Game Review -- Encyclopedia

When I heard the name of this game, I thought it would have to do with trivia knowledge. In reality, it's a dice-placement game.

As an assistant involved in the creation of the world's first encyclopedia, you travel the world researching animals and publishing your findings to earn prestige (and victory points.)

It took a few turns to get the hang of the game, but once I did, I enjoyed it. The dice-placement mechanic is structured so that you're torn between taking the die you really want and giving rewards to your opponents. Add to that the fact that the available dice get progressively worse and you have some really tough decisions to make. But there are so many choices on the board that you always have useful moves on your turn. If you can get animals with matching habitats or diets, you have a chance to score big, really big, in a single turn.

A few details my be off-putting to some, but they have less to do with game play and more to do with game design. For example, the cards feature pictures of animals without names, except for the Latin taxonomic name. That's no problem for my family of animal-loving encyclopedia-readers, but those who can't tell a wombat from a fruit bat might grow tired of calling every creature 'that thing.'

The names of the various sections (Expedition, Publication, Experts, etc.) should be printed on the board; it took me several turns before I could remember which was which. And the reference guides are so badly organized as to make them almost useless. But none of these things should stop you from having fun collecting your critters, sailing the world to study them, and then rushing to publish your findings, all in a mere six rounds of play. And, who knows? You might even come away knowing what a Monodon monoceros is.

By Whatsits Galore.

Review: Vizio TV

I bought a Vizio TV in February from Wal-Mart, model #D24h-J09, serial #LINID2MX44414341. Just a small one to fit into a small space and watch while on the treadmill. At first, it worked well enough for both streaming and the DVD and VCR I hooked up. After a few months, things began to happen, namely:

It would update automatically, right in the middle of the program I was watching. And you couldn't watch during the update, unless you enjoy looking at a generic screen telling you there's an update in progress.

After every update, the on-screen controls were in a different place, often hidden in a drop-down menu, forcing me to click on everything until I found what I needed.

As the updates continued, they stopped interrupting my viewing, but started deleting channels. I had to run through the Add Channels function after every update.

In November, after 9 months of ownership, the channels could no longer be added. They registered as available, but the Add Channels function no longer accomplished anything. The streaming still works, but the DVD and satellite can not be viewed.

Three years later, the TV began to turn itself off at random intervals. Sometimes during a movie, sometimes on the welcome screen, sometimes on the menu. It just shut off, just like that.

After a month or so of this, the picture went wonky. That's the only way I can think of to describe it. Everything that was supposed to be black turned white, and everything else had a hazy purple shadow on one side. It was totally unwatchable. This lasted for three days before reverting to normal.

I still have the Vizio, so the saga continues. I can't even guess what will go wrong next, but you will not be surprised to hear that I will never again buy a Vizio device.