Next Week: Regenerations Part 2 (for real this time)

(Sorry for the audio quality issue in this episode, shouldn’t happen again)

Next Week: Regenerations Part 2 – Baker/McCoy, Davison/Baker, and Baker/Davison

Next Week: Regenerations Part 1 – Eccleston/Tennant, McGann/Eccleston, and McCoy/McGann

Next Week: A song ends, but the story continues…

Next Week: The End of Time Part 2

Next Week: The End of Time Part 1

Talking Points

• Apologies for lack of site activity
• Geek By Night/Fandomonium gone mostly for good
• The announcement of a new Geekshow Entertainment show
• Merry Christmas! Let us know what you get!

Movies

• Brittany Murphy dies of cardiac arrest
• Iron Man 2 Trailer
• Alice in Wonderland

Television

• Discussion of what we’ve enjoyed to this point
• Discussion of what we didn’t like
• Scott is out of live television watching, into British television
• Discussion of the shows coming up (Lost, Chuck)
• Day One reduced from half season to mini-series

Video Games

• 2010 has a ton of God of War “clones”
• Arkham Asylum 2 announced
• Greenday Rockband announced
• Halo Reach & Mass Effect 2 cinematic trailers
• Microsoft promises “AAA” title every month in 2010
• Early 2010 especially brutal (Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield Bad Company 2, Aliens vs Predator, Dead Rising 2, etc)
• 2010: The year of the MMO for geeks? (Star Trek, Star Wars, DC)

GeekJerk Reaction

December 23rd

• Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

December 25th

• It’s Complicated
• Nine
• Sherlock Holmes
• Up In the Air

December 18-20, 2009

Sorry in advance for the audio levels. Those of you using headphones might find it a bit difficult to balance to two voices well. We did try to balance pre-show. I even ran the episode through an audio level adjuster. The end result was better than what we started with, but still not perfect.

Music: Brand New – At The Bottom

In honor of Halloween and Spooktober this is our special commentary for Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright. So put that DVD in your player and get ready for Shaun of the Dead like you’ve never experienced before.

Music: The Sleeping – Don’t Hold Back

This time we are catching up on all the interesting goings on in all our lives. Which of course makes for very interesting conversations. What topics do we get into, you’ll just have to listen to find out.

Music – “Hello Seattle” – Owl City

Music – “You Make My Dreams” – Hall & Oates

(There is a mysterious phantom static issue throughout this episode . Everyone can still be heard most of the time, making it more of an annoyance than anything else, but its there. We have no idea what caused this, but we’ll try to fix the issue in later episodes. Bear with us please!)

Music: “The Vowels Part 2″ – Why?

(NOTE: Spoilers happen. If you haven’t seen one of the movies that we discuss, stop listening as soon as it comes up. You’ve been warned!)

Join us next time for Video Games!!

Music: “Oxford Comma” – Vampire Weekend

We’re still trying to figure out this new format, so please forgive us until we have at least a handful of episodes under our belt. Tune in tomorrow for Episode 1 where we discuss the summer movie season!

Music: “The Underdog” – Spoon

Part 3 (of 3)

Cat-Spiders have invaded the Starship Atlas! Will the crew be able to outsmart them and avenge the deaths of their fallen superiors? Will the “red shirt curse” finally be broken once and for all?

“Cat-Spider Cometh” Written and Edited by Nick Jimenez

Created and Produced by Nick Jimenez

Starring Jacob Moore, Will Richie, Cole Christinson, Nick Jimenez and Amy Quintal.

Theme by Nerf Herder

Part 2 (of 3)

After breaking the news of their commanding officers’ untimely demise to the rest of the crew, the Red Shirts argue over who is now in charge. Not being able to come to a conclusion, they turn to the ship’s onboard A.I., known as Atlas, for the answer.

“Auto-Pilot” Written and Edited by Nick Jimenez

Created and Produced by Nick Jimenez

Starring Jacob Moore, Will Richie, Cole Christinson, Nick Jimenez and Amy Quintal.

Theme by Nerf Herder

Small World is a fantasy game with a light sense of humor presented in its character art. Basically, you play a series of races attempting to control the most territory that you can with the race until it is nearing extinction or spread too thin to continue. At that point, you swap out for a new race, and continue on.

The game employs a simplistic combat system, and attempts to shift the focus of the game to the strategy element of determining when to push it and when to fold.  It’s gameplay is easy to learn, but the strategy can be difficult to fully see. Enjoy the video, then check out the written review if you are still interested in the game.

Download: 720p HD Format | iPod/Low Bandwidth Format
View on Youtube. Subscribe and leave comments, please!

Gameplay

Gameplay in Small World is rather simple. A series of 6 race banners, and special power pieces will be combined to give you a unique type of race. Each race will have an ability and that will combine with the special power to give you two unique things that you will be able to do as you use the combo. As you go through the game, you will be drafting these combos in such a way that if you don’t want to take the first choice, you “buy” your way up the ladder until you find a combo you do like. With each combo you skip, you give up one of your victory points to that combo.

Eventually, when a combo is skipped enough, it will begin to look a lot more attractive. On down the road, you might be willing to take a less attractive race/power combo in order to gain victory points equal to the number of players that previously chose to skip over it. 

Once you make your selection, you will pick out the tokens from the box that match your race. You will combine the number on the power token with the number on the race banner, and that will give you the total number of troops you receive. This mechanic is mostly a balancing factor. Some powers or races may be really attractive, but the number of troops you get will balance things out a bit.

Once you have your troops, you will enter the “world” by conquering an area that is either adjacent to the edge of the board, or adjacent to a water area that is adjacent to the edge. From here out, you expand out from that space, taking as many adjacent areas as you have the troops to take. Once you spread yourself so far that you can’t spread any further, or take too much battle damage, you will want to place your race in decline and pick another race.

Let’s discuss combat damage first. This is the area where the game becomes a bit predictable. To move into an area and take it over, you must use two of your troops, plus one extra for each piece of cardboard already in the area. That cardboard can be an enemy token,  a neutral token that the game starts with, a mountain, or any other piece in the game that you would place in an area. If you meet the required number, you take the area over. 

When you take over an area, all of an enemy’s tokens are temporarily removed from the board. The first piece removed goes back to the box and usually can’t be brought back out. Anything above that first piece goes back to it’s player, who may re-deploy them once your turn concludes. In this sense, the game is very much a game of attrition. Each battle a player losses is one less token they have to play with. So you want to keep your areas defended. However, by doing that, you can’t spread to new areas, which ensures that you will get less victory points at the end of each of your rounds.

Ultimately, players can take just about any area they want. In doing so, they won’t risk any of their troops. However, if you spend 6 of your troops to take an enemy stronghold, that is that much less power you can spread taking other areas. Not only that, but when you take an area with multiple enemy tokens present, they only permanently lose one of those. When you take a weakly defended area of your enemies, then it takes a lot less of your troops, and they still lose that one troop. As a result, a lot of the simplicity of the combat is offset by the strategy of knowing the best ways to use your troops.

But one additional layer of strategy comes into play as you start looking at your turns and seeing that your troops are running out of potential for expansion. You get one victory point for each piece of land you control at the end of your turn. So, if you lose the ability to take that land on your turns, you lose the ability to continue progressing toward victory.

This is where entering into decline comes into play. Once you realise that your race is starting to feel inadequate, you will need to consider decline. When you go into decline, you flip all of your tokens over to their greyed out sides, and lose most (if not all) of your powers. If you had any races in decline before this, you take them off the board, then tally your points for the round. Declined races still generate victory points, but can’t do anything else. In addition, when you go into decline, that is all you can do on your turn.

On the your turn after you go into decline, you get to pick a new race to bring into play. At that point, you are generating victory points based on both your active race and your decline race. This sometimes leads you to ditching a race that you were just beginning to enjoy. However, it often makes good strategic sense.

As you earn victory points throughout the game, you keep them hidden. Once everyone has had a set number of turns, the points are tallied, and the game is over. For me, I often felt that the games were too short when we played them. The idea of switching out races was the draw to the game, and the bit of strategy that I enjoyed most. But it turns out that it was something that you only got to do 3-4 times in a game. I would have enjoyed that a lot more, had the game continued on. 

Other than the issue with the length of the game, there isn’t much I have to complain about for gameplay. Yes, combat is predictable. However, between splitting your forces to face multiple enemies, figuring out the prime time to go into decline, and figuring out the best ways to both benefit you and hurt your enemies, I thought there was more than enough to keep the planners busy. 

Components

Days of Wonder has some of the best component standards in the industry. All of their art is well done, even if the style in the particular case can be off-putting to some. Still, they theme their games very well, and it shines on the pieces themselves. 

I love a company that puts a lot of thought into how to store your game components, and that’s what Days of Wonder does in every game I’ve purchased from them. In this case, there is a place for everything, and a chart to show you where those places are.

However, things aren’t perfect on this front. While everything has it’s place, that doesn’t mean that it works out great. The pieces slide around in the tray, get stuck in annoying ways, and otherwise disrupt my OCD like crazy. The victory tokens have a generic side, and then a side display one of four different values. In principle, this is nice. In actuality, its a pain in the butt. Getting them in and out of the box is annoying enough. But when you add in the fact that you have to take the time to flip each coin to its value side at the end of the game in order to determine which stack of coins goes to which slot…it gets to be too much really fast. This is of course assuming that you are particular about organizing your games. A smarter and less picky person would probably just toss them in any way they could. After all, each slot in the box isn’t specially sized to fit the stacks of tokens. 

Ultimately, the biggest component issue that actually effects gameplay is the decline side of race tokens. Playing the game is great with these tokens. You have the flavorful art and gorgeous colors on display, and all is good. But the moment you go into decline, things become annoying. Because all of the tokens are greyed out on the decline side, it becomes a chore to sort out which decline tokens are yours, and which ones aren’t. When you play with multiple people, its a real effort to not mis-count decline tokens or look over tokens you assume aren’t yours. The pictures of the races are all there, but without the colors, it makes it extremely difficult to make out the differences. I would have personally preferred the decline side to have kept the art exactly the same, but added a big red “X” over the picture instead. You know they are in decline, but you can still make out pictures easier.

Rules

The game has a hefty amount of rules, but it isn’t too bad. As mentioned before, combat is pretty simple. However, that isn’t to say that there aren’t a couple things that new players could get hung up on. There are a couple different situations where you need to re-deploy troops (Beginning of turn, end of turn, and after being removed via combat). There are different rules for the different situations. All of them are pretty easy. But because of their similarities, new players may have an issue or two keeping the differences straight.

The majority of the issues will come from the race/power combo rules. Each player will have a reference sheet to explain the rules of each token. This is a nice touch, but often trims some of the rules to the point that you will need to look them up in the full manual. A slightly smaller font would have allowed all of the rules to make it onto the massive reference sheet, and not left any room for questions. 

The other problem with the race/power combos comes from the fact that each one has it’s own separate rules. This isn’t a problem if you play the game a lot and remember which race does what. However, new players will have to look up each and every power in order to make their choices. The 6 race/power combos on the board, that means you need to look up 12 separate rules before you are comfortable making a choice. That can really slow the first few games a player plays down. 

Overall

The game is a light and yet deceptively deep game. The strategy lies in areas you generally don’t see in games. Its essentially a combat game with very light focus on the combat. This means that a lot of people will get the intricacies of the system, and some people will be disappointed at what it is not. 

Overall, the game is a great addition to my collection. It doesn’t quite convey an addiction to my group that other games have, but I have no doubt that it is still a great game in it’s own way. Even based on a ten year old game in Vinci, the game still has a unique mechanic that I haven’t seen before in the way you treat your races. 

Not everyone is going to love the game, but I think a lot of people will have a strong sense of enjoyment from it. Knowing what it is going into it will help to maximize your potential for enjoyment. 

Pros and Cons

+/- Simple and Predictable combat system
+ Easy rules
- A ton of tokens that don’t always like to get along with its travel compartments
+ Lots of colorful art
- Cheesy fantasy theme
+ Multiple levels of strategy
- Mind boggling decisions on “in decline” artwork and the reference sheets

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

Hope you guys enjoy the episode. Be sure to send Wayne emails telling him how much you want to hear him in future episodes so we can get back to cranking out GeekiN episodes.

Part 1 (of 3)

After debating the merits of the “Red Shirt Curse”, Jakob, Will, and Cole are shocked to see their friend Nick arrive back from a mission the only survivor.

“Auto-Pilot” Written and Edited by Nick Jimenez

Created and Produced by Nick Jimenez

Starring Jacob Moore, Will Richie, Cole Christinson, and Nick Jimenez

Theme by Nerf Herder

This episode was recorded live via TalkShoe on Sunday May 17th, 2009 at 7pm EST.

LOST finale (SPOILERS!!)

Supernatural finale (SPOILERS!!)

Smallville finale (SPOILERS!!)

Calls and Emails

GOODBYE!!

After recording their final episode, Ben and Scott walked wistfully into the sunset. It had been a long road, but they’d finally reached its end. With their whole future still in front of them, Scott turned to Ben.

“So… What now?”

Ben thought for only a moment, and then replied, “What would Porkins Do?”

And so, while this may be the end, in some ways, it was only the beginning.

COMING SOON: FANDOMONIUM!!

They’re reckless. They’re peons. They’re Red Shirts. Everyone’s favorite expendable crew members finally get their moment in the spotlight in the newest audio series from Geekshow Entertainment!

Dollhouse Finale (SPOILER WARNING!!!)

Chuck Finale (SPOILER WARNING!!!)

Cupid

News

Harold and Kumar bring some holiday cheer

Tetsuo 3

Is Bradley Cooper going Green?

Green Lantern shines its light a little later

Deadpool movie is a GO

Trailers

District 9

Gamer

The Princess and the Frog

Dominion has a light fantasy theme to it. The idea is that you are the heir to a small portion of land. You feel the need to expand it, and you do that by vying for the surrounding land. However, this theme is only loosely attached. Mostly it’s there for the purpose of attractive card art, and the ability to name cards something that makes sense thematically. In this case, your victory points carry the names of “Duchy”, “Estate”, and “Province”.

One of the reasons I wanted to cover this particular game is because it’s defined as a “gateway game”. If you are looking for a game that takes very little time to learn and to teach to others, look no further than Dominion. But the ease of play does not come at the expense of depth. Quite the contrary, each game can be a very different experience. That’s the reason I recommend this game for those of you that have 2-4 players wanting to get into something simple, yet fun.

Download: 720p HD Format | iPod/Low Bandwidth Format
View on Youtube. Subscribe and leave comments, please!

[display_podcast]

Gameplay

Dominion is an incredibly simple game to play. I like to say that if you can count, then you can play Dominion. But while the game is simple to play, it takes a certain grasp of the game in order to get the details of the “strategy”. I use the word strategy lightly, because in reality, the only real strategy comes from finding a deck build that works for you, and then doing any adjustments based on what the other players in the game may be throwing at you. However, that deck building mechanic is enough to ensure that new players will find it tough to beat veteran players. So, I suggest that people playing the game for the first time, find players of a similar skill level to start the game with. The other option is to play with someone that knows the game, but is willing to explain some of the ideas behind his/her deck as they go along.

The idea behind the game is to “draft” a deck for yourself by buying cards with whatever money you have available by the end of your turn. In each turn, you will have five cards. You start with one action, and one buy. By purchasing (and then playing) new kingdom cards, you will be able to increase the number of actions you can play in a turn, increase the number of buys you can make, and increase the number of coins you may use during the buy phase. In addition, you can purchase new coin cards, which only serve the purpose of making your deck more valuable for the purpose of future purchases. All of this leads to the ultimate goal of being able to afford enough victory points that by the end of each game, you have more victory points in your deck than all of your opponents.

That’s the basic idea of the game anyway. It’s the details of the equation that make everything turn out so well, and become so addictive. Each game with have 10 kingdom cards in addition to the cards the effect your victory points, and the coin cards. Those kingdom cards make the heart of the game. In my opinion, the game is best played when you use a random assortment of the 25 possible choices of kingdom cards in order to choose the 10 that will wind up in play. It’s difficult to put into writing how much of an impact this can have on the level of fun that players can have.

With the random factor, each game will have a completely different feel to it. Some games will have a lot of interaction between the different players. It may become a game of balancing defenses with the attack cards that other players pick up. Or, you may be missing attacks and/or defences altogether. In some games, players will be able to flip through their entire deck each turn, making the most of what they have. Still, in other games, you will find it hard to play more than 2 or 3 cards on your turn. Fate steps in and decides how your game will play. But ultimately, you decide what is fun for your particular group. You can make the choice to play with what your dealt, or pluck certain choices from the pile.

The game seems rather counter-intuitive in certain areas. The best deck will sometimes be the smallest deck, not the one with the coolest action cards in it. In this regard, a few people may have problems with the way things go. It may not be as fun to play that way for certain players, but they will do it anyway, as it’s their best chance for victory. Another common problem is that people may find that the interaction between players will have highs and lows as you play through different kingdom combinations. Certainly, the game is not perfect.

However, in almost every situation I’ve seen, people find the game to be very addictive and fun. So much so, in fact, that they not only want to play several times in a row, but they also often want to purchase their own copy afterward. Possibly the best thing about the game is that it works just as well with a group of two as it does with four players. And presumably when the expansion comes out, you will have the same experience with even more players. Games that scale that well are hard to find, and Dominion stands out as a gem in that regard.

Not everyone is going to love the game, but I’d wager that a good number of people probably will. You owe it to yourself to try this game out.

Rules

Once you know the basics of the game, you will rarely ever have to look at the rule book again. That’s a good thing in my opinion, because it is without a doubt one of the ugliest rule books you will ever see. Apparently someone had Easter colors on the mind when they set to designing the book, because it uses almost entirely pastel colors. But, with that said, the rule book is more like a rule pamphlet. It only contains a few pages, and some of those pages are a description of the theme and/or specific cards.

This really is a simple game. The only problems you may have involve working out exactly how each card works in the game, especially with cards that can be combined with other cards. However, the design of the game lends itself to simple concepts that just about anyone should be able to learn.

Components

This is a card game. Make no mistake about that fact. If you go into the purchase realizing that, then you shouldn’t have any problems when you see what the rather large box contains. 500 cards are all waiting for you when you open the box. They are meant to be opened, and then sorted into the included sorting compartment. Many people with large game collections will have a problem with the amount of shelf space such a simple game takes up. However, I found the box to be a godsend for organization. The OCD in me loves the fact that I can make a diagram of my box to find everything I need with very little extra work. It really makes the setup and break down time a snap.

The other potential issue that people may have with the game comes from the risk of wear and tear on the cards. Because the game will have you almost constantly shuffling for 30+ minutes, the cards will begin showing that after a few plays. People that love keeping their games in absolute pristine condition will have a major issue with this. The solutions are to purchase sleeves for each card (WARNING: Cards are not standard playing card size), to come up with an alternative to the card method, or to just deal with it.

Overall

I think that ultimately this game will fall in line somewhere after  my favorite games that contain a lot more strategy. However, the play time, easy difficulty level, and variety will keep me interested in this game for quite sometime. It already looks like there is going to be a lot of support for the game in the form of further expansions. A few new interesting card ideas could really mix things up a bit. In addition, with a larger card variety to choose from, you won’t see the same strategies used time and time again.

I believe that this is a game everyone should at least give a try if they have the opportunity. This is a game that I wouldn’t even have to play frequently in order to see the value in. It makes a great pull out and play game for guests. Teach them how to play, and then they will quickly catch on and develop their own methods. Gateway games have a tendency of being a little more shallow in some areas than the deeper games. But in this case, I don’t find myself getting bored with the game, or wishing I was playing something else.

Pros and Cons

+ Easy to learn
+ Quick to play
+ Lots of Variety
- Strategy becomes obvious
+/- Game box is large, only contains cards
+ Box is made to sort cards in
- Cards get beat up unless you protect them

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

Doctor Who Easter Special

News

Scott Pilgrim video diaries

New Live-Action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie in 2011

Spider-Man 4 In 3D?

The Hobbit itself is going to take up two full length pictures

Green Lantern Has $150 Million Budget

Trailers

H2

Bruno

Paper Heart

The Final Harry Potter and the HBP

Reviews

Sunshine Cleaning

Observe and Report

The next five or more games that we cover will be right up the alley of Geekshow subscribers in our opinion. So I hope you take the time to watch a couple of these if they strike your fancy.

Streaming Video Coming Soon,
for now, download or go to Youtube.

Download: 720p HD Format | iPod/Low Bandwidth Format
View on Youtube. Subscribe and leave comments, please!
[display_podcast]

Last Night on Earth is a zombie apocalypse game released by an upstart company, Flying Frog Productions in 2007. Jason Hill designed the game. As of the date of this review, Flying Frog Productions only has 2 games currently out. Last Night on Earth, and A Touch of Evil. The two games are quite similar in their “evil” themes, and the quality of both games seems to be quite high. Also, Flying Frog games are now notorious for packing soundtracks in with their board games. It’s important to note though, that most people consider the Last Night on Earth (To be called LNoE from here out) soundtrack to be rather bad.

Gameplay

LNoE is a two-sided game. One side will play controlling the zombies, and one side will play controlling the human characters. The zombie side is played by either 1 or 2 players (2 players in the case of a 4 or 6 player version of the game). The human side always contains 4 characters, and those 4 characters can be controlled by up to 4 players. Right off the bat, I have to mention that in my experience, the best games occur when there is only one player playing the zombies. When you have two players playing the zombies, there are a lot of questions that your group may have that will send you seeking out answers, many of which will require unofficial answers. It really takes you out of the game. So I highly suggest making your first few play throughs  happen with only one zombie player, and then deciding from there whether or not you want to try allowing a second zombie player.

Overall, the basic mechanics of the game are very simple. The Zombie player draws cards to make a hand size of 4 cards, he rolls to see if he can spawn new zombies at the end of his turn (Roll 2 D6, if the total you roll exceeds the number of zombies on the board, you will be able to spawn new zombies at the end of your turn. Thus, the less zombies you have on the board, the greater the chances of bringing in new zombies), then the zombie player moves each zombie one space, resolves combat where need be, and finally spawns new zombies if he succeeded in his ability to spawn new zombies earlier in the turn. To spawn the new zombies, the player rolls a D6, and places that many zombies as evenly as possible in the zombie pits on the board. Play then passes to the human players.

Each human player may take their turns however they wish. You can switch your turn orders to benefit you the most. The basic idea of a human’s turn is that the will first get the opportunity to move (Roll a D6, move that many spaces). After they roll their movement, they may instead give up their move in order to search for an item or an event card. In order to do this, the character must be in a building, give up their move, and then draw a card from the human deck. If it’s an event card, it goes to the player’s hand, and may be played on any character in the game. If it is an item card, it goes to the character who drew the card. A character may have up to 4 items, 2 of which may be weapons. After this step, characters have the option to use a ranged weapon (If they have one). Finally, they resolve combat with all zombies that are in their current space at the end of their turn.

This is the basic steps to the game, and is actually rather simple to learn. Players will generally have the basic rules and steps of the game down in one game. And if you have that down, you are well on your way to understanding the game. However, there is a lot more to the game that will change how you think about it. First, each character has special abilities, which often change the rules of the game. For instance, Jake Cartwright gets to draw two cards from the human deck when he searches, rather than one. Then he must choose one to keep. Secondly, there will be many rules that will only occasionally arise. Like when you get gasoline, you may need to know how to use it, and what it is good for. Third, each scenario will have a different objective that will add more complexity. Collect items, protect a location, or possibly collect items and take them somewhere. In all of those cases, you will need to add additional rules to the game.

Even with the added rules, the game never gets too bogged down with manual reading. However, it is an issue that you will need to be aware of, and be prepared for. It is something that I imagine a few people will have issues with. The other complaint in this regard is that several of the rules in the books are not completely clear as written. Sometimes, you may need to seek answers, and for that I suggest the Unofficial FAQ available of LNoE’s Boardgamegeek page. Even then, things won’t always be clear.  So just be prepared to make some judgments, and not allow the game to break down into debates.

As for the gameplay itself, I highly approve of what is there. The game plays rather fast, so that you can get several plays in during a 3+ hour game night. In addition, there feels like there is a lot of heft to the game as far as strategy goes. Yes, sometimes the game will break down into the luck of the card draws, especially with certain scenarios. However, quite often, players can do a good job of maneuvering, knowing when to focus on certain goals, and as a result the game gets rather strategic. I tend to prefer playing as the humans in 3+ player games, just for the social aspect of that. However, I actually enjoy playing as both sides in this game. That’s not always the case in games like this where the sides play completely different.

Combat is a system that I think works really well. It’s easier for humans to “win” at combat, since they almost always roll more dice. However, since zombies win on ties, and always deal damage when they win (Which is not the case for humans, who have to not only win, but also roll doubles in order to deal damage). the zombies are a lot more dangerous. Overall, I find the combat in the game to be quite exciting. There is a lot of risk for both sides. More importantly, there is a lot of methods that you can use to your advantage, no matter which side you are on. When do you use your combat cards? How far do you push things? Do you use the strength in numbers? Or do you try to push heightened individuals for combat? This all makes things very interesting, and always keeps things fresh, in my opinion.

Rules

I already covered a lot of the issues that the rules face in the gameplay section, just because it effects gameplay so much. The basic game is very simple. As you add more rules, you add a bit more complexity, but the worst thing about the additional rules are the questions that come with them. The LNoE manual is pretty hefty, and you will find yourself flipping through it quite often, unless you eat, breathe, and sleep this game. Still, for the most part, it is pretty well organized, and won’t be a huge burden for players.

Components

The components to LNoE is one of the really strong points for the game. It would have been nice if the figures were painted, but even as they are, they are pretty nice. Also, the cd soundtrack that comes with the game is pretty lackluster. But given that it’s the first time I’ve seen something like that done in a game, I can’t complain too much. However, with that said, I can’t come up with too many other drawbacks for the components.

The pros of the components far outweigh the cons, in my opinion. The top of that list has to be the beautiful “art” of the game. I use the term art loosely, because the art is actually a series of in-theme photo shoots with actual actors and actresses. However, it works so well, that I often find myself forgetting that these people are real. All of the character cards, event and item cards, shots in the manual, etc are actual pictures from photography sessions. All the work from the art has really paid dividends for setting up the theme.

I haven’t mentioned this lately, but the theme for the game is actually more to do with Zombie movies rather than zombies in general. A lot of the cards, scenarios, and characters are intentionally cheesy, because that’s the theme that they are going for. And they pull it off wonderfully. It really feels like you are playing through a zombie “B Movie”. And I mean that in a positive way. Even if you don’t enjoy that style of movie, as long as you can have a good time laughing at that style, you are going to feel right at home with this game.

That theme is what makes the art really stick to this game. Normally, you might complain about the characters fitting such extreme stereotypes, but since that was the obvious intention in the design, it all works out perfectly. Whoever initially came up with that idea deserves a pat on the back, in my opinion.

The other components that come with the game are also pretty high quality. The pieces that make up the board are pretty well done. I only have one slight annoyance in that regard, and that’s the fact that the colors are sometimes a little more faded  than other times. And again with the cards, I really like what they do for the game, but they also have a small annoyance for me. The style of lamination that they use for the cards sometimes makes them stick together. It can make it a bit difficult to shuffle/draw/etc, especially when you first buy the game. But overall, these issues don’t effect the gameplay much at all, so I can’t fault them too much for that.

Overall

I also have to mention at this point that I really enjoyed the Growing Hunger expansion. Most of my favorite characters come from that set. I’m not a big fan of the new red zombies with yet more fiddly rules, but I can tolerate them. The additional map pieces also add in some additional variety. But to be honest, it’s the characters and the additional cards that do it for me in this case.

LNoE has been one of my groups most played games for going on 2 years now. It’s not the type of game you can play all the time, but it’s something that you can always come back to. Add in the fact that it’s easy to squeeze in a  game at the end of the game night, and it all adds up to many, many plays over time.

My overall opinion of the game rises and falls, depending on how each game plays out. Sometimes, LNoE rises into my top 5 games, and sometimes it’s something I’m not interested in playing for a while. However, a majority of the time, I still find myself placing the game in my top 10 favorite games. So, I have to recommend everyone check things out, and see if it’s something you could find yourself having fun with. Watch the video review, and if it intrigues you, definitely consider giving it a buy.

Pros and Cons

+ Strategic gameplay
- The rules sometimes get a bit fiddly
+ Combat often feels fresh and fluid
+ The art is beautiful
- Games often rely a little too much on luck
+ Components are of high quality
+ Make your own scenarios
+/- Zombie movie feel

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

Battlestar Galacita Finale

Party Down

Dollhouse Update

Email

News

Marvel To Launch Writers Program

Sean Penn, Jim Carrey and Benicio Del Toro are The Three Stooges

Trailers

Where the Wild Things Are

Year One

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Reviews

I Love You, Man

Monsters vs. Aliens

In this episode Will has returned and Nick announces the true identity of Rick By Night. After discussing a lost episode of Geekeasy soon to air, Nick and Will talk about Dollhouse. Then after discussing the gender of the show, Will mourns the conclusion of Battlestar and confesses his newfound love of How I Met Your Mother. Nick brings up a new show named Eastbound and Down and Will loves Milo Ventimiglia in Pathology. Insight is provided into the daily lives of Nick and Will via a lunchtime story and Nick finds a movie worse than Delgo, Miss March. After talking about whether or not forums are a good thing, Will wonders why he becomes addicted to simple games and recommends a new comic site zeroes2heroes.com. Finally, the guys drop the big news and end by answering an e-mail. Also included in this episode: the redemption of the Saw franchise, Heroes, the various faces of Robin Williams, Season 3 and 4 of Buffy, Epic Fail, and Viral Videos of the Week.

Check out our youtube page!

EMAIL

What Makes a Geek a Geek?

NEWS

Natalie Portman Cast in Thor
Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow
Cap, Thor, Avengers, and SM4 Get New Release Dates
Daredevil & Fantastic Four Reboot?
Sci-Fi Channel Renamed “SyFy”
Kevin Smith and A Couple of Dicks
Star Wars TV Series Casting
Superman Batman – DC Animated Movie

VIDEO GAMES

Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter 4
NHL 09
Halo Wars

TRAILERS

Away We Go
Drag Me to Hell

REVIEWS

Wonder Woman – DVD
Last House on the Left
Watchmen 2nd Time Around

Talking Points

• Missing a couple weeks
• Re-modeling
• No Lost this last week!?
• Battlestar Galactica ending next week
• Veronica Mars’ apartment is kinda a dump
• Being a Geek is expensive
• Daft Punk doing Tron 2.0 Score
• Race to Witch Mountain Premiere
• Bioshock 2 details: Big Sisters?
• JJ Abrams – “The challenge of doing “Star Trek” — despite the fact that it existed before “Star Wars” — is that we are clearly in the shadow of what George Lucas has done.”

Box Office Report:

Geek Jerk Reaction:

Opening March 20, 2009

Duplicity
I Love You, Man
Knowing

Opening March 27, 2009

Monsters vs Aliens
AdeventureLand
The Haunting in Connecticut
12 Rounds

Question for Next Week: Star Wars, Star Trek, or Battlestar Galactica? Do modern sci-fi properties live in the shadow of Star Wars still?

Send Your Answers to: answers@geekshow.us

Download:  iPod/Low Bandwidth Format | 720p HD Format
View on Youtube. Subscribe and leave comments, please!
[display_podcast]

Railroad Tycoon was released in 2005. In 2008, a new expansion was released for it. The name “Railroad Tycoon” was based on the computer game of the same name. As a result, manufacturing copies of the game required paying a licensing fee. So when it came time to make an expansion game, they decided it was in their best interest financially to remove the Railroad Tycoon name. Instead, they named the expansion, “Rails of Europe“. In addition, they removed every mention of Tycoons in the game. Even the “Mission” cards you collect at the beginning of the game are called “Baron Cards” rather than “Tycoon Cards”.

It is important to mention that this game is an expansion. It can’t be played without the components from the first game. So you will have to either buy Railroad Tycoon, the forthcoming Railways of the World, or do some printing in order to come up with the components you need to play. But with that in mind, let’s discuss what makes this game better than Railroad Tycoon. Keep in mind, that I’m assuming you’ve already read my Railroad Tycoon review, and/or watched the video.

Gameplay

The fact is, this game plays like Railroad Tycoon in just about every way. The game mechanics are virtually identical. Only a couple additions and subtractions from the base game exist. However, those changes along with the different board (Europe vs The US) create a much more tight gameplay experience.

My favorite gameplay change from Railroad Tycoon involve the Major Lines. These were used in RRT in order to reward you for completing connections between two far off cities. For instance, New York to Chicago would net you a lot of bonus points. However, in RRT, you had to wait for those specific cards to come up. Then it would be a mad dash to see if anyone could get there. It was a neat mechanic, for sure. It created a lot of rushes for particular destinations.

With Rails of Europe, they changed the way Major Lines work. From the start of the game, all of them are available for completion. So you will always be working with an eye toward completing these connections. It’s a subtle change, but it has an interesting effect on gameplay. Instead of creating late game rushes, you have to keep an eye on your opponents the whole game.

However, a majority of the gameplay differences come from the board design itself. The major “problem” for Railroad Tycoon, when it came to gameplay, was that everything was so spread out. In a game with few players, it would wind up with there being too much open space for a really interactive game. So the games often ended up being awarded to players that could break off and manage to remain un-harassed by their fellow players. There was also the problem of a lot of wasted space that didn’t really provide much usefulness in the game. In our games, there were literally cities that we had never built to after dozens of plays.

With Rails of Europe, the layout of the board is brutal. The two biggest cities, Paris and Berlin, are in the center of the map. If you want a decent chance at winning the game, you are probably going to have to build through those cities. There are a healthy number of cubes waiting to be delivered there, and a large number of major line connections involve that area. This alone changes the game dynamic. Instead of the US map encouraging players to stay away from the west as much as possible, this map encourages players to start their scrums in the center of the map, and work out in whichever direction benefits you the most. Instead of having 5-8 cities go untouched in a game, we now usually only have 1-2 cities (Athens, and Copenhagen, usually) that go untouched for multiple games.

The mechanics of the game encourage you to build to places you may normally not build. Nearly every corner of the board is made accessible and possible because of the points the appropriate Major Lines will give you. Add in the Service Bounties, which give players points for being the first person to deliver a cube to a certain city, and just about every major area of the board with be built to in most games.

There is at least one issue I’ve had with the new mechanics of the game, however. Capital Charter is a new type of card making it’s way into the game this time around. The card awards you for your opponents building into or out of Paris and Berlin. However, the card takes an action to acquire, and is heavily restricted in it’s use. For one, only track built after you receive the card gives you bonus points. Secondly, you only get 1 point for each route out of the city per player. So if you are playing with the maximum number of players, and you get the card on the first turn of the game, you can probably get the maximum 4 points. However, if you get the card later in the game, you are looking at 1-2 points, maximum. It’s probable that you may not get any points from the card as well. We’ve taken the cards out of our rotation, just because they are usually lame ducks that take up space that much cooler cards could occupy. I personally feel that the game took a step forward by making the Major Lines stay around constantly. However, it took a step back because of the Capital Charters using a similar method as the original Major Lines.

Overall though, the gameplay is fantastic in the expansion. A definite improvement to Railroad Tycoon. One that has made sure that we haven’t touch RRT since Rails of Europe hit the table. However, if you are looking for an experience for 5 or 6 players, you may actually be better suited to the Railroad Tycoon experience. The extra space can make for a better experience in larger games.

Rules

I felt that that the rules for Railroad Tycoon were incredibly simple. Rails of Europe adds virtually nothing new in that regard. The instruction manual is a couple pages long. Most of that is giving you the new victory point conditions (You now need less empty city markers than before), and outlining the couple new cards they have added to the game. Otherwise, the rules remain incredibly simple.

The one complaint I have in this area, is that the game seems to ignore the fact that 2 player games aren’t just possible, they are insanely fun. Since it ignores that, they don’t bother to include the victory conditions for a two player game. But given the way the game scales for higher players, simple math will tell you what you need. Hint: 9 cities should do the trick.

Components

For the most part, the expansion uses Railroad Tycoon’s pieces. This is another good opportunity to point out that the game doesn’t come with the pieces you will need to play the game. Buy Railroad Tycoon, Railways of the World, or make your own somehow.

However, what the game does have is the new board, and a few new cards. The cards are nothing special. They are the same as always. However, I have to give the developers credit for the board design. Railroad Tycoon got this aspect of the game wrong in a couple ways. The board warping and the bad color matching could actually effect your games. However, this board is fantastic. It doesn’t seem to even have the potential for warping because of how it folds. The colors are very vibrant and attractive. The one complaint I’ve heard on this matter is that the board has such a glossy sheen to it, that it reflects light too easily. This doesn’t personally bother me, but that is something to be aware of.

Overall

Rails of Europe is a game that we will be coming back to frequently. It  does tend to last about 2 hours, so you need a healthy chunk of time available in order to get the full enjoyment of it out. However, the overall experience is as solid as I’ve seen. It will probably be one of my favorite games for a long time to come. It has a lot of re-playability, just because things tend to shake out differently every time. Also, it isn’t the type of game where you can usually run off with the lead, or be completely knocked out of the game. There are some instances where that has happened in our games, but not many. Overall, the game is forgiving.

You should have an easy time teaching this game to new players. Chances are, they will be up for playing again after you get the initial game out of the way. Everyone I have played the game with has had a great experience. The came can get brutal at times as you rush for Major Lines, bid to prevent a player from taking a certain action, and come out of nowhere to claim extra points. However, it is the type of game where you can do that while having a conversation, laughing, and generally having a good time.

You can purchase this game at Thoughthammer:

Randy – Editor, Show host, & Written Review
Russell – Show Host
Ray – Recoding Studio, Lights, Sound, & Camera

Also, thanks to Thoughthammer for making this possible, and to Beatnik Turtle for the intro music “Beat People Up (Remix)“!

]]> http://www.geekshow.us/content/podcasts/true-believers/true-believers-issue-19-c2c-bone-one-volume-collection/feed/ 4 Bone,Boneville,Fone,Jeff Smith,Phoney,Smiley,Thorn In this issue its our reveiw of our Feburary Book of the Month, Bone written by Jeff Smith with art by Jeff Smith. This is our look at the complete collection of one of the most critically acclaimed series of all time, and it is a good one. In this issue its our reveiw of our Feburary Book of the Month, Bone written by Jeff Smith with art by Jeff Smith. This is our look at the complete collection of one of the most critically acclaimed series of all time, and it is a good one. This extra long review of this 1300 page epic makes for an epic episode. Hopefully you have gotten your copy and read it before now. Because there will be SPOILERS galore, as we discuss the plot, characters, and more in this issue of True Believers. We’ll be back next week with our look at DC Comics in Feburary. Geekshow Entertainment Podcasts no 36:06 http://www.geekshow.us/content/podcasts/geekintertainment/geekin-episode-91-geekin-in-3d/ http://www.geekshow.us/content/podcasts/geekintertainment/geekin-episode-91-geekin-in-3d/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:08:08 +0000 Saberj http://www.geekshow.us/?p=4346 An episode discussing 3d, spin-off shows, and more. And this episode weighs in at about an hour and thirty minutes. Short, by today’s standards. Keep reading to see what is on the menu for this episode!

Discussed This Week:

• Dollhouse so far (Hitting its groove by episode 6?)
• Forums live on Geekshow
• Coraline in 3d
• Stargate: Universe Cast
• Gossip Girl Spin-off casting
• Rockband drums in Garage Band

Box Office Report:

February 20–22, 2009

Geek Jerk Reaction:

Discussion
2009 Academy Awards

News
Michel Gondry on Green Hornet
Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard’s Cabin in the Woods
Friday The 13th Sequel
Eddie Murphy to Play Richard Pryor
Ed Helms to Write and Star in Civil War Time Travel Comedy
The NeverEnding Story Gets a Remake
Sam Jackson Signs Up For NINE MORE Appearances as Nick Fury
Joss Whedon’s Theory On Why DC Comic Book Movies Usually Suck
Ghostbusters 3 To Begin Shooting Fall 2009?
1978 Battlestar Galactica Big Screen Movie?
Breckin Meyer Writing Superguys: “Ocean’s Eleven Set At Comic-Con”
Vanessa Hudgens Dead @ 17, Mike Dougherty Scripting Her Demise And Resurrection
Black Widow, Blunt out, Dushku wants in, Johansson probably in
Jackie Earl Hayley not Krueger and Lohan not Nancy
Steve Oedekirk to write Stretch-Arm-Strong movie
Diablo Kody producing Breathers: A Zombie’s Lament
Gore Verbinski directing Clue

Trailers
Black Freighter
People vs. George Lucas
I Love you Beth Cooper
Supercapers
Transformers 2
S. Darko

Reviews
Friday the 13th
Coraline 3-D
He’s Just Not That Into You

Then Nick discusses his sick week and run of season three of Buffy which prompts Kim and Nick to discuss what Angel does during the day. Nick loves Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler and lets Kim know it and brings up his almost scoop on Jesse McCartney. Kim saw The Reader and wonders why it is getting some hate and the brutality of Kate Winslet’s movies are brought up and Nick gladly welcome Blink-182’s return to form. To wrap up Nick and Kim discuss Buffy a little further and Kim presents her video of the week, Barney’s Awesome Song.

Discussion:

Heroes Volume IV: Fugitives

Chuck vs. The Third Dimension

Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse

News:

Ratner to direct Youngblood

Nolan to direct Inception

Samuel Bayer to direct Elm Street

Dev Patel to play Zuko

Martin Campbell to direct Green Lantern

Powers headed to FX

Kevin Williamson bringing Vampire Diaries to CW

Marvel Motion Comics

Wachowski Bros and Superman

Trailers:

Observe and Report

The Education of Charlie Banks

Land of the Lost

Inglorious Basterds

Email us or Comment:

What makes a Geek a Geek?

Discussed This Week:

• Dollhouse premiers, Terminator returns
• Moving on to Blu-Ray
• First episode of Game Night with Geekshow is up
• Having fun with games recently
• Randy is getting back into Battlestar Galactica
• Wayne finished Doctor Who

Box Office Report:

Geek Jerk Reaction:

•    Dark Avengers

•    New Avengers

•    Mighty Avengers

•    Daredevil

•    Runaways

•    Fantastic Four

•    ULTIMATUM