News & Week In Review - Not Much News This Week...But Still A Recap Of The Week

0:00 Hey, I'm Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo, and this is news and weekly review, where we go over a variety of news pieces, the videos of the week, the games we covered this past week, games I played, all of that and more. Links and timestamps to everything down below, except there's not links and timestamps to everything down below, because I don't really have a news week this week. I didn't have anything particularly interesting as far as the various news sources that I try to uh keep up with, uh keep up to date with. So, um no news, which is not a bad thing, I guess. I mean, we have UKGE coming up, we have Origins coming up, we have GenCon coming up not that soon after that not that far away after that. So, convention season is going to be starting very soon. I'll be starting to do uh UKGE and all upcoming games I'm excited about for UKGE, games I'm excited about for Origins. So, I guess conventions will be happening soon. If you haven't started planning for that, you should plan for that, because hotels and Airbnbs only get more expensive the closer you get. That's that's the news.

0:48 That's the news. As far as links down below, we do still have our channel sponsor, All Play. If you go to allplay.com, forget that. Scratch that. That's not the link this time. The link is going to uh uh the the crowdfunding campaign for for River Valley Jewelcraft. Uh River Valley is continuing the series with River Valley Jewelcraft, as well as Things on Strings, Things I hate this Things on Strings. And then, it's Things in Wings and Things on Strings, as well as Some Assembly Required. You can check out coverage of all those games on the channel, as well as checking out the crowdfunding campaign down below. With that, let's go ahead and dive into the videos of the week. Because we don't have news, we do have videos. We had two videos going up this week. Well, we had a lot of videos. We had two videos that are not game specific. We had upcoming crowdfunding campaigns that went up on Monday, I want to say, covering the upcoming crowdfunding campaigns you can expect to see throughout the month of May. There are a bunch. Somehow I missed Beast Ashfall in there. Uh Beast Ashfall also it launched already, but I didn't have that in the video.

1:39 Also, I forgot to rank my video my my most anticipated crowdfunding campaigns in that video. I put it in the pinned comment, but in case you missed that, the campaigns I'm most excited for, in rough order after I remember what it was, it was Ronin's Revenge was number three. What was number two? Gosh darn it, what was two? I don't remember two was. And then, let's go to France was number one. Uh check out the pin comment on that video if you want to see my most anticipated crowdfunding campaigns from the month of things uh from the campaigns all launching in May. Then we had going up on Wednesday, we had a video uh people are allowed to not like a game. This is a little video uh snippet that I filmed I don't know like four or five months ago uh after I saw a whole little heated discussion going on online. I was like, "You know what? That's a good video topic." Which I do that sometimes and then sometimes these videos go up the next week and sometimes they go up several months later. This one went up several months later, but the general idea is it is okay for people not to like the game you like. Although good conversation is important, but sometimes people pop up into groups and they're like, "I didn't like super popular thing." And then people really just don't react the best way in a way that's really super welcoming. It's okay to not like super popular thing. It's okay to get into a discussion around super popular thing. It's also okay to express your opinion in a variety of ways. It's just always helpful if we do so in a way that actually fosters relevant, meaningful, helpful conversation as opposed to just simply, you know, dunking on people for not liking the thing that you like. Although granted, and I cover this in the video, the way people approach those conversations does matter. Sometimes people approach these conversations in ways that don't really incentivize welcome discussion, which is a factor, too. As far as the games we covered this past week, we had a video

3:09 covering uh well oh no, we had one more video. We had Deluxification. We had Deluxification video going up this past last week uh covering a bunch of uh Deluxification stuff uh from Study to Bomb Busters to Marvel Champions to uh organizer organi- organizer playmat holders. There were a bunch of uh various uh Deluxification stuff. This used to be a monthly series I did on the channel. It stopped being a monthly series, but it will show up here and there. This is me covering a bunch of board game upgrades. As far as the games covered this past week, we had a bunch. We had River Valley Jewel Craft saw a solo gameplay and thoughts and opinions by Meg earlier this week. There was a Tem-bo gameplay. Uh Tem-bo is the uh newest game from The Op or one of the newest games from The Op. They always have a bunch. Uh but Tem-bo uh I did a solo play through and uh general thoughts in it. I've played it solo and I've played it cooperatively. I'm not such a fan of TempO. It's not bad, it's just not super exciting when I play it. There was The Big Squeeze, a sponsored preview of The Big Squeeze, a worker placement worker placement, resource collection, contract fulfillment game of running a lemonade stand before the apocalypse hits. Yes, that is correct. Running a lemonade stand before the apocalypse hits and then you have to worry about how to you know, so fulfill lemonade orders and get points in the second half of the game. There's also a preview for Porkus, a dungeon adventure in which teamwork is optional, betrayal is recommended, something along those lines, but you can check that out.

4:23 That's another campaign that launched this week. Then we have a review for Beast Ashfall went up. This is basically covering the new content in Beast Ashfall, which is mostly new hunters and new beasts, but also there's some other gameplay changes in there, small little quality of life changes I'd call them, but more movement things, things that help the beasts move and things that help the hunters move, lessening the amount of tedious movement that can happen in some games of Beast depending on how things play out. There's also a review of Things on Strings. I like Things on Strings a lot. I like it probably about as much as I like Things in Rings. They have very similar structured game plays. If you like one, you'll probably like the other. Honestly, it's just a small little twist on the gameplay formula, but I would say that I like Things on Strings for more cooperative gameplay and I like Things in Rings for more competitive gameplay, but they both very much scratch that same mental itch. Then there was a unboxing, a live unboxing, first time we've done a live unboxing on the channel for Lands of Everlasting Shade from Mystic Realms. Incredibly excited to dive into that. I will be doing that as soon as I cover, not cover, as soon as I play through, I'm playing through Boss Monster's QR, Title Blades of the Rising Sun and the Folders, Metal Gear Solid, and Kinfire Chronicles. I'm playing through those four games right now, actively playing through all of them. I need to finish one or two of them, but then Lands of Everlasting Shade is next up on the list because it's a fantastic game and I cannot wait to dive into it.

5:37 Then there was a Play This Not That of Vestige versus Vindication. I like Vestige a lot. Unfortunately, I like Vindication better. There are reasons why Vestige might be better for you, particularly the solo play. if you want to play against the Nemesis or the Nemesii or whatever. If you want to play against those, they definitely adds for both solo cooperative as well as adding extra players to like lower player count games. The small box form, the price point, there are a variety of things that make Vestige better for you. For me ultimately Vindication won on more counts. There's more things I like about Vindication, but both are fantastic experiences. I just prefer Vindication and they're a little too similar. I don't feel the need to own both. I'm tempted to own Vestige because of the fact that um the small form factor makes it easier to table and it certainly is easier to table. But honestly, as intimidating as the big box for Vindication is, it's not that hard to actually pull it out and set up. It's just more intimidating than it is um difficult. Then we had a six small box games reviews going up covering a bunch of small games, Trinket Trove, Bacon and others that went up on Friday. So if you want to see an assortment of small box games covered, I did that in Friday's video. That is the games we covered this past week, which brings us to the games played. As usual, this is a smattering of a few games I've played this past week, not by not everything not by a long shot. But we had a bunch of Lares.

6:47 I've been continuously playing through Lares by KDBG Games. I don't know if I did a full review on that one. Did I do a full full review? No, I I said I was adding it to my collection, but I didn't do a full review. But I will have a review for you on Lares at some point. I just want to play through more of it cuz you keep unlocking content. I'm always more hesitant to review things where there's stuff happening as you go, but I also don't want to wait till the end because then my review might come in like, you know, 6 months depending on how fast I go through it. Right now I've been playing like two or three games a week, so I am going through it pretty decently, but I am really enjoying Lares so far. There's also a Boss Monster QR, another progressive game that I again I I did a Did I do a first impressions? I can't remember. Games show up in so many contents like I've had Boss Monster QR on the table for like things like my week in review and saying I'll be playing it. I don't remember if I've covered it, but if I haven't, I plan on doing coverage for Boss Monster QR because I think it is I think it's very solid and my biggest thing if you ever tried Boss Monster QR, my biggest thing is you have to play through the first few levels. You cannot play level one and two and say, "Okay, that's the game." Level one and two are kind of like trials of the game. As you get more into it, there's more interesting elements going on. I've been playing through it a lot. I plan on finishing it. That one I do plan on finishing cuz I've been going through so quickly. I've been playing it like literally every day. Uh so, I plan on finishing that one and then giving you thoughts and opinions on that later. Then there's also Metal Gear Solid. Again, another one. These are multiple games that I'm like I'm playing a lot and I'll give you thoughts. This is all true for all of them. Metal Gear Solid the board game, loving it so far. I actually filmed a little solo gameplay. Don't know when it'll go up. It'll go up at some point.

8:10 But I plan on filming more solo gameplays as well as just playing through it in general. I am really liking Metal Gear Solid. Really enjoying it a lot. I said there's a bunch of active games we're going through. I am I'm I'm focusing on specific games right now. It just happens to be that way. And then Orléans. Orléans is a game that is on my list of games that I wanted to play an expansion for this year, but I haven't played the base game in like 6 months to a year. So, I was like, "Let's play a base game." Had a game that last night. Played through the base game. Really enjoyed it. Orléans is one of those very very classic games that's just so smooth and elegant and well done. I plan on adding expansions to it and then seeing how that goes. And at some point I'll do a I've never done a review for Orléans. It's an older game. I just I wasn't doing YouTube when that came out. But I do plan on covering it once I have a chance to dive in some of the expansions. That's some of the many games I've been playing this past week, which brings us to today. Today will be a playthrough for Vinhos. Vinhos Guardians of the Galaxy will be going up a solo playthrough as well as a gameplay of River Valley Jewel Craft which we did a solo gameplay for and a review, but there hasn't yet been a general gameplay. That will be going up later today as well. As far as next week, next week there'll be a bunch of things, but two of the things that will be happening is will be a games leaving the collection video, probably going up on Sunday. Sunday has more often been my solo Sunday day, but also sometimes I just move around things in different ways. So, you'll have a solo Sunday. Not no, you'll have a games leaving and added to the collection video going up this Sunday covering the games, shockingly enough, that are leaving and being added to the collection, as well as the games just passing through. And if things go well, I hope to have a Should You Back It going up on Monday.

9:33 Maybe I'll do it live, but I'm leaning towards not. We'll see. We'll see. I I I don't know. I've done I've done Should You Back It lives. I'm not against it. I'll see what happens, but I kind of doing a Should You Back It for a Zombicide: Dead Men Tell because I have a soft spot for Zombicide in general, and I do like Dead Men Tell. As far as the games on the table, as usual, these are the games I hope to be playing this week. We have a bunch of uh I know I just mentioned a bunch of games that I've been playing a lot that require multiple plays. We have a bunch more of those on the table. We have Shallow Sea, which I just assume I'll be playing this week because it's a fun game, and I have a friend coming in who likes this game, so hopefully we'll play more of this. But this does not require a lot of plays. But on the other hand, we have The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which I hope to be playing through the whole thing. We have The Rise of Queensdale legacy game, hope to be playing through the whole thing. And we have The Queen's Dilemma, which I'm less certain of. Both of these are queens, I realize. Less certain whether I'll get to this one, but I hope to be playing through the whole thing. Have a friend coming in, and this week is gaming week, so we'll see what we can get done. In any case, that is everything. I hope you have an excellent week. I'm sorry there wasn't a lot of news this week. Although sometimes that can be a good thing. Sometimes the news is not always the most exciting. Oh, I guess I guess I should say this if you want to talk about news. For those of you who are panicking around hantavirus, by everything that I've looked into, it's I'm not an expert. I just watch the experts. It doesn't seem to be a COVID thing to be afraid of. Like this is not COVID 2.0. Hantavirus it requires significantly more work for it to spread. I say this because there's going to be three camps of people, okay?

10:55 There's going to be for this context. There's going to be people who have seen headlines and are panicking thinking it's COVID 2.0. There's going to be people who know what I know, which is it's it's serious, people will die from it, but it's not nearly the same level of contagion, whole different conversation as far as how to handle it and deal with it and all that. And then the third level are going to be people who didn't even know this was a thing and now I've scared you, and I'm sorry for that. But hantavirus is a big deal, happened this past week, but it's not it's not COVID-level big deal. It's a big deal for a smaller group of people, and the level of contagion is not nearly what we're talking with COVID. I hope I don't have to eat my words in this, but from what I've looked into, it's not I I looked into this because I was like, should this be a COVID panic? It's it doesn't seem to be, but hopefully I'm not wrong about that. Random news piece, this is like I'm just like I didn't have it on the news, so now we're doing that. Anyways, until next time, I'm Alex Radcliffe from Board Game Co. Enjoy your weekend, have fun, spend time with family, friends, loved ones, or just play games by yourself. There's nothing wrong with that either. And as always, I hope you have a good one.