! Not only do you get to blast the crap out of a ship, you can now board it and slaughter your enemies into submission and steal their cargo, which you can then either sell for gold or improve your ship. I have to say the first time I grabbed the rope and swung onto the deck of the enemy ship into combat, I had a smile on my face a mile wide. :)<br />
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As you face tougher ships, there are more challenges put in your way. You might have to climb up to the crow's nest to destroy the enemy's flag or kill annoying scouts taking pot shots at your crew. Or you have to blow up the powder kegs on the ship, ideally without blowing up your own crew members in the process.<br />
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You can get a head start with the smaller cannons on your ship and take a few shots, though it's best to do this BEFORE your crew starts boarding the ship, less you blast them by mistake. The longer you take to subdue the ship, the more of your crew get killed so there's pressure there as well.<br />
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But as much fun as I had with boarding the ship, I have to mention a couple of nitpicks. At times it was frustrating to fight on the deck of the ship because there are so many people fighting around you that at times you will have great difficulty focusing on a single opponent and will often lunge towards another person without meaning to.<br />
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Honestly, the camera can be your biggest threat during these battles as it tends to zoom in close on the action and either the scenery gets in the way or people attack you from off-screen and you can't defend yourself, giving them a free slash or two. It's not a huge deal but it was annoying, especially when it means you have to start the boarding all over again if you die. The scenery getting in the way can also happen in certain locations of the game and if possible, it's always best to move to an open space and fight there to hopefully avoid that problem.<br />
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Also, and this has always been a big issue with the Assassin's Creed series to some degree, it is very easy to leap onto the wrong thing or end up balancing on a railing when you meant to leap somewhere else entirely or jump up on an item when you didn't mean to. This problem mostly rears its ugly head during the ship boarding scenes as there is a LOT of background objects on a pirate ship and it can be frustrating when you want to make a grand entrance into battle, only to be thwarted by a railing or a net or a barrel or a cannon or a crate or a... well, you get the idea. ^_^;<br />
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Money now serves more of a purpose in this game as there are plenty of things to buy and
upgrading your ship is absolutely necessary if you hope to survive later battles against multiple ships or the Man O' Wars and ESPECIALLY if you hope to have a chance in hell of winning a battle against one of the Legendary ships, which provide a true challenge even if your ship is fully upgraded.<br />
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You can also upgrade your base with various shops and places to keep your crew happy, along with your own house, in which you can buy art to display. Personally the art didn't really interest me but I can see how others would appreciate it.<br />
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Weapons are also more useful in this game as you actually have a reason to use your pistols this time. I admit I saved my money to buy the best available sword and guns but the option to level up slowly is there as well. You also gain the use of sleep darts which can temporarily put down a pesky sniper long enough to sneak past or assassinate him and berserk darts, which makes your enemy go into a blind rage and attempt to kill any soldier in range. Late into the game, you also get a rope dart which you can hang your enemies with.<br />
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Hunting animals now lets you craft items such as extra ammo pouches for your weapons or clothes if you wish. You can also improve your armour and raise your health in the process. The hunting mechanics are pretty much the same as the previous game but at sea, you can also hunt sharks and, yes whales as well. This was a subject of controversy for some people but thankfully the option to hunt whales is entirely OPTIONAL and you can buy, at some expense, any animal hides you require and skip the hunting process completely if you wish, and I personally appreciate the choice being given to me.<br />
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There are numerous side quests to undertake in this game. Besides the small chests, you can find treasure maps with coordinates to islands where you then rely on visual clues to find buried treasure with more valuable rewards. There are manuscripts that seem to serve no purpose in the game other than historical curiosity, and are usually under guard for some reason, maybe to make collecting them more exciting? Darned if I know.<br />
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Collecting Animus Fragments will provide you with cheat codes and other benefits to multiplayer. There are also glass bottles to collect which gives you more insight into the character of 'The Sage' and helps explain events taking place in the real world as well. There is also a multiplayer aspect called 'Kenway's Fleet' but since I don't do multiplayer, I can't comment on it.<br />
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In the previous game, there was a rather pointless side quest chasing sheets of paper across rooftops containing pages of Benjamin Franklin's Almanac that gave no real benefits. In this game, however, the papers are sea shanties and they are far more worth the effort to catch them as you can now sing while sailing your ship across the sea. Not only do the songs add a real touch of authenticity to the pirate feel of the game but chances are, you'll be singing along to several of them yourself as they're pretty darn catchy. ;P<br />
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One fun side mission was taking out forts on the map, which act as viewpoints in the sea, letting you spot items and towns otherwise hidden. After you successfully crush their defences with your ship, you storm the fort and can either kill soldiers for the fun of it or just skip ahead to killing the officers and the fort commander to claim victory. This also opens additional Naval missions.<br />
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There are Templar hunting missions which lead you to keys that will eventually give you access to the now obligatory ultimate suit of armour, though during my playthrough I couldn't figure out how to trigger the mission to find the fifth key for some reason. Fortunately, it wasn't necessary as there was another side quest involving collecting Mayan stones and this gained me access to a... different ultimate suit of armour. Huh, well, nice to have a choice, I guess. ^_^;<br />
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One new and fun side quest are underwater dungeons in the form of sunken ships and caves which you can explore about halfway through the game with a diving bell. What make it more challenging is that you constantly have to worry about your oxygen levels and avoiding the numerous sea creatures that will take off your health piece by piece... and scare the hell out of you if you're not expecting an attack. (Fuck you, eels. FUCK YOU.) But the rewards are well worth the effort as many of them give you plans to vastly improve your ship.<br />
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So, my final thoughts are this. While I still consider <i>'Assassin's Creed II'</i> to be the best game of the series so far, I did have a lot of fun playing this game and unlike Part III, this is a game I'm glad I bought and will definitely be replaying in the future.<br />
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There are rumours that the next game could take place in China or Japan, which would be of great interest to me and after watching the movie <i>'Heroes of the East'</i>, which I highly recommend if you've never seen it, to be able to use those kinds of weapons and possibly upgrade the fighting engine to include martial art techniques would be all sorts of awesome. Here's hoping. :)<br />Megane 6.7http://www.blogger.com/profile/18263836213902211097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-36377405345670957792014-01-19T01:29:00.001-05:002014-01-19T01:29:58.199-05:00In Memoriam: Brian Randall --Tonight, I wanted to express my sympathies to the family and friends of Brian Randall, who it has been reported has passed away on 17 January 2014. I wanted to add our voices to those online who miss and mourn Brian. Brian had been writing fanfiction for more than ten years, and both Megane 6.7 and I had the opportunity to work with him WAAAY long ago when we were creating the <a href="http://www.nabiki.com/mst/megane67/cbaward/" target="_blank">2002 Chickenball Awards</a>.<div>
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Brian's fanfiction archives will continue to be maintained by his friends, and you can find them at:</div>
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<a href="http://soulriders.net/brian/">http://soulriders.net/brian/</a> </div>
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<a href="http://brandall.florestica.com/">http://brandall.florestica.com/</a></div>
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Thank you Brian, for all of your terrific writing and your good humor.</div>
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--- Megane 6.7 and Scott "Zoogz" Jamison</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-81001297637705656492014-01-13T22:46:00.000-05:002014-01-14T22:54:10.910-05:00#2LR Too Late Reviews -- Rosario + Vampire#2LR review: <i>Rosario + Vampire</i><br />
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Most nights, my daughter is the one to broach the subject. "Want to watch some anime tonight?" is her usual request. Some nights, she'll ask to watch old archived Strong Bad emails, but it's typically anime that she asks for. Other than the current dislike of MST3k, I've trained her well.<br />
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My wife and I usually get the younger two boys off to bed by this time, and more often than not we're trying to get through a series. We can't devour one as quickly as my daughter, who's probably watched the vast majority of <i>Full Metal Alchemist</i> through a couple weekends over the past few weeks, but we try to get two or maybe three episodes in of whatever current series we're watching.<br />
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My daughter is exceedingly lucky... paying for Netflix and Hulu Plus is perhaps $20 or so a month, and there's quite a bit of choice for streaming options. Before having this option, I had resorted to three other tactics to watch anime. One was renting it from specialty stores, which was hit-or-miss considering how many times we've moved. At one point, I joined a campus anime club, which had a limited library. And when I say limited, that meant that they would have the first few tapes of a series *but not all of them*, so you had to figure out other ways to finish most series you borrowed. And as always, your last recourse was purchasing the whole darned series, which ran into the hundreds of dollars for a single series from a publisher (Pioneer, Viz) who cheaped out by putting only two episodes per videotape.<br />
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Now? Well, the two services will end up being a couple hundred per year anyway, and you don't get to own it after you're done. But that means that if you've really tried, you will have watched more than a few series by the end of that year too.<br />
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Why is this important? It's because I'm now watching series that I probably would not have given a second thought to starting in the old days. And <i>Rosario + Vampire</i> is one of those series, for a couple of different reasons.<br />
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First, a rundown of the plot. No spoiler space warnings here yet, but just wait... Tsukune (or, as the English actors kept saying it, "Skoo-nee") is a human who is just getting out of middle school. His poor grades ensure that no local high schools accept him, so he ends up finding a private school, "Yokai Academy" that will accept him. Shortly into the first episode, he runs across the main female protagonist of the series, Moka, who happens to be a vampire. He then finds out that the rest of the school is a collection of monsters that runs the gamut from traditional Western monsters like vampires, witches, naga, witches, female demons -- succubi, to Japanese monsters like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasa-obake">kasa-obake</a>, and even into Hindi mythology (example, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara">Apsara</a>).<br />
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One of the first student rules is that no humans are allowed at this monster school. However, Tsukune feels safe because the kind and sweet Moka has an alternate form that is activated whenever Tsukune takes her seal of power from her. Moka's alternate form kicks some major butt, though also with a personality change from caring to blunt, slightly egotistical, and self-serving. It turns out that the barrier that keeps humans out of Yokai Academy would be threatened if there were too many strong monsters there, and Moka's alternate though true form would cause the barrier to weaken. Both Moka types seem to care for Tsukune, but in the beginning of the series it's pretty clear that the blunt (inner) Moka is happy to have him around as a food source compared to the kind (outer) Moka, who likes him as a friend, her first human friend.<br />
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This is a harem anime with heavy doses of fanservice, and as such the first four or five episodes introduce all of the other female members of Tsukune's harem. They include the succubus Kurumu, who like Moka is attracted to Tsukune because he's a human, and wants to breed with him to ensure her line. To that end, she is forever flaunting her large breasts in and around Tsukune to entice him. There's a witch, Yukari, who happens to be a genius and was skipped a couple of grades, so she is therefore a couple years younger than the rest of the high-school freshman friends. She gets to be Tsukune's flat-chested lolita (and the brunt of many Kurumu body-image jokes). There's the "snow woman" Mizore, who has power over ice and cold and also doubles as a creepy stalker for those who want their girlfriends so interested in them that the girlfriend moons over them incessantly. And by the way, Moka gets to have a transformation sequence every time she's called into battle.<br />
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Ultimately, I'm sure you're pretty much guessing what the show is and probably know a good 80% of the plot if you're familiar with the genre. It's certainly understandable. You may be surprised to hear me report though, that both my eleven-year-old daughter and my wife enjoyed watching the show, through both seasons one and two (a total of twenty-six). I was kind of surprised as well, especially since my wife is not exactly a fan of the fanservice in general. I'm generally not a fan either, because typically the fanservice means that writers are hobbled in trying to get their creations in body-baring situations. For the same reasons, I'm usually not crazy about harem stories either. So, what could make this series worth watching?<br />
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I would like to think that the characters do a good job of it, surprisingly enough. When they're not engaging in fanservice, they seem at least slightly realistic, and while there's certainly more than a bit of cliche abounding, it's not... overwhelming, nor particularly painful. The series does engage in breaking the fourth wall, and between that and keeping the tone mostly light, it's pretty funny.<br />
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There are times that the protagonists find themselves in danger, and the main character Tsukune does a decent job of not making himself insufferable. The plottish parts of the story always seem to raise the overall level of the show.<br />
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I felt that they did a decent job balancing the characters in this show... there are some that introduce as harem shows that end up relegating other characters in the background, which always seems a weird choice. (If you didn't want to write a character in or couldn't make it work, why did you attempt to adapt that manga then?) They hand lines and conflict to all characters in fairly equal portions, so it feels at least more realistic to storytelling.<br />
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Of course, with this show there is a however. The however is that the fanservice ramps up in season two. I won't make a catalog of perversion, but suffice it to say that the animators drew big bouncing breasts plus a metric ton of panty shots in season one, and they drew big bouncing naked breasts with a metric ton and a half of panty shots in season two... and they included bringing Moka's transformation sequence into adult territory. More profane language also crops up in season two, many instances rather unnecessarily. If you're watching with younger ones already (why?) make sure that if you're going on from season one to season two they're prepared for these things, and if the fanservice or coarse language is why you watch, then you'll want to rewatch season two more frequently than season one.<br />
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I have another however though, and that will come with COPIOUS amounts of <span style="background-color: red;">spoiler space</span>. (Now comes the spoiler space warning!)<br />
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Season one's ending was the possible death of Tsukune, which you knew full well wouldn't happen. Season two's setup for the ending was that the sweet and kind Moka may not make another appearance again, as Moka needs to use her power seal in order to keep the barrier between monster and human worlds intact and can't use it to make sure that the "outer" Moka is around anymore.<br />
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So, the real inner, flawed, self-serving yet unused to people Moka comes out. And it is clear, she's grown to like Tsukune as a person rather than as a meal. I'm loving this turn of events for a couple reasons... one is that one of the characters has "grown", and is now even showing her real self rather than the mask that the writers have had her under for the better part of twenty episodes. I loved it because I thought it was a challenge to Tsukune... and how often do the protagonists of a harem anime get a challenge? It's not a challenge to fake-kill a protagonist who you know is going to recover, but would the writers be bold enough to change the equation?<br />
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I thought that this could bring this show into very interesting ground. Within the harem-anime setup, you've got multiple female protagonists all revolving around a male antagonist, and there's always a pretty clear method to figuring out which one will "win", aka gain the affection of the male protagonist. In this show, it was the number of mushy "moments" that Tsukune and Moka would repeat each other's name in the throes of LUUUUV. To me, Tsukune started off in the series having feelings for Moka based on her personality and her actions... but the Moka he had feelings for really was a mask, only in effect because of a magical artifact that she willingly gave up. The real Moka came forward, ironically enough through an action of self-sacrifice and love of others, and the real Moka really did have feelings for Tsukune.<br />
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So, how does Tsukune respond? Not by taking Moka as her true self... not by learning to expand or grow his love, knowing that the Moka he has feelings for is inside the Moka that is now there. Not even by rejecting her and going with one of the other three girls who do have unrequited feelings towards him.<br />
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Tsukune's response is to "try to get the old Moka back". There's no room in his love for a person to change. Nor is there any room in his love for a person to grow, or for his own love to change, or for him to even have to make an uncomfortable choice. The ending does show that Tsukune's dedicated to "the one he loves"... he takes on Moka's father, who is set up as pretty much one of the strongest monsters ever, and ends up not getting killed. Ultimately though, life has messy choices, and in Tsukune's case the one he loves is not really a true person, just a half-a-person, and he's uncomfortable around the other half of the person. So... what is love? (baby don't hurt me.)<br />
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At any rate, the ending for season two could have set up a fascinating hook for a season three. The series uses the ten-minute resolution rather than the season-three five-hour resolution that could have made this into a fascinating show in its own right. It would have allowed this series to grow just as much as it would have shown its characters growing, but that was not in the cards (nor storyboards).<br />
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As it is, and in utterly no surprise, the ending brings everything back to the status quo of about four episodes previous, with the added bonus that Tsukune tells us that he's "not grown up enough" to make his choice. It's too bad that the girls all didn't say, "In that case, we'll find someone grown up enough to stop stringing us along and who's mature enough to handle a real relationship", but that would have ruined the harem just as much, I suppose. So, the ending reinforces the same escapism that you probably came into the series with, at least.<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">(spoiler space over)</span><br />
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And the discussion about the ending colors my final review, because I do feel cheated if there's a fascinating avenue that the writer(s) could have taken their creation but didn't. As you may or may not recall from all of my <i>Twilight</i> movie reviews, I had quite a few complaints about the movies in general... but I was not truly incensed and annoyed with the storyline until Stephenie Meyer took the amazing opportunity that she wrote herself in the end of Book Four (which was movie 4-2) and squandered it completely. Same as above... the ending to <i>Rosario + Vampire</i> could have catapulted this series into *rewatchability*, to become more true to life than it was before, to explore things that the typical harem anime does not... to grow into something to contemplate and think about deeply, and to maybe even glean a message or three from....... and completely wrote them off.<br />
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There was one previous review where I wrote that the ending completely screwed up watching the show, which was <i>Code Geass</i>. I can't get down on the ending to <i>Rosario + Vampire</i> as much as I can get down on <i>Code Geass's</i> ending though. On the surface, this series' tagline is "Japanese <i>Twilight</i> as a harem anime with fanservice". If that's what you're looking for, with the once-an-episode fight sequence and characters that aren't completely brainless, then this is your show. And as long as you know that what you see is what you're going to get, that there's nothing underneath the surface, then you will probably enjoy watching this show. I know that I would not have minded the ending as much had I been warned not to raise my expectations, at least. It's funny, the characters fight, pine, enjoy each other's company, get mad, and generally have fun, and end up at the beginning. And most viewers will say the same.<br />
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Final review for <i>Rosario + Vampire</i>: <b><u>2.6</u></b> (stripey pairs of panties)<br />
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<div>
<a a="" also="" and="" as="" battle.="" by="" called="" cold="" creepy="" doubles="" every="" for="" gets="" girlfriend="" girlfriends="" has="" have="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara%3EApsara%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EOne%20of%20the%20first%20student%20rules%20is%20that%20no%20humans%20are%20allowed%20at%20this%20monster%20school.%20%C2%A0However,%20Tsukune%20feels%20safe%20because%20the%20kind%20and%20sweet%20Moka%20has%20an%20alternate%20form%20that%20is%20activated%20whenever%20Tsukune%20takes%20her%20seal%20of%20power%20from%20her.%20%C2%A0Moka's%20alternate%20form%20kicks%20some%20major%20butt,%20though%20also%20with%20a%20personality%20change%20from%20caring%20to%20blunt,%20slightly%20egotistical,%20and%20self-serving.%20%C2%A0It%20turns%20out%20that%20the%20barrier%20that%20keeps%20humans%20out%20of%20Yokai%20Academy%20would%20be%20threatened%20if%20there%20were%20too%20many%20strong%20monsters%20there,%20and%20Moka's%20alternate%20though%20true%20form%20would%20cause%20the%20barrier%20to%20weaken.%20Both%20Moka%20types%20seem%20to%20care%20for%20Tsukune,%20but%20in%20the%20beginning%20of%20the%20series%20it's%20pretty%20clear%20that%20the%20blunt%20(inner)%20Moka%20is%20happy%20to%20have%20him%20around%20as%20a%20food%20source%20compared%20to%20the%20kind%20(outer)%20Moka,%20who%20likes%20him%20as%20a%20friend,%20her%20first%20human%20friend.%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EThis%20is%20a%20harem%20anime%20with%20heavy%20doses%20of%20fanservice,%20and%20as%20such%20the%20first%20four%20or%20five%20episodes%20introduce%20all%20of%20the%20other%20female%20members%20of%20Tsukune's%20harem.%20%C2%A0They%20include%20the%20succubus%20Kurumu,%20who%20like%20Moka%20is%20attracted%20to%20Tsukune%20because%20he's%20a%20human,%20and%20wants%20to%20breed%20with%20him%20to%20ensure%20her%20line.%20%C2%A0To%20that%20end,%20she%20is%20forever%20flaunting%20her%20large%20breasts%20in%20and%20around%20Tsukune%20to%20entice%20him.%20%C2%A0There's%20a%20witch,%20Yukari,%20who%20happens%20to%20be%20a%20genius%20and%20was%20skipped%20a%20couple%20of%20grades,%20so%20she%20is%20therefore%20a%20couple%20years%20younger%20than%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20high-school%20freshman%20friends.%20She%20gets%20to%20be%20Tsukune's%20flat-chested%20lolita%20(and%20the%20brunt%20of%20many%20Kurumu%20body-image%20jokes).%20%C2%A0There's%20the" ice="" in="" incessantly.="" interested="" into="" mizore="" moka="" moons="" nbsp="" nd="" over="" p="" power="" s="" sequence="" she="" snow="" so="" stalker="" that="" the="" their="" them="" those="" time="" to="" transformation="" want="" way="" who="" woman=""><br /></a></div>
<a a="" also="" and="" as="" battle.="" by="" called="" cold="" creepy="" doubles="" every="" for="" gets="" girlfriend="" girlfriends="" has="" have="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara%3EApsara%3C/a%3E.%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EOne%20of%20the%20first%20student%20rules%20is%20that%20no%20humans%20are%20allowed%20at%20this%20monster%20school.%20%C2%A0However,%20Tsukune%20feels%20safe%20because%20the%20kind%20and%20sweet%20Moka%20has%20an%20alternate%20form%20that%20is%20activated%20whenever%20Tsukune%20takes%20her%20seal%20of%20power%20from%20her.%20%C2%A0Moka's%20alternate%20form%20kicks%20some%20major%20butt,%20though%20also%20with%20a%20personality%20change%20from%20caring%20to%20blunt,%20slightly%20egotistical,%20and%20self-serving.%20%C2%A0It%20turns%20out%20that%20the%20barrier%20that%20keeps%20humans%20out%20of%20Yokai%20Academy%20would%20be%20threatened%20if%20there%20were%20too%20many%20strong%20monsters%20there,%20and%20Moka's%20alternate%20though%20true%20form%20would%20cause%20the%20barrier%20to%20weaken.%20Both%20Moka%20types%20seem%20to%20care%20for%20Tsukune,%20but%20in%20the%20beginning%20of%20the%20series%20it's%20pretty%20clear%20that%20the%20blunt%20(inner)%20Moka%20is%20happy%20to%20have%20him%20around%20as%20a%20food%20source%20compared%20to%20the%20kind%20(outer)%20Moka,%20who%20likes%20him%20as%20a%20friend,%20her%20first%20human%20friend.%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EThis%20is%20a%20harem%20anime%20with%20heavy%20doses%20of%20fanservice,%20and%20as%20such%20the%20first%20four%20or%20five%20episodes%20introduce%20all%20of%20the%20other%20female%20members%20of%20Tsukune's%20harem.%20%C2%A0They%20include%20the%20succubus%20Kurumu,%20who%20like%20Moka%20is%20attracted%20to%20Tsukune%20because%20he's%20a%20human,%20and%20wants%20to%20breed%20with%20him%20to%20ensure%20her%20line.%20%C2%A0To%20that%20end,%20she%20is%20forever%20flaunting%20her%20large%20breasts%20in%20and%20around%20Tsukune%20to%20entice%20him.%20%C2%A0There's%20a%20witch,%20Yukari,%20who%20happens%20to%20be%20a%20genius%20and%20was%20skipped%20a%20couple%20of%20grades,%20so%20she%20is%20therefore%20a%20couple%20years%20younger%20than%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20high-school%20freshman%20friends.%20She%20gets%20to%20be%20Tsukune's%20flat-chested%20lolita%20(and%20the%20brunt%20of%20many%20Kurumu%20body-image%20jokes).%20%C2%A0There's%20the" ice="" in="" incessantly.="" interested="" into="" mizore="" moka="" moons="" nbsp="" nd="" over="" p="" power="" s="" sequence="" she="" snow="" so="" stalker="" that="" the="" their="" them="" those="" time="" to="" transformation="" want="" way="" who="" woman="">
</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-57018105865743146762014-01-09T09:50:00.000-05:002014-01-09T09:51:09.318-05:00New MSTing! 'Two Worlds: Discovering Good Hearts'<br />
Holy crap, could it be? Another new MSTing from us in only *six* months time!? Seriously though, we're very happy to present to you our latest MSTing 'Two Worlds: Discovering Good Hearts', which you can find linked at <a href="http://www.nabiki.com/mst/recent">www.nabiki.com/mst/recent</a>. Zoogz was also nice enough to post a link there to my first Let's Play of the adventure game 'Paul Quest', if you're interested in checking it out. We hope you enjoy our work and comments are always welcome!Megane 6.7http://www.blogger.com/profile/18263836213902211097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-86345113870678651512014-01-06T20:27:00.000-05:002014-01-06T22:00:54.969-05:00Civilization V walkthrough -- part 2 of 3?FAQ/Walkthrough for Civilization V - Brave New World<br />
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Part 2/3?<br />
<br />
Still unknown if this will be a three-part series; below are still more early-game points that I realized I forgot on the first post. More playthroughs means more opportunities to figure out what works and what doesn't. Here's a few more things to keep in mind, in what is still one of the most interesting puzzle games masquerading as a world building game that I've ever played.<br />
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In an effort to try to organize my thoughts a bit better for you, I've kept the top-level points and tried to put a subtitle around some of what I cover, so that you might be able to find the information more easily. Feel free to send some feedback to tell me if this helps more or is more confusing.<br />
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<u><b>1. Defending early on via military:</b></u><br />
<br />
Keeping up with everyone is absolutely important in this game. At the higher levels, the computer needs less food to grow a point, less production to complete units or wonders, and less science to gain a technology. This means you need to find replacements, and fast.<br />
<br />
<i>How much military do you need?:</i><br />
<br />
The military part is pretty easy to take care of, considering what happens in Civ V (compared to all previous Civ games). Each city becomes its own archer, and can hold out for a few turns depending on the number of units and the technology of the units coming after the city. The best defenders for a city happen to be ranged -- ranged defenders do not take damage when they attack, and they can be stashed behind a city yet shoot two squares forward, making them devilishly hard to get to without deploying mounted troops. Two archers (plus perhaps a warrior to deal with the up-close issues) are enough to snuff out 85% of threats to the cities of your kingdom.<br />
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<i>Shooting at the correct targets when defending a city:</i><br />
<br />
Without a ground troop to occupy it, a city cannot fall. You can throw as many catapults as you want at it, but it won't go anywhere without a ground troop. So, you know what your likeliest targets are! The ground troops will come first anyway, and if the computer does it in ones or twos, your two archers + city + warrior should do a good job of mopping up most of the ground troop threat even before the catapults or archers set up. Even if the catapults and archers arrive, keep pounding those ground troops. Three archers plus the city is ideal, as three archers + one city will down a warrior in one turn, and depending on the bonuses can even get a spearman down too. Two is minimum.<br />
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<i>Sniffing out external threats:</i><br />
<br />
As I discuss below, roads are not for the early-game anymore, which means you may have to keep troops close to a city. This means more advanced sniffing is necessary to figure out where the threat may come from. There's ways to figure it out though, and here are a few:<br />
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-- A enemy civ capital city with no second city thirty to forty turns in. A sure sign that military is being built.<br />
-- In the diplomatic screen, hovering over the leader to find out ways that your relationship is affected includes "They covet your lands!"<br />
-- Finding three or more units of theirs on the move, especially if they're moving towards you.<br />
-- A warlike civilization with a very early specialized unit (Huns, Aztecs, for naval battle - Carthage)<br />
-- Check the Demographics and find out who has the largest military. Increased scrutiny on this civ is a must, if they are known to you.<br />
-- An enemy civ that has swallowed up cities and is currently razing them. An absolutely sure sign that someone's out to eat up the map and mess everyone else up.<br />
-- Notifications that an enemy civ has had their capital taken. The game now tells you who took the capital, as well as who controls the most capitals. They have the military.<br />
<br />
Yes, enemy Civs are 95% likely to be coming after you, especially since you likely have the fewest military this early in the game. It may be "unfair", but did you sign up for a challenge or a squash? I find that there are times that if I have an interesting start position, I will save it at the beginning of the game just in case I want to run a game again, and there's no stigma in restarting or recovering from autosaved files.<br />
<br />
FYI... it is absolutely possible to get bum rushed and killed, too... if you get a mad Hun after you early enough, or a mad Aztec, they can absolutely pump out five or six battering rams, or eight to ten jaguar warriors, and your game is definitely over. Just restart and try again, knowing full well that if your start was that bad, going again is probably the best option. In a recent playthrough (and unless I completely misread the damage indicator), I had a Hunnic battering ram hit my city for -167. There's just nothing one can do about that, especially when you see three more coming at you. Just remember that if you do put down the Hunnic/Aztec threat, they're not going to have such ridiculously overpowered troops for the rest of the game.<br />
<br />
I do note that on my other games, the enemy Civ is more likely to come after you with their own specialized unit. It's helpful to know or remember what their special units are and to have plenty of troops available that their type is weak against... for instance, make sure to get pikemen or lancers when the Mongols start trotting out their Keshik (cavalry-based archers). Keeping scouts or other units that can station outside an enemy Civ's land to find out what the troop movements are is pretty helpful in this situation.<br />
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<i>The aftermath:</i><br />
<br />
If you do manage to take out the enemy civ's troops, immediately threaten their lands (safely!). The enemy Civs often (but not always) panic and overreact with troops closer by. If they're currently out of troops you'll get a far better deal. If they have more than one town, you may even pick up unexpected territory... just make sure that you're in the green happy-wise before puppeting, otherwise weaken them by razing it. Bonus note... even if the city is undefendable, it will give you gold and science plus perhaps a religious point or two at the cost of happiness. If you can spare the happiness, take it. It will also be your new "canary in the coal mine" if it is undefendable, as the enemy Civ will try to get that city back first being such a juicy target. You will then know if the enemy civ will want to come after your core cities at the cost of increased gold plus a couple happy faces.<br />
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If you do go with a large military early, just remember that you can get other people to pay for it too. How, you may ask? Through the bullying of city-states. They'll also hand over workers if you have enough troops on the outside of a town. You need to have a large military to do this, but it's a decent two-for-one (worker for the price of military) if you're not trying to curry favor. Heck, you can turn your military into effectively a city-state-supported workforce if you're diligent enough, and by threatening the non-hostile you could get quests where the hostile actually want you to threaten the non-hostile, which will net you money AND a new City-State friend.<br />
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<b><u>2. Gold!</u></b><br />
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That stuff is HARD to come by early. There's a ton of things that you need, including a military to beat off any foes, roads to keep your military mobile enough to fight off other foes, a scout to find other civs, and workers to develop your resources. Not only that, but those pesky buildings cost money too. <br />
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Taking care of your gold reserves can be almost like gaining another city's worth of production. A settler, for instance, is 500 Gold (on Standard length game and King difficulty)... or, it's five or six turns of no city growth. A courthouse is multiple turns of unhappy faces, or about 600 gold(?, I don't completely recall). 1000 Gold can be worth ten happy faces when it's given to mercantile city-states... or, in one of the most interesting situations, 1000 gold can help keep an enemy civ who's declared war off your back by allying with a city-state and letting the enemy civ either get bogged down, picked off, or at least slowed down from invading your position. As a last resort, it can be used for walls/units if things get desperate too. And, most importantly, piles of gold will give you the diplomatic victory that you may be searching for. Where will it all come from?<br />
<br />
<i>Developing second/third copies of luxuries:</i><br />
<br />
On my best games, I've developed redundant luxury items early. Just starting out, enemy Civs are usually willing to give you top dollar (e.g. 7 gold per turn) for extra luxuries. Even if the redundant luxury is in the water (yikes!), getting that extra gold that early will allow you to keep the science coming while at the same time staying defended, which is absolutely necessary. Just remember that the trade-off for selling your luxuries is possibly another new city for the Civ you sell the luxury to, as the +4 it will give them is the number that is typically needed for each new city. (This can get them in trouble in the long haul if they can't find ways to keep the luxuries flowing in, though.)<br />
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<i>Roads and alternatives to building roads for workers:</i><br />
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Roads are for closers. [/Glengarry]. Don't get the roads built until the city you're building to can support the road... if you're already negative and your city is four spaces away, you're looking at between twelve to sixteen losing turns just to break even again. Yes, that means that you may have to stash troops in the more forward places and cross your fingers, but hopefully you read the early warning signs like a woodsman collects deer tracks.<br />
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The alternative to building roads if you have an idling worker and little cash... do all of the below in descending order.<br />
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1. Improve every single special tile you can find first. These things will help your civ grow the fastest. (Possible exception - jungle bananas, see below)<br />
2. Build farms in your outlying cities to grow them quicker. (Or, alternatively, set the focus to "food" in the city screen.)<br />
3. Build enough mines/lumber mills to give your city a production boost when it's needed. Typically, I try to set up at least two more mines or three more lumber mills than I would usually need. This helps for when you're trying to rush through units, or a Wonder, and don't have the gold to deal with it.<br />
4. Drain marshes -- unless you're the Dutch and can build polders.<br />
5. Take out *unnecessary* forests.<br />
6. Take out *unnecessary* jungles, but only as a last resort -- see below.<br />
<br />
<i>Jungle benefits:</i><br />
<br />
With jungles, note that when the University comes available, each one is worth +2 Science. Keeping a jungle banana square will net you a +4 Food and +2 Science, instead of the possible +5 Food (or +4 food +1 production if on a hill). Five jungle squares with trading posts and an in-town University will net +10 food, +13 science (+10 through the University skill and +3 due to the University bonus) and +5 gold. Keeping Jungles is a strategy that I follow, especially since you can't replant if you so choose.<br />
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Jungles and forests are also places that you can defend with troops, though it depends on how many ground troops (swords, spears, pikes?) you have available to defend and whether or not those areas can be ranged into.<br />
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<i>Caravans:</i><br />
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Caravans can only get you limited amounts of gold early on. The more you develop your city, the more gold a caravan will be able to net. Caravans will also provide science, definitely important in the early going too, and as you develop the land around the home city for a caravan, the caravan will net more money. Having water nearby will add to the bonuses.<br />
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<b><u>3. City building and specialization</u></b><br />
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<i>Choosing sites, managing expectations, natural wonders:</i><br />
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Your capital should ideally be near two luxuries. I've had games where a third was in easy reach, but typically there's no way you're going to start with three luxuries encircled by one city. Typically, city #2 will be next to a luxury, and if you're lucky you might find a spot where you can get two luxuries as well. Your first city spot has to be close, chosen pretty early and focused upon.<br />
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In a good 60% of my games, I've found that my next favored spot for a city just will not be there for two reasons. Either the other civ(s) got to it first, or the civ that would have gotten there first has eight warriors and five archers to throw at me when I plant my settler. However, there are also games where I had to go to Spot #3 just because the computer absolutely jumped all over Spot #2 before I could do anything.<br />
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The point? It's rare if you manage to get Spot #2 and Spot #3 both, and if that happens hang on tight.<br />
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See, this game isn't exactly a land-grab game anymore. In Civ IV, as long as you had a forward-looking phalanx, keep hopping those settlers forward, and you can fill in the cities with phalanxes after you grab the territory. In Civ V, you don't start off with happy people in every city you build... you have to back it up with both workers to gain the luxury and with military to defend it, or your position is lost.<br />
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HOWEVER! There's hope! Just remember, if the computer stakes out a city in a spot you desperately wanted, it's a GOOD THING. Let the computer build it, farm it, etc and then you can swoop in with military to take it later. You want and need ways to maximize your shield count, and even if you spend three warriors out of your force of multiple archers/catapults and melee units, it's still likely less than you would have had to spend with a settler, worker, etc. and it steals the production that the computer worked so hard to set up to begin with.<br />
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Most natural wonders are imperative to take and can grow to provide +5 culture in the late-game depending on the World Congress. Ones that provide happy faces (Mt. Kailash, Fountain of Youth, Old Faithful) are most important. Natural wonders that provide religious bonuses (Uluru, Mt. Ararat, Mt. Fuji, etc.) are also very important, and can even replace world wonders such as Stonehenge. The only ones that are not worth the time and effort are the Grand Mesa (+3 gold and +2 shield, which you can get from any developed luxury mine) and the Barringer Crater (+2 Gold / +3 Science, which is easily replacable by any Jungle tile with a trading post in a town with a University -- +2 Food, +1 Gold, +2 Science before Economics). Only get these as afterthoughts rather than as targets.<br />
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<i>City specialization:</i><br />
<br />
So when you have a city, what should you do with it? High food cities are good for getting the specialist buildings, such as the Writers Guild which takes population points to be most effective. Cities with plenty of hills do good in building wonders and creating your army. Cities with lots of special squares, by rivers or by oceans are good spots for caravans to operate from. Just make sure to improve as many of the squares around the city as possible so that the bonuses for resources are realized. Cities with lots of jungle make for amazing science cities mid-game, to the point that waiting on a National College becomes a viable strategy... especially since the computer players rarely (if ever) examine your other cities for tech-stealing potential. If you run a high-knowledge city that's not your capital, that lowers the tech-stealing potential of your capital city and typically the computer players won't figure out that there's a far higher potential city elsewhere, which makes defending technologies easier. And since the game gives bonuses for stacking tourist improvements/Wonders into one city, it may as well be the one that you've been building Wonders in since you started the game, right?<br />
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Additionally, the game's governors help you to keep your specialization going. If you're trying to grow a city, feel free to leave it at "growth" until it gets to the size you want. If you're trying to obtain science, then use the governor to reapportion your citizens to find science. You can certainly micromanage to the point that you're directing individual citizens into individual tasks, but it will make your games take even longer than they did already... and you get a feel for what real historical rulers thought when they were asked what each individual citizen should do instead of taking advice from trusted council. Specializing cities will keep you afloat technologically through the lean years, when all of the other civs are gaining technologies left-and-right... to be covered in a later topic.<br />
<br />
<i>Barbarians:</i><br />
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Last note for city building. In the beginning of the game there are only three acceptable reasons for killing barbarians. Either you were asked by a city-state and will get influence, you've opened the Honor track and will receive culture, or it's right next to your town and about to stomp your spice plantation to dust. Otherwise... leave them alone and let them be someone else's problem. Letting them roam means that they'll kill enemy civ settlers that the enemy civ got greedy with, or take city-state workers that you can liberate later and receive bonuses for. They will work as experience fountains, but only for the first two levels... you can get those just with defending your own territory. In this case, the enemy of your enemy (your enemy being the other computer Civs) is your friend, and if the other Civs want to build cities, don't clear the way for them by taking out their threats.<br />
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<b><u>4. Faith and religion</u></b><br />
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I must admit, to me this is one of the trickiest concepts in the game, second only to the culture bonuses. It's difficult to figure out where your game will go in three hundred turns, and there are times that your religious bonuses are either unhelpful, or undefendable. What little I can tell you to help you out I have below.<br />
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<i>Pantheon:</i><br />
<br />
For your pantheon, the most logical choice is to choose something that will net you a faith bonus based on where you're located... for instance, the +1 for all unforested Tundra squares, or the +1 for all Desert squares. There's also a +2(!) for each stone/marble source you have, a +1 faith/+1 culture for each copper/iron/salt source you have, and a +1 faith/+1 culture for each gold/silver source you have. These are definitely the easiest to obtain, and if you have enough of a resource it would be best. If you have a natural Wonder close, you can get an extra +4 faith from it via the "One with Nature" bonus, which would make even the marginally bad Natural Wonders listed above reasonable, but only if you can't get more faith from another vector.<br />
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If you're going to be fighting quite a bit, the "God of War" bonus gives faith for every battle you win within 4 squares of a city that follows your Pantheon. This is a good bonus if you're on defense quite a bit, but does little for offense unless you first prime the city you're going to war against. <br />
<br />
There's another bonus that I've found... it's actually a bit of a delay for faith, but works really well. If you choose the "Monument to the Gods", you'll get an extra 15% discount to building ancient or classical wonders, of which there's more than a few. (E.g. Stonehenge, Colossus, Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Temple of Artemis, Oracle, Parthenon, Statue of Zeus, etc.) Now, combine that bonus with one that the computer almost never takes when it comes time to select religious enhancements, which is +2 for every World Wonder. Better yet, combine the +15% pantheon bonus with the +15% Tradition bonus, and if you're really lucky combine that with the +15% bonus from obtaining a source of marble. It will only take a few turns to get Wonders up with all those bonuses! And for later in the game, you now are getting a +2 for all of those classical wonders that you were able to build with the bonus(es), not to mention the fact that having the wonders gives additional bonuses to Great Persons, to underlying statistics, and can generate tourism/culture later on depending on what happens in the game.<br />
<br />
At any rate, the pantheon bonus is going to be one of the last religious bonuses you receive until you get to choosing your Religious Enhancement, which comes with the second Great Prophet. If you choose a pantheon bonus that is not religious, you do run the risk of not being able to keep your religion... there's only five in the eight-player game, and worse yet only seven on the huge maps. If you choose a pantheon bonus that is not religious and you want to keep it, at that point it would be best to build a temple or three.<br />
<br />
<i>The Piety track of Culture bonuses:</i><br />
<br />
There's now the "Piety" set of culture bonuses, and you will find more than a few computer players running down this set of bonuses. If you're used to the old culture from Civ V Original, or the Gods & Kings expansion... it'll throw you for a loop, because previously you could not have Piety and Rationalization open at the same time. Now, there's no limits. I think that the game designers realized that while some religions inspire people to stay in the dark so that the religion can continue to dominate, other religions inspire people to discover new concepts... think of Islam in the Middle Ages, with the advances in science, mathematics, and other fields.<br />
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However, the problem with the Piety track is that unless you use your religion to gain the happy faces, none of the specific policies in the track gives you happy faces. The other three tracks (Tradition, Honor, Liberty) all offer ways to get the happy faces, either via 1/2 of the population of the capital through the Tradition track or by connecting cities via road or by stationing military. There are two religious tenets that provide happy faces, either through the total number of cities or by the population of foreign cities (IIRC), but that comes at a cost of some of the more excellent religious tenets, either the science track where missionaries/prophets can generate science by spreading religion, or via the faith provision where you can get +2 faith for each enemy city following your religion.<br />
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The good news is that you will be guaranteed at least some sort of religion by going down the Piety track. Purchasing units for 20% off will make it so that you will have an inquisitor at all times to guard against an enemy prophet coming by. The Reformation beliefs are helpful, especially two... one that allows for you to receive tourism for each building you purchase with faith, or another that allows you to purchase any Great Person that you want with your faith rather than having to go all the way down the track. Both can be useful, though it depends on how much religion you can generate. If smaller amounts, then the tourism bonus would probably be best... the buildings you build don't need as much faith as the Great Persons. If you're able to generate gobs of faith points, then getting the Great Persons reformation would be most helpful... you can get the Great Persons you need to get the tourism points anyway, they'll come with culture points too, and you can then fill in any of the empty slots you have with the appropriate type of Great Person. You can even make sure to get the themed bonuses this way, especially if you need to generate those Great Persons during a certain age -- e.g. Broadway, which requires three Great Musicians during the exact same age to get the theming bonus.<br />
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The other benefit to the Piety track is to be able to effectively pick a second Pantheon belief bonus via the Religious Tolerance policy, where a city with a majority religion can receive the Pantheon benefit of the second most popular religion. The Pantheon beliefs aren't exactly the best, to be truthful, but in this situation you can not only control which one you get, but you can also pick on a per-city basis. You can have an ocean city gain the +1 Production bonus while at the same time have an inland city receive the +1 Jungle Culture bonus... so they become more effective now that you've been able to choose based on the city.<br />
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Religious bonuses can be applied to every method of winning... for those people who want to send missionaries to civs that they will soon conquer, there's a 20% bonus against enemy civs that follow your faith with the "Holy War" enhancement. Defense can also net you a +20% if your own city follows a religion with the "Defender of the Faith" enhancement.<br />
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<i>Optimum Religion Bonuses:</i><br />
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Rolling up the whole world under your religion is easiest with the Pilgrimage bonus, which generates +2 Faith for each foreign city that follows your religion. Add to that the -30% faith bonus for missionaries/inquisitors, and you can pretty much flood the zone. There's an extra -20% faith for all units purchased on the Piety track that will make this even more effective. Make sure to build temples as well as the Great Temple for the extra +8 Faith and the extra pressure that the Great Temple will exert.<br />
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<i>Changing religions:</i><br />
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If you're not crazy about where your religion is taking you, then feel free to see if another religion will come by. You can do this passively, as the computer players will send missionaries to your towns. You can do this aggressively, as you can absolutely capture both prophets and missionaries too. You will not have the benefit of owning the holy city and getting the nationwide bonuses (e.g. increased religion, additional happy faces, etc.) unless you take the holy city. However, there are town-by-town bonuses that some religions will have (e.g. building Cathedrals/Pagodas/Mosques), and you can take advantage of their enhancer beliefs too, such as +25% strength or the +20% defense/offense for shared religion. The other bonus to this is if you're playing culturally, converting to the religion that all the other civs have will give you the additional 25% shared religion bonus that one of the civs is probably already reaping. May as well even that score if your religion is lacking in other ways.<br />
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<i>Other odd and useful faith strategies:</i><br />
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You can always block missionaries from either moving through your territory or block cities from accepting a missionary via both military and civilian units. As a missionary needs to be next to a city in order to work its magic, if it cannot get next to the city then it cannot do so. It may also take attrition damage while waiting for your city to become available. Similarly, make sure that if you send a missionary into a city that you do so while it still has moves left, or it could also absorb attrition damage.<br />
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If you happen to capture a Great Prophet before it can make one conversion, you can use the Great Prophet to create a holy site. Useful if you manage to find one that was captured via barbarians, or if you preemptively take a Great Prophet that an enemy civ thought to send to your shores. Be careful though, you won't know how many conversions the Great Prophet will have left on it until you take it.<br />
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All units that you have control of, be they military or civilian, cost gold. If you happen to capture a Prophet or Missionary of another religion, you will need to pay for that unit until the day you disband it. Feel free to keep it around long enough to be useful, but remember that you're paying for it each turn.<br />
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...whew! There's probably more than this, but it's going to go on a later blog post.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-85729704367773007442013-12-29T09:17:00.000-05:002013-12-29T10:43:14.871-05:00#2LR Game Review - Civilization V, "Brave New World" Expansion -- with bonus partial walkthrough!Review/FAQ/Walkthrough for Civilization V - Brave New World<br />
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Part 1/?<br />
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I know, I usually write reviews in this space. And yes, there's already a place to upload walkthrough and FAQ information online. I know that because I've already posted one, quite a few years back now, for <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/534361-railroad-tycoon-3/faqs" target="_blank">Railroad Tycoon III</a>, which also helpfully comes up in Google search if you look for "Railroad Tycoon 3 Walkthrough". I do still get the occasional feedback from it, and I'm glad that I was able to help more than a few people in understanding the game and also to get through the scenarios/campaign missions.<br />
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Additionally, I would not be surprised if someone already has posted something akin to this; I'm sure that there are more than a few members of the public able and willing to write this up, and I also know that I am not one of the best Civilization V players out there. However, I have won games at level five (out of eight), and I'm willing to at least post some of the things that have brought me success in this game.<br />
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So... the review! "Brave New World" is the second add-on to Civilization V. It introduces new civilizations to the mix and also reconfigures one of the major aspects of the game, culture (and culture victories). Previously, culture was by itself, representing all of the beautiful buildings that a civ could create. Gain enough culture, win bonuses. Gain even more culture than everyone else (quite a BIT of it), and if you'd gained 30 total culture bonuses, you'd be eligible to build a "utopia project" (if I remember correctly) which is an automatic game winner. Chained to this modification is that the bonuses and headings are reconfigured, and there are "governments" that work through the culture menu that allow the world to split into factions somewhat like the Cold War of the second half of the twentieth century.<br />
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Now, culture has been split into culture and tourism. Tourism is gained via either building wonders or earning points toward "great people", split between musicians, artists, and writers. Get a great writer and you can create a great work of art, which increases your "tourism". Or, alternately, build the Eiffel Tower and increase your tourism. Bonuses come along the way to a Civ's tourism. If one Civ's tourism number goes above another Civ's culture number, then the first Civ is said to be "dominant" (think US/Canada... sorry, northern brethren, though your culture is kinda cool). If one Civ manages so much tourism as to dominate all other Civs, the game ends with the first Civ winning.<br />
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The other major addition to the game is caravans. Previously, money appeared on the map on river squares and on ocean squares. Not anymore! Caravans now take the place of this money trade. And, quite like historical life, caravans can be used to boost tourism, to spread science, and to spread religion. They are also the first to go when one civilization declares war on another. New buildings and existing buildings add bonuses to caravans.<br />
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The last update is now there is a "World Congress". This is much like the modern United Nations. For those more historically inclined, it seems to work far more similarly to the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after Napoleon's defeat. Two nations can advance worldwide proposals, such as increasing either scientist or artist generation, or increasing culture, or proposing a "world's fair", and the group of currently active civilizations can vote on it. There's more to come for this, I sincerely hope, because the proposals are so very limited. For instance, you can only raise culture instead of lower it... you could also have a "scramble for Africa" setup where either settlers can come with happy bonuses for making new cities/connecting new luxuries, or nations can get bonuses for attacking the single-city nations that proliferate on the map. At any rate, it's a new wrinkle in the game, though it could have been so much greater.<br />
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Taken as a whole... it definitely increases the complexity of the game, and that's not actually a bad thing. There are additional nuggets hidden within, such as culture playing a very large role in government types that may or may not work. I quite enjoy the changes that the developers have made, though I certainly hope that they attempt to take some of the changes a bit further to support other aspects of the game that were ignored.<br />
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Of course, for a fan of the genre and of the specific game, I would heartily endorse the upgrade and recommend it. If you're not a Civ fan, or if you're not crazy about where they've taken the game, then feel free to skip to any of the other reviews/articles posted here. Below this, I will go into some of the strategies that I've been able to make work for me when playing Brave New World on the higher difficulties.<br />
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<u>1. Go in with a plan... before the game even starts</u><br />
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Sounds simple, right? I mean, who doesn't? However, this means to figure out the basic path that your game will take based on the civilization that you chose (or have had picked for you via random). I've noticed many times over that the games I have the worst time with are the ones where I just kind of winged it. When I prepare, I check to see which units/buildings are available, when they're available, and what aspect of the game (e.g. money, military, culture, etc.) the civ's bonus will take. One recent for-instance was when I played as the Mongols, who have a mounted bowman with ranged attack as their special unit, replacing the knight. This means that I have a pretty clear path to take out any enemy city or even enemy civ around the middle of the game when Chivalry is researched, so I need to plan to put in place the basis of this plan... have the horses as a resource ready, or better yet have the horsemen already built for a quick cash upgrade. (FYI, I was taking out cities all the way into the 1900s with those mounted bowmen... when you get them upgraded all the way with +1 range and +1 attack, a group of six can hit for a combined total of 120 points on even a mature city and still stay out of reach... food for thought.)<br />
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<u>2. Use the first few turns of the game to refine or rethink your plan.</u><br />
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Who is around you? Are you in a crossroads or off in a corner? Hemmed in by city-states or by the ocean? Within ten turns or so, you'll know the type of lands you're starting on (e.g. islands, continents, or a pangaea), but you'll likely have an idea of some of the other civs. If you are playing against religious civilizations, they might have already formed their pantheons within ten turns, fifteen at the outside. In the beginning of the game, you're most likely already waiting on either the monument to be built, or a scout (or two), so there's not a whole lot of variance... but then you will be able to figure out if you can start out as a builder, or if you need to get defending. If you're surrounded on all sides, getting defense is priority number one, to make sure that you can not only keep the other civs out but to be able to exert force if necessary. If no one is immediately apparent, you could either squeeze out that extra settler or begin that wonder a bit earlier to reap the benefits of the earlier start.<br />
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Knowing what the land will give you can tell you whether or not a tall (few cities with lots of population) or wide (lotsa cities with luxuries, small population) will be the way to go. Tall civs have the ability to build quicker, but don't forget that defense... you can't trade land for time going tall. Of course, make sure your culture bonuses match your plan too. The for-instance is the difference between the Tradition and Freedom paths... Freedom gives you +1 per city connected to the capital, while Tradition gives you both a +1 for each 10 population plus a +1 for each two population in the capital. So an empire with a capital city of 24 and two additional cities of 12 would have +3 happy via Freedom, but a +12 and a +2 from the capital as well as +2 from each of the two other cities, for a total of +14 happiness.<br />
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By the way, a surefire way to tell that you're going to get invaded (especially at the higher levels) is when you see a computer civ that only has one city and a marker in the diplomacy screen saying "They covet your lands!" That means that they've been building pretty much nothing but military since the start, and they're coming after YOU, especially if you happen to have the last-ranked military in the world. Sniff these threats out as soon as possible.<br />
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<u>3. Losing production is NOT an option.</u><br />
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When building new cities, do not let the computer dictate your food/production ratio. Do it yourself.... or at the very least, set the flag to "production". You can make up the food via the granary if you care to, but most likely it will be that much more important to get either defense (an archer) or culture (a monument) to consolidate your new gain.<br />
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There's a side-effect to not letting the game grow your cities too much as well. Production drops by percentage points in each city with the "Brave New World" rules when you go underneath zero happiness. It's better to get the production and to make your few citizens work smarter, not to grow out the city and make the whole rest of your kingdom suffer.<br />
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The other side-effect is that there are wonders that are limited by either culture (e.g. Forbidden Palace, Porcelain Tower) or by terrain (e.g. Colossus, Machu Picchu) that a small city could absolutely build if given the time. A food focus early could defeat this purpose though, especially if you're also trying to build the national wonders (e.g. National College, Heroic Epic) because food-focused cities rarely build all the buildings you need quickly enough to make the national wonders viable. And also FYI, the Colossus wonder is really far more useful now than it was before.<br />
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Oh, and that losing production is not an option? That goes for wonders too. Don't go after wonders if your empire can't support it. Trusting one archer to defend against a horde of Aztec Jaguars while you finish Stonehenge in a desperate attempt to make up for lost religion is pretty much a white flag of surrender. The best case scenario is that you're defending your cities with a lone archer while getting +5 religion per turn. The worst case scenario is that you're defending your cities with a lone archer while not getting +5 in religion while at the same time earning a pittance for not finishing your Stonehenge in time.<br />
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Even in a normal situation, losing the production is not ever really a good thing. That's not to say to never build wonders, but to make sure that your empire can support the possible lost production. The replacement gold is really crummy when you don't make it, and you could have been building a military that could have taken the wonder from the city that builds it anyway.<br />
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In the upper levels, when you get past Level Four (Prince) and higher, the computer goes from being even in production to needing less production to finish buildings/projects. All you have to do to verify this fact is to get to the midgame on a King-level game and view a city that you've sent a spy to. The city will only need 90% of the production you need in order to finish everything, including wonders. If you lose 300 production to a failed Alhambra, remember that it could have meant a trebuchet plus two pikemen to take the city that ended up building it... and the gold that you get for the consolation prize is definitely not enough to buy all three units.<br />
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Extra hint... the secret to military in the game is that military is how you steal someone else's production. Not only in taking over cities that have built buildings/Wonders, but even in tying up an enemy Civ's time and resources into building an army rather than building improvements. An army costs money and does not come with an immediate boost in any resource, unlike a building or a Wonder.<br />
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<u>4. Research what you need (and can use) immediately.</u><br />
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This is in reference to two contexts. In the beginning of the game, there's just so much that needs doing, such as getting the technologies to develop your resources, building certain units (archers/composite bowmen/horsemen), exploration (trireme), and Wonders that you need to get set up. It may sound trite, but it's pointless to work on a technology that you really don't need.<br />
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However, this also has reference to the middle of the game too. The computer usually goes into specific tracks, especially to pick up currency (to gain Petra) and to get to Civil Service (to gain both pikemen and Chichen Itza). You can use this to beat the computer either to the Education track, setting up your research for the long haul, or to pick up the lower end of the spectrum (Engineering/Metal Working) so that you can boost your shields and your defenses. Another way to go is one of the new bonuses in the Commerce track, which is that Landsknechts are available as the second Commerce bonus. Of course, your defenses will be more than set if you pick up Crossbowmen, and getting all your cities in shape to start setting up a military to deal with those Civs that go in a different direction would be helpful.<br />
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Just remember that if you follow the other Civs into the same track, at higher levels they'll be likely to get the upgraded soldiers as well as the wonders first unless you have a solid plan (e.g. a Great Engineer to help finish Wonders, or a ton of catapults/spearmen just waiting for the Civil Service tech to become a pikemen/catapult invasion force). Whenever a new tech comes up, have either a plan for what you're going to do with the immediate tech or open up the tech screen to figure out a tech that's two or three downstream that you can really make hay out of.<br />
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<u>5. Culture</u><br />
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Gotta have it even in the beginning, or else the end game will absolutely suck the bag. There's two ways to go about it... either build it yourself or take it from someone else. Just remember a couple of principles here.<br />
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--If someone's building culture nearby you and building it quickly, they may have a weak defense. Getting them to stop building culture could be as easy as declaring war and putting a few troops in position to threaten... as above, forcing them to build military will be tantamount to wasting their production, especially if you defend via ranged units (archers, catapults) with the occasional horseman to keep their own ranged units honest.<br />
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--If someone's building it far away, you're going to have to figure out a way to get others around that Civ to declare wars against them, or to build culture buildings as a defense. And whatever you do, only engage in open border treaties with them when absolutely necessary, and trade with them (via caravan) only when absolutely necessary. Those two things will help their tourism bonus overwhelm your culture bonus... but their tourism bonus will definitely go down far quicker if they're defeated. Also remember, one of the culture tracks will raise the tourism bonus for shared trade routes/open borders/shared religion. Allowing them to buy your extra luxuries can also lead to them getting more happiness and therefore additional culture as well, so be careful when dealing with the culture hog!<br />
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This will likely be a three-part series, as I am planning to cover the middle game next and wrap up with the end game. Good luck!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-73008967523777935302013-11-11T16:46:00.000-05:002013-11-11T16:46:00.482-05:00#2LR: Nihilism, starring Grave of the Fireflies (among others)When autumn begins, late September, it's still warm but getting a bit cooler... and it's nice to get that cool after the heat of August. October brings a bit cooler weather, but here in the northern Midwest, we are treated to one of Nature's greatest exhibitions -- the trees putting on a show of color change, all putting on costumes just like the children do for Halloween.<br />
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For me though, there's two times of year that are the most depressing. Late February, just because winter always seems to take forever and I'm more than done with it at that point. And... now, mid- to late-November, most of the way through autumn. Each nice day is thought to be the last nice day for months... today, 10 November, was mild in the sun and refreshing in the breeze. Half of the yard was raked in the twenty minutes or so that I had free (from preparing dinner).<br />
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The next two days are scheduled to be below freezing. And oh yeah, did I neglect to mention last year's completely unnecessary unemployment adventure? There's definitely that too, memories of Novembers past that have sucked the bag.<br />
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So, how do I celebrate this time of year, when the outside is getting ready to get buried under a blanket of solid water in the form of snow, ice, and sleet for three months and the bad feelings start taking hold? By watching depressing movies, of course!<br />
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Saturday night was the first level of depressing, watching the Will Smith vehicle <i>Seven Pounds</i>. It is the <span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE</span> story of a man who texts while driving, causing an accident that takes the lives of seven people, including his fiancee. This leads to Will Smith killing himself so that he can serve as a one-stop organ bank for seven other people while he kills himself to atone for what he's done. There's not a whole lot else to say about the movie, except for the fact that the Will Smith character had a small chance to turn back... he ended up getting involved with one of the seven people, a woman with congenital heart disease. Even this is not enough for the Will Smith character to rethink his plan to die, and the movie ends with Katniss' mentor getting his eyes back. Sorry, Woody Harrelson, you're even LESS believable as a dramatic actor... and you're standing next to the friggin' Fresh Prince of Bel-Air! I don't know who's lost worse... Woody, or the American Public. <span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE OVER</span><br />
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So! I knew enough to only pay a half-eye's worth of attention to the movie, especially after reading the Wikipedia entry for it and realizing that what little I was watching was even more unbelievable than the plot synopsis made it out to be. That truly pales in comparison to the star of the weekend, the incredibly depressing <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i><br />
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In this, <span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE</span>, Japan is in the last throes of war. Seita, a ~14 or so year old boy and his ~4 or so year old sister Setsuko find themselves orphaned towards the end of World War II in one of the firebombings carried out by American bombers. They attempt to live with the one family member they know of, their auntie in the country. After bringing luxury foods to the aunt's house, the aunt and Seita sorta-kinda fight over food, with the aunt constantly getting in passive-aggressive digs at the fact that Seita's not helping (despite the fact that Seita's dad is serving aboard a likely-already-sunk Japanese cruiser).<br />
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Seita and Setsuko decide to take off on their own, and find an old abandoned cement structure to call home. Seita has to resort to stealing, first taking a few crops from local farmers, and then looting houses during air raids in order to get enough money for food. Setsuko waits behind, but the lack of food makes her weaker and weaker. Eventually, the war ends... Seita has pulled what little money remains from his parents' accounts, but it's too little too late for Setsuko, who has had to endure months of living effectively outside while dealing with what looked like a massive case of eczema, impetigo, or some other skin disease. Setsuko passes, leaving Seita behind... and that pretty much snuffs out the last of Seita's flame for life.<br />
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By the way, we see Seita die in the first scene of the movie. So it's not like we don't know where this is going... it's almost as if the artists responsible are taunting their audience. "This movie WILL END BADLY. And there's nothing you can do about it."<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">SPOILER SPACE OVER</span><br />
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Feel spoiled yet? Feel... well, numb inside, to some extent? I'm not sure I've watched two such movies in quick succession like this before. It's sobering, emotional, maddening, all sorts of things. It reminds me of human imperfection. The movies show me that there's a world outside mine, where I'm just complaining about the weather up above but someone somewhere really is not able to eat their fill... or has caused accidents and is living with the survivor's guilt eating them up inside. I wish that I could fix the world.......<br />
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but then, one of the messages that I feel from these movies is that the world is to some extent unfixable. We humans are an imperfect species... causing grief to each other even though our actions weren't meant to cause grief, fighting each other, getting lost in the minutae of our situations without really being able to see past our noses. My tween daughter, all of eleven years on the planet, proclaimed <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i> to be one of the worst movies that she's ever seen, if not the worst. I explained to her that there was a time that I hated nihilistic literature too... being forced to read John Steinbeck's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pearl_(novel)" target="_blank"><i>The Pearl</i></a> while in high school. Man, I hated that book... in some regards though, it's a very depressing book for high school students especially. After all, the protagonist in the book stumbles across something that should make his life better, and finds out that it actually makes his life worse... just the thing to give high-schoolers that are trying to figure out how to make their lives better. Failure in <i>The Pearl</i> ends in death for multiple characters. (At this point, eff the Spoiler Space warnings, and you can direct all hate mail for this topic to my email box.)<br />
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So, these two movies were the emotional equivalent of getting caught in the proverbial late-autumn cold-front rainstorm. There's no escaping this rainstorm with a cup of hot chocolate and a fuzzy blanket, though. Towards the end of <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i>, we find out the family that owns the land that the two children were squatting on... were really well-off. There were multiple young women entering the house at the end and finding that their "phonograph still works!" while playing a tune. Contrasting that with the scene of devastation only a couple hundred feet from their front door.... it's powerful, emotional, and even though the movie is trending towards fifteen years old, it's still effective in getting a reaction from its viewers.<br />
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Watching these types of movies or reading these types of books I feel is a challenge to your ability to be human. Realizing that not every ending is a happy one is a hard realization for someone like me, who would far rather stay with humor. It's hard for a child to think about these things too, as my tween reminded me. Myself, my wife, and our tween daughter discussed both films after the final images of <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i> twinkled off of our screen. There were so many things that could have been changed in both stories... characters that seemed to be on self-destructive paths, or could have made better decisions. Could they have been fixed? Should they have been fixed? Would they have been any different had the characters known the depth of their situation going in, or does Fate really hold the wheel while we go along for the ride?<br />
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All stories are about conflict. It just so happens that these two stories are about conflicts where the main character(s) are found to be on the losing side, and as above major consequences follow. They're both fiction, so liberties will be taken with their conflicts as well as their resolutions... but it's not so difficult to imagine yourself or someone you love up on that screen, dealing with these challenges at the same time.<br />
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You may think that I would give both movies high grades. To be honest, I don't think that they fit within the scale... or at least one doesn't. <i>Seven Pounds</i>, you are the weakest link here. Will Smith... I don't know, you feel insufferable at this point, and I'm not sure that I can really take you seriously in much right now. I'm barely even sure I could laugh at you in a comedy really. <i>Seven Pounds</i>, for the ridiculous situations, bad acting, and all around 'bleh'-ness, I'm giving you a well-deserved <b><u>0.6</u></b>. If I watch you again even once the rest of my life, it'll be once too much. You felt contrived, forced, almost as if you're trying to wring my tears from my eyes by squeezing my brain in painful ways.<br />
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<i>Grave of the Fireflies</i>, however, feels different. The problem is that I would have to be in a very specific mood to watch this movie once again, and my scale is reposted below for reminder's sake:<br />
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1.I wouldn't watch it even if it was halfway through on TV.<br />
2.I would watch it if it was on, but not intentionally cue it up.<br />
3.I would get the tape and watch it occasionally<br />
4.I would get the tape and watch it often.<br />
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Here's the problem. I like the movie. I think it is a strong, powerful movie about people fighting the odds... and in this situation, the odds end up fighting back. For me, it is a textbook definition of both a 1 and a 3. I would definitely not watch it if it was halfway through on television, nor would I watch it even if I managed to catch it as it was starting on television. I can certainly see a situation where I would get a copy of it and watch it occasionally though. I suppose that the rating won't be a 0-4 star situation, so I'll give it a <b><u>C</u></b>. Not as in average, but as in challenging. C as in conflict. C as in watch it once and C how you feel afterward. C as in cinema, check out this movie if you want something that will not unnecessarily press your "feels" buttons but at least makes you think, tries to lift you to a higher plane of contemplation, and hopefully allows you to C your own situation in a new light. This movie will stick in your mind, for better or for worse.</div>
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Mindless action is back on tap through the week, as Netflix will take away <i>Grave of the Fireflies</i> and return with the first two movies of the recent <i>Sherlock Holmes</i> reboot. I could use some escapism, to escape from the bad moments of my present life and the worse moments that I watched a couple short hours before.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-77701018152707695422013-11-09T14:51:00.000-05:002014-01-13T22:46:27.294-05:00#2LR - Star Trek... from the FUTURE!New form of posting today, writing it in. Today's movie is the reboot of the <em>Star Trek</em> franchise, otherwise known as "The Universe Hates James T. Kirk's Face." Please follow me below, warp speed into <span style="background-color: red;">Spoiler Space</span> Below, and we'll explore all the ways.<br />
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The movie starts with one of the most bizarre "spaceships" that have been trotted onto the screen. It's all long spikes and no propulsion (or safety from the void of space). How does it move?! Anyway, it manages to completely trash a starship, and we find out that one of the escapees was James T. Kirk's mother... while his father, the acting captain "for twelve minutes", kamikaze's his ship into the attacker... but doesn't completely damage it. Barely even scratches it, and come to think of it... with a whole starship and a suicidal captain, how did it manage to do NO DAMAGE?<br />
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Anyway, the story jumps forward more than a few years as we see a snot-nosed ten-year-old kid driving a cherry Thunderbird (IIRC), which turns out to be a young Jim Kirk. However, we know WHY "The Universe Hates James T. Kirk's Face" pretty much right off the bat, as in a dick move L'il Jimmy manages to play chicken near the cliffs of Iowa (?!), letting the Thunderbird fall five hundred feet to its doom while he laughs about it. Curse you, Kirk!!<br />
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Anyway, some years later, he ends up in a bar where he gets beat up by Starfleet Academy plebes as he's trying to make the moves on a young Uhura. One of the men from Starfleet come in to break up the fight, and it just so happens that he remembers Jimmy's dad. After some convincing, Jim's ready to sign up to Starfleet.<br />
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Oh, and Spock's in it... he's a not-a-Vulcan who gets into fights when someone disses his momma. Important for later, too...<br />
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Kirk runs across Bones on the flight into Starfleet and the two make fast friends over a flask of hooch. It cuts to a couple years later, as Kirk is taking the Kobayashi Maru test for the third time. Instead of using <a href="http://svamcentral.org/ewic/mstings/enterprized.txt" target="_blank">Marrissa Flores Picard's smooth moves</a>, Kirk just reprograms the computer so that he wins by disabling all of the simulated attackers' ships. The computer programmer is hopping mad, though... well, he's Spock, so he's quietly seething now that he's got a crapload of emotions and all.<br />
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So, Kirk gets dressed down in front of Starfleet, and instead of giving a hell of a good excuse ("A captain has to pull out all the stops to complete his mission and save his ships, including changing the parameters if needed"), there's pretty much just no defense. He gets dressed down by Tyler Perry and the "American Idol" jury. At that point, we find out that Vulcan is under attack, and all the cadets are assigned to ships... except for Kirk. Bones manages to half-beat-up Kirk (through the use of viruses and pharmaceuticals) to subterfuge Kirk onto the ship that Bones has been assigned to, the <i>Enterprise</i>. At the same time, Uhuru half-blackmails Spock to be put on the Enterprise, where Chekov and Sulu are already manning the help... and Captain Christopher Pike is in control.<br />
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So the starships all go off to Vulcan, but Kirk bullies his way to the bridge... he tells the Captain and the first officer Spock that the reports indicate that it's a trap. As the Enterprise gets to Vulcan, they find Spiky Ship. Spiky Ship ends up launching a drill at Vulcan. Kirk is sent to take out a drilling platform that the ship launches against Vulcan, getting beat up by a Romulan in the process and both saving Sulu as well as being saved by Sulu. Spiky Ship and the Romulans succeed in destroying Vulcan. Spock attempts to beam down to the surface and beams back up a few of the elders of Vulcan, but unfortunately his mother falls in a rockslide and is not grabbed by the transporter.<br />
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The captain has been taken hostage by the Romulans, and prior to his leaving he places Spock as acting captain with Kirk as first officer. After the Romulans take off, Spock moves to join up with Starfleet and Kirk argues vociferously to go after the Romulans. Spock has Security beat up Kirk for the third time this movie and sends Kirk to the ice planet Hoth... err, Delta Beta Whatever, which is a snow planet.<br />
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Kirk gets chased by an almost-Wampa, but the Wampa is beat back by a huge lizard-ish thing that ends up chasing Kirk into a cave. Kirk gets saved by the lizard-ish thing by the actual Nimoy Spock (known as Spock Prime), who runs off the beast and tells Kirk about the time-travelling Romulans and time-travelling Spock. They both head to the Federation outpost, being manned by none other than Scotty. Spock Prime tells Kirk to take control of the Enterprise through compromising Current Spock, then gins up Alternate Universe Scotty's warp transporter calculations and ends up sending them back to a speeding Enterprise.<br />
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Kirk rescues Scotty from the hydraulic system and gets beat up by Security, which happens to include the original bar cretins from the beginning of the movie. Predictably, Kirk gets beat up. Before Kirk is thrown in the brig though, he starts insulting Spock's momma. The beginning of the movie showed us that Spock hates the Yo Momma jokes, and Spock ends up beating up Kirk. (We're up to four and a half!) Spock realizes that he's acting like a jerk and takes himself from command... leaving the Acting First Officer Kirk in charge. Immediately he sets a course for Earth to intercept the Romulan Spiky Ship.<br />
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The final part of the movie starts with the Enterprise getting in range of the Romulan Spiky Ship and both Spock/Kirk beaming over. There's a firefight on the Spiky Ship, and for a change Kirk doesn't get beat up. Spock finds the part of the Spiky Ship that the Romulans are using to destroy planets, which happens to be Spock Prime's <a href="http://futurama.wikia.com/wiki/Scooty-Puff,_Jr." target="_blank">Scooty-Puff Jr.</a>. Spock runs off with it, leaving Kirk in the Spiky Ship. He ends up getting a rifle-butt to the side of the head (Five-and-a-half!) as the remaining Romulans try to get the Scooty-Puff Jr. back. Kirk wakes up but starts getting beat up by the Romulan captain, who's just about ready to drop Kirk to his doom... until Kirk grabs the Romulan's holstered gun and shoots him in the gut. We'll call that one a draw, one-half to one-half... bringing the final total of The Universe Hates James T. Kirk's Face count to six.<br />
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Nimoy Spock shows up for the epilogue and looks on as Kirk is proclaimed a Hero of Yavin. Shortly after, the credits roll but unfortunately they don't drop on top of Kirk's head.<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">Spoiler Space over.</span><br />
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Whew. There's a lot of action that they packed into these two hours. I could tell that Shatner wasn't involved though, he'd end up winning those ridiculous fights rather than losing them. To be sure, the movie worked far better as "The Universe Hates Jim Kirk's Face"... he's still young and he's not worldly enough to either avoid these fights nor smart enough to bluff his way through them. However, there is one aspect of his character that shone through and was most endearing was his perseverance. He did NOT give up one single inch. Thankfully, letting Kirk be right about everything also is helped by Kirk's signature luck (such as finding Spock Prime in a random Hoth ice-cave.<br />
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Other than that, the movie had its share of humor, Chris Pike was good a taking both a punch and a pratfall. It's certainly a worth-enough story for Star Trek, and while derivative at times it's still a solid movie... especially if you like sci-fi.<br />
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<b><u>Final Rating: 3.5</u></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-78690932866003434582013-10-18T19:03:00.000-05:002014-01-20T16:01:39.321-05:00Grand Theft Auto V ReviewNeedlessly frustrating.<br />
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That's how I sum up my overall experience with this game. I felt <i>'Grand Theft Auto V'</i> was an asshole when it didn't have to be and much like <i>'Red Dead Redemption'</i>, it seemed determined to punish you for having any sort of fun outside its established parameters within the story mode.<br />
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I know this game has already sold like a billion copies so what I have to say here will probably make little to no difference to Rockstar Games or its fans who have declared their unequivocal love for this series. And hey, I loved and still love to play older Rockstar titles like <i>'Grand Theft Auto: Vice City'</i>, <i>'The Warriors'</i> and <i>'Bully'</i>. But nowadays, I personally just don't understand the loyalty some people have for this company anymore. Ever since <i>'Grand Theft Auto IV'</i>, it seems to me more and more like Rockstar has forgotten how to make their games FUN.<br />
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<span style="background-color: red;">Warning: Spoilers follow:</span><br />
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You've probably heard a few of the complaints people have had about <i>'Grand Theft Auto V'</i>. The misogyny, an unskippable torture scene, animal cruelty, unlikable protagonists, etc. Personally, none of those were more offensive to me than the game's overall general attitude towards the player but let's briefly tackle those complaints one at a time.<br />
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<b>Misogyny</b>: This has been a staple of the Grand Theft Auto series for some time now. I sold my copy of <i>'Vice City Stories'</i> after finishing it because I found it to be too vile and hateful towards women, despite enjoying the 80s setting. I've also never liked the idea of being able to kill a prostitute to get your money back after she healed your ungrateful ass in any of the GTA games, but ultimately the choice is given to you whether or not to kill the hooker after sex, so it's on the player.<br />
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As for the other women in this game, it's true they're almost all portrayed as either spoiled brats or total bitches and I can totally understand why people would be upset by this but IMHO, I felt the men in the game are almost all portrayed as spoiled brats and/or total assholes as well, so really, regardless of gender, I felt there wasn't one likeable person in the entire game.<br />
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Case in point: Fan favorite Lazlow, the only character whose been in every GTA game and
whose twisted but still likable character has been slowly sinking into the muck with every new GTA game is now turned into a complete douchebag in order to justify a later unskippable scene where douchebag protagonist Michael De Santa forces the player to torture Lazlow with piercings and a tattoo needle in order to defend the honour of his douchebag daughter, Tracey. Make no mistake, I firmly believe this game hates EVERYBODY, especially the player.<br />
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<b>Torture Scene</b>: This scene IS mandatory in the story mode and can't be skipped. About the only good thing I can say about it is that you have the choice of items to torture with so you can at least attempt to pick the least damaging approach and repeat it until the scene is over. I seriously have to ask what was the point of it though? To parody real life events? Uh yeah, I play video games to ESCAPE real life, thanks. To make us feel bad and uncomfortable? This is a videoGAME, I don't want to feel bad and uncomfortable, I want to have FUN. Remember FUN, Rockstar?<br />
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<b>Animal Cruelty</b>: Again, this is a matter of player's choice but the animals in this game are all ink and paint, ones and zeroes and I really can't see this game encouraging people to go out into the desert and shoot up the local wildlife unless they live in an environment where that type of activity was already commonplace well before this game was released. I just feel any group that protests animal cruelty is better served focusing on ACTUAL animal cruelty than worrying about players running over virtual coyotes.<br />
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<b>Unlikable Protagonists</b>: It's hard for me to enjoy a game when you're not rooting for any of the protagonists and this game has THREE of them. Franklin Clinton was the least offensive character for me but at the same time, he's a soldier who basically shrugs off all the madness around him and doesn't really have much in the way of motivation or goals, just basically going where the plot tells him to go. He's a little bland and his character arc doesn't really go anywhere. He's like a more laid back C.J. Johnson from <i>'San Andreas'</i> but with less backstory.<br />
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But at least Franklin isn't a hypocrite like Michael De Santa, who tries to come off as an older Tommy Vercetti but is far too much of a pussy for that. Michael is a retired bank robber who hates his life and is seeing a shrink, and ends up getting back into the criminal game through a misunderstanding with a local crime lord.<br />
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Oh, but now he has a family to worry about, although why the hell he would bother is a
complete mystery to me as Michael’s family are completely and utterly unlikable and every mission involving them just made me want to kill the everlasting fuck out of them. Just because they're a parody of the spoiled rich dysfunctional family doesn't make having to spend time in their presence any less excruciating. Why the hell would I ever want to help and especially save any of these idiots? Oh right, because the game says I have to and refuses to continue until I do. Fuck you, Rockstar.<br />
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And of course, despite murdering hundreds of people during the course of the game, you are never given the choice to simply leave or kill your annoying family without immediately ending the game because THAT WOULD BE WRONG. 9_9<br />
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Our third protagonist is Trevor Philips who's a straight up psychopath... no wait, he's a killer with a heart of gold... no no, he's a sadist who loves to torture... oh nope, wait, he's just a tortured soul with a soft spot for the tormented... hold on, he just massacred a group of people for insulting his Canadian heritage... yeah. Trevor's character is all over the place, every time he starts to lean towards likable, he does something that makes me want to play as Franklin again just to get away from him.<br />
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And while I admit Trevor is probably the most willing and able to engage in the type of mayhem and murder that's supposed to make these games fun to play in the first place, his personality was just too off-putting most of the time and he's still a slave to the albatross that is this game's story which has him kowtowing to people that you actually WANT him to straight up murder the moment they looked at him funny but he won't. Oh, and he's also a pilot, which means you get to fly planes and helicopters with him, and guess what? The flying controls are every bit as clunky and nausea-inducing as the last few GTA games! Yay!<br />
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Fortunately, and in fairness, there were a few improvements to gameplay. The cars are not quite as shit to drive as the previous game. You can now play the stock market and actually drive down prices by attacking certain company vehicles, enabling you to clean up with their rival's stocks, which is a cool idea. There are also now mid-mission checkpoints, which was much appreciated and LONG overdue. The bank heist missions were probably the high point of the game for me, but there were too few of them and to be honest, they kinda made me want to play <i>'Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves'</i> instead. ;P<br />
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And finally, we come to the main reason this and the last few Rockstar games have thoroughly pissed me off. Overall, it just plain wasn't fun for me to play. I find myself comparing GTA to the <i>'Saints Row'</i> series, considered to be nothing more than another GTA clone with its first game, actually managed to surpass GTA IV with <i>'Saints Row 2'</i>, IMHO, and the series hasn't looked back since. Not in terms of game sales, unfortunately, but <i>'Saints Row</i> fucking understands how to make a fun game that you'll want to go back and explore for hours on end, with a story mode that celebrates chaos and respects the player while never taking itself too seriously.<br />
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<i>'Grand Theft Auto V'</i> was the complete opposite experience for me and gives off the impression of being free-spirited while being almost completely inflexible with its story and what you can actually do in the game. It wants to be taken seriously at the expense of its gameplay and DEMANDS that you follow its story and embrace its characters and if you don't like them, tough shit cause you're stuck with them.<br />
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Now I won't deny being able to design your own protagonist was a big plus in regards to the <i>'Saints Row'</i> series but I honestly didn't mind playing as an established character like Eizo from <i>'<a href="http://mstings.blogspot.ca/2012/11/assassins-creed-3-series-review.html">Assassin's Creed II</a>'</i> because he was a likable protagonist with interesting characters and a story that kept me intrigued throughout. But when I find that the story, characters and protagonists are all shit to me, then what the hell reason do I have to play this game?<br />
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And don't let the multiple endings fool you either. IMHO, there is NO freedom of choice or direction in <i>'Grand Theft Auto V'</i>. The game tells you how you should be reacting to its characters and basically tells you to go to hell if you feel any differently. Case in point: When I reached the end of the game, I killed Michael as Franklin because during the course of the game, I came to despise everything about Michael, his family and I wanted revenge for Lazlow and the character he was before this game ruined him.<br />
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All of a sudden, Franklin is guilt-ridden about killing Michael, even as he's chasing him down with a gun. Then afterwards, his family is tearfully calling me and trying to make me feel bad about the murder and Trevor's character flip flops YET AGAIN and refuses to speak to me anymore out of spite.<br />
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The game utterly refused to consider the possibility that I felt completely justified in killing Michael and endlessly berated me for doing it, despite Franklin not really ever showing any signs of having a close relationship with Michael in the first place. Hey game? How about letting ME decide how I feel about killing Michael instead of lecturing me like I'm eight years old!? -_-;<br />
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That's when I realized I'd had enough. I didn't want to free play. I didn't want to see the other two endings. I didn't want to finish up any last side missions. I uninstalled the game and sold it as quickly as possible on Kajiji. Good fucking riddance.<br />
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If you haven't bought <i>'Grand Theft Auto V'</i> yet for whatever reason, I highly recommend you just get something else. Like <i>'Saints Row IV'</i>, which may not have sold as many copies but was unquestionably the more fun experience for me. But that's just my opinion and I force it on no one.<br />
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Unlike <i>'Grand Theft Auto V'</i>.<br />Megane 6.7http://www.blogger.com/profile/18263836213902211097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5645488527367252366.post-26035719636547511482013-10-15T23:00:00.000-05:002014-01-18T15:40:31.108-05:00#2LR Too Late Review: The Cat Returns<div>
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There are times, in those early hours of the morning or when I'm relaxing, that my mind ends up wandering. Sometimes it goes far afield, and sometimes it stays right where I am, kind of playing around my feet like a kitten with a ball of string. When watching today's #2LR movie, <i>The Cat Returns</i>, the best comparison that I can make is to one of those half-aware dreams.</div>
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To get the real-life details of the movie down on paper, this is a Studio Ghibli movie, though it's not a Miyazaki film. It's actually a pseudo-sequel to the one of the few non-Miyazaki Ghibli theatrical films, <i>Whisper of the Heart</i>... which, despite owning (and enjoying) the movie, I have not done a Too Late Review of. At any rate, both movies share a specific character... a cat figurine that comes to life, either through stories of the protagonist (in <i>Whisper of the Heart</i>) or by itself, to help the main protagonist in this movie.</div>
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Consider the below <span style="background-color: red;">Spoiler Space...</span></div>
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The movie presents Haru, a high-school girl who is reluctant to get up, occasionally late to school (and laughed at by her troubles), and crushing on a boy who's already taken. While she and her friend Hiromi are in town after school, she sees a cat carrying a curious wrapped package. The cat attempts to cross the street, but is set upon by a large truck. Haru gives her best efforts to save the cat with the device in her hand... a lacrosse stick, which she uses to scoop up the cat as she dashes across the road.</div>
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The cat is safe, and oddly enough talks to her afterward to thank Haru for her actions. Haru is confused, especially since no one else heard the cat on the busy street. She thinks nothing of it, though her lacrosse stick is broken. That evening, she goes to bed but hears a yowling out by the road. There's a procession of cats, but these cats all walk on their hind legs. At the tail end (HA!) of the procession is the King of Cat Kingdom, who thanks Haru for her actions... she saved the Crown Prince from death, and the King wants to reward Haru for what she's done.</div>
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The next morning, Haru's yard is overgrown with catnip, which she is unfortunately allergic to. She dashes off to school, but finds that her shoe locker is filled to the brim with mice. Later on, her friend calls her to tell her that there's a couple gross of lacrosse sticks all over the hallway, and to ask Haru what to do with them. In the afternoon of this very strange day, another cat comes up to Haru on its hind legs and tells Haru that the Cat King wants Haru to become his daughter-in-law, to marry the prince that she saved.</div>
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Haru is taken aback, but thinks very long and hard about the offer. The messenger cat takes her silence as consent and tells her to expect the Cat King to come around to collect her in the evening. After the messenger cat leaves, Haru realizes that she may not want to do this... and she hears a voice telling her to find the Cat Bureau via a cat that is waiting for her at one of the cross-streets. Haru seeks out this cat, an exceedingly chunky cat named Muta, and he leads her through quite a few paths to the Cat Bureau. There she meets both the cat figurine mentioned above, Baron, as well as a stone crow that comes to life, Toto.</div>
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While Haru is trying to process all of this, a massive group of cats comes to the Cat Bureau and pulls her away from her conversation with Baron. Muta is pulled along with the cats, while the Baron and Toto try to follow along as best as possible. The cats prove too quick... Haru and Muta are deposited in the Cat Kingdom while the Baron and Toto are on the outside looking in.</div>
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Haru enjoys the Cat Kingdom at first... it's always noon, and the grass is perfect for catnaps. Shortly after though, she's taken to the palace to be fitted into a dress... and finds herself starting to turn into a cat. It's explained that she'll turn fully into a cat in order to facilitate the marriage between herself and the Prince, and Haru wants none of it. A banquet is held for her later on, and the whole time she's despondent. The Baron shows up and finally perks her spirits up, and manages to get her away from the Cat King.</div>
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We find out that Haru has a chance to go back to the human world, that there's a portal at the top of a tower that's surrounded by a maze. If she makes it back by morning, she'll be human again. At first the Cat King is content to watch her get lost, but she and the Baron figure out the secret to the maze and get through to the tower. The Cat King gets mad and ends up blowing the tower before she can reach the very tip-top to go through the portal. At this point, it's revealed that Muta was a fearsome criminal (he ate all the fish in the pond) who was booted out of the Cat Kingdom, and he tries his level best to send Haru on her way out. Thanks to timely intervention from the Prince and the cat that the Prince really would like to marry, the Cat King is thwarted and Haru manages to make it back to the human world.</div>
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She bids a tearful goodbye to her new-found friends and ends up at the school for another school day. During the epilogue of the story, we find out that Haru's pulled herself together far more, her adventures have helped her to realize who she is and what she needs to do in life... she gets up to go to school early, doesn't moon over her crush, and generally acts like an adult.</div>
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<span style="background-color: red;">Spoiler space over.</span></div>
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If you managed to make it through the plot, you'll see why I introduced the movie the way I did. To me, this is almost the perfect vision of one of those lazy dreams put up on a movie screen. The plot starts pretty conventionally, but progresses to weirder, and weirder, and weirder... little by little, so that you don't quite wake up from your dream, but it's far stranger to end with than it was to begin with. Next thing you know, the day's crept up on you and you have to move around again in the "real world". Heck, one of the plot points has to do with the time-limit set by the rising sun... if that's not a metaphor for the dreamy part of the plot to "wake up", I don't know what is.</div>
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I suppose though that one of the depressing parts of this movie is the whole "growing up" thing. The protagonist is shown as far more adult, far more put-together, far less impulsive, far more responsible... it almost feels like that equals "no imagination" to me. There's times that I've had little to no imagination when I've been an adult, and I realize looking back on those times that I was also pretty glum and bored with life at times, especially those times when I was by myself. Writing has been my primary outlet for getting through the imagination-less solitary glum parts of my life, and I hope that Haru has her lacrosse to get her through those parts of her life.</div>
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In <i>Whisper of the Heart</i>, the message is to follow your dream, to become good at what you enjoy doing and seeing where life takes you. In this movie, I feel that the message is to not get caught up in someone else's dream (e.g. the Cat King's), and to make sure that you're comfortable with your own self before trying to work towards a dream of your own. It does make a lot of sense, in that at the end of the movie Haru has learned more about herself and is comfortable being who she is rather than defined by either her previous actions (such as saving the Prince, or helping those in need) nor is she willing to play someone else's role in life. She's now in the position to dream for herself, to create her own world rather than borrow the Cat Kingdom's world to just laze around in. So, in some odd way, the message of this movie is the prequel to <i>Whisper of the Heart</i> despite the characters making a reappearance for a sequel.</div>
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Final grade for this movie: <u style="font-weight: bold;">2.9</u> </div>
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It's especially good for a lazy afternoon, where your dreams and the movie's vision end up glomming together...</div>
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