Being a waiter at a cafe’ serving nothing but comfort food (desserts in particular) has to be pretty rough. I mean, I know I’d be tempted to “accidentally” finger a glazed donut or a hot fudge sundae so that I could claim it as “waste” and devour it later. “Accidentally” eating these things en route to the table is an option, though I’m not sure the customer would appreciate confronting a waiter with jimmies and sprinkles lining their mouth with no explanation as to what happened to their food. As you may have guessed, “Just Desserts”, a card game that will be available in April 2015, will task players with serving all their hungry guests. Special thanks to the folks at Looney Labs for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
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Some, if not most of you have probably seen the board game “Othello” at least one point in your lives. If you’ve been fortunate enough, you might have actually played it. It’s pretty simple really: trap your opponents’ pieces between your own to flip them to your color. “Sellswords” has a similar theme in that both players will be trying to get as much as their color showing as possible in order to score more points and win the game. The kicker here is that instead of black/white pieces, players will be laying down hero tiles that each have their very own special abilities. Before I go any further, I’d like to thank D. Brad Talton Jr. and JR Honeycutt from Level 99 Games for sending me a free copy of the game for review purposes.
“Ticket to Ride” has MANY endearing qualities, though sometimes I find its average playtime to be a bit long on nights where homework, cooking dinner, and cleaning are a thing. Enter, “Continental Express”, a much smaller game that can be played in as little as twenty minutes. Instead of claiming routes across the USA or Europe (or whatever version of “Ticket to Ride” you have), you’ll instead be tasked with collecting train cars of a particular type in order to fulfill both short and long-term objectives. Before I go any further, I’d like quickly thank Audrey Debayle from Asmodee for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
Like subs? Of course you do. I’m sure there’s at least one sub that you can’t resist, whether it be a meatball, BLT, or cheesesteak. Here’s something I bet you didn’t know…a “sub” is short for “submarine sandwich” because it looks like a submarine. What do you mean you knew that? I call shenanigans. At any rate, “Sub Shop” will task players with putting together subs in order to own a little cash. Whoever earns the most at the end of the game will win! Before we get into the details, I’d like to thank Zachary Roth from Brybelly for providing me with a free copy for review purposes.
Judging from the “mostly negative” reviews on Steam’s “Cities XXL” page (24% positive as of today’s writing), I suppose I can say that the market was really looking forward to a next-gen city-builder that they could sink their teeth into. The same could be said for “SimCity” when it launched in 2013, though the always-online connection (later patched) and the small map sizes dashed hopes almost as much. Sure, there are games like “Banished” and “Tropico 5” to help us pass the time, but a lot of us are craving for days when we could make huge megalopolises without the limitations that come with today’s technology. Heck, I spent years playing “SimCity” on the SNES and wouldn’t you know it…it didn’t freeze when cities got large and I didn’t have to contend with online DRM. Those were the days.
DISCLAIMER: The title “Early Access” means that the product/game is still under development. As such, the content featured below is subject to change. This includes any opinions I may have at the time of writing, as Alpha and Beta builds sometimes change their core mechanics on a whim. It’s important to stress the word opinions, as I find it unethical to review something not yet released in its final form. In other words, don’t take anything you see here too seriously. You can view all of the articles of this series by clicking the “Video Games” tab, located on the top of this page.
I have a hard time saying no to 4X strategy games, especially if they’re set in space…I’m sure some of you can relate. Perhaps it stems from the fact that I used to watch “Star Trek” religiously as a kid and often dreamt of running my very own galactic empire. “Falling Stars: War of Empires”, a turn-based strategy game seeking your help on Kickstarter, looks rather promising in that regard. What’s more, it’ll be available for PC, Mac, and Linux which is more than some 4X games can say for themselves.
I’m a huge “Ghostbusters” fan, let’s just get that out of the way. As a kid, I owned the firehouse, the Ecto-1, all the action figures, and even had a rubber trap that “activated” when you stepped on the pedal. It pains me to think that only two movies were ever made, though the video game released in 2009 came pretty darn close to being an official third. Well kids (and adults), fret not! “Ghostbusters: The Board Game” is a real thing and is currently seeking your help on Kickstarter. It has already tripled its Kickstarter goal (sitting at $768,960 at the time of writing), though more stretch goals are just waiting to be unlocked.
Dice and I have a sort of an…erm…”understanding” in that they need to give me at least five good rolls during a single game or else they can roll themselves directly into the nearest incinerator. Surprisingly enough, nothing like that needed to be addressed when I first started playing “Qwixx”. Put simply, “Qwixx” will task players with crossing out as many numbers on their scorecard as they can in order to score the most points, though there are a few rules and gameplay mechanics that may sometimes encourage players not to. Before I get ahead of myself, I’d like to quickly thank Marketing Coordinator Nora Meiners from Ceaco/Gamewright for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
Do you fancy yourself to be a good “Mahjong” player? Perhaps you and the family should give “Pyramix” a go. In short, you’ll be tasked with collecting the most cubes of all four colors, though these cubes contain Egyptian symbols that effect how many points they’re actually worth. As players take cubes from the grid, the remaining cubes have the potential to move/slide into different positions…oh, and snakes! Before I go any further, I’d like to extend a quick thank-you to Marketing Coordinator Nora Meiners from Ceaco/Gamewright for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
Have you ever wanted to be a dragon? Of course you have, what kind of question is that?! In “Dragon’s Hoard”, players will be tasked with collecting treasure whilst trying to prevent angry mobs and wizards from thwarting their plans. The game blew away its $10,000 Kickstarter goal, raising a total of $54,950…for those of you who have attempted to raise funds on Kickstarter before, you’ll know that this is a pretty impressive feat.
“Chess” is a prime example of a strategy game that will test not only your critical thinking skills but your ability to make the most out of a bad situation. Don’t simply take my word for it…a quick “Google-search” will tell you that the game dates back over 1,500 years (and yes, people are STILL playing it). Now, if “Chess” had a modern-day counterpart, I’d have to say that “The Duke” is a strong contender, even if it plays slightly different then what “Chess” players are used to. Before I get into specifics, I’d like to quickly thank Managing Developer Randall Bills from Catalyst Game Labs for providing me with a free press copy for review purposes.
A lot of the tile-placement games I’ve played revolve around dungeon delving and/or city-building, though I’ve admittedly never thought of “racing” as one of the key ingredients. “Gondola”, a “Tile-Racing” game that’s currently looking for your help on Kickstarter, promises an interesting mix of tile-placing AND racing all the same time. It all reminds me of those racing games I used to play at the arcade when I was a kid (the ones with checkpoints and the like), but here, players will be able to create the course as they go…how awesome is that!?
For those of you who missed my “Eight-Minute Empire” review, let me save you a lot of trouble…it’s a fantastic game! Needless to say I was thrilled to receive a press copy of this stand-alone successor, courtesy of Ryan Laukat from Red Raven Games. “Eight-Minute Empire: Legends” is similar in play-style, but introduces some new rules and mechanics that gives the game a bit more depth.
DISCLAIMER: The title “Early Access” means that the product/game is still under development. As such, the content featured below is subject to change. This includes any opinions I may have at the time of writing, as Alpha and Beta builds sometimes change their core mechanics on a whim. It’s important to stress the word opinions, as I find it unethical to review something not yet released in its final form. In other words, don’t take anything you see here too seriously. You can view all of the articles of this series by clicking the “Video Games” tab, located on the top of this page.
If you were to look up “America’s favorite pastime” in the dictionary (assuming the entry existed in the first place), you’d probably discover that beer is right up there along with Baseball, barbeques, and taxes…okay, maybe that last one was a bit of a stretch. “Brewin’ USA”, a project that’ll be launching on Kickstarter February 18, 2015, will task players with launching beer (not literally, though that might be fun) in order to score victory points. Special thanks to Game Creator Adam Rehberg for reaching out and providing me with a prototype copy for preview purposes. It’s important to stress that prototypes are not often reflective of the final product, making the rules and components mentioned in this article subject to change.