What I Played Today: Vacation

Guild Wars 2, Reus, Civilization 5, Magic: The Gathering, Dominion, Le Havre: The Inland Port, Smash Up

I was on vacation, so of course I didn't feel like keeping this updated. Vacation.

I played a ton of fucking Guild Wars 2, because of course I did. I spent maybe the entire week trying to complete the Dragon Bash event so I could get the dumb wings, and then NOT succeeding, because man, screw this one time only events. I understand that they have an incredible commitment to keep adding content to this game, and they are doing a fastastic job, but they are also...doing it too fast? Like...two weeks is not enough time to do everything I want to do, game. I can't be playing every single night, and I have a really hard time getting into a dungeon. I don't know, maybe I need to join the right guild. My current guild is worthless to me.

Also did some more general Steam game, played a bit of Civ 5, waiting impatiently for the new release (should be tomorrow), played some Magic 2014, I think I logged into Reus for a little bit?

And occasionally some people would come over and want to play games. So I played a game of Dominion with the latest Guilds expansion, and man...kind of screw this one? The coin tokens are kind of too powerful. "Oh...I only have five coins in my hand, but I got these three coin tokens that I didn't really work for! Free Province!" But it's what everyone wanted, and they got what they asked for, and now they can suck on it. Also played a game of Le Havre: The Inland Port, which I won somehow, even though I had no resources and my opponent had a full warehouse and three of the buildings that count resources. And a game of Smash Up, which I didn't enjoy that much.

There you have it!

What I Played Today: November 14

Smash Up, Skull and Roses, Dominion

Played some Smash Them Up, again with four people. I'm really like to play a game without all the dumb factions being present, see if that changes things. Anyway, I did an awesome thing where I played a zombie lord to drop a ton of cheap jerks from my graveyard onto the table, including some replicating robots, which let me bust up a base right away. But I still didn't win, because someone had aliens, and aliens have that guy who just drops VP like candy. Well, whatever, it was fun.

Also Skull and Roses, which I like a lot. It's a good game!

Then a game of vanilla Dominion, with all of the attack cards. Like, all of them. It was a pretty aggressive game, and I took on a lot of curses. I did buy a lot of provinces though, so I think I won? I don't remember.

What I Played Today: October 5

Skull and Roses, Dominant Species, Dominion

Game store, there was a lot of hemming and hawing about how there was not enough space. So we all stood around and played a game of Skull and Roses, which I lost, because Skull and Roses.

Then I helpfully pointed out, "hey, dummies, there's an extra table over there, why don't we, you know, use it." And the problem was solved! So a group of us played Dominant Species, which was actually pretty fun when you give the heave-how to a third of the cards so the game is a reasonable length. I managed to run away with the game in the last turn when a quickly burst a bunch of dudes on the board and then spread them out quickly, which lead to some serious points in the scoring round. Felt good.

Then played a game of Dominion: Dark Ages, which was pretty fun. There were cultists which really dragged down everyone's deck, so that wasn't fun, but otherwise I like Dark Age a lot. It makes a lot of exciting choices.

What I Played Today: August 24

Dominion, Wallenstein, The Resistance

Dominion: Dark Ages is out, and of course I purchased it almost immediately because I'm kind of a dummie. It is pretty good, all the new cards are very clever, although you should probably not buy Rats. Actually, go ahead and buy Rats. You should try it. It'll be fun.

Then I played Wallenstein, which is a weird area control in which only one of your territories can do a certain thing during a turn. Also, every combat is handled by dropping all cubes involved in the fight into this tower. Some of the cubes will get stuck on the way out, some cubes inside might be knocked free, etc. It's quick and pretty clever. I like some of the tight decisions, and how you have to worry about when you will get resources or not. Although...my whole plan fell apart in the second year, as I ran out of money and the territories I planned to tax would get taken over by an opponent before I could tax them. So...I ended the game with four whole states, and maybe ten troops. It did not go well, but I could totally play this game again.

Then a quick game of the Resistance with the second edition materials. It looks pretty good, and the Resistance won, so that was great.

What I Played Today: August 21

Agricola, Dominion

I played a three-player game of Agricola, and did a terrible job. I had this huge empty space in the middle of my board at the end of Round 13, and I missed a chance to throw up some fences, so I lost. That's how the Agricola crumbles. I also think I just plain forgot some of my improvements at times, which just kinda screwed me.

And...a few games of Dominion. I combined both Prosperity and Hinterlands, because I haven't played a lot of Hinterlands yet. One problem with this is that Scheme is literally the worst card. THE WORST. It allows you to return an action card you played to the top of your deck. It's cool in small bursts, but if someone has, say, five of them? And you combine that with Goons? That game was the worst. I did win the third game...I finally got to take advantage of City.

What I Played Today: July 13

Eclipse, Dominion, The Resistance

My quest for gaming groups and, let's face it, friends in this strange new land continues as I went to another game store to enjoy another game night. This one was slow to start, as the people who usually come didn't show up for a good couple of hours. Luckily, the store was extremely interesting, with a huge inventory of both games and comics, so I spent some time poking around. Eventually someone who knew me showed up (they have better memories than I), and after an hour of talking about comics (they are weird yo), eventually a girl showed up and everyone lost their mind, then we started playing games.

Some people saw Eclipse, literally the only game I have right now, and wanted to play because it looked awesome, and so I had to explain it. I thought I did okay...but the looks on some faces showed they seemed to think they got in over their head. We made it through three rounds with people seeming to understand the game pretty well, but it was decided that we really didn't want to spend the rest of the night finishing the game, so I suggested we just call it and move onto something else.

Then a game of Dominion, which was alright! I still like Dominion, and I don't care what some jerks saw, Intrigue is probably the second-best set after Prosperity (screw you jerks, Prosperity is the best). The new people I played with liked it a lot, and I really hope my games get here some decade so I can show them off.

Then a game I was really excited about playing: The Resistance. I like this game, and I really like the plot cards, which I finally got a chance to play with. Turns out I was still playing the game wrong in general when I used to play. You have to have a vote of no confidence FIVE times in order to lose the game. The Resistance won every time, and I was a traitor twice. We won the first game really easily when the traitor hesitated far too long when he got a card forcing him to show his loyalty card, and it was easy to tell from there. The second I remember losing pretty soundly because we just weren't organized enough, but the third game was pretty great.

One of my traitor friends was forced to show his loyalty card, so he really played up showing the card to his friend, and everyone immediately assumed his friend was lying. It was clever. And after we just let the first couple of missions pass, suspicion was all over the table...except on me. After a few no go votes and a bunch of people being tied to each other so that they were either spies together or they weren't, we managed to flub the fourth mission and then...I spoke up, pointed the wrong finger, and somehow everyone figured it out. WHOOPS! But it was nice to play this game with a group that really was into it. Lot more discussion.

What I Played Today: Driving Week

Cards Against Humanity, Le Havre, Dominion, Roulette

I've driven more in the past week than I usually work during an average week. It was balls. But here is what I managed to play when I wasn't in a goddamn car!

My first stop was in Los Angeles, where I played a couple games of Cards Against Humanity. I like the addition of a random card when there are a small number of players, adds a bit of variety, although makes it super easy to figure out when someone else said something horrible. Also, they don't handle Pick 2's very well. I got dealt a card that was a full sentence (YOU MUST CONSTRUCT ADDITIONAL PYLONS), which was funny, but also didn't fit any of the prompts at all, so it sat in my hand forever. I finally offloaded it somehow, but didn't win, so...I don't know...

Also played the new Hinterlands from Dominion while it was there. It was...alright, I think the random cards we got weren't the best set. There was something a little off about them, they made it easy to take a really long turn, but hard to get a lot of big money, since there was the constant threat of someone Robin Hooding your gold away from you. Plus, half the time Robin Hood didn't do anything useful, and he did something not useful constantly...eh.

I went to Las Vegas and I feel bad about it! I played some roulette (noted for completeness), which I kinda like a lot, it's an interesting game of chance, where it's really to your advantage to play the whole field. For some reason, at the fancy no-dealer table I was at, they showed to the stats of what numbers have been hot lately, what hasn't been, and I looked at that and thought, "Well, that's useless." Because the odds of it landing on a given number of every single time was 1 in 38. It was literally there to confuse you into making bad decisions.

Got sidetracked in St. George because my car is a jerk, while there, played Le Havre on my cellphone. It's a cute little adaptation, good to have the option to play whenever I want, although it is probably a lot better on a iPad, when you can actually see everything that is going on. I lost by quite a bit because I did not prioritize building buildings, so I couldn't get my wealth up. Shrug.

And then I drove forever. Didn't get a lot of chance to play, not even when I spent a day in Idaho. I did unbox my copy of Eclipse, but that is a story for another time...

What I Played Today: August 14

Dominion, Rune Age

Played a game of Dominion because I haven't in a while. I just kept falling more and more behind, trying to keep up with Goons, but it was no good. I did buy a lot of estates though, which in retrospect was a pretty silly idea.

Rune Age with two people is a slightly different experience, as you have an enemy stealing resources from you. I was in the worst spot, because I started off slow in the resource build-up stage and so I couldn't keep up, and by the time I may have gotten my hands on some good cards, they were already gone. After a few rounds with a dragon, I was five points from death, and my opponent cut me out of the game. This turned out to be a mistake though, as it kept him from winning as well. It's a weird dynamic, really, and I'm not sure how much of it I like. There's just not enough space here.

What I Played Today: June 24

Dominion

I can't stop playing Dominion! This time I really really lost, after one player got just the right mix of cards to play them over and over again and get dozens of actions each turn, able to snatch up colonies like they were candy. I so so so so lost, but it's okay, because I subjected the winner to Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny. Revenge was mine!

What I Played Today: June 23

Dominion

Some late night gaming, in which some Dominion was played, and I keep losing. My streak is officially dead. The first game, I thought I was doing fine, snatching up provinces and using the bishop to switch out estates for equivalent victory chips, and when I was given a chance to end the game, I did, only to find out I was a few points short and lost.

In the second game, I did not have a chance at all, as a few bad early hands and some sleepiness caused me to buy estates and cooper, for some reason. It continued like this, with a lot of tournaments and goons and mountebanks flying about, which was quite fun, and while it was close for the other players, I had lost by more than half.

What I Played Today: June 18

Star Trek, Dominion

We won another game of Star Trek, figuring out what was required and how to really game the system. One thing we were doing wrong the first time was adding too much to each challenge when multiple players were at the same location, but we fixed that and still didn’t have a problem completing the challenges, mainly because there are so many modifiers that you can grab. The fact that some things are transferable without any effort at all makes it a little easy. One thing that has not gotten any easier, however, is the space combat, because the warbird is just so much stronger than the Enterprise, so actually destroying it is just such a difficult task. Especially since we kept getting the missions that shut down the weapons and shields on the Enterprise.

I also finally won a game which included Cornucopia cards, but it was close. The first game we played I lost soundly, because I was on the wrong end of the stick where Young Witch was concerned, and my attempt to get rid of the curses with Ambassador wasn’t working. When I gained three curses in one turn, I knew that my odds were just blown. Then the next game we had Tournament and Fairgrounds, which is a weird dynamic because it introduces a chance to get some huge hidden points. I finally won a tournament and took my bounty, and was stringing together all the funny money from Prosperity to buy a lot of big cards. The game came down to a single purchase, as I had 20 different cards, making my Fairgrounds worth 8 points each, while my opponent had 19 different cards, making his Fairgrounds worth 6 points each. With four Fairgrounds and 5 points behind, he could have won if he made sure to purchase a card he assumed he had. But he didn’t, so I won. Hurray.

What I Played Today: June 9

Dominion

I am having no luck with this dang Cornucopia. I have lost two more games, once because I overestimated how awesome Fairgrounds are. (Answer: Pretty awesome, but not that awesome), and another because I just couldn’t keep up with the heat. Both games took a while as we tried to really maximize on the cards that require a lot of different cards in your deck, so there was no maximizing of play, but there were a lot of fun combos.

What I Played Today: June 7

Dominion, Kinect FunLabs

Another new Dominion set, another adventure. Cornucopia is all about variety, with a lot of new cards that care about you having different cards in your deck. In the first game, there was a bit of give and take, but the true winner of the game is the tournament, which is a powerful card that really shines if you can ramp up to a province early. My opponent won every prize, which really bolstered his deck with some powerful actions, and I lost 60-20 after a poor attempt to catch up. The second game was a complete tie, as we both used the Harvest to great effect, and I kept getting hit with the Jester, a fun give-and-take attack, that dumped curses into my deck.

Also screwed around with the new Kinect FunLabs, which is...something. It's a weird experience, and while the technology is phenomenal, the usability is not that engaging. After you turn your shoe into a googly-eyed monster or your game box into a ninja, you just kinda nod to yourself and say, "Yep, that's magic, alright. Now can it do something useful?" But at least they are stretching their boundaries.

What I Played Today: May 20

Dominion, L.A. Noire

A couple of games of Dominion, one that I won pretty handily, due to milking a few good cards and my opponent costily getting screwed out of using a King’s Court, and one that I lost because I trashed all my estates and I could have really used those to force a tie.

Then some murder mysteries in 1940’s L.A., in which some serial murdering is brewing and things are looking a little too connected. No spoilers, although it has been pointed out to me that there’s a pretty obvious connection between these cases that isn’t being explored very well, in some cases shutting out the opportunity to actually check up on those options. Now, I wasn’t smart enough to notice, but I did start to notice in later cases where you are mysteriously not allowed to check out a location that keeps getting mentions, which is overly weird.

What I Played Today: March 27

Dominion, You Don’t Know Jack, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Dungeon Raid

A couple of games of Dominion, with some old favorites hitting play again, specifically Chapel. It has been forever since I’ve gotten a chance to play with the cheapest card in the game. It lets you trash up to 4 cards from your hand. A card that confuses newbies, but for cheap, super-effective players like me, a delight. I used that to pump up a deck that was mostly gold and provinces, and some cheap tactics to force my opponent to tack half a dozen curses. It must have been pretty annoying.

I will not be discussing my crushing defeat in You Don’t Know Jack, but rather let you know that my opponent has a disease that prevents him from losing a game of YDKJ. Luckily, it’s not contagious.

Stabbing guys in the Bro-hood; I actually realize I enjoy Manhunt a lot more, considering the alternatives. One trick that I’m having a lot of fun with is using morph to turn a static crowd of dumbies into versions of me, and then jump into a nearby bush. The signal isn’t accurate enough to let them know I’m not one of the duplicates, so I’m almost guaranteed a lure. There is a counter to it, Templar Vision, but that can counter all kinds of shenanigans. I think I’m going to start Morph a walking group, and then walking away, forcing a pursuer to waste time following a group of nobodies, or blowing their Templar Vision. Lot of opportunities for mind games.

I also have been tricked into downloading Dungeon Raid, a puzzle RPG that doesn’t shamelessly comp from Puzzle Quest. Instead of just matching three, you draw a line through like symbols and get a bonus; either refilling your hit points, getting gold, repairing armor, or killing dudes. The dudes appear on the grid itself, and you have to draw lines through swords to kill them. It’s a slow burn, as you slowly level up, get more skills, and buy more gear. You also eventually unlock new classes. It’s interesting how slowly it builds, and absurd how long the game can go on. I hit a streak on a warrior character, strong enough that I couldn’t die on purpose in normal mode, but with no endgame, I just kept getting more powerful without opposition.

What I Played Today: March 18

Dominion, You Don’t Know Jack

Couple of friends came over, and we played some Dominion, a couple of games with Prosperity and Intrigue. It was fun enough, although not much worthy of comment happened. I made a filthy joke about the Peddler, and I think I won a game by a lot, but otherwise it was a standard good session of Dominion. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Plus a couple of games of You Don’t Know Jack, which I’m liking a lot as a party game, because even if you don’t know the right answer, at least something funny will happen when you get it wrong. I don’t exactly have enough controllers to play with more than two people in my home, so I had to play with my DJ Hero turntable, which worked, surprisingly, although it meant that I couldn’t screw my opponents. Not exactly the most elegant solution.

What I Played Today: February 6

Costume Quest, Crackdown 2, Dominion

I have finally gotten over my anger at the game-breaking bug in Costume Quest and am back at the place I was before. The French Fry suit now works exactly like it’s supposed to, and I got my costume back from the creepy crows. I also found out that the mysterious elements that have happened so far were caused by this one guy, who takes all the credit and demands that we take care of the big bad, despite the fact that he is obviously more powerful than three kids. There are some antics involving a cannon, and then I stopped playing because I was done. I do like the monster designs of the new enemies though, the crows. They look really interesting.

I’m at the last beacon drop in Crackdown 2, having done all the main quests and just cleaning up. The last level is really hard because there are a lot of enemies running around and they are sending giant freaks to slam the beacon every minute and a half. It’s terrible. I almost passed it once, but fell down and got hit but some jerk, killing me while the beacon was at 90% power. I’ll get you yet, you freaks.

The game is also doing that thing where it’s playing that the people you’ve been fighting the entire time are good guys, which would be alright if it didn’t steal all the page notes from Bioshock (audio logs, communication interference, etc.) and if we didn’t remember the end of the last game. We know that the Agency is unambiguously totalitarian (at least, I assume we know that. Sequels are meant to build on the first game, correct? I’ve always assumed that a sequel supposes you have all the relevant plot info from the previous. I think that might be a topic for discussion). So the fact that we’re doing their dirty work again has been perfectly reasonable to me because there is absolutely nothing good about zombies. Of course I want to destroy these zombies, and while the method may (definitely) have ulterior motives, Cell sure hasn’t produced a better method, and things have gone completely tits up. It would be irresponsible to not detonate the beacons, and the half-hearted “Don’t do this despite the fact I’m not explaining why you shouldn’t” from the rebel leader just didn’t play. Plus, if I fail to detonate the last beacon, I’m never going to know what happens. My fate is kinda sealed here.

Oh, and I figured out how to get up the big tower downtown (it wasn’t easy), and spent maybe two hours trying to unlock a specific gun and failing miserably. I kept trying to find it among the ruins of each strategic location and always just missed the chance to pick it up. But I got it, which felt like a real achievement.

I also played a couple games of Dominion, which I kicked butt at. The first game was pretty standard, where I pulled ahead by the virtue of choosing to use the contraband to buy 3 duchies when the province was locked to me. The second game I used the trading post and loan to kick all the cooper out of my deck and quickly ramp to buying platinum every turn, every so often expanding to upgrade to the next coin level. The streamlined deck soon saw me buying a colony every turn, and I won easily, even as my opponent used expand to tear his deck apart to grab whatever victory cards he could.

What I Played Today: December 9

Deadly Premonition, Dominion

A couple of games of Dominion tonight, in which I did poorly. I lost one game to a single Duchy, and the second to the Island (for some reason, it took me until tonight to successfully tie the card to a Lost joke. It seems so obvious now) and being hit by Goons. I consistently am losing to Goons, I think I need to get over my untoward hatred for the card, and just buy it already. I did find out that part of my problem is that I like interesting cards more than I like useful cards. I actually asked that we kicked Lookout out of the spread so that I wouldn’t end up buying two of them and being disappointed.

I also played some Deadly Premonition from the beginning. It continues to be hilarious, although getting used to controls takes a while, even though I’ve seen this first section being played about two times now. I kept trying to reload with X. The driving is terrible, by the way, which I learned when I tried to do the race. Ick.

What I Played Today: November 20

Civilization: The Board Game, Dominion, Guild Wars

I have been bit by the Guild Wars bug again, it’s once again time to run around Tyria. This time I was once again lurking around the Guild Wars 2 site and looking at the calculator of the cool stuff you’ll get if you have done a certain number of achievements in Guild Wars, and I realized that I probably get a few more if I tried. So I logged in and started putting stuff in my Hall of Monuments. I apparently had a lot of miniatures that I hadn’t added to my collection, as well as five unopened birthday presents for all my characters. Every single one is at least 3 years old; I find that weird. So I managed to net four more points on their little meter of stuff I had already achieved, just not logged, and then I looked around and realized there was almost a full expansion pack of content I hadn’t done yet. Oh boy.

Also played the Civilization board game again, this time with wonders. I played the intractable Germans, who are vicious when it comes to armies, getting two units for free at the beginning and an additional unit every time they upgrade their troops. My opponent was concerned over the strength of my army, which I was tearing around the board visiting all the villages, so he hunkered down, building walls and extra units in anticipation of my attack. Seeing that an attack would be hard-met, I decided to move towards economic victory instead, and I was a little concerned how easy it is to ramp up to 15 coins. Four technologies in level 1 and 2 have abilities that add coins to them for a relatively small price, and while you can’t use them more than 4 times, that’s still gets you 25% of the way there for each tech. With the other methods of getting coins, it’s a bit easy to get there, and pretty difficult for your opponent to slow you down. Maybe it’s a lot harder if you don’t have a ton of resources from the villages, and I happened to get some good great people, but I’m still a bit concerned.

Also a game of Dominion, this time combining Prosperity with Alchemy, which creates some weird interactions. The most expensive card from Alchemy, Possession, doesn’t seem so difficult in an environment with a lot of treasure running around, and with fewer actions on the field, the heavy hitters from Alchemy aren’t as good. This game saw the City card drained pretty quickly, by its status as the only card that could be gained from University, and the midgame was full of both players draining their deck with their cities. The possessions were weird as well, when I managed to screw myself by using a golem during my opponent’s turn, which dropped a possession on myself as well as Goons, which is worthless to me because any chips gained aren’t grabbed when a person is possessed. So I managed to lose pretty soundly.

What I Played Today: November 6

Minecraft, Kinect Joy Ride, Dominion, Rock Band 3

I am making a lot of progress in Minecraft, having dug a hole straight down to the bottom of the map in my little home to do some strip mining for rare redstone, which takes forever to get to, by the way, and have ventured into the dangerous cave systems outside my house to get some gold. With these two, I have made a watch! Which tells me what time of day it is! Which you’d think would be easier to get!

Also there was a demo for Kinect Joy Ride available, so I downloaded it to see what that was all about, and it is a standard go cart type racing game, with events, but the fact that you can control it with just your outstretched hands is amazing. It doesn’t control perfectly, but who thought it would? It’s a cute game, and there appears to be a lot of content in the full version.

A game of Dominion happened at some point, with prosperity. Again there was the trade route in play, and again I used it, because it has such an odd mechanic. In terms of reward, it’s not great, especially with the requirement to trash a card, but the fact that it also forces you to build it up by buying those victory cards you won’t care about, like Estate, makes it something you want to invest in, because when you use it right, it’s worth 4 or 5 coins to you, as well as getting rid of some fuffera.

Also after a dinner was a marathon game of Rock Band 3 with 6 players playing pretty much constantly. The fact that it now supports so many people is amazing, although being on back-up singer isn’t exactly the most riveting part assignment. But when people are willing to keep trading parts, it makes for a pretty engaging time.