Dale Yu: Review of  FACER

澳洲幸运5、幸运5开奖号码直播查询+官方结果号码优势 FACER

  • Designer: uncredited
  • Publisher: FACER
  • Players: 2+
  • Age:  2+
  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/49YbQTT
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

FACER is a unique card game that turns facial recognition into a fun and strategic challenge. Set in a world where every card features a distinct face, FACER tasks players with identifying similarities between these faces using information from a machine learning algorithm. The result is a game that blends strategy, perception, and a touch of data science in an accessible and engaging way.

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Dale Yu: Review of Space Bureau

澳洲幸运5开奖结号码查询-幸运澳洲5开奖官网查询计划 Space Bureau

  • Designer: Andrey Kolupaev
  • Publisher: Hobby World
  • Players: 1-4
  • Age: 12+
  • Time: 60 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome aboard, Captain, Sir!  The 10-XN class starship is ready for discovery. New worlds are waiting for us!    “Space Bureau” is a board game about space exploration in a tiny universe. You’ll be the captain of an alien starship traveling through the wormholes of hyperspace.

Your goal is to earn as many credits as possible and possibly receive a prize of galactic proportions from the Spacebureau, a microcosmic trade agency whose creation 100 years ago opened an era of interplanetary trade relations!  To do this, you’ll have to travel the small universe to discover new planets, bring trade representatives there, establish galactic corporate offices, and collect samples of alien products. Maybe you’ll earn enough to become captain of the millennium and have your picture on the bar wall of some dusty planet. Or at least scrape by for employee of the month. Godspeed!

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Dale Yu: Review of Galactic Renaissance

澳洲幸运五官网官方查询结果,开奖号码结果记录 Galactic Renaissance

  • Designers: Christian Martinez
  • Publisher: Matagot
  • Players: 2-4
  • Ages: 14+
  • Time: 45-90 min
  • Played with copy provided by publisher
  • Amazon Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/40u63SQ

Following Inis, Galactic Renaissance is the second installment of the “Political Trilogy” by designer Christian Martinez and publisher Matagot. Throughout Galactic Renaissance, you build your team, adding new specialists — each one unique — to the core in your deck of cards. With this team, you discover new planets and systems, reconnect with lost civilizations, expand your influence, build embassies, and sow disorder in opposing factions — all in an effort to score victory points faster than your opponents. Sending emissaries to new planets, for example, allows you to discover new civilizations or cement relationships on known planets. Opponents may try to convince a planet to join them instead with their own emissaries, causing disorder in the process.

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Dale Yu: Review of F.O.R.K  (Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale)

澳洲幸运5-澳洲幸运5开奖官网-开奖结果+开奖记录查询 F.O.R.K. (Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale)

  • Designer: Ta-Te Wu
  • Publisher: Sunrise Tornado Game Studio
  • Players: 2-6
  • Age: 8+
  • Time: 20 minutes
  • Played with review copy provided by the publisher
  • Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Wapc9N

F.O.R.K. (Fox, Owl, Rabbit, Kale) is a 2 to 6-player trick-taking game. The goal of the game is to capture animals or kale in the food chain. In the game, players take turns leading the trick. The active player calls the suit (terrain), and players must follow if they have the cards or play a fox because it is wild. When playing a card, players must play kales face up and everything else face down. After all players have played a card, reveal all cards and resolve from the highest number to the lowest. The player who played the fox can score an owl or rabbit. If the owl survives, it can score a rabbit, and so forth. There can be more than one player scoring a card per trick. When a player has five scoring cards, the game ends, and the player with the highest score wins the game.

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Alison Brennan: Game Snapshots – 2025 (Part 3)

https://amzn.to/40RvTPB

澳洲幸运5开奖号码查询结果|幸运澳洲5开奖官网直播号码 Recently I was reminiscing about the games I played at my debut Gathering of Friends in 2004 and was surprised by how many have fallen by the wayside.

 

My initial thought is that games are simply better now. But what I suspect is true is that if you’re playing a lot of new games to sate your lust for variety, it’s easier to find enough games that you like so that it *seems* like games are better now. You don’t have to sate your lust with dross.

 

The best games from 2004 are still classically enjoyable. They’re also simpler. What we thought were heavy games back then are mid-weight games now. If you went back and played all those games again, not just the ones you like but all the average/bad ones as well, would you still rate them the same given all the gaming experiences you’ve had now, and knowing better now what you prefer in a game, and being less prone to put up with things that are just ok because there are now so many better games you can play instead? The answer may be yes but whenever I play these older games the rating invariably drops a point or two due to the above. Case in point is Sticheln which until recently I last played a decade ago. I rated it an 8 when it first came out and we played it a lot because it was novel. Playing it again recently, it’s just slow (you can play any card, and card counting is crucial) and it’s mean – you can choose to effectively knock a player out of the game in the first round. I now rate it a 6.

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Preview of OrthoGnomes

澳洲幸运5开奖结果历史查询-澳洲5幸运查询开奖记录计划 OrthoGnomes

  • Designer: Kotori
  • Publisher: PhantomLab
  • Players: 2
  • Age: 8
  • Time: 5-15 minutes

This game was provided by the publisher.

Summary:

OrthoGnomes is a clever 2 player strategy game which is played in a 3-dimensional space. This latest game from indie publisher PhantomLab and designed by Kotori, is based on her unique gnome world lore. The same world her previous game Palingnomes is set in. In her lore, it is said that long ago, Gnomes said that the Sun god and Ice god created a game to pass the time. Creating the seasons we have today – if the Sun god won it would be summer, if the Ice god one it would be winter. Players can play the game to see which side will win by creating lines of 4 in a row regardless of the depth in the point of view, not only on the 4 sides of the play area, but also from the top.

Gameplay:

In OrthoGnomes, the game is played over 2 rounds. Whomever has the highest score totaled over the 2 rounds is the winner. One player plays as light, and the other as dark. To score, players need to place the blocks on the game board to create as many lines of 4 of their own player color as they can. Each player gets 6 of their own blocks, with each block consisting of 3 cubes of colors.

Choose which player will go first, and that player places one of their blocks on the rotating game board to cover the starting space. Players alternate back and forth to place their block one at a time while also manipulating and rotating the game board so they can see all sides of the 3D play area – the North, South, East, West sides, and the top side.

Blocks can not be placed parallel to each other – they must always be perpendicular. Which makes it interesting as it builds blocks of various depths. Blocks cannot go outside the game grid – but you can build upwards as far as you like. Although if a player knocks over the blocks on the rotating game board they lose.

Since this game uses the physical space, the lines of colors don’t need to be on the same plane. Players can try to stack a block vertically and further back on the board in hopes they can eventually fill in the spaces in front and below it to make a line of 4. As players start building, they can start to see their lines of 4 forming. But they also need to pay attention to their opponent’s squares.

Once both players have placed all their blocks on the game board, the round ends. Starting from one of the sides, players count how many lines of 4 they created. They need to check all 4 sides, and the top face of the structure. They can tally up that number and write it somewhere. Then the start player for Round 2 switches to the other player. They play one more round and tally how many lines of 4 they created. Add up both numbers for both the rounds, and whomever has the highest total is the winner!

Impressions:

OrthoGnomes is a game that can be picked up by anyone with its easy rules, with some familiar concepts like getting 4 squares in a row, but also adding something new with the 3-dimensional space, the rotating game board and the depth of viewing the blocks. With only 6 blocks for each player, the game can play quickly. For those who like to plan and think they can take their time pondering all the moves to make. The block stacking adds a little bit of dexterity to it, and having to think about all 5 sides made me feel like I played a nice strategy game. Not too complex, but my brain still got a little work out. Also, the game quality is really nice and elegant. I thought it might be a small box game, but when it arrived the box had some heft to it, and the blocks have a nice weight to them.

I like abstract strategy games but sometimes they are not easy to bring to the table during game days. With Kotori’s games, they always have an interesting story which adds some flavor when teaching the game to new players and is family-friendly. I can totally imagine the Gnome gods playing this game. I can also see how this game is easy to bring out especially on game days when we are looking for a 2 player game that still has some nice strategy to it. I think players who also enjoy games like “Hey, That’s my Fish!” may also like this as well!

The version I have is the 2024 Japanese version that was released at the Tokyo Game Market, and I look forward to seeing and trying the new editions after their Kickstarter campaign.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

I love it! – Mandy
I like it.
Neutral.
Not for me…

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