AGI - Hex Hex

It's been a while since I last posted but there are plenty of games I could bring up. Today, I bring you a game that I just recently found called Hex Hex. This is a card game that has its origins in the game hot potato. The object of the game is to not be hexed, to avoid this fate you have spells (cards) that deflect the hex to other players. This continues until a player can't deflect the Hex and
they lose Voice (points). Interestingly enough, the game has no real victory conditions. They only state that the players choose a certain number of round to play and the end of it the person with the most voice wins. This may seem odd but once you play a few turns you understand why the victory conditions are so odd...

It just a blast to play!

The game starts with one player dealing out 5 cards to each person, then assign the hex to a random player. As mentioned above the players all bounce the Hex around until it finally explodes. To add spice to this not all cards pass the hex, one cards actually cause the hex to explode on the player it is attached at the moment. Others include splitting the Hex into 2 hexes and the card that the game is named after the Hex Hex card. This card can be played at anytime and when placed everyone at the table has to raise their hands above their head and say: "Hex Hex!" The Last person to do this loses three voice. The variety of cards turn this game in an excellent group game. the more people you have the better since it make the game more unpredictable.

Hex Hex is a great party game with rules are quick to pick up and variety make it fun to play for extended periods of time. Buy it no seriously buy this right now from the link in my blog, its worth the money. Here's the link one more time just in case you can't find it above.

AGI - Fluxx

Welcome to Analog Game Interest round 2!

Today, dear reader(s) (I might have 2 people reading this) we have a game that is not only fun but unpredictable. Fluxx is not a game that can be explained well because humans by nature need games to have set rules. In this game, the rules always change. watch as I try to explain below:

Fluxx is a card game by Loony Labs, that for a lack of a better way to define it, it is a game about rules. Rules most likely will change after each players turn. One thing they do to keep it simple is that you can only draw/play cards on your turn.

There are 4 types of cards: (as seen in picture above) Rules, Goals, Keepers, and Actions.

Rule cards: Cause the rules to change in the game. If a card is played that requires everyone to draw 2 cards on your turn that means you draw 2 cards.

Goals: these cards allow give you your victory conditions. buy for filling the specified goal you can win the game. there is only one goal at a time.

Keepers: these are used to help you achieve goals. by placing these down in fron t of you during your turn you can work towards the current goal.

Action: these are the spice cards that allow you to do things outside the normal rules. for example: one cards says draw 3 cards, play 2 of them and discard the 3rd one.


The challenge for anyone new is to wrap their head around playing the game. It seems really complex but in all honesty after a few rounds of play most people catch on. It is amusing to see people reaction to the game. Most approach it as way too complex and leave loving the game. the games length can vary sometimes it can end after about 5 minutes of playing other times I've seen games go as long as 30 minutes. It also forces one to never plan ahead because goals, rules, and keepers shift all the time. To quote one person: "This game made me fear change." Fluxx's gameplay certainly lives up to its name.

The downside is that this unpredictable gameplay results in only one way to win:
By getting everything you need to work on your turn. I'd say 99% of games are won by the player having the cards he needs and putting them all down on his turn. Its rare that a person wins through some else's actions. However, the feeling of success by doing what you need to win on a single turn is a great rush.

This game is great to play anyone who needs a good party game for a lot of people. If you don't have it, buy it.

Round one...

Played little of Uncharted: Drakes Fortune last night. So far, the game has been a blast to play, love the main character. There need to be more heroes like him.What I didn't like was the fact that I couldn't see my enemies. It got to the point that I had to actually move really close to the TV to see them. This maybe due to the fact I have a standard TV and the downgraded resolution messes with the visibility. Thus, it looks like I need to get new TV just so I can play the game with out squinting to see my enemies on the screen.

However, there's one problem:

I don't want a new TV yet. The TV currently sitting in my apartment has been in my ownership for less than a year. Do I really need to get a new TV? This TV is a hand me down from my parents as part of my moving out and its only about 4 years old. They gave it to me since my Dad seems to be on an epic quest to make sure every TV in his house is a HDTV. Free stuff thats this nice, doesn't come very often...but damn it so freaking hard to see those bad guys...then again, It could just be an issue in Drake's Fortune and my TV isn't the issue at all...but HD quality picture is quite nice...


Stay tuned to see which side of me wins out: the common sense/thrifty side or the tech geek

Ring the bell to begin Round 1.

Nice.

Found this blog at Level up today. It's long but man it was good. The Gamespot fiasco has had many people talking but he puts it under the microscope and shows you more than what I've seen elsewhere.

Honestly, I'm not gonna rant on this topic. It's been done. Before I read this article all I could get from the news about it was speculation and bare bone facts. Sam Kennedy, I tip my hat.

It been a while...

It sure has. Yeesh.

Well I'd like to say I was delayed in posting a while due to having to save the world from annihilation by the entity known as Nyx. The battle was coming up soon and I had to prepare. 26 days till the end of the world is no laughing matter. I trained hard and gained a new level of enlightenment both in combat and in understanding the human condition. In the end, the training paid off and Nyx fell before me like nothing more than another bump in the road. Humans 1, ultra powerful entities 0.

My friends gathered around me and celebrated as we fought to live and survived. I was happy the world was saved Humanity would live to see life grow. But, something still bothered me. Nyx defeat was too easy...Its most powerful attack barely cut the surface of my skin. Was that really the final boss of this game? My current level was only 99. My spells pounded almost triple the damage the final boss could shell out. I should have at least broken a sweat right?

...Guess that what I get for maxing out my characters level. A character so powerful gods fear him.

but, did I screw up the challenge of the final boss? The game?

Honestly, no.

Yeah, I can see your face: "WTF, mate." (By the way if you are picturing a kangaroo you are awesome)

Persona 3 is a fun game. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes JRPGS or RPGs. Why? Because they definitely did something different than what I was used to seeing.

First the end of the world was on January 31, 2009 no exceptions (take that Nostradamus). Either be ready to fight by then or fall. I wanted to be ready, so I did what I tend to do a little too much of in RPGs and grind the game.

The second thing they did was make you explore their dungeon. The only way to fight the boss was to make it to the top floor by the 31 of January. If you don't make it then game over. I had a map of the all the way up to the top most part by the end of December.

The final thing I liked was that your characters got tired. If you grind too long you will exhaust yourself and then you won't be at peak condition for 2 days. When every day counts it can be critical not to waste all of your energy. If i was going to exhaust myself i needed to make sure i had planned ahead accordingly.

The results of this planning were spectacular, The boss didn't even stand a chance. Honestly could have beaten the game probably 2 months ago, but I wanted to make sure that if this boss was gonna be tough my character would be tough too.

Yeah... so...what does that rambling mean to the original question?

I did what I wanted with this game and got the result I wanted. You can think I ruined the experience by creating a monstrous character, but I did want to create this monster. It felt good. My long hours of grinding showed that it wasn't all for nothing.

Heh, just reading over this post I know I'll sound like a total nerd/dork/weirdo who has too much time on my hands and not enough to do.

Well, I'll be honest again, if I was still in college I probably would have beaten this game in a few months with the same result. But, with other more important things to do, Persona 3 fell by the way side many a night. I wanted to finish this game. It wasn't about to be another game half done, which has happened more time than I care to think.

So if I sound a little too nerdy/dorky/geeky that's OK.

I beat P3 and I beat it the way I wanted...Damn that feels good.