Ye ask and yousa gonna get it. Here is my newest video journal about my continuing gameplay of Final Fantasy XIII. ... more.

I know what you're thinking: Neal, reviewing a video game? And an online Flash game, at that? I can't believe it either. What makes it even stranger is this: on paper, I should hate this game. A robot unicorn in a floating world of rainbows and fairies attempts to make its wishes come true. (Exactly how that happens is unclear, but it involves running really fast, ramming into stars and eating sai... more.

An international cabal of bankers owns the mass media. Oil companies are secretly in the pocket of Cthulhu cultists. And the Boy Scouts are a front for UFO aliens. Conspiracy theories abound, but now you can be at the center of one. Steve Jackson Games' Illuminati! puts you in control of one of the groups rumored to be vying for world domination behind the scenes. Each faction of Illuminati aim... more.

Okay fans, my brother sent me this little gem of a clip recently and I thought it was too good not to share.  WOW fans take note, if this looks like you, please stop playing WOW. This clip is titled "greatest freak out ever" and I have to agree it is a hoot!   Just watch it. Fake or real, this thing is hilarious and a warning to us all not to take our game playing too serious! ... more.

Recently, while perusing a very prominent networking website, I came across a link one of my good friends had posted on his page. Clicking said link took me to a website called Obsidian Portal (www.obsidianportal.com), wherein said friend has created a domain of his own reflective of a current Dungeons and Dragons campaign he has been running for the past couple of years. I decided to get to the b... more.

Okay folks, sometimes Cinema Death Blog simply comes across things that are just darn cool and this little animated film falls into that category! Now, I admit up front that I am a big Star Trek fan, and yes I call myself a Trekkie and not a Trekker, and I am also a big Alien fan but I did not know that what I was getting when I clicked on this film was a kick-ass combo of the two franchises. ... more.

Okay folks, I know this is WAY overdue, but finally here is article number 3 in the RPG series MetaGaming! Why is this article way overdue? Well, it's a combination of Christmas break (I'm a college student), working on other projects, and general laziness on my part. But I plan on getting back into the swing of things with this series of articles, so sit back, relax, read and enjoy!  So. As p... more.

If one were to put together a pantheon of classic board games, a few mainstream games would make the list simply because of their ubiquity. Generations of players grew up with a handful of time-tested games that work because they're "high concept": Monopoly is one of these. Others earn their fame by having very wide appeal: Scrabble cuts across demographic, national, even linguistic lines. Risk ma... more.

One of the first things to come up every time we've discussed a game here or on our podcast is the production value of the game: how good it looks, and how well it's made. While some games get by just fine with a simple, clean aesthetic approach, try imagining what Monopoly would be like without the iconic pieces or money. Even games that started out simple, like Trivial Pursuit, have evolved more... more.

National Public Radio just aired a segment on the growth of board game sales, which you can read or listen to here. As I've said in previous columns, board games are an economical way to get lots of entertainment value for your money, in addition to promoting useful mental and social skills. The piece also brings to mind an important factor we haven't discussed quite as much here at GameJournal, b... more.