January 12, 2023
Hi there! Greetings and welcome back to our regular segment, in which we discuss some of the games we’ve been playing lately in brief. This week: dice, Bond, and trains.
Here’s our archive if you’d want to catch up on any of the previous What We’ve Been Playing episodes.
Cut and Dice, Android
I hadn’t realized how much I like this game. It’s true that sometimes taking a break from a game might strengthen our sentiments toward it. I guess you truly do enjoy it if you still feel passionately about it weeks or months later. You weren’t only engrossed in the here and now.
Seeing my kid play it was another element that added to the intensity of this experience. Turn-based dice-rolling games aren’t usually his thing, since he’s just 13 years old and prefers to play Fortnite or online Minecraft, which are quite different games from offline Minecraft. However, the instant I presented it to him on the train, he became enthralled with it. That, in my opinion, was the last straw: Slice & Dice is really amazing.
Since I’ve been playing it for about a year, I’ve discussed it before. Whoops, I guess I’m around forty hours in—probably more. I’m a little annoyed now that I forgot to include it on my list of the best games of 2023.
Slice and Dice is a turn-based, dice-rolling game where you take command of a group of fantasy heroes. Every character you have has a die that symbolizes their abilities. Your talents are listed on either side of the d6, some of which are blank based on the character class you belong to. Every round, you get a few rolls. You must choose whether to roll again or retain and lock in what you get. And that’s all.
It’s straightforward, but the brilliance is in all the ways it may be combined. This is a big place. There are about 100 classes in the game, and you may choose a new one for a character as they level up. There are a lot of creative sculptures, jugglers, and vampires. Then there are tools and charms to alter all of that. It’s not simple to figure out how to utilize all of stuff, how the enemy operate, and how to effectively take them out.
The full version of the game requires a one-time purchase, however there is a free version available. & I’ve just realized you can find Slice & Dice on Itch.io too. Try it out!
-Bertie
Xbox, GoldenEye 007
I had to do something amazing to celebrate receiving an Xbox Series X for Christmas. So, when my beautiful new console booted up, what game did I chose to play? Yes, GoldenEye 007 is correct.
When I was younger, I was obsessed with this game but also utterly afraid of dying. My playtime consisted mostly of me playing with my buttocks tightly gripped and squealing like a sentient kettle about to boil. My brothers, who performed the age-old trick of persuading a young and naive me that what occurs in a game impacts you in real life, are to responsible for this anxiety. Those blighters.
But I’m getting off topic. I’ve been enjoying myself immensely while revisiting some of my childhood memories with GoldenEye 007 on my Xbox. Yes, it is somewhat dated in many aspects, but it doesn’t bother me at all. This remains, in my opinion, one of the greatest Bond games ever made. The music is also excellent; I often simply listen to the recognizable pause beats by Grant Kirhhope while checking my watch. As I said, I’m having a great time.
Yes, before going any further into that second level, I did, in fact, shoot the unfortunate guy in the restroom. It really must be completed.
-Victoria
The board game Ticket to Ride: Europe
a picture of someone playing the board game Ticket to Ride. The game’s map-like board, with primary-colored plastic trains winding around it, is seen in this top-down picture.
It’s unbelievable that I haven’t played this before. I think that everyone has Ticket to Ride in their collection; it’s one of those classic board games. A little like Monopoly before everyone discovered how horrible it is. It’s true that I stopped playing Monopoly after seeing my children cry while playing it. By the way, it has nothing to do with my performance! I’m not a monster.
In the version of Ticket to Ride: Europe that I played, the objective is to construct train snakes on a map on the game board and connect them based on the routes that you have to finish. To do this, place miniature train pieces—known as carriages—on board locations in numbers determined by the cards you are holding in your hand.
The simplicity of it is what makes it so amazing. As you know, I’d never played it before, but even after a few beers, I was able to pull off a very decent performance. While working alone, I even succeeded in unintentionally blocking someone else’s mega-route (the mega-routes award the most points).
Ticket to Ride is an excellent method to learn about the general geography of locations, which is why it’s available in stores in a million themed variations. However, beware of the outdated ones; you don’t want to ask them where Constantinople is these days.
-Bertie