The Best City Building Board Games
There's little more inspiring than a blank canvas to fill with your own creativity. That's the core appeal of city building games: an empty field, a bunch of bricks and you the architect. Only a few rules (and some annoying opponents) stand between you and your grand vision of utopia.
The visual of seeing your city come together in front of your eyes is just so satisfying. Mapping out a metropolis gives you the chance to combine spatial skills with strategic play in a manner few other genres can manage. That's what most of our picks are all about, but there's a few more artisanal abstracts to play as well.
Let's start with the most popular and archetypical example of city building. Your city begins with a feeble three hexes, one park, one suburb and one factory. Adding to it means picking a hex from an agonizing conveyor of options, with closer choices costing fewer resources. Where to put it pushes further problems onto your plate, since the effects of most tiles change depending on their neighbors. Throw in an economic model that punishes rapid growth and you've got a seething stew of architectural agony and one brilliant board game. Best of all are the bizarre urban dreamscapes these competing demands create, where skyscrapers sit side by side with slaughterhouses.
How Netflix’s Lost in Space Compares to the Other Lost in Spaces
March 6th was the 50th anniversary of the final episode of the initial run of Lost in Space, which originally aired from 1965 to 1968. This is also the date when Netflix, in a coup of marketing timing, elected to release the trailer for their new rebooted version of Lost in Space, which will drop on April 13th. This trailer is, of course, all that general audiences currently know about the new Lost in Space, but it certainly contains enough substance to offer sci-fi fans and old-school TV geeks fodder for endless speculation and conjecture. So let’s take a look at how this new Lost in Space looks when compared to the older versions?
The original Lost in Space, in case you're unfamiliar, followed the future adventures of the Robinson family, as they quested to find a home after their spacecraft was thrown off course by a creepy stowaway. The cast included Guy Williams, June Lockhart from Lassie, future member of Barnes & Barnes Bill Mumy, Marta Kristen, Angela Cartwright, Mark Goddard, and the indelible Jonathan Harris as the menacing and over-the-top stowaway Dr. Smith. Bob May suited up as the show's boxy robot friend (who was voiced by Dick Tufeld).
State of Decay 2: 25 Minutes of 4-Player Co-op Multiplayer – IGN First
State of Decay 2 is coming soon and bringing with it a number of shiny new features and improvements over the original. Chief among those big changes in the sequel is the addition of up to four-player cooperative multiplayer so you and your friends can finally live out your zombie-apocalypse survival fantasy together.
We're very excited to be revealing a big ole chunk of said co-op gameplay today from a work-in-progress build of the game as part of our ongoing IGN First coverage. The video is lightly commentated for context, and shows some great weapons and items Undead Labs was kind enough to give us. Enjoy!
And if you missed the news, we revealed the State of Decay 2 release date and price, with much more to come as the month unfolds.
Star Trek Cruises Are a Thing, and Jason Isaacs Is in Charge
First there were the TV shows. Then the conventions. Then the movies. Then more TV shows. Then mega-conventions. And now, Star Trek is taking over the world of cruising.
That's right. In recent years, setting sail on completely immersive Star Trek cruises has become the ultimate expression of fandom for the diehard Trekkies/Trekkers who have the means. Cast and crew of the many Star Trek series mix with the fans on these annual Trek-themed cruises, with previous years' voyages featuring first William Shatner and then George Takei as the headliner act -- the honorary captain, if you will.
And now we have the word on who will headline the 2019 cruise: Star Trek: Discovery's Captain Lorca himself, Jason Isaacs.
God of War Won’t Have Microtransactions, Says Director
God of War director, Cory Barlog, has confirmed that the upcoming game will not feature microtransactions.
A Twitter user posted a screenshot showing what could be taken to be in-game currency in the game's menu, and asked if there would be microtransactions in the game.
No freakin way!!!
— Cory Barlog (@corybarlog) March 6, 2018
"No freakin way!!!" replied Barlog, who is currently travelling around Europe to promote the game, and was enjoying a selection of godly-themed beers in front of a blazing brazier at the time the question was posed, judging by his Twitter account.
Nintendo Direct Coming Tomorrow
Nintendo has announced it will hold a 30-minute Nintendo Direct tomorrow, March 8.
According to Nintendo of America's announcement on Twitter, the Direct will cover "upcoming Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS games, including new details on Mario Tennis Aces." The presentation will begin at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm UK (March 9 at 9am AET).
Mario Tennis Aces was announced a couple months ago, during January's Nintendo Direct Mini. The game will be released for Switch sometime this spring and will feature a story mode, which the series hasn't seen since Mario Tennis Power Tour.
Take a Final Fantasy XV Screenshot, See It on a London Billboard
To celebrate the launch of Final Fantasy 15 on PC, Nvidia Ansel is running a contest to feature the winner's screenshot on a London billboard.
The contest was announced on the Nvidia website to mark the release of Windows Edition. Players can win a print of their Ansel shot signed by the Final Fantasy 15 dev team, as well as having their screenshot splashed across a London billboard as part of the game's marketing campaign.
Players can participate by sharing their screenshot to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram before midnight (GMT) on March 20, tagging @NVIDIAGeForceUK and using the hashtag #FFXVSHOTWITHGEFORCEGTX.
Floyd Mayweather Is Apparently Making a Game
Floyd Mayweather has announced that he's hopping aboard the video game bandwagon with his own creation that's currently in the works.
The undefeated boxer told TMZ that he is "working on" his video game, saying that he couldn't be involved with EA's Fight Night series because he has to "have some ownership" of the projects he's involved with.
Mayweather won't be the first boxer to have his name emblazoned on a fighting game. Mike Tyson had the honor of being the final boss in Mike Tyson's Punch Out on the NES, although when the license expired on using Tyson's name, he was replaced with the Mr. Dream character.
Nier: Automata Still Holds a ‘Final’, ‘Unpleasant’ Secret
Square Enix's Nier: Automata has a whopping 26 endings for those players who have the time and fortitude to unlock them all. But there's still one last mystery that has yet to be unlocked, and the developers aren't willing to help you find out what it is.
According to a Famitsu interview (translated by Gematsu) the game has an "unpleasant" secret waiting to be discovered.
"'That' has yet to be discovered," reads the piece in Famitsu's 1st anniversary piece about the game. "It will definitely be unpleasant, so the developers will not officially announce what it is. For various reasons, this specification was put into the game. If they are more detailed about what it is, problems might occur, so they cannot say anything more. It is the final secret of NieR: Automata…"
Fortnite Battle Royale: 20-Player Squad Mode On the Way
A new limited time mode is coming to Fortnite Battle Royale that will introduce squads of 20 players.
A screenshot of the impending update was posted on Reddit, and as well as giving us a glimpse of the Raptor and new Empire Axe hitting the store, the 20-player squad mode was also detailed, pitting five teams of 20 against one another in a battle for the Victory Royale.
The limited time mode will nestle nicely between the four-man squads and the 50 vs 50 mode that rolled out at the end of last year.