Avalanche Press is shipping Cassino ‘44, the latest in its Panzer Grenadier series of tactical-level hex-and-counter wargames. In 10 scenarios the game plays out the German defense at the abbey of Monte Cassino against assaults by American, Polish, Indian, and New Zealand troops during January-May 1994.

• 0 Comments

Between 1982 and 1984, GameLords, Ltd. published a series of licensed books for the classic version of the Traveller RPG. Four environment books (undersea, desert, mountain, starport) were each paired with a related adventure book. And two more books introduced a series of planets. Now, the whole collection has just been made available by Far Future Enterprises (Marc Miller) as PDF downloads. The environmental information is a bit dated, but at $20 for the set, you get both inspiration and nostalgia at a good value.

• 0 Comments

Having effectively turned D&D into a mini game, it’s only fitting to do the same for Magic: the Gathering.

Wizards announced Planechase, a new expansion of oversized environmental cards that will add pre-game random elements to the game. Expect each one to have an effect on the cards in play in that area (like terrain), and some rules as to how cards move between areas.

Actually could be pretty cool.

(source)

• 0 Comments

Cequis is an abstract game for two players from Awesomebox games. It’s a move and capture game with the ability to move opponents stones, and can easily be printed and played. In fact, I don’t see any avenues for purchasing the game on either site.

Here’s an instructional video:

• 0 Comments

Get ready for The Game of Life: Extreme Reality edition, due out this fall.

Having eliminated the one educational value of the game – math skills – by changing to credit cards instead of cash, the good marketers at Hasbro decided that they still had room to gut the moral family values of the original game.

Now you can take crazy risks, do extreme sports, throw away your life in one night, or give birth to sextuplets. Dude!

Hasbro has a site where it collected outrageous stories of things that people have done to put on their cards. Submissions ended last October, sorry.

• 1 Comment

Hasbro recently presented Hasbro Family Game Night, containing electronic versions of Boggle, Battleship, Yahtzee, Connect Four, Sorry, and Sorry Sliders[1] for the Nintendo Wii ($36), Playstation 2 ($20), and Xbox 360 ($10 for each individual game).

Along comes HFGN 2, with Operation, Jenga, Bop It, Pictureka, and Connect 4 x 4.

OK, first of all: Bop It? Really? You’re simulating an electronic game as a virtual reality electronic game?

Second of all, I never heard of Connect 4×4. Aside from seeing that it’s some sort of Connect Four game for four players and a double grid of some sort, I still don’t know anything about it. But the physical game is scheduled for release on July 1.

HFGN 2 will be released in a version for the Nintendo DS, which will include the games from HFGN 1, as well.

(source)

[1] Actually, different sources indicate different combinations of these games, so I’m not entirely sure which ones are available.

• 0 Comments