Zerg Crush

Not an ideal set-up, but this game is seriously big.

Didn’t get to bed until 5 in the morning last night, because of an epic session of Starcraft: The Board Game. Five of us were playing, and the game must have been almost 6 hours long. We’re a really slow group. We deliberate over every decision, heads in hands, moaning and wailing, shitting ourselves. We’re a group of players who really, really want to win.

The game took an age to set up. It was our first play, and none of the chits were even punched out of the boards beforehand. That’s very unlike me. Usually, when I get a new board game, I like to get inside and punch everything out, bag everything up, fiddle with stuff. Starcraft was a Christmas present, so I never quite got the time. That meant that yesterday I had to read the 40 page rulebook from cover to cover, punch everything out, assemble everything across two (YES! TWO!) tables, explain the whole deal to the players, and then play. So, add all the prep to the play time, and we’re talking about maybe 9 hours of Starcraft-related geekery.

But, man alive, what a game. I’ll probably talk about the game itself more at a later date, maybe even sling a video up, but I just had to scribble down my next-day feelings. It was tense and exciting from start to finish. Everyone was still upright and conscious at half four in the morning, when the last few orders were being carried out and the last few marines were being squished.

What amazed me the most was the fact that this strategy-deep, quite thinking-heavy board game still managed to feel like Starcraft. I was a Zerg player, and at the start I thought, okay, we’re all inexperienced players here. Let’s try an old-fashioned Zerg Rush! And hey, it worked! I got a conquest point victory, having spread my foul seed all over the table. In the game, I mean.

The great thing about the game is that I think everyone sort of felt that I’d won by a fair distance. But I hadn’t. I’d won by one point. If I hadn’t claimed that single Conquest Point, two other players would have been tied for a win. That’s how tight it was in the end.

Oh man. Theme, theme, theme. Loved it. LOVED IT.

LOVED IT!

Richard prepares his Yamato Gun. He's a Hot Yamato.

The Independint Charles Show

I’m doing another show, about the Indie Games on Xbox Live, and it’s available for EVERYONE IN THE WORLD to watch on your own Xbox 360! If you live in the UK, that is.

It’s called “The Independint Charles Show” and it is…um…experimental.

If you want to watch it, and you’re in the UK, crank up your old 360 and check the Inside Xbox section to see the show you’ll either love or hate.

Monster Hunting

The latest videogame I’m playing is Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii.

I’ve only ever played one Monster Hunter game before, and it was on the PSP. I’m really not a big fan of playing games on the PSP. The machine just feels bad in your hands. But the game was great, and was an impressive technical feat.

The Wii game is even better. I’ve only been inching into the game so far, stressing myself out about killing the lovely big herbivores at the start. Big peaceful creatures, then along comes you to fuck up their day, by clonking on their head with your oversized anime sword.

Who is the Monster? That’s what I ask you. WHO IS THE REAL MONSTER?!

Look at this scenery, though. Oh it’s nice to just relax and have a spit roast sometimes. Not in the footballer sense.

Jump, you monster!

Blood Bowl for PC

Blood Bowl. You know what Blood Bowl is, don’t you? It’s not your toilet pan after a bad bout of piles. It’s Games Workshop’s violent sports game, and the PC version of the classic tabletop romp is now available for download.

Blood Bowl’s a bit like American Football. Except it has more Orcs and Goblins. Oh, and less steroid freaks and murder cases.

The PC game apparently lets you play in a turn-based style, just like the tabletop version, and mixes it up with a risky sounding real-time mode. Hey, it might work, we dunno. It might.

We’re trying to get our hands on some review code so we can let you know how it all hangs together, but in the meantime get yourself over to the website and see if you’re tempted to buy the digital download. It’s 40 quid.