Not very good at this blogging thing am I?

Wow. Almost 8 months since my first real post. Not very good at this blogging thing am I? In my defence, I've basically been just gaming when I could have been blogging, and which would you rather do?

Since I made that first post I've been playing Dust Tactics (great game - quick, easy, fun), Gears of War (great game - bloody hard with 4 of us, fun), City of Thieves (great game - family friendly, easy to play), some Axis and Allies war at sea and Angels 20 (love these games, need to find a better board than the paper maps though) and just recently we got DnD: Castle Ravenloft (fun game for us all, got hammered on the second mission though) as well. I've been playing my way through Red Dead Redemption and now Undead Nightmare, thoroughly enjoyed both with some reservations (I hate the video game gimmick of speeded up pseudo time) and then we discovered Xbox Live games were not as bad as I feared they might be. For the record, Dungeon Defenders might be one of the best video games for families with young boys that has ever been made, only complaint I have is even on my 40 inch tv it is hard to read the split screen!

I wanted to do reviews, but they've all been done to death, and I wanted to do blogs on my pet hates and loves to do with gaming and just haven't got around to it. Definite blog fail.

One thing that is getting me excited though is the upcoming Zombicide, which I have backed on Kickstarter. Really looking forward to this game and hopefully the delivery of it and all the extras I've earned will go without a hitch, if it does there's definitely going to be some brand loyalty coming out of this!

So many games, so little time!

Why I'm no longer a Games Workshop fanboy

I know I know, you're thinking "Not another nerd rage post about the pricing of Games Workshop's products." But you'd be wrong. Well OK, you'd not exactly be right. How about that? There will be some nerd rage about pricing, the difference is I am aware that the Games Workshop hobby has never been cheap. How's that for self awareness? But there's much more to my falling out of love with Games Workshop than pricing.

Yet I'll admit it, some of this is just going to be annoyed venting. When talking about Games Workshop, it's pretty much inevitable. I mean, if you've been in the hobby for long enough you'll know that Games Workshop provokes reactions across the spectrum from almost everybody involved, in the same way that an attractive but stupid member of the opposite sex provokes conflicting emotions. Yeah they're hot, but as soon as they open their mouth you just wish they'd shut up and go away. But then you remember that they're hot. But then they say something dumb again.

Admit it, Games Workshop is the game industries' version of a Big Brother contestant. Often good to look at, but prone to do stuff so stupid it makes a winter invasion of Russia look like a good idea.

Let me introduce myself

For as long as I can remember I've liked playing games.

Board games, then early video games (Pong and the like, games on the ancient Oric-1 and the Spectrum 128K), then roleplaying and tabletop miniatures games and continuing with modern PC and console games. I played Chess, Draughts, Monopoly, Hotels, Connect 4, Ludo, Othello, Trivial Pursuits, Game of Knowledge, Operation, Battleship. Then Heroquest came out and that sucked me into Space Hulk, Space Crusade, Advanced Space Crusade, Advanced Heroquest, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader and second edition 40K, Man O' War, Space Fleet, and then the Games Workshop specialist games Mordheim, Inquisitor, Warmaster and Battlefleet Gothic. I dabbled in Marine 2002 for a brief period. I played Space Marine and Adeptus Titanicus for a long time, until it became known as Epic. This all dragged me inevitably into roleplaying games, mostly Star Wars and then first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. I tried Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 but couldn't get into it (mostly because the idea of needing 500 books to play one game put me off, but also because I was moving to another country at the same time as trying to learn it).

I managed to find a wife who put up with me spending all my money on computer games, toy soldiers and spaceships, and even turned her into an enthusiastic game player as well. Then the kids came along and they didn't have a chance - they play too and they haven't even reached age 10 yet.

Limited edition Space Hulk, you bet I did.

Then this year I took the plunge and started to move away from my Xbox 360 and Games Workshop games to go back to board games. I got the kids their own version of Battleship. We dipped into the collectible miniatures Axis and Allies games on land and sea. Then we decided to give Fantasy Flight Games a try and now we have Space Hulk the card game, DungeonQuest, Gears of War and come my birthday Dust Tactics, with City of Thieves a likely Xmas purchase.

I like playing games, and over the years (I'm guessing somewhere in the region of 26), I've developed a lot of opinions on every type of game I've ever played. And I like sharing my opinions, and thankfully the Internet gives my wife's ears a rest and lets me vent online, even if no-one cares or listens. So I finally got off my lazy arse to set up a blog to publish my gaming opinions. Who knows, someone might even read them. Some might agree, most will more than likely not. More importantly, the wife won't have to listen to me ranting about toy soldiers anymore.

Well, maybe not...

So. I'm Jimmy Blue, anonymous random internet guy, and I'm a not so hardcore gamer. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to dealing with it, or so I'm told.

Under construction

Coming soon - the thoughts of some random guy on the internet about what board, video and tabletop games I like (or don't) and why.

Bet you can't wait.