Gameblog

Category: More about games

  • Preview of Tempus

    I got to take a look at the rules of Tempus, and it sure looks pretty good. My first impression is Vinci with just one civilization for each player, but that’s a very brutal approximation. The game is mostly about Lebensraum, building up your empire, one people token at the time. The citizens procreate and…

  • New releases in Finnish

    Marektoy releases for 2006 are now public. I’m personally fond of Cluzzle being published, as I’ve translated it and because it was picked from my suggestion. So Dominic, sending me a review copy was a good move. I’m glad it’s out in Finnish, as it’s definitely one of the better party games out there. Also…

  • Scotland Yard

    Here’s Scotland Yard reviewed in Finnish. I was two years old when Scotland Yard won it’s Spiel des Jahres award in 1983. The game was one of my favourites when I was younger and since it’s still around, over 20 years later, it must have something going for it. Darker tones I played it again…

  • Jim’s San Juan

    If you like San Juan and have a Mac, go get Jim’s San Juan (zip packet, almost five megs). It’s a very good computer version of the card game. The user interface is very smooth and easy to use. The AI is fairly good, but not superb. I’ve only lost once to any of the…

  • Multiplayer games for two

    Iain asked me about other multiplayer games that work with two (other than Caylus, that is). Well, here’s a small list: First of all there are few games with modular boards that scale really well. Samurai is the king of scalable games, as it works really well with two, three or four. Some might actually…

  • Gargon

    A review of Gargon is up on my site. Gargon by Rüdiger Dorn is a small card game from Amigo. Gargon is one of those kind of traditional, yet quirky games. The idea is basically a trick-taking game, but it would stretch the definition of trick-taking to fully include Gargon in that lot. Weird ideas…

  • Blue Moon

    Blue Moon is a fantasy world developed by Reiner Knizia and at the same time the first game set in that world. A board game is on the way, so it won’t remain the only Blue Moon game for a long time. Gotta get them all Blue Moon is about eight different peoples, all mixed…

  • In the Shadow of the Emperor

    In the Shadow of the Emperor seemed pretty cool when it came out. It was touted as a real gamer’s game with clever new mechanics. However, for some reason I played it twice and forgot about it afterwards. What happened? Setting In the Shadow of the Emperor is set in Germany in the late middle…

  • Blockster

    I wrote a review of Blockster (in Finnish and sorry, no naked ladies on the marginals). Blockster is a small dexterity game, where players are trying to stack small plastic pieces according to cards. There’s a timer to add pressure! When someone fails, everybody else scores a point. The basic idea is nice, but the…

  • Louis XIV

    Rüdiger Dorn’s Louis XIV started Alea’s new mid-size series. It’s not a big board game, but not a card-game either, but something in between. There’s no actual board, though there is something quite like it: a grid made of cardboard tiles, functioning as a board. The game definitely plays like a board game. Palace intrigue…