Impressions 2 - Shut Up & Sit Down

Holy Cow: Doomtown Is Pretty Neat

Quinns: I want to play Doomtown: Reloaded a little more before I’m ready for our official review, but I also want to write about it before SU&SD wraps up for the year. Greedy boy that I am, I intend to have my cowboy cake and eat it by writin’ up some impressions.

Silas: Yeeee-hawww! Let’s get to it.

Quinns: …Who are you?

Silas: Ah’m Silas McCoy, a fictional character invented by that dirty Brendan fella fer his Colt Express review. Yeeee-hawww!

Quinns: Yeah, I don’t think so.

[BANG]

Paul: Well goodness me, I’m as beaten as a leather strap, as worn as two-week old jerky, but I sure got my fill of board games at BoardGameGeek Con the other week. Between grabbing some footage of the event (give me a week or two to edit that!) and running the site remotely from the US of A (nobody died, but Millicent did lose another tentacle), I sat down to play games with friends old and new. Here’s the six best new games that found a place in my heart during my time down in Texas.

Kotaku Article: Thoughts on D&D 5th Edition

Quinns: While SU&SD’s Star Wars RPG campaign will continue unabated like some grimy, stuttering starship, I’ve also been playing the new edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Did you know how good it is? It’s Chaotic Good. Good like a +3 Long Sword of Goodness and Being Clever.

This week I filed a Kotaku column all about just how smart and timely it is. The words include, but aren’t limited to, these ones…

“You know how when movies or sitcoms depict D&D, people sit down and within 60 seconds they’re being ambushed by goblins, panickedly figuring out who they are and what they’re carrying? That’s what the beginner box offers. Printed on the back of each character sheet are instructions on how to level up, especially relevant in this version because (again, just like video games) the many and varied power trees of your character class open up gradually. Only once you’ve been playing for two evenings will you be asked whether your Rogue wants to be a Thief, Assassin or Arcane Trickster. And if you decide to pick up the Player’s Handbook for the full rules, you’ll find funny, witty charts to help players down the unsettling path of roleplaying.”

But I also manage to squeeze some sex and glassblowing in there. Go read!

Paul: OK. That title isn’t accurate at all.

Quinns: Yes, but “Our Favourite 7 Games From Gen Con ’14 and One Game We Were Disappointed By” sounds silly and doesn’t fit.

Paul: Fair enough. Wait, which game were we disappointed by? I thought everything was pretty great.

Quinns: You’ll have to click through and FIND OUT!

Paul: But I work here

Quinns: Good news, everybody! This month I was flown to America to talk at NYU’s unparallelled Practice conference, which meant it was only a cheap flight to Texas’s BoardGameGeek convention. I’d never been to a real-life American board game con, and it was full of surprises!

I picked up my badge and gun at the registration desk on the Thursday. As a first timer, I was only entitled to a Colt Single Action Army, but I wasn’t looking for trouble. I was looking for the best board games that were available to play here in the USA for the very first time. Stepping through the revolving doors, I tipped my hat at a table of strangers, and sat down for a game of Rampage.

Impressions: The BioShock Infinite Board Game

Quinns: The board game of popular first personly shootems’ videogame BioShock Infinite arrives in stores this week. A lot of hype behind this one, since it’s from Plaid Hat Games, creators of such excellence as City of Remnants, Summoner Wars AND Mice & Mystics (which we still haven’t played).

I was able to give it a quick play earlier in the month, and today my impressions are up on Kotaku. IS IT GOOD? Click on through and find out!

“Is The Siege of Columbia another gritty, gory war game? Not in the slightest. In fact, I’d argue the board game’s biggest achievement is recognising and pursuing the rollercoaster tone of the video game. There’s some smart design to mull over, but it’s far outweighed by a schlocky desire to entertain.”

And if you’re hungry for more BioShock Infinite related writings, SU&SD’s own Leigh Alexander has written a definitive critique of the videogame right here.

Quinns: Readers, viewers, assorted junkies of SU&SD, I’m SORRY.

Mage Wars came out last year. I heard it was stunning, but seeing its box in my local game shop, with its non-standard dimensions and underwhelming logo, I was warded away like a vampire. Hsss!

If you’re going to ask me to be a wizard, at least give me the style of Summoner Wars. The global scale of Mage Knight. The sense of humour of Wiz-War. Don’t ask me to summon unicorns unironically.

But the praise didn’t stop. This year I heard it was the Dice Tower’s 4th favourite game of all time. Rab, of RPS’s wonderful Cardboard Children column, assured me it was “the real deal.” And oh, yes. Oh, baby. This game’s just wonderful.

Quinns: I’m meeting a lot of board gamers here in New York. It’s like Christmas, and I’m Santa, except they gift me with a game and only rarely sit on my lap and you know what this analogy doesn’t work at all

Today I was walked through WONDERFUL post-apocalyptic tactics game Neuroshima Hex!, released in 2006 and since expanded by a untidy bag of army packs. My friend took out this game, taught it to me, and promptly put it away again.

“We’ll play on the iPad,” he said. “It’s better on the iPad.”

My face promptly crumpled up like a plastic bag in a strong breeze. Worst part of it is, he was right.

Quinns: London’s enduring an apocalyptic heatwave right now. I’m typing this with ice cubes taped to my neck, and Paul is lying face-down on the floor. We’re trying to stay hydrated, but liquid just comes flying out of us with the velocity of a water pistol.

Paul: I feel like a massive armpit. BUT it has been the perfect time to enjoy games in the sunshine. And then get bitten by everything, ever.

Quinns: Trust us when we say we’re in no state to review anything right now. Instead, enjoy a summery summary of what we’ve been playing this month. No less than THREE hot new board games, each hotter than the last.

We’re trying a new format! Sometimes Paul and I don’t have time to assemble a true, riotous review, but we are always playing new games, our bodies like a pair of unreliable steam engines powered by a smouldering pile of cardstock. So how about this: a quick’n’dirty roundup of the best games we tried last month.

Click on through, then, for some impressions of Star Trek: Fleet Captains, German hit Thurn & Taxis and the talking-tastic Baron Munchhausen. But were we actually impressed? Well!

Holy Cow: Doomtown Is Pretty Neat

Paul’s Favourite Games from BGG Con ’14!

Kotaku Article: Thoughts on D&D 5th Edition

Our Favourite 8 Games From Gen Con 2014!

The Top 3 Games From BoardGameGeek Con

Impressions: The BioShock Infinite Board Game

Impressions: Mage Wars

Impressions: Neuroshima Hex!

Impressions: August

Impressions: April

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