Random Thoughts #4

• RvBTO was a blast. Here's a my photobucket album for those who're interested! The ride up there was a lot of fun, and my travel companions were pretty awesome! The Rock Band competition was epic, as my band won the event! Lots of good memories! I even got to play and teach Alhambra to some of the people there, and a few of them seemed genuinely interested in board gaming in general. Our late night/early morning D&D session also went well, and had a surprising amount of interest by non-D&D players. I spent a good portion of the Saturday event teaching people how to read a 4th Edition Character Sheet. :D
• Speaking of Toronto and gaming, this shop is the fucking bomb. It very much reminds me of Game Headquarters here in OKC, but about 1/4th as big. Very cool store, and they even gave me a couple of Agricola promo cards (the Z deck and O deck) on my way out!
• Now that RvBTO is behind me, my goals are to get you guys reviews on A Game Of Thrones, Automobile (which I've not played yet), and Snow Tails. Hopefully I'll be able to get to all of these this week, although I think I want another go at A Game of Thrones before rendering a judgement.
• Finally, I'm getting a new phone today (Blackberry Bold), which should allow for better internets and mobile blogging and twittering. I should get it this afternoon. I'm all excited for new toys! :D

Battlefield 1943

I've always had expensive taste, which can be problematic if you're not in the same tax bracket as Bill Gates and Richie Rich. Dreams of fabulous wealth aside, it seems that the only Xbox Live Arcade games that are grabbing my attention these days are the hefty 1200 MS Point titles. Portal: Still Alive, Castle Crashers, and Puzzle Quest: all of these are big expensive Arcade games that happen to be well worth their big $15 price tag.

I'll admit that I got Battlefield 1943 because a good number of my friends list was already playing it. I happened to have a bunch of points handy, so I figured "What the hell" and impulsively dived in. What I found was a seemingly polished little gem whose high production values were apparent in the opening title screen. Or so I thought.

Before you think the worst, you should know that this game is very fun. It's a simplified sequel to the original Battlefield 1942, sporting only three classes to the original's five and only three island maps (Wake Island, Iwo Jima, and Guadalcanal) from the Pacific campaign. Players either fight in the United States Marine Corps, or for the Imperial Japanese Navy. The two sides are equal in every way, even down to the performance of the vehicles each side has access to. The game is very well made, and a lot of fun especially when played with friends or good players willing to partake in the necessary team work required to win a map. There's also an upcoming airplane-only map taking place during the Battle of the Coral Sea that sounds extremely intriguing. The before-mentioned three classes of Rifleman, Infantry and Scout are very well-balanced and players rarely ever find the role they've chosen to be useless in a given situation.

Unfortunately, I can't fully recommend the game just yet. Perhaps it's only me, but I'm having a lot of issues with the game locking up on my XBox. So far, I've yet to actually end a session of my own accord, as every other time my time in the Pacific ends when the game decides to freeze up. The "Join Session In Progress" option for people on your friends list is also hit or miss, and I truly hope that these issues will be remedied before too long.

It really is a shame, because aside from the glitches I mention, the game is very cool and very worth the reasonable $15 asking price. There is a lot of reverence for both sides of the conflict here, and everything is quite balanced gameplay-wise. The very comparable Warhawk was nearly twice the price, and I enjoyed this a lot more. I really want to give it a better review, but the current issues with the game cannot be ignored. Perhaps I'll update this if and when the problems I ran into are ever fixed. I do plan on continuing to play and in enjoy the game as best I can. 5/10

EDIT 2009.07.16: Looks like with the release of the Air Superiority map Coral Sea, most of the bugs have been worked out. I played for over an hour last night with no issues aside from Quick Connect intially timing out a few times. Coral Sea is fun as hell, with each side having two carriers and a rapid plane respawn, there's plenty of dog-fighting to be had. If you have trouble flying the planes, run through the tutorial some more, then head to Coral Sea for a fast lesson in getting your ass lit up. 8/10

Random Thoughts #3

• Looks like I'm going to be playing A Game of Thrones tonight. I'm looking forward to this, as I've heard very good things about the story in all its various forms. I should have a review for the board game up this weekend.
  
• Next week I'll be going to Toronto for RvB:TO. It's going to be a ton of fun, and will even have some gaming aspects to it! I'm taking part in the Bring Your Own Band competition with my "band" Epic Level Encounter, we're playing a D&D 4th Edition Dungeon Delve, and there will be a game of Werewolf going on in the van I'm riding in. I had a blast last year, and am looking to have even more fun this year.
• Too bad for Steve McNair. Cheating's not cool, but you don't deserve to die for it. One the one hand, it's sad that his kids lost their dad and his teammates and friends lost a buddy. On the other hand, he made his bed and slept in it with crazy. It's unfortunate, but it's a situation he had a part in creating, so he's not totally without blame.
  
• In MUCH lighter news, I've joined the world of twitter. I'll try to keep things geeky, but I can't promise that my tweets (that sounds so lame) won't be as trivial as everyone elses. Believe me, I'm just as irrelevant as anyone else there. :P
• Finally, the diet and exercise is paying off. I'm down 25 pounds to a "chucky" 215 rather than my "fluffy" 240. I've almost got my mile time to under 10 minutes, and my 2k row the other day was a personal best 9:53. Hopefully I'll be able to do some damage in the CTF game that we're playing next week. I can't wait!
  

1960: The Making of the President

Sometimes it dawns on me how lucky I am in terms of the people I play games with. All of my various gaming groups are of a pretty good size, ranging from my XBox Live friends list which is almost maxed out, to my board gaming group which stands at a healthy 15-20 members, to my D&D group which is at a comfortable 4 or 5 depending on the day. This makes for a good size group whenever the mood strikes me to play a certain game as well as for a great amount of regular gaming. I don't mention all this to brag, but it does mean that certain types of games have simply passed me by, two-player games being a good example. Wherever I am playing just about any game there's always a need to try and include as many players as possible, simply because there are a lot of people I want to play with. I used to think two-player games made for an inefficient use of one's gaming time with other people. It's only been recently that I've begun to come around and start trying some two player games for myself. Battle Line was the first two-player only game that I really enjoyed and continue to play, but it's a quick game that's best played in small doses. I can see the need for a two-player gaming experience that has all the meatiness and depth of a full-on multiplayer title like Power Grid or Agricola, but specifically designed for two players in mind.

1960: The Making of the President is such a game. As the title suggests, the game is all about the 1960 presidential election between Kennedy and Nixon. The game takes place over the nine week period leading up to and including the presidential election. Players take turns using event cards to help their campaign or hinder the opponents. There are many options to use your resources on, including the basic and critical taking of states, and the more nebulously helpful advertising and the support of issues like Defense, the Economy, and Civil Rights. Cards take the form of events and groups of the era, like the Harvard Brain Trust, Faithless Electors, and Baptist Ministers. Obviously some of these events will help out Nixon, while others will assist Kennedy, and still others are beneficial to either player.

The game is all about balance and counter-balance. Every card can be used either for raw Campaign Points or for the potentially more helpful effect or event. Even when cards are burned for Campaign Points, the opponent might still be able to activate the event on the card, so care must be taken when playing any cards that might hurt you more than assist. Every action in the game is a risk vs. reward decision, especially when preparing for the special Debate and Election turns.



The game requires a much leaner style of play than you might expect. Despite the number of turns that you have available to the players, there's not a lot of room to mess around and waste actions. Thankfully the game is pretty straight forward in it's mechanics, so it's pretty easy for a first-time player to get right into the game after a brief rules overview. It's helpful to keep in mind the old saying "A good offense is the best defense" as this particularly rings true in this game. Chasing your opponent around the board trying to take back the states he's turning against you is a sure way to a ass-beating, so it's best to just play your game, and use the opportunities presented to you to make your moves and play your game.

1960: The Making of the President is a fantastic game. Calling it merely a really good two-player game simply doesn't do it justice. This is simply a really good game. The only concern I might have would be replayability, since the game is entrenched in a theme that only had one outcome, it wouldn't be plausible to make a 1960: The Revenge of Eisenhower or some such. There are plenty of Campaign Cards to make things interesting, and it would be possible to expand that pool of events to allow for different strategies and effects. This concern isn't particularly overwhelming, as this probably isn't going to a game that's going to hit the table too often. Unless you're gaming group is a more of a gaming duo, in which case you have my sympathy. Just kidding.

8/10

In the spirit of full disclosure, I played my first game as Kennedy, and ended up losing the election 276 to 261. OMG HISTORY HAS CHANGED!!!

Hab & Gut

When I was in high school, the coolest personal electronic device that I or any of my friends had was our graphing calculators. Whether it was a TI-85 or an HP-48G, it was the most awesome little computer you could have at the time. Not because it was handy in class, but because they could play games. Many times these games were programmed by kids in school, and one of the easiest games to find was what was generally known as The Drug Dealer Game or Dope Wars. Essentially in the game, you had one month to pay off a specified debt. You made money by using what money you had to buy drugs at a certain price. You’d then try and sell those drugs later at a higher price. This was a staple on many calculators and cell phones, and this game mechanic has been present for a while in the realm of board games.

One such game is Hab & Gut (roughly translated to “Possessions” in English). This game is pretty straight forward. Buy low, sell high and end up with the most money at the end. Just like dealing drugs on your calculator, right? Pretty much it’s similar, except for a couple of important differences. First off, every player has a direct influence on the state of the market. As you can see, there are four racks of cards that are capable of changing the value of a given commodity. Each player is able to see two of these racks, and every card in each rack must be played in the round. From this information, the player is able to formulate a strategy in their buying and selling.

The other difference in the game is pretty important too. It’s not enough to simply make a lot of money in this game. Additionally, players have the option to donate goods to charity, and later sell those goods for their value with the money again going to charity. Much like the follower of Sobek in Cleopatra, the person who donates the least amount of money to charity automatically loses the game, regardless of their final overall score.

The game is pretty random, as you don’t know about half of the information you’d need to create a strategy. As a player, you must not telegraph your moves too quickly, as you’ll find the other players quickly sending the value of your chosen good to the bottom basement of the value track. Plays on goods must be subtle at first, as obvious buying strategies are quashed rather fast.

Overall the game plays pretty fast and makes for an enjoyable play. I’d recommend this for any one who enjoys investment games like Medici or even Winner’s Circle/Royal Turf. 6/10.