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HeroQuest: Epic Board Game Adventure That Doesn't Require a PHD

jdodson gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

jdodson gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

My favorite board game of all time is DOOM: The Board Game by Kevin Wilson. In Wilson's DOOM the goal is to escape each level and engage the Demons in so much as you need to to escape to survive. Sometimes you should stand and fight and sometimes you should run quickly to the next room. It's a difficult game and exploration is available, but not quite encouraged as the game will kill you if you linger too long. Like many modern dungeon crawling board games it has a fair amount of rules and it can take quite a while to complete a mission. According to Boardgamegeek each mission of DOOM can last upwards of 180 minutes making it an epic game that requires a time... Read All My favorite board game of all time is DOOM: The Board Game by Kevin Wilson. In Wilson's DOOM the goal is to escape each level and engage the Demons in so much as you need to to escape to survive. Sometimes you should stand and fight and sometimes you should run quickly to the next room. It's a difficult game and exploration is available, but not quite encouraged as the game will kill you if you linger too long. Like many modern dungeon crawling board games it has a fair amount of rules and it can take quite a while to complete a mission. According to Boardgamegeek each mission of DOOM can last upwards of 180 minutes making it an epic game that requires a time commitment to master the rules and complete a mission. DOOM is awesome but sometimes it's good to play an epic board game where the missions take a bit less time and the rules are easier to understand. Recently I picked up a remake of such a game I played back in the 90's called HeroQuest.

Back in the 90's one of my high school friends introduced me to HeroQuest and after opening the box and showing me the game, I was hooked. Recently Hasboro Game Lab worked in partnership with Avalon Hill to re-create the original game and ran a Kickstarter-like that smashed it's initial funding goals and made several stretch goals to bring extra characters and campaign game books to fans. After quite a while in the making, with what I imagine was more than a few delays due to COVID, Hero Quest shipped and in nearly every way I've really enjoyed the recreation. In some instances I prefer the original sculpt(slightly more meat cleavers please!) to the new one but the detail and love shown on the new version is incredible. I've also included a video on this review that showcases many of the differences and most of them are entirely cosmetic. Avalon Hill kept all the original rules and missions intact, which is a lovely surprise.

HeroQuest was a game initially targeted at kids to provide them with an epic dungeon crawling game that was easy enough to understand and play. I find that HeroQuest is a great game for everyone looking to play a sword and magic board game because it makes it accessible and fun in a way that few do. The new version also includes a Companion App that allows you to play the game if you don't have anyone that can act as the Zargon/Dungeon Master character. Does everyone you are playing with want to just play as the heroes, welp, that works with the companion app.

"The HeroQuest Companion App unlocks new, optional game modes for the HeroQuest board game (sold separately). Traditionally, a game of HeroQuest requires one player to take on the role of Zargon, the Dread Sorceror who also acts as the game master in command of the dungeon board. However, the app can take the role of a Digital Zargon, allowing up to four human players to play solely as the heroes. And we do mean “up to,” because with Digital Zargon you can now play HeroQuest as a solo board game, controlling all four heroes yourself!"

When I first got HeroQuest I played the initial mission with the companion app and it worked out really well. Wasn't as fun as playing with friends though, which makes sense.

I've had three parties at my place where we played HeroQuest and I'd say the game has been a hit. Early on we figured out a way to make the game a bit easier and I suggest absolutely not doing what we did. You can speed up the gameplay by not rolling the dice after you kill all the monsters on the board and just move your characters where you want to go but when you do that it makes the game very formulaic and not fun. I had that idea and it turns out, it's a terrible one as ALWAYS rolling the dice to move is more fun. In our last play sessions we also stopped making choices as a group and let the main party split up into two parties, making the mission more dangerous and compelling. It's possible if every player played it safe and got good rolls, each player could solo a room by themselves except the Wizard, which is who I am playing. I'm not sure we'll break out four ways, but it's possible.

HeroQuest is a classic board game that needed a remake. If you are looking for an accessible game to play with friends and this sounds interesting, you should give HeroQuest a try. It seems like Avalon Hill is re-releasing each HeroQuest expansion and after that I hope they can create a new one. With the original 14 mission campaign and the two expansions (Witch Lord, Kellars Keep) and the quest books I got as Kickstarter extras I have more than enough Hero Quest to play. Still, more is always fun and I hope Hero Quest has a long life ahead of it.

https://hasbropulse.com/blogs/avalon-hill/heroquest-companion-app-details-and-release-date?

Orders For Terraria Graphic Novels Are Open Now!

One of our favorite games, Terraria, now has a graphic novel series and orders are open now! You can begin ordering them at 50 Amp Productions website. You can order the first one here: https://www.50ampproductions.com/collections/comic-issue-01 You may notice that there are tiers. You can get the graphic novel itself for pretty much $5 or you can spend $50 and get a whole bunch of goodies!

Here's a good tidbit from the news report: "Overall, the plan is to roll out Issues 1-4 (Book One) over the next few months, followed by a full Book One release to book sellers/retailers as well as available online some time in Q1 2023. Book One will contain all of the first four... Read All

Tactics Ogre Gets Reborn on November 11th

I just found this piece of news, which I fell in love with once I saw the YouTube video (embedded). I haven’t played any Tactics Ogre game, but I believe they are popular. According to the article, “Tactics Ogre: Reborn is based on 2011's Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together on the PSP, which itself was a port of the original 1995 release for Super Nintendo.” If you know more about these games, please feel free to let me know what you think of them!

The reason I fell in love with the video was because it looks just like the Final Fantasy Tactics games I’ve loved so very much. I got introduced to Final Fantasy in college (I will forever love FF8 the most). FF Tactics was... Read All

Outbreak: Shades of Horror (Plus the entire series)

I wanted to plug an Indie Developer's upcoming kickstarter, plus his whole series.

Evan Wolbach and Dead Drop Studios have been making the Outbreak series since 2017. These are indie games, pretty much developed just by Evan. If you like retro survival horror games, check out the series. Check out links to the whole series here:

https://www.deaddroppublishing.com/games.html

Evan & Team just released a playable teaser for their upcoming kickstarter, Outbreak: Shades of Horror. This teaser actually has a lot going on and is more than just a demo. There are 8 different endings you can get, and Evan has said you can spend several hours replaying the teaser to find new... Read All

The SNES Manual Archive

Historical video game preservation is important and it's nice to see folks taking action to improve things. Retro game collectors and historians do a good job and occasionally someone comes along with a fun project that helps move everything forward for everyone. Recently, Twitch streamer Peebs sunk some time into collecting each Super Nintendo game manual and putting them on a Super Nintendo game manual website as well as Archive.org. If you are interested in reading what came packed in to each Super Nintendo game they are available in PDF and OCR for viewing online or download. Nintendo has also made all the of game manuals available for the games included in the... Read All

Pre-order Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered by Aug 12 for Bonuses

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered is available for pre-order on Steam. Pre-order and get bonuses including, “the Iron Spider Suit, Velocity Suit, Spider-Punk Suit, Spider-Drone Gadget, and 5 additional skill points.”

I don’t know much about this game and one of my purposes for this post is that I hope to get some feedback by people who’ve played it. So, please chime in if you have! I believe it’s popular and am looking forward to it.

I seem to be aware of a Miles Morales DLC or something, which also has me excited. I really like Miles, although all I know about him is from the Spider-Verse animated movie. I’m looking forward to seeing him in the next Spider-Verse movie... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 07/29/2022 at 06:14pm

If you haven’t played this yet, this is the perfect opportunity. It’s one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in ages.

Insomniac is a Sony owned studio, they did the Ratchet and Clank games and the Resistance series, Rocksteady are the folks who did the Batman games. But don’t let that turn you off from it, the gameplay is better in Spidey than in the Arkham games.

The Miles Morales content is its own game, but it’s a shorter game. It perhaps should have been DLC but it’s also a blast. Miles has a different set of powers that make it a unique experience.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/29/2022 at 06:56pm

Thanks Travis!!!!!!!

Hm, maybe I was confused by the video. I'm pretty sure I've seen another Insomniac game. The video did at least mention that it's like those Batman games, combat at least.

Thanks for clearing up about Miles in the game. According to another article, he's coming in the Fall. https://www.nme.com/guides/gaming-guides/spider-man-pc-release-date-miles-morales-trailer-3242475

I'm gonna go pre-order now. Thanks!

Travis Admin wrote on 07/30/2022 at 04:56pm

Yeah I honestly thought it was the same team for a while because the combat was similar, just more refined.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 08/12/2022 at 08:11pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKF7eLGCCMg (classic Spider-Man theme song) This is a cool game! I've put in 2 hours ATM. I noticed some FPS issues much closer to the beginning when the city was loading. It was very brief and pretty much only during one time.

Since EVGA is having a Back-to-School sale and I can get 1/3 off, I've ordered a RTX 2070 XC 12G. It dipped in to affordability for me. I've had a GTX 1660 Ti XC Gaming 6GB for 3 years now. I got it then for just over $300 on Amazon and watched it's price double over the years. It's not on sale now, but is still about as much as I paid for it 3 years ago. The RTX is slightly cheaper on sale. I've seen some numbers, but I'm not sure how much better my performance is going to be. At least I'll finally have access to those neat RTX features. I definitely expect a performance increase and I'm hoping for more stability in Ark, but I don't expect a big world of difference (it isn't a 3080 TI after all).

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Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Coming November 11

We'll get to see Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in November, making it the next MCU movie. I've seen this trailer three times now and I think it's pretty emotional, keeping the loss of Chadwick Boseman in mind. It appears Wakanda is in mourning, too, but there's also a war brewing with Namor. He's butted heads with Wakanda before, although he's considered more of an "anti-hero."

Let me know what you think about this! Are you going to go see it, too?

I Am Groot on Disney+ Aug 10

Comic-con is going on this weekend, so you can probably expect to see many more announcements like this one.

I Am Groot is another MCU show coming to Disney+ on Aug. 10th. It's just 5 shorts and all will be released at the same time. It looks funny, but that's just how the character of Groot is (IMO and along w/ the other GotG). James Gunn said that's it's kind of in it's own canon, or when it comes to canon, don't worry about it.

What do you think? Is this something you're interested in?

4D Gaming

CodeParade, the creator of the non-Euclidean geometry game Hyperbolica (I *highly* recommend checking out his videos on that game) is now experimenting with building a game in 4D.

This video is a fun breakdown on what a 4D game could look like and talks about some of the attempts at building 4D games already.

I love thinking about higher dimensions, so this was right up my alley. Hopefully you find it interesting too!

House of the Dragon Premieres Aug 21 on HBO Max

There's an awesome trailer for House of the Dragon and I wanted to share it with you. The show premieres on HBO Max on Aug. 21st and I'm very much looking forward to it. It's a Game of Thrones prequel, set 200 years before. It has Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen and a few others I seem to recognize. There are dragons, too!

I read the Song of and Ice saga books that are out now, but it's been a while. I really enjoyed the GoT show we got years ago, although I think like many, I was disappointed by the end. I still very much enjoyed the show.

Are you interested in this? Let me know!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/22/2022 at 04:18pm

I'll definitely be checking the show out! I too have read the Song of Ice and Fire books (and am annoyed that they're not finished lol), and highly enjoyed the original GoT series, so I'm sure I'll enjoy this new show.

These days I'm trying to avoid trailers and breakdowns, as I've found going into shows and movies blind(ish) increases my enjoyment. I used to love New Rockstars-type speculation videos, but those always seemed to set my expectations too high, or guess the general storyline of shows/movies. I watched the very first trailer for the show, but now I'm ignoring them lol.

I appriciate you posting this, so I at least know when the show will start!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/22/2022 at 06:25pm

Awesome! I really loved reading the books, although it was so long ago I can't remember them well enough. I was always impressed by their 1,000 pages! My cousin was the one who introduced me to it. He gave me the books as a gift. I let someone borrow the first and never got it back, though.

I loved the New Rockstars trailer breakdown for this! I feel like NR is a companion. I see it as fun and awesome, a way to expand my knowledge about the shows and movies I really love. It really feeds my Marvel/Star Was obsession, which just grows. But, I also understand your perspective. I have gotten disappointed by the fact that some trailers pretty much just show the entire movie.

I'm glad you appreciate that I posted this. I just figured this was something our community would probably be into.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/29/2022 at 04:30am

I’ve been reading the first Game of Thrones and it’s incredible. I’m nearly done and am wondering how I’ll watch the show? Thinking of reading the book first then see the season of the show afterward.

The books are huge but so good!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 07/29/2022 at 06:20am

Geez it's been ages since I've read those! I've forgotten a lot of it like how House of the Dragon fits in. It's sad how the show didn't quite reflect the books, but that's not uncommon.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 08/27/2022 at 04:24am

Renewed for a second season already w/ only one episode available! Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/house-of-the-dragon-renewed-for-season-2/1100-6506945/

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/27/2022 at 07:12pm

Seems like everyone is loving it so far. I couldn't make it through the first episode myself, and have many criticisms if it, but I'm glad others are enjoying it. I'll probably check it out again after the season is over, depending on how people react to the entire season :)

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 08/27/2022 at 07:55pm

Yeah, I had to cover my eyes for too long during a particularly gruesome scene (happens during the tournament, but it isn't the tournament itself). Otherwise I loved it!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 08/29/2022 at 01:05pm

So much better! Yeah the intro was bloody and there was some crabby gruesomeness, but this one was AWESOME! I loved it!

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