Dude! Take Your Turn!
A Gaming Life
App Expansion Review – Talisman Origins – Eternal Conflict
Another month and another expansion to the really fun digital app Talisman: Origins. Nomad Games seems to be putting these out quite frequently, which is a joy for those of us who like the game.
Talisman: Origins – Eternal Conflict is about the eternal conflict between Good & Evil.
As with the other Origins expansions, this story has 5 quests that will give you a wide variety of things to do and characters to play.
Why I Won’t be Buying Mobile Terraforming Mars
(Edit 8/5/21): Somebody pointed out that this post is on the first page when you Google “Asmodee Terraforming Mars bugs iOS. Woo! I’ve arrived! And I just realized that I haven’t updated the post in a while, so let me do that here.
Notifications are working fine on iOS now, which is great. It still sucks that you have to choose your cards in turn order, but at least you get a notification when it’s your turn even to just do that. Also, they’ve added a nice exclamation mark on the game menu so you know which game it’s your turn in, if you are playing multiple games. That’s a great help!
On the “still needs work” side, there are two other major issues that unfortunately do affect asynchronous games. First, only the person who ended the game gets to see the end result of the game. Thus they have to take a screenshot of the final results to give to everybody else.
Secondly, the final results don’t give the names! It was great that Asmodee finally added the player’s names during the game so it wasn’t just the corporation and you knew who was which corporation. However, that doesn’t carry over to the final results page! It’s just the corporation.
Both of those are incredibly stupid.
But overall, I am enjoying the app and it has come a long way since I originally wrote this post.
(Edit 3/28/20): I probably should have said that I did go ahead and buy the game a month or so ago. A little bit of peer pressure (a bunch of my friends wanted to play it) and a little bit of “Asmodee seems to be working to make the game better”
Nothing since then, though, and it could still use a lot of work.
They really need to fix the “have to choose the cards in turn order” thing, though. It’s incredibly annoying! And notifications still aren’t working, so we’ve resorted to a texting group to let people know when it’s their turn.
It’s a fun game but it could be so much better.
(Edit 12/10/19: Asmodee has released a patch on all platforms.
Still no word on the other issues, especially the weird order of choosing cards, but this is definitely a start!
(Edit 12/6/19: Apparently Asmodee has responded to some negative iTunes reviews by saying they are working to make the asynchronous experience better. If they do, I will certainly report that here and maybe even buy the thing.)
Original post below
When Asmodee Digital announced that they would be producing an app for one of my favourite games, Terraforming Mars, I was ecstatic.
When it came out on Steam, I was reasonably happy but the game had some issues.
When the iOS beta opened up, I eagerly joined it. By this time, some of the issues had been addressed (the initial 15-day timer for online multiplayer games was horrible, but now they had added a 30 and 45-day timer which made asynchronous play a breeze).
I was pretty happy, though acknowledging that there were still issues that needed to be addressed.
Unfortunately, during the beta, developer Lucky Hammers closed their doors and Asmodee had to take over the app. I’m not sure if that’s the reason for the lack of improvements, but nothing major has really changed in the two updates (I think) that happened after Lucky Hammers was gone.
The app released on Wednesday, December 4, and it apparently still has all of these issues.
Terraforming Mars mobile is available for $11.99 CDN (I’m not sure what the US price is, but maybe $7.99 or $8.99?) on iOS and Android.
Roll for the Galaxy App in Beta Soon
(Edit 6/10/20: And it’s out in Beta! I’m enjoying it. See my thoughts here)
Wasn’t going to do a post today, but then received some great and urgent news in my mailbox from Temple Gates Games.
Yes, that’s right. Roll for the Galaxy, the dice version of the great Race for the Galaxy, is finally entering the beta stage for the new app that’s coming out!
What does the app have?
So I can get this out quickly, let’s do a blurb:
- 2 – 5 player with network multiplayer
- Asynchronous and real-time multiplayer modes
- Neural network AI by Keldon Jones
- Nine starting factions, nine starting worlds
- Fifty five developments and settlements
You can join the beta for Steam, iOS or Android
Temple Gates did a simply amazing job on the Race for the Galaxy app, a game that came out a couple of years ago and I still play religiously.
Can they keep that track record going?
Sign up for the beta and see what you think?
New to Me – November 2019
It’s December! The last month of the year, the Christmas (or whatever end-of-year holiday you celebrate) season is upon us, but before we look forward to all of those presents sitting under the tree (or sitting under whatever your end-of-year holiday object is), it’s time to reflect back to a time long ago.
Two days is long, right?
Yes, that’s right. It’s the new to me games played in November! Even with Christmas coming soon, the leader of the Cult of the New to Me has responsibilities to the time before.
There is always an undercurrent of unrest in the cult, especially when I play a lot of brand new games in a month. They think I’m a sellout to the Cult of the New or something like that.
I don’t know where they would get that idea.
But it’s not true!
Hell, I even played a game from 1997 in November.
It was a nice bunch of games, seven in total which is amazing since I actually skipped a week. They were all fun in their own way, but some definitely better than others.
Amazingly enough, for somebody who’s not a big fan of word games, two of the new games are word games! One incredibly fun and one…not so much.
I’m looking forward to a December that’s also chock full of new to me games.
So without further adieu (all of my adieu was eaten by a giant worm anyway), let’s get this thing started!
Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East from GMT Games
Since I’m in full-blooded GMT Fanboy Mode (can I trademark that? I think I should trademark that) with trying to get The Barracks Emperors over the P500 line (and having successfully done so with Flashpoint: South China Sea and I will not listen to anybody who says I didn’t have a part in that one), you know what I said to myself?
I said “Self” (because I always call myself “Self,” as opposed to naming the other voices in my head), “why don’t you see if you can succeed with some of the other games that you’ve ordered on the P500 list that haven’t quite made the cut yet?”
I then patted myself on the head (and rubbed my tummy at the same time) for such a great idea, and quickly went to my GMT Games account page to see what else could use some help.
Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East is the companion (not a sequel or expansion, but a standalone) game to the recently released Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea, a game I tried at Dragonflight this year and was a bit sorry that I hadn’t ordered it before it shipped.
Both games are designed by Christopher Vorder Bruegge and Mark McLaughlin with developer Fred Schachter. Inner Sea was really cool and this one looks like it’s going to be just as cool.
The Barracks Emperors from GMT Games
(Edit – 8/29/20) – This has now made the cut! Good to hear this will begin production soon.
In another quest to get a cool-looking GMT game over the P500 hump, I have to write about The Barracks Emperors.
For those of you who don’t know what the P500 is, basically GMT Games has a bunch (actually, I think it’s more officially known as a “crap load”) of games that they are looking to see if they can garner enough interest in order to go into production with them.
It’s sort of like Kickstarter, except that you don’t have to pay ahead of time.
Instead, once the number of pre-orders hits 500, they are ready to put the game into production. This would include finalizing all of the rules, the artwork, graphic design and actual components, etc. A game can take 1-2 years to come out even after getting over the hump, but that’s ok.
You don’t have to pay anything until the game gets ready to ship.
In fact, you can even cancel your order ahead of time, all the way up until the time GMT starts charging.
I’ve already had one success in getting a game over the hump (ok, that one still took a few months and didn’t really increase the number of orders each time I retweeted it, but DAMMIT LET ME LIVE IN MY FANTASY WORLD!!!!) so let’s see if we can do it again.
What is so great about The Barracks Emperors that I want to get it produced?
First, it looks like an interesting game.
Secondly, its pedigree.
Let’s take a look.
AEG & The OP team up for future Smash Up expansions
Being as much of a Smash Up fan as I am, you know I couldn’t pass up commenting on this one.
Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) and The Op (formerly USAopoly) are teaming up to bring new licensed factions to the hit card game (and one of my most-played) Smash Up.
Typically, factions in Smash Up are themed but a bit more generic, like Ninjas or Samurai or Truckers, maybe Time Travellers.
With this agreement, that will change for next year.
From the post:
“In joining forces with The Op, who celebrates 25 years of co-branded products and partnerships this year, Smash Up designer Paul Peterson is confident that fans will embrace what is to come of the collaboration. “The Op has consistently put out some of the highest quality games in the industry,” says Peterson, known best for his work on Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering. “By pairing with the design team from AEG, the Smash Up game we are building together is going knock the fans’ socks off!””
I’m not familiar with most of The Op’s catalog, so I’m not quite sure what those factions might be.
Looking at their site, I see Dungeons & Dragons Clue and a bunch of Disney games. There’s Harry Potter (though I would think it would be hard to differentiate that from the already-existing Wizards faction, since a lot of the cards in that faction are basically a parody of Harry Potter).
There’s Game of Thrones (also already parodied), but there’s also Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons, IT (now *that* would be an interesting idea), Rick & Morty, and Super Mario, and that’s just the first three pages of their “All Games” page!
This could be extremely fun or it could be a disaster. We’ll have to see what happens in 2020.
However, I’m of two minds about the whole thing.
The licensed properties could be very good assuming they all are done in the Smash Up vein, with Smash Up art and all of that. I hope the licensing doesn’t go to their head.
On the other hand, I will miss the more generic imaginative factions that Peterson and crew have been coming up with over the past few years. The new World Tour: Culture Shock expansion factions (review coming once I play with it some more) just shows that ingenuity and I hope that the licensing doesn’t affect that.
I trust Peterson and the others at AEG that make Smash Up possible.
Yet I’m still holding my breath a little bit.
Here’s looking at 2020 and some more craziness!
Architects of the West Kingdom: Age of the Artisans Looks Seriously Cool
It’s no secret that Architects of the West Kingdom is a fantastic game. It’s my #4 game played of all time!
Designed by Shem Phillips and S J MacDonald and published by both Garphill Games and Renegade Game Studios, this wonderful worker-placement game about building a city in Medieval France has very few flaws in my opinion.
Recently, Shem announced a new expansion for it, Age of the Artisans.
At the time, we didn’t have a whole lot of information about it.
Now we do, and this looks so sweet!
Today, Shem posted the rulebook to BGG and also announced this week that pre-orders would open on November 19 from Garphill Games.
Review – War of the Worlds: The New Wave
I’m probably one of the few people who remembers the “new” War of the Worlds TV series that came out in the 1980s. It was a “sequel” series to the 1950’s movie.
It was campy, but I really did enjoy it. The aliens had been kept in “hibernation” rather than being destroyed, and now radiation has destroyed the infecting bacteria that had originally stopped them. Now they were trying once again to take over the planet, and this time they could somehow inhabit human bodies! (that kept the SFX budget down).
Why do I bring this up?
I recently received my Kickstarter copy of War of the Worlds: The New Wave published by Grey Fox Games. It brought back a few memories.
Not that they have anything to do with each other, as the game, designed by Denis Plastinin with art by Igor Savechenko, is a sequel to the book rather than the movie. It takes place “several years” after the original H.G. Wells story, so probably in the early 1900s.
In the game, the Aliens are back! I’m not sure exactly how they solved that whole “I have a cold, ugh I’m dead!!!!” problem, but somehow they did.
And they’re pissed.
They’re determined to wipe out Great Britain (I guess the British are the ones who gave them the colds?) and they’ve brought the firepower to do it!
The game is a 2-player deckbuilding game where one side plays the evil Aliens trying to wipe out all of humanity (at least on the island) while the other player takes the part of the brave human resistance fighters, pinging away at these monstrosities until they do enough damage that the Aliens just say “you know what? Screw this planet. The weather’s terrible, they have Con Crud, and I’d rather go to the beach on Europa anyway.”
How does it work?
Let’s take a look.
FFG Announces Fallout Shelter: the Board Game
I’ve been a big fan of the Fallout video game series since Fallout 3 all those many years ago (I missed the buzz when the first two came out).
I love the series so much that I was really happy to hear about the board game version of Fallout. Sadly, for me anyway, finally playing it didn’t live up to the hype.
But that hasn’t stopped Fantasy Flight Games (FFG)!
Yesterday they announced a game based on the popular Fallout app that took the world by storm prior to Fallout 4 being released a couple of years ago.
This news is so hot that there isn’t even a BoardgameGeek listing for the game yet!
Yes, Fallout Shelter: the Board Game (based on the Bethesda app) will be coming out in early 2020, and this one isn’t an adventure game. It’s actually a worker placement game that plays 2-4 players, where you are trying to increase the happiness of the denizens of your Vault-Tec vault as well as keeping them safe and making them be productive.
Dude! Take Your Turn! 