Nov
14
Board games shine at letting you experience parts of the world that are otherwise off-limits. Not a millionaire? No problem—by playing Acquire, Monopoly, or Power Grid, you can buy all the stocks, hotels, or nuclear power plants you like.
While few of us want to spend …
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Nov
11
Friedemann Friese has been releasing games through his own company, 2F-Spiele, for more than a decade, and over the years his games have become more polished and professional looking. In 2004, Friese released Power Grid, a slightly revised and vastly better-looking version of his 2001 release Funkenschlag, and the game …
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Nov
2
Theme Week: New Games from Spiel 2006
Hundreds of games debut at Spiel, an enormous game fair held each October in Essen, Germany. While dozens of new titles await their turn at the FAB testing table, we’ve already found a week’s worth of games to recommend.
Sébastien Pauchon won the “promising young designer” award at a game designer’s convention in Göttingen, Germany in 2005, and he’s already made good on that promise with Yspahan, the fourth title from French publisher, Ystari Games.
Yspahan, which began life with the name “Caliphs and Merchants,” puts players …
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Oct
16
Theme Week: Ubergames—Germany’s Award-Winners
The German game industry hands out the Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) each June to the best family game published in the previous twelve months. If you’re looking for games that are easy to learn and fun to play, pick up one of these winners.
Nothing says fun like going over Niagara Falls in a canoe and meeting your end. Don’t agree? Then you might want to avoid this game, winner of 2005’s Spiel des Jahres, as you constantly face the risk of taking a very long fall off a very wet cliff.