Personal

Off-Topic: Tip the Scale

JettLeave a comment

About a year ago, I was standing on the outdoor scale at the Heart Attack Grill in Las Vegas. As someone who hadn’t stepped on one in a very long time, those rising numbers came up and smacked me like an uppercut to the chin. I know I hadn’t done anything to keep that number down, but having the number be that high and exposed in a public venue like that was a certainly a wake-up call.

Though I sat on my butt for far too long, I finally found the motivation to do something about it. It’s been over a month since I started hitting the gym and I definitely feel better. I’m better able to withstand the stresses that come with this cardio-focused workout. Strictly from a visual perspective, I think that my face and my gut are less pronounced than they used to be as well. Having recently stepped on the scale, the results caught me off guard.

Continue reading →

Looking Back At Mario Golf

JettLeave a comment

When Mario’s not busy saving the princess from the clutches of Bowser, he and his friends know how to have a good time. Whether they’re racing go-karts, making the rounds on a giant board game or just beating each other up, they sure have no shortage of things to do. Mario Golf on the Nintendo 64 was their first foray on the links. In my opinion, Nintendo hit a hole-in-one with this one.

Continue reading →

Saving The World Alone in Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

JettLeave a comment

Legendary: Fantastic 4Board games and card games to me have mainly been a social pursuit. I never really put much thought into playing these games alone, nor did I really have much desire to do so. Of late though, I’ve had a desire to play Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game without anyone to play with. After doing some snooping around in the Board Game Geek forums, it turns out that playing it alone is a popular way to go. Within that community, they even make challenges for everyone to try out and players report back on their results. Curious, I set up all of the cards for a solo battle with Marvel’s most devious supervillains.

Continue reading →

The Importance of Theme in a Board Game

JettLeave a comment


We’ve been taught since the dawn of time (or at least since the dawn of books) to not judge a book by its cover. Well, when it comes to board games, cover-judging has been a huge part of my decision-making process. Before making inroads with the scene a few years ago, I’d be immediately off-put just by looking at any visual material for games like Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer or Magic: The Gathering. I dislike pretty much everything medieval fantasy across all forms of media, which acts as a deal-breaker for these and many other designer board games long before I could judge it on its merits.

Continue reading →

Have I finally burned out on video games?

JettLeave a comment

Over the course of my lifetime, I’ve fallen very far down the video game rabbit hole. I’ve spent countless hours of my life playing them. Countless hours reading about them in magazines and the internet. Countless hours writing and talking about them through this blog. Probably have spent well over $10,000 on consoles, games and other gaming paraphernalia. To say that video games are just a pastime would be a gross understatement.

But how far can one man go before they’re just tired of it all? My parents thought I’d grow out of it, though I’ve proven them wrong by gaming well into adulthood. I thought that my fervour for the medium would never end, though my interest in video games of late has hit an all-time low.

Continue reading →

Starting From the Comic Book Bottom

JettLeave a comment

Comic books have influenced my life for as long as I can remember through movies, cartoons, video games, toys and more. However, up until recently, I’ve never actually read a legitimate comic book in earnest. For most of my life, I perceived the act of reading comic books as something that was too nerdy for me. By the time I warmed up to the idea, I had no idea where to start. With almost 100 years worth of DC and Marvel content out there, picking a logical starting point proved difficult.

Continue reading →

In Defense of Chance in Board Games

JettLeave a comment

Before I became a board game enthusiast, I didn’t put much behind why I liked or didn’t like a particular game. But as I’ve played more of them, I’ve become more cognizant of the components that create an experience while developing my own taste when it comes to theme and mechanics. One aspect of the board game experience that seems to be a point of contention with more serious players is the element of chance. I find that there are extremists that have a real problem with their livelihoods being determined by a roll of the dice or the flip of a card from a shuffled deck.

For those who prefer to have as much control over your experience as possible, that’s great. Everyone is free to play what they like and there are no shortage of games that are designed to minimize chance. However, I don’t think it’s fair to disregard chance as a whole as a bad thing. When it’s implemented correctly, the element of chance can positively contribute to the enjoyment we get out of a game.

Continue reading →

Yomi Review

Jett1 Comment

photo 4(1)I really appreciate board games that do a great job of marrying their mechanics and theme together into one cohesive experience. Some of my favourite games that deliver on this include Formula D and Legendary: A Marvel Deck-Building Game. The former provides players with a cool sensation of racing through dice, while the latter creates a dramatic battle of good versus evil through the now-ubiquitous deck building mechanic. Originally designed as an officially licensed Street Fighter card game, Yomi aims to do something similar by translating the fighting game experience through cards. Does it deliver on that promise?

Continue reading →

Pocket Tanks Deluxe: The Battle For Subway Supremacy

JettLeave a comment

(Download Pocket Tanks For iPhone)

My first encounter with Pocket Tanks occurred in 2001. I was in high school computer programming class and one of my friends asked me to come over to his computer and play against him. I don’t remember why we had enough time to get in a few matches instead of actually writing code, but that’s moot at this point. Years later, I picked up the free version on a whim because why not?

While it sat on my phone for years collecting cyber dust, the game became the focal point of my afternoon commute when my office moved downtown.

Continue reading →

The Slow Season For Video Games is in Full Effect

JettLeave a comment

After the November rush of releases, the flow of gaming releases has completely dried up. If you’re looking for something new to play, I feel your pain. For me, now’s the perfect time to knock some backlog games off of my queue. Since the holidays, I’ve knocked off Pokemon X, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Mario Kart 7. I have plans on getting back to Ni No Kuni in the near future, as well as hopes of starting up Batman: Arkham Origins and Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Past that, I’ve got a bunch of other games collecting dust on the shelf that I really should get around to.

However, instead of diligently playing games, I’ve actually been investing my time into board games and board game writing. As a relative newcomer to the scene, there’s no dry spell season as basically everything is new to me. If the dry video game release schedule has got you down, now isn’t a bad time to pursue a new hobby either!


Buy Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag Now From Amazon.com

See More From The In Third Person Store