Monday 19 March 2012

GAMA 2012 Report (Part 2)

So CoolMiniOrNot had so many new things that I needed to split my report in 2 parts in order to avoid making too long a thread.

Other Games that caught my attention at GAMA:

-Resident Evil the Deckbuilding Game (by Bandai):Nothing new here, I just got a demo to try that game and... I was very disappointed with it. Lots of nice stuff in it (your character can evolve, you fight zombies in the mansion) but two things bothered me during this demo:
1: the artworks
2: the guy that gave the demo.

The artworks are from the videogame (or made digitally) and I don't like them nor the design of the cards.
The guy that gave the demo didn't really cared at all and wanted to be done with it.

Other than that, a fun game, but when it comes to Deckbuilding games I think I still prefer Ascension or Tanto Cuore to it.

-Smash Up (by AEG): Its a ''Shufflebuilding Game''. Basically, you have eight factions: pirates, zombies, dinosaur, ninjas, robots, tricksters, aliens and one last one I can't remember.
You choose two of these factions and shuffle their deck together, you then play against your opponent who will have done the same thing (with different factions). Looks like a lot of fun and won't be too expensive to buy. (its also a boardgame)

-Mercantos (by AEG): An Euro boardgame part of a trilogy of euro boardgames which are all based in the same setting but don't have the same gameplay. I'm just mentioning it despite the fact that both design and the idea of a euro boardgame didnt interest me.

-Nightfall ''Coldest of War'' (by AEG): For the Nightfall fans out there, another expansion. The setting is in eastern Europe (where it all began). There was also a talk of AEG making a box containing both Nightfall and its expansion #1 as they thought it was the way the game should be played.

-Leviathans (by Cathalyst): If you like the idea of flying battlecruisers, then this game is for you. (or play the French in Dystopian Wars) I couldn't get a demo, but here 's a cool picture my boss took of it.

They come ''pre-painted'' but the paint coat is very light to allow repainting them.

-Kaijudo (by Wizards of the Coast): Well, this is a CCG aimed at kids from 8 to 12 years old. It has 5 elements very similar to the colors of Magic: The Gathering, big monsters drawn in an anime style and mechanics inspired by Duel Masters.
The Wizards of the Coast people seemed very confident that Kaijudo would do well in USA, apparently it is going to be the biggest launch in Hasbro's history.(It will even have its own tv cartoon!)
All I could think was ''Redakai #2'' or ''Duel Masters #2'' both of which I don't see any kids playing nowadays.
Two questions popped in my head: ''Why would kids drop their yu-gi-oh/pokemons/magic for this?'' and ''does Magic really needs another gateway game?''
But in the end I guess that Kaijudo is aimed at a market segment that isn't fully exploited by Wizards (despite being saturated by its competitors), they want a slice of the cake.

-Puppet Wars (by Wyrd): Repackaging and new stuff on the horizon...Didn't got a lot of details from Eric and Nathan. No nicely painted minis to take pictures of...

And now...

THE BEST GAME I PLAYED AT GAMA:

(picture property of Attempted Murder Games)


-Disaster Looms: I'm not the biggest boardgame fan, I still played more boardgames than most people, but usually I'm more biased toward miniature wargames.
Disaster Looms, however, was the best game I had the chance to play at Gama.
The end of the Planet Earth as we know it is near and customers are counting on their beloved corporation to evacuate them to more hospitable colonies...
You Explore space, find planets, drop your customers on them, research new technologies, franchise your opponents' planets, make your technologies public knowledge or license your opponents', etc...
A whole lot of fun with very interesting ideas! And that's without counting the fact that when exploring space you trigger some unexpected game-changing events.

My boss and I registered the store to get a Beta so we could break that game and send ideas. What we played during the GAMA gamenight was already so good that Eric, the game designer and head of Attempted Murder Games, Aaron, my boss and myself stayed after they closed the ballroom to discuss all the ideas that we got for improvements and expansions.

 I don't have any pictures of the game as I didn't brought my camera to the gaming night...Here 's some I ''borrowed without permission'' from Attempted Murder Games and my boss.

From left to right: Eric, myself and Aaron.

From Left to right: Dan (my boss), myself and Aaron.

I'm now waiting impatiently for that demo copy to arrive at the store ( Gamers' Vault ). For those of you who don't want to miss on that wonderful game, check Kickstarter: They scheduled an auction for end of April.

And that marks the end of my Gama 2012 Report.
I learned a lot from the seminars and got some nice previews of some of the great games for 2012 and I hope this report makes you as excited for 2012 as I was at GAMA seeing all these new models and new games...

And if you're wondering ''what about Privateer Press?'' Well it's simple, they didn't show up. They might be too busy or think it's not worth the trip to Vegas, I don't know but at least there 's all these other companies to remind us its not all about the big names!!

PS: Games Workshop showed up but they had no previews so I didn't talk about them.







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