Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Obligatory 2017 Gen Con Post Part VI: Top 5 Games Being Demoed But Not For Purchase

Alright!  I’ve trucked along with my Gen Con 2017 posts and now we’ve come to the final post (maybe) which will take a look at my top 5 anticipated games that are being demoed at the convention but won’t be available for purchase yet.  Some of these games are really interesting to me and I’m looking forward to trying them out while I’m at Gen Con.  Before I tackle this list feel free to check out my previous five posts in the series at the links below.






Alright, now that we’re all caught up we can go ahead and move on to the list of games.  Again, these are my top 5 anticipated demo games that aren’t available to purchase.  Sit back, relax, and read on and thanks for taking the time to take a look!



Farlight is an auction/bidding, tile placement and resource management designed by Nick Sibicky and published by Game Salute.  The game puts players in the role of a corporation that is setting out into the galaxy to explore, colonize and gain resources from other planets that they come across.  The players will start each turn by bidding on different modules for their ships and on different missions and will then take the pieces and build them into a spacecraft that can complete said mission.  This game just looks like a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to trying it out as a demo while I’m at Gen Con.



Alien Artifacts is a 4X, card drafting, multi-use card game designed by Marcin Senior Ropka and Viola Kijowska and published by Portal Games.  This game puts players in the role of an interplanetary faction that is sending out vessels to research and expand their power into the further reaches of the galaxy.  Players will get three cards to start a turn and then have to check on how to spend them.  There are two different resources on each of these cards but the players are only allowed to choose one to use.  They need to make hard decision which will allow them to build large, powerful starships, develop technology, discover planets and complete trades with other planets.  This game looks like a bunch of fun as it seems to shorten and streamline the usual 4X gameplay and creates a smooth looking card game with it.  This is definitely high on my list of games to demo while at Gen Con.



Dinosaur Island is a worker placement, set collection, tile placement game designed by Jonathan Gilmour and Brian Lewis and published by Pandasaurus Games.  The game puts the players in the role of scientists and developers on an island that is being created as an amusement park with living dinosaurs.  If this sounds like a terrible idea then you would be correct!  And you’ve probably watched Jurassic Park as well!  Okay, back to the game.  Players will be using tile placement to build different exhibits and rides in the park in order to get the most visitors and create the most exciting park.  To do this, players will use the worker placement parks to gather DNA and create these different dinosaurs and then place them into the different enclosures.  The problems come in a later phase when the dinosaurs can escape and start eating the visitors.  Make sure to tighten security or else your park will be overrun and the visitors eaten.  I think this game looks great and really want to try it out!



Fallout is a co-operative, hand management, exploration game designed by Andrew Fischer and Nathan Hajek and published by Fantasy Flight Games.  This game puts the players into the role of a survivor in the IP of the popular video game series, Fallout.  The survivors are put into the middle of a post-apocalyptic wasteland with little knowledge of what is ahead and a sole objective to keep them going in the beginning.  They’ll have to use card play and dice rolling in order to explore the map, defeat enemies and grow the skills of their character if they are to win.  As the players advance the game they’ll have more objectives to complete and of different varieties.  I absolutely love this video game series; it is one of my favorites, so when I heard about this release it jumped way up my list.  I am really hoping that they have a demo of this game (even if it is a short one) at Gen Con because I’d love to try it out!



Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is a co-operative, set collection, hand management game designed by Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau and published by Z-Man Games.  This game puts players into the role of a character 71 years after a massive plague ravages the world.  They are living out on the sea in floating stations where the lasting vestiges of society are fighting to keep open a network of the largest cities in the world.  Unfortunately many of the cities that are farthest away from the safe havens are falling out of contact.  The players will each take a survivor and bring supplies to these cities and go off to explore the world and see what has become of those missing areas.  I absolutely adored Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and I can’t wait to try Season 2!  I like how the story seems to be a continuation but it seems that new people could jump straight in because they are stand alone.  I can’t wait for this title, it will definitely be an amazing experience just like its predecessor.

Other demos of note:


Alright, there is the list of my top 5 games that are being demoed but not for sale at Gen Con.  There is at least a couple on here that I’d buy sight unseen due to the pedigree and many more that I’d need to hear more about.  So that is (possibly) the end of my Gen Con series.  I may come back after the convention and do one last post about what I did/saw there but I’m not quite sure yet.  Thanks so much for taking the time to look through these 6 posts.  They have been a blast making and I am really looking forward to the games on these lists.  Until next time, game on!

No comments:

Post a Comment