THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Slightly less hectic work week this week. I’m trying to finish up both Act 1 and Act 3 this week.  I would have been done with Act 1 last week but Tuesday of this week, we got revisions on the revisions.  I had to go back and adjust what I’d finished.  Turns out this show is too long and there need to be things cut from it.

Act least the rewrites on Act 3 are lite.

MY WEEK

I’m still trying to recover from two weeks ago. It tends to directly effect my creativity outside the work place. I’ve found I need a longer break from my personal project, just to get the energy back to really WANT to get back to it.  I’m working on a small project for my wife right now. I hope to get it done fast. I’m already almost done with it.

I think the break will do me good though.

Whenever work gets me stress out, I tend to alleviate the stress with games. My mind just automatically goes there. So here’s the result…

 

APPS/BOARD GAMES

I love playing board games but I  don’t often get to play them. Mostly because I just don’t have the time or the people around to play them with.

Well, the next best thing is actually playing digital versions of board games on my iPod Touch. I can play them on my own time and I don’t have to have anyone around to play them with.  It’s not as fun this way but I take what I can get.  Although there are plenty of board game apps now, that allow you to play asynchronously against other people. Which greatly increases the social aspect of playing theses games.

That said, I thought I’d write up a list of my top 10 board game apps. ALL of these game have physical board game counter parts. So if you like the app, you might really like the actual board games.

First though, here’s the honorable mention. Game that didn’t make my top ten but they’re worth trying out anyway:

Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino  

COST: FREE

Dominion is THE game that created it’s own genre, the “deck building game”.  This is a really fun game.

The object of the game is to have the most points by the end of the game. You do this by buying card from the center, which eventually become part of your deck. In turn these cards will allow you to do more interesting things in your turn that may make your deck better so you can have more points at the end of the game.
Why didn’t it make the list?

The interface and A.I. isn’t all that good and it can be downright confusing. But it’s free so it might still be worth a download if you don’t mind fighting through the lousy interface. Give it a try and find out why Dominion is such an incredible game.

 

 

Liarr’s Dice

COST: FREE

If you’ve seen the second PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN movie, you’ve seen this game played. It’s one of the funnest games to play with friends and family.  That said, if you want to try out how it plays and don’t have any friends around, this is a good place to start.

The object of the game is to be the last player left. You do this by rolling dice hidden from everyone else and  betting on how many dice of a certain number is rolled by everyone on the table (which are also hidden) without going over.  Everyone takes turns raising the bid until someone thinks the bid is too high by calling out “Liar!”. Everyone reveals the dice they rolled. If the dice show the bid was lower or equal what the dice show, the accuser losses a die from his hand, but if the accused has bid OVER the dice on the table, then THEY lose a die.

Why didn’t it make the list?

This game is no where near as fun to play digitally.  You really need to play this with real people.  But again, just like Dominion, it’s free, so why not.

 

Alright now for:

 

MY TOP 10 iPHONE/iPOD TOUCH BOARD GAMES:

10.  Hive

COST: $0.99
Hive is an abstract game, similar to Chess, only the pieces move in a way that resembles bugs. The game doesn’t have a board. As you place down pieces a board of sorts is created by the way the pieces are touching each other. The object of the game is to surround you’re opponent’s Queen Bee.

It’s a decent version of the board game.  I’d rather play the real deal but this is a good alternative.  As you improve, you get more difficult modes.

Unfortunately, as of the time of this writing the game is…well…a bit buggy.  As in, the code is buggy…well you know what I mean.  It needs a few updates.

 

 

9.  Button Men 

COST: $0.99

I tend to like dice games.  This one is a fun one.  This game is a “dice dueling game”. The object of the game is to capture you’re opponents dice.  You pick a character who has certain types of dice that have different sides and affects. You then roll and depending on the outcome, you decide what dice you want to capture from you opponent.  It’s a fast game and it has enough decisions to make it much more than a luckfest.

The best part of the app is that it has a pass and play mode.  I found it’s best to play the game this way.  That said, the A.I. gives you a good challenge so it’s a fun game played this way as well.

 

 

8.  Kingsburg 

 

Cost:  $4.99

Okay now, with Kingsburg, we’re getting into a much heavier game.  This one take about 20 to 30 minutes to play.  The point of Kingsburg is to be the person with the most points at the end of the game.  A game lasts about 16 turns and what you generally do each turn is roll dice in order to get the help of a specific person which will give you a special benefit.  The sum of all or some of the dice will tell you which person you can choose to get help from. The “help” can be in attaining resources to build special buildings for your town, increase your military might, peek to see who will raid the town in winter, or buy special effect that will help you manipulate your dice rolls. The buildings give you special abilities or protection from attack, as well as victory points.  Since each round of turns is one year with four seasons, at the end of winter, there is an attack.  Everyone rolls a die and adds their defenses to it. If it roll over the raider’s attack number, you fend them off. If you don’t, you lose a building.  At the end of 4 rounds of 4 seasons, the person who has gotten the most victory points wins.

This is a fun game.  It’s a little difficult to get used to because the actual game board is so big, it couldn’t all be fit in the iPhone/iPod Touch screen. This means you have to switch screens a lot to really be able to decide what to do.  Once you get past that, it plays great. It even has a pass and play option but no online option.

The only reason I don’t play this more, is because it takes so long to play.

 

 

7. Neuroshima Hex 

Cost: $4.99

One of THE best board game strategy games out for the iPhone/iPod Touch.   The object of the game is to reduce your opponent’s base to zero points. You do this by placing hexagonal  tiles on the board with programmed special abilities. Every turn you may put down, 1, 2 or no tiles down and then your opponents may do the same.  At some point, either when the whole board has tiles on it and therefore no one can put a tile down, or when someone puts don’t a “combat” tile down, all the tiles are activated and you see how the battle plays out, based on each tile’s special abilities and turn order.

If the bases are still there after combat ends, you continue putting tiles down as before.

The game can be played with up to 4 people and there are 4 different armies to choose from.

You can play asynchronously online or pass and play.

This is a fantastic game and it’s tough to beat the computer in higher difficulty levels.

There’s a lite version of this to try out, just to see what it’s like so check it out.

 

 

6. Roll Through the Ages 

Cost: $2.99

Wanna play a Civ game that lasts about 10 minutes?  This is your game.

The point of the game is to get the most points by the end of the game.  You do this by rolling special dice, “Yahtzee style”.  In other words, you roll some dice, and you chose what to keep and what to re-roll.  The dice faces have food, workers, money, jars and skulls. Workers can be used to build wonders or build up your town so that you may roll more dice each turn. Food allows you to feed your workers so you don’t lose points each turn.  Jars allow you to build up resources that you can use to get special civics. The civics give you victory points and provide you with some sort of special ability or benefit, like protection from famine.  Coins supplement your resources when buying civics, but if you don’t use them on the turn you roll them, they go away.  Skulls are bad, they do bad things when you roll them (like cause famine) and they can’t be rerolled once you roll them.

For a game that shares a mechanism with Yahtzee, this game manages successfully NOT feel like Yahtzee and totally feels like a Civ game. I really like this game, it’s simple but deep.  You can play it solo and try to beat your own score, or better yet, you can play pass and play. But it has no online play.

Great game to have.

5.  Ticket to Ride Pocket

Cost: $1.99

Now we get to one of the “modern classic” board games.  Ticket to Ride Pocket is a very good implementation of it’s board game counter part.

Once again, the object of the game is to be the person with the most points at the end of the game.  You do this by connecting cities on the board by placing train pieces, but you can only do so if you have the correct number of matching colored cards. At the start of the game, you chose between getting 1 to 3 destination tickets which you must complete by the end of the game. Doing so gives you the points written on the tickets, failing makes you get negative points written on the ticket.

For a more in depth overview of the Ticket to Ride games, I suggest you read, my Ticket to Ride article HERE.

For an article on Ticket to Ride Pocket, CLICK HERE.

Being aware of who is placing things where is key.  Deciding when to place your trains and when to pick cards lends a good tension to the game. I’ve found the AI is really tough to beat, which I think is good.

This version of the game supports, solo games, pass and play, and online games. The interface is simple and the tutorial is very good.  Expansions are also available to purchase so you can change the game up a bit. I recommend it.

 

 

4. Catan

Cost: $4.99

The people that haven’t heard of Settler of Catan is slowly shrinking.  Here’s yet another way people can become aware of this fun little game.

The way I see it, Settler is a “Civ lite” game.  The object of the game is to be the first to get 12 points. You do this by building your civilization, or colonies, as best you can with the resources you have on hand, and by trading wisely with those civilizations around you.

For a more in depth view of Settler of Catan, I wrote an article comparing it to Monopoly HERE.

I think the best part of playing this version is the Campaign modes with unique winning conditions.  Not only that but  you can also buy  expansions that change the game up.  But even if you don’t get those, the game is different every time because of the nature of the games’ variable board.

The iPhone/iPod Touch version allows you to zoom in and out of the board so you can place things the way you want, and the interface is very intuitive. There’s a hot seat mode, but no online mode.  Still, it gives a solo player plenty of options and unique ways to play. Great game.

3.  Zombie Dice

Cost: Free/$0.99 for multiplayer

Why is this game my number 3? Because I play it quite a lot. This is ALMOST a  brainless game (ha, ha brainless…I is funny).  Seriously though, this is a fun quick game.  It’s a dice rolling game where the object is to be the person to collect 13 brains or more. Once someone collects 13 brains, the other players try to get more, if they fail the person with 13 brains wins.

On your turn you roll the dice, and you see what you get. If you roll brains, you keep them. If you roll foot steps, it’s neither positive or negative, they don’t do anything. If you roll the explosion, that means you got shotgunned.  You can then decide to continue to roll, or stop and keep your score.  If you choose to roll again, you have the opportunity to get more brains, BUT at any point during your rolling, if you accumulate three shotguns, you lose your points for this turn. What makes this game just a tad thinky, is the color of the dice. Green dice have only one shotgun while the red ones have the most and the yellow ones are somewhere in between.  Depending on how many brains you have, how many shotguns you have and the probability of the dice you need to roll, you make up your mind as to whether you should continue to roll or not.

It’s a fun little diversion of a game that you can play in minutes. It’s also very silly. Oh, and it’s FREE! Well, it is if you plan to play it solo. If you plan to play it pass and play, then you can spend $.99 for that option.  I had so much fun playing the game solo that when given the opportunity to play with my brother, I bought the option. I haven’t regretted it. It’s so fun to play this game with others.

 

 

 

2.  Farkle Dice

Cost: Free

For the same reason I like Zombie Dice above, I like this game too. It’s free. It’s fun. I like it. I play it a TON and this version has a great interface. It let’s you play against computer opponents from the start and it’s not just a “beat your best score”, solo game.

First to 10,000 points wins.

I just like dice games.

 

 

1.  Ascension

Cost: $4.99

This game is considered, by many, the best iPhone/iPod Touch board game port out there.  I bought the game mostly from the hype.  I played it and didn’t quite understand what all the fuss was about.

This is a “deck building game” like Dominion above, (I think it was the 3rd game of it’s kind on the market) only much more random.  The goal of the game is to have the most points by the end of the game.  You do this by  buying cards (which give you points) from six random cards that are placed into the center row.  These cards give you special abilities once they show up in your deck after they get shuffled into it.

You can also “fight” and destroy monsters that show up in the center row.  When you do this, they get banished into the discard pile. Many monster, once you destroy them, give you a special one shot ability.

So I played it and thought it was a bit too random. I didn’t really get it. The game was easy to beat and it didn’t seem like it had many decisions.  THEN I played it four player with each AI opponent at it’s highest difficulty setting.  I couldn’t win the game. The AI consistently beat me. WHY?!

Turns out the game has all kinds of depth I didn’t realize it had.  I started playing this game like crazy.  Trying to at least win ONE game.  Many many close games later, many many strategies later, and I finally did.  That doesn’t really mean I “solved” the game. I still lose more games than I win, but at least now I know ONE way to play the game that can give me victory.

Like Poker, it has that random unpredictability to it that makes it a new experience every game but, like Poker, the game pays off  best when you play what cards you have in the best way you can.

This game can be played pass and play as well as asynchronously online.

Alright, that’s it for me. I have nine other board game apps in my iPod Touch I didn’t write about.  Perhaps I will some other time.  This list was my Top Ten though, and I’m sure as time goes by, it will change.

If you download any of these games or own them already, let me know what you think of them. Or better yet, let me know so we can play together.  Bye.

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