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Games Entertainment

Catan on Live, PopCap on Steam 63

Posted by Zonk from the we-built-this-city-on-wheat-and-stone dept.
Two interesting bits of news on the casual gaming front today. GI.biz reports that PopCap games has signed a deal with Valve to have their games offered on Steam. The casual Xbox Live Arcade will also be getting some new visitors, though of a much more hard-core variety. Classic German boardgame Settlers of Catan will headline a trio of titles for Microsoft's downloadable games service, Gamespot reports. From that article: "Outpost Kaloki X is about to have some genre company on Xbox Live Arcade, as all three titles will call on strategic thinking from the players. The announced games include the civilization-building Settlers of Catan, the tile-based city-building game Carcassonne, and the Arabian-themed stock-market game Alhambra set to be available through the Xbox."
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Catan on Live, PopCap on Steam More

Catan on Live, PopCap on Steam

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  • Great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by An Ominous Cow Erred ( 28892 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @12:56AM (#15967822)
    ...now we get to hear "WOOD FOR SHEEP!!" live over the network.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by gbobeck ( 926553 )
      My ex-girlfriend used to yell out "SHEEPIES!!" every time sheep were involved while playing the game at various Mensa gatherings.

      I can't wait to hear "SHEEPIES!!" live over the network.

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by cthellis ( 733202 )
      I got TWO WOOD for your sheep!
    • I think I speak for a lot of people who aren't fans of games that use Steam (because they're such a tremendous pain in the ass to get working on a real OS and I just don't have the time or patience for toys like Windows or pain in the ass dual booting) when I ask, "Uhh, wood for sheep? What are you talking about?"

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by TempeTerra ( 83076 )
        The primary mode of gameplay in Settlers of Catan is to acquire and trade resource cards, and use them to build your settlement. Canonically, the resources are lumber, wool, grain, bricks and ore but are often referred to by more common names such as trees, sheep and wheat.

        "Wood for sheep" would probably be an offer to give sheep cards in exchange for wood cards (although from the wording it could be either way) - something which has almost NO chance of success in the early game where sheep are almost entir

        • "Wood for sheep" would probably be an offer to give sheep cards in exchange for wood cards (although from the wording it could be either way) - something which has almost NO chance of success in the early game where sheep are almost entirely useless and wood is very valuable, and yet seems likely to be a frequent utterance from random clueless noobs on Xbox Live. Oh they joy of voice chat ;)

          You've forgotten to explain the joke, which is that "wood" is slang for an erection (at least in some parts of th

        • "something which has almost NO chance of success in the early game where sheep are almost entirely useless and wood is very valuable"

          This is not necessarily true... if you play on a map with lots of water and few wool resources sheep can be very valuable early in the game. But that's not to downplay the role of wood... which is just as important if there is lots of water (need both wood and sheep to build a boat).... but if the sheep are rare enough it can often be useful to trade some wood for sheep early
          • but if the sheep are rare enough it can often be useful to trade some wood for sheep early in the game

            Especially if you have the 2:1 sheep port and decide to build your empire entirely from sheep.

            I really hate playing boardgames on a computer. Those features that make a good boardgame and those features that make a good video/computer game are entirely different, IMO.

            • Especially if you have the 2:1 sheep port and decide to build your empire entirely from sheep.

              I like the thought of compressing sheep into bricks, myself.

            • "I really hate playing boardgames on a computer"

              I don't quite agree with that. I agree that you lose "something"... but you also gain a lot.

              For instance, my friends and I are now fairly spread out... it would be great to be able to bust out a 4 player Settlers game over the internet sometimes... for me this is the best reason to move a boardgame to the computer/console.

              But nothing will beat actually sitting at a table with your friends all around a board and physically placing/moving pieces around... there
      • You can trade resources in Settlers of Catan. There is wood, sheep, ore, clay, and wheat.

        There is always someone who has said "I'll give anything for some wood." or "Sheep for wood" etc

        More information check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/7475 [boardgamegeek.com]
    • Everyone likes sheep. Sheep go "baa"!

      </pred>
    • "...now we get to hear "WOOD FOR SHEEP!!" live over the network."

      Heh, got to love Knight's of the Dinner Table references
      • I believe most gamers generated that spontaneously from simply trying to trade wood for sheep, and realizing it was funny.

  • Do they know what they're getting into? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by MMaestro ( 585010 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @01:13AM (#15967868)
    Steam/Valve isn't exactly associated with 'casual' gaming, what does PopCap have to gain from this deal? Red Orchestra and CS:Source aren't games you associate with alongside Bejeweled and Bookworm.

    • Re:Do they know what they're getting into? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Bieeanda ( 961632 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @01:34AM (#15967929)
      They could be a good excuse for more people to leave the Steam launcher sitting in the task tray, especially since they've finally got Steam's IM functions working again. Right-click the icon, pop the games launcher open almost instantly, and play a bit of Chuzzle. If someone you know wants to drag you into a CS match, you can switch over with ease.

      Steam is associated with shooters and action games right now, but there's no reason why it has to stay that way. Its distribution system would be ideal for Popcap, because their games are small enough to download fairly quickly on dialup, and all of the authorizations are stored on the server side. Go over to a friend's place (or work) and download the Steam client, then download the games you've already purchased licenses for. Popcap doesn't have to worry about mailing media out, or people passing installer discs around to their friends, which saves on expenses.

      The two services' pricing structures are already rather close. There are several expansions, episodes and mods available for less than a twenty, which is the same general range that Popcap games fall into. Near-instant gratification for a fairly low price is a very good way to separate people from their money.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by AcidLacedPenguiN ( 835552 )
        Interesting. I find I've been playing through the steam games quite often now, especially the non-shooter ones. I've always been fond of the Jagged Alliance series, and I figure with enough positive reaction on steam it might force whoever owns the IP to finally finish up that Jagged Alliance 3. I think Steam's biggest issue to overcome now is advertising. Right now they have plenty of games for sale but except for the occasional slashdot story, if you don't already have steam you'd never know what they hav
      • I play on Steam almost daily (HL2:CTF) and it's been interesting to watch the new games come in... Valve is definitely trying something here... and I, for one, hope it works out.

        Just the other day I noticed that X2: The Threat was available for $15 and X3: Reunion for $20 both by Egosoft. That's not bad at all (I bought X3 for around $45 dollars earlier this year). It's good to see an easy way to get ahold of cheap older games than bin diving at wal-mart.

        Looking right now I also see that SiN 1 (the origin
  • I recently started playing Settlers of Catan with some friends. It is a very engaging game that can last 5 minutes or a few hours. It makes room for more social interaction than most other games. If they had a non XBOX 360 version of this, one for the computer, in other words, then I would definitely get in on it online.

    • Re:Settlers of Catan (Score:4, Interesting)

      by legoburner ( 702695 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @02:35AM (#15968086) Homepage Journal
      Being a fan of Catan (dead-tree version), I hope they make something very similar. The PC versions that I have played so far are not as fun as the real thing but I think that is down to 2 things:
      1. Tactile response ... being able to move the theif and push him right into that 6 wheat producing hex
      2. Communication ... getting those trades announced with the right tone in your voice.

      Thankfully I think the xbox 360 version will take care of #2. Though now I cant help but imagine trash-talking catan players which would be a bit odd. Still, adds to the temptation to get an xbox 360.
      • Trash talking is a vital part of the game, it's no fun if you can't call the person with the best ore production the "ore whore", or yell incessantly about "cock blocking" the guy with the longest road. Not to mention the endless supply of wood and sheep jokes.

    • Settlers of Catan online for computers (Score:4, Informative)

      by snuf23 ( 182335 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @02:42AM (#15968105)
      The good news: There is a version of Settlers of Catan for the computer!
      The bad news part 1: It's for Windows only.
      The bad news part 2: It requires that you use Internet Explorer to play the online version.
      The bad news part 3: You need to create a MS Passport account to play (or have a hotmail account).
      The bad news part 4: Playing online requires a subscription of $4.95/month or $19.99/year.

      Anyway if you are interested check out at Catan Online [msn.com].

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Shambhu ( 198415 )
        Or this [asobrain.com] one. It's free and has several rule sets, lots of prebuilt maps and user-built maps. It's written in Java, you can play with whoever is logged in (usually 100 or so, atm) or with bots or with both. The interface is pretty good, although the server goes down from time to time. In fact, it's probably going to get hosed if people here are that interested in it. Don't forget to donate!

      • Better news: there is a Linux version. It's called Pioneers http://pio.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net], and it's a near-exact copy of the board game

      • Free Catan online for everybody (Score:4, Informative)

        by Valdrax ( 32670 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @07:18AM (#15968756)
        Go to jsettlers.com.

        The good news: There is a version of Settlers of Catan for the computer!
        The good news 2: It's written for Java 1.1.8 and works for everybody.
        The good news 3: It works in any Java-supporting browser.
        The good news 4: You don't need any account anywhere to play.
        The good news 5: It's completely free.

        It also has a decent, if human-hating. AI. Most people will be playing solo against 3 computer opponents, and those that do want to play against humans will often insist on FNT (fast, no-trade) games.

      • Re:Settlers of Catan online for computers (Score:4, Informative)

        by DanloRingess ( 818193 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @09:30AM (#15969545)
        Or take a look at http://www.brettspielwelt.de/?nation=en/ [brettspielwelt.de].

        The good news part 1: In addition to Settlers of Catan, you can play 62 other games.

        The good news part 2: There is a web client so that you can play on virtually any platform.

        The good news part 3: There are platform specific clients for Windows, Mac, and Linux so that you can have a better UI than in the web client.

        The good news part 4: It's all free.

        • You forgot to mention the bad part, which is that the UI is in german... unless you know something I don't?
          • Brettspielwelt supports both English and German, though German is the native language. It has been awhile since I used it, but I don't recall having much trouble using the software in English. There is documentation on the website explaining how to do this, if I remember correctly. If you see the website in German, just click the little British flag to change the language to English.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hweimer ( 709734 )
      If they had a non XBOX 360 version of this, one for the computer, in other words, then I would definitely get in on it online.

      apt-get install pioneers [sourceforge.net]-*

  • PoP (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Descalzo ( 898339 )
    Try Pioneers of Peru. It's only for Windows, of course.

  • Free Versions for Online Computer Play (Score:3, Informative)

    by Misanthrope ( 49269 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @02:08AM (#15968025)
    There have been a variety of open source implementations of Settlers for
    a while. Pioneers is my current favorite.
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/pio [sourceforge.net]
  • Uplink and Darwinia are now available through Steam, and Defcon (release: late next month) will be there, too !

  • BrettSpielWelt (Score:5, Informative)

    by Flyboy Connor ( 741764 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @02:37AM (#15968088)
    You want to play modern board games online? Go to BrettSpielWelt [brettspielwelt.de]. Free, online playing of over a hundred boardgames. Not only Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne, but also Caylus, Citadels, Medina, Power Grid, Princes of Florence, Puerto Rico, Ra, San Juan, and many, many, many more. The language to use is English at most of the site. Warning: there are many very strong players there, so prepare for a humiliating defeat at your favorite game.

    • Mod Parent up! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by trip11 ( 160832 ) *
      BSW really is a great place to play strategy games online. Not only that, it is a good place to try out a game and see if you like it before spending $40 on something awful at the store. The only downside is that it can be a bit intimidating and un-intuitive to someone new to the system. Esp if you don't speak German. However there is a great website for all of us english speakers to help get the feel of the game.
      http://englishtown.brettspielwelt.info/ [brettspielwelt.info]
      I would also recomend downloading the client an
  • Boardgames are no fun without the risk of spilling drinks over them. How else can you make a poor man's version of the seafarers of catan?

  • Great game (Score:5, Informative)

    by LarsWestergren ( 9033 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @05:19AM (#15968461) Homepage Journal
    If you want to play it without having to shell out for a console, there is a open source java version here [sourceforge.net].

    Best way to play it though is of course around a table with some good friends.

  • Alhambra a stock market game? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hibiki_r ( 649814 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @08:17AM (#15969019)
    The gamespot editor seems to care very little about boardgames. You can call Alhambra many things, but it is NOT a stock market game. Its theme is palace building, and the main mechanics are tile placement and set collection. I mean, in which stock market do you try to arrange your 'shares' to build the largest wall?

    Oh, and Alhambra is located in Granada, Spain. Sure, it was built by muslims, but it's not what I'd call arabian.
    • Yep, shame on them!

      Alhambra features players buying tiles to construct their palaces. On the main board are four slots, each with a tile randomly drawn from the bag. Players are each given money in four different curriences (colors). Each slot on the board is denoted by a certain color, displaying the currency one must use to buy that tile (ie pay the red money to buy the tile on the red spot). On a turn, one can either buy a tile or take money with the added caveat that if one buys a tile using exact ch
    • What Alhambra is based on was themed on stocks. What you know as Alhambra is based on an earlier game called Stimmt So! (punctuation was part of the title). The game's rules were the same, except that the start wasn't as even, the "rule of 5" for getting small currency wasn't in place, and there was no worry about having to build and fit things and connect walls. Setting that aside, it was very, very much the same game.

      Stimmt So! [boardgamegeek.com]

      Alhmabra [boardgamegeek.com]

      (Linked becase BGG is a big-ass site and I doubt you'll sl
    • Well, Alhambra [boardgamegeek.com] is a rework of Stimmt So! [boardgamegeek.com]- which is clearly a stock market game. I don't think Alhambra "feels" like a tile laying game- it is certainly a different beast from Carcassonne [boardgamegeek.com].

  • Never in a million years... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by The-Bus ( 138060 ) on Thursday August 24, 2006 @08:37AM (#15969138)
    would I have imagined that this game would come to Xbox Live. Furthermore, outside of Slashdot (and even here), there's going to be a huge amount of people who are going to say... "What?"

    I know it's de rigueur to mention "The Long Tail" [wired.com], but this is a great example of it; the Long Tail is a theory that in the future, businesses will need to sell small amounts of a huge variety.

    Ideally, Catan fever will spread worldwide to a brand new audience. But also, putting a game like this on a console really sets it apart to big Catan fans. Xbox Live Arcade has the possibility to do that by releasing niche games that the target audience really wants. I loathe anecdotal evidence, but I know of two people that have bought an Xbox simply for one of the arcade games (Geometry Wars and Street Fighter).

    Microsoft does seem to be serious about this. At Leipzig they also announced that they will "own football" by making Pro Evolution Soccer 6 and FIFA 07 Xbox 360 exclusives. Sony's own Winning Eleven series is of course not affected.

    Now, if they'd only give Europe what they really want: fairly priced hardware and software.

  • Now I actually have a reason to buy a 360! Being able to loaf on my couch and play great boardgames online without messing with my computer could easily be worth buying a $400 game console and paying monthly connection costs plus the costs of the games.

    The sad part is, I'm being completely serious.

    • Now I actually have a reason to buy a 360! Being able to loaf on my couch and play great boardgames online without messing with my computer could easily be worth buying a $400 game console and paying monthly connection costs plus the costs of the games.

      The sad part is, I'm being completely serious.

      Nothing sad about it... Trading money for convenience.

      I've tried for years to get a computer working decently for games in my entertainment center, slowly graduating from Svideo to eventually component H

    • You know, there are open-source versions of those games.
  • For fans of board games, having Catan on Xbox Live is like the holy grail. I don't know how big a market share board game geek represent, but Microsoft just scored some major geek points, for sure.
    • Wow they really did with me. I was set not to get a 360 a couple months ago, but now with a new 50" dlp to play it on and announcements like this they are swaying me. I think I'll have a 360 real soon. Catan and Carcassonne will be great to have on Live.

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