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Here we are with something Xbox Live Arcade has been needing more of. Catan is a board game of European descent, with up to four players striving to control the resources of this randomly generated island. It's formed of tiles standing for the five possible resources. Each one is assigned a number. If the number on the tile comes up and you have a settlement on one of its six possible corners, you earn that resource card, which can be spent on roads, more settlements, a city upgrade, or development cards. Settlements, city upgrades, and a certain development card all give you one point (longest road and largest army give you two). Get ten points first, and you win. Simple? Yeah, that's what the fans of the original told me to lure me into a game, and before I knew it I was dead last with my roads blocked and my hand empty.
Online, Catan becomes a social event, chatting with friends, or just friendly strangers, for the hour the average game runs.
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Catan is a game without violence. Even the soldier cards are only used to kick around the robber, who steals resources and prevents more from coming up. It's about gathering those resources you need to earn points, whether through claiming spots on the board, trading with other players, dumping them in the port, or plain theft. The AI of the single player is complex enough to be mistaken for a real person, and more than capable of being an utter bastard on hard. Though even with trade skip, it still leaves you waiting for your turn in silence. Online, Catan becomes a social event, chatting with friends, or just friendly strangers, for the hour the average game runs. There's a number of customization options to speed up the experience, or make it a bit more fair to those who don't have a dozen wins under their belts. While a bit too complex for young children, it's great game for anyone with a brain, from girlfriends to grandparents.
The networking code wasn't so hot when the game first launched, but there's already been a patch. So now it's rare that I get any sort of connection issue to interfere with the fun, though the whole network interface is still a little clumsy. It also feels a bit sparse overall for its 800 point price tag, lacking the expansions popular in the board game original, though I have a feeling they'll be showing up as downloadable content.
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