Gameblog

Category: More about games

  • Voting procedures

    In general I prefer awards handed out by a well-chosen jury with a clear agenda. Public voting prefers the popular games too much. For example, the winner of the Finnish Players’ Picks 2004 is fairly easy to guess — there aren’t many games that could do it. My bet is Carcassonne and if it doesn’t…

  • Finnish Players’ Picks 2004

    Last year I queried the Finnish gamers for their favourites in Finnish Players’ Picks 2003 vote. Now it’s time for the 2004 vote! If you’re Finnish or live in Finland, head to voting page to learn more. And if you can’t read Finnish, just e-mail me for more information!

  • Austrian Game of the Year awards

    Mik Svellov (of brilliant Brett’n’Board) announced the Austrian Spiel des Spiele awards for this year. There’s a list of award winners either at his SDS page or my GeekList. While I don’t really care about the award (it has very short history and none of the effect of Spiel des Jahres awards), there’s something quite…

  • International Gamers Awards 2004 nominees

    It’s time for International Gamers Awards again. You can find the nominees for 2004 awards in multiplayer and two-player categories (historical simulation was awarded earlier) at the IGA nominee page or at the Geek in the IGA nominee GeekList I made. The lists are impressive and picking the winners will be difficult. I’m rooting for…

  • Carcassonne vs Settlers of Catan — winner is clear

    As I mentioned in an earlier entry, Finnish Game of the Year awards are very interesting this year as both Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan are competing for the award. Well, looks like that competition is already done: Catan didn’t make it to the final four. Carcassonne did, and is competing against Yundao, Triominds and…

  • Tom Tube, Saint Petersburg

    I wrote some new reviews. The St. Petersburg review has been up for a week, while the Tom Tube review went just up. Both are in Finnish. You’ve heard me rave about St. Petersburg quite enough, and I’ll continue that whenever I happen to play the game. In the other hand, Tom Tube is perhaps…

  • Maharaja thoughts

    I played a quick test game of Maharaja today so I could explain the game more easily on Saturday, when we have a games meet. It was an interesting experience that presented some of the games interesting attributes. It’s an intriguing game, though I’m not quite sure if I like it or not. I’m afraid…

  • Maharaja and St. Petersburg

    I got Maharaja and St. Petersburg yesterday. As anybody who’s followed Spielfrieks recently can tell, Maharaja rules have caused lots of discussion (Goa has been another hot topic, but since I don’t care about it, I just skip those). It’s a pity if a good game has bad rules. I’ve only leafed through the rules…

  • Ta Yü

    I wrote a review of Ta Yü. It’s in Finnish, as usual. Ta Yü is one of the most beautiful games in my collection. I just love the plastic tiles, which remind me of Mahjong. It’s the same kind of heavy plastic. The game, which is an abstract game with German origins, does a pretty…

  • Memoir ’44 and Victory & Honor

    My game collection grew with two new war-themed games today when I got the long-expected Memoir ’44 and actually even longer-expected Victory & Honor. I guess there’s little I can say about Memoir ’44 at this point that hasn’t been said before, so I’ll just say it’s a neat game, the components are very pretty…