Saboteur, Coloretto, Space Hulk: Death Angel, Zombie Dice, Apples to Apples
Spent some time at the game shop tonight, playing a lot of quick, light games, and also Death Angel. Started with a rousing game of Zombie Dice while waiting for people to get their act together so we could play some games. I lost. Then I put Death Angel on the table and tried to explain the game as much as it needed to be explained, which my fellow players thought wasn’t quite enough. So, it was touch and go for a bit, and with one team getting tagged out early in room 2 (which is just unfortunate, luckily we were in a game shop so there were other things going on), we struggled in vain but eventually fell in the last room. Too bad, it seemed to leave a bit of a bad taste in the player’s mouth.
Then we got out Coloretto, which I had heard about but hadn’t actually played, and it’s not bad. It’s a light game where you do one of two things on your turn, draw a card and add it to a stack, or take a stack. Each card is one of seven colors, or wild, or just free points. When the deck finally runs out, you score three colors based on a Fibonacci scale, and the rest of the cards you have are worth negative points. It’s a bit clever, and the strategy required in larger games is a bit tense. We played a couple of games, and I think I won one, but I definitely felt like I was losing throughout.
The there was a game and a half of Saboteur, and against all the odds in the world, I was the saboteur every single round. Worse yet, I also lost every single round. I don’t know if we were playing it wrong last time but man was it all too easy for the good dwarves to dig their way to the gold. There just seemed to be a lot more straight and narrow cards…I doubt this is true, but maybe the decks were actually different? Naw, couldn’t be.
Then, as a mild sedative to end the night, we played some Apples to Apples, and the new player scored maybe eight greens, while everyone topped out at two max. He is a master of psychology, that one. There was a weird moment when the card to match was “Irritating,” and both the cards George W. Bush and Democrats hit the table. It was a bit uncomfortable because everyone at the table could count at least half the players as relative strangers, and everyone’s political alignment wasn’t exactly obvious. Luckily, the guesser took the high road and invalidated both of them. Still, a bit tense.
Showing posts with label Saboteur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saboteur. Show all posts
What I Played Today: September 14
Castle Ravenloft, Saboteur
Went to game night tonight, and played a couple of board games. I walked in with my Castle Ravenloft board game and a drew a bit of attention, so I set it up and started playing. The group seemed to enjoy the game, but they did observe that it was pretty brutal, which is just the nature of the beast with both coop games and Ravenloft. We did pretty well, considering, although it took a remarkable amount of persuading for the cleric to actually heal me even after I had died. (No, man, we still got healing surges.) But a well-placed fireball took out the majority of the monsters we needed to kill all the objective monsters, and so with one last shot, we won with full healing surges. The response was mostly positive, if a bit muted.
We then moved on to Saboteur, one of the first games to really use a hidden traitor mechanic, in which you play a team of dwarves trying (or not) to get some gold by digging paths. But there is a lot in the way, with a bunch of dead-end cards, an ability to take out your opponents, and the game just generally being a jerk. The non-traitors never won a round when we played, because even when we identified the saboteurs and shut them down, we still didn’t have the resources we needed to get to the gold.
There was a particularly good case of a saboteur in the third round, in which one of the players just started throwing down broken gear, loudly proclaiming that he couldn’t let the player in the lead (his wife) win. He seems so intense about it, and I just assumed he was just being a bit of a jerk. I was the saboteur that round, and I was playing the game I usually did when I was in the traitor role; playing it smooth and pretending to be helpful until the best time to screw everyone. He was already busy breaking everyone’s gear, so I just waited until a late moment to break his gear and the gear of the fifth guy, leaving everyone but me unable to add to the field. However, after some fixes, he threw down another breakage on someone who was clearly not a traitor. He had me fooled, I just assumed he was being unsportsmanlike, but turns out he was on my side, and we prevented the miners from winning for the third time in a row.
I do think that other games have definitely done this mechanic better (Battlestar 4 Life), because there are plenty of situations where the people who are trying to complete the goal just won’t be able to do it because they don’t get the resources they need, but it was still a simple way to do the traitor mechanic. Could be simpler, but early games have it rough.
(NOTE: I realized when posting that I already had the game Saboteur on my labels list, which I found odd since this is the first time when I played the game about the dwarves. Then I remembered the game about Nazis in Paris for the Xbox, which is completely different. So let it be stated that this one is about dwarves.)
Went to game night tonight, and played a couple of board games. I walked in with my Castle Ravenloft board game and a drew a bit of attention, so I set it up and started playing. The group seemed to enjoy the game, but they did observe that it was pretty brutal, which is just the nature of the beast with both coop games and Ravenloft. We did pretty well, considering, although it took a remarkable amount of persuading for the cleric to actually heal me even after I had died. (No, man, we still got healing surges.) But a well-placed fireball took out the majority of the monsters we needed to kill all the objective monsters, and so with one last shot, we won with full healing surges. The response was mostly positive, if a bit muted.
We then moved on to Saboteur, one of the first games to really use a hidden traitor mechanic, in which you play a team of dwarves trying (or not) to get some gold by digging paths. But there is a lot in the way, with a bunch of dead-end cards, an ability to take out your opponents, and the game just generally being a jerk. The non-traitors never won a round when we played, because even when we identified the saboteurs and shut them down, we still didn’t have the resources we needed to get to the gold.
There was a particularly good case of a saboteur in the third round, in which one of the players just started throwing down broken gear, loudly proclaiming that he couldn’t let the player in the lead (his wife) win. He seems so intense about it, and I just assumed he was just being a bit of a jerk. I was the saboteur that round, and I was playing the game I usually did when I was in the traitor role; playing it smooth and pretending to be helpful until the best time to screw everyone. He was already busy breaking everyone’s gear, so I just waited until a late moment to break his gear and the gear of the fifth guy, leaving everyone but me unable to add to the field. However, after some fixes, he threw down another breakage on someone who was clearly not a traitor. He had me fooled, I just assumed he was being unsportsmanlike, but turns out he was on my side, and we prevented the miners from winning for the third time in a row.
I do think that other games have definitely done this mechanic better (Battlestar 4 Life), because there are plenty of situations where the people who are trying to complete the goal just won’t be able to do it because they don’t get the resources they need, but it was still a simple way to do the traitor mechanic. Could be simpler, but early games have it rough.
(NOTE: I realized when posting that I already had the game Saboteur on my labels list, which I found odd since this is the first time when I played the game about the dwarves. Then I remembered the game about Nazis in Paris for the Xbox, which is completely different. So let it be stated that this one is about dwarves.)
What I Played Today: May 9
Saboteur
More dicking around in Saboteur, haven’t really gotten very far, basically wandering around killing Nazis for the hell of it, and am officially in Act II.
I did check the achievements to see if they were doable, and it turns out that yes, they really do want you to kill every single goddamn Nazi in France to get 100%. Considering that there are over 800 different targets to handle, and pretty much only two methods to actually take care of them (sneak in and set explosives, run in and shoot with guns), I really can’t imagine that being terribly enjoyable. Hell, I’ve done about 50 or so just to have enough money to buy stuff, and I’m already sick of them.
There’s also an achievement for standing still, which is on par, but I apparently misunderstood. Out of boredom, I just set the controller down for about 15-20 minutes, did other stuff, and came back to find that the idle achievement still hadn’t been achieved yet. What the hell? Apparently to get it you need to smoke 100 cigarettes, an idle action that you only do after standing around for a minute. So...you need to spend over 100 minutes doing nothing for 5 measly points? I’ve got a feeling they didn’t really get the achievement system. Then again, most people don’t.
More dicking around in Saboteur, haven’t really gotten very far, basically wandering around killing Nazis for the hell of it, and am officially in Act II.
I did check the achievements to see if they were doable, and it turns out that yes, they really do want you to kill every single goddamn Nazi in France to get 100%. Considering that there are over 800 different targets to handle, and pretty much only two methods to actually take care of them (sneak in and set explosives, run in and shoot with guns), I really can’t imagine that being terribly enjoyable. Hell, I’ve done about 50 or so just to have enough money to buy stuff, and I’m already sick of them.
There’s also an achievement for standing still, which is on par, but I apparently misunderstood. Out of boredom, I just set the controller down for about 15-20 minutes, did other stuff, and came back to find that the idle achievement still hadn’t been achieved yet. What the hell? Apparently to get it you need to smoke 100 cigarettes, an idle action that you only do after standing around for a minute. So...you need to spend over 100 minutes doing nothing for 5 measly points? I’ve got a feeling they didn’t really get the achievement system. Then again, most people don’t.
What I Played Today: May 8
Dominion: Alchemy, Saboteur
The newest expansion of Dominion is out, this time a small expansion with only 12 new cards, but what new cards! The new mechanic is a special treasure card that can be used to purchase certain kingdom cards that are pretty powerful. I got to play three two-player games, once with all the new actions, and a couple of suggested combinations. The new cards are great, you want to play almost all of them, and there are some very interesting synergies. The Philosopher’s Stone is a great treasure that gets better the longer you play, the Familiar is a no-holds-barred attack card that can hurt without even slowing you down, the Golem is a fantastic card to play multiple actions with, and Possession is the ultimate screw-you card, which lets you take over the opponent’s deck and reap all the benefits.
Playing with Alchemy does slow the game down quite a bit. The first cycle is spent buying potions and silver in most cases, and some of the cards can really draw out the game. But it’s fun, seeing everything you can do in a turn, and a lot of the cards are really action-friendly, and I found myself running with a lot of actions these games.
Which brings us to the part where my opponent would like you to know that I lost all three games. While I was having a lot of fun trying out new tricks, I wasn’t on my A game, missing some essential tricks and chances. Oh well, it’s still a fun set, and I can’t wait to play with more people.
I also played a fair bit of Saboteur today. It’s starting to grow on me, despite being not that great of a game. It’s not incompetent by any means, and it does a lot of player-friendly things, but I find myself not looking forward to doing all the quests, and there is just WAY too much secondary content to do, it’s intimidating. Not a lot of variety either, just run to a location, set them up the bomb, run away. Snore.
But I love what they’ve done to Paris. Not a lot of places outside the US get this kind of attention; it’s always New York or LA that gets the full sandbox treatment, and being able to run around a city I’ve had a lot of fun wandering around is great. I was excited when I noticed that one of the missions had me sneaking through the Père Lachaise Cemetery, which was awesome. The geography is noticeably stupid outside of Paris though. I had to go to a town in the country for a mission, and so I go to Le Havre. The thriving industrial port town of Le Havre 200 kilometers from Paris, which appears here as a quaint port town just a couple of villages over. Normandy is also on the map, and is practically adjacent to the Eiffel Tower...but space must be condensed, I suppose.
The newest expansion of Dominion is out, this time a small expansion with only 12 new cards, but what new cards! The new mechanic is a special treasure card that can be used to purchase certain kingdom cards that are pretty powerful. I got to play three two-player games, once with all the new actions, and a couple of suggested combinations. The new cards are great, you want to play almost all of them, and there are some very interesting synergies. The Philosopher’s Stone is a great treasure that gets better the longer you play, the Familiar is a no-holds-barred attack card that can hurt without even slowing you down, the Golem is a fantastic card to play multiple actions with, and Possession is the ultimate screw-you card, which lets you take over the opponent’s deck and reap all the benefits.Playing with Alchemy does slow the game down quite a bit. The first cycle is spent buying potions and silver in most cases, and some of the cards can really draw out the game. But it’s fun, seeing everything you can do in a turn, and a lot of the cards are really action-friendly, and I found myself running with a lot of actions these games.
Which brings us to the part where my opponent would like you to know that I lost all three games. While I was having a lot of fun trying out new tricks, I wasn’t on my A game, missing some essential tricks and chances. Oh well, it’s still a fun set, and I can’t wait to play with more people.
I also played a fair bit of Saboteur today. It’s starting to grow on me, despite being not that great of a game. It’s not incompetent by any means, and it does a lot of player-friendly things, but I find myself not looking forward to doing all the quests, and there is just WAY too much secondary content to do, it’s intimidating. Not a lot of variety either, just run to a location, set them up the bomb, run away. Snore.
But I love what they’ve done to Paris. Not a lot of places outside the US get this kind of attention; it’s always New York or LA that gets the full sandbox treatment, and being able to run around a city I’ve had a lot of fun wandering around is great. I was excited when I noticed that one of the missions had me sneaking through the Père Lachaise Cemetery, which was awesome. The geography is noticeably stupid outside of Paris though. I had to go to a town in the country for a mission, and so I go to Le Havre. The thriving industrial port town of Le Havre 200 kilometers from Paris, which appears here as a quaint port town just a couple of villages over. Normandy is also on the map, and is practically adjacent to the Eiffel Tower...but space must be condensed, I suppose.
What I Played Today: May 5-7
Saboteur, No More Heroes 2, Orbital
I’ve been busy/sleepy the past few days, and have spent a very small amount of time actually playing something. Sure, I’ve spent a few minutes playing the games I got from GameFly, but there’s really been no real playing, just fapping about. A mission in Saboteur there, a boss fight in No More Heroes 2, but frankly my bed and YouTube have been more interesting to me than my consoles.
On Thursday though, I had absolutely no chance to play a game, as I was hitting the double feature of Iron Man 2 (enjoyable movie) right after work. I did play a short 2-player game of Orbital on the iPhone, which is a clever little game. You shoot a disc into the field, with the intent of not having it bounce back at you. The disc is affected by the gravity of the other discs on the field, and once it stops, it will expand until it hits an object. If a disc gets hit 3 times while on the field, it will disappear. Really simple rules, but it goes a long way on a small screen. In the two player game, each player is on the other side of the screen, and trying to place the disc in such a way that the other player can’t shoot without screwing up. Great idea. It’s tough to do iPhone multiplayer better.
I’ve been busy/sleepy the past few days, and have spent a very small amount of time actually playing something. Sure, I’ve spent a few minutes playing the games I got from GameFly, but there’s really been no real playing, just fapping about. A mission in Saboteur there, a boss fight in No More Heroes 2, but frankly my bed and YouTube have been more interesting to me than my consoles.
On Thursday though, I had absolutely no chance to play a game, as I was hitting the double feature of Iron Man 2 (enjoyable movie) right after work. I did play a short 2-player game of Orbital on the iPhone, which is a clever little game. You shoot a disc into the field, with the intent of not having it bounce back at you. The disc is affected by the gravity of the other discs on the field, and once it stops, it will expand until it hits an object. If a disc gets hit 3 times while on the field, it will disappear. Really simple rules, but it goes a long way on a small screen. In the two player game, each player is on the other side of the screen, and trying to place the disc in such a way that the other player can’t shoot without screwing up. Great idea. It’s tough to do iPhone multiplayer better.
What I Played Today: May 3
Persona, Saboteur, No More Heroes 2
I played Persona for about twenty minutes on the train, but if you would believe the clock in the game, I’ve been playing it for over 48 hours! Yeah, apparently when you just turn off the PSP without returning the title menu, it keeps the game “on,” which completely blew the hell out of my timer. I’ve gotten to a point where the team has broken up for no good reason, and I missed an entire cutscene where Philomon, a bad-ass mother who is also a beautiful butterfly, because I didn’t have my earplugs plugged in and there were no subtitles. Continue to play I will.
I also spent a few minutes on Saboteur before I got bored by being shot at my Nazis and gave up. There are just way too many Nazis, and while other blatant GTA rip-offs have somewhere you can go to get them off your tail, there is nowhere you can go to get rid of the Krauts except the country, which is the hell out of the way. I understand that stealth is more important in this game, but when just standing near a Nazi is enough of a crime to get them to sic the entire Western Front on you, it can get irritating quickly.
I played a bit more No More Heroes 2, fighting a boss or more. The game has gotten easier, something I was concerned about early on because I was running out of energy way too often. Although I am now just flailing in my room whenever I’m in combat. It works, but it can be exhausting. The minigames also make me feel weird, because I find myself spending a lot of times trying to collect money by playing games of the same visual and gameplay quality as the NES. This is 2010 man, I should be playing a game that at least looks like it’s trying to keep up with the latest graphic innovations. But then again, the game has its fair share of bland, brown rooms to trot through as well. (shrug) It’s still entertaining though, with the latest boss being pretty freaky, although he fell like a puss after I knocked him into the corner. Stupid ghost...spooking me.
I played Persona for about twenty minutes on the train, but if you would believe the clock in the game, I’ve been playing it for over 48 hours! Yeah, apparently when you just turn off the PSP without returning the title menu, it keeps the game “on,” which completely blew the hell out of my timer. I’ve gotten to a point where the team has broken up for no good reason, and I missed an entire cutscene where Philomon, a bad-ass mother who is also a beautiful butterfly, because I didn’t have my earplugs plugged in and there were no subtitles. Continue to play I will.
I also spent a few minutes on Saboteur before I got bored by being shot at my Nazis and gave up. There are just way too many Nazis, and while other blatant GTA rip-offs have somewhere you can go to get them off your tail, there is nowhere you can go to get rid of the Krauts except the country, which is the hell out of the way. I understand that stealth is more important in this game, but when just standing near a Nazi is enough of a crime to get them to sic the entire Western Front on you, it can get irritating quickly.
I played a bit more No More Heroes 2, fighting a boss or more. The game has gotten easier, something I was concerned about early on because I was running out of energy way too often. Although I am now just flailing in my room whenever I’m in combat. It works, but it can be exhausting. The minigames also make me feel weird, because I find myself spending a lot of times trying to collect money by playing games of the same visual and gameplay quality as the NES. This is 2010 man, I should be playing a game that at least looks like it’s trying to keep up with the latest graphic innovations. But then again, the game has its fair share of bland, brown rooms to trot through as well. (shrug) It’s still entertaining though, with the latest boss being pretty freaky, although he fell like a puss after I knocked him into the corner. Stupid ghost...spooking me.
What I Played Today: May 2
Saboteur
Okay, I played Sabotuer some more. Although I had to start over, because when you save in the middle of a mission, you have to start it over again. I played through the intro mission, the prologue (wait, the prologue happens after the first scene in the game? That’s not how prologues work.), and a few missions in the game proper.
There were a few irritating moments in it, with very little going on to promote the game as something worthwhile. There’s actually a mission called “Grand Theft Auto,” something they should have avoided. The Nazis are obnoxious, being able to spot you whenever you do anything mildly suspicious, including climbing a building. Which would be fine if they weren't goddamn everywhere. I spent a good three minutes running away from them in one instant. I understand the reasoning behind it, but it doesn’t make the game any easier to play.
Otherwise...it’s fine. The game does do a good job making the transition to a place under Nazi control effective, even though it will be obvious that whenever you're in Nazi country, it’s going to suck. There are way too many sexy characters...which can be expected when the preorder bonus is nudity, but it’s just silly when the beboobed femme fatale Nazi bodyguard shows up. There’s also a lot of stuff to do, mostly collecting contraband, and the map of Paris isn’t half-bad...yeah, it’s not a great game, but I’ll keep playing it.
Okay, I played Sabotuer some more. Although I had to start over, because when you save in the middle of a mission, you have to start it over again. I played through the intro mission, the prologue (wait, the prologue happens after the first scene in the game? That’s not how prologues work.), and a few missions in the game proper.
There were a few irritating moments in it, with very little going on to promote the game as something worthwhile. There’s actually a mission called “Grand Theft Auto,” something they should have avoided. The Nazis are obnoxious, being able to spot you whenever you do anything mildly suspicious, including climbing a building. Which would be fine if they weren't goddamn everywhere. I spent a good three minutes running away from them in one instant. I understand the reasoning behind it, but it doesn’t make the game any easier to play.
Otherwise...it’s fine. The game does do a good job making the transition to a place under Nazi control effective, even though it will be obvious that whenever you're in Nazi country, it’s going to suck. There are way too many sexy characters...which can be expected when the preorder bonus is nudity, but it’s just silly when the beboobed femme fatale Nazi bodyguard shows up. There’s also a lot of stuff to do, mostly collecting contraband, and the map of Paris isn’t half-bad...yeah, it’s not a great game, but I’ll keep playing it.
What I Played Today: April 29
30 Second Hero, Saboteur
It was a busy day today, so I didn’t have time for much besides screwing around some more with the PSP, playing 30 Second Hero. It’s an interesting idea, even if the actual RPG part of the game tends to extend beyond 30 seconds, as you’re often required to rewind time in order to have a chance of leveling up enough to defeat the evil overlord. Still, it plays fast and always has an interesting twist each level, even if some of them suck hard, like a goddamn maze level. Hopefully it can hold my interesting for 40 more levels.
I also finally got Saboteur through GameFly, the very game that I restarted my GameFly account for, only to be instantly disenchanted when I found it to be a different looking GTA clone, and having died on the introductory level. I’ve got nothing to say about it except that I’ve currently found myself unable to get back into it. Meh.
It was a busy day today, so I didn’t have time for much besides screwing around some more with the PSP, playing 30 Second Hero. It’s an interesting idea, even if the actual RPG part of the game tends to extend beyond 30 seconds, as you’re often required to rewind time in order to have a chance of leveling up enough to defeat the evil overlord. Still, it plays fast and always has an interesting twist each level, even if some of them suck hard, like a goddamn maze level. Hopefully it can hold my interesting for 40 more levels.
I also finally got Saboteur through GameFly, the very game that I restarted my GameFly account for, only to be instantly disenchanted when I found it to be a different looking GTA clone, and having died on the introductory level. I’ve got nothing to say about it except that I’ve currently found myself unable to get back into it. Meh.
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