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I got this game for Christmas and I finally convinced some

I got this game for Christmas and I finally convinced some people to sit down and play with me. (Side note: It should really not be that hard to convince people to try something new!)

This game is awesome! We had so much fun even though it was our first time playing and we lost pretty bad lol.

The premise of the game is that four diseases have broken out in different parts of the world and the players work cooperatively to treat the diseases and eventually find the cures for them. On the players turn they have 4 actions they can spend either moving around the map or treating cities that have been infected. Your objective is to discover all four cures before one of the... Read All I got this game for Christmas and I finally convinced some people to sit down and play with me. (Side note: It should really not be that hard to convince people to try something new!)

This game is awesome! We had so much fun even though it was our first time playing and we lost pretty bad lol.

The premise of the game is that four diseases have broken out in different parts of the world and the players work cooperatively to treat the diseases and eventually find the cures for them. On the players turn they have 4 actions they can spend either moving around the map or treating cities that have been infected. Your objective is to discover all four cures before one of the various losing conditions are met. Each player is also randomly dealt a special "role" for the game, which grants them a special ability or trait. For example: you need 5 cards of the same color to discover a cure, but the Scientist only needs 4.

After a player has spent all their actions and drawn their player cards, they have to take on the role of the Infecter before the next players turn. First you draw a number of infection cards based on the current infection rate, which increases as the game goes on. Each card drawn adds one disease marker to that city. If a city already has 3 markers on it then an "Outbreak" occurs and that disease now spreads to all the surrounding cities. This is where things get crazy, because this can set off chain reactions with the surrounding cities if they also have three disease markers. This is how we lost our first game. :)

Hidden in the player cards are a certain number of Epidemic cards (you choose how many to put in there depending on how difficult you want the game to be). When one of these cards are pulled it increases the infection rate and also immediately places 3 disease markers on a city. You then have to shuffle the infect card discard pile and place them back on top of the deck.

It's game over if one of the following occurs: You need to place a disease markers but are out of that color, you have no more player cards in the deck, or if a total of 8 outbreaks have occurred.

Once a disease is cured, it becomes easier to remove markers from the board. If a disease is cured and you successfully remove all the markers of that color, the disease is eradicated and you no longer have to place any markers of that color on the board.

What originally got me interested in this game is the cooperative nature of the game. Either all players win or all players loose and it really does take a lot of coordination among the players to keep the various diseases in check while trying to find cures. All the different roles the players can be assigned work very well with each other and create a sort of synergy with the players if used right.

The games seems more complicated than it really is. No one in my group had ever played this before but we all picked it up pretty quick. All in all we had an awesome time playing this game. It's very intense and things spiral out of control very quick, but in a good way. :) I would highly recommend this to pretty much anyone who likes board games, but especially someone who wants a very different type of board game. I give it a big two thumbs up! d (^.^) b

Travis Admin wrote on 05/04/2012 at 12:54pm

I have only ever played the flash games based on this board game, where you try to infect the world. Madagascar is such a troll.

But this game sounds amazing! How many players does it require? That's always the hardest thing for me, finding enough people to play some of these amazing games. My wife and I usually settle on Trivial Pursuit, since you can do that easily with two.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/04/2012 at 02:37pm

Heard great things about Pandemic for a while now. I think I'll pick it up in the future. I dig co-op board games. I've a few co-op dungeon crawlers now and they are wicked fun!

Timogorgon Member Post Author wrote on 05/04/2012 at 06:03pm

I've heard several people mention a flash game called Pandemic. Are they related or do they just share the same name? The game is for 2-4 players. However, there are 5 "role" cards for the players, so I don't see why you couldn't add a 5th player if you have the people. So far I've played two games and both times we had four people, (we won the second game but just barely!)

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/05/2012 at 04:32pm

http://www.gamingdelight.com/games/pandemic.php

Maybe its loosely based on the Board Game?

Travis Admin wrote on 05/06/2012 at 05:33pm

It is. It only takes the infection parts, not preventing them. You just try to take out the world with your virus/bacteria/parasite/whatever.

Madagascar is a bitch to infect. So much that a meme was created. http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/shut-down-everything

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/06/2012 at 07:44pm

SHUT DOWN EVERYTHING! Funny.

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The latest Indie Royale dropped today and has some

The latest Indie Royale dropped today and has some interesting titles.

http://www.indieroyale.com/

It has:
* Dungeon Defenders (I've been meaning to try)
* Containment: The Zombie Puzzler (looks like an interesting puzzle game)
* Data Jammers: Fast Forward (very stylized racer)
* Brainpipe - A Plunge to Unhumanity (ambient, visual treat action game)
* Weird Worlds: Return to Infinite Space (hybrid science fiction space adventure and strategy game)

Well, it has happened. Bethesda has announced the Elder

Well, it has happened. Bethesda has announced the Elder Scrolls MMO.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/05/03/elder-scrolls-online-announced-an-mmo-set-in-the-world-of-skyrim/

It has been rumored for months (years?) now, but we finally have confirmation.

It will be set 1000 years before the events of Skyrim, where Molag Bal is attempting to swallow up Tamriel into his plane of Oblivion. Looks interesting so far.

The perfect bathroom game for iphone. Seriously. Play for 1

The perfect bathroom game for iphone. Seriously. Play for 1 minute or 15. Simple puzzles get complex, with a cute interface.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/03/2012 at 08:40pm

Downloading it now! Thanks for the tip.

Tungsten wrote on 05/04/2012 at 01:09am

I admit, I do love that game. I used to play 3 rounds or so a day. It's one of the few games where I really like the free to play restriction because it kicks you off after 150 turns. Without that restriction I could play for hours.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/04/2012 at 01:42am

I tried a few rounds of it and didn't entirely get the rules but it was fun. Ill play more tonight and try and learn it entirely, its a really cool concept from what of the rules I do understand after one play through.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/04/2012 at 05:30am

Wow, I just sunk an hour into this and it was awesome. Such a unique kind of puzzle game. Fantastic, thanks for the recommend!

Tungsten wrote on 05/04/2012 at 10:33am

It's tetris meets sim-city. With bears.

Talky wrote on 05/04/2012 at 03:10pm

Have me interested. I will have to have Jon download it for me.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/04/2012 at 03:54pm

Yeah, its great I will.

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Comparing Secret of Mana iOS to The Super Nintendo Version

Secret of Mana is one of my most beloved games of all time. I come back and play this every few years. This game opened my eyes to how awesome video games could be. The story, music and game play are fantastic. Back in the day when the Super Nintendo ruled the gaming world, Secret of Mana was Square's triple A effort. And it is awesome.

Recently I saw Secret of Mana for sale in on iOS so I mulled it over and picked it up. What's a few more bucks to being able to play on the greatest games ever on my iPhone? Ultimately I was really disappointed with the iPhone version and this post is going to go over why. This also might be the most nit-picky post I have ever written... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 05/03/2012 at 03:37pm

That just looks bad and muddled. It seems like many re-releases just use some sort of smoothing on the pixels to attempt to make it look less pixelated, but it just looks muddy and out of focus.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/04/2012 at 01:41am

I agree. And the art isn't even the same. Its just really a different game as far as I am concerned.

hardeyez wrote on 05/04/2012 at 03:03am

Yeah, I agree the original artwork looks much better -- more vibrant and clear.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/04/2012 at 04:22am

Yep. GET OFF MY LAWN YOU DAMN KIDS AND LEAVE THE 16BITS WHERE YOU FOUND EM!

Talky wrote on 05/04/2012 at 03:13pm

You guys are getting old fashion. I think the iOS version looks better and the characters are easier to see. The trees really look like trees. But I am not a pixel girl and not a video game snob ;)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/04/2012 at 03:57pm

Yeah. Well I don't know I guess if someone grew up with something they loved, say a song and it was covered by another band and it wasn't great to them it would basically be how I feel about this remake. I imagine some people might like the cover more than the original as with the iPhone game.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/04/2012 at 03:57pm

Oh and Pixels are beautiful. Its an old art style that isn't really used as much as id like these days IMO.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/04/2012 at 06:12pm

I love pixel art, and SoM is one of my favorite games, so I much prefer the original art work. My main complaint about the new graphics are that everything looks slightly blurry, like the whole game is slightly out of focus. When I heard SoM was getting ported to iOS my first thought was there is no way the controls for this are going to be any good, and it seems like my instincts were correct this time. Some games benefit from touch screen controls (I have Puzzle quest on PC and iOS, and I prefer the iOS version) but games that were built with a D pad in mind do not translate well to touch.

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Just bought tickets to Pax Prime this year. Very

Just bought tickets to Pax Prime this year. Very excited.

http://prime.paxsite.com/

**EDIT** Looks like the sold out 15 minutes after I bought my tickets. They have some single day ticket still available.

Tungsten wrote on 05/04/2012 at 01:11am

Some day, I'll be there...

It was always a dream of mine to go to E3, and while that has slipped further and further away, other -coms have really risen up and opened opportunities for average schlubs to go stand in a room full of stinky sweaty people doing very very nerdy things.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/04/2012 at 01:41am

How far away are you from the location of Comic Con? If I lived in Cali that would be the one I would attend.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/04/2012 at 06:15pm

I want to make it to PAX prime one of these days. Comic Con is another one I want to go to (and I live close enough that I could make it down there) but they always sell out so fast I haven't been able to snag any tickets to it!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/05/2012 at 04:32pm

Yeah, I sort of monitored the PAX prime registration and was planning on jumping on it when it dropped. I imagine if you knew when Comic Con tickets were on sale you could do similar to go. Unless its scalper city or something, which would suck.

I imagine its possible that next year I may attend most of the cool Cons in California. Thats the dream anyway :)

Tungsten wrote on 05/05/2012 at 08:58pm

Spent most of my life in Southern California, never went to one. Now, I live in the midwest and I regret it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/05/2012 at 09:00pm

One of the reasons I am taking advantage of living in the Northwest for PAX for sure. Wanted to go for a few years now.

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The right sound effects and everything. Disturbing Link

http://fruit.gs/404.html

The right sound effects and everything. Disturbing Link visual, but fun geek reference.

Here are a few Diablo 3 news bits I had to share. So stay a

Here are a few Diablo 3 news bits I had to share. So stay a while and read:

The above video is the new reveal for the Wizard class. It seems from this video she is an epic Nuke class. After playing the beta I didn't get a good sense for how the Wizard would fit into a party but after seeing her later in the game in this video it makes sense to me. Calling down meteors on demons seems very satisfying!

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/5203654

Bizzard has released more information about the in-game auction house. This is a feature that has been getting a lot of negative attention and I don't really understand it. Isn't it a good thing to allow you as a user to make money by... Read All

Going to jam a few Elder Scrolls morsels into this

http://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/bethblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Dawnguard.jpg

Going to jam a few Elder Scrolls morsels into this post.

Bethesda just dropped the name of the new DLC for Skyrim called Dawnguard. From the Bethesda blog "Coming this summer to Xbox 360. More details at E3.." Kind of wish DLC like this wouldn't drop only on the XBox but that is often the way of things. Looks like we will find out more about this exclusive XBox DLC at E3.

In other elder scrolls news it looks like Morrowind turned 10 today and to celebrate Morrowind and Oblivion are half off on Steam this week. Awesome.

-

http://www.bethblog.com/2012/05/01/dawnguard/
http://www.bethblog.com/2012/05/01/happy-10th-anniversary-morrowind/
http://store.steampowered.com/app/22320/

Tungsten wrote on 05/02/2012 at 11:01am

I'm tempted on the Morrowind. It was my favorite of the series (never played the first two, so I can't really talk), and with the mod's you can run now it looks pretty nice.

For those of you who haven't played it, it's a lot like Skyrim or Oblivion... but wierder and less balanced.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/02/2012 at 08:19pm

Just an FYI about the DLC-- it is almost definitely timed-exclusive. Everything Bethesda has released since Oblivion has had timed-exclusive DLC on the 360, but it always makes its way to the PC and PS3 soon enough.

It's a really crappy practice though. I guess it's hard to argue with the bags of money Microsoft gives them for that temporary exclusivity though. To be honest, it's why I always buy Bethesda games (at least the first time around-- I own Oblivion on all three platforms now) on the 360. I know I'm supporting the practice and am part of the problem because of that, but that extra month with the DLC is all too tempting.

Tungsten wrote on 05/02/2012 at 11:15pm

Eh, with a game like Skyrim (single player, lots of time to waste, mods galore) I'm not chomping a the bit for DLC. Now, I'll probably get it, but if I'll probably wait until its on Steam Sale no matter when it comes out.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/03/2012 at 01:05am

I dislike exclusive content either direction. I agree that Skyrim comes packed to the gills with already existing content, its just lame everyone but XBox misses out on it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/03/2012 at 06:00am

Well at least for a little bit anyway.

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Bought this game a few months back and have played much more

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu4k85uRPu1qe9bi5o1_500.png

Bought this game a few months back and have played much more recently. The unforgiving game play of the first few play throughts didn't win me over. I loved the art style and game tone but the lack of save really hampered me on it.

Started it up again recently and immediately unlocked the Magdaline character. I played through as Magdaline and did much better than I had previously. The play control is the same, but Magdaline starts with a Heart item that allows you to recover one heart every so often. After a bit the play control seemed to gel more and I did much better. Still lost but I went further in the dungeon and it didn't seem like a complete annihlation.

That or I... Read All

AutoCat1000 wrote on 05/01/2012 at 01:50am

Minecraft! (duh)

Tungsten wrote on 05/01/2012 at 09:36pm

Tribes

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/01/2012 at 11:27pm

Pong.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/02/2012 at 01:29am

Pong. Awesome. Missile Command is pretty good too. Seriously though it is :)

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 05/02/2012 at 04:28am

Missile Command was great!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/02/2012 at 04:33am

One Of my Atari 2600 favorites.

Tungsten wrote on 05/02/2012 at 11:04am

Pole Position

Gary_Butterfield wrote on 10/12/2012 at 05:39pm

This is some thread necromancy but I will generally take any opportunity to evangelize my GOTY. Roguelikes work in an iterative fashion rather than linear, right? You get a little further each time and the way you make "progress" is through player knowledge. That's not strictly true in Isaac where you also unlock new items in play but it's the main form of progress. You get better as you get further as you get better as you get further. Unlocking new characters is actually a really sly way of handling a difficulty curve. Maggie is the easy mode for when you're starting and later, that becomes Cain (try to get 55 coins without spending any in one run). This then unlocks the challenge characters and eventually, through an unlock, Isaac becomes the most powerful character in the game. I'll have a more cogent examination of what I think makes this special in my own post at some point but I would urge anyone turned off by the difficulty to power through. When it clicks, it clicks hard (I have hundreds of hours logged on this game).

Tungsten wrote on 10/12/2012 at 11:05pm

I still pick it up now and then. It's still fun and horribly frustrating.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/13/2012 at 07:35am

I come back to this off and on. It's fun and I get a little father each time... But wow... It's hard :D

Tungsten wrote on 10/13/2012 at 11:32am

I think I got to mom just for the first time the other day. She kicked the crap out of me.

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