Xbox Live Indie Game First Impression - MotorHEAT
Alright, I'll be perfectly honest here. I'm not that big of a fan of racing games on the Xbox Live Indie Games. They are either crap, run off the same engine every single time (nothing wrong with it, just it gives everything the same basic feeling.) and, with a few exceptions they don't have any multiplayer of ANY kind, local or otherwise. And unfortunately, in that regard, this game is no different. I downloaded the trial figuring this : "I know I'm going to hate this. I haven't done an Xbox Indie Game thing on my site in a while, this oughta be fun to just rip apart at the seams." And you can KIND OF consider this a review ... but given the fact I haven't spent much time with it I personally wouldn't consider this a full review given the fact I haven't really delved into it much.
This game is from the same guys who brought us Little Racer and Wool. Neither of which I'm a huge fan of. Wool I don't quite understand, though I really like the graphical style ... and Little Racers ... I have a bit of a bias against overhead racers with cars anyway. Not to say it isn't done fairly well, because it is, it's just not my kind of game.
Elizabeth Hurley apparently doesn’t look in the mirror.
Here are some pictures of Elizabeth Hurley at some event ... "The Naked Heart Foundation" hosted something called the Love Ball.
Alright, I'll admit that I've never heard of this. In the picture to the left, she's covering up with the event program because what she's wearing is completely see through. Now, I'm not one to argue about these things, but you really think she would have noticed that. I mean, it's not just a little see through or anything, it's COMPLETELY translucent. Regardless of all that, here's the pictures. The thumbnails are safe for work, but if you click on them that's your own problem.
Bargain Bin games you should get : Phantasmagoria
I had always heard about this game ... even today. Recently it tried to get inducted into Retro Gaming Roundup's top 10 horror games ... but the other hosts (having never played it before) didn't really see it and it, unfortunately, didn't get in. The game came out for DOS IN 1995 on seven cds. Later ported to Windows and the Macintosh ... and a console but only in Japan I think. And it's a horror game, obviously.
Back when this came out, I didn't have a PC that was anywhere near good enough to run the game, and with all the negative press it was getting at the time regarding it's rather graphic content I don't know how well that would have went over at home ... despite the fact I was playing games like Mortal Kombat at the time. Go figure.
The entire game uses real actors standing in front of a bluescreen where the designers could then put in whatever type of backgrounds they wanted. And no, this isn't a full motion video game, this is quite a bit more like an interactive movie than that. It's a point and click adventure game that plays very similarly to games like Space Quest, King's Quest, Police Quest ... you get the idea if you've played these before. If you haven't then what the hell is wrong with you.
I'd highly suggest trying this one out, it's got the gory deaths, a rape scene (that would actually seem a bit tame by today's standards actually) though I will say it starts off rather slowly to show a feeling of just normalness. By day 2 shit really starts to hit the fan and get interesting.
It's definitely not the prettiest game out there by today's standards. But it's still definitely worth check out and can be had over at Good Old Games for $9.99.
Hilary Duff gets proposed to, and has a hell of a good way of reacting to it.
Now, the whole marriage thing, I could really care less. I've been there, done that, never doing it again for the sake of my sanity. But on the other hand, if I got a blowjob for asking, I may re-think my stance on it. That's just me though.
Okay, there's a slight chance she may not actually be doing that. But to hell with it, it looks like it and that's good enough for me.
Gaming outside my realm.
If you've ever talked to me, you know I'm not a big fan of physics games ... which makes me reviewing job a little difficult at times because guess what a chunk of these indie games for the 360 are. :) But regardless of whether or not I like the idea behind a game, I still like to give them a fair shot.
But this isn't really about a review. I was on episode 17 of the Geek Gamer Radio podcast, and they have a little segment called "Games Outside Your Realm". The whole point behind it is to play a game throughout the week that you normally wouldn't play.
My "assignment" was Trials HD on the Xbox 360. Now, this is a bit weird for me because I have indeed played it, though not that long. The same thing with the PC version. Now, for the sake of an internet podcast I'm going to give the game a fair shake, almost like I was actually reviewing it.
I've HEARD a lot about the game from various other podcasts, who mostly agree that the game is fun as hell for a while, then it kinda burns out after a while. Now, I have a feeling that it won't get too burned out for me because I'm going to more than likely just be playing the trial due to the fact I'm completely assed broke at the moment.
But I'm sure a lot of you have played this game. I know that damn near everyone on my Xbox Live friends list has played it in some form or another. What should I expect from this? And what are the differences between the Xbox 360 version and the PC other than of course the HD graphics? I'm sure they play identically.
Yeah, I'm kinda cheating here asking people about it. But given the fact that I only get 700 to 1,000 hits a day on this little corner of the web with hardly ANY of you people commenting I don't think I'm going to get much here. ;)
But yeah, starting today I'm going to give the game a fair shake all week long. Whether or not I lose a controller in the process from what little I've played in the past of both the console version and the PC version has yet to be seen.
Hell, maybe I'll end up loving it. Who knows. God knows I play enough of these brutally punishing games.
Not a good day for retro gamers on Xbox Live
The following games have been removed from the Xbox Live Arcade service ...
- Cyberball 2072
- Defender
- Gauntlet
- Joust
- Paperboy
- Robotron 2084
- Root Beer Tapper
- Smash TV
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Now I can't say that I'm all that heartbroken about UMK3 just because that game is utter crap ... MK2 all the way ... but the others. It's just heartbreaking.
Now, if you've already downloaded the games, and you're worried that if you get a new hard drive you can't get them again, no big deal. Just hit your guide button, go to the settings tab, account management and go to your download history you CAN get them again. And (though I haven't tried it personally) if you downloaded the trial you MAY be able to buy them again. Which means I STILL may be able to get Joust. :)
But still. Sad day for retro gamers.
Double Dribble Fastbreak hits the iPhone and iPod Touch
Now, I'm not into sports games, I tend to play them VERY casually. I play the occasional baseball game, I play Tiger Woods PGA Tour (yeah yeah yeah. Take his name off it and it's still a great playing golf game) ... but I don't delve too much into the basketball games anymore. The last time I really played one ... I used to play NBA Jam : Tournament Edition on the Sega Genesis back in the day. And I still pop it in from time to time now.
My first start with a basketball game was Basketball for the Atari 2600 when I was about 6 or 7. And I didn't play it for more than a few minutes at best. But then we got an NES and one of the games that we got with it was Double Dribble. And I found out I really like that game. It's a basic, bare bones 5 on 5 basketball game which was GREAT for the era. And is still a hell of a lot of fun to play.
Xbox Live Indie Game Review - Square Off
This is one of those side scrolling arena style shooters that I had to warm up to. Partly because it can be extremely frustrating in single player.
It actually has a story, and a pretty funny one at that. Apparently the human race for a long time has been fighting off alien invaders for a long time, and we're getting our asses kicked. So a scientist who had been sent to a mental institution and made things called Square Avengers.
And that's who you play as. The Avengers themselves unfortunately don't have any distinguishing characteristics whatsoever other than being different colors though. Which isn't a huge deal. If nothing else in the multiplayer it makes them easy to make out who's who.
iPhone/iPod Touch/Xbox Live Indie Game Review - Twin Blades
Yeah, here's a different one. A game that is available for both the iPhone AND on Xbox Live Indie Games. The iPhone version costs 99 cents while the Xbox 360 version will run you 240 Microsoft Space Bucks.
Rise of the Triad for the iPhone/iPod Touch makes me very happy.
I have stated before that the old first person shooter called Rise of the Triad is one of my favorite first person shooters. It runs off of an enhanced version of the engine Wolfenstein 3D used, and unfortunately this game suffered from being released just at the WRONG time back in the day. And therefore, DooM ultimately killed it.
But regardless, the full version of this game is coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch which means I can bask in the fast paced pixelly awesomeness of this shooter whenever the hell I want.
At least, later this year anyway. It's set to release in "early 2010" and includes everything the original game has.
All I've gotta say is hell yeah. And here's a gameplay video.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUPFlkMhw90
via TouchArcade