yendi

So, on Friday, we got a package in the mail from the good folks at movie-source.com, from whom I'd won a copy of Shout About Movies Volume 1. We promptly played two of the three games on the DVD, and loved it.

The game engine is actually better than that of Scene It -- the questions are all DVD-based, all of them reward speed, and there are some surprisingly sophisticated questions (including a good ordering of events one and a matching one that has some well-done clues). The movies were mostly mainstream, but ranged within that from horror to comedies to classics, and we had a blast. It's probably better for a large group of partiers, but for any movie buffs, it's fun. We're saving the third game for our trip to Boston. :-)

What's really impressive is that the engine actually keeps score! Considering eight rounds of play, with 1, 2, and 3 point questions, that's hella impressive (and the dialogue changes based on the score).

Oh, and for the BJ90210 fans, Gabrielle Carteris is the female narrator.

The one drawback is that there's only three games. I understand that, given the sophistication of the engine, they can't fit more games on a disc, but at $25 a pop, that's too much. Since the DVD cost itself is the cheapest element, they'd really be doing well to put two or even three discs in a set at that price. Scene It may get old, but it takes more than three games before it becomes completely worthless. Still since we got this for free, I can't really complain about the value. :-) But if you're thinking of spending your own money, look for it used (or see if there's a friend who wants to buy it used from you afterwards).

Went over to jet_li_wannabe's last night for gaming and pizza. We warmed up with Falling (which didn't go over that well, although I appreciate the idea of it), followed by Once Upon a Time and Bohnanza. We then moved on to Settlers of Cataan. Woohoo! I won the latter by pulling three points on the final turn (flipped a soldier for the largest army and built a settlement). It was the first time I've ever won without a single city.

There was also much fun hanging out and chatting (and other games being played, since we're talking about a group of over ten people -- I know there was Spades and Cranium, and probably other stuff I missed. Plus pizza and hanging out.

In my ongoing efforts to de-clutter, I brought over all of my remaining Magic cards to give to Mike, which would have been a great idea if he and Tracy weren't also de-cluttering. I walked out of there with all of his Heroclix, as well as three books and King's Gate. I'll call it a wash on the clutter factor.