Things upcoming
Aug. 13th, 2007 07:39 pmMeaning, of course, Smash Brawl.
So... Pokemon trainer. Kind of strange, that they have a character without a real name, but then, Mr. Game & Watch never had a name before Melee, and I don't know if he was actually conceived of as one character until then. What does this say about the other Pokemon characters? I'd bet Jigglypuff is still in, but this could spell doom for Mewtwo. I realize not many people actually thought Mewtwo was coming back anyway, but I thought he (it?) deserved another chance.
More interesting is that the pokemon get tired the more you use them, and constant switching is bad for them too. Meaning it's not just this game's Zelda/Sheik - you can't just figure out which one is best and then stick to it, nor can you just stick to one and then do 3 switches once he gets tired to reset him. Although I'm sure once people do figure out how they rank, they're going to be cutting things as fine as they can to get as much time as possible out of the better ones.
Also, of course, Franklin Badge pretty much confirms Ness, if anyone actually doubted his return.
Meanwhile, Starcraft: The Boardgame. Not something I plan on getting, obviously - I think I've mentioned that I think it's safe to say I have too many board games when I still have several I haven't even played, not to mention it's going to cost $80 - I think I'll stick to Gnostica, AGOT, and Nexus Ops - but very cool nonetheless.
It is interesting how different they're making it from the original Starcraft. Perhaps a result of how badly Warcraft: The Boardgame went over. I notice they've basically taken the depletion mechanic from that game, except made it voluntary instead of random - sounds like a good idea. I never played WCTBG but I imagine it must be frustrating having your mines randomly run out on you. I do love that in this game, if you think you're about to lose a resource spot, you can forcibly deplete it to keep your conquerors from getting any. Obviously they kept upgrading all your bases at once (too much bookkeeping otherwise), though you don't have any one "home base" in this game. Also, of course, the Aldaris faction is taking a page out of Dune's book. (Not that I've played Dune either.) I have to wonder why playing with them changes the numbers, though. Still cool.
Thoughts, having read the rules: Only 2 planets per player should make the game pretty crowded (especially with the z-axis navigation routes), which I definitely think is a good thing. (It's also nice how they have the "incoming warning" to keep z-axis navigation routes from being too confusing.) Also interesting how battles are set up so they favor the attacker in almost every way, except that, in order to win a battle, the attacker needs to eliminate *all* defending units. (Though the Protoss special ability is defensive, apparently, and we have yet to see the combat and tech cards; there could easily be plenty of good defensive ones. Not to mention all the defensive goodness that is the air support module.)
The big question seems to be: Is combat going to too complex/take too much time? I mean, arranging skirmishes, each player playing a combat card for each... it sounds pretty time-consuming, and when you add in things like cloaking and splash damage it's definitely complicated. It does, at least, sound fun, though. Also, the order stacking. Interesting how you don't get to see just what you're responding too, and how responding to something to delay it can actually be relevant (seeing as things are going on in other places). But man, it could easily get confusing.
Also neat how they avoided bookkeeping with the resources. Someone pointed out on BGG that permanent resources are probably there to make elimination harder - the rulebook explicitly calls elimination victories rare. Also interesting how special abilities are by race but special victories are by faction.
I think I'm going to have to play this at least once. Of course, this leads us back to the original Starcraft. It's funny, because I never really liked Starcraft all that much, but I think, maybe, when I played it, I just didn't really have the patience for that sort of game - I always played with the "operation cwal" cheat. I'll admit I still don't understand the game - the last time I played Starcraft was in senior year, when some people started up a game in Dr. Nevard's room, and they wanted as many players as possible, so I joined. I didn't get it at all - everyone was going and attacking each other before I even had basic defenses established! How was everyone else so much faster than me? But I remember when I started playing Warcraft 3 I liked it, and actually managed to get the hang of it, so maybe I should go back and try it again sometime. Probably not now. I'm bet I'm still going to find the interface frustrating, though. Improved in Starcraft 2, maybe? Yeah, but why would I buy the sequel to a game I didn't like in the first place? :P Or maybe this sort of strategic game really is just too complex for me.
Meanwhile, who wants to play Nexus Ops? :D
-Harry
ADDENDUM: It's funny, somehow I didn't even mention the most immediately noticeable difference between WCTBG and SCTBG - WCTBG abstracted all of the different Warcraft units into just "worker", "melee", "ranged", and "flying"; you would not only upgrade all your bases at once, you would upgrade all units of a given type at once! Whereas for SCTBG they made a point of including all (well, almost all) the individual Starcraft units, each with their own plastic pieces. Which is of course a big part of why it costs $80...
So... Pokemon trainer. Kind of strange, that they have a character without a real name, but then, Mr. Game & Watch never had a name before Melee, and I don't know if he was actually conceived of as one character until then. What does this say about the other Pokemon characters? I'd bet Jigglypuff is still in, but this could spell doom for Mewtwo. I realize not many people actually thought Mewtwo was coming back anyway, but I thought he (it?) deserved another chance.
More interesting is that the pokemon get tired the more you use them, and constant switching is bad for them too. Meaning it's not just this game's Zelda/Sheik - you can't just figure out which one is best and then stick to it, nor can you just stick to one and then do 3 switches once he gets tired to reset him. Although I'm sure once people do figure out how they rank, they're going to be cutting things as fine as they can to get as much time as possible out of the better ones.
Also, of course, Franklin Badge pretty much confirms Ness, if anyone actually doubted his return.
Meanwhile, Starcraft: The Boardgame. Not something I plan on getting, obviously - I think I've mentioned that I think it's safe to say I have too many board games when I still have several I haven't even played, not to mention it's going to cost $80 - I think I'll stick to Gnostica, AGOT, and Nexus Ops - but very cool nonetheless.
It is interesting how different they're making it from the original Starcraft. Perhaps a result of how badly Warcraft: The Boardgame went over. I notice they've basically taken the depletion mechanic from that game, except made it voluntary instead of random - sounds like a good idea. I never played WCTBG but I imagine it must be frustrating having your mines randomly run out on you. I do love that in this game, if you think you're about to lose a resource spot, you can forcibly deplete it to keep your conquerors from getting any. Obviously they kept upgrading all your bases at once (too much bookkeeping otherwise), though you don't have any one "home base" in this game. Also, of course, the Aldaris faction is taking a page out of Dune's book. (Not that I've played Dune either.) I have to wonder why playing with them changes the numbers, though. Still cool.
Thoughts, having read the rules: Only 2 planets per player should make the game pretty crowded (especially with the z-axis navigation routes), which I definitely think is a good thing. (It's also nice how they have the "incoming warning" to keep z-axis navigation routes from being too confusing.) Also interesting how battles are set up so they favor the attacker in almost every way, except that, in order to win a battle, the attacker needs to eliminate *all* defending units. (Though the Protoss special ability is defensive, apparently, and we have yet to see the combat and tech cards; there could easily be plenty of good defensive ones. Not to mention all the defensive goodness that is the air support module.)
The big question seems to be: Is combat going to too complex/take too much time? I mean, arranging skirmishes, each player playing a combat card for each... it sounds pretty time-consuming, and when you add in things like cloaking and splash damage it's definitely complicated. It does, at least, sound fun, though. Also, the order stacking. Interesting how you don't get to see just what you're responding too, and how responding to something to delay it can actually be relevant (seeing as things are going on in other places). But man, it could easily get confusing.
Also neat how they avoided bookkeeping with the resources. Someone pointed out on BGG that permanent resources are probably there to make elimination harder - the rulebook explicitly calls elimination victories rare. Also interesting how special abilities are by race but special victories are by faction.
I think I'm going to have to play this at least once. Of course, this leads us back to the original Starcraft. It's funny, because I never really liked Starcraft all that much, but I think, maybe, when I played it, I just didn't really have the patience for that sort of game - I always played with the "operation cwal" cheat. I'll admit I still don't understand the game - the last time I played Starcraft was in senior year, when some people started up a game in Dr. Nevard's room, and they wanted as many players as possible, so I joined. I didn't get it at all - everyone was going and attacking each other before I even had basic defenses established! How was everyone else so much faster than me? But I remember when I started playing Warcraft 3 I liked it, and actually managed to get the hang of it, so maybe I should go back and try it again sometime. Probably not now. I'm bet I'm still going to find the interface frustrating, though. Improved in Starcraft 2, maybe? Yeah, but why would I buy the sequel to a game I didn't like in the first place? :P Or maybe this sort of strategic game really is just too complex for me.
Meanwhile, who wants to play Nexus Ops? :D
-Harry
ADDENDUM: It's funny, somehow I didn't even mention the most immediately noticeable difference between WCTBG and SCTBG - WCTBG abstracted all of the different Warcraft units into just "worker", "melee", "ranged", and "flying"; you would not only upgrade all your bases at once, you would upgrade all units of a given type at once! Whereas for SCTBG they made a point of including all (well, almost all) the individual Starcraft units, each with their own plastic pieces. Which is of course a big part of why it costs $80...
