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Carcassonne for iOS getting Traders and Builders expansion, Lost Cities on sale
TheCodingMonkeys' Carcassonne is one of the most popular board game adaptations on the App Store. The company has carefully recreated the German classic with care and love. Two expansions have been released, The River and Inns and Cathedrals, and now TheCodingMonkeys have another ready to go, pending Apple's review. The Traders and Builders expansion will add trade goods to the game, which reward players who complete a building, even if someone else has started it. Also, special pig and builder followers will provide additional bonuses to completed structures. The Traders and Builders expansion will be available as an in-app purchase for US$1.99. While we're waiting for approval on that one (which should be quick -- Apple's app review times are dropping in advance of the holiday rush), TheCodingMonkeys has placed their other big board game adaptation, Lost Cities, on sale for just $1.99. It's not quite as great a game as Carcassonne (which is still priced up at $9.99), but still enjoyable, more than good for a few rounds of entertainment against the AI or another player. The company says it's only on sale until the expansion is released, so grab it quick if you want it at that price.
Daily iPhone App: Lost Cities is a great port of a popular card game
Lost Cities is one of Reiner Knizia's award-winning board games that recently made its way over to iOS, and I think it's great. The game is simple and easy to play, but it shows off quite a bit of complexity among just a few elements. The biggest complaints I have are that the tutorial can be confusing and there's no iPad version yet, unfortunately. But Lost Cities is an excellent strategy title good for quite a few matches of play. The core game here is a card game. You deal cards of various colors and numbers out of a stack, and then place those cards in certain colored lanes or in a discard pile. Playing cards in lanes gets you points. Each lane starts at negative 20 points, so the player needs to try and put as many cards in a certain lane to make their score positive and higher than the other player. The trick, however, is that you can only put cards in lanes in ascending order. Placing down a card worth the max of 10 points will earn you those 10 points, but it will also block off adding any other cards to that lane. Presentation is excellent: the graphics are clear, there's an excellent soundtrack and a variety of AI players to face off against. The Coding Monkeys, who also made the excellent version of Carcassone for iOS, have added "goals" to earn as you play, which offer extra incentive for replay value. Lost Cities is available for $3.99. It's a little steep as these games go, but if you like well-designed card and board games, it's worth skipping that cup of coffee to buy.
Review: Keltis Oracle is a great, light strategic board game for iPad, iPhone
Keltis is a relatively new marquee family of board games – in Europe, at least – with a somewhat meandering history. The series started as the Lost Cities card game, which evolved into the original board game in the series, Keltis. That game won the Spiel des Jahres, Germany's highest board game honor, in 2008. Since then, there have been two expansions: a card game version (different from the original Lost Cities card game) and, most recently, a new board game called Keltis Oracle. U.S. board gamers will most likely recognize the Keltis games in the similar Lost Cities: The Board Game. Are you wondering why the European version of the game made it into your iDevice? Because the developers in Tribeflame are based in Finland. In any case, the universal app (US$4.99) that's now available on the iPad and iPhone (and iPod touch) is the latest Keltis game. Is it the greatest? To some, maybe. It's certainly the most player-friendly of the batch, and it looks good on the iPad screen. The game works, but as you can see in the galleries below, it's crowded when packed into the iPhone's 480 x 320 pixel screen. Read on to see what the Oracle can do for you. %Gallery-92858% %Gallery-92913%
Lost Cities disappearance explained
We reported earlier this month that Lost Cities had mysteriously disappeared from Xbox Live Arcade as recently as early March. We surmised at the time that the rights to the game could have been transferred to Activision during the merger with Vivendi (then parent of developer Sierra). As it turns out, according to Official Xbox Magazine (via GamerBytes), the Lost Cities license reverted back to the original licensor after the merger. Without the license to the Lost Cities brand, Activision can no longer sell it. So, that's it.Incidentally, if you downloaded the trial version of Lost Cities before, you can still re-download it via your download history. The full version is inaccessible though, so you'll have to find someone who already has it if you want to play. Or you could always just pick up the card game and play it face-to-face if you think you can handle that kind of intensity.
Lost Cities no longer found on XBLA
We've confirmed with Major Nelson that the now-aptly named Lost Cities has disappeared from Xbox Live Arcade. Apparently, not too many folks were actually looking for the game, as our inbox holds an overlooked tip about its missingness dating back to March 4th.The game was published by Sierra last summer, but we presume that those rights transferred over to Activision Blizzard in "The Merger." Microsoft currently has no further details on why the game was pulled, though Major Nelson remarks that it's only the second game to be pulled from the service (the first being Yaris). In case you were wondering, this has nothing to do with poorly performing XBLA titles being delisted from XBLA, that program hasn't yet been implemented -- and likely never will.[Thanks Josh and Jeremy]
Joystiq impressions: Assorted Sierra XBLA games
Sierra recently showed off its upcoming crop of XBLA games at a media event. While a couple have promise, most could be buried by the quantity or quality of competitors. All are confirmed only for XBLA, but Sierra is considering PSN versions of most. All will be out this Summer.
X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Lost Cities
This week on XBLA in Brief, we check out Lost Cities. For a game about exciting adventures and expeditions, it sure plays an awful lot like solitaire. Competitive solitaire. And guess what: it's actually really, really fun. Who knew? Check out the video above and learn why card and board game fans should definitely try Lost Cities.[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.
Lost Cities now found on XBLA
Another Wednesday, another Xbox Live Arcade release. This week brings us Lost Cities, a game that combines all the excitement of archaeology with the thrills of solitaire. No, seriously, it's actually really fun. It's so fun, in fact, that we've been playing the trial version over and over again this morning instead of writing this post. Apart from the archaeology / solitaire thing, the game somewhat defies description. Competitive solitaire, perhaps? Whatever you want to call it, board and card game nuts should definitely give it a go. The complete game is 800 MS bucks if you are so inclined.%Gallery-21106%
This Wednesday: Lost Cities found on XBLA
Lost Cities will continue in the proud tradition of XBLA games born of German card or board games when it arrives on the service this Wednesday. The card game, designed by Reiner Knizia, pits two players against eachother as they try to mount the most profitable expedition to the the titular lost cities.You can try your hand at venturing to the Lost Cities for 800 points ($10). For the benefit of those of us on the fence: Have any of you played the game in real life? What did you think? %Gallery-19079%
Lost Cities is set to deal onto the XBLA
Microsoft just announced that the adventure card game Lost Cities will be making its way to the Xbox Live Arcade for 800 Microsoft points this Wednesday, April 23rd. Lost Cities is an original card strategy game where players travel through exotic locations to outwit, outlast and outplay (sounds like an episode of Survivor) their opponents to card victory. More information available on Xbox.com and hidden deep within' the screenshots we carefully placed in the gallery below.%Gallery-21106%
Lost Cities being discovered this spring on XBLA
Lost Cities, another German board/card game translation, will soon be ready for discovery on Xbox Live. The game will cost 800 MS points ($10) when it starts its online expedition this spring. Lost Cities is a card game where players attempt to score points through exploring one of five exotic locals and is designed for two players. Although the game did not win Germany's prestigious Spiel Des Jahres, it did win an award from the International Gamers Association. Always nice to see more civilized non twitch gaming experiences available on XBLA.%Gallery-19079%
ESRB reveals 3 new XBLA games
With their usual knack, the ESRB has recently released the ratings for three XBLA games that we had never heard of. The games are Battlezone, Warlords, and Lost Cities. Battlezone is an old but popular arcade game with vector 3D graphics and a first-person perspective. It was later ported to computer, where the game was incredibly different, and which is the version that Live Arcade is likely to see. Warlords is another game that shares both an arcade and computer release, only the XBLA release is likely to be the arcade version. Lost Cities on the other hand, is completely different from the other two. Lost Cities was originally a two player card game revolving around doing, (what else?) exploring lost cities. While it's always great to see new games on XBLA, these three games aren't exactly new, as all of them existed in some form or another, and it does make one wonder what will happen to original XBLA titles if if games like these can prove to be money-makers ....
