I like Gratuitous Space Battles a lot, so I was surprised to find that Gratuitous Tank Battles didn’t really live up to my expectations. I was expecting the same sorts of mechanics and progression with ground units instead of spaceships, and if that’s what I’d gotten I would have been perfectly happy. There is a lot of similarity between the two titles, but where Gratuitous Space Battles is all sandbox and building blocks, Gratuitous Tank Battles changes things up and turns the whole thing into a tower defense game that never feels quite right. READ MORE
Batman: Arkham City was among my favorite games of 2011. Everything that worked in Batman: Arkham Asylum was added to, and that’s all I really wanted. The combat is more satisfying, the explorable sandbox is larger, the challenge rooms are more varied, and there are more villains and mooks for Batman to punch in the throat. Anybody else considering developing a superhero game needs to play both of Rocksteady’s Batman titles, take notes, and hope to deliver as good a product. READ MORE
I like Ticket to Ride. It’s one of the first European board games that I ever played, and it turned me on to the hobby to the point that I own several myself and regularly have friends over for dinner and board games. (Last night was Dominion and Pandemic).
Ticket to Ride is successful, I think, because it’s easy to learn, the pieces are neat, and it’s quick to play. READ MORE
Before we dig into the whys and occasional bright spots, I am going to come right out and say it. You should not play Game of Thrones. It isn’t fun, it isn’t pretty, it isn’t well-acted, and in all other regards it feels like a bargain title from the previous console generation. What fun there is to be had is cribbed from better games that now retail for a lower price. READ MORE
Ronimo likes taking games that are typically 3D and squishing them into a 2D plane. It worked with Swords & Soldiers, the 2D cartoon RTS, and it works here with Awesomenauts, the 2D cartoon MOBA. Awesomenauts only has one game mode, but there are enough variables that you don’t need a ton of menu choices to ensure that each game played will feel different. Between multiple characters and myriad upgrade paths, you’ll have to cook up a new strategy each game if you want to win more than one match in a row. READ MORE
