#z-man-games

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Video games
fromGame Informer
7 months ago

Deadzone: Rogue Review - Rewarding Repetition - Game Informer

Deadzone: Rogue offers engaging gunplay and a rewarding roguelite experience, making it a standout in the first-person shooter genre.
Board games
fromWGB
19 hours ago

Darwin's Paradox Review - Tentacles, Trouble, and Trial-and-Error

Darwin's Paradox is an inventive indie game featuring an octopus escaping a food processing plant while unintentionally thwarting a global conspiracy.
#board-games
Games
fromKotaku
2 weeks ago

I Can't Stop Playing This Terrible Game, So Maybe It's Good?

Timber Rush is a simplistic game focused on upgrading abilities and collecting logs, yet it captivates players despite its lack of traditional gameplay.
#card-game
Games
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 weeks ago

Wordle inventor gets ahead of the game | Letters

Josh Wardle continues to create games, demonstrating the importance of ongoing creativity beyond initial success.
Board games
fromGame Informer
3 days ago

Arkham Horror: The Card Game Designers Highlight The New Jumping On Point

Arkham Horror: The Card Game's new core set offers a fresh starting point for new players while continuing its legacy in tabletop gaming.
#board-game
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 week ago

The Lord of the Rings: Journey to Mordor Review

The Lord of the Rings: Journey to Mordor is a fast-paced dice game focusing on Frodo and Sam's journey to Mount Doom.
Video games
fromThe Verge
1 month ago

Slay the Spire II is even better with a friend

Slay the Spire II launches in early access as an excellent sequel that iterates on the original while adding online co-op for up to four players, maintaining the core turn-based roguelike experience.
fromDefector
4 weeks ago

Competitive Scrabble Is A Lexical Shitshow | Defector

Under an oak-beamed ceiling on the top floor of one of Washington, D.C.'s coolest museums, Planet Word, more than 90 kids gathered last April to vie for $5,000 and youth Scrabble bragging rights. The North American School Scrabble Championship is serious business. The No. 1 high-school seed was ranked in the top 150 of all players in the U.S. and Canada.
Games
Video games
fromKotaku
1 month ago

Esoteric Ebb Has A Lot Of Hilarious Ways In Which You Can Die

Esoteric Ebb is an isometric RPG combining Baldur's Gate 3 and Disco Elysium elements, released March 3, where character stat allocation significantly impacts gameplay difficulty and survival.
#crowdfunding
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
3 weeks ago

Top 10 Solo Board Games for Every Kind of Gamer

Solo gaming is rapidly evolving, with many games now including solo modes or automata, enhancing the tabletop gaming experience.
Relationships
fromwww.mercurynews.com
1 month ago

Asking Eric: Their choices for game night are so cringey

Accept others' preference for simple games or bow out; use nonverbal tactics and classroom strategies to command attention despite a soft voice.
fromBoard Game Quest
3 weeks ago

Everbound Review

Everbound uses an 18-card construct to fill out the crew of a pirate ship. You start with your Captain and a twinkle in yer eye. And presumably a ship. Yarrrr. You'll take one of two actions per turn. Draw: Take a card from the Dock. Recruit: Play a card from your hand by paying its icon cost.
Board games
Business
fromwww.npr.org
2 months ago

December board game update

Planet Money Board Game released an updated near-final prototype for public testing after incorporating listener feedback.
fromEngadget
2 years ago

The best board games to gift and play this year

This is for that friend that finishes the Wordle in three tries and solves the purple clues first in Connections. League of the Lexicon reminds me a bit of Trivial Pursuit - players or teams take turns asking everyone questions from a double-sided card with answers on the back. Questions come in five categories and cover synonyms, word origins, spelling, definitions, archaic words, grammar, linguistic trivia and more.
Books
UX design
fromMedium
2 months ago

Escaping AI sludge, Figma Make prompts, UX for board games

AI-driven workflows have produced homogenized products, making brands sterile; designers should prioritize craft and delightful MVPs to solve user problems and differentiate experiences.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
3 weeks ago

Parks and Potions Review

Parks and Potions combines beautiful art, fantasy themes, and engaging potion-crafting mechanics where players collect and combine potions to heal fantastical creatures over six rounds for scoring.
Artificial intelligence
fromFast Company
1 month ago

A Roman board game has mystified researchers for years. AI discovered how to play

An ancient Roman-era limestone board from Coriovallum was identified as a blocking game (Ludus Coriovalli) using AI simulations matching wear patterns.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
3 weeks ago

Endeavor: Deep Sea Review

Endeavor: Deep Sea is a strategic exploration game with modular board gameplay, multiple play modes (solo, cooperative, competitive), and mission-based scenarios with unique goals and impact tracking mechanics.
#board-game-crowdfunding
fromwww.theguardian.com
2 months ago

I don't like organised fun, but Dungeons and Dragons is my shining nerdy light amid the darkness | Patrick Lenton

I wish this was a one-off blip in my regimented friendship schedule, but all through 2025 I played the world's slowest game of message tennis. I'd invite a pal for dinner, only for the world to turn, the seasons pass, grey hairs gather at my temples, before a date was finally locked in. This sentiment seems to be common among my circle.
Relationships
fromhttps://www.arogyayogaschool.com/blog
2 months ago

Why Short Play Sessions Beat Long Grinds In Modern Game Design

Games did not suddenly become "worse." Games adapted. Attention got tired, schedules got tighter, and competition for free time turned brutal. A ten-minute gap now has to fight against messages, videos, and endless feeds. In that environment, long-form sessions still exist, but short sessions often win because they respect reality instead of demanding a perfect evening. That shift is visible everywhere, from mobile puzzlers to competitive titles and even casino-style experiences where a quick crore win feeling is part of the appeal.
Video games
fromWIRED
2 months ago

Board Is Tabletop Tablet Gaming-but With Physical Pieces

Board is a physical-digital hybrid gaming system aimed at children, offering varied launch titles, mixed family reception, and uncertain future content pricing and durability.
Board games
fromwww.theguardian.com
4 weeks ago

Less respawning, more re-rolling: six of the best board games based on video games

Video games increasingly adapt into physical board games, with successful examples like Company of Heroes 2nd Edition and Slay the Spire translating digital mechanics into tabletop experiences using dice, miniatures, and cards.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
4 weeks ago

Top 10 Influential Years in Board Gaming History

Board gaming history is evaluated by identifying the most influential years, with only pre-2016 years qualifying due to requiring nearly a decade to assess impact.
Video games
fromKotaku
2 months ago

Baldur's Gate 3 Gets More Magic: The Gathering Cards

Magic: The Gathering Secret Lair drops Baldur's Gate 3 set Feb 9 with roughly 30 new cards, including five cards each for Gale and Shadowheart.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Top Ten (Unexpected) Board Game Side Effects

Board gaming hobbies produce unexpected psychological effects including reality distortion, media immersion, and travel fantasies beyond anticipated expenses and space concerns.
Board games
fromKotaku
1 month ago

Slay The Spire 2 Is A Far Better Version Of An Extraordinary Game

Slay the Spire 2 refines and improves upon the original's roguelite deckbuilding formula rather than pursuing radical innovation, delivering an even better game.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Dawnmaker Digital Review

Dawnmaker combines city-building and deck-building mechanics in a campaign-based game where players upgrade a lighthouse by gathering resources through card play and constructing buildings to progress through increasingly difficult missions.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Crowdfunding Campaigns of the Week - 3/2/26

Multiple crowdfunding board game campaigns are available, including Lion Dancers, Almighty, NPC Rivals, and One Card Dungeon, each offering distinct gameplay themes and mechanics.
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Grand Central Skyport Review

Your skyport has dual-colored stations that score when airships of the same color land in a corresponding lane next to the station. Getting a couple of tycoons to help boost your score or change the placement abilities doesn't hurt. But, there's a catch. Each airship card's ability rarely allows for getting an airship next to the intended station on the first go.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

MicroMacro: The Home Game Jigsaw Puzzle Review

MicroMacro: The Home Game Jigsaw Puzzle is a 500-piece puzzle that utilizes the same art style as all other MicroMacro titles. The puzzle depicts a socc....errrrr, a football game, as well as the neighborhood surrounding the stadium. It is "just" a puzzle; however, there is more to it after you complete it. There are forty-two hidden objects to find (think Where's Waldo?), as well as two cases to solve, like other MicroMacro games.
Board games
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Most Anticipated Board Games of 2026

World Order offers an accessible, thematic Eurogame simulating 2010 international relations with asymmetric factions, standardized gameplay, and a viable 2-player, 90-minute variant.
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Peninsula Review

Peninsula uses a deck of 30 icon cards (or 24 if you are playing solo) with icons for each of the landscape features you will be placing on the island. Each card has two icons separated by a river. In competitive play, the active player selects the icon they want to add to their island. The remaining icon on the opposite side of the river is used by the other players.
Board games
Board games
fromGameSpot
1 month ago

The Best Co-Op Card Games For An Argument-Free Board Game Night

Co-operative card games emphasize teamwork and shared problem-solving, offering variety from deduction and storytelling to trick-taking and party styles for families and adult groups.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Top 10 Boss Battler Board Games

Tabletop boss battlers that allow attacking the boss from round one emphasize immediate cooperative combat, positioning, pattern manipulation, and varied high-stakes mechanics.
Board games
fromInverse
2 months ago

'Two Players Accidentally Cheated': How The New Catan Expansion Put My Friendships To The Test

Settlers of Catan’s 30th‑anniversary sixth edition bundles major expansions, adding complex mechanics (barbarians, knights, skill trees) and a compact 15‑minute travel version.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Dust Biters Review

Dust Biters is a compact two-player 18-card tactical racing game emphasizing simple rules, deep positional decisions, and quick 10–15 minute matches.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Galaxy Trucker: Do What?! Expansion Review

Do What?! adds VIP Astronauts and Missions with new cargo types, increasing challenge, strategic choices, and explosion risk in Galaxy Trucker.
Board games
fromABC7 Los Angeles
2 months ago

Embracing board games as a winning strategy for digital detox

Long Island's tabletop gaming expo celebrates handcrafted, tactile board, card, miniature, and role-playing games, highlighting physical interaction and indie creators.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Vineyard Review

Vineyard pairs cooperative winemaking mechanics with competitive scoring, creating an uneasy thematic mismatch between pleasant vineyard imagery and tense, control-focused gameplay.
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Clans of Caledonia: Industria Expansion Review

So with an expansion recently released, we were itching to whip out our Clans of Caledonias and bolt trains onto them. For Science! Clans of Caledonia: Industria, from Juma Al-JouJou and published by Karma Games, is the first expansion for Clans of Caledonia. "First expansion" is in bold text in the English rulebook, so perhaps Juma is cooking up more content.
Board games
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Ayar: Children of the Sun Review

Ayar is a strategic board game where four Incan sibling pairs traverse Lake Titicaca to Cusco, performing activities while one pair is eliminated each round.
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Biathlon Blast Review

Biathlon Blast simulates skiing and shooting with card-driven movement, heart-rate effects, wind changes, and dice-based shooting that converts points into lap movement.
fromBoard Game Quest
1 month ago

Everstone: Discovering Ignis Review

In Everstone, 1-4 players have just discovered the magical city of Ignis, and they compete over 40-180 minutes in this medium-weight engine-building Eurogame to explore the valley and discover relics in an effort to garner the greatest reputation among the locals. Gameplay Overview: Everstone does not possess a set number of rounds; instead, players race to achieve 10 reputation points. The central loop of the game has players acquiring gemstone resources of three colors from various sources and trading them
Board games
Board games
fromBoard Game Quest
2 months ago

Yokohama Duel Review

Yokohama Duel is a streamlined, two-player adaptation that replaces mancala with preset workers, preserving strategic engine-building, diverse scoring paths, and balanced interaction.
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