Just added my latest published review to the archive link on the right hand side. My very negative review of Golemlabs’ Superpower 2 was published in the latest issue. It is also quoted in the 2004 year end wrap up since Superpower 2 was named the fifth worst game of the year.

It’s hard to overestimate my bewilderment with people who enjoy the Superpower series. They certainly have the right to their opinions and it is not my job to tell them what is and what is not fun.

It is my job to tell them that SP2 is a dog’s breakfast of statistics that may or may not matter, improbable movements of troops and diplomacy that seems to be an afterthought more than anything else.

In the right game, none of this would matter. In fact, if Golemlabs’ press releases were the only sources of their hyperbole, none of this would matter. But when you put your claims to realism in everything you do, the world you build better have some semblance of reality. If you keep calling your game a simulation and wacky stuff keeps happening, you are better off just calling it a game.

And for the record, the CIA Factbook is not a classified source. Stop implying that it is.