One PAX Complaint

Matt — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

I spent most of my PAX time n the board game check out hall. And thus I ran the risk of the filthiest bathroom at the Con. There may be some exaggeration in the comic, but there were floaters abound.

I did break away from my gaming to go see the exibition floor. I would like to give you the scoop on Duke Forever and Portal 2 but there were lines, ugly long lines. Two minutes of footage unless it’s like proof of the alien life that were video taping the big bang, will never get me to wait in a line. Both booths also had scads of security, so these booths felt like two unfriendly soars in a otherwise happy con. I know that sort of thing is old hat at E3 but it really rubs against PAX’s hands on gamer first approach.

I had other booths by contrast when I went over and asked about something they’d give me my own game play demo and tell me what’s going on as it happens. Even Square-Enix was holding an ad-hoc Q&A for the gamer traffic that was gathering around the new Final Fantasy MMO Demo reel.

Ok Back to my board game addiction!

Here’s what I played that I’d recommend:

Castle Panic: Co-op everyone against the board till then end when scoring happens.

Ultimate Werewolf: Plays best at a party/when you have 11 and up, was a real favorite of the con though, laughs were had by many. I was using the silent voting with head to head lynch votes. This seemed to work well, we’re a mean spirited crowd.

Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Now I own this game, and we still ended up playing it, that says something. Also the new edition is coming out early October.

Neuroshima Hex: Played this twice, super competative strategy game. Probably the most fun I’ve had with cardboard chits.

Ascension Chronicle of the Godslayer: Now this game right off the bat disinterested me based on serious face title. The game and the lore on the cards seem boring. That being said, the game play rivals my con favorite last year Dominion. It’s like if Texas Holdem and Dominion fucked. I played this on the train back about 4 times. I was sad we all got tuckered out and couldn’t play another game.

Monstrous Manual Ecology Addendum

don — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Who wants a goblin omelette?

Those of you that have been reading for awhile know I love me some board games. Everytime I think I have a nice rotation of board games someone brings over something new. This weekend I played Ghost Stories. There were no flash lights, no smores and no campfire. What we did have on our hands, was ghostbusting ninjas. And as the immortal Ray Parker Jr. tells us, busting makes one feel good. This is a players versus the everchanging board and ghosts, coming at the group with the mercilessness of space invaders. Assuming we were playing entirely correctly (the booklet’s instructions were one of the worst written we’ve delt with in our gaming group) this is a rough little pve game. We did not win, which as an avid gamer of course makes me want to play again all that much more. Go out and get a copy now, you know you want to ninja some ghosts to death (probably yours). However I recommend getting some supplemental rules from boardgamegeek.com they are awesome at this.

Straight Face Comics » Goblins

One PAX Complaint

Monstrous Manual Ecology Addendum