No matter your favorite board game, there’s likely a digitized version of it. Whether a video game, online game or a mobile app. Some games are successful (Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride), and others are downright weird (Surgery Simulation, Monopoly Slots).

Here are the online and/or video game versions of classic board games worth knowing about. Are they worthy successors to their tabletop origins? That’s up for you to decide.

Dungeons and Dragons

Okay – so Dungeons and Dragons is not technically a board game (and not the only time you’ll find the definition is loose in this round-up). However, it is most definitely a game that will illicit nostalgia in any 80’s kids.

The world famous role-playing game known as Dungeons and Dragons spawned several video games which vary considerably in quality. Many of these video games drew from the D&D universe in creating characters and plots. Others are built entirely around the distinctive role-playing aspect.

The best Dungeons and Dragons video game of all time? According to Ian Williams at PASTE magazine, that prestigious title goes to Planescape: Torment of 1991, but is closely followed by Bioware’s Baldur Gate from 2000.

We’ll also mention the ambitious Neverwinter Nights take on the RPG. This allowed up to 64 players to connect to a single server when it was released in 2002.

Words with Friends

The only way you haven’t heard of Zynga’s hugely successful take on Scrabble is if you’ve somehow managed to resist Facebook over the past ten years.

Annoying as those game invitations are (especially from your twelve-old nephew who failed to take the hint when you spelled out ‘vexatious’), Words with Friends is a great game.

Typically played through Facebook, but also available as a stand-alone app, the modern version of Scrabble allows you to challenge contacts in your friends lists, or get randomly paired with complete strangers. You may have heard heartwarming stories of relationships that blossomed over random pairings of opponents.

Operation

The closest thing you’ll get to the classic tabletop Operation in video game format is the utterly bizarre Surgeon Simulator.

After the disturbing Goat Simulator, pretty much any game ending with ‘simulator’ should be avoided. Instead they offer surreal gameplay with intentionally ridiculous graphics.

Bossa Studios’ Surgeon Simulator is no exception. It’s notoriously difficult controls make picking up tools as challenging as the actual surgery part. Grotesque, unrealistic, strange – but with the same stress factor which makes the original Operation board game so much fun. Surgeon Simulator is worth a go if you want a laugh. Or maybe just watch YouTuber ‘Markiplier’ get hilariously frustrated playing the game.

Battleship

When you’re playing the Battleship board game, you have to imagine those epic explosions as you sink your opponent’s ship. Not so in the 2012 video game. Although receiving mostly negative reviews for Xbox and PS3, it was well-received on DS and Wii. On the latter consoles, the game used the more traditional format of a turn-based strategy game. But the Xbox and PS3 versions, featuring a first-person shooter mode, were much less popular.

If you’re a big fan of the board game and want to see Battleship come to life with animation and sound, then the video game might still be worth your time.

Monopoly

Monopoly inspired many online multiplayer games. However, the online casino slots is definitively one of the more bizarre adaptations of a classic board game.

Admittedly, Monopoly is a game all about money, albeit virtual. So it’s not too far-fetched to consider its theme applied to games where you can win real cash. There are several different Monopoly slots that are played both online or in traditional slot machine format at regular casinos. Featured on the reels, instead of classic fruit symbols, are the famous game pieces and the Monopoly Man, who usually function as the ‘Wild’ or ‘Scatter symbol.

Risk

Strategy meets geography in the universally loved Risk, and its potential as a video game has perhaps not quite been realized.

Possibly the reason no full-scale Risk video game has yet been released is because players who want a more elaborate version of the board game opt instead for game like Civilization. Risk: Global Domination was released in 2003 to PlayStation 2 and received mixed reviews.

One thing which arguably makes the video game preferable to the board game is the ability to collect medals by progressing in the game. In addition, it offers different gameplay modes.

Pictionary

Pictionary has taken many online formats with various names. But it’s always based on the same basic concept of one party guessing what the other is drawing. There’s an official Pictionary app where two or more friends join an online game and play at the same time.

You can also play a version of the game in your browser, known as Drawasaurus – or else try Draw Something through Facebook.

You may be surprised to know that Pictionary, just like Chess or Solitaire, can also be played against a computer. Artificial intelligence, developed by Google, can recognize the subject of your sketches and doodles with alarming accuracy. Don’t believe me? Give it a try.

Cluedo

The murder mystery premise of Cluedo (or Clue, if you’re in North America) makes for a fun online gaming experience.

Marmalade Game Studios brought the iconic game to life in both app and desktop format in 2016. Reviews have been positive. The gameplay includes the typical elements of the board game, such as weapon and character cards, and suspect sheets for deduction. You can play against an AI or else join an online game of up to six players.

Perhaps the most fun part of the game is seeing the different mansion rooms brought to life with such amazing detail and color.

Carcassonne

Carcassonne isn’t the only turn-based strategy board game to debut on Xbox in 2007. Vivendi games also based a video game on Settlers of Catan. However Carcassonne is the only game of the two which can still be purchased or accessed through Xbox Live Arcade today.

The more successful Carcassonne includes expansions to make the game extra interesting. In addition, four people can play offline on the same console. The app, meanwhile, allows for up to six players in online mode.

Chess

An obvious, and arguably even boring, addition – yet a game without which this list could not be complete. We’re of course talking about chess.

There’s a countless number of websites and apps through which you can play the 1,500 year-old strategy game. But did you know that humans could first play chess against a computer as early as 1974? And a World Chess Champion was beaten by a computer for the first time in 1996?

Well, let me introduce you to the crazy concept of three player chess. That’s right – you can go straight to this website, invite two equally nerdy friends to join a game, and then battle it out over a three-player chess board. Good luck!

We focused on the most classic of all board games in this article. We’ve no doubt missed out on mentioning some other truly epic tabletop-to-online game transitions. Did you know, for example, that you can play Cards Against Humanity online?

But for all the online variants of traditional board games, there’s something to be said for crowding around a table with friends, holding physical game pieces in your hand, and being able to literally tear apart the rules book when things aren’t going your way.

The post The Best Online Variants of Classic Board Games appeared first on Unfiltered Gamer.

Monopoly is a hugely popular board game created initially by Lizzie Maggie, in an attempt to highlight the economic theories of Henry George.

Guest blog by:

Monopoly was first released in 1935 (although initially conceived in 1903), and is evidently a timeless classic which is by far the most popular board game that’s ever existed. It has seen multiple variants being released, including some unconventional yet quite imaginable versions such as ‘Monopoly Gamer.’ It’s simple and easy-to-learn concept offers decent gameplay and in some cases can be played by as many as ten people simultaneously.

Sounds great so far, but when you actually scratch beneath the surface, it is clear that Monopoly is not all it’s cracked up to be. The first few games you ever play you’ll be hooked, but then starts a steady regression of the enjoyment until the very idea of the game makes you scrunch up your face in horror.

Winning Over Enjoyment

Nobody likes to lose. Whether it’s an Olympic finals, or simply just another game of Monopoly with your roommate, the desire to win is strong. Perhaps the most enjoyable part of Monopoly is the trading side of things. But you know every game you’ll play there is going to be that one player who just won’t trade.

Free will and all, that is fair enough. However, to win and therefore end the game, players must go bankrupt. For this to happen, properties (hotels and houses) must be built as the rent cost for the ‘site only’ is pittance. All sites of the same colour must be owned in order to build hotels and houses, so if one player has one card of each colour, they can effectively ensure the game does not pass the primal stage and onto the exciting part where everyone has hotels and houses.

Instead, that one player may just have one set of properties with hotels on them, giving them the only significant power to bankrupt other players. Sure they will win, but damn will it be a boring game. But I guess that is literally the definition of a monopoly.

Photo by Images Money. CC BY 2.0.

Mayfair is the most expensive property in the traditional UK Monopoly.

Do You Have a Spare Ten Hours?

Ever sat down with a group of friends or your family, wanting to play a board game and intending said game to go on for 10 hours? No, of course you haven’t! That sounds like a hellish reality But that is what you are going to get when you play Monopoly. Especially when one player is as described in the previous point.

A stalemate is very much a possibility, where perhaps the last two players remaining have a balanced share of properties. What results is then a scenario where unless one player lands on Mayfair and Park Lane (with hotels) ten turns in succession, it is nigh-on impossible to actually make the opponent bankrupt. Strap in for hours of uninterrupted ‘fun.’ Monopoly? More like very balanced and equal market…

What Are the Rules Again?

As mentioned earlier, this game is seriously popular. Everyone has heard of it and knows how to play it, therefore nobody actually ever takes a couple of minutes to sit down and look at the rules. With Monopoly being over 80 years old, in that time hybrid versions (where players adapt existing and adopt new rules) have become more of the norm. This has lead to confusion and no common house style played by all players.

Landing on ‘Go’ gets you double the money – no it doesn’t. Landing on ‘Free Parking’ wins you all fines and tax money that’s accumulated previously – nope, they’re meant to go to the bank in the first place. You’re in jail so I don’t have to pay you rent – wrong again! Convicts have rights too!

It’s All Luck and No Strategy

Is there any skill involved at all in Monopoly? Or is it all simply just luck? Definitely the latter. There’s no real strategy to adopt in Monopoly.

It’s not like other board games or even video games, where strategy is absolutely paramount to ensure you have the best possible chance of victory. Whether it’s staying away from populated areas in a battle royale to survive longer, or perhaps thinking tactically when choosing to attack in a battle situation, most games require some sort of strategy to succeed.

Whereas with Monopoly, players simply buy property when they can and generally let the dice decide their fate.

…Okay it’s Alright

Perhaps we’ve been a little harsh on the game here. At the end of the day, you don’t sell over 250 million copies and not be fun and entertaining.

However, it just seems that as you get older and have experienced that excitement for the first couple of times, the novelty fades somewhat.

Is it an all-time great? I think it’s safe to say it is. However, it is also definitely overrated nowadays and possesses a few major flaws.

Thanks for reading this guest post! If you liked this article, check out:

• Monopoly Gamer Board Game Review (video)
• Monopoly Gamer Collector’s Edition Impressions (video)

Written by: Alain Haller

The post Why Monopoly Has Become Nobody’s Favorite Game appeared first on Unfiltered Gamer.

The concept of the game Side Effects is to treat all of your diseases before the other players treat theirs. The catch is that every time you treat a disease, you become vulnerable to receiving other diseases from your opponents.

I had never seen this done before in a game and I was very intrigued to make something of it. In developing Side Effects, I wanted to make something that people could play at a bar, at a game night, with friends, enemies, or in-betweens.

For a while, a favorite was Cards Against Humanity, and while I still love playing that game, I started to crave something with a bit more strategy. I’m a huge fan of the French card game Mille Bornes, and wanted something akin to that but with a more cynical and less family-friend tone.

In order to keep the mechanics and instructions super simple, I drew a hard line about adding additional cards and kept the whole game to just four card types: diseases, drugs, therapy, and episodes.

Behind the scenes filming the video for the Side Effects Kickstarter launch.

The decision to use real drugs was always a no-brainer. I think it would have been strange and borderline offensive to include the names of real diseases and yet fake medicines—so all of the drugs in the game are real and actually cause the side effects listed. And although we’re planning on releasing a more family-friendly version of the game called Side Effects of the Amateur Sorcerer, which will include magic spells instead of drugs, I wanted the original Side Effects—and most of Pillbox Games’s work—to be dark, wry, and on the verge of social satire.

Still, in no way do I ever claim this game is about attacking the users of these drugs or even the pharmaceutical companies that make them. Anyone who knows my personal history knows that I’m a huge advocate for therapy and life-saving medication. I want to point out a dark truth in a funny way. I think that’s actually the best method to get people thinking that perhaps we need to work harder to properly treat this problem.

The final card designs we developed.

And that’s how I’d like to move forward with our company, Pillbox Games. We’re working on games about global warming, election rigging, and murdering Santa Claus. I grew up on Garbage Pail Kids, grunge, and South Park—I guess this is just how my mind works.

So, if you have a sick sense of humor and want to play a strategic card game that’s super easy to learn, I highly encourage you to check out Side Effects. Even darker expansion packs are in the works!

Sign-up to get an update when the Side Effects Kickstarter goes live.

Guest blogger Jade Shames is a writer living in Brooklyn.

Pillbox Games is comprised of Jade Shames, Ben Bronstein, Jen Igartua, and Kat Thek.

The post Developing Side Effects – The Making of the Card Game appeared first on Unfiltered Gamer.