Xbox 360 vs. Paper Games

I recently acquired an Xbox 360 and yesterday I went out and purchased Call of Duty 4 and Assassins Creed for it.  I started Call of Duty 4 and so far have been really impressed with the quality of single player in a game well known for its online play.  After I chew through those two I think I'll get Bioshock, which I heard a lot of discussion about at the 2008 Meaningful Play Conference that was hosted at Michigan State University.

However, there have been a lot more than just video games being played.  Thursday night I learned how to play the card game Citadels, which is essentially a cross between Monopoly and Magic: The Gathering.  I have to admit I was really quite impressed with the game design of Citadels.  It puts strategy both in the place of role selection (from different cards that give you certain abilities and attributes for a round) and in the actual utilization of the cards in hand during the round.  Furthermore there are extra role cards that can be swapped in and out to increase replay value of the game.  I think it would even be feasible to make some DIY role cards just for fun.

It's a game that is similar Magic: The Gathering (and I would argue just as fun) that is contained in a single box.  The fact that it's not a Trading Card Game makes it a lot more accessible to people have never played before.  I definitely think I'll be playing it again sometime soon.