Well, I bought it and I played 3 games of this afternoon.Basically...it's Lost Cities on the Xbox 360. How's that for detail? Of the boardgames that are currently on XBL: Catan, Carcassonne, and Lost Cities, this is my least favorite although I do like it -- LC is more of a "filler" game. A game meant for quick plays when you have 20 minutes to kill. It's nowhere Catan level -- which is one of the seminal boardgames. This is much more casual.
The rules are right out of the card game. My beef with it is that the AI is pretty loopy and I beat the "hard" level 2 of 3 games and the reason I lost the other was pure luck of the draw.
I see that the AI likes to play expedition cards and then throw a 7 (or higher) on them to start, which is pretty ridiculous if you know how to play Lost Cities. My first game on "Medium" had the AI end up with a score of -87. That's bad.
What will make or break the game (which runs 800 points) is the multiplayer and Todd and I as well as Baroo will put it through its paces soon enough.
Todd?
Anyway, I love seeing these "gateway" games make it to XBL, but I think it's time to open things up a bit. Enough of the tile laying Carcassonnes and the Knizia card games. So many BG's would translate beautifully to the 360 --.of course next on the docket is another family/gateway game, Ticket To Ride. I guess that makes sense due to its popularity. I'd never bring TTR to the table unless playing with complete boardgame novices, though.
Still, gimme some XBL Citadels or XBL BattleLore or even XBL Shogun! That would actually be super sweet. Of course you'd have to put a timer on it when people are making province decisions. One thing about Todd -- fastest Shogun player -- EVER.
