It’s been a long time since my last blog here at PixlBit and my involvement in the site has been more minimal than it has been in the past. There are two reasons for this.
For starters, and perhaps most relatable to most of you, my personal life has been hectic beyond belief. Since the last time I posted a lot has happened. I’ve been adjusting to my new job, parenting my awesome little girl, dealing with home ownership (and all that entails), and getting married. That’s right, as of March 14, 2015 (or pi day – 3.14.15) Jesse Miller is a married man. Adjusting to married life hasn’t been all that much, but the planning of the wedding was quite the whirlwind experience. With that in the past, things have settled down and I’m much more open to return to writing a bit.
The second thing, and perhaps the bigger of the two things, that has kept me away from the site has been my utter lack of interest in keeping up with the video game scene. Gamer Gate and the hoopla surrounding it has left a bitter taste in my mouth, and the rather anemic “next-gen” libraries excites me as much as a piss-warm beer might. I keep hearing myself say, “Perhaps in six months I’ll think of getting a PS4/Xbox One.” This sentiment has been present since the beginning. The launches didn’t entice me to buy and nothing that’s been shown since has pushed me any closer. Even Bloodbourne – the first next-gen game that genuinely has me interested – won’t make me budge. I won’t buy a system for a single title, no matter how awesome it may be. I need at least 3-4 must have titles available before I’ll make the plunge, and with the way the “killer apps” have been getting delayed time and time again, I don’t see me really considering a new system until next year, if that.
In the meantime I’ve been getting my gaming fix from my Wii U. I’ve very much enjoyed the standard offerings of Smash and Kart (games my wife will play with me) and even just picked up Mario Party 10 – I know it isn’t as good as it used to be, but we always have fun playing that together. The limited time I’ve played videogames has been enough for me, for the most part.
That’s because, as I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, I’ve been focusing more on another “geeky” hobby – Board Games. Since returning to the hobby I’ve amassed a respectable collection. I figure I can highlight a few of my favorites that I haven’t talked about prior.
Libertalia is a cutthroat, bluffing/hand-management game for 2-6 players. You all assume the roles of pirate captains splitting up the booty of sacked ship. Over the course of a week you send crew to the ship to pick up some of the loot and return home. But not all that glitters is gold and you could end up with cursed items, dead, or in handcuffs if you’re not lucky, or if your friends playing are assholes.
The way the game works is that everyone has a hand of cards with crew on it, and each card has a number. Each day the players lay down a card face down and then reveal them at the same time. The card with the highest value gets first pick of the day’s loot (there are rules for tiebreakers) and so on. Cards also have effects that may drive the picking order, give extra loot, or perhaps have a negative effect. This is a crowd favorite in my house, but you can see the game played live later this season on TableTop.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis is a game almost as old as I am. In this game you play as treasure hunters trying to escape the sinking island of Atlantis, while also avoiding having your lifeboats destroyed by whales, or getting eaten by sea monsters or sharks. Each player has a series of meeples with numbers etched in the bottom of them ranging from 1-6. These numbers represent the value or number of treasures on that particular piece. Should you get that piece to safety, you will receive that many points.
Seems simple enough, but there are a couple of wrinkles that make this game quite devious. First, each player takes turns placing their meeples on the island until all meeples have been placed. Once a meeple has been placed you can no longer check the value on the bottom. This adds a memory component to the game as your try to remember which pieces are your valuable fives and sixes and which are the practically worthless ones.
After placement the fun begins. Each player takes three actions moving their little treasure hunters around or off the island (perhaps into the little boats). Then they select a tile to remove (representing the sinking of the island) and roll the monster die. The monster die allows the player to either move one of the many sea monsters, sharks, or whales on the board. These can be used to fuck up the other player’s days. Sharks can eat any meeples in the water, whales destroy life boats, and sea monsters do both.
It’s another fan favorite at our house. It may seem like a mean game, and if you consider yourself sensitive it may be best to stay away, but it really is a ton of fun.
That’s it for now, but I’ll post some more games later!
Peace and Game On!
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