Today I had quite a nice outing with few of my colleagues to the Katong area, primarily for going to the Katong Settlers' Cafe.
We first had lunch at one of the Chicken rice restaurants there (among a whole row of LAN shops and "original Laksa" shops... haha). Original the meal wasn't that filling (can't dany that it was delicious, though) but a second bowl of rice made all the difference!
Having filled our stomachs... we're off to Settlers'!
Quite a range of games there... of course, after getting semi-addicted to the Settlers of Catan game (presence of the "Settlers" word in both the cafe's and the game's name is purely coincidential) I played at Bernard's house, I irrationally suggested playing it there again...
Well, we're here to try new games aren't we?
We first played this "Dawn Under" game which is basically a memory game in which we do the dirty work of locking rampant (?) vampires up in their coffins.
After the warm-up we moved on to a game which requires more thinking... and the staff recommended this game called "Acquire".
Pretty straightforward title huh?
It was a game in which we built companies and invest in stocks in simplified ways ("simplified" as in you can think of investment strategies while sitting next to a rowdy group of gamers screaming around some table game involving plastic bones). Really got us thinking, though.
After getting really high and ending the game quite reluctantly (with Kelvin as the winner), we switched to an adventure game called "Betrayal on the House on the Hill".
Talk about long-named games.
It's actually a horror story kind of game (as in betrayal on a spooky-&-eerie-creaky-floored house on a hill). We start off as innocent no-lives trapped in that creaky house and trying to find a way out (other than the main door), until-
Until... ...
Until one (ONE!) of the explorers get the calling to betray the rest of the explorers while helping the resident ghosts achieve their evil ends.
Basically... I say with the tone of some waiting-for-spring-guy meeting the right girl at the wrong time, I have high regard for the game.
The sad thing was that while you're playing a part in a horror story, a brightly lit room with sunlight shining mercifully through the glass doors just doesn't fit the equation...
Also, the words which tell of your terrible fate in the house each and every turn... well, the process of trying to follow those instructions (and looking up the instruction booklet every few minutes) sort of dampened the mood big time.
Imagine a group of guys sitting in a bright room, watching a Japanese horror movie without subtitles, and looking up dictionaries frequently to check the meaning of every line the characters say, with the super-serious dude analysing various forms of the verb he just looked up (just to add to the direness of the situation)... you get the picture.
And so, we all felt that it was a pity.
Nevertheless, every game we tried there was a nice experience, and I am sure I would like to go for a board gaming cafe outing again anytime.
Or we can just play "Settlers" again at Bernard's house!
Now for stuff that's totally unrelated...
Chara-kids Pokemon figures just rawk! Don't you see how well done this figure of Aerodactyl is?
My search for something I can cuddle in the office ended when I locked eyes with this stuffed white seal! It's the kind with this sliky skin stuffed with tiny styrofoam beads... which made it really soft and cuddly!
Trying to take a picture of myself hugging it... and ended up with this emotionally flat shot. My bad.
