Author

Matthew Smail

Matt is B3's resident Head of Board Games. As a life-long fan of all things gaming he'll also occasionally be found covering video games with the team,

Reviews

Crimson Company might be the small box card game that you’ll want to spend the night with!

Matthew Smail Jan 10, 2020 0

Crimson Company is a small box card game that centres around wagering cash and recruiting troops in order to secure control of two out of three central castles. The version you see in these pictures is the Deluxe Edition which features…

Reviews

Dawn of Man takes Xbox One back to pre-history

Matthew Smail Jan 9, 2020 0

Dawn of Man is an ambitious and relatively serious simulation about the earliest stages of the development of humankind that is an unusual fit for consoles. Despite its muddy colours and slow gameplay, however, there’s an addictiveness to…

Reviews

Paranormal Detectives — party guests from the other side

Matthew Smail Jan 3, 2020 0

Whilst I don’t play tons of party games, I tend to favour those which rank as at least “mid-tier” in terms of the complexity. I’d much rather invest a bit more time and effort into a crunchier game, and I suppose in general that’s why I…

Reviews

Mad Games Tycoon is like having a proper job, but without a payday!

Matthew Smail Dec 30, 2019 0

Mad Games Tycoon is like Game Dev Story but for grown-ups, so how well will it live up to the more immediate demands of a targeted console audience? Personally, I love an economic management simulator, and to be honest, the more depth the…

Reviews

Wildlands — Wallace does it again!

Matthew Smail Dec 29, 2019 0

Once upon a time a designer called Martin Wallace decided that every game should be card driven, and once he had made war games, area control games and deception games thus, he rested. After pondering for a while, he thought “miniatures…

Reviews

Satanimals — naughty nippers

Matthew Smail Dec 27, 2019 0

Sometimes it seems that games of a similar theme come in runs. I assume this is because of a particular theme across popular culture, but I’ve never been able to put my finger on it. One theme that we’ve seen a lot of in board gaming…

Reviews

Close to the Sun is an electrifying journey into the mind of Nikola Tesla!

Matthew Smail Dec 25, 2019 1

From a literal walk in the park to delivering some of the most frightening experiences in video games, the humble walking simulator has demonstrated its longevity to become much more than a niche genre. Close to the Sun, from Italian…

Reviews

Nemo’s War: Second Edition — Leagues ahead

Matthew Smail Dec 25, 2019 0

Whilst it’s a bit of a niche area, Victory Point Games have become known as the almost undisputed champions of solo specific board game experiences, having created a number of systems specifically designed for lone play. Nemo’s War is one…

Reviews

Thieves Den — Diamond heist

Matthew Smail Dec 23, 2019 0

A little while back, you might recall that we previewed an inventive and unusual worker placement and retrieval game that was coming to Kickstarter, called Thieves Den. Well, the good news is that it successfully funded and is now a fully…

Reviews

Villages of Valeria — build a house of cards in this expansive town

Matthew Smail Dec 20, 2019 0

Only a few months ago we reviewed Valeria: Card Kingdoms, and I really enjoyed its accessibility, speed of play and how generous it felt overall. Today, we’re taking a look at its sibling — the travel sized Villages of Valeria, which is…

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