My favorite games this summer
From boardgames to videogames.
Life update: I recently went to my UT orientation session, which was extremely fun[1]. I've also been working a part-time job and doing some math & chess tutoring to earn some extra money for college.
Thankfully, I'm fortunate to have a lot of free time this summer, so I've been playing many games with family & friends. Here are my recommendations:
1. Ticket to Ride: Europe
I've played Ticket to Ride: Europe (TTRE) twenty times so far this summer. It does not get old. It's incredible.
Couple of things I love about TTRE:
- The game is a lot less combative than the original Ticket to Ride game. In the original, there are considerably more opportunities to completely block an opponent from making one or more of their tickets. In TTRE, the new mechanic of train stations largely eliminates this problem.
- TTRE just has a way more interesting board. The board is larger, the city names are cooler, and there are new routes that require special combinations of cards.
- No strategy works every time. No one ever wins in exactly the same way. Some people win because they have a lot of points from playing routes. Some people win because they have a ton of completed tickets. Some people win because they ended the game early and messed up everyone else who thought they had more time.
- For a board game, it's really, really simple to explain. The goal is simple: get the most points. On each turn, you can only do exactly one of four things. The mechanics are simple. It's great!
2. Villagers
Villagers is an accessible card-drafting, engine-building game. Unlike most "heavier" engine-building games, it's pretty easy to learn. I taught my 11 year-old cousin how to play over the course of one game.
The game art is beautiful. Look at these cards:
The gameplay is rock solid despite being simple for an engine-building game. The two different dynamics—drafting vs. playing villagers—mesh well together. No one villager is too overpowered or underpowered—the game is really well-balanced and probably went through a lot of playtesting.
3. A Dark Room
A Dark Room is a minimalistic text-based browser game. It's a masterpiece.
I can only tell you a little bit without saying major spoilers:
- The entire game is constructed with only ASCII text. There are no images. Despite this limitation[2], the game is still incredibly engaging.
- The game is a mix between resource management and exploration. Thankfully, there's no way to lose. All resources are renewable, and so you'll never run into a point where you're "stuck" with no way to continue forward.
- Not sure how to progress? Keep exploring and buying stuff, and you'll figure it out pretty quickly.
I like A Dark Room so much that I set and hold the current world record for fastest completion at 33:59.
4. Pac-Man
I recently rediscovered how spectacularly fun Pac-Man is. This is because we've been on vacation, and my family's Airbnb has a retro Pac-Man machine in the basement. It's awesome!
This game was made forty-four years ago in 1980. Isn't that wild? No wonder why it's still such a recognizable video game today: it takes like 5 seconds to learn, but years to master. The ghost logic is so cool too: they don't all blindly chase after Pac-Man. They all have different targeting logic. I wish I had a Pac-Man machine at my house!
Conclusion
Try at least one of these games! They have my seal of approval.
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