Howdy, pardners! Well, much has transpired in the realm of the gaming
industry since we last chatted. I suppose most of you have heard the news
of Hasbro buying Wizards of the Coast. This is a surprise move, and we
suspect that the final results will be damaging, if not disastrous, to the
gaming community as a whole.
If you recall, when Hasbro purchased Avalon Hill, suddenly all of the games
they made disappeared, and then there was nothing. Now, two years later,
there are supposedly versions of these games available, but nobody has
actually held them, just seen pics on the net.
Aside from Pokemon, this may well be true for WOTC as well. Many of the
people in the gaming community are buying AD&D stuff and Alternity because
of this, and people are ditching their Magic cards for the same reason. If
customer reaction is any gage of the support for this venture, then it bodes
ill indeed, press release or no press release.
On the WOTC front, they have, as of this week, entered into the grounds of
lying to their customers. It has been announced for several months that the
new edition of Pokemon, the Fossil expansion, will be available in late
October or early November, in fact, Nov 11 was the date given to me by a
WOTC rep last week. Now, it is available directly from WOTC on ecommerce.
There are already several distributors and a series of retailers who are
forming up plans to sue WOTC for this. As for me, I'll wait in
bemused silence by the sidelines, and see what happens.
On to happier things. Games Workshop has re-released the Eldar for 40k, and
they new figures are quite nice. In fact, were it not for the rumors
concerning the reason that only one of the figures was changed, there would
be no hiccups in this at all. Battlefleet Gothic is alive and well, and from
what we have heard, there will be a new expansion, perhaps only available in
the US, due out by Christmas.
VOR by Fasa is also doing well, and the minis are not only a joy to paint,
but they are inexpensive too. The gameplay is nice, and the best part is
that you can use minis from other game systems in it, too. All in all,
quite promising.
AEG/Pinnacle has been the talk of the town recently, and their tow big
releases are really icing on the cake. The second edition of Deadlands is
available, in both player and GM books, and the compilation is very good.
Instead of having to search through several sourcebooks, its all there at
your fingertips. The other big news is the 7th Sea CCG. This is a very
nice pirate card game, where people command a galleon and complete adventures,
find lost civilizations, and generally blow the hell out of the opponent
with 20 pound cannon volleys. My kind of game.
Cheap Ass Games has introduced Brawl, a real time fighting card game, where
the goal is to beat your opponent to a standstill as fast as possible. Its
cheap, requires no dice or beads, and fun to play. I give it four stars.
Shadowfist is coming. We were promised.
Well, the season is almost upon us, and so it is time to start looking for
good gifts. As always, I suggest a German game. Rio Grande Games and
Mayfair are well established in the industry for bringing high quality board
games from Germany, and this year has been no exception. Big City, Ido,
Samurai, the list goes on and on. And of course, who could forget the classic
Settlers of Cataan?
So, start thinking merry thoughts, friends. While this past month may have
been slow on the gaming front, you ain't seen nothin' yet!
Shade and Sweet Water
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