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Everyone's favorite German board game (no, not that one), Carcassonne, is coming to the DS, courtesy of Koch Media. The news comes via Go Nintendo, with the press release mentioning the DS title will feature the original game plus three new territories: the Asian, Arabic, and Nordic worlds. The game will also include the River expansion set, which comes standard with the newer versions of the Carcassonne board game. You can expect three different modes of play, including a single-player, story-driven mode, a quick play mode for, uh, quick play, and a multiplayer mode that will support game sharing and local wireless multiplayer.

Our only beef is that the size of the game grid might not scale down to the DS screen too well, and it might be hard to see everything going on. But, hey, even if that's the case, you won't need to clean up a messy board game, and isn't that the important thing here?

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (PC)

Please, make the addiction stop! Civilization IV: Warlords, the first expansion for Civ IV, made my "Best of the Rest" last year and Beyond the Sword tops this year's list. The funny thing is I'm not a Civ fanboy, nor am I even that great of a player (Full Disclosure: I still play on Noble level), but Civ IV is a game I can come back to over and over again. Beyond the Sword added much-needed mechanics for culture-prone and passive-aggressive players, with enhancements in espionage and other concepts "beyond the sword." Oh, and just to keep last year's tradition going: Firaxis (2K, Take-Two), please get the rights to Alpha Centauri back from EA and give us a sequel!

Team Fortress 2 (Xbox 360, PC, PlayStation 3)

While Portal is being given its much deserved credit for the year, and Half-Life 2 has enjoyed years of acclaim, let's not forget about the other pillar of Valve's The Orange Box. It's been eight years since the release of Team Fortress Classic, and the game has undergone so many revisions and delays we half expected it to be released alongside Duke Nukem Forever sometime in 2012. As it turned out, the game not only saw the light of day but ended up being an addictive online experience.

As a console gamer enjoying this with a gamepad, I don't care much much for the sniper, soldier, demoman, or anything except medic and occasionally the engineer. There's something brutally satisfying about charging into battle behind a heavy weapons guy, dodging the occasional bullet (people still haven't learned) and injecting him with a team-killing jolt of invincibility. Hours of enjoyment and not a single bullet shot. Pure. Enjoyment.

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.

"Non-digital games are awesome" is the line I usually insist upon in this column. But even awesome analog games have their faults: namely, if you don't have anyone to play with, you can't really play.

So, as an end-of-year treat, let's look back at the last year+ of games reviewed, and find some ways to play those suckers against some internet folk:

Settlers of Catan
I still haven't gotten around to reviewing Settlers, but I did chat with Brian Reynolds about the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, which is probably the best bet for consistent, high-volume net play.

For those who don't have an Xbox 360 (like, well, me), Aso Brain Games hosts an unofficial, Java-based version of the game called Xplorers. After a free registration, the site allows users to player ranked and un-ranked versions against other users and bots, and features a number of expansion and additions to the base rules, which can be toggled on or off. Don't let the low-fi look of the site dissuade you; Xplorers is a well-put-together Settlers clone, with a solid interface and a consistent number of users online at any time.

To mark the fifth anniversary of the Xbox Live service, Microsoft will be offering Carcassonne (Hexic 2 in Korea) free to all subscribers for 48 hours starting at 12:01 a.m. EST on Nov. 15th (and presumably nothing to the peeps who already plunked down for the virtual board game), along with 500 Microsoft Points to the ten folks who've been on board since 2002 -- see kids, early adoption does pay off! In addition, Microsoft has confirmed earlier reports that 'Xbox Originals' will be made available for download starting Dec. 4th as part of the Fall Update (the update's additional features have yet to be revealed). Each game can be purchased and downloaded for 1200 points ($15).

In its press release, Microsoft explicitly named Halo, Psychonauts, Crimson Skies and Fable as titles for the Xbox Originals initiative, but did not confirm exactly which games will serve as the jumpoff: "This new service will launch with an array of blockbuster titles spanning the most popular genres from action-adventure to classic role-playing games." Third-party reports claim the preliminary lineup will include Halo, Fable, Indigo Prophecy, Crimson Skies, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex and Burnout 3.

[Via press release]

Sierra and Microsoft have revisited the grid-based fortified town of Carcassonne, as the XBLA rendition of the popular European board game has gotten a new downloadable expansion titled "The King and Baron" as part of today's regular XBLA update, which also includes block dropper Tetris Splash.

With an asking price of 300 Microsoft Points ($3.75), the download is the second such expansion following the already available "River I & II," and adds a set of five additional tiles described as 'interesting configurations of Town pieces,' as well as pair of new rules. We're not exactly sure what they mean by "interesting" ... perhaps they glow.

The new rules are designed to award those players with either the largest city or the longest road at the end of the game with a pair of icons placed next to their avatars and Gamertags. But it's not just for looks or bragging rights, no sir! With this expansion, the player with the biggest city, identified by a newly added 'portly' King icon, will receive one point for each completed city in the game, while the player with the mightiest of roads, denoted by a 'crafty' Robber Baron, will take home one point for each completed road in the game -- and you know how much we love to pile up them points.

Brand new on the Xbox Live Marketplace are two new expansions for XBLA games Carcassonne and Soltrio Solitaire that should help the longevity of the titles, albeit for a price. For 300 Microsoft points you can get the new King & Baron Expansion Pack for Carcassonne which will add seven new tiles to the game including the king and robber tiles thus adding an extra layer of strategy to all your Carcassonne fun. Soltrio Solitaire is getting its ninth expansion today (a little overkill, no?) and for 150 Microsoft points it adds ten new card games including Pyramid, Fourteen Out and Block Ten. Both expansions are available for purchase right now in their respectively offered territories, so spend your cash and expand away.

[Thanks, Jonah Falcon]

Brand spanking new downloadable content for three, count 'em three of your favorite XBLA games was released yesterday in hopes of making your gaming experience all the more enjoyable. First off, Band of Bugs released the "Red Kingdom" expansion for 250 Microsoft points and includes a new red rock tile set, ten new campaign levels and two new units. The second Arcade game to get some DLC love is Soltrio Solitaire which released a 150 Microsoft point "Game Pack 5" featuring ten new gametypes. Finally, the "Rivers II Expansion Pack" was released for Carcassonne, costing 300 Microsoft points and includes twelve new river tiles. All new XBLA downloadable content is currently available off the XBLM and is ready to be purchased or simply gawked at.

[Thanks, DjDATZ]

As we announced on Monday, today's Xbox Live Arcade offering is Carcassonne. For 800 Microsoft Points you can get your hands on some castle building action. It's got 5 player live multiplayer and 4 player local MP, Live Vision camera support, and a nice range of balanced Achievements. It hopefully will bring a similar crowd as Catan did, allowing for a more laid back and social experience, so long as the camera support isn't abused. Hopefully we'll catch you online soon.

GamingTalkHQ got their grubby little hands on the Achievements list for Carcassonne, which was announced as this week's Xbox Live Arcade title earlier today. The Achievements themselves seem similar to Catan's, but fortunately only have one that is tied to ranked game, requiring you to win one. The cumulative points can be obtained in player match, which is definitely handy. Which ones are you going to work toward?

Flickr user Universal Donor made a smaller version of Carcassonne to fit in an Altoids tin. "I know this stupid, but I like creating versions of my favorite games that can fit in an Altoids tin," he writes -- we think it's cool, though. Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
The Guessing Game: Sony's E3 showing
Joystiq at the Ninja Gaiden Band concert
Today's most retro action game: Die Hard (NES)

News
Believe it or not: Zelda in Smash Bros Brawl
F-Zero X, Street Fighter II Turbo rush onto Virtual Console
Nintendo officially bigger than Sony in Japan
New games this week: The Darkness edition
PSP firmware hack drives Lumines sales
Nicole Kidman the pretty face of More Brain Training DS
Newsweek's Croal, MTV's Totilo hands-on with Manhunt 2
This Wednesday: Carcassonne taunts from the castle wall
Pokemon takes Wii online in US
Concept trailer for LEGO Universe: building, battling, bricking
Sony tells PSP devs to get creative, attract customers
Romero unearths unreleased Doom music
Insomniac lands 8th in the '50 Best Companies to Work For' list
Analysing the $1mil acquistion of WoW database site
Shadowrun developer gets honest (or scary)
Square Enix: No PS3 games (Final Fantasy XIII) until after April 2008
Third-party HDMI cable coming for non-Elite Xbox 360
Turrican remake released, rocks you like a Hurrican
ESRB seeks to rate game trailers
GameTap 'leaks' franchises coming to service
Cory Barlog talks E3 inside the developers studio

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Hitman film trailer premiering with Die Hard

Culture & Community
MacArthur Foundation funds NYC school to teach 'Gaming Literacy'
Wiimote mod gets NES Zapper zappin' again
Nintendo hearts the environment
College librarians urged to think like gamers, play more games

Board game enthusiasts rejoice! Carcassonne is coming to town Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday. Not only does the game include the standard 72 tiles, but the "Rivers II" expansion with an additional 12 tiles. Feel free to brush up on the rules before Wednesday, but the game comes with a step-by-step tutorial that'll teach you the basics as well. The multiplayer on local allows 4 players and 5 players across Xbox Live, with support for the Vision Camera. At a price of 800 MS points, will you be picking this up Wednesday?

Carcassonne may make an appearance next week as its Xbox.com page has received an update revealing the game's price being 800 Microsoft points. Xbox.com usually doesn't reveal detailed information about unreleased games (especially the price) which leads us to think the game is very close to making its entrance onto the XLBA. But it's not like we have a bunch of options here seeing that Sierra Online previously confirmed a June release date. And since June is coming to an end Carcassonne would have to be out either next week or the week after. We're putting our chips on next Wednesday ... place your bet.

[Via Game Stooge]

If you're one of people who's been enjoying what Catan brought to XBLA, then get ready for Carcassonne, another European board game powerhouse landing next month. Carcassonne is more about tile and villager placement than Catan's resource management and diplomacy. The game, which premieres in June, had some more details released onto the villagers before the big unveil.

IGN reports that the visual style is very similar to Catan, however players will not by able to rotate the playing field, only zoom in and out and pan. Games are under 20 minutes in two-player and under 10 for five-player and includes Vision camera support. The XBLA version of Carcassonne also includes the "River I & II" expansion packs that were apparently released later for the board game. Players lay the river to begin the match in this version instead of starting with the basic castle/road starter tile of the original game. Sierra says other add-ons to the board game like Inns & Cathedral and The Tower will be released through Xbox Live. We hope the transaction ends up being truly micro. Carcassonne is expected to cost 800 MS points ($10 USD). We can only hope the Carcassonne gamers are as civilized as the Catan crew.

IGN has posted a lengthy preview of Carcassonne, the tile-based board game heading to Xbox Live Arcade. Like Catan, Carcassonne is a popular European strategy game. The gameboard (composed of 72 tiles) is slowly built by the players as they attempt to build structures like roads, castles, and monasteries. The Xbox Live Arcade version also includes the River I and II expansions, which have players building a river before other structures, giving gameplay a more set path and a different kind of strategy. Sierra plans to offer other expansions as future downloads. All in all, Carcassonne is sounding like a solid addition to the Live Arcade library, especially for those that got a kick out of Catan. Hit the "read" link for the full preview.

[Thanks, Jonah Falcon]