REVISED Easter 2013 Opening Times and Monthly Mondays

UPDATE: Diamond UK inform me that next week's comic will be arrive on the Thursday due to the two Bank Holidays.

As such, we will be now be closed on Tuesday and operate reduced hours on Wednesday. We will be open until 6:30pm on Thursday for you to get your new releases!

Things return to normal the following week.

With Easter nearly upon us, here's our opening times for the Bank Holiday.

Please note that due to Easter Monday, Monthly Mondays for April will move to Monday 8th April. The same will happen in May due to the May Bank Holiday; Monthly Mondays in May will move to Monday 13th May. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Things will then return to the first Monday of the month as per usual.

Have a Happy Easter! Don't forget TableTop Day is this Saturday, sandwiched neatly between Good Friday and Easter!

The Watcher - Doctor Who: The Bells Of Saint John, A Prequel

Doctor Who returns for the second half of season seven this coming Easter Saturday, on BBC One and BBC One HD at 6:15pm.

Here's the online prequel! Enjoy!

Ben Fardon has his head in the clouds with Bioshock Infinite

Big Game Hunting - Game versus Comic: Borderlands

There are a handful of comics that only exist thanks to the great success of the games that inspired them. But just how good are these comics when compared to their digital counterparts? This week we look at the four-part comic series Borderlands: Origins, written by Mike Neumann.

What's the comic about?

Fans of the Borderlands games will no doubt be able to vividly remember the opening scene of the first game: four adventurers on a bus in what seems like the middle of nowhere. The four issues of this comic series show how each of those adventurers got there. It is the story of how Roland, Lilith, Mordecai, and Brick were eventually led to the bus that would take them to Fyrestone.

When does the comic take place in relation to game events?

Short answer, it varies. Roland's story takes place about seven hundred “cycles” before the events of the first Borderlands game. The issues for Lilith and Brick both begin with them getting on the bus, and tell the whole of their stories as flashbacks, with Lilith's going all the way to her childhood. Mordecai's story doesn't really give a time frame, and the last we see of him is when he gets hold of a business card advertising for vault hunters.

How true are the characters?

For the most part, it is as if the characters just jumped out of the game and into the pages. Particularly in Lilith and Mordecai's stories, you get the same vibe and attitudes you see on screen. But the comics also do a brilliant job of showing different sides of these characters. Roland in particular shows a great shift in character from the beginning of his story to the end.

What about continuity?

The nice thing about having very little by way of character backstory in the games is that their origins can be written almost freely. Even in Borderlands 2, where some smaller pieces of history between the four characters are let slip, there are enough gaps that their personal stories don't conflict with what's been established in the games. I've not been able to find any errors in the continuity of the storyline.

Sadly Mad Moxxi doesn't get her own comic in this series, but she did grace one of the variant covers...

What does the comic do that the game doesn't, or can't?

The comics essentially do what the first Borderlands game never did: tell their stories. The game is all about completing missions and achieving that final goal of getting to the Vault, whereas the comics show how the characters were brought to that path. The only failing here is that in some places, particularly in Brick's issue, the comic falls into the pattern of showing multiple pages of combat. While some fight scenes are to be expected in this genre, it feels like the comic is being padded to make up for a lack of story. The comic would be better if it spent a little more time on the characters than their combat skills.

Can I read this without playing the game?

Sure! The comics go a long way to giving the audience something to get attached to in each character, and also give a quick look at what you can expect from the game. You don't need to know anything about the Borderlands storyline to dive right in, but having played either – or both – of the games won't make the stories any less interesting.

Want to give this comic a go? You can download the first issue free form Comxiology! You can also pop into Proud Lion where you can grab all four issues or pre-order the graphic novel collection (released in May).

Rae is getting all geared up for a day of gaming this weekend!

Big Game Hunting - TableTop Day 2013: The Rundown

With our very own TableTop Day event less than a week away, now seems like a good time to give you all a quick rundown of the games we'll be playing. If any of them appeal to you, please send an email to sign up for a game slot on Saturday, 30 March!

The raffle prizes!

Every sign up nets you a free entry into the TableTop Day raffle, with prizes including £20 of Proud Lion gift vouchers and a copy of Zombie Dice! For information about signing up and available game slots, please click here.

First up is Small World, a light-hearted fantasy board game where the game world is simply too small for you all to hold territories peacefully. Players use a multitude of powerful races to conquer as many lands as they can and defend them from their fellow conquerers. However, no single race is strong enough to hold those lands forever. Eventually, your race must fall into decline - enabling you to take on a new race and once again begin conquering the world.

Unsurprisingly, all of this is done in the pursuit of wealth. Every territory you successfully claim earns you coins, even if your race has gone into decline. The player with the most coins at the end of the game wins. This game comes with a number of expansions, all of which will be available to play with this weekend. Click here to see the full review for this game, or visit the Small World website.

Next we have Fluxx, a card game that has the simplest rules in the world - right up until you change them. You start with the basic rule: draw a card, then play a card. Cards that you can play include Keepers (help you to win), Creepers (keep you from winning most of the time), Actions (let you do cool stuff), Goals (determine how you win the game), and New Rules (change the rules of how you play). The game ends when any of the players have the cards shown on the current Goal card, which of course can change as easily as the rules!

The best part of Fluxx is that in comes in so many varieties. There's a version for pirates, zombies, Wizard of Oz, science fiction, Monty Python, and more besides. Each has completely unique cards, and some of them introduce new card types to make gameplay even more fun. For the full review of this game, look here. You can also find out more on the Fluxx homepage.

Around midday we'll be having a go at Level 7 [Escape]. This is a cooperative board game in which players are trapped in an alien facility, and are struggling to get out alive. Your captive character must explore the facility, one random tile at a time, in order to complete objectives. You'll be faced with guards, clones, and events which will affect various aspects of your character, such as their health and their fear level. You'll also manage to get new items and skills to help your character survive the facility.

This is a game which includes several different scenarios, making sure every play through is unique. Each scenario even has three difficulty levels, allowing you to choose how much of a challenge you want to go up against. If you want to see more about Level 7 [Escape], check out the website here.

Later in the afternoon, we'll be having a good old game of Munchkin. This is a dungeon crawling card game that pulls jokes from just about every role playing game there is. Game play involves kicking open doors, fighting monsters, and looting treasures. You can even ask your friends playing with you to help fight those monsters, and share your treasures with them. But you may discover your friends are later helping the monsters and stealing your stuff instead in a desperate attempt to keep you from winning the game!

Like Fluxx, there are a number of different themed versions of this game. Unlike Fluxx, different Munchkin games can be combined to make your game experience more unique. Some examples are Star Munchkin (which will be available this Saturday!), Super Munchkin, Munchkin Cthulhu, and Munchkin Zombies, but there are plenty more to choose from. Small booster packs are also released fairly regularly, creating additional cards which can be added to your existing Munchkin decks. If you want to see the full review, you can find it here. You can also wander over to the Munchkin website for more details.

And finally, the newest game on our TableTop Day event, is Goblins, Inc. You play as a goblin in a factory, where the boss goblin is about to retire. He's offering up his job to the goblin who makes the best giant-mechanical-robot-of-doom - and by best, he really means whichever robot happens to survive the longest. This is a game that you play in teams, but don't count on your teammate to help you out for long, since you change sides halfway through the game!

This is a game that has a lot of elements that will feel familiar to Galaxy Trucker players. You first concentrate on building a robot with various tiles, then have a combat round where the robots are slowly torn apart by the other side. Whichever robot makes it to the end of the round with the most points (and generally, with more of their robot intact) wins the round. After two or three rounds, the goblin - sorry, player - with the most points wins. Also, while this game is designed for four players, there are adapted rules for playing with only two or three people. To find out more about this game, you can take a look here.

See a favourite game in our list? Or maybe a game that you've not played before, but would like to try? Sign up for a slot ASAP. See you Saturday!

Rae is doing her best to keep warm and bake ALL the cookies!