Geek of all Trades

Top 10 Films of 2011

Number 10 - Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

A lot of people may not have seen this at it got a limited run in UK cinemas as far as I can tell, which is a shame because it’s a brilliant film. A twist of the “deliverance” theme, a couple of shy, nice blokes who just happen to look like hillbillys retire to their woodland cabin for a relaxing holiday and to fix the place up. Along come a group of teenagers, who immediately assume that our two ‘billys want to kill them and rape their mouths, and in a fit of panic, start to accidentally kill themselves in hilarious and fantastic ways. As Tucker and Dale grow evermore scared and concerned about the safety of the teenagers, the teenagers grow evermore feral and determined to get revenge on T&D for the ‘murder’ of their friends.

One of the main reasons this movie works so well are the guys playing Tucker and Dale (Tyler Labine, who you may have seen in TV shows “Reaper” and “Invasion”, and Alan Tudyk , Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball) are endearing and right from the off, make their characters truly loveable to their audience.

The teenagers are so wonderfully stupid that you can’t help but hate them, so seeing them die in self-inflicted gory ridiculous ways is all the more satisfying. A marvellous compilation of stupidity and cleverness.

Number 9 - Kung-Fu Panda 2

Considering my usual film tastes, an animated aimed-mainly-at-kids film might seem a surprise to find on this list. It certainly surprised me when I went to see it the first time. After the original (which I only caught on DVD thanks a random rental from LoveFilm) brought Jack Black’s loveable panda Po to my attention, I crept into the sequel expecting more of the same – but it turns out that it is so much more.

A touching story, brilliant character development, great animation, and fantastic voice acting had me back to the cinema 2 more times to see this while it was showing.

Number 8 - The Inbetweeners Movie

Possibly the film that has made me laugh the most during this year. Having never seen the TV show before I went into to watch it, in my mind I had this movie pegged as a sort of “Kevin and Perry Go Large” for the generation of people who won’t know who Kevin and Perry are.

Filled with hilarious moments ranging from gross-out gags to awkward encounters to pure embarrassment and beyond, the story of 4 blokes off on holiday to get “knee deep in clunge” had me crying with laughter.

Number 7 - Drive Angry

And so, my action-junkie side is revealed as Nic Cage escapes from Hell and goes on a rampage of violence to save his dead daughter’s baby from being sacrificed to bring about some kind of evil. Ok, so the story isn’t exactly Oscar-worthy, but from the first teaser trailer I saw it was clear this was never meant to be. It’s all about the high-octane stunts, gunplay, car chasing, and devils-accountant-killing 3-barrel shotgun that can take out the side of a car. This movie is just me all over.

Number 6 - Conan the Barbarian

Conan roars and beat his chest manly-style as he chops and slices his way through hoards of evildoers in search of revenge for the killing of his father and townspeople.

The opening scene, featuring a young-boy Conan taking on a bunch of would-be killers by smashing their faces open on fallen trees, breaking their legs by chattering their kneecaps and smashing their skulls in using a war-axe almost as big as Conan is had be grinning like the Cheshire cat merely minutes into this movie.

Sure there are problems, some of the fight scenes are jumpily-cut, CGI isn’t always great and acting is sometimes stiffer than the corpses Conan leaves in his wake, but nonetheless I saw this movie 5 times in the cinema, and would have gone back for more were it still showing.

Number 5 - Captain America: The First Avenger

The only ‘superhero’ movie on my list this year, seeing as how Green Lantern is sat firmly in the naughty chair for sucking more than your average vampire.

Captain America manages to do something that a lot of superhero/comicbook movies of late don’t do – it provides an almost perfect balance between Captain America being the hero, and Steve Rogers growing as a person (see Spiderman 3 or Green Lantern for how to cock this up completely).

The fact that we are taken from meek Rogers trying in vain to join the army, being recruited into the super solider program, discovering what his new abilities can do, becoming a mascot for the war effort, throwing that aside and becoming a self-made hero to his war buddies, moving up to being a hero for the whole nation and taking on the big bad guy, all within the 120 minutes of the film while at the same time seeing enough of the Red Skull’s planning and activities to accept him as a viable world-threat, blossoming a romance for Cappy Rogers, seeing enough screen time of his long-time friend “Bucky” to feel the sting when he appears to be lost and having the whole thing culminate with an ending that sets the stage perfectly for the upcoming Avengers film is nothing short of spectacular.

Number 4 - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The only thing I love more than a good action movie is a good thriller/mystery/detective movie. I doubt I need to write any further justification for TTSS being near the top spot on my list. If you have seen the film, chances are you too would put it amongst the best of the year, if for nothing more than Gary Oldman’s performance alone.

It’s over 2 hours of a twisting head-scratching “whodunit” mystery, with intense screen presence from all the cast involved, and you really need to keep your eye on the ball while watching it. To quote a friend of mine when we left the cinema “I think I nodded off in the middle. I haven’t a clue what was going on for almost all of that”. Cinematic magic.

Number 3 - Unknown

Liam Neeson stars in this, another thriller/mystery but with some action thrown in for good measure. When Dr Martin Harris (Neeson) is involved in a car crash on his way to give a speech, he awakens 4 days later to find that someone else has taken his name, his career, his position – and even his wife.

It’s a race against time for Harris as he tries to prove the only thing he thinks he knows for sure; that he is Dr Martin Harris.

Or is he?

Number 2 - Source Code

Despite being release early in the year, I knew this would be almost, if not at, the top of my list this year. The ultimate in sci-fi thriller courtesy of Duncan Jones who also gave us the wonderful “Moon” back in 2009.

Captain Colter Stevens wakes up on a commuter train headed for Chicago. The woman opposite him talks to him like she knows him, but he has never seen her before and has no idea how he got there. When he looks in the mirror, he sees someone else’s face. 8 minutes later, the train blows up.

Captain Colter Stevens wakes up strapped into a chair, being given order by a woman on a screen. He has no idea who she is, or how he got there. There is a flash.

Captain Colter Stevens wakes up on a commuter train headed for Chicago. The woman opposite him talks to him like she knows him, and says the same thing she said before. When he looks in the mirror, he sees someone else’s face. 8 minutes, later the train blows up.

Captain Colter Stevens wakes up strapped into a chair, being given order by the woman on a screen again.

And so it continues, until Stevens figures out what the hell is happening, and why.

Now, the idea of the same 8 minutes spent on a train being played out over and over for 90 minutes sounds dull – and yet, with just the slightest changes on each “trip” through the 8 minutes, a brilliant and convoluted mystery begins to unfold, and as Stevens begins to unravel what is happening around him, there is a glimmer of hope that in 8 minutes, he could change everything.

Number 1 - Paul

Simon Pegg. Nick Frost. Seth Rogen as an alien. Jason Bateman as a no-nonsense agent. Bill Hader and Joe Lu Truglio as nothing-but-nonsense agents. Sigourney Weaver (cast in a film with an alien? Wonderfully comical). Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild, sci-fi author of “Flux in Uranus” Voice-cameo from Steven Spielberg .

This movie is a nerdvana for geeks and sci-fi lovers, but also very accessible to anyone who loves the duo of Pegg & Frost, hell, anyone who loves comedy should love this.

Just as you would expect coming from the guys who brought us ‘Spaced’, ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’, there are so many subtle (and not so subtle!) references to other movies, characters, themes and of course, comic books laced throughout this movie.

Seth Rogen’s voice fits the alien ‘Paul’ perfectly, and the CGI for the film is so good that you forget that he isn’t really there – and that’s a credit to Pegg & Frost too, their acting towards a non-existing character is flawless.

There’s so much good in the film that it would take way too long to write about everything I loved, and take you longer than you’d like to read it. But it’s one of the rare times I can say that there was nothing (and I really mean nothing) that I didn’t like about Paul.

That’s why it’s my favourite film of 2011.

1 week with an iPad2: My thoughts

So it’s been 1 week (give or take a few hours) since I got my iPad2, so I thought it about time I shared some further thoughts about it. Let me start by saying, god-damn I love freakin’ love the iPad2.

If you are an Apple hate, then you don’t know what you are missing. And no, I am not a ‘fanboi’ merely an enthusiast of excellent technical engineering and capability.

So, first off, Internet browsing: Safari browser included in iOS is speedy and renders pages very well in both portrait and landscape modes. There is still some ‘checkerboarding’ (showing a grid of small grey and white squares while the page loads) but only on pages with large amounts of content and only for a split second.

Once the page is loaded, the RAM of the iPad2 (a figure currently unknown) can handle having 9 Safari windows open at once, and very quickly switch between any of the windows without re-loading the webpage being displayed (something the iPad1 was not always capable of doing).

There are two main Apps not included in the pre-installed iOS that I have been making use of this week;

Garageband - a fantastic App and a steal at £3.99, making music becomes easy and fun. Drums are my favourite, but the guitar and bass works really well. The piano can be adjusted to show more notes or a double-organ style screen, and the pressure-sensor is good enough to be able to change a note based on how hard you hit the screen. Being able to record tracks piece by piece and layer them up then export them to your iTunes library and/or share them with others is a neat feature too. Defiinately worth it, just for the fun of hitting the crash symbol and bass drum alone!

Adobe Ideas (free version) - a pretty decent painting/drawing app, though features are limited to one type of brush, 1 layer (+1 photo layer), a decent colour palate but you can’t save your own selected colours to it and no ‘eye dropper’ tool to select a colour already on the canvas makes it hard to find the exact same colour later on. I managed to knock up a few drawings on it, though not with the best of ease, it’s very different to drawing with a pencil or even using a drawing tablet. You can purchase to unlock more layers for use but there are probably better Apps out there and I continue my search to find one.

Have also been using the official Twitter app, and I like it better than the full-on Twitter site I have to say! Viewing any weblinks within the app means no switching between Safari and Twitter, and the interface is nice and clean making good use of gestures/multiple finger taps for things such as opening profiles, and switching between Timeline and Weblinks.

What else…… the built-in cameras do a decent enough job. They are by no means high-spec, and the light level can really affect the pictures. No auto-focus on either camera means some apps for iphone can’t be used, I tried to test some Augmented Reality apps and was dissapointed to find I just got error messages. Oh well.

The screen really picks up on dirt and finger swipes. Cleaning it is easy, and the marks are not noticeable while you are using the pad, but once it’s switched off you can really see the marks.

Hence why I bought a Apple (Blue) Smart cover. Yes OK, it was probably £35 that I didn’t need to spend when a much cheaper unofficial cover would suffice, but in the interest of, well, being interested, I went for it anyway. The magnetic-on feature is really good, cover just snaps on in a second and is perfectly aligned to protect the pad every time. Cleans the screen really well and works great as a stand, also makes hold the pad easier too!

Overall I am majorly happy with my iPad2, it has very quickly become an ingrained part of my ‘online life’ and it much easier, quicker and more convenient than booting up my PC every time I want to use something better than the crummy 3G web on my phone.

iPad2 - the unboxing!

So yeah OK, I caved in and got an iPad2 instead of a cheaper iPad1. My main reason though? An iPad1 was going to cost me £300ish, and then  I was going to pay for a data plan on top of that each month too; my iPad2 cost me £289 and I get a data plan with that each each month….. so, kinda sort saving money. And the hardware is so much better it is worth the small extra cost I think.

Anyway, here’s some nice pics of the unboxing taking place.

The thing that got me was the fact that no-where on either the box,  the manual or the actual iPad2 itself does it say “iPad2” - it kinda worried me that I’d be given the wrong device until I got it home and checked to see the camera’s! lol

This thing is gorgeous to look at. It feels really nice to hold, just like the first one. Unless you happened to have the first iPad to hold at the same time for comparison, the suttle weight difference largely goes un-noticed. The difference in thickness (or thin-ness?) is very apparant though. See next pic for just how thin this great bit of kit really is!


Thin thin thin!


Baby got back.


The screen is brilliantly bright, and almost all of the reflecticeness of the glass screen is lost once the iPad2 is turned on.

Currerntly it’s updating to iOS 4.3.1, then I’ll be hitting the apps store, testing the camera, Safari browser for speed/rendering…… the fun hs only just begun!

iPad vs iPad2

So with Friday’s ipmending release of the iPad2 in the UK and the USA having had it for a few weeks now, there are plenty of snippets of info out there on the web about the differences between the two. Some are pretty big, while others may go unseen or un-used by many. Here is a quick roundup of the differences;

Hardware -
First, the iPad 2 has more RAM, which affects almost everything the iPad2 does and makes it faster. Apple won’t say how much it has (the original iPad has just 256Mb) but it’s likely that the iPad2 has 512Mb, though it could be as much as 1Gb.

Second, from what I’ve seen the screen is crisper and brighter with better image resolution. Overall though there isn’t much difference and for most things that you will use the iPad or iPad2 for, both will give you a great view of whatever webpage you are viewing or app you are using.

Third, a minor one, the “lock/unlock” switch at the side of the pad can be changed on the iPad2 to be a quick “mute/unmute” button. Perfect for if you are sneaking a look at something during a boring meeting and don’t want to get suprised by an advert playing music!

Fourth, the cameras. This is a big one, something that most people felt was missing from the iPad1 within hours of it being released. One forward-facing camera and one HD rear-facing camera built in to every model of the iPad2. Good stuff Apple!

Fifth, a built-in gyroscope combined with motion sensor means that iPad2 knows not only which way you are holding it, but what angle, how fast you are walking with it, if you shake it, spin it, do a 360 spin or just turn it upside down - something that no doubt game creators will take advantage of.

Sixth, the processor has been doubled now to a dual-core. There is a lot of misleading info on what “Dual core” actually does. Yes, there are two processors, but no that doesn’t make it twice as fast. It is faster than one core, but not double the speed!

Seventh, graphics have had a real boost for the iPad2. Apple claim that the graphics are up to NINE times faster than the iPad1. I’ve seen lots of videos of the iPad2 in use, and have to say it does appear to be true.

Eighth, the iPad2 has a range of hardware accessories coming out that the first iPad doesn’t; there is a cable that displays your iPad2’s screen onto your TV in very high quality HDMI, and there is a SmartCover that connects using magnets to always be in the right position on your iPad2 - plus, when you close the cover the iPad2 goes straight to sleep, open the cover it automatically wakes up, saving you battery life and being very convenient at doing so. Plus it comes in dark red leather - sweet!

And lastly, despite putting all the extra stuff in the iPad2, and making it thinner than the iPhone4, the 10 hour battery life with up to a month of standby time remains. And that’s not just 10 hours on the lowest brightness setting with it doing nothing but being on, that’s 10 hours of real use, something that has been tested by many a skeptical reviewer and found to be true most of the time.


So the hardware is an impressive upgrade; thiiner, lighter, but more content and even more attreactive looking than the first iPad. But what about software?

The iPad2 will run the latest version of iOS with all the usual Apple trimmings. It will make use of every app created for the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad1, as well as the bounty of apps that will appear rapidly making use of the new iPad2 hardware features.

Apple really promoted FaceTime for the iPad2 at it’s launch campaign. The idea of being able to video-call via the web (or 3G if you have that version of the iPad2) using a near-HD camera and see crystal clear image of the person you are talking to on a near-10-inch screen is pretty exciting (unless you have really ugly friends I suppose!) The downside to it is that you can only call other Apple devices that have FaceTime on them. So hard luck if your mates have Android phones, Samsung Galaxy tablets or Motorola XOOM tablets, your FaceTime will be useless.

Other Apps that got a plug included GarageBand, where the power of the electronic mixing desk was shown to great effect. Being able to create music directly on the iPad is pretty cool, I especially like the Virtual Drum Kit which you can play using your fingers, and the Piano which can sense how hard you are pressing the iPad2 screen to change the sound of the notes being played.

One thing we don’t know yet is if these new iPad2 Apps can be used on the iPad1 at all. I suspect they probably can, but perhaps won’t perform quite as well.


So, the most important thing then: THE PRICE!
There is currently nothing published that states the actual cost of the iPad2 in the UK other than Steve Jobs’ promise that it will cost the same as the original iPad did when it was released last year. In the US the basic iPad2 model starts at $499, so it’s probbaly safe to assume that the basic 16Gb WiFi-only iPad2 should come in at around the £429 mark, with the top end 64Gb Wifi-and-3G model hitting around £700.

I received an email from Apple earlier today stating that the iPad2 will be going on sale from 5PM on Friday this week. Apple stores should be opening for that time, and staying open until midnight I expect. Other shops like PC World and Dixons offer no guarantee that they will have any stock of the new iPad2 units at all, due to the way Apple operates (no stock will be delivered to stores until a few hours before it goes on sale). If America is anything to go by, you can expect people starting to queue outside Apple shops in the UK on Thursday evening, willing to spend the next 24 hours on that spot to ensure they are one of the first to get their mitts on the new ‘pad.

As for UK pre-order, it is assumed that the Apple online store will start to accept them from 12.01am on Friday morning - however, it will likely only be a “Collect in Store” job for a time, forcing you to reserve an iPad2 online then make a trip to your local (or not so local, depending on where you live!) store to pick it up.

If you don’t sit at the Apple store website and keep hitting F5 (refresh for those who dn’t know!) to ‘pre-order’ or ‘reserve’ yout iPad2, or are not willing to sit outside your local Apple Store for 24 hours and gain a claim to fame for Apple FanBoi-ism then you will likely be waiting a few months *at least* to get your hands on one of these devices. A few weeks into the release in America and the Apple Store is telling people to expect to wait 4-6 weeks after placing their order for any model of the iPad2. I expect that in the UK that will be more like 8-12 weeks myself.


So is it worth getting an iPad2? Well, it depends what you really want it for I suppose. If you want to come home, pick it up, check your email, post something on facebook and check the local cinema times while listening to the radio or your iTunes, then the 16Gb WiFi-only iPad1 will do you just fine, and considering you can get those brand new for as £329 now it’s not really such a great expense anymore.

If you are going to be watching movies, storing a massive iTunes library, pictures, games and have a real appetite for apps than the iPad1 32Gb or even 64Gb might be better suited for your needs.

for the iPad2, I think we have to go a step further to really justify the cost of the product. Ask yourself, are you going to be getting a 3G model? Or perhaps more approriately, is the aim of your iPad2 to become your always-on internet-everywhere compainion to everything you do in you day to day life? If the answer is no, then I already advise you to look at an iPad1 instead.

If you have lots of friends who have iPhone4’s or are also getting iPad2’s, who you are eager to video call and can’t wait to webchat with, then sure the iPad2 holds appeal for you. If you are looking for a new type of gaming console, no doubt the iPad2’s faster graphics and built-in cameras will lead to some fantastic augmented-reality games (Google it if you don’t know what that it, it’s very cool albeit something still very muich in the Beta-test & development phases). Musicians who want to compose on-the-go, video editing guru’s who’d love to edit their latest artsy movie while on the London Underground, these people will push the iPad2 to it’s true limit. The majority of users will use the iPad2 coasting along to check Facebook, read MSN News and maybe play Doodle Jump.

Overall, the iPad2 is a brilliant new bit of kit (and even if you hate Apple you can’t deny that….. well, you can, but you’d be a moron) but as with the iPad1 when it was first released it doesn’t have an massively obvious market. Yes, the FanBoi’s who love everything with an Apple logo on it so much that you could stick it on a turd and sell it to them will rush out, queue for 24 hours buy one and proudly proclaim that they were the first to use an iPad2 to FaceTime to someone. And those that never owned an iPad1 but are curous about the technology and how it could (for lack of a better phrase) enchance their lives might part their cash to get one.

But for me, having spent the last few weeks agonising over whether or not to buy one, reading everything iPad2-related that I could clap eyes on and checking the Apple Store 20 times a day to see if that “Notify Me” magically changed into a “PreOrder now!” button, the thing I think is best about the iPad2 coming out is the reduction in price to the iPad1. Besides, it’s not always a bad thing to be slightly behind the new market, at this point any bugs and issues with iPad1 hardware and software will be ironed out, whereas the iPad2 is still yet to face it’s true test - the hands and minds of the non-techy general public (and trust me, that is a scary prospect for any new device!)

Want to pick up an iPad1 then? Definately ignore sites like eBay, where bidding-happy morons are paying out over £400 for something Apple and PC World sell new for £329, but maybe check your local classifieds for someone parting with their iPad1. Alternatively, pop along and get a spanking new iPad1 from a shop near you (or from the UK Apple Store, where you can get free engraving on the back of your iPad if you so desire).

That’s what I’ll be doing!

Dungeons & Dragons: (Castle) Keep on the Shadowfell (Day 1, Part 2)

Dungeons & Dragons: (Castle) Keep on the Shadowfell

A quick over-view of the events of each ‘day’ of this campaign, for reference by our players whilst playing and for the benefit of any player who misses sections of the story or joins at a later time)

(DM: Pete)

Day 1 - 3pm to end of day


The party arrive at Winterhaven. They notice there are guards on the gate, but are allowed entry without issue.

Upon entering the main town square, they notice a few members of the town littered about; namely, a young farm-girl by the barn, an old man raking his cabbage patch, and a middle-aged woman walking down the main street. They decide to approach the middle-aged woman.

Mike enquires as to where in town they might sell some rare items of value, and is directed to a shack on the outskirts of town where a travelling man sometimes stays and trades items from his travels. She also offers them a place to stay at the tavern/inn.

The party travel to the shaclk, and are in luck; the travelling man is home. Mike enters the shack after some initial talking, and strikes up a bargin with the man for some items in his possesion. Merleck attempts to trade after Mike but the man has a dislike for dragon-folk and refuses to trade, picking up his satchel and new items he walks out of the town.

The party make their way back to the tavern/inn to gather further information about the town.

Talking with the landlady the group negotiate a room each for 2GP  night, and when asking for information about the town they are directed to an old man sitting at a table in the corner on his own, being old to buy him a drink in exchange for information.

The old man tells them that the Sage named Valthrun is the person to talk to about Cults in the area as he is an expert on the subject. The party also remember that they are expected to be at the Church to meet the Priestess Marla, the person who requested they come to Winterhaven in the first place. Mike and Merleck head to the Church, while Daisy heads off to sleep for the night,
Once inside the Church they notice that the walls of the church are lined with statues of various deities, with larger statues of previous Priestesses and Guardians of the Village. Approaching the Priestess, Mike kneels to pray beside her, while Merleck is busied with the presence of Thaine, the Blacksmith Dwaf of the village.

The Priestesses thanks the party for coming to her aid, and welcomes them to the room at the back of the church where he offers them seating and drinks. Mike and Merleck discuss the appearance of the Cult, the validation of the eye-witness accounts and the ideas of where to head next. Before they leave the Priestess remarks that the Sage Valthrun is the village expert on Cultists (which they already learned from the old man), that a man named Douvan dissapeared when venturing to the Dragon Burial Site to the south, and that a man named Parlé is interested in aquiring maps of the region.

The party agree to see the Sage Valthrun in the morning, check in with Parlé to see if they can profilt further from their adventuring in the area, and consider checking in at the burial site to investigate what happened to Douvan……

Dungeons & Dragons: (Castle) Keep on the Shadowfell (Prelude & Day 1, part 1)

Dungeons & Dragons: (Castle) Keep on the Shadowfell

A quick over-view of the events of each ‘day’ of this campaign, for reference by our players whilst playing and for the benefit of any player who misses sections of the story or joins at a later time)

(DM: Pete)

Prelude to the story, and Day 1 - 10am to 3pm

Out story begins with our 3 entrepid adventurers having received a request for a meeting from Marla, a priestess of the remote village of Winterhaven in the Shadowfell lands which lie in the north border of the Dwarven mountains. She is concerned that a Death Cult organised by the evil priest Kalarel has returned to the area, and wants someone to investiage and, if needs be, take care of the situation…….

Cast of characters:

Daisy Razorclaw, a half-human half-beast Druid with shape-shifting and elemental magic, well versed in the at of hand-to-hand combat and tracking skills but lacking in general social skills (played by Rachael)

Merleck S. Wyrmthrall, a half-human half-dragonian warrior with fierce battle skills and basic magic but low wisdom (played by Marc)

Mike “the Encumbersomely Well Endowed”, a Black Night Elf assassin thief avenger rogue. Average fighting skills, good leadership traits and excellent diplomacy and social interaction skills (played by Mike)

(Having quested together before, the 3 are familiar to each other)

Deciding to investigate what the Priestess wants from them, the 3 decided to journey to Winterhaven and meet her. On the path to Winterhaven, Daisy notices strange tracks on the path. Left by non-human creatures, they appear to be several months old, though none of the party are able to identify which creature/s may have left such tracks. Deciding that the area is safe, the 3 set up camp just off the roadside, and after some quick banter about character backstories, fall asleep.

Upon waking, they find that their rations have been stolen, as has their water supplies. Obvious tracks lead off into the forest opposite their location, and after discussion the party decides to pursue the thieves despite not knowing who or what they may be.

Once entering the forest, the footprints trail goes cold due to the grassy undergrowth; Daisy employs her shape-shift abilities to take the form of a wolf, and follow the scent trail left by the thieves.

After a short time, the party finds themselves on the edge of a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the clearing, there are 8 strange creatures visible, which are identified as Kobolds (3 feet tall, scaly skin, forked tongues, excellent sight from their large reptilian eyes but below-average hearing). The Kobolds are tucking into 3 of the rations, and it is clear they are the thieves.

After quick planning in the cover of the tree-line, and lively debate over diplomacy vs force, Mike “TEWE” unleashes a psychic attack on what appears to the largest and most unique member of the group. The Kobold clasps his head and viciously cries out in pain. His eyes begin to bleed, and although he is still standing, he is barely able to do so. (The attack also spills over onto the next nearest Kobold, who is equipped with a large shield and spike helmet. He squints his eyes, and scratches his head, but the attack seems lost on this foe).

Daisy leaps from cover to unleash a devestating melee attack of teeth and claws. Driving her sharp talons deep into the back of one of the smaller Kobolds, not a sound is heard as the spin is crushed and all air extinguished from its lungs. With her cat-like grace, she leaps from one Kobold to another, and another, easily defeating 3 of the smaller enemies in a display of acrobatic assassination.

Suddenly, a spear erupts from the treeline and pierces the shield-bearing Kobold through the shoulder. The second shield-bearer dislodges the enormous spear from his comrade, and raises his shield to protect his injured ally.

Fast and silent on his feet, the deadly Elf Avenger Mike fires off his crossbow, aiming for the largest Kobold who has only just managed to stem the bleeding from his eyes. Turning his head, the unsuspecting Kobold feels the brunt force of the arrow-bolt pierce the back of his skull; one eye now stands a clean 6 inches from it’s socket, ensnared on the sharp point of the arrow firmly lodged through his skull. The Kobold drops to the floor, and lifeless carcass, now no more than meat and bones.

The remaining Kobolds attempt to rally an attack of their own – one of the smaller Kobolds launches a spear at Daisy, but with her reflexes she easily dodges this obvious attack.

The other small Kobold tries to spear Merleck, but cannot manage to throw the spear the distance needed to connect.

One attack is successful; the last shield-bearer drives a small dagger-sword to the lower abdomen of Elf Mike, leaving a 3-inch-long gash accross his stomach. Mike responds with a vicious double-smash of his +6 mace into the face of the shield-bearer, his small stature weakening his use of his shield against an Elf twice his height. The Kobold is just barely alive, but every bone broken and lungs filling with bodily fluids, he hasn’t long to live.

Daisy quickly finishes off the two smaller Kobolds with ease, and prepares to dig graves for those she has defeated. With the one incapacitated Kobold remianing, Elf-Mike and Merleck decide to try and talk to him.

Asking questions in ‘common’ tongue gets them no-where. When they discover the Kobold speaks Draconian, they are able to convince him to answer a question;

“What do you know of Kalarel, leader of the (apparent) Death Cultists operating near Winterhaven?”

Visibly shaken by the mere mention of the name, the Kobold will only reply
“…he is someone you do not want to run into……”

Daisy attempts to use her Healing Mist to keep him alive longer for further questioning, but his injuries are too far-gone. His final words are “I am sorry, that we stole from you. My family and I, we were starving, always starving…. we cannot eat the vegetation around here anymore, everything has become poisonous…. only those in Winterhaven can grow anything edible, and we are not welcome there. It matters not now, you have already sent my Sons and Daughters into the next world…. and I too, shall……. fo..ll…..ow…. t..h….e…..m………..” He breathes his last, with his shield rested over his broken body; a makeshift grave of his own design.

After collecting all the items stolen from them, and taking anything they found on the bodies of the Kobolds of value, the party returns to the road, and heads towards Winterhaven.

They couldn’t help but wonder if things could have gone differently, had they tried a diplomatic approach to the Kobold family……

Verdict: one of the best special editions I’ve ever owned. The case is awesome, the guide on using the dream machine is a very nice extra, the art cards are cool, 3 versions of the flm + a 2nd BluRay disk of extras too…… and the first time you spin that totem your heart skips a beat ‘cos it spins for so long and you get a little freaked out! lol

Video of the totem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Hea7D22Yc

‘Teaser Trailer’ for me & Mike’s project-in-the-works. More info coming very soon!

Top 10 films of 2010

Here is my list of favourite films from 2010 - these my personal choices, based on how much I enjoyed viewings and re-viewings of films this year; this list is not based on how good a film was from one showing (for example, ‘Toy Story 3’ has better visuals and production value than ‘Despicable Me’, by I enjoyed ‘Despicable Me’ as a whole a lot more so it makes my list).

Number 10 -The Book of Eli
Post-apocalypse cannibal-slaying fun with a message and great visuals

Number 9 - The Crazies
Re-make of a not-so-good zombie flick with a twist on the classic ‘zombie’ character creation

Number 8 - Kick-Ass
Bloody good fun with real-life superheros

Number 7 - The A Team
Doing justice to the characters and bringing balls-to-the-wall action that the TV series never quite managed

Number 6 - Machete
Over the top, violent, riotous, funny, charming… Robert Rodriguez makes films that are just fantastic

Number 5 - Four Lions
4 bumbling would-be terrorists make for a very unconventional topic for humour, but it works a treat

Number 4 -The Social Network
Great acting and a based-on-reality plot make for an interesting watch in this tale of friends becoming enemies and the quest for money and power

Number 3 -Despicable Me
The only CGI animation film on my list, this was one of the few films I returned to the cinema to see 3 times this year. Brilliant, charming, sweet and funny, DM is perhaps the most consistently-funny films of recent times.

Number 2 -Inception
Mind-blowing interwoven complex story and characters, fantastic visuals, pithy dialogue and splendid acting; it was very hard to choose between this and Scott Pilgrim for the number 1 slot this year, very hard indeed,

Number 1 - Scott Pilgrim vs The World
It may lack some of the finesse of Inception, but this film is crafted so well in its own right too. There’s not enough time for me to say all I want about this film, but that fact that I saw it 4 times at the cinema and then twice on the day of the BluRay release puts if firmly as my favourite film of the year!