The 2016 Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide

Ho Ho Holy cow… the holidays are upon us once again! That means it’s time for my favorite yearly tradition: The Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide! I’m back this year with a whole passel of possible presents for your favorite players and cube pushers. Some selections may be a bit esoteric, but I guarantee they’ll all satisfy those special someone’s on your list. Whew, that was a lot of alliteration! So relax, pour yourself some cocoa or a glass or three of eggnog, and allow... Read More

The 2015 Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide

Tis the season to be gaming… and I’m here to help. That’s right, it’s time for my favorite annual tradition, The Dice Hate Me Holiday Gift Guide! In this year’s guide I’ve carefully selected an assortment of titles that will satisfy a particular appetite of just about everyone special in your life – whether they’re a veteran gamer or novice. Remember, the best part about giving the gift of a game is that you get to play it after they unwrap it! It feels almost... Read More

A New Kind of Spice – A Rex: Final Days of an Empire Review

“Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.” Leto Atreides, Dune For over 30 years, the board game Dune has often been talked about in hushed awe by a generation of gamers who have heard countless tales of its groundbreaking game play and legendary subject matter. For many, there was no way to prove nor disprove the rumors in these tales, as the game was often harder to find than the legendary cup sought after in the Crusades.... Read More

A Sinfully-Delightful Masterpiece: The Road to Canterbury Review

“Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, and the peoeple dyd feast upon the lambs and slothes, and carp and anchovyes, and orangutans and breakfaest cyreals, and fruyt-bats…” – the General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, paraphrased   Sometime in the late 14th Century, author, philosopher and alchemist Geoffrey Chaucer – having dutifully observed and soulfully absorbed the full folly and sin of mankind... Read More

Great Odin’s Goat! A Trollhalla Review

Ahh, island life. Sipping coconut cocktails by the shore, dreaming of that cheeseburger in paradise, not a care in the world. The skies are a pearlescent blue, and the sea is cascading against the golden sands, while farther out dolphins frolic in the surf, the mammals a beautiful blur of grey that are suddenly driven away by hulking behemoths of wood and metal, pounding through the drink like drunken golems. And carrying trolls! Trolls, of all things! They’ll soon be running... Read More

Alien Frontiers: The Best of All Worlds

As a lover and collector of so many games, it is sometimes difficult to decide whether a game is intriguing or entertaining simply because it offers players something unique. Alien Frontiers is one of those games that transcends doubt. The game is unique, to be sure, but after the first few rounds something rare and magical happens: there is a feeling of exhilaration, followed closely by the growing sense that all the pieces are quickly falling into place. Smiles spread as players... 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... Read More

Inevitable: First Impressions

Inevitable, by Jeremy P. Bushnell and Jonathan A. Leistiko, has a strange pedigree for a board game printed in 2010. It does not consist of flashy, over-produced cards, the rules are not distilled down to a 4-page leaflet, and it is filled with many, highly-geeky and often very obscure references to pop culture, cult films, underground comics, sci-fi and black comedies. It is rough around the edges, there is true grit in the crevices, and it almost feels as though it would be... Read More

Alien Frontiers: A New World for Game Publishing

One of the biggest challenges for boardgame creators is getting that great idea from their minds to inside the stores so it can be put on the table. Traditionally, options have been limited: shop the game concept around to various large publishers in the hope that they will provide funding or self-publish a very small print run in the hopes of raising enough to support another edition. Recently, however, fledgling designers and publishers have found another alternative online... Read More

The Pros and Cons of Cons

Ah, Summer. Tis the season of spray-on tans, silicon, shiny smiles and sparsely-clad young sprites – all crammed into hundreds of ten-foot cubicles, peddling the geekiest things on the planet. Yes, people, tis the season of the booth babe, and thus the season of the Cons. With Comic-Con kicking off its 40th year of grandiose festivities, I thought it was the perfect time to take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of some of geek culture’s greatest yearly conventions.... Read More