Mixed Signals

Straight-forward gaming

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of The Buried Dagger by James Swallow, book 54 in the series. It's also the last book in the series, or at least the last book before the start of the Siege of Terra series. This book (weirdly?) splits its time between two distinct stories,...

After seeing a handful of the remakes, I recently decided to sit down and watch the original 1960s Ocean's Eleven. I assumed, without giving it a second thought, that the remakes inherited their structure from the original movie. Everybody knows that Ocean's Eleven is the original heist movie, a...

In Pathfinder and Tales of the Valiant and similar fantasy roleplaying games, you go on adventures to find treasure and magical items and weapons so you can go on even bigger adventures. That's meant to be exciting. But with great power comes the potential for great boredom, because when you sto...

Everybody has their own tolerance levels for how complex they want a game engine to be. In fact, many of us have a different preference depending on the game. The current trend, and I assume the trajectory games are on in general, is that there's beauty in simplicity. Things are more fun when they r...

I'm re-reading the Horus Heresy, and this is my review of Titandeath: The God Machine Cometh by Guy Haley, book 53 in the series. The book's primary story line is about, obviously, Titans, the battle mechs (think Neon Genesis Evangelion) of Warhammer 40,000. I consider myself a moderate fan of...

I decided that during 2024, I'd make one game every month. I thought it appropriate to finish it off in the way it began. This month, I've created Spelljack, another extreme remix of Blackjack.

One of my previous blackjack remixes had magic-like powers granted to players pretty much at random. Y...