u/GambuzinoSaloio

No, I haven't played the game yet. No I don't need convincing, I'm sold on it, this game made Yahtzee cry, that's all I need. It's about sales.

So I'm seeing Steam selling this at an absolute banger of a discount. 3,04? Hell yeah!

But as much as I appreciate Steam, I'd rather get stuff on GOG. Especially after recent events regarding licenses and such. But the game sadly isn't discounted on GOG. Is there a reason for this, other than the devs simply not having agreed to it?

It's laughable in a way, as it's Mr. Clueless talking here. But I've gotten better.

Was doing really bad a year before this. Changed jobs and now I'm more communicative, I can actually feel things and talk... basically I feel human again.

On the aspect of emotional intelligence (for those lurking that do not know, it basically comes down to understanding how you feel and dealing with that without affecting other people), I feel like I've also gotten better. But there's something that I can never tell: how stressed or anxious I am.

I don't know if it's because I've been like that for so long (trying to do as much as possible, being bullied in the past, etc) or whether something in my brain (epilepsy) was turned off during some episode I was having but... I really, really, really can't tell when I'm stressed.

Which is a huge bummer. My social confidence goes down, and I often can't tell why. I don't sleep as well, either because I genuinely can't or because I end up, in hindsight, doing things to self-soothe that end up harming my sleep schedule. Which is important because well... epilepsy.

And this has affected me in all sorts of situations. From the most mundane like talking to a family member that needs my presence to laugh a bit and forget about their worries, to feeling confident and energetic to help someone around the house and to... well, the most intimate, which has also thrown a wrench into my own self-understanding regarding that part.

Did anybody else (especially in their 30s) go through this? How did you manage to work that out? At this point I'm literally placing my hand on my chest a few times a day to self-monitor, being self-aware of my body language (clenched jaw, tense shoulders) to detect whether I'm actually stressed or relaxed because in my own self-perception I just can't measure that accurately.

Advice from bros needed, and from sisters who might be around of course!

I played TMNT first though, a couple of friends were interested in it and got the set for themselves. I enjoyed the Adventures module enough, so thought I'd get one for myself.

So first off... the box's much, MUCH simpler, yet there's still plenty of content to go around.

But besides that... HOLY HELL GUYS. I try not to pay much attention to tier lists and only watch them mostly to get an idea of matchups and stuff but... damn, Tesla and Golden Bat are BUSTED. The fun kind of busted to be more precise! I need to play more Jill and Annie to get better with them but they also seem to be busted as well!

Also... the mothman and the martians minis are GORGEOUS and MASSIVE. Not saying that Shredder and Krang aren't cool too, but man the sheer size difference is something else! Really hope they recapture that feeling with the upcoming horror adventures set, I sure as hell am going to jump with joy if we get to fight a towering figure of Frankenstein's monster!

Eu sei, estou a traduzir de forma muito directa a noção de "confort game". Basicamente refiro-me àqueles jogos que se calhar já jogaram mil e uma vezes. Se calhar nem são assim tão bons. Ou se calhar até foram, mas entretanto já passaram à história por terem uma jogabilidade mais lenta, ou clunky. São jogos que poderão tanto estar no vosso top 10 como poderão nem estar num top 50. São aqueles jogos que vocês jogam e vos fazem lembrar de tempos mais felizes. Ou podem simplesmente ser relaxantes.

Partilho aqui os meus:

Por estranho que pareça, Demon's Souls. Já o conheço como a palma da minha mão, de tal maneira que facilmente o passo num dia, senão menos. Foi o jogo que me meteu a gostar de RPGs outra vez, e seja por causa da premissa ou da altura em que o joguei, acabou por ser um jogo de tal modo familiar para mim que há muito que deixou de ser stressante e passou a ser... estranhamente relaxante.

De seguida... Prince of Persia Sands of Time. Há muita nostalgia (e da pesada!) por detrás disto, tendo sido um jogo marcante da minha infância que nunca tinha terminado, mas este conforto também existe por ser um produto do seu tempo: era uma altura em que jogos que se focavam numa sensação de aventura e arriscavam em novas ideas, com premissas super fantásticas (não tivessem saído, poucos anos antes, filmes como o Parque Jurássico por exemplo e na década anterior os filmes do Indiana Jones), quase como se fossem um conto mágico. E, claro está, existiam imensos platformers!

Sabendo isto, não será surpresa nenhuma se eu disser que os meus próximos "jogos de comforto" são o Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy, Sly 2 Bando de Espertalhões (Band of Thieves) e Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex! Uma vez mais conjugam uma jogabilidade e história simples mas divertidas, com imensa cor e diversão do início ao fim! O mais estranho é sentir uma espécie de nostalgia estranha pelo Jak and Daxter: nunca joguei o jogo na minha infância e tempos de adolescente - essa honra vai para o Jak 3 - mas como os princípios de design daquela época estão tão presentes no jogo, é como se estivesse a viajar atrás no tempo. Quanto ao Wrath of Cortex, sei que não é o melhor Crash alguma vez feito e os bosses - ou devo dizer O boss - deixam muito a desejar, mas não é de todo um mau jogo, tendo continuado na mesma veia dos jogos originais.

E apesar de ter dito que não gosto de RPGs... tenho de admitir que há um que se encaixa aqui: Pokémon Gold e Silver, especificamente as versões originais (não os remakes). Não consigo explicar, para além da nostalgia e do esforço dos compositores japoneses em criar melodias marcantes visto estarem a usar um chipset de sons bastante limitado, a sensação de felicidade de cada vez que pego no jogo e oiço o tema de New Bark Town. É um jogo para jogar em qualquer altura. Não é muito difícil, e tem carradas de conteúdo. É toda uma viagem e aventura (todos os jogos Pokémon o são tecnicamente) que acompanhou imensos miúdos que viam os episódios na televisão e viam pela primeira vez uma nova geração de Pokémons que não fosse a primeira!

Quais os vossos?

EDIT: Kinfire Delve Scorn's STOCKADE, not blockade 😬

Thought I'd write something quick for anybody looking to get into this.

Got this on a whim after hearing some good stuff about it, and because I was in the market for a dungeon crawler, after feeling disappointed with One Deck Dungeon, but enjoying Tin Helm a lot. So... How did it go?

As others might have stated in previous posts, and probably in website reviews as well, Kinfire Delve is more of a "gauntlet" rather than a dungeon crawler. You're not exploring a dungeon as much as you are progressing through it, as one of 2 characters (each with their own deck) by beating enemies, solving puzzles, conquering obstacles or triggering events. Beating said cards (enemies, puzzles and obstacles) will make you progress through the dungeon, which is represented by the Well Deck. Once you get to the end, you get to the boss fight.

So Kinfire Delve ends up being an efficiency puzzle and push your luck game. You got 4 options in front of you, and it is up to you to decide which of the cards should you focus on beating. It's best to beat them in one go, rather than trying several times, but some card effects may help you move past the penalties for progressing but failing the cards (you put progress tokens on the card in case you fail to complete it), which allows you to keep going at a tougher card. Tougher cards yield better rewards, such as moving faster through the dungeon - it's what you should aim for really, as the bigger the number, the higher the number of cards you skip through the deck.

This means naturally that you won't see the entirety of the deck in one playthrough. No, you'll skip through a lot of the cards as you try to make it through the gauntlet with as much health and lack of exhaustion as possible in order to guarantee that you'll make it to the end.

Speaking of exhaustion... other than card effects in your hand, the only way of replenishing your hand is by drawing an exhaustion card. But be careful: draw too much exhaustion and you risk drawing a combination of 3 cards that, when all drawn together, will end your game immediately. Exhaust wisely and make use of the card effects that allow you to remove exhaustion back into its deck.

Resolving cards is straightforward. It doesn't really matter whether they're a puzzle, obstacle, trap or combat: you look at a color, pick a card that matches that same color and try to boost it (up to 2 times) with other cards with similarly colored boosts, ignoring their main effects. Both main effects and some boosts depend on the card's type though: so say you're using a level 3 card (called Skill in this game) to resolve a level 8 red card which is also a Trap, and combine it with another skill which boost contains "+1, +3 if Trap"... this means you get a total combo of 6 damage! That's awesome. You can play another boost, either +2 to assure it gets resolved, a +1 so you only have to get one success on the dice, or not boost at all and push your luck.

Speaking of push your luck and dice... yes you are incentivized to play a card - especially in this set since you risk more exhaustion by not doing so - but it is not required. You can play a card, boost it up to 2 times and then move to the dice phase... or you can skip it entirely and just roll dice. Success depends on the color of the card: roll reds for a red card and that's a +1. Among the 4 dice there is a die that has 3 light and black sides. Black is nothing, and may even affect you depending on the card you're targeting. Light is a wild, so it acts as any color. If everything goes well... adding the card you've played, plus boosts, plus dice should be enough to resolve the card, the reward usually being something like unlocking your lantern ability (basically a super powerful move), recovering health, exhaustion or simply skipping ahead in the dungeon (which you will be doing most of the time).

Once you get to the end, trying to draw from an empty Well pile will trigger the final encounter. The boss appears, the 4 extra cards you left aside during setup enter play, and now it's a matter of getting through those 4 cards in order to make the boss beatable. Resolving those 4 cards weakens the boss and makes him more and more vulnerable, thus making victory (supposedly) easier.

So... what did I think of it?

I think it's a fun puzzle to solve, both solo and in coop. It's easy to set up, which is very important for me in a solo game. Good artwork, although I'd probably pick different shades of yellow (light), red, green and blue. The game might seem a little tricky at first, but it's super easy to learn. You can mitigate your luck by playing cards, or hope for sweet lady luck to come knocking. I think that, gameplay-wise, it is a solid game.

That said... I couldn't help but feel that it is in a weird grey zone of "enjoyable enough to own, not exciting enough to keep playing, given what I already own". It's more of a personal take that is highly dependent on each player's collection though. If that's not the case for you, I recommend this game: tight gameplay, easy setup and cleanup, goes by really fast.

I like escape rooms. I really do. Thing is, they are cooperative by nature. I can't even book for 2 people and then pop up and play alone, as a fair load of escape rooms rely on having at least more than one player involved. So... while I can't scratch the itch for some good puzzle solving and escaping IRL, I scratch that itch either going the videogame route... or the boardgame route. Which was the case here, with the Unlock system.

Long story short, Unlock is an escape room game where the "rooms" are made up of a deck of cards. Said cards contain various things: a room (often requires you to check for details, clues and numbers), items and even characters or machines that you can interact with to some extent. It comes with a free phone app that you can download without owning even a single set, albeit it won't do you any good: the app is basically a virtual game master, controlling your time, providing you with hints, deducting time from you in case you fall into a trap or something, or providing user interface for certain machines, tools and segments. None of which you can access without owning the original game materials.

Without further ado, let's get into it:

Escape Adventures

This set contains 3 scenarios: Squeak and Sausage (the evil clown scientist one), The Formula and The Island of Dr. Goorse.

Squeak and Sausage is the easiest and most humorous of the 3. It plays like a small adventure game where you get stuck inside Noside's basement (Noside being the clown's name) and need to find a way out in order to stop him. 4/5.

The Formula is your classic escape room scenario. You enter a secret lab and you are now stuck inside. Find the secret formula and make your way out. I think this scenario is mostly fine, although it relies a little too much on finding numbers within the pictures of the card and on punishing your errors. 3/5.

Island of Dr. Goorse is either your favourite scenario of the set, or the most hated. It comes down to this: not only is it the hardest and longest scenario of the box, it also splits the party right at the start. You eventually communicate and then get together as you move forward, but for some people this doesn't click. I personally loved it though. 5/5.

Mystery Adventures

House on the Hill. This one feels sad to rate since I love horror settings. Just like in The Formula, I felt punished (time penalties) for trying things that made some sort of sense at least. On top of that... I know it's weird since we're technically talking about a card game, but I felt there was very little exploration in this one. Very underwhelming. 3/5.

Nautilus Traps is, once again, a very divisive one. I love it because of the theme, the puzzles and the time mechanic (in this one you can get more time by exploring and gathering air tanks!). Others dislike it because of it. 4/5.

Last but not least... TONIPAL'S TREASURE. My absolute favourite thus far! Not only is it about escaping prison, it evolves into a small 60-90 minute short game about exploring an island and uncovering treasure! You'll eavesdrop in the local town, get into a fight (or talk your way out of it), unearth bodily remains, meet a witch... just straight up pirate goodness. 5. Out. Of. 5.

Secret Adventures

A Noside Story features the evil clown once again, as he apparently decided to create a huge cloud of smoke. It's up to you to stop his schemes once again. 4/5, once again a fun romp.

Tombstone Express is a weird marriage between the Wild West and the Orient's Express. It's a murder mystery, so not only do you have to puzzle your way out, you also need to figure out who stole the precious item that was being carried aboard. It's also the first scenario to feature multiple endings and even some in-game events as the scenario goes on. Great ideas, the execution could be better. 3/5.

Adventurers of Oz is... weird for me to rate. In terms of quality, you've got lots of good puzzles. On the other hand... you're basically reliving the tale, and it's quite a linear experience at that. I can see this being a 4/5 or even a 5/5 for certain people, but for me it doesn't go further than 3/5. Good puzzles, but the theme didn't really grab me (cool artwork though) and neither did the linear experience.

Epic Adventures

This was the seventh set in the series, so all scenarios are 7-themed. The Seventh Screening is no exception. You and your friends decide to watch an old horror movie at your local cinema and that's pretty much what you're doing... except your POV switches to the movie's protagonists. Since the movie is black and white, it twists one of the game's base mechanics in order to make it a little more difficult. Still a very fun and accessible scenario, only problem is the weird ending, which feels slapped on. 4/5.

The Dragon's Seven Tests is a scenario that I really wanted to love, but couldn't. First off, no actual dragons. That said the game's puzzles really play off of a spiritual, abstract vibe so expect the puzzles to seem fairly obvious, but actually requiring you to think a little bit "beyond", which was cool. But there are also a couple of puzzles that just feel straight up annoying and inconsistent. 3/5.

Mission #07 has you finding out who's the mole in your secret agency. You will be controlling 4 characters, each with their own special thing going on: strength, agility, gadgets and hacking. It's up to you to figure out who's working against you through the clues you run into and then stop the mole's plans. This is also a 2-part scenario, although you can easily complete it in one sitting. There's one particular puzzle in the first part that reeeeeally soured part of the experience for me, but the rest was top tier. 4/5, potentially a 5/5 if you don't mind said puzzle.

And that's it. I might review a few short ones in the comments if people are interested.

EDIT BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT: when I said "get as much attention" in the title, I meant that more games should be designed like it. I am aware that this one is considered one of the greats, so it already has plenty of attention! Should thought newer designs could learn from it a bit more, that's all.

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Now I'll be honest... I mostly skimmed it whenever I looked for suggestions due to 2 reasons: I was in a phase where I was exploring everything, and area majority didn't seem like a huge thing to dive into. Second... look, I know beige eurogames have their charm and all... but the original release looked ROUGH by today's standards.

Fortunately though the game saw a new edition in 2023, which made me very happy when I learned of that. So... how does a classic that's over 30 years old stack up?

Very, very gracefully I might add! Didn't even touch the mini-expansions yet, the base game by itself is already plenty of fun!

Rules? Straightforward: they're family-level of complex, it's the gameplay that's the real crunch. It's actually ridiculous how easy it is to learn: the first player picks a card from their hand to dictate how many caballeros he wants to recruit, and how much priority they want when picking the action cards. Once this is done players take turns by the order established by these smaller cards, and pick an action card that not only lets them place caballeros on the board, but also let's them modify the game state in some sort of way: maybe they'll kick out some opponent caballeros! Maybe they'll weaken their opponents' courts! Maybe they'll move their Grande, or move all of their troops from one region and spread them around! And that's it: the rest is scoring the regions and the Castillo, all intuitive: typical top 3 kind of scoring, based on who has the most caballeros in a given place. There, I just explained the game to you.

Knowing how to play it though? Oh boy, that's the really challenge right there. You want to spread out as much as you can, so you can cover more regions faster. But spread out too much and you might lose points to another person. Also, the Castillo exists. Maybe you should get some of your guys in there not only to score the Castillo, but also so you can redeploy those very same guys to a place that might feel particularly juicy after 3 rounds of playing!

Kinda feels like an abstract in a way, due to how the king mechanic plays out: the king locks a region up, so you can't modify it anymore. You can deploy knights (caballeros) around him though, and move them through Spain as long as the King's region remains untouched.

The map remains the same, but the possibilities are endless. Something as simple as randomly deciding where each player starts makes for completely different games. Sure it's not as flash as a completely new module for your game, but man it's replayable nonetheless!

And the best part of it all? This game can be MEAN. In all the good ways of course, but MEAN. And interactive!

You're trying so hard to take control of a couple of regions, or maybe trying to get at least a bit of scoring off of the last places and then comes your friend with another action card that completely ruins your plans! Except you could tell this was coming, so it was either picking that original card you chose, or this one to prevent them from doing so. And everyone gets to see what's on the action menu for each round, so there isn't that much luck involved! Pretty cool huh?

May more games like El Grande exist. Seen it featured in the hall of fame in the OG guild (old-school german-style) and man what a great purchase!