You would’ve thought one of the all-time sci-fi franchises would’ve garnered more respect for a reasonably-well-executed RPG. But maybe it was a combination of folks who were young enough to ‘get’ RPGs only remembered the campy Max von Sydow movie, and those old enough to remember the wonderful old movies serials were a little too old to understand RPGs.
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I pre-ordered Shadow of War 8 months ago when I saw some footage of the game’s siege mechanics and drooled all over the keyboard. I am a casual Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fan at best, which is probably a good thing since Shadow of War does NOT stick to canon…not even a little bit. Which has sent some hardcore fans in to a bit of a rage. Fortunately for you, reader, there are other things in the game that have enraged me. The most enraging is the repetitive gameplay…a lot of the missions in Shadow of War are very, very similar, and very similar to the missions in Shadow of Mordor. I am only in the first act out of four, however.
The gameplay can be a bit tough as well, but I have improved at it as I have progressed. Another item that kinda, sorta enrages me is how long it takes to get to the aforementioned siege battles. The developers are making me slog through the first act, which is like a mini Shadow of Mordor game. Maybe I am being impatient but I need that sweet siege action. Give it to me!! Continue reading
Spiel is a boardgame convention held every year in Essen, Germany. There are 2 things you need to know about it :
A tiny subset of the games getting presented there are wargames – or close enough – what follows is an overview of what managed to get my attention.
Phalanx Games
This Polish publisher managed to get the rights for doing the 20th anniversary edition of the famous Hannibal : Rome vs Carthage. It got overwhelming KickStarter support and was supposed to be delivered there, but got a bit delayed – they did have the final production version there though.
Another trip into the Dragon Magazine archives, as we skip around the history of the hobby.
Don’t worry, there’s plenty more where this one came from – there’s 199 issues still to go!
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Before DD4e, there was The Fantasy Trip, the original map-oriented, combat-on-a-grid-focused RPG that could even be played solo. If you’re a fan, make sure you check out Dark City Games for the modern updates.
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