Eila and Something Shiny is a simply delightful board game to look at, as well as a joy to play. With artwork somewhere in the...
Eily and Something Shiny
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Games
I’ve always been a gamer, from the first Atari 2600 my dad put in my hands. As many of you know, frustrations with my friends throwing monkey wrenches in my carefully-plotted D&D campaigns gave rise to my writing career in the first place. This column covers some of my favorite SciFi- and Fantasy-themed games of all kinds.
Stray
At its core, Stray is a platform puzzle game. You jump. You climb. You knock things over. But the twist with Stray is that you’re a cat....
Balder’s Gate
You’ve been kidnapped by aberrations from another dimension. They’ve implanted a parasite in your brain. Soon (and you don’t know how soon), that...
Starfarers of Catan
It’s no exaggeration to say that when Settlers of Catan came on the scene in 1995, it changed board gaming worldwide. The randomized board...
Hearthstone: A Mobile/PC Powerhouse of a Game
Hearthstone isn’t news. It’s an offshoot of the world’s most famous MMORPG and it’s been around in its own right since 2014. But it’s notable for a...
Encodya: Just a girl and her robot
Point-and-click puzzle games are a mainstay of PC gaming dating back to the 80s. Due to the limited scope, they can be reliably produced by indie...
The Puzzled Patron
I'm doing a little bit of a different take on the "fantasy board game" theme this week. This is a puzzle, but one whose artwork speaks directly to...
Incoming Transmission: Space Stations Are Hard Enough to Fix…
If only the antenna wasn’t the first thing broken. Incoming Transmission is a co-op puzzle game wherein a team tries to complete a set of repairs to...
Diablo: Point, Click, Loot, Repeat!
Though others came before it, 1997’s Diablo redefined and became the exemplar of the Action Role-Playing Game (ARPG) genre. ARPGs are...
Whispers of a Machine – An inventive puzzle game with a “killer” plot…PLUS cyber tools
One of my guilty pleasures is the murder mystery. One or more people are dead. We don’t know who killed them. Catch them before they either get away...
Dice Throne – A cool adventure…or “Yahtzee with hitpoints”
Dice Throne is a fantasy combat game that, boiled down to its core, is “Yahtzee with hitpoints.” Each custom hero comes with their own playing board...
EarthBreak: Omega Protocol – Finally…a mystery game for the SciFi crowd
Experience a next level whodunnit mystery with aliens, AI, and a paranoid band of human survivors. EarthBreak: Omega Protocol is a mystery puzzle...
Skyrim created a world too awesome to bother saving
If you’re familiar with Skyrim, congratulations. You don’t need to be told. But for everyone else, this 2011 Bethesda game is a classic. There, I’ve...
Truberbrook: Twin Peaks meets Fringe
Truberbrook is a point-and-click mystery game set in a quaint little town in the mountains of Germany. And by quaint, I mean batshit crazy. It’s an...
It’s like D&D without the D&D
If you’ve never played D&D but always been intrigued by the concept, Lord’s of Waterdeep is a great tabletop board game to get you a taste. Set...
You Like Weird Games, Right?
Point & click mysteries are a guilty pleasure. They’re cooperative, so my wife and I don’t need to be opponents. They’re not timed, so they’re...
Tired of Good Always Winning?
Boss Monster is a game where you are the evil ruler of a stereotypical fantasy dungeon. You preside over a lair composed of cards you play, each...
The Only Fun Pandemics
The two classic responses to crises are avoidance and action. If you don’t want to hear any more about rampant diseases and what to do about them,...
An RPG you have time to play
Sleeping Gods is a different sort of RPG. Or board game. Or both. See, this is where it gets a little hybridy. It’s a board game with a map...
You had me at lightsabers
Ask any child from the Star Wars era whether they’d like to play with a lightsaber, and it’s a good bet you’ll get an enthusiastic "YES!" Yet from...
The best of games / The worst of games
I don’t feel like I’m doing it a disservice to call Dwarf Fortress the game with the worst user interface in the history of successful games....
For the Horde!
I played World of Warcraft waaaaaay back in the day, back when there didn’t need to be suffixed qualifiers to explain...
Heroes are More than Tavern Brawls
If you're a fan of board games, there's a good chance you've at least heard of Red Dragon Inn, even if you haven't played it. Well, that...
Firefly: You can’t take this board game from me
I've never made a secret of Firefly being one of the main inspirations of my Black Ocean universe. And when it comes to themed board games, there...