Last Week's Games: Regicide, The Savage World of Solomon Kane and Lost Cities.

After playing Eternal Crusade for a while, I had a go with another Warhammer 40000 game: Regicide. This is a 40K game based on Chess, with the different Space Marines representing the different pieces. Tactical Marines are pawns, Terminators are rooks and so on. Where it differs from Chess is that your pieces can shoot at each other with weapons and throw grenades for area-of-effect attacks, putting an interesting spin on the classic game.

Those obstacles block movement, funnily enough...

I’d previously tried this a month ago, but didn’t count it as my “new game” because I only managed to play through the tutorial. I had a go with a Skirmish match – as near as it gets to a standard Chess game – and I had some fun with it. The tactics need to account for having ways to attack the pieces other than capturing them like Chess. I was prepared for it to be an occasional curiosity rather than a game I’d put any substantial amount of time into, but there is a campaign I found strangely engaging due to the short length of the missions.

Some aspects of the game work, and some don’t. In the campaign, your pieces are deployed in a set, and you use them and their abilities to take out certain enemy pieces. It’s like a puzzle, as you manoeuvre your units in to the best position to capture a piece – an instant kill – while trying to avoid such a situation yourself. It also gives me some ideas for how I could run some short games of 40K; pitched battles are all well and good but the game is open to so much more! Where the game is let down, is with its Random Number Generation (RNG.) It uses a percentile ‘chance to hit’ system, which adds complexity to the mechanics but severely alters the strategy. It might seem strange for me to say this given that two of my favourite games of the decade are XCOM and Mordheim, both of which use RNG systems. But in those games you could affect the numbers it came up with – get closer, flank your opponents, develop your abilities etc. Regicide doesn’t have that, and the consequence is that meticulous strategy and puzzle-solving can be invalidated by the pieces being able to attack without having to capture. I’ve lost a few campaign games from making the right moves, but the key pieces falling before I can take the win, in a manner removed from the process of playing Chess. But then, I was never much of a Chess player!

Looks like a Witch Hunter...

I also returned to the Black Country Roleplaying Society after some time off, and joined The Savage World of Solomon Kane. From what I understand, this is a tale of swashbuckling and derring-do in a gothic horror setting, with Solomon Kane himself being a harbinger of righteousness. While he is the hero of the piece, he’s not above committing acts of outright villainy to achieve his aims! I’m playing an elderly sorcerer; able to perform magic but forced to maintain secrecy due to the world’s negative view of magic and witchcraft. And, we have the usual disparate party in the other players!

I approached this game with some caution as I know almost nothing about Solomon Kane, and I’m not fond of Savage Worlds as a system. But with roleplaying games, the enjoyment comes from the interaction with the other players, so I’ll give it a chance. It was a slow start this week due to character creation, but we’ll see how it picks up next week!

Apparently this is quite a common 'couples' game...

Finally, on Sunday night I played Lost Cities with Kirsty. This is a card game in which you compete to make the most money from exploring lost cities by creating long runs of cards, with additional twists: There are five possible explorations you can start, but starting those costs you 20 points potentially ends in negative figures. Also, you can bet to double your score at the start of a run – but this is applied after you’ve taken off the 20 to fund the expedition. It was a fun game while we were playing it, but the maths homework at the end was a bit of a chore!

Last Week's Games: Sonic Transformed, Catan, Exploding Kittens, Eternal Crusade and 911 Operator...

This week was busier than I expected!

Let's not worry too much about why a Hedgehog who is
the fastest thing alive needs a car...

My new game for this week was Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, recently downloaded for the Xbox360. This is a kart racing game with the usual line-up of Sonic characters, plus another several characters from Sega’s other properties such as Alex Kidd, Super Monkey Ball, Shinobi and, bizarrely, Wreck-it Ralph. I was expecting to play a few rounds of this and then put it to bed, but I was astonished and delighted by how much fun this game is! I’m working through the World Tour at the moment, which is great for introducing the game’s modes – racing, battles, time trials, drift challenges, that sort of thing. The races are pretty easy – you don’t need to win the race to beat the level; you only need to come third – but some of the other challenges are pretty tough. The drifts, in particular, require a lot of precision. I initially chose Sonic for my play through, because you don’t buy a Sonic the Hedgehog game not wanting to play as Sonic, but when I’d levelled him up as high as he’ll go and couldn’t progress him any further, I tried playing as Danica Patrick, who handles very well. I wondered what Sega game she was from and was surprised to discover that she is, in fact, a real person! I’ve got to the end of the World Tour – just the Bonus levels to do now – but the game still has a lot to offer and I’m nowhere near fed up with it yet, so I’ll keep going for a bit longer!

It’s a little strange how that works out as I tend to prefer games with storylines. Or, at least, I think I do. But a competently-designed racing game has a very addictive “just one more go” mentality that is proving every bit as fun as an engaging plot. I enjoy having a nice balance between the two.

A mixture of non-sequitur and smarmy self-reference
often mistaken for comedy by the same sort of people
who describe themselves as "random..."

Later in the week I had a Wednesday afternoon in Warlords and Wizards, and played an enjoyable game of Catan with a couple of the lads in there which I was very pleased to win! I also had a go with Exploding Kittens; it’s a card game where you have to avoid picking up certain cards from a blind draw. The art is amusing, though very much “of its time,” and the game mechanics work even though it is based on luck. But to be honest I didn’t think much of it. It’s far too reliant on luck for me, and the theme doesn’t lend itself to a compelling plot or reason to be doing what you’re doing. The kids in the shop enjoyed it, and if someone got it out at a party I’d join in, but I won’t be spending any money on Exploding Kittens. A change of schedule means that my regular visits to Warlords and Wizards on Wednesdays have now come to an end, but I will still pop in when I can. It’s a great little shop!

I had a few rounds of Eternal Crusade; what I’ve started doing with that is trying to progress with one character until I’ve reached a Requisition Points Bonus; there are usually three available bonuses worth 1500 points each, and once I’ve achieved one I’ll move on to the next character. The reason for this is that the one you’ve won takes a while to be replaced, and could be replaced with something you could have been working on while you were playing. It also lets me have a go with some of the other factions, which is always nice.

The level I'm stuck on, funnily enough.

Finally, I continued playing 911 Operator, which I originally tried way back in February (I had to go back through my blog to find that out.) It’s odd to play games about going to work, but I really enjoy the core gameplay loop! I think the campaign could have done with fewer cities and a bit more time to develop in each city, as the improvements you make usually only occur once before you have to move on. The map doesn’t make much difference to what’s going on.

Let’s see what I’ve got time for next week…

Last Week's Games: Split/Second, Eternal Crusade, X-Wing, Catan, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Pathfinder

Quite a bit to get through this week…

Get ready to blow stuff up!

My new game for this week was Split/Second, a racing game recommended by Metal Jesus in one of his Hidden Gems videos. It’s an arcade racing game with a TV show-like aesthetic, where you drive in various challenges to compete for enough credits to advance to the elite races – and hopefully the next episode! What I like about this is that this is purely an arcade racing game; there’s no micro-managing your vehicle, no sense of realism in the game. It’s just you against the cars and the environment.

Oh yes, the environment. The main gimmick of the game is that you can, once you’ve drifted enough and been on someone’s tail for long enough to build up your power meter, trigger certain parts of the environment to cause problems for your rivals. More often than not, these come in the form of explosions that throw them off the track, but there’s some fun ones as well. In one of the earlier tracks, triggering a certain point causes a digger to swing its shovel around that creates an obstacle. It works for a couple of reasons: Firstly, you can’t just press the button to ruin someone’s day; it needs precise timing and knowledge of the track in order to make it work effectively. Secondly, certain of these trigger points change the entire layout of the track, so chances are you won’t be racing on the same bit of track on the next lap!

I played Split/Second for a couple of hours and I was really enjoying it so I’ll definitely be playing some more!

I carried on with Eternal Crusade, there’s a live campaign running over the next few days where you have to win five battles for a large reward of Rogue Trader Credits. These are used to buy weapons and armour that affect the character aesthetically. They’re no better or worse than the equipment you can buy; they just look different. This is the Micro-Transaction element of the game; you can pay money for these things but since it wouldn’t increase my level of enjoyment of the gameplay, I certainly won’t be spending money on them! But if I can get enough RTC to get an upgrade for one of my guns, I might do that. Otherwise they’ll just sit there gathering e-dust!

I found myself with a little more time to be out and about than I normally do, and on Wednesday I went in to Warlords and Wizards and had a game of X Wing with my old friend Mason. I’ve known Mason a while and his collection of Imperial ships has grown in that time! I took on his force with my Trenchrunners, and had a run of good luck in the beginning of the game. However, the ferocious abilities of Quickdraw, as well as the support provided by a local shuttle, meant it was a very hard game that I eventually lost. Great fun though, cheers Mase!

Then on Friday I had a game of Catan with a couple of young lads who go to the shop. They’re getting quite in to it now and with that comes a certain amount of skill. I got off to what I thought was a good start by heading straight for the ports, but they managed to break up my Longest Road, and one of the lads won the game on at least three bought victory points. Well done!

All sorts of different roles...

We also had a quick game of One Night Ultimate Werewolf; I had the app on my Kindle Fire and we sat down for a four-player game. I was the Werewolf with one of the other lads, and I tried to bluff it to claim to be the seer; they saw through it eventually but time had run out by then and we all voted for the Troublemaker. Great fun!

Finally on Sunday I continued Pathfinder: Rise of the Runelords with Dave, Victor, Morgan and Ian. For the first time, I’ve run a campaign all the way up to level 8, and the lads were happy to level up!

I’m expecting a quieter week next week, so see you then!

Pickups and Trades #5

I’ve been very short on money this month, so I haven’t bought as many games as usual. That can only be a good thing!

On Steam, I bought the following games:

The Risen trilogy. I know, I know, it’s not very good, but it was on sale, and the first one purports to have some flashes of brilliance in it so I bought it as a pack.

Stronghold Crusader Extreme HD: A Real Time Strategy game with Castles instead of bases. Sign me up!

Sword of the Stars Complete Collection: It looks like a space combat game plus its expansions, I haven’t played one of these that wasn’t a Star Wars game in a while so this will be interesting.

Can you figure out this interface?

From GOG, I bought Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat. This is a game that I don’t know if I ever officially owned, (more likely borrowed off someone and never gave it back) but I probably still have the CD-ROM lying around somewhere. It’s based on the Warhammer Fantasy universe, and I enjoyed it hugely when I used to play it nearly two decades ago. I actually have it on the PlayStation, but it doesn’t work very well on there. The user interface was never particularly good, and without a mouse or any form of analogue controls, it’s a nightmare to try to run. I’ll never get the CD-ROM version to run on my laptop in a million years (from what I remember, you needed to be in 256 colour mode. Remember that? I’ll tell you what doesn’t remember that: Windows 8.1,) so I bought a digital version. I gave it a test run, as some GOG users were experiencing problems with it, but it seems to be running just fine and I had a great time getting stuck in to it again!

While my financial situation is unlikely to have improved by the time next month’s blog goes out, I had saved up some money and bought some games at the UK Games Expo at the beginning of June, so I’m looking forward to telling you all about that!

Last Week's Games: Divine Divinity, UK Games Expo 2018

I had a very enjoyable weekend at the UK Games Expo, I got to play a lot of new games and had a fantastic time. I’ll give an overview and the highlights here, but some of it will need to go in a separate blog. Even so, there’s lots to cover here, so this blog will be a little longer than usual:

Having had most of this week off work for the half-term holiday, I had time to play some video games; I cracked on with Eternal Crusade, but I played a new game as well: Divine Divinity. It’s an action-RPG in the style of Diablo. Indeed, it starts in pretty much the same way; you find yourself in a small town plagued by some misgivings from the local area, and after some initial fetch-questing, you descend into the dungeon to sort it all out.

Down in the Dungeon...

What I like about this game is that there’s no hand-holding; no easy first level, no tutorial. It’s you vs the game almost straight away, and I am fine with that. One of my pet peeves of video games is having to play it for an hour before the actual game starts. But in Divine Divinity, once you’re in the dungeon, you’re on your own. And I had a really good time; I chose the Wizard class, I managed my resources, killed enemies, got the treasure and went back to the town to take breaks when I needed to. I’ve noticed that with some RPGs, the dungeons are designed to give a sense of realism and pacing, and while the latter is crucial for a good game, sometimes the need to stop playing the game to advance the plot makes it feel somewhat artificial. While plot can add to a game, developers should never forget that the core of the game is the gameplay, and when it’s done as well as this, I could happily spend the entire game dungeon-bashing without any semblance of plot. I’ll be coming back to this one!

I make an effort to return to the UK Games Expo every year! It’s very often the highlight of my year. Here’s how it went down:

Yep, it was as rickety
as it looks...

On Friday, I had entered two tournaments: Catan and Dominion. It had been a long time since I’d played in tournament, and in previous years I felt I’d missed out on some of what the expo had to offer by avoiding them, so I signed up to play some games. I never expected to do very well, which is just as well because I didn’t, but I played seven games in a day which is more than I think I’ve ever manage in my life!. I’ll cover what I can remember of the details in a new semi-regular blog series titled Tournaments and Tribulations, but at this point I’d like to say that the atmosphere was almost the complete opposite from what I expected from tournaments. I’ve played with so-called hard-core players before, and I’ve struggled to enjoy it. I didn’t know the games very well so I expected to have a rough time, but the vast majority of people I played were very nice, patient and helpful, and that made my day as much as anything else.

Adam and Chloe - Showing me a new way
to play Hey That's My Fish

 

On Saturday I met up with some old friends from Swindon: Adam, Chloe and Tom. After going around the expo for a while we went to the gaming hall; I was happy to introduce them to Hey, That’s My Fish! We played a couple of games, and I won both of them. Chloe made an interesting observation: She suggested that we play the second game blind, with the tiles upside down. This would have been covered in playtesting, but it made a remarkable difference to the game. Without being able to call our moves based on the number of fish we’d get, we instead played a lot more aggressively, blocking each other off, and making sure we had a long run of tiles to collect when we were blocked. We also borrowed Riff Raff from Thirsty Meeples; a game in which you aim to be the first to put all of your wooden pieces of cargo on a rickety ship without them falling off – if they do, you need to catch them. Adam and Chloe won that between them. Finally, we played A Fistful of Penguins; a gambling game in which you compete for money by rolling different combinations of animals on dice, and using penguins to re-roll or add dice. I can’t remember who won those games but it was a good laugh!

A Fistful of Penguins.
Penguins are purple.

Tom stayed for Sunday and Kirsty was there as well, so we watched a couple of shows. Dark Room was excellent; John Robertson was exhausted after what must have been a long weekend for him, but his improvisation and crowd interaction was spot-on. We also saw Knightmare Live. I’ve now seen the show three times, and it was good to see some different rooms being developed. The team guiding the dungeoneers was the best I’ve ever seen it; they were from Shut Up and Sit Down. The two lead actors, however, weren’t quite as on it with their improvisation as they usually are, and I think there was a presumption that the vast majority of people had seen the show before. This blunted their usually excellent performance, but it was a very funny show nonetheless.

You can see the pattern emerging in our
preferred choice of gaming animal...

 

 

 

Earlier I’d bought Ice Cool, and Tom showed Kirsty and me how to play. It’s a really good game about flicking penguins through the halls of a school to get fish, while one penguin tries to stop them. It takes about ten minutes to play, and is meant for children, but it’s great fun and we thoroughly enjoyed it. I won the first game, and Kirsty won the other by being very good at catching our penguins!

So, a brilliant weekend, and I while my bank balance can certainly wait for the next one, I can’t! See you next year.