Videogame and board game reviews by game critic Erik Twice. What does he think about the game of the year? And what about that forgotten classic? Read about it here!
There are few designers whose sense of aesthetics is so diametrically opposed to mine as Stefan Feld. Where I prefer chatter, surprise and laughter, he keeps his players distant and staring down into the board. He makes seemingly dull, brown games of efficiency which bore me to tears. And yet, he’s a talented designer. The Castles of Burgundy is one of the two games of his I’ve ever liked and, perhaps, also his best.
Like many fans of Terraforming Mars, I was eager to play Ark Nova. Building a zoo through cards and unique projects seemed fun, and it indeed was! Featuring a great selection mechanism, a board to build in and a massive deck, it has all the elements for a game I would like. Sadly, a lack of development and a misguided sense of balance forced me to lower my expectations.
If I had to keep a single title in my collection, it would be Cosmic Encounter. No other game represents everything I love from our medium as well as it does. It’s fun, challenging, social. Whenever I play it, I laugh and, win or lose, I come out refreshed and enriched from the experience. Chaotic and irreverent, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s one of the greatest games ever designed.
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Japan was unified by three feudal lords. The first, Oda Nobunaga, spent twenty years bringing the nation under his power. After being betrayed, Toyotomi Hideyoshi governed for a decade before his death. The last one, Tokugawa Ieyasu, would create a dynasty after a military campaign lasting seven weeks. Matt Calkin’s Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan tells that story, in one of wargaming’s best and most elegant designs.
Few would consider Secrets to be one of the best designs made by Eric M. Lang or his codesigner from my side of the pond, Bruno Faidutti. And yet, this lesser game of social deduction has managed to hit my table more than thirty different times. As players change sides, flip cards and betray their countries in order to become hippies, its flaws might be hard to ignore, but the fun of the resulting experience is also undeniable.
