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I think it's a good thing that Tom has chosen Ark Nova as his new #1. As unpopular as he is with many in the thread including me, he's very influential in the hobby and it's positive to see him embrace a game that is way more modern of a board game than Cosmic Encounter. Ark Nova was not my #1 game of last year, Imperial Steam was. Also for more of my thoughts on the game, watch my video (noting that my channel is not set up for marketing ie no need to like, comment or subscribe) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHP9c3g5Te8
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Jan 29, 2022 18:28
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Mayveena posted:I think it's a good thing that Tom has chosen Ark Nova as his new #1. As unpopular as he is with many in the thread including me, he's very influential in the hobby and it's positive to see him embrace a game that is way more modern of a board game than Cosmic Encounter. Ark Nova was not my #1 game of last year, Imperial Steam was. I saw your video a week or two ago and it convinced me to pick up Ark Nova with my March boardgame budget.
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Jan 29, 2022 18:52
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Mayveena posted:I think it's a good thing that Tom has chosen Ark Nova as his new #1. As unpopular as he is with many in the thread including me, he's very influential in the hobby and it's positive to see him embrace a game that is way more modern of a board game than Cosmic Encounter. Ark Nova was not my #1 game of last year, Imperial Steam was. I liked it even though you were at 69 likes, v sorry.
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Jan 29, 2022 21:58
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I got the impression there was a ton of hype mounting behind Ark Nova even before Tom Vasel gave it a 10/10, much less now that it's his #1 game overall. The game doesn't do much for me, but I'd put money on this game absolutely flying off shelves for most of the year.
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Jan 29, 2022 22:37
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PerniciousKnid posted:I liked it even though you were at 69 likes, v sorry. Of course folks can like and all, but I never ask people to do so because my channel is not going to make any $$, it's very niche and doesn't have all the professional touches you see in other videos but I think I have a small corner of folks who like my style.
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Jan 29, 2022 23:17
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Mayveena posted:Of course folks can like and all, but I never ask people to do so because my channel is not going to make any $$, it's very niche and doesn't have all the professional touches you see in other videos but I think I have a small corner of folks who like my style. That was a light-hearted joke at the specific number of likes I think, not any jab about the content, if it wasn't clear.
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Jan 29, 2022 23:28
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Played Spirit Island for the first time with a couple of friends tonight. We just did the basic intro game and it was pretty fun! We won by getting to the third level of terror and killing all the cities. I can see this game becoming much, much harder in future. I played the Shadow guy that makes tonnes of fear, and it seemed really difficult until I got the 'just nuke anything next to a jungle you have presence in' power. Then we did some Mansions of Madness and drat I love that game. We hosed up solving the mystery - we got enough evidence that there was a 50/50 chance that we could guess the answer and we chose poorly - but still completed the investigation. So we got the bad ending. Also I was kung fu badass Lily Chen and I never fought anything for the entire game.
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Jan 30, 2022 01:17
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Quote-Unquote posted:Played Spirit Island for the first time with a couple of friends tonight. We just did the basic intro game and it was pretty fun! We won by getting to the third level of terror and killing all the cities. I can see this game becoming much, much harder in future. I played the Shadow guy that makes tonnes of fear, and it seemed really difficult until I got the 'just nuke anything next to a jungle you have presence in' power. That's a pretty normal experience playing Shadows, the general consensus is that it's a tiny bit undergunned (not so much that a good power draw can't make up for it, it just needs a little more luck to get what it needs.)
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Jan 30, 2022 01:38
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the holy poopacy posted:That's a pretty normal experience playing Shadows, the general consensus is that it's a tiny bit undergunned (not so much that a good power draw can't make up for it, it just needs a little more luck to get what it needs.) Just the fact that it relies on fear seems to make it more luck dependent, because the actual impact depends more on the fear card draws. Getting a couple clutch fear effects feels really powerful.
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Jan 30, 2022 02:54
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Playing Shadows with the Reach aspect is a good idea for new players. It changes the special rule from paying 1 energy each time you want to ignore range to being able to ignore range once per turn for free. It doesn't complicate things and in most situations it's a small power boost (and those other cases are ones that new players would be unlikely to capitalise on anyway).
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Jan 30, 2022 03:35
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUI9lATTKnI My wallet is ready
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Jan 30, 2022 06:10
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Shadows flicker like flame is strong enough to win solo, but yeah I thought it was rather weak in the 3p games I played. It just needs a little help early on though, and if you land a good major power (which you can using your inherent powers) you quickly become a monster at pushing people around. If you then have push synergy like ocean... yeah. Cosmic encounter is a bad game mechanics wise, but god is it still my favorite beer and pretzels loving around game. It's so luck based that really anyone can win, and also so overtly luck based that you can not care about losing. It's entirely carried by the aliens, the funny background blurbs, and the stupid bullshit cards though. I'll always play it if someone pulls it out of the cupboard but putting it at #1 doesn't really make me think your list is a list of mechanically sound and fun board games That list would have a feast for odin at #1, obviously
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Jan 30, 2022 18:06
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PRADA SLUT posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUI9lATTKnI Talk to me when they release the boardgame of the year remastered edition
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Jan 30, 2022 19:06
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Orange DeviI posted:Cosmic encounter is a bad game mechanics wise, but god is it still my favorite beer and pretzels loving around game. It's so luck based that really anyone can win, and also so overtly luck based that you can not care about losing. It's entirely carried by the aliens, the funny background blurbs, and the stupid bullshit cards though. I'll always play it if someone pulls it out of the cupboard but putting it at #1 doesn't really make me think your list is a list of mechanically sound and fun board games CE has historically been my favorite game. I'll admit a bad game by most technical benchmarks but it's unparalleled as an experience generator. I still remember excellent shaft jobs that both other people and I pulled from decades ago. I've fallen deeply in love with Spirit Island but I doubt I'd remember specific games in the future, let alone as fondly as I remember specific games of CE. One problem is that doing things like "get three powers; drop one, keep one, pass one left" can sometimes lead to really fun combinations but on occasion to slogs. What the game needs is a way to short-circuit crap rounds but I'm not sure I'm smart enough to figure out a good way to do that. Maybe if you irrevocably vote to cancel the round before anyone has three outer bases, you get a free flare draw, and if there's a supermajority of votes to cancel the round before a third outer base the round ends with no winner? Everyone who didn't vote to cancel the round gets a flare in their opening hand in the next round?
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Jan 30, 2022 22:28
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Orange DeviI posted:Cosmic encounter is a bad game mechanics wise, but god is it still my favorite beer and pretzels loving around game. It's so luck based that really anyone can win, and also so overtly luck based that you can not care about losing. It's entirely carried by the aliens, the funny background blurbs, and the stupid bullshit cards though. Cosmic Encounter is Cockroach Poker: DOAM Edition.
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Jan 30, 2022 23:28
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fresh off the gamefound verdict: excellent PRADA SLUT fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Jan 31, 2022 |
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Jan 31, 2022 00:08
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armorer posted:I haven't taken my copy out of the shrink wrap yet, but hopefully I will get it to the table in the next few weeks. Just played it yesterday! I really enjoyed it! I was concerned I was gonna find the gameplay over simplistic, and actually I kind of did, many turns are just 'try to attack, fail, your go!'. But actually, that ends up being kinda fine? I can't really put my finger on how, but, it's just somehow 'fun'? It feels to me a bit like playing a wargame like Warmachine or Warhammer, but simplified? It's got exciting turns, and you can pull of cool and fun strategies. There's a bunch of randomness, but that somehow ends up not being a sore point but a joy as well? I dunno. The different ruffians are all REALLY different in how they play, which is great, and super super thematic. The 'co-op, but you often wanna dick each other over' aspect works out really well too, it's never really 'mean', it's just kinda silly and funny. Again, I have no explanation as to why it works, when on paper it seems like it shouldn't.
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Jan 31, 2022 01:17
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I'm a pretty casual board gamer and my friends are super casual, but we're all veteran video gamers so on the weekend I taught a 5-player group how to play 7 Wonders and it went pretty smoothly. It was actually the first time I'd played it myself but I'd played a heap of 7W Duel over Xmas so I understood most of the game concepts. The hardest thing for them to grasp was that resources are never consumed, whether for buildings or wonder stages or various other things they asked about. Trading and the yellow cards that reduce its cost invited a lot of questions, too, but apart from that they picked it up pretty easily and had a lot of fun. I learned that the game can turn into a huge chaotic mess very quickly if everyone plays their turn at different times, so we made it a rule to wait for everyone to choose their card for the turn (and put their hand face-down on the table ready to pass) before playing all the cards simultaneously. Which, to be fair, is mentioned explicitly in the rulebook. Before 7W we played The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, and afterwards when we dropped a player I brought out Love Letter, and both games went down well. We'll probably do another session in a couple of months and play the same games, but the last few posts talking about Cosmic Encounter had me investigating it on Youtube and I have to say it looks both 1) fantastic to me, and 2) something this group could probably get into.
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Jan 31, 2022 06:33
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Played my first game of Combo Cone Paradise last night. It's a game of resource collection and order completion, a bit like Splendour but without the snowballing engine builder aspect. There are three actions in the game: Scoop, Secure and Serve. When you Scoop, you can take up to three ice cream scoops from the row of 4 that are either all the same flavour or all the same brand. Secure is the same as the reserve action in Splendour - you take one of the four orders on display and only you can fill it, plus one rainbow scoop that counts as all flavours and brands. When you Serve, for each cone you have you can play one scoop on any of your cones. Each scoop also has a brand icon, and if you play a scoop of that brand on it you get a combo and can play another scoop for free. Once you've taken your action you check to see if you can fill any orders and then refill both rows. The game ends when the ice cream deck runs out, upon which everyone gets one more turn to finish orders. General verdict at the table was that it's a nice fun filler, although you probably shouldn't play at the maximum 5 and it would have helped if the ice cream deck had been shuffled better.
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Jan 31, 2022 10:56
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PRADA SLUT posted:fresh off the gamefound I've played Project L, though it looked different from that? But it was pretty good, not my favourite polyomino game which is obviously Llamaland because it has Llama meeples.
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Jan 31, 2022 12:57
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The Yucatan kickstarter is closing in less than a day, and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about the game. (Let's leave all the KS discussion for another time?)
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Jan 31, 2022 21:58
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armorer posted:The Yucatan kickstarter is closing in less than a day, and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about the game. (Let's leave all the KS discussion for another time?) Thought would be it’s Matagot, it will end up in shops regardless of it you back or not. So why front them the money to find out if it’s good?
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Jan 31, 2022 22:10
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Crackbone posted:Thought would be it’s Matagot, it will end up in shops regardless of it you back or not. So why front them the money to find out if it’s good? Yeah, good point, that's why I didn't back it when it went up. No need to change that thought now I suppose.
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Jan 31, 2022 22:14
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armorer posted:The Yucatan kickstarter is closing in less than a day, and I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about the game. (Let's leave all the KS discussion for another time?) Some of the so-called "KS discussion" is integral to that, but we'll skip over the crypto-bullshit for right now since I think that is what you mean. Are there rules on the Kickstarter? If not, absolutely no way. "No rules? No Pledge!" Beyond that, to get into the weeds a bit: It's from Matagot so it will probably be available afterwards, if their only previous Kickstarter is to be taken as an indication. They are a real publisher, not an up-and-comer or scammer, so they will not fail to fund and are likely not going to just run away with your money. However, they are basically treating Kickstarter as a pre-order service. That's good in that it means you probably won't get scammed, but it's bad because you still have to part with dead presidents right now and would still be subject to the hype and fomo in ways that you don't have to if you wait for retail. Maybe it won't appeal to you then, and the time value of money says that money now is worth more than money later, so buying into Kickstarter games means they cost more when you get them. Ignoring the complications, here's a thought experiment I just thought of, so forgive me if I fail to make it clear. Let's take the value of the pledge, add the shipping cost, then estimate the retail will be 30-45% more (pulling that out of my rear end, if someone has a better number, feel free to use it). Take the difference and subtract the shipping if you think you could buy it from an FLGS instead of online. Would you spend that amount of money to not potentially waste the other half? So, if it's $75 KS/ $100 shipped and you estimate it'll be 35% more retail. The difference is $35 or $10 if you could get it from an FLGS. Would you spend that much money to potentially not waste the $100 you have to commit to pledge which would be wasted in the event that the game sucks or you don't like it or the hype dies down? I see lots of BGG auctions with untouched KS games, and it makes me sad. Feels like so-called Transaction Utility of buying games and feeling like you're getting a better deal now, etc But there are just tons of cool rear end games you can buy and play right now. Also, I dunno, it kinda looks poopy? Maybe it's good, they have made good and popular games, though I don't recall how well received the new Kemet was.
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Jan 31, 2022 22:20
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Crackbone posted:Thought would be it’s Matagot, it will end up in shops regardless of it you back or not. So why front them the money to find out if it’s good? Also it's Matagot, the company who tried to start a trend of charging above RRP at Spiel for new releases. So gently caress 'em with a splintered broomstick, it will be cheaper at retail.
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Jan 31, 2022 22:36
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Kalko posted:the last few posts talking about Cosmic Encounter had me investigating it on Youtube and I have to say it looks both 1) fantastic to me, and 2) something this group could probably get into. I think the problem with Cosmic Encounter is that it doesn't value your time. It creates memorable moments, but there are also games where your power fizzles and your one good card gets discarded and you basically spend 90 minutes doing nothing. It's like a game of poker where each hand takes an hour to play. I enjoyed it a lot twenty-five years ago but I also haven't had the desire to play it in fifteen years.
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Jan 31, 2022 23:03
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Magnetic North posted:Maybe it's good, they have made good and popular games, though I don't recall how well received the new Kemet was. From what I’ve heard it’s a good update but probably did not need a whole new edition. Most of the functional changes can be backported to original Kemet.
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Jan 31, 2022 23:12
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Well, I've been roped into Betrayal Legacy ...and it's been a lot of fun so far. I like how small the house is in the early games.
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Feb 1, 2022 00:28
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Kazzah posted:Well, I've been roped into Betrayal Legacy I guess the Legacy is adding on to the house like the Winchester widow?
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Feb 1, 2022 00:35
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I'd play Betrayal Legacy with friends. At that point, I'm hanging out with friends and every now and then moving figurines in a way that doesn't really matter - I know it's a game that I don't need to put my head down to think about, and we can shoot the poo poo rather than being forced to focus on it to make sure we win. Plus I'm a sucker for opening boxes and envelopes.
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Feb 1, 2022 00:43
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Kazzah posted:Well, I've been roped into Betrayal Legacy It's a fun, stupid, silly, and amazing ride. I had a blast. PerniciousKnid posted:I guess the Legacy is adding on to the house like the Winchester widow? You're creating the house in the original game. It's a prequel.
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Feb 1, 2022 00:55
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Kazzah posted:Well, I've been roped into Betrayal Legacy My first ever game of Betrayal a Witch got activated, ran into the next room, tripped over, and died. 10/10 would watch Villain kill themselves again
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Feb 1, 2022 01:23
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Aramoro posted:I've played Project L, though it looked different from that? But it was pretty good, not my favourite polyomino game which is obviously Llamaland because it has Llama meeples. It hasn’t gotten much love outside of Zee Garcia, but The Grand Carnival is a very good polyomino game if you’re into those.
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Feb 1, 2022 03:23
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PerniciousKnid posted:I think the problem with Cosmic Encounter is that it doesn't value your time. It creates memorable moments, but there are also games where your power fizzles and your one good card gets discarded and you basically spend 90 minutes doing nothing. It's like a game of poker where each hand takes an hour to play. Yeah, I can totally see that aspect of it and I'm not rushing out to get it or anything, watching Youtubes of it just reminded me of a particular type of gaming experience I appreciate in video game form every now and then.
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Feb 1, 2022 03:40
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The Dune Imperium expansion is out, can anyone vouch for it or chime in with their thoughts? The price is hilarious though, about ~80% of the base game's cost.
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Feb 1, 2022 16:45
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I got gifted Ankh (base game only) any idea how to store this thing? I really can’t see much point in bagging counters, cause keeping em in sheets seems to be the best use of space.
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Feb 2, 2022 02:47
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FulsomFrank posted:The Dune Imperium expansion is out, can anyone vouch for it or chime in with their thoughts? I would probably wait for it to go on sale and grab it if you are a completionist, or you’ve played the base game to death and want to mix things up a bit.
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Feb 2, 2022 04:58
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I see the Anniversary Edition of Castles of Burgundy comes with a lot of extra expansions and promo stuff (player mats, Geese tiles, Inns, etc). Which ones should I use and which ones should I forget about?
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Feb 2, 2022 05:09
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Cosmic Encounter is a surprisingly good gateway game, in my experience. It’s my “oh crap, we have more people than I expected” game since even at six players it still plays well since everyone has to be engaged even on someone else’s turn. And every time I expect it to go over people’s heads, but they get it and usually enjoy it. Which is why, as a I get older, I am more into games that well-designed for a social experience as opposed to be some meticulously balanced, competitive magnum opus. Just never going to play one particular board game enough to get that deep into its systems (besides Root but only because I had to sell prior asymmetrical darling, Chaos in the Old World) but games that provide something deeper than a party game but still allow for a fun time are easy to get into after a few plays. Which is why I want to play more Oath, drat pandemic 
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Feb 2, 2022 07:39
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Oath is not the game I’d recommend or expect you to go for after the rest of that paragraph. It is specifically a magnum opus* style design that needs repeated plays to dive deep into its systems. It’s a neat game and it does have some social elements to the strategy, but not in the way it seems like you want or like. *Cole talked a lot about burning all the good will and trust Root bought him with the company to let him do this big, weird game and said he knew he’d never have another chance at it. It also feels like a mix of everything he’s done up till now.
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Feb 2, 2022 07:51
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