What I Played Today: June 25

The Resistance, Quarriors, Lifeboat

(sigh) Last game night with the old group. They had a very nice party for me, and I had a really good time seeing everyone again. Before the party kicked off, I forced a bunch of people to play The Resistance. Of course, the good guys lost again, because of the stupid requirement of having to bring along all the good guys on the final mission, so if you don't have that figured out you're pretty screwed. I was able to identify one of the traitors easily, but the second eluded me...one of the players was acting weird, so it threw me off.

Then a couple of games of Quarriors, which I also lost. I was just having no luck with the dice. In the second game, there was this ogre that really just screwed with the field too much, forcing players to downgrade their dice and throwing all their basic dice back into the bag, so all your good stuff just sat useless in the discard. It was a jerky guy, and somehow his ability was used every turn.

After that, a game called Lifeboat, which is different than I thought it would be. It's a multiplayer game of cutthroat actions, in which the board is slowly draining you and everyone wants certain people to die and certain people to stay alive. So...it's makes for some interesting scenarios where you don't know who has it in for you or who wants to protect you. I had one of the weakest characters, who had the inherent ability to piss off everyone at the table, i.e., steal all their stuff. I spent a couple of rounds just taking whatever I could, knowing that if worse came to worse, while I didn't have the size to win any fights, I at least would have resources. In a round, the inherent leader, who was using his considerable size to force everyone to do what he wanted, challenged me and wanted some of my stuff, and because I was a bit of an idiot, I said no and played enough cards from my little stockpile to beat him. It was a gambit, but as long as no one interfered, it would be fine. Well...someone interfered, nearly everyone on the table deciding they were done with me, and I got knocked out, and then thrown off the lifeboat, completely getting kicked out of the game. Whoops.

What I Played Today: February 23

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Quarriors, BattleCON, Mario Kart Wii

I ran one quest in Reckoning, in which some guy who is apparently a jerk sent me to find the guy who brought me back to life and then sent assassins after us. A lot of assassins too, like twenty or so. That's overdoing it a bit. But they are all dead now, and that guy who I thought died is apparently alive and well. Hurray!

A not super-involved game of Quarriors, with the new tainted dice expansion, which bothered me so little that I barely noticed. The game ended quickly because of some cheaty monsters who give 4 VP per score for some reason. Also a three-way match of BattleCON. I played the assassin guy, and I like his style a lot. The way he flies around the board is fun. But someone was playing the leveler, and since that game went into extra innings, of course she won, because she was swinging for five damage a turn there in the last few turns. You cannot ignore that character.

Then a couple of rounds of Mario Kart. I did okay, although that ghost house level can suck it.

What I Played Today: October 15

Rift, Eaten By Zombies, Quarriors

I played Rift some. The new world event has started, and it involves killing things from fire rifts, and that's about it! It's not all that excited, and I didn't spend a lot of time playing. There was an event on our server tonight, a charity event in which people signed in and played as much as possible. Why this was happening on my normal server and not, say, a brand new one confounded me, but it didn't bother me as much as it seemed to bother a bunch of assholes in chat. All it seems to mean is that my current server is fairly low traffic.

I bought a new thing, Eaten by Zombies, a deck management game, in which you have to fight zombies, and if you fail to fight zombies, you lose cards from your deck. There's a lot of weird swing with this game, because the rich just get richer, and when you don't have what you need to either run or fight in your hand, you're pretty much screwed. Interesting, but I think better with two, because there's less one-on-one pressure.

Also a game of Quarriors, which was alright!

What I Played Today: October 3

Quarriors, Sentinels of the Multiverse, 30 Second Life, Trackmania 2

I had a game night with friends, and I was specifically asked to bring Quarriors, because I am the only jerk who owns it. It got played a lot, but I only played one game, which took forever. Somehow, the right combination of dice killers came into play that there was no real way for the winners to ramp up to a quick win, so it kept going around the table, and by the end of it I wanted to just tap out.

Then I played Sentinels of the Multiverse, and this game is still pretty good! For some stupid reason I keep forgetting! We faced Omnitron, who hits hard and fast, but with some trickery (and most Tachyon, who can hit really really hard late game), we managed to win even after two of the three heroes went down, one to sacrifice and myself to the most bullshit card I've ever seen, a 15 HP monster, untargetable by most "take care of troubles" cards, that deals its current hit points in damage to each player at the start of the villain turn. It is insane, but we lived through it, even though it did end up that the two dead players spent the last few minutes playing the remaining new player's hand.

I downloaded something dumb, 30 Second Life, a short game in which you live a full life in 30 seconds, and the fun is trying to get all the different careers and stuff. There's only one button, WORK, and the more you push it, the more you succeed...including when you're a toddler and a corpse. It's...a bit weird with the assumptions that it makes, especially if you slack off at all, you are suddenly a junkie/prostitute/mental patient. I'm pretty sure junkies didn't become junkies just because they didn't work very hard. And I also don't know if my fingers are fast enough to even get all the options.

Also more Trackmania 2. I tried the basic editor, and couldn't figure out how it corresponded to the tracks I've totally seen thus far, so I opened up the advanced editor, and then I had NO IDEA how I could do everything. There were a lot of blocks, but there was also a lot that confused the piss out of me, so...I'm just going to race for now. Figure out the tracks before I try to make a challenge.

What I Played Today: September 16

Lascaux, Quarriors, Piece of Cake

A game night, and at that game night, I played some games. Game game game.

Anyway! The night started with a bidding game in which you are trying to acquire these cave paintings by selecting a color and putting your stones into a pot. When you choose to stop, you take all the stones thrown in and set your chip down, securing your place in line. Once everyone is in, the last person to bow out gets all the paintings that match their color, then the next to last person, and so on. It's quite clever, with some interesting give and take, and I managed to win by going all in one round to get all the pictures of rhinoceros.

Also played Quarriors a couple of times, to show it off some. The players liked it pretty well, although there are a lot of cards that are only useful if certain other cards are in play, like the spell that forces another player to discard a spell. I can think of very few times I'd ever want to use that. But it went alright; I managed to buy a dragon for once, only for someone to steal it from me with a creature worth half the price. It was nonsense.

Piece of Cake is a game about pie. I don't know why they called it Piece of Cake, but you're trying to take the pieces of pie that are worth the most points. You can either hang on to the pie to score big points if you have the most at the end, or eat the pie immediately for instant points. One thing that confused the heck out of me is that the most plentiful pieces of pie were worth the most points, while pieces that there were only three of were worth a measly one point each. I didn't get it, because everything I know about supply and demand says the opposite should be true. But somehow it kinda works here. I say kinda because I managed to win even though I was grabbing mostly pies from the lower end of the stack, so I guess my theory doesn't hold? I don't know.

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: September 10

Revolution, Quarriors, (Darts), Spot It, No Thanks, Battlestar Galactica, Sentinels of the Universe

I went into the woods today to play games! I really don't know why I had to go into the woods to do that, but it was pretty fun. I also may not have remembered all the games, because apparently first rule of Cabin Games is you must play while buzzed.

First on the table was Revolution, which I lost badly. Like, 100 points behind the other two players badly. I just was not getting the resources I need and kept getting ganked by spies. So...that sucks.

I showed off Quarriors, and the players liked it a lot. The games do move really quickly though, as once a player has a really good turn, there's nothing stopping them from having another really good turn after they cull. The winner managed to get two turns of three assistants, which really boosted her score, and after that it just avalanched.

We played darts too, and it definitely was darts. I only put it in scare brackets because I cheated to end the game, because it was just going nowhere, so I don't count that as playing.

A couple of short games. The first was No Thanks, which I had never played, and it's an interesting game. A numbered card will flip, and you can either take it and add to your score (which you don't want), or put a chip on it and pass to the next player. Each chip is worth negative points, so eventually it's worth it to take the card, and you only count the lowest card in a sequential set, so you also want to grab numbers close to ones you already have. It's a tense little affair, I said at one point if all games are played in terrified silence, but it seems like a good plan. Also played Spot It, a cute kid's game where each card has a bunch of images on it, and you want to match them up with the card in your hand. Nothing I can really say about it.

Then the party really got started, because it was BSG time, brothers! This was a long long game. I choose to be a Cylon Leader, because I've never been one, and I got the super easy mission of playing on the human side while making sure at leave five spaceships blow up. In every single game I've ever played, all the spaceship blow up, so this was a no brainer, just a matter of getting the table to trust me and make sure they win, which I tried a bit by making the cylons think I'm on their side. It's a weird dynamic, and I like the reversal, trying to get the bad guys to think I'm on their side. The game went really really well for the human though, as they passed nearly all their tests and were able to gain back the majority of the resources they had lost. It didn't even become a problem until after the cylons revealed. There were a couple of intentional executions, which I hadn't seen before. The weirdest thing was when the president had a choice to brig any character. I was on the ship, so I assumed I was about to get the can, but he instead put himself in the brig, and managed to acheive two personal goals in doing so.

Eventually time and alcohol began to wear on the game though, as we entered the fourth hour of play and we just kinda wanted to finish. The humans were not in danger of losing, but were also trucking through space really really slowly, and at one point, there was some drunken doubt that there weren't the right number of cylons. In a move I regret, I did eventually give in to the complaints and checked everyone's loyalty cards real quick, and of course there were the right number, one of the cylons was just extra helpful to throw off suspicion, and because he liked blowing up spaceships. Eventually the game did boil down, and the humans won. It was an odd game.

Then a game of Sentinels of the Multiverse, this time against Grand Warlord Voss and his army of dumb jerks. This one came down to the wire, with one of the players dying from moving too fast, and we were only saved because an environment card through down a defense bubble on the game, giving us time to relax. I played as Haka, which has an interesting dynamic where he has a few powers that allow him to can a bunch of cards for a one time effect, but no real way to build up his hand. I don't know, he seems to be the least thematically consistent.

Then I watched Wacky Races! I can't explain how exciting this seems at the time.

What I Played Today: September 3

Rift, League of Legends, Quarriors, Penny Arcade: Gamers vs. Evil, Bastion

I am trying new things in Rift, because this endless rep grinding is getting pretty dull. So, today I decided to see what was the deal with Tier 1 dungeons, and the answer is they are harder versions of older dungeons, with like twice as many bosses. I got stuck with healer duty (I'm always getting stuck with healer duty), and managed to do okay, although I collapsed on each of the new bosses, because I had no idea. Man, I passed out so often, I eventually said, "Yeah, it's cool, you can have that awesome staff that might have been a minor improvement to me. I hate staffs anyway." I was mainly embarrassed that I spent the majority of the fight we won it in unconscious, so yeah, I can do without it.

I also spend some time running a low-level dungeon with the purpose of completing the next step of this dang epic quest, and now I'm stuck, because I can no longer solo the minor characters that I meet. I guess I'll have to start looking for groups for that. Luckily, the LFG system is pretty slick.

Also tried to play more Leg of Legends, and spent I'm going to say twenty minutes looking at costumes. I keep looking for a character who would match my playstyle, then I'll buy that with free money so I have someone to run with, but I just don't know. I kinda hate that a good quarter of the characters are goofy as shit, like teddy bears and sad mummies and all that nonsense, because I cannot see myself ever playing as them. Also, still not playing against people yet!

I got a game of Quarriors in, which was pretty fun. I won easily; it's a bit more slapdash in a two-player game, because if one player gets a good roll and the other a bad, then a quarter of the game is over just like that. But enjoyable, I like the speed and customability of this game a lot.

And a game of Penny Arcade: Gamers vs. Evil which I lost really badly! The problem was that the heroes were greatly imbalanced, as I got the promo hero that has a benefit that only goes off the first turn, and he got the hero that gave him the same benefit as mine as long as he had three differently named cards, and he was pulling this off every turn in the last half of the game. He bought nearly every boss card, I only got about three, and it just went badly for me.

Lastly, beat the Bastion today. It's pretty good you guys, although the last level goes into some weird places, as it starts adding a whole lot of stuff that the player hadn't had to deal with before. I found the best weapon and the worst weapon though, the mortar and the rocket launcher. The rocket launcher is not good, fairly inaccurate, and its challenge level is bullshit. But everything else went well, so no complaining! I'm now interested to see where the New Game Plus takes us, how it ups the challenge and makes the game still interesting.

What I Played Today: August 28

Battlestar Galactica, Gunstringer, Guild Wars 2, Penny Arcade: Gamers vs. Evil, Sentinels of the Multiverse, Quarriors

I had one goal today, and I achieved it. I was trying to read the rules to another Asmadi game (I do not get these guys), when I saw a call on Twitter for more players for BSG, and I was in. Although I think my evil streak is officially over, as I was neither a cylon nor did I win. The game started easily, we got out of the mess pretty quickly, and were a bit at a loss of what to do. I noticed a lot of blue cards were showing up, which was weird, so I started to suspect Chief, and when Adama decided to use his once-a-game to fill his hands with blues, my cylon radar went off. After the flip, Boomer went to jail, but immediately broke out and insta-won a really good crisis for us, and while this was really nice, it was also so suspiciously helpful that I still suspected her.

BUT it was all for not, as during a player's turn, they had the feeling they should give an executive order to Adama. I told them not to do it, because I did not trust him, even though he just threw five cards into a skill check that we passed, but it was too late, and Adama revealed. Shortly after, Chief revealed, and they let us know they were at it from the beginning of the game, which I hadn't realized. Space soon became a disaster, and we couldn't keep up, especially after the mass assault supercrisis, so the humans lost while the cylons high-fived. I tried to warn the first guy, is all I'm saying.

At the Kinect booth, I got in to try the Gunstringer, and it works pretty well! You just move your one hand to get the guy to move, and then you shoot with the other. It is good enough for me to buy with money!

In the last hour of the convention, the line for Guild Wars 2 finally let up, and even though I could only manage to get 20 minutes in, I realized it was worth it, and played that for a little bit. I was on the fence with all the hype, the game showing up year and year, the radio silence with the last class, the no release date nonsense. Then I played it, and it's really dang good. I like a lot of it, I like the character creation, I like how they handle skills, I like their active event system or whatever they are calling it, I like it. Now, I realize that it is not Guild Wars, but you know? If it's as good overall as it seemed in those few minutes, then it doesn't need to be. If this game will just show us that they actually want us to play it before the heat death of the universe, I am totally down.

Then, after the con, the game of the show (the literal game) was played again, and it went fine. Lot of PVP Attacks, we ran out of PAX POX, which is their cheeky name for the curse card. One thing I notice is that at the end I never really know who won or lost, because by that point it is not important. It's also not very easy to ramp up to buying a high victory card every turn, because there is never a reason to flow towards all-power or all-tokens. You want to spend all your currency every turn, and so you always have just not enough to buy the boss cards.

After dinner, we played the little indie game I bought, Sentinels of the Multiverse, and it's a pretty good time. It's a coop game, four heroes against a villain, and it's real simple. Each players gets their own unique deck based on their hero's flavor. Just have the villain play a card, then each hero plays a card, uses a power, and draws a card, then the enviroment plays a card, and so forth until everyone dies or the villain is defeated. It's low of materials, as all you get is a lot of cards, and there's quite a bit of tracking needed, but which such a simple idea and has so much room for expansion and variety that I like it a lot. Also, the fact that it was only $40 in a tiny box when any other company would have charged $60 is a nice bonus. I want to play it more.

One late fast game of Quarriors; I managed to win because I got rid of nearly all my dice except a few pretty good ones, and I just ramped quickly towards victory, and then the fun times were done. But it was a great PAX, I had a great dang time.

What I Played Today: August 26

Penny Arcade: Gamers vs. Evil, Quarriors, Nuns on the Run, Dance Central 2, Mii Plaza

PAX guys. It's a big thing! Today was the day where I got a good look at the floor and purchased stuff, not worrying too much about getting a lot of play in but making sure to get what I wanted before they were sold out. I also brought along my 3DS to try and do some Streetpassing, which does not work as well as you'd think! You can only collect ten people at a time, so you constantly had to log in and check on guys. It was pretty annoying, and eventually I just decided to give up.

Around 4 p.m. I had successfully scouted the area and found what I needed to buy, and then bought them up, only skipping the Gears of War board game because it was about $10 more expensive than I expected. After I loaded my hands up, I went to the Dance Central 2 booth and did a dance battle. This is exactly what I wanted, and I will buy it when they will let me.

Then at the hotel we cracked open a couple of boxes. Penny Arcade: Gamers vs. Evil is another deck building game, but with a lot more jokes. It's really simple, with two currency sources, tokens and power, and almost every cards provides you with one or the other. Tokens buy strong cards, power buys cards with victory points. Each player also has a character that gives them a unique ability and determines what their starting deck layout. It's pretty fun, although I have heard the TouchWeiners joke about fifteen hundred times already.

One of the vendors had Quarriors, which I heard was all sold out, so it was bought, and I really like this one. It's another dang deck building game, but with dice instead. Each dice provides either currency, a creature, or a spell effect, and the basic premise is to keep all your creatures alive to your next turn while killing your opponents. But it's fast and highly customizable, because while there are 130 dice, each dice set has at least three different versions, so while you may be playing with the blob dice, it will work differently in one game than it did in another. It's pretty good.

After a panel that we got kicked out of early (the nerve), we played a game of Nuns on the Run, which I didn't know the rules to, and am still uncertain about! After some mishaps, we almost got the hang of it, with the secret movement and the hey-hey, but I managed to catch the other players a few times, ending the game. I'm not sure I like this, because it's a deductive game that puts too much emphasis on a single player doing all the deducting, and there's just too much randomness.

Back at the hotel, a few more games of stuff I already talked about, they are still good, so no more. To sleep.