A couple of weeks before the release of Gears of War 3, Gears of War: The Board Game will hit store shelves. You see, it's a board game with all of the excitement of Gears of War the video game—except it's probably not even close to as exciting. Sadly, I still totally want it. Fantasy Flight Games makes a pretty good case with this trailer and, honestly, the little figurines would make a great addition to my ongoing army vs. Indians vs. firemen vs. cowboys war I have going on in my sandbox.

I got dibs on Cole Train!

According to Amazon.com, Gears of War: The Board Game releases on August 31^st for about $80.

Yeah, really!  Offshore Oil Strike was a board game released and endorsed by BP back in the 1970’s that promised excitement “for all the family.”

Here are the rules, according to BoardGameGeek:

“Two to four players compete at exploring for oil, building platforms, and laying pipelines to bring the offshore oil back to the player’s home company. Players take on the roles of either BP (Hull), Amoco (Bergen), Chevron (Rotterdam) or Mobil (Dieppe) in their quest for oil. As with other games focusing on offshore oil exploitation (e.g., Omnia’s North Sea Oil), there is also the risk that storms will reduce production on, or eliminate, one’s oil platforms. The first player to make $120,000,000 in cash is the winner.

Players must also avoid “hazard cards,” which read, “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1million.”

As exciting (and appropriate) as that all sounds, it’s mostly just funny that BP continues to be punched in the face (virtually, of course) repeatedly by everyone—even bell-bottom wearing 1970’s BP.  So, hurray for irony once again!