Monday, February 28, 2011

Thunderstone - Review


While visiting a newly opened game store, I looked for something new to bring home to my play group.  I told them that I preferred fantasy environments, cooperative or low on the cutthroat level of player interaction, and I'm a sucker for dungeon diving games.  They told me they had the perfect game for me, and pointed out Thunderstone by AEG.  Initially wary of another deck building game,  I purchased it and took it home to learn how to play.


Knowing AEG's habit of not being able to put out a comprehensive (or correct) version of the rules, I was happy to find that the version I received with the game (1.4) read very well.  Game concepts were explained and examples given to show how interactions would work, with some special attention to confusing cards that can trigger multiple effects.

The gist of the game is that you randomly build a "dungeon hall" with three classifications of monsters, randomly select four heroes to recruit from, and then form a small village of 8 additional support cards that consist of villagers, weapons, spells, and other items.  You then start with a starter deck of 12 cards and use various values on them to either build your deck by buying a card from town, or head into the dungeon to try to fight a monster. 

An average starting setup

There's a stronger emphasis in this game to trash or  "destroy" weaker cards in your deck to upgrade heroes, or to increase the odds of stronger cards to come up more often.  There's even an option to take a rest action which would allow you to trash a card in your hand instead of heading to the village or dungeon.  This makes every turn at least a little bit useful.  

Not every card you get is useful


The wife and I sat down and played a few games and really liked what we saw with it.  This is different from other deck building games by giving you a goal to work towards with your deck.  In something like Dominion, you just build up your territories for money and then buy points.  In Thunderstone, you build up a party of heroes, equip them, and then send them off to the dungeon to fight monsters to earn points.  It's much more satisfying to slay a dragon than it is to buy a province.  At least for me, anyway.

We soon invited over our gaming group for some five player Thunderstone, and found that the game translated just as well to the larger player environment.  The few cards that interact with other players, namely the rogues, were a bit frustrating with that many players, so I might recommend leaving them out of the rotation when you get above 3 or 4 players, but otherwise, everything ran smoothly.

There's few complaints that we have with this one.  The black plastic card holder included is begging for the same kind of treatment that Dominion provides to keep cards separated.  It does have small ridges that will raise and lower some cards, but they're not large enough to mark specific card groupings.  The addition of slightly larger cards to act as dividers offers little help to keeping them in any easily searchable order, as well.  I've already mentioned some of the hero cards that cause you to discard cards from your hand, which will often make the difference between being able to do something effective on your turn or not, but these are all relatively small complaints.

Cramped

So if you're interested in deck building games, and enjoy a good dungeon crawler, Thunderstone might be right up your alley.  With several expansions already out, and more on the way, you can rest assured that there's always going to be something new lurking in the darkness.  There's also a few different sets of promos that can be gotten for free through AEG's website or for a small $5 fee through BoardGameGeek.com so be sure to pick those up as well.  Happy Gaming!

Monday, February 21, 2011

You Don't Know Jack - Review


Do you like your trivia with a heavy dose of comedy?  Are you looking for a new party game?  Yes?  Well then let me tell you about the revitalization of a series from the 90's, You Don't Know Jack.  YDKJ has been around since the mid 90's, and put out ~20 different versions over the years before a short lived web presence and then disappeared until we heard an announcement in 2010 that THQ would be bringing the series back. 

Questions take pop culture and add twists to them to create comedy gold
Among the first few threads on the GameFAQs forums was one entitled "Cookie?" referring to what could be argued to be the most popular of the series' various hosts, Cookie Masterson.  Cookie takes you through 70+ "episodes" consisting of 10 questions each and a final lightning round called the Jack Attack.  The episodes are a great way to keep from having repeat questions, and even allows for some continuity through them.  For example, Cookie will order a pizza in the beginning of the episode from Domino's asking what those divots are called, and then at the end, have the pizza come in and then ask how many of those divots are on the Domino's pizza logo.

It's 3, and they're called "pips"


Questions come from a wide variety of topics, but tend to fall into the categories of Animals, Movies, Food, History, Geography, Literature, and TV per the achievements in the game.  Cookie will announce the topic, usually a bad pun, setup the question, read the question, and then begin a timer while he reads the answers.  Waiting for him to read through all of the answers isn't advised as the longer you wait, the less money you will win and some can bring the timer all the way from 30 seconds to 5 seconds before being done.  Each player answers as they're ready by pressing the corresponding button on their controller, right answers winning money, wrong answers losing money, and no answers offering no penalty.

It's possible and highly encouraged to "Screw" your opponents and force them to answer the question in 5 seconds.  A successful screw will cause them to lose money and for you to gain it, while eliminating one of the possible answers on screen.  If your opponent successfully answers though, the tables get turned and you lose what they gained.  It's risky, but highly rewarding, especially in late game when values are doubled.

Screwing, not just for the ones you love

The episodes last about 15 minutes each, giving you hours and hours of game play, and additional packs are being offered as DLC.  The length of time allows players to swap out between rounds, making it a great party game to enjoy with more than four people, something usually reserved for rhythm games like Rock Band or Dance Central.  

Alright, complaint time.  Playing online is a waste of time.  Because of the episodic nature of the questions, somebody can easily learn an episode's worth of answers and beat the tar out of their opponents.  Playing with friends who have copies of the game while at somebody's house is a little rough because they'll be playing the same episodes twice while trying to get their own unlocks and achievements.  Finally, the game offers a "Wrong Answer of the Game" which cannot be selected if you get screwed.  That's pretty lame.

Otherwise, this is a fantastic game that any pop culture trivia buff should have as part of their collection.  The game retails at a very attractive $29.99, and seems to be destined for some success.  When I picked up my copy, one store was sold out, but I grabbed the last Xbox 360 version that another store had, and heard similar stories from friends.  One more thing, with the loss of 1 vs 100, this is begging for an Xbox Live / PSN Network version of it, THQ, see what you can do about that, and we here at VG30 definitely want to see more.  And please keep Cookie as the host, he's the best.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

LittleBigPlanet 2 - Review


LittleBigPlanet 2 has been out for a few weeks now, and I've gotten a really good feel how it plays and what I'm expecting, even though I haven't finished it yet (more on that later).  So how is it?  Let's take a look at everything and come to a conclusion together.

Gameplay hasn't changed much from LittleBigPlanet.  It's still a platformer in which the player's avatar, a knit together "Sackboy" traverses a level attempting to score as high as possible by collecting orbs, defeating enemies, and not dying.  Once you reach the end, your score is compared to other players, and then you move on to the next stage.  The mechanics of the game are run-of-the-mill, but function well.

It's ok, Sack-Thing.  We're getting to the good stuff
Now that all of the boring is out of the way, this game is magical.  You can't not be happy while playing.  The levels are expertly put together, and the cinematics that link the worlds together are funny and a delight to watch.   It's easy to dismiss LittleBigPlanet 2 as just another platforming game, but it's the King of the platforming games, and it's because of the amazing community of players who tirelessly work to create new content.

Vehicles add a new element of cuteness to the game
Once you decide to go online, you'll find hundreds of thousands of levels to play.  Not all of them are great, many are just tests to try out a new concept before creating an entire game around it.  Others are just copies of games we all know and love.  In one night I played Street Fighter, the first dungeon to the Legend of Zelda, Asteroids, and Donkey Kong, all very well done, and if not perfect, the spirit was certainly there.

Perfect?  Not quite.  Awesome?  Definitely.
So why haven't I finished it?  Well, blame the wife on this one.  We started playing the game together, and she wants to keep on playing it together.  That's right, this game works really well with multi-player co-op.  The original had some really rocky places to get two (or more) people to get through, but this one actually makes some things easier for bringing along a friend, not to mention the extra challenges and goodies that can only be accessed by cooperative players.

There's much to do for a group of LBP2 friends
So is there anything bad about LittleBigPlanet 2?  The worst thing that happened to us while playing was five minute load times when playing levels on the disc online during launch weekend, but that's completely disappeared.  Everything else is golden.  If you like platformer games, this is a must pick up.  If you're looking for a game to play with your SO, this is a must pick up.  If you like original and creative game play, PICK THIS UP.  We'll see you online.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Ones to Watch - February 2011

February has come and that, of course, means that it's time to take a look at this month's upcoming games.  There's some real interesting things this month, so without wasting any more time, let's get right to it.

You Don't Know Jack - Multi-platform - 2/8/11


We haven't seen a retail store version of You Don't Know Jack since the release of their second Playstation game called You Don't Know Jack Mock 2 way back in 2000.  Sure, there's been other downloadable or web versions since then, but it's great to see this series on store shelves again.  Fun Fact:  At this year's VG30 New Years Party, we hooked up a netbook to a 52" screen, hooked in a few USB keyboards, and spent the night playing You Don't Know Jack: The Ride.  Cookie, I can't wait to hear you again.


Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds - Multi-Platform - 2/15/11


Continuing our month of resurrection, Capcom is bringing back the amazingly fun fighting game series this month.  Fans of the series have been eagerly anticipating the next in this so-over-the-top-and-broken-it's-still-fun series for years.  I found out today that Spencer from the Bionic Commando games is in this one, which I'm really excited about.  Beat up your friends in teams of three later this month.


Dungeons and Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon - Board Game - 2/15/11


Seeing the popularity of the Castle Ravenloft Board Game searches on the site, it's not surprising to see that Wizards is putting out a similar game, but this time with a focus on, well, Dungeons and Dragons. There were some gameplay elements from Castle Ravenloft that probably won't feel right when exploring a dragon's lair, so we'll have to see the rules before seeing if this is worth picking up.


Bulletstorm - Multi-Platform - 2/22/11


Bulletstorm is Epic's newest First Person Shooter in which your goal is, well, a high score.  Sure, there's a story there, but the meat of the game is to come up with interesting ways to destroy your enemies to build up combos worth more and more points.  The game looks pretty, but the real reason to watch it is that the XBox 360 version of the game includes a Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta key.  PS3 Owners, sorry, your limited edition is a bit lacking.


Killzone 3 - PS3 - 2/22/11

On the other hand, if PS3 owners are looking for a First Person Shooter on 2/22, they're probably going to be looking at Killzone 3.  The next game in the critically acclaimed series is sure to draw praise from the gaming industry, and is worth at least taking a look at.


March is an interesting month with the release of the 3DS, and a couple other sequels that are raising some eyebrows.  Come back next month to see what's in store for your digital needs, and as always, Happy Gaming!