Thursday Amazon Deals: Avengers, Hunger Games, Firefly, Skyrim, lots more!

Amazon's starting discounting some of the late spring/early summer movies.

Wrath of the Titans is $14.96 (48% off) on DVD.

21 Jump Street is $18.99 (47% off) on Blu-Ray (with the Ultraviolet Digital Edition thrown in).

The Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital two-disc combo pack of American Reunion is $19.99 (43% off).

The Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital combo of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is $16.24 (55% off).

The pre-order of The Hunger Games on Blu-Ray (two discs plus digital copy) is $22.96 (43% off), only $4 more than the DVD version.

And the ludicrous four-disc Avengers (with Blu-Ray, 3D, DVD, digital download, music download, and possibly Joss Whedon's severed thumb) is $29.96 (40% off).

Other good DVD deals include Princess Mononoke ($12.21/47% off), Father Dowling Mysteries: The First Season ($16.99/43% off), Firefly - The Complete Series ($19.96/60% off), Warehouse 13: Season Three ($24.99/50% off), Leverage: The Second Season ($18.35/54% off), White Collar: Season Three ($15.99/60% off), Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season ($16.95/52% off), and the UK cut of Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey Season 2 ($21.97/51% off).

Over in video games, a little-known indie game called Skyrim is on sale for $39.99 (33% off) for Xbox, PS3, or PC. Call of Duty: Black Ops is $29.99 (40% off) for PS3 or Xbox. And the download of Sniper Elite V2 is $14.99 (70% off) for the PC.

Thursday Amazon Deals: Avengers, Hunger Games, Firefly, Skyrim, lots more!

Amazon's starting discounting some of the late spring/early summer movies.

Wrath of the Titans is $14.96 (48% off) on DVD.

21 Jump Street is $18.99 (47% off) on Blu-Ray (with the Ultraviolet Digital Edition thrown in).

The Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital two-disc combo pack of American Reunion is $19.99 (43% off).

The Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital combo of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is $16.24 (55% off).

The pre-order of The Hunger Games on Blu-Ray (two discs plus digital copy) is $22.96 (43% off), only $4 more than the DVD version.

And the ludicrous four-disc Avengers (with Blu-Ray, 3D, DVD, digital download, music download, and possibly Joss Whedon's severed thumb) is $29.96 (40% off).

Other good DVD deals include Princess Mononoke ($12.21/47% off), Father Dowling Mysteries: The First Season ($16.99/43% off), Firefly - The Complete Series ($19.96/60% off), Warehouse 13: Season Three ($24.99/50% off), Leverage: The Second Season ($18.35/54% off), White Collar: Season Three ($15.99/60% off), Breaking Bad: The Complete Fourth Season ($16.95/52% off), and the UK cut of Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey Season 2 ($21.97/51% off).

Over in video games, a little-known indie game called Skyrim is on sale for $39.99 (33% off) for Xbox, PS3, or PC. Call of Duty: Black Ops is $29.99 (40% off) for PS3 or Xbox. And the download of Sniper Elite V2 is $14.99 (70% off) for the PC.

Wow

So the ios version of Summoner Wars -- a game I'd heard good things about but never played in its original format -- may be the prototypical example of how not to design a boardgame app for newbies. After going through the awesome tutorial in Ticket to Ride, and the perfectly acceptable ones in Small World, Carcasonne, Brawl, and dozens of others, I found not tutorial whatsoever, only a link to a manual (which, of course, was never able to provide information while I was looking at and interacting with) the gameboard. Looks like a slick app, but completely newbie-unfriendly (don't get me started on how long it took me to even attempt to start a game, which required deselecting the default decks that popped up, since I hadn't bought the expansion).

Fortunately, they released the app for free (with iap to get the various expansions), so no money thrown at it, at least.

High recommendation to avoid if you're not already familiar with the board game.

Wow

So the ios version of Summoner Wars -- a game I'd heard good things about but never played in its original format -- may be the prototypical example of how not to design a boardgame app for newbies. After going through the awesome tutorial in Ticket to Ride, and the perfectly acceptable ones in Small World, Carcasonne, Brawl, and dozens of others, I found not tutorial whatsoever, only a link to a manual (which, of course, was never able to provide information while I was looking at and interacting with) the gameboard. Looks like a slick app, but completely newbie-unfriendly (don't get me started on how long it took me to even attempt to start a game, which required deselecting the default decks that popped up, since I hadn't bought the expansion).

Fortunately, they released the app for free (with iap to get the various expansions), so no money thrown at it, at least.

High recommendation to avoid if you're not already familiar with the board game.