tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77117351612193611572024-02-18T23:30:19.479-08:00JD's BlogUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-46349857539423364672017-12-11T13:34:00.000-08:002017-12-11T13:34:18.697-08:00About Time - Part I: Thoughts on luxury watches<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOJxPSLLY381zBZmnYk77sY8YOBI7ZshyXU1bc7q541ntlWTt4TbFCImasuedbGkbI9-VuHoGrDJE2lHrLKjtWxEmiviUKPl0DiYdCsM-WMk4fEjRRjIVqMHzVJtqwvJAzkf1Z3IZ-VU/s1600/Rolex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="1600" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXOJxPSLLY381zBZmnYk77sY8YOBI7ZshyXU1bc7q541ntlWTt4TbFCImasuedbGkbI9-VuHoGrDJE2lHrLKjtWxEmiviUKPl0DiYdCsM-WMk4fEjRRjIVqMHzVJtqwvJAzkf1Z3IZ-VU/s400/Rolex.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Some say time is a construct. They reject the social constraints of this man-made concept and let’s face it, must be truly annoying when you’re trying to arrange to meet them down the pub.</div>
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Then there are the horologists.</div>
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From clocks to hourglasses, watches to sundials, Horology is the art and science of measuring time. </div>
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Now I'm no horologist. I feel that term should be saved for the scholars and the watchmakers. I merely like nice watches. It’s an interest of mine.</div>
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What’s the difference between an interest and a hobby? I guess it comes down to the level of participation. With a hobby you’re building, playing, attending; you’re in the thick of all the facets of the activity or pastime in question. With an interest, you might read about a subject, discuss and admire, but you’re always on the fringes, looking in.</div>
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An interest may never transition into a hobby for different reasons. It may be historically impossible. You can have an interest in World War II, but you can hardly partake in it.</div>
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Or an interest may remain so because the activity exists in a different world to the one you inhabit. Take supercars for example. Many of us have an interest in supercars – whether it be reading about them, watching tv shows featuring them or drooling over images of them on the Internet or even going to see them in person at car shows or garages. But there the cars will remain – objects of desire, forever out of reach due to the price tag.</div>
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And much the same can be said of the luxury watch world.</div>
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I would call “collecting” something a hobby, but you’d have to be filthy rich to consider collecting fine watches. Which is why for most it must remain an interest, if it becomes one at all.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21Ij7penLBbOzlsPlHpxHQvou3nLR_6aBmzSnzRaetu_h7HRcGG1EXiFu7G4Yy9ybEzm0E6hf1J9EYGXR2RHvOaGtRJNvZ1S6WLRZ8GvbQvoiUOU0OWOoAcnzt9Mx7aGqYcGlbIWWZDk/s1600/PP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="879" data-original-width="1240" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi21Ij7penLBbOzlsPlHpxHQvou3nLR_6aBmzSnzRaetu_h7HRcGG1EXiFu7G4Yy9ybEzm0E6hf1J9EYGXR2RHvOaGtRJNvZ1S6WLRZ8GvbQvoiUOU0OWOoAcnzt9Mx7aGqYcGlbIWWZDk/s400/PP.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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“You never really own a Patek Philippe,” read the ads. “You merely look after it for the next generation.” It’s a lovely sentiment over a picture of a father and son aboard a yacht or a mother and daughter smiling at each other. It makes you look up the brand and then the prices and that’s when you realise the ad should probably stop at the first sentence – “You never really own a Patek Philippe”.</div>
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But what if you were to blur the line slightly between the interest and the hobby? Dip your toe in the water if you will.</div>
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What if you were to buy a luxury watch?</div>
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Here are some tips:</div>
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1.<span id="yiv8573258381yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512744872841_3883" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Do your research. There is fun to be had in the hunt for your perfect timepiece, so don’t just head to your nearest jewellers and pick the first thing you like the look of.</div>
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2.<span id="yiv8573258381yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512744872841_3886" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>If you’re buying second hand, try to find one with a box and papers. This isn’t essential, but if you come to resell at some point down the line, having these will help.</div>
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3.<span id="yiv8573258381yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512744872841_3889" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Consider the value of the watch. Is this brand or design known to appreciate in value or lose money? If you come to resell, many of these watches will get you your money back and may even bag you a profit, so check out the prices of pre-owned models and research the general reputation of the brand.</div>
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<div id="yiv8573258381yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512744872841_3891" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">
4.<span id="yiv8573258381yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512744872841_3892" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Don’t get something that’s only going to see the light of day on a few occasions a year. There are works of art, made by artists and you should wear it as often as you can.</div>
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5.<span id="yiv8573258381yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1512744872841_3895" style="-webkit-padding-start: 0px; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Above all else – get a watch that speaks to you. No not a Dick Tracy watch, I’m talking soul here. This is a watch you might wear for decades, so you need to love it.</div>
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In part II, we’ll be looking at 5 iconic watches that would make an excellent first time purchase. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-9156686018456680062017-05-15T13:17:00.002-07:002017-05-15T13:17:54.032-07:00Out of the Ashes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO36J2F08dK8qGWn1NSa2B16cD3SAH6JDTByAyXVi1EF8VoBXfLrZavIVscNGZqc1Ryahyphenhyphenq99xl4xzcPuwYwKOXB3-myEulw3fZaUa4NqYnRuP60weEmAYnyoKU2I865SJlZQOhi7lLRc/s1600/Ashes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO36J2F08dK8qGWn1NSa2B16cD3SAH6JDTByAyXVi1EF8VoBXfLrZavIVscNGZqc1Ryahyphenhyphenq99xl4xzcPuwYwKOXB3-myEulw3fZaUa4NqYnRuP60weEmAYnyoKU2I865SJlZQOhi7lLRc/s400/Ashes.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The tabletop hobby is home to
a fickle, restless bunch of people. However much we have just spent on a new
game, there’s always something else to catch our eyes. Some shiny, must-have
that’s hitting the shelves.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">If you’re into collectible or
Living Card Games you always have that pending thrill of a new release, but
being stuck in that release cycle can also make new games outside that cycle
all the more tempting, if only to mix things up a bit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">For many, Ashes: Rise of the
Phoenixborn was exactly what was needed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Revealed at GenCon 2015, Ashes
is an expandable card game from Plaid Hat Games and designer Isaac Vega in
which you pit your Phoenixborn against your opponent’s in a back and forth
battle of attacks and counter-attacks, full of incredible spells and powerful
units.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvMI1OpUEBFb3e3cTJl_zYeHbelw1nyHtAihqW2DhzmVPVwHeV-j8bSOghYadoIKnWGeIETfr387JgGy6VSxC8xjdj3sZOgrqI0Hjh73ftBT4F7S5eaHo1NTsMC4_jYhA2-ul69PcEWo/s1600/Ashes+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvMI1OpUEBFb3e3cTJl_zYeHbelw1nyHtAihqW2DhzmVPVwHeV-j8bSOghYadoIKnWGeIETfr387JgGy6VSxC8xjdj3sZOgrqI0Hjh73ftBT4F7S5eaHo1NTsMC4_jYhA2-ul69PcEWo/s400/Ashes+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">With a less aggressive release
schedule than what we are used to with CCGs and LCGs, it became accessible for
those already neck-deep in expansions and cardboard and all was going swimmingly
for the game at first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Spreading through word of
mouth and players introducing the game to others, Ashes developed quite the
following. Some Magic players even came over to the game as it scratched that
Magic: The Gathering itch, while still feeling fresh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">And the art. My goodness the
art. With wonderful work from Fernanda Suarez on predominantly white cards, the
game has an amazing, clean look to it that looks great on the tabletop.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Tournaments were held, forums,
blogs and podcasts for the game started to appear and the first two expansions
were released to the eager players, hungry for more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; tab-stops: 349.65pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">And then.......nothing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The supply of the first
expansions dried up and became incredibly hard to find. Game kits for
tournaments were suddenly unavailable and any official talk of the deluxe
expansions rumoured for the end of the year, fell silent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Forums and Facebook pages for
the game turned from enthusiastic discussion to frustrated speculation and the
assumption amongst some that the game was dead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So what happened? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Seemingly, a number of things.
Plaid Hat were simply not prepared for the popularity of the game and couldn’t
keep up with demand via their parent company F2Z Entertainment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Then F2Z was acquired by
Asmodee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">While many thought this would
result in greater, more reliable support for Ashes, there would inevitably by a
further delay during the transition period as the two companies settled and the
suits all met to discuss supply and demand issues the game was suffering from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">So is Ashes: Rise of the
Phoenixborn dead?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Well on 27<sup>th</sup>
February 2017, the silence was finally broken with this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<a href="https://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/773"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 7.5pt;">https://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/773</span></a><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The long-awaited deluxe
expansions were announced along with news of a series of tournaments that would
shape the creation of a new character for the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpL9kg9ZTYf0LiGdbn3N2FNsrCESQerEYE4QZsu8Gqz62RLCyvQzP0gTXHQ9PCqT6QOSBf3OwKq9WH8q0m6FMdU7av_Y1T9y6r1SiFgYWHRsWbAk7V28FtZx_DJlLrwEjj7GJgRMswg0U/s1600/Ashes+3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpL9kg9ZTYf0LiGdbn3N2FNsrCESQerEYE4QZsu8Gqz62RLCyvQzP0gTXHQ9PCqT6QOSBf3OwKq9WH8q0m6FMdU7av_Y1T9y6r1SiFgYWHRsWbAk7V28FtZx_DJlLrwEjj7GJgRMswg0U/s400/Ashes+3.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">More previews followed along
with word that we would soon be getting an update to the Ashes rules which would
look to tidy up and clarify a few elements of the game.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Inevitably, dormant podcasts
and blogs quivered back to life. Ashes was on its way back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">But will this be a triumphant
return for the game?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">We are, as I said, a fickle
bunch, liable to move on to new things and a lot has happened since Ashes first
graced our tabletops and game stores. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Fantasy Flight Games released
a Collectible Card Game in Star Wars: Destiny, currently emptying many a
gamer’s pockets. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is out and has been well
received. And the colossal form of FFG’s reimagining of Legend of the Five
Rings looms on the horizon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It is a crowded market that
Isaac Vega is bringing his game back to that’s for sure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="yiv2558507618msonormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">But it was crowded the first
time around too; and if any game can rise from the ashes, surely it’s this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-47533388949586850402016-01-17T05:30:00.001-08:002016-01-17T05:30:32.021-08:00JD's Film Awards 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNPz2CG37801I_2ExtCJTzkqWWlW2l5lCOh3UUQTD5GgdAzXmWY2xTQV9tUgPasv_UGSmkOcQdqAob_2KiIvB-iMiMMfgMAG8T5fEqNHPwmpIbE28O_x42syPi8LKbj9Z1jREHtaj5Phk/s1600/Globes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNPz2CG37801I_2ExtCJTzkqWWlW2l5lCOh3UUQTD5GgdAzXmWY2xTQV9tUgPasv_UGSmkOcQdqAob_2KiIvB-iMiMMfgMAG8T5fEqNHPwmpIbE28O_x42syPi8LKbj9Z1jREHtaj5Phk/s320/Globes.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2310" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2310" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
It’s that time of the year where I hand out my 2015 film awards. I saw some of them on DVD/Blu-ray and some at the cinema, but to qualify, all the films must have been released in UK cinemas in 2015.</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2314" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2318" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
There were a few films I missed out on and didn’t get around to seeing. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Macbeth are up there and I heard great things about the likes of The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Song of the Sea, Brooklyn and The Falling. I will strive to see all these eventually, but I had to draw my line in the sand somewhere.</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2322" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2326" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
So here we go - JD’s Film Awards of 2015:</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2330" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2334" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Music</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2338" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Whiplash</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2342" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2346" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Sound</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2350" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Star Wars: The Force Awakens</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2354" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2358" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Visual Effects</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2362" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Ant-Man</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2366" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2370" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Cinematography</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2374" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Ex Machina</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2374" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjAezkpgc4lNh9jx4gbuqJKw3WODJwmA-KHQ4h8LjsDyZvjv1stS1ldEBbVcnK1_uzlVOdTPiCwjYWej73UsKdYIUyi62oFZFn_GHljLW4hLIXqCsp8DghtCPBRiV30J66L3k_jtDOLkE/s1600/ex-machina.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjAezkpgc4lNh9jx4gbuqJKw3WODJwmA-KHQ4h8LjsDyZvjv1stS1ldEBbVcnK1_uzlVOdTPiCwjYWej73UsKdYIUyi62oFZFn_GHljLW4hLIXqCsp8DghtCPBRiV30J66L3k_jtDOLkE/s320/ex-machina.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2374" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2382" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Story</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2386" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
The Martian</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2390" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2394" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Screenplay</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2398" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Birdman</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2402" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2406" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Supporting Actress</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2410" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2414" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2418" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Actress</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2422" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Julianne Moore - Still Alice</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2422" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfc39ubYOTCedPJtizfLmal9CSI_4tSVCKG_H0xlMMCHuzKigp_XzABTwW1Bfxpe2pPClSwNwq5aAgF2QIMcORNg5p1sBlZ8QZavbrOYQ2iQx6jVUzwC_svMgfFZapXJrzQTAM_mWY5Wg/s1600/Moore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfc39ubYOTCedPJtizfLmal9CSI_4tSVCKG_H0xlMMCHuzKigp_XzABTwW1Bfxpe2pPClSwNwq5aAgF2QIMcORNg5p1sBlZ8QZavbrOYQ2iQx6jVUzwC_svMgfFZapXJrzQTAM_mWY5Wg/s320/Moore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2426" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2430" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Supporting Actor</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2434" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
J. K. Simmons - Whiplash</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2438" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2442" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Actor</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2446" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2450" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2454" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Director</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2458" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2462" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
<div class="yiv9351161217" id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2466" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
Best Film</div>
<div id="yiv9351161217yui_3_16_0_1_1452589692573_2303" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
</div>
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Mad Max: Fury Road</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-6432132017808604462015-12-21T10:41:00.001-08:002015-12-21T10:41:40.597-08:00Rome Wasn't Built in a Day - How 2015 in the WWE was the story of one man<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A lot has happened in the WWE in 2015 - Wrestlemania 31 became the highest grossing event in the companies history; the legendary Sting’s career hangs in the balance after a neck injury; an injury also cut short Seth Rollins’ 7 month reign as World Heavyweight Champion. The Divas division went from strength to strength at the hands of competitors like Paige, Nikki Bella and Charlotte; The Undertaker put in more than one day at the office with a very physical feud with Brock Lesnar and one with the Wyatt family. We saw the return of the Dudley Boyz. We witnessed Kevin Owens step up from the developmental organisation of NXT to become one of the most interesting heels on the main roster today and his three matches with John Cena which will surely go down as the best of the year.</div>
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But despite all of this action, all these stories and all of these twists and turns, 2015 was really about one man and <i class="yiv1852341776" id="yiv1852341776yui_3_16_0_1_1450707568812_2362">his</i> story…….Roman Reigns.</div>
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After The Shield fell apart in 2014, Reigns looked to singles competition and with a record setting performance in the Royal Rumble, he was clearly being pushed as a main event player. A win at the Royal Rumble the following year secured his spot on the grandest stage of them all to face the champion, Brock Lesnar. But the WWE fans are a fickle bunch. As the bell signalled the end of the Royal Rumble and Roman’s victory, the crowd made clear their disapproval. Even the presence of The Rock holding Roman’s hand aloft couldn’t get the fans on side.</div>
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Why was this happening? Well first off, it isn’t anything new. Look back to the Attitude Era and that whole period was built on the fans responding more to the edgier, bad guy characters than they were to the babyfaces. Stone Cold Steve Austin was the bad guy and they cheered him. Rocky Maivia was all smiles clean wins and the crowd hated him. Myself, I’m quite traditional as a fan. I like to be led by the stories I’m told by the company and I root for the good guys. Triple H was one of my favourite characters in the Attitude Era, but he was still the biggest heel in the company, and so I didn’t want him to win. And today, I think Bray Wyatt is probably the best character on the roster, but he’s a bad guy, so I’ll be booing from the sofa at the same time as loving everything he does.</div>
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Most wrestling fans are like this, I think. Sure there’ll be a bunch of them who just like to hate and do the exact opposite of what is expected/hoped of them by the industry, but for the most part, the fans like to be taken on a journey. But here’s the thing - the fans want the superstar getting the push, the guy at the top, to be a guy <i class="yiv1852341776" id="yiv1852341776yui_3_16_0_1_1450707568812_2388">they’ve</i> chosen. The wrestler they have decided to get behind, the one they believe deserves it. The boos that greeted Roman Reigns, I believe, came from a feeling that he was being cast into the limelight by the company too soon, that he hadn’t earned it. The fans hadn’t chosen him. It was artificial. Couple that with the general expectation that fan favourite Daniel Bryan would get that top spot and instead got eliminated from the Rumble early on, and you have a hotbed of derision towards the unsuspecting Reigns.</div>
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So what could the WWE creative team do? They could change everything, put the belt on Daniel Bryan and give the fans what they wanted. Or they could stick to their guns and continue down this road with Roman Reigns.</div>
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In the end, they’ve combined the two and in the process have perhaps created a year-long storyline that will go down as one of the best in the company’s history.</div>
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The WWE believes in Roman Reigns and why wouldn’t they? Look at him for crying out loud. Sure his mic skills need developing, but that will come. He puts on great, physical matches and he looks the business. And so the WWE chose to stick to their plan of putting Reigns on top, but they made him earn it in the eyes of the crowd and at the same time developing him as a character.</div>
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It began at Fastlane, the first pay-per-view after the Royal Rumble and Reigns found himself having to defend his spot at Wrestlemania against Daniel Bryan. Having Reigns win this was a brave move on the company’s part but win he did. It was a nice twist too as the crowd surely expected to be given what they were clamouring for. Instead they got Reigns and Lesnar in the main event at Wrestlemania.</div>
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Now the company had to find a way to further the development of Roman’s story and protect the unstoppable aura they had generated around Lesnar. And so Seth Rollins put the fly in the ointment and stole the title from both men with a well-timed cashing in of his Money-In-The-Bank contract.</div>
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A collision course between Reigns and Rollins looked likely, but first Roman had to go through the Big Show in a Last Man Standing Match at Extreme Rules before getting his shot at the Payback pay-per-view. It would be a title shot he would lose to the cheating ways of Seth Rollins.</div>
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Money in the Bank was his next chance, but with his fingers just inches from grabbing the briefcase that would secure him a title shot, he was toppled from the ladder by Bray Wyatt who proclaimed in the weeks that followed that when it came to winning the title, he would allow “anyone but you, Roman. Anyone but you.”</div>
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The feud with Wyatt raged for a further 3 months until finally culminating in a terrific Hell in a Cell match that saw Reigns come out on top and set his sights once again on the world title. A win in a fatal-four-way number one contenders match on Raw secured him the title shot, but it was then that Rollins had to vacate the title due to the injury sustained on tour in Ireland.</div>
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Storyline-wise this only added to the adversity that the company were piling on Reigns as a tournament was set up for the vacant belt. Given the opportunity for a free pass to the final by Triple H, Reigns declined, preferring to earn his spot all over again.</div>
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After beating the Big Show, Cesaro and Alberto Del Rio, Roman finally won the title after defeating Dean Ambrose in the final at Survivor Series. It would be short-lived. With ticker tape streaming from the rafters, Sheamus took advantage of an altercation between Reigns and Triple H to cash in his Money in the Bank contract and screw Reigns out of his title with a well-timed boot to the face.</div>
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Roman Reigns was the champion for 5 minutes 15 seconds.</div>
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Sheamus - aided by his “League of Nations” compatriots, Rusev and Del Rio - retained the title in a tremendous TLC match against Reigns in December. In what has to be one of the best moments of the year, Reigns snapped post-match, attacking the League of Nations and the boss Triple H - putting him through the announce table. Fueled by a year of frustration, back-stabbing and near misses, Reigns was a seething ball of rage and the crowd lapped it up.<span class="yiv1852341776" id="yiv1852341776yui_3_16_0_1_1450707568812_2481" style="color: red;"></span></div>
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The next night on Monday Night Raw, Mr. McMahon granted Reigns a title rematch against Sheamus, with the added stipulation that if Reigns lost, he would be out of a job. Fighting off McMahon, Del Rio and Rusev, Reigns defeated Sheamus and captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship for the second time.</div>
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And so culminated a year of great story-telling and the validation of a character in Roman Reigns. Sure there are a few divisive voices still out there, but winning more and more of the crowd over with every appearance, putting in some of the best performances in some of the best matches of the year, Roman Reigns has proven that Vince McMahon’s faith in him was well placed. However long this second title run lasts, Roman belongs at the top.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-70674546927987352932015-12-11T12:20:00.000-08:002015-12-11T12:20:59.733-08:003 Guys, 1 Spy: From Russia with Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihd8dqDHcJ2LT5mXOyqdUZR1hf60J2xaRmS-Z6RZGyZEorum4jkyoMi9bjyn0yijUuraaBRYihzYVgKvXgqmABf_VRwMsGYP9CdL1ip29LEUqF1UbKnzD_joquBLLBaWNuA7kBYuoNd3g/s1600/Russia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihd8dqDHcJ2LT5mXOyqdUZR1hf60J2xaRmS-Z6RZGyZEorum4jkyoMi9bjyn0yijUuraaBRYihzYVgKvXgqmABf_VRwMsGYP9CdL1ip29LEUqF1UbKnzD_joquBLLBaWNuA7kBYuoNd3g/s320/Russia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3867" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3869" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As news of the new Bond film surfaced, we sat down to watch the second film in the series - From Russia with Love.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3875" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3881" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Nick kicked things off with a bit of historical background:</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3887" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<b class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3893"><u class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3895"><span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3897" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1963:</span></u></b></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3903" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3909" style="font-size: 10pt;">In January, the Viet Cong win their first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac while back in the States, African-American student Harvey Gantt enters Clemson University in South Carolina, the last state to hold out against racial integration.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3915" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3919" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3921" style="font-size: 10pt;">From February to May, travel, financial and commercial transactions with Cuba by United States citizens is made illegal by the Kennedy administration; The Beatles record their debut album at Abbey Road Studios; Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closes and Lawrence of Arabia wins Best Picture at the 35<sup class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3923">th</sup> Academy Awards.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3929" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3935" style="font-size: 10pt;">Over the summer, Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc commits self-immolation to protect the oppression of Buddhists in Saigon; the Moscow-Washington hotline is established; the Great Train Robbery takes place in England and Martin Luther King Jr delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in front of over 250,000 people.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3941" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3947" style="font-size: 10pt;">On October 8<sup class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3949">th</sup>, Sam Cooke and his band are arrested after trying to register at a “whites only” motel in Louisiana. In the months that follow, he records the song “A Change is Gonna Come.”</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3955" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3961" style="font-size: 10pt;">On November 22<sup class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3963">nd</sup>, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald during a motorcade in Dallas Texas.</span><span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3965" style="color: #252525; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheC6Z6Lj7Fllor74x4LhYOTLIuoc9vpk_ZTJdJaGHXTzcsfLGwfiKRXhYqOe1O1E6O9_g2QJEeVFZ8YVhbMHK9jypi-_SScBTkvceTf7kkzturM4d-N5jfTrQ5v-lYlv2_74CJHyFAT9c/s1600/Tatiana.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheC6Z6Lj7Fllor74x4LhYOTLIuoc9vpk_ZTJdJaGHXTzcsfLGwfiKRXhYqOe1O1E6O9_g2QJEeVFZ8YVhbMHK9jypi-_SScBTkvceTf7kkzturM4d-N5jfTrQ5v-lYlv2_74CJHyFAT9c/s320/Tatiana.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3971" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3977" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3981" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3983" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Next up was me, Jamie, with some facts about the film itself. From Russia with Love was chosen as the second of Ian Fleming’s books to be filmed largely thanks to President Kennedy naming the book as one of his favourites in an interview with Life magazine. The film would become the last seen by Kennedy in the White House before taking his ill-fated trip to Dallas.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3989" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3993" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_3995" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With double the budget of Dr. No, the film would go on to exceed its predecessor in takings with over $78 million in box office receipts and is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the franchise.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4001" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4005" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4007" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The film introduced many of the conventions we now associate with Bond, namely the cold open, gadgets, a helicopter sequence and the words “James Bond will return” at the credits.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4013" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4017" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4019" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The character of Blofeld was also introduced here, albeit referred to in the film as Number 1. In the end credits Blofeld is credited with a question mark.</span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4023" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4025" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Desmond Llewellyn made his first appearance in the film as Boothroyd from Q branch and of course he would go on to be known simply as Q and appear in all but 2 films in the series until his death in 1999.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4031" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4035" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4037" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">If the Kennedy and Q facts didn’t bring you down enough, here’s another sad story. Pedro Armendáriz who plays Kerim Bey in the film - Bond’s contact in Istanbul with what appears to be about 50 sons - was diagnosed with inoperable cancer while filming. Though in pain, he continued to work until he was unable. He returned home and took his own life.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4043" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4047" style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4049" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">That’s enough death for one blog, he’s one more snippet of factual goodness before we talk music. The 2005 videogame From Russia with Love saw many of the cast return to provide their voices - including Sean Connery who allowed his 1960s likeness to be used and recorded the character’s dialogue, returning to the role of Bond after a 22 year absence.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIo-J_8HzQzSMDcOUY9JUZi-Pw0SoVLrNCl1mckTb5PCdo9MUpppVb014Ksl4EfnF4h7qc0Vt21gCtHBur0OKj6fZqWDjFdLj2oBAtcGzEwbL4-aI-9d-XQFbhJ_bf465rLZ40ixbmA0/s1600/Shaw.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeIo-J_8HzQzSMDcOUY9JUZi-Pw0SoVLrNCl1mckTb5PCdo9MUpppVb014Ksl4EfnF4h7qc0Vt21gCtHBur0OKj6fZqWDjFdLj2oBAtcGzEwbL4-aI-9d-XQFbhJ_bf465rLZ40ixbmA0/s320/Shaw.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4067" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Finally, Rich told us about the music of the film. The title track was sung by Matt Monroe and composed by Lionel Bart, though the vocal version doesn’t appear until later in the film, as music played from a radio. The title sequence is largely instrumental before turning into the James Bond theme.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4078" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The main soundtrack to the film was composed by John Barry, who joined the film crew on location in Turkey, with the intention of recording music from the region. The local music wasn’t dramatic enough for his tastes though and he ultimately composed his own, albeit with Turkish instruments to add an authentic, oriental feel.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4096" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">With the intros done, we set off with the film. From Russia with Love follows Bond on a mission to aid the defection of a Soviet clerk named Tatiana Romanova who is bringing with her a Lektor cryptograph. All the while shady organisation SPECTRE tries to prevent this (as they want the Lektor to sell back to the Russians) and extract revenge on Bond for killing Dr. No.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4102" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4108" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">From Rosa Klebb’s comedy walk while she has her boot-blade out to Kerim Bey’s seemingly never ending supply of sons: “This steam train is also my son.” - From Russia With Love has things to laugh at, though it is free of the camp and the gimmicks we would see later in the series. It has a stately pace that today’s audiences are simply not used to, but when the action scenes kick off, the frantic camera work and music give it real momentum.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4120" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">You can’t mention From Russia with Love without talking about the fight scene on the train between Robert Shaw and Sean Connery. Doing their own stunts, the pair knocked seven-bells out of each other in the small confines of the train compartment and it still stands up today as one of the best fight scenes in any of the Bond films - recently echoed in the new film Spectre.</span></div>
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<span class="yiv8177752094" id="yiv8177752094yui_3_16_0_1_1449842132296_4132" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">From Russia with Love has always been one of my favourites and it is rightly seen as one of the better Bonds. But next up is the film that many believe tops the list: Goldfinger.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-92185506794628266552015-10-31T05:23:00.001-07:002015-10-31T05:23:23.038-07:00WWE: Is the women's division ready for Ronda Rousey?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Cast your mind back to March 29<sup class="yiv2706316874" id="yiv2706316874yui_3_16_0_1_1446203308417_2614">th</sup> 2015 - Wrestlemania 31 at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara California. 76,976 fans going bananas as The Rock invites Ronda Rousey into the ring for a confrontation with Stephanie McMahon. Rousey - Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo; the highest paid fighter in UFC; the organisation’s current Women’s Bantamweight Champion; undefeated in her 12 professional fights and regarded by many to be the world’s deadliest woman.</div>
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Rousey was an imposing, confident presence at Wrestlemania, unaffected by the thousands in attendance at the greatest stage of them all. And why should she be? She legitimately beats people up for a living.</div>
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After an almighty stare down, Rousey judo throws Triple H and catches Stephanie in an arm lock, casting her out of the ring. The crowd lapped it up and the segment was over - but the speculation was just beginning.</div>
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Would Rousey make the jump from mixed martial arts to sports-entertainment, as Ken Shamrock had done before? The likes of Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar had taken all they had learned from amateur wrestling and gone on to amazing careers in the WWE. Could Ronda Rousey do the same? Did she want to?</div>
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She is known to be a big fan of the business, is quoted as saying she had way too much fun at Wrestlemania not to return and when asked outright if she’d pursue a career with WWE she said: “You never know”. With a simple, but thrilling tweet she sent out after her actions at Wrestlemania - “We’re just getting started” - it seems Ronda Rousey is ready for the WWE women’s division. The question now is whether the women’s division is ready for Ronda Rousey.</div>
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Although it is currently called the Divas Division for reasons known only unto Vince McMahon, womens’ wrestling in WWE has nevertheless come a long way since the bra and panties debacles from the likes of Stacey Keibler and Torrie Wilson. Ronda Rousey simply wouldn’t have fit into that dynamic. From several photoshoots she has done, the UFC champion enjoys her femininity, but to truly capitalise on the character she would be in WWE, it wouldn’t be believable for her to have been a part of that.</div>
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We all know the WWE is sports-entertainment, but the action lives and dies on our suspension of disbelief. We want to <i class="yiv2706316874" id="yiv2706316874yui_3_16_0_1_1446203308417_2664">believe</i> in these characters and the stories they are telling in the ring and to have had Rousey battling, say, The Kat and it being a fair fight - would that be believable? Of course not. But what about today? With an influx of hungry competitors from the developmental promotion of NXT, the Divas Division, in my opinion, has never been better and hark back to the pure wrestling of the days of The Fabulous Moolah, albeit quicker and with more frequent highspots for today’s shorter attention spans. Nikki Bella vs Charlotte at the recent Hell in a Cell pay-per-view very nearly stole the show and the crowd, while always being somewhat muted during women’s matches historically, are now very much behind the action.</div>
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Of course there’s still titillation there in some ring attire and during entrances, but it now comes across as “sexy, smart and powerful” as the Diva’s mantra has it, rather than leaving that uncomfortable taste in the mouth.</div>
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Brock Lesnar’s recent run in the business could be a great model for the company’s approach with Ronda Rousey’s character were she to make the jump. Lesnar is having the squash matches where he completely dominates, but he’s having the closer, more hard-fought matches too and they are protecting his character even when he loses - having his opponent’s cheat or win in some other controversial finish.</div>
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If handled well, with smart storytelling, Ronda Rousey would fit right in to the current womens’ division picture - Diva or not. So come on, Ronda, finish what you have to do at UFC and sign the dotted line - Let’s get rowdy.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-7661972100515345612015-09-28T12:03:00.002-07:002015-09-28T12:03:52.012-07:00EGX 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A lesson learned - Don’t go to EGX on a Saturday. Take a day off work and go on the Thursday or Friday.</div>
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This was my second EGX - the first being back in 2010 at Earl’s Court, London when it was still called the Eurogamer Expo. The longest queuing I did was 20 minutes or so for Medal of Honour. I was expecting the same again this year in Birmingham and was excited at the prospect of a day’s gaming on upcoming titles - some of them playable for the first time in the UK.</div>
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How wrong I turned out to be.</div>
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I had an 11am - 6pm day ticket. As I reached the arena, the traffic slowed to a crawl and that was followed by my first queue - for parking. After that, a long queue to actually get in. It was 11:40 by the time I was in the event area and heading straight for Star Wars Battlefront. I joined a queue that snaked back and forth. Not to worry, I thought. This game was 20 v 20 so getting rid of 40 people each time should get this queue moving pretty quickly. Just a couple of minutes into the wait and we were told by a member of staff that from where we were stood, we were looking at 3 hours. What? That’s going to wipe out the day?!</div>
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I left the queue and scouted around elsewhere - Mirror’s Edge Catalyst (on only ten consoles) - 3 hours. Rise of the Tomb Raider the same. Halo 5 the same. 2 hours + for Need for Speed. This wasn’t going well. I headed into the 18+ area where all the Ubisoft games could be found. The queue snaked for Assassin’s Creed. It was a 3 hour one again for The Division and Rainbow Six was looking at 2 hours +.</div>
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With a slot booked for a demo of Project Morpheus at 1:40pm, I knew I couldn’t commit to any of these queues even if I was prepared to. I grabbed some lunch and re-evaluated my plan.</div>
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While Star Wars Battlefront was at the top of my list for trying out, the beta was just 2 weeks away, so I scratched it off. I’d already played the beta for Halo, so that went too. I was in the beta for Rainbow Six, so I ditched it. The rest, I’d take a look at after the VR demo and see if the queues had gone down any.</div>
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<b>PlayStation VR - Project Morpheus demo</b></div>
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As I waited for my slot I watched a guy playing a game that combined the headset with the PlayStation Move controllers. He was the passenger in a vehicle, looking around with his head, grabbing a coffee off the dashboard and bringing it to his mouth etc - the coffee fell to the floor when he tried putting it back. Needless to say the car was then attacked by armoured cars and bikers and he had to shoot them out of the window. It looked fun, if a little dated and proof of concept-like.</div>
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My turn next and I got a normal controller, the headset and Battlezone - a remake of an 80s tank shoot em up effort. With about 100 degrees of view it was cool to look around the game space and it is certainly immersive with nothing between you and the game. It was also blurry as hell and within 5 minutes I was feeling sick as a dog.</div>
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This is supposed to release in the first half of 2016 and at this stage it feels like it needs work. Even then though I just can’t see people sat around at home with these headsets on, certainly not for any real length of time. And the thought of 2 hours watching a film on it (the likes of Netflix and Hulu have signed up), I just can’t imagine it being preferable to a TV or cinema screen.</div>
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Feeling a little ill and not necessarily walking in a straight line, I headed back to the event floor.</div>
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I’d spotted earlier that the queue for Homefront: The Revolution was manageable. It was still over 30 minutes, but I went for it. The game looks well and has a cool escalation mechanic where more enemies and friendlies arrive at your location if you get rumbled while on a mission. Sprinting though was unbelievably slow. Crushingly slow. I don’t know whether they were going for realism or not - considering you are playing a guerrilla resistance fighter rather than a trained soldier - but I could run faster than this and I’m not fighting for my life against some crazy Koreans.</div>
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Next up I wanted to get hands on with the Elite Controller. The controller looks and feels great and you can tell with the materials used, the finish and the weight, that this is a quality product. I was worried your fingers wouldn’t rest well on the paddles at the back, but they are well placed and you can have as many of them attached or unattached as you like anyway. No regrets on the pre-order from me.</div>
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I had a quick go on Forza Motorsport 6 while I was at the Xbox booth and if you haven’t already seen it, I recommend downloading the demo, it’s a beautiful game that plays great.</div>
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Tomb Raider wasn’t in the 18+ area and instead was behind an enclosed section at the Xbox stand, so I couldn’t see it over anyone’s shoulder. A shame, but we know it’ll be a winner anyway. I got to see Need for Speed, albeit from a distance and that is looking very pretty. I’ll definitely be trying out the EA Access trial.</div>
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Mirror’s Edge queues remained long and I didn’t get to play, but it is looking stunning and the gameplay looks smooth and more varied than the original.</div>
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Call of Duty Black Ops III queues were long enough to put me off, but certainly not as long as you’d expect from the once mighty franchise.</div>
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The Division was being played on the Xbox One and is looking great, though I still worry that anticipation for this has waned since the reveal blew us all away.</div>
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They’d obviously anticipated Battlefront being a big deal and so there was a big screen for people to watch it on, right next to a life-size Tie Fighter. The game looks amazing and I can’t wait to get on the beta (8<sup class="yiv5669372856" id="yiv5669372856yui_3_16_0_1_1443441507812_2444">th</sup> to 12<sup class="yiv5669372856" id="yiv5669372856yui_3_16_0_1_1443441507812_2446">th</sup> October).</div>
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Towards the end of the day I got to play Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. It looks every bit as visually stunning as we’ve come to expect from the franchise and the climbing mechanics are better than they were in Unity. The threat indicator that encircles your character wasn’t as distracting as I feared and the hand to hand combat is a lot more brutal than we’ve seen in the series before. Really good.</div>
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I’m glad I went as it was fun to be around it all and see these games in action, but it was a real shame I didn’t get to play more due to the queuing. I’d certainly go again, but I’d try a week day and an “early bird” ticket that gets me in at 9am.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-75382727684174103532015-02-10T12:49:00.001-08:002015-02-10T12:49:16.613-08:00JD's Videogame Awards 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It’s time for me to hand out my videogame awards for titles released in 2014.</div>
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Games like Tomb Raider: The Definitive Edition, Halo: The Master Chief Collection and GTA V are not eligible, as they are re-releases.</div>
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<b>Best Graphics</b></div>
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Assassin’s Creed Unity</div>
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<b>Best Gameplay</b></div>
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Titanfall</div>
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<b>Best Story</b></div>
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Watch Dogs</div>
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<b>Best Music / Score</b></div>
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Alien: Isolation</div>
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<b>Best Sound</b></div>
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Alien: Isolation</div>
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<b>Best Acting</b></div>
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Call of Duty Advanced Warfare</div>
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<b>Most Innovative</b></div>
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Alien Isolation</div>
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<b>Best Local Multiplayer</b></div>
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Call of Duty Advanced Warfare</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXBSjpzxdVp1P6xCuYsJGHVwOeB7arOoDKkCUIPaUbUUd6z3mtJa0Uj54cJiu_k0iFUB_wf_8GhN0SwqqnOPtpccXHuZQIdUPvjJ0E8LRx7LZyZXCyGRd2qVO-4f58VqKzN0ZaO8QeKw/s1600/titan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXBSjpzxdVp1P6xCuYsJGHVwOeB7arOoDKkCUIPaUbUUd6z3mtJa0Uj54cJiu_k0iFUB_wf_8GhN0SwqqnOPtpccXHuZQIdUPvjJ0E8LRx7LZyZXCyGRd2qVO-4f58VqKzN0ZaO8QeKw/s1600/titan.jpg" height="126" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Best Online Multiplayer</b></div>
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Titanfall</div>
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<b>Favourite Game</b></div>
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Titanfall</div>
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<b>Best Game</b></div>
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Alien Isolation</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YPFyzJUUmAFiIgoAW16Wh7QeMi1bR_DAYLQVXZuhGTaasBEJsU8j8vrUq8diKW9TJGD3SlLlRPrkrjd5soculKTJDfkodk2gH1jjGYbxvDJo80M11_9MdL6RGkg5Ww-vyIIxYUGKBV0/s1600/alien.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9YPFyzJUUmAFiIgoAW16Wh7QeMi1bR_DAYLQVXZuhGTaasBEJsU8j8vrUq8diKW9TJGD3SlLlRPrkrjd5soculKTJDfkodk2gH1jjGYbxvDJo80M11_9MdL6RGkg5Ww-vyIIxYUGKBV0/s1600/alien.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span class="yiv3708692850" style="color: #0070c0;"> </span></div>
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Games on my watchlist for 2015:</div>
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Tom Clancy’s The Division</div>
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Star Wars Battlefront</div>
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Mirror’s Edge</div>
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Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege</div>
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The Witcher III: Wild Hunt</div>
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Call of Duty</div>
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Battlefield Hardline</div>
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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain</div>
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Forza Motorsport 6</div>
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NHL 16</div>
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Madden NFL 16</div>
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Assassin’s Creed</div>
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What are you looking forward to?</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-38667307848231668642015-02-10T12:34:00.001-08:002015-02-10T12:34:13.012-08:00JD's Film Awards 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bKX32wGf-Z2N0py7I76RgWyMJ6VnV27uC-s8kZdqk94Q1kYkb750IRjri6CxnYKxjPT6pTlZRHicjigl06DG4nehEUmvlH0zAAri6V_F6Jc7HB9fKI1KQZ4QJVw3ZU3cNXS-WIfelXI/s1600/Award.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_bKX32wGf-Z2N0py7I76RgWyMJ6VnV27uC-s8kZdqk94Q1kYkb750IRjri6CxnYKxjPT6pTlZRHicjigl06DG4nehEUmvlH0zAAri6V_F6Jc7HB9fKI1KQZ4QJVw3ZU3cNXS-WIfelXI/s1600/Award.jpg" height="320" width="139" /></a></div>
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It’s that time again for me to hand out my Film Awards. These are for films released in 2014 and that I saw either in the cinema or on DVD.</div>
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Best Actor</div>
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Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)</div>
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Best Actress</div>
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Amy Adams (American Hustle)</div>
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</div>
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Best Music / Score</div>
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Interstellar</div>
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</div>
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Best Sound</div>
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Interstellar</div>
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</div>
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Best Screenplay</div>
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The Wolf of Wall Street</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgSxVFF5dMFyt8qy-qv3WJ0u5DycDIlDZFDIEYkcWDd_JrxMZh_lAj9QlIIrvOddVWTPA6smWOok96axVz4i4Zf8uG3feiQc6WZMkmZjo2PQouwF4_RCivodSIQA4os9lilu-F-vf_Ns/s1600/wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgSxVFF5dMFyt8qy-qv3WJ0u5DycDIlDZFDIEYkcWDd_JrxMZh_lAj9QlIIrvOddVWTPA6smWOok96axVz4i4Zf8uG3feiQc6WZMkmZjo2PQouwF4_RCivodSIQA4os9lilu-F-vf_Ns/s1600/wolf.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><br />
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Best Story</div>
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Two Faces of January</div>
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</div>
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Best Special Effects</div>
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier</div>
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Best Director</div>
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Richard Linklater (Boyhood)</div>
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Best Film</div>
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Boyhood</div>
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I would have liked to have seen Exodus: Gods and Kings and I have a feeling it would have been up there for the Special Effects award if not more. But sadly, I just didn’t get chance.</div>
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Films on my radar for 2015:</div>
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Whiplash</div>
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American Sniper</div>
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Foxcatcher</div>
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The Theory of Everything</div>
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Spectre</div>
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Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens</div>
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Fast and Furious 7</div>
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Avengers: Age of Ultron</div>
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Ant-Man</div>
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Terminator: Genisys</div>
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The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2</div>
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Big Hero 6</div>
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What will your next film be?</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-12801900608304632802015-02-07T07:53:00.000-08:002015-02-07T07:53:01.157-08:00Come the Revolution: The many troubles of Homefront<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since its release in 2011, I have been a big supporter of Homefront, but it isn’t an IP that has made it easy for you to love.</div>
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Developed by Kaos Studios and released by THQ in 2011, Homefront is a first-person shooter telling the story of a united Korean republic invading a weakened United States in 2025.</div>
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The gameplay is your standard shooter fare, though the action is fun and explosive. The campaign is gritty and pushes the boundaries compared to the action movie-esque shenanigans of the likes of Call of Duty.</div>
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Review-wise the campaign was criticised for being too short. Now I don’t really mind this myself as life is busy and I like games that don’t take forever to get to the point, but at barely 4 hours long, I can see where the critics are coming from.</div>
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The multiplayer received the most praise on release and it really is brilliant – or should I say <i class="yiv5643625499">was</i> (more on that shortly).</div>
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Large maps, a high player count and with satisfying gameplay the multiplayer, for me at least, was one of the strongest examples on store shelves at the time.</div>
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Its primary innovation was the Battle Points system. Traditionally, points earned in multiplayer matches can be used to upgrade your gear and abilities back in the lobby, but Homefront allowed points to be spent during the multiplayer games themselves. After gaining points from kills and capturing objectives, you could then choose to spend these points on the likes of weapons and drones or let them mount up in order to spend on larger assets like helicopters and tanks.</div>
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This system made for matches that started out fairly low-key, but by the end were chaotic with armoured vehicles rumbling around the field and choppers harassing your overhead.</div>
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The multiplayer was not without its problems though. Technical issues plagued the game from the start making partying up with friends almost impossible. These issues were eventually ironed out for the most part, but the game still had poor map rotation, few customization options and some connection issues still lingered.</div>
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Despite its problems Homefront had a small but loyal following. Not enough for THQ it seemed, as Kaos Studios was closed in June 2011, a mere 3 months after the game’s release. Nevertheless, the publisher announced strong sales for the game and that a sequel would be developed by Crytek UK.</div>
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Things were left unclear when THQ filed for bankruptcy in December 2012 which finally closed the door on Homefront’s multiplayer outside of private matches.</div>
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Crytek bought the rights to the franchise in January for $544,218 and announced they were co-developing Homefront: The Revolution with Deep Silver Studios.</div>
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Shifting the action from San Francisco, the game will be set two years after the events of Homefront and four years into Korea’s occupation. Following a new uprising in Philadelphia, the game promises to be much less linear than the original, with an open-world design, allowing for random events to occur in the world around you that you can choose to take part in, ignore, or use as distractions to your advantage.</div>
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Financial problems then hit Crytek with reports of missed wages and bonuses for staff. A number of employees filed grievances against the company and some left entirely – the Homefront director Hasit Zala amongst them.</div>
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By July 2014 Crytek had to admit to being in a “transitional phase” of restructuring which ultimately led to the Homefront property being sold to Koch Media, Deep Silver’s parent company.</div>
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Homefront: the Revolution would now be solely in the hands of Deep Silver Studios, though under British transfer laws, all Crytek UK employees would be moved over also, giving some cohesiveness to the project and the vision of the game.</div>
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Looking at the breakdown of the game on console I have concerns that the multiplayer aspect currently reads “co-op” only. Surely they haven’t ditched the strongest element of the original game have they?</div>
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Considering this franchise’s turbulent history, nothing would surprise me at this point – except maybe the game getting a release date. At the time of writing, Homefront: The Revolution has no clear release window beyond “TBA 2015”.</div>
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Pre-orders are still being taken at retailers, however, so for those of us who have supported the property since 2011 and have campaigned and clamoured for its return – there is still hope.</div>
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Home is where the war is.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-57798878368613077792014-10-26T01:15:00.000-07:002014-10-26T01:15:52.933-07:00Slide....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCl4C5Ta_G-WTUsRAUXZXzknInQSx5ETDnFJZMlIdpqDRQEFfs5jh-xySXNy5ZBMl8PkwVZO4ijKoqzn2oa39oyjk2Nl2cse8qAZEyyepF3sUuQHz-b6850QiibJomyX0aoEcn3SNQxso/s1600/slide.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCl4C5Ta_G-WTUsRAUXZXzknInQSx5ETDnFJZMlIdpqDRQEFfs5jh-xySXNy5ZBMl8PkwVZO4ijKoqzn2oa39oyjk2Nl2cse8qAZEyyepF3sUuQHz-b6850QiibJomyX0aoEcn3SNQxso/s1600/slide.png" height="168" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><i>I couldn't sleep. I lay there staring at the ceiling, listening to the house cool and settle. Something was bothering me and I knew what it was. I reached for the bedside table, grabbed my phone and without hesitation, deleted two apps....</i></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I’m not sure exactly when it started, but it’s been growing for a while. Whenever I took my phone from my pocket or reached over to check it at work, there’d be a tiny pin prick of annoyance somewhere inside my head. A little niggle of frustration.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_5" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">This feeling made me notice a few things about myself. How I’d take my phone with me to another room of the house if I was planning on spending some time in there, eg. from the kitchen while we were in there eating, to the Xbox while I’m playing games, to the lounge while I’m watching TV. How, whenever I found myself waiting for anything - in a queue, on a train platform, in a Doctors’ waiting room - I’d whip out the phone and be staring zombie-like into it until my train arrived or my name was called.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">And I noticed the people around me doing the same. Every other person looking down at their phone. We used to watch the world go by, now it’s going by without us.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_11" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">People come round to visit and ask for your wi-fi password and I’m not judging, because I’ve done the same. Everyone sat around the tv, a phone or tablet under-lighting their faces a pale deathly blue.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_14" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_16" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">These devices are sold to us in adverts that show how full and joyous life can be with beautiful people and euphoric anthems. The reality is hunched over in the dark trying to get past level 312 on Candy Crush.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_19" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_21" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">"The things you own end up owning you."</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_24" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_26" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">As these thoughts and observations grew in me and began to fester, several things happened that just hammered the point home.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_29" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_31" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Look Up video was released. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Parody it all you want on YouTube, if you don’t see yourself somewhere in this video, you’re probably lying or you have a bigger problem than you thought - one you can’t see.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_44" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_46" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Then this one - sincere and hitting all the right buttons.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_49" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Passenger - the great sing/songwriter Mike Rosenberg - released Scare Away the Dark with the line: “We should stare at the stars and not just at screens.”</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_59" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_61" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The main character in my film of the year, Boyhood talks about the subject of phones and social media taking over our lives and experiences.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXfXk0-6VIhkhOBQaRf-CKHP6bjEIjgNgY0DdqcrjkELkXacUr4mIcWcmurxC0IlRZ07T8WHwyE4jiBMkEnWChMgdH3l0G2FmjIsZ5KijKQyT7dQEWsRAZWEqoULoqNbHhVsRj2JNBZ58/s1600/boyhood_1-620x435.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXfXk0-6VIhkhOBQaRf-CKHP6bjEIjgNgY0DdqcrjkELkXacUr4mIcWcmurxC0IlRZ07T8WHwyE4jiBMkEnWChMgdH3l0G2FmjIsZ5KijKQyT7dQEWsRAZWEqoULoqNbHhVsRj2JNBZ58/s1600/boyhood_1-620x435.jpg" height="224" width="320" /></a></div>
<br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_66" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">All these things clarified what I had already been feeling. They gave coherent words to my babbling thoughts.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_69" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_71" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">So; what’s to be done about it? It isn’t my place of course to try to change anyone else, so these are just a few things I've come up with for myself.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_74" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_76" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">One way would just be to ditch the phone and social media accounts, but here’s the thing - I’m not going all Tyler Durden on you here. This isn’t a tirade on technology. Technology is good. I enjoy talking about card games with a select few on Twitter and I enjoy sharing trailers and discussion on the videogame page I’ve created on Facebook. These things are not inherently bad; I just think we need to take a step back a bit. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I don’t need the immediacy of Twitter news. I don’t need to know right then and there that a friend has announced something on their status. These things will wait. I’ll catch up.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_82" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I often check my phone for messages because I don’t like being late. I don’t like the idea that anyone is waiting on me to get back to them. I just need somehow to relax a little and realise that if it was urgent, if they needed an answer right away, they’d call.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">So this is what I’m trying out:</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_90" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_92" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I’ve deleted the Facebook and Twitter apps from my phone.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_95" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I have also deleted the app for an Xbox forum I am a member of.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_98" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I found when at times I didn’t have a good enough mobile Internet reception to use Facebook or Twitter, I would look through my photos. So I am going to back these up on my computer and take them off the phone.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_101" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_103" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I will take 10 - 15 minutes each evening to open my tablet or laptop and check Facebook, Twitter, the Xbox Forum, my YouTube subscriptions and other websites to catch up on any news I’ve missed or things I might be interested in. Then it gets switched off.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_106" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_108" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I have set my text message tone to repeat 3 times if I don’t hear it the first time, so that I don’t feel inclined to keep checking my phone whenever I pass it.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_111" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_113" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">At work, my phone is switched off. I will make sure that anyone who might need to get in touch with me urgently at work, has the details to do so.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_116" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_118" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When I’m at home, the phone gets put down somewhere and stays there until being used as an alarm for the morning.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_121" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_123" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When I’m leaving the house for something other than work, I’ll decide whether I need my phone. If I’m out with my fiancée somewhere we’re not likely to separate, I could simply ask my parent’s to call her if they need to reach me in a hurry.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_126" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_128" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Those are the ideas I’ve come up with so far and I’ll update you with how it goes and whether they’re enough, or whether I just need to dig out the Nokia 3310 and throw the “smart” phone in the bin.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWwX5lYYihs0epqnw13ES-urTRslBy7kRZHONyNfqo8bsO2_wJs2jAgknSK11Yighx1ocBREbj0dEiXlxXSE7fWk4imzfUcBJ71Ny7WsvOQ-DjvzmOB6juIGWy5JSxL1PDJxvlMbLE3S4/s1600/chuck.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWwX5lYYihs0epqnw13ES-urTRslBy7kRZHONyNfqo8bsO2_wJs2jAgknSK11Yighx1ocBREbj0dEiXlxXSE7fWk4imzfUcBJ71Ny7WsvOQ-DjvzmOB6juIGWy5JSxL1PDJxvlMbLE3S4/s1600/chuck.png" height="307" width="320" /></a></div>
<br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_131" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_133" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_135" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1414309402162_137" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-54196022310983683882014-10-14T10:32:00.001-07:002014-10-14T10:32:46.833-07:00He shoots! He scores! - Review: NHL 15<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKIndyWi-VC1QDOUFn3xVZ5qwbbgp-VU56tRAzL0pMdh1Zv35vunQVqwqUfCGQnw_Ih6G4dmA5MkWQBGIhtqqH62DG2uw6zr2BUyagaUIty_dbjQSwp34jMJdDx-MofSm4-QVsMczHm_g/s1600/NHL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKIndyWi-VC1QDOUFn3xVZ5qwbbgp-VU56tRAzL0pMdh1Zv35vunQVqwqUfCGQnw_Ih6G4dmA5MkWQBGIhtqqH62DG2uw6zr2BUyagaUIty_dbjQSwp34jMJdDx-MofSm4-QVsMczHm_g/s1600/NHL.jpg" height="196" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I was there. At the beginning. EA Hockey on the Sega Megadrive, 1991. Sure, there have been gaps since then. I got the follow-up, NHLPA ’93, but didn’t get another until NHL 2000 on the Playstation and then it was 2004 on the PS2. Being a fantastic game, it suited me just fine until a new console and the next big step up for the series in NHL 07. From then, I haven’t missed an entry.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_5" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_7" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">There have been misteps along the way for sure. In NHL 08, while spoken of with reverence by myself and friends, it was - if we’re honest - a little too easy to score. NHL 09 went totally in the other direction, making it incredibly hard to hit the back of the net. NHL 10 balanced things out, but then 11 and 12 could be accused of treading water. But for the most part, EA’s NHL series has been an awesome ride through the years and NHL 13 and 14 came along and perfected the formula - Truly great hockey games and amongst the best sports games on the market.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_10" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_12" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">With the arrival of new consoles I was particularly looking forward to NHL 15. Every year as a new entry in the series approaches, my mates and I always say “they’ll never beat this year’s.” But they always do.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_15" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Will we be able to say that next year before NHL 16 is released? Probably not actually, but that isn’t to say NHL 15 isn’t great. Let’s get into it….</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_18" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_20" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b>Visuals:</b></span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_23" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">NHL 13 and 14 looked the business, but the last gen consoles could only take things so far. NHL 15 is perhaps not the biggest jump visually as you might expect, at least not at first glance. But once you pay attention to the details, you’ll appreciate a lot more. On the ice the player’s faces look better than ever, more life-like and expressive. Around the rink you’ll see Ray Ferraro in his booth, TV crews and cameramen. Further back, a lot of attention has been paid to the arenas this year. They all look very distinctive and, I’m sure, as identical to their real-life counterparts as they could get. </span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_26" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_28" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">There are now over 9000 individual crowd models, which makes repetition hard to spot and the folks in the seats are animated and individual. You’ll see people in outfits for their team trying to get the crowd fired up; some fans remain seated even when their team scores; they bang on the glass when your players are against it fighting for the puck; they taunt visiting team players in the penalty box; you’ll find away fans dotted around the arena or grouped together in the cheap seats; security staff stand at the exits.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_31" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_33" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b>Gameplay:</b></span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_36" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">When they switched fighting back to third person in NHL 14, that was it for me - there was nothing more I could think of that needed tweaking for gameplay - and NHL 15 hasn’t done a great deal. And that’s fine, because it plays like a dream. </span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_39" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_41" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b>Commentary/Broadcast presentation:</b></span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_44" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The commentary has been a real sticking point for the series for some years now. They’ve basically been phoning it in each year. When they announced a deal with NBC and a whole new broadcast presentation and commentary team for NHL 15, I was excited to see the difference.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7_ax5ih80manwphiG8nzuyACg16kEITuMKs-2dAo9Xnd70jBqeFpniBaOoTSJVzRGwH8nuQ3OnMywCbS0tTrUCq8Kbu6Aa7nvUibxebfIEaoz4gx3wToIpnLjQ1M4MRwJP7_RKMbwHR8/s1600/NHL-15-Commentators.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7_ax5ih80manwphiG8nzuyACg16kEITuMKs-2dAo9Xnd70jBqeFpniBaOoTSJVzRGwH8nuQ3OnMywCbS0tTrUCq8Kbu6Aa7nvUibxebfIEaoz4gx3wToIpnLjQ1M4MRwJP7_RKMbwHR8/s1600/NHL-15-Commentators.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I don’t think the commentary is as good as it could have been, but as a whole, I’m enjoying the presentation.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_50" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Before each game you get a video of the home team’s stadium or city and then Mike Emrick and Ed Olczyk appear to open the broadcast. Their comments are quite generic, but as they are actually on camera at this point, you can understand it in this case. To their credit, some of the scenes do mention the home team and are specific to the city.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_53" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">On the Ice, the commentators will talk about the starting goalies and any players to watch out for and when playing a season, Olczyk will often comment on a team’s progress so far.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_56" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The actual play by play is…..sufficient. It’s lively enough and does the job, but there are too many generic statements - “the player did this..” “he hit the opposing player…” and so on. Some of the statements are laughable: “We now have a scoreline other than zero-zero.” What?</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_59" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_61" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">I like the new broadcast presentation and I like the commentary team, but I think a lot of that comes from the fact we’ve had it the same for so long, so any change would have been welcome. When you play 2K’s NBA or baseball games, the commentary is truly remarkable - conversational and so varied you simply don’t notice any repetition. EA Sports have done a good job with NHL 15, but they aren’t quite there yet. The problem is, if the past is anything to go by, this will be the default commentary now for a good few years, so don’t expect much change next year.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_64" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_66" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b>Features:</b></span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_69" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Here’s the area responsible for some low review scores. As we approached release day, EA Sports admitted that some features would not be available in this year’s game. Strangely, some of the features would still be there in the last-gen versions, which puzzled everyone. EASHL is out, as is GM Connected and Be-A-Pro’s Live the Life, while continuing on last-gen versions, are not on the PS4 or Xbox One, leaving a very stripped down mode without even coach feedback or the ability to sim to your next shift.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_72" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_74" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Since launch, EA have added coach feedback back into to Be-A-Pro, 3 stars to the in-game menu, online play where every player on the ice can be user-controlled and other features, but for many, the fact that some fundamental options weren’t there to begin with has been jarring.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_77" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_79" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Personally, I didn’t play EASHL or GM Connected, so I wasn’t bothered by its absence and I don’t mind developers adding things post-launch, providing the core experience I came to the dance for is present, correct and awesome - which in NHL 15, it is.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_82" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_84" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The move to new consoles was bound to be a bumpy ride, but NHL 15 has far from derailed the series. If you want a realistic sports game that plays brilliantly and looks great, NHL 15 comes highly recommended.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_7_1413307433251_87" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">All EA Sports has to do for NHL 16 is add a few bells and whistles and it’ll be back into everyone’s good graces.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-70356290375394674952014-09-07T01:37:00.000-07:002014-09-07T01:37:06.824-07:00The pirate life for me - Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Oh, Assassin’s Creed, we’ve had our ups and downs, you and I. To be honest, probably more downs than ups. It couldn’t have started better for me. Sure, many people found the first game to be repetitive, but it had such ambition. Here was something genuinely new and exciting that played great and was the best looking game on the market.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_11" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_13" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Then Assassin’s Creed II came along and again the world and I disagreed. They found it to be a massive improvement on the first game and still consider it to be perhaps the best in the series. While I liked the new protagonist and loved the Italian setting, I found the game frustrating.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_16" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_18" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Brotherhood only continued this frustration on and it wasn’t until Revelations where I realised by the end that I’d felt more enjoyment than annoyance.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQl_KrvEfeStG2S3DL6RK5nQl3xuC0xTWvxgLr3yy8EVf8CkDY8nVcwDq1Jkpq8X2-iDdo-AQ85fe1OGCOoMTPx_tVrDK0-4VplDqMwnqIYmS1KcILCIR_uobyrIQnlTxoGTDE-n8u_I4/s1600/AC+III.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQl_KrvEfeStG2S3DL6RK5nQl3xuC0xTWvxgLr3yy8EVf8CkDY8nVcwDq1Jkpq8X2-iDdo-AQ85fe1OGCOoMTPx_tVrDK0-4VplDqMwnqIYmS1KcILCIR_uobyrIQnlTxoGTDE-n8u_I4/s1600/AC+III.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_21" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Assassin’s Creed III came with the promise of an overhaul. A new main character and historical setting. It did feel fresh, there was no doubt, but the tutorial ran to about 3 hours and the new character was terrible.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_26" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_28" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I was getting close to quitting the series. The yearly instalments were taking their toll on the franchise in much the same way as was happening with Call of Duty. But then, with a ho-ho-ho and a bottle of rum, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag crested the horizon.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_31" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_33" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Set in the Caribbean in the early 18th century, the fourth main entry in the series tells the story of Edward Kenway - a privateer-turned-pirate and his involvement with the Assassins order. The modern day sections are now little more than first person hacking mini games and though I wouldn’t want to do away with the sci-fi framing device, I think the added emphasis on the historical setting here is a good move. The wanted posters, over sensitive AI and need to buy and upgrade property - all the pointless and/or annoyances from the previous games - have been all but stripped away, leaving us with the stealthiest, smoothest Assassin’s game we’ve had in years.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_36" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_38" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The ship battles which were the best part of the third game make their appearance here (it is a pirate game after all) and they are great fun. Occasionally over the course of the game you will be told your ship - the Jackdaw - just isn’t up to the task of the next mission and this prompts a period of grinding out enough money to upgrade. That aside, the sequences at sea remain a fantastic addition to the series.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_41" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_43" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On land the gameplay, is a great deal of the time based on stealth, which I love and the main character is a massive step up from AC III - in that he has character!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-9MgXmTD1AA_-4iTkOnj6b_iLa_gdjYRph0puRmAl3CuehAh05grNFEIYDl2hICGIT752bqC_MlIvlmchH4KeXJLqdjMhYKXY4xsDSHbFq8C59xF8v_93ntlKAikRy97iNYepCb43q10/s1600/Unity.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-9MgXmTD1AA_-4iTkOnj6b_iLa_gdjYRph0puRmAl3CuehAh05grNFEIYDl2hICGIT752bqC_MlIvlmchH4KeXJLqdjMhYKXY4xsDSHbFq8C59xF8v_93ntlKAikRy97iNYepCb43q10/s1600/Unity.jpg" height="172" width="320" /></a></div>
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1410077924530_48" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">On the last gen consoles Assassin’s Creed Rogue will be staying in this historical period, albeit with a protagonist on the Templar’s side hunting down the assassin’s. On the Xbox One and PS4, Ubisoft are moving the series to revolutionary France with Assassin’s Creed Unity and it’s looking very good indeed. For the time being though, Assassin’s Creed IV stands tall as - for me at least - the best entry in the franchise since the original and as welcome proof that there is life and innovation still to be found under the hood.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-77649389560900872602014-08-23T03:41:00.003-07:002014-08-23T03:41:52.115-07:00Has Battlefield lost its way?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAfoGWkfEbqkjUujtqFrM_WMXc-qqpszFhPKUhLQAvPpF8wQIDBQvMDKy9GWEU7BjkMv2_yHhCRh-0z35YRguQa5KfHv_xli4oqUq7MKlGpTwg2lnpckmZZoQCsWqiPf2EFIgbhydWoQQ/s1600/hardline.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAfoGWkfEbqkjUujtqFrM_WMXc-qqpszFhPKUhLQAvPpF8wQIDBQvMDKy9GWEU7BjkMv2_yHhCRh-0z35YRguQa5KfHv_xli4oqUq7MKlGpTwg2lnpckmZZoQCsWqiPf2EFIgbhydWoQQ/s1600/hardline.png" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">While Battlefield as a franchise may not see the same sales figures as Call of Duty, it has become the connoisseur’s choice for military shooters. Only in Battlefield will you experience such scale, destruction and epic multiplayer gameplay.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_5" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_7" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">With its Frostbite 2 engine, Battlefield 3 really set the bar , but with the power of the new consoles, the fourth instalment was all set to rise to the challenge. Bigger maps, “Levolution”, 64 player games, great visuals - Battlefield 4 can still, in my mind, be counted as the best multiplayer experience on the market. But online problems since launch have been so prevalent that you are unlikely to find an article on the Internet that doesn’t refer to Battlefield as a “troubled shooter”, as if it is getting over a bad break up and self-harming.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX1kIFBINle_5ZL0ODJ5gamqGLvr3l5BxHI1TqnZrNyAOXv_4cXAgDO-5_ahhYIZCExQ26fxzHCcALsaSQdIzSbJqzmrkxYgTRfXKAbiGMJ1lt9s5eqX0bwF3muSXXyyaGeVsOrxOdhYY/s1600/bf4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX1kIFBINle_5ZL0ODJ5gamqGLvr3l5BxHI1TqnZrNyAOXv_4cXAgDO-5_ahhYIZCExQ26fxzHCcALsaSQdIzSbJqzmrkxYgTRfXKAbiGMJ1lt9s5eqX0bwF3muSXXyyaGeVsOrxOdhYY/s1600/bf4.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>
<br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_12" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Connection issues, server problems and other issues, have overshadowed the game and its many achievements. EA have apologised. DICE have apologised. Was it rushed to market for the release of the new consoles? Was it simply too ambitious? Whatever the case, the developers and publishers involved will be looking to make the next game a much smoother transition to the masses.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_15" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_17" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But they’ve already hit a snag. Battlefield Hardline was announced earlier this year with this gameplay video.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ex1GlZS-t7c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_22" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It all looks great and a lot of fun, but it is difficult to pin down the game’s identity. Yes, they’re going for a cops and robbers theme, but is it sufficiently different from the normal Battlefield series? To me, it looks more like a DLC expansion that reskins the game as police against thieves instead of the military and heist game modes instead of Conquest and the like.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_25" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The beta for the game which has now ended, appears to have only highlighted the game’s similarities to its military cousins and EA have delayed the game into 2015, presumably to make it different enough to warrant a full price tag.</span><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_28" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_16_0_6_1408790087865_30" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Battlefield as a franchise is very strong and has many fans, but with Titanfall a new and exciting entity and Call of Duty Advanced Warfare looking to revamp the aging series, the future for Battlefield is uncertain. With DICE also working on a new Star Wars Battlefront, perhaps it is time for Battlefield to take a break and come back stronger in a year or two.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-35732932711926967072014-07-02T10:05:00.002-07:002014-07-02T10:05:43.896-07:003 Guys, 1 Spy: Dr. No<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TzrsjomS7bsyUqLzz6wZuu784V0Zz-LsBxnVRgdlMIv1XqZU5-k1cYMIUc1A7CcVmGTLjyJX2eIU2NYxzsfURj1mVGtxym4iD_tfpP418pwZUHtq_Cn2lT3T2J3UMntaDzDgEjWY3-A/s1600/Dr.+No.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8TzrsjomS7bsyUqLzz6wZuu784V0Zz-LsBxnVRgdlMIv1XqZU5-k1cYMIUc1A7CcVmGTLjyJX2eIU2NYxzsfURj1mVGtxym4iD_tfpP418pwZUHtq_Cn2lT3T2J3UMntaDzDgEjWY3-A/s1600/Dr.+No.jpg" height="242" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If you’re a James Bond fan, you should look up the James Bonding podcast by Matt Mira and Matt Gourley. They are watching all the films, talking about them with a different guest each time and with the exception of the Goldfinger episode where two militant feminists ripped the film to bits, the podcast has been hilarious.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1403433165013_13" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It inspired me to gather together two partners in crime and watch all the films, one a month or so, preceding each with a bit of background and a smattering of movie facts.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And so we began with Dr. No. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rich’s job was to tell us what was happening in the world in 1962 and he did us proud, regaling us with snippets about the space race, Vietnam and foreign and domestic relations. Nick gave us some facts about the film itself while I concentrated on the music.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1403433165013_26" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dr. No wasn’t Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, but the first to be filmed. Bond is sent to Jamaica (hence the Calypso version of Three Blind Mice over the title credits) to investigate the disappearance of a British agent which leads him to go up against Dr Julius No - a Penguin-handed evil mastermind plotting to disrupt the American space program.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Critical reaction to the film on its release was apparently mixed, but it has since become regarded as one of the series’ best.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Introducing many of the staples that have become synonymous with the series - M, Moneypenny, "Bond, James Bond" - Dr. No really does hold up. It is easy to see why this film launched one of the longest running series in history as well as many imitators.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1403433165013_39" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It shows its age at times “Quarrel - fetch my shoes” and </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">for me, the villain arrives so late in the proceedings that he lacks the impact others will have on the series. N</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">evertheless, the film presents an effortlessly cool world that we remain obsessed with over 50 years on.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1403433165013_44" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">James Bond and us 3 guys will return in From Russia with Love, and next time I'm going to record the facts shared about the film so I can give more detail here. I’ll leave you with one more bit of homework we completed - linking Sean Connery to Kevin Bacon!</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_16_0_5_1403433165013_49" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Sean Connery was in Entrapment with Catherine Zeta Jones.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Catherine Zeta Jones starred in Ocean’s Twelve alongside Brad Pitt.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Brad Pitt was in An Interview with a Vampire with Tom Cruise.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And Tom Cruise starred in A Few Good Men with……….Kevin Bacon.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-73156214860784818412014-05-25T03:13:00.001-07:002014-05-26T01:05:27.209-07:00Android: Netrunner #26: Double Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Z9Wd2apFWsZ4GGuaGK3lBwzDolkGfZHkr-lVEF_r9oFLfEFv5Z8lmlNDz4xfoKBUq5_z6TfGjDY8xC1TsqL8SHqlNG7tdXt08Lhe12mWE4QLtbE8f5C4a-nbPkzcZvaSk9y6rryu3dM/s1600/Double.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Z9Wd2apFWsZ4GGuaGK3lBwzDolkGfZHkr-lVEF_r9oFLfEFv5Z8lmlNDz4xfoKBUq5_z6TfGjDY8xC1TsqL8SHqlNG7tdXt08Lhe12mWE4QLtbE8f5C4a-nbPkzcZvaSk9y6rryu3dM/s1600/Double.png" height="320" width="175" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Double Time is the final data pack in the Spin cycle and as you might
expect, contains a lot of Doubles cards. Let's get straight into my highlights
from the new additions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Runner</u></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43tBB0Wb9YhutKLQldsP4YOcUOjA61HUimhqKWqARWooJsVZEE7FCjI9QqB6FD4PdxIc1ZTLhg5mRybb10BLmxMSArPSDLbQAWJHhkAsdbgpS-FIzckBPAAvK2mjzHWKvp7sHMmO0qjw/s1600/Paintbrush.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43tBB0Wb9YhutKLQldsP4YOcUOjA61HUimhqKWqARWooJsVZEE7FCjI9QqB6FD4PdxIc1ZTLhg5mRybb10BLmxMSArPSDLbQAWJHhkAsdbgpS-FIzckBPAAvK2mjzHWKvp7sHMmO0qjw/s1600/Paintbrush.png" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Paintbrush</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">You can see my use of this card in my Painting Kit posts <a href="http://jd-ontblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/android-netrunner-24-painting-kit.html" target="_blank">Part 1</a> and <a href="http://jd-ontblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/android-netrunner-25-painting-kit.html" target="_blank">Part 2</a>, but basically this allows for a great deal of flexibility when building
icebreakers into your deck and opens doors when running that might otherwise
have been closed or at least closed for longer. It is click intensive and a
rich Corp can build servers big enough to stop you, but this card is highly
effective and good fun to play.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2MUEd-T8DCbq4QxwkQy7Gb16PtklYq2slx8fY3ZJlN2ab_1e4U-eSbHNdz2MSyZZmVtCn99b_-3qsUgWpFn1KH_wrpzPx8fkZ03hBNC4GtVkz7knZpw7QaXYQUx25fQDJKOGWSQKqFA/s1600/Faire.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN2MUEd-T8DCbq4QxwkQy7Gb16PtklYq2slx8fY3ZJlN2ab_1e4U-eSbHNdz2MSyZZmVtCn99b_-3qsUgWpFn1KH_wrpzPx8fkZ03hBNC4GtVkz7knZpw7QaXYQUx25fQDJKOGWSQKqFA/s1600/Faire.png" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Savoir-Faire</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Criminal's answer to Self-Modifying Code - kind of. You have to have
the card you want in hand, but it gives you more options when face-checking Ice
if you have this on the table.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj98Qene7LYdV6AEd50vmHygRlNYgdVz4kTDAC70SIRednvlPbheoxFcbpZVVJB_UP3V9aLlnWqEqySRioz_gutizmvevoC8tYR4Iy5cerwBk4IP5GkZp7YTrOapY-d2N5y7ahJLaurPGQ/s1600/Lucky.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj98Qene7LYdV6AEd50vmHygRlNYgdVz4kTDAC70SIRednvlPbheoxFcbpZVVJB_UP3V9aLlnWqEqySRioz_gutizmvevoC8tYR4Iy5cerwBk4IP5GkZp7YTrOapY-d2N5y7ahJLaurPGQ/s1600/Lucky.png" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lucky Find </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If this didn't take up an Influence slot, Sure Gamble would be history,
even with the Double click cost. As it is, Lucky Find is a good card that most
will struggle to find the room for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><b><u>Corporation</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_nD-cBKqhMHvibusqxw-6m5wU3aFXjlafcZFu_Oox2ykY6EOJ5K-sh5Wg1t_etzpW2O275P5EsQMvI-WwqBWbZZEdjmrtQKFLr28W-5bQ-J5zDnusXpWL9Rg5bxHdams7HfoYGarlI0/s1600/Shinobi.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ_nD-cBKqhMHvibusqxw-6m5wU3aFXjlafcZFu_Oox2ykY6EOJ5K-sh5Wg1t_etzpW2O275P5EsQMvI-WwqBWbZZEdjmrtQKFLr28W-5bQ-J5zDnusXpWL9Rg5bxHdams7HfoYGarlI0/s1600/Shinobi.png" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shinobi </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Just look at those subroutines. Basically this one card can kill you.
It's expensive for the Corp to rez (particularly Jinteki - though their economy
is much improved of late), and ultimately, if the Runner has the money, they
will probably take the damage from the first two subroutines and then pay to
avoid the third. Nevertheless, this is great, deadly Ice.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_N_7ajS3IDlff8e3GqK_qb5f5AC7w6xlI2ars-awRFJdNaf4GCCDRVG1wqCdFCUC5tEUnK19ZMIdnLcnrkBIJWVZwUOAwmqZlCiiKwlyJYU1gJHTjnTrypnpK8NPrX26hiXlBWMOC0XY/s1600/NAPD+Contract.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_N_7ajS3IDlff8e3GqK_qb5f5AC7w6xlI2ars-awRFJdNaf4GCCDRVG1wqCdFCUC5tEUnK19ZMIdnLcnrkBIJWVZwUOAwmqZlCiiKwlyJYU1gJHTjnTrypnpK8NPrX26hiXlBWMOC0XY/s1600/NAPD+Contract.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Easily one of the best Agendas in the game right now. 2 for 4 and it
costs the Runner 4 credits to steal. Brilliant.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-ruLyjUOwPfEPwgwAKu3Hp0fy71KXs4ov1GrClioWJGuQ_psY2sq1h7r9LMJqgYBOcWTuQ_v7ZMxMY1oIZPqE_knW9UU9FDT3gsF0XlYgtuHLOW1gStPdqiY5LkHODgeHnCSkTDBz8I/s1600/Caprice.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-ruLyjUOwPfEPwgwAKu3Hp0fy71KXs4ov1GrClioWJGuQ_psY2sq1h7r9LMJqgYBOcWTuQ_v7ZMxMY1oIZPqE_knW9UU9FDT3gsF0XlYgtuHLOW1gStPdqiY5LkHODgeHnCSkTDBz8I/s1600/Caprice.png" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Caprice Nisei</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The card to make the biggest splash since Jackson Howard. What an
ability this is. I can't see Caprice not being EVERYWHERE for the foreseeable
future. Yes, she's unique and yes the Corp might lose the Psi-game, but they're
going to win a lot of the time too, and this card is going to ruin your day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The next cycle on the way is the Lunar cycle and that'll be bringing a
whole new mechanic to the game called <i>Current</i>s<i>. </i>I'm
excited and you should be too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">First though, we'll have my highlights from Netrunner's second deluxe
expansion - Honour and Profit. Stay tuned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-70645671570786180142014-05-04T03:30:00.000-07:002014-05-04T03:30:31.684-07:00Android: Netrunner #25: Painting Kit: The evolution of a deck build - Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdpo2tAOyFq7v0nqnlpMa1WQaf_sjTwwnGlRDlhFV0NhPN5DnwLdXjHDSvsfO-Ob6OcFfe74Wo5l5oopQ8Awed7TzXREhqdRGExOKk8EZQ69qqk8AlqioEdFOaNrNdrrOkkVe-w1GTV0g/s1600/Kit.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdpo2tAOyFq7v0nqnlpMa1WQaf_sjTwwnGlRDlhFV0NhPN5DnwLdXjHDSvsfO-Ob6OcFfe74Wo5l5oopQ8Awed7TzXREhqdRGExOKk8EZQ69qqk8AlqioEdFOaNrNdrrOkkVe-w1GTV0g/s1600/Kit.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In my <a href="http://jd-ontblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/android-netrunner-24-painting-kit.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, I built a deck based around Paintbrush and taking one main Icebreaker - Torch.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The deck was tested in one game (all we had time for!) and won. My economy was good and I got Ice rezzed by face checking early before laying out the programs. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I have since altered the deck a little and tested it in a further two games. I have added Forged Activation Orders to help get Ice rezzed and put pressure on the Corp in the early game. Lucky Find had to go to free up the influence and I also removed both copies of Quality Time to make room for a The Maker's Eye and and R&D Interface.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKN_oRwc6zMsX4hOkEOks_L0HjCcm5a5Q9hJ3Ewqrv_lVBjURr6cu1-MbX0whCf9vog8FNsCmrwulh-Lxb8GF2Ni5g84X2k43hDOlw0nXhmwOaXr-7AzNQiVICryXl35UqkbO1BtnL-aQ/s1600/forged.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKN_oRwc6zMsX4hOkEOks_L0HjCcm5a5Q9hJ3Ewqrv_lVBjURr6cu1-MbX0whCf9vog8FNsCmrwulh-Lxb8GF2Ni5g84X2k43hDOlw0nXhmwOaXr-7AzNQiVICryXl35UqkbO1BtnL-aQ/s1600/forged.png" /></a><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In my first game the deck was working well, pressuring R&D and HQ with occasional runs on remotes, until I landed on an Archer and both Paintbrush and Torch were trashed. It was encouraging that only a few turns later I had drawn another Paintbrush and pulled Torch back out of the heap with Clone Chip. I went on the attack again and found the winning agendas.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In the second game I found myself without Magnum Opus and had to rely instead on Armitage Codebusting and Kati Jones. They came through for me though and this deck remains undefeated. Granted, I've only had 3 games and haven't put it into a tournament yet, but I'm happy with how this has come together.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I'll leave you with the current build and a few potential changes to think about. I'm not really using Test Run and could lose maybe two copies. Perhaps another The Maker's Eye should go in there. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Having looked through the new Honour and Profit cards and seen just how terrifying Jinteki has become, maybe Deus X or other net damage defences should be considered.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Identity</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rielle ‘Kit’ Peddler: Transhuman</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Event (15)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Sure Gamble x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Test Run x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Forged Activation Orders** x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Diesel x3 </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Maker's Eye x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modded x2</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_104" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Hardware (10)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Clone Chip x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Plascrete Carapace x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CyberSolutions Mem Chip x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dinosaurus x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Lockpick x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">R&D Interface x1</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_124" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Program (10)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Paintbrush x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Torch x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Crypsis x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Self-modifying Code x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Magnum Opus x2</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_144" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Resource (10)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Decoy** x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Armitage Codebusting x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Daily Casts x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kati Jones x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Aesop’s Pawnshop x1</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_164" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Cards: 45</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_167" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Influence: 10</span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-34251638266595649552014-05-04T03:24:00.000-07:002014-05-04T03:24:23.279-07:00Android: Netrunner #24: Painting Kit: The evolution of a deck build - Part 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVn3mc7TOIAMaWJLfHxsbXhByEIilieB8TzdMOh8xkPHym-Fkf1bXG-Y4bUD9fbRZiNYjLWKdFu11JWul6v3ME-dqFAaTuPTqniDBQWJVLTYoYVOo0oS_HVSElF44fezRc2r5mq7QGJg/s1600/Kit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVn3mc7TOIAMaWJLfHxsbXhByEIilieB8TzdMOh8xkPHym-Fkf1bXG-Y4bUD9fbRZiNYjLWKdFu11JWul6v3ME-dqFAaTuPTqniDBQWJVLTYoYVOo0oS_HVSElF44fezRc2r5mq7QGJg/s1600/Kit.jpg" height="159" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It started with Paintbrush. A Shaper Program released in the Double Time data pack got me thinking about the number of Icebreakers needed in a deck. When you first start out with Netrunner you tend to put two or even three copies of each type in there because you don’t want to get caught out without anything to run with. But as your understanding of the game and the card pool increases, you find ways to reduce this number. There are cards that allow you search for Icebreaker programs or retrieve them if they have been trashed by your opponent.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The lowest number of breakers I have ever used so far is four. One decoder, one fracter, one killer and then a single Deus X for a surprise when the Corp puts out a big AP piece of Ice.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtrAA52EPgBTzs2FI4BO248FiJhTG_tyUR-WTj38maPb0ioJ-m5RO-2v-zoruo73Z1o8XH81T-GVpYVUYINSJxPc3bpa3pZCIPYv4KweRcKbdm4_BDE1nJ-BoeuA9neamNp_TTK7C2SM/s1600/paintbrush.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYtrAA52EPgBTzs2FI4BO248FiJhTG_tyUR-WTj38maPb0ioJ-m5RO-2v-zoruo73Z1o8XH81T-GVpYVUYINSJxPc3bpa3pZCIPYv4KweRcKbdm4_BDE1nJ-BoeuA9neamNp_TTK7C2SM/s1600/paintbrush.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_21" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But Paintbrush got me thinking. For a click, you can change any rezzed piece of Ice to a type of your choosing, so it was suddenly possible to only take one Icebreaker. Granted, it has its limitations. The Ice has to be rezzed which means I’d still have to face plant into some to get this deck going and with Paintbrush’s ability costing a click, this deck would only really be good for one run per turn.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_26" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Nevertheless, I was excited by the prospect, so I set about building it.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_31" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">First off, the Identity I think best suits this experiment is Rielle ‘Kit’ Peddler. Not only does this keep Paintbrush in faction, her ability allows me to hit that first piece of Ice, knowing she can deal with it as a code gate. So obviously the breaker of choice will be a decoder. Freeing up the need to pay for other breakers, I think I can afford to splurge a bit an opt for Torch.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicat2hO4dLVdcO5YURGD0b4jqHHQGXWDIgmNfiNb00jMkza6baKm-4E_H0iw93E1NYIBRVurQW0nvi5pYQ9PBNCS1Oa16OKo0MxyMvnCXFkZytdmGhn-WhYoHISUphRBk8wYzgCc_WEqk/s1600/Torch.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicat2hO4dLVdcO5YURGD0b4jqHHQGXWDIgmNfiNb00jMkza6baKm-4E_H0iw93E1NYIBRVurQW0nvi5pYQ9PBNCS1Oa16OKo0MxyMvnCXFkZytdmGhn-WhYoHISUphRBk8wYzgCc_WEqk/s1600/Torch.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">With just one copy in the deck, I need the means to go and get it and also to save it should it get trashed. Test Run covers both eventualities and Clone Chip the latter, but the main addition here is of course, Self-Modifying Code. Not only can I go and get Torch with this, but Paintbrush as well and my main economy card - Magnum Opus.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_41" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Both Magnum Opus and Paintbrush take up 2 MU slots each, so my next port of call is CyberSolutions Mem Chip, increasing my memory allowance by 2. Dinosaurus is expensive but if I can get it out and host Torch on it, that’s a pretty great combination. 2 copies of Lockpick are next to save some money on all this decoding.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_46" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Having been Scorched Earth one too many times recently and with my regular opponent turning to Weyland, I have put 2 copies of Decoy in there and 2 Plascretes. Heavy on the Hardware, I’ve added Modded to save some cash where I can and I have chosen Diesel and Quality Time to help work through the deck if I’m not seeing what I want.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_51" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Which leaves me to sort out my economy. The ever reliable Sure Gamble is straight in there along with my favourite lady of Netrunner, Kati Jones. I decided on Armitage Codebusting and Daily Casts and to take a little more advantage of these, Aesop is setting up shop alongside them. With 4 of my 10 influence used and no further out of faction cards to add, I thought I’d give Lucky Find a go.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TZr4MAXYaiiKAVDMzx06vWUOn168OKAPz8RDKxVFqTJCXcUbOdAoH5TqQIIyiRB2xro6N3JFDeviDCqZfM0fbrQuupfypz6Ev_5N6S8QVAisk8QcJNkzLLgKTt8_QcQKZOmdlU6xvV0/s1600/Luck.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6TZr4MAXYaiiKAVDMzx06vWUOn168OKAPz8RDKxVFqTJCXcUbOdAoH5TqQIIyiRB2xro6N3JFDeviDCqZfM0fbrQuupfypz6Ev_5N6S8QVAisk8QcJNkzLLgKTt8_QcQKZOmdlU6xvV0/s1600/Luck.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Aiming for 45 cards, this left me with one slot left. At this point, I think we have to play it a little safe and go for Crypsis. Yes it’s painfully expensive and it’s already moving me away from the whole point of this experiment, but I need to get some Ice rezzed and Crypsis could help.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_61" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I’ll post up again when I’ve tested this build. There’s already food for thought. Forged Activation Orders would be a good fit to get Ice rezzed or trashed, but Lucky Find would have to go if I was to add this. And if this deck is reliant on one big run each turn, then perhaps I need to add the likes of Makers Eye and R & D Interface to improve my chances of hitting agendas.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_66" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I’ll leave you with the deck as it currently stands. Any comments would be appreciated.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_69" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_71" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Identity</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rielle ‘Kit’ Peddler: Transhuman</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_81" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Event (16)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Sure Gamble x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Test Run x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Lucky Find** x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Diesel x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Quality Time x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Modded x2</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_104" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Hardware (9)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Clone Chip x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Plascrete Carapace x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">CyberSolutions Mem Chip x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dinosaurus x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Lockpick x2</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_124" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Program (10)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Paintbrush x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Torch x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Crypsis x1</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Self-modifying Code x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Magnum Opus x2</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_144" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Resource (10)</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Decoy** x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Armitage Codebusting x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Daily Casts x3</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kati Jones x2</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Aesop’s Pawnshop x1</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_164" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />
<b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Cards: 45</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1399194515819_167" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Influence: 10</span></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-49904412858210814532014-04-27T10:07:00.000-07:002014-04-27T10:10:16.153-07:00Android: Netrunner #23: Fear and Loathing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiSsAtu51AiqJLQbo_v9ssqHkvfN94e3WKrkwZvPMLe97jPYYif0-FotoSuOKdJs12RQ5SZWOucH8mgMbg4rQb3TDaNJyrak8um0qZLcR0GC3wmWdQSWiJWuBKAHE-NkMynycWUw5U-D0/s1600/Fear.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiSsAtu51AiqJLQbo_v9ssqHkvfN94e3WKrkwZvPMLe97jPYYif0-FotoSuOKdJs12RQ5SZWOucH8mgMbg4rQb3TDaNJyrak8um0qZLcR0GC3wmWdQSWiJWuBKAHE-NkMynycWUw5U-D0/s1600/Fear.png" height="320" width="175" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I've fallen behind again. Two data packs to catch up on and a big box on the horizon! You know how this works by now - here are my picks from Fear and Loathing.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YZTK5nV1Yz8Gg1NEPB8QIE0_LwsbVTAY_YC3IN_FCAbSeZsAETQD6kaWkx2s1uA3lUWgsV1WeWcRDFcWD02fxBceycuzdI3OREdvuc5gQt4fcVLTPubmAH0RTd19wArkHaBjWN57aug/s1600/Blackguard.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YZTK5nV1Yz8Gg1NEPB8QIE0_LwsbVTAY_YC3IN_FCAbSeZsAETQD6kaWkx2s1uA3lUWgsV1WeWcRDFcWD02fxBceycuzdI3OREdvuc5gQt4fcVLTPubmAH0RTd19wArkHaBjWN57aug/s1600/Blackguard.png" height="320" width="229" /></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Blackguard</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It’s a lot of money to install and I’ve found that once your Infiltrations and Satellite Uplinks have gone, the Corp can ride this out, but it is great fun to play and if you can get this out early its affect can be crippling for your opponent. Get into those servers when you have the chance though because Blackguard’s window of effectiveness is quite small.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-b9Z_23e6PkHCKJwyCS5H0VHdvrDA7vjotV3-d-Nh8F9ph1pHBnT7JC8T96iBIGSIkPqsWSQXDD8y-J3xakdVgRfIh9_kUFtOKXRuHSmUFoMvw2BnARZdnOuci294OLu3YWa6cJEsM_Y/s1600/Blackmail.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-b9Z_23e6PkHCKJwyCS5H0VHdvrDA7vjotV3-d-Nh8F9ph1pHBnT7JC8T96iBIGSIkPqsWSQXDD8y-J3xakdVgRfIh9_kUFtOKXRuHSmUFoMvw2BnARZdnOuci294OLu3YWa6cJEsM_Y/s1600/Blackmail.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Blackmail</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This card has been been causing some serious damage in my local meta. If the Runner finds the Corp with a bunch of unrezzed Ice and at least one Bad Publicity, Blackmail is going to sale right through.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Trying to get that Ice rezzed in whatever way they can and getting rid of bad publicity where possible is the Corp’s only defences. This is a major card that will see a lot of play.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxTcPEU4siCnT7oT3JEHeYWanCuQpEgGmymH9inv1uZ0GGYQ-1R80kp-6aOtGFg5HKVT3kQPD6okNXe0xixxjMyPNRDxnLmcf3y0x5NtbLKMK_v7a-j4sSnvmg0tqq9HtSY7wPU3_hbes/s1600/Omega.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxTcPEU4siCnT7oT3JEHeYWanCuQpEgGmymH9inv1uZ0GGYQ-1R80kp-6aOtGFg5HKVT3kQPD6okNXe0xixxjMyPNRDxnLmcf3y0x5NtbLKMK_v7a-j4sSnvmg0tqq9HtSY7wPU3_hbes/s1600/Omega.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Omega</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Pairing this with Alpha (the exact same breaker but for use on the outermost piece of Ice), Alpha/Omega decks could be a big thing at some point if the Runner can get around the cost.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">In the short term though, I think this will mostly find its place with Kit. As her ability is to change the first Ice encountered to a Code Gate, once she has this and a decoder out, she's going to be away to the races, forcing the Corp to have 3 deep Ice.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6MusYknlWd5hXxT8mgypvf2dl7epBsLWn07Lse3UF-lkz-iqCgdqatoVmv1lmyP9FDiMgltvu_DDF_VP5KQIEHBxE1kekB56yq88t2-gVBnV9zbF6Eopo4ohqKk4GcOsZk6nI1zGyE3M/s1600/GRNDL.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6MusYknlWd5hXxT8mgypvf2dl7epBsLWn07Lse3UF-lkz-iqCgdqatoVmv1lmyP9FDiMgltvu_DDF_VP5KQIEHBxE1kekB56yq88t2-gVBnV9zbF6Eopo4ohqKk4GcOsZk6nI1zGyE3M/s1600/GRNDL.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>GRNDL: Power Unleashed</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">10 credits to start the game is massive. Assuming you get an economy card in your opening turn too, it means you can rez some serious Ice for the Runner to face plant into. You’ll want to dump that bad publicity as soon as you can though or Blackmail is going to be all over you.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEG-ZMcHqm-JHCBGnZcsg8flM2_MUlIU4v091xjgDO0fN5333E1VnnXTNC2kiADEVbaKsGrclonL-B-cwURNkBNkHcb2KD2Dp7uHUwqlnVd9PR4-xvkoh9IHt9uuizHUBjxT2Ml7sHam0/s1600/Refinery.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEG-ZMcHqm-JHCBGnZcsg8flM2_MUlIU4v091xjgDO0fN5333E1VnnXTNC2kiADEVbaKsGrclonL-B-cwURNkBNkHcb2KD2Dp7uHUwqlnVd9PR4-xvkoh9IHt9uuizHUBjxT2Ml7sHam0/s1600/Refinery.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>GRNDL Refinery</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">This card works great in Jinteki where the Runner may not take on a twice advanced card, thinking it’s a trap. Rez this on your next turn and advance twice more and you have 16 credits.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixBHUAJkjZW6Oc_9OAbHL0T20W6lb4nFSATzDGTpP3D7EpLvK04jZBhTkVkyhqqhzf266HKXM6uncObG52tslvBXBu0BM4UU7PcLF2sq8htmUSR837Are7nZTECIrWCp1hvqqoP3BQBrk/s1600/Yagura.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixBHUAJkjZW6Oc_9OAbHL0T20W6lb4nFSATzDGTpP3D7EpLvK04jZBhTkVkyhqqhzf266HKXM6uncObG52tslvBXBu0BM4UU7PcLF2sq8htmUSR837Are7nZTECIrWCp1hvqqoP3BQBrk/s1600/Yagura.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Yagura</b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Wonderful Jinteki mind games. Have this over R&D, take a look at the top card - whatever it is you could leave it there and then the Runner may well just jack out if he thinks it's a trap. And of course, if is an agenda, you have the option of sending it to the bottom of your deck where he can't get it. But then you're probably not getting it either!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Coming soon - my highlights from Double Time, the final pack in the Spin cycle.</span><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-51249556593785027112014-04-23T09:23:00.002-07:002014-04-23T09:23:48.787-07:00What's yours is mine - Review: Thief<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzgwWDJ_0kZg5opxi71RENpjd2I21blp3da1dI24ZlHYTS5a3Pqw5BnGkqm2d4VQKuEJ6AQUl7P-7sSbAnYd2zPEqbMxMOO45AHBXdRrGkd17bZIg6zX25LXQkL2JnGNMo6dSCao37YGs/s1600/Thief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzgwWDJ_0kZg5opxi71RENpjd2I21blp3da1dI24ZlHYTS5a3Pqw5BnGkqm2d4VQKuEJ6AQUl7P-7sSbAnYd2zPEqbMxMOO45AHBXdRrGkd17bZIg6zX25LXQkL2JnGNMo6dSCao37YGs/s1600/Thief.jpg" height="178" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Rather aptly, Thief snuck up on me. I wasn’t following its production beyond a cursory knowledge of its development at Eidos Montreal.</span><br />
<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_16" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Just before its release, however, I saw the video below and it immediately became a day one purchase. Stealth, amazing visuals and the ability to tackle each mission in a variety of ways - this looked right up my street, despite never having played a Thief game before.</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/OELJ8qZ8Fe8?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_21" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">When the game released, the reviews were decidedly mixed. Some complained about the controls and the lack of a jump button. Many derided the story and more still pointed out the lack of freedom compared to the previous games in the series.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_24" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_26" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I didn’t find the controls a problem at all and perhaps because I’d never played Thief or Thief II, my initial few hours with the game were good ones. No-one can deny how good the game looks and even though the environments rarely change to a great degree, the lighting and atmosphere of the game remains compelling.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_29" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_31" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As Thief progressed, however, things started to niggle at me. Unless I was being particularly unimaginative, I couldn’t see a variety of ways of navigating the area or completing the missions. The game seemed to funnel me in the direction it wanted me to go.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_7_1398269648192_34" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To be fair, if it hadn’t, I saw little reason to stray from the beaten track anyway. While “The City” of Thief had the feel of Dishonoured’s Dunwall, it lacked the latter’s detail and rich background.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPsl4Wf4X_xelSLWSoPzhKRFwsspA3HCnOIN64yTHsQEiNUe8zJ1pM5k8HIqIZgL37sEwrMgnGj5CBA4XXfyFyfubDBWJUIiejw0R2CEKDL4eAi92OF0eSJ3vXxq8Qp8qCYvMV4R6eLjE/s1600/City.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPsl4Wf4X_xelSLWSoPzhKRFwsspA3HCnOIN64yTHsQEiNUe8zJ1pM5k8HIqIZgL37sEwrMgnGj5CBA4XXfyFyfubDBWJUIiejw0R2CEKDL4eAi92OF0eSJ3vXxq8Qp8qCYvMV4R6eLjE/s1600/City.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It became apparent that the story was complete bobbins too, when I realised I wasn’t following it at all. Even now, having completed the game, I still have no idea what it was all about. Nevertheless, Thief wasn’t a write-off for me. I loved the visuals and enjoyed sneaking around, stealing trinkets and finding ways to distract guards. Ultimately though, the game failed to truly deliver on its promises. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Without the ability to replay missions from the main menu, Thief’s longevity is dead in the water; but the game as a whole isn’t a complete waste of time if you can pick it up cheap. I suspect many will have traded this game in on completion and with the lacklustre reviews, you’ll probably be able to get it at a steal - rather aptly.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-4081138198767059392014-04-20T01:11:00.000-07:002014-04-20T01:11:00.513-07:00Android: Netrunner #22: The Chronos Protocol<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwbQpndTD0itI7yffZhcmhEqROELYLVsuyznch0aPrmoSbsYa3XUIr_iB-1DvjpM_j3Xy_3hhIVomO_O57ICFYLOu2x7raPLW0wVRltcJt9OgQ1gLiNgwGZRIQjs-GhKheVVYBXciOwY/s1600/Chronos.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwbQpndTD0itI7yffZhcmhEqROELYLVsuyznch0aPrmoSbsYa3XUIr_iB-1DvjpM_j3Xy_3hhIVomO_O57ICFYLOu2x7raPLW0wVRltcJt9OgQ1gLiNgwGZRIQjs-GhKheVVYBXciOwY/s1600/Chronos.png" height="269" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The Chronos Protocol Internation Tour landed on the doorstep of Patriot Games Sheffield on 12th April and what a turn out it was. 51 players crammed into the venue making for a long but fun day of hard fought Netrunner. Here are the decks I took with me and how they did:</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_17" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br />
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<b style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><u>Runner</u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh949pRdGZgOUwxhaJ21lDrFqrhT8wdu97RSHcBfznB2Ho2bYGDzhZjFjdTjjDC58cvA6z_Sd4IRUbM0OxI3mz7aY2iZEEayvsH3Z1it3Gz9ttduKKRFiq-Kj8g8PZO8whXfDFcJkV5CyM/s1600/Andromeda.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh949pRdGZgOUwxhaJ21lDrFqrhT8wdu97RSHcBfznB2Ho2bYGDzhZjFjdTjjDC58cvA6z_Sd4IRUbM0OxI3mz7aY2iZEEayvsH3Z1it3Gz9ttduKKRFiq-Kj8g8PZO8whXfDFcJkV5CyM/s1600/Andromeda.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Identity</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_27" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_30" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_32" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Events (24)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_35" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Indexing*** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_38" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Sattelite Uplink x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_41" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Inside Job x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_44" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Easy Mark x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_47" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Special Order x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_50" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Running Interference x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_53" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Infiltration x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_56" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Sure Gamble x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_59" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Dirty Laundry x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_62" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Forged Activation Orders x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_65" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_67" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Hardware (4)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_70" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Plascrete Carapace x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_73" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Blackguard x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_76" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_78" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Program (7)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_81" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Garotte x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_84" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gordian Blade*** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_87" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Deus X* x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_90" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Corroder** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_93" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Snitch x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_96" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Crescentus x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_99" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Faerie x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_102" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_104" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Resource (10)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_107" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Armitage Codebusting x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_110" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Same Old Thing x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_113" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Decoy x2</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_116" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Mr. Li x2</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_119" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Liberated Account** x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_122" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Kati Jones x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_125" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_127" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Cards: 45</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_132" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Influence: 15</span></b><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_135" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_137" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">My second tournament with this Blackguard deck, but I’ve made a few changes. With 3 Special Orders I decided to risk taking out my spare copies of Corroder and Gordian Blade. This freed up 5 influence which I spent on a third Liberated Account and a single Indexing. I felt this surprise addition could prove it’s worth if I could use it early before Jackson Howard spoiled the fun.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_140" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_142" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Raymond Flint and Bank Job have been taken out and replaced with 2 Decoys. In the last tournament I was Scorched twice so I was going in prepared this time.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_145" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Finally, I added a Same Old Thing for a late game Satellite Uplink, Infiltration or Inside Job.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_148" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_150" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">So how did it fair on the day?</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_153" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I think I only got Blackguard out twice and by that time the Corp had all the Ice he wanted or was too rich to care.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_156" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In round 2, the Corp didn’t Ice up R&D and with Indexing in my starting hand, I decided to forgo the normal Andromeda 4-card opening and instead played Sure Gamble and then Indexing on the second click. This grabbed me an agenda and a Same Old Thing later in the game brought Indexing out again for another. Sadly, I still couldn’t bring it home.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_159" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_161" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">In the game I did win as the Runner, it wasn’t anything special. I managed to pull two agendas from R&D in the first two turns and then a winning agenda from archives in the fourth turn after an Accelerated Beta Test for the Corp had failed to produce any Ice and dumped three cards.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_164" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_166" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Tournament MVP</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_169" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Indexing. The late addition proved to be a nice surprise that nabbed me two agendas. </span><br />
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<b style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><u>Corporation</u></b></div>
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<b style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><u><br /></u></b></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Identity</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_184" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Jinteki – Replicating Perfection</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_187" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_189" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Agenda (11)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_192" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Clone Retirement x2</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_195" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Gila Hands Arcology x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_198" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Priority Requisition x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_201" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Executive Retreat x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_204" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">False Lead x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_207" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Corporate War x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_210" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Braintrust x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_213" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Nisei MK II x2</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_216" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Fetal AI x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_219" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_221" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Asset (12)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_224" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Shock x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_227" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">GRNDL Refinery** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_230" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Cerebral Overwriter** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_233" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">PAD Campaign x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_236" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Melange Mining Corp x2</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_239" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Project Junebug x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_242" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Snare x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_245" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_247" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Ice (19)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_250" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Yagura x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_253" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Eli 1.0* x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_256" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Chum x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_259" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Ichi 1.0** x2</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_262" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Wall of Static x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_265" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Chimera x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_268" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Wall of Thorns x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_271" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hourglass** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_274" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Enigma x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_277" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Neural Katana x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_280" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_282" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Operation (7)</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_285" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Precognition x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_288" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Scorched Earth**** x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_291" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Subliminal Messaging x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_294" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Trick of Light x1</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_297" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Hedge Fund x3</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_300" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_302" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Cards: 49</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_307" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Influence: 15</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_310" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Total Agenda Points: 20</span></b><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_313" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_315" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">After the last tournament I added Subliminal Messaging, two 5-for-3 agendas and GRNDL Refinery for some money making goodness. Shock is in there now to tax the Runner on archive runs and - get this - a single Scorched Earth. If I was really thinking about flatlining the Runner I’d put more copies of False Lead in there, hoping for a Snare tag on click two and forfeit the agenda to take away the last two clicks; but instead the Scorched Earth was there as a cautionary deterant should the Runner come across it in HQ or R&D. And if the Runner was floating tags, well, the Scorched Earth would be waiting.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_320" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_322" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The deck worked out ok, flatlining the Runner on a Snare and sealing my win in round 3. But the real moment of the tournament for me came in round 4. I’d already lost as the Runner and several Account Siphons later, I was really struggling as the Corp. My opponent had pulled 6 points worth of agendas from R&D and it was just a matter of time. Except he wasn’t getting rid of his tags and had at least 6 of them.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_325" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Finally, the stars aligned. The Runner had 2 cards in hand and nothing on the table to protect him. I had just one credit to my name. Mandatory draw: Scorched Earth.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_328" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Click - Click - Boom.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_331" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_333" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><b>Tournament MVP</b></span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_336" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Shock and Snare worked hard, but I have to give this to Scorched Earth. Just the one appearance, but it put a smile on my face. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNhVeB66jQtKAnR-lLZ5VyxUZgAdRcF0N8rz0_2B6vwudH5BiD7YGPagittDqvEzi87VKqdFuRCbBMvXPZYfA-OHjRjZTZRdhwz1HezLWyWcLf7Ruv8K0zlNEMKbPnO-NopaFtzx8jKhc/s1600/Scorched.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNhVeB66jQtKAnR-lLZ5VyxUZgAdRcF0N8rz0_2B6vwudH5BiD7YGPagittDqvEzi87VKqdFuRCbBMvXPZYfA-OHjRjZTZRdhwz1HezLWyWcLf7Ruv8K0zlNEMKbPnO-NopaFtzx8jKhc/s1600/Scorched.png" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><u>Conclusions</u></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Blackguard is fun to play and I think I have a strong deck. If I don’t get Blackguard out I can use Infiltration and Satellite Uplink to check the Ice or servers before running, but the problem is committing to one of those plans early on rather than trying to keep my options open. Blackguard feels powerful, but a good Corp player can work around it. It’s time to try something new.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_349" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_351" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">I’ve played Jinteki for the last three tournaments and had great fun with some success. With Honour and Profit just around the corner, I’m sure I’ll be back soon, but for now I feel like a change.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397980432032_354" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-25437613331318070942014-04-15T13:25:00.000-07:002014-04-15T13:25:51.200-07:00Call it when ready - Review: Titanfall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1td2Y9SekOiUXW_7U5rlJeiU_bNF97k2pllr0yJyvfEvebjfT2Mfd4oE5KYP4BDQkERni_aCq5J_DnXjIb92OnmV4pn2e3Gt6IF-A7ypPFh_Gv6q5khd1a0kxwGP8ZgqAI241R7xhHhY/s1600/Titan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1td2Y9SekOiUXW_7U5rlJeiU_bNF97k2pllr0yJyvfEvebjfT2Mfd4oE5KYP4BDQkERni_aCq5J_DnXjIb92OnmV4pn2e3Gt6IF-A7ypPFh_Gv6q5khd1a0kxwGP8ZgqAI241R7xhHhY/s1600/Titan.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Some games ride in on a wave of hype and crash full on in our faces, trumpets sounding and champagne falling from the sky. Think Bioshock Infinite, Gears of War, any Grand Theft Auto.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Others they ride that wave in and it dribbles to a halt on the shores of disappointment - Look up Brink.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_17" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_19" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Titanfall lands with a resounding thump firmly in the former category. When its fast paced, epic moment filled gameplay was first revealed it became apparent we had something big on our hands and Microsoft’s exclusive deal on it was a potential game changer. This game would sell the Xbox One and they knew it.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_22" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_24" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Of course the PS4 camp took to the Internet and put the game down at every opportunity, decrying its lack of 1080p - the element by which all games should now be judged apparently. It all smacked of simple jealousy and there’s no doubt that when Titanfall 2 arrives on their system their tune will change.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_27" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_29" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But the haters’ efforts were all, inevitably, for nothing as Titanfall landed to fanfare and sold consoles by the shed load.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_32" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_34" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But is it any good?</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_37" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_39" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Well the short answer is yes. A slightly longer one would be God yes.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_42" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_44" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The gameplay is fast, smooth and looks the business. But above all else - thanks to the variation between fighting on foot as a pilot or in the massive hulking machines of the titans - the game is just plain fun. Serious fun. The wall running mechanic for the pilots is a thing of beauty that has you navigating the environment in new and inventive ways not even seen in Halo.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_47" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_49" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Once you reach a certain level in multiplayer you will unlock the use of Burn Cards. These are earned after each game and you can use them for various effects like a longer lasting tactical ability, an improved version of your primary weapon or a reduced build time for your titan. </span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_52" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">While the Burn Cards are lost as soon as you die, you’ll find them to be surprisingly tactical and you’ll be saving particular ones for particular game modes.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_55" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_57" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The game modes vary from Attrition - your basic team deathmatch - through Capture the Flag and Hardpoint Domintion to the titan-only mash-up, Last Titan Standing.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis95bdUY-XS9NTrolBlVr7U-zppf1ZdO1dS77ODYWI5ut0xnSsVohI97Jx1yZLteSPe108yCPb96QKi6BKX7-90PcZHLhJG6QEepyMTBLYo0NCXSrFB28vHx_q0Rfx_lbsOw9C54GLyr0/s1600/Pilot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis95bdUY-XS9NTrolBlVr7U-zppf1ZdO1dS77ODYWI5ut0xnSsVohI97Jx1yZLteSPe108yCPb96QKi6BKX7-90PcZHLhJG6QEepyMTBLYo0NCXSrFB28vHx_q0Rfx_lbsOw9C54GLyr0/s1600/Pilot.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The game encourages epic moments and feats of outlandish action and with the wallrunning, jumping and the calling in of titans you are given the tools to carry them out.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_65" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_67" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">But is it all sunshine and rainbows?</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_70" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_72" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There aren’t a great deal of customisation options for your character and not many weapons to choose from. In fact the gun you get at the start, you may well find you’re still using at the end. My main criticism of the game though lies with the campaign - or lack thereof.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_75" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_77" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Titanfall is an online-only game and the campaign consists of a series of multiplayer matches with a few events occurring on the maps or a bit of talking bookending the matches. I’d like to comment on the story, but without the cut-scenes and character development (however slim) that we are used to in games like Battlefield and Gears; the story of Titanfall becomes an incoherent afterthought. </span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_80" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Winning these campaign matches means nothing at all and you are never punished, nor does the story change if you lose. The campaign marches on regardless.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_83" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_85" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If it wasn’t for auto-disconnects due to inactivity, a mate had it spot on when he said you could join the campaign, go and do something else for an hour, come back to the console and you’ll have completed it.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_88" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_90" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">It says so much for how great a multiplayer experience this game is then that we can overlook such a lacklustre effort on the campaign. If you have an Xbox One or a PC that can run it, Titanfall is a must buy. It may well have changed the multiplayer arena. And if you’re still on the last generation, the word is the Xbox 360 version of the game is just as much fun.</span><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_93" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br id="yui_3_13_0_6_1397592696202_95" style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: HelveticaNeue, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, 'Lucida Grande', sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Titanfall - It isn’t perfect, but it’s close. And it puts a titan-sized smile on your face.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-50003177377478418152014-03-23T07:22:00.003-07:002014-03-23T07:22:59.180-07:00Android: Netrunner #21: FFG Store Championships 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKjD5DsBy2R1hElPC1ZDZ2ELbz7O17s9cEA3BxOXq7ofQOuHYqxA8CZupvSoWL_S85bJ2ja_C_NTo_JS_WDmuTyBtbBOUBbTDResmNErvE7t7-I978IgdhbnUbLw4Zrkouibat69bkTe4/s1600/store.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKjD5DsBy2R1hElPC1ZDZ2ELbz7O17s9cEA3BxOXq7ofQOuHYqxA8CZupvSoWL_S85bJ2ja_C_NTo_JS_WDmuTyBtbBOUBbTDResmNErvE7t7-I978IgdhbnUbLw4Zrkouibat69bkTe4/s1600/store.png" height="172" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Patriot Games in Sheffield hosted an FFG Store Championship
for Android: Netrunner on 15<sup>th</sup> March 2014 and I was there along with
27 others. First off, let’s have a look at my decks and what I had planned with
them going in.</span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Runner Deck</span></u></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ID<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Andromeda: Dispossessed Ristie</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Event (23)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Satellite Uplink x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Inside Job x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Easy Mark x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Special Order x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Running Interference x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Infiltration x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sure Gamble x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dirty Laundry x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Forged Activation Orders x3</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hardware (4)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Plascrete Carapace x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blackguard x3</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Program (9)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Garrote x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gordian Blade*** x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Deus X* x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Corroder** x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snitch x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Crescentus x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Faerie x1</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Resource (9)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Armitage Codebusting x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mr. Li x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Raymond Flint x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Liberated Account** x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Bank Job x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Kati Jones x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Daily Casts x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total Cards: </b>45</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Total Influence: </b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">15</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5q1u6Vi0dF8n2rr6Nv4dhECB3-Eo115OwMfkiCR5vAU19XRZxgN9V5LhyphenhyphenueuThDf_JC8EVzIYxhF479oRnRvqFjN49gM7_vVdO-jpkisxTIHbpbISjol5TRZy62nR-r8J0FAkbFmynw/s1600/Black.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5q1u6Vi0dF8n2rr6Nv4dhECB3-Eo115OwMfkiCR5vAU19XRZxgN9V5LhyphenhyphenueuThDf_JC8EVzIYxhF479oRnRvqFjN49gM7_vVdO-jpkisxTIHbpbISjol5TRZy62nR-r8J0FAkbFmynw/s1600/Black.png" height="320" width="229" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this is a Blackguard deck only recently built. I won 3
straight games with it and found it to be great fun and highly affective. I
think it’s the best deck I’ve built so far. The bread and butter of this deck
is of course, Blackguard and the cards to take advantage of its ability –
Infiltration, Snitch, Satellite Uplink and Raymond Flint.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My plan is to keep the Corp as low on funds as possible,
while I get my icebreaker suite set up and then find those agendas. Inside Job
is there to bypass anything nasty or to make those early surprise runs. With
the expose abilities in this deck I rarely need to make runs without knowing
what I’ll be facing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this deck to work, I need a lot of money early to get
Blackguard as soon as possible – covered by Sure Gamble, Liberated Account,
Armitage Codebusting, Easy Mark and Kati Jones, with Bank Job and Dirty Laundry
if the timing is right and I can make the appropriate runs. Using Andromeda
gives me the best chance of getting that early money and Mr. Li allows me to
quickly work through my deck to find the cards I need.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Corporation Deck</span></u></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ID<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jinteki: Replicating Perfection</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Agenda (11)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">False Lead x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Corporate War x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Braintrust x3</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nisei MK II x2</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fetal AI x3</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Asset (13)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cerebral Overwriter** x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">PAD Campaign x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Melange Mining Corp x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas Haas* x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jackson Howard* x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sundew x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Project Junebug x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Snare x3</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ice (19)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eli 1.0* x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chum x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ichi 1.0** x2</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wall of Static x3</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chimera x3</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wall of Thorns x1</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hourglass** x1</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">RSVP** x1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enigma x3</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Neural Katana x3</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Operation (5)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trick of Light x2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hedge Fund x3</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Upgrade (1)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Red Herrings** x1</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total Cards: </b>49</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Total Influence: 1</b>5</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Agenda Points: </b>20</span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2kIHkMCdjv_xsKMwRESLMTAGVw38b6TAu371HiwoNSgip1QhWUowspFb_SYJgeVjsRvzI4ZG-eYlqQLrLeAaxCaLVl3nZz9LjOC-qwJl3w0lrYQ71ILQS91NODYCNgml28S6K-abPAU/s1600/Jinteki.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2kIHkMCdjv_xsKMwRESLMTAGVw38b6TAu371HiwoNSgip1QhWUowspFb_SYJgeVjsRvzI4ZG-eYlqQLrLeAaxCaLVl3nZz9LjOC-qwJl3w0lrYQ71ILQS91NODYCNgml28S6K-abPAU/s1600/Jinteki.png" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After witnessing it first hand at my last tournament, I
wanted to try out Replicating Perfection myself. With help from fellow
Netrunner players on Twitter, I went into the tournament with the build you see
here. The main tactic of the deck is not to flatline or fast advance agendas,
but to waste the Runner’s time. The Identity does this by default, forcing a
run on a central server before he can move to a remote server, but there are a
few other cards in there equally aimed at using up the Runner’s clicks. People
tend to go after Jackson Howard, so having him out and rezzed, should ensure
the Runner uses up 2 clicks to run, perhaps leaving an agenda in place for me
to score next turn. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thomas Haas can be advanced, perhaps prompting a run, then I
can just trash him and collect the money and PAD Campaign and Melange Mining
Corp equally have the effect of gaining me much needed credits, but also to
force the Runner to run on these instead of elsewhere.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I always find Ice the hardest part of deck building and here
even more so. If the Runner hits Neural Katana on his central server run, he
may think twice about running on a remote and Ice like Hourglass is there to
rob them of that choice entirely.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Match 1</span></u></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Kate</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Against a new player, I scored Braintrust, Nisei, and
another Braintrust; keeping him out with Chimera most of the time. A False Lead
that I’d placed on the table near the start of the game gave me a surprise
score and win at the end.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Weyland</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got Blackguard
out early and really put the pressure on. I scored 5 points of agendas and then
went digging in R&D. I could tell he was looking for the Scorched Earth
flatline, but my Plascrete Carapace was nowhere to be found and I didn’t find
that last agenda in time before he pulled it off.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Match 2</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Gabe</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I scored a Braintrust, but ultimately lost. An early
Account Siphon put me on the back foot, though I did stop another by getting
rid of Same Old Thing when he left his tags in place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs HB</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A bad mulligan left me without the cash boost that
Andromeda is so great at providing which ultimately left me without Blackguard.
I tried to use my exposes to instead make for more informed runs, but I just
couldn’t get anything going and with a SanSan in play, it was over all too
quickly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<u><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Match 3</span></b></u></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Gabe</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An over eager run led my opponent into a Snare with 2
cards in hand. Not what I’d intended, but I’ll take it!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Weyland</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Andromeda ok, but again I didn’t get Plascrete in play
before getting the earth scorched from under me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Match 4</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Noise</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A very early flatline again from Snare, before I even laid out any remotes!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs HB</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blackguard working at first, but my opponent got through
it and by the end we were on 5 points each and he had a card advanced twice in
a remote server. Not only did he have a Swordsman and Enigma protecting it, but
an Off The Grid too, meaning I had to make a successful run on HQ first.
Protecting HQ? Only a Wotan, a Janus and another Swordsman!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was do or die. With my full Icebreaker suite in play,
7 credits and 5 cards, I made a run on HQ on Click 1. I spent a credit to break
the net damage subroutine on Swordsman then proceeded to walk right through
Janus, taking 4 brain damage. I then did the same with Wotan – losing 2 clicks,
paying 3 credits, trashing Snitch and doing another brain damage. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The successful run trashed the Off the Grid, but found
nothing in HQ. With Click 4 I ran the remote, paying 2 of my 3 credits to break
the net damage subroutine on Swordsman and the end the run subroutine on
Enigma. The winning agenda was mine!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<u><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Match 5</span></b></u></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Chaos Theory</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great use of Blackmail from my opponent and hefty dose of
bad luck led to my loss here. Several agendas together in R&D. These things
happen.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Vs Jineki: RP</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blackguard came out in this game, but the Corp was
already happy with the Ice he had in place, so didn’t bother putting any more
out. I stole an agenda, but ultimately this was a loss at a more experienced
Replicating Perfection player than I.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I finished the tournament with 8 points and placed 20th out of 28. 2 draws, 2 losses and a win.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="text-align: center;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Conclusions</span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Runner</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Blackguard deck worked reasonably well throughout the
day with the exception of that second game where I mulliganed into a bad hand,
denying me the early money and so Blackguard never came out. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found that if I didn’t run enough while the Corporation
was low on funds, they could eventually ride it out. In the late game all my
expose abilities have been used and the Corp starts to gain money again.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I will be taking Raymond Flint out of this deck
as I’m only using his expose ability.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Perhaps Same Old Thing would be a good addition so I can
bring a surprise late game expose back or Inside Job.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’d like to try False Echo with this deck, putting more
pressure on the Corp’s Ice, but the problem is finding the Influence. Perhaps –
seen as I have 3 Special Orders in there I can afford to drop the back-up
copies of Gordian Blade and Corroder, but then should I add a copy of Crypsis
to be on the safe side?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Tournament MVP:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Garrote – I was nervous about switching Femme Fatale for
this, but it has proven its worth.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSUnOq6E9UxSdu-kw3Qb_cK_bvjGrncW7aAeTHBjAF2sIhbON5sd8JcE3iSwx4CW5j86IcJ6ajz4g4ROaY_zXxgpAGeodC6B_qn0M0EEu2CHqyBnTfdB9MlbObuwagYzvPV55btdrWQA/s1600/garrote.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtSUnOq6E9UxSdu-kw3Qb_cK_bvjGrncW7aAeTHBjAF2sIhbON5sd8JcE3iSwx4CW5j86IcJ6ajz4g4ROaY_zXxgpAGeodC6B_qn0M0EEu2CHqyBnTfdB9MlbObuwagYzvPV55btdrWQA/s1600/garrote.png" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Corporation</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wasn’t confident going in, but this deck surprised me.
I never once struggled for Ice like I had initially feared and the two
flatlines were unexpected but great to see.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think Thomas Haas might be leaving us and I’d like to
experiment with fewer agendas – including 3 pointers that I can score in 2
turns or leave out like failed traps.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My Tournament MVP:</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Chimera – Stopped several agendas from being stolen
during the day. Really effective if the Runner hasn’t got their full suite out
yet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have any thoughts on my decks, please do comment
here or message me on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/Dodd81" target="_blank">@Dodd81</a>. Any help or advice would be appreciated.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-11996733500299651592014-03-23T05:07:00.001-07:002014-03-23T05:07:34.957-07:00Android: Netrunner #20: Reboot<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so we’ve reached part 20 of my blog series on Android: Netrunner. While the first few entries were an introduction to the game, the style of these articles has long since stopped holding your hand and assumed you know at least enough about the game for you to understand what I’m writing about.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it’s time to look back for the first time and if you’re new to the game, now’s a good chance to jump on board with this blog. We’re dropping the “Dystopian Journey” subtitle and rebooting with a new introduction to the game.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Android: Netrunner is a living card game from Fantasy Flight Games – “living” meaning all you need to play is in the core set, but it is supplemented by data packs on a monthly (if we’re lucky) basis, and deluxe expansions.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Set in a dystopian future where monolithic corporations control the vast majority of human interests, Netrunner is about the cyberpunk clashes between these big, bad corporations looking to advance and score their agendas and the subversive hackers known as Runners, who are trying to break through the corporations’ firewalls to find and steal those agendas.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sound like fun? Of course it does. While the game is assymetrical and the two players are using very different methods to achieve their goals, ultimately, Android: Netrunner is a game of risk assessment, resource management and maths.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That may not sound as much fun, which is why I didn’t lead in with that description, but stick with me.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the Corporation you'll be laying out assets and traps, playing operations and advancing agendas and as the Runner you'll be deploying the programs and hardware of the hacker trade and trying to break through the Corporation's defences. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On either side there are calculations to be made. How many credits do I have? Can I afford to make this run? Will I be able to score this agenda on the next turn if I rez this piece of Ice?</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It might sound very daunting, but don't be put off. Android: Netrunner is an exciting mix of bluffs and high-stakes maneuvering all wrapped up inside a vivid cyberpunk theme.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But don't take my word for it. Head over to the discussions on Boardgame Geek or Fantasy Flight's website and check out these two great articles from people more eloquent than me.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Android: Netrunner is a rabbit hole - get down there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/23/cardboard-children-android-netrunner/" target="_blank">Cardboard Children: Android: Netrunner</a> by Robert Florence.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/blog/post/test/" target="_blank">Life Hacks: A Netrunner Story</a> by Leigh Alexander</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7711735161219361157.post-26266620794816088942014-03-12T02:19:00.002-07:002014-03-12T02:19:36.993-07:00Android: Netrunner - My Journey in a Dystopian Future - Part 19: True Colours<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsvs0Figk9kvLJ_V0R2Vq5WOZP283nh8ahtz705orcssx73hxiMyaJTysEvbLFGNzZWC_lBugDbj3kpvkhDcX2-KD7ZY-olzAFMrlCZtO6eOLCaQNRGQ5UDoykb-N71HPqnkq_li1z4A/s1600/True+Colours.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpsvs0Figk9kvLJ_V0R2Vq5WOZP283nh8ahtz705orcssx73hxiMyaJTysEvbLFGNzZWC_lBugDbj3kpvkhDcX2-KD7ZY-olzAFMrlCZtO6eOLCaQNRGQ5UDoykb-N71HPqnkq_li1z4A/s1600/True+Colours.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I know, I know, I'm getting behind on the data packs again! Here are my highlights from True Colours.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Runner:</span></u></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyeM55abtQXpbrAET5_J59dZxpXWgwwi_fJ9S9Mup1TCMuL9Yt03eZlInGJSJ2uxw4CP14L47beE0Sbf0J-pICp8aGfm9DODcWHAXYH3OtpIB55n5uHcnGGwpQc4tQS3yIuo313M9ccUw/s1600/Keyhole.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyeM55abtQXpbrAET5_J59dZxpXWgwwi_fJ9S9Mup1TCMuL9Yt03eZlInGJSJ2uxw4CP14L47beE0Sbf0J-pICp8aGfm9DODcWHAXYH3OtpIB55n5uHcnGGwpQc4tQS3yIuo313M9ccUw/s1600/Keyhole.png" height="320" width="229" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Make a run on R&D and then trash one of the top 3 cardfs when you get there, even if it cannot normally be trashed. Then the Corp shuffles R&D. So you might not be accessing any cards, but it can't be underestimated how disruptive this could be to the Corp's game. And that's exactly what Anarch are all about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Check out that ability against Destroyer Ice and consider this: it smashes through Archer for 3 credits.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Garrote</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If it wasn't for the flexibility of Femme Fatale, I'd seriously be considering this for my new Criminal deck. Yes it's 2 MU slots, but Garrote is worth a look when deciding on your sentry breaker.</span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Corporation:</span></u></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNm3c0V2A1mOCCnUT6mknQFoMfrjYPSSTPDv5I-ylc2_SLNT8xjYfd_M-9h1ZyZk24ehv6zUuuP5jDpOjyfLANVippQqg7XcPA7eg0QXy54ZzmHLcU7w1tBpbrEX9_DdzAwgNinLy1kck/s1600/panic.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNm3c0V2A1mOCCnUT6mknQFoMfrjYPSSTPDv5I-ylc2_SLNT8xjYfd_M-9h1ZyZk24ehv6zUuuP5jDpOjyfLANVippQqg7XcPA7eg0QXy54ZzmHLcU7w1tBpbrEX9_DdzAwgNinLy1kck/s1600/panic.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Panic Button</b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the art and the flavour text to this card's name and ability, Panic Button isone of the best examples of how well Netrunner's theme is portrayed in the game. The Runner breaks into HQ and the Corp keeps coughing up the credits to fill his hand to minimise an agenda grab.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXvb7UGp83p2YQ49rdd7_NIjicIbqDd9EZ0iSDv3t9hkeOY4mKrQ1b3BGN5dBWS8pbVF62g4kYiAP5SSy6S7c4kM5xANY9zD-kkEbW3i4WID4xsO9RNuYFIJS0rL-6cPyStq-8-h0epM/s1600/punitive.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoXvb7UGp83p2YQ49rdd7_NIjicIbqDd9EZ0iSDv3t9hkeOY4mKrQ1b3BGN5dBWS8pbVF62g4kYiAP5SSy6S7c4kM5xANY9zD-kkEbW3i4WID4xsO9RNuYFIJS0rL-6cPyStq-8-h0epM/s1600/punitive.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Punitive Counterstrike</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Good grief. If Scorched Earth wasn't enough, a rich Corp now has this at his disposal to flatline you. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyMRHFierPz8N7C2sdVE2Zm5xMrdM4HTXOJ8MiIToxieg2Cx7SSKaleHlwIX6sKfvZLXODnF8GA4DnnU2t_X7e5t1XHbD9f_0iRtyo3CjKcr9v7PEkoa8ZlYrvuQLVBcksI8HKPfJos8o/s1600/RSVP.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyMRHFierPz8N7C2sdVE2Zm5xMrdM4HTXOJ8MiIToxieg2Cx7SSKaleHlwIX6sKfvZLXODnF8GA4DnnU2t_X7e5t1XHbD9f_0iRtyo3CjKcr9v7PEkoa8ZlYrvuQLVBcksI8HKPfJos8o/s1600/RSVP.png" height="320" width="229" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>RSVP</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A great card this and it's all about the placing. If the Runner can't bypass this, he may well jack out rather than carry on into something nasty he can't pay money to break. Then again you might want to just put it in front of a Fetal AI to <i>really </i>annoy them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My highlights from the fifth data pack - Fear and Loathing - coming soon. Probably.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0