The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Billed as "an Adventure Anthology for HKAT!", I'll start out by saying that, although I enjoy HKAT!, this book also works quite well with any Hong Kong cinematic game. In fact, it's a lot of fun, and well worth getting.

First off, you get 15 different adventures! They are neatly broken into sets of five, based on genre type. We have "Gunplay", "Martial Arts", and "Bizarre Fantasy" (plus a neat Random Title Generator). Rather than describe each adventure, I'll cover their approach. They set up a background and a situation, provide some ideas to progress from, usually include a rough flow for it, and then describe all the players. The style is nicely even and has loads of sidebars (all over the place, really) relating the scenario to specific Hong Kong movies and genres. More so than the main book, Film Fest 1 rocks as a general action supplement for any HK fan.

The layout is sometimes sparse, but always inventive, and is loaded with movie stills. If only they'd stop pixelating them so much (smooth, man, smooth!) Despite this, though, I enjoyed the layout... it's far more interesting to me to see actual people than mere line art, and I enjoy trying to recognize which movies I've seen.

The connection to Hong Kong theatre is really one of the strongest points-- HK has made such wonderful movies, that using them as models or inspirations for games is just plain good sense. And now, in Film Fest, they've done the work for you. So now it's time to go out and take on the world.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

HKAT! Film Festival #1
Author: Skarka et al Category: game Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order (formerly from Event Horizon Productions) Cost: $15.00 Page count: 120 Capsule Review by Sandy Antunes on 10/27/97. Genre tags: none	Billed as "an Adventure Anthology for HKAT!", I'll start out by saying that, although I enjoy HKAT!, this book also works quite well with any Hong Kong cinematic game. In fact, it's a lot of fun, and well worth getting. First off, you get 15 different adventures! They are neatly broken into sets of five, based on genre type. We have "Gunplay", "Martial Arts", and "Bizarre Fantasy" (plus a neat Random Title Generator). Rather than describe each adventure, I'll cover their approach. They set up a background and a situation, provide some ideas to progress from, usually include a rough flow for it, and then describe all the players. The style is nicely even and has loads of sidebars (all over the place, really) relating the scenario to specific Hong Kong movies and genres. More so than the main book, Film Fest 1 rocks as a general action supplement for any HK fan. The layout is sometimes sparse, but always inventive, and is loaded with movie stills. If only they'd stop pixelating them so much (smooth, man, smooth!) Despite this, though, I enjoyed the layout... it's far more interesting to me to see actual people than mere line art, and I enjoy trying to recognize which movies I've seen. The connection to Hong Kong theatre is really one of the strongest points-- HK has made such wonderful movies, that using them as models or inspirations for games is just plain good sense. And now, in Film Fest, they've done the work for you. So now it's time to go out and take on the world. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

HKAT! Film Festival #1