The latest offering from Stonemaier Games, Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia, is one of those awkward games that is easier to play than it is to teach. While certainly not intentional, it does accidentally tie into the game’s dystopian theme of knowledge being dangerous and carefully controlled. In fact, despite the game’s solid mechanics, Euphoria‘s theme is probably its most defining and memorable feature. READ MORE
I’m a huge hockey fan. How typical: I’m a Canadian talking about hockey. The next thing you know, I’m going to start talking about beer and poutine! (Great combo, by the way.) I mention hockey because there’s currently a discussion going on about the National Hockey League’s decision to hold select games throughout the season in outdoor venues. A great idea is a great idea, but oversaturating the market can lead to early exits for all types of products, and games are no exception.
Hunting solo is a fool’s errand. Sure, early on you don’t have much of a choice, but those aren’t exactly the most dangerous quests either. Fortunately that you won’t be stuck by yourself for very long. Although given the quality of the help you do find, sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference. READ MORE
Before rhythm games were “dead,” and before they were “cool,” they could just be games, and focus on fun over all else. In the West, anyway. The industry of Japan never lost that fun spirit, and no series is more representative of that than Taiko no Tatsujin. READ MORE
Being too far ahead of its time is a common way for a product to fail, especially in the technology business. This is often the most tragic kind of failure, because it is not the result of apathy or cynicism, but just a great idea that the rest of the tech world couldn’t quite support yet. This was the undoing of Nokia’s N-Gage phone. It is a concept that we take as commonplace and even expected in today’s mobile space, but nevertheless garners a great deal of ridicule in retrospect: that a cell phone can run games as well as its handheld competitors. While much of that ridicule was valid due to some baffling hardware design decisions, the N-Gage was a capable handheld that deserves a second look. READ MORE
