Way back in February, Microsoft announced a handful of Xbox Windows Phone games. Only two of those games have yet to be released: Pinball FX2 and Carcassonne. The Windows Phone version of Pinball FX2 still needs more development time, but the good news is Carcassonne has gone gold at last. It even has an official release date: Wednesday, October 24.
Carcassonne (named after a medieval French town) is a real-life board game in which players take turns placing land tiles, trying to build a city and score the most points. There is a great variety of land tiles, allowing you to construct differently shaped roads, rivers, and more. The Windows Phone game includes an expansion called ‘The River II’ that adds extra tiles which can be used to create a large river. Will other expansions be available as PDLC? We’ll try to find out.
Each player also gets seven human followers (they can be knights, monks, thieves, or farmers) to place. The game ends when the last tile has been placed – whoever’s score adds up the highest wins.
Carcassonne might sound a little complicated – it’s actually tough to describe since I haven’t played in a while – but trust me, it’s a cinch to learn and play, especially with a videogame handling the scoring. An in-game tutorial makes the game even easier to get into.
Board games can be fun on their own (see Zombies!!!) but they’re a lot more fun with other players. Thankfully this version of Carcassonne brings both local and online multiplayer to the table. Multiplayer even has matchmaking, so it shouldn’t be too tough to find a game.
Carcassonne comes to Windows Phone from German developer Exozet, who previously created the Android and Blackberry versions of the game. It’ll be out in two weeks on the 24th, so mark your calendars, board game fans. You can also find more screens at PlayXBLA. If you don’t feel like waiting, there’s always the excellent XBLA version to tide you over till then. Get it at Xbox.com for 800 MS Points ($10).
Thanks to Zebrasqual for the tip.
