Nov
26
Competo games from Makuuni
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Competo released a press release that they have began a co-operation with Makuuni. Makuuni is one of the biggest DVD rental chains in Finland and they have stores all over Finland. Press release didn’t state which Competo games will be sold through Makuuni but I’ll guess it’ll be the lighter and more family friendly side of their cataloque.
You can soon find Competo games at least in these stores:
Itäkeskus, Karhupuisto, Munkkiniemi, Sturenkatu (Helsinki), Myyrmäki, Martinlaakso (Vantaa), It. Pitkäkatu, Kaskenkatu (Turku), Satakunnankatu, Tammela, Sammonkatu, Hervanta, Tesoma (Tampere), Kaukajärvi, Nokia, Vapaudenkatu (Lahti), Hollola, Torikatu (Oulu), Vaasa ja Seinäjoki.
I have to say that it would be cool to see Wits and Wagers among the hot new DVDs but lets see how extensively we’ll going to see Competo in the Makuuni stores in the future.
Nov
19
I’ve been able to get some games in lately and though that maybe I’ll share some views on the games which were published in Spiel 08.
I got Wasabi from Lautapelit.fi discount Saturday. The copy I got was played once by the store owners and they did not like the game. Usually one should probably take the advice and leave those games alone which brick and mortar store owner dislike, but because I’m more and more cultist of the cult of the new, I had to take the game.
As it turned out Wasabi is not at all as bad as I feared. It’s a tile laying game where players try to complete recipies with the ingredients players lay on the board. Components of the game are gorgeous thus making it alluring almost anyone and it’s also simple enough that non-gamers can play it without any problems. There are several ways to organize the tiles which mean that there’s also some tactical elements in the game. This is typically good but in this case it can result serious AP in some players which obviously is bad for the game. Anyways, Wasabi is a positive surprise – it’s not a spectacular game but a good addition to the lighter end of the board games and good to introduce games to non-gamers because of the theme.
Last night I had a possibility to try out Ghost Stories which is a new addition to the co-operative games. In Ghost Stories players play characters in a Anime inspired world were heroes are stong and posses super powers and creatures are ugly and there’s lots of them all over the place as we soon noticed in the game. The game itself is guite mechanical and theme feels a bit pasted on but we had lost of player interaction and we also really had to work together to solve all the problems we encountered. What also became obvious is that Ghost Stories is really hard game to win; our game ended probably halv way through and de definitely were not even close of winning. Interesting game which I definitely play more. I have my doubts on the replayability value of the game but assessing that is not possible with one play.
I also got a possiblity to try out Dominion (or Valtakunta as it’s in Finnish) and I have to say that I was positively surprised about the game. Usually games that get hyped are not the ones I like but Dominion proved to be different. It’s a card game where players build their decks from a general stock of cards and try to purchase victory points. I have been a addict of Magic the Gathering in my past and set building is a mechanic which is familiar to me. The biggest difference between Dominion and MtG is that in Dominion players have common stock of cards from which to build their decks thus making it more even for the players. As with most of the cards games there’s relatively high amount of luck in the game but skill and knownledge of the powers of the cards gives a huge advantage in the game. Interesting game and I hope that I get a chance to play it live some time soon again.
Nov
14
Boardgaming Finland turned 1 year
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It was exactly 1 year from today when I published the first podcast and I have to say that it feels like yesterday. But man was I lost when I recorded the first episode and it’s great to notice that my skills of producing podcasts have risen during the year (and what a poor performance would have it been if skills would be the same…).
I’ve also had the opportunity to play loads of good and bad games and most of all I’ve learned a huge amount of new gamers throughout hwole Finland. I must say that I’m really grateful for all the feedback I’ve had and I hope that there will be more. I can see the statistics of the podcast and see that someone visits it but it’s not quite the same as having concrete evidence that someone really keeps on eye what happens over here.
Maybe this is also a good time to think if I’ve been able to succeed in what I stated in my mission. I could have blogged more as well as a few podcasts more would have not hurted but life is busy and it’s also cool to play some games thereby creating the content for the show. I’ve tried to meet Finnish industry insiders which has been refreshing; there’s always something to learn from those who do business in the field. Producing English podcast has been the last unfinished business in the mission statement but now that I’ve been able to turn the wheel into motion maybe things will become easier. Producing stuff in English demands much more time and effort and finding the sufficient amount of it will be problem also in the future.
Hopefully there will also be some development in the site in the becomming year. Some of those amendments are now there: I created a separate feed for the podcast for those who only want to listen to it and not to read my rumbles. You can find the feed in the podcast page. I’ve also worked on the Itunes and both the Finnish and the English episodes should be available there in a few weeks. I also have plans of buiing more hardware to record better audio quality and obviously I intend to find the time and money for new games.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to do all the things I’d like to but that remains to be seen. But one thing is sure: I wouldn’t do this if you wouldn’t be here!
Nov
11
Lautapelisuomi – jakso 18 – Vuoden peli 2008 -finalistit
Filed Under Lautapelisuomi, Podcast | 2 Comments
LATAA – TÄSTÄ- LAUTAPELISUOMEN UUSIN JAKSO (.mp3)
Tässä jaksossa seuraavaa:
JOHDANTO
UUTISET
Uutisosiossa mainitsen seuraavat asiat:
- Competon kilpailu, jonka löydät [ TÄÄLTÄ]
- Lautapelaaja.net joululahjasuositukset, jotka löydät [ TÄÄLTÄ]
- Helcon 2008 -lautapelitapahtuma, josta lisätietoa [ TÄÄLTÄ] tai [ FACEBOOK]
VUODEN PELI -KILPAILUN FINALISTIEN LÄPIKÄYNTI
Käymme Laurin ja Ollin kanssa läpi kaikki Vuoden peli 2008 -kilpailun finalistit, jotka on julkaistu.
Lastensarja
- Eläinpyramidi [ BGG]; julkaisija Tevella Oy
- Muumien sanasirkus [ BGG]; julkaisija Egmont Kustannus Oy
- Koko perhe näyttelee [ BGG]; julkaisija Tactic Oy
Perhesarja
- Bandu [ BGG]; julkaisija Competo
- Oregon [ BGG]; julkaisija Lautapelit.fi
- Qwirkle [ BGG]; julkaisija Competo
Aikuistensarja
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Palaute on tervetullutta ja pyrin ottamaan sen huomioon tulevia jaksoja suunnitellessani. Lähetä ihmeessä myös toivomuksia tulevia jaksoja silmällä pitäen. Kiitokset myös Eminorille ja Mikko Putkoselle jakson musiikista.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Nov
10
Boardgaming Finland in the US
Filed Under Coloretto, General, Session | Leave a Comment
I had oppurtunity to spend 10 days in the US (DC and NYC) and tried to check out the board game scene in the middle of a rather busy schedule. My findings were that the amount and quality of games sold in the department and book stores is even poorer than in Finland. The selection of games in a typical Finnish store has been growing in the recent years and there’s usually few really good games available. This was not the case in the US where games were only for party purposes.
The second interesting fact is that I didn’t find any brick and mortar stores. Are majority of games sold online nowadays in the US and small game shops disappearing from the scene? It certainly looked that way.
We didn’t play many games during the trip with my class mates but I introduced Coloretto for the group and we had fun with it. It had been a long time since I had played the game myself and lately I’ve been more into Zooloretto and Aquaretto which are both good games. I’ve been wondering if Coloretto has become totally obsolete now that we have board games with same mechanics and more depth but my fears were proven wrong – there is still room for light, fast, portable and fun card game eventhough I’m not going to play Coloretto too often in the future.
And special thanks goes to Phil whom I met randomly on the eve of the presidential election at Times Square; the only thing we missed was 1960: MotP. I sincerely hope that the atmophere which we experienced is going to stay there for some time.