Post by Gilvan Blight on Jan 29, 2008 15:29:31 GMT -5
Quickly - a great adaptation of the board game
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]The downloadable, xbox live online play enabled version of the classic tile game. Choose between playing solo vs up to 5 computer opponents, playing local with up to 4 players on one Xbox or online against up to 5 real players over xbox live. Decide if you want to play with US or International Rules (In US 2 tile cities are only worth 2 points, and the biggest farm touching a city scores 4 points. In International all cities are worth 2 points a tile and each farm score 3 points per city it touches). Decide if you want to use the river expansion and start you game.
This console version includes all of the tiles of the original game, and meeple in 5 different colours. The optional river expansion is also included and can be used. Additional content and expansions are available for download for a fee. Scores are tracked and you can compare how you did vs friends and the world on the leader boards. You can also unlock achievement gamer points for things like longest rode, big city, and getting a total of 5000 points over all your games.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]A pretty much perfect adaptation of the game. All the tiles are there and all the rules are there including the US and international Variants. The graphics aren't the best but they are more then good enough, plus they added a cool thing where when something scores it becomes 3D, so you get to watch your city walls go up when you complete a city or your rodes get paved. The interface is excellent, and I couldn't have thought of a better way to do it. They included a timer for online play which is a nice touch as some people like to take too long to decide what to do. All in all exactly what I wanted it to be, a great online version of a great game. I expect to spend a lot of time playing this one.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]The Graphics could have used to have been better. The 360 could have made those tiles look real, but then you would probably had to pay full price for the game and not downloaded it. The biggest problem though appears to be finding people to play against. Maybe it was just because we were trying to do 'quick match' games but we spent more time looking for an online game to get into last night then we did playing. Same thing happened when we created a few matches, no one would join. This could be what keeps this from begin a game I play every night at least once.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]Downloadable expansions are cool, downloadable expansions you have to pay for are not. I realize they are cheaper then buying new games, but this isn't a new quality game. The price is still a bit high to me, especially for small expansions like the King and the Robber. Also not all of the expansions are there. I would happily pay for the Inn and Cathedral expansion as I love the Builder piece, I'm less likely to want to pay for The River II. Would be really cool if you could somehow prove you own an expansion IRL and get to use it In game.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]A great version of a board game classic. I love the fact that I can pick up a controller and play Carcassonne any time I like now. Even cooler is that I can play it online. Not so cool, is the fact that not too many people seem to be online playing so it may take some time to find a game. In general I strongly suggest this to any fan of the boardgame, I suggest it to any boardgamer in general and I suggest that anyone else at least download the trial version and give it a try, you may like it. I personally will get a lot of use out of this download, look me up sometime for a game, gamertag Gilvan Blight (of course).
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]The downloadable, xbox live online play enabled version of the classic tile game. Choose between playing solo vs up to 5 computer opponents, playing local with up to 4 players on one Xbox or online against up to 5 real players over xbox live. Decide if you want to play with US or International Rules (In US 2 tile cities are only worth 2 points, and the biggest farm touching a city scores 4 points. In International all cities are worth 2 points a tile and each farm score 3 points per city it touches). Decide if you want to use the river expansion and start you game.
This console version includes all of the tiles of the original game, and meeple in 5 different colours. The optional river expansion is also included and can be used. Additional content and expansions are available for download for a fee. Scores are tracked and you can compare how you did vs friends and the world on the leader boards. You can also unlock achievement gamer points for things like longest rode, big city, and getting a total of 5000 points over all your games.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]A pretty much perfect adaptation of the game. All the tiles are there and all the rules are there including the US and international Variants. The graphics aren't the best but they are more then good enough, plus they added a cool thing where when something scores it becomes 3D, so you get to watch your city walls go up when you complete a city or your rodes get paved. The interface is excellent, and I couldn't have thought of a better way to do it. They included a timer for online play which is a nice touch as some people like to take too long to decide what to do. All in all exactly what I wanted it to be, a great online version of a great game. I expect to spend a lot of time playing this one.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]The Graphics could have used to have been better. The 360 could have made those tiles look real, but then you would probably had to pay full price for the game and not downloaded it. The biggest problem though appears to be finding people to play against. Maybe it was just because we were trying to do 'quick match' games but we spent more time looking for an online game to get into last night then we did playing. Same thing happened when we created a few matches, no one would join. This could be what keeps this from begin a game I play every night at least once.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow]Downloadable expansions are cool, downloadable expansions you have to pay for are not. I realize they are cheaper then buying new games, but this isn't a new quality game. The price is still a bit high to me, especially for small expansions like the King and the Robber. Also not all of the expansions are there. I would happily pay for the Inn and Cathedral expansion as I love the Builder piece, I'm less likely to want to pay for The River II. Would be really cool if you could somehow prove you own an expansion IRL and get to use it In game.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]A great version of a board game classic. I love the fact that I can pick up a controller and play Carcassonne any time I like now. Even cooler is that I can play it online. Not so cool, is the fact that not too many people seem to be online playing so it may take some time to find a game. In general I strongly suggest this to any fan of the boardgame, I suggest it to any boardgamer in general and I suggest that anyone else at least download the trial version and give it a try, you may like it. I personally will get a lot of use out of this download, look me up sometime for a game, gamertag Gilvan Blight (of course).