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Catan on Live, PopCap on Steam
Two interesting bits of news on the casual gaming front today. GI.biz reports that PopCap games has signed a deal with Valve to have their games offered on Steam. The casual Xbox Live Arcade will also be getting some new visitors, though of a much more hard-core variety. Classic German boardgame Settlers of Catan will headline a trio of titles for Microsoft's downloadable games service, Gamespot reports. From that article: "Outpost Kaloki X is about to have some genre company on Xbox Live Arcade, as all three titles will call on strategic thinking from the players. The announced games include the civilization-building Settlers of Catan, the tile-based city-building game Carcassonne, and the Arabian-themed stock-market game Alhambra set to be available through the Xbox."
...now we get to hear "WOOD FOR SHEEP!!" live over the network.
Steam is associated with shooters and action games right now, but there's no reason why it has to stay that way. Its distribution system would be ideal for Popcap, because their games are small enough to download fairly quickly on dialup, and all of the authorizations are stored on the server side. Go over to a friend's place (or work) and download the Steam client, then download the games you've already purchased licenses for. Popcap doesn't have to worry about mailing media out, or people passing installer discs around to their friends, which saves on expenses.
The two services' pricing structures are already rather close. There are several expansions, episodes and mods available for less than a twenty, which is the same general range that Popcap games fall into. Near-instant gratification for a fairly low price is a very good way to separate people from their money.
There have been a variety of open source implementations of Settlers for
a while. Pioneers is my current favorite.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/pio
Being a fan of Catan (dead-tree version), I hope they make something very similar. The PC versions that I have played so far are not as fun as the real thing but I think that is down to 2 things: ... being able to move the theif and push him right into that 6 wheat producing hex ... getting those trades announced with the right tone in your voice.
1. Tactile response
2. Communication
Thankfully I think the xbox 360 version will take care of #2. Though now I cant help but imagine trash-talking catan players which would be a bit odd. Still, adds to the temptation to get an xbox 360.
Warhammer forums
You want to play modern board games online? Go to BrettSpielWelt. Free, online playing of over a hundred boardgames. Not only Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne, but also Caylus, Citadels, Medina, Power Grid, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Ra, San Juan, and many, many, many more. The language to use is English at most of the site. Warning: there are many very strong players there, so prepare for a humiliating defeat at your favorite game.
The good news: There is a version of Settlers of Catan for the computer!
The bad news part 1: It's for Windows only.
The bad news part 2: It requires that you use Internet Explorer to play the online version.
The bad news part 3: You need to create a MS Passport account to play (or have a hotmail account).
The bad news part 4: Playing online requires a subscription of $4.95/month or $19.99/year.
Anyway if you are interested check out at Catan Online.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
BSW really is a great place to play strategy games online. Not only that, it is a good place to try out a game and see if you like it before spending $40 on something awful at the store. The only downside is that it can be a bit intimidating and un-intuitive to someone new to the system. Esp if you don't speak German. However there is a great website for all of us english speakers to help get the feel of the game.
http://englishtown.brettspielwelt.info/
I would also recomend downloading the client and not playing in the browser. It's java based and mulit-platform. Plus if you get the client, the english town website has an english config file for it which translates all of the controls for you. Best of all it is entirely free and litterally filled with players so you can play any time you like.
If you want to play it without having to shell out for a console, there is a open source java version here.
Best way to play it though is of course around a table with some good friends.
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Go to jsettlers.com.
The good news: There is a version of Settlers of Catan for the computer!
The good news 2: It's written for Java 1.1.8 and works for everybody.
The good news 3: It works in any Java-supporting browser.
The good news 4: You don't need any account anywhere to play.
The good news 5: It's completely free.
It also has a decent, if human-hating. AI. Most people will be playing solo against 3 computer opponents, and those that do want to play against humans will often insist on FNT (fast, no-trade) games.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
The gamespot editor seems to care very little about boardgames. You can call Alhambra many things, but it is NOT a stock market game. Its theme is palace building, and the main mechanics are tile placement and set collection. I mean, in which stock market do you try to arrange your 'shares' to build the largest wall?
Oh, and Alhambra is located in Granada, Spain. Sure, it was built by muslims, but it's not what I'd call arabian.