November 27, 2009
Welcome to the one-stop index page for all of our Holiday Board Game Gift Ideas for 2009! There have been some tremendous games that were released this year. Some released created new genres of games, others lovingly refined old formulas. We'll break down these top releases and let you know the perfect present for your gaming friend or love one, all while avoiding the frenetic crowds and annoying cell phone vendors at your crazy local mega mall.
So lets kick things off with our favorite game of the last year, Dominion, which has two new expansions this year!
Continue reading: "Critical Gamers' 2009 Holiday Gift Guide"
Critical Gamers Staff at
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November 1, 2009
We played a lot of games this month. A real lot. Its like we're waking from our standard Thanksgiving Turkey Hangover but it's only November 1st. Scary.
We played new games we've thoroughly enjoyed, like both Warhammer Chaos in the Old World board game, and the Warhamer Invasion Living Card Game. We played old classics like Power Grid, Dominion, A Game of Thrones, and D&D;, and had a blast with all of them. Then we played the new Battlestar Galactica expansion Pegasus and left the table shrugging 'meh'.
Seriously though. So many games. So little time. If you pick up anything from this month, then we suggest Dominion Seaside, Warhammer Living Card Game, and Warhammer Mark of Chaos. Yes, two Warhammer titles. And we're not known to be Warhammer fans at all.
Here was all the news from last month:
Board Games
Card Games
Cheap Deals & Sales
Collectable Card Games
Gaming Culture
Gaming News
RPGs
Critical Gamers Staff at
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October 19, 2009
A few things before watching this:
If you haven't heard of it, Microsoft Surface is an ongoing project to deliver a consumer level multi touch table top display. The platform is designed for all sorts of uses and to be placed horizontally, not vertically like a TV. This and the Entertaible have some serious potential to be a very slick platform for board gaming goodness in the year 'The Future.' Imagine getting board game software packs for all your favorite games, and no cleanup!
Also we should note that the software that SurfaceScapes shows here is a Proof of Concept, and in no way a full fleshed out product. It shows potential. The dice spawning animation feels particularly gimpy. We know it's a proof of concept at all, but come on. MakeDiceFallFaster=true!
Still, we're very excited any technology like this to hit the market, and we're glad that someone out there has keep the gaming eye on the price as these platforms mature. Keep it up guys!
Critical Gamers Staff at
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September 30, 2009
Gaming season is officially upon us (it's true! look it up) and as such this month can be summed up by three major title releases:
- Warhammer Chaos in the Old World
- Pandemic Outbreak
- Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus Expansion
Now if you're thinking to yourself "Jimminy Jillickers! Only three major things happened? What a crank shaft of a month!" then you'd be three slices o' cheese short of a proper egg sandwich (you need at least 5). Keep reaching for that rainbow.
Here are the other noteworthy stories from September:
Board Games
Cheap Deals & Sales
Collectable Card Games
Gaming Culture
Gaming News
RPGs
Critical Gamers Staff at
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September 11, 2009
Attention KMart Shoppers. The monthly subscription PC game Dungeons and Dragons Online has been relaunched by Turbine as a subscription free service as D&D; Online Unlimited. Quite the amazing little feat if you ask us. You can download the game's client here (Windows PC).
D&D; Online sticks you in the world of Eberron and lets you and your friends run instanced dungeons and quests as you level up your character in the 3.5 ruleset (though the server takes care of most of the dirty work in real time) Combat is positional, with quite a few distinctions than your standard MMO. For instance - you actually have to click your mouse to swing and actively block, Battles are very dynamic, instead of tank and spank, as fighters maneuver to intercept mobs and act as meat shields, clerics position themselves to heal, and rogues dodge and parry their way behind baddies to get some nice damage bonuses. And of course there are the Mages with their bag of tricks for any situation, and traps that only the rogue can sniff out and disable. Very interesting stuff.
We played D&D; Online back when it first launched a few years ago. We enjoyed our time but a low level cap and a lack of long term content eventually turned us away. Now, years later, expansions have come out, the level cap has been raised, and best of all - it's free! Heck yeah. We're already planning an alternative D&D; night where we all get online and bust heads as a party. Can't wait.
Click here for more information about D&D; Online, and for that all important Download Link
Critical Gamers Staff at
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August 18, 2009
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Critical Gamers Staff at
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July 6, 2009
This morning we stumbled upon this amazing series shots from a Fallout LARP that went down last month in Russian. Now, don't get us wrong and don't read into the future content of this website ; we wouldn't even think to set foot in a LARP machine unless there were piles of cash some seriously hot chicks waiting inside (that's the American way). We love games and all, but there's one thing to play them, and it's another to want to live in them.
Still, some of these shots are so darn cool looking... almost like a scene from a full fledged Fallout 3 movie from the backlot at Universal. But these are people who made their costumes with their barehands. Dorky, sure, but artistic talent abound.
Of course, our admiration and suspension of disbelief is unsuspended when coming across evidence of the apparent dorkiness of some these people. We don't mean to bust on them, but ... dunno.. it's almost required if you want to cover your butt against the cool police.
Critical Gamers Staff at
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June 26, 2009
Simply crazy - or crazy brilliant - take your pick. This jobber was built for two major reasons. The first was that it was hobbyist's dream, but more importantly it's the manifested answer to overly critical players of GamesByEmail.com. We remember some bickering last year regarding the 'trendiness' of the Random Algorithms the site used to create the dice rolls of their games. These weren't horrible algorithms, actually they were top notch, using numbers from Random.org and another tested random number generator algorithms. Still, that wasn't enough to silence the critics. Apparently players can get pretty defiant when a bunch of rolls don't go their way.
The new Dice-O-Matic should shut them up. Here's the full story.
Critical Gamers Staff at
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June 24, 2009
We've been around the webosphere for a while, and some of you might have gotten to know us quite a bit. But still nothing paints a picture about our style of gaming better than regressing into our childhood memories and hand picking the best games from our younger years.
We've taken a considerable amount of time with this exercise, surveying the group and pacing the games in order using the most agreeable means possible. You could imagine this being a difficult process with all the pretty-haired egos sitting around our gaming table, so we just went all Stalin and 'liquidated' the unbelievers in our group. The survivors agreed upon the following list in short order:
Continue reading: "Top 5 Board Games From Our Childhood (aka the 1980's)"
Critical Gamers Staff at
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April 27, 2009
Words cannot describe how cool things little nobblets are. If you're into creating tricky stuff with your hands, or into things produced by Zombo.com or puzzles with no end, then this is right up your alley.
The shapes these hands sculpt-out melt our brains like the end sequences of 2001. We want to go there.
Here are the official details:
"Imagine a Rubik's Cube that actually makes you smarter; an Erector Set that never stops erecting; a Hula Hoop you don't look ridiculous playing with; Silly Putty that isn't silly; cram it all in a jar, turn the fun up to 11, and you've got BuckyBalls!
Each set contains 216 powerful rare earth magnets that can be shaped, molded, torn apart and snapped together in UNLIMITED WAYS. Make sculptures, puzzles, patterns, shapes, stick stuff to the fridge, invent a new game--trying to find something more useful is useless."
You can get your jittery hands on Bucky Balls through the official website GetBuckyBalls.com, or through Busted Tees. The latter is a bit less infomercialish.
Critical Gamers Staff at
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Critical Gamers' 2009 Holiday Gift Guide
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