Games
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Short and sweet this week, as I'm still trying to get back into the flow of working (or pretending to) after the awesomeness of Memorial Day and Trashfest South.
As for Trashfest South, I received this from Matt too late to include in last week's column, but check out this awesome group photo we took that Sunday:
DICKFLIPPERS~!
For the movies, yeah, yeah:
I watched The Dilemma last night. Now you don't have to. You're welcome.
Game of Thrones...man, I almost wish I was just doing a regular review column of the show like I used to do for certain shows back in the old days, where I could just warn you of spoilers up front and then go at it.
All I can say is, if I hadn't read the book beforehand...wow. Unbelievable. My wife watched it with me, and she was completely stunned.
Too bad that next episode will be the last one for awhile...winter is coming, and without a Game of Thrones fix, it's going to be a long one.
Movies I Need to See in Theaters:
X-Men: First Class (the buzz? Very, very good)
Super 8 (seeing this later today, hopefully)
Pirates 4
Hangover II
Back to the Front...You Will Do, What I Say, When I Say:
I haven't had a chance to do a ton of gaming this past week, but we did manage to get a little bit in.
We played Felix: The Cat in the Sack, a game with a silly, cutesy theme but a great auction mechanic. Everyone puts cards in for the turn, and only one is revealed. The next isn't revealed until someone drops out of the bidding, at which time they collect escalating rewards (holding out longer in the bidding nets you bonus coins.)
Of course, not all the cards are good, and some are even worth negative points. A lot of the gameplay is slipping a negative card into a lot that won't be revealed for a while, then running up the bid to the last minute to collect a bigger bonus, then stuffing the high bidder with one of the crap card you put in there. We had a game where one of the players in our lunch group "won" an auction for 20 coins that ended up being worth -12 points. She bid high and then everyone in turn backed out, leaving her holding the sack.
It's a good game of bluffing, bidding, and timing. I like Friedeman Friese as he has that weird sense of humor, and while his games are solidly Euro, at least they're usually good.
We're lucky in that we live in an area that seems to have a decent population of boardgamers. Chalk it up to being an engineering town with a lot of tech heads, but if you can find the time, therre are plenty of chances to play games here in Huntsville.
My brother and I made it to the Thursday night game session at the Madison Square Mall food court, where we knocked down a quick game of San Juan before diving into a four-player game of Puzzle Strike.
The other two players insisted we choose characters randomly (this was something two of the players in Atlanta wanted as well...why?!?!) and I ended up with Argagarg. Arg is a weird beast because I'm not that great with him, and I also don't like playing against him, because he's annoying as shit. If you're familiar with Dominion, think of someone who starts with a Witch-like power, and you'll have a good idea.
Anyway, I hung in there to be next-to-last, but couldn't draw an extra Combine out of my bag to save my hide and the fish-man died a ignoble death.
Speaking of Puzzle Strike, testing is wrapping up on the "Rebalance" tournament set. I think rebalance is a bad term honestly--in Street Fighter terms, this is more of a "Champion Edition", without the boss characters added.
Only one character had emereged as being potentially too strong (Valerie), so one of her chips got nerfed. However, most other characters either got subtle boosts or were just made more fun to play in general.
The rebalance set is going to have 30 new character chips, 3 new puzzle chips (5 of each), player screens to hide your chips behind, and last but not least player mats, something that has been requested by many a player to help them keep their playing field organized.
We Got A Thing, That's Called Radar Love:
It's kind of a quiet time in terms for game releases. As the board game hobby market evolves, it's become very similar to the video game industry. Now we see a deluge of titles for the holiday season, while not as much is put out in the summer time--pretty much the opposite of the blockbuster movie market.
I am looking forward to Richard Lanius' Elder Sign, which looks awesome. In that same vein, now that a second edition of Mansions of Madness is due with corrected cards, I'm looking forward to taking the plunge on that as well, though with its price tag that's more likely to hold off until my birthday.
And while I know it seems hypocritical for me to say so since I've hyped the shit out of many deckbuilding games, I'm starting to get the "Summer of 1995 CCG" feeling coming on. So many deckbuilding games are creeping out of the woodwork, I can no longer even keep track of them all.
I will probably try the Star Trek deckbuilding game, assuming it continues to shape up well. I'm thinking phasers are set to "pasted on theme", though, so we'll see.
I gave in and bought a copy of Earth Reborn at the Tanga sale. Having seen the game in person, $29.99+shipping was a ridiculously great price. The deal was also available at Toys for Thought, but they appear to be out now as well. If you see a copy of this though at these prices, you'd be crazy not to nab one. $30 for a box full of plastic, cardboard, dice, and other assorted eye candy? Yes, please.
That's gonna do it for a shortened column this week. I'm hoping to squeeze some more gaming in, get some of these "to be reviewed" games off the checklist and give you guys the skinny on another passel of games. Until then, I'll see ya in seven.
