Carcassonne for Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a clever tile-laying game based on the very successful board game by Klaus-Juergen Wrede, published in 2000 by “Hans im Glueck” in German and “Rio Grande” in English. The board game won multiple awards including German “Game of the Year”. This prestigious award was created in 1978 to reward excellence in game design, and to promote top-quality games.
Carcassonne got its name from the southern French city of Carcassonne. The city is famous for it’s unique Roman and Medieval fortifications.
The game let’s players develop land and deploy their followers on roads as thieves, in cities as knights, in cloisters as monks and in the field as farmers. Players score points when cities, roads and cloisters are complete. The skill of the players to develop the area will determine who wins.
The Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) version costs the equivalent of $10. A free demo is available, however only the full version offers online and offline Multiplayer gaming and customizable rules. The game also includes the “River Expansion” Set.
We highly recommend this game to all families with children ages 8-10 and older. The free Xbox Live Arcade Demo is a great way to check out the game for those new to Carcassonne. We tend to prefer the board game for family entertainment. But the Xbox Live Version has the advantage of providing computer controlled opponents if no friends or family members are available to play – plus you can’t lose any pieces…
Don’t forget to check out the board game to video game conversion of Catan for the Xbox360.
on July 4th, 2007 at 8:25 pm
I just played this with my 8 year old daughter tonight. What a fun game! We were able to play it together, sitting side by side on the couch, each with our own controller. We had a lot of fun - and my daughter really enjoyed this game. Which made me happy, because it makes you think and learn the rules. I unlocked the full version right away. Thanks for telling me about this game!
on October 3rd, 2007 at 6:29 pm
The new expansion set “Carcassonne: King and Baron” available via Xbox Live Download, adds 7 new tiles to the game. A King and Robber tile add a new level of strategy to this brilliant game.
on November 13th, 2007 at 11:13 am
[…] members can download Carcassonne between 12:01 a.m. PST on Nov. 15 and 11:59 p.m. PST on Nov. 16. Members who have joined the […]