Last night I had a dream.
I was racing down a mountain road in a sleek blue sedan, weaving between cars as the engine purred with power. In the distance I could see the foot of the mountain, and a sandy desert valley opening up before me. But, as I approached the foot of the mountain, the car began to lose power, and its silk-like handling turned to that of a brick in molasses.
Looking through my rear-view mirror I could see black smoke billowing from the trunk. I pulled the limping vehicle to the side of the road, despite it's chugging objections, and quickly stepped out. I circled around to the rear of the car, and held my breath as I opened the trunk. The oily smoke poured out, but quickly dispersed, following the meandering path of a summer breeze. In its absence, I saw the source of the problem.
Sitting in the center of the trunk was a shiny black Barbecue Grill. Golden flames darted from cracks in the side of the grill, licking the surface, and leaving a powdery grey ash. I gingerly opened the grill, and stepped away as a ball of fire rolled out of the strange cooking apparatus. Even while stepping away, I could feel the inferno inside singe my eyebrows. I leaned forward to see what was inside - burning, crackling, and coughing out such a noxious and oily smoke.
Although the contents of the grill were charred and curling to ash, to my horror, I instantly recognized them. My entire wardrobe of clothes. Burned and blackened, my ragged collection of game related T-shirts were smoldering inside of a barbecue grill that was resting inside the trunk of a broken down sports sedan, on the side of a rocky mountain road.
What does it mean?
It means that I need to tell you about the new games being introduced by Ignacy Trzewiczek and Portal Publishing at this year's Essen game convention. Ignacy is the designer who brought us Stronghold, a board game which I reviewed earlier in the year, and gave very high marks.
The broken down car in a rocky desert wasteland is obviously alluding to the post-apocalyptic, "Road Warrior" inspired board game 51st State. Portal is revealing a new standalone expansion to the game at this years Essen, called The New Era, which allows for increased player interaction through the mechanic of invasion and treaties. I have been a fan of post apocalyptic settings ever since I first booted up the computer game Wasteland on my Commodore 64 as a kid, so I am really looking forward to The New Era.
Although people have been telling me I need to burn my clothes since high school, I'm sure that the destruction of my entire wardrobe is a hint from my psyche that it's time to enter the world of high fashion. Ignacy is also releasing the English version of Pret-a-Porter, a cutthroat economic game about the high stakes world of high fashion. Don't let he theme fool you - fashion is a serious business, and this is described as Portal's most ruthless game to date.
After Essen, more information about a potential North American release will likely be made available, and I hope to give both of these titles a closer look in the future to see if they really are the stuff dreams are made of.