Chris Wray: What I Enjoyed Playing in April 2020

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Chris Wray

This is the April entry for my long-lost series where I post five games I enjoyed playing in the past month for which I didn’t have time to do full reviews.  As always, I limit it to five titles, of which there’s a combination of old and new games.

It has been a long time since I’ve done an entry in the series, so I’m looking forward to returning to this monthly tradition.

My most played game of the month was My City, a legacy polyominoes game by Reiner Knizia, but I’ll have a review of it later this week, so I’ve left it off the list below.

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Brandon Kempf – Three Games of April

Posted on May 3, 2020 by Brandon Kempf

What a really weird month, right? April 2020 will be a month that we all will likely remember, or more likely try to forget. Since March 24th I have been in this house, with my two kids and my wife. My wife is considered an “essential” worker by the State of Missouri, so she was going to work this entire time. Meanwhile, I’ve been at home, working from home the best I could, which was ultimately fairly minimal up until a week or so ago when I actually was given remote access to everything I needed to work. Along with that I have been trying to keep two kids motivated enough to care about schoolwork that they’d keep working, with some success and some failure. I do not envy the teachers when these kids go back to school, eventually. It has been a month where we just kind of watched the world break down a bit around us as we hunkered in our home, learning to cook a bit better, learning to communicate a bit better, and playing some games along the way to break the monotony of the days, and nights. I have to report back to the office on Monday, luckily I looked at a calendar so I know what day it is now, that hasn’t always been the case. In the meantime, let’s take a brief look back at Three Games that made an impact on me in April.

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Brandon Kempf – Surviving the Purge 21

Posted on May 2, 2020 by Brandon Kempf

Over the next few months, instead of going with my Three Games articles, I am going to take a look at my collection and try to discuss why certain titles survived the great purge of 2019. During this process I may take a look at some games that didn’t survive, but only as a measuring stick for what did survive. Since I am silly, like a lot of gamers, I use Ikea Kallax shelves to display the games that we own. This makes it pretty easy to break things down cube by cube, so that’s what we’re going to do, twenty-four cubes, plus a top shelf for games that don’t fit in the cubes, over the course of a few months. I hope you enjoy!

If you are a BoardGameGeek user, you can also follow along on the Geeklist I created.

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Expanding Mars: A Guided Tour of the Red Planet and Beyond

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Talia Rosen
Terraforming Mars: Prelude Cover Artwork

So you want to see more of what Mars has to offer?  You’ve thoroughly explored Noctis City, you’ve summited Pavonis Mons, you’ve collected more “pets” than you can count, and you’ve built enough security fleets to guard Fort Knox and the Hope Diamond combined.  It’s high time for a new otherworldly adventure, and you’re in luck.  There are so many ways to expand your journey outside the asteroid belt, and the key is just knowing where to start.

  1. Prelude

The first thing you’re going to want to do is dig into the history of this terraforming endeavor by adding a prelude to your story.  Preludes enable your experience to differ from your fellow travelers from the outset in ways that will define and shape your motivations for generations to come.  Will you accept the patronage of an eccentric sponsor who will kick your exploration into high gear, or will you establish a self-sufficient settlement in order to get down to the surface with a base of operations ahead of schedule?

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Brandon Kempf – Surviving the Purge 20

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Brandon Kempf

Over the next few months, instead of going with my Three Games articles, I am going to take a look at my collection and try to discuss why certain titles survived the great purge of 2019. During this process I may take a look at some games that didn’t survive, but only as a measuring stick for what did survive. Since I am silly, like a lot of gamers, I use Ikea Kallax shelves to display the games that we own. This makes it pretty easy to break things down cube by cube, so that’s what we’re going to do, twenty-four cubes, plus a top shelf for games that don’t fit in the cubes, over the course of a few months. I hope you enjoy!

If you are a BoardGameGeek user, you can also follow along on the Geeklist I created.

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Dale Yu: Review of The Escape Game Unlocked – The Heist, Volume 2: The Silk Road

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Dale Yu

The Escape Game Unlocked – The Heist, Volume 2: The Silk Road (online game)

This game is an Escape Room in a box, done by The Escape Game, one of the better physical escape room franchises around.  We have reviewed the physical rooms a few times (here and here), as well as their boardgame, and this take-home game is an extension of one of their rooms, unsurprisingly called “The Heist”.  You can read our capsule review of the first episode here…

The mission now?  Continue to follow the criminal Hahn into Asia.  Intel has noticed some suspicious activity in Hong Kong… According to reports, Hahn is dealing with artifacts related to the Silk Road.  Your mission is to go there, find Hahn and capture him before he can get away!

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