GeekNights Tuesdays: Gaming

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review The Gang, a fantastic cooperative tabletop game about pulling bank heists by ranking poker hands. In the news, there's lots to say about the Nintendo Direct, Borderlands 4 has angered gamers with its poor performance and Gearbox isn't handling it super well. 'Pitchford told people to “code your own engine and show us how it’s done, please,” and declared Borderlands 4 “a premium game made for premium gamers” whatever that means.

Related LinksForum Thread* Cobalt Core

Discord Chat* Cobalt Core

Things of the Day* Rym - AI Tom Scott talks about Sneed * Scott - Better Rockem Sockem Robots

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Tonight on the 18th anniversary of the first episode of GeekNights, we review The Jackbox Party Pack 10. It's got the streamlined TKO 2 and a trivia game that's like the ones we like. In the news, Rym keeps playing Overwatch, Super Mario Wonder is good fun, and Deltarune 3 and 4 will come out sooner than anticipated.

Related LinksForum Thread* The Jackbox Party Pack 10

Things of the Day* Rym - i could probably beat ramiel in a fight * Scott - This is an Aaronson Oracle

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Counter-Strike 2. We have been playing some form of Counter-Strike since 2000... We reviewed Counter-Strike in 2006 and Counter-Strike GO in 2012. In news that is as little as it is late, Unity backs down on much of their new monetization model, Epic lays off 16% of its staff, and Scott GeekBites Heretic's Fork.Related LinksForum Thread* Counter-Strike 2

Things of the Day* Rym - oo ee oo * Scott - One Revolution Per Minute

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review and discuss PAX West 2023. The new venue is fantastic and it felt a lot like PAXes from the golden age of PAX. In the news, Scott suffered Airport Adventures yet made it to Chicaco, Steam (and our Steam accounts) are 20 years old, and the Unity game engine destroys itself with an actively hostile monetization model that is somehow worse than we expected from their 2022 merger with evil.

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Tonight on GeekNights, having somehow never talked about Quake (except for Quake Live in 2009, we discuss Quake 2 and the Quake 2 Remaster. In the news, the Atari 7800 is back legit, Charles Martinet is moving on, and Marvel Snap is paying people to watch Twitch streams with .pngs in their app.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review PitchCar (1995). It's a flicking game. It's a sport. It's pretty fun. In the news, a livestreamer guy caused a riot in New York for which he is facing charges, Gen Con continues to live up to its reputation with a disaster over unmanaged Lorcana lines (remember Lorcana is the subject of a lawsuit from Upper Deck) and some extremely identifiable nerds who stole $300k worth of collectible cards from the floor.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review two games by the legendary Sid Sackson: Can't Stop (1980) and All My Diamonds (1969). They're both worth playing, but for different reasons. In the news, Overwatch League is in deep trouble along with much of the global esports ecosystem.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss worker placement as a game mechanic. We intend to turn this into a series of shows and panels following on from Mastering Game Mechanics as presented at PAX East 2013. In the news, Marvel Snap's Conquest mode is fantastic, and Valve is dropping Battle Passes for Dota 2 because "nobody buys them."

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. It's one of the best pieces of entertainment software ever made. 11/10. S-Tier. A case study in good game design. Just go play it if you aren't already. In the news, Overwatch 2 is banning 5,000 cheaters a week, Street Fighter 6's control modes are looking pretty good, and Wizards of the Coast called the Pinkertons on a youtuber.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider lore in games. You know, all that text you didn't read in the tooltips of the inventory. Or what characters told you in Half Life while you tried to clip out of the room. In the news, the Rangers begin their first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog is a real game, SGDQ 2023 is imminent, and Ingress is getting a Monster Hunter skin.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Muneyuki Yokouchi's fantastic Cat in the Box. This is an S-tier trick taking game. A must-own. It takes about two minutes to teach (three if the player is unfamiliar with trick taking games) and we've had a blast with it so far.

In the news, the world is safer today as Finland formally joins NATO, a Florida man is indicted for fraud, Klaus Teuber, the designer of the timeless classic Settlers of Catan, has passed away at age 70, and the new D&D movie might be good.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Stacklands (2022). In the news, Counter-Strike 2 is likely coming, Disco Elysium gets a collage mode, and DPReview falls victim to Amazon layoffs and capitalism.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss gamer furniture of the non-chair variety. In the news, Nintendo adds Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to Switch Online, Microsoft adds Call of Duty to Nintendo, and Magic: The Gathering adds Lord of the Rings. We also streamed this show live on the Discord Stage in the official GeekNights Discord!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss games that are not fully dead, but are mostly dead. Dance Dance Revolution (at home), the resurrected Netrunner, The Realm, Steel Battalion, and whatever game you're mad we didn't include in this short list just now. In the news, The Last Rockstars have debuted, Rym has a high opinion of the L-TEK EX PRO 2 DDR pad, the Nintendo Direct is tomorrow, and the Nintendo Switch is the third best-selling console of all time.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider teams. Playing on teams, forming teams, team sports, team games. All that team stuff. In the news, Dwarf Fortress with graphics is here (recall we interviewed Tarn Adams on GeekNights back in 2008), the FTC sues to block Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Blizzard will need someone new to offer World of Warcraft in China in a story that keeps evolving, and we hope Diablo 4 will let us click until we kill satan.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss comms in games. Text chat, voice chat, open versus restricted, and the like. In the news, Pentiment is available, and Rym is obsessed with Disco Elysium.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the surprisingly elegant Marvel Snap. Released this year on phones and PCs, it's essentially a flavor of Knizia's Battle Line (2000), itself in a narrow class of similar games of a shared lineage.In the news, Ross Chastain changed the meta in NASCAR with "Some Video Game Shit," Embracer rebranded Square Enix Montréal as Onoma before immediately shutting Onoma down, Dwarf Fotress with Graphics is coming in December, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 disabled Steam Family Sharing, a feature you should probably be using.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Unknown Worlds' Moonbreaker (2022). It's a turn-based digital miniatures game that shares a lot of lineage with Hearthstone, Magic, and possibly Neuroshima Hex (at least in terms of the net effect of some of its mechanics). It's all right, but it has a lot of issues and remains in early access.In the news, Discord's Watch Together shows you ads and is broken by adblock (and also doesn't actually work very well), Discord launches a cheaper Nitro Basic, Rym is playing a lot of Overwatch 2 which itself is struggling with its new free-to-play model that you can ignore if you just pay for the game, and GUNDAM Evolution is terrible.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss the history and current state of online game servers. Rising primarily out of competitive FPSs like Quake and Counter Strike back in the day, they were often the only way to play with a reliable community of people. There weren't matchmaking or friend lists or anything like that. In the news, Rym and Emily are back from PAX where they did a panel on losing, Scott is back from Costco, the Nintendo Direct had a bunch of things to talk about, and GeekNights will have a roughly three week hiatus between Rym and Emily biking 500 miles and Rym going on a business trip.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider single player tabletop games. Distinct from Solitaire and Simple Games or Solitaire Puzzles, expanding on our discussion of The Number of Players, we look at what it takes to have a regular old tabletop game for one. We cite Why No One Will Game With You in the course of this, but there are plenty of great single player experiences (so long as they are official rules and the game was designed with a solo mode in mind).

In the news, Blades in the Dark continues to be fantastic, Cult of the Lamb is moderately disappointing to Rym, Moonbreaker holds promise, the fake Amazon-buys-EA story was debunked before we even saw the bunk, and Disney is throwing the weight of its intellectual property around with a high-production TCG: Lorcana.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider casino games like Roulette, Poker, Craps, Blackjack, and Slot Machines. In the news, Unity is having significant woes, Cult of the Lamb looks cute, MultiVersus is something we will review in the future, Nintendo is just like every other games company, Gen Con struggles with the evil government of Indiana, and TwitchCon again requires masks.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider streaming games. Not to Twitch, but to devices. From Google Stadia to Steam Link to Steam Remote Play to adjacent game library services like Xbox Game Pass it's a space that continues to evolve. In the news, blue states in America are trying to save lives, Scott geekbites Nobody Saves the World, Asmodee sells Keyforge, Ubisoft kills 15 multiplayer games, Counter-Strike is still the #1 game on Steam by a wide margin, Pokemon cards are now easy to get, and video cards are now easy to get.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider save games. Saving games, game states, save scumming, permadeath, passwords, batteries, statefulness, and more. In the news, The Stanley Cup finals are spicier than anticipated, PAX West badges are live (and not sold out), Street Fighter 6 is trying something interesting, and a strange attempt to take over Hasbro has failed.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we discuss how games monetize. How can you make money making games? We've done at least three panels around this topic: Monetizing Games and Game Design (PAX East 2012), Money Making Games (MAGFest 2012), and more recently The Real Harm of Games (PAX East 2019).In the news, the Rangers are still in the playoffs, Sony's Playstation Plus upgrade isn't going well, Arcs is coming from Patrick Leder (though it's unfortunately on Kickstarter), Reggie Fils-Aime thinks the games industry needs to embrace unions, and Raven Software's QA team has unionized, despite Activision Blizzard's uncomfortable opposition.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the fascinating art project x portable game console: Playdate. It's neat. In the news, the contest for Lord Stanley's Cup is underway, EA Sports loses FIFA, Bethesda finishes off their PC game launcher, Square Enix continues its long fall from grace by doubling down on a scam, Embracer is embracing a gaming empire, Overwatch 2 is very promising for competitive play thus far, and American fascists are destroying basic human rights in overturning Roe v Wade.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Offworld Trading Company. An RTS with a M.U.L.E. lineage, we're having fun with it and even playing some multiplayer. In the news, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are coming, and the Playdate has a nice dev kit.In much more somber and tragic news, since the last episode we made, Russia has invaded Ukraine in what can only be described as a naked act of imperial aggression.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider lifestyle games. You know the person who plays Magic and only Magic? Or the phase we both went through playing CounterStrike literally every day? Or Chess players? In the news, Sony acquires Bungie (completing the balance of power among the AAAs) and The New York Times acquires Wordle.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Inscryption. It's worth the price of admission even if you don't know that it pulls a Frog Fractions. In the news, Rym beat Zelda II again for some reason, and Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard for ~$70BB. Also remember to aggressively confront any company that even hints at supporting NFTs in any capacity. The pressure works. Poison that well.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Lost Ruins of Arnak (2020). It's an elegant worker placement deckbuilder. We like it. In the news, COVID-19 is again an extreme crisis (please don't go to MAGFest this coming weekend), Square Enix made a repugnant New Year's statement, Kickstarter is dead, and the fake high school was indeed fake.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Metroid Dread on the Nintendo Switch. It's a solid 2D Metroid, with a few horror elements and a lot of polish. In the news, Amazon is down and it's wreaking low-key havoc, Discord is competing with Patreon and Onlyfans (and Twitch), and Ubisoft is absolutely a garbage company.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we bring you our 2021 Holiday Gaming Gift Guide. What should you buy for that gamer you know? Our list might surprise you. In the news, the Legend of Zelda Game & Watch is a huge step above the Mario one, Epic Games has acquired Harmonix, and don't cross the Wirecutter picket line.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review WarioWare: Get It Together! on the Nintendo Switch. The last time we talked about a WarioWare on GeekNights was back in 2007 when we reviewed the awful WarioWare Smooth Moves on the Wii. In the news, Konami lost the rights to some archival video they licensed, forcing them to take a number of Metal Gear Solid games down (contributing to the hellscape that is the intersection of copyright and gaming), and Unpacking is a pretty cool game.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the portal-inspired multiplayer FPS Splitgate. It's free to play, not pay to win, and if you ignore the non-game-affecting skinz and lootz it's definitely worth trying. In the news, the Advance Wars remaster is delayed, BlizzCon is canceled to be re-imagined, and you don't need a rumble pack for your N64 Controller. Also, the OLED Switch doesn't appear to be selling well, but that's not actually a problem for Nintendo.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider a game design topic in the number of players a game supports. For this exercise, we only consider orthogames. We've talked about two player games before. The reality is that one player, two player, and three+ player games are fundamentally and formally distinct. A game that supports more than one of these groups is actually multiple different games for all practical purposes.In the news, NIBCARD Games wins the Diana Jones Award for Excellence in Gaming, the Diana Jones Award trophy is missing, the Actraiser remake is more than you probably expect, Metroid Dread is solid, and it's hard to imagine PAX South happening in Texas in January considering the state has now banned vaccine mandates in a manner that very likely includes events in the convention center.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider gaming magazines. Notable mentions include Electronic Games, Nintendo Power, Dragon Magazine, Dungeon Magazine, Scrye (for those MTG prices), InQuest, GamePro, Game Informer, PC Gamer, Games Magazine, and more.In the news, Asmodee is for sale for €2 BB, SEGA Genesis games are coming to the Switch (but you won't get the good controller in the US), Activision Blizzard is still in deep shit including an $18 MM settlement, and they released their Diablo 2 remake during all of this.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. It's a solid legacy game that's worth taking a look at. In the news, Rym finally played West of Loathing and is sorting out if we'll play Aliens: Fireteam Elite, The CEO of Broken Token steps down (but still owns the company...) after abuse and harassment allegations, the CEO of Tripwire steps down due to his abhorrent statements on abortion rights, and Twitch sues two individuals over ongoing racist and bigoted harassment rampant on their platform.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Deathmatch games, particularly FPS deathmatches. Ostensibly beginning with Doom and Quake, the "genre" began already extremely refined, and frankly Quake 1 Deathmatch is literally worth playing today. In the news, Rym biked to Poughkeepsie again, Quake 1 got an update that makes multiplayer "just work" on modern PCs, China effectively bans minors playing online games, and tabletop game prices are going to skyrocket.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Pokémon UNITE: the Pokémon MOBA. It's actually pretty fun, and it's a shame that it's microtransactional pay-to-win garbage. Only play it if you can play with friends who agree to never spend money, never grind, and never use any items.In the news, the NHL Expansion Draft has released the Kraken, Activision Blizzard is rightly sued by the state of California for sexual harassment and discrimination, we join other games media in a complete blackout of all reviews or coverage of their games of any kind, as well as support their employees striking tomorrow, and Valve has released the Game Gear 2 (which they promise will run "the entire Steam library" at 30+fps)

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider collecting in games. Specifically, we consider "new in box" cartridges and people who like to tell you how many board games they own. In the news, Advance Wars 1 and 2 are coming to the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo Switch Pro is exactly what we expected rather than what people seemed to imagine, someone buys a new-in-box copy of Super Mario 64 for way too much money, and we will be live at PAX Online East this weekend!

If you want Rym's copy of Ogre, you can have second dibs on it. If no one takes it before Rym has an excuse to see a certain person, you'll miss your chance.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the New Pokemon Snap. It's Pokemon Snap. It's exactly what it looks like. And it's probably worth playing. In the news, 1846 gets an update, An Airport for Aliens Currently Run By Dogs is out, the 3080 Ti is coming, Nintendo took down a rom site (but the buried lede is that the proprietor went pro se in court), and while Moon Hunters was a delightful game this article describes what was wrong with its level design.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES. It is hard to express how revolutionary this games was in 1988-1991 (depending on where you lived), and it holds up pretty well today. (Rym just beat it on a lark last week). In the news, Tom Wilson should be expelled from the NHL, Ravenloft gets a much better look, Twitch took action against 7.5MM fake accounts, the Epic Games store is not only losing money, but also doesn't lead to actual game sales.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review PAC-MAN 99 on the Nintendo Switch. In the news, Derek Chauvin is (rightly) convicted on all three counts for the murder George Floyd, the European Super League collapses faster than anyone thought possible, Jeff Kaplan leaves Overwatch and Blizzard, Scrabble (rightly) bans racial slurs from the game, Sony backs off on shutting down the PS3 and Vita services, Nintendo is likely sunsetting the largely unsuccessful Labo, and Railroad Ink is coming to Steam.

Please consider donating to the Gianna Floyd fund, and keep protesting until there is justice. Black Lives Matter.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider JRPGs. The "genre" is broad, and many people ignore a number of Japanese Role Playing Games that they wouldn't necessarily consider a "JRPG." In the news, PAX East 2021 is (rightly) canceled due to COVID (though there will be another PAX Online), E3 (rightly) moves online due to COVID, PS Vita games are disappearing forever, and Magnus Carlsen uses the "bongcloud" opening against Hikaru Nakamura, and Luck be a Landlord is a roguelike deckbuilder slot machine.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Golf. This includes mini golf. In the news, Microsoft is likely buying Discord, Xbox Live is dead, Emily is Away 3 brings us to the Facebook era, Shredder's Revenge brings us a solid-looking TMNT game, and Magic: Legends is now in open beta.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the surprising and unique Moon Hunters, from Kitfox Games. It's on sale on steam right now for $2.24! In the news, Luke Crane made a bad situation worse that has shaken the tabletop rpg world, 3 million new users joined Roll20 during the pandemic, and you should check out these five great tabletop rpg kickstarters that weren't canceled by their creators:

Our Traveling Home
Coyote & Crow
Zine Quest 2021: The Wizard's Grimoire
The Last Will and Testament of Gideon Blythe
A Mending

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Inkle's 2019 game Heaven's Vault for Steam, Playstation, and Switch. It's unique, in a good way. In the news, Daft Punk ends, the Root Marauder Expansion is on Kickstarter, The Legend of Zelda is 35 years old, you've probably never actually heard the original Legend of Zelda theme, Civilization VI's barbarians just got a lot more interesting, and Zinequest is live.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider asynchronous play in games. It's an underserved niche in games that is especially relevant during the quarantine times. In the news, Counter-Strike is over 20 years old, hackers attacked CD Projekt Red (but at least they had backups), Battleborn is dead and gone, and Gearbox was purchased in the ever-increasing consolidation of the games industry.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Hades. It's great, and exhibits a level of polish that is honestly rare. In the news, reddit nerds are gaming GameStop stock leading to interesting consequences, Microsoft continues to struggle with Xbox Gold vs Xbox Live, and the Internet sort of went down for a bit earlier today.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the latest (free-to-play) from Zachtronics with NERTS! Online. It's a live online implementation of the classic card game Nerts, and is worth your while. In the news, a Republican mob led by disgraced president Donald Trump stormed the capitol in an ongoing coup attempt. Twitch rightly removes the PogChamp emote after the person it's based on supported this coup. Twitch replaced the PogChamp with a very cool idea that also reminded us just how racist gamers are. Thankfully, the first new PogChamp is a champ. LucasArts is basically back with LucasFilm Games, and they have announced a nazi-fighting game that we're all excited about. We also have a trailer for Bowser's Fury.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the decade to date in games and gaming. Tabletop games, role playing games, video games, console games, PC games: we are living in an explosive and amazing era of gaming. In the news, the Star Wars Squadrons patch made the game significantly more fun, Graveyard Keeper is all right, and the Overwatch winter brawls are particularly good. Check out freeze tag with an eye to the game design going on there.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the delightful Hypnospace Outlaw (2019). It's a true sendup to the early Internet, and is definitely worth playing. In the news, Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky launch with, among other problems, egregious safety issues, worker exploitation, abysmal performance on previous-generation consoles, and more. A bunch of indie titles are coming to the Nintendo Switch, including Among Us, as well as a Funimation anime streaming app.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider what is likely now our favorite 18xx train game: 1817. If you have never played one of these before, you may want to check out our reviews of 1846: The Race for the Midwest or 1889: History of Shikoku Railways first. 1817 has short selling, acquisitions & mergers, and loans (with interest) that together serve to provide more player agency than other 18xx games we've played.

In the news, Nintendo makes it easier to share screenshots from the Switch, and the Super Mario Maker levels will disappear like tears in the rain.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the Ricochet Half-Life mod from twenty years ago. It's still playable! And we're playing it semi-regularly again. We talked about it briefly as part of an ensemble show about Tron games back in 2009.In the news, thank you all for helping raise $4,006 for the Democrats in the Senate Runoff in Georgia, Hearthstone players are mad, Twitch streamers are mad, the Asmodee empire expands, and the 2020 Video Game Accessibility Awards are announced.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Among Us. It's a social deduction game, but with intrinsic mechanics and surprising depth. In the news, there are unconfirmed reports (now officially debunked) that PAX South has delayed to February 19-21 (which would still be too early to safely attend any convention), and Twitch is trying to milk more money from advertising. Also, we have some early thoughts on 18MEX (which you can play at 18xx.games) and the Resident Evil remakes.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Star Wars: Squadrons. It's great. It lacks some polish, but the gameplay is sound, the game is solid, and it's almost definitely worth your while. In the news, online chess has a cheating problem, Golden Axed was the product of unethical crunch, and some people are having problems using their Quest 2 due to Facebook.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we are joined by Epidiah Ravachol to talk about his fantastic Wolfspell. The tabletop roleplaying game of adventurers who turn to wolf flesh to fulfill a knotted quest. First appearing in issue two of Worlds Without Master, Wolfspell has been reborn now in print as the liner notes of a trifold album cover and illustrated in glorious proggy/metal fashion by Shel Kahn!We also talk about calculators. It's great. Be a wolf.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Logitech G's Playmaster software, a training program to master Counter-Strike skills. Like, actually learn those spray patterns. This is a major step in the maturity model of e-sports. In the news, MAGFest is canceled, Djokovic is a bad boy, Hyrule Warriors has a Breath of the Wild version coming, and 8BitDo has a fightstick.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Cole Wehrle's PAX Pamir (Second Edition). In the news, Facebook is destroying the Oculus brand, subsuming it into their social media hellscape. Also there's a new hockey stick in town.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider how to be to be good at Modern Art, a Knizia tabletop bidding game we're particularly fond of. In the news, the New York Rangers have the first overall draft pick, Fall Guys is full of cheaters, Dire Wolf Digital is bringing some sort of Dune deckbuilding worker placement game, Luigi's endowment informs us on Bowser's height, and we will be streamed at PAX Online with an all-new panel!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider exercise games like Ring Fit Adventure, Dance Dance Revolution, and Super Team Games. Also those arm wrestling arcade cabinets. (Don't break your arm). Games where the game plays the player and not the other way around. In the news, join us for some train games at 18xx.games, the Nintendo Gigaleak is a fascinating moment in games history that will take us months to fully explore, and Internet trolls take out the US Army on Twitch.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the humble act of modding gaming consoles. From video-output mods to the Playstation "backup" chips to enhanced GBAs, it's a golden (and possibly final) age for the hobby. In the news, Rym's still using his ancient phone, Microsoft Flight Simulator is returning in August (get your HOTAS ready for this and Star Wars: Squadrons), the SGDQ 2020 schedule is live, Shantae is getting a retro re-release, Quest for Glory is just on Steam if you want to play, as is Death Stranding, and the Game Devs of Color Expo will be online in September!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the ends of games. When and how do orthogames end? When and how should they end? We're workshopping a new game design panel for a future convention.

In the news, Crucible recedes back into the dark recesses of a closed beta after a unilaterally mediocre reception, a whole chunk of the games industry is rightly called out (there are too many articles to list them all), Superliminal is coming to Switch on July 7, Natural Selection 2 not only still exists but is on sale, and we're beginning to livestream the show again.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the mostly moribund but possibly reviving genre of free space shooters. Games like TIE Fighter or Wing Commander. There is a small chance they live again. Be prepared to dust off your HOTAS.

In the news, Sega has a Game Gear Micro (that only Rym cares about), Nintendo messes up their Pokémon DLC, the Steam Game Festival is live, the PS5 cometh, Paper Mario returns, WotC bans old racist magic cards, the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality raised over 8MM dollars for the cause, we will be at PAX Online, Dwarf Fortress has graphics, Slay the Spire is now available on iOS, and Command & Conquer Remastered is a thing if that's your thing.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Rolling Stock (2011). A Björn Rabenstein tabletop game that's adjacent to 18xx games like 1846: The Race for the Midwest, 1889: History of Shikoku Railways, or 2038: Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt, we've been playing it asynchronously online!In the news, Smash Brothers' online mode isn't suitable for Evo Online 2020, Amazon's Crucible experiment is actually coming out, Gen Con is (rightly) canceled this year, and the Doom Eternal updates has a hot helping of malware.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review 1889: History of Shikoku Railways, an 18XX game by Yasutaka Ikeda. We've previously reviewed 1846: The Race for the Midwest and 2038: Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt. In the news, cars are terrible, Valorant is a thing, Cloudpunk is pretty good, Overwatch Hero Pools may only apply to the top tiers now, and that Valve source code leak was basically nothing. If you want to play some 18xx games online, that is an option.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Luigi's Mansion 3 on the Nintendo Switch. It's all right, and is probably the best of the Luigi series to date. In the news, we live streamed this episode with a new RTMP setup, Torchbearer 2e will scratch that "old style Dungeons & Dragons but with a modern sensibility" itch, and Mario Maker is finally complete.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Animal Crossing: New Horizons! If you want chill times mooching around on an island and talking to animals, this is the game for you! In the news, Overwatch League has replaced hockey for Rym, Cooking Mama isn't mining bitcoins despite what some people are claiming, the Watcher makes Slay the Spire is worth revisiting, Curse of the Dead Gods is pretty cool, and the tabletop industry is in trouble.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review two new-to-us tabletop games we played at PAX in First Look: No Return: Es gibt kein Zurück! (2019) and Square on Sale (2005). The former is distilled game mechanic. The latter is... interesting, but heuristically a mess. In the news, for the first time in over 15 years GeekNights was recorded remotely (so let us know if the audio sounds weird), Rym is building an annoy-o-tron, Segata Sanshiro appears to have risen from the grave, Pistol Whip is a VR rhythm rail shooter, and Half-Life Alyx is out!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review First Contact (2018). It's verymuch adjacent to Codenames, but a bit more advanced. It's definitely worth playing. In the news, Reggie Fils-Aimé sets sail on the Titanic, Pax Pamir is getting a second printing, Big Cat Games has three abstract games on Kickstarter, and Overwatch introduces hero pool.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the humble Randomizer. Scott is into ALTTP, and Rym is obsessed with FFIV Free Enterprise. Randomizers were not foreseen, and they will likely have a significant impact on game design and esports in the years to come.

In the news, Facebook and Sony pull out of PAX East and GDC due to Coronavirus, the mayor of Boston is oddly mad about it, and PAX has a statement for you. (Wash your hands). Also, Animal Crossing and Doom share a birthday now. We'll be live at PAX East, and a ton of our standalone tabletop reviews are on youtube!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the extremely elegant Rumble Nation (天下鳴動). It's shockingly deep for how quick it plays, with some nods to both El Grande and Settlers of Catan (but not in the ways you might imagine). In the news, Scott remembered that Camp Hyrule existed, awesome hackers are dropping extremely aggressive two-headed skeletons into Red Dead Online, and OWL's Paris Eternal will practice in New Jersey for reasons. Also, Scott has GeekBites of both Neonimo and Death Crown!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Time of Crisis: The Roman Empire in Turmoil, 235-284 AD (2017). It's a deckbuilder wargame that basically functions as a highly abstracted rondel. We like it. In the news, Blizzard is getting better at classic CTF, Rocket League drops 0.3% of its active playerbase, Pokemon Bank will be free for a month while you get your Pokes into Pokemon Home, Half-Life 2.75 (Alyx) is coming to VR, and Activision Blizzard esports will move to a Youtube exclusive escalating the content wars of game streaming platforms. Also we will be live at PAX East 2020!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the new hotness we played at PAX Unplugged's First Look, Yusuke Matsumoto's Nokosu Dice. It's a trick taking game like nothing you've ever played before, and we're already obsessed with it. A perfect complement to Wizard, this one is a must-buy!

In the news, Old Man Scott doesn't want you to listen to GeekNights, Fantasy Flight Interactive shuts down, AGDQ was pretty solid this year, Oath is probably going to be good, and Slay the Spire got even better.

Come see us live at PAX South 2020 with an all new panel!

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Tonight on GeekNights, back briefly from the hiatus of Rym flying around Asia before we head to PAX Unplugged and MAGFest, we consider the fantastic remake of one of the best Zelda games: Link's Awakening. In the news, we consider Steam Remote Play Together, Baba is You and has level editor (without needing hacks), and the Steam Controller is finally gone.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the delightful Untitled Goose Game. HONK! In the news, the off-year election happened today, griefers ruined a Fortnite tournament, Overwatch 2 is a thing, and we'll be live at PAX Unplugged!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review a train game - 2038: Tycoons of the Asteroid Belt. We assume that you are at least somewhat familiar with train games. In the news, Scott buys some jeans, hockey season begins, China is trying to censor The NBA and Activision Blizzard.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Mario Maker 2 on the Nintendo Switch. In the news, Loot Crate is bankrupt, Dire Wolf Digital is bringing, among other things, Root to digital, System Shock 2's patch history is fascinating, and it's getting an "Enhanced Edition."See us live at PAX West 2019 and check out the GeekNights Patreon!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Vincent Baker's The Wizard's Grimoire. It's an RPG for one player and two volunteers, and it's definitely worth playing. In the news, professional Fortnite is still amateur hour (though this probably doesn't even matter), Bethesda Bethesda'd Doom on the Switch, the Overwatch role queue is a significant maturation of professional esports, and the 8BitDo SN30 might be the one controller to rule them all.Follow GeekNights on Patreon and see us live at PAX West!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Koji Igarashi's Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It's a fantastic addition to the Metroidvania genre, though it suffers from technical problems on the Switch.In the news, Overwatch takes an even heavier hand with cheaters, Overwatch League moves to a division format with some local home games, Civilization VI play-by-cloud has a lot of issues (try Giant Multiplayer Robot or Play Your Damn Turn for now), Fortnite joins the list of games banned in Jordan, and people will do anything to avoid grinding in Destiny 2.

Be sure to subscribe to both Scott's Youtube Channel and Rym's Youtube Channel if you want all of our videos! You can also listen to Rym and Emily's new spinoff show on Disney Theatrical Animation on the GeekNights Patreon! Also come see one of our two panels at PAX West!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the delightful Cadence of Hyrule. It's basically Crypt of the Necrodancer, a roguelike rhythm game, crossed with Zelda 3: A Link to the Past. In the news, autochesses are proliferating, Pokemon finally solves the too many pokemon problem, a recent SCOTUS ruling on free speech isn't what you think it is, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night cometh.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Risk of Rain and Risk of Rain 2. They both have a number of unique, interesting, and well-designed mechanics, but in the end feel more like proofs of concept than complete games. In the news, PAX West is live, MAGFest dates are announced, Fortnite banned some cheaters for a little while, but still let them into the World Cup, and Barkley 2 lost its roots.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the unique nature of two player games. In a non-solitaire, non-race game, one, two, three, and four+ players are radically different experiences. Two player games are in a unique and fascinating space. They devolve into either Chess, Tic Tac Toe, or Rock paper Scissors in most tabletop cases. Three player games are political in a very particular way, four or more are all basically the same... but TWO. TWO is in a class of its own.In the news, we're still playing Auto Chess (and Rym is playing a lot of Overwatch), Unity deletes a tweet about gambling features (a timely topic), there are twists and turns in the saga of the Uniqlo Pokemon shirt contest, and Oculus Rift S/Quest will usher in an expanded VR market.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the fundamental divide between the 90% of players who just want to play games, and the 10% who want to win games, in light of Fortnite dropping competitive play. In the news, apparently a lot of people don't know the rules to Uno, the Kentucky Derby had some disqualification drama, Scrabble's meta has been radically changed, and Beat Saber is pretty fun.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review two tabletop sports with Catch the Moon (2017) and Vollpfosten (2018). They're both dexterity games worth playing! In the news, Subverse shows the power of erotica on Kickstarter, and China's new censorship rules for games have been revealed.Both our Rare Game Mechanics and The Real Harm of Games panels are up on youtube! We also Judged the current season of anime!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we return from PAX East to review the phenomenal and groundbreaking Baba is You. This game is a must-buy, and is one of the greatest push-puzzle games ever made. In the news, Borderlands 3 cometh, you can get a year of Nintendo Online for free, Crown of Emara is a stand-out game, Smartphone Inc was played incorrectly by a lot of people, and Yu-Gi-Oh has banished players to the Shower Realm.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the new hotness, a Dota2 mod called Auto Chess. It's buggy, weird, utterly novel, and definitely worth trying, continuing the long tradition of mods becoming transformational to PC gaming. In the news, Baba Is You finally arrives, Nvidia drops 3D Vision support, you can use Twitter to track Nvidia driver updates, and Rym has some Wargroove final thoughts.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the most notable spiritual successor to Advance Wars to date, Wargroove. Prior to this, Days of Ruin was the last game that scratched that itch. It's good. In the news, Bowser replaces Reggie ending an era for Nintendo, Thumper is a must-play VR game, and GOG is in some financial trouble.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the new-to-us 2014 tabletop game from Johannes Sich: La Cosa Nostra. It's a mob-themed negotiating game that works. In the news, we're back from PAX South 2019 where we presented Nostalgia vs Game Design, we've reviewed the entire current season of anime, Dota Auto Chess is the precursor to the next hotness, the PC gaming store wars are continuing to heat up, VR Chat is bigger and better than you probably realize, and suing the NFL over a sports call continues to be amusing as it moves to federal court.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Cole Wehrle's Root. It's an asymmetric political wargame-esque experience with the most adorable animal theme you can imagine. Play it. In the news, we are back from MAGFest, one of our panels from MAGFest is on youtube, and there is so much ridiculous news going on with Blizzard that it's hard to summarize.

We've also judged more anime, and we'll be at PAX South with two panels: Nostalgia vs Game Design and Learn & Play: Carcassonne!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It's the latest (and at least second greatest) Smash Brothers. We're not great at Smash games, but this one definitely got us back in. In the news, GO SEE SPIDERMAN HOLY CRAP, you can use your GC controller for the new Smash, and Counter-Strike's "battle royale" mode is deeply mediocre.

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Tonight on GeekNights, back from PAX Unplugged (which live streamed one of our panels), we review Marc Paquien's wonderful Treasure Island (2018), which we both played for the first time at PAX. In the news, Epic Games is taking a shot at Valve, Smash Brothers is coming, and Rastakhan's Rumble came!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we're excited to bring some hype to the second PAX Unplugged ever! We will be there doing TWO panels: Learn & WIN Puerto Rico and The 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play. Unplugged is a full-on for-real PAX, with some highly specialized Owl Bear content, one hell of a schedule overall, and of course plenty of tabletop freeplay.

In the news, Chess is broken for humans, most of the "unfortunately" named Keyforge decks are amazing, and everything about Artifact is great except how you pay for it.

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Tonight on GeekNights, consider the rising star of the "Roll & Write" genre of tabletop games.

In the news, Rym is trying to play Overwatch comp solo, Blizzcon brought a bunch of news, salty babies are so furious a game was made that isn't directly targeted at them personally that they tanked Blizzard's stock (despite this being ridiculous), Riot Games is being sued for widespread systematic gender discrimination, and we'll be live at PAX Unplugged!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we try to hack together live a list of games that are, for one reason or another, must-play games. We've done this as a panel at PAX before, but for tabletop. This time it's everything.In the news, Interplanetary is good to play, and so is The Fox in the Forest. PAX Unplugged isn't sold out and you should definitely go. We Judged the upcoming fall season of anime!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Brad Brooks' Rise of Tribes, a well-designed if simple game. In the news, Bowsette is our new queen, Telltale Games lays basically everyone off, a Magic: The Gathering pro drops out of the world championship in protest, and soccer clubs are weirdly angry at esports.We'll be live at PAX Unplugged 2018, and we hope to see you there! You can also follow the ongoing saga of Rym vs Patreon in Civilization V!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider handicapping as applied to games, and wonder at how rarely it's used outside of sport. But before that, in the news, we consider the nuances of a fartwarning versus a fartwatch, Ion Hazzikostas will give the PAX West Keynote, PAX South will be January 18-20, we have a first impression of Yellow & Yangtze (the noble successor to Tigris & Euphrates, which we reviewed back in 2005), Fantasy Flight has some new printing process allowing for Keyforge and Discover Lands Unknown to be made, and we will be presenting The 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play at PAX West!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider the humble roguelike. It's a genre that has evolved and been re-imagined over generations of games, far beyond what the Berlin Interpretation might imply. From FTL to Rogue Legacy, Dragon Crystal to... well... Rogue!

In the news, The Escapist is returning, a multi-layered scam game was finally removed from Steam, it might not be too late to try something interesting at Gen Con, Parsely will be at Gen Con, and the GeekNights Book Club's next book will be 2001: A Space Odyssey

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Tonight on GeekNights, we talk about PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds). We're having a lot of fun with it. In the news, Mario Tennis Aces has serious problems and also already required significant balance changes to avoid the modern equivalent of snaking, Jackbox Party Pack 5 is coming, the Overwatch League playoffs were on Disney XD with a surprisingly large audience, and the Trogdor game is beautiful but probably not worth playing.

See us live at PAX West, either in person or on Twitch! We reviewed all of the Summer Anime 2018 with another Judge Anime by its Cover!

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Tonight on GeekNights, after a discussion on garages for some reason, we review Cockroach Poker and Kakerlakenpoker Royal, both designed by Jacques Zeimet. In the news, New York tops the Overwatch season, Sony blocks Fortnite cross-play, and Netrunner is dead.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review a game we've been waiting for longer than you can imagine. Just Shapes and Beats. Rym got it on Switch, Scott got it on Steam. They're both fine. It's shapes and beats. It evokes the same brainfeel as Super Hexagon, but fully evolved.In the news, Rym runs afoul of old people in bike lanes, Fallout 76 looks intriguing, and Mario Tennis Aces looks promising, but has unusable network play in its current state. We'll hopefully see you at both PAX Unplugged and PAX West!

Be sure to check out GeekNights Presents: Board Games and GeekNights Presents: Utena! We're also Judging Anime before it comes out!

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Tonight on GeekNights, considering the ethics of game design, we review the horror that is Big Fish Casino, which was recently banned in the state of Washington. It uses every trick in the book to addict you to gambling your real money for nothing. In the news, the Vegas Golden Knights are going to the Stanley Cup Finals, and Valve's "crackdown on VNs" is complex and troubling.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we consider Battletech (2018), which nicely scratches that itch you may have for some Classic Battletech. In the news, Vegas is going all the way to the Cup, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller works in Steam, Rym played both John Company and An Infamous Traffic, and we're back from Zenkaikon 2018!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review two tabletop games: Q.E. (Quantitative Easing) and Yogi. They're both worth a play, but serve two very different audiences. In the news, Battletech cometh, and there's an "unpatchable" hack for the Nintendo Switch.If you saw us at PAX East, you can see video of The 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play! You'll also be able to see Rym live at Zenkaikon!

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Tonight on GeekNights, despite Scott having a plague, we consider the excellent Slay the Spire (PC), still in early access and already well worth your time. It's a single-player roguelike deckbuilder. In the news, Rym will see about bringing Fireball Island to PAX East (where we'll be performing live), Smash Brothers is coming to Switch, and you lost your hour for the greater good.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Cédric Millet's Meeple Circus. It's a stacking dexterity game that doesn't have some of the fundamental problems of games like Villa Paletti or Jenga, and it captures the component stacking ways of basically everyone who's ever played tabletop games.In the news, Into the Breach shows promise, Overwatch is investing in CTF, and Slay the Spire is already pretty hot. We'll also be live at PAX East 2018!

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Tonight on GeekNights we review Hisashi Hayashi's Rattaneer. It's cute pirate rats with blind bids and severe consequences. In the news, Dr. K has a follow-on to Tigris & Euphrates coming with Yellow & Yangtze, Superhot VR is super hot, the Overwatch League continues to exist, there's some ridiculous streaming rights drama in espots, and we've judged more anime.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review 1846: The Race for the Midwest. It's an interesting experience, and it's survived multiple plays despite its long session time. If you want to try a scary train game, this is the one.In the news, the new Hearthstone expansion drops on Thursday this week, the Formula 1 esport is more fun to watch than actual F1, the Overwatch league jerseys will soon be available, and Russia is banned from the olympics for cheating.

The GeekNights Forum is amazing, and you should join it! Support GeekNights on Patreon! Stay tuned for regularly scheduled Judge Anime By Its Cover!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we have another ReviewCon tabletop review with Luna: In the Domain of the Moon Priestess. It's new to us, and it's not bad. If you see it in a convention tabletop library it's definitely worth a play or three.In the news, there's a Netrunner player casting call in New York, Blizzard escalates its war against toxic players, and Overwatch League sees a sexual assault before it sees its first game. Runic shuts down, Telltale has massive layoffs, and EA kills Visceral, fortelling a dire story for non-loot-box singly player AAA games.

We released both our PAX West 2017 panel - The Rage of the Quitter - and our first new episode of Judge Anime By Its Cover on youtube! We're also on Patreon!

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Tonight on GeekNights, fresh from ReviewCon 2017, we review the surprisingly fun Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant. It's cube trading, and it was a good time. But before that, we have a quick GeekBite of Spinderella, the NeoGAF community exploded in controversy (you may recall the last time we talked about NeoGAF, The Escapist collapsed for a variety of reasons, and we'll be live at PAX Unplugged and GaymerX East!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the surprisingly fun Black Friday, another Friedemann Friese board game. In the news, the discussion around what it truly means to "rip off" a game is only getting started with this PUBG ripoff and the smash bros community is in crisis.We released both our PAX West 2017 panel - The Rage of the Quitter - and our first new episode of Judge Anime By Its Cover on youtube! Notice it's two channels: Rym and Scott.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Exit: The Game – The Secret Lab (2016), the 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner, one of a series of "escape room" one-play tabletop games. It's basically identical to physical escape rooms. (Note: never trust Scott if he makes an escape room).

We are back from PAX West 2017, where we played enough games to drive at least half a dozen GeekNights episodes. Scott rode the NYC Century, Rym went mountain biking in Utah, gamers have a very poor understanding of what a "review" is, Metroid: Samus Returns is imminent with surprisingly glowing reviews, and Overwatch has DEATHMATCH.

GeekNights Forum is amazing, and you should join it! We were back for our 42nd PAX Panel a couple weeks ago! The next GeekNights book club book is The Fifth Season!Support GeekNights on Patreon

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the extremely polished Namco Museum that came out for the Nintendo Switch. It's worth the purchase price just for Pacman Vs, literally one of the best games to ever be made for the Gamecube. Bonus points for having Dig Dug!In the news, Civilization VI had a major update, a bad looking Civilization VI board game is coming, DotA bots superior, humans inferior (at solo mid), Nidhogg 2 appears to fail to capture the magic, and For Honor has some exploit issues in an amazing tournament.

We will be live at PAX West 2017 talking about rage quitters!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the hit new visual novel Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator. It's pretty great. You both are a dad, and you can date dads. Dads all the way down.

In the news, e-sports are getting serious treatment at MSG, Hearthstone is pushing the limits of card game mechanics, GameStop still exists, a gamer cruise fails, PUBG angers fans with early cosmetic loot crates, and Samus Returns brings a dark new pact with Amiibos.

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Tonight on GeekNights, having re-listened to many of our tabletop reviews from the last 12 years, we discuss our methodology for reviewing tabletop games. Elegance, fun economy, and rules consistency are the main factors, but there's some nuance.In the news, PAX South badges/hotels are live, we're presenting a new panel on quitting at PAX West, TumbleSeed was too hard to make money, Kingdomino wins the Spiel des Jahres, the professionalization of esports continues with big sports names buying Overwatch League franchises, and MLB may be taking trademark action over the logo.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the widely played and well liked Race for the Galaxy! It shares many concepts and design patterns with the classic Puerto Rico. In the news, E3 happened, there are one and a half new Metroid games coming, Nidhogg 2 terrifies us, Blizzard has a two-year exclusivity deal with Twitch, SSDs can burst into flame, Overwatch rankings rankled many players, and Geek Chic kicked the bucket.

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Advance Wars with Rym

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Tonight on GeekNights, we go on and on about console (and to a lesser extent PC) game controllers, mostly of the gamepad variety. From the perfect expression of the pre-analog-stick era to an elegant weapon for a civilized age, we amble in the vicinity of a coherent point. In the news, PAX West badges will be SOON, PAX Unplugged badges are ALREADY, and a PAX-a-like is spotted in the wild. Scott will be streaming the new Battletech beta, and Steam Greenlight has ceased to be.

We have a ton of our tabletop reviews up on youtube now!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the utterly unique TumbleSeed, a cross between a roguelike and Taito's Ice Cold Beer. In the news, the Race for the Galaxy app is ace, Blizzard really booched a major Hearthstone tournament, a cheating scandal in the world of speedrunning, Niantic shadowbanning Pokemon GO "cheaters," and two listener questions around rules to games.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we confirm that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is legit. In other news, TumbleSeed is really hard, Uniqlo's Nintendo shirts are off the hook, and esports journalism has a long way to go...

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the beautiful and unique co-op board game The Grizzled. It's deeply thematic, expresses the horror and camaraderie of war, and isn't about winning war: just surviving it. In the news, the Stanley Cup playoffs continue, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe comes unlocked, G2A did an ill-advised panel, Fig funds a spiritual successor to the original X-Com franchise, and Super Bomberman R drops resolution to increase framerate.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the fantastic The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, bringing to fruition many of the core ideas Miyamoto envisioned when Zelda 1 was being designed. We could talk forever about this game, so we stick to a core review (TL;DL: buy it). We'll be talking more about this game in the future. In the news, Mad Catz shuts down, grenade bugs plague competitive Counter-Strike, and GeekNights will be Live at Zenkaikon!

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Tonight on GeekNights, defying all expectations of our taste in games, we review a trivia game called America, itself a reimplementation of Friedemann Friese's Fauna. It's mechanically fantastic, and got way more table time than you'd expect at PAX. In the news, Rym is playing Counter-Strike again, but they changed the gun sounds and also changed the gun sounds. StarCraft is coming back remastered and also free.Support GeekNights on Patreon, or help us make our lectures accessible!

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Tonight on GeekNights we review the old Alea Big Box game The Princes of Florence. In the news, after we talk about xenon lightbulbs, River City Ransom: Underground has finally come out and a member of the Swedish parliament is livestreaming Hearthstone (itself seeing big changes).We'll be live at PAX East, Rym is in London the rest of this week, the GeekNights Patreon continues, and we're trying to get all of our tabletop reviews on youtube!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the lovely little two player asymmetric Raptor. It's clever. In the news, Zelda: Breath of the Wild will have DLC, PewDiePie is as bad as you assumed he was, and Rym is obsessed with Overwatch's CTF arcade mode.

Keep an eye on Rym's Youtube and Scott's Youtube, and support GeekNights on Patreon! See us live at PAX East with Play (Dirty) to Win!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review Potion Explosion. It's from 2015, it has an excellent conceit, but it really only shines as a kids/family game. It even has an expansion. We're back from PAX South, which is a full and proper PAX! Air Hockey was finally the Omegathon Finale! PAX Unplugged becomes the fifth PAX in PA, though it's the same weekend as the anime con to save anime cons (Anime NYC): we may have to split our efforts between them.

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review two Friedemann Friese games we played at MAGFest: Fuji Flush and Foppen. Fun fact: Fuji Flush fixes Doppelt und Dreifach! MAGFest was great, as always! In the news, Nintendo Switch comes, AGDQ came, AGDQ's (correct) banning of Trump Hat Guy, boot disks return with Windows Game Mode, and the most toxic League of Legends player in the world.We'll be live at PAX South on Friday afternoon with Grind Mechanics in Games!

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Tonight on GeekNights, we review the delightful Overcooked. 4-player local multiplayer done right, it's definitely worth owning. We'll be playing it in our room at MAGFest, which is THIS WEEK. In other news, Frog Fractions 2 appeared (you should play Frog Fractions 1 if you haven't already) in glorious form, and Owlboy is sadly mediocre.The 11-year-running GeekNights forum is entering stasis, replaced by the new GeekNights Community: join us in a glorious tower of ivory.

See us live at MAGFest. Support GeekNights on Patreon!

GeekNights Tuesdays: Gaming: Recent Episodes

Rym and Scott - The Front Row Crew