NEW: Board Game Reviews

It's been a while since I've written on my blog, and mostly that's been due to my laptop dying on me; I had unfinished reviews of Virtue's Last Reward (*amazing* game!!) and other games, which are now in limbo. Well, now I'm back, and have a new laptop and lots of new video games to blog about. I'm currently playing Legend of Zelda: Windwaker HD on my shiny new limited edition Wii U, and will no doubt write up another Zelda special at some point with a review of that along with Phantom Hourglass and maybe even the new 3DS Zelda out next month. *drool*

In the meantime I've decided to extend the focus of my blog to other games that I enjoy, specifically tabletop games, such as board games, card games and miniatures games. Lately I've been on somewhat of a binge, buying and playing lots of new board games, and thought I would join other bloggers of the internet by writing up a top ten list of my favourites. So following this post should be a sequence, in no particular order, of (in my opinion) the absolute best board games. In the future I'll try to occasionally include board game reviews spread amongst the usual video game reviews and specials.

EDIT: To clarify a bit, the following games will all be board games that I have awarded 9.5/10 to on Board Game Geek, which at the moment is Cosmic Encounter, War of the Ring, Twilight Imperium, King of Tokyo, Eclipse, and Chaos in the Old World. If I have time I will also try and follow this with brief reviews of games that I have voted 9/10, because to be honest the difference between 9.5 and 9 is so slight that I'm going to missing out on a ton of great games that I consider to be some of my favourites, such as Cuba, Lords of Vegas, A Game of Thrones, Power Grid, etc. Also I just want to stress that I'm not going to be writing in-depth reviews of the mechanics of these board games, or even discuss what the rules are most of the time; for that may I suggest you check out 'The Dice Tower' on YouTube. I'm just going to (briefly) explain why I like these games so much and why you should check them out.

BGE S1: Best Games Ever - Series One

I could often be quoted as saying that 'X' is "one of the best games ever made" or "this game is definitely one that I would add onto my greatest games of all time list"... well, I've never actually sat down and made a list of  (what I would consider) the best video games ever created. Recently I've been thinking and trying to develop that list, but I don't think I'm going to be able to come up with a numerical order or anything like that, as I'm much too indecisive. Also, there are a few games which I might put on the list, alongside a load that DEFINITELY deserve a place on there. Since it takes me ages to get around to typing anything on this blog, I've decided to start with those games that I'm absolutely 100% sure are some of the best video games ever put onto disc/cartridge/projected into my eyeballs. Following this post then will be a small selection of games that are incredibly special to me and fundamentally changed my preconceptions about what this medium can achieve.

(Note: There are three games that would go into my 'best games ever' list that I'm not going to review as part of the 'BGE' series, either because I've already done a full feature review (Metal Gear Solid and Journey) or I've mentioned them in some detail before (Dark Souls was my video game of the year for 2011.))

Video Game of the Year (VGOTY) 2012 - Intro and Disclaimer

Generally speaking, I feel like this year the standard of video games has been significantly lower than last year. I remember sitting and composing my top games of 2011 and being spoilt for choice, to the extent that it was pretty agonising deciding on the final order of those top five games. Even now, I look back and would change the order a bit (for instance Portal 2 would be my number two game, and Dead Space 2 would probably drop off the list in favour of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword). I also recall that there was a still a massive list of games that I had stacked ready to play but hadn't gotten 'round to it.

This year is a little different. I've played through most of the games that I was looking forward to and caught up with a lot of the games outstanding from 2011. My top five games were actually pretty easy to pick once I'd put certain rules in place: no HD re-releases or DLC! If I had ignored this rule then the number one and two spots would belong to Dark Souls (again!!) and the Metal Gear Solid Collection. Dark Souls was re-released this year in a "Prepare to Die" edition, which included the Artorias of the Abyss DLC. I downloaded this DLC separately and played through the entire game for the second time (picking up some trophies I'd missed along the way)... AND I LOVED IT!!

The Metal Gear Solid Collection is actually a game that I picked up at the end of last year (when it was released in the USA), however it wasn't out here until mid way through 2012, and that was pretty much when I ended up playing it. These are some of the best video games ever made and in particular Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater ended up joining my "greatest video games of all time" list, which I really must get around to posting in the future. I've yet to play Peacewalker as I type this, and have been saving it for a rainy day, but that could start me off on an MGS binge all over again!

Anyhoo, without further delay, following this post will be my personal top five games of the year for 2012. Notable absences are Mass Effect 3 (I played through just over half of it before getting bored and leaving it alone for a while - I will return at some point when I'm in the mood for a third-person shooter) and Dishonoured (because I still don't own this game, even though it looks incredible!).

Video Game of the Year (VGOTY) 2011 - Intro and Disclaimer

2011 has been an absolute scorcher for video games; I really can't remember when I've been so spoilt for choice and there have been so many amazing games vying for my attention and ££!! The end of the year has been especially jam-packed with so many triple-A behemoths that I simply haven't had the time to play through them all - currently I'm looking at a 16-game queue to play through, which will only get bigger as I pick up those games I missed in the January sales. *wibble*

So, my disclaimer is that there are some very obvious VGOTY contenders that I have not played and therefore they could be better than some of the games I have included in my list: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword quickly spring to mind. I may update my blog in the future after I've gotten around to playing those titles and other games such as Dead Island if they usurp things from their current positions in the gamely court; but for now please read on - I'm gonna kick off with a top five rundown of my VGOTY  and then I might make some more generalised entries covering the nitty-gritty of video games in 2011. Lets begin...

BLOG: Mission Statement

You’ve got to love tabletop games. Recent scientific studies have shown that people who engage in cerebral activities such as board games and miniatures games during their younger days will keep their wits about them for long into old age; effectively helping to fight off senile dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The catch twenty two is that when you do eventually start to lose your marbles, you lose them much quicker. In summary, tabletop games give your brain a much needed workout that has beneficial long term effects, culminating in a rapid descent into madness.

I signed up years ago. I have been playing tabletop games since I was a child, and started with the standard family games such as Cluedo, Monopoly and Game of Life, before diving into miniatures games such as Warhammer 40,000 (2^nd Ed RIP) in my teenage years.  My relationship with tabletop games has been a rocky romance, and for a time we completely fell out with each other; however the passion returned with a vengeance a few years back and, now twenty seven, I have been making up for lost time.

As well as keeping abreast (heh. breast) of things on Tabletop Gaming News and Board Game Geek, I also very much enjoy reading gaming blogs and watching video reviews of games to help me decide what to buy and branch out my interests into other genres or simply different games that I might not have heard of. Unfortunately, I’ve often been frustrated recently, as I can not find reviews of certain games in the detail that I want, or there is a complete lack of a video review available. I have since purchased some of these games anyway, but it highlighted a “gap in the market” for me.

So, here I am, with my first and only blog, about to review some of the games that I own and am passionate about in the kind of detail that I personally was originally looking for. I’ll also try and find time to do some bite sized video reviews of games that I think are lacking them. Just don’t expect updates with any regularity and it’ll all work out fine.

-n0signal