Since I last posted, I've put a lot of time into a number of games, all of which I hope to say something about in coming weeks: Crackdown, Eternal Sonata, The World Ends With You, Mass Effect, Soul Bubbles, Boom Blox, Ticket to Ride, Braid, Elite Beat Agents, Age of Conan, and today, the Fable 2 Pub Games on XBLA.
Some people would argue that gambling is no fun unless it's for real money, but I disagree. I find it strangely relaxing (and almost hypnotic after a while), particularly card games, and Fortune's Tower (the card game in the package) definitely delivers, with its constant stick-or-twist dilemma. Keystone is a more complex form of craps and is good fun too. But the weak link is the Spinnerbox games, which are effectively increasingly complex 'pure chance' fruit machines - pay your money, hit the button, see if you win (but mostly you lose. A lot.)
Despite them, if you enjoy frittering away virtual coinage on games of chance, check out the trial version. If you later buy Fable 2, you can use the game to gamble with your in-game gold, which sounds like a good idea, but will probably lead to virtual bailiffs, virtual gamblers anonymous meetings, etc. Just remember:
