Here are a couple of XBLIG mini reviews

22Dec/090

Here are a couple of XBLIG mini reviews

The reason these are mini reviews is because these don’t even count as games to me. What they DO count as are complete wastes of time and MS Points. Not only that, but they serve to give the Indie Games section on the 360 a bad name. A bad name it already has in the eyes of the 13 year old Halo 3 players out there who look in there and only see these games instead of the great ones. Both of these are from a “studio” called Holographic Dreams, and I will admit they have a cool logo and a cool name. And hopefully they get to coding actual games instead of this garbage. The games are Pilot Test and Christmas Tree 3D.

First up is Pilot Test. This game is (supposedly) based on information that says real pilots take this test to … well … test their reflexes. And if that is true, I feel sorry for the pilots who have to do this. This is the gameplay : You’re a red box. And you’re avoiding other boxes and a couple of shapes made from resizing boxes. That’s it. You get more points if your box is full size (you get hit and it makes your box smaller), and there is a high score list. No music, though there is the sound of what I’m guessing is supposed to be a jet in the background. Virtually no sound effects. The graphics are just a static screen of a few dials and readouts and whatnot with simplistic boxes moving around. The menus, though a bit small, do look pretty cool though.

2/10 - I was diggin’ the whole ASCII character feel to it. But other than that, this is a repetitive waste of space that you shouldn’t bother with even on a bet.

And finally, Christmas Tree 3D. Now at least this has a little more to it. But in the end, it’s still a complete waste. You decorate a tree on screen in 3D. And a rather barren looking tree (you shouldn’t be able to see the trunk of a naked tree in my opinion). There aren’t really that many places you can actually put ornaments … just on the tips of the branches. There are a fair number of different TYPES of ornaments and different boring Christmas tunes to listen to while you decorate your tree with support for up to 4 players. It does look decent enough with wind effects and whatnot. But some of the globes aren’t even fully rendered and the frame rate plummets when you get in close. And everything looks pretty hideous when you’re in close. Which honestly, there’s no point in getting in close because where you can put the decorations is predetermined. You can zoom in and out and walk around it which makes a sound like you’re walking in the snow and save your tree. You can also make a pre-decorated tree and edit it down the way you like.

3/10 - In the end, this will only appeal to the type of person who likes to waste their points on seasonal shit that do nothing, Avatar clothes/accessories or both. It’s 240 points whatever ly you decide against it. You can download Christmas music for free everywhere that’s not boring. If you want to hear boring Christmas music, hit up PBS on Christmas day.