*UPDATE* A couple of Xbox Live Indie Game Trial Impressions : Avatar Bumper Cars and The Impossible Avatar Getaway
I haven’t done these in a while. So here it goes. The first one, Avatar Bumper Cars is what you would expect. You drive around, and bump into other cars until they fly off the screen in different arenas. Near as I can tell in the trial mode, you only get one arena, which really limits the appeal of the game, because of the extremely limited gameplay it doesn’t make me want to buy it. The graphics are actually pretty good, though they have that typical “avatar look” to them that seems to sink into games that use them as heavily as this. Everything is real smooth and shiny and whatnot. It has support for 4 players, but only locally, so there’s another problem. But the single player … even on the “extreme” difficulty the AI is braindead. Playing it on the default medium mode, the game was over in about 30 seconds. On “extreme” it took a little longer. But not by much. And the control is that terrible tank style control that’s similar to the old Resident Evil games. So horrid controls, no Xbox Live support and totally braindead AI. Yeah, stay away from this one. Far far away.
*UPDATE* A person who I am assuming is the developer left a comment on this article, you just didn't see it when it was originally posted because I have to approve every new comment that comes in, and I was asleep. But, even though I don't like this game, I do admit my screwups and things I miss when they're made known to me. And whether I like a game or not, I TRY to be as accurate as I can in my personal opinion. So here's the comment :
Hey, thanks for trying ABC.
I’d just like to point out a few things you touched on in the write up. Yes, the game has AI, but it’s only to showcase the gameplay. This game is a complete and utter blast with 4 people. Add alcohol to the mix and you can spend hours on the game. Online play is coming in a patch.
There’s also 2 maps in trial mode.
Now, for one, I'm sure the game is FAR better when there are more people playing. I'm sure I would have a blast playing this after a case of beer or something. Of course, without Xbox Live support that's out of the question. But if it's coming in a future patch, I'm all in for that. Another thing I didn't touch on in the original writeup is the music, which is utterly atrocious. Take a loot at the screenshots, and imagine what kind of music would be in there, and you're probably right. It's boring and sounds like something that would've been on a first generation Sega Genesis game. Now maybe you can replace it with your own, I don't know. I don't have any music on my system, so obviously it's not something I tried. And I did play that other track, and it's exactly what I was afraid of from the screenshots ... it looks different. And while the look IS quite a bit different than the first track, that's about it. It's still the same little tiny play area with a couple of powerups that appear from time to time.
Of course, with all this game's flaws and limitations, Xbox Live support would rock just to get plastered and see those little avatars fly off the screen. It'd be even better if they just stayed there with just a dead car getting in people's way and being annoying, but to each his or her own. :) If you want to give it a try regardless, it's only 80 points.
The Golden Tee Golf : Home Edition TV Game from Radica Games
This thing has gotten a LOT of flack. I don’t think I’ve ever actually read anything good about it, but it’s mostly from people who are familiar with the arcade game. And it’s totally understandable, because though I’ve only actually played the arcade arcade version of it a couple of times … I know how fanatical people are about this. The arcade game is a GORGEOUS game that obviously plays extremely well with it’s unique and damned innovative trackball control scheme. It’s definitely a hard core game for video game golf nuts.
This is NOT that arcade game. Flat out. As an arcade translation, it’s pathetic. The only thing it has in relation to the arcade game is the name, the fact it’s a golf game and the trackball … which I’ll get to in a minute. This honestly shouldn’t have even been called Golden Tee Golf purely because of the hardware. A TV game setup is NOT capable of doing a good reproduction of it. And that’s how I’m going to review it, completely ignoring the Golden Tee name and just going on it’s own merits. Which it DOES have.
LED games on your iPhone and iPod Touch
If you’re around my age or older, you definitely remember these little things. There’s just something so damn addictive in their complete simplicity. Of course, to snag one off of eBay now would cost a friggin’ fortune for something that just has some lights and beeps at you. And, yes while those would be a lot better to have, there are people like me who want them, but don’t want to shell out of the money some of the nutballs want for them on there.
That’s where the iPhone and iPod Touch comes in. Someone has gone through the trouble of making as exact remakes of these games as possible on the platform, and they work great. Everything is handled from the clicks and beeps for sound, to the glowing LED lights. Hell, even that mechanical click of the buttons.
I used to have some of these when I was a kid, and while I have never really given two shits about football, I still played the hell out of the LED game for some reason. It’s just that approachable and that addictive.
This guy has released LED Football, LED Football 2, LED Basketball and, most recently, LED Basketball ‘78, which plays a lot more like an actual basketball game compared to the former where you just shoot your shots and try not to get them blocked. And they’re for my favorite handheld platform. Yes, even above the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Anyway, they’re $0.99 apiece, though I got the original LED Football free when the big football game was going on, so it’s up to you as to whether or not you wanna wait it out or not.
Below are some screenshots. They’re definitely worth nabbing if you have even a passing interest in the games of yesteryear and wondered what the hell people were playing before the Game Boy came along.
And if you want to give them a try for free, you can head over to Peter Hirschberg’s site where he has remade them for Windows (well, not ALL of them, but still). While they’re not in your pocket and they aren’t quite as slick as what’s on the iPhone and iPod Touch, they’re still friggin’ great remakes. And there's more OF them. There's Armor Battle, Autorace, Baseball, Basketball, Football, Football II, Hockey, Canadian Hockey, Ski Slalom, Soccer and Space Alert.
Don't let the simplicity of this stuff get to ya, or the fact that most of them are sports games. You're lookin' at a guy who can't watch a football game for more than about 10 seconds before he gets bored. And even I play this stuff.
Get your Sol Survivor fix on the PC through Steam.
Soul Surviror made a splash on Xbox Live Indie Games a little bit back, bringing us a tower defense game with some neat twists to the formula and, in my opinion, beating out the XBLA release Defense Grid by a large margin. And what added to that intense level of polish was the fact that it didn’t skimp on features like a lot of indie games on Microsoft’s service did having full Xbox Live multiplayer support. And now it’s out for the PC through Steam for $9.99.
Jump in to intense turret defense action with Sol Survivor! Build turrets to defend your colony and the innocent colonists within. Smash enemies with volleys of actively-controlled orbital support. Play with friends in co-operative and competitive multiplayer matches or test your mettle against our new Survival mode!
- Support abilities, allowing more direct influence in the battle.
- Select from one of 10 load-outs to fit your play style.
- Up to 8 player multiplayer with 4 different modes, featuring both competitive and co-operative play.
- Immersive control and camera design, giving a better view of the battle.
- Survival mode, testing even the most well constructed defenses.
- In-game encyclopedia, providing deep statistics and strategies.
- Achievements, Leaderboards and Steam Cloud support.
And judging from that last bullet point, it didn’t skimp all that much on features for the PC release either. Having Steam Cloud support is beyond awesome and something that every game on the service should have that can support it. And, in this humble blogger’s opinion, it’s all set up to kick Defense Grid’s ass on the PC front. Honestly, where a game like this belongs.
Mary-Kate and Ashley updated their Myspace pages a little bit.
Just a few pictures, but some kick ass pictures regardless. If you even still use Myspace (I log in less and less it seems), you can hit them up here : Ashley and Mary-Kate. The first two are Mary-Kate and that third, personal favorite of mine, picture is Ashley.
Paris Hilton in Mexico
Yeah, that thumbnail ought to give you the reason why I even bothered posting this in the first place. I personally don't care what you think of her given her reputation online, I only care what I think. And all I've got to say is "Damn". It's honestly been a while since I've seen pictures like this to be honest. Given the time of year, it's understandable. But this chick has enough money to go anywhere she wants. I guess the paparazzi are getting tired of following her around. Some of the pictures aren't safe for work, I'm sure you can figure it out.
via The Superficial
The Complete Computer History Museum Commodore 64 25th Anniversary program
I, unfortuantely, in the early 80's didn't have a Commodore 64 or any of the more capable computers of the time. I had an IBM PC with the green screen display, so I missed out on a lot. But regardless of what kind of computer you had when you were younger whether it be Atari, Spectrum, Commodore, IBM, Apple, whatever ... I'm watching it now and it's a great video.
Dungeon Hu released for the iPhone and iPod Touch
Now … normally I don’t go about talking about a game I know NOTHING about. And this is definitely one of them. There’s absolutely NOTHING in the description for it that would interest me at all … but at the same time there is. Check it out.
Dungeon Hu is an old style arcade game. If you like adventures, wandering in labyrinths and dungeons then this is your game.
The adventure goes through 6 different areas and 120 levels ensuring hours of exciting gameplay. You will have to deactivate traps, collect treasures, evade monsters and enemies, activate portals. Skill itself is not enough, you will have to use your mind and logic to complete the levels.
It certainly has a really cool look to it, and it looks like it has some content to it even though these 120 levels look like single screen affairs. I personally really like dungeon crawler games, especially Rguelikes …though I’ll readily admit I’m not any good at them. Of course … this looks a little more similar to something like Gauntlet to me, which isn’t a bad thing.
If you want to take the plunge and try it out, you can click right here for the App Store link. It’s a $1.99. I’m just worried that it’ll turn out to be some damned puzzle game and not a dungeon crawler.
And yes, I’m well aware of Rogue Touch and Sword of Fargoal … and if you’re for some reason not aware of them and have even a PASSING interest in Roguelikes and brutally difficult dungeon crawler RPGs then you should go and buy them both. I did, and of all the games that cycle through my iPod Touch … these two games are the ones that definitely ALWAYS stay.
Upcoming Xbox Live Indie Game : Breath of Death VII : The Beginning
This is being billed as a retro parody RPG for the indie games section. Now, my knowledge of RPGs is extremely limited, but I can definitely see some of the original Dragon Warrior in here (partly because that's the only one in the entire series I've played to completion. And that was 20 years ago). NaviFairy from Gay Gamer agreed with that, and also said that he sees some Beath of Fire (should've figured that one out myself from the title), Chrono Trigger and Castlevania : Symphony of the Night.
Here's the press release :
Zeboyd Games is proud to announce their upcoming game, Breath of Death VII: The Beginning for the XBox 360. Join Dem the Skeleton Knight, Sara the Ghost Historian, Lita the Vampire Techie, and Erik the Zombie Prince as they explore a world filled with the undead, searching for the secrets of the past. Game features include:
- Fast turn-based combat!
- Retro visuals reminiscent of the best of 8-bit & 16-bit RPGs displayed in glorious 720p!
- World map filled with several dungeons & locations to explore!
- Deep yet easy to understand branching LV-Up system
- Special multi-character techniques & a combo count system add strategic depth to combat!
All this for the low, low price of 80 MS points ($1 USD)! Breath of Death VII will be coming to XBox Live Indie Games in April of 2010.
And back to your favorite blogger, Dhalamar. Here are some screens for you to gawk at in the meantime.
Now, I'm personally kind of looking forward to this judging purely from the video and the screenshots because I'm a sucker for that retro look. We'll just have to wait and see come April. :)
A quick first impression of Street Fighter IV for the iPhone/iPod Touch
Been running through the Dojo part of it where it tells you how to do commands and things of that nature. And so far from what I've played, the time that they put into the touch controls really shows because this thing controls like a dream. It's really surprised me on how well it plays. Which is pretty damn important for a fighting game.
There's a little bit of a learning curve to it because it seems to default to the medium attacks then you choose different directions to do fierce attack and light attacks and the like. But I've been pulling off special moves like they're nothing. Including those fucked up "down forward, down forward + attack" super moves.