Card Game Review - Forceball

I have to admit that, by and large, I hate games about sports. I guess the way I see it, if you want to play a game that simulates baseball, go outside and play baseball. The only exception is when the sport I'm playing is A) exciting and potentially dangerous, and B) not real. Then I don't mind them in a game so much.In the case of Forceball, in fact, I like the game a whole hell of a lot. It's a card game consisting of exactly 55 cards and some...

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Board Game Review - Chaotic Connections

I have said over and over that I will review anything that anyone sends me. And it's true, because it's almost always a win-win for me. If they're really fun games, I get to play really fun games, which is great all by itself. If they're mediocre games, well, at least I have review fodder and something I can trade for something I might actually enjoy. And if they're just plain awful - well, then I get to tell you how much they're like ugly babies...

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Board Game Review - Canal Mania

Here's yet another review from my old man. It's starting to become a habit. It's a good thing his last name is also Drake, or I would have to rename the site.First off, just to get this off my chest, how did anyone imagine that a game with the title “Canal Mania” would sell? From the title you’d think it was in the same genre as “Party Mania” or “Monkey Mania.” May I forever be exempted from playing games with the word “Mania” in their title! ...

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Internet TV Review - The Booth at the End

There are not very many good things about having your house catch fire. Really, I cannot recommend it to anyone at all. However, through a convoluted series of coincidental annoyances, I discovered something that is absolutely awesome - Hulu.Of course, saying that I discovered Hulu is a little like saying that Christopher Columbus discovered America (how do you discover a place that other people have already visited, and that is already occupied...

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General Gaming Postulation - Gamers or Wargamers

My old man continues to bail me out, this time with an interesting discussion regarding the nature and the various flavors of gamers. Personally, I prefer cookies n' cream, but at the same time, I try not to lick gamers, unless they are very attractive females, and even then my wife strongly disapproves. But when they do taste like cookies n' cream, then either they're absolute keepers, or they need to wash their hands. Oh, yeah, the article.There are gamers, . . . and then there are wargamers.I’m a wargamer heart and soul, both by nature and nurture....

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Board Game Review - Fealty

After the fact edit: I just realized that I repeatedly mention cardboard squares in this review, and the main playing pieces are, in fact, circles. Man, am I embarrassed. Especially because there's a picture, right there, with a picture of cardboard circles. Imagine my discomposure.I recently obtained a copy of a game called Fealty. It is not, as you may have supposed, a game where you have to work for other people in exchange for pretty much nothing...

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Board Game Review - Manhattan Project

Minion Games had a decidedly rough start. Where a lot of new game companies lead off with a smash hit, they started out with four games, of which two were decent, one was stupid, and one was an absolute travesty. Not to mention the fact that their cards literally fell apart. Basically, the initial offering did not impress.But they're not quitters over there at Minion, and things are really starting to come together. They've had some good games come...

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Expansion Review - Thunderstone: Heart of Doom

It's time for another review from the guy they called Mister Drake before they called me Mister Drake, by which I mean my dad. This was a big help tonight, because I didn't have anything ready at all, and since I've already spent most of the night hooking up my new computer, I probably wouldn't have had anything, anyway.If you haven’t had a good look at what comes in the new Thunderstone expansion, Heart of Doom, I’d say you’re in for a pleasant...

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Rip-off Game Review - Haunted Village

My wife used to teach college history to freshmen students, and she learned that if there's one thing college freshmen do very badly and very often, it's cheat. She would regularly read a paper from a student she knew damned well was incapable of stringing four words together coherently, and the paper would be brilliant. These stupid college kids were apparently unaware that the internet could be used for more than Facebook and porn, because my wife would almost always find their papers published somewhere online, and then the student would get...

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Board Game Review - EVO

History can show us countless examples of games used as propaganda, like when Careers taught me that if I wanted to get ahead, I needed to let my boss win at golf. Usually these are amusing or at least innocuous, but sometimes they are downright perfidious. Take, for example, EVO.This reprint appears to be a fun, confrontational game about saving dinosaurs during an era of rapid climate change. But it is actually a horrible attempt to brainwash our...

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Board Game Review - Flash Duel

A long time ago, in a galaxy - well, actually, in this galaxy. And really, not that long ago. Like maybe a year or two. OK, so not all that long ago in our galaxy, Dave Sirlin started a game company to publish a bunch of games simulating fighting video games. The first of these games was called Flash Duel, and it was pretty damned cool. It was not original, or anything, because it was basically Reiner Knizia's En Garde with special powers, but it was better than that game and quite a bit more fun. It also came in a semi-crappy wooden box and had...

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Card Game Review - Tschak

This is not a review of a Russian game. I just thought I would get that out of the way right now, because it very well could be, if you just look at the name. But in this case, 'Tschak' is not a translated word from a foreign language. In this case, 'Tschak' means roughly the same thing as 'Shnick' or 'Fkow' or maybe even 'Kpam'. From Webster's Totally Not Real Dictionary:Tshcak (not really a word, vt)1. The sound one hears when one cuts off a monster's...

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