Cook. Craft. Enjoy.

No cooking, but ...

It saddens me the weeks I don't do any blog worthy cooking but usually it's because there's 1,001 other things going on around here.  Because I don't see anything happening cooking wise for at least the next few days, I'd like to devote a post to something we have been doing.

We (and I in general) are big gamers.  While I can't stand most of the mainstream games out there (Monopoly, Life, Payday, etc.), I'm big on tabletop and card gaming - especially games that are relatively quick to play.  While I used to be able to sit for 8+ hours playing D&D, the older I get the more other things happen to call at me and I just can't do it often anymore.

For a while we were playing MtG (Magic: The Gathering), Spite & Malice, and Uno but those got a little stale. We hadn't found any good games in a while but on an off chance, I found an awesome one for Liam's birthday.

Quarriors. (Said in a loud, booming voice) The best way to describe it is from the game's website: 

• A unique blend of strategy and chance featuring a revolutionary dice building game mechanic!
• As a Quarrior - a mighty mystical warrior - only you have the power to capture dangerous quarry from the untamed wilds!
• But your rivals plot against you! They will send their own Creatures and Spells to destroy your Quarry before you can deliver them to Empress Quiana and claim your reward! Summon your Creatures and protect them from your foes and you will earn Glory for yourself.
• The first player to earn enough Glory will be hailed as the Champion of the Empress.

Granted it took about 45 minutes for me to read and understand the rules but once we had those down it's been really fun to play.  I'd recommend setting up and starting the game as you read the rules because just reading them doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  Once we started playing, however, all the pieces fit together.

The box recommends ages 14 and up, but Liam has absolutely no problem playing (though he's grown up on tabletop games).  I'd recommend 9 and up depending upon their gaming ability.  One of the nicest things is that it's not just a skill game - it relies quite a bit on luck so everyone has a bad game once in a while. (Always nice when you play with younger kids - I refuse to let them win but it's disheartening to them when they don't win at least once in a while.)

I have three other new-to-us games to review, but I'll save those for another day.

Sap!

I know I don't mention it often, but our family (minus Don) are all addicted to World of Warcraft (WoW).  With the announcement of a release date of the expansion this week, I thought I'd share with you the comic Liam drew:

A little background first before I try to explain it...  For those of you that don't know, WoW is a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) with over 10 million subscribers.  It's a multi-faceted game that's really pretty simple to play but has complexities to it.  On the surface, it looks like your goal is to get your character to level 70 (soon to be 80 in the expansion) but it really is so much more.  One of the parts Liam likes is battlegrounding.  What that means is you pit yourself and your allies against an equal number or the opposing faction.  Each character class has a different set of abilities:  both in strengths and weaknesses.

One of the abilities of a rogue is to Sap people.  That means he sneaks up to you stealthed, and hits you so you're unable to move.  In the game when you (or anyone) gets sapped there's a swirly circle above your head until you can move again.  Hence, that's what the red circles above the guys heads are.  The little bubble states "No Wonder They Win"  since all the characters except one are sapped.  (And btw, the guy on the left side that's lying down is a hunter that has feigned death but is still sapped.) 

This probably makes NO sence to anyone that doesn't play, but I thought I needed to share it -- he did a great job. :)

If you're curious, here's our character breakdown:  Liam has a lvl 54 hunter, Adrienne has a lvl 43 mage, Travis has a lvl 70 priest, a lvl 70 warrior, and a lvl 46 mage, and I have a lvl 70 paladin, a lvl 70 warlock, and a lvl 50 rogue.  Wanna play?

New Video Game

I've had sick kids around here since last Friday so just to make a short post, I want to tell you about a video game I discovered last week...  Puzzle Quest.

Don first told me about it when it came out for the DS a few months ago.  He described it as D&D meets Bejeweled and I was less than impressed with the idea.  Earlier last week I was checking out the new downloadable games for the Xbox 360 I saw they had written it for that and decided to give it a chance.

Surprisingly it's as addictive as Bejeweled ever was and it's got a story behind it.  Your battles are fought over a jem/star/skull matching board with abilities to cast spells against your opponents.  In addition to the battles there are mini games to capture opponents and earn some of their abilities.  I ended up buying it for the 360 and yesterday picked it up for the DS.

I'm glad I didn't buy the DS version first or I probably wouldn't have given it the chance it deserves.  The graphics don't compare but it's still addictively fun and it will go a long way for me when I'm waiting in the car to pick up kids.

New PS2 Obsession

Today Rogue Galaxy was released here in the U.S. and Liam and I went to 3 different stores to find a copy (ended up at Best Buy which was good because I had a $10 coupon to use too).  So far I'm suitably impressed with it.  It doesn't have the same pull for me as say, Jak and Daxter, but I can see me putting in some serious game time on this one.  So far I'm on the second planet attempting to fix my ship.   :-)

Other news today:  Adrienne got placed on her softball team and unfortunately she and her friend are not on the same team.  The other icky thing is that their practices are on Monday and Wednesday evenings either from 5-7 or 7-9.  Both awful times but I'm hoping for the 5-7 slot since she goes to bed at 8.  Those are also tennis days so I'm not sure how we're going to work everything out.  (Yes, everything will work out but I want to know NOW.)  No word from her coach -- just the league called.  Fun, fun.

Tomorrow Liam wants to make another cake so expect to see his latest creation then. 

Caesar IV

I'm actually pretty excited ... Caesar IV comes out next week and I'll finally have a new game to play!  I really enjoyed Caesar 3 but it's been FOREVER (okay, 1998) since it was published and I'm ready for something new.

I know I don't talk much about computer (or video-) gaming, but it's really been such a big part of my life, well, for as long as I can remember.  When Pokemon was the big craze, Travis' friends couldn't believe that I not only KNEW what they were talking about but also played (and finished) the game.  (And I'm almost ashamed to admit that I still LOVE Pokemon)  My last big obsession gamewise?  That would have to be Jak - I wasn't as crazy for the first one but the second one and the third one were awesome!  I'm hoping that Caesar IV will be good enough to play for hours (I just downloaded the demo so hopefully that'll give me a clue).

New unfortunate update:  Ugh!  I downloaded the demo and, well, my computer is too slow to run it efficiently.  :-(