Shut Up & Sit Down

GAMES NEWS! 03/08/2020

Santorini: New York: York, Everybody in the club getting newsy, A 2mm Greyboard Coffin

Ava: It’s getting news in here, so take off all your news. I am, getting so news, I’m gonna take my news off.

Tom: Whoa, nelly! Cool your news boots. That’s just a bit too news.

Ava: I know Tom, I know. But GenCon Online has given us so much news, that I think we are literally going to take our news off, saving some for next week. As is semi traditional, this week focuses mostly on the big players (who get their details online the quickest), as it takes a week or so for the more interesting oddities to start shining through. And oh my word, the biggest game is getting bigger. I nearly put my hype-drive into ludicrous mode for this one.

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What’s the future of Shut Up & Sit Down?

This might come as a surprise due to the time-warping effects of Covid-19, but it’s that time of year again! Today, we’d like to give you a quick behind-the-scenes message from Shut Up & Sit Down.

If you’re new to this community, you might not yet know that Shut Up & Sit Down is kept alive by donations from people who love what we do. So if you think you can afford it, please consider giving us a dollar or two this summer.

That’s all! We promise to only bother you about this in another six months. Have a great weekend, everybody.

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Podcast #115: Score the Boogie Bonus

“These are a few of my favourite sins”, The Rosenburg’s Parental Polycule, QueenTeen Smeeth, Widening To A Point Of Horror

Picture it now; you’re sitting in a lovely english garden in the midst of summertime. You’ve got a delicious cup of iced Bovril in your hand, and the sun is warming the grass under your feet. Life is bliss. Suddenly, a tall sweaty man and a short sweaty boy leap the fence – cracking open warm cans in mid-air – fistfuls of board game bits clutched in their four greasy hands. It’s time to podcast, baby. In this undeniably very 115th episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, Tom and Quinns resume the age-old tradition of shirtless podcasting – kicking off with a chat about The Deadlies, before pinging over to Super Skill Pinball: 4Cade. Then, Quinns gets wistful about his foray into Fields of Arle, and we end on a highly controversial chat about Undaunted: North Africa. Strap in. Have a great weekend, everybody!

Tap below for full timestamps and more info!

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CHESS MONTH – Go Review

two cool originals, a forest full of snares, what's wrong with pearls

Oh dear. SU&SD is trying to review a 4,000 year old cultural institution? There are days where we struggle to review dexterity games aimed at drunks. This can’t end well.

In all seriousness, Go is easily among the most magnificent works of design that we’ve ever review. The only question that remains is… is it fun?

Huge thanks to online shop Masters of Games for lending us some of their Go stuff for this video. Quinns says he’ll mail it back shortly, and “Sorry for the Dorito dust.”

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GAMES NEWS! 27/07/20

Natty News, Warsch-kisser, Terrible Toad Tiles, Sonic De Jahres, carbs gone wild

Tom: Hello Ava! How is your day so far? I indulged in having a rare THREE slices of toast this morning, 33% more than my usual breakfast.

Ava: Oh dear. Returning to the homestead has lowered your standards for excitement?

Tom: I’m gearing up to film a review in a garage, Ava. It’s all downhill from here.

Ava: I got a bit dazzled last Monday when I found myself accidentally watching Reiner Knizia wearing a hard hat and matching bow tie. He was there to not win the biggest award in board games, the Spiel Des Jahres. I’m a bit sad he dressed up for nothing, but he also looked like he was having a whale of a time.

Tom: He also looks like a rogue trader pretending to be a magician.

Ava: The winners were in fact Daniela and Christian Stöhr designers of Pictures, a game of drawing things without pens. Instead you’re recreating photos using building blocks, pixelated cubes and bits of shoelace. I’ve not found myself particularly intrigued, if I’m honest, but often the details are what makes a party game sing and I’d like to give it a pop.

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CHESS MONTH – Cairn

Wrestling A shrubbery, bad times with twigs

Our celebration of head-to-head games continues! This week Matt stacks up his opinions about the fabulous Cairn. Blue druids in hats versus brown druids with sticks – it’s a tale as old as time, but what new magic have they cooked up with this natty new formula?

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GAMES NEWS! 20/07/20

Kemet: Tory Edition, Stefan Feld’s Euro-Teasing, Mincemeat Geodude, The Newscopter has Landed

Tom: I’m doing it! I’m finally piloting the newscopter! I can see so many games from my perch in the sky! I’ve dialed down the whimsy-ometer, and the daftosphere has been calibrated. All the news is trickling out the newspipes – I can see my NEWS from here!

Matt: OK Tom, gosh. Fine – you can keep flying the newscopter for a COUPLE OF MINUTES, but for heaven’s sake – crank the Reprint-Rotor before we have a terrible accident?

Tom: Yessir!

Queen Games’ delirious Twitter teasing has finally led us to its natural conclusion. The cities have been revealed, the mystery is gone, you can all go home now thank you very much that’s quite enough. The first of the City Collection is Hamburg, a reimplementation of 2013’s Bruges – which, as you can tell, is not Hamburg. It’s Bruges.

Matt: Yeah, switching from Bruges to Hamburg isn’t exactly the most enthralling re-theme?

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Podcast #114: The Ocean Grasps a Van

the domain of vans, the superior bake-off, nuclear fission, and a crying cat

It’s a full house, baby! In this episode of the podcast Ava and Quinns discuss FIVE games, each and every one of which they are IMPRESSED BY. Has that ever happened on the podcast before? We’re not going back to check. That could take *minutes*.

Quinns can offer some early impressions of Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 (04:15), Ava’s been dueling a stranger in Innovation (19:36) (and you can read Ava’s splendid roundup of Chudyk’s games here), there’s a lovely drawing game called Geometric Art (34:12), a revisit of Spirit Island (41:12) and we close the show with some impressions of the hot new card game Spicy (57:35).

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CHESS MONTH – Targi (and Expansion) Review

July 15, 2020 Reviews Targi It takes two to tango! But it also takes two to Targi. Our second review of chess month is a snug little box, and a welcome reminder that eurogames don’t have to be big to be clever. (It’s not the first dedicated two player eurogame we’ve reviewed, mind you. That … Read more

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GAMES NEWS! 13/07/20

Optimised Digital Betrayal, Head Empty: Brain Smooth, A Not-So-Secret Pandemic, Tired of the Tweets

Tom: Fictional scenario with humorous implications!

Ava: Harmless pre-amble with light twists of jokery!

Tom: Slight pun, sensible query?

Ava: Query resolved, questionable segue into the news!

Ava: I can’t not talk about that teaser trailer for Pandemic Legacy Season 0. My understanding is that if I’d tuned into the stream last tuesday, I would’ve been able to watch Matt complete a teaser jigsaw with a secret code on the back. I’m really hoping Tom was watching and knows if we’ve gleaned any exciting spoilers.

Tom: I was not present for the assembly, though I did pop in to quickly clip Matt looking his daftest.

Matt: In my defence, I am incredibly daft. It turns out I’d vastly underestimated both the time and energy required to ‘Do A Jigsaw’ – five hours of live-streaming a muddy brown puzzle left me shamefully too wiped out to actually solve the mystery behind the clues I’d uncovered. I still don’t know exactly what I missed, but I gather I missed *something* quite vital – the next day I even went so far as to heat up the accompanying note in a wok in the hope that a heat-sensitive message would reveal itself. You can’t mark me down for effort, I guess?

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