Enter the Rabbit – A Cookie Fu Review

HAPPY NEW YEAR! No, not that new year, Westerners – today is the day for celebrating Chinese New Year. This will be the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac, which typically portends a peaceful time and a thankful respite between the tumultuous years of the Tiger and Dragon, which come before and after. Since I don’t have a true Chinese game to review – particularly since Go has been around for thousands of years, with thousands of reviews – I thought I’d celebrate here on Dice Hate Me with a little something… different. So grab your firecrackers and some Fu dice – it’s time to kick some cookie! On the surface,... Read More

The Table Ahead – Dice Hate Me in 2011

A new year is upon us, dear readers, and with it the promise of a slew of new gaming goodness to grace our tables! 2010 was a fantastic year for gaming – and, indeed, for Dice Hate Me – but 2011 is shaping up to be even better. In this column, I wanted to share a few things with all of you about the upcoming year – the games I’m most looking forward to, those already out that are planned to become part of the Dice Hate Me games library, and some of the things you all can look forward to on the site in the coming months. Think of this less of a “state of the union” and more of a “state of things to come.”... Read More

Dice Hate Me at the Bookstore: The Games Bible

I will happily admit that I’m pretty easy to shop for around the holidays. Any amusing trinket will usually bring me extraordinary glee, especially if it is shiny or has pretty pictures on it. However, when it comes to gifting me games or game-related paraphernalia, the gifter may often find themselves in dangerous territory since, well, I have a lot of stuff. Thus, consider my utter shock and surprise glee when my in-laws presented me with a gaming gift that was both new and incredibly thoughtful – The Games Bible. As I thumbed through the pages after the gift wrap had all been torn asunder, I also began to realize that this little gift... Read More

Game of the Year Giveaway!

Well, dear readers, as I promised in this week’s Game of the Year announcement, Dice Hate Me is proud to offer a very special holiday giveaway in celebration of our awards. Since Alien Frontiers has been awarded the medal, we figured what better way to commemorate the occasion than to reward one special gamer with a very rare treat: the Space Crane Alien Tech card! That’s right, Dice Hate Me, in conjunction with Clever Mojo Games, is proud to offer not one but three of these rare Alien Tech cards, unavailable for purchase anywhere. The Space Crane card was produced as a promotional for backers of Alien Frontiers on kickstarter.com... Read More

Addendum: Game of the Year Games List

Yesterday, I announced the Dice Hate Me Game of the Year, and since then we’ve gotten some requests for a list of the games considered for this year’s awards. As Monkey238 mentioned in her awards description, she has played over 38 new games this year – an incredibly impressive number considering she was never really a “gamer” before I convinced her to geek out with me. My list is a bit smaller at 32 new games, but many of the games we played together (and are on her list) were games that I had played in previous years. Here is a look at our list of the games we first experienced in 2010: Dice Hate Me Games... Read More

Dice Hate Me Game of the Year Awards 2010

It has been a great year for board games! For me, personally, it has been a wonderful year as I’ve reconnected with old favorites, discovered some new favorites, and sealed the deal for a lifetime gaming partner that’s almost as geeky as me! For the boardgaming community, 2010 has blessed all of us with some great independent success stories, allowing new ideas from the “little guys” to trickle into the market. We owe a greater depth in variety and fun gameplay because of the efforts of backers on kickstarter.com and the print-on-demand wonders at The Game Crafter. No year – and, truly, no blog – would seem complete without... Read More

Lunchgames! The Inside Scoop

Those loyal and stalwart few who follow the Dice Hate Me Twitter feed regularly know all about #lunchgames – my semi-daily tweet around lunch time that summarizes my office’s epic battles over burgers and baked goods in 140 characters or less. Sometimes I can claim victory, but more often than not I end up spiraling to my oblivion, leaving one of my coworkers – or, typically, the luckiest player on the planet, Clover Leaf – to stand victorious. Michael Fox is one such reader of #lunchgames. Michael (@idlemichael on Twitter) also happens to write reviews and produce an extremely swell podcast for The Little Metal Dog Show... Read More

The 2010 Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide

The holidays are upon us and tis the season to be gaming! Friends and family will soon be gathered near, and what better way to celebrate than to grab your dice and pour some cocoa? Every year, I always make it a point to have a few games under the tree for others; not only do they make great and unique gifts, but after they’re unwrapped you get to play them. Bonus! The blessing and curse of giving games as gifts is variety. There are a lot of games out there to choose from, and pairing the right box with the correct beloved can sometimes be trying. Worry not, gentle readers – use the Dice Hate Me Holiday Game Guide to aid you in your... Read More

An Even Bigger Bang!

If you’ve followed the site for awhile or keep up with the Dice Hate Me Twitter feed, you know by now that my coworkers and I play a lot of Bang! More than any other game that’s been introduced at lunchtime, Bang! seems to bring about the most mischievous glee as we ignore common courtesy and mercilessly gun each other down. Bang! also elevates our creativity, as we are continuously concocting and introducing various house rules to make things more interesting or to fix what we consider inconsistencies in theme. Back in July, I wrote a brief article on some of the basic house rules that we use in the office. With the exception of using... Read More

Dice Hate Me at the Movies

Everyone is familiar with the tired cliché that Hollywood is out of ideas. Many would argue that cliché is upheld magnificently when it comes to movies about licensed properties, particularly games, but every now and then someone gets it right. Video games are a matter wholly unto their own – for every miserable production like Doom and Super Mario Bros., we get a rare gem like Resident Evil. Board games are another matter entirely; with the exception of the comically-genius Clue, and the entertaining and mostly-harmless Jumanji and Zathura (both “fake” games, fabricated solely for the purpose of the movie), there have been... Read More