One word that I caught myself saying often while re-watching this and taking notes for the game links below is "simple". I praise games for simplicity a lot in this video, and what I mean by that term is that the rules don't get in the way of the game.
When you're learning a game, sure, you'll probably have to look up the details of where cards go or when the timing of something takes place, but ideally from the second game on you can immerse yourself in the playing of it without having to think about the rules for playing it. This threshold will differ for different players, and obviously some people are fine looking up rule details, but I've found that I prefer games with as few moving parts as possible so that I can focus on what I'm doing with them rather than what they are and where they belong.
Whenever I see a game presentation with a thousand bits on the table, I pretty much strike that title from consideration as I feel the time spent learning it will never pay off for the amount of time that I'll play it. Maybe I'm being too harsh, but given the number of games hitting the market, I suppose it's a defense measure as much as anything else — eliminating games from consideration in order to avoid being drowned in possibilities, and yet the number of games that I want to play is still unreasonable for anyone who doesn't have six or seven copies of themself.
In any case, here's a wrap-up of sorts for 2018, and soon we'll start diving into what's coming in 2019!
Here's a full list of the titles covered, along with links to complete overview videos that I recorded in 2018:
1:48 - Innovation
5:10 - Reef (overview video)
6:23 - Just One (overview video)
7:05 - Paco Ŝako (overview video)
7:40 - Blue Lagoon (overview video)
8:42 - Stonehenge and the Sun (overview video)
9:40 - Fool!
10:53 - Big Shot
13:10 - Handelsfürsten/Merchants
15:10 - Tic Tac Moo
15:57 - Rukuni
17:06 - Verona Twist
18:00 - Fine Sand
19:30 - Belratti
21:10 - Blöde Kuh/Silly Cow
22:45 - Cat Rescue
23:40 - PUSH
24:33 - Würfelland
25:56 - Micropolis
27:13 - Yokai Septet
28:28 - Come On! Bite Me! (no BGG listing yet)
28:50 - Patisserie Trickcake
29:19 - The Game: Extreme
30:05 - The Mind