How's this for "behind the times", I'm recommending a game from 2000!
Anyway, Lord of the Rings is basically the best boardgame EVER.
The cool 'gimmick' about it is that it is *cooperative* - all the players playing together are on the same side (the Hobbits, actually). If you lose, everyone loses. If you win, everyone wins. No players are trying to beat each other, or compete for some goal, or otherwise cut each other out of the game. Your team has the best odds of success when everyone is working together as hard as possible.
The production values for the game are also something to behold. Very nice art, the board mounting is excellent, box is sturdy, everything is easy to put away in the parts tray (each thing has its own place), etc.
The gameplay is pretty easy to pick up, but has a lot of depth to it. Basically, the "overall game" is played from a small board up top. It has two 'tracks' on it - one with a series of scenarios that need to be played to finish (starting at Bag End, through Rivendell, Moria, Lothlorien, etc to Mount Doom), and the other track is where the hobbit pieces go (in the leftmost box) as well as the Sauron piece (rightmost box, position 15). This is the "corruption" track, and as the game is played, Sauron moves closer to the hobbits through various events, and the hobbits move closer to Sauron by other events (or using the ring). Once a hobbit is beyond the Sauron piece on the corruption track, they are out (but still win with everyone else if the ring is destroyed). If the hobbit carrying the ring is corrupted by Sauron, the game is over and everyone loses. (A harder variant of the game has it that if any hobbit falls to corruption, the game is also over - this is how my wife and I play - no fun in going on without the other, in our opinions)
Anyway, for a lot of the scenarios there is a seperate scenario board that is include and played. These have 4 or 5 tracks that counters are moved on. This is where the real "meat" of the game is. A stack of (randomly shuffled) tiles determines what event happens next (which track a marker advances on, or what game event happens, or what happens with Sauron or the ringbearer). It's up to the players, with their hands of cards, to try and get through the 'main track' on each scenario. The cards in your hand are played to advance you on the various tracks - or, may be called for by some event to prevent something awful from happening (for example "Watcher in the Water" on the Moria scenario requires each player to give up at least one "hiding" card or face corruption).
Along the way in the side tracks, each player can also pick up 'life tokens' (three types) that are needed to prevent the player's hobbit from being corrupted on the corruption track when the scenario ends (for each token missing, your hobbit is corrupted one level). Also, shields can be picked up. These are also called for in some events ("Faces of the Dead" on the Shelob's Lair map requires 3 shield tokens or a wildcard from the hand, or the player is lost), or can be used to summon Gandalf, who has several cards that can be played for good things!
Anyway, I'm blathering. This game is the most fun that can be had with clothes on. Check out the link above (or read below). The game is just incredible - my wife loves it, I love it, it's awesome. Good for families, it fits well in with the "Lord of the Rings" universe, and is just a hoot to play: