Small World 2

For Valentine's Day, my husband bought all of us copies of Small World 2 on Steam. We own the board version of the game but we never had a chance to play it. Either there aren't enough of us to play a good game or other players don't understand the rules. The digital version doesn't have these issues. Not only can you play against the computer, there is also a very short instructional video to easily explain the rules. An ideal fix for a mundane problem. The game itself is pretty cool. Every player picks a race with a modifier. You try to conquer as much land as you can before running out of armies. Then you can put your race into decline and pick a new one. Most of the time, you can only have one active race and one race in decline. The person with the most points after 10 rounds wins.

I am not all that great at this game. My daughter has won almost every game we've played together. Yet I still find the game a lot of fun. Since both the races and the modifiers are shuffled separately, you rarely get the same combination between games. One race may be super powerful one game and really weak the next. Also, it takes a bit of practice to figure out when you should put your race into decline and pick a new one. While you do still get points from the declined race's land, they are easily defeated by your opponents, giving them the points instead. But the game wouldn't be as fun if you didn't get to beat up your opponent's armies!

For those of you that love playing board games but don't have the ability to physically play the game, the digital version is perfect. If your friends have copies of the game, you can play online or locally. If you are having a party and want to play, you can play the Pass N Play option, which allows up to 5 opponents play on a single device. It is available in the Apple Store, on Google Play, and on Steam. Or you can just play by yourself with up to 4 AI opponents. (This is my favorite since my daughter massacres me every time we play.) This is definitely a good game to add to your collection.

BlizzCon

BlizzCon ran on Friday and Saturday. First, let me say how weird it is to see a two-day convention that takes place on Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday. My husband signed up for the DirecTV pay per view to partake in the geekiness. And, oh, was it geeky. To be honest, we only watched the interesting parts of the show. The opening ceremonies with Chris Metzen's speech, the costume contest, the dance competition, and the Tenacious D concert. Amazingly, Chris Metzen was extraordinarily entertaining. Most of the time, these speeches are done by boring suits or developers with no social skills. You end up wondering when the pain will end. I was very surprised to see Metzen and, even more surprising, I didn't want his speech to end. I was ready to listen to him all day.

Then we saw some boring panel with PowerPoint slides on the new changes that were added to.....I forget what game....Starcraft 2 maybe. I actually turned to my husband and said "You paid to watch some geeks do a PowerPoint presentation on a game? This is lame."

There was some cool things in the costume and dance contests. (I wonder if there were trophies handed out....) There were a lot of people that stupidly wore stilts. They needed help walking down the ramp to the stage. Overall, I was impressed and I was happy with the winners. As for the dance contest, it was silly and fun but one guy did end up getting injured. (It has been debated whether he broke his leg or just dislocated his knee. Either way it sucks.)

Finally, the Tenacious D concert at the closing ceremonies. Of course, they rocked the house. Dave Grohl (from Foo Fighters and Nirvana) played drums for them. If anything, this was the only thing worth the price of pay per view. I would do it again just for the D. Everything else was dull in comparison.

Game review: Wild West Quest

Wile West Quest is a western-themed hidden object game. Besides the normal hidden object objectives, there are other mini-games to play as well. Of course, those are western-themed too. Sometimes you'll have a shoot-out in the center of town; sometimes you'll need to wrangle some horses; sometimes you'll need to ID brands on cattle. None of the mini-games are particularly difficult but they do change things up just enough to keep the game from getting boring. Overall, the game isn't all that bad. The hidden object parts are fairly typical but the game shines a bit more in the mini-game areas. Since either the camera or the objects you are dealing with are moving in those games, you need a little more skill to get through them. Not that this makes those pieces of the game difficult, just interesting.

Game review: Miss Teri Tale

You are Miss Teri Tale, a famous mystery writer. Your neighbor's prized pooch, Jason, has been dognapped and it is up to you to find him. Sneak into each of your neighbor's houses and rifle through their things in order to find which one of them has it out for the prize-winning show dog. This hidden object game, not-very-cleverly named after the heroine, is vaguely interesting. You start out in your office when a video message comes across your laptop with instructions on how to play the game and where to go. For the most part, this is a typical hidden object game. However, since you are breaking into your neighbor's houses, there are a few puzzles where you need to solve the alarm code in order to enter. In my opinion, the best part of this game is the way you can 'refill' your number of hints. When you run out, simply head back to your office to collect more four leaf clovers. There is usually two or three each time you go back.

While there is nothing new offered in the gameplay, it is still pretty fun. I didn't care much for the constant interruptions from the mystery person in the laptop videos, which is how the game advances the story, but luckily those don't last long. If you like hidden object games, give it a try.

Website of the Week: Big Fish Games

If you read this site, you know that I review a lot of downloadable casual video games. I get the majority of the game trials from Big Fish Games. All of the games are categorized by type so if, for example, you only like Match 3 games, it's easy to find a slew of that particular type. Since each trial is 60 minutes long, make sure to say goodbye to your weekends before you start downloading!

Game review: Hidden Relics

Hidden Relics is another hidden object game at Big Fish Games. This one is slightly different though. You are flying around the world to find antiques that have been stolen. Besides the regular hidden objects in each picture, there could be special hidden objects which require special equipment to find. There were a lot of things I liked about this game. I liked being able to choose which city you could fly to and I enjoyed the regular hidden object game. However, I did not like having to complete puzzles in order to obtain the special equipment in order to find the special hidden objects. The puzzles weren't particularly difficult, they were just tedious and you had to complete the puzzles multiple times to get all of the equipment.

Overall, the game was pretty fun. This is another one that I'd recommend you try but I don't think it would be worth buying.

Game review: Trivial Pursuit - Bring On The 90s Edition

Doesn't everyone love a good game of Trivial Pursuit? I don't get to play the board game very often so I was really excited when I saw Trivial Pursuit - Bring on the 90s Edition on Big Fish Games. The game plays like any typical Trivial Pursuit game. In the one player edition, you play against a teddy bear. I chose to play the Intermediate level but it was still really easy. I managed to win two full games before the 60-minute trial finished. While the game was enjoyable, it was pretty boring by the second game. Every move has an animation that you are unable to turn off or skip past. The teddy bear throws a little tantrum every time you get a question correct or he gets one wrong. These aren't really enough to make you want to quit mid-game but you definitely get your fill of them by the end of the first game. At least the questions in this version are good. They are perfect for those of us that were too young in the 80s to full enjoy that edition of the game.

Give the game a try. That first round is always entertaining. Just don't expect this to be a game you'll play over and over again.

Game Review: Paradise Pet Salon

If you couldn't tell by now, I visit Big Fish Games a lot. This time around I gave Paradise Pet Salon a try. After all, I like pets and I like when pets look pretty! The description for this one reads: This is no day at the spa! It's you versus Pet Corp in this fast paced fur flying good time. Your pet spa is competing against the evil Pet Corp. You'll turn a small corner spa into a huge success with fast and hard work. But it's not all about speed. You've also got to plan ahead. Serve hundreds of great pets and people too so you can earn more money to improve your spa by buying upgrades and special treats for your furry clients too. Fur has never been this fun or addictive.

When you start the game, you have to decorate your pet salon and buy some equipment. There isn't a lot you can afford yet so you're pretty much stuck with the free wall color and floor tile with just a bathtub and cutting station. Oh, and don't forget to buy some chairs for your waiting pet owners. They don't leave the store until you are finished with their pet and they'll get angry if you leave them standing for too long. After a couple of rounds, you'll be able to buy some new equipment. This is where the game starts to get really hard. You can only afford to buy one new station and everyone wants to use it. It gets really difficult to juggle all the pets and their wants while keeping their owners happy. I came very close to losing a couple of customers when I first got a health station.

Paradise Pet Salon is basically another time management game. Instead of waiting tables or baking cakes, you're grooming dogs and cats. It can be a fun game when it's not too difficult. However, when you can't afford to buy additional stations to help with the abundance of pets coming in the door, it can get overwhelming. So while I enjoyed the game, I don't forsee me spending the money to buy the full version of it.