Heavy Rain...

... is proving to be immersive and laden thickly with emotion. The games interface feels very gimmicky, but I suspect the very mundane, basic nature of most interactions with the game world is what causes it to be so immersive in the first place. When even taking out an orange juice to drink takes 3 actions, and when you realise that all your actions are taken in the context of a limited amount of time, then suddenly you consider the consequences of every action even more thoroughly.

We're still very much in the introduction, I'm looking forward to seeing what the game proper will bring.

Resident Evil 5

Great review of the game over at Ars Technica. I played the demo, KeY and I got scared to hell, and I'm looking forward to playing it in live, split-screen co-op late at night with anyone who's game!

iPod Game: The Song Summoner

That's right - an RPG for the iPod! I think KeY might really dig this. By way of Penny-Arcade.

Boom Blox is fun!

Just tried out Boom Blox for Wii today. Wrists hurt, but it was fun! Try it today!

Of WoW Raid Decks and Magic the Gathering

The guys at Penny Arcade went to play at a WoW TCG tournament, resulting in this comic.

We saw the same decks over and over and over and over for the three days we were there, I assume these were either "greatest hits" from previous tournaments or represented the current state of the art, but it made the experience much less organic. You could discern the entire arc of the game from the moment they placed their hero.

I think this may be why I suddenly stopped playing Magic again. I just don't really relish playing the same strategies over and over again.. True, by following the best strategies as refined by other peoples' research and play against each other, I am essentially playing a stronger deck. By playing other peoples' strong decks I am forced to play better. But maybe I'm not playing because I want to be better?

Somehow I find the 4-of, 60-card decks playing the best rares, uncommons and commons, just a bit boring. The combo decks were pretty fun for a while but it also became meh. Highlander was awesome right until the part where I find that everyone's playing the same cards - like really really the same!

I guess I'm looking for a story in it, and the Raid decks and their heroes vs DM style of play really appeals to me. But I don't want to learn a whole new card game, collect a bunch of cards, and then end up in one-on-one matches all over again. So... no, no, no. If I'm doing any of this stuff again, it's D&D 4th Ed. Or Descent. (and the two do seem quite alike, somehow. I might even be able to use Descent stuff to do D&D lol... )

A new group of gamers, a new group of games

Met a different bunch of boardgamers today - and tried out a few games, including:

RoboRally - crazy crazy mechanical shoot each other up fun! Definitely not a serious game.. very party, because it's (i) 8 players; (ii) encourages chaos and destruction, (iii) very luck-based! Storyline - bored robots racing around a factory. Win either by getting all the rally flags or by killing everyone else.

Mr. Jack - one-on-one game (though we split into two teams to play this), kind of like Fury in the sense that one player is trying to deduce and the other player is trying to hide. An inspector is trying to find Jack the Ripper in London 1888 - but it's complicated because he's hidden himself among one of 8 people. Most of the players felt the game was quite skewed in favour of the inspector, but I don't think overly so. Well, I'll find out in a bit if I buy this.

Bang - like Mafia! One sheriff, some deputies, outlaws, and renegades, trying to kill each other off. I thought this was really fun! Definitely a party game, it apparently plays up to 8, and like Cash n Guns, banging people is real fun!

New Games: Lost Cities, Ticket to Ride Marklin

Heh - new games again...

清一色

Modern Art and Cash n Guns

I bought two new games! Modern Art, and Cash n Guns. Heh. more, when I actually get to play them.

Logicmills

Poon invited Andy, Key and me to "Philosophy on Tap" at Logicmills, that school he co-started. The topic was on infinity, and it wasn't quite as interactive as I'd expected, as there was quite a bit of technical background to be covered. Nonetheless, quite interesting and fun! Plus, they have tons of board games! Poon intro-ed us to Lost Cities, Cash n Guns, and Venus Needs Men. All fun games, and I'm adding them to my considering list. Lost Cities is probably more the thinking game, Cash n Guns is a very quick, raucous fun game (where you get to bang people!) and Venus Needs Men is munchkin-like, stop-the-leader fun.

Shadowrun

I'm a sucker for both sci-fi and fantasy, so you would imagine that Shadowrun is my favourite RPG world setting (that is, if you knew what Shadowrun was - it's rather little known by mundanes.)

And now I find that there's a Shadowrun shooter coming out for Xbox 360 and Windows. Well, I'm not going to buy the 360 - I already feel awfully backstabbed by Microsoft over the lack of games for Xbox. So, that just means that I have another reason to buy a new system soon....

Nation States

This is pretty cool: Nation States seems like a pretty lightweight, low-commitment online game.

So far, I've created a nation and decided my first issue - "Should democracy be compulsory?"



Trust me, I was tempted to base that nation on Singapore, but where's the fun in that? I'm sure there's already someone out there trying it out, anyway. For myself, I'm gonna take my own path.

Drop me a telegram if you create one too!

A second life

This is interesting me. Hmm..

Board Games with Scott

Board Games with Scott is an interesting site with good video introductions to various games! I started with this intro to the game Power Grid.

And now I want to buy the game!

There are other games on the show, including Ticket to Ride (which i now feel like buying) and Fury of Dracula (which I've already placed an order for, prior to the intro). Check it out!

Lots of board games

Been in a bit of a board game fugue recently. I've bought a whole bunch, and more games coming in soon. I guess I should post some pics of some of the sessions some time...