Author: Charlie Theel

Who You Gonna Call? Not the Reichbusters.

I’m sitting at a desk. I’m looking over my notes scribbled lawlessly during several incursions into a Nazi castle. I’m wrangling with many thoughts trying to formulate an angle. But there’s only one way to launch this V2 rocket. Reichbusters is a misfire. This is a cooperative dungeon crawler where the dungeon is a Third…

Pulling Away – A Rallyman GT Review

In racing there’s a combination of raw competition and unfettered velocity that aligns perfectly with the emotional components of gaming. What is racing but an extended victory point track which competitors plummet along in peril of collision? It’s the most visceral counting of points we can fathom. Yet this formula rarely transcends average. There’s a…

Hip to be Square – A Catacombs Cubes Review

There is no denying we have a morbid fascination with war and destruction. We turn it into entertainment at every opportunity with films like 1917 and games like Tank Duel. Yet, just as much as we love blowing something up we love putting it together too. Titles like Civilization and Tiny Towns pull in the…

Evolution Evolves – An Oceans Review

A game’s most important quality is how it feels during play. It’s the whole point of why I write about board games and what I hope you take away when reading. It’s also the reason why I simply didn’t dig Evolution from North Star Games. That title explored an interesting space, tackling evolutionary theory in…

The Lone Optimist – A Posthuman Saga Review

The post-apocalyptic genre is perhaps my favorite of genres. Among my top films are Fury Road and Children of Men, and among my top novels are The Road and Blood Meridian. My point is that Posthuman Saga is exactly the type of game I stand up for. It’s the type of thing that should directly appeal and have my heart in…

A Tank Duel: Enemy in the Crosshairs Review

You have to be a little off to be a tanker. These men jammed themselves into a noisy steel warmachine and thundered across the countryside while other crazy men threw high velocity tungsten rounds at them. It was a confined hell that smelled of sweat and petrol. All they had was each other and their…

Theel’s Feels – A 2019 Top 10

Yuck. I can appreciate a top 10 list from afar, curious to know Joel Eddy or Mark Bigney’s take on their top releases of the year, but I will always struggle to craft my own. Not because the actual choosing of games is difficult but because the penning of lists is an activity akin to…