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December 13, 2004

AtmosFEAR is the leaderboard of board games!
Posted by Jess in Gaming

It used to be that every time Matt and I played board games, we always said the same thing - why don't we play these more often? They're SO fun!

Well, fortunately for us, Reality TV hit the airwaves, and so Matt and I turned to good friends, good laughs, and good games!

Here's some of our favorites:

Scrabble

An oldie but still a goodie, just be sure to have the official "Scrabble Dictionary" at hand. Though Matt and I have yet to get that 50 point bonus for using all 7 tiles at once, we've come close. Don't forget our variation, "Scrabbizzle", in which if you can use it in a sentence, you can play it.

Malarky

This game involves no board, but a lot of bull. A question is read aloud, such as "How did the Oreo cookie get it's name?", or "Why do Twizzlers have the texture around the edge?" Each person gets handed a card, and only one has the right answer. You then go around the room giving your "answer", and each person votes at the end. This game has never managed to be boring, and we've yet to find someone that didn't like playing. Major hint: Proper names and dates work WONDERS. But from experience, trust me. It's hard to believe that the last three question coincidentally all happened during the Great Depression.

AtmosFEAR

Our current favorite! This is a board game that you play along with a DVD. Race around the board getting keys, while the clock on the DVD counts down from 49 minutes - no pausing! The Gatekeeper will appear on screen at random intervals ("Maggots!") to taunt you and make you do all sorts of silly things. You can draw time cards, in which you watch the clock to do certain things. For example, when the clock reaches 38:33, yell "Stop!" If anyone jumps, you get to take a key from them. The Gatekeeper is hysterical, and the interactions are random, so you can play the game over and over again and still hear something new that makes you laugh. Oh, and the really neat thing? The game comes in 5.1 surround sound for the background eerie noises. Though the Gatekeeper and noises might be a little scary for younger children. I took a screenshot of the TV so you can make your own decision. But, it's a great family game, up to six people can play.

The Gatekeeper:

And he says WE'RE ugly and stupid?

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