I already posted once this week, but some more things cropped up and I just couldn’t wait! Firstly, I beat Twilight Princess. I’ll talk more about that in a bigger post but I will say something about how I finished. I got through the disjointed final boss battle not long before having to leave the house. Consequently I had to pause the Wii (Home button) while the final cutscene was playing. Then I got home too late to watch it, so had to leave the Wii on like that all night. I started it again in the morning but only had a little time before work so had to pause again. So the Wii was on, paused during this cutscene for over 24 hours. I found it amusing. But now that’s done, and I did all the sidequests too so I can move onto something else.

I’ve been forgetting to play Rayman for a few days this week. Well, I made up for it today and also found out the range on the WiiU Gamepad. The big thing was you know, you could play games on the toilet or in bed by carrying this thing away, depending on your house size and walls. Well, those factors in my particular apartment mean it loses connection if I take it to bed. It took me a long time to figure this out, apparently I’ve never tried til now. It got all choppy too.

I have now totally given up on that horrible Rockman Xover. The real final straw was when a sudden prompt splashed up to seemingly get an instant stat increase for premium currency. It’s that awfully cynical game design that makes the game broken and unplayable unless you pony up cash. Not the right way to do the freemium model. But lots of people have talked about that so the important thing to me is that I kicked the habit. Who knows what I’ll do with this freed up time?

Well, one thing I tried was Angry Birds Friends. I’ve played and loved all the Angry Birds iOS apps. There’s lots more web apps and flash versions and stuff but I’ve covered the main bases. Generally, I found Space a big let down but loved Star Wars. The Seasons updates tend to be the best. So this one gives you a small set of levels each week and encourages competition with your Facebook friends. Problem is none of my FB friends play it. The other problem is the friends sidebar and the power-ups menu slam down into your playing area each time you attempt a level, including restarts. This is distracting, obnoxious and gets in the way both of the playing area and of the fast-paced experience of Angry Birds that involves trying again quickly when you mess up. The power-ups thing is a larger problem that has spread through all of the versions of this game: it’s the freemium model again, insidiously trying to suck money from casual gamers. Hey, buy these things to make the game super-easy! Buy some more now! I find it offensive, and it’s becoming so widespread in so many games. DESPAIR

Ah well there’s still cool games that you can just buy and play, like Spirit Tracks. I just beat the Fire Temple, I’m kicking through the plot and saving all the sidequesting for later. Woo!

Oh yeah, I’ll just talk a bit about board games. I’ve been to two separate board game nights in two days. One was unexpected but both were fun. The first one I didn’t know the majority of the people but managed to have a fun game of Dominion with the people I did know. I had vague memories of that from my uni days playing games at the Spot with my Spot friends. That’s where my Milo name really stuck. Good times. Then I played 7 Wonders with the people I didn’t know and managed to win quite well despite it being my first time. Only got those two games in between pizza and going to the wrong end of town initially due to faulty directions.

Second board game night was shorter, a last minute change of plan after some domestic disturbance (misbehaving baby) had left our hosts unprepared for the usual bible study. Also we were down a few people, so we put it off for a week and played Cranium and King of Tokyo. We love Jesus but we also love board games (although this is the first time this has happened, usually we love Jesus more ;) ). Cranium is a normal people’s board game, ie. I’ve played it a lot with my family. Our hosts are the aficianado type though, with the German games and all, but for some reason we went for that and it was fun. Boys vs. Girls. Afterwards, we learnt King of Tokyo which is an odd but fun little game where you play as Kaiju type monsters destroying Tokyo. It was designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic the Gathering, a game I am very familiar with. He’s a good game designer apparently. This one was good too, like Yahtzee but with a ton of mechanics added on. It somehow manages to stay simple and engaging though.

So that was video & board game talk. Hey if Idle Thumbs can get away with talking so much about board games, so can I.