It's a stupid trope. Battlestar Galactica lost most of my appreciation when it went off to live as a Lumberjack at the end, thanks to magic.

Well there was that movie where he was "wrongly" accused, gets off, and then is seen maybe roasting a human baby for dinner at the end.

Anathem burn in the alt text, ha! I should read that one again.

Nah, I think he's better as a black guy.

The complete universe reboot will happen on .. April 1, 2015

I generally stick to the "Paragon" route, except when "Renegade" is too awesome to pass up. For example, another moment in ME2 when picking Paragon has negative consequences, you run into an enemy operative who is clearly in over her head. She explains she just signed up and blusters and begs you to let her go;…

I don't agree. Because "stuff" matters. Rolling dice, moving around pieces, these elements are part of why board games are enjoyable. Could you imagine four people sitting around a little Nexus tablet, having fun playing a board game? Meanwhile, fancy chess sets and miniatures games on Kickstarter sell for hundreds of…

Yes. At first I thought it was a strange choice to not adapt the mechanics of XCOM (turn-based strategy), but by all accounts the designer (Eric M. Lang) did nail the tension and exhilaration of overcoming (or being killed by) a sinister enemy force.

I think he's sort of justified. Not to say that he isn't a megalomaniacal asshole, but it's not like any of the other deckbuilding games are paying royalties to Donald X. for copying his formula, either. Sirlin took the idea and added an entirely unique player-to-player elimination element to it. And a new, vastly…

It's a lot faster than Munchkin though. There's a lot of "Gotcha" stuff in it (and the associated rules arguing), but that's just player interaction on top of the dungeon optimization. It has none of the endless, "He's about to win, get him!" stuff, because at a certain point players can't help but either win or die.

I guess I meant I haven't figured out how to make one that doesn't suck.

That's why I'm pretty excited about Fantasy Flight Games' XCOM; it looks like the first step in the right direction. (Well, maybe not the first… I'm looking at you, Dark Tower)

Doom was a pretty good game. But production values added a lot to the overall quality.

I still haven't figured out how to create a board game first-person-shooter.

Nope, just turn around and move on.

It was a good Xmas for games. My household got Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Caverna: The Cave Farmers, and Candyland. Capt. Toad seems fun. I played two games of Caverna. The first went well and made me excited to try new strategies, the second went poorly and made me want to re-evaluate my new strategies.

How much Keefe is in this movie?

Wow, Ward becoming the Hood would actually be pretty awesome. Totally far from his backstory, but the screw loose and tendency to appear in just the wrong place at the right time would fit him well.

ugh.

Thanks, William Hughes. I am elated to find out that Bobbins has undergone a reboot. I sent $20 to John Allison something like 15 years ago, before he went full time.