Friday fun: what are your favorite games?

[Monique vdB]

I know there are some people here who play board games, video games, role-playing games, or even those things where people go out in real life and, like, throw and hit things on a field. 

Tell us about your favorite games!

[Monique vdB]

As Thomas knows, my gaming group has been on a Terraforming Mars kick lately -- that is a great board game.

Image credit

With my daughter I have been playing Lego Harry Potter.  The only sports I watch is during the World Cup (go Netherlands!) or Olympics.  

What about you?

[Maarten Cautreels]

Current Favo Video Game: Factorio (PC)
All Time Favo Video Game: Halo - The Series (Xbox)

Favo Board Game: Escape Room (yes it's a board game too)

[Thomas Schlegel]

@Maarten Cautreels, Escape Room is really a great game. We already played the first three settings and the expansion Murder Mystery - do. you also know the "Exit"-Games from Kosmos? They are also awesome 😊 

[Monique vdB]

@Thomas Schlegel you are impossible to @ mention unless you are already in the thread :( 

[Monique vdB]

But now I want to try Escape Room!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Heh, I'm going to an escape room tomorrow!

One variation I enjoyed was "The Room" - less an escape, more "work out how to open a puzzle box", but very well done (mobile devices only I think).  Fireproof games

[Monique vdB]

Our team (plus special guest star @Justin) did an escape room earlier this year. We beat it! It was a blast.

[Thomas Schlegel]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist-, have fun in the room, it's a great experience!

[Nicolas Ragland]

Recently, my favorite board game has been Concordia!

I've also been sucked into Divinity: Original Sin 2 on PC!  It's got such an engaging world, characters, that you look at the clock and it is suddenly 2:00 am.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I always enjoyed "Kings and Things" - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/58/kings-things

[Thomas Schlegel]

Hmm, most favorite board game, difficult... There are so many... 

I can't nominate just one, here is my list:

- Time Stories (great adventure game on a board)

- Robo Rally (a classic one, the more you are, the more chaos on the board and much more fun)

- Mechs vs Minions (the high-class Robo rally based in the League of Legends - World - so much miniatures and high quality game components, I've never seen a game that is soooo awesome designed and the gameplay is also great. Sold directly from the makers of League of Legends online game)

- Roll for the Galaxy (build your own galaxy using dices)

- Terraforming Mars (Monique already mentioned that)

- King of Tokyo (funny monster bashing dice game)

- Pandemic Legacy (fantastic story, play 12 months and heal the world)

- Splendor (awesome card game)

- Ticket to Ride (all time favorite - everybody loves this)

- Robinson Crusoe (survive on a lonesome island, heavy stuff, not easy to win, you play as a team against the game)

- Scythe (so awesome illustrations, one of the best I've ever seen, and the game is also great)

- Dominion (This was one of the first deck builder games and is still one of my favorites)

- Tzolkin (Worker Placement Game with big wheels on the board, great mechanisms, great game)

- Mice and Mystics (Storytelling adventure board game, survive adventures as little mice, fight against rats, cats, spiders, solve riddles - great story, great illustrations, a lot of fun)

- Stone Age (another classic worker placement game in a Stone Age World)

- Dead of Winter (survive the zombie apocalypse as a team of survivors, hard stuff, sometimes nightmarish, but great gameplay)

- Hit z Road - another zombie game, much easier, dice game, won prices for its graphical design)

- Battlestar Galactica (based on the TV series, but regardless of that, it is really a great game of intrigues and teamwork, someone is a traitor but until the middle of the game, not even the traitor knows that he is)

- Photosynthesis (new one this year, never seen so nice trees on a game and the gameplay is also great)

There are so many more, but I'll stop now, before this is becoming an article on its own :-)

[Peter DeWitt]

Robo Rally is a great one too.  I had to buy one a number of years ago on Ebay as it was out of print.

[Thomas Schlegel]

There's a version from Hasbro today you can buy, but don't do that. Look at the old releases. The Hasbro Robo Rally is so cheaply produced, it's not half the fun anymore.

[Davin Studer]

Love Dominion! I've got all the expansions.

[Peter DeWitt]

Easy for me: Settlers of Catan.

[Monique vdB]

A classic! 

[Thomas Schlegel]

There's a new release this year: Catan Game of Thrones - looks awesome

[Shannon S]

I'm not really a gamer, but I really enjoy playing the Sims 4, Pokémon, Mario Kart, and Portal. On my phone I've been playing a lot of Tiny Tower, and board/card-game wise I enjoy Exploding Kittens, Monopoly, and Cards Against Humanity.

[Ana Retamal]

This is a difficult question, but I'll try to sum it up to just a few:

- The Legend of Zelda 

- Point and click games, like the Day of the Tentacle or Sam and Max

- Graphic adventures or Mystery solving games like Hotel Dusk or Ace Attorney/Phonenix Wright for the Nintendo DS.

- And for board games, the Munchkin series is a lot of fun!

This said, I'm not a gamer either, but when I spend time playing those are probably the games I'm doing :)

[Monique vdB]

@Krisztian Kovacs, you'd better tell me your favorite games!

My group has been playing Gloomhaven nonstop for months, but this weekend we went to Tahoe and took a little Gloomhaven break. We played Coup, Citadels, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Love Letter, Mysterium, Dixit, and of course, Terraforming Mars!

(@Thomas Schlegel, the kids especially loved playing Mysterium! ❤️) 

[Monique vdB]

Oh and we played Exodus Fleet. 

[Thomas Schlegel]

My favorites of the last weeks are "Raiders of the North Sea", "Bloodrage", "The Networks" and "Azul".

@Monique vdB Great you had fun with the Mysterium 👻 

[Krisztian Kovacs]

I rarely play boardgames, but when I do it's usually Articulate or Catan. I used to play some D&D clones years ago.

I usually play games on the computer with or without friends. Nowadays mostly Cities Skylines.

These games look quite fun though.

[Monique vdB]

@Krisztian Kovacs I ABSOLUTELY LOVE Sim games (I still sometimes play Sim Tower....) so thank you for the tip on Cities Skylines!

[Ivan Tovbin]

XCOM! Gotta be one of the best game series ever! Been a fan since the very first game in 1995. Other than that I absolutely love RPGs.

[Monique vdB]

@Ivan Tovbin you should play Gloomhaven then ☺️

[Ivan Tovbin]

@Monique vdB Is that a PnP game? Something like oldschool Dungeons and Dragons?

[Monique vdB]

@Ivan Tovbin it's an RPG-style board game with almost 100 quests, different unlockable characters, and a box that weighs 25 pounds. Here is the Board Game Geek page about it!

[Thomas Schlegel]

@Ivan Tovbin There's also an XCOM  board game!

[Ivan Tovbin]

@Thomas Schlegel no way! Is it also infamous for it's misses on 99% shots that ruin your game lol?

[Ivan Tovbin]

@Monique vdB 25 pounds is what? ~11 kg? Are you telling me that a board game weighs 11 kgs?! You gotta be kidding me! I imagine it has real loot inside lol?

[Thomas Schlegel]

@Ivan Tovbin Just to get an idea how big Gloomhaven is:

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Gloomhaven is massive, and when you go over all the things in the box with a view to shrinking it, you come to realise you do actually need at least 99.9% of it, and the only way to maybe make it smaller is by shrinking the text in the instructions to the point where people like me (old) can't read it.

[Thomas Schlegel]

@Ivan Tovbin Here you can get more information about the XCOM board game: 

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163602/xcom-board-game

It's still in my "pile of shame" (pile of board games you own, but not played yet), a real-time board game with an app. That's all I can say.

[Monique vdB]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- and @Thomas Schlegel I want to report I unlocked a new Gloomhaven character, the music note, and I LOVE IT.

[Heth Siemer]

THIS GAME IS INSANE! I've only played it once. I want it but I don't want to spend $150 on it...

*stares at the thousands of dollars I've spent on Free to Play video games*

Slightly hypocritical reasoning... I'm hoping my siblings (who are my gaming buddies) will help pitch for it.

[Monique vdB]

My gamer friend paid for it but we've gotten many hours of enjoyment out of it -- if you tried it out and enjoyed it from playing just once, you won't regret it! 

[Heth Siemer]

My rent check might...

[Thomas Schlegel]

@Monique vdB I can't wait until October, when it will be released in German...

[Jonny Adams]

I really enjoy the Fluxx card games. They are simple and portable which is great for taking to the local brewery. 

As for actual board games, I rotate between Pandemic, Sheriff of Nottingham, and Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards. The first is a cooperative strategy game and the last two are good excuses to force your friends to use funny voices.

[aumarie]

Code Names is my current obsession.

[Monique vdB]

@aumarie I love Code Names. We should play it at the office ;) 

[Heth Siemer]

@Thomas Schlegel @Monique vdB

Board Games:

Eldritch Horror - The Dreamlands Expansion is probably my favorite right now (specifically Hypnos as the Ancient One). It's based on the HP Lovecraft letters and stories. It's a great co-op game I play with my siblings... yet I haven't won once. It is extremely difficult, but you can play it with 1-8 players so it's fun no matter the group size. LOTS OF SMALL PIECES THO! Careful around kids. There's a TON of expansions.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is a very close second. Again, co-op. I'm a Harry Potter FANATIC (I have the deathly hallows tattooed on my back)... so my opinion might be a little skewed for this one. 2-4 players, lots of fun for 11 year olds who are waiting for their Hogwarts Letter. You can play as Harry, Ron, Hermione or Neville. In the expansion you can play as Luna.

Quelf is an insanely funny crazy game. Basically it's charades and trivial pursuit and a drinking game all rolled up into a crazy family friendly game... it's one of the few games we can get BOTH of my parents to play... Once mom was under the table with the game box in her shirt giving golf commentary on my dad's turn whilst having to end every sentence with "izzle" but it's different every time. I do not suggest this game if you're not prepared die laughing. There's also Quelf Card Game and Quelf Junior.

Video Games:

I play pretty much any video game I can get my hands on.

I actually stream on Twitch in my free time. I mostly play League of Legends, Starcraft, Amnesia (I have a love / hate relationship with this game, it's way too scary, so I only play it if someone redeems it), and Layers of Fear (Again, if someone redeems it).

Card Games:

Magic the Gathering, specifically EDH. I only have one deck, as I've been building and modifying it for about 7 years and I'm way too emotionally attached.

LARP / Other:

I cosplay!!! I participate in cosplay contests and Live Action Role-Play (LARP) events. I'm known for my 11 original variations of Harley Quinn, but I've done probably about 30-40 characters besides her.

I used to coach 6th Grade Girls Basketball and I was on Varsity Track and Field in High School for Shot Put and Discus.

I enjoy fun.

[Monique vdB]

@Heth Siemer my 6-year-old is very into board games and Harry Potter. She might enjoy that one as a gift for her next birthday! And then I'll have an excuse to own it! 😉  (I also love Harry Potter. #Ravenclaw.)

Also in my cart now are Quelf Jr., Enchanted Tower, and Stuffed Fantasy Flights. I basically am trying to convert my child to a board gamer, and it's working.

For video games, any good turn-based combat games you'd recommend? I loved this Lord of the Rings themed game back on the Playstation 2 and the turn-based combat. I also loved Diablo II (didn't everyone) and every kind of Sim game. But these days I just play Lego Harry Potter with the aforementioned 6-year-old. Except she's only read the first three books so we've stopped there.

11 Harley Quinns? Can you share a photo of any of them? 

I'm so glad you're here. 😍

[Heth Siemer]

So. Pottermore. Made 4 accounts. 2 slytherin and 2 hufflepuff. Every test I've taken it's been about 50/50 and so have the opinions of my friends (aside from the one Gryffindor vote that still confuses me). So I claim Slytherpuff ;)

The game actually has boxes inside the game box for each "level". The goal is to get through all 7 years at Hogwarts. For example; the villains you fight in the first game are Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, and Quirrell. The second has the Basilisk and the third has Peter Petigrew and a Dementor. You can stop at three and as she reads the books you can continue the levels. The first time my sister and I played it, it took us 18 hours to finish it. I suggest taking breaks ;)

The setup of this game in particular is AMAZING. If you want to pause between levels the box has separators for easy organization and storage. Everything is labeled for what box it goes in when you're done. It's brilliant. More games need this type of set up.

Video game wise, my favorite turn-based combat game is an old DS game called Magical Starsign. I still play it on occasion and I got it when the DSs first came out.
I mostly play RTS, MOBAs and MMORPGs.

[Heth Siemer]

2011 "Jester Harley" (mostly store bought, didn't even place top 8):

2017 "Masquerade Harley" (90% hand made, 100% Original, Won Second Place):

[Monique vdB]

Yeah I am a Ravenpuff, truth be told!

And I am sold on the Harry Potter game, this sounds amazingly fun and I bet my daughter would love it!

Wow on both Harleys, especially Jester! Competition must have been intense for you to not even make it to the top! Or is store-bought a strike against you?? 

[Heth Siemer]

Store bought is a MASSIVE strike against you. Most cosplay contests require you to prove that you made it yourself (WIP pics, stitches, etc.)... and no I didn't know that at the time in '11

[Heth Siemer]

I'm sorry! That's Masquerade Harley not Renaissance!

[P_D_ Foerster]

Even after all these years I still love playing Rayman Legends. It's the video game that always makes me smile :)

Check it out. There are some fantastic music levels. They are just awesome! :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m5YQrucis8

[Ana Retamal]

I like this game too! Some levels are very challenging and for some others you really need to follow the rhythm. Lots of fun!