Week In Review - February 2nd, 2026

0:12 Hey everybody, I'm Tom Vassel. Welcome to Week in Review, where we talk about the videos we did over the past week and we tell you what we think about them. This is kind of a short summary video and when we're done, if you want to see more, check the links in the description. Here we go. Hey everybody, I'm Z Garcia and I reviewed two awesome games this week. I reviewed Urban Sketchers, which I gave an eight out of 10 to. This is a dice uh allocation game, sort of a worker placement with dice game in which you are collecting pages of a sketchbook, sketching those things, and then publishing your sketchbook. You're going to be managing your money. You're going to be managing your bonuses in the game, trying to come out ahead while keeping everything in check. Really interesting. a lot of interaction between the players. You have to pay each other sometimes for the privilege to take various actions and it just looks amazing. Really enjoy this one. I have a couple of drawbacks. I don't think it scales up very well. So, I would stick with two or three players and it takes some wrapping your head around, but overall really liked it. And then I reviewed the one which I gave an 8.5 to.

1:17 This is a really punchy game. As opposed to Urban Sketchers, which can be a little bit long, this one's super fast and packs a lot of game into a short time frame. It's not the most thematic of games, but I love the simplicity of the turns. You draw a couple of cards or you play some cards and put out one of your uh huts trying to complete various uh requirements, trying to fulfill various recipes. Really like the look of this one. I love the the return on your time investment is is some of the best I've seen in a while. And if you enjoy that sort of getting, you know, turn angst getting cramped in feel. Oh, this is getting tricky to position myself in opportune places, I think you're going to like this one a lot. I really had a great time with it. That is Dewan. And that's it for me. Let's keep on going.

2:08 Hey folks, welcome back to another Chris Time. And this time I'm going to take a look at two pretty excellent games. Actually, the first of which is Torchlet, a bizarre but cool trick-taking game uh where you are trying to win a certain number of tricks or just tag along with the winner and land on a certain number door in a dungeon. Is it a dungeon crawl? Not at all. Is it a cool themed trick taker? Yes. Is it great? Yes. 8.5 from me. And then also the same score for Dwan and 8.5. I think that this is an excellent, very welcoming, family, approachable kind of a game. When people say there's not enough good midweight Euro games that come out, I think this is exactly what you're looking for. If you want something that feels kind of like a modern ticket to rideish weight game, but everything is just punchy and quick, you might want to look into Dewan. So, go check out that review. We did a bunch of other things, wrapped up the game found uh for the year. We did a couple of top 10 list and everything. A lot of cool stuff that I was in, but that's the reviews. Let's keep moving along.

3:07 All right, you lovely people. This week I took a look at two games. First up was Urban Sketchers. Came in at a 7.5. I enjoyed a lot of of what this game is doing. A lot of the mechanisms really shined for me. What pulled the pulled that score back down to a 7.5 was I think it can get in its own way, especially at higher player counts. If you're playing a four player game, it can be upwards of 10 minutes between each of your turns. and that's as people are thinking and planning and executing multiple steps. Um, but at a two and three player game, it really does shine. I like the tactical nature where you're responding to what dice and action are available, but also it's a very strategic game where you're wanting to plan and sequence two or three turns together in a row. So, a lot going on.

3:55 Uh, the teach is very kind of disconnected from the actual play. It feels heavier when you're learning the game than it is. Really enjoyed it, though. a 7.5 for urban sketchers. I also took a look at the adventure chest for Lost Runes of Arnack. Oh, did I love this. It was a nine for me. Specifically in this video, Joey and I were addressing should you get the adventure chest? And what it comes down to for me specifically is if you're going to get the expansion, go ahead and get the adventure adventure chest. The chest is a single box to house everything and it comes with that final expansion in it. Um, I forget what the name of it is. Uh, it's the one with the dark tablet. I'm sorry, I can't think of the name off the top of my head. So, if you want that final expansion, then get the adventure chest because I really do feel like this storage solution helps the game get to the table quicker. It helps with that organization. It helps you be able to pick out what map you want to play and which expansion you want to play with and what you don't. It's just pretty close to perfect. Pulled it back a little bit because some of the tiles don't quite fit in like they're meant to. There's still plenty of room in the box for them, but I ha did have to change that organization around a little bit to make sure all the tiles weren't damaged. Not a big deal, though.

5:06 Absolutely loved it. Adventure Chest was a nine for me. That's going to do it though. Let's keep going. So, fun fact, Sunday was also this week. So, I have one more review that I did, and that was Santael. Came in at a 7.5. I found this to be a very pleasing experience. I enjoyed a lot about it. Um, having a local connection to Santael was neat as well. I think it really captured the theme uh well again very well. I I think that they did a good art move getting a uh an artist specifically that specializes in this kind of landscape. So loved the production on this. The gameplay I found to be very pleasing. Ultimately what pulled that score down for me was the scoring process itself. I felt a pretty disconnect or almost like it became its own game when you got to that part. kind of halts the game play and and interrupts it a little bit. Just I think the emotional process of the game. So enjoy the experience. Happy to play it. Think it's a little bit kind of a welcoming plus. 7.5 for me from Santael. So once again, let's keep going. Hey everybody, this is Joey Evans and here's what I reviewed this week. Uh first off is a Lost Ruins of Arnack big box. This is if you have all the expansions and end up giving this a nine because if you have all the AR neck, this is a great way to make sure it hits the table more. So, I did enjoy this a lot. I mean, and also it's just a little bit more than buying the expansions by themselves just to get this big box is great. All right. Also, Magazine.

6:29 Magazine's a cool it's a cool I don't it's worker placement really, but it's a it's a neat game about running a magazine company. I think it's fine. I think I came in a 7.5 on this. If you like the theme, I think you'll enjoy this. Um, Octo is a family style game where you roll this magnetic kind of cube around there and you're picking up tiles and stuff. Very cute for the family. I think the mag the magnet whole gimmick works really well. Came in at a 7.5 on this. And then also Star Trek Star Realms the Borg. I think it's Borg Invasion. Anyway, this is fantastic. This is what I wanted the Star Trek Star Realms to do to kind of separate itself and really really thematic. I mean, the Borg, the way they modulate their shields and everything, it is fantastic.

7:15 It is like like a co-op mode where you're fighting the Borg, you can be the Borg. Came in at a nine. So, if you have Star Trek Star Realms or if you like Star Realms, this is a great great thing to add to the Star Trek version. Okay. Anyway, that is what I reviewed this week.

7:30 Hi, I'm Wendy Ye and this week I have one game I was in a review for and that is French Toast. This is uh one of the allplay smallbox games and it is a party game where one person is an alien and everyone else is trying to guess the word that the alien has picked on their card and uh all the alien can do is say back words that the players have already said. It sounds like it doesn't work but it does work. I gave this one a seven. I do think it was fun. I played with multiple groups at the last convention and uh it hits that environment very nicely and I think it works for yeah just a variety of people. So there you go. So, if that sounds interesting to you, check out that review. Otherwise, let's go ahead and see who's next.

8:10 Hey there everybody, it's Mike Delisio, and this week I reviewed two card games. First up, we have Torchit, which I give an eight out of 10. Torchlet is a trick-taking game that originally was a um a smaller indie publishing type of a game and it was picked up by Allplay and I'm really glad they did because this is a very unique trick-taking game that has a nice dungeon crawl theme. Uh although it really is just the theme kind of window dressing. It doesn't play like a dungeon crawler. It plays like a trick taker but a trick taker with some really unique hooks. This is one that I would not recommend to beginning trick take player trickt taking players because there's a lot of kind of weird twists and turns and little nuanced rules. But if you play a lot of trick takers and want something different, Torchlet's a great choice. Next up is Orbita, which I also gave an 8 out of 10. This is coming from designer Kundil and publisher Korea Board Games. Uh Orbida is kind of a mixup of two earlier games by the same designer. It's a two-player game. It's not really a trick-taking game, but it kind of plays like one. The idea behind it is that you're going to be having a hand of cards that you're dealt and you keep cannot rearrange those cards.

9:27 You're having to play them in such a way that you are trying to have a higher suit. And that's done by kind of this revolving hierarchy where the number of cards you play of a particular suit are going to move it on this track on the central board. And ideally, what you want to do is have the majority of each suit, but also have your opponent gain at least some cards in that suit because your score will be the number of cards your opponent took. Neat little twist. Really interesting two-player game by a designer that has done some fantastic two-player trick taking and trick- taking adjacent games. All right, that's going to do it for me this week. I'm Mike Delisio. I'll see you on the next one.

10:04 So, this week I did a couple videos about games in general. Me and Chris did the most played games in the cruise. We did a live video of that. I also did a review roundup where I took a look at a bunch of games that other people in the channel had already reviewed and gave my opinions on them. I reviewed Magazine. Magazine is a fun engine building style game about making your own magazine. The theme is almost not there, but it's still a lot of I found it to be enjoyable. Eight out of 10. Uh, and Octa Cube, a weird game about rotating a cube around. That's an octopus. 7.5. A lot of fun. Kind of a funky mechanism. I also reviewed uh the Santa Bell, which is a game about collecting shells on an island. I thought that was a really solid, interesting game. And I took a look at a bunch of a Torch lit. This is a game I didn't love as much as the other guys did. I found it to be too esoteric. Um I gave it a 5.5 almost, but they enjoyed a lot more than I did, so trust them.

11:02 They're the tricktaking fanatics. And then I took I took a look back at the original top 100 I did 21 years ago and talked about I took a look at 10 of them and talked about where those games are now. So that's kind of uh the different things we did every week. Of course we did all of our live stuff and some special ones. We did an a live ending to our game found campaign. We got more coming this week. Thanks for watching. I'm Tom Bassel and you've been watching the Dice Hour. Hey folks, thanks for watching another one of our videos. If you like our videos, if you like our channel, you would love to game with us at one of our conventions. Check out Dice Tower Cruise, Dice Tower East, and Dice Tower West. Fantastic conventions where we play games with wonderful people, a humongous library, and lots of other events and stuff. Also, don't forget to check out our channel, like and subscribe. I'm Tom Bassel.