Hello youse. My name is Rab Florence, and for six years I would land my jetpack here on RPS every week to tell all of you PC gamers about board games. Four years ago my jetpack exploded, separating my head from my body and traumatising the spectators below, meaning that I had to retire my column on account of me having, well, nae heid. But I have returned from the cardboard grave to regale you with a tale of high adventure in Descent: Legends of the Dark.
I thought this new board game would be a perfect thing to talk to you all about, because it's not really a board game at all. Well, it is. But you can't play it without using an app, on your phone or your tablet or – yes – your actual PC! So it's actually a PC game! With a board. Because it’s a board game. Except it isn't. Apart from when it is.
]]>Goodbye youse.
It's been six long years since Cardboard Children began here on the world's best computer games website, and it's time for the column to come to an end. Yes, I've packed my bags, and I'm standing by the RPS door, ready to leave. My hand is on the doorknob. But before I go, I'd like to point you towards some of my favourite pieces during the run, so we can all have a little nostalgia trip together.
]]>The rumours were true. Fantasy Flight Games and Games Workshop are ending their relationship. It's a conscious uncoupling that will send shockwaves through the board gaming community, and no wonder. For a blissful period, the two were a match made in heaven. But now it's over, and everyone is just trying to wrap their heads around what it all means.
As for you? You need to act fast.
]]>Sometimes you play a board game that you know will just be a joy to write about. Rhino Hero is one of those games. It's not really a board game, of course. It's actually a card game. But it's kinda a dexterity game too. And it's also a kids game, for kids of all ages. If you don't have kids, buy Rhino Hero anyway. If you feel weird about having a kids game with no kids at home, then this game is worth having some kids for. Go have children immediately.
]]>Hello youse.
On the board game scene, there’s always a great deal of buzz. Indeed, the industry depends on buzz – be it the mindless drone-buzz of pre-release hype or the more alluring summer’s day busy-buzz of post-launch word-of-mouth. Buzz is what makes a game hot, while silence is what makes a game not. Today we take a look at a few upcoming games that are making people startle and dash away because they think there might be a wasp in the room.
]]>Hello youse.
A man called Robert Florence gets on a train to London at 2pm, leaving from Glasgow. If the train is travelling at 80 miles per hour, and the distance to London is 860 miles, how clear is it that Robert doesn’t know how far it is to London? But what I really want to know is: How tall is Robert when he’s on that train, if he’s sitting down? And how tall is he if he’s crawling around on the floor, crying? And are board games dumbing down?
]]>Hello youse.
I have no idea what a MOBA is.* I'm not even joking.** I've never played one. I think I dabbled with one of the PC ones for an hour or so once, but that was it. What does MOBA even stand for? I know what MMORPG means, and I know what an FPS is. But a MOBA? About the only thing I know about the MOBA is that people who play them play them for about a million hours, and that baddies move in pre-set channels, in lanes, in one direction. Or something. Maybe. Anyway, it was all the talk about Rum & Bones being like a MOBA that put me off it. That was a very silly of me.
]]>Hello youse.
It’s safe to say that some of the news I’m about to share with you is the most exciting news that I’ve shared on this site in a long, long time. If you’re deep into board gaming, you’ll probably know most of this news already, but have you heard my incisive analysis? No. If you’re only casually into board games, all this exciting news might just drag you much deeper into our cardboard world. And if you don’t care about board games at all, some of this might change your mind.
Take a few minutes of your day to read more.
]]>Hello youse.
As I speak to you now, I am about to crack open Mansions of Madness Second Edition. The original was a game I loved. But it was a difficult game to get to the table. It took a fair bit of time to set up, a lot of maintenance, and so that great, ambitious game didn't get the plays that it deserved. It also had a troubled roll-out of its companion expansions, and the game seemed to lose some lustre. But now it's a do-over, and all that hard work will be dealt with by the game's companion app. This is an exciting game release. If this works, we might have something very special on our hands.
Read on, and I'll give you my first impressions.
]]>Hello youse.
City of Iron, a game by Ryan Laukat, impresses not only with its gameplay – which is deep and intriguing – but with its sense of aesthetic cohesiveness. This is a game designed from the ground-up, brick by brick, until it hangs together as a statement of the designer's artistic intent. The art, by the designer, tells a story of a steampunk world populated by varied strange factions. The game itself tells a story of struggle and greed, and the allure of evil. I like it very much.
]]>There was a time when people who played board games weren't obsessed with things like “balance”. Back in the day, you'd sit and play a board game and no-one would say anything about the “mechanics”. Nobody ever talked about design. There was a time when a board game was a game inside a cardboard box, and if you were lucky it gave you a measure of fun that you wanted to experience again and again and again.
Lost Patrol is exactly that kind of game. It is a game of inevitable death in the jungle. A game you can't win unless you get really lucky. A game that if you do win, you'll be talking about it for months. It's to Games Workshop's credit that they brought back this old-school game with its ridiculous hostility intact. This is a 2-player game without balance. One player is probably going to lose, and the other is going to win. The only question is how soon the enemy player will win, and how hard the good guys will get smashed.
]]>Hello youse.
Sometimes you like a board game a little, sometimes you like it a lot. The great games stay great forever, giving you a little tremor of excitement every time you think about them. Others fade a bit over time, as you become too familiar with their dynamics and play other games that improve upon what they do. Other games just fade away for reasons you can't quite put your finger on. This week, I talk about a few games that I find less fantastic than I used to. I'll try to understand why.
]]>Hey folks. This week I want to do something special – I want to quickly revisit a few board games I've covered before – because board games often reveal more of themselves over time. The games I cover this week are ones that have grown in my estimation since I first covered them here. Next week I'll be talking about games that have gone down in my estimation for one reason or another. I think it might be interesting to see how time has affected my take on these titles, and to see what you fine people think of these games the more you've played them.
Let's begin.
]]>Do you like Monopoly? Most of you probably don't. Many of you probably don't even play the game by the correct rules. It's a fact, an actual proven scientific statistical actual factual fact, that most people have played Monopoly by the wrong rules. If you play Monopoly by the rules as written, it's a faster, even more cut-throat game. And it's good. Sure, there are many better games, but I will defend Monopoly's honour to the death. But how does this tickle your fancy - a game that is kind of like a reverseMonopoly, where you destroy buildings instead of building them? And you don't strive to make your opponents bankrupt. You work instead to make reality itself bankrupt, because you are an impossible, immeasurably powerful Elder God and that's how you like to spend your weekends.
This is The Doom That Came To Atlantic City.
]]>Hello youse.
It's June! We're smack bang in the middle of the start of the summer, unless you live in Scotland as I do. We're still in winter, and will be until winter starts. But that doesn't mean I'm not full of all the summer joys. I am. I am absolutely rammed to the gills with the joys of summer, so much so that my gills are about ready to explode with all that joy-juice. Shall we see what's happening news-wise in the world of board gaming? I'll cherry-pick a few interesting things for you to rub your nose into.
]]>Hello youse.
If you're going to call your board game “Sun Tzu”, then you better be damn sure that the game in question makes art out of war. If you're going to call your game “Sun Tzu” then you better make sure that it's going to get your brain ticking. You better make sure that players will sit at the table and feel like they have control and options.
There's nothing to fear with this classic.
]]>The biggest surprise about Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower is how brilliant it is. Maybe it shouldn't be a surprise. The last Games Workshop standalone game I played was the lithe Betrayal At Calth, a fantastic run and gun scenario/skirmish game. And yet, as the beauty of this Silver Tower makes itself known, the main thing I feel is surprise. This is a game that has merged modern dungeoncrawl mechanics with (and I hate simplifying it like this, but you might understand what I mean) a very British old-school eccentricity. The Silver Tower is electrifying, a shining lightning rod for all those feelings that make us want to play games. Read on.
]]>Hello youse.
Last week I started talking about Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, the new big box board game release from Games Workshop. Actually, it's not a board game. Oh, it is. But it's a strange hybrid thing, where miniatures from further into the GW line can be incorporated into the game, and characters from the board game can be used in the GW miniatures game Age Of Sigmar. It's an interesting product, incorporating a classic design ethos and fusing it with modern marketing sensibilities. That's why I continue to tell you about it this week.
]]>With the release of the new Warhammer Quest from Games Workshop – full name “Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower” - I thought it might be good to do a deeper exploration of what it is to go deep into a new Games Workshop game. Buying something like Warhammer Quest (isn't it exciting that there's a new Warhammer Quest?) is not the same as buying your average board game. First of all, it's a bigger investment. Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower retails for 95 pounds. That's not a game you buy on a whim – that's a commitment. And with that commitment comes a lot of work. Because as any fool knows, Games Workshop products aren't just about play. They're about construction, and painting, and that's why the whole Games Workshop thing – encapsulating Warhammer 40K, Age of Sigmar, and many more – is referred to as “The Hobby” by fans of the product.
The Hobby. If you want to play a new Games Workshop game, you're going to have to dip into The Hobby. Come with.
]]>Hello youse.
I've been playing board and card games with my daughter far more regularly these days. She's 9 now, and so she's crossed over into an area where lots of games are suddenly entirely playable, and to a high level of ability. In fact, I'll be honest, she's more often than not hammering me at games. The most recent game she completely dismantled me over is a new favourite of ours. It's a game about creating and selling beautiful jewels, and it's called Queen's Necklace.
]]>Hello youse.
I've covered T.I.M.E. Stories before, and I was very interested in the response to that review in the comments. I've also found the discussion about T.I.M.E. Stories across the internet in general to be, quite honestly, very entertaining. There's never really been a game quite like T.I.M.E. Stories before, and so, almost four months after my initial review, I want to talk about it again. Let's take another run and see how T.I.M.E. Stories feels further down the timeline of our lives.
]]>Hello youse.
It's the month of May. And if I may (get it) talk to you for a bit about board games I may (get it?) be able to tell you about a cool board game. That should maybe have been a “might” there, instead of a “may”. I may be mistaken, though. Or might be mistaken. No idea. Anyway, Mission: Red Planet. Second Edition. Yep. Let's do this. By the way, the Red Planet is Mars.
]]>Hello youse.
It seems like WWE Superstar Showdown is a board game that hasn't made much of an impression upon release. It's by Gale Force Nine, the team behind the excellent Spartacus and the strong Sons of Anarchy, and it's about wrestling. Yeah, wrestling! The wrasslin'! WWE! The squared circle! It's a board game set inside this very ring, featuring a selection of current WWE Superstars. And they're having a Showdown!
]]>Hello youse.
Quadropolis from Days of Wonder is a board game about building a city. Well, it's not really. It doesn't really feel like building a city at all. It feels like you're laying out buildings, yes, but you're really just meeting conditions, netting points. But that's okay. I'm going to tell you why that's okay.
]]>Hello youse.
It's April, and like a fool (get it?) I'm going to line up some cool board game news for you. This might be the biggest year yet in terms of releases, again, as usual, so let's see what's coming down the line.
All the new announcements and updates BELOW!!!
]]>Hello youse.
Last week I told you how great Star Wars: Rebellion is. Today I dig into why, in a bit more detail. I'll be focusing on a few key elements of the game, and how they work together to tell a thrilling Star Wars story every time you sit down at the table.
]]>Hello youse.
Star Wars: Rebellion is a two-player board game from Fantasy Flight Games, re-telling the story of the original Star Wars trilogy in about four hours. The game can also be played with more players, in teams, but the best way to play seems to be head-to-head. It's the Empire vs The Rebel Alliance, across the entire Star Wars galaxy, and it encompasses strategy, tactics, combat, deception and good old fashioned trash talking. It's an absolute slam dunk of an experience.
]]>Hello youse.
In two days time, from publication of this piece, I'll be filming a board game segment for a BBC TV show, and as ever the question is going to be - “how do we best cover board games in video form?” Further than that, the question is going to be - “how do we do it in a 4-minute segment?” Because while board game coverage on video is common on the internet these days (some might say too common), most of these videos are long and sprawling things. But in two days, I film a piece on the upcoming Star Wars: Rebellion, and it has to be good and short.
]]>Hello youse.
ZOMBICIDE has been hangin' around for some time. There's been ZOMBICIDE and ZOMBICIDE: Zombie Biscuits and ZOMBICIDE: Attack of the Zombies and probably one called ZOMBICIDE: Attack of the Biscuit Zombies Part 2. In this Kickstarter-fuelled era of boardgaming, ZOMBICIDE is the poster child. ZOMBICIDE is the one pulling in the big bucks. But where is ZOMBICIDE now? Well, it's in the Middle Ages, obviously, with the fun and, well, fun ZOMBICIDE: BLACK PLAGUE.
I promise I'll stop writing “ZOMBICIDE” now.
]]>Hello youse.
My name is Rab Florence, and I am here with your March blast of board game news. There's going to be a lot of news over the next few months, because we're moving into the period of the year when news happens all the time. In fact, I don't remember the last time news stopped happening. Wouldn't it be nice to read about the Olds sometimes, instead of this constant News?
Anyway...
MARCH BOARD GAME NEWS
]]>Hello youse.
Shadows of Malice is a bizarre thing. It's like a board game that fell out of time, something that tumbled through a warp rift from the 1970s. But then – no, it's modern enough in places that it can't be something from the past. It's a hybrid, then, of times and styles. But it looks like the kind of thing the kids might have been playing at the start of ET. It has that early D&D feel, that crude-art, high fantasy feel. It certainly feels RPGish. There's a lot of text to read, not BULK-wise maybe, but certainly in terms of spread. There is crucial text on cards, and there are a lot of cards. And it all feels a bit unwieldy but read on read on--
]]>Hello youse.
It's February, and it's time for another blast of board game news. Did you have a good Valentine's Day? Did you play some good board games with your beloved? I hope not. I hope you just had sex instead.
]]>Hello youse.
Well, the cull is underway. Actually, I'm going to capitalise this... Yes, The Cull is underway. I have too many board games, not enough time to play them all, and not enough room to store them all. So some of them have to go. And I thought it might be interesting to document that process here over the months ahead. As this is primarily a column about board game recommendations, perhaps it would be a worthwhile thing to explore why certain games will be leaving my collection. What has happened to these games over time? Is it me or them? Why are they facing The Cull?
]]>Hello youse.
In the first few years of doing this column, I would always do a Game of the Year award thing. It's the kind of thing you're supposed to do at the end of a year, right? You look back over the months and follow your heart to the place where everything was magical for you. There was a time when a game would absolutely stand out over all the rest, and you'd feel like you'd seen enough of the rest to make a confident call on what you thought was “the best”. But times have changed.
]]>Hello youse.
We were all sitting at my kitchen table, and I was laughing so much it hurt. I was in physical pain. Sure, I was a little bit drunk. But me and my pal were absolutely roaring with laughter, and it wasn't just the wine – sometimes wine gets us a little bit melancholy. Believe me on that.
I can't tell you exactly why we were laughing – that's the frustrating thing. But something so completely perfect was happening in a board game, something so clever and surprising and awful and wonderful, that we just couldn't control ourselves. My character in this game had come to life in such a brutally real way that all you could really do was laugh, and laugh a lot.
T.I.M.E. Stories is absolutely fantastic. Let me try to tell you why.
]]>Hello youse.
I'd avoided Elder Sign, because I'd heard that it was a weak game. A dice game drawing on HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (more accurately, a game drawing on Fantasy Flight's other Cthulhu game Arkham Horror), I'd heard that it lacked bite. As much as I love rolling dice, and I DO love rolling dice, I just felt that Elder Sign was a game best left on the shelf. However, last year's expansion “Gates of Arkham” was said to improve the game hugely. I thought I should probably take a good long look, now that the game was being called “the game it always should have been”. So what did I think?
]]>Hello youse.
Oof, it's 2016. We are all so old. I'm almost 40, and so are you. Even if you're 19, believe me, you're almost 40. Did you have a nice Christmas? Did you get any board games? Are you loved? Are you in control of your life? Well, bully for you, pantywaist. Shall we look ahead into 2016 in the world of board games and see what the big news might be?
]]>Hello youse, and Merry Christmas! At dinner, just the other night, the TOMY action game Screwball Scramble was brought out as a post-coffee treat. And a treat is exactly what it was. This wasn't a board gamer's house, and everyone in attendance was an adult. I played it while beautiful people watched, and it felt like something very real.
]]>Hello youse.
Well, they've announced yet another expansion for one of my favourite board games – Talisman. And I want to just talk on Talisman a little bit today and what's important about games like that – particularly as we're just round the corner from Christmas. Talisman isn't the most popular game with board game fans. It's too “”random”, too “light”, too long. But those who love the game – people like me – really love it. And we want it to be expanded forever. And isn't it fascinating that it probably can be?
]]>Hello youse.
Today, RISK. Wait, come back! I'm not – Hey, forget I said RISK. Just – can we – hey, come back! Listen, honestly, friend, I just – YES, IT SAYS RISK ON THE BOX. But listen – please, take your coat off. Please. Give me the benefit of the doubt. Will you give me a chance? I just – look, I shouldn't have started by saying “RISK”. That was stupid. I wish I could change that. But look – THIS IS NOT RISK. I swear to you. This isn't RISK. I swear it.
How can I make you stay? Well. What if I say “STAR WARS”? Ah, there we are...
]]>Hello youse!
It's been weeks of in-depth board game talk on here, digging down into the specifics and mechanics. I thought it might be nice to have a relaxed pre-Christmas chat about the new games on the shelves on the run-up to the Big Day. So, not really board game news, but more of an overview of what's new and interesting in this beautiful gift-buying season.
]]>Sit down. Let me tell you a story.
The game on the table is The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth. It is the beginning of a story. It's a snake uncoiling. It is quick and frightening. There are two people at play, but the play is a fight, and a bloody one.
From start to finish, 34 minutes pass. There is noise – laughter, gasps, roars. There is a thump on the table. Tiny plastic warriors tremble.
This is a Cardboard Children session report.
]]>Hello youse.
Last week I told you I was going to do a session report of the new Games Workshop game The Horus Heresy: Betrayal At Calth. In the process of writing that session report – the first session report I've ever done as part of this column – I realised that I don't really know how to write a session report. And now I've said “session report” about a million times. So today, before I lay my session report upon you next week, an analysis of the mysterious beast we call the board game session report. A million and two now.
]]>Hello youse.
Most of you who read these pages will be aware that the Games Workshop board game Space Hulk is one of my favourite games of all time. In fact, it was re-buying Space Hulk that brought me back into board gaming in a big way. So I've always had a soft spot for Games Workshop's line – in particular, I'm always impressed by how lovingly the stories behind the games are told. Games Workshop's “fluff” is second-to-none, and they've always tried to make sure that every die you roll has a backstory of some real weight. And when it comes to backstory, there's nothing quite like The Horus Heresy, the tale of how the events of Warhammer 40K came to pass.
And now there's a brand new board game about one of the key battles in the time of The Horus Heresy. I'll be covering it in two parts – today, those first impressions.
]]>Hello youse.
When it comes to board games and Christmas (look, shut up, it IS nearly Christmas) I always think about good old HEROQUEST. “Fire of ROFF!” and all that. So I thought it might be good to check out a brand new board game from Mantic that tries to recapture that old HeroQuest feel, right down to the plastic furniture.
READ ON!
]]>Hello youse.
In the run-up to Christmas I'll be banging out reviews of board games old and new, to flush every last penny out of your battered old wallet or purse. I am going to be reaching into your coat pocket, giving you a Fagin smile, and singing “gotta buy a board game or two, boyyyyyy-ho-ho-hoyyyy”. And you know what? I think you're going to like it. This week, I finally get around to SKULL.
]]>Hello youse.
A few years back, there was an obscure little indie game on PC called “Portal”. It was about using portals to solve environmental puzzles, and those of us in the know had an absolute blast with it. It was followed by a sequel, called “Portal 2”, which was also great fun – but too long and with annoying voices. Now, not many people have played these games, but that hasn't stopped Cryptozoic releasing a board game based on this little-known property. Let's take a look at Portal: The Board Game.
]]>Hello youse.
Well, it was Essen Shpeel (that's how you say it). Another big games show, and lots more board game news. So let me just cherry pick a few bits of exciting post-Essen news bites, and then we can knuckle down to weeks and weeks of covering new games that will make a dent in your family's bank account this Christmas. I'm a games man, not a news man. LEAVE ME ALONE, NEWS.
]]>Hello youse.
Magic The Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers is a bit of a mouthful, right? But it's definitely a title worth saying, and definitely a board game worth ordering. I was surprised by how good this one was – let me break it down for you real quick right here in this column today.
]]>Hello youse!
Oof! Just made it under the wire for the September Board Game News update. Honestly, I keep hoping against hope that there will be at least one month where there's no board game news, but it just keeps on coming at this point. Games, games and more games, flowing at us like a cardboard river. And I just can't fight the current. It's too strong! I'm –
]]>Hello youse.
Here's a fun Predator story for you. When I was in my early teens, Predator was on TV late at night. I was over-tired, but I just had to stay up and watch it. About 45 minutes in, I noticed that the jungle had actually started to sprout out of my TV set. My room filled with loops and spirals of jungle foliage, and I could feel a searing heat. I was drenched in sweat, surrounded by weird, psychedelic leaves, and burdened by the terrible notion that something was watching me. I then had a massive seizure. This week we review Legendary Encounters: Predator.
]]>Hello youse. I realised that I've never done a board game think piece. You know what a think piece is, right? It's like – It's a bit of writing about a thing, and it's composed of things that you've thought about that thing. Or something. I mean, I know that sounds like every bit of writing, but think pieces are different. They must be, because people keep writing them. So what would a think piece about board games look like? Welcome to RAB'S BOARD GAME THINK PIECE.
]]>Hello youse.
I love Ancient Egypt stuff. I always have, from way back in the day when I had a subscription for a magazine called “Discovery” at my local corner shop and my mum didn't pick it up in weeks and weeks and it ended up spiralling out of control into a giant bill and we had to avoid the shop for ages and – ANYWAY. Yeah, Egypt. Pyramids. Big gold hats. Mummies. Mad cat things. Dogmen with sticks. It's the best. So here's something else that is also kinda bestish.
]]>Hello youse.
There's a grand old maid across the sea, so the story was recalled to me. And from dawn to dusk you hear her call down in front of the Wailing Wall. But we're here to talk about board games, and I want you to forgive the fact that it's September already, because we're doing the AUGUST BOARD GAME NEWS! Just pretend today is yesterday. How hard can that be?
]]>Hello youse.
Do you like leaning really close to a person and whispering in their ear? So close to them that the heat from your breath makes the fine hair on their neck prickle? Do you like whispering secrets? Do you like it when your lips brush an earlobe and you hear a small catch in someone's throat? Almost a gasp. Almost a sigh.
Then Witness might be the game for you.
]]>Hello youse.
As we run up towards the release of what will probably be the greatest video game of all time, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, I thought we should maybe take a look at a recent release that tries to capture that MGS feel. It's a game called Specter Ops, and it's about an agent sneaking into a facility to complete some objectives while avoiding a group of bad guy weirdos. Sounds about right, yeah? But is it?
]]>Hello youse.
Gen Con Gen Con Gen Con. Gen Con Gen Con Gen Con. As any fool knows, Gencon is the world famous game convention thing, with the Con in Gen Con standing for “Convention” and the Gen in Gen Con standing for I don't know what. Today I want to tell you the stuff from Gen Con that IN MY OPINION is of interest to board game fans.
But first!
]]>Hello youse.
A few weeks back I asked for indie game designers to get in touch, so that I could try to bring some smaller, more interesting games to your attention. Board games are booming right now, but I always feel that one of the best ways to support a scene is to get right down around the foundations of it and scratch around for little nuggets of gold. This week I want to tell you about a little indie card game called Giallo.
]]>Hello youse.
First of all, thanks for the lovely comments after last week's column. You're a lovely bunch. It was very much appreciated. Second of all, it's time for the July board game news. We're in the middle of the BIG BOOM of board gaming, and there's a lot to cover. I've chosen some of the most interesting stuff to tell you about today. Dig in, and get your wallets ready!
]]>Hello youse.
My ma died on Friday night just past, but instead of curling up into a ball and rolling into a hole at the bottom of my garden I'm going to talk to you all a little bit about games, because I love to do that. The death of a parent is a difficult thing to process, but I find that it helps to keep talking and reminiscing. And we've done a lot of reminiscing in this column over the years, so I'd like to do a little bit more of that today, while I'm among friends. I appreciate your patience.
]]>Hello youse.
When I reviewed Legendary Encounters, the Alien deckbuilding game, I was aware that the game system was already well-established as Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game. I liked Legendary Encounters a lot – so much that I called it my game of the year – and promised myself that I would try out the main Legendary line as soon as I could. Well, you know – seasons come and go, and life intrudes, and selfish game designers just won't stop designing new games, so it's taken until now for me to get to Marvel Legendary itself. The upside is that I look at the game in a form that is well-expanded, well-supported, with mountains of content.
]]>Hello youse.
“Sadness: Into The Rays” is an indie board game, with an intended print run of 10. I'm lucky enough to have a copy, and I'd love to show you some pictures of it – but I can't. Right there in the manual, on page three, it says this - “The designer asks that you do not share any images from this game. Your personal copy is yours, and yours alone. You may talk about Sadness, and relate your experiences with Sadness. But please do not share any images of Sadness with anyone else.”
Needless to say, Sadness: Into The Rays is a solitaire game. I review it here today.
]]>Okay, so next week I have a MAJOR REVIEW of a very important indie game. It's not a new release, but it's a historically important one, I think. And before we head off into better coverage of indie/small-print releases, I think it's one we have to cover. Before THAT though, we need to clear the decks a little bit. I realise that there are a number of expansions that I've not covered yet, and they're worth highlighting here. All of them are strong. Very strong.
]]>Hello youse!
It's time for the June board game news. And it's summer! It's actually the summer! I can tell it's the summer because here in Glasgow it has been grey and rainy for weeks. It is absolutely glorious! But at least it's perfect weather for staying indoors to play board games. Or the perfect weather for staying in to, I dunno, whatever it was that Leatherface was doing at the start of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, before those teenagers turned up.
]]>Hello youse.
You move in a circle, and you can only move as far as you can manage. You can lay plans for the future, but you might never get the opportunity to enact them. Your plans will be changed on you. You'll stumble into traps and dead ends that you never knew existed. You will lose, and the loss will often be sudden – everything will collapse in on top of you.
But enough about life. Today we talk about a wonderful board game.
THESEUS: THE DARK ORBIT
]]>Hello youse.
I promise that this will be the last Warhammer or Warhammer 40K related game I cover for a little while. For some reason it feels like there's a Warhammer everything these days. Warhammer board games, Warhammer lunch boxes, a Warhammer lingerie line at Ann Summers. I don't want to fatigue you with all this Warhammer talk, so I'll make sure to cover something a little less Warhammery next week. But what's a guy supposed to do when Warhammers of every shape and size keep flying through his door? ONLY WARHAMMER.
]]>Hello youse.
Do you have any appetite left for another dungeon crawl game? Yeah, I know. It's – yeah. I know. But wait – this one is called SUPER FANTASY: NIGHT OF THE BADLY DEAD. And that suggests a little bit of humour at least, right? It might be something a little bit different at least, huh? We should probably take a look, I suppose. I mean, that's why we're here. I don't mean “that's why we're here” in any true existential sense, I suppose. Do board games even matter at all? Does anything really matter?
Oh god.
]]>When Xenoshyft Onslaught spits you out – because that's what this game does – you're left scratching your head and wondering what on earth you can possibly do to win at this game. You're also full of questions. You're confused about the way certain cards work. Some of the rules in the rulebook are so unclear that you've just had to make a call about what the designers actually meant. Okay, so I think that this Quill Monster thing attacks your first guy then does an additional one damage to the first three guys in front of it. I think. I think. It niggles you. You've just been battered hard and you're not sure if you were battered exactly right.
And yet. And yet. There's something about this game that just gets its teeth and claws deep into you.
]]>Hello youse!
We're off the back of a string of five reviews, so it's time for a NEWS UPDATE. Let's call this the NEWS UPDATE OF MAY, or the MAY NEWS UPDATE. Of board games, obviously. And you might be thinking - “Well, Rab, you just did a news update last month, called the April News Update or something. Is there even more news about daft board games already?” And I'm all like that - “Well, yes.”
]]>Hello youse.
Forbidden Stars is the much-anticipated board game of galactic conquest set in Games Workshop's Warhammer 40K universe. It's a game from Fantasy Flight Games, who used to do these big epic board games that shipped in what we called “coffin boxes”. Twilight Imperium III, Starcraft, Runewars, Descent First Edition – all these games came in big giant boxes, packed full of miniatures. These games launched before the current board game boom, when board gaming was still quite niche, and players were willing to plow through 40-page rulebooks before getting a game on the table.
But things changed. The audience expanded, and board games started to become more streamlined, more simple. The length of time you could expect to play a board game for started to shrink. Fantasy Flight released a Second Edition of Descent, and it was a prime example of how the industry was shifting. It was cleaned-up, stripped down, faster to run through. The rulebooks were improved and slimmed down. Descent Second Edition was a better game, probably, but it was definitely lighter. It had definitely lost a bit of that crunch.
And me? I was waiting for things to tip back a little bit in the other direction. I was waiting for the big, long, deep games to come back – with a little bit of that new-age streamlining in the mix. The perfect mix of the old ways and the new. And the wait, thankfully, is over.
]]>Mate.
Mate. I didnae even know there were that many animals.
Sometimes it's good to look at a board game that has a little bit of an educational slant to it. Board games are great to play with kids, and there's nothing better than busting out something that can broaden their knowledge while they play. And you can broaden your knowledge too. Because, most likely, you're an idiot just like me.
]]>Hello youse.
Do you have the thing you need to get the other thing? If you want to buy an object, you need money. If you want love, you need to have the capacity to love. If you want to watch TV, you need to have a head.
What if the thing you needed to get the other thing had no connection with the thing you lost when the thing you wanted is finally in your hands? What if you had the capacity to love, and so did love, but then could choose to throw away your money or saw your own head off with a bread knife?
This is Elysium.
]]>Hello youse.
In all my years of writing this column, I've never actually properly covered Munchkin. I think that's something I should do, because the game is very very popular. I mean – it's super popular. It's so popular that you can buy about a million different flavours of Munchkin game. There's a Conan one. And an Adventure Time one. And a Penny Arcade one. And a million expansions. And sweatshirts. And spin-off games. It's a whole big corner of the board game industry on its own.
I decided I'd give it a proper chance, and bought one with a flavour I liked. So, today – Munchkin: Axe Cop.
]]>Hello youse.
You might remember my review of the skirmish game for Imperial Assault. If you don't, you can read it right now by simply pushing your finger down on the button on your mouse while pointing the arrow on your screen at this link.
I want to revisit the game now, one month later, because I've been digging much deeper into the skirmish game, and I have gone ALL IN with every expansion. Yeah, like, I bought everything. I went all in, just for you! Well, and me. For me too.
]]>Hello youse.
I've been trying to hit you with a board game news column every month, but I keep forgetting. What a terrible news guy! I just can't catch a break, because games keep coming out. I mean – they keep coming out, all the time. They never stop coming out. Every single week, new games come out. I was supposed to do a second part of that X-COM review, remember that? Still haven't got round to it. Why? Because games just keep coming out. Help me.
Help me.
]]>Hello youse.
Days after an excellent Wrestlemania, is it not a great time to review a brilliant little wrestling dice game? YES! YES! YES! Let's take a look at LUCHADOR: MEXICAN WRESTLING DICE!
]]>“All great powers reunify after long periods of division, wane and break up after long periods of unification.”
Two years ago, in this very column, I wrote this:
“My dream is to design a Romance of the Three Kingdoms board game. What’s YOUR dream design?”
Today I review a Three Kingdoms board game. It's called “Three Kingdoms Redux”, it's by two first-time game designers, and I am completely stunned.
]]>Hello youse.
Star Wars: Imperial Assault is a giant box of board game stuff that lets you play two different types of game. One of them is a big campaign thing, with side-missions and a developing story. The other is a skirmish game, where you fling lots of little plastic Star Wars toys on a board, roll lots of dice, and try to come out on top. A campaign-based game is a difficult thing to review. Sure, I could just cover the mechanics and the first few missions, but often problems in a campaign game's structure only become clear as things develop. The skirmish game is different. I can cover that right now.
And I will.
]]>Hello youse.
It's always nice to be able to recommend a great new family game, and that's exactly what Loony Quest is. 2-5 players can sit down to this and the box says the game is for players 8-years-old and up – but I think that kids a few years younger could easily play, as long as they don't stress out too much about failure. Because you gonna fail a LOT in this little firecracker. It's a game about drawing lines and circles and dots to complete quests, and it's great, great fun.
]]>Hello youse.
Running a live session of D&D Fifth Edition is far easier than you'd think. First of all, you need an audience of nice people – we have plenty of those in Glasgow. Then you need some good, funny players. I had those too, all of them friends of mine, all of them involved in the TV comedy game in some capacity. Then you need Dungeons & Dragons itself. I had the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Monster Manual behind my DM screen. Oh, and I also had the new Dungeon Master's Screen.
]]>Hello youse.
Where would we be without Dungeons & Dragons? A few days ago I ran a live session of 5th Edition D&D at Glasgow Film Festival, and it was a really fun experience. I'll be talking about that session in some detail next week when I review 5th Edition itself, but let's spend this week just reminiscing about Dungeons & Dragons, and thinking about everything that Dungeons & Dragons means to people like us.
And by “people like us” I mean people who like Dungeons. And Dragons.
]]>Hello youse.
Last week someone on Twitter said to me “Brother, beloved brother, God of Games, you have been recommending a lot of very expensive board games recently,” or words to that effect. And I was all like - “Have I?” And then I checked and I kinda have been. So this week I want to quickly tell you about two inexpensive little games, one old and one new, that I think are great games for the price. Shall we start with the new one?
]]>Hello youse.
Part 2 of my XCOM: The Board Game coverage will have to wait. I'm yet to sufficiently explore the different player counts. It's such an interesting game. You can read the first part of my review here, if you missed it. To fill in, I'm going to tell you about a fun new game called Arcadia Quest.
]]>Hello youse. With XCOM being a game that is significant in the history of PC gaming, I thought I would do something a bit different with my coverage of XCOM: The Board Game on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Often, when a board game supports solitaire play, I'm asked how well the single-player aspect works. And I'm often unable to answer, because I rarely play board games alone. But with XCOM, I thought I would make an effort. The PC game series is a real single-player, one-mind-against-the-machine experience. How does the board game stack up?
]]>Hello youse!
Board gaming is booming. Sales are up, and climbing. Kickstarters are launching every week. Board game coverage is blossoming, and people are earning a living talking about these things. Wil Wheaton is rolling in all that Tabletop cash. The Dice Tower (the best board game coverage on the internet) is expanding and being supported by its viewers. The big publishers are launching big games based on big intellectual properties and making big, big money. It is a golden, perfect time for board gaming. We are in the sunshine. But where do we go from here? Let's talk about the state of board gaming, now, in 2015.
]]>Hello youse.
Sometimes you look at a board game's box and you say to yourself “I am never going to roar and pump my fist in the face of my enemies playing this thing.” Some games look like fist pumpers, and some just don't. Lords of Vegas doesn't look like a fist pumper at all. It's all BUILD CASINOS and EXPAND YOUR INFLUENCE and MAKE MONEY. Where exactly in all of that are you going to pump a fist?
]]>Hello youse.
I'm here to tell you about what I think is the best game released in 2014. We will call this column the “GAME OF THE YEAR 2014” column, to get that idea across. A good idea, I think. Anyway – this was a game I played very late in 2014, but it made a huge first impression on me. And then I played it again, in a different way, and I was BLOWN CLEAN OUT OF MY BOOTS. At this point, there is no doubt in my mind – this is the best new game I played in 2014. And that game's name?
]]>Hello youse.
I have no idea what happens at the end of Trading Places. It's one of my favourite films, for sure. I've seen it about 50 times, easily. But I have no idea what is going on at the end. I'm not talking about the stuff with the gorilla – I understand what's happening there. I'm talking about the business at the stock market place with all the shouting and people waving things in the air. And Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd are all like - “BUY BUY BUY” and then they're all like “SELL SELL SELL”. And I have NO idea what's happening because it makes no sense. Anyway, a board game.
]]>Hello youse.
It's the end of the year, and so I want to take a page to reflect upon the games we've seen in 2014. So many of them! Too many! The easiest way to do it would be by using some kind of list, right? Right? RIGHT.
]]>Hello youse.
Have you ever seen the major motion picture “Alien”? Or it's incredible sequel “Aliens”? Or it's disgraceful third film “Alien 3”? Or that other one, where the thing gets sucked out of the thing and the swimming and so on and so forth? Or the one they fight the other type of aliens out of the alien film about the alien who hunts the soldiers? Well, if you've seen any of them, you'll probably enjoy playing this game about wee aliens. It's called The Awful Green Things From Outer Space.
]]>Dobble comes in a little tin. It's the kind of little tin that you imagine soldiers might have used during one of the great wars to keep things dry. Like cigarettes and love letters. It's the kind of tin they'd use to house an expensive pate in a French delicatessen. It would easily fit in a bedside drawer or sit on a mantelpiece. It would fit anywhere, in any home, and it really should.
]]>Hello youse.
As we build up to Christmas, and all that Christmas entails (tinsel, trees, supernatural gift-bearing “men”, family fights) it's time to take another look at the current board game scene to see what the news is. It's been two months since I let you all know what's going down right now in a news-style fashion, and you know what? LOADS IS GOING DOWN.
]]>Hello youse.
Days of Wonder always make beautiful-looking board games. From Ticket to Ride to Small World to the out-of-print classic Colosseum, they're all beautiful and all quite light. Great games to play with your family. Entry level. Lovely.
Well, now Days of Wonder are getting a little bit heavier, with the gorgeous Five Tribes: The Djinns of Nagala.
]]>Hello youse.
This past week, the soon-to-be-extinct human race of universe 34876.5 landed a robotic craft on a comet. To its great credit, that civilisation is fascinated by space exploration, despite the fact that extinction will occur long before any contact with other civilisations with occur. That civilisation is also fascinated by games, and designs many games based around space exploration. One of these games is called “GRAVWELL”.
]]>Hello youse.
I've been very busy with the release of my horror feature film (on Vimeo On Demand and 10% of every rental or sale to women's aid charities – do excuse the plug) but I've still had time to play some board games.
Shall we enter the loop?
]]>It's impossible, at this stage in the game, to talk about how Richard Garfield's King Of New York shapes up in comparison to his modern classic King Of Tokyo. That comparison just can't be made yet – not properly. King Of Tokyo is a game I have played maybe a hundred times, and I would happily play it again right now if I -
Sorry, back. I was playing King Of Tokyo. See, that is a great game. And a game that lasts. A game that deserves to be on the forever shelf. So when we talk about King Of New York, as we do today, we must be careful with our first impressions. Because time, in this case, will tell.
]]>Okay, I will show some mercy this week and tell you about a game that isn't very expensive and is tiny in size. Board games often suffer from being TOO DEAR and TOO BLOOMIN' BIG, so it's nice to be able to recommend something that is neither. It's a game that uses cards to tell the story of a band of adventurers raiding a dungeon. It is called, therefore, ADVENTURER BAND STORY. No, sorry. Actually it's DUNGEON RAIDERS.
]]>"Oh, Rab!
"Please don't recommend another game! My wallet can't take it! And particularly not a game that is kinda specific to my PC gamer interests!
“Please, Rab! Don't!”
Eat it, punk.
]]>Hello youse.
I'm going to try to do a news-style update once a month, to try to keep you all up to date with what's coming down the line in the wide world of board gaming. It is endless. Games upon games and expansions upon expansions to those games upon games. It is eternal, and if we don't step out once every four weeks or so to take stock of what's happening, we'll get ourselves in an awful state. Read on.
]]>Hello youse.
You all know how I feel about the Spartacus board game. It came in at number one on my list of the 50 Best Games Of All Time. (It's worth mentioning that Cosmic Encounter was so high on the list it hovered ABOVE the top spot, as the best board game of all time.) Now, Spartacus was based on a TV show that I've never watched. Regardless, it was a slam dunk from the first play.
Now comes Sons of Anarchy: Men of Mayhem. Another board game from the same company who brought us Spartacus. Another game based on a show that I've never seen. Can Gale Force Nine do it again?
]]>
.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "The Last Of Us Part II ידרוש חשבון PSN כדי לשחק במחשב, מה שהופך אותו לבלתי ניתן לשחק בלמעלה מ")
