I don't follow quite enough board game shows to completely bump TableTop off my list. Sit Down and Shut Up is by far the king, no question about it. But I only tune into The Dice Tower and Watch it Played when they go through games I'm interested in, or consider purchasing. I'll probably keep watching Wil's show until I have to start prioritizing one over the other. As it stands today, I can always make room for more board games.Originally Posted by merryprankster
Very much enjoyed the Catan episode, so much so that it makes me want to play the game with some folks now. I thought Wil was much more relaxed in this episode, and didn't seem to feel the need to crack a joke every single minute like he was doing with the Small World episode. The guests were good choices this time around as well, and I liked that "Fargo" at least had some previous experience with the game.
Tabletop is going on my very small list of Youtube/Blog stuff I follow regularly.
That does not come as a surprise.
Are any of the digital/electronic versions of Catan any good? What about as single player games, does the AI make it interesting?
The Xbox 360 version is great and you can still regularly find people to play online, which is pretty amazing considering the game was released half a decade ago. The single player AI isn't too shabby and each AI player has a different play style.
Haven't tried the PC versions.
I hadn't heard of SU,SD before. Thanks for the heads up! Those guys are funny and informative; I wish my friends and I had been that creative when we were lads.
Yeah wasn't his nickname "the Weasel" amongst those trekkies? I think those geeks were just jealous they couldn't be in his shoes though.
Not sure if it's just the beard, but it looks like he's put on some weight...
Good show...something to watch in between Dice Tower reviews. Tom Vassal & family are too charming and he does a great job summarizing rules and explaining the games he reviews. I also like those wacky Brit videos featured on RPS Cardboard Children (forgot the name of the show).
The Zombie Dice game in episode 3 is hilarious.
Thankfully Wil has eased up with his role. After this episode I've played 3/5 games.
Another good one is Watch It Played, I've really enjoyed seeing games played out.
I really like Sit Down and Shut Up. Quinns (I think that's his name) wrote for RPS, and that and Eurogamer are pretty much the only gaming websites I go to, so I knew I'd like the show. And I like that there reviews are less about components and rules and all about the flow of the game, the interplay it creates and just how damn cool games can be. It's by far the best boardgame video show out there. But... They're so English. So politely English. It rankles against my primitive Irish brain. It shouldn't, because I really like it, and I think they'd be great to game with. I don't get it with RPS event though it's very much the same style. But 800 years of bloody war and oppression and now them feckin' English are being funny in their campy, polite, crazy way and it's like someone scraping a fork on a plate. Stupid bloody inbuilt Irish cultural inadaquecy feelings.
Still, I have all the season 2 episodes to go. In fact I might go watch one now. But I'll have to get drunk and chase a leprechaun afterwards.
I liked the most recent episode of Tabletop but the episodes that focus on a single game are more interesting to me.
I've tried watching Sit Down and Shut Up but don't quite get it. It may be the intended humor falls flat for me or something like that.
I still find him very annoying, but he has at least toned it down a tad.
I'll keep watching for the games.
I suggest immersing yourself in Monty Python and Top Gear immediately....
It's definitely inspired by that kind of thing. The modern roots of that type of nerd/gamer comedy came in the UK PC Gamer in the lates 90s and early to mid Noughties. And that has it's roots in a mid-eighties to early nineties magazine for ~a~ computer (Sinclair, Spectrum, Amstrad, one of these.) RPS have refined it while Shut Up and Sit Down have brought it to the tabletop realm. There's definitely a long history of UK gamer comedy behind it specifically, while being more broadly influenced by the Pythons, Goons, and then followed by the Young Ones, Bottom, Blackadar, etc.
I was more of a PC Zone/Charlie Brooker kind of guy. At least until I started using forums around the turn of the millenium and realised the PC Zone was rubbish, and a few years later I found the PC Gamer forums.
Edit: Got the name of the eighties magazine from a guy who remembers that era better than I do. It was Amiga Power.
Last edited by Mrenda; 05-07-2012 at 06:01 PM.
I'm fans of both those and a lot of other british humor, but for whatever reason the episodes of Sit Down I've watched don't appeal to me the same way.
You okay there, buddy? :p
Surprised no one has metioned it, but the new episode from last Friday is Ticket to Ride. Maybe I'm wrong but I have a feeling Wheaton's wife was one of the players because someone else bailed on them right before filming.
Last edited by Sarkus; 05-21-2012 at 05:27 PM.
Pretty uneventful episode.
Then this:
She tweeted that she was gonna be on it a day or two before they shot, if I remember correctly. Or maybe it was the day they shot, which I suppose could lend credence to your theory. She did mention it, though.
I almost choked on my lunch laughing at that incident.
I had the same initial reaction they did. Sort of shocked, sucking in a breath... then I exhaled and laughed once my brain reminded me that I was not actually playing and wouldn't be required to try to set the board back up.
What did you just do?!
Epic.
That was the first episode I'd watched. Wil's reaction was pretty great.
His wife is stupidly hot and much more fun than he is. Now I hate him even more.
I didn't know what she looked like. She was absolutely striking and stunning in a way that I didn't expect. Of course, "stunned" and "stricken" describing my reaction to her appearance. Wil did all right for himself.
Last edited by rhinohelix; 05-22-2012 at 02:52 PM.
I realized today that one of the other players in this episode, Amy Dallen, doesn't appear to be any kind of "geek culture" celeb at all either. Apparently she simply works at a comic shop Wheaton visits. So, that kind of throws my theory about his wife's presence off.
Unless Mr. Wheaton is running out of celebrity friends. DUN-DUN-DUN!
Amy is pretty. Wheaton...still annoying. That thing he does with his hands at the end of the intro...grrrr.
Hahah, I have the same feelings about his hand gesture thing. I don't know why it annoys me so much.
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