Best card games of 2016
We’ve decided to catalogue the 30 best real-time strategy games of all time. We’re including them here because that’s where they belong. Expect to find some fan favorites and more than a few games that flew under everyone’s radar.
You’ll find none of those mediocre titles here, as we’re only interested in writing about the best of the best in the RTS genre. Even the Nintendo DS played host to several RTS games, including a Final Fantasy title.
Best card games of 2016 series#
Regardless of the genre’s love affair with the PC, the decades have been kind to the genre, offering gamers with everything from ultra-competitive titles like Starcraft to more toned-down real-time strategy games like Gene Wars (which isn’t on this list, because it kind of sucked) and even casual titles like The Baldies and Nintendo’s Pikmin series of games.
Best card games of 2016 Pc#
The games belong to the domain of PC gamers, giving the PC platform an edge against their counterparts well beyond just having better superior hardware. Since the mid-90s, real-time strategy games have become a video game staple, particularly on the PC due to the mouse and keyboard controls which allow players to point at units, drag their mouse across the screen, and select the armies they’ll use to attack other units. Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty + Heart of the Swarm Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun - Aiko's Choice "It's a way of socializing but it's a way of doing it in a financially responsible way."įollow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook. "You can go out to a pub, you can have a couple of drinks, but the focus can be on board games and that's basically free," Cottney told CNBC during a phone interview. While a board game may be an initially expensive purchase (for instance, copies of Catan retail at around $48.99), it can be reused almost indefinitely and taken anywhere. So I mean if you look at the generation after them, they were raised more on screen games."Ĭottney added that board games appeal to millennials from a financial perspective, as debt-laden millennials must now save towards priorities such as housing deposits, holidays or paying off debts. "I think millennials are probably the last demographic which have been fully raised on board games. "There's also the nostalgia element," Catherine Cottney, manager of trends Europe at Mintel, told CNBC during a phone interview.
Around 30 percent of millennials say they are interested in visiting a board-game themed café or bar, according to a report from market researchers Mintel on the leisure habits of millennials, published in August. To capitalize on this trend, several board-game themed cafés and bars have sprung up in the past few years, such as Draughts in North London. These games can be either competitive or cooperative and are typically aimed at adults looking for an activity to do while drinking and socializing with friends," he wrote in a guest post for Global Toy News. "New games are being introduced every year that are largely aimed at millennial consumers, such as 'Codename', 'Star Wars: Armada', and 'Pandemic: Legacy' in 2015. The independent board game sector, including games like Catan, has been the highest growth area of games and puzzles, according to Matthew Hudak, toys and games analyst for Euromonitor International. "It is based on our observations, which include a robust growth in the retail space, families' desire to bond over an analog experience, as well as a resurgence of an interest in analog experiences in general." Teuber added that board games are continuing to grow in popularity. It's a game that is characterized by creating win-win rather than a zero-sum situations," he told CNBC via email. It requires social skills to play cleverly. Specifically, Catan is a game in which players are always involved. "Catan has benefited from a growing desire to interact and socialize away from screens. Guido Teuber, managing director of Catan, explained how the game's popularity has lasted more than 20 years. with retail sales of more than $80 million, according to Euromonitor International. More than 18 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, according to The New Yorker, and in 2013, it was the fourth largest board game brand in the U.S. "I think I've only ever won a game of it once, but I still love it." "I like Catan because it's so easy to pick up but you can add so much depth to the game just by how you play and who you play with, so no game is ever the same," Alice Bell, a video game journalist and fan of the board game, told CNBC via email.