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You should not buy second-edition Descent. I think I can make my case pretty clearly for why you definitely should not get involved with this game. For starters, Descent 2 is addictive. If you buy Descent 2, you will want to play it. And if you play it, you will not want to stop. You will be sitting in your living room, watching a perfectly good television program, and you will say to your friends, 'I think we should turn off this show and play Descent, because we all know how much we love it.' And do...

Red, Cardboard, Deadly, and What the hell does this piece do?

  Still playing catch-up with 2012 reviews, thoughts, and impressions.  This week I'm talking Mage Wars, Rumble in the House, Serenissima, and the colossal production screw-up of Exile Sun.  "I have blah blah insurance, so person come help?!"  

Does the world really need another Civ game? If you had asked me a year ago, I probably would have said no. Not only is it a crowded genre, it’s crowded with classics. There’s the old Francis Tresham game from Avalon Hill, still played by people with more time than I have. Vlaada Chvatil’s Through The Ages is one of the highest-rated games on Boardgame Geek. Kevin Wilson and Fantasy Flight cashed in on the popular computer game license a couple years ago with their own civ game. And I’ve personally always had enormous respect for Serge Laget’s Mare...

You may remember that I wasn’t hugely impressed with the initial releases in the new mix-and-match miniatures skirmish line Dungeon Command from Wizards of the Coast. The absorbing tactics of the maneuver phase had to be counterbalanced against a dull and predictable combat mechanic. But there was potential there, the maddening hint of unfulfilled promise.Stand-alone games don’t get a second bite at the cherry. But this isn’t a stand-alone game, it’s a series of modular packs meant to combine together and increase your options. And so I thought I’d put the second set of releases, Tyranny of Goblins and...

Next of Barnes- Come, join us won't you?

Hope the New Year is treating you well, gentle readers.  This week, I'll talk a small bit out the plans for this years Reader's Choice awards, and delay my own retrospective of 2012 as I dig into the last few games that hit my doorstep over the last month of last year.  To that end, I'll discuss two of AEG's entries in the Tempest line, the luscious Love Letter and the cubey Courtier.  Join us, won't you?

 You will believe a Rancor can punch an X-Wing

It’s not uncommon for a game to be  rejiggered into a slightly different form, which sounds like a bad thing. But it can often lead to a game that is much-improved, or at least excellent in its own way. In the past few years, games like Small World, Imperial 2030, and 1989 have taken systems established by old games and made them into something fresh. They may be recognizable, but they have much to recommend them on their own. It was with this optimism that I approached Carl Chudyk’s Uchronia. 

Yes, this is a Very Special episode. During some of the backroom emailing that went on during Michael Barnes Proudly Presents Secret Satan 2013, I received this email from Frank Branham, whom you may know best as the designer of Warhamster Rally. He said: Hey Barnes, I was just listening to John Lennon’s “Merry Christmas (War is Over)” and when he asked me “So this is Christmas…and what have ya done?” I realized that I had not done anything. So why don’t we all send our Secret Satan gifts to Shellie (aka Ubarose) this year?"...