game selibacy - not!

Dear Gaming Diary,

I'm sorry that I've ignored you for the last 6 months (!!). I have played some, though, which makes the matter all the more serious, I know :(

To make up for it, here's a quick summary...

We've enjoyed Ticket to Ride: Europe tremendeously with Satu. Especially as a two player game, it does not really have conflicting goals, so it's quite laid-back fun.

Ingenious by Reiner Knizia we've only played once. It definitely desevers more of our attention. Caribbean is rather nice and simple fun that we've tackled a number of times. We've also gotten some collectible card games but they still await testing.

On the digital front, I enjoyed Resident Evil 4 quite a lot. Then, as so often happens for me, I just quit, probably 3/4 through it. Just can't fnd time or energy to continue. Partly due to Winning Eleven 8 LE coming out I have to admit.

Oh yeah, we completed Halo 2 on co-op with my buddy Fernando. It was fun but rather unspectacular. We began Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on co-op as well, but got frustrated early on, as our attention span just was not enough for all that stealth. Been thinking of getting my hands on Jade Empire but just haven't gotten around to it.

Haven't purchased neither DS or PSP. I guess I'm becoming old because seeing (and trying) Wipeout on yet another platform does nothing for me. Lumines was pretty ok. Game-wise Ds is lot more interesting but I hate the design of the thing. Once Nintendogs comes out I have to do something, though. Meteos seems interesting as well.

Oh yeah, and I probably will get Killer 7 for my summer holidays in the end of July. I'm a sucker for that style - well actually anything out of the ordinary particle masturbation, really.

aki // June 28, 2005 10:31 AM

New year's gaming galore

Dear Gaming Diary,

There was plenty of gaming during the holidays! Quick impressions, if you please:

- Betrayal at House on the Hill -- quite enjoyable tile-placing with a horror theme and role-playing aspects! We played a two-player variant with Satu and ended up with a Ouroboros scenario. Will definitely give it more tries!

- Alfapet (aka Scrabble) -- Played with Satu and my father and mother-in-law. This classic was more fun than I remembered!

- Samurai -- Reiner Knizia's game has intereseted me for a long time due to its theme, but now I finally got a chance to play it. It was more than ok, but sadly the theme was quite weakly implemented - only the board (with a map of Japan) reminded me that I was supposed to make decisions of a Samurai warlord.

- Pirate's Cove -- we played this over at Oxford with Heidi & Syksy after watching Pirates of the Caribbean on DVD. Easy to get into, nice board, little too much dice-rolling to my taste, but quite a good fellowship journey on the Caribbean seas.

- Modern Art -- at Oxford, again. I definitely like it - for once, something other to bid for than medieval barrels or other boring stuff ;)

- Scarab Lords -- tried to learn this under our hosts guidance. Quite sophisticated, I believe, but rather too strategic for my taste. Playing started to feel like working - too heavy on the challenge and problem-solving pleasures. Give me explosions!

- Fearsome Floors -- Had a go at this once, should've tried another time. The first effort was kinda grim as we misunderstood the monster's movement phase...we did get a decent game going on another try, though. Promising but I wasn't left with an urgent need to get it.

- Fluxx -- I've had this for some time, but finally we managed to play it. I liked it quite a lot: quick and fun emergent gaming!

- Carcassonne: The Count -- Mixed bag of feelings with this extension. I think it makes the game just a bit too complex for its own good, and also the game becomes nastier. Still, the tension remains to the last tile, as our session illustrated. Yet I don't think we'll give the Count many more chances.

I believe I remembered each and every one :) We did get the Da Vinci Code game for Christmas too, but did not get around to try it yet. When you consider the list above, I guess it's no wonder!

aki // January 3, 2005 04:13 PM

San Andreas & board gaming

Dear gaming diary, I'm so sorry that the last months have been so hectic at works that I haven't reported my habits. I'll make up for it after the new year, as the holdays will give plenty of opportunities for board gaming. Not least because we're traveling over to Oxford to see Heidi and Syksy :)

I bought a couple of horror-themed board games for the Holidays: Fearsome Floors and Betrayal at House on the Hill. I'm looking forward to trying these very much!

On the digital front, I've enjoyed GTA: San Andreas quite a bit. At first it seemed same old same old, but once you get going, it's really cool. There are too many glitches remaining from the previous installments, but mostly the gangsta stuff and hip-hop/soul soundtracks and wonderful voice acting make up for it. The truth is however, that some 10+ percent into the game, the missions start becoming quite difficult for me, so we'll see how long my enthusiasm lasts. And the first girlfriend is terrible. But OG Loc makes up for many lacks :)

Speaking of SA, I've been enjoying a HBO series called The Wire which portrays same themes, albeit situated in Baltimore, in suitably gritty fashion. There was this episode where a couple of young gang members killed their long-time friend because he was suspected of snitching to the police. The scene was quite heart-breaking, and even though SA is fine, it fails to capture these kinds of moral ambiguities. And I believe there will be a way for digital games to do that.

Also, there should be GTA: Hill Street Blues where you start as a beat cop and progress to a detective, with moral choices - corruption, loyalty etc. - along the way. Definitely.

aki // December 23, 2004 11:20 AM

summer summary

Ok, I did play quite a bit of games during the holidays, even though there was some quality time spent in summer cottages etc.

Let's see, dear gaming diary...I played some Metroid Prime! Yeah, I had this idea of finishing one game during my holidays, and made some progress with Prime but it turned out too vast and difficult.

Then I played some Boktai (finally!) on the GBA while the sun was shining. Did not get that far, but it was quite enjoyable. Now that the autumn is looming I guess it will be left gathering dust...the story of my gaming life.

On a more uplifting note, Animal Crossing is finally being released in Europe - yippee! I wrote a review of this wonderful game for Pelaaja magazine.

Oh yeah, Riddick is a fine one. Should try to continue this vindieselesque FPS.

Then, there was some card and board gaming: We bought some expansions to Carcassonne, and also the two-player Castle variant, which I liked quite a bit. Then we had friends, Heidi & Syksy and Frans & Laura over, and played a couple of rounds of Reiner Knizia's Lord of the Rings game. It was pretty good I think, as Heidi & Syksy were experienced players and so the game progressed quite smoothly. It had been slightly cumbersome with two players only and definitely improved with more players. The Sauron expansion was nice, too. We saved the Middle Earth twice! :D

At the moment, it's mostly digital gaming: There is Winning Eleven 8, of course, but I have a review task on NHL 2005, so that has taken most of my time. Satu has been playing Beyond Good & Evil, which seems quite refreshing and fun.

I'm pretty sure I forgot something...

aki // August 20, 2004 01:39 PM