Monday, 25 September 2006
Carcassonne, Serenity and other weekend stuff
This weekend Emilie and I tried out a new board game I'd heard a lot about and bought a few days earlier, Carcassonne. (There are three board games I've kept hearing good things about: Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, and Ticket to Ride. But Carcasonne is supposed to be very well suited to two players, which is usually what we have.)
Anyway, I add my voice to the chorus of those who highly recommend it. It's similar in some ways to Lost Cities, but whereas that game ends with a very math-heavy round of adding and multiplying points to see who won, in Carcassonne you can score most of your points as you play, which makes scoring the game feel like less of a chore. It's also fun in that you place tiles and build a mediaeval map as you play, so it's visually very appealing.
Saturday Emilie had to get some work done (today is her first day with her students) and I worked on my Pai Gow video game. The game itself is playable in text mode so now I'm on to the artwork and animation, which is a lot more tedious for me. But the finished product should be neat.
On Sunday we spent the day in Cambrai with friends, the weather was great and we ate on the balcony and then took an afternoon walk around the city. Oh, and Saturday evening I finally saw the Serenity movie, that I somehow missed in the theatre and only got around to renting now. That was a great sci-fi movie; I was already familiar with the setting from the TV show but I don't think that it's necessary to enjoy the film. This is grittier sci-fi than Star Wars so some may find the movie a little too dark, but it has a bigger point to get accross than emptier gory sci-fi like Aliens.
All in all a very good weekend, but too short as always.
