Robot Viking

Hello, loyal readers. Robot Viking will be shutting down for a while. The site will still be here and you can still reach me at my robotviking.com email address, but there won’t be any new posts in the foreseeable future. Thank you for reading for these four years.

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The first expansion for the 2013 edition of Duels of the Planeswalkers came out this week. It adds five new decks and a ton of cards from the original Ravnica block to the casual video game version of Magic: the Gathering.

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Another package of surprise minis arrived on my doorstep last week, and what do I find inside? Some of the most useful, well-made painted plastic minis I’ve ever seen.

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While at PAX I got a chance to be hands-on with the new X-COM: Enemy Unknown. It’s brilliant. Those of you who remember how hardcore difficult the original series was will find the same difficulty here, but now there’s a tutorial, so folks who’ve lost the manual (me) can actually play it without constantly alt-tabbing to Google. That’s nice.

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I would never have heard of this game if one of the creators hadn’t been in line behind me at the Magic party at PAX. That would be a shame. I’m already addicted to this turn-based fantasy combat game.

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Whether you’re into role playing games or not, the Pathfinder comic is worth checking out. However, if you are into fantasy pen and paper gaming, the benefits extend beyond the actual comic.

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The bell tolls for thee, 4E. A lot of people have wondered what kind of D&D books will be released in 2013 if the D&D Next playtest is going to take two years. Menzoberranzan answers that question — edition-neutral books packed with fluffy lore and epic (p)ages of fictional history. That gives D&D fans a lot to look forward to.

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There’s a New Event Nearby, and it is in a little game called Guild Wars 2, the latest offering from ArenaNet. Fans of the original Guild Wars and its expansions likely wept tears of joy when it was announced and queued up for the head start weekend. Read more

While I was at PAX I had the chance to talk to Magic Brand Manager Paul Levy about Return to Ravnica. Due to technical difficulties associated with a loud expo floor I can’t give a transcript, but I can pass on the highlights of the talk.

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I’ve got a lengthy post at io9 today about the new releases Fantasy Flight Games has this summer and later this year: X-Wing, Netrunner, the Star Wars RPG, and a slimmed down Game of Thrones card game. Check it out.

Have I mentioned that deckbuilding games are a big thing these days? One of the earliest entries in the genre, AEG’s Thunderstone, received a major overhaul and was rereleased as Thunderstone Advance earlier this year. Despite the awkward syntax of the name, it’s a great game that lets you visit a town to recruit an adventuring party and buy gear, then delve into a dungeon to battle a shifting array of monsters.

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The latest entry in the rapidly growing deckbuilding genre is Upper Deck’s Marvel Legendary game, due out in November. I was able to play a demo game at Gen Con. Here are some highlights.

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Last Night on Earth’s latest expansion, Timber Peak, is a standalone game that adds new scenarios, characters, and chaos to the endless struggle between the humans and the zombies. You thought you could escape town and head for a remote mountaintop to get away from the walking dead? You were wrong.

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