Card Game Review - Revolver

I think timewaster games are a sad commentary on society. When you can put a game on your phone whose sole purpose is to distract you from the fact that you are doing absolutely nothing whatsoever, and then play it while you wait at the DMV instead of reading a book or something - well, that obviously means something bad. What that might be, I don't know, but it can't be good.But not everyone agrees with me. In fact, I don't even agree with me, because...

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Card Game Review - Tooth & Nail: Factions

It seems odd to me to title a game with a colon in it. Expansions do it all the time, but when Small Box Games calls their game Tooth & Nail: Factions, it sounds like there's another Tooth & Nail out there, maybe Tooth & Nail: Clippings or Tooth & Nail: and Hair. But nope, this is the base game. Of course, it's no stranger than Vampire: The Masquerade (which begs a similar question - is there a Vampire: The Night Out At The Movies...

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Board Game Review - Monopoly Millionaire

I know that in some circles, it's offensive to say you like Monopoly. It's like walking into a Baptist church and saying you have a thing for naked sheep. But I can't help it, I love Monopoly.There's awesome deal-making. There's shrewd building. There's timing and calculating odds and a whole lot of luck. Sure, it may take a couple hours, but I don't care. It's two awesome hours, and that works great for me. If you can't finish in two hours, you're...

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Incredibly Awesome Deal - Reaper Kickstarter

Tomorrow is my game-playing day, and I have to make up for all the games I didn't play while I was at GenCon (yes, that's as messed up as it sounds). So tomorrow, I'll have a review, and tonight, I want to tell you about the only Kickstarter I have ever decided to back.Rewind in time to last November. I had hundreds of D&D minis and hundreds of rebased Mage Knight figures. I could put out hordes of kobolds, small armies of orcs, or teeming masses of goblins. I never looked twice at buying miniatures, because I never needed any more.Then my...

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How to Make It In Game Reviews

So you're sitting at home, reading Drake's Flames, and you notice that I get a lot of games for free. And then you start thinking, and you say to yourself, 'I am a good writer. Why are people not sending free games to my house?' And then you are saying, 'Maybe because I have no idea how to become an instant success and have free product pouring into my house in a metaphorical flood of Biblical proportions.' Well, I have some advice, and my first suggestion is that you should stop talking to yourself. Your dogs think you'll take them for a walk,...

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Board Game Review - Panic Station

GenCon has been a whirlwind. I was hoping to get some time to go discover some new games, but I have been stuck in the Asmodee booth selling the bejeezus out of Libertalia (which, I may have mentioned, is pretty awesome). So instead of telling you about some exciting new game, I will tell you about one I played last weekend and thought was pretty darn fun.The game was Panic Station, and my exceptionally timely review comes out only a year or so after its release. In terms of board games, that makes it a super old game, and every reviewer worth...

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GenCon Eve

I just flew in to Indianapolis, and boy are my arms tired. OK, I actually drove. So my arms are fine, but my ass is tired. After a long two-day drive, we are right in the middle of the beginning of the annual convocation of nerdity.I lied again. We're not in the midddle of anything. Asmodee books rooms in a hotel that is like ten miles away from the convention center. We just went to a bar, and were the nerdiest people there. I mean, that's not saying a lot, because we're pretty nerdy, but I mean everyone else was totally normal. Not one person...

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Card Game Review - Smash Up

Ninjas team up with zombies to battle futuristic robots and dinosaurs with lasers.If that sounds really stupid to you, you can stop reading. If, like me, you think that sounds like a buckshot blast of kick-ass, Smash Up might be exactly your brand of psychotic.In Smash Up, you're going to assemble your deck by combining any two of the eight factions available to you. You might decide that green-skinned Martians work best with the little people from...

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Announcement About Ads

You may have noticed an extra ad in my little ad strip over to the side there (unless you're seeing the mobile site on your phone or something, and it just doesn't show you ads, thereby saving the trouble of seeing pictures of zombie Mitt Romney eating a baby). It's an ad for Plaid Hat Games, and obviously sort of implies an endorsement of that company.And that is exactly what it is. I don't charge for that little spot. The only way I will advertise for a game publisher is if I am a big fan. Plaid Hat Games currently has three games - Summoner...

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Board Game Review - Libertalia

If you're headed to GenCon next week, you'll have first dibs on a brand new game from Asmodee called Libertalia. I would tell you how everyone is talking about it, but honestly, I don't really follow who is saying what any more. I'm like a hermit living in a cave above the village who just comes out once a month to buy toenail clippers and porn.But no matter what people are saying, Libertalia is going to be a big deal. It's an exceptionally fun game...

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Card Game Review - Ninjitzoo

I hate when a perfectly good theme gets ruined by a bad game. A game where ninja-trained animals escape from the zoo sounds like it should be a hoot. When your ninjanimal can use a bamboo pole and a wad of chewed gum to vault over a fence and foil the guards, there's some serious promise here. And when the animals have goofy names like Camoukazee and Dung Fu and Bruce Flea, you should have a fun game on your hands.Sadly, when the game has virtually...

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Announcement - Indy Bound

Last week was a big long ordeal of bad news, but this week, I have good news - I am going to GenCon this year. I really can't wait. I haven't been to GenCon in a few years, and frankly, I miss it.I was still not planning on going this year, but things just kind of worked out. As some of you may know, I have a side gig doing a little writing (mostly editing) for Asmodee. Earlier this year, they asked me if I could help out in their GenCon booth. Being a helpful guy, I shrugged and said, 'well, if that's what you need…'No, that is not what I said....

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Sorry, We're Out Of The Cod

So headaches and earwigs and dead rats. It's been a miserable week. I haven't played anything new, and I haven't slept, and I think I am going to spend my morning at the emergency room. Long story short, these are not the reviews you're looking for. The magic eightball says, 'Try again late...

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