Each year (usually a bit later than this post) I choose my game of the year (GOTY) from the new to me games that I have played throughout the year.
I’ve decided to shake things up a little this year by dedicating two posts to it.
There is this post giving you the contenders for this year. Which will be followed by a post announcing my GOTY.
Let’s start by using the cool 3×3 image the bgstats can generate of the top 9 played new to me games of 2023.
I should point out that being in this 3×3 is no guarantee that the winner will be one of these games.
My 3×3 of top 9 played new to me games of 2023
What surprised my with this 3×3 is Stonemaier Games account for a third of the games in this top 9 played.
Ok it’s time for the raw data showing all the new to me games played in 2023.
Technically I have only played 43 new to me games in 2023. Bgstats records Dice Masters as a new to me game. Which we all know it isn’t. But my plays of Dice Masters was before I had started using the bgstats app to record all my game plays.
I also shouldn’t include 51st State Ultimate Edition as a new to me game. It’s just a new edition (no changes to the game, it’s just a fancy version) of a game I’ve already played.
So excluding these two games narrows the field only slightly. It doesn’t make the decision any easier.
We met up at the community centre to play Dune Imperium Uprising.
Yes it was a two player game. So we used the Dire Wolf app to act as the second player. It’s a quicker and easier to run version of the House Hagal deck. And also why there are no photos in this post.
Naturally we played with the optional CHOAM module. I can’t see why you wouldn’t. It adds no overhead to the game play. Just a little to the setup. Which is shuffling the contract tiles, and adding four cards to the Imperium deck.
We also carried over the house atomics token as a house rule.
Usually I like to make a note of our leaders and share them here. But I forgot to do that yesterday.
Our rival that the House Hagal deck was driving was Rabban Harkonnen. He was one of the recommended streamlined leaders. Which means in a two player game the players have less to do running the rival. Something I thought was ideal for our first play.
This was only the second time I’ve played a two player game of Dune Imperium. It’s fine with the House Hagal “third player”. But I’d much prefer real players.
Also during setup each player gets a random objective card (a new addition to the game which I’ll talk about later).
Playing Uprising had a feeling of both being familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
The flow of the game, of a turn, were the familiar bits. That hasn’t changed at all.
The game board had that dual feeling of looking familiar but not. The board spaces have had a major overhaul. Water is even harder to get. There are more spaces on the board that require two influence in a particular faction before they can be used. Plus the cost of using one or two of the spaces has gone up or been added. Naturally the benefits have been adjusted/tweaked on some, or even changed totally to support some of the additions to the game. We also have
The mentat has gone. It has been replaced by being able to recall an agent from one of your other spaces on the board.
Other board changes I like are the space for buying the swordsman (aka third agent) once a player has bought a swordsman it then becomes slightly cheaper for all the other players. I think of this as a little catch up mechanism. They also tweaked the high council space. Once you have claimed your seat at the table you can now revisit the space on subsequent turns and get a benefit instead (I forget what it is exactly). I like this as it’s turned a space that once visited is then dead on the board to one that can be useful later on.
I like the addition of the makers/worms, and the shield wall. Having a worm (in your forces) in a combat that you win gains you double benefits. I also like that the shield wall negates their use in combat until it has been destroyed.
I also felt it was harder to gain influence with the various factions because there were less cards with their icons on. Those cards were a premium and ones I tried to but to increase my chances of using those spaces.
The spies are an interesting new addition. They also seem very powerful allowing you to use a space regardless of if an opponents agent is on it. Or you can draw a card.
Although I didn’t get or complete any CHOAM contracts (Dave did) which cost me a victory point at the end for an end game scoring on an intrigue card. I did like their addition.
The objectives and completing them by matching symbols on combat cards you win gains you a victory point is a nice new source of rare victory points. Well the first time. But after that pairs of combat cards with matching symbols gain you a victory point. So combat becomes a way to gain additional victory points, and a way to deny opponents. Obviously knowing that you need to win a combat to deny an opponent that cards symbol adds new tension to combat.
Overall I loved the new bits that Uprising adds to the game.
I want to play the game a few more times before adding in the expansions or using some of the base game cards. That’s a nice thing about Uprising that the expansions can be used with it.
Sadly Dave beat me by a point in the end.
It looks like my only gaming for December was this session with Dave. A big thank you to Dave.
However I do own one or two on video game design (which is natural considering I taught the video game units on the now defunct BTEC National when I was teaching at local colleges). One of the books in that collection that I loved and used a lot to support my teaching was Level Up! by Scott Rogers.
I found Rogers style very accessible and informative.
So when I found out Rogers had a new book out on board game design I had to get it.
To be honest I hadn’t really thought about designing my own board game. I have play tested one or two games that friends have created and given honest constructive feedback (well I hope it has been). So I may not be the target audience for this book.
The book includes chapters on creating your game, writing a rule book, play testing, and selling your game.
If you work your way through the book from cover to cover, and create the games in the book. By the end you will have created as the book promises six board games. But you are encouraged by Rogers to make the designs your own.
Right from the go by the end of the first chapter you have created a simple game and modified it.
I like that Rogers wants you to learn by doing.
The chapters all have a similar format where the game mechanic is discussed, followed by creating and modifying a game based around that mechanic. With a recap of the main points wrapping up the chapter.
It’s that mix of “theory” and creation (with explanation) that makes Rogers approach within the book so effective. I think he’s got the balance just right.
I love the idea from the first appendix of creating a toolkit for prototyping games with. One that is portable, that can be carried with you.
The book finishes with a second appendix with example sell sheets.
Scott Rogers has written another great book that if I was running a game creation course that had a board game design element would be just as influential as his previous tome Level Up!
The book has also inspired me to not only put together a prototyping toolkit. But also to think about designing my own dice game!
In the comments for the 100th episode of A Double Double ‘n Dice I left a comment asking if the hosts Jocelyn and Kim could give some suggestions for Christmas gift ideas for the Dice Masters player in your life.
I was not expecting episode 101.
Since coming across this great Dice Masters podcast, Jocelyn and Kim have read out my comments during the podcast.
All I thought Jocelyn and Kim would do was read out my comment and make one or two suggestions.
That is not what happened!
Not only is the majority of the show a response to my comment. You get a musical treat (I think that’s the word I’m looking for) and twelve great present suggestions.
I have ordered one of the dice bags that Jocelyn makes via her Etsy store. I won’t spoil the surprise of the fabric design I went with. Hey it’s a present to myself I’ve been promising myself since getting back into Dice Masters.
I know Jocelyn and Kim have mentioned my blog and linked to it on an episode. But I’m not sure they have visited/read any of my Dice Masters ramblings.
There were a couple of points mentioned during the gift ideas, such as one of their friends using draft packs to play with their friends. Then after playing but the cards and dice back in the draft packs to be used again at another time. This is basically what I’m doing with Dave, Marcin, and Diego. But I’ve taken it to the next level of building a cube with the cards and dice I have.
The other point was about Dice Masters being a 1v1 game. But I have suggested ways to play Dice Masters as a multiplayer game. So far only had a game like this using the Hunter format.
Naturally I’ve already left a brief comment on episode 101, plus this much longer blog post.
Listen, and share with family and friends to give them some ideas of what to buy you as a gift. Some of these are great ideas even if you don’t play Dice Masters.
It’s been another hectic week and it’s just going to get busier as we enter the run in to Christmas.
At work it’s basically all hands to the pump.
So December is looking like a bad month for getting games to the table.
Dune Imperium Uprising has arrived. Sadly it looks like everyone interested or possibly interested in playing it are recovering from a bout of sickness and diarrhea hitting their household.
The D-Day Dice Kickstarter has been a surprise arrival. No warning it was fulfilling, just an email from the Royal Mail saying a package was coming.
I have a new book to read. It’s all about cheating in video games. It’s an academic text and I’m looking forward to looking at the research and its conclusions.
Well the title of this blog post had to be this really considering the subject matter.
Before I get on with the actual content of this post I should give you a brief peak behind the curtains on the process I used writing this post.
Although you are reading this post in December. I actually started writing it back in mid August a couple of days after Amazon informed me that I would be getting Batman The Arkham Trilogy slightly earlier than expected.
Initially when I preordered the Batman game collection the estimated arrival of the game was after Christmas, early January iirc. But a couple of days ago as I write this part of the post I had an email from Amazon to say that I would be getting the game mid October. Which has now fallen to back to early December!
What a pleasant surprise. And oh does it put so much pressure on me in the meantime to make progress on Tears of the Kingdom (and many of the other games I have on the Switch).
So the plan is I write my relationship and history with Batman now in August, and then when I finally get my grubby mitts on the game give my initial impression.
Batman and Me
Back in the seventies when I was just a young innocent little boy playing soldiers with my younger brother, and dreaming one day of following dads footsteps into the army and the parachute regiment (a dream that died in my teenage years as I discovered I was a nerd/geek and not para material). The 60’s Batman tv show starring Adam West as Batman was my first exposure to the hero and his rogues gallery of colourful villains. Boy did I have a crush on Catwoman.
I did have the Batman action figure which I played with along with my Action Men. But my main object of desire was the Corgi die cast Batmobile. I remember a friend had one. I was very envious.
Luckily during my childhood episodes of Batman were regularly shown on tv. I love the show. It’s camp, lighthearted, comedic tones did influence the comic. And it appealed to a lot of people.
I was lucky enough to see the 1966 movie on the big screen at the local cinema. Obviously I didn’t see it back when it was released. That would have been impossible without a time machine. It came out two years before I was born. But back then in the late seventies and early eighties cinemas used to show films like the Batman movie, or theatre versions of popular tv shows like On the Buses, Morecambe and Wise, the Spider-Man tv show, or Battlestar Galactica.
I do remember the Batman cartoon from around the time but not getting to see that many episodes. I think this was The New Adventures Of Batman as it had the tv series cast doing the voices and it had Batmite!
My next run in with Batman was during the home computer boom of the eighties and the 8 bit computer games that came out then, such as Ocean’s 1986 isometric classic Batman on the Spectrum. Followed by their 1988 release Batman: The Caped Crusader.
But it was the events later in 1988 that would give me a really strong bond with the character.
On the morning of 10th September 1988 my dad took his own life. I did try to revive him to no avail. Even now decades later I can’t forget the taste of his breathe from my attempts to resuscitate him.
After the funeral I returned to Brighton to finish my second and final year of my HND in Computer Studies (Software Engineering).
It was a very rough year for me to say the least.
However I got into comics in a big way whilst I was going through all the emotional turmoil trying to deal with the loss of my dad.
It was at this point in time that I came across Batman in the comic books. The Death in the Family four part story line had just started. I was hooked. But it was the issues of the various Batman comics after the events of Death in the Family that resonated so much with me. As Batman dealt with the loss of Jason Todd I too was going through similar. Obviously I wasn’t taking out my grief on the criminal elements of the UK. However I was in a bad place and was taking out my grief on myself.
As a now die-hard Batman fan this late eighties, early nineties for me was a golden age of the comic.
Obviously we had the Tim Burton movie, that had Sam Hamm (he wrote the script for the movie) write some issues of the comic. There were some amazing Batman graphic novels that became classics.
Like all good things my time with Batman in comic book form had to come to an end. I had to ween myself off my comic book addiction during the early nineties. My comic habit was unsustainable.
It didn’t help that Michelle Pfeiffer was an incredible Catwoman in Tim Burtons Batman Returns, along side a very dark portrayal of the Penguin by Danny Devito. Plus I was catching odd episodes of the Batman Animated series that captured Burtons Batman and Gotham so well. Plus it introduced the world to Harley Quinn!
Obviously I had to endure the very painful to watch Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. The movies that killed Batman in the cinema until Nolan did Batman Begins.
I love The Dark Knight and you know I will say the predictable thing of I just love Heath Ledger as the Joker. My favourite Joker of all time.
In the intervening years I have enjoyed the more recent cinematic portrayals of Batman. I love that the last Batman movie took the character back to his worlds greatest detective roots. The DC animated movies have been out of this world. And in my opinion easily out shone anything that has been put on the big screen.
I did come to the Batman Arkham series pretty late and have only played a bit of Arkham Asylum on my PS3 back in 2010 or 2011. The memory is pretty fuzzy on precisely when. But it was a GOTY edition I got cheap. I couldn’t even tell you exactly why I stopped playing it. It was most likely due to a move back to my home town. But I do remember enjoying it. Naturally I was nowhere close to completing it.
I think it was around 2014 time when I had a spell of getting some copies of classic GameBoy games I wanted for the collection and the Batman: The Video Game was one of those titles I picked up. I played it briefly to make sure the cart was working.
Latest additions
Obviously I have a small Lego Batman minifig collection. With my pride and joy of it being the Heather Ledger Joker figure (that is worth a bit of money).
I even currently have a dvd project that I am doing on a Saturday morning of trying to capture that Saturday morning magic of my childhood. By watching cartoons (not necessarily the ones from the time) such as the Dungeon and Dragons cartoon, Thundercats, and the Batman Animated series with my morning coffee and pan au chocolate. Come pay day I’ll be adding more series that I grew up with including the The New Adventures Of Batman, the 1960s Batman series, and Hong Kong Phooey. Maybe I should do a post about this project (which by the time this sees the light of day will have happened).
So all the above established I am a Batman fan of many years. Which means at least we know where I am coming from when I start talking about the Arkham video games below.
I wouldn’t say I’m a hardcore fanboy. But I am a fanboy with a connection to the character that I don’t think I will ever break.
For such a big Batman fan I surprisingly don’t have that many Batman themed board games. I have the out of print Love Letter Batman. Which is my favourite version of the Love Letter family of games. I have the Batman the animated series dice game that is loosely based on the zombie dice game. Plus I think I have the Batman story cubes.
You’d have thought I would own a copy of the Batman game that was based on the Conan board game. But that was a Kickstarter thing that at the time was something I couldn’t afford or justify. The miniatures were amazing for it. Sadly I heard once people got their hands on it that it was not as good as the original Conan. So dodged a bullet there.
I did own the Batman version of Fluxx. But that was donated to the game box of the Gaywood store I was working at.
I’m just gobsmacked at the lack of Batman games I own or have played. Think we should move on and talk about the latest video game.
The Arkham Trilogy on the Switch
I don’t know if it has shown but I have been trying to improve my writing especially when it comes to talking about video games. Like the section above I’ve been including more personal bits to show where I am coming from when I talk about the game. So that folks can see my biases and experience into account when they read my words and opinions on the game I am playing.
A big influence on shaping those posts is the book Introduction to game analysis by Fernández (details at the end of the post).
I’ll talk about how I am playing the game, such as the platform and any additional hardware, if I am using a players guide etc. I think this is useful information for whoever is reading so they know how I am experiencing the game and if they think that is relevant to the information that I provide.
I still have a long way to go before I am happy with the posts I write about games. But at the moment they seem to me more a diary of my experience as I play than any academic article or review.
In the past I have said I don’t like to review a game (video or board), and that when I talk about a game I like to talk about what works for me and what doesn’t.
There are folks out there that review games far better than I could ever do. So I kind of like the approach I take of play experience diary. It’s different.
And that’s the way I plan to cover the Arkham Trilogy as well.
So let’s get started and cover the hardware etc that I am using to play Batman Arkham Trilogy.
How I’m Experiencing the Batman Arkham Trilogy
For those that have read my previous words on video games the following will be familiar.
I’ll be playing the trilogy on my Switch Lite. Which makes sense since this is the Switch version of the games I am playing.
When I’m playing the game at home I will be using the inbuilt speakers of the Switch Lite to listen to the audio. However any game play away from home will use my usual setup of VANKYO C750 Bluetooth active noise cancelling headphones. Which are over ear, Hi-Fi Stereo, and apparently deep bass.
Like all the other Switch games I’m playing at the moment I’m not spending hours at a time playing the game. But grabbing “moments” when I can. I also have too many games I want to play. The knock on affect is I don’t focus on one but flick between them. I think currently I have four games on the go. If you have read my recent life, the universe post you’ll know playing anything has been a real struggle.
This is the physical version of Batman Arkham Trilogy that I’m playing.
Batman Arkham Trilogy has the following three games included Batman Arkham Asylum, Batman Arkham City, and Batman Arkham Knight.
Both City and Knight need to be downloaded first before playing. They are not on the cartridge. Now this is a pet peeve of mine. There are other physical released titles like Resident Evil that include supposedly have three games on them. When in fact like Arkham Trilogy there is one and the remaining titles need to be downloaded. I bought the physical version for a reason. I wanted a physical version and not having to rely on an eshop.
My play through of this trilogy will be in the following order Batman Arkham Asylum, Batman Arkham City, and Batman Arkham Knight (which is their release order I believe).
For all three games if given a language choice I will be playing the games in English. I will also be playing the games on a normal difficulty level. I may live to regret this decision. But somehow my young mind thinks my gaming skills should be still sharp enough to play the game.
Paratexts I’ve Used
Para what?
I’m going to get you to read a couple of quotes that explain way way better than I ever could what a paratext is, and how they can apply to video games.
“If we consider games texts, we can also understand them better by analyzing what Gérard Genette calls paratexts—texts that surround the main text being analyzed, which transform and condition how the audience interprets that main text.” (Fernández,2019)
“In videogame terms, paratexts would include the box of the game, the instruction manual, the game’s commercial website, reviews, and interviews with the developers, as well as other media, from other games to commercials or films that may have been inspired by the game or spawned by it. Extending Genette’s concept to videogames allows us to understand how they become complex media artifacts in the light of these paratexts, since they provide further layers of interpretation.” (Fernández,2019)
So with the above in mind after a gap of over thirty years I’ve reread the Grant Morrison penned, and Dave McKean drawn 1989 Batman classic graphic novel Arkham Asylum. Which according to Wikipedia was an influence/inspiration on the developers Rocksteady whilst developing the videogame. It wasn’t the only influence, the darker, grittier Frank Miller was also one, as was the work of Neal Adams.
Although Arkham Origins (which I’ve never played) isn’t part of this release there was an animated movie called Batman: Assault on Arkham that sits between Origins and Arkham Asylum. It’s meant to act as a way to bridge the gap between the two games. So I’ve watched this for the first time.
Obviously my comic book collection, the movies, tv series, previous video games also fall into the paratext camp. They shape my interpretation of Batman, and to some extent my enjoyment of the games. On a mechanics level the game maybe fun. But if the portrayal of Batman in the game doesn’t align with how I see the character. Or even one that I can accept then will I actually enjoy the game?
I’m not sure what direction these posts will take as I progress through the game. Or even when the next post will be. But we’ll see where the wind takes me on this.
This post has been rather long, and I haven’t even started looking at the game itself yet! So I better call this post to an end and see you in the next one (whenever that happens).
Fernández-Vara, C. (2019) Introduction to game analysis. Second edition. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
I have the flooring to do. But I have the shelves in the living room up.
Yes not the expensive IKEA Kallax that are very very popular in the board gaming community. But budgets define the options and choices we can make. These were within my budget.
After starting to fill these two units it was apparent they wouldn’t be enough. I would need more.
The problem is and has been space to put them up.
To get these in my two seater settee had to go.
I had a suitable spot for two more to go in the dining room once the table there went.
However before I cleared that and put the plan into action there was something big happening to the house.
My landlord was having a new front door and windows put in. The “old” ones were most likely the original ones (making them about 100 years old!)
Existing units in living roomNew units in back room
All that window stuff happened whilst I was off on the union rep training last week.
So Saturday saw me getting the table cleared. I then put the two new units together configured so the lowest shelf was above Loki cocking leg height!
I’m now starting to fill the new space.
It’s going to be very close to whether this will be enough additional space to hold the rest of my game collection.
In the meantime I have a new dvd project to watch at some point that has just popped through the door in the last week.
New dvd project
Yes I’m a fan of Planet of the Apes franchise. I can even find nice stuff to say about the Tim Burton remake! But before I go off about all this and what they mean to me I’ll stop. All that sort of stuff needs saving for when I do a post about this viewing project.
Despite having a space issue for storing board games. It doesn’t stop the odd new arrival or pre-ordering stuff. In this case I’m expecting Dune Imperium Uprising at some point soon. It’s out now in the States I believe, and pre-orders from Dire Wolf have been sent out. I’m just waiting for it to arrival with retailers in the UK so my pre-order can be sent.
I’m waiting for Amazon to send me the latest book by Scott Rogers. This one is on board game design. Can’t wait to read it. Plus I have a book on cheating in video games on the way. For reason both won’t be here until next week. Very unusually slow for Amazon.
Catch you in the next post.
UPDATE: I did get some fantastic news late last night from the eldest of my sons (well I still look on them as that, even though there may not be a biological link). It nearly bought me to tears.
Long time readers of my ramblings will remember one of my big regrets in life is my relationship or lack of it with the eldest two boys.
So it meant a lot to me that he shared the news with me. I wouldn’t have blamed him if he hadn’t and I’d found out via Nathan. It would have hurt. But I wouldn’t have held any ill feelings.
I’m not going to say exactly what the news is because I’m not sure it’s my place to do so.
Friday evening saw me get my favourite game of all time Scythe to the table with two good friends. What more could you want of an evening?
Whilst I was setting up Colin arrived. So I gave him the tough decision of which of the three Triumph tracks to use. Yes I had forgotten the fourth option of the random set up. But it was probably for the best. The other three are a lot easier to explain. You can see which way Colin went in the setup section below.
Once Marcin arrived we went straight into randomly choosing a player mat, followed by choosing our faction.
Whilst making our choices we enforced the banned combo rule for player and faction mats.
So this is how after randomly selecting a player board and then choosing a faction things ended up:
Saxony/Patriotic (Colin)
Rusviet/Innovative (Marcin)
Fenris/Industrial (Me)
I’m sure Marcin hate drafted my beloved Rusviets to spite me. There was a cheeky grin from him when I bought the subject up. It looked like I had no choice but go to my other favourite faction, Fenris.
One day I should branch out and play some of the others. But haven’t I already by choosing Fenris?
The rest of our set up…
We used the Modular board that once the home base tiles had been randomly placed had two tiles removed. Giving us a much more enclosed map encouraging interaction. No turtling here.
Obviously we used Airships. Plus any additional tiles or cards that the expansions added, along with all the promo cards.
Triumph Track: War
Resolution Tile: Factory Explosion
Airship Tiles: Hero/Bounty
Structure Bonus: Number of structures not adjacent to other buildings (your buildings or opponents’ buildings).
Poorly written summary of the game
I got off to a blinding start. Which was helped greatly by having an encounter token so close to my home base. Turn two I had my first mech out giving me leap. A handy ability to have as I was able to avoid the first conflict and blockade by Marcin.
I had all my mechs out so early. I was moping up encounter tokens to fuel my engine.
Sadly Marcin beat me to the factory and held it for a good time. I wasn’t in a position to challenge him.
I was using my factions tokens to pen Marcin in. I didn’t think it was fair to pick on Colin so early on in the game.
Eventually my engine just ran out of juice and I wasn’t able to stop Marcin stealing what little resources I had or amassing forces on and around the factory tile.
Without the resources I wasn’t able to use my factory card that I’d finally got. Even my plan to get the final encounter token and also use a resource on that tile controlled by Colin. Failed. Colin spent the resource before I got there, and also nabbed the token.
I did trigger the end of the game. But the first of my final two turns was a none turn as I couldn’t do anything. But I did end up with a couple of battles to try and cut down on the territory Marcin controlled. I was fifty percent successful on that front.
Final scores
It was a fantastic evening of gaming.
Oh why the blog post title? Well as Marcin was explaining/helping Colin throughout the game he kept saying “bottom action”. Which had my childish, mind in the gutter side in stitches.
Been away on a union rep training course last couple of days. Which has been fun and informative.
Even been put up for a couple of nights in a Premier Inn.
I’m not sure the price difference between this chain and Travelodge is warranted. I see hardly any difference in the quality of the rooms.
I will grade the breakfast here as a 6 out of 10. Let down massively by the lack of fried bread and having hash browns.
But being in the hotel reminded me I do need to book a hotel for UKGE. The Travelodge we normally frequent is not its usual £35 a night at the moment. But double that. Have they cottoned on to the fact that UKGE is on and they can exploit us poor boardgamers?
Although there has been no gaming since Friday. At least there are plans for playing games this Friday in place.
Right catch you laters now I’ve let you all know I’m ok.
