Matthew Smail 456 posts 43 comments

Back in the day, I used to be a huge fan of the Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers series. As time went by, though, the series was effectively replaced by an ever-more-monetised model, and I don’t think that I’ve played a card…

Sometimes, I am sent a game to review and everyone agrees that it might be a flight of fancy or a passing interest, rather than something to play from start to finish to hunt down every achievement. Usually, such games receive relatively…

Hell Let Loose is a recently released, 50 vs 50 World War II shooter from Australian developer Black Matter and publisher Team 17 that promises an experience unlike any other. The huge maps are designed to scale and it can take four or five…

Despite being perhaps the most popular and arguably longest running genre of game, the humble platformer is tricky to get right. Control inputs and pacing have to be just right, and even setting the tone of a game can have a big impact on…

Anyone that played a first-person shooter in the last ten or maybe fifteen years or so will surely have heard of Crysis. This is a game that is almost as famous for creating the meme “can It run Crysis” as it is for being an excellent…

Board games are so vast, so luscious and so packed with interlocking mechanisms these days that I’m beginning to wonder whether making a game that is both simple and brilliant might not be the true sign of a masterful designer. Up step…

For Lamentum’s main protagonist, Victor Hartwell, life has not worked out as well as it should have. A young aristocrat in 19th Century New England, Victor is delighted to win the hand of his beloved Alissa — but before long a terrible…

Post Updated: 5 Nov 2021 - Terraforming Mars Turmoil and The Big Box added to the article I’m going to tell you why Terraforming Mars — in its base form — is the best board game that almost any of us will ever play. Sometimes, the stars…

I’ve said this before, and I am sure that I will say it again — there’s nothing better than passing hours and hours of your free time with a videogame that massively exceeds your expectations. Chernobylite is exactly that kind of game, and…

What will you do with yourself today? This is a question asked mainly by parents when intending to load their teenage children with tasks around the house, or by a spouse who senses that their partner looks dangerously close to having a lie…