“At the beginning of your end step, if a land entered the battlefield under your control
this turn and you control a prime number of lands, create Primo, the
Indivisible, a legendary 0/0 green and blue Fractal creature token,
then put that many +1/+1 counters on it. (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19,
23, 29, and 31 are prime numbers.)”
Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, draw a card.
Does Garruk’s Uprising (and other cards like it) see Primo when it is first created as a 0/0 or do they only see it after the +1/+1 counters are added to it?
Destiny 2 was already in a weird spot ahead of The Edge of Fate’s release date. I had several conversations with people who don’t play recently exclaim, “I thought Destiny was over?” That response is understandable, too.
Last year, a lot of hubbub was made around the release of The Final Shape, which was set to conclude the 10-year story Bungie had been crafting. The messaging was ‘this is the end’ – and to outside observers, it‘s not a surprise that’s a sentiment that prevailed. Bungie has been more focused on Marathon, before that somewhat imploded, and the new expansion was relatively quietly announced a couple of months ahead of launch.
The Escapist recaps
Destiny 2 is entering a new story known as the Fate Saga with The Edge of Fate.
The Edge of Fate’s story is excellent and charts a compelling course for the story going forward.
Kepler is a weaker destination in the Destiny world, lacking the iconic visual clarity of other worlds.
Several big structural changes are well-intentioned, but are very roughly implemented.
One day, they could be great, as their ideas aren’t bad, but it will take a lot of tweaking by Bungie to fix.
Charting our fate
Lodi is an exceptional addition to the Destiny 2 roster, and is an immediate fan favorite. Image credit: Bungie
Of course, with its persistent audience and the size of the franchise, despite ending the Light and Dark saga, there was always going to be more Destiny. And thus, we have The Edge of Fate – the first entry into Destiny’s second narrative arc, The Fate Saga. However, while it promises a bright future, the expansion’s execution may have a few too many missteps at a time when Bungie really can’t afford them.
The Edge of Fate’s express purpose is to set up the journey that our Guardians are going to go on for years to come. However, when you’ve just had your playerbase overcome the biggest bad the universe has ever seen, the one who all other enemies ultimately bowed to, where do you go?
Bungie has smartly pivoted to The Nine. These entities have been within the Destiny lore since the start, but even with several direct encounters over the franchise’s history, their intentions and even their very nature have been unclear. However, The Edge of Fate drags these inter-dimensional beings into the spotlight.
The Guardian, Ikora, Drifter, The Nine’s previous Emissary, Orin, and a mysterious new face Lod,i are all dragged to the strange and unfamiliar planet of Keplar through ‘invitations’ that come in the way of spontaneously appearing 1960s trains. Whatever is happening, the Nine, who exist outside of time, want you and everyone else invited to be on Kepler at that exact point for… something. It’s your job to get to the bottom of what that something is.
If there are concerns around Destiny 2’s future, none of them stem from this narrative. This is one of Destiny’s best stories and a brilliant first chapter in this new saga. Destiny has had many moments where narrative missteps have not matched the title’s gameplay and loops. This is perhaps the first time that the story campaign is doing the heavy lifting.
Newcomer Lodi is an absolute joy to be around. He’s an immediate fan-favorite and will be going forward. There are some fascinating new flavors mixed into proceedings, too, with 1960s Chicago being a prominent aspect, and the expansion culminating with some awesome ideas and narrative hooks that will pull us forward in the imminent future. It’s the shining star of the expansion, and the one aspect I don’t feel obliged to mention with caveats.
The narrative team did a great job at an opening salvo, which is not usually easy to do. If you’ve ever cared about Destiny, it’s worth experiencing this campaign at some point to see if the future of the franchise is for you.
What Matters(park)
Matterspark is a strange new mechanic you’ll interact with while on your journey through Kepler. Image credit: Bungie
While the story of the campaign is great, that’s not to say playing through it is always a joy. Destiny’s campaigns have been generally pretty reliably fun, but parts of the Edge of Fate can be a slog thanks to some odd choices in its flow. Before release, Bungie touted that ‘puzzles’ would be a big part of the campaign, but what they delivered feels very wonky.
Most of this interaction is facilitated by the game’s new ‘Matterspark’ ability. Essentially, players transform into a small electric orb, allowing them to find small gaps to traverse to new areas and/or power-up small generators. Firstly, it just looks quite strange. Something about having your Guardian turn into a little ball of energy feels off. It’s a small thing, but it looks odd, and Samus-balling around is a strange vibe for Guardians.
Secondly, it’s often used in annoying ways, most prominently, to gate boss damage, meaning you have to stop the fight, go find a Dark Matter source to become a spinning Sonic the Hedgehog, find an opening to enter, and go power a generator, before you can get back to killing the boss, all without dying. Oh, and every time you enter into the form, your camera whips around to lock your perspective where Bungie thinks you want to be looking.
I don’t hate Matterspark in the way some vocal members of the community do. It’s mostly fine. A means to an end, and once it becomes castable at will while on Kepler, it’s even a decent navigation tool. However, it also doesn’t add much to proceedings, and it’s hard to get over how ‘un-Guardian’ it looks. It’s okay, but it’s a very odd idea for the developers to latch onto and commit to as fully as they do through the campaign.
Kep on kepping on
Kepler is an interesting location, though not always memorable. Image credit: Bungie
Keplar itself is a mixed bag. Destiny’s planets are all very distinct, each with their own personality and layout. Every planet ever introduced is ingrained into my head, committed to memory quickly. Even last year’s Pale Heart, which was a very different space from other destinations, lingers in the mind. Kepler is new, but I still can’t quite map it out from memory, and I think that’s notable.
Lots of areas bleed together, and the sense of direction feels very different from most planets in Destiny’s universe. Not helping the planet’s case is that, unlike every other destination, it lacks a visual identity. Destiny has always knocked its locations out of the park, making each feel dense and instantly recognisable. From landmark features to distinctive color languages, if you showed me a screenshot of any other planet, it wouldn’t take long to identify which one it was.
Kepler, on the other hand, lacks that visual distinctiveness. It feels like the result of smashing vaulted locations Io and The Tangled Shore together, so much so, it can be hard to untangle Kepler from those visual identities. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the space.
It’s still perfectly fine to navigate, even with Matterspark being necessary to travel. It’s just that Bungie has always knocked locations out of the park, and this feels like a muddled step back for what has always been an incredible aspect of the game.
A portal to where?
The Portal is bound to be a controversial addition to the Destiny 2 experience. Image credit: Bungie
By far, the most complicated part of The Edge of Fate’s launch is its complete systems overhaul. To Bungie’s credit, it has put significant work into overthrowing much of how the game’s grind and moment-to-moment work. A lot has changed. The Portal is a new system that is designed to get players into what will improve their Power Level, and also allows players to modularly adjust difficulty.
Armor 3.0 has completely changed how buildcrafting works in the game, with further incentives to use what’s new with set bonuses. The new Tier system on both armor and weapons is about creating a reason for you to continue to chase gear far into the future, mimicking the likes of Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2, with your ultimate chase being to perfect your build with higher-tier gear.
Hell, even the expansion itself is a new structure. Instead of one big expansion and three or four seasons a year, there will now be two expansions a year, bringing more campaigns and destinations, but with less frequent updates. The point is that a lot has changed in The Edge of Fate.
There’s good reason, too. The viability of the grind, the chase for random rolls on weapons, fatigue from the season structure, and it being hard to know what to do at any given moment – these are all long-discussed problems by the community, and these overhauls are Bungie’s answer. In a vacuum, these are well-intentioned shifts for the franchise. In practice, it’s been a mess, though.
Unclear answers
The Aionians are a mysterious people you will meet on Kepler, and you’ll have to learn about their language and goals. Image credit: Bungie
To say there are bugs in these systems would be an understatement. Destiny 2 currently feels much harder, as power deltas have been added, making your climb for power tough. The grind to get Tier 4 and 5 gear feels excessive, and also makes it so any good rolls you get that are of lesser tiers are temporary, thus disposable. The armor changes have also made ability regeneration slower, with builds feeling weak out of the gate.
The Portal is a particular issue, too. While a decent idea to get players into the action and signpost what they should do next, its current offerings are too restrictive. It’s a good way of recycling content that isn’t currently launchable in the game, but currently, the best way to get higher power is to just run the same seasonal mission over and over again.
It also lacks some of Destiny’s best content, with Raids and Dungeons not being relevant to the power grind currently. That’s coming, and The Portal can be a great way to resurface old content that players would be happy to see back.
The problem is that all of this just feels like a lot all at once, and almost none of it is in a state that feels great. Long-term, I believe all of these can be good for the game, but each system needs a lot of work, and it feels exceedingly messy.
If these structural changes were a steak, they’d currently be blue. There’s nothing wrong with the steak itself; it probably should have just used a little more time in the pan. One day, these might all sing, but right now, it’s hard to full-heartedly recommend jumping in.
Which fate will it be?
As ever, Destiny still looks stunning at times, and Edge of Fate doesn’t change that. Image credit: Bungie
Destiny 2 finds itself in a weird place heading into its newest saga. In a lot of ways, even for a decade-old franchise, it’s entering uncharted waters. We’ve never had a new saga launch, and it’s clear, through both the story and system changes introduced in The Edge of Fate, that things are going to be different. On the narrative side, the franchise has never felt better.
The direction is clear, and Destiny, for one of the first times, feels like it has a well-thought-out path, fascinating elements, and surprises ahead. The narrative team carries the Edge of Fate, which is quite a difference compared to where the franchise started in 2014.
However, it’s everything else that is currently struggling. Bungie has taken a bold step of trying to completely revamp the game’s core systems, and right now, they are not in an excellent state. The changes appear well intentioned, and there might be a future where they create an excellent harmony – but right now, there’s a lot of distance between here and there.
As it always has, Bungie will likely sand those edges down and make something of these systems, but for anyone but the most dedicated, time is probably on your side in waiting for these things to be sorted out.
It’s a shame those issues overshadow the good of this expansion and the first step into the Fate saga. This story deserves to be told at the scale Destiny 2 has always existed on. Destiny’s narrative clarity hasn’t always shone, but it’s always been backed up by the moment-to-moment gameplay. Bizarrely, the game currently finds itself flipped on its head.
There is a future where these gameplay systems are refined and the intelligent driving force of this narrative find harmony. If so, there is a timeline where Destiny’s best days are ahead of it. However, with troubled waters both in and out of the game, the path to that destination is murkier than ever.
Ask The Escapist
How much is the Edge of Fate?
The Edge of Fate price is currently $39.99/£34.99 as a standalone.
When will the next Destiny Expansion release?
The next Destiny 2 expansion will release on December 1, 2025. It’s called Renegades and will be heavily Star Wars-inspired.
Did Destiny 2 end with The Final Shape?
Despite Destiny 2: The Final Shape finishing the first major saga of the franchise, which ran for 10 years, the story continues on with The Fate Saga, focused heavily on the Nine.
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Are there any setups by the Turing Machine manufacturer that we know of that use the fact that a verifier is required to complete the code BUT the verifier also does not ever produce a true for the given code? Example below:
For b = blue, y = yellow and p = purple you could have:
b = 2
y = 3
p = 3
You could also have the verifiers:
v1 = one colour is less than the other two
v2 = yellow is =/>/< 3
v3 = there are x even numbers
v4 = one colour is greater than the other two
Using that you can get the following results from the verifiers (eventually):
v1: blue is < yellow or purple
v2: yellow = 3
v3: there is 1 even number
v4: all results are negative
In this case BECAUSE all results on v4 are negative, the code is solvable and is b2 y3 p3
IF v4 had a positive for p > b/y then the result would also be meaningful: b2 y3 p5
Therefore in this case v4 is both: required for the solution AND provides only negative results for this code
I’m interested in whether the game setup provided by the manufacturer uses this feature to allow for such games. It seems ‘legal’ within the game rules, but it’s not clear whether these cases are actually provided and I can imagine that for ‘ease of understanding/play’ they might have shied away from those setups.
It’s relevant because knowing whether they are possible setups or not affects your number of guesses. If it’s not possible, then you can assume the above case HAS TO BE the p5 solution and do (potentially) at least one less guess of the verifiers
I am not sure anyone was shocked this week when a multi-billion-dollar company carved its way through the videogaming arm of its workforce, laying off thousands of people who, until that point, had been diligently coding the games it had approved.
Minutes later came the mealy-mouthed soundbites about restructuring, innovating, and an exciting future for all. All released to the background of thousands of resumes being hurriedly and worriedly emailed to the recruiters of the three jobs that are available.
“We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace.”
10,000 jobs cut in 2023, another 9,000 now. How’s that positioning going Microsoft?
Xbox head honcho Phil Spencer was also at it, “I recognize that these changes come at a time when we have more players, games, and gaming hours than ever before. Our platform, hardware, and game roadmap have never looked stronger. The success we’re seeing currently is based on tough decisions we’ve made previously.”
The desks were emptying at studios such as Rare, King, and Bethesda, among many others, as he spoke.
The elephAInt in the room
Executive Producer at Xbox Game Studios, Matt Turnbull, will be wishing he hadn’t posted his advice on LinkedIn to those booted out to load up ChatGPT and get it to help you with the recruitment process. He’s now removed it, and I feel a bit sorry for him as he was trying to be helpful. And LinkedIn is a dumpster fire at the best of times, but still, if you still have your job when colleagues are losing theirs, my advice would be to keep your head down.
It’s not clear if or indeed any of the job cuts are as a direct result of Microsoft’s love-in with Artificial Intelligence. It would be silly to presume there is no connection, and this is the way the world is headed wither way. But we don’t have to like it
The thing is, and I have said this vociferously before when industry layoffs occur, that all that ever happens is that you get a few media outlets – many themselves often under constant fear of staff cuts, highlighting the problem, and then some bleating on Reddit from players who were looking forward to a particular game coming out that has now been canned, and that’s it. Rinse and repeat.
Seemingly ad infinitum.
Nothing new
I interviewed a long-standing CEO of a prominent publisher not long back – an interview you will be able to read in full on The Escapist in the near future and he told me he thought the games industry had always been a mess. And he has been in the game for decades.
He also said that perhaps it is time to start looking at things the way the movie industry does. There, you don’t so much work for a company but on a project. When the project is complete – ie, the movie gets released, that’s it. Job done, and you move on to the next one. If a movie gets canned, same thing.
It’s just a different perception and maybe the way things are already going, even if it’s not being outwardly stated.
Do most people care that the gaming industry is so dysfunctional?
Nobody objects for more than a few hours. Nobody is held to task. Corporations gonna corporation, and we just accept it. There’s no, “well, you sacked all those Perfect Dark devs, so we will hit you in the pocket by letting you stick your next Call of Duty where the sun don’t shine”.
Speaking of Perfect Dark, that’s another area where we should be outraged. I, like you, saw the gameplay trailer only a few months back and thought, yeah, that looks pretty cool. Now the game is canned for being in “poor shape,” and we are thinking, ‘but hang on, it looked alright to me.”
Now we find out that “demo” was somewhere between a fake and a load of sections frantically duct-taped together to hold it in one piece for the one minute the trailer lasted before presumably bursting into flames the second recording stopped.
Just stop lying to your audience.
Or at least if you continue to lie to us, and we find out, then there will be consequences for your profit and loss sheet. Which, let’s face it, is all they really care about. If it’s a “vertical slice”, tell us it is. But the push to see all the latest trailers at the same old games festivals means that companies feel the need to do this stuff.
Should we be bothered?
In the main, the games industry is not a cosy cottage industry. It is a behemoth full of corporations and money guys trying to extract the most cash from you. Some of you may be young enough not to remember it being any different, but it was. And it was better for it. But that version of the games industry couldn’t exist today. It is naive to think it could.
The cottage industry aspect survives in the form of (some) indie studios, but the world of the triple A (or even the AA or, just the bloody A) can be found north of Disaster Town. And then these companies have the gall to tell us we don’t own the games, only rent them. What happens? We complain for a few hours, then pre-order the next one so we can play it 48 hours early.
Maybe it really is all our fault in the first place.
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Sure, GTA 5 and GTA Online have been with us for years now, with dozens of big updates adding new features and content to the Los Santos sandbox. However, there are still some highly-requested things that Rockstar hasn’t got around to implementing. One such feature is mansions – while lavish penthouse apartments are all well and good, players have long wanted massive, decadent homes to symbolize the millions (or sometimes billions) of dollars they’ve accrued over the years. Well, today’s latest major update to GTA Online may be teasing the addition of mansions, hopefully just in the nick of time before GTA 6 arrives.
It’s been going strong for well over a decade, but GTA Online’s days appear to be numbered. While Rockstar hasn’t outlined its plans for its multiplayer experience once the GTA 6 release date arrives, it feels highly likely that a new and improved version of GTA Online, set in the new location of Leonida, will be rolled out. This means that, including today’s latest major update to the GTA 5 version, there’s maybe just a couple of big content drops in Online left before GTA 6 hits.
The new Money Fronts update delivers plenty. There’s a money laundering system that gives you access to more businesses: a car wash, the Smoke on the Water cannabis store, and Higgins Helitours. Consider your business empire expanded. Local money laundering kingpin Mr Faber also has some fresh missions for you to complete, and there are several new vehicles to add to your collection.
It’s a solid update, but what’s even more exciting is a potential teaser that’s been datamined from its code.
As was initially uncovered by ‘floorball’ and shared by the likes of notable GTA news account ‘Tez2,’ the update hints that future Mr Faber missions will involve helping a “client with their luxury property development.” Elsewhere, code for a notification message has been found that reads: “You have earned an exclusive discount on a future property purchase with Prix Luxury Real Estate. They will be in contact again soon when properties become available.”
While this is nowhere near absolute confirmation that mansions will be coming to GTA Online soon, it is highly suggestive that they will be. At the very least, it appears some form of new, high-end residential property will be purchasable after helping out Mr Faber’s client. After years of apartments, it would be nice for this to be a totally new kind of residence, and a mansion would certainly fit both the “luxury” description and the shady business mogul fantasy of GTA Online.
From what I’m seeing online, these luxury property missions aren’t among the Mr Faber missions that are currently live. So, that means that they’ll either arrive at some point over the next few months, or could be added (along with the properties themselves) in GTA Online’s December major update. GTA Online updates are on a six-month cycle, so this would (barring any more delays) potentially be the last big content drop for GTA 5 Online before GTA 6 arrives in May next year. It would certainly be a way to finish with a flourish, as players have been requesting this for a very long time.
Another theory is that this could be teasing a feature in GTA 6 Online itself. Completing Mr Faber’s missions in GTA 5 could then get you a discount for a mansion in GTA 6. Given that a mansion featured as your base of operations in GTA Vice City’s story, and GTA 6 will of course be returning to that iconic location, it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
As mentioned, none of this is officially confirmed just yet, and even though it’s been datamined from GTA 5, we shouldn’t jump to definite conclusions.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.
Thrempshs npmopw apnn Oblmpmphon Rmphstrpmshrd mphd aphmt etmphing rshks. Sorry, I’ve finished chewing. There’s now an Oblivion Remastered mod that lets you, the almighty Hero of Kvatch and saviour of the empire (well, in the short-term), eat rocks. Leave room for dessert – there are gemstones too.
Yes, those of you currently shouting at your screen at home/on the train/in the car park of a supermarket, just like you could in Morrowind, the Elder Scrolls game that’s very good and also an endless source of interesting mechanics/quirks Bethesda should maybe bring back. Some people just like spears or having to search for key locations based on the kind of vague directions you get if you’re on holiday and ask a stranger who hates the fact you exist.
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Modder CephalonImp’s ‘Edible Gems‘ is one of those ‘does what it says on the tin’ sorts of mods. Inside that tin in this case are a variety of rocks, gems, and ores you’ll pick up as you roam around Cyrodiil like the fantasy equivalent of a gang of rambunctious teenagers on bikes.
It turns 14 miscellaneous items into alchemy ingredients, meaning you can eat them to find out the new alchemical properties the modder’s added to them. Chow down on a gold nugget, and marvel at the aftertaste that’s a bit silency, a bit burdeny, a pinch weakness to shocky, and also packs just a hint of personality fortification. Then, ask Sheogorath to ring up Jamie Oliver, burp, and shout the words ‘Now that’s what I call real cuisine’ down the receiver.
Maybe have three course meal of pearls as a starter, madness and iron ore with a sapphire garnish, then for dessert – for something a bit different – shove a bear pelt down your gullet, because the mod’ll let you eat raw animal hides too. Think of all the nutrition.
CephalonImp’s even given several of these divine dishes the same cocktail of alchemical effects they had in Morrowind, because you can’t eat rocks in a fashion that isn’t lore-friendly (won’t somebody think of the immersion?).
“Flawless and Flawed gem variants have also been removed, but all gems are now worth their Flawless values,” the modder added. See, you’re only getting top-draw grub here and also probably eating something you could have sold for a pretty penny – now that’s RPG choice and consequence, even if we’re not quite at the point of getting mods that make the pointy stuff you ingest inflict health damage a day later, to properly simulate the inevitable chaser to your ill-advised shot.
Anyway, make sure you clean all the gravel off your plate, and check out the interviews we’ve been doing with Oblivion Remastered modders who’ve been pushing the boundaries and working on interesting stuff.
We recently attended a Q&A session at Lies of P Overture‘s preview event, where game director Choi Ji-won revealed that two easier difficulty levels are being added to the base game, alongside two harder modes for boss rush. While he assures us that the Bloodborne-esque, Victorian-themed adventure “is always [going to be] hard,” the move will open up the game to a whole slew of new players, while the additional boss rush difficulties challenge soulslike veterans.
The topic of difficulty came up a few times during the session which, in many ways, makes sense. At its core, Lies of P is a soulslike game and, by definition, it’s supposed to be as hard as nails. Adding different challenge ratings somewhat flies in the face of the very essence of what these games are meant to be.
Choi confirms that the reasoning behind the decision is to open the game up to a wider player base in an attempt to capture the audience that likely wrote it off as being too much of a challenge. More people playing can only be a good thing and, given Lauren’s glowing Lies of P review, they won’t be disappointed.
He also jokes that the game “is always difficult,” but states that titles like Lies of P aren’t about being needlessly difficult, but instead creating a sense of accomplishment in players when they finally “figure it out,” whether that be a tough boss or tricky area.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Lies of P’s boss rush mode is getting even harder, with two new difficulty settings that ramp the pressure up to eleven. Defeating these fearsome foes will net you various exclusive rewards, so if you really want to prove that you are, in fact, Krat’s finest warrior, you can do so.
But, while the difficulty changes are certainly the headliner, I had one question in mind: why is Overture a prequel, and does it have anything to do with the multiple endings and not wanting to commit to which one was canon? I put this question to Choi.
He confirms that Lies of P’s branching storyline has nothing to do with this decision. Instead, the reason Overture is a prequel is because there was a lot of content that simply didn’t make it into the base game. With Overture included, now Lies of P feels like a “complete version” of Choi and the team’s vision.
Lies of P Overture is set to release sometime in 2026 and will cost $29.99. You can wishlist it here. A free update is also coming to the base game that will introduce a host of fresh features, including the aforementioned difficulty settings and a new Boss Rush mode.
In the meantime, however, check out our list of all the best action games if you’re looking to get back into practice. Or, if you’re wondering where Overture fits in your gaming timeline, we have a rundown of all the upcoming PC games for 2025 and beyond.
You can follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides. We’ve also got a vibrant community Discord server, where you can chat about this story with members of the team and fellow readers.
Animal Upon Animal – If you want to ease your brain in gently or you’re simply in the mood for some good, old-fashioned fun, this is the game for you. Yes, it’s technically designed for small children and the components consist almost entirely of painted wooden animals, but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the most delightful games on our shelves. Basically reverse Jenga, Animal Upon Animal has a similar tension curve as the game progresses but is somehow much more forgiving, perhaps because with each successful move you’re left with a bigger and more awesome-looking animal tower! All the neighbouring tables will be jealous, take our word for it.
Quarto/ Pentago – These both fall firmly into the ‘abstract strategy’ category we touched on earlier, but are straightforward enough to feel like a gentle brain teaser (or gentle-ish, depending on how seriously you’re taking it and how clever your opponent is) rather than a full-blown strategic showdown. Quarto is the more sophisticated cousin of Connect-4, whilst Pentago is noughts and crosses with a (literal) twist. The two games have approximately six rules between them, but both have enough depth to get your brain ticking over and ready for whatever comes next…
Keeping things friendly
So now you’re all warmed up and ready for something with a bit more weight behind it, but you’re here to have a nice time together and want to leave on speaking terms. Here are our top choices for whiling away a companionable hour or so if you’d prefer to keep things friendly…
Patchwork – “A game of competitive quilting”. We usually open with this when we recommend Patchwork and watch the reaction, because those five words are often enough to either win someone over or put them off completely. If the description appeals, then you’re in for a treat, because as well as being about as endearing as it’s possible to be, Patchwork has enough depth to make for some really interesting decisions. On top of that, regardless of whether or not you win, you get the satisfaction of Tetrissing (yes, new word, we made it ourselves) together pieces to make your very own quilt and seeing it grow as the game goes on. Although it is a competitive game, it’s nigh-on impossible to play Patchwork aggressively, and the theme is just so soothing, so we’re pretty sure you’ll still be talking at the end. If you’re short on time, we’ve just got our hands on a copy of the newly-released Patchwork Express, which basically offers the same great game in under 20 minutes.
Jaipur – This one is a slightly harder sell for the uninitiated: players are traders in an Arabian market place, trying to win the approval of the Sultan by accumulating more goods and (mysteriously all-important) camels than the other player in each of three rounds. It looks and sounds very dry, but Jaipur consistently appears on top 10 lists of two-player games, and hopefully once you’ve played it you’ll understand why. Again, this is very much a Euro-style game in that there’s no direct conflict (although you might spot some opportunities to scupper your opponent’s plans if you keep a careful eye out). If you give it a go, keep an eye out for the special panda camel. We have no idea why it’s there, but we’re always pleased to see it!
Pandemic – If you’d prefer to remove the competitive aspect completely and work together against the game, there’s a whole world of cooperative games out there and pretty much all of them are great for two players. Pandemic helped to kickstart the whole genre when it appeared in 2008, and it has really stood the test of time. Players take on the role of a team of specialists trying to save humanity from four deadly viruses, racing against time to find the cures whilst travelling the world treating patients and trying to prevent outbreaks. The theme is so powerful that it’s impossible not to get drawn in, and it’s tricky enough to beat the game that you get to feel like heroes if you manage it, but will always have a memorable experience either way.
Head to head
Right. The gloves are off. You’re not here to mess around – there’s a score to settle. Here are our top games for times when taking part just won’t cut it.
Cobra Paw – Any game based around grabbing is guaranteed to get the competitive juices flowing, and Cobra Paw is simple enough to let you get stuck straight in. Take turns to roll a pair of dice, then look for the domino that features the two symbols they show amongst all of those on the table and try to get to it first. If you succeed, put the domino in front of you. If you can collect six of them you’ve won, but be warned: dominoes in front of other players are still fair game. Maybe move your drinks before you start playing!
Odin’s Ravens – This one doesn’t require physical speed to win, but involves a race nonetheless. Odin’s two ravens Hugin and Munin must fly around Midgard every day gathering information, and whoever gets back first to pass on their news first will be his good books. This is predominantly a card-based game with some beautiful artwork and component quality. Players discard cards to move their raven forward on a the track in the centre of the table, but can also invoke Loki to play tricks to speed their passage or slow down their opponent. A thoroughly thematic experience which always results in a nail-biting finale.
I wonder if there are simulators that estimate the win probability in Monopoly, based on a given game-state. A game-state include the entire situation: properties, monopolies, houses, hotels, cash and the location of each player.
Example: I won a game after giving an opponent the green monopoly in exchange for the maroons. I won the game because I had $1200 cash (and quickly built three houses on each) while my opponent had only $200 cash. (Consider the remaining properties to be "evenly" distributed, including two railroads and one utility for each person.) I would guess that the outcome might very well have been different if my opponent had the $1200, and I the $200.
Probabilities in Monopoly isn’t a simulator, but it is a calculator that calculates the theoretical value of properties given various states of building development. The main thing that is missing is the role of players’ cash positions in win chances, because more cash means that you can develop faster than your opponents.
Is there a simulator that can estimate win chances given the game state?
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