Review: Banner Saga Revels In The Distance

Review: Banner Saga Revels In The Distance

The Banner Saga

Stoic Studio
Versus Evil
PC/Mac/Linux, iOS/Android, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch
January 14, 2014

Sidequest was provided a copy of The Banner Saga for the Nintendo Switch in exchange for a fair and honest view.

I played Banner Saga when it originally came out for PC, but I never got that far in it—as much as I love turn-based strategy games, they don’t mesh with PCs for me. I’m a fidgety gamer—I move around, I pace, I bounce on the balls of my feet. Since PC gaming typically requires time spent immobile in a chair, and doubly so for strategy games, it’s the kind of thing I can only engage in sporadically, at best. I like turn-based strategy, though, a lot, so when I heard it was being ported to the extremely mobile Switch, I jumped at the chance to review it.

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10 Card Games to Try from Gen Con 50

Gen Con in Indianapolis, Indiana is known as the four best days in gaming. On August 19th through 20th, companies showcased their best new games to over 200,000 attendees at the 50th anniversary of the tabletop convention. Below is a list of ten new and exciting card games that were demoed, previewed, and sold at Gen Con.

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Mobile RPGs: A Necessary Experiment

A death foretold happened last week: my laptop, which I had bought pre-owned, died after approximately three years of use. I admit it, I might have played a big role in her demise. I put her through thousands of hours of more intensive gaming than she was built to handle. I know there is a chance that she can still be salvaged, although not in my current financial situation. So, these days, I find myself without a computer to work and play on. It’s a pretty tough spot. (more…)

Dystopic RPGs for Dystopic Times

For at least the past couple of centuries, dystopian fiction has arisen time and again as a resource used by writers to criticize—and probably cope with—the society and circumstances of their times. The most brilliant works of this kind have emerged at the darkest moments in history, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this decade has seen a rebirth of the genre. Two of my favorite tabletop RPGs, Cyberpunk and Paranoia, are dystopian games originally published during the Cold War in the 80’s, and they are currently on course for new installments. (more…)

Remote Role-Playing: Keep the Dice Rolling

My favorite kind of social event is a good role-playing session with friends, when we’re sitting around a messy table cluttered with books, maps, papers and dice, littered with snack wrappers and empty coffee mugs. But this idyllic kind of gatherings have become increasingly hard for me to arrange: as we grow up, schedules become harder to coordinate, friends move to different cities, school and work get in the way.  But this doesn’t mean we have to hang the dice bag and wait for the perfect role-playing conditions to return. There are plenty of resources online that we can use to keep the dice rolling. (more…)