I recently saw a very well put together code walkthrough presentation by Oliver Sturm on how he built a Connect Four network game using WCF and WPF. You can download the entire source code for his application here. If you haven't got a .NET 3 or above IDE then see below to get all the free resources to set this up. I find downloading and installing the Orcas DVD image much quicker than downloading the VPC image which can be very large. The Orcas express DVD image is 849MB (whereas the current VPC image is 5GB!)
Here's a set of materials to get started with the next generation development tool Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas) using .Net 3.5.
Go here to download a free DVD image copy of Microsoft® Visual C#® Codename Orcas Express Edition CTP. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/future/downloads/default.aspx#files (VB.Net version is also available)
Once Orcas is installed you will need to apply a patch that will enable VB Express and VC# Express April CTP to create WPF applications. OrcasVCSAprilCTPWPFPatch.EXE @ http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=89415&clcid=0x409
Suggestions for Julian:
How about another GeeksWithBlogs Member Game Design Contest with Vector based graphics using WPF or Silverlight and perhaps network enabled using WCF with a prize such as XBOX 360, Zune, Windows Mobile, <add wishlist here>