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Best Week 2016, Overlooked!
Like the slow release of a long-held breath, Best Week 2016 has begun. For the vast majority of the internet, this is old news, to be expected, and all’s well now that it has arrived. For the rest of you, the first-timers and late-goers, we welcome you to the most objective, least biased, most correct of any Best List in the history of this year. Five days, 40 games, only the best.
Today we celebrate the games you probably didn’t play — only worse, you probably didn’t even hear about them. These are the short geniuses in a tall crowd, the unsung heroes in a battle of choirs, the board games with insufficiently-staffed public relations departments.
Best Week 2015: The Index
Once again that sad moment is upon us. Best Week 2015 is over, leaving us with nothing to do but say goodbye. Below are links to each day’s catalog of the best games of the year. Just click any of the pics to be magically whisked away to the correct list. Until 2016’s compilation, take care of yourselves!
Best Week 2015, Left Over!
Some games simply can’t be categorized, especially when the categories are as subjective as Best Week 2015’s have been. To make sure all the greatest games of the year get their due, what follows are the best that didn’t quite fit anywhere else.
Best Week 2015, Surprised!
I’m not one for complaining about my moonlighting as a critic. Mostly because it always comes across as sort of “I play too many games, it’s so hard. So hard! How can anyone even begin to comprehend my plight? Nobody but me can write these words, nobody.”
On the other hand, my life is super hard & stuff. For example, when you play well over a hundred new games every year, some of the sheen will inevitably wear off. Which is why a particularly good game — one I didn’t see coming — can be such a delight. Here are ten examples.
Best Week 2015, Overlooked!
With so many games releasing each year, it’s inevitable that some of the best will slip through the cracks. Today is about those lost souls, the bright crazy children who dwell at the periphery.
Of course, the danger of not paying all that much attention to the prevailing hotness is that I could be completely wrong about some of these. For all I know, this might as well be a list of the ten most popular games of the year. My only criteria are: one, that the games in question must be superb, and two, that I haven’t heard much about them.
Best Week 2015, Consternated!
On occasion I grow frustrated with the state of our hobby. Specifically, with the critical side of it. About a month back, maybe two, somebody was upset over one of my reviews. It was for a game I had found interesting and thought-provoking, though certainly not “fun” in the traditional sense of the word, the sort of thing I was glad to have played a few times but never intended to return to. As I conversed with this critic of critics across a handful of emails, we finally got to the bottom of his complaint.
“You never said if it was FUN,” he wrote. “A game should be fun, period. If you can’t tell me if it was fun, you should not write a review.”
Absurd. Just as I can read a book for many reasons, or listen to a piece of music for many reasons, or watch a film for many reasons, so too can I play a game for many reasons. I can play a game because it’s fun, absolutely! But I can also play a game because it educates me in some way, or brings people closer together, or provides an experience that sparks my imagination, or shows off something innovative. I can play a game because it makes me sad. And to me, that is fun.
That’s what today is about. What follows are ten of 2015’s best games that I probably wouldn’t describe by simply slapping the adjective “fun” over the top. Instead, I found them interesting, or innovative, or enjoyable with some provisos.
Best Week 2015, Rebaked!
Sometimes, things take a couple tries before they hit their stride. Best Week, for instance, which was originally a passing flight of fancy but has morphed into one of the most-anticipated and best-read internet series of all time. No, you can’t see the numbers on that. They’re confidential for reasons of national security.
On occasion, even good board games need a second chance. Which is why our First Day of Best Week 2015 is celebrating the year’s best rehashes, the titles that were better the second time around, and the games that morphed into something entirely new — and better.
The Space-Biff! Holiday Survival Guide
It’s that time of year again! The weather is getting nippy, radio stations are playing jollier music, and you’re honor-bound to spend multiple evenings with people you don’t necessarily know very well but who hold some sort of genetic or matrimonial connection to you. Sure, Uncle Deever is sort of a racist and your mother-in-law asks a lot of questions that feel like indictments of how badly you’re caring for her precious baby, but it could be worse. You might, for example, have nobody around who loves you.
But for those of us who do, what follows is an incredibly subjective and probably wrong-headed list of the ten games I’ll be hauling around in a big yellow duffel bag this holiday season.
The GenConmen, 2015: Day Three
That first day of GenCon, all the early risers packed like upright sausages around the barred doors of the expo hall, it’s hard to fathom how it could get more crowded. Geoff even said that very thing about ten minutes before the doors opened for the first time. “I cannot fathom how this could get more crowded,” he said.
By Saturday, the fathoming gets real easy.
The GenConmen, 2015: Day Two
Another long toiling day of GenCon, from sunup to way past sundown, another seven games to jabber about. Let’s get right to it.
SPACE-BIFF! 