Lock S-Foils in Attack Position! (A Review of Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures)

Lets face it: you've probably seen Star Wars.  You've probably imagined getting behind the stick of an X-Wing and taking down some TIE Fighters, or jumping to light speed as the pilot of the Millennium Falcon. With Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures game, you're not exactly in the cockpit, but you do get the chance to pilot a squadron of ships right out of the Star Wars movies.  It's a sci-fi geek dream come true.

News Bits: 12/10/2012

On to the news!

Tim Seitz Memorial Auction up on BGG [Link] The guys from Nevermore Games are running a memorial auction for their friend who died suddenly. All of the proceeds will be used to help Tim's widow and family. One of the items is to receive every game that Nevermore will create. Bid and donate generously!

News Bits: 9/10/2012

There are lots of juicy news morsels for your consumption this week. Enjoy the news!

Greater Than Games Offers Opportunity to Be a Mastermind
Greater Than Games, creators of the cooperative superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse, is offering an opportunity to create the next Sentinels of the Multiverse villain. The contest is up on their website and runs through September 28. According to the comments, the winner's villain will be included in the next run of the game, and the winner will receive a free copy  Sentinels of the Multiverse is one of the most thematically rich games I've played. The chance to create a part of its mythos is a pretty big draw.

News Bits: 7/23/2012

Resisting Expansions Is Futile
In what came as some of the best gaming news of the week, I learned that The Resistance will soon be getting a full expansion treatment from Indie Boards & Cards. The details at this point are hazy (and mostly just referenced in buried threads on Board Game Geek), but it seems the expansion will add more mechanics and not just more plot cards. According to Indie Boards & Cards, this expansion will be going up on Kickstarter in the near future. (If this news means nothing to you, by all means, read our review of The Resistance and then go buy a copy--you won't regret it.) (HT: Theology of Games)

Star Wars: How It Should Have Started

A lot of people like star wars.  I like star wars.  There's a good chance that if you fall into the target demographics of this blog, you like star wars. 

If you're an adult Star Wars fan, you probably saw the prequel movies.  And there's a good chance you were disappointed.  Or maybe you weren't.  But whatever.  You probably went to see each new movie, like me, hoping that somehow this one would be better, but always being disappointed.  With good reason.  The new movies, while flashy and filled with epic scenes of Jedi combat and huge space battles, fell short in almost every other area.  New characters were either uninteresting or annoying, acting was sub-par, dialogue was cheesy-beyond-all-belief.  (I don't like sand.)  But even more than that, the new movies seemed to shy away from the original thematic elements of the series - elements such as good vs. evil, self restraint, sacrifice, confronting ones deepest fears - and replacing them with midichlorians, angstyness, and style without substance.

The real sad thing is each of these new movies could have been just as memorable as the originals.  Part of the reason the fanbase is so angry is that they saw so much potential, and instead they got crappy lightshows.

Well people, I'm here to tell you that I am in no position to make or remake the star wars prequels, but if I could, I have a number of ideas that would have made them a lot better.  And here they are now: