Book Review: We'll always Have Casablanca

When I spotted this book about one of the greatest movies of all time (definitely in the top 3), I grabbed it up. Who wouldn't want to know more about Casablanca?

The book is long enough to do the movie justice, but the actual information on the making of the film is sparse. A lot of space is taken up with the careers of the various writers, actors, and crew, not necessarily a bad thing. However, after finishing the entire book, I can't recall any really fun anecdotes or amazing facts.

What I can remember isn't good. About half a chapter is devoted to people's perceptions of the film, most of it distastefully off-color (people with dirty minds see filth everywhere), including a porno novel, a paragraph of which the author reprints for us. It isn't often that I skip ahead when I read a book; in this case I wished I had skipped the entire chapter.

The book's final chapter, concerning contemporary spoofs, revivals, and tributes, is far more entertaining, even the unfavorable comments by non-fans. Certainly more interesting than perverted fantasies.

Conclusion: the book did little to satisfy my desire to know more about Casablanca. The good parts were pretty good; the bad parts were very bad. I recommend watching the movie again instead.

By Whatsits Galore.

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.

Free Web Host Review: Googiehost

Since I recently had occasion to write a detailed review of googiehost.com for Trustpilot and Sitejabber, I thought I would copy it here. If you're looking for a free hosting site, check out my experience with Googiehost.

Last July, I started using this site, and left a four-star review. Today, September 17, I tried to update my website and had to write the review you see here.

When I tried to update my site, I found the file manager completely changed. It took ten minutes to find my files; then came the bad news.

The whole file name no longer appears, so I can't tell one file from another.

I can't view files without downloading them, which forces me to waste time deleting them from my downloads folder.

I can't upload more than one file at a time. This is completely unacceptable; when you have a large site with hundreds of individual files, you don't need to waste time this way.

The file manager ends without showing all my files. I scroll to the bottom, but many files are still not shown, even though they are still hosted and not deleted. I can't manage the invisible files in any way: can't search or delete or edit or anything else with them.

I opened a support ticket, but you know nobody is going to change their site for a client. But this current version is totally unusable.

It's sad when somebody is foolish enough to ruin a website that once worked. But that's what you'll find at Googiehost.

Game Review -- Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

I received this cooperative tabletop game for my birthday. It would seem to be the perfect gift, since my siblings and I so enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure book series when it was a brand new thing.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, the CYOA books told a story in the second person, so that "you" were the protagonist. Then every few pages would end with a choice: if you open the door, turn to page 27, if you go back to the library, turn to page 42. You would make a choice, turn to the appropriate page, and continue the story. This went on until you came to an ending, but then you could go back and read the story again, make different choices, and wind up with a completely different ending.

This was amazing! A book with choices you made that turned out differently every time. And the board game does a good job of replicating that vibe. Through the use of numbered cards, you make choices that take you through different scenarios to the five stages, stopping places, really, of the story, all in your quest to solve a mystery surrounding a strange house.

It's certainly not a game of complex strategy. Some choices might be logical, but many are purely random as to whether they turn out well or badly for you. But the fact that "you" are the protagonist makes it easy to immerse yourself in the story, giving it a tingle of anxiety when you send yourself into a dangerous or frightening situation. At least it does for me as I try to imagine what I would really do if I was there. The ease of play also makes it perfect for game nights that include younger players, though we played with strictly adults.

The original book series that began so wonderfully soon degenerated into a ho-hum experience, due to many of the subsequent titles that lost sight of the elements that made the whole idea so appealing. Later books contained overlong narratives with fewer choices and unnecessary gimmicks, like endless loops, teaser pages you could never reach, and lack of bad endings. As if we kids couldn't take it when our character died from making foolish mistakes! And copycat books from other publishers were even worse. It's like they didn't "get" the appeal of the original.

And that is the one real problem with the CYOA game. It includes several failsafes to ensure that you win, that you avoid the bad endings and come to a good one. When you come to an ending where you die, and the game does include some, you are instructed to immediately go back to your last card and choose again. Why? If we die, we can take it, just like we could take it back when we read the books. Just like we can take it if we fail in any cooperative game.

Not only that, but if you happen to succesfully reach the end of a stage without having found every useful item in the game, you are given a chance to go back and search some more. Really? Why then give us choices at all if you're going to micromanage us into picking the right choice in the end?

In fact, because there is only one story in the game, the failsafes completely take away the game's replayability. And who wants to buy a game you can only play once? Oh, there is a die roll involved at times, to get you out of a dangerous situation. And it is possible to fail enough times to die. But, hey, just go back to the previous card, right? Wrong! Better to lose and then vow to play again tomorrow to show that game who's boss.

But fear not, reader. There is a simple workaround to fix this. When you die, ignore that return-to-the-last-card stuff. Dead is dead, no do-overs. And if you neglected to find the sword or the flashlight, that's your tough luck. Save it for your next trip to the House of Danger.

You'll still eventually go through every possible scenario in the game, but at least you'll have multiple plays before you do and get your money's worth of a simple, fun game to pass an hour with.

All contents are strictly my humble opinion.