Card Game Review - Souvlaki Wars

The other day, my wife called me and told me I just got a package from Athens. I thought she meant the Athens that's in Texas, because I live in Texas and couldn't really figure out why I would be getting mail from Greece.I was wrong. It was from Greece, and it contained a card game about running a fast-food restaurant. Apparently, in a nation where people are lighting themselves on fire because it's cheaper than paying for a cremation, there's still...

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TCG Review - Redakai

In the comments of my last post, a reader asked if I would review Radekai, and mentioned that it was available on close-out at Target. Since I love to give people what they want (as long as it involves me talking about games), I went out this morning and bought about 20 bucks worth of this game. I played it, and it was very bad, and so I decided to take my revenge the only way I know how - by saying something bad about it on the Internet.I was pretty...

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Announcement - Shopping Spree

When I started writing reviews more than ten years ago, I did it for one completely selfish reason - free games. Trade an hour of playing and an hour of writing for a 60-dollar board game, and you're coming out ahead (this equation breaks down when you review a 20-dollar game, by the way). Over the years, I built up an enormous library of games, and the games I couldn't get as review copies, I worked trades or (far more often) just lived without.I still really do like getting free games. That hasn't changed, and I doubt it ever will. There's something...

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Card Game Review - Slapshot

I've said before that I don't tend to be a big fan of sports games. If I want to play a game that feels just like playing baseball, I'll go outside and play baseball. If you're looking to recreate the theme of swinging a bat and throwing a ball, it's hard to beat actually swinging a bat and throwing a ball (of course, if you're doing both of those things at the same time, someone is very likely to get hurt, which is one favorable point for enjoying...

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Contest - Minion Games

It's been a long time since I ran a contest. This is primarily because I don't really have anything to give away, but it's also because I hate dealing with postage. It's a pain in the ass, really, and it's easier if I just blow it off and wait for free games to show up so I can write about them instead of actually buying them like normal people.But last night, I got an offer that I just couldn't refuse. Well, I suppose I could refuse it. All I had to do was go, 'I have decided to refuse your offer.' So I guess it's more accurate to say I decided...

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Expansion Review - New Summoner Wars Decks

If you're enough of a nerd, you probably know of the existence of the cable program 'Attack of the Show'. It's a nerd thing where they look at nerd stuff and pretend it's all really cool, which it actually is, but nobody but nerds accepts that fact at face value, and I have a hard time believing the super-hot dame on that show is actually a huge fan of Skyrim. But there is one part of the show that's very believable, and it's the part where that...

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Board Game Review - Lords of Waterdeep

If you were to tell me that Wizards of the Coast was going to make a D&D game about ruling the city of Waterdeep, I would not have been surprised. But if you told me that game was going to be a worker-placement Euro-style game, I would have laughed at you and told you that you were insane. A dry Euro game can't be a D&D game! Euros are only supposed to be about farming and making recipes and delivering the mail! The granddaddy of dungeon...

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Special Post - Dungeon Crawls

A reader recently asked me which were my favorite dungeon crawl games. Since dungeon crawls are my absolute favorite kinds of games, I felt qualified to talk far more than was necessary, and it got so long, I started thinking, 'Why don't I just write a whole thing, and get out of a review for one day?' And then, since I had pneumonia Friday and didn't write anything anyway, I remembered that I had one to make up, so this seemed like the perfect time.Before I get started, I should probably clarify what I mean when I say 'dungeon crawl'. This is...

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Card Game Review - Jab

My kids like to play a game called ERS. I have no idea what that stands for. Maybe Emergency Room Services. That would make sense, because when my kids play it, the game often ends in injuries. They have repeatedly attempted to get me to play with them, but I have generally avoided it based on the fact that I do not want to play a game where my kids will beat me. And I don't mean they will win; I mean they will physically assault me, because ERS...

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Story Game Review - A Penny For My Thoughts

I played an incredibly weird game this weekend. It was really cool, but man, was it a trip. It was called Kick the Can, and I think it was just invented by kids who couldn't afford a soccer ball, so they played with garbage.I also played A Penny For My Thoughts, which is also weird and cool. But unlike Kick the Can, there's virtually no physical activity of any kind. This makes it perfect for fat people and those unfortunates who have been stapled...

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Expansion Review - Rallyman DIRT

Last week, I reviewed Rallyman, and some people took offense to me not liking it because rally racing is kind of a solo sport. One guy even asked why I expected it to be anything else. In reply, I did not expect it to be anything else, I just thought it was not much fun to play a solo race game. By the same token, if someone makes a game about washing the dishes or picking dog poop out of tall grass, I will probably not give it a particularly enthusiastic...

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Board Game Review - Dragon Valley

Some games are just not born sexy. Life is not fair. For instance, I was not born sexy. It took me years of hard work to get that way, and now that I am officially over the hill, I am once again not the least bit sexy. That might explain why I am so bitter and angry. It might also explain why my credit card statements shows thousands of dollars billed to massage parlors.Anyway, games. Not sexy, or sexy. Dragon Valley - not sexy. But like me, Dragon...

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RPG Review - Bulldogs!

I love sci-fi RPGs, especially if they're high-energy and campy. Give me Star Wars over Traveler, for instance. I love space dogfights, but those would just be sort of drab in real life, as two ships who are too far apart to see each other fire missiles across space and activate countermeasures. I want screaming Tie Fighters, even though you couldn't actually hear them in space.So Bulldogs! is exactly my brand of sci-fi RPG. There are a bunch of...

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