Author Topic: Origins Lightning Round 2009!  (Read 12929 times)

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Meg

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« Last Edit: June 26, 2009, 06:22:20 PM by Meg »
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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #1 on: June 26, 2009, 06:22:42 PM »
This is our first episode with the new music!  What do you think?
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Kai

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2009, 04:46:07 AM »
Maybe the music will grow on me. :hide

Enjoyed the episode though. :D Some of those games sounded pretty fun.

...and, Josh, I'd play cooperative board games with you anytime.
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Tetsubo

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2009, 07:28:54 AM »
I want a copy of Mouseguard badly. It just looks so beautiful. I just can't swing the cost at the moment.

4E shouldn't even be in a role-playing list... :P

But as far as quality and usefulness as a product, I'd have to go with SAGA. Best version of the Star Wars game ever. Sadly I can not support WotC any longer and will not be buying any future or even current SAGA books.

bhu

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2009, 08:01:19 AM »
GIANT MONSTERS ARE WOO!

That having been said, thanks for pointing out a lovecraft related book I don't have.

The new music is good.

I've wanted several of htese for a bit  but couldnt decide on some of them.  You have convinced me to go for it on a few of them.

AfterCrescent

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #5 on: June 28, 2009, 12:24:02 AM »
Maybe the music will grow on me.
I'm with Kai. I'm not a huge fan of it.

As for Pandemic, how many times have you played it Josh? It's always looked interesting on the shelf at the FLGS, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. hrm :plotting

I for one love board games. Of all kinds, solo plays, playing competitively or cooperatively, yet I'll be that one one anomaly you can reference since I can't stand Agricola.  I enjoyed Puerto Rico, even if I found it a bit bland, but Agricola, I just don't see the appeal.

Liked the rest of the episode. Some good advice for games to check out.

Why does no one play miniature games with Josh?
« Last Edit: June 28, 2009, 01:47:20 AM by AfterCrescent »
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bhu

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #6 on: June 28, 2009, 12:29:09 AM »
Oh and on a side note there is some strategy to FLuxx.  Saying it has no strategy because you draw random cards is like saying poker has no strategy. 

You just have to be willing to change instead of picking one strategy fro winning and sticking to it.

sn00gans

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #7 on: June 28, 2009, 10:42:42 AM »
Yeah, I'm not sure I like the new music, either.  It'll probably grow on me, though.

And maybe it's just me, but I found that there were a lot of 'BOOPs' in the ep; much more than usual.  Kind of hurts the ears.

Still waiting for pics of the hosts.  You promised. YOU PROMISED!!

Robert Bohl

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #8 on: June 28, 2009, 12:55:11 PM »
Meg called it; Mouse Guard won the Origins award. Beating Trail of Cthulhu and D&D 4E.

Tetsubo

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #9 on: June 28, 2009, 02:52:35 PM »
Meg called it; Mouse Guard won the Origins award. Beating Trail of Cthulhu and D&D 4E.

So there really is some justice in the world. Who da thought?

Dan2

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #10 on: June 29, 2009, 03:07:41 AM »
I'm not a huge fan of the new music, but that's based on a first impression.  I enjoyed it well enough after the first few seconds.

I have played my fair share of board games and the like, and I'm not a big fan of Agricola.  I know plenty of people who are huge fans, and a few that can't stand the game (among my gaming friends).

Dominion is a great game, all around.  I only have one general gripe with the game, and it deals with specific cards.

I'm surprised Mouse Guard managed a win.  I guess 4th edition D&D didn't go over as well as WotC might have hoped.

PaladinRevenant

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2009, 11:11:52 AM »
Oh and on a side note there is some strategy to FLuxx.  Saying it has no strategy because you draw random cards is like saying poker has no strategy.

Agreed.  The strategy may not be terribly in depth, but you do have to employ a strategy.

On Music:  I liked the new music.  I haven't been a listener for very long, so I wasn't really invested in the old music, but I still like the change.  Not to say I didn't like the old music.  The only note that I have is a C#... (pause for groans)  Seriously though, the only thing I have to say about it is that you might want to consider lowering the level of the music a little bit more when you're talking over it.

A lot of the games that you mentioned sound pretty good.  I will definitely look into Dominion and Red Dragon Inn 1&2 for my group.  I am a big fan of Agricola even though it takes all night.  I will also look into Mouseguard and CthulhuTech at least for inspiration.

-----

Here are my thoughts on Say Anything.  First, I have to preface by saying that I have not played this game extensively.  I demoed Say Anything at GenCon last year and played through probably 10 rounds or so.  Whereas our resident Brilliant Gameologists compared the game to Apples to Apples meets Wits & Wagers, I liken the game to Imagine If.

In Imagine If you ask a question "if Player was a _____, he would be..." and then the card has 6 choices that each player chooses between.  In Say Anything you ask a similar question about one player and then everyone puts in their answer.  You have a number of possible answers equal to the number of players minus the person that the question is about, so the game is definitely better with more people.  After everyone has written down an answer, everyone bets on which answer the player who's turn it is (the one who the question is being asked about) will choose.  So in Apples to Apples, you have to pick which of your cards the other player is most likely to choose and then hope no one in the group has a better one.  In Say Anything you have the same choices to bet on as everyone else.

During the demo the game did not grab me.  I think that I might have a lot more fun with it if I were playing with my group of friends instead of a group of strangers, but I don't think that I would buy this game for my group of friends.  I would say that if you've played Imagine If with your group of friends, and enjoyed it but wished you could come up with your own responses, then this might be a good game for you.  But if you do buy it, I would suggest buying a better pack of markers than the ones that come in the box.

PhoenixInferno

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2009, 03:17:59 PM »
Monsterpocalpyse seems pretty damn expensive to me.  From what I've heard, it requires a relatively large investment to play (and have a decent expectation of winning).  It is pretty fun though.

Meg

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #13 on: June 29, 2009, 07:38:32 PM »
Here are my thoughts on Say Anything

Thank you for your insight!  You are officially entered into our contest- this is exactly what I'm looking for!  I want to hear other perspectives. 

I think I have the game Imagine If.. but I don't think I've played, so I love the comparison!
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Meg

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #14 on: June 29, 2009, 07:43:11 PM »
Contest Details

Write in this thread a response to our "review" of any of the games- give a different perspective similar to what PaladinRevenant just posted where you are giving more information about a game so someone could make a more informed decision about purchasing a game.

OR, what we're especially hoping for, is that you give info about a game we hadn't seen-- what genre is it?  How long does it take?  You would like this game if you liked ____, etc. 

Each entry will be entered into a random draw and will win one of the games on the list!
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Dan2

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #15 on: June 30, 2009, 02:44:31 AM »
Another point I forgot about before:  I enjoyed the "boops" cutting up the episode.  It gave it a sense of structure.

Hallack

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #16 on: June 30, 2009, 10:59:48 AM »
Listening to the show now and gotta agree about lovin' Agricola.  It's loads of fun and seems to have tons of replayablility due to the vast amounts of cards which will significantly change your strategy each time you play.

Good episode, I like the structure and breadth of the reviews.

I've started reading the Mouse Guard rpg and gotta say so far I'm impressed and may have to see if I can get some of my friends to take some time from D&D and give it a go.
« Last Edit: June 30, 2009, 04:46:14 PM by Hallack »
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AfterCrescent

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #17 on: July 01, 2009, 01:33:26 PM »
So I've seen the Pandemic box on the shelf at my FLGS for about 2 months now and I swear I picked it up and read the back at least once each time I've been in that store.  So when I heard Josh say it was a cooperative game, I called to see if they had a demo, and they did.

I am one of the most competitive people I know, and I've been trying to break that habit for years. My own family won't play anything more complicated than UNO with me anymore because of how competitive I used to be. So I've been breaking that habit and playing cooperative games helps. Come to find out, I love them. (Didn't see that coming, did you :P). So of course I figure Pandemic will be right up my alley, and it is.

Anyone that enjoys any amount of strategy in a game will enjoy Pandemic. It caters to the competitive streak and the cooperative streak at the same time, which is impressive to me.  We ended up playing it twice, both on easy mode, but I, like Josh, desperately want to play it on a harder difficulty.

When I say it caters to all of those things, I'm not exaggerating. There are 5 roles you take in this game, each of which gives you a special ability. The game is set for 4 players, so you're always down 1 role, which adds a bit of challenge immediately. Each role is randomly assigned and has a vital aspect in the game.  We played a game with no Medic (whose special ability is to treat more than one incident of a disease in a city) and had all of Asia chain-reaction outbreak in a plague in a matter of two turns. It was bad.  So that's the first challenging aspect those of you who love strategy have to cover - how to deal with being down a research team member.

The game itself is pretty simple, you get your turn, which involves moving, treating, and possibly developing cures for a disease. You do this via a hand of cards. At the end of your turn, you draw cards to replenish your hand and then end your turn by playing "the infector." Unlike other relatively cooperative games like Last Night on Earth, no one person plays the enemy side. The infection is dictated by a set of rules where at the end of each turn 2-4 cities have an incident of a disease spread and if there's too much of a certain disease in a city, it'll outbreak and spread to other cities.

There's definitely a lot of strategy involved in the game, because you have to compensate for that missing role, treat diseases while trying to develop the cure (you don't want outbreaks - the game ends in defeat if 8 outbreaks occur), and help your teammates out with whatever role you've been assigned.  It also feeds the competitive streak because the game is HARD. Even on easy mode, we came near annihilation in each game. Some of it's luck, but a lot of it is planning and odds. You have to look at what cities are highly infected and play the odds for which are most likely to get more incidents of the disease.  There's a fair amount of planning, which is where the cooperative aspect comes in full force.  You can't control your team mates. You can't see their cards (unless you're in easy mode) and you can't tell them your cards.  There's a lot of trust that has to go on with helping them get to certain cities to help treat the disease. If you're trying to develop a plan, odds are they have their own and teamwork is essential in defeating the diseases.

Overall it's a great game and well worth the price.  If you like competing against someone who won't get upset if you beat them, a game makes a great opponent. It's also nice if you have friends who don't like losing to you or who don't like playing with people who get overly competitive. I suppose that's a staple of cooperative games, but Pandemic does it incredibly well. The system is simple enough to understand but complex enough to require a lot of thought when playing.

Oh, and a note on the difficulties - There's a card that causes epidemics to break out around the world. In easy mode, that can ONLY happen 4 times in a game. In harder difficulties, it happens 5 or 6, which considering there's a limited number of cards, is a big increase. Plus more cities seem to get incidents of diseases more often. One of the biggest aspects is the reduced information you can share with your team, causing you to need more trust and cooperation among members. Josh, I'll play Pandemic on harder difficulties with you. :D
« Last Edit: July 01, 2009, 01:36:28 PM by AfterCrescent »
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Meg

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #18 on: July 01, 2009, 02:19:47 PM »
I played Pandemic on Monday night and absolutely love it.  The "catch" of the game isn't that it's cooperative- it's that it's an awesome game that requires quick strategy and planning.  But I think you could play with different levels too since there is so much working togehter- so it'll be a great game for a newer game player to play with an experienced group.

We had a blast playing it and I think when Josh was packing it up, we were all sort of hoping someone would say, "Anyone want to play again?"

(We played Race for the Galaxy next though and I totally creamed everyone, so I'm ok with that ;) )

LOVE the game.  Strongly recommend it.
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AfterCrescent

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Re: Origins Lightning Round 2009!
« Reply #19 on: July 01, 2009, 02:29:57 PM »
Oh definitely. We played it the first time and had one of those moments. So we played it a second time. :P

I still need to get the RftG expansion...
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