Fixed.

Ticket to Ride is almost the definition of a board game to hook non-gamers. It is simple with a decent amount of strategy and plays quick enough to wrap up a game before anyone gets bored.

Here is the link to the game on the BoardGameGeek: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/9209

Also of note, it is number 43 on the highest rated games on the Geek. That is pretty damn good.


I could go for some expansions to Catan or Carcassonne. In particular i want the Seafarers expansion for Catan and i want the Princess and the Dragon for Carcassonne.

Seafarers: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/325
Princess: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/15158

Show of hands - who's surprised by this revelation?

I vote for more Carcassone expansions.

Son of a...!

Here i was trying to help you out and share my absurdly useless board game knowledge.

I like the idea of expansions. I don't like having to spend a few hundred points for four or five animated virtual cards.

Meh what's a couple of hundred points when you can get so much enjoyment out of it?

Holy crap! I just watch the Happy Tree Friends game trailer ... I'm sold!

Anybody have a chance to try any of the 3 that are new today?

Happy Tree Friends
Ticket to Ride
Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Beta

I'll be checking them all out later, but hoping someone had some impressions I could mull over while the afternoon drags on.

I haven't tried any of them yet. I was surprised to read that Happy Tree Friends was a Lemmings clone, but with graphic violence. That could be fun, I suppose.

Really? I might have to check it out then.

I've done the tutorial and 1st piece of the 1st level. As a Happy Tree Friends fan, I love it. Sadly, I got all 5 friends through the stage, so no bloodshed on that part. But I look forward to going back and causing some carnage.

The point of the game is that by passing the levels, you actually unlock pieces of a new HTF cartoon. You get to see the first part - where the candy-addict Friend gets taken by Shifty and Lifty (the thief racoons) and ends up with candy pieces protruding from just about every part of his body. From there he is locked away until he cleans up his act - only to be conned again (this time with video games) ... What happens next? You have to unlock the levels to find out.

200 potential gamer points should give it some replay value (having to make it through a level without causing any harm to the Friends should be a slight challenge).

Just tried both games. HTF did nothing for me, but then I've never seen the cartoon and prefer playing actual Lemmings or Downstream Panic! on the PSP over this. Tried Ticket To Ride and really dug it. I probably would have settled for the demo if I wasn't sitting on so many damned points, but I went ahead and bought it. I see Groucho and L&O got it as well. I do have one question : Do other people have as hard a time as I do telling the red routes from orange ones? Do I need to have a color blindness test done at the opthalmologist or were those two colors too close together?

I'm with you, Decker. I can't always tell orange and red apart unless I zoom in. Grey and black give me some difficulty as well when I'm all the way zoomed out. I may fiddle with my tv's configuration a bit to see if that helps.

Yeah, Red/Orange and Gray/black are tricky to tell apart.

i will say though, that it's a fun game! I played it pretty much all night last night, and was having a good time. But apparently people don't like it when you take a route away from them, they ding your rep. whatever losers!

So checking the achievements, it looks like there will already be 2 expansions (Europe, and something about 1910?). I just hope this community stays active like Catan/Carcassonne.

At the risk of getting a major-league ass-kicking, I'd love to play with you sometime over the weekend.

I wish there were some clues about telling those colors apart, like a message when you bring your cursor over it. I collected 5 red cards and then found out I needed an orange route. That sucked.

I won't be around much over the next couple weeks - but if you see me online, send a note

If you look in the How To Play section, they have the rules lined up for both 1910 and Europe. 1910 seems like just a mini-expansion with some slightly different bonuses and maybe a couple new cards.
Europe, on the other hand is a new map (obviously) and has many new rules including the use of ferries, building tunnels and building train stations to use another player's line in your destination route.

I'd guess that 1910 would be pretty inexpensive based on what's involved but I expect Europe to be at least 400 points. I'd probably get it for that.

I'm going to pick this up today, too so hit me up if you see me. I've never played before but I liked the other card-board games so I'll give this one a shot.

*added* I played some last night. VERY easy to pick up the rules. I didn't realize the strategy involved (blocking the other player, trying to figure out their routes) until I got owned last night online. :-)

If ever anyone wants to play and you see me on, hit me up. That goes for Carcasonne, too. I want to learn more strategy in that one too.

I just got back from Origins this afternoon and am anxious to test out Ticket to Ride.

I also spoke with a couple of the game companies to see if any of the folks at the convention had heard anything about any more of their games being brought over to Live. Personally i was really hoping Mayfair would give me some indication of Starfarers of Catan coming to Live. I played the tabletop version of SoC at the convention and i thought it was way more fun than regular Settlers.

So far nobody knew anything since the video game versions are basically outsourced to someone else. The Wits and Wagers folks were very interested to hear impressions of the video game version and what i thought about the price etc.

As for Ticket to Ride, if i end up getting the base game i would most likely also get an expansion. I can't imagine buying both base games though.

Both?

It's not official yet, but since IGN has their review up, I'd strongly suspect that Soul Calibur will be an XBLA release this week. They never review XBLA games early.

So the question becomes is SC worth picking up? I've heard great things about it, but I just don't know. I was never really into SC3 and I can still play that on my PS3 if I'm so inclined. With no online play, is this just a nostalgia trip or do people think this is still a worthwhile download at 800 points?

If you already have SC3, I wouldn't get it - especially if you weren't that into it.

TtR and TtR Europe are both standalone games (at least in the tabletop version they are). Because of that i assumed they would be sold separately for 800 points.