Crazy Game Review - Bugs & Co

If you're going to play games with kids, they should be educational games. Everyone knows that. No, the kids might not have as much fun as if you just played a fun game, but it's really important that your children learn things. Way more important than having fun.But if you can make them have fun and fool them into learning, that's the best of both worlds. That's why Bruno Faidutti and some other people made Bugs & Co. They wanted kids to learn...

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Solo Game Review - Toe-to-Toe Nu'klr Combat with the Rooskies

I like to play games with other people. That sounds like it should go without saying, but I bring it up because if I'm getting out cards and dice and cardboard, I do not generally plan to use those things to play with myself.But sometimes it can be hard to find someone to play with me. You know, it's late, the wife is in bed, and I am overcome by a desire to play a game. I don't want to wake her up, so instead I just take care of it myself. It's...

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CCG Review - A Game of Thrones

I first discovered A Game of Thrones in 2004, when my wife bought the book for me as a Christmas present. I had never even heard of it before that Christmas morning, but I discovered pretty quickly that I had been missing one of the best fantasy epics ever written. You can have Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks and Michael Moorcock. The Xanth stories barely held my interest, maybe because they seem like they were written for an audience composed mostly...

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Illness Review - Strep Throat

I always thought strep throat was something you only got when you were in grade school. You know, from the nasty kid whose mom never washes him and who has to get to her job at the blowjob factory so she never lets him miss school even if he did just blow a manatee-size wad of green goo out his left nostril. That kid goes to school, and you go to school, and the next thing you know, your throat is swollen to three times normal size and you can't get out of bed for two days straight.Well, it turns out, you can get that when you're a grown man. I...

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Bluffing Game Review - Skull & Roses

I don't play a whole lot of bluffing games. They're not usually my bag. I tend to have more fun playing games where I move plastic around a board and then people die. I'm not exclusive, or anything - I can enjoy party games and clever German games, too. But bluffing games have never really been my go-to genre.Skull & Roses is a bluffing game. In fact, that's about all there is to the game. You basically try to sucker everyone else into grabbing...

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Quick Announcement - Game Giveaway

Not me, you greedy assholes! I already gave most of my games away, just to clean my office.No, BoardGameinfo is giving away free games. Right now they're giving away Those Pesky Humans, which is fun, and totally worth the one post it will cost you to enter. They're going to be doing more, too.I don't run a news site, or anything, so don't count on me to do this a lot. It's more like a special favor.Anyway, go check it out:http://www.boardgameinfo.c...

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Online CCG Review - Shadow Era

I don't have an iPad. I want one real bad, and I'm saving up for it. I even took a second job so I could afford it. And I want an iPad because all the cool games are on there. Yes, I'm a little shallow.So when my friend called me a few weeks back and mentioned this great game he was playing on his iPhone, I got all grumbly. But then he told me that you can also play it online, and so I checked it out, and was almost immediately hooked.The game is...

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Card Game Review - Pirate Fluxx

In a market full of silly card games, Fluxx is the standout leader. The goal of the game is to complete the goal. The rules of the game are that you follow the rules. The goal continually changes, and the rules continually change, and it's goofy and fun and occasionally ridiculous.It also has more than a half-dozen expansions. There's Martian Fluxx and Zombie Fluxx, Eco Fluxx and Monty Python Fluxx. There's even Stoner Fluxx, though that game does...

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Fighting Game Review - BattleCON

I typically review games that are for sale. Sometimes I review games that are not for sale, because they've been out of print for ten years, and that's because I get hard up for review material and have to resort to reviewing whatever I just got in a trade that week. So it's a special treat to get to review a game that isn't even out yet.I grant you that reviewing a game that doesn't exist yet sounds like one hell of a challenge. But here's how it...

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Board Game Review - Zombie Survival

There's a game company that prides itself on having the highest production values on the market. Their games come with plastic miniatures, fully illustrated rulebooks, and the best art money can buy. Their rules are finely tuned and thoroughly tested, and the games that result from this dedication to quality are some of the best you can buy.Twilight Creations is not that game company.I have played a lot of games from Twilight Creations. They're almost...

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Card Game Review - Omen: A Reign of War

War is awesome. Not real war - that's kind of messy and can lead to indigestion and potentially lead poisoning, unless your enemies are using bullets that don't contain lead, in which case you get brass poisoning or some other kind of poisoning that shows exactly how little I know about how bullets are made.But everything about war that's not actual war is pretty much kick-ass. Sergeant Rock, Haunted Tank, Guns of Navarone, Dirty Dozen, Band of Brothers,...

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Expansion Review - Defenders of the Realm Dragon Expansion

The funny thing about expansions is that while I love to get them, and I love to play them, I don't really like reviewing them all that much. Usually, it's not hard to tell if you want the expansion - if you like the base game, the expansion is usually a pretty obvious choice. If not, there's no reason to throw good money after bad, unless by 'bad' you mean 'topless dancers.'On the other hand, sometimes (as in the case of the Dragon Expansion for...

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Browser Game Review - Gemcraft Labyrinth

I have a problem. I cannot quit playing Gemcraft Labyrinth.It would be one thing if I were addicted to a 60 dollar console game with immersive graphics and a deep storyline. It would be completely understandable if I were hooked on some mass-market MMO and couldn't stop raiding every night. But it's seriously embarrassing to be unable to stop playing a free game on the Internet.OK, it's not entirely free. You can play Gemcraft Labyrinth for...

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Board Game Review - Axis & Allies

I miss the 80s. The clothes were cool - when even chicks wear ties, people just tend to be dressing better. The music was great - kick-ass metal, great Europop, U2, and The Alarm were ruling the airwaves, and it was good. And we expected our games to take a while to finish.Now we complain about games that take longer than an hour (well, some people do. Not me. But some people). I know of entire game groups who won't touch anything they can't finish...

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