Games News! 20/08/18

fallen fruit, gassed with green, knasty knight, sweet boats
Paul: What’s that in the sky, soaring above us?! Is it a bird? A plane? Is it the GAMES NEWS, descending down upon us to… No, it is a bird. Oh no. It’s dead. Quinns, the bird is dead.

Quinns: That’s OK, I was just on my way to bury this copy of Risk. We’ll pop the bird in the box.

Paul: OK, but hurry back! There’s a news story in the Games News’ news about the Dune games that will soon be news?

Podcast #84: The Post-Gen Con Blowout!

The Princess' Holiday in Hell, The joy of a felt-tip, A bad day for Mr. Mayor
Can you hear a distant rumble of people applauding, firing party poppers and doing synchronised donuts in their cars? Don't panic! Nothing could be more natural when our post-Gen Con podcast rolls around. It's possible that there's never been such a diverse and exciting array of games tucked into a single SU&SD podcast.

Today, Paul and Quinns exchange first impressions of Keyforge: Call of the Archons, Fantasy Flight's new collaboration with Richard Garfield where every deck ever printed will be unique to you. Up next is Gen 7, the dramatic and curious sequel to Dead of Winter that takes place aboard a generation ship. Then there's Nyctophobia, a game where all but one player is blindfolded and being hunted by a murderer. Critical Mass, which might be the best game of mecha-on-mecha violence ever made? Railroad Ink, which is the first roll-and-write game we've found that could steal the throne from Welcome To. And the pair close by talking about The Estates, which is both the meanest and most devious game of auctions that Quinns has ever experienced.

Among those six games are no less than four contenders for the prestigious SU&SD Recommends badge. You heard it here first- the rest of 2018 is going to be absolutely fabulous.

UPDATE: We now have a complete transcription of this podcast, courtesy of SU&SD fan InkyBloc!

Games News! 13/08/18

nebulous gems, digital gnomes, Pacman-style
Quinns: Oh my goodness. As always, a deluge of announcements came out of Gen Con this year. We should probably start by covering all of the news to gush forth from the excellent studio that is Fantasy Flight Games.

The centrepiece of this press conference? Keyforge. A new card game from Richard Garfield, designer of both Magic: The Gathering and Netrunner, that uses very advanced technology. In fact, the technology behind printing Keyforge is so bonkers that just about everybody in the audience couldn’t wrap their heads

Podcast #83: The Villain’s Criminal Google

a greek salad and a can of coke, a bunny with a big hat, a booger set ablaze
Pop on your monocle and climb into your biggest chair, because this is a podcast where we are most definitely the bad guys.

First off, Matt and Quinns discuss the be-hyped box of Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game with the help of some royalty-free music. Next, the pair shatter a few dreams with their description of Disney's Villainous board game. There's then a quick discussion of Cryptozoic's Wallet, in which a mob boss has the wallet of a... 9-year-old boy? Finally, the group plumb the depths of Google in a few rounds of Weird Things Humans Search For.

Enjoy, everybody! And look forward to podcast #84, because it's gonna be a stormer.

Review: Lowlands

daddy lowlands, glassy-eyed virii, quintin speaks dutch?
This week Paul and Quinns are excited to examine Lowlands, a svelte and confident sheep farming game in the style of venerable designer Uwe Rosenberg, BUT WITH A TWIST. At the end of the game your herds might wash away in a dreadful storm.

Only one question remains. What wool they think of it?

Where to find us at Gen Con 2018!

did you know that indianapolis is the world's largest marriot hotel
Quinns: Hey all! Some final reminders of where you can see us at this week's big show in Indianapolis.

Our extravagant live stage show will be on Thursday at 10am. The good news is, they gave us the main stage that seats 1,200 people! The bad news is, that's the same exact time the main hall opens. You know, the one with all the games in?

To make the most of what we're calling "the death slot", we're planning to give you our early impressions on some VERY hyped games, like Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, Disney's Villainous, even the bizarre creation that is Cryptozoic's Wallet.  Why not come along to this first, and THEN hit the hall when you know which games to queue for?

At 3pm that same day we'll be doing a bit of work as presenters, revealing some upcoming videogame adaptations of board games at What's New at Asmodee Digital With Shut Up & Sit Down. Come along for at least one announcement that blew my mind when I first heard about it...

Paul: We’ll also be doing a signing session on Saturday the 4th at midday, where we will sign everything except Matthew.

Thanks everybody!

Games News! 30/07/18

the death slot, leany paul, an appetite for sneaking, Canada's largest adult men
Paul: Welcome back once again, dear readers, to the Games News lab, where fresh Games News stories are grown in special hydroponic vats and tended carefully until, at last, they are ready to be released to-

Quinns: ANOTHER ONE’S ESCAPED.

Paul: QUARANTINE PROTOCOL GAMMA. ENGAGE DEFENSE TURRETS. EVACUATE THE BIODOME. THE WORLD ISN’T READY FOR THE NEWS OF GEN7.

Good grief, this is two weeks in a row that Plaid Hat games are leading our Games News, but Gen7 is none other than the second "Crossroads" game. In other words, it's the long-awaited spiritual sequel to Dead of Winter.

New SHUX ’18 announcements! (Come to our party!)

i am arresting you under the monty python act of 1981 for being much too silly
Quinns: Hey, did you know Shut Up & Sit Down is doing its second con this year? Did you know it's now officially the BIGGEST board game convention IN ALL OF CANADA?

These three days of 24/7 gaming are going to be - if it's at all possible - even better than last year. This time we'll have booths from all of the industry's big board game publishers, a ridiculous array of special guests, and more silly events than you could feasibly watch.

However, we are now 70% sold out of tickets. If you want to join all of the swell people who've snagged tickets early, you can do so right here, at Shux.Show.

Thanks everbody!

Podcast #82: Welcome To My Viking Fungus

free butter, muddy dice, some frankensteins, what is egg rolls
Everybody, pick up your pencils! No, you're not having another stress dream about being back at school. We've just finally found a roll-n-write game that we absolutely love. It's called Welcome To, and podcast #82 starts with an explanation of what it is, and why you should get excited for the release date in September.

And that's just the beginning of this... peculiarly positive cast. Paul and Quinns soon move on to the happy kitchens of Wok Star (3rd edition), there's talk of the fun they had in Fungi, and of the surprisingly strong Champions of Midgard. There's also some disappointment about Village Attacks, but it wouldn't be a SU&SD podcast without some vigorous complaining, would it?

Finally, the pair end with a particularly sticky reader mail. Has their taste in games changed with time? And if so, how?

Games News! 23/07/18

abstract plasticts, united biscuits, pipin' my oil about the place
Paul: Quinns, what is it that you have there, under one of your many board gaming arms?

Quinns: What, this? This little thing under my tertiary limb? Why, it’s only the latest announcement from Plaid Hat games, their fancy new Neon Gods. Doesn’t it look pretty, Paul? Doesn’t it look like an imaginative cross between roller derby, cyberpunk and Adventure Time? Doesn’t it also look… CURIOUSLY FAMILIAR?

Paul: ...!!

Quinns: Ha, you've figured it out, haven't you? Yes, I believe that Neon Gods is nothing less than the mutant child of early Plaid Hat classic City of Remnants, a game we were delighted by all the way back in 2013.