Board game podcasts / review sites / comics

[paulyg]

So, continuing my relentless search for knowledge... What board game review sites do you watch? What podcasts do you listen to?

At the moment my list would be:

• Shut Up And Sit Down - Really, really enjoy their reviews and find myself agreeing with them quite a lot of the time
  
• Board Games & Beer Podcast - Podcast co-presented by a friend of mine and particularly good for finding out about new Kickstarters and some enlightening interviews
  
• The Game Design Round Table - Only just started listening to this podcast (they had an episode interviewing Matt Leacock) but it sounds promising
  
• Tiny Wooden Pieces - Fairly new, very funny webcomic about board games
  

I'm sort of vaguely aware of some of the others out there (e.g. the 'big guns' like The Dice Tower which I need to give another try, but found a bit abrasive) but I'm interested to know... what should I listen to? What should I read?

[PaulC]

Dice Tower reviews vary greatly depending on who is reviewing. Tom Vasal is really the only one I watch regularly, I tend to agree with him on most reviews. Others I'll watch if they're covering a game I'm particularly interested in but there are a couple I will flat refuse to waste my bandwidth on.

My favourite is definitely SUSD, I haven't always agreed with them, but they're by far the most entertaining.

[paulyg]

I think possibly where I've been going wrong with The Dice Tower has been mostly watching their Top x lists. I'll give their podcast a go and try some of the Tom Vasel video reviews...

[DaveB]

Dice Tower reviews vary greatly depending on who is reviewing. Tom Vasal is really the only one I watch regularly, I tend to agree with him on most reviews. Others I'll watch if they're covering a game I'm particularly interested in but there are a couple I will flat refuse to waste my bandwidth on.

My favourite is definitely SUSD, I haven't always agreed with them, but they're by far the most entertaining.

I agree with Paul - a lots of the Dice Tower reviewers are a complete waste of time, I generally like Vasal's reviews and there are a couple of others whose reviews I like but have very different tastes to me - so while I like their reviews and find them interesting I often don't agree with their conclusions

It's not strictly a review show, but I thoroughly enjoy "Tabletop" for getting a feel for how games play - although a few episode have fallen flat for me, and a few games didn't appeal, 50-75% of the games featured have ended up on my wishlist, if not my games cupboard

[paulyg]

Oh, how could I forget about Tabletop! I agree that lots of the games they've played have ended up on my wishlist too. Though I have found that some games seem a bit more "exciting" on that show, particularly story-telling games. I guess I should take into account that they're normally playing with actors and screenwriters! But, yes, love the show. I got extremely over-excited when I got to meet Wil Wheaton for 30 seconds :-)

[DaveB]

Ah see I'm not especially a fan of those sort of games so the Dixit's and Fiasco's and so on are those that don't get much further for me. Gloom is probably the one exception that I've enjoyed to play IRL...

Sometime they play a bit fast and loose with the rules though so can't rely on them - for example the X-wing one they messed up, as did Last Night on Earth.

[paulyg]

And... as if by magic... the first issue of my Spielbox subscription just dropped through the door! So I'm going old-school (actual printed material) too.

Actually, it contains a free extra building (kebab shop) for Istanbul. If anyone has that (actually I think some people were playing it last night) and would like this card then just shout!

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