Matthew Smail

Games demonstrated at Essen always tend to create quite a buzz, and those with unusual mechanics and attractive artwork can really stand out among the sea of eurogames. Silk, from designer Luis Ranedo and artist Roc Espinet, was first…

Whilst you may not assume that fishing and board games have much in common, both are generally relaxing pastimes that demand complete immersion into the situation. Coldwater Crown and its recent expansion, The Sea, combine these hobbies by…

I don’t need to wax lyrical (again) about how much I love console based real time strategy (RTS) games, so it will be no surprise to our regular readers to learn that I had to get my hands on They Are Billions as soon as I had the chance.…

In Kraftwagen, each player is a car company mogul during the halcyon days of the early 20th century. The players will obtain victory points by building desirable car bodies, adding powerful engines and investing in race day technology.…

With a theme as potentially dry as the production of power, it takes a design team with flair and imagination to create a compelling board game from it. Games like Power Grid have achieved this to some extent in the past, but I was curious…

Even though it is currently still in the Microsoft Game Preview program, we’ve been playing Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown intensely for the last few days and let me tell you, it might be the most promising online shooter of the past three or four…

When it comes to reviewing board games, there are numerous considerations to bear in mind. Who will this game appeal to? How well does it represent the genre that it resides in and, perhaps most importantly, what does it do to…

Whilst you may not have heard of them, gretchins are an ever present (albeit very much sidelined) feature of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000. These expendable creatures are maniacal and cunning, yet they love nothing more than getting…

Do you have an unquenchable thirst for adventure? Do you enjoy questing through the anime worlds inspired by Bakugan and Dragonball Z? Are you looking for a game that offers a wide variety of ways to play, with support for solo,…