I moved from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to Regina, Saskatchewan a little over three years ago.  Not a huge move -- only a bit more than a 2-hour drive away -- but certainly far enough to put a major crimp in the frequency I play board games.  When living in Saskatoon, I was usually playing games at least once a week, with my friend, Rob, hosting on Wednesday evenings and myself occasionally hosting on Saturdays or Sundays.  

Since moving to Regina, I'll go three or four months between gaming sessions, only sitting down at a table with a handful of dice if I'm visiting Saskatoon and Rob happens to be hosting some games on the weekend.  But, two years ago, Rob decided to host his own "gaming convention" in his basement, since he was interested in going to something like BGG.Con but unwilling to spend the dough it would take to get there.  Rob's convention (referring to a bunch of guys in his basement) has come to be known as KingCon (his last name's Kingwell), a multi-table, all-weekend gaming fest.  Tonnes of fun, but these rare Saskatoon excursions aren't enough for me to get an adequate gaming fix, knowing that it might be three months or more before I'll be able to join them again.  So, after the inaugural KingCon, I decided on the drive home that I missed the time when gaming was routine instead of being part of an event.  Obviously I can't insert myself back into the old routine of Wednesday evenings, so instead I decided to make the events more routine.  I didn't want to put the burden on Rob to host more than one of these Cons a year, so I decided to copy his convention and host a weekend gaming excursion for my friends down in Regina.  In 2011, it had the uninspiring moniker of KingCon: Road Trip.  This year, it was the slightly catchier:

(A suitable alternative name would have been Boy Slumber Party With Dice 2012.)

This year, the gaming joy spread over parts of five-days, with as many as eight people participating.  Here's a recap.

DAY 1

Only one game played on the Thursday before the May Long Weekend (Monday May 21st was Victoria Day in Canada).  The first two guys from Saskatoon showed up and after shooting the shit for a while, we broke out a game of Blood Bowl: Team Manager (BB:TM).  This is the game that was played most often over the course of the weekend.  I dig this game, though I think it does a better job of letting me coach a BB team (player assignment, tactical decisions) than manageone (team upgrades are more about luck of the draw than players' decisions).  I think I came in second place.

DAY 2

One of the two early birds slept at my house (the other at his parents') and so I taught him Summoner Wars (SW) after breakfast, me as the Tundra Orcs and he as the Cave Goblins.  I won a close game.  The other guy showed up halfway through so I then played another game with me as the Phoenix Elves and he as the Guild Dwarves.  He wasn't a big fan of the Dwarves' focus on wall attacks (though he might have appreciated it if I was the Summoner-attacks-with-walls Tundra Orcs again) and my Phoenix Elves' sure hits almost whittled him down, but he ended up beating me in another close match.  He was now 2-2, having also won last night's BB:TM game.  This dude always wins games.  It's uncanny.  His brain is just wired for gaming logic, I guess. 
Still just the three of us, so we followed that up with another game of BB:TM (guess who won?) and then a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse (SotM), with the Egyptian Sun God, the War Machine dude, and me as Fake Hulk against Fake Lex Luthor in the lost city of Atlantis.  Long story short, we had a piss-poor team to go up against Sexy Lexy since none of us were good at trashing his ongoing effects, but, with War Machine dead and both Sun God and Fake Hulk on their last HP, we eventually settled into a pattern in which Fake Hulk could do a "ground pound" every round, which negated any damage done by non-heroes.  Finally, we were starting to make slow and steady progress.  Unfortunately, Fake Hulk got overstimulated by our strategy and, when forced to draw and play his top card, he did a "rampage," killing the Sun God with what might have been the only combination of cards that could have interrupted our pattern AND dealt damage.  I don't want to think of the odds, mainly because I'm stupid.  So I found SotM to be a lot of fun, though it can run a bit long, and there are definitely too many duplicate cards in the decks.

Hey, two more people showed up!  We played a five-player game of Space Hulk: Death Angel (which has nestled itself comfortably within my ten favourite games).  There were some rookies on this mission, so I left out all the expansion stuff (I wrote about all four PoD expansions in a previous entry).  The Blood Angels ended up prevailing, surrounded by seemingly insurmountable swarms of genestealers, by successfully activating the panel in the final location on our third and final attempt.  I fucking love this game.

Then, inspired by the oh-so-awesome HBO show, we played a game of A Game of Thrones.  First time it's hit the table, at least with me in attendance, in over three years.  I was foggy on the rules, so I left out all the expansion bits apart from the ports.  I was the Lannisters.  One player frayed a few people's nerves when he complained for a couple minutes when I supported Greyjoy in a battle against his Tyrell knights (didn't matter that I had three valid reasons for giving support, apparently I was playing "randomly").  The game went the full ten turns with the winner (House Baratheon) scoring five cities.  Tyrell finished second, I finished third, Greyjoy finished fourth (yeah, I sure did determine the outcome of the game with that one support, didn't I), and the guy playing House Stark was beheaded.

DAY 3

Holy fuck [pain] what the fuck [searing pain] is wrong with my fucking head [immense searing pain]? Lack of sleep headache, that's what.  Felt like someone was digging their fingers around my right eyeball searching for loose change.  Not having been a father yet seems to have made me a relative pussy when it comes to sleep.  I didn't realize that so much until my guests with kids were waking up at the same time saying, "I never get this much sleep at home!"  In my defense, I had just returned from a honeymoon/work conference (romance!!) with a three-hour time difference the night before the first guests arrived.

Two more guests arrived Saturday morning, hauling about 60 games between the two of them.  What the fuck, guys?  I appreciate the enthusiasm, but part of the fun of playing games in Regina is that we can play some of my dusty old games for a change.

We opened the day with a game of Quarriors, first time for any of us.  Fun game, but I'm not sure if there's enough variety to give it the same kind of legs as a game like Dominion.  Still, rolling dice is more fun that picking up and laying down cards, so I dug it.

We then played a seven-player game of Red November.  In some reverse-role playing, my gnome took after me and passed out, burning me in a fire and eliminating me fairly early.  Not sure how the game ended as I became distracted by hosting duties.

Four of us then played Chaos in the Old World (CitOW) while the remaining three broke out Merchants & Marauders(M&M).  This was my first game of CitOW since it was first released, and I was playing against some wily veterans.  After a few rounds, when I saw that I had little chance to win with either dial advances or victory points (I was the blue magic dudes), I instead opted to strive for the world-is-corrupted-everybody-loses ending.  I ended up “winning” in that very loose sense of the word since everyone lost, with one guy (Khorne) a dial turn from winning and the Sex God only a handful of VP away from the requisite 50.

My headache was getting to be too much, so I took a nap (funny thing to say at 9:00PM) and missed out on a game of Eclipse.  Too bad.  I've yet to try it.

After I woke up and the guys wrapped up their game, we played three games of The Resistance.  Great, great game.  Unfortunately, I'm a piss-poor actor with no poker face, so I'm shitty at pretending I'm not a spy when I am, in fact, a spy.  But I decided to do the opposite -- pretend I am a spy when I am, in fact, not -- and I was able to hide my identity one way or the other much more sneakily.  One dude played great, receiving a couple of "Well played, sir" acknowledgments: One, for deflecting suspicion off his spy-ass by jumping all over a true-blue Resistance member who was taking a few too many seconds to put his card in on the mission; Two, for effectively forcing me to reveal myself and another player as spies due to his unassailable logic about who should be included in the mission based on last vote.  Very quick working through the logic on his part.  Some people say this replaces Battlestar Galactica.  It definitely doesn't, even though it captures one aspect of it.  As the dude who kicked so much ass said, it feels like compressed games of poker more than it feels like BSG.

We wrapped the night up with Citadels.  I think the dude who always wins won, but I was damn near hallucinating by that point.

DAY 4

Played two games of Mord im Arosa.  Neat game.  I can't think of another game that tests the audial acuity of players.  I destroyed in both games I played.  Weird.  I guess I should have played the xylophone.

Another game of 7 Wonders without me.  No big loss.  Was it dragonstout who compared it to knitting?  Astute.

Time to put that kiddy shit away and play with a real man's game.  One with intergalactic kitty cats and turtly turtles.  Fucking Twilight Imperium: third edition, bitches.  The double-rainbow of board gaming.  We played a six-player game (my wife joined us) that went about 11 hours (including dinner break).  We added the three new races, flagships, mechanized units, mercenaries, and political reps from Shards of the Throne.  I was the University of Jol'Narr, an attractive victim for the new tech-hungry Nekron Virus, but I was luckily on the opposite end of the system.  I managed the dumbest move in the history of dumb board gaming moves.  My fledgling fleet was uncomfortable neighbors with a couple of dreadnaughts from the Barony of Letnev.  I grabbed the 1 Initiative Strategy Card so I could use my first move to retreat towards my Deep Space Cannons.  So what did my sleep deprived, beer addled brain do with my first move?  I played an action card to break up a trade agreement.  To which the Baron said "ta very much" before dreadnaught-raping me.  That screw-up hamstrung my mobility, and therefore my resources, for about the next seven hours.  Still, I had a blast.  This was our first TI:3 game in years.  I forgot how great it is.

The other two guys who opted to sit out of TI:3 played M&M, BB:TM, Cadwallon: City of Thieves, and probably about 17 other games in the meantime.

After that marathon, we broke into two groups.  I played in two four-player games of SotM.  We won both games: we eventually whittled down the robot factory and beat the demon/alien/general pretty handily -- or at least we thought we did until we looked at what would have been his next  card draw and saw that he would have beaten us by building up his full minion army from the discard pile.  The other three played a game of BB:TMand Red Dragon Inn.

Sleep.  Thank Christ, sleep.

DAY 5

*two hours later*

C'mon, cats, shut up and let me sleep!

Before heading out for breakfast, I got in another game of SW, me as the Guild Dwarves and my opponent, KingCon Rob, as the Tundra Orcs.  Rob has the Master Set and is much more experienced than I am.  He beat me but good.

A few of the guys left for home before breakfast.  After eating, my heart still wanted to get a game or two in (thisclose to setting up Earth Reborn), but my brain and body said "fuck off, heart," and then I passed out for five hours.  When I woke up, everyone was gone.  Except my wife.  Who said, "clean the goddamn basement."

THOUGHTS AFTERWARDS

How is it that I can play games for five days straight and still only have scratched the surface of what I wanted to have hit the table?  No Runewars?  No Here I Stand?  No Greed Incorporated?  No Battlestar Galactica?  No Yomi?  No Cosmic Encounter?  Still, I certainly can't complain.  And if I do start to complain, please reach through the Internet, slap me, and say "you just played Twilight Imperium, asshole.  Be satisfied." 

Overall it was a fantastic weekend.  I'm not so much wistful of the games that didn't get played but wistful that I can't get together with my friends to play these games more often.  I do see the appeal of going to big organized gaming conventions but, for me, the games are just a pretense for hanging out with and competing against friends.  I'd much rather go to KingCon or RepliCon.

I picked up an iPod Touch recently and thought I'd start giving my impressions on some of the games for it. I'm hoping these blurbs will lead to me writing full-fledged board game reviews later, which I've been unmotivated to do since I came here.

Reiner Knizia's Robot Master (iPhone & iPod Touch): 

Straight out let me say that this game really didn’t need to have Knizia’s name attached for me to know it was designed by him. It’s basically a tile-laying game where your lowest total is your score as well as some other Knizia standards. The board is a 5x5 grid and there are six of each tile numbered 0-5. At the start of the game a random tile is placed in the center to start things off as each tile has to be adjacent to another. When a tile is placed into a square the total for that row and column increases by the tile’s point value. A 10x bonus is given if there is a matching tile in that row or column and if there are two other matching tiles that row or column receives 100 points regardless of tile value. Once every space on the grid is filled the game is over and as stated your lowest total in either a row or column is your score.A pretty simple game on the same complexity level of something like Sudoku.

In the solitaire game, my preferred way of playing, you are given one tile per turn to place and your final score is the lowest total out of the rows and columns. If playing multi-player you get a hand of 5 or 12 tiles (your choice) to choose from and your score will be the lowest column total while your opponents score will be the lowest row total. I only played a few games against the AI and found no problems with it. I'm not sure when or why I'd ever play against a live person, but the option is there nonetheless.

Now we joke a lot around F:AT about the so-called “Euro” games being multiplayer solitaire, math exercises, puzzles disguised as games, etc. However, for the on-the-go and mostly solitaire needs of Touch or iPhone users they apparently work out pretty well. For me the ability to play it while listening to music is a big plus and pretty much the kind of thing I got a Touch for instead of just a regular iPod. Anyways, if you like Knizia’s tile-laying games then this is a good portable option where you’ll find more strategy the more you play it. I’m not sure if this has any direct board game equivalent, but there are implementations for Reiner Knizia’s Poison and Reiner Knizia’s Knights Of Charlemagne. I’ve never played Knights, but the screenshot makes it look Battle Line-esque so I may give that a shot sometime also.

I probably wasn't going to get it at $60, since I've grown averse to roll-and-move games. I'm fine with Runebound, because you can move in more than two directions and adding one deck of cards can radically change how the game is played, while any of the large expansions do so, as well, rather than just adding on to the main game a la Talisman.

For those of you in the F:AT Yahoo EPL game, the league starts tomorrow.

That means if you don't want to lose your first-week points (and have a massive hill hill to climb all season), you need to get your teams locked in tonight (for USA time zones).

Be absolutely sure you have 11 guys in the lineup, even if half of them have been sent to FC Cluj on loan.  6 guys on the field from an 11-man lineup beats the zero points from a 10-man "I'll get back to it..." every time.

If you missed the initial call for the league and still want to play, you've got about 16 hours to register and get a team in for Week 1.  (after that, you're still free to register and play, but you'll be posting zeroes for every week you weren't in.)

http://uk.premiership.fantasysports.yahoo.com/football

Group ID: 1365

Password: excitedman

If there's two things I'm sick to death of, it's zombies and deckbuilding games. Here then, is my review of a zombie deckbuilding game that I really like.

Boardgaming used to be an inexpensive hobby. Even as starving grad students, the Man and I could scrape together enough money to buy a new board game now and again. Once we graduated, and were both working, the cost of a board game became almost trivial. When friends or family commented on the money I spent on games, I could easily point out that it was far less then they spent on ice skating, or quilting, or even going to the movies twice a month.

[quote]I think whats happened in the board game industry is the same thing that has happened in every industry: its now deemed unprofitable to make something of high quality that has a high degree of re-usability. The thinking is: Any thing should be real cool and amazing...for a little while. Then its time to buy the next thing. Thats how you keep the profits up.

Am I paranoid about this? Maybe, but I don't think so. I don't think there's an international conspiracy or anything. Its just more profitable to be disposable, and there is no incentive to do it another way.[/quote]

The perfect way to get back into Magic: The Gathering.

This is a reprint from something I wrote recently on BGG.  I'm posting it here for 2 reasons.  First I'm tired of looking at my last Blog with Howard picture  on the Front page and second I hoping somebody will be inspired to do this type of write up for their favorite modular tactical war game like  M44, CC:A, Battlelore or Battle Cry.  I think this maybe helpful for people to pick the best scenario for them. 

Recent trash talk has got me mulling over the different reviewers that post here (and elsewhere) and about the different styles of writing in general. I've tried my hand a few short reviews but I’m too lazy and too inept to do it with any frequency. Also, I chafe at the thought of contributing anything actually useful which might detract from my troll status.

It is interesting to see personalities shine through the writing but it also apparent that there are certain styles that people adopt. So for your consideration I will review the reviewers. Or more precisely types of reviewers:

Just the facts ma'am. This type of reviewer is going to concentrate on presenting an overview of the game as concisely as possible. Personal opinion is mostly absent and the mundane mechanics of the game are glossed over as the critic highlights the most important parts of the game.

-Strong, weak, or innovative points are highlighted.

-succint

- weak 7.5

The Outsider
The outsider has a different perspective and is sure to let you know about it. He does not share popular opinion. He is different. He makes a point of separating himself from the Establishment (tm) and the Man (tm.)  Popular opinion is anathema to him since he must be contrary. An edgy and worldly demeanor is essential to pull off the outsider.

The Maverick
The maverick is much like the outsider-Less edgy, but faster with the one liner.  F:AT is sick with mavericks (myself included)  The review is characterized by glib prose and witty references. You'll learn as much about the writers' BBQ preferences and favorite type of scotch (or RUM!) as you will about the game. The maverick has got to convince you he's hip and funny or else his whole persona is blown. That is ok, if anyone calls him out (or goes Loter on his ass) he can always become an outsider.

The Philosopher
Games ast art.
Games as a metaphor
Anything but games as games.
The philosopher is intensely interested in the intellectual qualities of games and the gaming experience. This person can go toe to toe with the most verbose overblown BGGer and still keep debating. Gaming is more than just having fun, it has meaning. The philosopher will be able to cite and compare myriad games as a connoisseur compares wines. He may even play a few.

The Good Guy
He was always such a nice boy. We hardly ever heard him make any noise...
The good guy is just laying it out for you. He's humorous without being offensive, smart without being pompous and delivers his review in an easy going patter that makes you think your sipping beers and chatting with the boys. He’ll placidly go over game play, components and rules then wrap it all up with a tidy little summary.

 Steve"the cyniccritic"Avery

Atlas of World Military History: the art of war from ancient times to the present day.  By Richard Brooks and others.  Hardcover, 256 pages, large (“coffee-table”) format .  Originally published by HarperCollins in England in 2000, this edition by Barnes & Noble in the same year.

Although this book is out-of-print I was able to get a pristine “used” copy very inexpensively through a used bookseller on Amazon. 
This is a typical contemporary large-format “Atlas” insofar as there are maps on almost every page but also a very extensive commentary and narrative.  (Old-style atlases were just maps.)  It is also lavishly illustrated with drawings, paintings, and photographs.  And as you would expect the book focuses much more on the past century or two than on earlier times.  The American Civil War gets the same number of pages (four) as the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.  The Crusades and Mongol invasions get two pages each.  The European part of World War II gets 28 pages.

The sections include:
The First Military Empires (ancient times)
Men on Horseback (Medieval)
the Military Renaissance (1500 to 1650)
Line of Battle (1650 the 1785)
Nations in Arms (1792 to 1815)
Heirs of Napoleon (1815 to 1905)
Storm of Steel (1914 to 1916)
Restoring Mobility (1917 to 1939)
Zenith of Industrial Age War (1939 to 1945)
the Cold War and the End of Modern War

An unusual feature of the book is that several of the authors are well-known wargame designers, including Richard H. Berg, Mark Herman, and David C. Isby.

The book is very good at getting to the heart of matters - as many books are not.  As I read I wondered if this was partly the influence of the game designers, who as model-makers have to get to the heart of what’s important in a situation and leave everything else out.

The authors have a way with words and the phrase I most remember is "cosmic levels of incompetence"  as a description of the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese War.

Atlases in general have the virtue of providing a view "of the forest, not the trees."  Yet the accompanying text here can show you many of the trees, as well.  You get both an overview and occasional details.  Many of the maps are of individual battles or doctrine, others show the sweep of empire (including such topics as trade and economics).  An excellent book.

**
My book “Game Design: How to Create Video and Tabletop Games, Start to Finish" is now available from mcfarlandpub.com or Amazon (Books-a-Million has a PDF version).   I am @lewpuls on Twitter.  (I average much less than one post a day, almost always about games, not about other topics.)  Web: http://pulsiphergames.com/

Sometimes you get sick and tired of all the generic fantasy games out there - but then comes a game which can only be defined as a "bizarro" game. A bizarro game is the equivalent of experimental avant garde records you can get at your fringe music shop - you have no idea what it is until you try it, but fortunately unlike experimental avant garde music you can only find in the depths of the goth-infested waters of the record shop - you won't regret giving Nuns on the Run a chance considering it has a really original theme and an interesting game mechanic that after a while becomes intuitive.

It's a hidden movement game - and to be honest I've never played a hidden movement game before. At all. Hidden movement games don't sound like they work on paper but for some reason Nuns on the Run does - the idea of the paths you can go on as the Abbess and the Prioress guards adds suspense to the game as does the hidden movement which actually conceals where the characters are hiding with the use of a notepad which contains the movement and items the Novice players have collected.

Clash of Cultures is the sophomore effort of Christian Marcussen, designer of Merchants and Marauders It isn't a civilization style game in the style of older games like Civilization or Age of Renaissance; it shares more with modern games like Fantasy Flight Games' Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game.

The number 1 maligned game on other gaming sites is Monopoly.  I can understand where they are coming from although to say there is absolutely no decision making in Monopoly is erroneous.  There's trading, bargaining, buying, etc.  There's knowing what properties to own (the orange ones...IMHO) and what properties not to own (the blue ones).  Anyways, this isn't my point.  The number 2 maligned game on other gaming sites is probably Risk.

I do not feel that Risk deserves the bad rap that it gets.  I'm a fan of classic Risk, although I haven't played it in a few years.  I will admit that the end game can get bogged down, especially if you are on the receiving end of large hordes but I have seen someone come back from being down after they are able to turn in that set of cards.

One of the biggest criticisms of Risk is that it is a dicefest and all of that work comes down to being decided by dice.  Well yes, there is that but there is some degree of strategy that goes into deciding when and where to attack and how long to carry out that attack.  There is also some strategy that goes into knowing what continents to try and take over.  Then there is the metagame of negotiation and diplomacy and when to break those treaties (or keep them).  If Risk were totally random then certain people wouldn't consistently win the game.

Admittedly, there have been better world conquest games that have come out but Risk is simple enough that it is accessible yet there is enough meat that it does have some strategy.

Last night I got to teach Risk to three new players between the ages of 11 and 14, new not only to Risk but to the dudes-on-a-map genre in general.  Due to Risk's exceptionally light rule set we were up and running in about ten minutes, pieces played out and first turn underway.  The boys loved it and I have to admit I had a hell of a good time as well.  I made it a point to explain some of the unwritten rules to the game and these boys stepped into that part of the play quickly as well.

The amusing part came when one of the kids' Dad (who is an Ameritrasher from way back) came over to see his son's position and found him overextended and in trouble.  "What happened?  What did you do?" and his kid answered, "Dad, I was going for the glory play!  It didn't work out!"  Dad patted the boy on the shoulder.  

Legendary followed and I'll admit that there was more to the play than I had anticipated.  We lost to the game due to a strange shuffle of the black deck cards (ran out of heroes for the HQ) and I only got four turns in.  I was largely a spectator, but again I think it was due to bad draws (I got incredibly even shuffles so I was buying mediocre and attacking mediocre) and my son who's turn came just before mine landed three of the four blows on the bad guy including one where the bad guy's bonus card read "take another turn!" which amused me as it seemed straight out of 1959.  I lost my last shot at a big kill on what would have been the next turn because my boy's second turn ended the game.  The game needs to run twice as long in my opinion, but I say that about most games. 

        My boy won both games.  The final verdict would come in the car on the way home.  Before I had even backed out of the parking spot he asked if we could buy a copy of Risk.  

        Ladies and Gentlemen, how is a new kid on the block like Legendary supposed to compete with the fifty long years of Risk's legacy?  It just wasn't a fair fight.

                     S.

Last night at Swamp Castle we did the entire career mode in ROCK BAND: BEATLES. It was Frank, Sandi, Elliott, and I. It took about four hours.

To move through every period of the Beatles' music and to actually be involved, in at least a vicarious way, in performing the songs and to see that transition from the Cavern Club to the Apple Corps rooftop was something really, really special. It's amazing that the game completely feels like a canonical Beatles experience, and more than that it feels like a totally new way to appreciate and enjoy their music. It's groudbreaking, and it is absolutely the best music game published to date- as long as you like the Beatles.  I predict that this will be the first music game to win a Grammy.

It was definitely grueling, going through 45 songs but totally worth it. You unlock "The End" after the 15 minutes of credits and you get up and go again for an encore. And then we did the 360-exclusive "All You Need is Love" to cap it off, finally nailing our one "Triple Fab" of the evening. You get those when everybody hits the three-part harmonies. But when you do get those harmonies, it's a reward in itself to hear everybody synched up and in, well, harmony. That's closer to feeling like you're actually playing these songs than any other music game has gotten. It's one thing to have everybody clickety-clacking at the same time, it's another to have yourself and two friends actually singing in harmony. When it does happen, it's almost like a fleeting moment of pure magic.

People saying that this is an "easier" game than ROCK BAND are full of shit, particularly if you're doing it the right and proper way and singing while playing. It seems like everybody can hit the main melody line OK because that's what we sing when we've sang along with the Beatles all of our lives...but getting those harmonies...wow, it's really freaking hard, even at medium.

Song list is almost impeccable, but it is inevitable that the songs you really want aren't there- I guess they did need to save something for DLC. But there were a couple of brackets where every song was absolutely top-flight.

Visually, it's the Beatles. It looks like the Beatles, and it feels totally appropriate. And it's incredibly detailed- every piece of studio equipment is accurately rendered. I _love_ the animated pieces at the beginning and the end, and I almost wish the whole game was done in that style. But as it stands, this was the first time where I actually cared about what was going on behind the lanes. A couple of times I got lost because I was watching the scenes and not the lanes.

Last week I saw A HARD DAY'S NIGHT on VH1. It's a groundbreaking, innovative movie that was a lot more than just a feature film starring the Beatles. It tied rock and cinema together in a very of-the-moment way and it set a lot of precedents in how music and the visual image could connect. ROCK BAND: BEATLES feels the same way. I was thinking the whole time that back when I was a kid in the 1980s and playing Atari 2600, NES, and other video game systems that I would have never imagined being able to play something like this, let alone something connected so holistically to rock n' roll and one of the greatest bands of all time. But there it is, and it is one of the best experiences I have ever had with any video game, period. Totally blown away.