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I love board games. One game ive wanted to add to my

I love board games. One game ive wanted to add to my collection has been Descent Journeys into the Dark. I really enjoy awesome table-top fantasy games. I am a huge fan of board game designer Kevin Wilson's Doom: The Board Game and heard Descent was worth checking out.

As I did some research on the game the consensus seemed to be that it was good but suffered from a few problems. Notably it was hard and the rules were too complicated. I can understand that as The Doom Board Game has very complicated rules as well its just such a great game I can get around that. That said, I took what people were saying to heart and didn't get Descent because of what people mentioned.

A... Read All I love board games. One game ive wanted to add to my collection has been Descent Journeys into the Dark. I really enjoy awesome table-top fantasy games. I am a huge fan of board game designer Kevin Wilson's Doom: The Board Game and heard Descent was worth checking out.

As I did some research on the game the consensus seemed to be that it was good but suffered from a few problems. Notably it was hard and the rules were too complicated. I can understand that as The Doom Board Game has very complicated rules as well its just such a great game I can get around that. That said, I took what people were saying to heart and didn't get Descent because of what people mentioned.

A few months ago Fantasy Flight Games dropped the news that they are releasing a second edition to Descent! Excitedly I read the post eager to see what they had made better.

"This updated version of the classic board game of dungeon-delving adventure features a host of enhancements, including new heroes and monsters, accessible rules, a class-based hero system, campaign play, and much more. In addition to its nearly 40 detailed plastic figures, 48 map tiles, nine custom dice, and much more, Second Edition offers a comprehensive Quest Guide with 37 original maps."

Loved what I heard. If you want to read the entire announcement check it out:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=3198

A few things I love hearing:

1. They have an into campaign called "First Blood" where you are given a simple goal to complete. These kinds of entry starters are great because starting off with a complete zone and rules can be pretty overwhelming.

2. They are breaking the quests up into different types. They can be played standalone or as part of a campaign. They are also shipping a "plot tree" that will branch players to different campaigns depending on what you did in the earlier quest.

3. The overlord player can pick a class and customize the deck.

I haven't seen any word on the release date for second edition, but when I know ill post more about it. More than likely ill pick it up at some point and let you know how that goes.

The source code for Prince of Persia was released today from

http://ewpopwatch.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/princeofpersia_l.jpg

The source code for Prince of Persia was released today from the original Apple 2 port:

https://github.com/jmechner/Prince-of-Persia-Apple-II

Awesome to see this sort of thing happen regularly. A few companies I respect have released source for some awesome games like Sim City, Doom 3, Quake 3 & Duke Nukem 3D.

Seeing this kind of thing is awesome because it allows these classic games to live on well beyond they are fiscally viable to keep running on modern systems. I believe culture should be preserved and source released of old games helps that.

Heres hoping that old games like Warcraft Orcs and Humans, Unreal Tournament and Mario Brothers see a source release at... Read All

Sword & Sworcery Is Superb Magic

Occasionally games come along that change the way you think about what games can do. A month or so back I heard that Sword & Sworcery was a rad iOS game that took the experience beyond the typical mobile game faire to have a great story and interesting game mechanics. I picked it up hoping for great and I wasn't disappointed.

The game brings you into its unique universe from the start and I was immediately hooked. I watched the entire intro and "more information" game sections before I even started playing. It was that unique.

The game is stylistically similar to the old Out of this World game released on PC and Super Nintendo. It forgoes speech in favor of text and... Read All Occasionally games come along that change the way you think about what games can do. A month or so back I heard that Sword & Sworcery was a rad iOS game that took the experience beyond the typical mobile game faire to have a great story and interesting game mechanics. I picked it up hoping for great and I wasn't disappointed.

The game brings you into its unique universe from the start and I was immediately hooked. I watched the entire intro and "more information" game sections before I even started playing. It was that unique.

The game is stylistically similar to the old Out of this World game released on PC and Super Nintendo. It forgoes speech in favor of text and that works very well for the game. It also has a very simple control and fight mechanic. If you want to fight you put your phone up and down and when you want to move around the world you have to put the phone on its side. Simple.

My only downside to this game is that it joins many other awesome adventure games in its "mystery meat" puzzle hardness factor. Old games like Day of the Tentacle and Full Throttle were awesome, but often you had to do very non obvious things to progress. I am at such a part now and am considering using a walkthrough to get past it. I guess it bears noting that I haven't really played a game in years that required me to think about going to a walkthrough.

The game has an interesting mechanic where you can read the minds of anyone you come in contact with. You can go to a screen where you can read through all their thoughts and this adds a real depth to the world and tone of the game. For instance, there is a dog in the beginning part of the game and you can read his thoughts.

It being occasionally difficult shouldn't stop you from picking it up, its fantastic and if you are looking for a richer mobile game experience, this is it. Oh and its for sale on Steam as well now until April 28th so no reason not to pick it up!

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Out of this World: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_World_%28video_game%29

Two Part interview with the Diablo 3 developers. Here is

Two Part interview with the Diablo 3 developers.

Here is part 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBbEuHivdNw&list=UUxn8csYeZg6awRnZS-aqg0g&index=1&feature=plcp

In the video its the end of 2011 and they look very tired. I wonder how they are doing now?

I love Ticket to Ride! It is one of my go to games when

I love Ticket to Ride! It is one of my "go to" games when wanting to play a board game with people that haven't played before. The rules are easy to learn, and all players in the game can feel like they are making progress towards their goals throughout the game (even if in actuality there are losing pretty badly). New players wouldn't even realize they are losing, really, and still have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the game regardless! The board is attractive, the pieces have a nice tactile sense, and the game overall has a theme that feels really integrated and natural rather than slapped on and made-up. Both young and old alike can play very successfully,... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/16/2012 at 03:25am

Wife and I play Ticket to Ride on our iPhone's and love it! Haven't tried the original board game yet. We do, however, have Ticket to Ride Europe which is cool to bring out round friends.

Europe added the train station which allows you to make a connection if the rails are blocked. Kind of nice but people can get upset after interpreting the rules creative ways.

Doug_Beatty Post Author wrote on 05/28/2012 at 08:30pm

I finally played Ticket to Ride Europe a couple of weeks ago. The addition of the train station definitely added a new dynamic. I took over in the middle of the game for a friend, and the train station almost allowed me to salvage a strategy that had gone horribly wrong early :)

The other thing that I loved about the Europe version is that it helped me learn some locations of cities and territories I should have known from middle or high school, but wasn't paying attention at the time.

jdodson Admin wrote on 05/29/2012 at 05:48am

jdodson "The train stations are an interesting mechanic and can allow you to salvage a bad game. I like USA's simplicity and such as Europe seems to have more routes but more constrained. At least that's how it seems when I play Europe. Fun, but after playing many more games I think I like USA."

Doug_Beatty Post Author wrote on 06/28/2012 at 02:49am

We all love U-S-A! It's my favorite chant that busts out at the Olympics :)

But seriously, the United States board is pretty good and doesn't need to be added to. My philosophy in games is the less rules the better.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/28/2012 at 02:56am

I agree. Simplicity is better.

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Settlers is the first euro-style board game that I ever

Settlers is the first euro-style board game that I ever played. Rules were pretty easy to pickup. Definitely has some element of luck since you are subject to random chance of which spaces are available to you at the beginning of the game as well as the roll of the dice during each turn. One unique thing is that psychology and group dynamics can have large affects through the ability to trade resources. Winning strategies mitigate the feast and famine of the rolls of the dice by diversifying the dice rolls that yield resources. It isn't my favorite board game probably because I lose at a greater rate than other games. I also hate it when the robber gets put on... Read All

2k is talking about after release Borderlands 2 support in a

http://i1.cdnds.net/12/15/618x348/gaming_borderlands_2_mechromancer.jpg

2k is talking about after release Borderlands 2 support in a new class called the Mecromancer:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-09-mechromancer-class-announced-for-borderlands-2

They made a pretty large point that this wasn't "day one DLC" but something they have been considering and will most likely ship as DLC well after launch. I like the idea of adding characters as DLC and really like the idea of this class. The Necromancer was my fav class of Diablo 2 and its cool to see the Borderlands take on it.

In other news, I was playing "Borderlands Classic" the other day and need to pass on a tip. In RPGs people often power level characters to help get certain... Read All

A little update on the Steam Box front.

http://store.valvesoftware.com/product_images/main_images/mainP0927.png

A little update on the "Steam Box" front.

http://www.destructoid.com/valve-recruitment-ad-points-to-hardware-plans-225786.phtml

My Town 2 is a simple freemium mobile game I play from time

My Town 2 is a simple freemium mobile game I play from time to time. Its kind of like Sim City but since its a freemium Tiny Tower like game, time is a factor and you can purchase in game currency to speed things up.

I wanted to post an recent image of my town "Mos Eisley" above and let you know a secret I found. I don't believe you need to build roads in My Town 2. I mean, you can in fact build roads but I haven't built any roads at all save what came with my town and nothing bad has happened.

I believe roads are simply for looks because none of my citizens or businesses suffer because I don't build roads. One benefit to not building roads is you have more room to build... Read All

For all you math nerds out there.

http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/225617-hotness32header.jpg

For all you math nerds out there.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/11/2012 at 02:42pm

Awesome.

Do you Pokemon?

Timogorgon Member wrote on 04/11/2012 at 07:46pm

Ha! I'm taking calculus this semester, so we recently just talked about differentiation. I have no idea why they're teaching me this stuff, but if they had told me it was to make math/pokemon jokes I might have paid more attention. :P

Tungsten Post Author wrote on 04/12/2012 at 02:32am

I played through the first one on an emulator. Collected a total of about 20 pokemon. Enjoyed it, but never really "got into" it.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/12/2012 at 03:43am

Sure. I got the first blue game on the original Game Boy. It was pretty fun, I tried returning it after a few days of not really digging it. The store had just implemented a no return policy because they thought I copied the Game Boy Kart or something? Anyways, I actually got my money back though. Never after that though.

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