Gaming Thread 9/28/2014

Been playing quite a bit of Archeage this past week (level 33). Game is not a looker but it's been a lot of fun and the amount of stuff you can do is pretty good.

So Steam finally unveiled the long talked about updates to the store. And IMO, I wish they could go back as it's a mess of a front page. People thought it had a problem with content finding and they made that worse.

I do like the curated store feature though which I've started to tinker around with and created one for the Ace of Spades HQ. The 152 character limit still sucks though, pain in the ass to say why I think a game is good and worth buying in Twitter speak. Only 10 games so far on it and it's a bit all over the place. I'll be adding more when I have the time. If you think I should throw anything in there, just post it in the comments.

"Current" gen has finally kicked off on the PC as Bethesda is asking for 4GB cards to play The Evil Within

And Warner Brothers is asking for 6GB cards to play Shadow of Mordor with "Ultra" textures.

As for what they will actually require will make benchmarks very interesting

I'm keeping away from the P&P games even though there are some really good ones (Call of Cthulhu,, Vampire The Masquerade and Deadlands being the predominate ones around here) as I was hoping to keep it in a day at most time frame for it's gametime (like I've got a campaign of Call of Cthulhu I'm in that is 12 years running vOv).

Gloom (2 - 4 players, try for 4) - You can play classic fast paced original version (with expansions) which is very casual friendly and makes for a perfect game over drinks or you can go with the Cthulhu version which adds a few wrinkles to it's game play like having to finish a story instead of killing your family and it adds some modifiers to your family members. I think the original version plays better as it's a faster pick up and play but I tend to always be outvoted and stuck playing this. Though I prefer the original, you can't go wrong with either as it's a good little diddy that won't break your pocketbook.

Space Hulk (2 players) - The seminal board game. One plays as the Blood Angels and the other as Genestealers in a really fast paced turnbased action point game. The game play is very tight and like all Games Workshop games, very modular with tons of missions. I hate to have this on the list as it's expensive but Games Workshop has just the 4th edition which you can still pick up for it's retail price of $125 (which is cheap in comparison to how much the other releases cost these days). SPACE HULK!!!

Elder Sign (1 - 8, over 4 players makes the mechanics go a bit sideways) - Yeah, it's not the best game in the series (Eldrich Horror is better than Arkham Horror) but it fits my need of something a bit lighter and as much as I like the more in-depth actions you get in Eldrich, Elder Sign keeps people attention when drinking. It's Clue with an active endgame with a ton of dice rolling. If there is a knock against it, it's that you will quickly need pick up the expansions as there isn't too much

Call of Cthulhu (2 players) - Gameplay wise, it's roots as a standard CCG (collectable card game) is obvious as it's pretty standard in it's resource building but it's all in the flavor of a tightly wrapped telling of Cthulhu mythos. That being said, it's very expansion heavy and they're needed to get the most out of it. That being said, I prefer the LCG (living card game) method of instead of buying packs to build your decks, you just buy the expansions.

Betrayal at House on the Hill (3-6 players) - This game is a pain in the ass to give an quick quip on it's gameplay (less confusing and somewhat stripped down Mansions of Madness). I'm going to leave it to Dice Tower with their review

Last Night on Earth (2 - 6 players, more the better) - If you want a zombie game, this is pretty much it (can't recommend Zombies! this this game out there and I personally didn't like Zombicide). It's a straight up survival game where the last person alive or who completes the missions wins. IMO, the most fun is when you're playing as the zeds. It's fun, it's easy to learn and it's fast paced where you don't lose any interest

Zombie Fluxx (2 - 6, four or five players is the sweet spot IMO) - It's Fluxx, just with a different theme and I'm a big fan of Fluxx over beers with it's fast paced off the wall brand of craziness. Draw cards and play one which will change the rules to the game. There are a ton of themes if you don't want zombies (or Cthulhu), personally the one me and my friends play the most is the Monty Python deck though the Star Fluxx deck is supposed to be pretty good.

Werewolves of Millers Hollow (8-18, bare minimum is 12 with another as moderator IMO) - Straight up, I've only played this four times as you need an insane amount of people for this to work but this game is a serious hoot if you can round up the people. It's a basic whodunit. Give out random roles (townsfolk, werewolves and special people who have abilities). Werewolves kill a person at night and the townsfolk during the day pick a person and kills them. Yeah, that's it to the game and it's some of the most simple fun around with a large group. After playing it, it's quick to understand why this was up for a Spiel des Jahres award.

Munchkin Cthulhu (3 -6 players) - It's Munchkin but cthulhu themed. Is there much else to say, don't know many people who have never played Munchkin before? It's hard not to have fun playing one of the games. I don't know what else to say really, it's Munchkin.

Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft (1 - 5 players, wouldn't play it solitaire though) It's a stripped down version of D&D 4E in a tile laying dungeon crawler without a DM (rules act as DM). I dunno, it's pretty easy to pick up if you've ever played D&D before. The game is pretty damn hard though with it's non-stop waves of encounters. Pretty much every turn your probably going to be fighting something and you will die. That being said, it's a good gateway to proper Pathfinder playing for kids. Not my favorite dungeon crawling game (Loot & Scoot holds that distinction) but it's a damn good one.

And totally not horror related but
And when ever I talk about board/card games, I am always compelled to say that there is never a bad time to bust out the greatest card game ever made, Tichu. It's a 4 player trick taking game built with poker hands and 4 tiered Jokers. And like Spades, it's totally cool to blame your partner if you find yourself down $80 at the end of the night.

Lord of The Rings: Shadow of Mordor (PC, PS4, XBO, 360, PS3) - I didn't expect much from this open world Assassin's Creed/Arkham Asylum game but the reviews are outstanding for it and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be picking this one up.

Forza Horizon 2 (XBO & 360) - Sad that this is the closest we're going to get to a new Project Gotham Racing but it's a good series so far. First game was really good and the demo of the second game was quite a bit of fun for an arcadey racer. That being said, racing really is one of the three genres that needs to be 60FPS (fighting, racing and shmups). At least the soundtrack is great top to bottom.

Super Smash Bros. (3DS) - Also coming to the Wii U (supposed to be right before Black Friday). Early impressions have been good if you like the series (I personally have never liked Super Smash Buttons) and it looks okay graphically. Eh

Crimes & Punishments: Sherlock Holmes (PC, 360, PS3, XBO, PS4) - New game from Frogwares where there is no middle ground on if this Sherlock Holmes game is good (Awakening, Jack The Ripper) or bad (Earring, Baskerville). At least they finally upgraded to UE3 though it's lead to a "gritty" Sherlock Holmes.

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posted by Gang of Gaming Morons! at 03:31 PM

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