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I've enjoyed the core gameplay ideas of past Evolution games, where you create and adapt species to compete for food and population growth. Oceans takes most of those ideas and adapts it for a dedicated aquatic environment with lovely colorful artwork. Then it mixes in a "deep" deck of crazy unique effects. So you combine some core heavily balanced traits with the spicy effects which creates an excellent blend of understandability with variety. Maybe you're a predatory super shark, or a lurking bottom feeder, or a plankton-scooping anchor species… the confrontation between players feels like building an ecosystem. It works better than any of the other variants on the Evolution series.
This game aims to both teach and be fun, which is not easy. And I think it pulls it off. You have asymmetric nations doing work to address the climate crisis. And through the gameplay they will realize that they have to work together, leveraging each other's strengths, or civilization is going to collapse. I've found that not everyone clicks with this game. Which is too bad, because I enjoy the puzzle and the very relevant storytelling that emerges from the mechanics.
## [Dune: Imperium – Uprising](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/397598/dune-imperium-uprising)
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[](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/397598/dune-imperium-uprising)
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As an IP, Dune has spawned many good games. This latest one is a deck building and worker placement hybrid. The deck building part is light compared to other games where that's the focus. The worker placement takes much more of the focus, with varying spots becoming essential to land at the right moment. This all culminates in occasional battles where what you've accumulated gets thrown together with hopes to come ahead. It's crunchy but thematic. It takes just the right mood to get to the table, and it certainly doesn't resolve quickly, but there are many interesting decisions over its play time.
The first thing you'll notice about Harvest is the absolutely adorable art and excellent production put on by Keymaster. Anthropomorphic animals farming, but is it fun? I think it is. It's a worker placement game where you compete for the most productive spots and really feel that tension. You need to balance planting and harvesting crops, clearing more space on your farm, and layering together passive upgrades. It's an engaging little puzzle in great packaging.
Language is so nuanced that it provides a lot of space for games that are just about the confusions and collisions of words. So Clover is a word game where one player gives a set of clues to link word pairs. Each player takes a turn being the clue giver (and can do the prep part simultaneously) The gimmick is that the pairs are on individually rotatable cards, so there are many combinations that could play out. Additionally, a random card is thrown in after the clues are locked in, just to create unexpected associations the clue giver couldn't plan on. The experience of play is either as a clue giver watching people misunderstand your inferences, or as players cooperatively solving a word puzzle; either role is fun in its own way. This is an easy game to recommend for pretty much anyone.
Simple, colorful, and doesn't overstay its welcome. You can push your luck on way to building your ideal chain of crew members, and maybe get burned. But it all felt fast and pleasant and overall a great option to play with kids.
- [Bad Company](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/340677/bad-company): Space Base got so much play in my friend group that I was interested in seeking something different that was similar, and Bad Company came up as an option. In this one you're pulling a heist and there's fun art to go with that, so that thematic change definitely works. And there's a race track of sorts where you're trying to get to the end first, be tempted by bonuses off the path, and don't fall behind enough for the police to catch you. In practice it all falls a bit flat compared to Space Base, and I'm working on putting my finger on why. The choices around which cards you pick up seem more random and less strategic. Also there's a definite runaway leader problem with some passive income. And the turn to turn flow is slower and more awkward, with decisions made around 4 dice instead of just resolving 2 dice as they lay (either as separate or as sum). In total, it just doesn't hit as hard and isn't going to take the place of Space Base.
Lightweight and colorful, in a very attractive box. Decidedly pleasant. I don't have the repetition of plays to know how this shakes out with more attention, but I'm interested in playing more.
-[Hideous Abomination](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/300081/hideous-abomination): Lots of high profile overblow Kickstarter funded games succeed based on artwork but fail in the end experience because art is only one slice of that. However if art is by design a large portion of the experience… well then that can be okay. In this tile laying game… it's all about the art. You make crazy impossible creatures out of tiles and delight in how they look. There's a game too… but that's honestly very little of the focus. It works well enough to not get in the way of enjoying the look of your monster in the end.
A breezy card game where you take one for yourself, give one to another, and allocate one to the final scoring. Just a few power cards kept this an easy teach. Moved quickly and had plenty of mind games along the way. I enjoyed myself and would definitely play again. I'm interest in how much strategy would develop with more plays.
-[Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/356033/libertalia-winds-of-galecrest)
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-[Hitster](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/318243/hitster): There's a deck of cards, each of which has a QR code. Scan it, and a song plays with Spotify. Now you try to progressively place it in a timeline with other song cards. Which came out first, "Wonderwall" or "Wannabe"? If that sounds fun to you, it is. As a bonus you can challenge to name the artist and/or song title, serving as a "name that tune" type experience.
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-[Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/356033/libertalia-winds-of-galecrest): Use pirate crew cards to determine how you divide up the loot. Everyone has the same crew cards, so you know what your opponents are capable of. But who is going to play that one card first? Or are you going to hold onto that crew member for one of the next rounds when everyone has forgotten they're still a possibility? There's a bunch of mind games to be played here.
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-[MicroMacro: Crime City – Full House](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/338834/micromacro-crime-city-full-house)
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Solve a mystery by scrutinizing a map. It works. The art is inviting and the mysteries I've tried so far have been satisfying to solve. This is a delightful activity to pull out with kids.
A 3 stage draft where you are trying to match up animals to habitats. The challenge is that the animals might be picky and the habitats have limited space. I enjoyed trying to land that perfect balance, alongside planning from one draft round to the next. Plus Oink games are generally a win due to their extreme portability and gentle use of shelf space.
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-[Rock Hard: 1977](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/402679/rock-hard-1977): The theme does it for me here. It is thoroughly cooked into this game, and benefits from players who want to tell stories of their aspiring rock stars. The actual play is much simpler than the board makes it look. Perhaps the whole progression is a bit on rails, but I enjoyed those rails. I don't know how many times I need to actually play this game, but I enjoy that I have.
-[Sleeping Gods: Primeval Peril](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/362205/sleeping-gods-primeval-peril): A misfit crew is mysteriously lost on a winding jungle river, with hazards and misfortune all around. Can you work together to escape? This is a storybook game (as in with a book with passages you read aloud), with randomized skill challenges, equipment, and monster combat. I'm not sure how much replayability there will be for the same scenario (you're always going through the same map and the same story book), but I think enough for its value. A good option for a cooperative narrative evening.
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-[Arcs](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/359871/arcs): Root wasn't for everyone, but I really like it. Arcs has a similar lineage to root, but the asymmetry isn't baked into each player faction, but rather into the cards you'll accumulate (or optional starting cards). Which I think makes it more approachable. But I'm a bad judge of this, because Root feels more straightforward to me that it does to others. As it stands, I still haven't had a full sized game of Arcs, but I'm very eager to. I'm someone who generally hears "trick taking" and runs the other direction, but it's used to great effect in this game. I'm very much down for an epic game of spatial conquest. And the art is just so so great. Now… who wants to play this with me?
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-[Forest Shuffle](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/391163/forest-shuffle): By the end of the game what you've accumulated may feel a bit out of control with the compound complexity. But this is a satisfying blend of layering engine and scoring conditions from a mess of cards and hoping your opponent doesn't take that care you really really need. Would definitely play again.
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-[The Fox Experiment](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/368432/the-fox-experiment)
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-[The Fox Experiment](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/368432/the-fox-experiment): Inspired by the real science behind the domestication of foxes and dogs, this game shines when it lets you customize dice pools from foxes to breed your perfect new pup. And then you get to name it! That's pretty delightful. All the other things around that are… pretty gamey. I think it's a bit too much of a board game, and the presentation is a bit uneven for me personally, but also there's some great moments in this too.
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-[Harmonies](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/414317/harmonies): The biggest problem with this game is that I already have Reef and and I already have Cascadia. Because it feels like a blend of those two. A really pleasing blend of them too. I like creating three dimensional terrain. I like having the animal scoring conditions direct the way I shape my terrain. The main downside is that the open ended up building can lead to slow turns with nothing to do in between (I wouldn't be excited to play this at 4). But I enjoyed this and would definitely play again.
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-[Kronologic: Paris 1920](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/402111/kronologic-paris-1920): A clever deduction engine. I like how there is public information that has you paying attention on other player's turns, but also private information that helps you race to solve the mystery. Attractive components, and enough variants in the box that it seems like a reasonable value. I'm eager to play with tweens/teens and see how it lands.
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-[Land vs Sea](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/336929/land-vs-sea)
-[Land vs Sea](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/336929/land-vs-sea): If you know me you know I like maps. This is a game about building a map competitively out of tiles, one player optimizing for land features and another player for sea features (and with more options at higher player counts, but I haven't tried those). I do think it's awkward that the game has two-sided tiles where the two tiles in your hand are actually four options but you can't see them all at once. Space efficient but fussy. Other than that the game is pleasant if not terribly deep.
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-[Marvel United: X-Men](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/336382/marvel-united-x-men): Cooperatively match up a few of the X-Men against Magneto to save the city. Or maybe swap out Cyclops for Gwen Stacy and instead put them up against Loki. Mix and match to your heart's content. Certainly some of the charm of this game is in combining the different character powers (and their miniatures) into your own fan fiction. The mechanics are actually very simple, and the differences between those characters are executed with a light touch. This ends up being a family friendly co-op that can be tailored to the specific character affinities of your family.
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-[Mezen](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/380183/mezen): What a striking production with sharp intentional color and art. And with it, a puzzle of adapting your every changing grid to match slowly unfolding scoring conditions. I like that you are rewarded for planning a couple turns ahead but don't need to sweat compound complexity from more goals. I also like the exchange of resources to other players when you need to mitigate a bad situation. I'd definitely play again.
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-[Middle Ages](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/403754/middle-ages): What a delightful production. Puzzle piece cardboard tiles and positively adorable wooden pawns, all with gorgeous art. The drafting mechanism feels like Kingdomino but with more foresight. The attack buildings are sure to be polarizing (especially since the game punishes for you not dabbling in all building types). But this was enjoyable and I'd absolutely play more.
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-[Pagan: Fate of Roanoke](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/319910/pagan-fate-of-roanoke): I've only had a learning game of this, and there was much learning to do. But I love the theme and I love the quirky Netrunner-esque gameplay. I'm eager to get in more games and see how it improves with better understanding.
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-[Witchcraft!](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/383499/witchcraft): An attractive and well themed solo game. As solo games should be it was challenging and often involved finding the lesser of two evils. I liked the tension between when you reveal your witches to get powerful effects versus sustaining for the longer marathon. As with many solo games, this works well played with a partner to help you work through the challenge.
-[Wyrmspan](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/410201/wyrmspan): While best summarized as "_Wingspan_ but with dragons," the game actually differs in more ways than you might expect. There's more choice in delving out your various caves, and in getting dragons that get along, and in deciding whether parenting young hatchlings is going to be worth it. I think I enjoyed the strategic puzzle of this more than _Wingspan_, but I'd need more plays to be sure.
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## [Inside Out 2](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22022452/)
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[](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22022452/)
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Watching this in the theater, it was very clear that the little kids around me were having a very different experience than I was. To them, brightly colored characters did silly things. To me, it was incredibly triggering. Usually we talk about movies together right after; but this one I couldn’t for a while. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's just that the subject matter was a bit too real. It tackled losing friendship and had a particularly accurate portrayal of a panic attack… lots of material not exactly directed at super young kids. I was more expecting the gut punch of [Bing Bong](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPQRHemfk9E&pp=ygUZaW5zaWRlIG91dCBiaW5nIGJvbmcgZGllcw%3D%3D) from the first _Insite Out_, but Pixar outmaneuvered me and managed to knock me flat in a new way.
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Watching this in the theater, it was very clear that the little kids around me were having a very different experience than I was. To them, brightly colored characters did silly things. To me, it was incredibly triggering. Usually we talk about movies together right after; but this one I couldn’t for a while. Don't get me wrong, it's good. It's just that the subject matter was a bit too real. It tackled losing friendship and had a particularly accurate portrayal of a panic attack… lots of material not exactly directed at super young kids. I was more expecting the gut punch of [Bing Bong](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPQRHemfk9E&pp=ygUZaW5zaWRlIG91dCBiaW5nIGJvbmcgZGllcw%3D%3D) from the first _Inside Out_, but Pixar outmaneuvered and managed to knock me flat in a new way.
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<pclass="playLine"><spanclass='playIcon disney'></span>Watched in the theater, now streaming on <ahref="https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-ec9f9fa3-fbae-4a25-b722-12c3b8ab0ef4">Disney+</a></p>
This is a very weird movie. It's also incredibly creative, visually so and in many other ways. It's also more than a little uncomfortable. Be prepared for a story that explores sexuality and consent. It's a story of a woman who starts as a creation, a possession, and ends up as her own free spirit. But halfway through the movie it's not so clear if it's going to work out or not. The whole experience is surreal and challenging and incredible.
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This is a very weird movie. It's also incredibly creative, visually so and in many other ways. It's also more than a little uncomfortable to watch. Be prepared for a story that explores sexuality and consent. It's the journey of a woman who starts as a creation, treated as a possession, and ends up as her own free spirit. But halfway through the movie it's not so clear if it's going to work out or not. The whole experience is surreal and challenging and incredible.
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<pclass="playLine"><spanclass='playIcon hulu'></span>Watched in the theater, now streaming on <ahref="https://www.hulu.com/movie/poor-things-72867b3c-0c4e-4107-aff7-a1f876c7242f">Hulu</a></p>
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