Storytelling Game Review - Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple

Lately, I've become fascinated with cooperative storytelling games. I've always had a soft spot for roleplaying, but some part of me has always thought it was not fair that one guy had to do endless hours of work, and everyone else just has to show up and ruin everything that first guy created. Since I'm usually that one guy, and since it's hard to keep coming up with stuff to feed those ungrateful louts who shoot all my bad guys before they...

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Board Game Review - Flash Point

When I was a kid and my parents were half-hippies (incidentally, nearly every parent whose kids were born in the 70s was at least half hippie, especially if they were academics like my old man), we had a game called The Un Game. It was a game you played where nobody won and there was no competition. It was dumber than goat cheese, but it did highlight an important point about games - people don't really like losing. I could have told my parents this...

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Board Game Review - Rallyman

I really like racing games, but there are just not enough of them that are awesome. There are some that are very smart games, but they feel about as action-packed as a geriatric bowel movement. Then there are fast-paced romps where you have less control than a horse on roller skates. It's hard to find one that hits that sweet spot of being intellectually stimulating and high-octane kick-ass. So far, I've found exactly two.Rallyman is not one of those...

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Card Game Review - Oz Fluxx

It is becoming increasingly difficult to come up with new things to say about updated versions of Fluxx. It seems that once or twice a year, Looney Labs comes out with a new kind of Fluxx that is compatible with all the previous versions. Whether it's Martian Fluxx, Stoner Fluxx, or Increasingly Irrelevant Fluxx, Looney Labs now has more members in the Fluxx family than Angelina Jolie has children (I am actually guessing - I have no idea how many...

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Card Game Review - Eminent Domain

I get new games all the time. It's the upside to writing game reviews. In fact, the only two upsides to the whole gig are the free games, and the ability to write off-color humor. But since the end of last year, I've been waiting to find a truly awesome game, one that got me so excited that I want to play it over and over, and not just keep it in a closet until I run out of space and donate it to the Red Cross or Amnesty International or some other...

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Board Game Review - Zpocalypse

There sure are a lot of games these days with zombies in them. You can't swing an undead cat without hitting one. Some of them don't even need zombies, they're just in there because zombies are the new Care Bears. Or unicorns. Or something else really sweet and loveable that is a merchandising gold mine.Unfortunately, most of those games kind of suck, or are at least less awesome than they should be. I mean, zombies are pretty cool, in that they...

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Book Series Review - Mistborn Trilogy

Before I start this review, I want to put this right out there - this is not a filler. I do have games now. I know, last week was all about TV shows, and while I had some good stuff in there, it wasn't games because I was out of games. But now I do have games I could write about, I'm just not writing about them because I just read these books and they are so freaking awesome that I think I will explode if I don't tell someone how freaking awesome...

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War Game Review - Russia Besieged

My favorite (and only) guest reviewer has once again stepped up to help me out. In yet one more display of why my old man is the coolest ever, my dad has written a review that will get me out of having to write again. I love that. So here you go, the other Mister Drake.Russia Besieged: A Lot of Potential, Waiting for the Final Verdict The Russian Campaign is iconic. It was one of those games that was a classic in an incredibly short time. Most of...

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Storytelling Game Review - Happy Birthday Robot

Here's a story about Robot:Robot loves to play Mahjongg and cheat, but plays the strip variety.Robot plays poorly because he can't stop watching strippers.Robot lost his pants and was nude, but he didn't really care.Robot had no real genitals, you see, and so was not ashamed.Robot had neuticles, which made strippers scream and run like hell for the nearest exit.This made Robot very sad, and he ran away, committing a homicidal rampage.When the police...

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TV Review - Black Books

I've always kind of wanted to own a book store. I would sit in the back, appraising rare and cool books, and talk down to people who knew less than I did. My book store would be dark and a little cramped, with a layout a little bit like a hedge maze, and there would be stacks of stuff where you could trip and be buried under an avalanche of bad James Patterson thrillers.I think that's why I love Black Books so much. It's a British comedy about possibly the worst bookstore in England. The title character, Bernard Black, is a depressing shut-in and...

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TV Review - Archer

When I first set out to do a week of TV reviews, I was only planning on reviewing shows where you could find the entire run on Netflix. For that to happen, though, it has to be a show that's off the air, and I'm watching some pretty awesome TV right now. Plus I want to highlight some kick-ass old shows that you may not have known about, so telling you to watch Battlestar Galactica is probably a waste of digital breath on a site devoted to geeks.So...

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TV Show Review - Day Break

There are times when I want to watch a show about the characters, where I'm thinking about what motivates these people and why they do what they do and how they interact with each other and, if it's on HBO, which ones will show me their boobs before the credits roll. But sometimes I just want to see a cool story with lots of guns and punches.Day Break is firmly in that second category, an exciting thriller of a TV show that gives me just about everything...

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Announcement - Next Week's Menu

Burning Down My House was a crappy enough game that I was really hoping there would not be an expansion. But when the fire took out all my games, it also took out my cushion - the pile of games that I had in reserve, giving me a few weeks of time where I wasn't desperate for a box of stuff just so I would have something to write about. And now I'm out. It's not like I have games I haven't played yet, either - I'm completely out (OK, I do have a pile of RPGs, but it's going to be a while before I can finish reading one).So to buy myself a little...

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