These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things: Games

[alexc]

So when I'm not working and spending time with my family I am usually playing a game. Most of you probably immediately think that I mean video games, but you'd be wrong. While I do love video games ( and I will almost certainly talk about them here) I really love board games. I have hundreds of games and have dedicated whole closets and chests of drawers and cabinets to storing my games. I love them so very much that I dedicated a couple of weeks every summer to traveling around the nation doing nothing but playing games for those weeks. This thread is going to talk about the games I love to play.

[alexc]

So, here we have my favorite hobby ever. I love to play games. The social aspect of them, the competition and the camraderie that play establishes. I love games.

Right now my favorite game to play is RoboRally. The concept is that you have a malfunctioning factory and a bunch of malfunctioning robots that are attempting to repair it. Each player is dealt a hand of up to 9 cards that control the movement of the robots as they move from one factory repair point to another. The catch is that the cards dealt are random, and the robots can only store 5 instructions at a time. Add in that all the robots are programmed in secret and can push each other around and damage the rest of the robots and you have a game of mayhem, plotting and fun.

The first robot to fix all the repair point in the factory is the winner.

Learn more about one of my favorite games here:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/18

[alexc]

[alexc]

Okay, today we will drift from the old school board games and into the digital realm. In addition to loving the feel of dice and playing pieces in my hand I also can't pass up the chance to grab the controller and blow up some bad guys

Right now I'm hooked on Metal Gear Solid 4. This game is a vast departure from the standard action/stealth game design. What I mean by this is that you probably spend more time watching cut scenes in the game than you do actually playing it.

Even though you spend more time watching the game than you'd spend watching Lord of the Rings Extended edition, it is still a magnificent game with great, albeit complex, gameplay, a deep story line that continues from the previous games and it is an amazingly fun adventure to play through. The graphics are the best I have ever seen on a home console, and the production leaves very little to be desired. This is a great game, and to anyone interested in action games I can easily recommend it, as long as you are okay with sitting through long cut scenes or skipping the cut scenes altogether.

[alexc]

Ok, with GenCon just wrapping up and PAX just around the corner games are taking a huge chunk of my thinking time. Fantasy Flight Games, one of the biggest publishers of board games in the US has just released the new Battlestar Galactica Game. Battlestar Galactica is one of the only shows on televiion that I make an active effort to see. The show itself is full of great charaters and plot and intrigue.

In this game one or more of the players is secretly siding with the Cylons (the enemies of the human race in the show) and it is up to the rest of the players to discover the traitor and save the human race.

I have only ben able to play a pre-release of this game, but even then it was in a polished state and more than ready to play. Now that it is officially available, I recommend that anyone who is a fan of the show go pick it up, and if you are a fan of board games it is definitely worth a play if not an outright purchase.

[alexc]

BOOM BLOX! BOOM BLOX! BOOM BLOX!

Ok, I just recently found out about this game for the Nintendo Wii and I have to say that it is super fun and addicting as can be! The concept is pretty straight forward as it is basically a Jenga style game with a few extra twists and perks.

You have the traditional mode of removing blocks from the tower and not tipping it over, but since a computer is stacking the tower there are all sorts of different tower shapes and designs. Additionally there are blocks that explode or disappear just to really mix things up.

There are also throwing games where the object is to hurl balls at the tower and try to knock it over, which with exploding nd disappearing locks can e a really "blast".

I highly recomend this game for good clean fun with friends and family.

[Inisheer]

[alexc]

[Inisheer]

[alexc]

Well since we are talking Final Fantasy, I will go ahead and use Final Fantasy Tactics A2 as my game of the day. Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is a roleplaying game for the Nintendo DS.

It shares some things with the regular Final Fantasy series, but uses completely different gameplay. Instead of adventuring around and entering battles where you just select your actions and they happen, Tactics is more like a chess match.

You still wander around the surface world, but instead of running into random encounters you head out for specific missions and have most of your battles there. When you enter battle you select up to six characters from your army, select their classes and abilities and equipment and then move them about the board attempting to position them in advantageous places to make your attacks most effective.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is significantly more strategic than other Final Fantasy games and takes substantially longer to complete a combat. But in exchange for having longer combats there is also a lot more depth, and most combats feel much more interesting.

[auntiej]

Board games are okay but they are in no way like playing a good vidieo game. I love to play vidieos and i also love online role playing games. My fav being Runescape, just awsome.

[alexc]

Well I just got back from vacation where I spent the last week playing video games and board games, so I have a ton to talk about in this thread.

First up today we'll talk about one of the most popular games available, Agricola. Agricola is a game where players are trying to raise a family and maintain a farm. As the game progresses, new capabilities become available for the players to make use of, but the catch is that each action can only be taken by one player in a given round.

For example, if you want to plow a field, only one person gets the opportunity to do that in a given round. there is nothing random about the game other than the other players who are all competeing for limited resources, so much like poker you need to be able to read and predict your opponents in order to succeed.

[alexc]

[alexc]

[alexc]

Sorry to all of my loyal readers who have been anxiously awaiting my latest gaming entry. I have been negligent in my duties.

Today's entry in gaming is all about WipeOut HD for the PS3. Back in the wild days of the PS1 I was hopelessly hooked on the first WipeOut game, and I thought I had kicked the habit. Then alon comes this gorgeous remake.

WipeOut is a high speed futuristic racing game where you just pilot these hovercraft around and try to blow up or out race the others. Great game with great graphics and great speed. Lots of fun.