GAMES NEWS! 15/04/19

haunt your bones, slay the story, travel a worm hole, make a sex tape
Quinns: Good morning. Our top story this week? Shut Up & Sit Down has a new staff writer! Everybody, please give the warmest of welcomes to Ava Foxfort. Ava, will you please step in front of the class and introduce yourself?

Ava Foxfort (they/them): Hi everybody! You may have seen me in the comments or the forums, and I have to say I’m utterly thrilled to be here. Shut Up & Sit Down has been one of my favourite imaginary places for a very long time, and I’m delighted to be part of it.

Quinns: Ava, please kneel. I dub thee... a News Knight of the Realm.

Ava: I guess I’d better go slay some news.

Quinns Walks You Through His Game Collection!

belly stories, a mormon biome, and a hidden expansion
In 2015, we posted our Top 50 Games Ever. In 2017, we lost our minds examining every game in the Board Game Geek Top 100.

This year, we're doing something a little more personal: A series of videos on the team's board game collections, starting with Quinns. After working on SU&SD for seven years, games slipping between his fingers like grains of sand, these are the 136 (plus) games that he's chosen to keep (and a few that are in his flat despite his best efforts).

Enjoy, everybody!

Podcast #93: Alone with the Norwegians

a trojan expansion, matt's pizza-toast, quintin's oily market, the mandela effect
The 93rd ever episode of the SU&SD podcast begins with Matt and Quinns discussing Klaus Wunderlich, before then talking about people talking about us talking about Blood on the Clocktower (02:05). With a bit of luck, this should clear up some misgivings surrounding our glowing review.

There's then chat about the hot new roll'n'write Corinth (10:08), the superlative expansion A Feast for Odin: The Norwegians (18:36), an additional superb expansion, Space Base: The Emergence of Shy Pluto (27:32), the oh-so-nearly-a-SU&SD-video-review Monolith Arena (32:42) and the fantastically inventive game Alone (43:52).

Finally, the mailbag returns! We chat about which games offer the best emotional rollercoaster of feeling very clever, and then very dumb (01:05:27).

GAMES NEWS! 08/04/19

The irish-o-meter, rolly robot boys (RRBs), THE WRONG TRAINS
Matt: Unlucky Matt this week! I’ve got a cold! And worse than that, it’s not even a rare cold or an illustrious purple EPIC cold, but merely a plain green chunk of common head-gunk. As the coffee and paracetamol begin to wear off, I’m switching over to rooibos tea and lashings of toast with off-brand nutella. I’m not sure “lashings of toast” makes 100% sense, but what I get up to in my house is my business.

And on that note - it looks like Fantasy Flight Games has certainly been putting the BUSY into BUSI(Y)NESS!

Tonight, we’re streaming Chinatown!

Quinns: Hey everybody! Tonight team SU&SD is celebrating how superb negotiation game Chinatown is arriving back in shops after a very long absence. You can watch Quinns' review above, and at 7pm BST we'll be playing a game of Chinatown live on Twitch! Yes, we normally stream on Thursdays, but not tonight! Remember to click "Follow" on our Twitch page to get an email whenever we go live.

Anyway, as I was saying, what a game! With a slim box, reasonable price, and simple-yet-fresh design, this is the kind of game that we can see ourselves recommending from now until this site finally implodes like a dying star.

...That said, the box art and setting look increasingly iffy with each passing year. Here's hoping that with the next print run, Z-Man update the theming to something less eye-rolly to Chinese board gamers.

GAMES NEWS! 01/04/19

Build-a-bro workshop, my lil' luminous bacteria, the bendiest bus
Quinns: Everybody, please give a warm welcome to a new gladiator in the news arena. Intern Kylie is here to write news and drink tea, and she's well aware it's not tea time.

Did that sound badass? I'm pretty sure it did. Kylie, take it away.

Kylie: Capstone Games has announced a special 20th anniversary reprint of a Splotter Spellen classic, Bus. Splotter Spellen is the Dutch team behind Food Chain Magnate and the bucolic and bizarre Roads & Boats. Sadly, they’re also known for sparse print runs and a lot of their games are nigh-on impossible to find. This year, they're letting another publish reprint one of their grand designs.

Review: Blood on the Clocktower

troublesome fuzziness, impterns, unless i'm drunk you are my grandchild
Brace yourselves, because Quinns (maybe) has a new favourite board game of all time.

Blood on the Clocktower is live on Kickstarter right now, and for the first time in Shut Up & Sit Down history we've published our review to coincide with that Kickstarter to help to get this game into the hands of as many people as possible.

What makes it so special? Is it the haunted gerrymandering? The frightening complexity? The fact that, under all of the lying and murder, it's a feelgood experience?

It's all of that, and much, much more. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Card Games That Don’t Suck: Gin Rummy

the rummy family, the rummy police, numberwang
Quinns: Everyone remembers the 10 plagues of Egypt. Blood, frogs, flies, pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, fire, darkness, and mediocre card games.

Today, we're doing our bit to rebuild society. Gin Rummy is most certainly a card game that doesn't suck. This is a tense, tight little race for 2 players that plays a lot like an affordable version of Arboretum.

What are some of your favourite games in the creepily-named "Rummy family"?

Games News Will Return Next Week

tick tock
Quinns: Hey everyone! There will be no Games News this week, as our team is developing one of 2019's more... standout reviews.

In fact, this is the most time we've spent on a single review since Matt's examination of Gloomhaven. However, we think this game is more than worth it.

You'll find out lots, lots more on Friday. Thanks for your patience!

Review: Altiplano & The Traveller Expansion

the andes are in oklahoma right, llama llama llama llama chameleon
Since a quick'n'shifty discussion on podcast #68, there hasn't been much discussion on this site of Andean carpet-crafter & bag-builder Altiplano... until TODAY!

This game has recently been gifted with The Traveller expansion, which Matt is convinced turns a good game into a great one by... adding a strange man who wanders around in circles? Can that be right?

Read our review of Altiplano's predecessor Orléans here.