Just having some fun with this video and going over 30 upcoming games for 2025 that are getting some hype, beyond the typical top 10 list that's just me gushing over every new release. We try and do our best to balance a passion for board games with equal parts hype and realism. This channel is not meant to sell you the latest product. Hopefully some games catch your eye but don't make you empty your wallet. Let me know how wrong I am in the comments!
This is good. I’ve already unwrapped all the games from last year and played them once, so they are all dead to me. Only things that are coming in the future give my life meaning. SETI is coming today, but I’m not looking forward to it anymore because it was released last year and is old news. Unreleased games are still the best!
We place a large compactor beside our gaming table and so the second we played a game, we simple tilt our table and toss it all in the compactor for disposal. There are no games but those that are not yet released.
Almost pulled the trigger on the Wroth and Tend kickstarters. Guess we'll have to see how Wroth is received, but I hope you're right and it's a tight, light strategic experience that's easy to get to table. Maybe I should look to The Anarchy instead of Tend to dip my toes into a roll and write. Thanks for introducing Yield and The Anarchy to me!
The Anarchy is for sure pretty darn heavy for your first roll and write. I wonder if Hadrian's Wall wouldn't be better. Actually, Kim and I enjoy Dinosaur Island Rawr 'n Write from time to time as well.
24:25 Re: Cyberpunk - I hope that at least theminiature wargame, Combat Zone, is another good thing to come out of the franchise, because I'm looking to play that, as soon as I finish painting the copy of Sandtrap I should not have bought. Nothing against Sandtrap, I just tricked myself into thinking buying an early copy would make me a special boy. Although perhaps you're just referring to boardgame adaptions and the video game for things out of the franchise which are not as good as the Edgerunner Series? Because this is an old and storied RPG franchise which also spawned Montreal's own Dream Pod 9, and therefor, Heavy Gear.
I haven't seen that! I've stopped buying Infinity. I have so many unpainted armies now that I just feel bad buying anything else. And now the company is sending us Warcrow Adventures for review. It's funny, I told them dungeon crawlers don't really interest us, but they're sending it anyway 🤣
@@TabletopTurtle Sounds like you need to play more Infinity. I know a guy. lol. Also, Warcrow Adventures - I'm playing Warcrow the Wargame but skipped adventures because of a lack of good dungeon crawling board game group, plus I avoid crowdfunding, plus even though I'm very pro-technology, I'm suss about the app and the ability of Corvus Belli to make something work perfectly on the first try, which is kinda required for that experience. You can only play through the story for the first time once.
Just found your channel a few weeks ago and absolutely love the content. I respect the fact that you don't mind using "adult language" and will give the best unbiased reviews. Enough of me blowing smoke though, as of right now I'm hoping World Order will be an A.
@@Bandibo87I did not say it was bad. Maybe my choice of words were not the best. More or less, I’m glad he was able to decide for himself that it was not for him. I’m happy if others really enjoy it because everyone’s tastes in games vary.
Loved the ending but I also agree that from all the anticipated videos I've seen, 2025 is not going to be a great year, and I also don't think 2024 was amazing like many do. Of course a tons of ames were not announced yet so there's hope.
My take on Kickstarter boardgames - unless I absolutely trust the publisher, they've often had half-baked rules because they had a cool idea for a game, kickstarted it, then ran out of money to make that cool idea a cool game. Then there's the fomo: If it's got so many exclusives that I want, I either have to back it all the way and hope I absolutely love the game, or back minimally and hope I like, but don't love the game. The exception for me is Academy games. I backed their Mare Nostrum kickstarter being a fan of the original game and was very happy. I backed Stellaris, and I'm completely unbothered by them being years behind because they are developing it. I bought Arcs at retail, but knowing it was a kickstarter originally I'd probably back something by Leder games. Except, if you're only backing establish companies you trust, Kickstarter has gone from a way for smaller companies to produce things they couldn't otherwise to a fancy 3rd party pre-order system where the consumers are taking on all the risk, which I think is terrible.
Yeah, there are always some the peak my interest, but never enough to pull the trigger. I know Mindclash does Kickstarters now for their games, so at least if I backed something like that I know I'm getting my game on time more or less.
Yeah, two of those are from the same company that is notoriously late on fulfillment. Honestly, the best games of the year always end up being games that pop up at conventions with little to no years in advance marketing. But that's not interesting to watch 😜
I also get a kick out of people who get free copies of games that are clearly cash grabs going onto blue sky and complaining to their five followers on Bluesky that people who actually spend money, their limited money on games, wising up and calling out the cash grabs for what they are
I have no idea what Bluesky is, but it sounds dreadful. Nothing wrong with companies pumping out games for cash, that's their business, it's the constant praise from trusted people for mediocre products that bother me.
@@TabletopTurtle bluesky is the fake twitter that many of the board game gatekeepers who used to live on twitter now went to, however, they have so few followers on bluesky so they still have to check twitter, which they claimed to have left, to go back to bluesky to complain about the people on twitter to their five followers, they can't stand bluesky or other twitter alternatives because those platforms are decentralized making it more difficult for them to dog pile or try to cancel other board game content creators or people in the industry they don't like, like they could on twitter, because on bluesky they can only really interact with people they agree with, so eventually the revolution will turn on itself.....
I predict you will be too mean in Iliad against Kim! I want to play Revenant. Looks good. You know I have to play Fellowship too, seemed to be busy at PAX. Oooh, the anarchy looks interesting too.
This was my first year backing board games and I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the games I backed high up on your list (your S, 4 from your A, and the 2 highest from your B) and 0 from your C & D tiers. 👾 As an additional one, check out Tofu Shifu if you can. It came out of nowhere late last year but it looked like it might be an unexpected gem.
In terms of anticipation - Runar from Ludus Magnus - first game ever I've decided to buy blind as preorder and have very high hopes for - currently waiting for my copy to arrive. Just throwing it out there - maybe mighty TTTurtle will also be interested in checking it out in the future. And as a comment- as a RPG player I feel like I should be hyped for Lands of Evershade. HOWEVER. If I am to spent massive ammounts of time, effort and money I'd much rather pick up new RPG system and tailor-craft my own campaign. I won't try and predict how good it will turn out but I don't feel like I'll end up picking it up. Cheers!
You've given me a game I haven't even heard of. I'll have a look. Yeah, these games that exist in the middle point between the two hobbies just never resonate with me.
@TabletopTurtle Runar - skirmish up to 6 players with expansion, fighting as vikings with chance to add game controlled opponent into the game, based on negative interactions. I guessed it might be something you would enjoy. Anyway cheers to that, enjoy research!
It felt like Lockdown and Retribution were sort of just more of the same and I already own Nemesis. The way it was sold to me was that if you're a Nemesis freak and you're playing this thing weekly, it makes perfect sense, or if you're just buying a Nemesis game for the first time. But I only play Nemesis a few times a year, despite loving it, so I guess it doesn't make sense for me to buy Retribution. Retribution, in my opinion, looks to offer a lot more chucking dice and killing, more akin to a dungeon crawler. The original Nemesis to me felt more like a tense survival game with a traitor mechanic.
@TabletopTurtle that's fair. Looking to buy my first jump into the series. Based on that description I might just go with Lockdown then. Big sucker for the horror theme 😄
@@TabletopTurtle a 3 day board game retreat. 3 full days of board gaming with chances to win games, put on by board game co. at the end of this month in Woodbridge, NJ
@@TabletopTurtle better yet I'll play a game with you!! Or pretend I have no idea who you are! haha like Russian roulette you don't know what you'll get!
There are completists and collectors in the hobby with FOMO who I think are prayed upon by these lighter versions or kids versions of lighter games, like 7 wonders, cascadia, and now birdspan, fishspan. They buy these games and justify the expense for the mysterious group of non gaming friends at work who on their 45 minute break want to learn a game or now some little kid that just wants to play uno is suddenly going to want to play a dumbed down version of a euro game they have no interest in.
But the damn things keep selling like crazy and being praised as some deep and rewarding strategic experience. Blows my mind. It's not as if there can't be a really deep boss battlers with really neat mechanics and loads of cool decisions . . . I just haven't seen 'em.
I'm not the biggest Stonemaier fan or a fan of Wingspan at all, but anyone who calls him out for cashing in or making derivative games I'm going to ask for people to be consistent: how do you feel about the Great Western Trails? Or Ticket to Rides? I realize you were doing that bit for humour, but that was a considerable side rant you went on and not even justified if you don't acknowledge those other derivatives in the same breath. I don't like any of the games I mentioned, but the one that annoyed me was Everdell Farshore.
@ . . . but you have to throw your old game in the garbage and consume the new game that is mildly different! That's the law! Consume product and get excited for next product!
I was a little harsh on it because going over the rules I'm not digging it. But I will for sure play it, because at the very least it looks different and that's always refreshing and exciting!
@@GlennDeBlock Sorry, confusing it with the other Awaken Realms game Evershade, although Evershade's book was only the player manual. I watched Ant Lab's playthrough and everything looked clunky as hell and looked as though it would get repetitive - kill the elite then gang on the boss. I watched one other playthrough and it was the same, maybe that's the fault of the people demoing the game or that the game was in demo. And the choices presented on any given turn didn't look particularly strategic or fun. I'll still play it on Tabletop Simulator the second I see a mod for it.
Octavus, come on now, you know board games based on the IPs of video games suck. It's the law! Although, I guess Slay the Spire was good, so who knows!?
This list just show me, these list are just totally subjective. You do not like boss battle games so Grimcoven go to C tier. You do not like narrative games: Lands of Evershade go to D tier. You do not really like legacy games, so Floe go to C tier. Actually, you liked and you gave high points to World Order and only C tier? (What the ...???) In the same time, you like the theme of Cyberpunk, which is a big question mark, but you gave it B tier?? I am not even mentioned some poorly designed or ugly games you gave S, A or B tier. What was this list?? OMG.
All lists of games people think are good are subjective. You certainly don't think the plethora of sponsored videos for Grimcoven and Evershade are providing objective reviews, do you? Legacy games don't sway me one way or the other. It needs to be a good game from the start and not five or six games in, so it depends. I do like the looks of Cyberpunk . . . B is good. I think you might be too used to the 'ol IGN-style review inflation 😜
@TabletopTurtle Just because a video is sponsored it does not mean all content creators lying. In case of Grimcoven and Lands of Evershade, you can find many prototype reviews, where creators shows the pros and cons. You can also watch gameplay videos to decide is the game for you or not. There are many people who fan of narrative games and I am not even amongs them :) But numbers show it anyway. The problem with your video, that you not just subjective but also inconsistent in your decision making. Critic is a good thing if you able to learn from it.
Just having some fun with this video and going over 30 upcoming games for 2025 that are getting some hype, beyond the typical top 10 list that's just me gushing over every new release. We try and do our best to balance a passion for board games with equal parts hype and realism. This channel is not meant to sell you the latest product. Hopefully some games catch your eye but don't make you empty your wallet. Let me know how wrong I am in the comments!
This is good. I’ve already unwrapped all the games from last year and played them once, so they are all dead to me. Only things that are coming in the future give my life meaning. SETI is coming today, but I’m not looking forward to it anymore because it was released last year and is old news. Unreleased games are still the best!
We place a large compactor beside our gaming table and so the second we played a game, we simple tilt our table and toss it all in the compactor for disposal. There are no games but those that are not yet released.
Almost pulled the trigger on the Wroth and Tend kickstarters. Guess we'll have to see how Wroth is received, but I hope you're right and it's a tight, light strategic experience that's easy to get to table. Maybe I should look to The Anarchy instead of Tend to dip my toes into a roll and write.
Thanks for introducing Yield and The Anarchy to me!
The Anarchy is for sure pretty darn heavy for your first roll and write. I wonder if Hadrian's Wall wouldn't be better. Actually, Kim and I enjoy Dinosaur Island Rawr 'n Write from time to time as well.
That ending haha. Love it, great content as always.
Thank you!
Thanks so much for featuring Galactic Cruise. I hope it remains A-tier (or slides in up to S-tier) after you play it. 🚀
Of course! Hopefully we can get our hands on it when it eventually hits retail. Looks fun.
awesome - thanks!
24:25 Re: Cyberpunk - I hope that at least theminiature wargame, Combat Zone, is another good thing to come out of the franchise, because I'm looking to play that, as soon as I finish painting the copy of Sandtrap I should not have bought. Nothing against Sandtrap, I just tricked myself into thinking buying an early copy would make me a special boy.
Although perhaps you're just referring to boardgame adaptions and the video game for things out of the franchise which are not as good as the Edgerunner Series? Because this is an old and storied RPG franchise which also spawned Montreal's own Dream Pod 9, and therefor, Heavy Gear.
I haven't seen that! I've stopped buying Infinity. I have so many unpainted armies now that I just feel bad buying anything else. And now the company is sending us Warcrow Adventures for review. It's funny, I told them dungeon crawlers don't really interest us, but they're sending it anyway 🤣
@@TabletopTurtle Sounds like you need to play more Infinity. I know a guy. lol. Also, Warcrow Adventures - I'm playing Warcrow the Wargame but skipped adventures because of a lack of good dungeon crawling board game group, plus I avoid crowdfunding, plus even though I'm very pro-technology, I'm suss about the app and the ability of Corvus Belli to make something work perfectly on the first try, which is kinda required for that experience. You can only play through the story for the first time once.
Just found your channel a few weeks ago and absolutely love the content. I respect the fact that you don't mind using "adult language" and will give the best unbiased reviews. Enough of me blowing smoke though, as of right now I'm hoping World Order will be an A.
We will for sure play World Order. Hegemony was too much fun for us not to give it a shot and hopefully I'm wrong and it blows our minds.
Great video! Great way to preview this years coming games!! And as a Monty Python fan… I must choose SpamSpan
I'd recommend the spam sausage with spam if you don't like spam as it don't have much spam in it.
@@TabletopTurtle Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!
Awesome video, really informative and entertaining!
Thanks!
after a video this good you best belive im smashing that like button
Do not tell me you forgot to smash the subscribe button too!?
Glad you saw through Lands of Evershade. My most anticipated from crowdfunding is Arydia and Dice Throne X-Men.
I'll have to look into Arydia more, although cooperative games never go over well in this household.
Maybe, it is something, not for everyone. It does not mean it is bad.
@@Bandibo87I did not say it was bad. Maybe my choice of words were not the best. More or less, I’m glad he was able to decide for himself that it was not for him. I’m happy if others really enjoy it because everyone’s tastes in games vary.
Another Masterpiece 👏👏.
I tip my hat to you good Sir 🎩
Well thank you very much, Missy!
Really hyped for Speakeasy!!
Same! I'll get around to playing it on Tabletop one day or maybe bug the publisher to send a copy.
Loved the ending but I also agree that from all the anticipated videos I've seen, 2025 is not going to be a great year, and I also don't think 2024 was amazing like many do. Of course a tons of ames were not announced yet so there's hope.
Well my hope is you're right. I'm always down for some new forever games in my collection.
My take on Kickstarter boardgames - unless I absolutely trust the publisher, they've often had half-baked rules because they had a cool idea for a game, kickstarted it, then ran out of money to make that cool idea a cool game. Then there's the fomo: If it's got so many exclusives that I want, I either have to back it all the way and hope I absolutely love the game, or back minimally and hope I like, but don't love the game.
The exception for me is Academy games. I backed their Mare Nostrum kickstarter being a fan of the original game and was very happy. I backed Stellaris, and I'm completely unbothered by them being years behind because they are developing it.
I bought Arcs at retail, but knowing it was a kickstarter originally I'd probably back something by Leder games.
Except, if you're only backing establish companies you trust, Kickstarter has gone from a way for smaller companies to produce things they couldn't otherwise to a fancy 3rd party pre-order system where the consumers are taking on all the risk, which I think is terrible.
Yeah, there are always some the peak my interest, but never enough to pull the trigger. I know Mindclash does Kickstarters now for their games, so at least if I backed something like that I know I'm getting my game on time more or less.
I appreciate your optimism, but there's no way that Grimcoven, Cyberpunk, and Lands of Evershade are actually shipped to backers in 2025.
Yeah, two of those are from the same company that is notoriously late on fulfillment. Honestly, the best games of the year always end up being games that pop up at conventions with little to no years in advance marketing. But that's not interesting to watch 😜
I also get a kick out of people who get free copies of games that are clearly cash grabs going onto blue sky and complaining to their five followers on Bluesky that people who actually spend money, their limited money on games, wising up and calling out the cash grabs for what they are
I have no idea what Bluesky is, but it sounds dreadful. Nothing wrong with companies pumping out games for cash, that's their business, it's the constant praise from trusted people for mediocre products that bother me.
@@TabletopTurtle bluesky is the fake twitter that many of the board game gatekeepers who used to live on twitter now went to, however, they have so few followers on bluesky so they still have to check twitter, which they claimed to have left, to go back to bluesky to complain about the people on twitter to their five followers, they can't stand bluesky or other twitter alternatives because those platforms are decentralized making it more difficult for them to dog pile or try to cancel other board game content creators or people in the industry they don't like, like they could on twitter, because on bluesky they can only really interact with people they agree with, so eventually the revolution will turn on itself.....
I predict you will be too mean in Iliad against Kim!
I want to play Revenant. Looks good. You know I have to play Fellowship too, seemed to be busy at PAX. Oooh, the anarchy looks interesting too.
No prediction could be safer bet.
This was my first year backing board games and I was pleasantly surprised to see many of the games I backed high up on your list (your S, 4 from your A, and the 2 highest from your B) and 0 from your C & D tiers. 👾
As an additional one, check out Tofu Shifu if you can. It came out of nowhere late last year but it looked like it might be an unexpected gem.
Oh wow, you really jumped in head first if you backed that many games for your first time! Why dip your toes, right? 😜 I'll have a look!
In terms of anticipation - Runar from Ludus Magnus - first game ever I've decided to buy blind as preorder and have very high hopes for - currently waiting for my copy to arrive. Just throwing it out there - maybe mighty TTTurtle will also be interested in checking it out in the future.
And as a comment- as a RPG player I feel like I should be hyped for Lands of Evershade. HOWEVER. If I am to spent massive ammounts of time, effort and money I'd much rather pick up new RPG system and tailor-craft my own campaign. I won't try and predict how good it will turn out but I don't feel like I'll end up picking it up.
Cheers!
You've given me a game I haven't even heard of. I'll have a look. Yeah, these games that exist in the middle point between the two hobbies just never resonate with me.
@TabletopTurtle Runar - skirmish up to 6 players with expansion, fighting as vikings with chance to add game controlled opponent into the game, based on negative interactions. I guessed it might be something you would enjoy. Anyway cheers to that, enjoy research!
Nemesis Retribution is also due 2025 I belive. Any thoughts on that? Cool vid! 😄
It felt like Lockdown and Retribution were sort of just more of the same and I already own Nemesis. The way it was sold to me was that if you're a Nemesis freak and you're playing this thing weekly, it makes perfect sense, or if you're just buying a Nemesis game for the first time. But I only play Nemesis a few times a year, despite loving it, so I guess it doesn't make sense for me to buy Retribution. Retribution, in my opinion, looks to offer a lot more chucking dice and killing, more akin to a dungeon crawler. The original Nemesis to me felt more like a tense survival game with a traitor mechanic.
@TabletopTurtle that's fair. Looking to buy my first jump into the series. Based on that description I might just go with Lockdown then. Big sucker for the horror theme 😄
Id be happy to teach you luthier sometime. I don't use tabletopia but I can do tts
I have Tabletopia. I can just invite people. I guess we just need one other person.
Wish you guys were going to level up in NJ. Spice things up a bit!!
Jillian, we don't even know what that is! Fill us in!
@@TabletopTurtle a 3 day board game retreat. 3 full days of board gaming with chances to win games, put on by board game co. at the end of this month in Woodbridge, NJ
@@jillianm1986 Sounds like fun. I guess we have to go. But you better say hello when you see us!
@@TabletopTurtle better yet I'll play a game with you!! Or pretend I have no idea who you are! haha like Russian roulette you don't know what you'll get!
There are completists and collectors in the hobby with FOMO who I think are prayed upon by these lighter versions or kids versions of lighter games, like 7 wonders, cascadia, and now birdspan, fishspan. They buy these games and justify the expense for the mysterious group of non gaming friends at work who on their 45 minute break want to learn a game or now some little kid that just wants to play uno is suddenly going to want to play a dumbed down version of a euro game they have no interest in.
Fishspan is a early April fools joke right?
The meme is real! We live in a simulation.
@TabletopTurtle not surprisingly all the people who got free early copies like it
@ haha possibly. We get free copies and I dislike half the games we receive
Deep regrets: mounting fish and pushing too hard. Definitely sounds regrettable.
If you're not mounting fish, they'll mount you!
SpamSpan !
You are SO right about boss battlers. I find them so boring.
But the damn things keep selling like crazy and being praised as some deep and rewarding strategic experience. Blows my mind. It's not as if there can't be a really deep boss battlers with really neat mechanics and loads of cool decisions . . . I just haven't seen 'em.
I'm not the biggest Stonemaier fan or a fan of Wingspan at all, but anyone who calls him out for cashing in or making derivative games I'm going to ask for people to be consistent: how do you feel about the Great Western Trails? Or Ticket to Rides? I realize you were doing that bit for humour, but that was a considerable side rant you went on and not even justified if you don't acknowledge those other derivatives in the same breath. I don't like any of the games I mentioned, but the one that annoyed me was Everdell Farshore.
Yes, I'm aware of those hugely popular and successful games. I'm just having a laugh.
tbh I skipped on getting Dune Uprising, any of the GWTs, Farshore etc. for the same reason. All cash grabs. Who cares if they are any good.
@ . . . but you have to throw your old game in the garbage and consume the new game that is mildly different! That's the law! Consume product and get excited for next product!
Speakeasy is my most anticipated game of 2025. I didn't back Galactic Cruise but it's recently piqued my interest.
Two giant boxes to slowly wear down your shelves!
Cool lost but you’re missing the 2025 S-Tier game Build-a-Cult! C’mon?!
I believe that's the primary goal of every UA-camr.
There are enough ks hype channels out there, please limit your route down that road
Oh, World Order seems great.
I was a little harsh on it because going over the rules I'm not digging it. But I will for sure play it, because at the very least it looks different and that's always refreshing and exciting!
What rubbed you wrong way in the rules?
@@GlennDeBlock Sorry, confusing it with the other Awaken Realms game Evershade, although Evershade's book was only the player manual. I watched Ant Lab's playthrough and everything looked clunky as hell and looked as though it would get repetitive - kill the elite then gang on the boss. I watched one other playthrough and it was the same, maybe that's the fault of the people demoing the game or that the game was in demo. And the choices presented on any given turn didn't look particularly strategic or fun. I'll still play it on Tabletop Simulator the second I see a mod for it.
I thought this video was great.
Well I thought this comment was pretty darn great!
Where is Metal Gear Solid ?!)) Boss battler which will change your DNA!
Octavus, come on now, you know board games based on the IPs of video games suck. It's the law! Although, I guess Slay the Spire was good, so who knows!?
I love Stalker for well made stealth. MGS coming tomorrow- will see, early impressions that it is also quite solid.
Ranking ganes you have not played..entertaining...maybe. weird and non sensical? Yes
There are plenty of 2025 hype videos out there to watch. It's just nonsensical to you, and that's okay.
This list just show me, these list are just totally subjective.
You do not like boss battle games so Grimcoven go to C tier. You do not like narrative games: Lands of Evershade go to D tier. You do not really like legacy games, so Floe go to C tier. Actually, you liked and you gave high points to World Order and only C tier? (What the ...???)
In the same time, you like the theme of Cyberpunk, which is a big question mark, but you gave it B tier?? I am not even mentioned some poorly designed or ugly games you gave S, A or B tier.
What was this list?? OMG.
In what world is speakeasy ugly or poorly designed?
@miliyn17 Well, it is definetely ugly according to my taste. :)
All lists of games people think are good are subjective. You certainly don't think the plethora of sponsored videos for Grimcoven and Evershade are providing objective reviews, do you? Legacy games don't sway me one way or the other. It needs to be a good game from the start and not five or six games in, so it depends. I do like the looks of Cyberpunk . . . B is good. I think you might be too used to the 'ol IGN-style review inflation 😜
@TabletopTurtle Just because a video is sponsored it does not mean all content creators lying. In case of Grimcoven and Lands of Evershade, you can find many prototype reviews, where creators shows the pros and cons. You can also watch gameplay videos to decide is the game for you or not. There are many people who fan of narrative games and I am not even amongs them :) But numbers show it anyway.
The problem with your video, that you not just subjective but also inconsistent in your decision making. Critic is a good thing if you able to learn from it.
@ you’ve got some wild taste then haha