Welcome Time Wasters!
My time this week has been a bit more busy than usual. With the Thanksgiving holiday in full swing Alia and I have been doing plenty of traveling to visit with family. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been playing games. I started up Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on Switch. I was holding off until the improvement patch and the game is definitely better than what it was at launch. However, there’s still enough stuttering that I’m wondering about holding off until another patch.
Here’s the thing, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night isn’t exactly what I would call a time waster. It’s a full-blown Metroidvania. So I’m not reviewing it here. Plus, I’m a little late to the party anyway. So what exactly am I going to talk about this week? Board games.
It there’s one great thing about family get togethers, it’s that my brother-in-law always brings a nice amount of board games to play. In the past years we’ve played Forbidden Island, Ticket to Ride and a few others I can’t remember the names of. This year he brought out a game called Istanbul.
I’ve heard of Istanbul before, but have never played until this week. For those that don’t know, it’s a game about being a merchant. You compete against other players that are also merchants. The goal is to collects goods and money that can be traded for rubies. Once a player has collected all of the rubies needed, they win the game. Alia soundly beat my brother-in-law and I, but it was still fun no matter what.
Unfortunately, It took a while to get through Istanbul since Alia and I were new players. That means we didn’t get to play another board game that was brought. This one was called Dominion. The idea behind it is that you are a ruler looking to expand your kingdom after inheriting it from their parents. It sounds interesting, but there just wasn’t time for it this year. Maybe when Christmas comes around we’ll give it a shot.
For anyone wondering why I didn’t just check out a mobile game, the simple answer is that I didn’t have any on my phone. Mobile games are something that I prefer to check out over a couple of weeks before actually reviewing them. They usually are so grindy that it feels like you don’t see much of the game after playing it for a couple of days. Honestly, that’s one of the biggest reasons I don’t like mobile games to begin with.
If you were looking for a proper review this week, I apologize. Don’t worry, though. I’ve got some interesting games lined up for the next few weeks that are sure to be of interest. I’ll also have a special surprise coming up at the end of December, but I don’t want to spoil much about it. Just know that it won’t be the typical time waster affair.
With that, I’m signing off as Alia and I prepare for another long drive home with bellies full of turkey and happiness.