Almost as much fun as Solitare
I've been playing Carcassonne (the board game) casually for a long time. Some of my friends are excellent players who deftly manipulate the board with every placement, while I just sort of dabbled in the basic strategy. That was part of the draw for buying Carcassonne on XBLA, the other part was to have a board game that I burn some time with while waiting for my Party to assemble. In both of those aspects Carcassonne delivers.
As a board game simulator it works well, including multiple rule sets (especially through DLC) and automatic scoring (a must for any e-board game). If you enjoyed the board game then you will enjoy the XBLA game. I features all of the fun, strategic placement elements that the board game offers. The play can appear fast-paced in a single player game, as the camera seems to struggle to keep up with the computer's moves, but it is solid and quick. By this point the multiplayer community has died off, making Ranked Games difficult to find, but the occasional Player Matches possible on occasion. That seals off one or two achievements if that is your thing.
Most of my complaints are about the camera. You can't rotate the board, which makes it difficult at times to see pieces that are hidden behind trees. The zooming options are controlled with the bumpers, and go in small increments that often are too close or too far away. The camera seems to lag behind as the computer player moves pieces around quickly, making it hard to see what the computer is doing towards the late game.
When I bought this game I wanted to play a fun boardgame that I could burn a few minutes with when I was in between other things. Carcassonne delivers a fun experience with a few hiccups along the way, but those hiccups haven't been enough to get me to stop playing it. Here's hoping for a patch . . . probably for a long time.