a great guide to family board games

I love gaming. I love my family. Therefore, I love gaming with my family.

The thing is, my kids aren't especially interested in a serious Battletech fight ("When do we get to fight each other?" "Just as soon as we finish building our Mechs." "But we've been doing that for an hour!" "I know! We have to make sure they're just right ..."), and my wife glazes over every time I try to explain how awesome Illuminati is. ("AHAHAHAA! The FBI took over the Convenience Stores with help from Congressional Wives and Nuclear Power Companies! Hey, where are you going? Well, if you walk away from the table I'm just going to take your money and put it on my power structure. Why do you have your car keys? Honey? Hello?")

Luckily, there are a lot of games that are fun for nerds like me and normals like my wife and kids, games like Settlers, Carcassonne, Spooks, Last Night on Earth, Apples to Apples, and classics like Sorry and Risk. But if you're not as seriously OCD about games as I am, you may not know where to start when you're contemplating a family game purchase.

Well, this morning, I came across a fantastic guide to family board games in the SFGate, and I just had to share:

The range and quality of board games out there today far surpass anything we may have grown up with as kids, and in spite of the competing allures of online gaming, there is still something elementally satisfying about the roll of the dice and the click-clack of little wooden counters.

Plus, in these tough economic times, can you really afford to go out anymore? Of course not - which is where board games come in. One quick purchase amortizes nicely over many nights of brainy or brainless fun, as you prefer.

Here, then, is our annual consumer guide to some of the year's new releases, along with a couple of holdovers that I couldn't resist throwing into the mix.

The list runs the gamut, from Dominion (which Andrew says is fantastic, but I haven't played) to Sorry sliders, which I've seen in the store but hadn't given serious consideration to until I read about it in this list.

And remember, kids, if you see something you want to buy, go to your friendly local game shop and give them your business. The next generation of gamers (who you're hopefully helping to create) will thank you when they have a place to play in five years.