It's Friday. Gen Con has us pretty intense, and John is painting some eerie Nighthaunts in the back room of the office.

Everything feels a bit manic and creepy, so let's talk Arkham Horror.

The year is 1926, and it is the height of the Roaring Twenties. Flappers dance till dawn in smoke-filled speakeasies, drinking alcohol supplied by rum runners and the mob. It’s a celebration to end all celebrations in the aftermath of the War to End All Wars.

Yet a dark shadow grows in the city of Arkham. Alien entities known as Ancient Ones lurk in the emptiness beyond space and time, writhing at the thresholds between worlds. Occult rituals must be stopped and alien creatures destroyed; before the Ancient Ones make our world their ruined dominion.

This third edition, announced by Fantasy Flight Games during Gen Con, feels like a complete overhaul rather than a simple re-vamp, and perhaps Arkham Horror needed it.  While the second edition remains a classic, the play time and number crunching often proved exhausting for the casual gamer.

And Lovecraftian games have become more and more mainstream, suggesting the casual gamer may be the market Fantasy Flight Games are aiming for with this release.

However, this is still a game for the Cthulhu connoisseur and features familiar characters as lead investigators such as Jenny Barnes, a dilettante with a mission to find her missing sister, who many will remember from Arkham Horror: The Card Game and Mansions of Madness Second Edition.

As regards gameplay mechanics, the 3rd edition suggests a run time of approximately two hours - a significant decrease from the second edition.  A central modular board which evolves and shifts during gameplay provides a strategic unease which is mirrored in the classic Lovecraftian narratives on offer.

The artwork is beautiful, and you can see the attention and care which has been given to every component in the game. I can see Arkham Horror Third Edition making fans of Lovecraft extremely happy, while also bringing new gamers into the fold.

Personally, I'm very excited by this announcement.  Lovecraft horror narratives work well within board games, and I'm blown away at how the designers have tried to mirror the narrative anxiety in the gameplay mechanics. It's currently available for pre-order from Fantasy Flight Games.

Whats your favourite Lovecraft-themed game?