Contenders for Game of the Year. 2026 Mid Year Review

0:00 Hello and welcome to BC. My name's Wayne and I'm Matt and we've been asked to do a six monthly review, a half year review.

0:08 Apparently, we've been tagged from somewhere from our friends Liby and Julian from Boxing Mele. If you don't know them, go and check them out.

0:16 Check them out.

0:17 Apparently, there are some rules to these things, but we're going to punk rocket and uh we're just going to talk about the ears so far in board games.

0:26 We don't do rules. We just learned the rules and play,

0:31 but we Yeah, we don't play by the

0:33 But you can play by the rules or not. And hit the subscribe button.

0:36 Subscribe button. Do that. Absolutely. Subscribe. Join us as we take a little journey from the six months to date.

0:42 Yeah. Best games, uh, best surprises,

0:45 interesting stuff happening,

0:47 blahy blahy blah,

0:48 all that stuff. Let's

0:49 be good. So first stop on this journey of a six month review. It feels like a work with you. You know when you six months you're half

1:05 personal development those are the worst. Why do if someone of you guys work in HR can you tell me why do I need to write a self assessment

1:16 everything I've done

1:18 anyway. Anyway, let's board game. Let's go talk about ball game. So, um, how do we feel this first six months of the year has been for ball gaming? So, what

1:31 how do we feel about 2026 so far?

1:33 In board gaming.

1:34 In board gaming.

1:35 All the rest is

1:37 it's pure chaos, mate, outside. But in this little world of board gaming, interesting. Um, because obviously we had UK Games Expo, that's very recent. That's May. uh that you know comes towards the halfway point and we normally expect you some big releases, some interesting stuff to happen.

1:53 Felt a little bit lackluster in terms of big releases for me. There were still some cool games. Absolutely no doubt about that. But there wasn't like the big hitters that we had from last year or the year before where we had heat in 2024 and we had you know all these we had like Fate the Fellowship in 2024.

2:10 I think I think we Yeah, we felt we felt the same with the

2:14 Where's the where's the big hitter yet? and I haven't got it yet.

2:16 UKG, we love it. It's great.

2:19 Uh, but there was no actual big release at UKG like in the past. Um, we spoke with a lot of the a lot of the publisher stuff. Everything has been moved to either Origin or Gen Con to not have it well, of course, Essen is Essen, but um, a lot of them just prefer to move it out of Essen H, but at the same time, not a UKG because it's too early in the distilled Europe area for getting over to the US maybe

2:49 a bit disappointing from uh from us but we do realize the US is such a much bigger it's bigger market

2:57 but and it's more just to do with and because of that we haven't had the big hitter or a couple of big hitters it just feels like a slightly smaller year in some ways but that's that could entirely flip by the time we get to Essence

3:10 that is true but at the same times we we'll talk about it later. Uh, but this year is definitely the use of reimplementation. So, we played a lot of amazing games that came out this year, but most of them were remakes or, you know, remix or

3:29 Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. red redo of some sort, which is not a bad thing per se.

3:35 Yeah.

3:36 But it's just the nature of things I think at least this year.

3:38 Yeah. So, and how do you feel like compared then 2025, 2024? Do you feel do you feel the industry in terms of like industry we started going down of last year? Is there a like an influx down

3:55 maybe I feel like the last couple this is a couple of things. This could be our own bias as being guys that are like

4:02 constantly playing games, constantly like looking at stuff in, you know, trying to trying to play new stuff and yeah, get involved in all all of the industry things. But it feels like from 2024 to 2025 to 2026 somewhat for me

4:17 a slight downwards trend in in like general

4:23 big industry excitement but but that is contrasted against the size of the industry growing.

4:29 Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're you're right because you expecting like more and more big stuff as well.

4:37 There's just more stuff. There is a more there's a lot there is a lot of stuff that is probably too much.

4:44 Maybe that's maybe for me from my perspective it's just diluting it a little bit. Maybe I

4:49 getting tired. Are you getting tired?

4:51 Maybe I might be getting tired, but we'll see. Well, we'll see later on as we go through this video.

4:57 Certainly not in some cases.

4:58 Uh so let's go on. Next stops is uh surprises. Matt, even with maybe a little bit of a malaise, uh we are still often surprised by the board game industry and we've had some surprises already in the first six months of this year. Yes. And I think my biggest surprise, the demo that we played at UK Games was Cyberpunk Legends because this was a game that I did not really honestly expect to be good. So

5:25 I I sat on the table being like, "All right,

5:29 an IP." It got up from the table said where we can get a copy please.

5:35 Can I can I buy that now? Uh, no. Really, really fun. Great cop. We talked about it a lot in our UKG review. So, go check out that video to get some more interesting in-depth thoughts about that game.

5:44 It's a it's a co-op um Eldrich Road style

5:51 adventure game kind of

5:52 but uh very very cool in a cyber punk world cooperative. Super cool.

5:57 Really really nice. And yeah, I think one of the other most surprising things that I've learned about you, Matt, is that you just don't like me anymore and you want to play by yourself.

6:06 That's not true. That's not true. But 2026 for me has been on the solo game year of the solo. This month, the last 6 months, I did play a lot of solos. And talking about solos, a game that um it was pretty cool to look at and mostly got it just because of the look. Uh, it was Hercules and the 12 blader and it's a fantastic game. It just like

6:32 it's it's superb. I just I just love the the game flow um what you do like how you progress and how hard the games gets and the decision that you need to to get while simply literally flipping cards and rolling dice. Um they made they made um

6:52 such a a meaty game which sold like so so little um and the production of the game is absolutely stunning and that is what kind of like all right let's give it a go. But the game itself has been surprisingly good or just surprisingly addictive.

7:09 Yeah, I want to I want to see more of that in solo games. What I don't want is you know just more like roll and write stuff where I've got a pen and paper and I've got some dice. someone like give me a beautiful thing that is tactile

7:22 that I can really enjoy, right? And really get to grips with and just Yeah. really lean into the fact that this is a solo experience and just I want to really appreciate the things that I've got out of the box.

7:31 Yeah.

7:31 Yeah. And um um another one that surprised both of us. Um again, this is not the best game ever uh but Bella Vista was a surprisingly very very Yeah. like nice like this city building tile placement uh with this sort of auction um action selection uh with this 3D elements all the houses that you build all 3D this verticality things um it's it's it's very cool like it's super nice game

8:04 it's a game that you can that easily can play with a family uh but the product itself is is um is super good um again it's Oh, I get it's never going to make BG top 100, but does it need to? No, it was just like a very nice and

8:20 very giftable, good feeling game. Good to play with lots of people. Yeah, it was a good one, mate. Should we move into some of the interesting re-implementations cuz that was a year of the re-implementation.

8:30 We stayed in and um Yeah,

8:32 that's true. So a few months ago um we released a video where we say that this year was going to be the um reimplementation year

8:44 for the good or the bad.

8:45 Yes.

8:46 If you haven't watched it,

8:47 go watch the video.

8:48 Link is there and cuz we talk about all the titles that are coming up this year and they are over implementation. But um of all the ones that we already played that came out this year,

8:59 yes,

9:00 there's been a a couple, maybe a little bit more than a couple, they were absolutely amazing.

9:07 Yeah. Really stand out.

9:09 Despite being 10, 15 years old,

9:11 sometimes 20 years old. Yeah, exactly.

9:13 With a shiny coat of paint,

9:16 little tink under the under the hood under a little bit, but not kind of like revol Yeah. just a little bit. Uh but nonetheless, amazing games.

9:27 Yeah, absolutely. And the first one I'm going to talk about and I've spoken about it a couple times is Container uh which at UKG was the best game you could buy for £30. All play have done a phenomenal thing.

9:37 Yeah, devil set for 30.

9:39 It's like it's unreal. It's like that game is so good. The the product is great. The price point is amazing. The gameplay superb. As you know, if you watch the show, me and Matt are both fans of auction bidding. It's playerdriven auction bidding, lots of undercutting, really interesting gameplay flow that you need to get your head around.

9:57 Economy piece, it's closed economy where the money is always quite tight and it's flowing between the players. Really, really fun. The container is amazing and it was out of print for a long time. So, the ability to get this in a viable format that is very accessible and also very beautiful. I

10:15 mean, top tier, great. And now for for that price point again the guys at all play did crack did amazing and if you are one of those people that bought the metal

10:27 upgrade you are mental

10:29 you are mad 70 quid I think it was or £75

10:34 just more money than me mate

10:36 and this box was so full of metal anyway. Oh. Um,

10:42 one for you.

10:43 Yeah. Um, the re my favorite implementation and one of the favorite games that I ever played and is is actually Neponsai Batsu.

10:53 Neponsai Batsu, which is the least you game I think I've ever seen.

10:58 It's an industry game.

10:59 Yes.

11:01 Yes. It's It's an economy. Um, build like like you build your own. Uh,

11:08 it's cool. passing your your industry. You produce goods, you sell goods, you're trying to take control of the market with this very cool mechanisms of that. What I really like is this um no worker placement is this um uh worker taking. So you take you got the action on the board and you're taking work that are associated to that action onto your board and then there is all this economy piece that you need to um you need to pay the workers. So you want a specific colors of worker because otherwise your salary is just going to go up to the roof. Um I love it so much. It's really good. That's when I really need to get back to the table with you.

11:51 Yeah, we'll talk we'll talk later. And it's a great game at two player as well. It felt like keeps the tension like absolutely in love with uh with Nick and the they actually new um production. So the Nick Pon was the original one 10 years ago. Basically what they did they redid most of the UX of the of the game tweaked few few of the rules but then for the rest the the soul stays very much the same. Uh but yeah and a fantastic product is it's really really cool gorgeous but then we're going to speak about in the next few weeks as well. We just received the copy and we played it um a couple of times but we need to play more is Sanami that is the new version of Samurai um

12:38 which I loved very much.

12:39 Yeah. So, and there are others.

12:41 There's it is the year of the reimplementation. Go check out our video on that. Um but Matt, let's talk about some things we're really excited about still to come.

12:49 Yeah, let's go. So, the year is only halfway done, which means means we've got the rest of the year to get really excited because there's something me and Matt do really well. Let's get really excited about games we're about to spend money.

13:03 Spend money on lots of games to get excited about

13:06 and there's lots of games we're really excited about coming, Matt. And uh I think you know you want to rifle one off like Yeah, we'll do let's do a little ping pong. Uh so the first ones that that to my mind because it's fresh from from UKG is definitely Whisper Wood from Cardboard Alchemy. Um it's it's not toward Flamecraft is towards Andromeda's Edge

13:28 maybe.

13:30 So it's it's the new heavier complex

13:35 wide

13:36 wide game big Euro with strong thematic like in Andromeda's edge. It's not um it's not reimplementation of that. It's is it own game. Uh we did play a a demo. Let's say let's say we played a walk through

13:52 uh game at the UKG with one of designer.

13:55 Hello.

13:56 That was very good. We didn't we didn't really get through all of the playing of the game.

13:59 No, but it's it's such a big game because it's a it's never a game that I want to demo. I want it's a game that I want to play on my own time. So, that is definitely something that um I can't wait for the um for the crowdf to to to come out in next few months. I'm sure there's going to be more more to to to talk about this game.

14:21 Absolutely. What you got?

14:23 I'm quite excited actually. There is a fifth edition of Fury of Dracula coming.

14:26 AI sloped.

14:29 Apparently, you may apparently there's some issues around AI art.

14:34 I don't know. I don't know. No idea. That's true.

14:38 Put that aside. Okay. AI whatever. Like that's a separate thing. But I like Fior Dracula. It's interesting.

14:44 Yeah. Yeah. It's dope. It's Dracula got Dracula and Stab. Like it's awesome. So I like the idea of a fifth edition. What they're going to do with it. It's Avlon Hill taking it on. They've done some nice things products wise. It is a Hasbro subdivision, so they've got some money behind them. I have seen some of their products being a little bit like low on the like actual production quality stuff.

15:08 Yeah. But then when they do so then for this kind of games Yeah. They they do some uh more family family oriented like for example life in retrac family and then they got the other branch of the same things where you got Hero Quest and you got um uh

15:32 Talisman.

15:32 Yeah, Talisman. You got uh oh god um betrayal on the in the house. the house on the hill and I think Fear of J is going to is going to sit with that B.

15:45 It's going to get a little bit more I hope so because I I really want to see a new edition and and how it becomes updated. Uh cuz there are lots of hidden movement games around these days and Font Traction is still being great. Does it still hold up to things like Mind Management to Sniper Elite which some of the best games in the genre these days?

16:03 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, that that's super cool. uh all the AI stuff we might touch a little bit later. That's that's been a recurring thing. Recurring issue. Uh is it actually made of AI? I don't I don't know. If you guys know for sure, just let me know in the comments below. Um all the stuff that is coming out, of course,

16:22 one of the games that we love the most in the recent past is Eternal Decks. So, Eternal Sevens must be on this list.

16:31 Yeah, we are hyped as hypers. Uh, so I made the pre-order.

16:36 You did

16:37 pre-order pre pre-list uh one of the the online shop in the the UK that specialize on uh on Japanese games. Um, and I think the release is going to be um this this October some like that. So super super um excited about Eternal 7. Um again you play seven that is this uh very famous Japanese game uh but with the eternal deck twist. So you got the eternals again. So boons and maluses and puzzly things or just playing cards shredding cards from your hands to put it on the table difference from eternal deck. This is going to be competitive and not um comparative. So yeah, and then we'll be cool to

17:24 Yeah.

17:24 Top two games with the same art style, but one is competitive, one's competitives are Yeah, we love this.

17:31 We love Yeah, we love that stuff. Anyway, uh I've got one that Matt is definitely not excited about, but I will be excited about. And it is Baleiff of Bos Scoop. This is very brown game. The Baleiff of Boss Scoop. Never heard of.

17:43 There you go. So this is the new game.

17:45 Literally never heard of.

17:47 See, so this is the new game by spotter games. the guys that did Bus and some others. Loads of us. They do weird interesting sometimes an interesting they always do unusual games.

18:01 Uh and this is going to be set in the late Middle Ages in the Netherlands. You're going to be like um important members of various uh uh families and you there's a little bit of area majority. We like a majority. There's a little bit of competitive tile placement. We like competitive tile placement. And some open drafting and things like that as well. So, if this is going to be what I think it might be, this might be a really, really fun one. But also, I'm just quite interested to see what the new spotter game is going to be like. And the artwork looks, it is great. It's like that proper like old school oldfashioned like oil. Some Yeah. drunk guys at a table having a good old time.

18:36 Uh, and it is extremely extremely brown. Yes. Wow. I couldn't I didn't know that so many shade of brown existed. But yeah, that's what I me going for something that is not that that brown. It's a game that I just just bet because the the things is live now on Kickstart. Of course, it's rolling deep.

19:00 Oh, rolling. Yeah, we're going opposite from artwork because we're going with the with the guys that that actually did the artwork for um Cutad. Uh so again, another solo game uh is this rog like

19:16 Yeah. the rolling dice solo game where you where you upgrade your dice, your faces of your dice, or you're building your dice during your um uh you your adventure down the in town the down the thing. Uh watched a couple of um um play through. Uh I was just like, I can't wait to play this game. I really cannot wait to play it. And the Yeah, the guys at uh Bite Wings just like I think this might be their best. They're magnumopus.

19:45 I think that [snorts] it might be the ones that definitely put them on the on the map.

19:50 Even more on the map. Nice. Okay. Interesting stuff, man.

19:53 But then then a couple of smaller things like

19:56 Yeah, a couple of small things. Of course,

19:58 during Imperial Conspiracy, the new expansion that works with both normal during Imperium and with Uprising. This is going to get out the same period that the new movie is coming out. So apparently there's not going to be a uh you know there was Dune Imperium when the first Dune came out then it's been uprising with the second movie came out and I was kind of expecting a third one but third would have been too much

20:26 Imperium the killing whatever.

20:29 Yeah, whatever it is but revolution whatever this this not apparently it's not happening. might happen later next year. But for now, they just releasing this uh this new um uh expansions that you can play again. It's modular. You can play with the with all the other things. Uh the only down is that you can use it entirely with uprising and you can use let's say 80% with uh with the original Doom.

20:59 Well, well, fair enough, mate. I mean,

21:02 you know, if you if you listen to us, you should be buying Jun Imperion Uprising anyway. So, yeah, exactly. Um, right. Other small things, obviously, we love Tag Team. Tag Team, great um hit from last year. They have recently or are releasing the Arthuran Legends expansion. There will be a new expansion coming. They look a little teaser and I've got a feeling about that. We know.

21:21 If you go Yeah. Go on Instagram there. Instagram. There is a little teaser. I'll show it here. But, um,

21:29 looks cool. We don't say we can't say anything.

21:32 The teaser tells a lot.

21:34 Yeah, exactly. So, the teaser tells

21:36 pay attention to that.

21:38 Um, and yeah, I mean there is tons and tons of stuff coming. Uh, we are of course also excited about about Drillers by C CG,

21:45 but on that one a little bit less because we we've played it.

21:49 We played it. We we do have a copy and we going to do more content specifically about Drillers

21:57 because it's a very good game.

21:58 It's very good. coming soon.

22:01 Now, we talked about future stuff. Uh let's uh have a look at the at the past.

22:08 So, looking back,

22:09 uh there are we we haven't played every single game existing.

22:14 You haven't?

22:14 No, for sure. I know there's someone on YouTube definitely that

22:19 it probably has. Yeah,

22:20 that's we can't. Is that is it even possible?

22:25 No, probably not. But uh we played a lot of games but still there are a few games that we need to catch up with because we didn't never had the chance of playing. And the first one is a game that we both

22:38 are very interested because um our patron in our WhatsApp groups on the Patreon. Hello guys. Check the patre page link in description. Uh but um there are a few a few characters that really are obsessed with obsession.

22:58 Yeah. They like and this is like something that me and you have missed out on

23:02 for what feels well since we started the show obviously but also before that when the game came out it's it's had a growing popularity. It's an absolutely loved game and like

23:12 people really gone nuts for obsession.

23:16 Thomas from our from our patre as well. absolutely loves obsession and I um at this point I'm like what am I missing? I feel like I have to play this game

23:25 cuz it looks like uh what is it? Pride and prejudice the ball game.

23:30 Yeah, I need to never been my to be honest if

23:34 if it was for the artwork of the games that that I read about the theme.

23:38 I would have been a pass maybe. But since a lot of you guys are just really obsessed, I definitely want to play Obsession. It's on number one of our both of our list to play

23:49 to try at some point cuz every now and then as well I just have to say there's a comment when I on some video topic or you know you should or like what do you think about obsession for this and I'm like well I don't know I'm sorry

24:00 we're going to do it this summer we're definitely definitely going to do it. Um another one that we missed out cuz it's uh

24:07 for whatever reason

24:08 and actually we've been told is is really good is Forest Shuffle

24:11 and there are like four versions of this game now. Yeah, more than two. More than two.

24:16 How many shuffle? How many times you can shuffle forest?

24:21 I don't know. But yeah, however many times you can shuffle a forest. I don't know. But you know, if uh there's no one around to

24:29 Yeah, fair enough.

24:29 Does the forest still shuffle?

24:32 But we need to try one of those. Another play. And then one that has been on Wayne shelf of shame for uh for probably more than a year at this at this

24:41 is my what I think is a knockoff copy of Power Grid.

24:45 Did you got it on PE?

24:46 Oh, I feel like it might have come from Teu.

24:49 It's not from Peu, but it feels like it feels like this is not a legit but I just I just bought it online. So like

24:55 Yeah, cuz it was like

24:55 it's out of print.

24:56 It was out of print forever. So I think it's uh

24:59 it might be anyway.

25:00 We'll try it.

25:01 We're going to try and we'll see. But also I just want to play Power Grid. I mean, uh, it's one of those games that I feel like I should just play.

25:07 Yeah. So, there's been something to catch up on. Uh, but instead, let's as well see which games are coming to the table next.

25:17 So, Matt, of course, we've got because of UK GE, uh, a ton of games to catch up on and games that we want to get back or get back to the table for the first time.

25:26 Yeah. And on top of that, Yeah. And on top of that, a lot of Kickstarter and game fans has arrived in the last literally two weeks. So, I had like four or five games just

25:35 and we need to play them. We need more time, but um we haven't invented a time machine yet. So, we're going to try and just squeeze them in. But a nice easy one that we can squeeze in cuz it's quite small actually. It's the guys from DV DVC games who are I think relatively new to to the scene.

25:50 Well, they are US based I think the guys they're new in the UK in the UK market. They've got these all of their games are these beautiful sized magnetic boxes, all slightly different, but this is the one I want to try first,

26:04 which here lies.

26:05 And what one was uh uh one of the DVC games was Packed.

26:09 Yes. If you follow the UKG um uh programs that we we did, we we spoke about packed. Uh so this one is is pretty cool. It's supposed to be more like a like a murder mystery.

26:21 Yeah. mysterium type vibe thing going on where you have you know uh a lead detective trying to influence the other detectives to try and come to a conclusion cooperative game really interesting I have heard nothing but good things from our friend about this very excited about this

26:37 um I finally managed to get my copy of can't win so thanks to I don't know I can't remember the the name one of you guys told me exactly where to buy it and when to buy it and I did it so can't win the trick the Japanese trick taking game. Uh, this one is coming to the table very very soon. Um, another game that I was really interested is it's a two-player games about nature. A cozy two-player strategy game about growing tiny forest.

27:08 Looks very beautiful actually. Nice little verticality

27:10 animation. Yeah, this is a very nice production. So, this one as well is coming to the table.

27:16 Reminds me a little bit of something like photosynthesis. I don't know if it plays the same way. I've not played it, but this is something we're both quite excited about.

27:21 Yeah, we'll see that. Uh, another one of slightly bigger boxes. We actually have a final final version of Stag, the new game from Split Stone from Jack Spitz, the strategic mushroom game.

27:37 Exactly.

27:37 And this is new one based on Stag.

27:39 So, we already played it once. So, we now got like a a pre-production copy that we going to play. And uh the Kickstarter is coming out in July. Uh so double check it. Um we already spoke about it during the UK GE. Uh we're going to probably do a little bit to the table again and speak a little bit more. But if you like Myilia, the strategic mashman game, not the other was that that one. Uh our reviews somewhere. Um there is a lot of things that the the games got in common. for example, the beautiful um

28:16 Amazing by Jack. Yeah,

28:18 exactly. But this game is more like um um it's definitely a different type of game. So, uh so yeah, that's uh that's St. And then one that arrived yesterday and it's going to off the press.

28:33 It's going to go on the table immediately.

28:36 Vestiger.

28:37 This vestage.

28:39 Vestage. Yeah, this looks dope. I I had never heard of this. This is this is this is to me this is my day of boss to mat. I have no idea what this is

28:49 but this is not brown.

28:52 Lots of black.

28:52 Um is the new this the new game from the guys that Orange Nebula. Orange Nebula is um it's is Unsettled. That is one of my favorite game like it's it's one of my favorite game ever. Uh and of course it's the same uh guys did Vindication. Um that game I want to play. I've not played that.

29:12 Yeah. But you don't you don't need to cuz this is Vindication 2.0. It's a

29:18 reimpation kind of it takes a lot from uh from Vindication. Uh Vindication was in in this like fantasy um this is this is more like this is a sci-fi cyber punky version. Uh despite the look is a very much a Euro game. This is a game of managing resources, is a game of um uh territorial control and tableau building. So it looks like um a sab panky throwing down explosions and no no it's very much a year with a fantastic production because the guys at Orange Nebula

29:58 they do some amazing amazing like

30:01 like even the comp every component is perfect. So, um, yeah, the stage is going to come to the table this evening

30:09 ASAP. I'm sure by now you're wondering, what are our favorite games that we've played so far this year? Well, I know that I've been wondering that for the past 6 months because there are certainly some contenders for our game of the year awards towards the end of the year. If you've not seen them, you can check out last year's awards. We do a big award show at the end of the year, which is always really, really fun to do. We also do our top 10 of the year. All sorts of things.

30:35 Yeah. Yeah. But go watch the the the the game of the uh I think that's a that's a pretty fun one. And you got all the interviews with the acceptance speeches from the designers. Go give them some love cuz it's I think we always have a lot of fun doing it and we're going to do it again.

30:55 Yeah. What is under consideration at this point at the halfway point knowing that we've got so much still yet to play?

31:02 Yes. And uh here here's the problem. A lot of the best games that we played so far this year are implementation.

31:13 It is somewhat problematic because literally my favorite games that I've played this year are are are

31:20 but old games.

31:21 They're not just for implementation. There are a few that

31:24 there are a few.

31:26 The one in particular skyrocketed.

31:29 Yes. uh from u mystery uh unknown what these things would have been like at all. And it's yubo the stick game where you get your hand out right listen you get your you get your hand out you flip a card and you need to put sticks between your fingers and then eventually if you want to play a hard mode you have to put a ball on the sticks.

31:54 That is not that is not in consideration for game of the year.

31:57 No cuz it's already won. You don't need to consider it

32:00 anyway. But Matt, what was your campaign for?

32:04 Dexterity games are not ball games. Like I want to a t-shirt, a hat and ball game. It's dexterity games are not ball game. I said it before, I'm say it again. I'm saying loud. I'm not I'm not shy for doing it. You should try. So um as we say there's these games that skyrocketed from the uh from not from a mystery thing literally like what is these things is going to be to be at this point one of the best games that both of us feels is and is realms of reckoning.

32:37 Yeah IV Studios smashed it out of the park with this one. We have done a review which may or may not be out yet. You will see it. If it is it will be linked there

32:44 otherwise subscribe button so you know when it comes out.

32:47 Exactly. You know what to do. Uh this is a really interesting game for numerous reasons, not least of all because it does not play how it looks.

32:55 Yes. Yeah.

32:56 Very intriguing game.

32:57 Amazing production. Uh and you got what at heart is um an auction bidding drafting uh player driven scoring

33:10 with a lot of of things going on where the the scoring each each game is going to be different because player decide what is going to score in that game. For example, they can decide to be um set collection or or trucks race or um majority or or who's got the most money. Yeah.

33:34 All all that things is fantastic. Fantastic games. Again, um watch the the review or wait for the for the review to to come out cuz it's uh

33:43 we probably think that's our contender so far for for the goatee. And uh another one is it's definitely Drillers as well.

33:52 Drillers was really really fun. I'm I'm excited to play the final version of that game. We played with the final rules, but the production was still very early, so I need to feel both of these things at the same time. My main point of contention with Drillers is maybe it might run long with too many players and there is a little bit of downtime in the game when you're waiting. So like but we will see. We're going to play all the player counts, 2, three, four, and see how it feels. It might sing at one more than others. But in principle, that game is super fun.

34:22 Yeah. But we're going to try to do um a preview of the game uh definitely before Jen because the the game is going to come out Jenken. So you lucky dudes in the US, you play you could uh you could try to buy it first. So uh but the the game, we really enjoyed it. Uh it's it's got this uh Arnac um DNA.

34:48 Two completely different games, but the DNA is kind of there. Uh a fantastic deck deck building uh combo driven and um resources management, a little bit of AP there because it just you got to calculate a lot of things. But it's a very very fun game. We had we had a we had a blast with the amount of freedom that game gives you as well. really nice. I mean again there are loads of other things that we've played but again they are reimplementations and so for how we do awards they're notations have their own award for

35:23 and again there's a lot of other games that we played that but at this point I don't think that they are game of the year material. So, for now, these two are the ones that are kind of kind of trying to get there. Exactly.

35:35 I'm sure that I'm forgetting something.

35:37 I'm sure we are. But at the same time though, like I said,

35:40 it's the halfway point and nothing has been decided.

35:44 Exactly. There's a lot of stuff coming.

35:46 It's all to play for. It's only half time.

35:50 So, thank you again to Blox for tagging us in their video and asking us to do a little six month half year 2026 roundup. I think we didn't follow strictly the rules, but uh

36:02 we did. That's us.

36:04 That's us, mate. I'm sorry. You get what you get. You get get what you pay for.

36:07 Yeah. Yeah. But it was it was actually fun to do this. We we normally don't do the the I don't think we ever done it the the six months. So, um it's actually interesting and I know we asked on the on our Patreon chat and people were like, "Yes,

36:22 fair enough." Then

36:24 you ask, we deliver. And um No, it was it's quite it's quite cool. It's a it's a weird year. I feel like there is so many things as well that is uh we kind of like know they're going to be announced in the next couple of months ahead of Essen because uh we market this year.

36:43 I say yeah in some in some ways yes but in other ways no often the industry is backloaded. It's like heavily weighted towards the second half of each year. Yes. [clears throat] because of the nature of two things. Essen, they get them out earlier Essen in order for you to buy them for Christmas.

36:57 And Essen is late this year, isn't it?

36:59 Yeah. And it's going to be very much Essen Christmas and everything is going to be waited that way. So, me and Matt have been very very busy in the last 3 months.

37:06 Yeah, we'll see if we need to postpone the best of games to January cuz we tend to do it before the end of the year, but this year

37:14 we might we'll we'll see a little bit. But again, so many cool games came out. So many cool games we played and um so many still to play.

37:23 So with that said, let us know in the comments below what has been your favorite games that you've played in the first 6 months of 2026. Let us know what have we missed. What do we need to go and find out that could be a contender for game of the year?

37:36 Yeah.

37:37 If you want to Yeah, go ahead.

37:38 Yeah. No, I'll say if you if you as we said earlier, we mentioned the patron already a few times. just click click the link and uh check it out. There's a lot of cool things. There's a WhatsApp chat. There is monthly giveaway. There is the video podcast just for um for the for the page. All sorts of things. Uh but then of course you'll subscribe if when you hit that button heart just

38:01 it flutters. It flutters. I love it. Justings.

38:05 What a feeling.

38:07 What a feeling. You can also always check out the rest of our videos. And all that's left to say is we need to tag someone. Yeah. So, we're gonna tag absolutely no one.

38:18 No, we can't do this. We're gonna tag your mom. Huh?