Mik Svellov (of brilliant Brett’n’Board) announced the Austrian Spiel des Spiele awards for this year. There’s a list of award winners either at his SDS page or my GeekList.
While I don’t really care about the award (it has very short history and none of the effect of Spiel des Jahres awards), there’s something quite worth mentioning. In addition of the one winner (which was Knizia’s Einfach Genial), they hand out recommendations. This year they note the best games in following categories: for experts, for friends, for families, for children, for large groups of people and for two players. Those picks contain some good games.
As you might guess, I strongly agree with recommending St. Petersburg for experts. I also consider San Juan to be an interesting choice for a two-player game recommendation. And yeah, Cranium is a good game for lots of people.
So, while the main award means little to me, I’ll continue to keep my eyes open for the side recommendations.