Scene It? Box Office Smash! Announced

The massive Electronic Entertainment Expo is going down in LA this week. Huge announcements have come out of the show focusing on a stack of big budget first person shooters, real time strategy and survival horror games.

And during the first keynote of the show Microsoft (read XBox360 ) announced a new edition of to their Scene It? line: Scene It? Box Office Smash! [Amazon]. The fact that a second Scene It? title has somehow bubbled to the top of the show's opening presentation exemplifies how much Microsoft continues to flex it's muscle trying to get a foothold in the board game and party game genre. Obvious note: that's the genre of games we cover here.

This marketing movie (above) shows a slew of smiling out of work actors going about their fake daily business until accidentally charmed by Scene It? at their local Best Buy / Circuit City A/V department. Even grandma gets into the formulaic action. Its a bit too much but at least there's quite a bit of game coverage between the fake laughter.

Thankfully Scene It? Box Office Smash! should be a natural extension of its Xbox 360 predecessor Scene It? [Amazon]. Expect more questions, new clips, and leveraging those customized buzz-in controllers that came with the original title.

No news on when the game should ship, but we'll definitely keep you posted.

Cranium WOW You're Good

Cranium hit the table a few years ago and quickly usurped Trivial Pursuit from the party game trivia thrown. With clay sclupting, sketches akin to Picktionary, and trivia and word games - Cranium seems like modern high-energy step forward that tunes into our bright and colorful pop culture blood pumping through our veins..

Now Cranium updates itself with Cranium: WOW [Amazon]. With 600 more questions and updated pieces that let you personify yourself like a parade of 1000 Nintendo Mii's, Cranium WoW is a a considerable update on your previous version. Plus a fresh injection of clay comes just in time to save the drying lump of purple sand barely hang-on in our current box.

Here's the official word:

"Cranium WOW is the newest version of the outrageously fun, smash-hit board game that brings friends and family together through a variety of activities that celebrate all of your interests and strengths. Whether you're an aspiring actor, artist, data hound, or wordsmith, Cranium gives you and your team a moment to shine.

You were born to play this game. Maybe you¿ve always wanted to use your best friend as a puppet to act out "milking a cow." Or you want to prove you can draw "bed head" with your eyes closed. Perhaps you¿re eager to show off your vast knowledge of "The Hoff," YouTube, and which came first, the toaster or sliced bread. If any of these are true -- and even if they're not -- you need to play Cranium WOW immediately. You shouldn¿t wait to show off your hidden talents when they're so impressive. Cranium WOW features 600 brand-new-we-swear-you¿ve-never-seen-them-before-unless-you-peeked-somehow cards and new movers so cool you might forget to actually play the game for a little while (but we hope you'll eventually remember).

Contains:

1. Game board
2. 600 new cards
3. 10-sided die
4. Tub of purple clay
5. Timer

Cyber Monday and Holiday Board Game Sale: BoardGameUSA.com Free Shipping

The online game site BoardGameUSA is offering free shipping on all orders over $99.00. They're also offering extended discounts off nearly 50% off a rotating Game of The Day.

We have to be honest, BoardGameUSA has quite the selection going on. They have your American classics like Monopoly, Sorry!, Life!, etc, which you could find just about anywhere. But they also have an extensive collection of Eurogames. There are 4 pages of games from Mayfair, including titles like Settlers of Catan, Domaine, Bang!, and Tigris & Euphrates. If you're more a Rio Grande Gamer then their Rio Grande collection includes 10% off on: Carcassonne, San Juan, Shadow of the Emperor, and Puerto Rico.

You just can't go wrong.

If you're looking for more gift suggestions the please also checkout our own 2007 Critical Gamers Holiday Gift Guide.

Cyber Monday and Holiday Board Game Discounts: Buy.com

The online mega store Buy.com is running a sale on select board games and toys, with some titles up to 60% off.

The sale includes nearly 150 items, including new games and old American classics like Monopoly, Scene It?, Sorry, Life, and titles from the Cranium Series. No Eurogames for dinner parties and the elder generations (except for Scene It?), but some great discounts for those classic family games we all grew up with.

No coupon codes required. Have at it!

If you're looking for more gift suggestions the please also checkout our own 2007 Critical Gamers Holiday Gift Guide.

Critical Gamers 2007 Holiday Gift Guide - Party Games

For more great gift ideas across all genres of games please see our
Holiday Gift Guide Index

Sometimes a gamer only shows their true colors in a group. These are the exhibitionist folks who like the social elements of gaming far more than the cerebral head game of strategy games and wargames. And sometimes the night dynamic doesn't present itself well to static boards, either, so even the social elements of family board games seem too dull and mundane for the midnight oil.

In our continuing series of 2007 Holiday Gift Guides we dive into the world of party games and arm you with the best suggestions for giving that party gamer the best gift this December. And for those of you who are also looking to host a bitchin' Holiday / New Years Party: we also have something for you, too.

We have to warn you though: even though we're mainly a board game site, some - but not all - of these party games require electricity from the magic wall holes.

Continue reading: "Critical Gamers 2007 Holiday Gift Guide - Party Games"

October 2007 Round Up

Happy Halloween folks! Today also marks the end of another month of gaming, so here's our monthly index of gaming news and reviews.

The gaming world had quite a few releases this month. Our favorite recently-released game this Fall goes to the zombie laden Last Night on Earth - which technically came out last month but we've been playing it mainly throughout the month of October. Following up as a close second is the latest Ticket to Ride: Switzerland, which is one of the better elegant Eurogame pickups to come along in quite a while.

Meanwhile we're still standing by for our blasted WoW TCG Magtheridon' Lair raid deck. Upper Deck has remained tight lipped about yet another WoW TCG release and it's really beginning to rub us the wrong way. We thirst for prerelease news and details, and this seemingly lazy handling of Magtheridon's Lair really makes our blood boil. Thankfully Fantasy Flight Games seems to be treating the other major Blizzard franchise right by previewing Starcraft the board game in a series of great articles. Heck , the game even has a trailer! That title is shaping up to be quite the looker, and it should ship in next month just in time for Holiday gift giving and the Winter gaming season.

Speaking of gift giving - the Holiday Shopping season is upon us and prepping the roll out of our annual Holiday Buyer's Guides. Look for a series of them over the next two weeks. Each one will be targeted for a particular gamer type so that you can rest assured the gift suggestion will meet the gaming styles of the giftee.

Here's our flashback at the stories of October:

What We're Currently Playing:

• Tide of Iron
• Last Night on Earth
• WoW TCG: Fires of Outland
• Apples to Apples

Board Games & Card Games

• Carcassonne Travel Edition
• Starcraft: The Board Game Preview NewsIllumanti: Bavarian Firedrill
• Ticket to Ride Switzerland Released
• Axis & Allies Campaign Setting Timeline
• The Burning Crusade World of Warcraft Board Game Expansion
• Wits and Wagers Review
• Hasbro's Holiday 2007 Board Game Sale at Amazon
• Starcraft the Board Game Trailer

Collectible Card Games

• WoW TCG Damage Dice Review
• Magic: The Gathering Lorwyn

Wits and Wagers Review

Self-captioned “Trivia for people who don’t know stuff,” publisher North Star Games’ Wits and Wagers [Amazon, Funagain] attempts to mix things up the trivia genre. Instead of players straight-up answering stock trivia questions on pop culture or mainstream history, the questions hit the edge obscurity requiring players to ballpark a guess at the answer. This increased challenge is balanced by betting phase where people stake points on which guess is the closest answer without it going over (every answer is a numerical value). This layer of abstraction keeps everyone involved and entertained throughout, and makes Wits and Wagers a great addition to anyone’s stack of party or trivia games. In fact, it conrasts some older titles in the trivia game genre, making them seem like the dinosaurs that they are.

Yes Trivial Pursuit, you dice tossing and inconsistently challenging spawn of ancient early-1980s gaming culture, we’re looking at you.

Slightly tarnished by the inclusion of some cheap components, Wits & Wagers’ gameplay shines through its foggy exterior to deliver a fast paced and most importantly fun 20-30 minute trivia party game that's well worth your time.

Read on for a more detailed breakdown in our full review.

Continue reading: "Wits and Wagers Review"

Kill the Hippies Card Game Released

A while ago we received a prerelease copy of Kill the Hippies [Amazon] for our internal review, and we must say we quite enjoyed this satirical card game. Obviously anything entitled “Kill the Hippies” must be taken with a grain of salt, and with an open mind it really tickles the dark side of our funny bones.

The players act as religious fundamentalist who are attempting to convert a series of Hippies from their pagan ways. At their disposal are a set of cards which convert the hippies either through enticing peaceful means, or through cleansing them with fire (read: blunt weapons, guns, and hand grenades).

The humor stems from the combinations of characters and weapons. For instance the Open Mic girl hippie is immune to thrown-bottle and can weapons, and the King James Bible deals more physical damage than its power to convert people.

There are event cards as well which make certain conversions impossible, or protects the Hippy from successful conversion. In the end, the person who lands the most “killing-blows” wins the hippy, and the player with the most hippies at the end wins the game.

In the preview release that we played the game sported a few too many game-breaking cards. For instance some cards would cause players to lose some of their converted hippies, putting them back into the deck and making the game last for far longer than intended. Other cards kept Hippies alive for far too long. We offered our beta feedback to Golden Laurel, but we’re not yet sure if this is fixed in the release.

Therefore we have to recommend this as a good bar-game; a setting where the resulting gameplay isn’t as important as talking over a game and having drinks while humorous things happen on the tabletop below. Those looking to sit down for a serious / balanced game will probably be disappointed after so many wins occur out of left field over a few sessions. But the humor is fantastic, and uh, not a game for kids.

August '07 Roundup: Starcraft, D&D 4th ED, and Fires of Outland

Some big news went down this month. Things kicked off strong when the next installment in the A&A franchise - Axis and Allies Guadalcanal - began to take shape. Next, Margaret Weiss Productions awoke from their slumber an kicked off the covers for their upcoming retail release of the Battlestar Galactica RPG, and it's looking like it could be a solid title later this month. Then Fantasy Flight Games released a treatment on the upcoming Starcraft board game, which followed shortly after with fantastic news that the Fourth Edition of D&D will be released in Spring 2008. Holey Moley, talk about a tasty stew of news for some huge upcoming games!

This month also saw some great releases, the biggest two were Age of Empires III - which has some great community praise who are already whispering of a new classic - and the third edition to the WoW TCG: Fires of Outland. The Condottiere 3rd Edition card game of waring city states was also released, and we cannot stress enough that this little game truly shines for groups of 3-5 players.

Here’s the rest of the gaming news from August, from head to toe:

Board Games and Party Games

• Axis & Allies: Guadalcanal - The Fog Lifts
• Age of Empires III: The Board Game
• Starcraft The Board Game Official Details Released
• Condottiere 3rd Edition War Cardgame Released
• Dune Board Game Remake - Pretty Please?
• The Simpsons Duff Dice
• Our Top 5 Games for Labor Day Weekend '07

Collectible Card Games

• Fires of Outland: WoW TCG Expansion Previews
• WoW TCG Damage Dice
• WoW TCG Fires of Outland Launch Links

RPGs

• Battlestar Galactica RPG Details Released
• Battlestar Galactica RPG Quickstart Previews
• Dungeon and Dragons 4th Edition Announced

Our Top 5 Games for Labor Day Weekend '07

We’re about all packed and ready to head out to the beach house for Labor Day weekend, including our bag o’ games in tow. Yes life is tough. And hopefully you, too, will be take a nice relaxing weekend break.

Here is our selection of party games from gaming stack this year. Its a lighter set keeping in mind a we're trying to reminisce the lazy days of Summer with friends who aren't quite a group of heavy gamers:

• Apples to Apples

  Can’t go wrong with this party game classic. Everyone and their mom like’s Apples to Apples after chilling on the beach – it’s light, funny, social, and easy to get into. This all adds up to an easy first selection from the the middle of the game stack.

• Condottiere
  Before the boys withdraw to the withdrawing room for their late night poker tournament, this card game should be a great warm up for everyone. It lacks the chip gambling mechanics which makes it "nice" for those without the gambling fever, but there’s enough gameplay decisions and risks to make it attractive even for veteran poker fans. It walks that thin line so well.

• Ticket to Ride Marklin
  When we're actually craving a game with a board, Ticket to Ride really delivers. This one supplants the classic Settlers of Catan, which has been played almost to detail. Marklin also remains our favorite of the Ticket to Ride series, even though the stock Ticket to Ride has been brought up to date with similar mechanics via the 1910 Expansion.

• Celebrity
  We're not actually packing our favorite party game, 'cause there's nothing to pack! Celebrity is the perfect ice breaker for our friends who've just gathered again for the first time in a year. Funny, inventive, laid back; contains the greatest of things to get the weekend started.

Have a good weekend folks. See you on the other side when we enter the Fall season of games, and football season! Woot!

The Simpsons Duff Dice

Before you roll your eyes at a cheap commercial dice game, know that The Simpsons Duff Dice [Amazon, Funagain] is based on the proven classic Liar's Dice. If you haven't heard it before then it goes a little something like this:

Everyone rolls Dice in a hidden cup, slapping the cup upside down onto the table like a drunken four-fingered pirate. Then each player growls at the other, sneaking a hidden peak at their dice to see how many common numbers came up in their cup. The round continues as players take turns estimating - or bluffing - how many dice across the entire table have a particular number.

Given a result of four "2"s in your cup, you might predict that there are eight two's in your five player game. The next player either calls your bluff, or increases the bid to beyond eight, using any dice result number he/she wishes.

If your bluff is called, then everyone lifts their cups. If you were found-out to be dead wrong, then chug your Duff. Otherwise the skeptic kicks back his own beer in frothy humility.

A simple, elegant, and proven party game (7.2/10 BGG) with a Simpson's motif. What could go wrong?

The Company Line:

The dice don't lie but you might have to in this fast-paced game of lyin' and guessin'. Do you have what it takes? To stay alive in Duff Dice, you must bluff -- or be bluffed. To win in Duff Dice you must lie, lie, lie your way to victory. Woo hoo!

Packaged as a four-pack of beer, this classic liar's dice game includes 4 collectible Duff Beer Cans, 20 custom dice featuring your favorite characters from Moe's Tavern and a Duff Beer shopping bag for easy storage.

Contents:

• 4 beer-can dice cups
• 20 custom dice
• Rules

The Simpsons Duff Dice is now shipping from Amazon and Funagain Games.

Three-Dragon Ante - How to Spice Up Your RPG Encounters

Ever been part of the lamest and uninspired RPG encounters? You know, the ones where you have when matching wits with an NPC, which pretty much consists of acting stupid in front of your friends, threatening a ghost sitting in the vacant chair next to you, and then rolling a die to see if your melodramatic performance actually won you the intimidation check? You roll a 2. Exciting!

Well we're about to show you a great way to spice up the monotony of social-skill and wit dice checks. Three Dragon Ante [Funagain, Official] first started as an in-game card game which DMs could throw down on the mahogany, waxed dining room table table in order to give some grit and atmosphere to the room. Players can use it as an in-character card game to kill some time in a local tavern, or use it as a tool, customizing the deck so the player has to game the encounters through a quick hand. This - of course - goes to great lengths to keep the spice in the air throughout some otherwise trivial, boring, and anticlimactic encounters.

Here's the official word on Three-Dragon Ante from Wizards of the Coast

"The high-stakes game of chance preferred by D&D characters of all classes and levels!

Three-Dragon Ante is a fast-paced noncollectable card game based on the tavern games played by characters within the D&D game world. Three-Dragon Ante can be played as a standalone card game when there isn't enough time for a full-fledged D&D adventure, or it can be played as part of a roleplaying campaign-where a character's abilities can give him or her a unique winning edge.

For 2-6 players. Great for dedicated D&D gamers or anyone interested in a cool, fast, fantasy-based game of chance."

Scene It? Comes to the Xbox 360

Microsoft continues the trend of brining the world of Social Gaming to the Xbox 360 with a 360 version of the DVD trivia “Scene It?” [Amazon, Funagain], which was announced during last night’s Electronic Entertainment Expo Press Conference in Los Angeles, California.

It looks like the Xbox board game adaptations aren’t just limited to Xbox Live anymore, as Scene It? will ship in an off the shelf boxed version. Included in every package are four of these colorful remotes which you see here. Sure, they’re not made of rugged space-age durable plastic, but you get four in the same box as the game, and at the same price as a standard 360 title. For such lack of cost the visual quality seems A-OK for now-- maybe we’ll change our minds when we get our hands on them.

Step 2 is trying to find a place to hide them while we’re not playing trivial with the family. Talk about some ugly living room clutter.

Continue reading: "Scene It? Comes to the Xbox 360"

Now Shipping: "Scene It?: 007 Collector's Edition"

Scene-It, the makers of the best-selling video trivia franchise, has hooked up with Q-Labs to bring you the 007 Collector's Edition [Amazon,Funagain] - a trivia game that plays on any common household TV and DVD Player. Think that you're a bigger bond fan than you're father, well now you can prove it.

And it's all here: from Gemini capsule eating rockets, to laser table death traps, to the casino-based ballistic defense simulation with pain amplifying joysticks. Classic.

And if you ever find yourself in a pinch, loosing the game to your kids (who were born in the Timothy Dalton era), then just activate the disc's self destruct mechanism. Simply whistle three times and say "Roger Moore" with a scotch laden slur, and grab some cover. Smashing, yes.

Here's are the officials:

The Company Line: A must for the true Bond aficionado, this Collector's Edition of Scene It? is loaded with new trivia questions, puzzlers, and clips, including images from Casino Royale. This game will even give seasoned Bond fans a run for their money.

Contents:

• Collectible Tin
• 1 DVD
• Certificate of Authenticity
• Flextime Game Board
• Party Play200 Trivia Cards (25% more Trivia Cards)
• 30 Q Cards
• 4 Reference Cards
• 1 Six-Sided Die
• 1 Eight-Sided Die
• Set of Game Rules

007 Collector's Edition [Amazon,Funagain] is now shipping from Amazon and Funagain Games.