If you’re like me, you have no friends and weekends are simply long stretches of not seeing other humans and, instead, binge-watching old Cheers episodes while binge-eating custard and sipping Boone’s Farm. Please don’t tell me that it’s only me doing that. I said please. Luckily, this weekend I can turn off the tube and, instead, play a little Talisman: Horus Heresy on my Mac because it’s gone free all weekend long.
Be honest, when you hear a game’s called “Space Food Truck” and the art looks like it came right out of Phineas & Ferb, your first reaction is to click over to another website. WAIT! Don’t let the silly name or cartoony art fool you, Space Food Truck is a real game with real strategy and deserves a look-see. What can I do to convince you? Well, first of all it’s developed by One Man Left of Outwitters fame.
I’m generally not a big fan of abstract board games and, despite its attempt at theme, Lanterns: The Harvest Festival is an abstract game. That said, it’s a very pretty one and a game that looks like it would be perfect for chilling out on the couch in front of a fire. It’s pretty enough that I plan on giving it a go later today which is completely possible due to it being released this morning for both iOS Universal and Android.
I have, in the past, stated my love of Academy Games‘ fantastic team based war game, 1775: Rebellion, which made me think I wouldn’t need to do it again on the eve of it’s mobile release. Then I remembered that I hadn’t stated that love at our new digs, so here goes. I love this game.
One of the side effects of writing about games for so long is that its allowed me to branch out and try things I normally wouldn’t have tried. For example, 4-5 years ago my shelves contained one or two games from the war game focused GMT Games. Today that number has climbed into the teens with several offerings that I wouldn’t have to bend reality to claim as actual war games (much to my chagrin, I was informed that Twilight Struggle isn’t a real wargame, but a euro in disguise. I was crushed).
A long time ago, in a mountain fortress far, far away, our benevolent leader Owen fell in love with a series of games from digital newcomer Shenandoah Studios. The games in question would be Battle of the Bulge, Drive on Moscow, and Desert Fox. These were full-blown wargames from tried and tested designers presented with historical accuracy and a not a little bit of panache.
One of the best, and more bug ridden, titles to land on mobile in 2016 is Obsidian Entertainment‘s port of the Paizo RPG on cards, Pathfinder Adventures. The port brings the card game to life and makes it feel more like an actual RPG and less like the rather simple card game that it is. I love it, and it’s probably my most played title of the year.
Of all the games I’ve tried to teach over the years, none has generated more blank stares than Terra Mystica. A heavy euro, the game features a confusing magic system, tons of different races to play each with their own special abilities, and enough wooden pieces to deforest a small nation. While complicated, once it clicks it’s a fantastic game.
I sat down to write an introduction for our new digs here at Stately Play Manor with the hope that someday a wizened Justin Bieber would be asked to narrate my words for one of the technological advances in Sid Meier’s Civilization XXXII. Something like Writing or Literature would be fine, but only because Hubris currently lacks a slot on the tech tree. As always happens when I wax rhapsodic about my writing skill, the end result tends to fall just shy [if “just shy” means not even close -ed.] of my expectations. I’m sure that you will also find this to be true, but I ask you to stick with it until the end anyway. You’ve already made it this far, after all.