Here at The Giant Brain you will find all sorts of content about games from indepth reviews to first thoughts and previews of upcoming kickstarters. We will always make it clear in our content if we have received a review copy or if it is something one of us owns. We want to make it as apparent as possible what each of our review types is about so we have listed them here with a further explanation. As there are now three of us on the site we will not have all necessarily played the games we review, and we will endeavour to make clear who has played what during any article.
First Thoughts
These are games that the reviewer has played through once but doesn’t own, the sort of experience you might get at a con or a games meetup. The reviewer will not have read the rulebook so cannot comment on it, but can give you an overview of the mechanics and how they felt about the game. You can see an example of this kind of review here.
Preview
These are games that are not out in general retail yet. The reviewer will have played as many times as it takes them to get a handle on the game. They will either be coming to Kickstarter soon or are releasing in some other way in the not too distant future. It is likely we have not been given a not quite final copy of the game by the publisher but we will always make that clear at the top of the preview. You can see an example of this kind of review here.
As of 26/01/22 we are no longer previewing crowdfunded games. You can read about our reasons for doing so here.
Review
This is a game that one of us most likely own and have played as many times as we feel necessary to deliver a verdict. This will be a full dive into the games theme, mechanics and the ‘feel’ of the game. You can find an example of this kind of review here.
Approaching us about your game
We are open to reviewing a wide variety of games as you can see from what we have looked at so far on the site. If you would like us to review a game please don’t hesitate to get in touch or fill out the contact form at the bottom of this section. Do however read the rest of this page before submitting.
We take on games to review with the following caveats:
- We will not promote your Kickstarter, Board Game, Card Game, RPG, or other tabletop related product without having sampled it in some way or form. We are not marketers. Please do not send us emails asking us to do this. It is a waste of your time and ours.
- We do not charge for any type of content.
- We will not necessarily take on your game, most likely due to time constraints on other content we are engaged with. Basically it’s nothing personal.
- Roleplaying Games are really hard for us to review. Get in touch and if we think it is something we would like to play we will likely pick up a copy. This kind of review could take months to do.
- Party Games: we will take these on from time to time but due to the larger player count frequently needed it may take us longer to review them. Please keep this in mind when contacting us.
- If we take a game on we will produce a first thoughts/preview/review article on the game no matter our opinion on it. It will be our honest opinion after as many plays as we think it takes us to get a handle on it.
- We are not rules testers. We expect games sent out to us to be as complete as you can make them with rules well tested and written. We will feedback if we find anything odd or confusing but if the rules end up frustrating our efforts to review the game we may not be able to produce the required content.
If all this seems fine to you then you can email us directly or use the contact form below.
Thanks
The Giant Brain Team
