Build Castles this Wednesday: Carcassonne on 6/27/2007
Well, many wanted it last week but we had to "settle" for Band of Bugs. Fortunately for all you European board game lovers out there Carcassonne is coming this week (I hacked that link just for our readers here). Luckily it won't take generations of slave labor to get your castles, towns, and roads built in this game so the only guilt you might be feeling while playing will be of the pleasure variety.
As for key features, my eyes fall squarely on the up to 5 players over Live and 4 players locally (sounds like developers are finally getting the message about local play). With options like that, you're bound to get it. Resistance is feudal. (The person responsible for the previous joke has just been sacked.)
Press Release after the break.
[via Press Release]
Build a Medieval Empire on Xbox LIVE Arcade with the Popular German Board Game "Carcassonne"
The classic, well-known European board game "Carcassonne" arrives on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, June 27 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. Pacific).
Named after the medieval fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France, famed for its city walls, "Carcassonne" for Xbox LIVE Arcade starts with an empty landscape and a single square tile. Using strategic tactics and a little luck, one to five four players take turns selecting from 72 tiles displaying various features of a city including roads, the walls of a castle or fields. The medieval countryside thrives as players and their opponents place tiles and complete towns, roads, and farms while competing to accumulate the most points.
The rules of the game are easy with no elimination and fast gameplay – perfect for just about anyone! Although simple, devoted players will find layers of strategy that will keep them coming back for more. Combining a fresh visual experience and the opportunity to always have a playing partner, "Carcassonne" is the future for board game fanatics.
"Carcassonne" from Sierra Online is the Xbox LIVE Arcade edition of the hit multiplayer tile-based German board game of the same name, designed by Klaus-Jurgen. Shortly after its release in Germany in 2000, the board game won Spiel des Jahres in 2001, the European equivalent of a Game of the Year Award.
"Carcassonne" will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone.
Game Features
- Special AI settings to challenge any skill level
- Challenge your friends – Up to five players can play over Xbox LIVE or up to four players can play on the same Xbox 360
- Interact with new and old friends alike over Xbox LIVE while you play "Carcassonne" with the Xbox LIVE Vision camera
- Helpful step-by-step tutorial to teach you the game in minutes
- Skill-based matchmaking for ranked games
- The complete "Carcassonne" includes 72 tiles and all rule sets
- "Carcassonne" includes the "Rivers II" expansion set - 12 additional tiles
- Earn up to 200 Gamerscore and 12 Achievements
Comments
Measure76
23717
With Catan, you couldn't really do local multiplayer as resource cards are hidden, though an astute player can keep track of everything if he can count cards. But you also have hidden bonus cards in that game.
With Carcassonne, local multiplayer is easier, but actually slows the game down a bit, as in real life the rules encourage you to draw a tile immediately after your turn, so you can do more planning while others are playing, and not take up a ton of time on your own turn.
But for me the problem is that I already own a Carcassonne game, but rarely have a chance to play it. So I will be buying this to play online. hopefully I turn out to be better at this than I seem to be at Catan.
LunarDuality
36370
I realize the difficulty with games like UNO or Catan with the card holding.(Maybe one day they'll offer an LCD controller for those situations? I've seen a "Just-plug-into-the-TV" Poker game that does this.)
But I would settle for a "look away player one" kind of gameplay mode. It might be weird...but at least I'd have the option. That would work better in UNO than Catan thought since trading is integral to the game and works faster and better if both players can look at their cards at the same time.
Kornicos
15146
Catan, Band of Bugs and Carcassonne are three games that are not quite for me. I'm suprised they are being released so close together as they are more likely to have the same audience. Hows about a bit more variety on XBLA from week to week. Still, we should have some Lumines and Mad Tracks content tomorrow, so all is good.
Measure76
23717
Lunar says "Maybe one day they'll offer an LCD controller for those situations?"
Please... let the Dreamcast rest in peace.