I played Mundus Novus last night, a game that is certainly not on any current Hotness list, but nonetheless a very nice little card game from 2011 by the guys who made Shadows Over Camelot.
At it's core, it's a rather traditional game of playing sets of identical numbered cards, or sets of different numbered cards - the cards are themed to typical Age of Discovery/exploitation goods like coffee beans, corn, vanilla, etc. (the art is nice, at least!) You are dealt a hand of these, and then trade with other players in a very smooth, drafting-like manner of trading. There is, to some extent, an element of bluffing and mind gaming that goes on during this trade.
After the trade, you can play your hand for points, or perhaps play them to build developments that will start permanantly expanding your tactical possibilities - warehouses to save unused cards between rounds, ships to get dealt more cards each round, merchants who can change the value of cards, and historical figures with some very neat powers. You start to get more control over your hand and can go for higher scoring possibilities, which means you also have to keep pace with the other players in your developments, as the game ramps up in point-earning as it goes along.
It's a very surprising amount of game in a small box, and yet also much more accessible than games I feel are a little bit similar (Tichu, Haggis, Race for the Galaxy)
