First Time Playing: Space Cadets

I was introduced to co-operative games some months ago, and I've enjoyed having the occasional game where either everyone wins or no one does. This game definitely gave a twist on the mechanic, for better and for worse. Because Space Cadets is a game where no one can ride along for free. You play as a crew of a space ship, and each crew member have tasks that have to be completed simultaneously. Each part of a given round is timed very specifically with an hourglass. It's not a game for people who get easily stressed, but for those who can handle it, it can actually be a lot of fun.

When the verification process just gets ridiculous

I get the idea behind account verification, and the idea is good, but can quickly get annoying if you're not being given a choice. Lately, I've been feeling that with Microsoft. Not too long ago they were pestering me to up the security on my e-mail account, which was irritating enough, but I got through it. But the process I had to go through today is nothing short of plain ridiculous...

First Time Playing: Lords of Waterdeep

Lords of Waterdeep is a game that I've wanted to try out ever since I saw it played on Table Top, and I finally got the chance last weekend. Not because I'm a Dungeons and Dragons fan. To be honest, I have yet to try a single role playing game. But it's a worker placement game, which is a genre that I really, really enjoy, and it looked like a lot of fun. And I can attest to that it is. Each player has a hidden role, which each have different agendas, you summon different type of characters to send them off on quests, and you can also try and sabotage for other players by giving them mandatory low-scoring quests or make them give up resources.

Why I HATE region-locking!

It's all around us, this artificial blockage of entertainment. We have region-specific releases. There's region-locking on game discs and cartridges, DVD's and blu-rays. While friends of mine in other countries may purchase episodes of television shows through their iTunes, mine only allows me to purchase apps and music. I pay around twice as much for my Netflix account than my American friends, yet I only receive a fraction of the shows and movies that they do. I actually consider myself lucky if a television show I follow is only four months behind the American schedule. It's an out-dated, artificially created system, and it's downright pissing me off.

First Time Playing: "La Città" & "Quicksand"

Aside from my (near) weekly attendance at my table top group (whenever my work schedule doesn't prevent me), I will from time to time attend separate game nights with friends. Usually I don't get introduced to new games this way (because it tends to be at my place with my games), but this time I did. Two games, in fact. They have virtually nothing in common, but I've chosen to combine my two first time experiences into one post simply because it's convenient. If it's something I will continue with in the future remains to be seen.

First Time Playing: Eclipse

Another week with my table top group, another game to dive into. This week there were a couple of options that I hadn't played before, but this one was without a doubt the game that looked and sounded the most interesting (when your options are either a sports theme or a space theme, it's pretty easy to decide). In Eclipse you have the options to play as either humans or an alien race of some kind (some which look and sound pretty cool, others which, well... look like shrubbery... no, I mean actual shrubbery) and you're exploring space, earning resources, building and upgrading ships, and fighting over territory.

First Time Playing: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

This week I brought my own game to my table top group. It's one that I've had for many years, just never had the opportunity to actually play it, for the very simple reason that it's a licensed game for the television show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And because I hadn't really discovered the world of table top gaming back then, I didn't really make much of an effort to convince anyone either, as I had pretty much bought it for the merchandise aspect rather than the actual intention to play it. But a few days ago I just thought enough was enough, and if I was going to hang onto a game, it had to be with the intention of actually playing it. So, I finally sat myself down with the rule book and discovered that it actually sounded like a lot of fun.

Anti-shipping: when ignoring it just doesn't do it

I've already covered a lot of important things regarding "shipping" in a previous blog, but there is one aspect I didn't cover, because I think it just needs to have its own entry altogether, and that is the concept of "anti-shipping". Before I get into what that actually is, I want to clear up a very common misconception about shipping - and that is that shippers either hate on their competition, or they are supposed to. Now, I can certainly understand why some might think so, especially with all of the shipper wars that go on in various fandoms, but that simply isn't true.

First Time Playing: Battlestar Galactica

Because I had parents visiting, there was no table top group this week, however, last weekend I had a game night with some of my friends and got introduced to a new game there, namely Battlestar Galactica - The Board Game. Basically it's mostly a co-operative game with us playing as the crew of Galactica working to escape the cylon fleet without depleting any of the ship's slowly decreasing resources. However, some of the players will play as cylons, looking to sabotage the ship from within the crew. Now, the game might heavily base itself on the television show, but there really is no need to be up to date or even familiar with it in order to enjoy this game.

Growing up Gaming

Video gaming has been part of my life since I was very, very young and still remains one of my interests to this day. I personally feel I lucked out in terms of the time period I grew up in, at least gaming-wise. I was just in the right age group when home video game consoles really started hitting the market, and have had the privilege to follow the developments of gaming from that period and onwards, and boy have things changed since I was a kid.