Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on August 7th, 2007
Simplicity takes time. That's the only logical explanation as to why a chess game has not appeared on XBOX Live Arcade until the team @ Freeverse & Strange Flavour decided to release some popular board games for us to enjoy. The give us Checkers, Mancala, Reversi as well as Chess for a very tidy 400 Microsoft Points ($5). While the release is far from perfect, it is one of those cases where we take what we can get.
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on May 21st, 2007
Opening
I guess I'm a sucker for old school shooters. When I was a little chap, it was about the vertical shooters like Galaga and Centipede. As I grew older, I found myself starting to lean towards the horizontal shooters as well including R-Type. However, I did not find myself playing a shooter from start to finish until I came upon a game for the Turbo Duo (Turbo Graphix 16 w/super cd attachment). Actually it was the pack-in for the system. That game was Gates of Thund...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on January 7th, 2007
Gameplay
Hype. Hype is a piece of the media that we never want to admit to ourselves, or anyone for that matter, we let get the best of us. After all, how many times has the hype for something become so huge that it turned out to be a real bummer once you finally played it? When message boards started rambling in 2005 about a game coming from Microsoft Studios (made by Epic) entitled Gears of War, a small look into Microsoft’s history of product release, would easily entail a game that would ...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Michael Durr on December 17th, 2006
Opening
If you ever visit my house, you might be a bit underwhelmed from the outside appearance. It is a simple three bedroom place with a few trees and a handful of assorted plants. If I can concentrate on growing something I do fine, but since I'm not really used to the space, things can look out of sorts. So when I received Viva Pi�ata from the minds of Rare LTD, I was a little worried. Here I was given a new garden to cultivate and grow various plants, trees, & bushes in hopes of attracti...
Posted in: Game Reviews by David Annandale on July 13th, 2005
Gameplay
The maps range from the enormous to the intimate. The biggest are Containment and Terminal. Containment is a vast, snowy valley with fortresses at either end and tunnels running the lengths of the mountain walls. This is a map that makes one wish the multiplayer limit was greater than 16, as even the biggest parties can all but disappear in here. Its size does make it the map most amenable to vehicle combat outside of Coagulation. Terminal, on the other hand, is an urban environment reminisc...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on March 13th, 2005
Day 1 Studio’s produced one of the most anticipated games associated with the early days of the X-Box; MechAssault. This original game captured gamers with in depth gameplay, excellent visuals and great sound. What’s not to like about jumping in a 40 ton carnage dealing machine and blowing up everything in sight? The only drawback to the first one was a lack of multiple modes of online play. Day 1 has returned with the sequel to the highly successful MechAssault with MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf and ...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2004
As someone who thought the original Blinx fell far short of its potential, I came into Blinx 2 with relatively low expectations. I was mainly hoping that the problems plaguing the first would be fixed here, leaving us with a top-flight game. Sadly, that has not fully happened. While quite a bit of progress has been made (like the addition of multi-player modes, multiple gameplay styles, and the ability to make your own character), a few things don't live up to their full potential. My prevailing thought...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2004
As someone who thought the original Blinx fell far short of its potential, I came into Blinx 2 with relatively low expectations. I was mainly hoping that the problems plaguing the first would be fixed here, leaving us with a top-flight game. Sadly, that has not fully happened. While quite a bit of progress has been made (like the addition of multi-player modes, multiple gameplay styles, and the ability to make your own character), a few things don't live up to their full potential. My prevailing thought...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on December 23rd, 2004
It’s the first console game from game design legend Peter Molyneux, the force behind such revolutionary PC works as Populous, Dungeon Keeper and Black & White. You probably already know all about his talent for coming up with novel gameplay concepts and his unerring desire to break down traditional game design walls. And you probably already know about his grandiose plans for Fable, about the open-ended, realistic game world and the ability to be as good or evil as you see fit.
So lik...
Posted in: Game Reviews by Archive Authors on August 30th, 2004
The RPG market for the X-Box is really heating up. Within the last two years the X-box has arguably had the 2 best single player RPG’s out there – Morrowind and Knights of the Old Republic. And with Fable to make it’s entrance soon along with KOTR II in the works, it would take something truly memorable to make a serious impact in the RPG world of the X-Box. Sudeki is Climax Studios attempt to break into the upper echelon of the RPG market.
Gameplay
In Sudeki, you play as four different ch...
