Calling all Nerds!

I’ll admit, when Carcassonne was relased on Xbox Live Marketplace back on June 27th, I dismissed it as a game riding on the coattails of Catan. Now, I like Catan, and I’m sure it has a sizeable audience, but when I fire up my 360, it just isn’t the sort of entertainment I’m looking for. Out of boredom over the weekend, I launched the Carcassone demo and was quickly sucked in.

The pace and average game time are far quicker, keeping me interested. The average time I spend playing a single player game is around 20 minutes and the average game times I’ve seen online are about 40 minutes. It’s fantastic being able to drop into a game and play a quick match without having to invest a ton of time. Here’s the gist of it – the game begins with 71 tiles (when not using the built-in expansion pack), and each player taking a turn placing a tile and deciding whether to occupy a portion of that tile with a follower. Although the gameplay is simple, the strategy is deceptively involved. Ultimately, it boils down to balancing your desire to build your own mega-cities and blocking/squatting on your opponents’ efforts. With “The River” expansion pack included and the developers planning on releasing more packs down the line, this game should provide fun for quite some time.

Check it out, and I’ll see you online. Yep, we’ll get together and build some farms and cities, ’cause that’s how we roll.