Where is my MTG, Wizards?

Played this a few weeks ago on PartnerNet. It seemed ok, but it wasn't quite my cup of tea. The strategy didn't seem all that deep, but then again maybe I didn't play it enough to get all the nuance.

@Komrade_Kayce: Wizards is more than happy to do their own thing with Magic (which happens to be a handfull anyway). Besides, the infrastructure doesn't exist on LIVE to really deal with booster packs.

@Agies:

I'd still pay and play if they only sold new cards in whole chunks.

Like, buy 9th ed for 12,000 points, add all 9th ed cards to game.

At least now we'll have a new card game to play while watching our opponents rub their man parts in front of their cameras. Uno may actually be tolerable if they all migrate to this game.

Can anyone else attest to the fun-factor of this game? I've seen on every game site "huzzah this game is coming out that you've never heard of" without any real explanation of why it's fun...

@DaveKap: It's ok. Really I'm not to excited about it, I was more caring about stuff like Catan and Carcassone releases on XBLA. Lost Cities isn't even that popular of a game amongst gamers, kinda odd choice for the service imho. I found the game to be pretty mediocre overall

@Cloral: Yea it's more of a luck card game than an actual thinking one. If your a fan of UNO like games, you probably would like Lost Cities though.

@DaveKap: Well, I haven't played the XBLA version yet, but I have played the card game many, many times. Here's a few reasons why I think it's a fun game:

* There are subtle ways of interferring with your opponent's play, but it's not a overly aggressive and competitive game. I can play this one with my wife and non-gamer friends.

* The rules are simple enough to learn quickly, but there is also enough depth that it can keep you playing for a while as you figure out some of the game's secrets.

* It's a gambling game at heart. Do you think you can play enough exploration cards to justify the investment cards that you have to play before playing any exploration cards? The investment cards pay off if you succeed, but cost you a lot of points if you fail.

* The theme is different. It's not quite Indiana Jones. It's a little more Sir Edmund Hillary.

* Good moments when you whip out the card your opponent has been hoping for and then quickly shutting down the game by manipulating the deck (which acts as a timer).

There are a bunch of reviews for the card game on BoardGameGeek:
[boardgamegeek.com]

Hope that helps!

Awesome. My wife and I play the card game together a few times a week still.

Excellent game.

Check out

www.boardgamegeek.com for more details.

@Kyle81: Lost Cities is extremely popular! It's constantly among the top sellers at game stores, and I disagree ... while luck is a component, strategy is also very important.

@Agies: And let's hope it never does. The day I pay for a percentage chance of getting the content I want is the day I shoot myself.

Speaking of card games, I would very much like to see Yu-Gi-Oh on XBL. They could sell newer cards for whatever price they're selling for now or they could maybe have auto-updates for whenever a new booster pack comes out so we could enter the codes that are printed on them.

@Komrade_Kayce: MTG is currently on PS3 as the Eye of Judgment...I tell you, my daughter and I bought it yesterday and we played three hours. Super nerd fest and made of awesome and win.

Just so long as XBL doesn't get MtG Online, my wallet is safe.

Magic: The Gathering has already been announced for Xbox 360. Awhile back actually. I'm not sure where I originally saw the article, but here is a link for some info. [www.videogamesblogger.com]

@H8ff0000: Yep, a quick google search i even found the link to where Kotaku posted it as news. Can't wait personally, hope its good. Confirmed for PC and 360 at the moment.

[kotaku.com]

Does anyone else see that thing that looks like Crash Bandicoot in the lower left corner of that screen?

@ShineyBlueShoes: Yep thats Crash alright.

@Witzbold: Or his very CRI (CopyRight Infringement) cousin.

History tells us that shortly after I buy this it will briefly become half price or free. So I will be holding off, for now...

I used to work at a board game shop in the Boston area that specialized in selling European-import board games, and this was one of the most popular sellers, especially for people who wanted a two-player game. (Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan also regularly took off from the shelves.)

This has all got me thinking about what other games were popular at the store that might show up on Live then. Hare & Tortoise was a 30-year-old game that people still enjoyed, but I wonder if it would need more "new factor." Reiner Knizia actually designed a great Lord of the Rings game, but it was a cooperative rather than a competitive game. Puerto Rico was supposed to be a very good game, but it was also much more complex and didn't have as good of a level of entry. Next to Lost Cities, Kahuna was our other popular two-player game.

Then again, the store's most popular game of all might have been the American-born party game Apples to Apples, and I wouldn't mind having a little of that installed with voice chat. Remember, when playing with Halo kids, "Hitler" is the perfect noun for any adjective.

@DaveKap: This is one of the best abstract 2 player game. You are an explorer (yet you could be anything since it is an abstract game). The premises are simple, you can start as many or as little expeditions (start a serie of one color) but each expedition costs you 25 points (yes you can have negative scores too). What you need is to play cards in a color in progressing order from the 3 investment cards (they multiply your score of that color), then numbers from 2 to 10. It is simple to learn and play but the strategy is deep since you can try and hoard the opponent's highest cards and release them once he can't play them anymore or play more openly. You have to learn to use center discard piles wisely too.

@dreamshade: Kahuna, wow this would be fun! Cesar & Cleopatra as well as Babel would be another 2 great games from the Kosmos 2 Player serie. The mightier boardgames like Puerto Rico would be good but maybe a bit too long for the casual gamer. I think right now they aim for the largest number of gamers by publishing only the german best sellers. They are probably selling a lot of these XBLA games in Germany.

Odin's Ravens would be hot. It's so exciting that so many of these games are hitting Live.