A few weeks off due to increased demand at work.
Oh by the way, 79 days until the end of the world. Make sure you get your gaming in…
Fun:
- There’s a line that some cross. This is someone who has an obsession.
- Multi-level RoboRally
- Funky “chess by sea”
- Great collection of Meeplepics
- If you’re looking for a central list of gaming conventions, A-Game Magazine has a pretty comprehensive one. Bookmark it!
New Games:
- The Lord of the Rings Dice Building Game: Wiz Kids expands the Quarriors! Brand over to Tolkien’s world. Same game engine, now with literary connections. Release in January 2013.
- The Cave: Explore a newly discovered cave. As the cave develops in this tile laying game, you’ll refill your backpacks with the right tools. The goal is to explore the cave with “the biggest effort in the most spectacular way”. I’m not sure exactly how that’s measured, but the game is due out at some point later this year.
- Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar: This game takes the worker placement mechanic and adds a dynamic element based on the worker’s current position on a gear where you draft them from. The goal is to pay homage to the Mayan gods with actions by the workers. Release in October 2012.
- Legendary: Cooperative deck builder in the… wait for it… Marvel Universe (does anyone get that joke???). Decks draft from hero decks from Spider-man to The Hulk. But there’s a mastermind villain that gets modified by the villain’s strategy. The goal is to enlist heroes and pump up their fighting ability and defeat the villains. Release in November 2012.
- Oddville: Become a city planner by placing workers to get resources, money or projects. Build the city for points. Release in October 2012.
- Ticket to Ride: The Heart of Africa: The third map collection has been released for Ticket to Ride and it goes right through the continent largely ignored by gaming with the exception of the multitude of games designed for ancient Egypt. Now there are different terrain types and the colors you play have to match the terrain. There’s also terrain-specific locomotives which can increase your score in some circumstances. Release in December 2012 (hopefully before the end of the world).
- Recent releases: Seasons, Circus Grandioso, Andantino, Equinox, Mage Wars, Level 7 (Escape), Spooky Spells, Star Wars: X-Wing, Phantom, Heptalion
iOS:
- Alien Frontiers has been submitted – release imminent
- Talisman in development, but broken into multiple games. PC coming this year. Phones and tablets afterwards.
- Stone Age for iPhone in beta, release by end of 2012
- Dominion has been released after the debacle last month. It’s HTML5, so it requires a connection to the Internet, but is therefore platform-independent. Unfortunately it’s buggy as hell. I get disconnected regularly via iPad and get very frustrated.
- Ironically, Thunderstone came under similar fire in that people were very disappointed with how it was developed as non-iOS native and requiring a connection. However they seem to have fixed most (not all) of the issues that were plaguing players and I’m actually really enjoying my T-stone experience.
- Dominant Species close to release
- Summoner Wars tournament has been announced. Signups.
News:
- The 2012 Deutscher Speile Pries gaming awards were given and the reason why I mention it is because an entire family swept the two big awards. Village, designed by Inka and Markus Brand won for game of the year. Meanwhile their children Emely and Lukas won the kids game of the year for Mogel Motte. That’s quite amazing!
- Days of Wonder has released a Halloween themed add-on for Ticket to Ride called Halloween Freighter. It comes with pumpkin trains and Halloween stations (for TtR:Europe). Sells for $12.
- Games Magazine, one of my favorites for a very long time, releases a usually dubious awards at the end of the year. I believe it is just the gaming writer’s picks for the year, so there’s no “jury” involved. Anyway, their game of the year is Trajan. Matter (by Simply Fun) won best abstract, Village won advanced strategy, Decktet took card game (actually released in 2008???), Takenoko for family game, Pluckin’ Pairs for party game and Kerflip! for word game.
- With Zynga’s stock falling like a brick, they’re teaming up with Hasbro to release board game versions of their online games FarmVille, CityVille and Words with Friends.
- It seems that a Swedish airport found a suspicious package in a garbage bin. When they examined the package, it turns out the package was in fact a board game called Sundsvallsspelet.
- Fun Again Games is partially sponsoring a spaghetti game night in their local area. That sounds so cool!
Recently Played:
- At our game night recently I got in on a fun game of Telestrations. Then we had a knockdown/drag-out Agricola fight.
- Played a few games of Quarriors Quarmageddon with my sons
- Some No Thanks with some friends
Happy Gaming!
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