WH40K Gladius: Relics Of War Preview/Q&A
As a long time fan of the various Warhammer tabletop games from Games Workshop, I have always wondered what a 4X title set in that universe would be like. Yes, there are more than a few to choose from, but that 40,000 Grimdark variant was always my favorite. Well, Slitherine’s announcement of Warhammer 40K Gladius: […]
Quarter 1, 2018 Statistical Analysis
As many of you know, there has been a change to the way Valve handles users’ libraries. What once was open information for anyone to view, is now private by default. The reasons and ethics of that change have been hotly debated. This article is not about that. Instead, I’m doing what may be my […]
Crossing The Rubicon: Defining The 4X-like Genre
Preface Classifying games into genres is a challenging endeavor. The terminology for describing games is often loosely defined, or is understood differently from person to person. Even when there is common language, new games are routinely created that seem to defy categorization. For instance, what was once a well-bounded RTS genre is now routinely a […]
2017 End of Year Statistical eXamination Part 2
You can find part one of this article series and all associated charts HERE. eXplorminate is entering its fifth calendar year of existence, thus we now have four years of market data from our time to examine. It’s been a very exciting period for 4X. Some call it a Renaissance, others a Second Golden Age, […]
Falling Stars: War Of Empires Review
We are currently living in a boardgame renaissance. While video games feel stuck in same-ville, the boardgame world is full of exciting innovation, risk-taking designs, and flourishing creativity. Naturally, the excitement for boardgaming has slowly spread back to the video game world, and thus we’re getting games with boardgame-influenced mechanics (such as Thea) as well […]
Nate Asked – Day 2
Greetings and Salutations eXplorminators, here is part two of the series. Enjoy Joshua Why talk about the games I’m not playing? I guess it says as much about the state of gaming today as those that I do put time into. It’s been a heck of a year for our favorite hobby, but that […]
4X Board Game Review: Runewars
Preamble: A Thought on Board Games Before diving into this review, I want to set the stage: I have a deep appreciation for a good board game. While I love strategy and 4X video games, I also adore a great many board games – from raucous social deduction games like Mascarade or Spyfall to more […]
Dawn Of Andromeda Review
Sometimes, the timing of a video game release impacts the success of a game as much as the quality of the final product. Dawn of Andromeda, a pausable real-time 4X space game from Grey Wolf Entertainment, could be such a game. A little history lesson first – DoA is brought to you by the lead […]
The Core Mechanism Of 4X Part 1: An eXposition
I recently got into a debate with my good friend and colleague Oliver on our internal eXplorminate forums about what is or isn’t a 4X game. The staff has these debates every now and then, usually sparked by a game that doesn’t exactly fit the pure 4X definition – games like Total War: Warhammer, Sorcerer […]
All That Glitters Is Not Gold
With the release of Endless Space 2 (ES2), a wave in the space 4X ocean has crested. The “Big 4” space 4X games – Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars (MoO:CTS), Galactic Civilizations III (GalCiv3), Stellaris and ES2 – have all landed within the past year along with major expansions for GalCiv3 and Stellaris amidst […]