![New Game Round-up: Dark Souls on Your Table, and Diamonds in Your Treasure Chest](https://cf.geekdo-images.com/mPQqMTLKImGBGdZ0BFeNnA__medium/img/JWJvZLx6coau7G3huvWza5FN8d0=/fit-in/500x500/filters:no_upscale():strip_icc()/pic2973831.jpg)
The game features a "fast set-up, long reveal" mechanism that gets you into the game quickly and builds the location as you explore. The sense of danger is palpable as you discover new locations and the monsters that inhabit these dark places. The core combat mechanism and enemy behavior system forces deep strategic play and clever management of stamina to survive.
Dark Souls includes numerous boss and mini-boss encounters — including one against the Dragon Slayer Ornstein and Executioner Smough — and utilizes an innovative behavior mechanism so that no two encounters are ever the same, thus giving the game near infinite replayability.
Core game? Miniatures? Kickstarter? Popular video game series? And, lo, did the cash rain down upon them, burying them up to their happy necks with gilded treasure...
• North Star Games has signed a deal with Funforge for a French version of the Evolution base game, with this version due out before the end of 2016 in all French-speaking countries.
• Uli Blennemann from Spielworxx notes that an upgrade kit for Stefan Risthaus's Arkwright, presumably to match the changes in Capstone's second edition of the game, has been printed and should be available before the end of April 2016.
• Blennemann also states that ADC Blackfire is producing a small extension for Martin Schlegel's just released West of Africa that will be available "shortly".
• Jinkies! Designer Bruno Faidutti has shared the cover of the new edition of Diamant, co-designed with Alan R. Moon, that IELLO will release in Europe in July 2016. As noted in a write-up on Tric Trac, this version includes both the pawns and game board of the original Diamant as well as the artifact cards and the should-I-stay-or-should-I-go cards of Incan Gold. (Yes, we should probably merge the game listings of these two titles, but I don't know whether we will.)
For those who haven't played, Diamant is a great press-your-luck game that handles up to eight players, with everyone exploring a cave together to pocket whatever gems they can. However, everyone must split the haul evenly, so as you progress in each cave, you hope that other explorers will be unnerved by the danger signals around you and leave the cave, thereby allowing you to grab more gems for yourself. The risk, however, is that danger actually arrives, in which case you lose everything you would have gained from that cave.
I've played my copy of Diamant more than eighty times and recently sleeved the cards as they were starting to stick after so much use. It will be good to have a decent replacement for it!