Mary Dimercurio Prasad: First Impressions of Last Will and Pictomania

Posted on October 26, 2011 by Mary Prasad

Last Will

Last WillDesigner: Vladimír Suchý
Publisher: Czech Games Edition (CGE) and Rio Grande Games
Players: 2-5
Ages: 12+
Play Time: 60 minutes

So the game begins…

Your uncle has died. Hooray!

This is your chance to become rich. You never knew your uncle, but you have heard stories. He was one of those millionaires who achieved staggering wealth during the development of Victorian England. He was also a bit of a hermit, too focused on his business to have any friends. On his deathbed he surveyed his vast riches and realised that he never took the time to enjoy them. And so he decided to leave his fortune to his most competent relative – the one who is the best at enjoying the pleasures money can bring. In his last will, your uncle stated that each surviving relative will receive a certain amount. Whoever can spend that amount the fastest will get the rest of the fortune. But don’t think that spending all that money will be as easy as it seems.

Last Will is sort of a board game implementation of Brewster’s Millions, the 1902 book by George Barr McCutcheon and 1945 and 1985 movies by the same name. Players inherit a sum of money and must spend it throughout the game. Whoever spends the most by the end of the game inherits the rest of the fortune. Oh, wouldn’t that be nice?? Actually they just win the game. Continue reading →

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Essen Mule Train Report #3

Posted on October 25, 2011 by patrickkorner

Welcome to the second-last installment of the mule train series! This time around, I’ll cover off the rest of the story – that is, getting the games home and such. When last we spoke, I had just discarded 45 pounds of cardboard excess and was faced with a veritable mountain of games to try and get home. Well, two mountains. My own games needed to get shipped home, while those for the convention were going to ride first class, so to speak, in my luggage.

First off, my own games. After despruing and nesting for volume compression purposes, I was left with about 100 pounds of games (about 45 kg for my European readers). These went into three boxes – I managed to scrounge around the fair and find some solid overseas shipping boxes which was good. Funny thing – the boxes that come from China are meant for container shipment and are nice and thick and sturdy. The European boxes, in contrast, are meant mostly for truck shipping and tend to be much thinner-walled and flimsy; not suitable for air shipment at all. So I ended up with 3 boxes that had once held Qwirkle and would now carry my games home for me.

Continue reading →

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Fairplay & GeekBuzz

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Talia Rosen

Every year the Fairplay and GeekBuzz rankings at Essen are simultaneously a great source of information and amusement.  They provide useful information because they can call your attention to a game that you might have overlooked and help you prioritize your interest among the hundreds of new games.  On the other hand, they’re amusing because you have to take the rankings with a giant heap of salt.  It’s always good to keep in mind that the people rating games for Fairplay and GeekBuzz are often not even playing one full game, but rather are getting a quick demo in a crowded and noisy hall from someone who might speak their native tongue as a third language. Despite their dubious nature, it’s still always fun to look over the rankings as they emerge.  Although to keep their reliability or lack thereof in mind, I often find it helpful to look at the current year’s rankings side by side with past years to see how well those past picks have fared.

The GeekBuzz rankings for this year and the past two years are listed in the following table.  I have bolded the games that overlap with the Fairplay top ten.

Continue reading →

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Dale Yu: Essen Wrap Up Part 1 of 2

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Dale Yu

Well, I’ve been traveling home from Essen, and I’m looking forward to getting readjusted as best as I can to the time change.  It’s usually amazing to see how screwed up my sleep-wake schedule can get from only six or seven nights in Europe!  I’m working double time at work this week and next to make up for the time gone, so these recap posts are probably the last that you’ll hear from me until I can get some of the new games played.

This year, I managed to write a bit each night, so this wrap-up piece may be a bit shorter than usual… If you missed the daily pieces, you can find them here:

There were plenty of other Opinionated Gamers writing during the week as well – for the whole recap, go to our Essen 2011 page!

Also, I apologize in advance if I repeat anything from those posts… I’m trying to write the bulk of this on the flight home, and I can’t remember everything that I’ve already talked about!

[As an administrative note, for the next few weeks, some of the Opinionated Gamers will be posting “First Impression” pieces on the games that have interested them, but we will likely not be writing our usual collaborative reviews until after Thanskgiving weekend – this will allow many of the OG writers to make it to conventions and/or play games over Thanksgiving weekend.  Furthermore, as not all of us will get a chance to play the newest games so soon, it will be nice to take retrospective looks at these games in early Spring when more of us will have had a chance to play the games or perhaps have had a chance to refine our opinion of games after multiple plays.  Also, by the end of this week, the blog will try to move back to its usual once-a-day posting format that seems to have worked well for the rest of the year…]

So, my overall impression of the fair is similar to last year. Thus far, there seem to be an abundance of good or above-average games, though nothing yet stands out as an immediate “All-time Top 10” sort of game.  Of course, I make this claim having only played seven or eight Essen games during the week (and about a dozen or so of the new releases prior to leaving)… Many of the most talked about games at the show are in my luggage, but I haven’t had a chance to play them yet!  So, I’m basing a lot of my current opinion on what some of my trusted friends have told me about the games.

Continue reading →

Posted in Convention Report, Essen 2011 | 3 Comments

Mary Dimercurio Prasad: A Haunted Halloween Game Night

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Mary Prasad

Fall is probably my favorite season: cooler weather (here in North Carolina that means 70s!), beautiful trees, the Spiel in Essen (and its many new game releases), Thanksgiving (mmmm!), BGG.Con, and Halloween! I love Halloween! Almost every year we host a Halloween gaming party – sometimes running all weekend since several of our friends come from out-of-town. Here are a few of my tricks and treats (lots of treats!) for hosting a haunted Halloween game night.


Decorations

There’s nothing like a fully decorated house for Halloween! If only I could leave the decorations up all year. (Would that be too weird?) Our house has a castle theme (now you understand my last question). I go all-out with decorations.

Our Castle

Here are some of my favorite stops for Halloween stuff:

The Dollar Store – I usually pick up small grave markers, spider webs, Creepy Cloth (black and gray), black plastic tablecloths, small spooky figures, and bloody gel things. Be sure not to put the bloody gel things on walls or doors – the red permanently marked one of my doors; they seem to do fine on mirrors and marble-like countertops though. You gotta love the price! Continue reading →

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Essen Mule Train Report #2

Posted on October 24, 2011 by patrickkorner

So I’m in Essen. On Thursday (Opening Day!). I couldn’t buy much the day before – many booths aren’t finished yet, and those that are have been told by the Messe management not to sell until the next day. Wednesday also featured some odd weather, including hail! Hmm, I hope that’s not a sign from above that our endeavours are going to be fraught with peril or something. I have a lot of boxes to grab!

Trusty hand cart in hand, I rushed to Hall 4 to start my planned surgical strike – up one aisle, down the next, 30 minutes and I’ll be done with the hall. Hooray for advance planning!

I get to the GenX/Homoludicus booth and… nobody there. Okay, on to Pearl Games. They’re there, all right, but their games aren’t yet. Oh dear. 5 minutes into the fair and my best laid plans are already starting to go horribly awry…

Continue reading →

Posted in Convention Report | 3 Comments