Games

Vanished Planet is a cooperative board game in which players struggle to prevent an ever-growing, inky-black entity from enveloping the galaxy.

At the start of the game the Earth has been consumed by the entity, and has apparently been transferred to another dimension. The creature has already begun expanding beyond the Sol system, and it is only a matter of time until it envelops all of Earth's allies as well. But all is not lost -- the Earth may be gone, but she hasn't been destroyed. Her scientists have discovered a way to communicate with those remaining in our galaxy, and have come up with a plan to defeat the entity and return Earth to normal space. Now all the allies have to do is complete Earth's missions before their own worlds are consumed by the entity.

A review of Wizards of the Coast's compendium of extraplaner monsters, the Fiend Folio.

After the apocalyptic wars that ended our bright and glorious age, hereto unknown species of creatures -- both organic and inorganic -- rose from the ruins and populated a landscape that came to be known as Gamma World. The d20 sourcebook Machines and Mutant chronicles these monstrosities, offering game masters 130+ new critters with which to threaten and help their players.

Critical Mass, the latest expansion for WisKids Game's HeroClix miniatures game, features a new cross section of Marvel Superheroes, including favorites like Venom, Rhino and Archangel, as well as new versions of old standbys Spiderman, Daredevil and Electra.

This edition of my semi-quarterly wish list includes a few non-RPG items for the first time, partly because there I'm there's not a lot of D&D stuff out there that I'm interested in buying, but mostly because stuff like the Return of the King Soundtrack and the Two Towers Extended DVDs are must-have additions to any DM's media library.

A few months ago I reviewed Futurama: The Game, and I was disappointed. Where Futrama the series was funny and entertaining, the game was repetitive, frustrating and boring, with none of the wit that made Futurama so damn good. It had the look, but it just didn't have the feel.

Now I've got The Simpsons: Hit and Run in my PS2, and I'm pleased to say that this Matt Groening game succeeds where its scif-fi cousin failed.

In Hit and Run you control one of five playable characters -- Homer, Marge, Bart, Marge and Apu (why Apu? Well, why not?) -- as you drive crazily through Springfield on a variety of missions. Each character is given their own portion of the game -- Homer kicks things off, ditching work so he can investigate mysterious black vans that have shown up all over town. Then it's Bart's turn, as he attempts to get a copy of a highly-coveted (and thus banned) video game. He goes missing at the end of his story arc, and then it's Lisa's turn, with her quest revolving around finding her brother. And so forth and so on.