Games

Happy new year.

We didn't have a white Christmas, but I am having a white thesis submission day! Rather appropriate, as I have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Of course I'm not really finished, in that my thesis is as yet unread, I have to have my viva voce, make corrections and then hopefully be awarded a PhD. But I've handed in a huge stack of paper to the appropriate people, and I'm finished for now.

I had a nice relaxing few days up at my mothers, seeing family and enjoying a lovely Christmas dinner (as always). Since then I've been doing not much at all, mostly playing games. I bought a new PC for gaming as I finished my thesis, and I've mostly been playing Portal (sheer brilliance), Team Fortress 2 (addictive) and a bit of Hellgate: London (shiny). I've still to get into Oblivion and Supreme Commander, and I've not even opened Neverwinter Nights 2...

Now it is back to work. I am still around here for the next three months, after which...?

Last weekend was DiceCon West, a board-gaming event in Glasgow. There are two DiceCons held each year, the other being DiceCon East in Edinburgh, which I attended towards the end of last year.

DiceCon East is basically a bunch of people in a room with a bunch of boardgames, entirely an informal fun event. For my 5 pound entry I was included in the prize draw of a pile of superficially damaged games which had been generously donated, and won a copy of the excellent Timbuktu (more of which in a later entry). We were also persuaded to turn up at FAQ, a weekly gaming group (actually a university society). We have been doing so since then...

As I said, last weekend was DiceCon West, so we headed over to Glasgow. They run a Settlers of Catan tournament, but also have general open gaming and a "Kniziathon", where one accumulates points based on performance in any Reiner Knizia-designed games played during the day. Somehow I managed to place second in this, getting a solid trophy and a signed copy of Medici. Odd to be rewarded for sitting around playing games. I also came up in the prize draw, and was given a Mancala set.

As to the games played, there was firstly when we arrived early Mystery of the Abbey, a deduction game. Players are monks wandering around an abbey investigating the murder of another monk, putting together clues in the form of alibi cards they hold (e.g. Brother Thomas is not guilty) and information from other players ("How many bearded monks of the Franciscan order have you eliminated?"). Basically a Cluedo-done-right (i.e. not dice based). However, my favourite deduction game remains Timbuktu. More on its burgled camel-trains later.

We then had a series of Knizia games. Some were pretty poor (in particular one Simpsons-themed card game), while I think my favourite would be The Merchants of Amsterdam. This is a game with an auction component (based on a timer), where players compete to score in each of three areas, namely commodity markets, trading colonies, and warehouses in Amsterdam. Each area is subdivided into four, which are then ranked according to the total investment there, and then players score by their dominance in each one weighted according to its rank. Indeed, scoring (as well as other stuff) happens repeatedly throughout the game (at different times for each area) when the "date" reaches different points. The other interesting fact is that on a players turn they get to allocate three actions between being auctioned, being taken directly by them, or being binned—and you don't get to see them all at once, instead allocating in turn.

Nothing much else stands out at this point, other than a late game of Ra which I may discuss (and hopefully play) some other time.

I picked up Medieval: Total War from the post office depot today. This could be a time-sink.

Andrew shall appear in Edinburgh tonight, then go away again, arriving properly tomorrow (has to go off to Berwick).

I'm listening to Tubular Bells just now.

I'm about to read some more of an interesting paper. Goodbye.

When dearg was still up, we went with Martin into the local games shop. It's a funny place, you wouldn't think it's open unless you knew or noticed the sign outside. Grilles on the windows, etc. Go in, and it's a cosy little place, stuff piled up by one side, boxes of magic cards etc. on the floor, lots of sourcebooks and games.

Anyway, spotted a few interesting games there. dearg bought a copy of Thud, which I believe he has desired for some time, and I bought Zèrtz. An interesting game. Martin and I have come to quite enjoy Zèrtz, which is quite a good show for a randomly bought game. The basic premise is that there are 6 white, 8 gray and 10 black marbles, and a hexagonal board made of circular plastic pieces. The aim is to get 4 white, or 5 grey, or 6 black, or 3 of each colour of marble, through moves of placing a marble and removing a piece of board, or (compulsory) capture of marbles, in the style of checkers. Very addictive, and really quite a clever game.

Zèrtz is part of the Gipf Project, a series of very interesting looking abstract games. There are a couple of ways to join these together using the central game Gipf; I'm not sure how interesting the idea is, and it seems rather ambitious. Perhaps it's something that just has to be tried. I want to play all the games in any case...

Thud is fun too, and dearg & I played a game while he was up (I still have the set here), but it hasn't really grabbed me. Given the types of moves, it should somehow appeal to me, but I get the impression that the story and pretty peices put me off; I'm not convinced I like the rules either. I can forsee me becoming into abstract games, in any case.

Update

Now I have Dvonn too, another Project Gipf game. A stacking game, it is also good.

Food

Well, the Thai thing turned out to be rather extravagent. A great deal of fresh ingredients and various dried herbs bought. Thursday was a nutty chicken and pepper dish (slightly let down by my lack of rice noodles, and perhaps not a strong enough nutty flavour). Unfortunately I had to chuck the first batch of rice I made, and rather forgetfully failed to wash then overcooked.

Friday was a green chilli chicken from green curry paste lovingly made by my own two hands, followed by a mango parfait.

Saturday was a sandwich and reheated leftovers :). Not sure what I'm doing tonight, something with chicken.

Study

Now, on Friday afternoon I had a meeting with my Ph.D. Supervisor, feel better for having done so. I have a list of the taught theory postgraduate courses that are running this term, and the knowledge that I need to pay particular attention (as in mucho further reading) to category theory. I have a book and need to borrow books from the library.

Nice term starting again, feels somehow comforting. Oh, and I'm looking forward to learning things, of course.

Shiny Things

In a hopefully unrelated note, aquired Warcraft III off my flatmate yesterday. He bought it on Friday but it was crashing on his computer. So now I've completed the first (human) campaign. It's okay, spiffy graphics of course. As always there is a tradeoff between games that look good and have depth to them, but it doesn't fare too badly in comparison to Warcraft II. The system of hero units is interesting, and I think I like that. Basically it's a lot of fun, but I also want something in the empire-building arena, it's always a shame to leave your painfully constructed base behind.

Been playing Vice City quite a bit recently. Is fun. Great soundtrack. Is great game. Must... resist....

Well, Vice City is as good as I knew it is. But now I'm playing to go somewhere. Fun. Addictive. Just one more minute, then I'll finish this entry...

Waiting around before going to work today was ultra-productive, as the postman just delivered my copy of Vice City (PC version).

Free time? What free time.

Do they have marathons for running?

This weekend has been full of pointless addictive fun timewasting. Not a single useful thing.

Today was unproductive, having had 3 hours sleep I sat around and watched a ton of Buffy on DVD. I'm going through season 5 just now (just over half way) as I missed some of that, and then it'll be S6 which I've seen about a quarter of. That said, there is a sensible amount to watch a day.

Speaking of which, there is probably a sensible limit for playing computer games. It was 8am when Martin and I went to bed after a marathon session of Tony Hawk's 2. Basically each played it right through, or most of it. There was Budvar at some point.

And comics, I have bought and read a pile this weekend. Some cool ones. Sentinal and Grrl Scouts are fun, Mek was better than my first impressions. Funky stuff.

Now I have chicken looming, and dishes to clear. Good night.

Martin (my flatmate) asked me to try installing Icewind Dale, as his computer was being nasty. After playing around trying to install via the network, I ended up installing on my machine to look at the character creation etc.

So now I have a party (which includes several jokers), and the game won't play on Martin's PC. I can see where my time will be going in the future.

Initial impressions were good, but I played for a while yesterday and now I'm not so sure. There are some excellent aspects, but overall it feels a bit shallow. I like having a party, but there isn't enough specialisation. Everything's a bit simple and basic.

Everybody did seem to be raving about it when it came out, not entirely sure why. Perhaps it's better as an introduction to this sort of game, but I think I'd prefer something more complex with respect to character development. I mean it's supposedly targetting the middle ground between Diablo II and Baldur's Gate, but characters are more interesting in both of those.

I'll keep playing it I guess, but I'll probably look to playing one of the AD&D based games afterwards.