What I Played Today: September 23

Devil Survivor, Gears of War, Ascension, Harvest Moon: Animal Parade

I brought my DS onto the train, and played a little bit of the Devil Survivor. It’s infinitely easier than I remember, although I did have a bit of trouble with the boss fight, having one of my teams die to the big bad yeti. But I am a bit further, and should be in the clear to get through the next day. They still haven’t unlocked demon combining yet, I remember it happening sooner last time I played.

Also tried the Gears of War board game again, and again lost about halfway through the game. I really don’t want to hate this game, and I’m pretty sure I don’t, I just wish there was something that I could possibly do to prevent the game from ending suddenly and angrily. You think everything is going well right up to the moment where suddenly you get a shit roll that knocks out all your cards without even asking. It really should be easier to resist outright dying if you’re in complete cover against one of the stronger enemies. The fact that there’s a 50% chance that a defense dice will be useless just makes it too easy to get headshot, and while in the video game it’s a case of “well, that’s too bad, reload,” in a board game it’s a bit brutal.

A couple of games of Ascension, which continues to be just right. I really don’t know why I hated the very idea of this game at first, it’s not bad. There’s a nice give and take, and the fact that there are two different means to victory and it’s hard to tell who’s doing well makes for some tense battles. Sure, it’s pretty random, but I’m starting to notice that there’s a weird flow to the center row, and being able to predict that can really swing the game. For example, if the early game has a lot of monsters, than chances are the late game isn’t going have very many, and going whole hog with Heavy Infantry will just slow you down in the end. Of course, this didn’t actually help me in the one game where I noticed it, as I still lost, but hey, at least I noticed it.

Also more Animal Parade. I don’t remember exactly what I did, because I’ve played at least five more hours since this point of my life I am chronicling, so…read tomorrow’s entry.

What I Played Today: September 14

Gears of War: The Board Game

Ah jeez Gears of War! I do not understand what your problem is! Well, I have some idea, but that still doesn't explain why I want to keep trying. This time with two players, just as the game was intended to be played, I think, and a few shitting potshots from some boomers really messed us up after fifteen minutes of play. There are just too many variables. The dice you roll, the AI reaction, the cards you have available in your hand. You heal too slowly and even if you go all in to protect yourself, it won't matter, because odds are good that you're going to get hurt. Now, logic says that the same goes for when you attack, but it costs valuable resources to hit as hard as the enemies hit every time. I don't know...this should be fun.  

What I Played Today: September 13

Rift, Gears of War: The Board Game

I made my fancy shirt today! I got all my materials together, added the best augment I had in the bank, and hit craft, and then a message pops up that I am the first dummy to craft the Resolute Tormentor's Robe, and nearly half the guild congratulated me. So I feel pretty good. I just wish I was not now broke.

Also played Gears of Wars with myself, because I wanted to see if it could be done. Two games, both of which ended when I got hammered by a lucky goddamn shot. The second game, when I reset because I was mad at the outcome of the first, I was doing great. Whenever I was having a bit of trouble, running low on cards, I would play "Dig In" and be back up four cards. I even managed to clear the board at one point, but hadn't realized what a disasterous awful idea this is, because that gaurantees that something else will spawn and you won't be prepared for it. So I was in the final room, close down the extraction hole, and the final two jerks I have to kill show up. I take out the two smaller guys and run back, diving behind cover. Card flips and he gets to take a shot at me. I throw in a defense card so that I'm at full defense. Dice fall: 7 wounds, 2 shields. I am dead, game over. It was bullshit, the kind of bullshit I could do nothing about. Thinking back, I could have instead guarded and shot back at him first. However, this seemed unnecessarily risky, as I was sitting with three cards in hand. There's no way he could have killed me, I thought! Yeah, there you go.

What I Played Today: September 11

Small World Underground, Gears of War, Quarriors, Driver: San Francisco

Still at the cabin, a game of Small World Underground was played. I did not do very well, and it seemed to go on for a lot longer than it needed to. One thing that happened a lot was constant fighting over the relics, which went badly when I ended up being in the middle. The winner managed to get the iron dwarves, who slowly built up extra units at mines, with the mining power, which gave them an extra point from mines. A dangerous combo together, because he was pulling in huge points while being unstoppable.

Played a couple of games of Gears of War: The Board Game, and they both ended pretty poorly. After looking over the first scenario again, I realized that I completely messed up, and didn't get that all of the emergence holes except the last one were suppose to be sealed. I also forgot to shuffle in a few general AI cards. But once that was figured out, the game really trucks. You can get through a turn really quickly when you know what you're trying to do. The first game we managed to knock out most of the bad guys and seal the hole, only the get overrun by the last little squad that showed up before the game finish. The second game was a scenario where you have to lead a big brute outside so that you can hit him with a satellite. We were trying to string him along with four people, because he'll follow you if you attack anything, but spacing issues and some crappy card draws kept us from getting very far, as eventually a bunch of wretches spawned suddenly and wrecked us. You run out of space on these little boards really quickly with four players though. I think it might play a lot better with one or two, because they there's a lot more opportunity to take cover.

Also a light game of Quarriors, I don't remember who won. All I know is that Galaxy Quest was on, and I like that movie.

Once I made it home, I played about thirty seconds of Driver: San Francisco before I decided I was exhausted. It is a neat game though, with its shift mechanic, letting you jump from car to car, and it really varies the challenges available, instead of just racing around.

What I Played Today: August 27

Elder Sign, Word Fighter, Legend of the Five Rings, Spy Party, Assassin's Creed Revelations, Wildstar, Penny Arcade: Gamers vs. Evil, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Gears of War: The Board Game, Burger Time

Another day, started this one a bit slowly. After I got started, I moved directly to the Fantasy Flight booth, because I couldn't quite believe they were actually there. I played a game of Elder Sign, which I don't think we were playing right, but I enjoyed it, it's a nice, crunchy dice game. Lot of options.

I played a quick game of this new thing I've heard about, Word Fighter. It's a word find game with a few good twists, chief among them that each player uses the same board, so it really is based on how quickly and effectively you find words. Also got roped into trying Legends of the Five Rings, which is pretty much exactly how I remember it, confusing and overly complex without explaining why. But hey, I won and I got free cards.

I got to play a couple of rounds of Spy Party, and it was awesome except for the part where I lost. I had trouble finding the guy while I was the sniper, and I was super obvious when I was the spy, but I like this game a lot, so I hope that there is something resembling an actual release or beta here in the future.

A short line for Assassin's Creed: Revelations, so I stepped in and soaked in the new details. Chief among them is that the radar is gone, so you'll have to find your target your own dang self. You still get light-ups if they are visible, so that helps, and it looks like players and NPCs have actual different costumes? Anyway, the fact that you have no radar makes a lot of elements in the game different, but I think I like it. I look forward to playing it.

Also took a look at Wildstar. It's a MMO, sure, but the look is pretty clean, and I like the dodge mechanic and I like the path system they are crafting, where you decide what type of quests you want to do a lot of. That's neat. I signed up for the beta, we'll see.

Pretty sure we played Penny Arcade at some point. That game got so much play, which makes the right amount of sense, but I don't remember this particular game. That evening after a panel, we sat back down and played a couple of games of Betrayal at House on the Hill, which went fine. I was the traitor in the last game, and my job was to just wait it out and let the bomb explode, and there were no rules saying that I couldn't interfere with the mission, so I just parked my avatar in places where there would be a lot of traffic and activated the music box I got at one point, which requires players to pass a sanity check or lose their turn. With this shutting down the majority of the players, I managed to win, but it felt like cheating. There is so much weirdness to the basic structure of this game, with the haphazard mansion exploration first half the game, and the goal oriented but really uncertain second half. I don't know.

We also grabbled a copy of the Gears of War board game demo box, and gave it a try, and everyone hated it but me. The mission required us to close up these holes on the map, which we could only do with a die roll. Now, the math says that it's about a 60% chance that we'll get what we need with a die roll, but the actual game saw us throwing six grenades and not once getting the result we needed to close a single hole, and there were five of them! So, after a few people fell down, and we played a bit defensively, we managed to kill all the enemies (having kinda forgotten to full read cards that would have spawned more enemies), we just said we were done and packed up. I still want to play more, it seems both simple and crunchy, but it does have a few problems, and it just isn't in the wheelhouse of my usual group of players. Looks like it's sold out at the con itself, so I guess buying it now isn't an option anyway.

And then we went to get omelets as large as a dog's head, and there I played a game of Burger Time really poorly. I forgot I had salt.