Wings of War: Famous Aces Coming to Xbox Live Arcade

I was very jazzed to hear that Fantasy Flight Games' excellent WWI fighter dogfight game Wings of War is coming to XBLA. I had demoed the game at GenCon '07, and was very excited to pick it up.

The board game's Famous Aces starter box had been out of stock for a while though, and my gaming group hasn't been playing many board games of late, so I'd kind of held off on the purchase.

I'm thinking that WoW:FA on XBL will be an excellent online multiplayer time-killer when the weather is too bad to venture out to our normal Friday night game sessions, though!

The game is being developed by Madison, Wisconsin startup Big Rooster.

Merry Christmas and a Geeky New Year!

So, it's been a while since I posted. Basically, the nuttiness of the holiday has simply been keeping me busy as heck.

We started painting the kitchen in December, and ended up racing to get everything buttoned up before the holidays. There's still a little touching up to be done, but we at least got the room far enough along to be presentable to holiday visitors and attendees to our annual post-Christmas party (which is tonight!).

My parents visited over the holidays, which was great, and everything went without a hitch. Heather had to work on Christmas, but we went in to have lunch with her and her coworkers, and that turned out to be a nice time.

The other thing that's been keeping me busy is the Great Games Deluge of Late '07. Truly, it's been a great fall to be a gamer. Over the last few weeks, I finished Portal (a simply sublime religious experience) and Halo 3 (quite fun as well), and dove back into Bioshock with the intent of finally finishing it up.

The further I get into Bioshock, the more I like it. At first, gorgeous atmosphere aside, the game felt a little rote and repetitive. As the story began to progress, however, I surrendered to the plot and began to allow the designers to lead me through by the nose ring. Great stuff, and a truly wonderful setting rife with ambiance and impeccable art direction. Fear my wrench, you dirty Splicers!

Next on the finish-me list are Gears of War and Half-Life 2. I'm a few hours into both stories and am enjoying them thoroughly. I'm enticed with the possibilities of GoW multiplayer, as the gameplay reminds me fondly of paintball, which the crummy Northeast US weather has been keeping me away from.

Then there's Mass Effect. See my upcoming diary post re. that title.

Finally, the unveiling of the grand '07 geek present pile:

• Settlers of Catan (new redesigned 4th Ed.) - I'm very much looking forward to introducing my family to this great board game, and also getting my gamer friends together at the table for yet another enjoyable Catan session.
• Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magical Carrot (card game) - Zack (my 11-yr old son) had originally seen this game at Mepacon, and then bought it for me for Xmas when he came upon it when they were buying Settlers. I've been reading through the rules and it should be a hoot. Great game to play with Zack and my gamer friends.
• Rock Band (360) - from "Santa" to me and Zack. A definite improvement over Guitar Hero, and I'm excited to try this with a full band of four - this'll definitely get broken out at the party tonight. I've been enjoying playing with Zack, my little drummer boy, and also unlocking lots of songs on guitar Solo Tour on hard difficulty. The RB guitar is a huge improvement over the GH version - finally a neck-button design friendly to actual guitar players!
• Super Mario Galaxy - Was on sale at Target for $37 after Xmas, and couldn't pass up dropping some of my Xmas money on it. I'm only a few minutes in, but am intrigued so far. Invokes the delightful experience that was Super Mario 64 way back when (so much more effectively than SM Sunshine, which I just couldn't get in to).
• Call of Duty 4 (360) - Another fishhook-in-my-wallet $37 Target item. Haven't even cracked the plastic open, but am looking forward to doing so. By all online accounts, this game is sounding like a very serious contender for Game of the Year, and I simply love a great single-player campaign.

That's it for now - tune in soon for a post-Xmas-party Rock Band debriefing.

Weisman Regains Rights to FASA Properties

Many fans will be delighted to hear that Jordan Weisman's new company Smith & Tinker has licensed the rights for the Battletech, Shadowrun, and Crimson Skies properties back from Microsoft. Here's a link to the press release.

Go Jordan! Can't wait to see what his next move will be.

Arkham Horror Audio Review

Just a quick note to check out the latest installment of the Radio Active podcast (#34) over at Ken Newquist's speculative fiction website, Nuketown. Ken kindly asked me to join him to collaborate on a review of one of our gaming group's newest obsessions, Arkham Horror.

Arkham Horror is published by Fantasy Flight Games, and is an engrossing cooperative board game based on the timless, creepy fiction of H. P. Lovecraft and the cult favorite (pun intended) Chaosium Games' RPG, Call of Cthulhu.

Board Game Friday: the Horror!!!

Well, I'm quite excited. This Friday night is board game week!

See, I've been gaming weekly with a great bunch of guys for the past six years or so. Here's a link to our campaign website. The main focus of our weekly Friday night game is several ongoing Dungeons and Dragons (d20 3.5 ed.) campaigns set in the world of Greyhawk. I've not been playing with them as of late, as my D&D jonze waxes and wanes, and I was looking for an opportunity to carve out a little more family time. (Note that the group is actually looking for another regular player if you're located in the Lehigh Valley and are so inclined.)

That said, I'm still meeting with them when they take a week off of D&D to play board games, my true tabletop gaming love.

Up this week - a game that I've been drooling over for some time, Arkham Horror by Fantasy Flight Games.



Now, I'm a huge fan of the works of H.P. Lovecraft. If you aren't familiar with his writings, Lovecraft is the author of a collection of deliciously, disturbingly macabre 1920's and 30's sci fi / horror stories, including the famous Cthulhu mythos works.

Arkham Horror is a board game set in Lovecraft's 1920's fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts. The game is cooperative, and the players take on the roles of various investigative Arkham citizens braving the horrors of the night. The investigators must strive to close off a variety of gates to otherworldly realms before too much eldritch mojo has built up, allowing one of several Ancient Ones - insane elder gods hailing from the blackest recesses of time and space - to slip into our world and destroy existence as we know it.

Now come on, that just sounds like a fun Friday night, doesn't it?

I picked up the game last night, and I must say, like most of Fantasy Flight's fine games, it's a brick. Serious fart-factor, as the boys from Pulp Gamer podcast would say. (Fart-factor is a phrase the Pulp Gamer fellows coined to describe the vacuum-induced burping noise that a substantial, heavy new game makes when one picks it up by the lid and allows the inner box to drop to the table.)

Seriously - I popped open the box this morning to grab the rulebook to read over breakfast. The game box is about 12 inches square by perhaps 4 inches deep, and when one opens it up, the thing is literally packed to the top with contents - there is absolutely no airspace in the box whatsoever. Now that's a game, baby! Components galore, a large, beautifully detailed game board, and 24 page, 11" x 11" rulebook. Mmm, now that's good eatin'!



I've just finished reading the rules over lunch at work, and this really looks to be a well-designed game - can't wait to try it out! More to come after our first go at the Ancient Ones on Friday night.

/excited!