Dale Yu: Review of HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Dale Yu

HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest

  • Designer: Asger Harding Granerud, Daniel Skjold Pedersen
  • Publisher: Sidekick Games, The Op
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 30-45 min
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3DiBlDB
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Step into a world of wonder and natural splendor with HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest, an immersive family game inspired by the Indonesian word for rainforest.  In HUTAN, all players have their own rainforest patch where they will plant sprouts and flowers that over time grow into towering trees. When a habitat is created, an iconic forest animal arrives: the orangutan, the sumatran tiger, the rhinoceros hornbill, the cassowary, or the sumatran rhino.

HUTAN plays over nine rounds, and all players have two turns each round. On your turn, you take a flower card from the shared market pool and place the flowers into your rainforest. If you place a flower on top of a matching flower, you grow a tree. When an area is completed with trees, the last tree is replaced by an animal. At the end of the game, the player who grew the best rainforest and attracted the most animals will score the most points and win.

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Dale Yu: Review of Aeterna

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Dale Yu

Aeterna

  • Designer: Martin Wallace
  • Publisher: Ares
  • Players: 2-4
  • Age: 14+
  • Time: 60-120 mins
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/41v4VO6
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

In Æterna, the new game designed by Martin Wallace and developed by Ergo Ludo, you will take the role of a Roman Gens (family) that will try to increase its prestige through three Eras: The Roman Kingdom, the Roman Republic, and the Roman Empire.

Your goal will be to increase your influence over the city by ruling over the 7 Hills, contributing to the construction of monuments and buildings, and supporting the conquest of the provinces.

You must always be careful to keep the citizens happy, as unrest in the Hills under your direct control could put you in a bad light. If you outwit your opponents, your Gens will be remembered in the History books as one of the most important in Rome.

Increase the power and prestige of your Gens to climb the social ladder of Ancient Rome and wield and seize power.

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Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2025 (Part 6)

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Dale Yu

Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2025 (Part 6)

Bridge had god-like status as a card game when I was growing up. My grandparents played Solo, my generation played 500, but my parents played Bridge. The house had shelf upon shelf of Bridge books explaining conventions and the like. Until they stopped. I ventured to ask why one day but never got a straight answer, just walk-away mutterings about idiots, bidding mistakes, and imminent divorces. I believe the second most common reason for divorce in the 70’s was Bridge. The house certainly became less tense for the stopping, which the kids were all grateful for. I think the death-knell was wrapping their new sporty red Holden Torana hatchback (which Peter Brock was slaying Bathurst with at the time) into a tree late one night on the way back from Sydney after a Bridge fight-night, sending both parents to hospital for short stays.

Which is why I’ve never played Bridge (even though I’m sure I’d love it) and which likely laid the first seeds of my distaste for personal conflict tension in games.

 

For anyone wondering what I look like now, this is me after finding a new 8-10!

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Trick-Taking Week 2025: Most Innovative

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Chris Wray

This is the continuation of Trick-Taking Week 2025, where I’ll be posting trick-taking related content all week. We here at The Opinionated Gamers love trick-taking games, and as I wrote two years ago, many of the writers in this group have contributed to the growth in the mechanic’s popularity in recent years. 

The showpiece this year is a set of four different top 10 lists, which I assembled by gathering votes from OG writers and various trick-taking designers, publishers, convention hosts, and content creators. 

Today’s list is of ten “most innovative” games of the trick-taking genre. In a genre where one little twist can make an entirely new game, I wanted to highlight games that have broken the model and started a trend.   

I posted a greatest hits list on Sunday, the “hidden gems” list Monday, and the “most beautiful” list yesterday. This concludes the lists, although I have a set of reviews I’m publishing tomorrow and Friday.

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Trick-Taking Week 2025: Most Beautiful

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Chris Wray

This is the continuation of Trick-Taking Week 2025, where I’ll be posting trick-taking related content all week. We here at The Opinionated Gamers love trick-taking games, and as I wrote two years ago, many of the writers in this group have contributed to the growth in the mechanic’s popularity in recent years. 

The showpiece this year is a set of four different top 10 lists, which I assembled by gathering votes from OG writers and various trick-taking designers, publishers, convention hosts, and content creators. 

Today’s list is of ten “beautiful” games of the trick-taking genre. To me, artists and publishers deserve more credit than they often get in this side of the hobby, so I wanted to highlight beautiful productions.  

I posted a greatest hits list on Sunday, and the “hidden gems” list yesterday. The last list — the “most innovative” list — will be published tomorrow. 

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Trick-Taking Week 2025: Top 10 Hidden Gems

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Chris Wray

This is the continuation of Trick-Taking Week 2025, where I’ll be posting trick-taking related content all week. We here at The Opinionated Gamers love trick-taking games, and as I wrote two years ago, many of the writers in this group have contributed to the growth in the mechanic’s popularity in recent years. 

The showpiece this year is a set of four different top 10 lists, which I assembled by gathering votes from OG writers and various trick-taking designers, publishers, convention hosts, and content creators. 

Today’s list is the “hidden gems” of the trick-taking genre. If somebody wanted to look at the “deeper cuts” in trick-taking, I’d enthusiastically recommend they check out these games. I posted a greatest hits list yesterday. The two other lists coming this week included “most beautiful” and “most innovative.” 

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