Category Archives: Technology

What I’m Playing #1

I find myself wanting to come to CootB, but just having random things to write about seems unlikely to produce the relevant mental discipline.

So! A series! Weekly (where Weekly exists in the universe that the Podcasts come out monthly)! Fun!

This is going to cover a range of things, with a single theme: What I’m Playing (hence the title). Whether that be board game, PC game, console game, MMO, iOS app, whatever, it’s going in here. Which makes sense for me, because I veer wildly between what I’m doing, often in a single night. It’s part reviews, part discussion, part musings on whatever I want. Which is what really drives readers!

So!

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COTB 021 – The one year anniversary episode

Carlos and Ben celebrate their one year anniversary by recalling their epic weekend at ChimeraCon. After that they cover some interesting Kickstarter projects and discuss some recent movies before teasing the next episode regarding Bioshock Infinite.

COTB 018 – A Geek Christmas

After a small break Carlos and B.J. return for a Christmas review of gift ideas for the geek in your family. Along the way they talk Justice League speculation, the new Superman and Star Trek trailers, and engage in various other geeky topics.

Dear Audible: Your DRM sucks

I would love to have the opportunity to easily buy and listen to books in my car. We have a fairly long drive to and from work, and we occasionally take very long drives to visit our families. On the audiobook front, the most popular website appears to be Audible. I tried it once before on a trial basis, and disliked-it-with-prejudice for reasons that will become clear, because not a lot seems to have changed from my earlier experience.

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COTB 014 – Geek news all the time

Carlos and B.J. take some time to catch up after taking another extended hiatus. All corners of the geek world are covered as the boys try desperately to discuss as much news as possible without being side tracked by rants and raves. Carlos succeeds in his normal graceful fashion while B.J. begs for a Mass Effect RPG, throws conspiracy theories out about the retiring of the Bioware founders, and gets a little creepy about Milla Jovovich.

Last minute Geek Christmas Gifts already?

Cripes, it’s Christmas already. What’s going on? Well, here’s gift suggestions- maybe for your geek friends, maybe for you.

Of course, I expect lots of folks around these parts are playing Skyrim or Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m certainly doing the latter at the moment. The only problem looking at those as gifts is that it is incredibly likely your fans of the material already have them. ^^ But it wouldn’t hurt to check. Also, the Humble Indie Bundle 4 looks great, and half the profits go to charity.

Hey, look- The Guild Season Five is now out, just in time for Christmas.

Right Stuf Anime is having a bunch of sales. Of particular note is the remastered Utena DVD box sets. The series had been hard to find for awhile. It’s one of my wife’s favorites. I may have picked up the Soul Eater holiday package…

For the budding RPGer, or someone who might want a bit simpler rule set, Pathfinder’s Beginner Box has been popular. And the Bestiary 3 was just released! Another interesting up and coming d20 game seems to be Legend. It’s a little over the top at times, but it’s an interesting approach to mixing classes, races, and specialties via mix-and-match tracks. That is, you can take a bit of ranger, combine it with a bit of steampunk robot-making, and be a dragon. Or you can be an elven ranger with all of its ranger-y goodness. (I suspect the former option might be more popular, but ya never know.) ^_^ Plus, right now all proceeds go to the Child’s Play charity. Nice. And lest I forget, although I haven’t had the opportunity to play it, the 3rd edition of Mutants and Masterminds sounds fun.

For the eBook fantasy readers out there, check out B. Justin Shier’s Zero Sight and its sequel, Zero Sum. Check out Zachary Rawlin’s The Academy. Both are marketed YA, but fun reads. Of course, if you haven’t picked up Sanderson’s Way of Kings, that’s fun. And Rothfuss’s Name of the Wind and its sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear. If you’d like RPG tie-ins, Paizo’s James Sutter’s Death’s Heretic is really very good.

Come to think of it, I can recommend books forever. =P

Oh, and I did pick up Betrayal at House on the Hill, for board gaming goodness…

And who can go wrong with a squishable Narhwal? (Picked one up for Q, it’s great. ^_^)

Other suggestions?

Board Game Updates

My wife and I were married on Halloween 8 years ago, and yes, we had a costume wedding. Every year since then we’ve had a themed low-key Halloween party where we often play games and provide chicfila and other food and drinkstuffs. She’s really great at both costumes and decorating, while I’m mostly along for the ride in those areas. Last year she made a giant glow in the dark monster octopus which hung from the ceiling of our entryway, tentacles spreading through all over, gaping maw towards the front door. It looked pretty awesome under the blacklights. ^^ Halloween is our favorite holiday.

I and some friends have picked up a few board games that were recommended by several people, among them our resident boardgame expert (who owns hundreds of games, including many antiques). One of them was a game that Derek mentioned awhile back, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer. Interestingly, it also has an iPad app, which has been really useful in learning how to play the game. (Slight aside: recently acquired an iPad, and I’ve been using it constantly. Used it as my sole computer at a conference in New Orleans, and it worked out beautifully. Looking for more apps, so feel free to offer suggestions.)

Some friends of ours picked up Ghost Stories. Cooperative games are relatively rare, so they were pretty excited to get this one. The couple that bought it have been trying it out on their own, and they say it’s been fun. I like the premise- your group needs to stop an evil undead creature from resurrecting in this Asian-themed game, and you cooperate to fight off waves of invading spirits. Looking forward to it. The other coop game they’ll bring is Pandemic, which we’ve had fun with in the past, fighting off virulent disease outbreaks around the world (hmm… we could show Contagion in the background when that comes out…)

I also picked up Elder Sign (go cthulhu!) and Nightfall (horror competitive card game), but I haven’t had a chance to play them yet. ^_^ We’ll probably break ’em out at the party itself.

One the video game front, I’ve been playing League of Legends… eagerly awaiting the Old Republic, though!