Preview: The Return of Netrunner
by Moss Scheurkogel
*THE GAME SHOPPER HAS MOVED!*
The new link for this article is:
http://gameshop.com.au/blog/thegamesshopper/2012/06/14/the-return-of-netrunner/
Thanks for your patience.
~Moss
Gamers the world over have cause to rejoice this year, as the classic card game Netrunner is slated for a hard reboot. Personally, I have another reason to celebrate, since the previously discontinued game is being resurrected under the banner of one of my favourite ridiculously overdeveloped, more-of-a-life-experience/therapy-session-than-a-game games, Android. As I implied in my previous discussion of this beautiful monstrosity, Android has enough theme for ten games squeezed into its bulging, brittle husk; so it’s no surprise that Fantasy Flight has positioned a few other games beneath Android to catch the spill-over before it dribbles all over the carpet. With the recently released Infiltration and the upcoming Netrunner, Android is becoming the franchise that film nerds all wish Blade Runner had become.
Android, and the horrors and joys of thematic games
by Moss Scheurkogel
*THE GAME SHOPPER HAS MOVED!*
The new link for this article is:
http://gameshop.com.au/blog/thegameshopper/2012/06/01/android-and-the-horrors-and-joys-of-thematic-games/
Thanks for your patience.
~Moss
When people ask about guilty pleasures, they tend to expect answers that involve trashy reality television or secret crushes on fictional characters. For me, my guilty pleasure is a game; and no, it’s not a game about raising ponies or about seeing the world as an impetuous young elf (although I do like that game, too.)
It’s Android. And at a surface glance, Android might not seem that embarrassing. It’s just a strategy game about solving mysteries. In the future. While portraying a conflicted archetype of a hard-boiled detective or a crooked cop. Or a robot. Who will either sink into despair or rise above their demons. A game in which you attempt to solve a crime not by determining who did it, but by pinning evidence on the patsy you want to go down. While you’re dealing with your estranged ex-wife. Or your daddy issues. Or racial tensions surrounding artificial intelligence and the nature of the soul.
You can see the slippery slope here. Android is a game that revels so much in its theme and pulls so few punches that it has spiralled into depths that would terrify a casual gamer. The game demands so much character development that if you play while wearing a pair of sunglasses, you’re practically LARPing.
Preview: Komodo
by Moss Scheurkogel
*THE GAME SHOPPER HAS MOVED!*
The new link for this article is:
http://gameshop.com.au/blog/thegameshopper/2012/06/01/schilmil-games-komodo/
Thanks for your patience.
~Moss
It’s always inspiring to see a new team of board game designers break onto the scene with their own self-published games. It’s even more inspiring when their games are actually good!
SchilMil Games is an independent production company run out of Auckland, New Zealand and founded by its two designers, the eponymous Julia Schiller and Amanda Milne. After their inception in 2011, SchilMil’s first two games have just now hit the shelves in the spring of 2012. In the card game category, SchilMil offers “Raid the Pantry,” a tactical collection game about cooking exotic meals. For board games, they bring “Komodo” to the table. And the table is better for it.
