P4: Gritty Reboot

Sorry, only the hopelessly cynical need apply here

I've seen some variants for the competitive "civ-building" games especially, since with those you're usually trying to amass Victory Points to hit the win condition, and that can be done solo easily enough. Definitely not as fun without other people screwing you over though.

Forbidden Island is my current favorite; it's a fun, light, cheap co-op that acts as a great little introduction to "designer" board games. We also play a lot of Monopoly Deal, which is a really fun card game for parties and such. I have been trying to pick up copies of Ghost Stories, Castle Panic, and Last Night on Earth for a while to get some co-op game nights rocking. Trouble with board games is that they don't really drop in price as video games tend to; in fact, they get more expensive once the initial print is gone. As for competitive games, I will probably check out Small World, which Johnny already posted above. Edit: If you have trouble getting a game night together, many games come with instructions for solo play. If they don't, then Board Game Geek often (usually?) has solo variants posted.

Welcome all. It's safer here.

We're talking Game Gear size at least.

I get where you, Dean, and the others are coming from. If the Wii were the only system I owned, I would probably feel left out in the cold. But as a supplement to my PC, it's perfect and offers the least amount of overlap compared with owning a PS3/360, 360/PC, or PC/PS3. Sometimes, I want to kick back on the couch with old favorite franchises and co-op through a Donkey Kong or Mario with the kids, and the Wii lets me do that at an affordable price. But does Nintendo need to step it up with the Wii U? Yes, primarily in garnering third-party support and hammering out both new franchises and strong entries in their existing core series. So namely, the library of games needs to be much stronger this time around to ensure success on the level of the Wii since lightning may not strike twice with the casuals. That is, it COULD sell very well to the same target demographic that the Wii did--or it could flop with the moms and pops. We just don't know at this point. I'm leaning towards it having some moderate success in that area, though iPads and the like may have gobbled up some of the potential buyers. Still, speaking on a strictly personal level, I am satsified with the Wii's library. I have too much to play and not enough time to play it--I haven't even beaten Skyward Sword, Metroid Other M, A Boy and His Blob, Monster Hunter Tri, and several others from Christmas time. That's not to mention the games I haven't bought yet--Sin & Punishment, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Kirby's Return to Dreamland, Rayman Legends, The Last Story, and Xenoblade. There is a lot out there to play, provided you have another system for the big-time franchises that skipped the Wii. At the same time, I understand that a lot of gamers have more time to play and different purchasing habits than I do, and as such their gaming desires wouldn't be satiated by the Wii's library.

Breaking Bad. Finally got back into it--had watched a couple episodes and dropped it since the wife wasn't interested. Holy cow it's a fantastic show.

Yeah, I do agree with you there. We all know the fantastic things Nintendo is capable of, and it would be awesome to see it applied a little more towards something new and exciting.

WarioWare is basically its own franchise. Other than Wario, almost entirely new characters, art style, gameplay. The relationship between BioWare and Microsoft in regards to Mass Effect is entirely different than Nintendo's relationship to most of these developers. Often these are second party teams, IPs Nintendo actually helped fund, conceive of, and in fact owns. Steel Diver was made directly by Nintendo in-house, as were Nintendogs, the Big Brain and Brain Age series, Rhythm Heaven. I've updated my list below with the clearly first-party stuff in bold: Pikmin (Nintendo EAD) Advance/Battalion Wars (Intelligent, owned by Nintendo) Animal Crossing (Nintendo EAD) Geist (n-Space, IP owned by Nintendo) Odama (Vivarium, third party) Chibi-Robo (Skip LTD & Nintendo) WarioWare (Intelligent, owned by Nintendo) Nintendogs (Nintendo EAD) Electroplankton (Indies zero, unclear ownership) Brain Age (Nintendo EAD) Big Brain (Nintendo EAD) Elite Beat Agents (iNiS, third party) Rhythm Heaven (Nintendo EAD) Professor Layton (level-5. unclear ownership) Steel Diver (Nintendo EAD) Wii/Miis (Nintendo EAD) Endless Ocean (Arika, third party) Disaster: Day of Crisis (Monolith Soft, Nintendo subsidiary [forgot about Baten Kaitos also]) Captain Rainbow (Skip LTD, third party) FlingSmash (Artoon, third party) Pandora's Tower (Ganbarion, third party) So even if you get picky about what you count as a Nintendo IP, to suggest they've only made 2 new IPs in 10 years is simply disingenuous. I've also got to add that I don't particularly care if Nintendo ever makes a new IP again. So long as the gameplay is fresh, I do not care whether they make a (usually smart) business decision to paste Mario or Kirby or Donkey Kong on the cover.

Looks fun. The feel reminds me of Ogre Battle for some reason.

Your comment about only 2 new franchises in a decade is very far off the mark. By my count: Pikmin Advance/Battalion Wars Animal Crossing Geist Odama Chibi-Robo WarioWare Nintendogs Electroplankton Brain Age Elite Beat Agents Rhythm Heaven Professor Layton (? May be level-5's property) Steel Diver Wii/Miis Endless Ocean Disaster: Day of Crisis Captain Rainbow FlingSmash Pandora's Tower Note I did not count many titles Nintendo funded and published if I was unsure about their owning the IP or not. And this also does not count franchise revivals/spin-offs that could be considered new or reinvented IPs (Strikers, Prime, Kid Icarus, etc.) So yeah, many of these IPs may not resonate with the demographics of these boards or other gamer-focused forums on the internet. But Nintendo is inventing new IPs and new stuff all the time. If you don't like it, fine, but it's there.

If you need something cheaper, I do have a Logitech Rumblepad that I like quite a bit. It can be finnicky with cross-plats designed for the 360 though.

Steam, Origin and Good Old Games ARE the middlemen, FYI. If a developer has a game for sale on its site directly, 100% of the funds go to the guys & gals who made the game. Except for Valve games on Steam, EA games on Origin, and CD Projekt games on GOG of course. I'll recommend just a few to get you started: VVVVVV is one of my favorite games ever. The gameplay is perfect. The entire Half-Life series is worth playing. Start with Half-Life 1 and move onto Half-Life 2 and its episodes. Half-Life's expansion pack Opposing Force is worthwhile too but not necessary. Bastion is a fine action RPG with awesome presentation. Jamestown is one of the best shoot-em-ups I've played, with a great soundtrack, graphics, and gameplay. Best in co-op. Dungeons of Dredmor is a great roguelike, tough as nails but very fun to play. --- As FLD said, there will be a summer sale coming up so hold off on these until then. I also check on Cheapshark often to see what's on sale digitally.

I played the RE and MGS demos. They were just fine. I'm reading now that Europe is up in the air, NA will have one, and Japan will not as is usual over there.

Calm yourselves, people. I bet Nintendo will re-think it, or else people will have to spend $3 on a power cable. Not the end of the world. In fact, aside from the asinine lack of a power cord, it's a great move. Now you've got a screen just shy of the Vita's size, and for $199.99 (plus $3 for a cable). The lack of a second analog hasn't hurt any of the games I've played, and I'm glad they're not splitting the market on that one.

There are some seasons of shows that I just pretend don't exist so they don't ruin the rest for me. Oh, and I forgot to mention Raising Hope in here! So very glad it got renewed.

Just embrace the watch. It's timeless (hyuck hyuck hyuck).

Here are all the styles for that one: http://www.nixon.com/mens/watches/the-sentry-leather-a105.html?sku=A105000-00

I have this Nixon and I love it.

$35 on Amazon. I blame Johnny for getting me into board gaming.

Great game. My mom really likes it. Also, played The Resistance with my wife, sisters and parents Wednesday night, everyone really enjoyed it. We're going to try it again on Sunday with the extended family so we can see if it's different with 10 people (after a few games we got too good at reading each other with just six). My dad likes Monopoly and other card/board games, so I figured Catan might be a good fit. Also checked out The Resistance and it looks awesome.

Bought a co-op board game (think Pandemic lite edition) for $15. Bought this puppy for my dad for father's day ($45 stinkin smackeroos):