Sunday, January 25, 2009

Fives & Dimes 2008

There is a tradition in the board gaming community. Each year, those of us who track our played games compile a list of the games we played at least five times (fives) or ten times (dimes) in the year. I'm not sure how useful the information, but I suppose it is fun to see if older games are still getting played regularly. I am also curious why it isn't called a Nickel & Dime list. Oh well. Here is my Five & Dime list from 2008 (with one half dollar thrown in).

Half Dollar:
60 plays - Pandemic

Dimes:
21 plays - Agricola
19 plays - Ticket To Ride
19 plays - Uno
18 plays - Schotten Totten
14 plays - Ballon Cup
14 plays - Battle Line
11 plays - Wizard
10 plays - Mr. Jack
10 plays - The Settler of Catan

Fives:
9 plays - Rosenkönig
6 plays - Carcassonne
6 plays - Lost Cities
6 plays - Ra
6 plays - Twilight Struggle
5 plays - Hey! That's My Fish!
5 plays - Magic: The Gathering CCG

Some more stats from 2008:
I logged 377 plays of 100 different games.
I played 49 games only once.
I didn't play any games in January, October or November.
I played 110 games in June.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

If I Had $40 million?

If I had $40 million, I would fund myself another X-Files movie. I was a pretty significant X-Files fan back in the day. I didn't just watch the television show. I played the video games. I read the books. I watched the shows that were tangentially related to the X-Files universe. I read the comics. I named my dog Scully. I was a pretty big fan.

As the second movie approached, I was excited. I avoided all spoilers and vowed to see it as soon as possible. It opened the same weekend I was at Comic-Con, so I figured I would go see it during the following week sometime. Then I started to hear that it was bad. I don't really remember where these rumblings came from, but I decided I didn't want to be disappointed. So, I skipped it.

I finally got around to renting it from Netflix this week and it was awesome! Okay, maybe not awesome, but I really loved it. I had no idea what the plot was and I was so happy to find out it was it wasn't an alien invasion movie. I do love the alien mythos stuff, but I really love the X-Files' monster-of-the-week episodes. I don't want to spoil anything. Just know it is super creepy in all the right ways. If you gave it a pass like i did, do yourself a favor and rent it.

Thank you to Chris Carter, Gillian Anderson, and David Duchovny for making a great X-Files movie for me and the rest of your fans. I really hope you guys can find a way to get another film made. You could have it set in 2012, maybe? Bring on the aliens! Just make sure you add some Slim Whitman to the soundtrack.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Best & Worst of 2008 - Comics Edition

The time has come to reveal the comics that I liked best in 2008. Once again, I am only concerned with the titles that I read for the first time in 2008. Actual release dates are not relevant to me here.


1. Buddha by Osamu Tezuka is available in an eight-volume set from Vertical. I think I read six of the volumes in 2008. I finished the series just a few weeks ago in the early days of 2009. Tezuka's epic tale of the life of Buddha was originally written between 1974 and 1984. You would expect the epicness, but there is also tons of hilarity. A truly amazing comic that should be read by everyone.


2. Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 by David Petersen. I finally picked up the trade paperback of the first series and it is wonderful. I had read issue one back in 2006 and I looked forward to finishing it ever since. I can't wait till the second series is collected.


3. Is Brian Wood the best writer working in comics today? Maybe. Northlanders: Sven The Returned is my third favorite read of 2008. These Vikings are vital and contemporary. The reader is not hidden behind a cloak of history. Local and DMZ are two other fine examples of Brian Wood's writing you should check out. The art by Davide Gianfelice is perfect.


4. Sshhhh! by Jason is a wonderful wordless comic. I have been wanting to get into Jason's work for a couple years now and I am glad this was my first. Originally released in 2002, it really is amazing the amount of emotion that Jason gets out of these drawings. Much better than the second book from Jason that I read. I look forward to experiencing more from Jason.


5. Disappearance Diary by Hideo Azuma comes in at number five. There are three stories in the book and I love two of them. If the third was as good as the other two, then this would be higher on the list. Azuma was a popular manga artist who developed a drinking problem, disappeared twice, and was finally forcibly committed to an alcohol rehabilitation program. Disappearance Diary is a humorous chronicle of that journey.

Honorable mentions: The Complete Peanuts Volumes 1-3 by Charles M. Schulz, The Quest For The Missing Girl by Jiro Taniguchi, Polly & The Pirates by Ted Naifeh, Crying Freeman Volume 1 by Kazuo Koike & Ryoichi Ikegami, and Apollo's Song by Osamu Tezuka.


The worst comic I read in 2008 was Scooter Girl by Chynna Clugston-Major. I really didn't like this comic. Was I supposed to root for Margaret as she tried to destroy Ashton's life? Was I supposed to hope Ashton destroyed her first? Whatever. I thought they were both idiots and I didn't care who won.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The Best & Worst of 2008 - Board Game Edition

January is the time of the year to make lists, so here is the first of mine. I present to you the best and worst board games that I played for the first time in 2008. I am not bothered when a game actually comes out, all that matters is when I first play it. So, you may find some older games in my list. There may be some games that were officially released in 2008 that I actually played in 2007. Those would be on my 2007 list. I played fifty-four games for the first time in 2008. Not too bad considering the fact that I missed BGG.Con 2008. I played twenty-seven new-to-me games at BGG.Con 2007 and I am sure I would have done the something similar at the 2008 convention. Here is my top 5 best games of 2008:


1. Agicola (2007) by Uwe Rosenberg was my favorite new-to-me game of the year. It was also my second most played game of the year. I have barely scratched the surface of Agricola. There are so many cards in the game that I am sure I will be playing it often for several years to come. It is currently 5th in my all-time Top Ten games. Any rumors that it made it into my top ten just because of the animeeples are misleading.


2. The second game on my list is Tinners' Trail (2008) by Martin Wallace. Mr. Wallace is probably my favorite game designer (and I have the microbadge to prove it). Tinners' Trail is a wonderful game that I need to play more often. Only two plays so far, but I can see it moving into my Top Ten someday. Next time I play, I think I will cook up some pasties.


3. Palastegeflüster (2007) by Michael Rieneck sh
ows up as my third favorite new-to-me game of the year. It is unlike the others on this list because it is a small card game, but it packs tons of fun into a little package. 


4. Michael Schacht's Web of Power (2000) comes in at number four. Currently out of print, there are dark whisperings of a new version to be released in Europe this year. I will be picking that up when it is released. Mr. Schacht has made some games I really love and some I love not so much. For example, Coloretto sucks. All the other 'etto' games suck too. I can't wait to get some more plays of this fine game.


5. There were a few games that could have made it to number five on my list, so I went with the one that I am most anxious to get played again. Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage (1996) by Mark Simonitch came out recently in a beautiful new edition and I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I have only gotten to play it once, but I really, really want to play it more. This was the first card-driven war game I purchased and it led me to buy a few more. I haven't really played any of them, but I keep buying them.

Honorable Mentions: Balloon Cup, Flascheteufel, Arkham Horror, Lord of the Rings, The Princes of Florence, Cold War: CIA vs. KGB, The Downfall of Pompeii, Louis XIV, Manoeuvre, and the 7th Sea collectible-card-game.


Worst New-To-Me Game Of The Year: Titan (1980) gets the prize and it wasn't really close. This game is just awful. I wanted to like it, really I did. I played it three times and had very little fun. I don't see why so many people love it. I don't need to play it again.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Mark's Box - January 2009

A few months ago I decided to start buying comics again. I am not going to the comic store every week to pick up issues though. I did that for awhile a few years back and didn't like it. I am sticking to buying collections now. They are easier to read, share, and store. I will mostly be buying trade paperbacks, but occasionally I will splurge on a fancy hardcover special edition. My new buying practices have been made incredibly easy and (somewhat) affordable thanks to DCBService. Discount Comic Book Service allows you to pre-order comics a few months ahead and they arrive at your doorstep once a month in a box. You get a nice discount and it is incredibly easy. So, once a month I will be posting the highlights of my box.

This month was a very small box. Only three new books arrived on my doorstep today.


Volume two of Osamu Tezuka's Black Jack series is the highlight of the box. I just finished reading the eight-volume Buddha series by Tezuka the other day and it was excellent. Black Jack has had a great start in volume one and volume two instantly moved to the top of my stack. Black Jack is the greatest surgeon in the world and each story deals with one of his cases. I am not sure if Black Jack is a licensed surgeon, but he jets around dealing with cases that no other doctors can handle. Really good stuff.

The other two books I got are unknown quantities. The blurbs on the website sounded interesting and the prices were right, so I ordered them.


Gettysburg: The Graphic Novel appears to be a well-researched depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg and the events leading up to the Gettysburg Address. I am not a huge American Civil War fan, but I enjoy having some history mixed up in my comics.


The final title this month is Continuity. I ordered this because the cover looked cool and the blurb was interesting. Click through and read the blurb if you are interested. The key sentence for me was "she quickly finds herself orphaned, pregnant and on the run from a pharmaceutical police state."

More next month...