Board game reviews and previews
Board game reviews and previews
I reached out to Mark from the Plastic Soldier Company's games publishing sister company, PSC Games. He was kind enough to answer a few questions for me about the company, its history, and its recent hits. Naturally, I couldn't let the chance slip to talk about their hottest news from the last week or so, the announcement of a tie-in with Paradox Interactive's smash hit game, Prison Architect.
This mystery is set in 1950s America, and the setting and characters really brought to mind a mix of Happy Days and Grease. A popular member of the school has been murdered (gasp!), the suspects have been gathered, and through the use of very progressive technology for the time, we - the detectives - can interview them.
If you're reading the name of the game over and over, and trying to figure out how to say it, you're not alone. Tawantinsuyu is the latest in a series of games from Board and Dice with fun-to-say names that begin with the letter T. Let's see what this heavyweight Euro game has in store for us.
A week or so ago I wrote a blog piece about hype, looking at why games are forgotten so quickly in this hobby. One major reason is that aforementioned hype, and getting swept along on the wave of The Cult of the New. The other though, in my opinion, is the crazy rate of progress and evolution in board games.
Last year I had the pleasure of watching Sherlock In Homes: Murder at the Circus, which was brilliant. The lovely people at Sharp Teeth Theatre invited me back to take part in their new show, Murder on Ice over the weekend, and I was only too glad to attend.
If you listen to podcasts, you may have heard of The Adventure Zone. The McElroy family put together a podcast chronicling their adventures in a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaign called The Bureau of Balance. It was a smash hit that spawned graphic novels and a huge fan following, and now, a game. This game.
One of the best things I've ever done in the past, was to go to a professionally-run murder mystery evening. We went to a big manor house, had dinner and drinks with the cast while the mystery unfolded. I loved that, and I really want to do it again soon. There's one big problem with that however, the biggest baddie we've come up against recently: Covid-19.
Hype surrounds us all in this hobby. yet most recent review covered The Castles of Burgundy, a game that came out ten years ago. While I was playing it and writing about it, I was forced to do something I don't usually, and that was thinking about the age of the game, and whether that had any bearing on whether I should be recommend it.
The Castles of Burgundy was released way back, in 2011. Stefan Feld's most famous game made its way to our shores shortly after, so why am I reviewing it now, ten years later?
It's been a while since I posted anything non-review on here, so this is long overdue. We're decidedly in 2021 now, and I'm at a point where things are going well for Punchboard. So, here's a little about what's been going on with me, and what's coming next.