Spot Reviews 05/01/26
May 01 2026
War Machine (2026) [/] A group of Ranger-candidates on their final test (a week long mission in the wilderness) encounter an alien mecha that starts hunting them down. With no live ammo it's mostly running away and trying to stay ahead of the two-legged mech. Alan Ritchson plays the grizzled Army sergeant with a bad knee who's on his third try to join the Rangers. He's a loner but was given command of the candidates and the stress of the mission finally brings out the leader in him. The movie ends with a patriotic Starship Troopers style "let's go fight the alien invasion" which I guess sets up follow-on movies because it turns out thousands of mechs landed all over the Earth. The action is pretty good and the mech is fairly cool and quite scary in a couple of scenes when it's right there with the candidates (I guess it's a couple of stories tall).
Delicious - Miracle of Life+ (2023) [/] Sort of a Diner Dash restaurant sim plus a family story. You play mom Emily who runs a big kitchen that serves customers over-the-counter, on two dining tables, and one cooking lessons table. Customers come in and give you their orders and you tap on stuff to assemble the order, tap to deliver the order, tap to take their money, tap to clean a table. Some dishes require cooking so you tap on the stove to cook and refill up to six items. Some things require a timing thing where a meter goes back and forth and you tap to stop the meter on the green area. There is some strategy is timing such as making a counter customer wait to pay a bit so you can get two payments in a row. I've played a few levels and nothing really new in terms of gameplay.
But there is a story. Emily and her husband Patrick want to make a baby which they were having trouble with but then she becomes pregnant and so we go through that story. The game starts with a three or four minute prelude and there are often one to two minute intermissions to tell more story with the characters moving around and saying dialog (better than a wall of text). I like that the characters make comical expressions in the intermissions which gives them life.
It's a cute story well told to go along with proven gameplay.
The normal version is $15 in-app to unlock the full game. There is also a GameHouse subscription if you love their games, though it is a lot more expensive than Apple Arcade.
Disney Dreamlight Valley (2023) [-] Apple Arcade version -- the game is available on other platforms. You are sucked into a fairly land plagued by Night Thorns that rob memories. Merlin is there for the tutorial and to activate your powers that allow you to destroy Night Thorns. Do quests and free the various Disney characters... On my iPad Air M3 the game is a bit laggy and you don't any settings to reduce graphics. More annoying -- although you can customize your looks you can't customize your name so it keeps using my full name (that it got from Apple Game Center I guess). Both those things don't make it a game I want to keep playing.
La Petite Camille, Millbrae - Beef Stew with Rice Com Bo Kho [-] Got this from delivery. Soup container + small white rice container. You kind of need a bowl to mix it in. Tastes fine though a bit plain; a little light on the stew flavors. I remember the pho place near my Union City house had good beef stew pho. Would not get again if I remember... I see previously I loved the garlic noodles and with the catfish fillet it's quite good. Hopefully I remember next time.
Delicious - Miracle of Life+ (2023) [/] Sort of a Diner Dash restaurant sim plus a family story. You play mom Emily who runs a big kitchen that serves customers over-the-counter, on two dining tables, and one cooking lessons table. Customers come in and give you their orders and you tap on stuff to assemble the order, tap to deliver the order, tap to take their money, tap to clean a table. Some dishes require cooking so you tap on the stove to cook and refill up to six items. Some things require a timing thing where a meter goes back and forth and you tap to stop the meter on the green area. There is some strategy is timing such as making a counter customer wait to pay a bit so you can get two payments in a row. I've played a few levels and nothing really new in terms of gameplay.
But there is a story. Emily and her husband Patrick want to make a baby which they were having trouble with but then she becomes pregnant and so we go through that story. The game starts with a three or four minute prelude and there are often one to two minute intermissions to tell more story with the characters moving around and saying dialog (better than a wall of text). I like that the characters make comical expressions in the intermissions which gives them life.
It's a cute story well told to go along with proven gameplay.
The normal version is $15 in-app to unlock the full game. There is also a GameHouse subscription if you love their games, though it is a lot more expensive than Apple Arcade.
Disney Dreamlight Valley (2023) [-] Apple Arcade version -- the game is available on other platforms. You are sucked into a fairly land plagued by Night Thorns that rob memories. Merlin is there for the tutorial and to activate your powers that allow you to destroy Night Thorns. Do quests and free the various Disney characters... On my iPad Air M3 the game is a bit laggy and you don't any settings to reduce graphics. More annoying -- although you can customize your looks you can't customize your name so it keeps using my full name (that it got from Apple Game Center I guess). Both those things don't make it a game I want to keep playing.
La Petite Camille, Millbrae - Beef Stew with Rice Com Bo Kho [-] Got this from delivery. Soup container + small white rice container. You kind of need a bowl to mix it in. Tastes fine though a bit plain; a little light on the stew flavors. I remember the pho place near my Union City house had good beef stew pho. Would not get again if I remember... I see previously I loved the garlic noodles and with the catfish fillet it's quite good. Hopefully I remember next time.