Catching Up: XBLA

I've found quite a few reasons to enjoy and 360 in a more casual manner. It's a great machine for casual gaming, as Microsoft seems to realize, what with their recent announcement of the Xbox 360 Arcade version.

In an effort to catch up, I'll try to quickly summarize the XBLA titles that have caused my point expenditures.

Carcassonne
A very well-executed version of the board game. To date, three expansions are available; The River (included in the base game), The River II, and King and Baron. The console version takes away some of the annoying aspects of the tile game, particularly in the area of scoring. Several game play options are available, which is nice to have.

Puzzle Quest
Wow. It's great that someone can take a game so throughly played-through as Bejeweled and make it so fresh and compelling. By wrapping the base Bejeweled engine in an RPG blanket, it's not only new again, but compelling and captivating.

Catan
Yeah, it's probably because I'm such a big board game slut that I'll always get the XBLA version of any board game, but Catan hold a warm place in my heart and I'm sure I'm not alone. The XBLA version of it is solid, but I'm wondering why it is taking so long for the expansions to come out. Seafarers now!

Others:
Yaris
A free game from Toyota. Generally frustrating and worth ignoring. You get what you pay for.

Upcoming:
Battlestar Galactica
Released tomorrow! I'm a fan of the television show, but this one is definitely try-before-you-buy.

Mutant Storm Empires
I rather enjoyed Mutant Storm Reloaded, so I'm eager to get my hands on the follow-up, which should be out next week, on Halloween day.

Enough of this quick recap - I have to limber up my fingers for the Saturday release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock... the world is about to get louder.

Board Games on the 360

My current hobbies include 360 gaming, Warcraft, and board games.

When I say "board games", I'm talking about the good stuff. Power Grid, Die Macher, BattleLore, Puerto Rico, Railroad Tycoon, Acquire. I'll pass on Monopoly and Clue, thank you very much.

The reason this is relevant is the plans to bring board games to the 360. On the horizon are Carcassonne, The Settlers of Catan, Alhambra, and Talisman.

This is nothing but good news, and gives me all the more reason to keep the 360 fired up.