Catan

I have to say, as far as board game-to-video game translations go, Catan has to be one of the best.



Not only is a beautiful game, Catan has all the features that you would want and none of the usual limitations that board game translations usually do. The entire game rules are fleshed out: trading, building, the robber; it all feels just authentic.

The music and the sound effects are whimsical at best. After a couple of games they get annoying. I plugged my iPod into the 360 and started listening to that instead.

The extra skin option for the board is fantastic. All the tiles get the full 3-D treatment with animations. The sheep eat grass, the forest sways in the wind, the rock and brick...well, they're there. The robber is a full moving model that dances when a 7 gets rolled. When he occupies a space, he desecrates it. The mountains fall and the trees die. The sheep are flipped over and hog tied. The camera controls let you zoom in awfully close, but don't let you pan around the map any, just the center.

The achievement list isn't shabby either. All but two of them are offline achievements, which is nice because I can't image playing Settlers with the same people I play Gears of War with. Incompetent, juvenile assholes.

It did kind of hurt pay yet more money for another Settlers game, especially when it's a copy of what we already own. But $10 is not a lot to pay to have someone setup and tear down the board for you. The tiles never get shifted. The dice never boulder across the board. All characteristics of the real game that some might miss. I am not one of them.