new games (other than monopoly, chess, cards etc) which adults can play?
I want to gift my sister some toys/games for her birthday- something that she and I can play, like we used to when we were kids, but it has to be something that adults would be interested in and I want it to be something new. I heard of a game called The Settlers of Catan, is it any good? and could u please suggest other games? Thanks 
Settlers of Catan is what board gamers often refer to as a "Eurogame," because it's of a European design style. Eurogames tend to be... well... I guess I want to say "more intelligently designed." They're generally pretty easy to learn, but once you start playing, you realize there's a lot of thinking and strategic choices to be had. (Unlike, say, Monopoly, where you basically just roll the dice and move.)
I dare say that Settlers is the flagship Eurogame -- i.e., the one that gets your average person to realize there are better games out there than Monopoly and the like. It's sort of a "gateway" game. A lot of people thoroughly enjoy it, although it's not SUPER-high on my list of games, for one very big reason: it's all too easy to end up in a position where you know you can't win, yet you have to keep playing anyway.
See, one of the fundamental points of Eurogames is a lack of player elimination. This means that players aren't knocked out of the game one by one until a single person remains... instead, everyone is in the game until the very end. You can't be "ousted" from Settlers. You play until it's over. And, while this is normally a good idea, it sorta sucks when people have built around you and effectively trapped you in a small area.
Mind you, this doesn't happen ALL the time. I'm just saying that the few times it has happened to me, it's made for a very un-enjoyable game experience. It's more likely to happen when you have more players in the game, as people end up running into one another a lot.
On that note, if you're looking for something to be played with your sister, you should realize that Settlers isn't a 2-player game. It's listed as 3-4, with a 5-6-player expansion you can buy. That being said, you CAN still play it with 2 players. You pretty much only lose out on some of the trading aspect (as there's only one person with which to trade), and it also makes it a little TOO easy to expand your little colony, since there's so much available land on the board that's only being split by two people.
As far as my other game recommendations go, here are some of my favorite two-player games:
1. LORD OF THE RINGS: THE CONFRONTATION. Even if you're not a fan of LotR, you can probably gain some enjoyment from this game. Each player has a small army of tokens that they move around the board. The tokens are shaped like doors (upright and everything, just like a door). On your opponent's side, you can only see the backs of the "doors," so you don't know which unit is which. When two of your units run into one another, you each turn your doors to reveal to one another which unit you had (like Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, etc.). Then you each secretly place a card from hand, face-down, and turn them up. You add the number from the card with the number on your unit to see who had a higher score. So, if I had Aragorn (4 on his unit) and played a 5 card, I'd have a total of 9. If you had The Balrog (5 on his unit) and you played a 3, you'd be at 8. I'd win, and the Balrog would be off the board.
It seems very simple, but the strategy comes in knowing what cards your opponent hasn't used yet. If you're the Sauron (bad guys) player, you've got cards numbered 1-6, plus three cards that have no numbers but do have a special effect. If you're the Free Peoples (good guys) player, you've got 1-5 and four special cards. Once you use a card, you can't use it again until all of your cards have been used and you get them all back. So, it turns into a very interesting game of guessing and counter-guessing, when you know which cards your opponent hasn't played yet and which units you haven't seen yet. You start to figure out just what their remaining resources are, and make your decisions accordingly. As the Free Peoples player, your object is to get your Frodo token all the way into Mordor (opposite side of the board). You have to be stealthy about it, as Frodo's strength is very low. As the Sauron player, your object is to kill Frodo. It's a ton of fun!
2. HIVE. This is a game that's very much like chess, in that there's no luck involved -- it's just one mind against another. There are no dice rolled, no random cards drawn. Every move you can make is openly visible to your opponent, and vice-versa. Basically, each player has a collection of hexagon-shaped pieces with different bugs etched into them: soldier ant, spider, grasshopper, beetle, queen bee. The object of the game is to fully surround your opponent's queen with pieces. Each bug has a different way of moving, and you use these movements to try and trap your opponent's queen. It's VERY fun if you're into thought-heavy games. Though, to be fair, it's not "thought-heavy" in that it's difficult to learn -- learning it is quite simple. But once you get into a game, you find yourself straining your brain to make the perfect moves. 
3. CITADELS. This is a great game because it can be played w
Ray playing Kids of Catan
US $33.10
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