Epinions Recent Reviews for charivarius

"Anniething Else" Allen's strongest since "Aphrodite"

Mon, 22 Sep 2003 17:27:15 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Everyone knows a couple people that don't like the original Star Wars trilogy, some can't stand the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, and a few don't like "Annie Hall" for whatever reason. If you agree that most people do like that movie, (even if that's the only...

Once Upon a Time in Mexico: Once upon a Gun in Explosionico, lots of thugs got shot

Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:03:06 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Certain movies go best on the big screen. These movies tend to emphasize special effects and flashy scenes at the expense of plausibility and plot consistency. Moviemakers, when putting together one of these flashy movies, aim to entertain their audience...

You'd be crazy not to read "At the Mountains of Madness"

Tue, 16 Sep 2003 17:07:18 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - [note: I'm conflating two accounts I had running under this account name, in case this review looks familiar...] Let's get something out of the way. Are you a fan of horror or mystery stories? Yes? Good, read on! No? Don't waste your time [and stay awa...

Thirteen reasons to skip a lame movie

Wed, 10 Sep 2003 14:33:56 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - I should preface this review by saying that I saw the movie with a group of generally conservative, sheltered 22-23-year-olds, and they found the movie much more moving than I did. Perhaps it's because they're closer to jr. high than I am, perhaps they sa...

A good bit of biographical history

Wed, 4 Apr 2001 11:29:55 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - I can think of two essential reasons one might seek out a biography of Field Marshal Erwin “The Desert Fox” Rommel. First, one might have stumbled over his name in a standard historical summary of World War II, as did my girlfriend’s sister; given the...

Foxes in the Desert? Pfft. I Don't Believe it.

Sat, 31 Mar 2001 21:46:34 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - It's unfortunate that, more than a half-century after the conclusion of World War II, popular opinion toward its participants is determined almost entirely by propaganda. "Fighting the Desert Fox" (John Delaney's picture-book history of the Allied...

Who wrote the book of [war]? Hasbro!

Sun, 25 Mar 2001 14:47:22 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Axis & Allies: Iron Blitz captured my heart last year, and I've had plenty of opportunity since that time to give it a thorough "testing." I loved it immediately--I rather suspected I might, as I loved Hasbro's initial "Axis & Allies" PC game [& board...

The movie to end all interest in WWII

Sat, 24 Mar 2001 14:18:18 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - If you're sick of movies where Germans are the unsympathetic enemy, "Raid on Rommel" is just the thing. I think filmmakers *wanted* them to be the unsympathetic enemy; if that was the case, their idea backfired thanks to the terrible acting of Richard...

Age of Kings a Beautiful Pretender

Thu, 22 Mar 2001 18:09:10 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - In the world of RTS, if you call yourself King, you gotta fight the heavyweight champ, Blizzard's "StarCraft" and "StarCraft: BroodWars." And "Age of Empires II: Age of Kings" just doesn't have what it takes to make a champ.

I enjoyed playing...

If Ancient Rome was this Boring, no Wonder it Fell

Fri, 16 Mar 2001 14:00:25 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Caesar III opened my eyes to the possibility that video game marketers might be an unscrupulous lot of scraggs. The lies I was told concerning this game [on the box, no less!] convinced me to take a little gamble and purchase what looked not terribly...

Gateway Solo 5300cx: One lean machine, o' mine

Thu, 15 Mar 2001 18:51:14 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - This being my first laptop, I was interested to see what would differ from the desktops I'd used. Size, memory, battery issues were all things I expected, as was the obvious [but significant] issue of newfound mobility--one purchases a laptop rather than...

Fallout 2: Official Strategies & Secrets: Fallout 2 guide falls down

Tue, 13 Mar 2001 14:12:15 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Sorry, I couldn't resist.

All right. I bought the official strategy guide. I didn't tell my friends, especially after they had badmouthed it before, and found the idea of anyone buying the guide to be ludicrous. Their idea, and mine for the...

post-nuclear epic, not adventure

Mon, 12 Mar 2001 23:12:10 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Just as Final Fantasy influenced the way I selected games back in my console-playing days, Interplay's "Fallout" has to a great extent determined how I look at computer games. I believe it to be, essentially, one of the best computer role-playing games...

Good rpg for tha youngsters

Thu, 8 Mar 2001 00:17:02 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - After playing through [and enjoying] Fallout and Fallout 2, I had great faith in Interplay and Black Isle. So when Baldur's Gate came out a couple years ago I eagerly snapped it up, thinking to supplement my post-nuclear fare with some old-school...

Lords of the Disappointing Sequel

Wed, 7 Mar 2001 17:48:54 GMT

rating: 2/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - I loved Lords of the Realm. I played that game, primitive graphics and all, for hours on end. Innovative ideas such as economy-fueled real-time strategy, design-your-own castle, and running a surprisingly well-rendered 13th-century kingdom sucked this...

Such a bad movie

Wed, 7 Mar 2001 02:24:40 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Please, do not watch this movie. It's terrible. I knew at any point during the movie [after they found the treasure map in a prisoner's a--hole] what would happen next, such was the rigid action-movie formula they followed.

1)In an Iraqi...

Sure to draw flak from Tipper Gore

Mon, 5 Mar 2001 19:05:17 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - I must say, I'm more of a real-time strategy & rpg-style gamer. Only two first-person shooter games have ever jolted me out of that genre, the first being Quake, which I loved & played endlessly, mostly online in multiplayer sessions. Skins were fun,...

You must own this game.

Mon, 5 Mar 2001 17:23:52 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - Dear Blizzard,

Thank you for putting out such an awesome game, Starcraft. I played it over and over again. And just when I thought I'd mastered the different races, you came out with a product expansion that rocked my world. The storyline,...

one helluva game

Wed, 28 Feb 2001 15:19:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - I played through twice, the first took countless hours [possibly more than one hundred] of my life, the second time around took much less. This is the most intuitive game I've come across, for while puzzles & plot twists are difficult enough to give you...

Redefining real-time

Wed, 28 Feb 2001 14:50:38 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author charivarius - From the day I sat down to watch my roommate play this game multiplayer online to the day I smashed my CD a year and a half later, Blizzard's "Starcraft" owned our dormroom. Blizzard includes a disclaimer you must agree to before using the game or map...