2026-04-02T18:36:23Z
Itās interesting how little Iām motivated to watch this. Iāve really fallen off the SUSD bandwagon.
I think I was there for Quinns & Matt. They both got tired, Quinns moved on, Mattās still trying. But heās tired.
All the energy is with the youngāuns but Iām just not interested in Tomās opinions. And his videos donāt appeal to me as pure entertainment the way the older guardās did.
Then you have the old brilliant writing of Ava and Brendan, also scrapped. I think they werenāt getting traffic on the written stuff - but also there wasnāt a direct link to it on the frontpage so what do you expect?
Ah well. Times come and times go.
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Iām trying to separate that feeling in myself from a general lack of excitement about New Games. I have a solid collection and not enough space, something need to impress me to get a look in, so my initial reaction to anything tends to be neutral to negative.
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I think Iām in the same boat. Tom is funny, but with a different sense of humor than I came to expect from Quinns, Paul, and Matt.
The new videos also tend to be over-edited in my opinion.
Yes, I realize Iām squarely in the āold man yells at cloudā territoryā¦ but that is a distinction that I feel I have earnedā¦ byā¦ being old. And yelling at clouds.
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Iām in a similar boat. Iām not interested in new games and SU&SD arenāt as worth it for entertainment value as they used to be.
Conversely, Iāll happily watch through an hour-long Quinns Quest video for a game I know Iām not interested in within the first few minutes.
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I kind of have to agree. There was a time a new SU&SD review would come out and Iād instantly start watching it. Now, while I did watch this one, I havenāt yet watched the Luthier one, and possibly another one before that. Oh yeah, the Top 100 of Last Will. Similarly, I havenāt listened to the past few podcasts.
Thereās multiple parts to it. One is I just donāt have a lot of time, so I just donāt always get around to watching a review video, especially on some games where I know even if itās good, I likely wonāt have an interest in purchasing it (Luthier, for instance).
I find Tom has lost some of hisā¦zaninessā¦in his more recent videos. His early videos were all pretty great, humorous and informative. Now, there is still some humor, but not as over the top as it used to be. Same with Matt, and maybe itās just age and life getting in the way of the more carefree days of youth (for him and me).
I do miss Quinns. He had aā¦sort of gravitas, if that word works for board game reviews, that just really pulled you in. I havenāt watched many of his Quinns Quest videos, mostly because I just donāt have the time for RPGās at all, and as mentioned above, even time to watch videos is somewhat limited. I should probably make an effort to see a few more, though, to see if they are worth it for the entertainment value. I think itās the length that typically prevents it for me. I can do a 15 minute vid. The longer it gets from there, the less likely I am to watch it.
I also miss having a few more reviewers. I really enjoyed Emilyās stuff, just really off-the-wall stuff that was hilarious.
I do enjoy the SU&SD podcasts still, even though Iām a bit behind. Probably because they are a bit less scripted than their reviews, so it feels a bit more authentic.
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I still like Tom. I fell off earlier when I thought I was really going too nuts on board games and have to stop playing everything and buy everything.
I think I started watching less when they do more āreviewsā and less āentertainmentā. For the lack of better words. I went back on their Inis review and that one was still their old unhinged vids
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Iāve actually been rewatching a lot of the old videos. Mostly, thatās me trying to reconnect with my game collection (and the hobby) now that my youngest daughter(s) are starting to sleep through the night and I can entertain the idea of actually playing games again.
Watching the old videos really shows the difference to the videos of modern SU&SD
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Same to all of this. I think the thing that became the clearest as time has gone on is just how strong of a games writer Quinns is, and just how much his absence has led to flatter SUSD output. I too have been way more into Quinns Quest video, despite not really liking RPGs and still being into board games, and thatās purely on the strength of Quinnsās ability to constantly churn out creative, engaging scripts.
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I think Iāll always consider the Paul & Quinns team as the glory days of SUSD. Thereās an enormous amount of genuinely great stuff afterwards as well (I could pick out numerous videos of any given contributor that Iāve loved), but Iāll always miss the delightfully irreverent approach to board game reviewing that got me hooked on the show in the first place. I watched each and every one of those videos first and foremost because they were going to make me laugh a lot, and only secondly to learn something about some board games that I might be interested in (and they got me interested in a whole lot of games!).
Those early videos rarely gave me a detailed understanding of a game; but they gave me a feel for how it might feel to play them, and what the hooks were, and whether I wanted to go and find out more. And because I knew Iād enjoy the video regardless of whether I thought I was interested in the game, Iād watch everything and, in the process, learn something about games I might not otherwise have taken an interest in.
My favourite SUSD videos all have their own little world, with characters and settings and scenes and story, and so many of the jokes are hung off of those extraneous elements (which the board game review has been nestled into).
And as much as Mattās drive to improve the production quality has resulted in consistently well-lit and well-focused images, I canāt help wondering whether itās also the reason why they almost never film outdoors / roaming with a hand-held cam any more (as it wouldnāt surprise me if they donāt want to juxtapose their beautiful indoor shots with lower quality footage, or if the lighting equipment prevents them from roaming freely indoors). In the old days it was all much of a muchness regardless of what/where they were filming, and that freedom to take the camera anywhere had a huge impact.
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Likewise, I just prefer written content these days.
A critical factor is I can consume it at my own pace.
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Tomās early surreal stuff was amazing. Lately heās grown into a very assured, insightful reviewer, and they do need someone to provide those solid reviews.
My problem with the channel is that 50% of the time theyāre choosing games I have no interest in. If they pick a game I want to know about then the review is never bad, so itās the game more than the style that decides if Iāll watch it.
Definitely miss Ava and Emily. Giving vids to two more freelancers occasionally would really shake things up for the channel.
But also itās 2026. Anyone is doing well to regularly produce anything, and life happens. If itās only Tom and Matt then theyāre doing a good job of keeping up the output.
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Watches the review Oh no
So 3 of you are playing different tricks goals and 1 of you is playing straight-up Hearts?
Oh no I love it. I donāt even like The Crew but I love this.
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It seems like each scenario would/could be different.
But thatās interesting too, yeah? If a scenario presented an interesting challenge, you could simply replay that one scenario.
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I would be wary of the problem I found with The Crew in which the difficulty of a specific task would vary hugely with the cards drawn.
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Iām interested that you draw and THEN choose a role.
So if you get a hand that canāt win anything you choose the role that needs to lose. Seems better, if youāre good enough to know what the hand you were dealt can do.
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This is my first encounter with them:
https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-jaipur/
Sometime in 2017 I decided my collection was stale andā¦ boy weāve been off to the races since then. But yeah in 2017 I was looking for new games and read this.
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Each scenario is different (played about 1-5 with a friendās copy.
Itās good, thematic, but yes we lost a few due to draws. Itās quick enough to replay though
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There is definitely more āyoutuberā-style overcutting in their videos these days, particularly the jump cuts. Thereās also the infrequent but still regular use of extreme zooms/slow-mo/massive text on screen without any real reason to do so - I mostly find these obnoxious.
Edit: Just to make sure I wasnāt kidding myself, I went and picked some videos and counted the number of cuts (not including graphical overlays) in the first 60 seconds. This is because itās Good Friday and Iām putting off the cleaning that I donāt want to do.
Luthier (2026) - 17 cuts
Frosthaven (2023) - 10 cuts
Hansa Teutonica (2021) - 9 cuts
878 Vikings (2018) - 2 cuts
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