I
think we all need at least one really nice positive thing about the
entertainment business every single day of the year, including weekends.
Sometimes it may be something simple, like a video that showcases
something fun and sometimes it may be a movie poster that embraces the
aesthetic we all want Hollywood to aspire to. Sometimes it may be a
long-winded diatribe. Sometimes it’ll be from the staff and extended
family of CHUD.com. Maybe even you readers can get in on it. So, take
this to the bank. Every day, you will get a little bit of positivity
from one column a day here. Take it with you. Maybe it’ll help you
through a bad day or give folks some fun things to hunt down in their
busy celluloid digesting day.
8.19.10
By Alex Riviello
(Author Page, Twitter Page)
What I’m Thankful For:
I’ve recently started diving back into the world of board games, thanks in part to the brutal, backstabby fun of Munchkin. While I’m sure it will horrify many people who check out Board Game Geek, it was my gateway drug, and the Cthulhu version of the card game still gets played pretty frequently among my friends. But now thanks to the site I’m finding out about all kinds of amazing games I’d never have heard about otherwise. It’s simply been an amazing resource for locating interesting games, full of reviews, news, variants, and all kinds of helpful tips and tools.
It’s also helped me go on a couple of ridiculous shopping sprees, where I’ve amassed a fine little collection of games… and have tons more waiting on me…
One is the surprisingly great board game of Battlestar Galactica, which makes you mistrust your friends because any of you can be a cylon, as you all try and survive till the next jump and eventually make your way to Earth. It’s a pretty intensive game with a lot of little rules, and requires at least three hours to play. On the flipside there’s Pandemic, a relatively fast (half hour) co-operative game that sees 4 players trying to stamp out diseases around the world. It’s really hard as hell, with quite a different feel from most board games because you have to work together as a team if you want any chance of winning.
There’s also the amazing Dominion, which contains the fun of building up a collectible card game deck but without the insane price, or Mad Scientist University, a hysterical Apples to Apples-like party game that lets you judge your friend’s plans for world domination.
There’s also my latest acquisition, Road Kill Rally,
which is basically a board game version of Death Race 2000, and is as fun as that sounds. You have to love a game that gives
you points for mowing down little pedestrian figures (kids and the
elderly are worth more) and shooting up your opponents with a wide range
of armaments, all the while trying to monitor your speed enough to not go flying off the course and wipe out when a hairpin turn unexpectedly comes up.
I don’t know how this all grabbed me so much. Perhaps it’s because now that I’ve got a kid I can’t be going out as often as I used to, and friends are always coming over my apartment to hang out and I want to keep everyone entertained. But it’s gotten bad. Just today I sent my poor wife out to buy Space Hulk: Death Angel for me when I found out that the hard-to-find game was available at Barnes and Noble, and it’s a Warhammer title, folks. WARHAMMER. There’s no turning back for me.
I’m excited about upcoming games like Dust Tactics, a massive war game (with friggin’ robot miniatures, for christ’s sake) and the reprint of Betrayal at House on the Hill, a haunted house game that comes with 50 scenarios and pits one of the players as a traitor to the others.
This goddamn site has reawakened my inner geek, and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, I’m thinking of running some reviews on my blog (not sure if Nick would want them on the main site) and see how you guys like them. I was amazed to find the world of board games thriving the way it is, with so much innovation and diversity, and can’t wait to experience more for myself.
(Got any tips for games I should check out? Shoot me an email or leave me a comment, love to hear your thoughts!)