Race for the Galaxy

Card games hold an interesting niche in the board gaming world. Whenever a big bunch of gamers get together we sometimes run multiple games at the same time. This can cause one group to have some downtime if they finish their game and want to wait for the others to finish theirs as well. This is generally when the card games come out, as they’re generally easy to learn and quick to play.

Race for the Galaxy fits this bill nicely. It’s very amusing and can easily be played in about 20 minutes. The first time I played it took 30 minutes only because two of the three players were new and one of those new players was understandably distracted by her child. Needless to say it plays fast, but that doesn’t stop the game from having an epic scope and a much bigger feel than its lot as a card game might suggest.

Race for the Galaxy was originally supposed to be a card game version of Puerto Rico, and this is plainly obvious to any Puerto Rico player after getting the first explanation of RftG’s rules. The game adapts quite well to its new space exploration/conquest theme, and even takes the ingenious step of using undrawn face down cards from the deck as tokens and trade goods. This means that the only thing in the box is the deck of cards, a few victory point chits and the rules, and further adding to my surprise at the games level of emersion. This also makes expansions stupidly easy to insert into the main game and furthers the games replay value.

Race for the Galaxy gets an 8 of 10. This is a fantastically amusing game that easy to teach to just about anyone and even easier for a seasoned board gamer to dive into. The card art is good and the fact that is plays fast means that it can be brought out for a quick game at any time.

Agricola

As a board gamer, I see a lot of games set to a myriad of themes. Many times these themes include things like commerce, the political process, or even farming. While conquering the galaxy, fighting monsters, or questing for treasure might seem like the only way for a board game to be fun, most board gamers know that a great game can take a seemingly mundane theme and turn it into a marvelous board game. This is precisely what has been done with Agricola, a game where you play as a farmer and his wife as they build their farm and family.

I'm going to stop for just a second so that this can sink in. Agricola is a game about farming. You plant crops, raise livestock, have children and improve your house. This should neither be fun nor interesting for a bunch of nerdy city folk, and yet it is. More so, Agricola is an awesome game. It's definitely one of the best board games I've ever played.

The strength in Agricola lies in its replay value. In every game, each player gets a different hand of farm improvements and occupations that provide benefits. These are where players generally get the direction for their particular strategy that game. In addition, the types of actions that can be taken by the player’s changes depending on the number of players in the game, and later actions have a level of randomization to them. Finally, the before-mentioned occupations and improvements can come from one of three decks. These decks include an "easy", "complex", and "interactive" level of play with a more humorously themed X and Z deck available as well.

All of these aspects combine to make each game of Agricola truly different from the other. Beyond playing the hand that's literally dealt to you, it's even possible to eschew your cards and simply build a competitive farm without bothering to spend resources on occupations or improvements. I've not seen the kind of variety available in board game that Agricola has since Twilight Imperium. It may seem strange to compare these two wildly different games, but when you consider that both offer extremely deep replayability the comparison makes sense. Many of the actions are not even printed on the board itself, making easy to release card-only expansions that can drastically change the way the game is played. I can easily foresee playing Agricola for years to come and not getting sick of it in the least.

Agricola is a near perfect board gaming experience, getting a 10 out of 10 from me. It's challenging, great fun, and easily adaptable to any group of players.

XBox Live Arcade Round-up

Today I'm looking at my three most recent XBox Live Arcade purchases, namely Braid, Castle Crashers and Portal: Still Alive.












First up is Braid, and when I say that Braid is one of the most beautiful games that you will play I mean it. The music is fantastic, and the levels and character design are all sublime. The magic of Braid comes from combining all this visual wonder with the interesting game mechanic of time manipulation. Depending on the level, you're slowing down, reversing, or even stopping time and giving every level a new dimension. This is a phenominal game that everyone deserves to play.












Next up is Castle Crashers. Where Braid is cerebral, haute, and almost snobby Castle Crasher is good ol' beat-em-up fun. Don't get me wrong, the animations of the characters are fluid and the music is surprising compelling, but the heart of this game is simple, mindless destruction of your enemies. The leveling up of your characters and improving their strength, magic, defense, and agility adds another layer to an already awesome game. To all those kids who played Final Fight and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the arcades and 7-11's, this game is for you. The game's biggest weakness is by far it's online multiplayer, which is buggy and prone to dropping games. Hopefully this will get fixed as some point. This doesn't take away from the gameplay in general nor the offline multiplayer. In fact, playing w/ 4 people in the same room is one of the games strongest points.












Finally, we have Portal: Still Alive. For starters, you must understand that this is mostly a port of the original Portal game in XBLA form. There are new, challenging achievements to be had, but aside from that and the 14 new maps, Portal: Still Alive has little else to offer. Depending on who you are, this may not be a bad thing. If you're a rabid Portal fan who owns an XBox and curses the PC crowd for having all of the extra mods and maps, this is for you. If you (for some moronic reason) haven't bought The Orange Box, this is also for you. If you have $15 with nothing better to do w/ it, this is for you. For the casual Portal fans, this isn't a good buy. I'm glad I picked this up, but I truly wish there were more maps. The price of the game is justified if you're not already an owner of the game, so the rest of us are somewhat hosed. Still, I bought it and am enjoying it all the same. The new achievements do add a new kind of challenge to the game, especially the Out of the Blue award.

In closing, Braid gets a 9 out of 10, as does Castle Crashers. These are two must-own games for your XBox Live experience. Portal gets an 6 out of 10 if you already own The Orange Box or a 10 out of 10 if you don't, mostly for being just Portal which is awesome on it's own.