Fun:
New Games:
iOS:
- Le Havre released
- Magic 2013 released
- Summoner Wars submitted, release imminent
News:
- CBS is picking up Draw Something to air on television. For those not in the know (I barely am): This is a Zynga game that is playable on the Internet and is expected to be a high-tech version of Pictionary and Win Lose or Draw.
Recently Played:
- I’m looking forward to the summer so I can get more gaming in. Vacations are really good for that. Also there’s a monthly board game night coming up this week. Only thing I logged this week was a game of Core Worlds with my wife. And I had to take out the garbage to get that one!
Happy Gaming!
Fun:
- Want to have fun with your friends? Get one of these anti-gravity timers. I guarantee you they’ll be too busy paying attention to the hourglass and they’ll miss the objective, therefore handing you the game. Bank it.
- Destination Gaming: Play Pandemic away from the masses so that you might be able to avoid catching any contagions.
- For those who have played Tales of the Arabian Nights, there’s apparently an inside joke at the end of the book (I’ll have to check my copy). But even to an outsider it’s pretty funny. Apparently this continues a tradition in this game if you read the comments at the bottom.
- Pimp My Game: Custom dice bag for Zombie Dice. Niiiiiiiiice (Braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaains)
- Pimp My Game II: Someone made a custom water level tower for Forbidden Island that is amazing!
- Pimp My Game III: I’ve often thought of the lazy susan as a great gaming tool and my custom gaming table in my head has one. But someone gussied theirs up really nicely. It works really nicely with Core Worlds.
- Pimp My Game IV: Those that have played Quarriors! know how frustrating the scoring tokens are in that they are very close in color. Here’s some custom tokens that someone made.
- Possibly the most gorgeous set of Backgammon that I have ever seen
- Geek Love: Someone proposed in a game of Innovation. Very cute idea!
- Someone decided to have some fun with backgrounds and created some beautiful pictures from the ships in Merchants and Marauders. It’s too bad they didn’t use custom painted ships if they went to all this trouble: 1 2 3 4
- “Whooa, there goes Tokyo, there goes Godzilla! Whoo-oooo-ooo.” (Name the group)
- Those who know me know I’m big into cycling. More doing than following. But BGG is doing their own “Le Tour de Geek” which is just getting started. It is a 14 stage race between games a la Geek Madness in March. But this one is actually comparing different aspects of a game including mechanics, value, player interaction, etc. The goal would be to name the most complete game. It sounds fascinating.
New Games:
- Tokaido: For those in need of serenity, a new game is coming out of Japan which has you travelling the “East Sea Road”. You meet other people, eat, collect items and visit interesting places. If you’ve done the most interesting things along the road, you win. They tout it as a zen game that is peaceful and easy to pick up.
- Princes of the Dragon Throne: Card game where you play a young dragon trying to take over the throne. Area control and resource management with a deck building/drafting mechanic from the company that brought you Alien Frontiers.
- Recent releases: Eclipse (2nd Ed.), Skeleton Island, Samurai Battles
iOS:
- Hacienda released
- Neuroshima Hex released for Android
- Le Havre submitted (imminently available)
- MechWarrior: Tactical Command due this summer
- 7 Wonders companion that keeps score and gives card info among other things released this week. The most interesting thing though is the new wonder called “Cupertino”, after Apples proposed new headquarters. This wonder changes its abilities depending on the stock price for Apple. Crazy!
- Alien Frontiers has returned to Kick Starter, but for the iPad. They need 15K to finish programming.
News:
- More Settlers of Catan environmentalism: Some Yale students developed a variant called Settlers of a Green Future that will be used as part of the Rio+20 Earth Summit. You choose a political philosophy which give you access to green policy cards. You can also team up with other players to form eco-cooperatives.
- Violence in Myrtle Beach after one Taboo player punched another during an argument over rules. Oh yeah, the offender was an Elvis Impersonator too.
- Comicbookresources.com took an interesting look at what movies need to become board games (as opposed to the reverse trend we are seeing today. They chose Brewster’s Millions (great idea!!!!), Chinatown, Psycho (ok that’s going to be weird), Apocalypse Now and Battleship (wait, that’s a joke, right?)
Recently played:
- Another slow week for me. What am I doing? I was biking a ton and completed the Ride to Montauk this past weekend. Now that that is done, I fully plan on getting back to gaming. Hmmm… what to play, what to play?
- I did get a couple of games of Zombie Dice in with the kids
Happy Gaming!
Fun:
New Games:
- CO2: First there was Settlers of Catan Oil expansion. Now Stronghold Games puts out an area control game that’s friendly (or harmful) to the environment. Manage the tide of pollution in the 1970s as the government investing in private companies that have solutions. Go green, make money and manage resources like knowledge to obtain clean and sustainable energy. Release October 2012, and no I have no idea what the carbon footprint of this game is.
- Plato 3000: Card game for 2-4 where you use rummy rules to build a civilization. Release imminently 2012.
- Recently released: Pittsburgh 68, Dixit: Journey, FitzIt, Tournay, Uncharted: The Board Game, Divinare, Monster Chase
iOS:
- Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 release June 20th
- Quirkle later this summer
- iOS 6 to be released this fall, although unsure of feature set
News:
- To support the brick and mortar stores (aka FLGS), companies are now releasing their games earlier to the local shops and delaying to online retailers. That’s very interesting and I think a really good idea. Right now Queen Games (Fresco) and AEG (Thunderstone) are doing it. I wonder how it’ll effect the shops that also have heavy online presences.
- The world record for longest time playing a single game was broken on the 9th. These guys were playing Stratomatic Baseball, a game I played incessantly in college.
- Top 100 games everyone should play, as per the Games for Change. This one is crowd sourced through June 20th. Go ahead and vote!
Recently played:
- Another light week except for Blood Bowl, where my Necromantic team the Death Rockers pulled an upset in the opening round of the playoffs over the Warpstone Rejects (Skaven)and now vault into the semifinals of the Montauk Cup. Opponent still unknown.
Happy Gaming!
Fun:
- For anyone who’s interested in seeing the new base cards for the Dominion reissue, they’re here. I love the new curse card.
- Gaming décor: A Dominion table along with a picture log of how he made it
- Gaming décor II: Ooh… wall art!
- Pimp My Game: Someone geeked out Modern Art with comic themes. I did this for “Renaissance Art” to bring to Pennsic one year, although I didn’t print out the cards. They’re all mocked up though.
- Interesting geeklist for games that are out of print and copies are dwindling – endangered species if you will
New Games:
iOS:
- Dominion (the real one) is in beta
- Hacienda HD submitted to the store this week, should be available imminently
- Lost Cities due in July
- Le Havre due in the next couple of weeks
- Summoner Wars confirmed for June
- Alien Frontiers still in development, but was shown at Origins
News:
- Origin awards have been released for the mega convention in Columbus. Many people are down on these awards as the ones nominated are often not what people would consider worthy. However the winners are:
- There’s also backlash about Origins. I hear attendance was drastically down due to the change of dates to conflict with the school year for many.
- Dice Tower News will be moving to Game Salute as Tom Vasel is quitting his day job and going into gaming full time
- Geek.com has declared that every geek should have 5 games: Ticket to Ride, Arkham Horror, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Memoir ‘44
- The city of Spartanburg, SC is putting on the play Clue: The Musical. The movie was awesome… I wonder how good the musical is.
- Another boardgame-turned-movie??? Wait! This one’s different! A 17-yr-old filmmaker in Martha’s Vineyard is screening a film based on Last Night on Earth.
Recently Played:
- Played the last game of my LIBBL season in Blood Bowl and lost, although won my division. Playoff time!
- Sadly, no other board gaming this last week.
Happy Gaming!
