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All posts tagged board games
BoardGameGeek.con 2008
Along with Fantastic Fest and, recently, GenCon, BGG is something that I now look forward to every year. A comparatively small convention (only about 700 people this year), the Dallas-based convention focuses exclusively on board games.
The highlight reel:
Although Agricola is still hugely popular, it came out at last year’s BGG. This year the new hotness was definitely Dominion. When describing the game, most people reached for the easiest comparison: Magic the Gathering. More specifically, the deck building mechanic and the strategy of playing from your graveyard. You essentially build your deck as you play, trying to saturate your deck with certain cards in order to increase the odds of drawing specific combos. Your victory points are also cards, effectively useless for anything but points at the end. So you have to decide if you want to go for a bunch of the low hanging 3s and fill your deck with cards that do nothing, or hold out for more valuable but more expensive single cards.
Cosmic Redux
As some of you know, Cosmic Encounter is one of my favorite board games of all time. My geek heart nearly exploded with joy when I learned that Fantasy Flight, one of my favorite companies, had secured the rights and was going to release a new edition. Upon entering the dealer’s hall at GenCon, I made a beeline to the Fantasy Flight booth. “Encampment” might have been a better word, given the enormous area they took up.
The guy running the demo (drat, forgot his name) was one of the main designers involved in the new edition, if not THE guy. I chatted with him a bit about his vision of the game, what they were keeping, what they were throwing out. Then I got to play a few rounds! Continue reading →
Friend Spotlight
Allow me to direct your attention to some cool projects my friends have produced.
Ryan’s company is behind the technology used in Yahoo! oneSearch with Voice. It lets you do searches on your phone by speaking instead of having to type everything. It will eventually be available for the iPhone.
Dave was on the team that created Steven Spielberg’s Boom Blox, what looks like an insanely fun game for the Wii. It was featured on Penny Arcade, which, some might say, is the highest honor one can achieve in the video game world.
In the cardboard realm, a game publisher finally came to their senses and snatched up Dan’s Monkey Lab, a ridiculously fun board game. It will premiere at Essen, but there is no word on a release date. Trust me, you’re going to want to play this.
Speaking of board games, Marc’s Coalescence is now available. It looks really sharp, is easy to learn and provides a lot of challenging fun.
And, finally, I heard that fellow Landmark graduate Jonna will be appearing in Oliver Stone’s film “W“, filming now.
Congratulations, everyone, on bringing the awesome!