Innovation, Deadly Premonition
I forced Innovation onto the table again, and I lost again! This time really badly! I was throwing down a lot of cards to try to string together a really neat combo, while my opponent had a couple of ones that allowed him to draw a card, put it back, and score a card worth one more. Near the end, he was managing to score at least five points a turn with this method, then achieve, and I was at a loss of how to stop him. I tried to force him to return that card with lightning rod, but that backfired (ha!) and gave him seven extra points instead. So, yeah, I lost seven to one.
Then I played more Deadly Premonition, and I suddenly really like this game. I like the characters, I like the plot, I like the stupid things I'm forced to do, the bizarre design decisions, it's all great. I spent the majority of the time knocking out sidequests, because why not. My favorite one is when York shows up at the sheriff's house at night to talk to him. The sheriff opens the door about eight inches and just stares at York like he did something wrong. There is about five full seconds of pregnant pause, and then York says, "George, which do you like better? Mustard or hot sauce?" This is the greatest exchange, because it really shows off how freaking weird York is.
Showing posts with label Innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Innovation. Show all posts
What I Played Today: July 19
The Resistance, Innovation
I played a game of Resistance very badly! I completely blew the game when, in a feat of epic nonlogic, handed one of the assignment cards to a player who I had already pretty much decided was a traitor. I don't even know what the plan was, choosing the devil I know? Of course, doing so meant that the traitors could double-down on the fourth mission and win the game, because I didn't even consider the guy to my left could also be a traitor. He hadn't do actually done anything yet, so I assumed he was safe. But thinking about it...there isn't anything we could have done at that point to win, so I guess I shouldn't feel so bad.
Also got to play Innovation with the expansion, and it's a bit fun! The new abilities add a nice touch but are not too complex, and the other players caught on pretty quickly. I did botch one rule by assuming that echoes couldn't be shared, which is not true, but otherwise it was a fun, if lengthy, game. At one point the person to my left had the chance to win, so I thought to myself, "I must stop him," and I managed to pull it off by using one of my foreshadowed cards to bump my score and buy the next available achievement, locking him out of buying two. All it really did was extend the game an extra 15 minutes, but it was cool that I was able to pull that off.
I played a game of Resistance very badly! I completely blew the game when, in a feat of epic nonlogic, handed one of the assignment cards to a player who I had already pretty much decided was a traitor. I don't even know what the plan was, choosing the devil I know? Of course, doing so meant that the traitors could double-down on the fourth mission and win the game, because I didn't even consider the guy to my left could also be a traitor. He hadn't do actually done anything yet, so I assumed he was safe. But thinking about it...there isn't anything we could have done at that point to win, so I guess I shouldn't feel so bad.
Also got to play Innovation with the expansion, and it's a bit fun! The new abilities add a nice touch but are not too complex, and the other players caught on pretty quickly. I did botch one rule by assuming that echoes couldn't be shared, which is not true, but otherwise it was a fun, if lengthy, game. At one point the person to my left had the chance to win, so I thought to myself, "I must stop him," and I managed to pull it off by using one of my foreshadowed cards to bump my score and buy the next available achievement, locking him out of buying two. All it really did was extend the game an extra 15 minutes, but it was cool that I was able to pull that off.
What I Played Today: January 11
Innovation, Battlestar Galactica
Someone made a promise that they would bring Battlestar to game night, so of course I rushed over there after work. Before that game, I played a game of Innovation with someone whose been asking to play it for what feels like months now, so that he could show it to his wife, and she didn’t like it. The problem with Innovation is that a lot of your actions are dependent on the cards you get; get bad cards, or cards that combo with cards you don’t have, or get rocked by a demand that you didn’t see, and it just sucks. The fact that I wanted the game to end as soon as possible also didn’t help, I guess. But one player got in a great scoring position, able to grab up a lot of points when everyone else was sitting on nothing, and he eventually and inevitably won.
Then onto Battlestar, and wonder of fucking wonders, I was a Cylon again. I didn’t even touch the loyalty deck this time around, so it must be a case of me just being naturally deceitful. I am completely shocked that anyone trusts me anymore. Anyway, we started off pretty well, playing with only the personal goals and the cylon fleet (I can understand not wanting to play with the Ionian Nebula, it can be a bit of a hassle, so this was probably the best bet.) Everything was going great for the humans, with two pilots and adequate space battles when the crisis that shut down peeking at loyalties if it failed came up. The first two to put in balked and refused to assist, which should have been the first sign, as I put in a card to sabotage, as did the person to my left, and then the fifth person, who seemed willing to assist…didn’t. So we end up with only seven cards in the check, four of them bad, which points a huge sign at both of us, while telling each other that we are friends in need of human death. Unfortunately, it was a very public display, and we were both on the rack unless one of us implicated the other.
Luckily or not, I had the perfect opportunity, because I was playing the character who could execute someone once per game. After trying to make an impassioned argument that he MIGHT have tried to sabotage the check so that no one inadvertently looked at his Final Five card, causing unwanted destruction, when he says, “Oh, we aren’t playing with those.” Which was pretty stupid, because now I had no choice but to shoot him in the head, or I was getting brigged. So I pull the trigger, he is a toaster, and I’m in the clear. He moped on the Resurrection Ship for a few turns to draw super crisis cards, while I decided that it would be best if I was president, so that I could bang down food as fast as possible if I needed to. I also got a few really sweet opportunities to throw checks and be useless. Because I had to throw in at least two cards and got a large spread, I would toss in cards that equaled zero together, so it looked like I was helping, but also draining my hand. One time I threw in a 5 and 6 that would really help the check…and also the new 0 card that removed all 5s and 6s from the skill check. That was really clever and no fingers could be pointed. “I tried to help, really!”
But it turns out the Cylons didn’t need to work that hard. We were getting nowhere on the jump track for a few cycles and a lot of shitty rolls prevented us from getting rid of any basestars, and the humans couldn’t quite get focused, unable to take care of space and getting constantly flustered with skill checks. I withheld my repair cards as I watched the vipers slowly break until there was one left, and revealed to slap a centurion onto the ship, then sat back and watches as the board slowly was overwhelmed with raiders with no way to get rid of them. The game mercifully ended when population hit 0, but we could have called it five turns earlier than that.
I do realize that there’s a bit of a problem with the game; sometimes the actions of the cold unfeeling board just slaps the humans harder than they can handle, and the addition of cylons just make things worse. It’s almost as if at the beginning, you deal out the loyalty cards to see who gets to win and have a good time, and who gets to feel hopeless for three hours. It kinda sucks for the humans, but I’ve never gotten a chance to experience it because Lady Luck really likes it when I’m an asshole, so I keep getting the evil switch. It has made some of my friends not want to play the game at all once; I don’t really want a repeat.
Someone made a promise that they would bring Battlestar to game night, so of course I rushed over there after work. Before that game, I played a game of Innovation with someone whose been asking to play it for what feels like months now, so that he could show it to his wife, and she didn’t like it. The problem with Innovation is that a lot of your actions are dependent on the cards you get; get bad cards, or cards that combo with cards you don’t have, or get rocked by a demand that you didn’t see, and it just sucks. The fact that I wanted the game to end as soon as possible also didn’t help, I guess. But one player got in a great scoring position, able to grab up a lot of points when everyone else was sitting on nothing, and he eventually and inevitably won.
Then onto Battlestar, and wonder of fucking wonders, I was a Cylon again. I didn’t even touch the loyalty deck this time around, so it must be a case of me just being naturally deceitful. I am completely shocked that anyone trusts me anymore. Anyway, we started off pretty well, playing with only the personal goals and the cylon fleet (I can understand not wanting to play with the Ionian Nebula, it can be a bit of a hassle, so this was probably the best bet.) Everything was going great for the humans, with two pilots and adequate space battles when the crisis that shut down peeking at loyalties if it failed came up. The first two to put in balked and refused to assist, which should have been the first sign, as I put in a card to sabotage, as did the person to my left, and then the fifth person, who seemed willing to assist…didn’t. So we end up with only seven cards in the check, four of them bad, which points a huge sign at both of us, while telling each other that we are friends in need of human death. Unfortunately, it was a very public display, and we were both on the rack unless one of us implicated the other.
Luckily or not, I had the perfect opportunity, because I was playing the character who could execute someone once per game. After trying to make an impassioned argument that he MIGHT have tried to sabotage the check so that no one inadvertently looked at his Final Five card, causing unwanted destruction, when he says, “Oh, we aren’t playing with those.” Which was pretty stupid, because now I had no choice but to shoot him in the head, or I was getting brigged. So I pull the trigger, he is a toaster, and I’m in the clear. He moped on the Resurrection Ship for a few turns to draw super crisis cards, while I decided that it would be best if I was president, so that I could bang down food as fast as possible if I needed to. I also got a few really sweet opportunities to throw checks and be useless. Because I had to throw in at least two cards and got a large spread, I would toss in cards that equaled zero together, so it looked like I was helping, but also draining my hand. One time I threw in a 5 and 6 that would really help the check…and also the new 0 card that removed all 5s and 6s from the skill check. That was really clever and no fingers could be pointed. “I tried to help, really!”
But it turns out the Cylons didn’t need to work that hard. We were getting nowhere on the jump track for a few cycles and a lot of shitty rolls prevented us from getting rid of any basestars, and the humans couldn’t quite get focused, unable to take care of space and getting constantly flustered with skill checks. I withheld my repair cards as I watched the vipers slowly break until there was one left, and revealed to slap a centurion onto the ship, then sat back and watches as the board slowly was overwhelmed with raiders with no way to get rid of them. The game mercifully ended when population hit 0, but we could have called it five turns earlier than that.
I do realize that there’s a bit of a problem with the game; sometimes the actions of the cold unfeeling board just slaps the humans harder than they can handle, and the addition of cylons just make things worse. It’s almost as if at the beginning, you deal out the loyalty cards to see who gets to win and have a good time, and who gets to feel hopeless for three hours. It kinda sucks for the humans, but I’ve never gotten a chance to experience it because Lady Luck really likes it when I’m an asshole, so I keep getting the evil switch. It has made some of my friends not want to play the game at all once; I don’t really want a repeat.
What I Played Today: November 5
Dance Central, Your Shape Fitness Evolved, Innovation, Back to the Future Card Game
I played more Kinect this evening, breaking the plastic of the third game I got, the fitness game. It is exactly what you think it is, although I don’t think the camera is doing enough. I mean, it says that it’s diagnosing me, but it doesn’t make any suggestions besides “Start at the beginning,” which I was going to do anyway. But I won’t be talking about it unless it does something fantastic, because I plan to use it a lot more, and it’ll get boring to talk about after a bit.
Also played some more Dance Central, and my opinion of the game hasn’t changed. They do a lot of things right, the flavor is good, the game works well, and while it sometimes doesn’t give you credit for your dance, you soon realize that it’s not that big of deal, you can still do pretty well as long as you’re doing it right. I actually goldstared a song on easy, which I wasn’t expecting to do, so that was neat.
There was also a moment when the magic technology was really kicking our butts, so some analog games were played. Innovation hit the table, and I lost pretty soundly…my opponent was able to get a few good cards that ramped up his score while keeping me down, and it was down to a situation where I had to drain his score pile quickly, which isn’t really all that possible. I had the card, but it was in my hand, not on the board.
I lost the round of the Back to the Future Card Game too. I hadn’t realized how many cards allow you to dig for the card you need; there are five rewinds in the deck, which let you play a card from the discard, and three others that allow you to search the deck. The game doesn’t have a lot of tension with two players; you’re basically just trying to screw the other guy with cancellation cards, but most likely you won’t interfere with each other on the timeline.
I played more Kinect this evening, breaking the plastic of the third game I got, the fitness game. It is exactly what you think it is, although I don’t think the camera is doing enough. I mean, it says that it’s diagnosing me, but it doesn’t make any suggestions besides “Start at the beginning,” which I was going to do anyway. But I won’t be talking about it unless it does something fantastic, because I plan to use it a lot more, and it’ll get boring to talk about after a bit.
Also played some more Dance Central, and my opinion of the game hasn’t changed. They do a lot of things right, the flavor is good, the game works well, and while it sometimes doesn’t give you credit for your dance, you soon realize that it’s not that big of deal, you can still do pretty well as long as you’re doing it right. I actually goldstared a song on easy, which I wasn’t expecting to do, so that was neat.
There was also a moment when the magic technology was really kicking our butts, so some analog games were played. Innovation hit the table, and I lost pretty soundly…my opponent was able to get a few good cards that ramped up his score while keeping me down, and it was down to a situation where I had to drain his score pile quickly, which isn’t really all that possible. I had the card, but it was in my hand, not on the board.
I lost the round of the Back to the Future Card Game too. I hadn’t realized how many cards allow you to dig for the card you need; there are five rewinds in the deck, which let you play a card from the discard, and three others that allow you to search the deck. The game doesn’t have a lot of tension with two players; you’re basically just trying to screw the other guy with cancellation cards, but most likely you won’t interfere with each other on the timeline.
What I Played Today: October 26
Civilization V, Innovation, The Golden City, Super Meat Boy
Played a bit of the old Civ V, still continuing my poor little French community on its own private island. I’m slowly pulling ahead of the other civilizations, and even entering into a couple of pacts, so I know they won’t suddenly land outside my colony and destroy me…hopefully. Well, except the English…who thrive in naval combat. Oh boy. But yeah, since it takes hours upon hours to finish one game, I’m not even close yet.
At Game Night I played Innovation again, this time pulling off a solid victory by using some dogmas that stole victory points from my opponents, as well as using a neat card to get one of the special achievements. I still like the game, but I am having a hard time playing it because people just don’t seem to enjoy it. Maybe I’m just seeing things.
Also tried The Golden City, which is a placement game, in which you’re trying to use sets of cards to buy up locations that give various bonuses. The theme doesn’t matter, really. The interesting part about this game is the constantly shifting victory point conditions, in which you score points in the round if you build businesses on a river or in a specific part of town and control certain resources. I came in third, even though I controlled a lot of the city, because I forgot to pin down the bonus point cards. It was alright, but a bit too abstract for my liking.
I bought the bullet and got Super Meat Boy, just because I agree with a lot of the philosophy behind the game, even if I don’t imagine I’ll ever complete the game, and got through the first level. It starts getting hard right away, as I died maybe 20-30times on both the last level and the boss fight, but I found myself thinking, “No, keep trying, you can do this. If you stop your muscle memory will fade and it’ll be just as hard later, come on.” Which I guess was the point. We’ll see how long before I give up completely.
Played a bit of the old Civ V, still continuing my poor little French community on its own private island. I’m slowly pulling ahead of the other civilizations, and even entering into a couple of pacts, so I know they won’t suddenly land outside my colony and destroy me…hopefully. Well, except the English…who thrive in naval combat. Oh boy. But yeah, since it takes hours upon hours to finish one game, I’m not even close yet.
At Game Night I played Innovation again, this time pulling off a solid victory by using some dogmas that stole victory points from my opponents, as well as using a neat card to get one of the special achievements. I still like the game, but I am having a hard time playing it because people just don’t seem to enjoy it. Maybe I’m just seeing things.
Also tried The Golden City, which is a placement game, in which you’re trying to use sets of cards to buy up locations that give various bonuses. The theme doesn’t matter, really. The interesting part about this game is the constantly shifting victory point conditions, in which you score points in the round if you build businesses on a river or in a specific part of town and control certain resources. I came in third, even though I controlled a lot of the city, because I forgot to pin down the bonus point cards. It was alright, but a bit too abstract for my liking.
I bought the bullet and got Super Meat Boy, just because I agree with a lot of the philosophy behind the game, even if I don’t imagine I’ll ever complete the game, and got through the first level. It starts getting hard right away, as I died maybe 20-30times on both the last level and the boss fight, but I found myself thinking, “No, keep trying, you can do this. If you stop your muscle memory will fade and it’ll be just as hard later, come on.” Which I guess was the point. We’ll see how long before I give up completely.
What I Played Today: October 24
Nanuk, Innovation, Battlestar Galactica (the RPG)
It was the 6th anniversary of my local gaming store, and circumstances caused me to not show up until about two (had to do laundry), so when I showed up all the food was gone and only the regulars were still hanging around. So I played some games with them, why not?
First was Nanuk, which is a bluffing game similar to Liar’s Dice, but with a larger crowd. Everyone makes bets based on how many of a given animal you think you can catch. Once someone is convinced the bet is too risky, they can say they think the party is doomed, and then everyone around the table divides into two teams…those who think it can be done, and those who don’t. Everyone on the go team plays cards from their hand to try to get the total, and then cards are drawn from the deck. If a bear comes up or there aren’t enough of the animal in the draw, the party is doomed, and all those not stupid enough to go along split the pot. Otherwise, the party wins the pot. It’s a nice twist, moves quickly, and easy to learn, as well as pretty good with lots of people. I had fun, and I also won, so.
Then a game of Innovation, which went alright, although it was a bit slow. Some of the higher level cards are intense, and there was a bit of a problem earlier, where a player went all tower cards and made demands that drained everyone’s field, which was a bit of problem early on. There was also an odd case where two players got to share a dogma that went on forever, and it was really hard to track. So…it’s tough with all new players and four people, this may be better with two players.
Then it was on to RPG night, and this time we played Battlestar Galactica! …the roleplaying game. This worked off the Cortex system, which is nice and simple. We played a small team of survivors of the events that kicked off the Battlestar Galactica pilot. I played an engineer who suddenly got pulled onto a project to investigate an odd corpse that was discovered flirting with cylons, while my brother was a security officer who happened to get assigned to the same secret bunker. The bombs go off, the third character, a Marine, falls out of the sky, and it becomes a case of trying to survive. I was really excited to play a character who knew the secret before everyone else, but couldn’t reveal it and slowly unraveled his mind. He spent a good amount of time clutching his head afraid that every NPC was a cylon. It was fun.
The only issue I took was that without the Battlestar Galactica dressing, this was exactly the same setup as the zombie RPG we played three weeks ago under the same DM. It’s odd that he gave us the exact same build to work off of…I hope he has some other ideas.
It was the 6th anniversary of my local gaming store, and circumstances caused me to not show up until about two (had to do laundry), so when I showed up all the food was gone and only the regulars were still hanging around. So I played some games with them, why not?
First was Nanuk, which is a bluffing game similar to Liar’s Dice, but with a larger crowd. Everyone makes bets based on how many of a given animal you think you can catch. Once someone is convinced the bet is too risky, they can say they think the party is doomed, and then everyone around the table divides into two teams…those who think it can be done, and those who don’t. Everyone on the go team plays cards from their hand to try to get the total, and then cards are drawn from the deck. If a bear comes up or there aren’t enough of the animal in the draw, the party is doomed, and all those not stupid enough to go along split the pot. Otherwise, the party wins the pot. It’s a nice twist, moves quickly, and easy to learn, as well as pretty good with lots of people. I had fun, and I also won, so.Then a game of Innovation, which went alright, although it was a bit slow. Some of the higher level cards are intense, and there was a bit of a problem earlier, where a player went all tower cards and made demands that drained everyone’s field, which was a bit of problem early on. There was also an odd case where two players got to share a dogma that went on forever, and it was really hard to track. So…it’s tough with all new players and four people, this may be better with two players.
Then it was on to RPG night, and this time we played Battlestar Galactica! …the roleplaying game. This worked off the Cortex system, which is nice and simple. We played a small team of survivors of the events that kicked off the Battlestar Galactica pilot. I played an engineer who suddenly got pulled onto a project to investigate an odd corpse that was discovered flirting with cylons, while my brother was a security officer who happened to get assigned to the same secret bunker. The bombs go off, the third character, a Marine, falls out of the sky, and it becomes a case of trying to survive. I was really excited to play a character who knew the secret before everyone else, but couldn’t reveal it and slowly unraveled his mind. He spent a good amount of time clutching his head afraid that every NPC was a cylon. It was fun.
The only issue I took was that without the Battlestar Galactica dressing, this was exactly the same setup as the zombie RPG we played three weeks ago under the same DM. It’s odd that he gave us the exact same build to work off of…I hope he has some other ideas.
What I Played Today: October 20
Gosu, Innovation, Dominion: Prosperity
Card game day, y’all! I got to show off all the new games that I’d been excited about, and they did not disappoint. First was Gosu, that goblin game. It works much better with two, because you only have to concentrate on a single opponent, and the majority of the cards are better with focused fire than anything else. We went three rounds, the first round going to my much stronger opponent who got two chips off the bat, then a second round where I was one card away from victory because of the full army win condition guy, and then a third round where my opponent couldn’t keep up. But the interactions in this game are great and interesting, and I no longer think that the game should have included more cards. It seems just right; not enough variety so it’s impossible to get the cards you want out.
Then on to Innovation, and I was so right to like this game. It’s a tad random, in which you can only use at most five of the dogmas, but the dogmas do such varying and intense effects that there are a lot of strategies. I went mostly with brains, which allow you to slap down a lot of cards quickly and help you splay (fancy word for adjust your pile of cards so they show more symbols, allowing you to use more actions). But my opponent went on the offensive, taking my cards and scored points faster than I wanted. He also got an early special achievement, quickening his victory. But the fact that the interactions in this game are so complex and yet so limiting is really great. I think with an extra person, the tension would be great.
Then more Dominion, because you know, it’s good. I lost the first game badly, not able to counter the incredible combo that is Goons/Counting House. I bought too many peddlers for full price was my problem…that’s the weird thing about this set, there are a lot of cards that are give-and-take, which seems weird considering their cost. The cards here are more vicious to you than they are to your opponents (well, except Goons). But the second game, which mixed with Seaside, went in my favor somehow. I think because we dropped the high-end cards, and so there wasn’t the pressure to ramp up. I also finally figured out what Warehouse is good for; it’s for decks that stuff to their gills with victory points early and need a way to get them out. Of course, considering that Native Village and Island is from the same set and do it so much better…
Card game day, y’all! I got to show off all the new games that I’d been excited about, and they did not disappoint. First was Gosu, that goblin game. It works much better with two, because you only have to concentrate on a single opponent, and the majority of the cards are better with focused fire than anything else. We went three rounds, the first round going to my much stronger opponent who got two chips off the bat, then a second round where I was one card away from victory because of the full army win condition guy, and then a third round where my opponent couldn’t keep up. But the interactions in this game are great and interesting, and I no longer think that the game should have included more cards. It seems just right; not enough variety so it’s impossible to get the cards you want out.
Then on to Innovation, and I was so right to like this game. It’s a tad random, in which you can only use at most five of the dogmas, but the dogmas do such varying and intense effects that there are a lot of strategies. I went mostly with brains, which allow you to slap down a lot of cards quickly and help you splay (fancy word for adjust your pile of cards so they show more symbols, allowing you to use more actions). But my opponent went on the offensive, taking my cards and scored points faster than I wanted. He also got an early special achievement, quickening his victory. But the fact that the interactions in this game are so complex and yet so limiting is really great. I think with an extra person, the tension would be great.
Then more Dominion, because you know, it’s good. I lost the first game badly, not able to counter the incredible combo that is Goons/Counting House. I bought too many peddlers for full price was my problem…that’s the weird thing about this set, there are a lot of cards that are give-and-take, which seems weird considering their cost. The cards here are more vicious to you than they are to your opponents (well, except Goons). But the second game, which mixed with Seaside, went in my favor somehow. I think because we dropped the high-end cards, and so there wasn’t the pressure to ramp up. I also finally figured out what Warehouse is good for; it’s for decks that stuff to their gills with victory points early and need a way to get them out. Of course, considering that Native Village and Island is from the same set and do it so much better…
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