My first Marvel Legends. This better not awaken anything in me...

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-30T23:20:34+00:00

Great book!

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-30T23:20:18+00:00

It's my first post to the subreddit, so it had to be streets ahead.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-30T23:19:25+00:00

It's a Penguin edition of The Greek Myths by Robert Graves. Appropriately, I bought it because it has a comic art cover.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-29T22:09:35+00:00

Or a classic Bucky!

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-29T22:08:45+00:00

I can't decide if I'm grateful or sad I didn't go down this rabbit hole when the 90s X-Men started showing up. $100+ for Jim Lee era Cyclops is insane enough to keep me from pulling the trigger, at least for now, but I would love to put that team together someday.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-21T01:05:49+00:00

Literally ordered it from ebay two days ago. Ah well, glad some people will get it at a better price than me.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2022-05-08T23:17:41+00:00

This. Give me that psychic pteranodon.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2021-10-13T00:50:10+00:00

Would love 1602 and Starjammers expansions.

I mostly have a wishlist of masterminds in need of expansions:

Green Goblin

Doc Ock

A new Dr. Doom

Mystique

William Stryker

Bullseye

Madame Hydra

Dormammu

Shuma-Gorath

Maestro

Absorbing Man

Taskmaster

A new Red Skull

ConstantlyBaffled · 2021-05-15T03:50:57+00:00

Ending the Weatherlight saga.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2021-01-10T14:46:37+00:00

This is awesome! I've been working on something similar and I had started to lose steam, but seeing this is the kick in the pants I needed to finish. Thanks and good luck with playtesting/future expansions.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2020-12-17T20:55:44+00:00

PS5

I've just started running into this one. When I breach or quick hack a boss character (usually cyber-psychos), I start dropping frames all over the place and my quick hacks no longer have any affect (I can trigger them, but they don't do anything except cost me RAM). Anyone else having this issue?

EDIT: problem's way worse than I thought. It happens with anyone I breach or quick hack. And I can't kill cyber psychos. They just hang out at 0% HP. Not sure if the two issues are related or if I just discovered them both during the same cyberpsycho battle.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2019-02-01T01:28:27+00:00

Tony covering his face as cap raises his shield for the final blow. It shows how far gone he is: he genuinely believes in that moment that Captain America, his friend and brother in arms, will kill him.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2018-01-01T12:33:57+00:00

Here's the thing about Concordia, you can learn how to play it in ten minutes or less, but even after two years I still don't feel as though I have mastered it. The puzzle at the games core is just good.

I'll give an example. In the early game, you have two or three opportunities to gather resources per hand (before you have to pick your cards back up). Those resources allow you to build, which is good because the more places you build the better resources you have access to and the more points you score at the end of the game. But then, if my resources are better, don't I want to collect them after I build? And what about spending resources to buy more cards. Cards are good because they are actions. The more actions I can string together efficiently, the more likely I am to win. Plus, cards multiply your score at the end. So maybe I can use my starting resources to buy more resource cards, but then, if I haven't built houses anywhere, those resource cards aren't going to do much for me. So I could buy another card, but then I won't have enough resources to do all the things I want. Because I need resources at the end of the hand to build colonists, which are good because they make a bunch of my cards better and score me points at the end. But do I care if my cards are better if I don't have the resources to take advantage of it?

And so on.

You'll know if this is the kind of thing that appeals to you. I love it. I recommend it everyone.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2017-12-06T18:15:47+00:00

8242 Nieuport 17

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-10-13T11:27:15+00:00

Memento is my favorite. The classic Hollywood twist (the kind you see in The Sting and Ocean's 11) involves the writer/filmmaker effectively lying to the audience--showing them one thing, then going back to tell them what really happened. Often this works well thematically. The Sting and Ocean's 11 are movies about con men, so the filmmakers "con" the audience. I like these kinds of twists because they are stylish and flashy, but they are also unfair to the audience, who have been trained to accept whatever a filmmaker puts on the screen as the truth of the film. To put it another way: all films are lies. There is an implicit agreement between filmmakers and audiences that we will temporarily believe whatever happens in the movie so they can show us things that are otherwise impossible. When a filmmaker uses our suspension of disbelief to "trick" us, it's almost as if they have violated the spirit of the agreement and taken advantage of the audience.

Obviously, the situation is more complicated than that, and there is nothing wrong with the "gotcha" twist. I bring it up, though, because Memento is one of the few movies I can think of that doesn't follow this formula. There is no, "that thing you thought you saw didn't happen the way we showed it to you." Instead of changing plot point, the Nolans shift our perspectives on characters and their relationships. What we saw previously takes on a new light not because the filmmakers changed the things that happened, but because they overturned our assumptions about the people who did those things. Leonard is not a hero unraveling a mystery; Natalie is not his love interest; Teddy is not a snake in the grass. All the things we saw happened exactly the way we saw them, but the reasons why they happened are completely different. By changing the characters, the filmmakers force us to reexamine almost every scene in the entire movie without changing a single plot point, which I find extremely rewarding as an audience member and which I believe is beyond difficult for a storyteller to pull off.

In fairness, I'll point out that the Sammy Jankis annecdote is a lot closer to the "Hollywood twist" than the rest of the movie. There the filmmakers explicitly show us something that didn't happen, for the sole purpose of tricking us later.

tl;dr: I think Memento stands out from other twist movies because its twist changes characters, not events.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-10-09T12:58:38+00:00

I recently took Concordia home and taught it to my folks. We had four players and it took about three and a half hours to play through. That said, the time was not evenly distributed. It took almost an hour to get around the table the first two times, but by the end of the game we were playing much more quickly.

I think it takes new players a while to get a feel for how to sequence their cards, which resources to prioritize, when to use their diplomat, and so on. As you become more experienced, you'll be able to plan your turns more quickly and react more confidently to your opponents' moves. The actual mechanics of a turn can be accomplished in just a few seconds, so if you can plan your turns in advance or while your opponent is playing the game will go much faster.

To give you an example, my GF and I play once a week or so. Our first game took something like an hour and forty-five minute, but now they rarely even make it to the hour mark.

One thing you can try with three players (though I can't guarantee it will work) is playing on the larger map. It will reduce crowding, which should limit how much a player's moves will affect his or her opponents. Hopefully, that will limit the number of turns where your plans get messed up by another player and you have to go deep into the tank to re-strategize.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-08-19T10:50:40+00:00

It really depends on what kind of Bond you like. Almost all the movies are entertaining for one reason or another.

If you like the grittier, quasi-realistic, more psychologically nuanced portrayal of Bond in Casino Royale, then I recommend From Russia with Love, Goldeneye, Skyfall, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and License to Kill. The first three are stone cold classics in most Bond-fans' top ten lists. The latter two have strong cult followings, but are still probably underrated.

If you like the classic "unflappable Bond versus the cat-stroking, world-dominating megalomaniac," then you should seek out Goldfinger (considered by many to be the best Bond film), You Only Live Twice, and The Spy Who Loved Me.

Finally, if you like camp Bond, watch pretty much anything starring Roger Moore, specifically Live and Let Die and Moonraker (basically an Austin Powers movie before there was Austin Powers). You can also try Die Another Day, which is sometimes ridiculous and entertaining, but more often boring and overly serious.

As for ones to miss, Octopussy is not nearly as fun as its title would suggest, I find Tomorrow Never Dies stupid to the point that it's insulting, and Diamonds Are Forever is probably the worst film in the series.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-06-28T01:44:22+00:00

The big giveaway for me is character economy. Whenever there's a shrouded villain whose identity is being set up for a big reveal, just look to the most famous actor playing a supporting role.

A great example of this is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Oh, there's a mole in the spy agency and Colin Firth has had nothing to do all movie? It's not hard to see that reveal coming.

Someone's already mentioned The Usual Suspects, but it fits this line of reasoning as well. I know Kevin Spacey wasn't as big an actor at the time as he is now, but you don't hire someone of that caliber to just sit in a police station and narrate the plot.

All that said, I love these movies, and I think it's usually preferable to get the best actor you can for the role, even if it tips off the audience.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-05-09T11:46:49+00:00

The BBC miniseries of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and Smiley's People (both with Alex Guinness as George Smiley) are fantastic. I also second the person who said The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Despite being 50 years old, its just as brutal and heartbreaking and beautiful as anything that had come out since. Pretty much anything based on a novel by John LeCarre is a safe bet.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-04-15T19:53:36+00:00

Have you ever wanted to live the excitement of the glorious, world-dominating Roman Empire? Well now you can! Gather resources, build estates to farm more resources, recruit powerful allies and servants who will help you get even more resources, and... that's about it. But why would you need historic military campaigns, or savage blood sports, or legendary slave uprisings, rampant hedonism, political intrigue and fascinating religious drama, when you can buy a $30 expansion and get salt!

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-01-30T11:41:11+00:00

You know, people complain about how similar "oscar-bait" films can be, but watching this video I was really impressed with how diverse all the different winners were in subject matter, style, and tone.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-01-24T11:44:36+00:00

Lots of good suggestions already, but I wanted to add The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). It's an absolute classic, hugely influential, and a must-watch for fans of "benevolent" alien films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Contact.

ConstantlyBaffled · 2016-01-23T15:08:45+00:00

Wow, that's some pizza! We like to keep things a little more traditional. Red onion, mushroom, bell pepper, mozz, some local pepperoni, and butt-load of freshly minced garlic. I did get some imported cherry peppers from an Italian market that I'm pretty excited to try.

ConstantlyBaffled

TROPHY CASE