Family fun – enjoying games as a family (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 4 min readLeave a Comment on Family fun – enjoying games as a family (Topic Discussion)

As we know, and as I always say, there are so many games, chances are there is something for everyone. Not only that, there will be games for all sorts of different types and sizes of groups. That has always been true for family games that can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages and interests. In this article, I want to look at what it is I enjoy so much about playing games with my family.

A game about stuffing balloons as a team, without talking. But it’s a card game – there are no actual balloons (Saturday Review)

Post read time 4 min readLeave a Comment on A game about stuffing balloons as a team, without talking. But it’s a card game – there are no actual balloons (Saturday Review)

I thought long and hard about how to start this review. Usually, the introductory paragraph of my reviews is like a short story, setting the scene of the game and the experience you're likely to get. I finish by linking back to the title of the game, making it part of the short story. Yet, for this game, its name is a little short story in itself. So I might as well just go straight to the title. Here goes... In this review, I look at A game about stuffing balloons as a team, without talking. But it's a card game - there are no actual balloons by Bez Shahriari from Stuff by Bez.

Quick and dirty – easy-to-learn, quick-to-play games (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 5 min readLeave a Comment on Quick and dirty – easy-to-learn, quick-to-play games (Topic Discussion)

I like heavy games a lot. Games that take around 2 hours to play are probably also the favourites in my games group. Sure, you need to spend an hour learning them, then probably half an hour teaching them to the group and then two or more hours playing them - but as a reward, your brain gets a full workout. At the same time, there are also many reasons why quick-to-play and easy-to-learn games can be the better option. In this article, I want to compare the two.

Scout (Saturday Review)

Post read time 4 min read3 Comments on Scout (Saturday Review)

Finally, the baton of ringmaster has been passed to you. Your predecessor has been in the job for many decades, but now it's your turn. You need to get the most out of the motley crew of performers and put together a show that will beat your rivals'. Yet, immediately it becomes clear that you need to bring in new talent to make your circus really stand out from the rest. It's time for you to Scout by Kei Kajino (梶野 桂) from Oink Games.

Face-off – interactions in two-player games (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 4 min read4 Comments on Face-off – interactions in two-player games (Topic Discussion)

I love playing board or card games with my wife. Spending a little, or a lot of time together focused on the same activity is a wonderful way to connect. It started as a date night, but now we might play a quick 5-10 minute game or two over lunch or we play a longer game. Co-operative games tend to be our favourite. Working together to solve the puzzle that the game presents is a lot of fun. That's why we also love solving the Sunday crossword puzzle together. There are very few two-player competitive games that we enjoy and in this article, I want to explain why.

Adventure Games: The Dungeon (Saturday Review)

Post read time 6 min readLeave a Comment on Adventure Games: The Dungeon (Saturday Review)

Waking up from an uneasy sleep, you look around. You aren't quite sure where you are or how you got here. There is moonlight streaming through the small, barred window. It looks like you're in some sort of cell, but you're not chained up or otherwise restrained unlike the skeleton opposite you. There is only one thing for it. You have to find a way to escape Adventure Games: The Dungeon by Phil Walker-Harding and Matthew Dunstan from Kosmos.

Immersive resources (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 5 min readLeave a Comment on Immersive resources (Topic Discussion)

As you probably know by now, I'm a very visual person. I love great illustrations in board games, hence my series "Let me illustrate" highlighting board game artists in the industry. At the same time, a board game with an amazing look alone is not enough. The gameplay needs to be great too and the rules must not be more complicated than necessary for the weight of the game. So in this article, I want to look at how important realistic resources are to me in games.

Nemesis (Saturday Review)

Post read time 7 min readLeave a Comment on Nemesis (Saturday Review)

Waking up from years of hibernation, all of us were a bit dazed and confused. Temporary amnesia was very common and while we all knew our names, we only had some basic memories of what had happened before or what we were meant to do. We weren't even sure which ship we were on, let alone its layout. When we saw that one of our colleagues was dead and had a gaping hole in their chest, we knew something was seriously wrong. Nobody was sure what caused our colleague's death. We knew we had to work together to get out of this nightmare, but the trust in each other had evaporated. So we set about exploring the ship and finding our Nemesis by Adam Kwapiński from Awaken Realms.

Roll and wrong (Topic Discussion)

Post read time 4 min readLeave a Comment on Roll and wrong (Topic Discussion)

The genre of roll-and-something or something-and-write or whatever else there is these days has really grown in the last few years. To start with, there was a deluge of Yahtzee-style games, but soon the genre added themes and settings to try and draw people in and make them feel like they were exploring a map or fighting monsters. In this article, I want to talk about my experiences with roll-and-write games, as I will call them from here on in for the purpose of simplicity.

UK Games Expo 2022 (Saturday Review)

Post read time 10 min readLeave a Comment on UK Games Expo 2022 (Saturday Review)

The UK Games Expo is the largest hobby games convention in the United Kingdom. It covers all types of hobby games, including board games, card games, RPGs, war games and many, many more. After a break of a couple of years, I was finally ready to make my way up to the NEC, Birmingham again in 2022. However, this time, a friend from my games group joined me. I was really looking forward to finally meeting many of the people I only knew via social media. I also wanted to introduce myself to some of the publishers exhibiting there. My schedule was really full. It was going to be exhausting, but also a huge amount of fun.