P.I.

P.I.

A black-and-white scene. A gloomy office, a frosted glass door. Dusk is falling onto the metropolis outside the windows, police sirens and unidentifiable scents wavering through the reddening light of night falling. Behind the desk sits a man in shirts and trench coat, his hat on the wardrobe next to the door. A private eye by trade and complexion. Suddenly, a knock on the door, it opens and a stunning woman with a red dress and an air of titillation enters… that’s a typical day in the life of a classic film noir detective, and one that you can participate in when playing Martin Wallace’s P.I.

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Tokaido – Collectors’ Edition

Usually, when a game is about traveling a road, you win by arriving first at the destination. Of course racing is fun, but it’s not the only way to travel. Sometimes, going slowly and enjoying the trip is what you should be doing. Antoine Bauza’s Tokaido rewards that type of travel, here the winner is the player who had the richest experience along the way. That makes Tokaido very different from a racing game, and in the best way, too.

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Terra Mystica

Terra Mystica was the first game by German publisher Feuerland Spiele last year, and to say that it turned out popular is a bit of an understatement. It’s an entirely peaceful fantasy game about colonizing the world, there is no direct conflict, no destroying opposing settlements. But space is very limited and you’ll soon be standing on everyone’s feet. Even more so because the game punishes you for being far away from everyone else. So, did it deserve the rave reviews so far?

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The Palaces of Carrara

The city of Carrara has been famous for its marble since Roman times. It’s been used, by people who can afford it, all over the empire. In The Palaces of Carrara, you don’t take it quite so far, the furthest your marble travels is about 100km down the coast. But you wouldn’t want it to go further, anyway, because that short distance already gives you enough to consider if you want to win in this game, because for a game of only about 60 minutes, it sure keeps you busy.

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Trains

Deck-building was a big game genre the last few years. But pure deck-building is exhausted, every major publisher has a couple of deck.-building games already. But deck-building as a mechanic still has a lot to offer, and incorporating it into a larger game offers many options yet to explore. Trains is one such game that takes deck-building and builds a wider game around it. So build your decks to build your tracks and lay rails across Japan.

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Sigismundus Augustus

Sigismundus Augustus

Long, deep and historical games are not uncommon, but they usually focus on war. Sigismundus Augustus goes a different route, it’s all about Polish Politics under the King with the game’s name. A completely different type of challenge, but just as tricky to win. But how much fun is history without bloodshed?

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al-Rashid

The empire of Caliph Harun al-Rashid was one of the biggest and most advanced of its time. Exactly the place for you to make a name, and loads of money, for yourself. But be careful, being successful and having friends were not easily compatible even back in the days of Arabian Nights.

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The Great Zimbabwe

The Great Zimbabwe

It’s not easy becoming king. Especially not when all the craftsmen work for other tribes, without them your monuments don’t grow and even your gods make it harder for you to win. You’ll have to do a lot of thinking to rule over The Great Zimbabwe.

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CO2

A game about global warming and green energy, so many things could potentially go wrong with that. It could be dry and boring. It could be preachy. It could be trying to be educational. Or it could be great game of economy and strategy where you have to balance your profits against the possibility of global environmental disaster. Which one is CO2?

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Qwixx

Qwixx

The first nominee for this year’s Spiel des Jahres award, a light but clever dice game by Steffen Benndorf. While some luck is obviously involved, there are also decisons to be made at every corner.

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