Games
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
This week I'm out in California for business but that didn't stop me from cranking out some material to keep Bill Abner appeased for another week, so we've got two front-page features up and running.
First, it's my Games from the Crypt write-up of INTRIGUE. We played it last week, and man, I forgot how amazing that game is. There's no other game as dirty, nor is there any game out there that gets right down to business like it does. No fancy mechanics to keep you from completely fucking over your friends, no complicated resource schemes, no safety net. It's all in human interaction. I've played it with people who have claimed that it's not really a game. I think these people are cowards. This is as pure a game as there is, and almost everything in it occurs above the table and in the relationships that develop- or have developed before the game even starts. If you play games to talk and interact with people instead of digging into rules and staring at your player mat for three hours, then it's one you really ought to try. I think you can get it for like ten bucks. Or, it shouldn't be too hard to make your own.
Second is my review of CASTLEVANIA: LORDS OF SHADOW. It's awesome. I loved every single minute of it, and it will be on my shortlist for the best games of 2010. I like beat 'em ups as it is, but with the Gothic Horror trappings of CASTLEVANIA and a modern horror art style straight from a Del Toro picture, it's just about as in-my-wheelhouse as a game could possibly be. I giggled like a schoolgirl when I snatched a vampire up by the throat and staked him. Mind you, these are PROPER vampires- hideous monsters, not poncey teens that sparkle and play vampire baseball.
I gotta run, I've got eight hours of staring at Powerpoint presentations to get to.
