arts / 8

 

Chairman of the Board:
Just Keep flying

» ‘Firefly: The Game’ board game review

Ed Appleby
Illustrator
Millustrator
@theotherpress.ca

 

oard games based on

not good. They are either a
cosmetic upgrade to a classic
board game, ora rushed out
game with clunky mechanics or
gameplay that distances itself
from the source material. Being
a self-professed Browncoat, I was

case with Firefly: The Game.
Firefly: The Game is a pick-
up-and-deliver style game for
one to four players, designed
by Aaron Dill, John Kovaleski,
and Sean Sweigart in 2013, and
published by Gale Force Nine.
Players pick a ship and a captain

: and then proceed to fly around

: the ‘verse building a crew and

: completing jobs of various states
: of legality for a variety of shady

: characters, all the while staying

: clear of the Alliance cruisers and

The game is won by being

However, there are a few

: downsides to the game. The rule :
: book is small and information
: can be hard to find during

: gameplay, which makes the

: game hard to play as a beginner.

: Game length tends to run at

: least double the estimated time

: given on the goals. Finally, as fun
: asitis to see all of your favourite
crewmates from the Serenity,

: ships full of carnivorous Reavers. : they are very overpowered
licensed products are usually : : compared to the rest of the

: the first to complete the required : Crew in the game, leading to

: goal, which is chosen at the
: beginning of the game. The goals :
: range from pulling off a big job,
: to just making enough credits to :
: retire. Some goals are for single
: player games and others are for
thrilled to discover this is not the : multiple players, making the

: replay value of the game quite

: high.

; unbalanced gameplay from a
: lot of crew poaching by other

: players.

I was very pleasantly

: surprised how much material
: the designers managed to get
: out of the source material. The
: game itself feels like it belongs
: in the appropriate universe. I
: would recommend the game to

any fan of Joss Whedon’s series,

: oranyone who wants a complex,
: but not too complicated, game

: and aims to misbehave for a few
: hours.

 

Not another cheap imitation

» ‘The Imitation Game’ review

Megan West
Contributor

OOOO

Bx“ on a true story and

set in England in 1939, The
Imitation Game brings back

to life the behind-the-scenes
efforts of mathematician Alan
Turing and his team to end the
war through means of cracking
an “impossible” Nazi code

called Enigma.

Many movies depicting
historical events tend to be
loaded with Hollywood extras
and overacting in order to glam
up the viewing experience, but
this film does no such thing.
Now don’t let that imply that
this movie is boring, because it

is anything but.

Benedict Cumberbatch,

who plays Turing, and Keira
: Knightley, who plays Joan

: Clarke, give absolutely stunning
: performances that have already
: been recognized as worthy for

: Oscar nominations and should,

Determined to finda

way to crack Enigma, Turing

: creates an ingenious machine,
: which he lovingly refers to as

: “Christopher,” that looks for

; patterns in the intercepted

: German messages. Throughout
: the process of doing so, he is

: depicted as an underdog with

: social anxiety (which has been
: said to be inaccurate) who

: rises above his awkwardness

: by living by the motto that

: “sometimes it is the people

: that no one imagines anything
: of that do the things that no

: one can imagine.” The film

: also deals beautifully with

: other social issues of the times,
: such as women's rights and

homophobia.

Regardless of the fact that

: this movie is by no means
: : in my opinion, win hands down.
: with goosebumps a number

: of times over the course of the

: two hours. Not only is the film

: heartwarming, it is infuriating

: in the best possible way, leaving
: you thinking about the big

: picture long after you leave the

: theatre.

action-packed, I found myself

Coupling together the

perfect screenplay and the

: beyond incredible acting, I’m

: going to say that, without a

: doubt, The Imitation Game was
: the best movie of 2014. Now all
: there is left to do is wait for the
: Academy to prove me right.

theotherpress.ca

 

Comic Corner:
The space western
continues for

Browncoats

» ‘Serenity: Leaves on the Wind’ review

: Alliance government, the
: crew is forced to come out
: of hiding after Zoe suffers
: complications during the

Brittney MacDonald
Life & Style Editor

have never hidden my

| : birth of her and Wash’s
extreme love for science : daughter. E
fiction, and Joss Whedon's: ©*48 ter, Emma.
Though I enjoyed

Firefly television series is
no exception. In fact, one
of my first reviews for the
Other Press was Serenity:
Those Left Behind, a graphic

novel that focussed on the : .
timeline between the end of : works that were originally
: published in single-issue

the television seriestothe : :
. . ? format because cliffhanger
beginning of the 2005 movie :

continuation, Serenity. ee: will marae @ .
Though I loved its comic 2 Teacer £0 Pres WP mae NE

: the story arc of Leaves on

: the Wind, I did find that

: there were times when the

: narrative would drag on too
: much. This is common with

sequel, Leaves on the Wind, : issue.

it doesn’t quite match my The art by Georges

adoration for Those Left : Jeanty, who is best-known

Behind. : for his work on the Buffy
Written by Whedon's : comic series, is bright and

: dynamic. It is bold, with

: good use of colour theory

: and earth tones to avoid

: use of too much black. The
: one thing I found missing

brother, Zack Whedon,
Leaves on the Wind picks
up after the end of the 2005
film. Captain Malcolm

Reynolds and his crew : 9 nt +E
eae ener enn : was the almost painting-like
avoid the backlash for : quality the panels had in the

earlier Serenity series.

: Overall I enjoyed this

: novel, but I would definitely
: recommend watching the

: film Serenity before picking
: up Leaves on the Wind.

revealing the powerful
Alliance government as
responsible for the origin
of the much feared Reavers.
Now pursued by both the
Browncoat rebels and the