Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
Holiday Weekend Shots – Games & Updates
Hola!
Welcome back to the bar on a cozy Saturday night of Family Day weekend up here in Canada.
It’s been a rough week, with me being sick for most of it.
Which would explain the complete lack of new content here at Dude Central.
Sorry about that!
Somehow I caught a nasty cold that’s been knocking me for a loop all week. I worked on Monday, called in sick on Tuesday, worked until 2 pm on Wednesday and then just tried to get feeling better for our 5-day weekend (I took Thursday and Friday off as vacation).
Thankfully, it’s been a pretty restful vacation so far.
However, none of these days have I felt like actually thinking enough to produce any kind of written content whatsoever.
Even tonight isn’t the best night, though I did want to do an update (and also work toward my goal of not having any full weeks in 2024 without at least one post) and let you know what’s coming up on the blog.
And talking about a couple of new games that have arrived in the house!
Not to mention how full my online game play card is right now. Though I’m always open to more!
So have a seat, let me get you a libation of your choice, and let’s talk games.
I’ll turn down the Tori Amos cover version of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit since it’s an abomination that I can’t believe found its way onto my jukebox.
Heads will roll…
Read MoreTop 50 Games Played of All Time – 2024 Edition (#10 – 1)
It’s been a long journey getting to this top 10.
Not so much in weeks, as these posts have appeared for 5 weeks just like the previous Top 25 did (or they should have, but I’d forgotten that I took a much too long break before posting the last one in 2022).
No, I’m talking about in words. Including ten games in each post instead of five really upped the word count!
And the length of time it took to write them increased exponentially as well.
But we’ve reached the finale!
On time?
I guess I’ll know by the time I’m ready to post this.
Yeah, don’t rush me.
(Edit: Since you’re seeing this on Sunday, I did manage to get it done on time!)
Anyway, the top 10 will contain a few surprises, especially considering how many games actually fell out of it from 2022.
There are a bunch of new games, and also one game that I was totally surprised moved to where it did.
First, of course, the usual caveats.
These ratings are sometimes from just one play (though in the Top 10, probably not really) so they are subject to change if I play the game more often.
More importantly, I have only played just over 500 games, so there are many classic games that just aren’t on this list.
So you Nemesis fans can just go hide from your alien tormentors and leave me alone.
I do hope you hide successfully, though. I don’t hate you or anything.
With all of that being said, let’s get to the meat of this post!
(or the brussels sprouts, if you’re a vegetarian)
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Old vs New?
Welcome back!
I know it’s been a couple of weeks, but I was taking some time putting a new bar up.
With heated seats!
I hope that works ok and isn’t a fire hazard.
Oops.
Anyway, have a seat and let me get you something to drink.
We’ll just avoid that charred seat over there.
I’ll also turn down the music. I’m not sure how that “Color Me Bad Greatest Hit” CD got in there, but I’ll have to get it removed.
Before we get to tonight’s topic, just wanted to post a bit of an update.
While I still hope to get the final post in my Top 50 Games Played of All Time done for Sunday morning, I’m getting increasingly doubtful that’s going to happen.
I’ll try, but no promises!
It’s been a week…
In the meantime, why not check out a previous one?
Anyway, why don’t we talk about something I talked about a number of years ago, which produced my longest-running series on this blog.
But I haven’t talked about the subject for a while.
New games vs old ones!
Read MoreReady Set Bet – High Roller – Coming to Kickstarter March 5
Betting on horse racing can be so much fun.
Especially when the money’s not yours!
Or at least it’s fake and just part of a game.
Ready Set Bet was published in 2022 by Alderac Entertainment Group. Designed by John D. Clair (one of my favorites) with artwork by Kirk W. Buckendorf and Athena Cagle, this game came out to high acclaim all over the boardgaming world.
Hell, it hit Tom Vasel’s Top 10 list of 2022, and his all-time Top 100 (I think) that very same year!
Not to stand on their laurels, though, Alderac is now coming out with Ready Set Bet – High Roller, a much more deluxe version of this game.
It’s widely considered a party game, but the original version wasn’t as conducive to big parties as it might be. The board was hard to reach depending on how many people you had.
At least that was my experience, playing it at SHUX 2022
But it was a blast!
Read MoreTop 50 Games Played of All Time – 2024 Edition (#20-11)
How our tastes change over time is always kind of interesting to look at.
As a kid, I loved Brussels Sprouts!
Now, I really really hate them.
Ok, I’m kidding…nobody sane likes Brussels Sprouts.
But you get my point!
Things you like as a kid, or didn’t like as a kid, you may now feel the opposite.
Hell, that can change from year to year!
Which is definitely the case in our boardgame likes and dislikes.
Not in general, of course.
If you hate worker placement games, you’re not going to suddenly develop a taste for them.
But a particular worker placement game may get old and tired for you, or maybe you’ll have an amazing experience with it and a game that you were kind of meh about now ranks really highly for you.
I think that’s why the Dice Tower can do these lists annually and have major changes, and why I can do them every couple of years.
All that to say, welcome to the beginning of the second half of my Top 50 games played of all time!
Today we’re counting down #20-11, so we’re getting really close to the top of the top.
Will there be any surprises in there?
Maybe. And one friend will finally have his curiosity satisfied.
The usual caveats, of course.
Many of these entries are from only one play, so they could very well change if I get chances to play them again and again.
Hopefully for the better, but you never know!
Secondly, I’ve only played a little over 500 games, so there are a bunch of really popular and highly-ranked games that are just not going to be on this list.
So you War of the Ring fans can just go find your so-called “ring” yourselves and leave me out of it.
With all of that understood, let’s begin!
Read MoreJanuary 2024 Gaming
Has a month already gone by in 2024?
Wow, time is just flying by, really.
January had a number of gaming highlights, mainly because of OrcaCon.
The annual convention down in Bellevue, Washington, it just a remarkably-run convention, so inclusive, and so fun.
And I didn’t get sick! (Unlike Dragonflight last August).
Let’s take a look at the games played so you can see just how busy of a month it was.
And here it all is in grid form (sadly there’s no picture for I Found Bigfoot!
Many thanks to the phenomenal Boardgame Stats app for the great ability to track games played!
You can see all of the “new to me” games (the ones with the yellow asterisk).
That’s 16 new to me games! (Somehow Quantum wasn’t listed as a new to me game, but it definitely was)
That post is going to take a long time to write, especially as I’m also writing the next two Top 50 games played of all time posts, so don’t expect it as soon as I have been able to do in previous months.
But I will do my best not to wait until the end of February.
Let’s take a bit of an overview, keeping in mind that I’m not going to comment (at least not much) on the new to me games, since they get their own post.
Read MoreExpansion Review – Smash Up: Excellent Movies, Dudes!
Hey there, it’s been a while!
I mean, it’s been a while since you’ve seen a Smash Up review from me, not since you’ve seen anything from me.
Unless you haven’t been visiting this blog at all, in which case I am now sad.
But welcoming to a new visitor!
I am a child of the 80s. Those were my formative teenage years, so I love so much of the media and music that was going on in it (and much of it that I don’t love, but we won’t go there).
Paul Peterson and the folks at Alderac Entertainment Group decided to come out with the perfect Smash Up expansion for me!
Ok, that probably wasn’t their intent, but it still worked out really well.
Excellent Movies, Dudes! is the…ok, I’ve lost count…let’s just say next expansion in the whole Smash Up saga, and it is chock full of 80s movies references.
(The Smash Up wiki says that this is the 21st expansion)
The expansion comes with four new factions along with more power/VP tokens and some new tokens, called “Stasis” tokens.
The artwork varies, so I’ll mention that with each faction.
Here they are in brief before we continue:
- Action Heroes (80s Action Movies)
- Backtimers (Back to the Future)
- Extramorphs (Aliens)
- Wraithrustlers (Ghostbusters)
I’ll admit up front that, while I am somewhat familiar with it, I have never seen a Ghostbusters movie.
Yes, get your shocked face going…there you go.
However, I still appreciated all the references.
How are they?
Let’s take a look.
Read MoreTop 50 Games Played of All Time – 2024 Edition (#30-21)
When I was first talking about movement on this list between 2022 and 2024, I wasn’t sure how much movement there would be in the Top 10.
Those games are still great, shouldn’t they stay up there?
Of course, some games might supplant them, games that I hadn’t played last time.
But today’s list shows that some games aren’t just supplanted, they take a hefty fall.
There can be many reasons for this, of course.
But it’s still surprising when it happens.
They’re still in the Top 50, though, so that doesn’t mean I don’t still love them.
They’re like my children!
I still love little Ricky.
I just love little Victoria more now.
Actually, it’s a good thing that games aren’t kids…
But anyway.
Welcome back to the middle part of the Top 50 games played of all time!
(Probably should have led with that)
In my quest to play as many of the Top 100 BGG games at some point, at least those that I have some kind of chance to do so (so no legacy games, for example), I may be adding some different ones to this list in 2026.
I’m happy that I’m above 50% now (53 and counting!) because I have good friends who will help me with at least some of these.
However, I still haven’t played a lot of them, so one caveat I always have to give here is that there will be some really well-regarded games that simply aren’t on this list.
So you Agricola fans can just go feed your family members and stop bothering me about it.
See? Little Ricky is really hungry!
Go do your parental, farming job and leave me alone.
Also to keep in mind, many of these ratings are after only one play, so there could be a lot of movement in the future.
On that note, let’s begin!
Read MoreFriday Night Shots – Disliking Popular Games
As the rain continues to fall here in Vancouver (though at the time of writing, it’s actually not at the moment!), it’s incredibly nice of you to come visit and spend a little time at the bar catching up and discussing board games with me.
It really means a lot to me.
It’s the weekend!
Have a seat at the bar and let me pour you a libation of your choice.
We have beer and…beer.
Oh, wait, we have some non-alcoholic stuff as well.
Let me just turn down the jukebox. I don’t really know how that Limp Bizkit cover band material got on there.
I should have a talk with the technician tomorrow.
Anyway, let’s talk about a subject near and dear to my heart (mainly because I just thought of it).
Disliking popular games!
Read MoreApp Review – Dominion (Steam)
(Edit: 1/25/24: Update on pricing, from Temple Gates Games. The expansion bundle is $99.99 USD on Apple/Google. On Steam it’s a ‘complete-the-set’ bundle with a 15% discount. Later on in the expansion, you could buy individual expansions, apparently (after I stopped playing) and thus you may already have some of them)
I have to admit it right up front.
I’m not a huge fan of the classic deckbuilding card game, Dominion (published by Rio Grande Games).
I know a lot of people love it, and it is a classic for a reason.
But I’m more of a fan of the (admittedly more random) “a row of cards that you can buy/defeat which is then replaced by a random new card” like Ascension or Shards of Infinity.
If I am going to play a deckbuilding game with pre-arranged stacks of cards to buy, I’d like it to have something more, like Trains (somebody please make an app for this, or implement it on Boardgame Arena, please?).
Why am I talking about this?
Because the app for Dominion, published by Temple Gates Games, is coming out on February 1 and it is simply amazing.
I had access to the beta version of the game a long time ago (a long time…it was in beta for a while) and really enjoyed it. But I kind of fell away from it after a while.
Temple Gates graciously gave me a copy of the game and all 15 expansions (along with promo packs) to test out and give a fair and honest review.
I’ve played multiple solo games and also am in a couple of online games and I have to say that it’s working really well.
Whatever bugs were around during the beta appear to be gone (though as I said, I’m not an expert on the game so can’t comment on any rules bugs).
Let’s take a look under the hood!
Read More
Dude! Take Your Turn! 