52 – The Family Gamers Podcast – Origins and E3

Summer is on its way; some of the larger board game and video game events are happening this time of year. We talk about the news that interested us from Origins Game Fair and the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

School is out, summer vacation has begun. So many games are being played!

Anitra shares how she is using a list of other activities like this that children must do before having screen time.

We tried the gourmet s’more combination described on a previous podcast: Ritz-like crackers, peanut butter cup, and marshmallow. Yum!

Games the kids have been playing:

Hisss – a simple domino-like game where players match colors to build snakes. Simple enough for our oldest to play with the toddler!

Ticket to Ride

Bonbons (a variation on the typical Memory game. It’s out of print.)

Dragonwood

Castellan

Tournament of Towers (which we reviewed last week) – we needed to return the prototype that we had for review purposes, and our kids were very sad to see it go.

Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small (temporarily out of print)

Machi Koro

Potion Explosion

The Mysterious Forest – a contender for the Kinderspiel des Jahres (Children’s Game of the Year), and we can see why. Andrew talks about how the game is played.

Dance Central 3

Claire is trying Forza Horizon, and more Rocket League

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker – puzzle game with just the right difficulty for young kids.

The adults also played:

Tournament of Towers

Kingdomino – a contender for Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year). Combines terrain-building with a domino-matching mechanic. Easy to learn but hard to master. Andrew also loves that the space inside the game box is used well.

Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. A sequel to the popular Mirror’s Edge, it’s basically parkour + violence. (Rated T for Teen. We’d agree that it’s not good for kids.)

Type: Rider – more interesting to play than to watch.

lots of Jaipur on iOS – fun, but the interface is overly fiddly and annoying.

Spy Chameleon: RGB Agent ($5 on most platforms – PS4, PS Vita, XboxONE, WiiU, Steam, we got it for free with PS Plus)

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Origins Game Fair news

Game of the Year: Scythe – we mentioned that there is a family-friendly print-and-play game that is a mash-up of Scythe and My Little Pony: it’s called My Little Scythe.

Best Family Game: Happy Salmon – a matching game full of high-fives and other celebratory actions. Sounds fun!

Card Game of the Year: Mystic Vale – a deck-building game that also lets you upgrade individual cards.

Best Accessory, Fan Favorite: Broken Token’s Blood Rage organizer (no real surprise here)

Role Playing Game: No Thank You, Evil! Appropriate to kids ages 5+, this looks fantastic.

E3 news

Cuphead is out Sept 29!

XBox One X – 10/7 for $499

XBox Original Backwards Compatibility

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

Super Mario Odyssey coming 10/27

Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle – 8/29

Shadow of War – Shadow of Mordor sequel – Early 2018?

Insomniac’s Spider Man game looks amazing. (Spyro, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance)

Rocket League coming to Nintendo Switch (with “full” cross platform play – Playstation is not playing along.)

 

Is there anything from E3 or from Origins that you want to share with The Family Gamers community?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 52:40 — 35.8MB)

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