PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. Paeter compares thoughts on the Tolkien movies with a hardcore Tolkien geek and Matt McKinney reviews DC's "The Flashpoint Paradox"!

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. Reviews of the movie Hansel And Gretel and the comic book Steam Engines Of Oz!

Story: "The Unit" by Mike Lynch   Genre: Science Fiction, Apocalyptic Rating: PG After the sun turned into a red giant, Sam Bailey waits for the inevitable end of the world with his family. But with time running out, will he come to terms with his past before it's too late? Credits: "The Unit" by Mike Lynch MikeLynchBooks.com Works by Mike Lynch: Dublin When the Sky Fell American Midnight The Crystal Portal After the Cross Love’s Second Chance Music Attribution: Organ Filler, Wounded   by Kevin MacLeod ( incompetech.com ) Cover Attribution: NASA Goddard Photo and Video Sound Effects Attribution: Robinhood76 , Adam_N , kingsrow , matucha , rpew1 , vrodge , runirasmussen , 3bagbrew , acclivity , RutgerMuller , Pogotron , pagancow , shaynecantly , Klerrp The Untold Podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. - See more at: http://www.untoldpodcast.com/#sthash.z8KZCO2V.d...

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. A "Phoned-In" Review of "The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug" and a retro review of Aeon Flux!

A "Phoned-In" Review, by Paeter Frandsen Rated PG-13 for extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence and frightening images Quality: 7.0/10 Relevance: 5.5/10 Listen to or download the review below: Download Link-  http://www.spiritblade.net/downloads/Hobbit_2_Phoned-In_Review.mp3

Review by Nathan James Norman Generations ago, a group of Amish travelled through the stars to settle the planet of Alabaster. Once there, they continued to live their simple life. But when Jebediah Miller discovers that Alabaster’s sun is dying, he uses forbidden technology to call for help. The transport ship that picks the group up seems to be their salvation. The ship, though, is also transporting something else. Something dark. Something that would make Jebediah Miller and the rest of the Amish wish they had stayed on Alabaster. If this story sounds like a joke, that’s because it began as one. The farce is retold in the novel’s introduction. Author Kerry Nietz took the title Amish Vampires in Space and ran with it, though. When I first heard the name of the book, I naturally assumed it was a satire of the over-abundance of Amish romance titles. It’s not. Nietz did his best to write a serious novel around the satirical title. And he succeeds, big time. I...

Written by Paeter Frandsen About a year and a half ago I began what I call my "Quest For The Ultimate Dungeon Crawl." As you might remember if you listened to my HeroQuest review a few weeks ago, I am a big fan of HeroQuest . Or I was at the very least. I began playing HeroQuest in junior high (1990 to be specific) and continued playing it throughout high school, college, and beyond, adding numerous home-brewed rules to grant the game more complexity and challenge. Although I played HeroQuest happily for almost 15 years, sometime around 2004 the formula began to wear thin, and no amount of house ruling seemed enough to keep the magic alive. In 2005 I began playing Fantasy Flight Games' Descent: Journeys In The Dark , which in many ways was structurally similar to HeroQuest , but with better components and more complex tactical rules. Descent was an amazing gaming experience that for years only became better as new expansions were added, including an epic...

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. The quest for The Ultimate Dungeon Crawl Board Game! Featuring discussion of HeroQuest, Descent, Pathfinder The Adventure Card Game and more!

Review by Paeter Frandsen The year is 1990. I'm a 7th grader in junior high and it's Christmas. Like most years, I have my heart set on a particular toy. And like most years, my parents were faithful in putting that toy under the tree for me. But this year, my parents also included a board game they thought I might like, one I had never heard of but immediately took a strong interest in. Little did my parents know that this game would launch an entirely new hobby for me, and also be the board game I spent the largest number of collected hours playing in my entire life. The game, of course, was HeroQuest . Published in 1989 by Milton Bradley in cooperation with Games Workshop, HeroQuest was an attempt at taking the classic Dungeons and Dragons paper-and-pencil RPG experience and distilling it into a board game that could be played in just a couple of hours. In HeroQuest , 1-4 players take on the roles of classic fantasy heroes, including a Barbarian, an Elf, a Dwar...

Review by Paeter Frandsen While I've read The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, I only found the book moderately enjoyable, but many others would call the books phenomenal. The first movie based on this trilogy was well made, but didn't reach its full potential in a few respects. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , on the other hand, is an improvement in all the right ways. After the events of the first film, President Snow sees Katniss Everdeen as a threat. Her actions in the previous Hunger Games have inspired many in the oppressed 12 districts to rebel. And though Katniss does not have ambitions to lead a rebellion, her actions have made her the symbol of it- a symbol that President Snow is determined to destroy. To talk much more about the plot would spoil a few of the great reveals that you'll want to be surprised by (if you haven't read the books). And thanks to the abandonment of the first person present tense of the books, the film is able to cr...