Card Game Review - Swat

You know, it has been too long since I beat the hell out of a crappy game. Plus I had a very bad day. I think it's time I reviewed Swat. The game actually has an exclamation mark after the title, but that irritates me, so I'm leaving it off out of sheer disrespect.Swat sucks. I kind of wish that was all I needed to write, and then people would just go, 'yeah, that makes sense,' and not buy it. But a little justification is probably required to make...

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Board Game Review - Cyclades

Ancient Greeks had it really rough. For one thing, no pants. I know the Mediterranean is supposed to be mild, but sooner or later, it's got to get cold enough to make you wish you had some insulation on the ol' man gear. And if the fact that all the men had to wear skirts wasn't bad enough, they couldn't do a damned thing without getting permission from a whole panoply of tempermental deities.You can see all the unpleasant crap Greeks had to put...

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Board Game Review - Panzer General Allied Assault

I like video games, and I like board games, so it seems obvious to me that I should enjoy a board game based on a video game. Unfortunately, board games based on video games tend to be in roughly the same category as video games based on movies. I like to call that category 'sucky,' though there may be a better term for it (though that term probably involves the use of profanity).This isn't always true, of course. Starcraft, Doom, World of Warcraft...

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Board Game Review - Vegas Showdown

I always wanted to own a hotel in Vegas. It would be totally awesome. The back rooms would be for rent, but you would have to be in some sort of organized crime to use them. The top two floors would be reserved solely for people who were hiring hookers. And every slot machine - and I mean every single one - would be rigged to never pay out more than a dollar at a time. I would be rich, at least until the gambling commission, the FBI or the vice squad...

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Phone Game Review - Uni War

I don't review cell phone games. I have too much self-respect to review a game you play on a screen smaller than the palm of my hand, and that only costs me five bucks. Besides, the only reason you play cell phone games is because you're either waiting for the bus or killing time at a PTA meeting.But by the same token, I've been complaining for years - since I got my first cell phone - that the games on a phone simply fail to take advantage of the...

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Announcement - Cthulhu Patrol

Late last year, I got all excited about a Print and Play game at BGG called Patrol: Lost. It's a game where some good guys try to get to the end of a bunch of random tiles while some bad guys try to kill them. It doesn't have a theme, just some rules, but several people have created little theme sets for the game, including dungeons, space battles, and even one that recreates the streets of Mogadishu from Blackhawk Down.I decided I would try my hand...

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Event Review - Botanical Gardens

Want to know a good way to feel older? Celebrate a 14th birthday... for your daughter. I can't decide whether to buy a shotgun or a case of Just For Men.For her birthday, my daughter decided to drag her family and three of her friends to the botanical gardens, giving me an excellent opportunity to walk around a huge, beautiful garden on a gorgeous spring day in the company of a quartet of giggling pubescent girls. The party element was interesting, but I really want to persuade you to visit some botanical gardens, so I'm going to focus on that.Nearly...

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Illness

I know it's been like a week since I last wrote anything here. And I know the header says, 'three times a week.' And I'm usually all over that, and I usually do have three reviews a week. But I'm sick.Saturday I had a great review ready to write about the botanical gardens. It was going to be really awesome. But then Sunday I got sick, and I've been pretty much laid up until just about now. If I can get it written tonight, I'll chuck it up here, but more likely, you'll get it tomorrow.Sorry about the involuntary bed rest. Just be glad I didn't...

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Board Game Review - Shadow Hunters

Many of you may have played Werewolf, that old high-school party game where nobody knows who is the bad guy and who is the good guy and you have to try to kill the other team before you get discovered and eaten. If you have, you probably know it's about as relevant for an adult as Duck Duck Goose. There's nothing that says 'grown-up party' like sitting around a table with your eyes closed and then making wild, uninformed accusations about everyone...

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Card Game Review - Myth: Pantheons

Those of us who play lots of games where we can complain about the art and debate the soundness of the mechanics tend to forget that there are a whole hell of a lot of people who play games. There are bridge teams, poker nights, chess clubs and backgammon associations, and the odds are pretty good that most of the people reading this have little to do with any of those 'regular' gamers. Heck, those people don't even consider themselves gamers, even...

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Betting Game Review - Cornucopia

Before I kick off this review, allow me to throw out a reminder about Drake's Tales. I've had almost no stories come in so far, and I'm feeling desperately unloved. Go read about it, then send me an email and tell me a story.Lots of people will tell you that you're not supposed to make assumptions about a game based on the box. It's kind of like that thing about the book - you can't tell a book out of water if you make it drink, or something like...

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