Merry Christmas

Festive Greetings to one and all.

I hope you and yours are having a great time over Christmas and hopefully getting in a bit of game related fun. I have just been watching a TV program about the Must Farm archaeological excavation, a 3,000 year old, Bronze age settlement that has been preserved by fire, mad as it may sound. The wreckage dropped into the water below the platforms the village were built on.  They are calling it Britain's Pompeii.
                    The preserved textiles, wood, bronze swords, bowls and beads are giving the archaeologists a glimpse into the lives of the people living there with hints of the overseas contacts for trading. So for all of you Ancients battlers out there, take a look, it might give you an idea for a game.


http://www.mustfarm.com/bronze-age-river/archaeology/


Ivor

Thoughts on - Rogue One (No Spoilers)

Hi there,
             I think that Disney are finally getting their act together with this franchise. It seems like they may actually done a little bit homework before writing the film script.  Rogue One: A Star Wars (TM) Story (I saw the 2d version, but intend to see the 3d version too), was much slicker than Star Wars VII -  A Force Awakens, as it was more of a general action film, not needing too much background knowledge apart from the main character details.
             It probably helped that the plot itself was fairly linear. The graphics and acting were very good, as you would expect of Disney. There were nods to Star Wars that the fans will recognize, which was nice to see. A few old faces appear as cameos, just to wet our appetites for Star Wars VIII.
            All in all, it slots into the Star Wars History with barely a squeak out of place.

Niggle - How is the massively mighty (not to mention heavy) Star Destroyer able to just hovver in the atmosphere with only the rear engines going ? I suppose anti-gravity of some sort, like the land speeders ?

Lets see how they do with the next one.

It is worth a look.

Rating - 8 out of 10.

Ivor

P.S. I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing away of Carrie Fisher and then her mom Debbie Reynolds. They were icons of their age that will be missed indeed.

Thoughts on - Arrival (Spoilers)

Hi all,
         My feelings after coming out of the cinema was that this was a bit of a missed opportunity. The alien spaceships looked more like floating giant seeds than spacecraft, as you can see in the trailer. Rather boring. (They could have omitted the spacecraft landing out of the trailer, at least that would have been one more surprise to be had, even if it may have been a bit of a wet blanket moment.)  The aliens were shrouded in mist. Quite possible for their atmospheric needs, trying to add to the tension, but boring once again. Not much texture or colouration in their skin, another opportunity missed.
         The alien language and its actual decoding was handled in an interesting way, but why would the aliens have evolved its written / squirted usage in the first place? Just sound would suffice, unless they have genetically modified themselves at a later date. How were they able to control the smoke / ink once it had been emitted from their "hands" and into their atmosphere ?
         How had they managed to contact Dr. Bank's mind and not everyone on the planet (I know, that would blow the film), she was in the right place at the right time.
         I will confess that I had to leave before the film had finished, (about 5 mins to go, she was talking to an ambassador) so I may not have gotten some of the plot details, but I did not miss much, according to my friend who had seen it earlier.

A qualified 5 out 10.

Ivor