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Ticket to Ride choo-choos onto Android
Rail baron board game Ticket to Ride is ready to pick up players on Android tablets. Along with the standard solo passenger play, Android users can also compete against players who own versions on Steam, Mac, iPad or are playing through publisher Days of Wonder's online portal. Beyond the standard USA map, In-app purchasing is also available for the Asia, Europe, Switzerland and USA 1910 maps. Check the PR after the break for compatibility with your Android device. The ticket to ride on Android will cost $6.99.
'Legendary Asia' DLC map available for Ticket to Ride iPad, Steam
Ticket to Ride's "Legendary Asia" map – first introduced December 2011 in cardboard form – is available now in the game's virtual environment on iPad and Steam (PC and Mac), as well as the browser-based version.The expansion is available as an in-game purchase for $3.99/€2.99. Ticket to Ride is also currently on sale through Steam at half-off for $4.99. So, come on ride the train and ride it. Sorry, you knew we'd have to use it eventually.%Gallery-161642%
Ticket to Ride Pocket adds tracks to 1910 Expansion
Ticket to Ride Pocket keeps chugging along, adding the first paid expansion with Ticket to Ride Pocket: 1910. The $1 extension is based off the expansion for the board game (which is way more expensive), featuring three new modes and 35 new destinations.The three new modes include: 1910 Classic, where there's no bonus for longest route, but for completing the most tickets. 1910 Mega has players receiving five routes -- instead of three -- and there are 69 destination tickets total, instead of 35. Finally, 1910 Cities only includes major city tickets, which means players need to grab the best routes as quickly as possible and can't focus on their "section of the country" like in the normal game.The 1910 expansion comes shortly after the core $2 Ticket to Ride Pocket app, which was already a great port of the board game experience, received asynchronous play and had reached 350,000 sales earlier this month.%Gallery-148252%
Ticket to Ride Pocket adds asynchronous multiplayer
The pocket version of Ticket to Ride by Days of Wonder is among the best board game adaptations for the iPhone, and it's just gotten better with asynchronous multiplayer support. Now you can start a game with friends through Game Center, and take turns back and forth across the Internet. The experience is similar to popular multiplayer games like Words with Friends and Hero Academy. This free update also expands the game's local multiplayer mode, so that users on the same Bluetooth or Wi-Fi network can play across devices. Ticket to Ride for the iPhone and iPod touch is available for US$1.99 in the App Store, while the iPad version is priced at $6.99. Days of Wonder notes that Ticket to Ride has been extremely popular. It has sold over 350,000 copies, and a new online game is begun every four seconds on average. The game is definitely excellent, and the success is well-deserved.
Ticket to Ride Pocket updates, adds asynchronous mode
Ticket to Ride Pocket has added a major update to the train baron simulator, allowing for asynchronous gameplay. Track-layers can now conduct up to four games at once using the new multiplayer mode. The game also now permits play across iPhones, iPod Touch and iPads in local mode across Bluetooth, WiFi and telegraph wire."This is the update Ticket to Ride players have been clamoring for since we released Ticket to Ride Pocket," said Days of Wonder founder and CEO Eric Hautemont.The company also shared that sales of Ticket to Ride on iOS have reached 350,000, with over 27.6 million games played and a new one starting every four seconds. We were pretty impressed by the faithful translation of the board game when we played the $2 app over the holidays, which is also available in more expensive forms on iPad and XBLA.
Portabliss: Ticket to Ride Pocket (iOS)
Did you know that you can download handheld games now? That's amazingly convenient! The only inconvenient part of it is finding the right games to buy -- and that's where we come in, with our Portabliss column. In each installment, we'll tell you about a downloadable game on the iPhone, iPad, Android device, DSi, 3DS, PSP, etc. Today: Ticket to Ride Pocket. Ticket to Ride Pocket for iPhone is the smallest way to play the award-winning Ticket to Ride board game without concern for dozens of little pieces getting lost. Publisher Days of Wonder did an impressive job making sure the quality of the original game and interface for this $1.99 App Store title lived up to the $50 boxed version.Pocket's gameplay involves players laying track across the US to finish assigned destination cards. Routes can be as short as Toronto to Winnipeg, or transcontinental like New York to Los Angeles. The game is easy to understand and there's a detailed play-as-you-go tutorial the first time starting the game (and it is repeatable). Players draw colored cards to complete corresponding sections of rail toward the goal of finishing routes, with the player who creates the longest continuous rail scoring bonus points at the end.
Ticket to Ride Pocket for iPhone pulls into App Store
Ticket to Ride Pocket, the iPhone and iPod Touch version of the hit board game, is available now on the App Store for $0.99. The title supports solo play, local pass-and-play and local Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. Developer Days of Wonder has been upfront about what's missing from the iPhone version: online is out (because things like phone calls would break the experience, it says) and the level of detail and extra pieces on the Europe and Swiss map expansions don't lend themselves to the size of mobile screens. The iPad version of Ticket to Ride has been available for a little while for $6.99. There's also the XBLA version for 800 MSP ($10), and the Europe and USA maps available as DLC. Days of Wonder's adaptations have been incredibly faithful to the game, with the added value of not worrying about all those pesky pieces getting lost.
Ticket to Ride lays track on the iPad
The emergence of digital distribution has been a wonderful thing for the tabletop gaming crowd. You can play Catan on your Xbox; Risk on your PC or iOS device. Now, Ticket to Ride is available on the iPad. In Ticket to Ride, players pull colored train cards, hoping to complete any number of designated train routes on a large game board -- the United States and Europe are among the most well-known maps. The $6.99 iPad app (developed by Days of Wonder) looks to offer the full experience: You can play online; there's full Game Center support; and optional Europe, Switzerland and USA 1910 maps, available for $.99 each during this special launch week window, can be downloaded in-game.%Gallery-124061%
Review: Gorgeous Small World app shows board games can be great on the iPad
Considering how good Small World (US$4.99) – the first big Euro board game of the iPad era – is, fans of these sorts of games are in for a really wonderful ride. While this app isn't perfect, we're here to tell you that it's well worth your time. Maybe you've seen Apple pushing this game in the App Store, with the motley crew pictured above staring out at you from the flash screen. Without a familiarity with the physical board game, though, it's kind of hard to know what to make of it. Here's what's going on: Underneath the pretty fantasy graphics, Small World is a clever area control game, an almost completely luck-free strategy game that gives players a lot of great in-game choices. Each turn, you have a small number of tokens representing one of about a dozen tribes (trolls, halflings, tritons, etc.) that all have a random bonus power (one of twenty) attached. You send these little minions out to take over some territory and score points based on where you are at the end of your turn. Spread yourself too thin and you won't have much to do next turn. Stay too bunched up and you won't score enough points to win. In short, the game is brilliant if you're looking for something a little more strategic than Risk and don't need a twitchy tapping experience to have fun. Read on to find out all just how big Small World can be. %Gallery-92357%
Tons of iPad app releases on the App Store now
Embargoes on every app in the iPad's app store broke this morning, and there's almost too many new iPad apps to write about. But worry not, dear readers -- we've sifted through the flood of press releases in the inbox this morning, and we're here to bring you the brightest and best iPad app news we've heard so far. Board game maker Days of Wonder is releasing Small World, a virtual board game for the iPad, for just US$5. Telltale Games craftily dodged telling us about any development for the iPhone or the iPad at Macworld this year, but they've gone ahead and released the latest episode of Sam and Max on the platform anyway, as a $10 app. SugarSync has released a version of their remote data sharing app for free on the iPad. Diner Dash has gone "HD" with Diner Dash: Grilling Green, a new $5 version of the game "designed from the ground up exclusively for the iPad." See Here Studios has a 3D storybook called The Wrong Side of the Bed available for $2.99. You'll need red/cyan glasses, but you can actually order them (with free shipping in the US) inside the app itself. Chillingo has launched a lineup of fourteen different apps (which is probably the most we've seen from any single company so far) including Cogs HD, Minigore HD, and Sword of Fargoal Legends. Impressive launch lineup. Zen Bound 2 has finally arrived as an iPad app -- it features those revamped graphics for $7.99 on the new device. Freeverse has four different apps running, including Flick Fishing HD and their new game CastleCraft, a freemium MMO. Smule has released Magic Piano, a virtual piano/game/musical experience that's launching for $2.99. Lots (and we mean lots) more iPad app releases after the break. What a launch lineup this thing has!
Ticket to Ride vs. Ticket to Ride vs. Ticket to Ride
Alan R. Moon's Ticket to Ride has only been out for four years, but it has picked up several prestigious board gaming awards, and is quickly becoming a popular "haul it out of the closet and get yer game on" addition to game night. Last week, the Xbox Live Arcade version was released, joining Catan, Carcassonne, and Lost Cities as games that have breached the digital divide. But how does it stack up against the freebie Java version, and the board game itself? Read on, ticket holders, and find out.%Gallery-26538%
X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Happy Tree Friends and Ticket to Ride
This week, XBLA in Brief takes on Happy Tree Friends and Ticket to Ride. One of them is a pretty good board game about building railroads. The other one is a weird game that doesn't really seem to take advantage of the cartoon upon which it's based. We'll let you figure out which one is which. [iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly (Zune Marketplace link coming soon). [RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly.
