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Life is Crazy and some Board Games!


On 03/26/2015 at 03:50 PM by Jesse Miller

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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! 


 

Comments

mothman

03/26/2015 at 05:18 PM

Well it's good to hear from you Jesse. I understand how life gets in the way sometimes.

The only system I am even slightly tempted to buy is a Wii U. I could pick up a decent library on that platform pretty quickly money permitting. PS4 has squat that interests me and if I bought one I feel I'd be buying games I'm not all that interested in just to have games for the thing. Of course I'd have a few to play from PSN+ but aside from that there's nothing that is "wow, I want to play that".

This gen seems really really slow moving. I might be more interested in the PS4 if I could play my digital PS1, PS2 and PS3 library on it but you can't even do that which is kinda sad and narrow minded of Sony. I have no interest in ever buying another Microsoft system so the Xbone will never enter the picture even if it gets 10 games that look good. I'll wait for PC versions and then for a Steam sale on them.

Maybe I'll save my pennies for a Wii U and call this gen done.

asrealasitgets

03/26/2015 at 05:35 PM

I'm with you on the gaming front when it comes to new consoles, but I do tend to play PC and Indie games as well, so I don't exactly share the lack of enthusiasm for gaming. I also play WiiU and PSVita, so I feel like I never have enought time to play everything. I just got a bunch of classic games fromt he $1 PSN sale this weekend to add to my backlog, but I've been jumping in and out of them here and there.

I'm probably goint to end up waiting another year for a PS4 on XBoxOne. PC has enought games to keep me busy as it is. As for Bloodborne, the loading times that I keep hearing about the game makes me hope they patch it up by the time I get around to it. I can't imagin a Souls game with all of the death involved being gated by load times. I hope it's an exageration.

Do we call you Mr. Miller now since you got married? Cool
And actually, I think Resident Evil Revelations 2 is really good as is Atelier Shallie (PS3) and Hyperdevotion Noire (PSVita). Yes. There are great games to play on last gen. Represent! Cool But then again, I've always been more of a retro gamer at heart.

Oh! And welcome back! Aren't you a comics guy too? We have a bunch of comic book shows on tv since you left. Maybe blog about those? 

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/27/2015 at 11:17 AM

I'm with you on PC being a perfectly acceptable substitute for consoles at this point.  It seems that everything I want to play (accept for Bloodbourne and Uncharted) would be available there.  Perhaps it's time to fill the empty PC tower I have with some new guts.

And yeah, I'm also a big comic book guy.  I have lots of thoughts on the recent television and and movie happenings.  I'll likely be making a post soon.

Super Step Contributing Writer

03/26/2015 at 08:27 PM

So it's like Moby Dick brand Monopoly, basically, where you act like a real Moby Dick to win. Sounds fun.

Cary Woodham

03/26/2015 at 11:07 PM

I like the whale meeples.  Can I be a whale meeple?

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/27/2015 at 11:18 AM

Sort of?  You can move the whale meeples to destroy your friends' ships :)  Which in no way generates any ill will towards you.

Alex-C25

03/27/2015 at 01:26 AM

On the contrary, i'm seeing the current next-gen catalogue to be pretty fine and it'll eventually get better. That said, the Wii U and PC have much more in terms of library, so I can understand your opinion on the PS4/Xbone, since they have a few interesting exclusives, but not much in anything else or what they have can be found on PC.

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/27/2015 at 11:20 AM

I think it will eventually get better, but there aren't that many games out there that I can only get on those machines to make it worth it.  Up until recently it seemed like the PS3/360 were getting versions of games coming out on the next gen consoles, so there wasn't much of a push to get me to pick a new machine up, especially given the price.

That said, I do see this changing.  The new Batman is a good next gen exclusive, as are the upcoming Uncharted and Tomb Raider games.  Still, that's not enough for me to drop money that could be spent elsewhere (like more board games!).  More titles and some price drops will get me on board the next gen train.

KnightDriver

03/27/2015 at 02:01 AM

I'm a little slow to adopt the current gen too. I'm almost about to pull the trigger on a Master Chief Collection X1 bundle though. Maybe.

Jesse Miller Staff Writer

03/27/2015 at 11:27 AM

I myself am waiting on a good bundle.  I figure that when Uncharted comes out they'll have a decent bundle.  Even then, I'll only take the leap if the price is right and there are other games I'd like to play.

KnightDriver

03/27/2015 at 03:51 PM

Now I'm keen on Wii-U. I may pick up one tomorrow with Pikmin 3. Gotta play that.

transmet2033

03/27/2015 at 12:16 PM

You always ssem to highlight board games that I love, or that truly interest me.  I am going to have to find a copy of Survive:  Escape from Atlantis.

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