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Monthly Archives: November 2010

For the greater part of a century, Monopoly has done just fine for itself as a game of abstractions, skillfully avoiding any questions of how a thimble and a howitzer can lead to rubbing shoulders with John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.  Even its Atlantic City locales have long eluded easy recognition in its native…

I want to say that Knights of the Crystals is Final Fantasy for Facebook.  I want to say that Square Enix has scrapped the overused Mafia Wars model of Facebook RPGs and bettered the platform with a crisp, new formula.  Above all, I want to say that this is the Facebook RPG that we’ve all…

Legacy of a Thousands Suns has a name that makes it sound like it numbers among the lesser-known works of Ursula K. Le Guin or Gene Wolfe, and to be sure, its story-based text likely outnumbers several of their better works.  Beginning with its lavishly detailed starting screen to its awe-inspiring graphics for boss fights,…

Barreling down a dimly lit highway along the polluted water front, you flip on your hot rod’s radio, accidentally mowing down a pedestrian as the music changes.  In the back seat, your three cronies burst out in laughter.  All around you, the seedy metropolis spreads into the distance, whispering of illicit riches lurking in every…

Dragons have it uncommonly rough: When players aren’t trying to stick a sharp piece of steel between their scales, they’re sticking harnesses on them and forcing them to fly around at their bidding.  That all changes in Hoard, in which you become a dragon and bathe the countryside in flames while amassing your own hoard…

Epic Fighters is one of those rare games that remind you of those first dark moments when you first happened upon one of the old Advanced Dungeons and Dragons manuals, hypnotically compelled to peep inside.  There was something pleasingly dirty about the encounter, such that you may have found yourself looking around for anyone watching,…

Remember when you had to raise your hand and ask for permission whenever you wanted to speak?  That’s how Lego Universe makes you feel at times, and it’s a helpful reminder that feeling like a kid again isn’t always such a great thing.  From the very moment we had to wait for approval for our…