|
Games
|
Want to be a smuggler? Cargo Noir is for you. |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Ryan Lange
|
|
Tuesday, 08 March 2011 07:54 |
|
 So you want to be a sailor, smuggler, and pirate? Do you want to compete against your friends for getting the most goods? I would recommend picking up the board game Cargo Noir from Days of Wonder.
The game is an open bidding game, you can bid on different cargo trying to make as many matches with the cargo that you currently have. The game does seem to favor the last person to play and this is a game that is hard to come from behind. Once you have the lead, it seems that you have a serious advantage over you competition. This is readily apparent when you are playing with 2 players. I would only play this type of game with 3 or more people as it is harder for one person to control the board.
Like all of Days of Wonder products that I have had the pleasure of reviewing the graphics and quality of the pieces are of the highest quality. The game comes with a pouch that you can put all the cargo game pieces in. It’s of great quality however if you use the pouch you can’t the the cover to reclose on the box all the way. The solution that we came up with at TechToysMag was to take out the plastic insert for the pieces and actually position the pouch in the box just right so that you can put the plastic insert on top of the pouch.
Besides the drawback with the box and storing the pieces, the game is fun to play and after the first few turns the game goes pretty quickly. We generally put a timer of one minute to take your turn because if you have a waffler in the house the game turns could take some time. The play of the game is pretty straight forward but there is quite a bit of depth to the strategy and the amount of risk that you can take in the game. Because of the straight forward play this is a game that I can play with my 6 year old son and he is able to understand and use the mechanics of the game. This game will be a family favorite for some time.
Cargo Noir retails for about 40 USD. It is available on amazon.com |
|
Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 March 2011 07:26 |
|
|
Written by Ryan Lange
|
|
Sunday, 13 February 2011 07:50 |
|
  If you love Axis & Allies currently published by Milton Bradley Company I implore you to check out the board game Memoir 44 made by a another great gaming studio Days Of Wonder. Imagine that instead of taking over the world in a World War 2 type of scenario, you just play out some of the best battles of the war on a smaller board. One of the things that I love about the game is that it’s for two players and only two players. This means that when your best bud and you want to have a great time you do not have to worry about getting four other people in the same room. Also this game will not take 4 hours to play out.
The game comes with a booklet that details out some of the scenarios that you can setup on the board. This includes where your units are and where the hills, bunkers, water, hills, and barbed wire will go on the board. You then play the game until you fulfill the victory conditions for the scenario, these would include things like taking two bridges, or holding a town. This is normally done by gaining victory points through the match. The setup of the game is not nearly involved as some of the other games of this type, and found that setup took about 15 minutes to get all of the pieces of the scenarios in place. The pieces that come with the game are well constructed, however I found that the plastic containers that the pieces came in left something to be desired as when you put them back they didn’t really sit well. I ended up using plastic bags for most of the pieces. Playing the game was pretty easy to follow, you get certain cards that only let you command units on one of three sections of the board and only let your units do certain actions such as move or attack. This aspect of the game doesn’t change even with the different expansions. One of the coolest features of this game is how many expansion that there are for it. There are some expansions that include the Eastern Front and you can play with the Russians. There is even an online scenario builder. With the scenario builder you can make any scenario you wish and also share them on the Days Of Wonder site with others. You can even print off the scenarios so transferring them to the game board is very simple. Memoir 44 is available on the www.daysofwonder.com and found on Amazon.com for 39 USD. If you’re a fan of board game war games, this game should be on the short list to add to your collection. |
|
Last Updated on Wednesday, 09 February 2011 07:55 |
|
Small World the board game |
|
|
|
|
Written by Ryan Lange
|
|
Sunday, 14 November 2010 18:52 |
|
 Small world is a board game that has turned electronic board game and is made by Days of Wonder. In simple terms it is a game that you try to take over the world. However, you do it on very unusual terms.
You start the game by picking out a race card that is paired with a random special power that your units have. Some of the races that you can choose from are elf, amazons, and giants. Then you simply take over different regions if you have enough race tokens to do so on your turn. This makes the game play pretty fast as there is not a lot of interaction between players. If you want to make a conquest and have the tokens to do it. It just happens. The only time that you can roll a dice is the last conquest of your turn.
The cool dynamic of the game is when you think that your race can’t compete with other races on the table because your special ability is lacking or another player is attacking you, you get to pick a new one and start your conquests over again.
The special ability rules for this game were a little strange and hard to get a grasp of when I played it the first few times about when they work and when they do not. Then I played the iPad 2 player version of the game. Because I played that version, it simplified the turns and showed me when special abilities were in effect and helped immensely with the board game version.
Also the setup of the game contains many cardboard pieces. Needless to say the iPad version was a dream as far as setup and putting away all the pieces. The setup time for the actual board game only took about 10 minutes. The only issue I had with the iPad version is that it is only for 2 people. If you own a iPad, I would recommend picking up the iPad version to see if the game is for you. Plus then it will help as you explain the rules to your friends when playing the physical version.
The retail version of the physical board game is around 40 USD, the ipad version of the game costs around 10 USD from the Apple store. |
|
Last Updated on Monday, 15 November 2010 13:11 |
|
|
Written by Ryan Lange
|
|
Monday, 09 August 2010 14:34 |
|
 This year some of us geeky writers went over to GenCon 2010 because we wanted to see the what and how games were integrating with technology. We were not disappointed on how things are progressing with some of the board games out there.
Poo: The Card Game, is a great introduction into card games and how cards interact while they are being played. It is very simple when it comes to rules and the overall layout of the game. Because of the simplicity it makes it so that you can play it with your kids and enjoy the card game rather than having to take the time to learn how to play it. There is something to be said about a game that you can pick up and learn to play in just minutes. Everything that you need to do is written on the cards. The cards are pretty funny with names like “King Kong Poo” and “Just a Fart”, it makes you just smile the entire time while your playing it. It’s a family game, so there really isn’t any poo, but even your kids can get in the action and make up the jokes. Just like the name of the game, you fling poo at each other until your covered in the stuff. The end goal is to be the last monkey not covered in poo. Simple fun that has enough cleverness to pick up the Origins Award for Best Traditional Card Game in 2010. I talked to the developer of the game and basically the game evolved from him waking up on a Saturday morning and trying to understand why there wasn’t a game that monkeys fling poo at each other. By five in the afternoon he was starting some basic play testing. As much fun as I have playing with the physical cards at GenCon, they are looking at creating a I-Touch or I-Pad application for Poo where you would actually fling the poo at other people. I can’t wait to take a look at the direction that this game heads in next. Imagine instead of having cards in your hand you are just holding your I-Touch and all of a sudden you get a picture of being pooed hopping up on your screen. Simply Hilarious. No dates are in the works for such an application. But I can’t wait to see how it’s implemented across mobile technologies. The game can be purchased here. I guarantee it will be worth it. MSRP is 12.99 |
|
Last Updated on Sunday, 15 August 2010 09:16 |
|
Kinect for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Ryan Lange
|
|
Friday, 18 June 2010 10:18 |
|
 I’ve now seen it in action, and it’s some impressive technology. The issue is, the games just are not just that impressive and I don’t think they are outdoing the Nintendo Wii when it comes to games.
Let’s face it, the Wii is solely based on movement of the controller. You get two of them when you incorporate the nunchuck. And with the strategically placed buttons you get the best of both worlds. Not only do your motions matter, but you can hit a button for items of a game that require more complex movements. This in turn makes for more precise game play. From what I’ve seen of the Kinect, theres no controller. The games seem responsive, but I they really needed to simply controlls for a game. This in effect makes the game even less real than it was before. In making the games simpler and more intuitive this increases demographics of those who are interested in games. This makes the moms and the little ones more happy to play a game and it gets them moving around. I wanted to see some of the fighting games, but I haven’t seen it in person, only videos of such games. It seems responsive in the video but the motions that were being made were very exact and I couldn't tell if they were perfectly in sync with the movements of the characters in the games. 
Where I can see this device shining is for exercising games such as EA active. This would be perfect as you don’t have cords hanging around you and your movements would feel more natural. It is better for those who may be a little more overweight so that they can actually use the device. Already owning a Wii and setting up my living room for it, I can’t see myself forking over a 150 USD accessory, considering I could just go out and get a Wii for 50 USD more, and it’s already proven itself as a fun system to interact with others. I’m going to wait on the Kinect untill it’s proven itself on some others and I see some of the games that will be coming out for it. I don’t feel that I need something that would replace the Wii at this time. I feel that the Wii is still superior because of at least having a controller, but time will tell. After all there’s nothing to say that Xbox doesn’t come out with specialized controllers to work with the device, but then your talking about the price of a Wii. Amazon is touting that this will cost 150 USD and be released in November. |
|
Last Updated on Friday, 18 June 2010 10:36 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page 1 of 2 |
|
|
|
