Ticket to Ride USA 1910 Expansion Review

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photo 1(5)Over the past few months, Ticket to Ride has almost become a mainstay at Steff and I’s tabletop nights. I think it’s masterfully done, though if I were to knock it for anything, it’s for the fact that the 30 destination tickets wears a bit thin after playing the game a number of times. They also leave certain swaths of the map largely untouched because they don’t directly map to destination tickets.

With 39 new destination cards, The Ticket to Ride USA 1910 Expansion is a direct answer to this dilemma. However, the expansion comes with a total of 181 cards. What the heck are the rest used for?

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In Defense of Chance in Board Games

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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.

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The Recurring Bosscast: 036 – Pour One Out For Flappy Bird

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The demise of Flappy Bird isn’t enough to keep Jason and Jett from playing the game throughout this episode. They also run through all of the news from Nintendo Direct, though the conversation reaches its peak when they discuss the state of the Wii U.

Games Mentioned: Bravely Default, Batman: Arkham Origins, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, DuckTales: Remastered, Forbidden Desert

Jett – In Third Person
Jason – Downstab
Mat – Biff Bam Pop

Forbidden Desert Added To the List of Awesome Board Games You Should Play

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Forbidden DesertI have to admit that the first games that Steff and I played of Forbidden Desert were a bit lukewarm. But once we got our bearings with it and busted this out at a party, it really picked up steam. This desert adventure uses some elements of Pandemic in a very different context to make for a game that stands on its own as an awesome cooperative experience. Whether we won or lost, the journey through this desert proved engaging and thrilling. When Forbidden Desert is at its best, you and your group of adventurers will be strategizing, sweating bullets and praying to a higher power that Mother Nature’s next move won’t kill you. Check out the full list of Awesome Board Games You Should Play right here!


Buy Forbidden Desert Now From Amazon.com

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Pandemic Review

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photo 1(9)In Pandemic, the world is at risk of extinction due to four rapidly spreading diseases. With the fate of the world in your hands, you and your team of specialists must work together to contain – and hopefully find cures for – all of the diseases before it’s too late. You won’t always be successful in saving the world, but you’ll almost always have an amazing time trying.

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Dishonored Impressions

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Dishonored‘s premise is as simple as it gets. Corvo, the empress’ bodyguard, gets framed as her murderer as part of a plot to take over the throne. In the process, the empress’ daughter gets kidnapped. Now he’s out to save the girl, avenge the empress and clear his name.

The game at first blush was far from that for me. Struggling to grasp the game’s systems early on, I fumbled my way through the first mission; killing everyone in my path. Despite eventually completing the mission, the game’s heavy hand on leading you towards the stealthy route sure made me feel like a failure. Having killed 14 bodies in cold blood and the chaos level on high due to those actions, I feared that this wasn’t going to get any better.

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Pick-Up Post: Board Game Edition

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Forbidden DesertEven though hot new video games are finally start to trickle in after months of inactivity, it’s going to have a hard time shaking me of my current interest in board games. In this pick-up post, I highlight some of my most recent purchases, which includes one new game and two expansions for some of my favourites!

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Jett Plays DuckTales: Remastered

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I take Scrooge McDuck to the moon, which leads to disastrous results. I have since beaten the level, though I didn’t figure out how to use the map until it was too late.


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Using Console Sales to Define Success

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Wii Won“I’m holdin’ all the cards and ****** wanna play chess now” – Drake, Pound Cake

In the annals of history, we as gamers have used console sales as a measure of success. Oftentimes, we use that as the primary factor in terms of who “won”. These home console winners include the Atari 2600, the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the PlayStation, the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo Wii. Gamers always use sales as the primary measuring stick for why the NES or the PlayStation 2 won their respective generations.

Yet when gamers talk about the Wii/Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 era, the fact that the Wii outsold its competitors by a wide margin no longer matters. All you have to do is scour through one of many online threads about the matter to find all sorts of creative ways that people will spin the situation in Sony and Microsoft’s favour. The ways in which people always move the goal posts in this argument sickens me.

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Anomia Review

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AnomiaIt’s always a good idea to have quality party games handy. In the past, classics like Scattegories and Pictionary have dominated the space for ages, but as board games continue to grow in popularity and mature with interesting gameplay mechanics, the party game genre is also growing with it. Anomia is one such title that is very different from anything else I’ve played. But is it good enough to break out when your parents are over?

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