14 DAY TRIAL // Xbox Live Arcade keeps getting more and more titles added to its already pretty interesting lineup. There are more Xbox Live Arcade games at the moment that there are Xbox Originals games on offer, which could mean that players are more interested in easy-to-pick-up, easy-to-play titles than they are in the classics that redefined gaming.
Yesterday, Sierra Online has announced a Spring 2008 (and by that I guess they mean late Spring as March is all but over at this point) release date on the Xbox Live Arcade for its card game adventure called Lost Cities. The game will be priced at 800 Microsoft Points, which is equivalent to 10 dollars.
Lost Cities is a card game and the core gameplay mechanic is the drawing and discarding of games. A player must invest cards to conduct expeditions through various lost cities of the world, including but not limited to the Himalayas, the Brazilian rain forest, the desert, ancient volcanoes and ocean depths.
Each round, a player must invest a higher value card that those played to advance his expedition. An expedition which has been started will earn points according to how much progress has been made when the game ends, and after three rounds, the player with the highest total score wins the game. Each expedition which is started but not thoroughly charted incurs a negative point penalty in the form of investment costs.
The computer game is based on the original card game, created by Reiner Knizia, one of the most important board game designers. In 2000, it took home the International Gamers Award for best two-player strategy game.
Other planned releases for the Xbox Live Arcade by Sierra include Switchball, which is to be re-released with "enhanced graphics for a smoother gameplay experience and enhanced leaderboards" and also Commanders: Attack of the Genos and puzzle game Boogie Bunnies.