The Xbox Live Marketplace is filled with great games from AAA publishers but far too often neglects its indie counter parts. There are some gems to be found if people take their time and search for what they’re looking for, which bring us to Raventhorne, the first game in the Xbox Indie Games Summer Uprising.
Some gameplay mechanics stick around generation after generation. They work so well that the only trick is adapting them to new technology and finding new design aesthetics to go with them. The “Metroidvania” style of game design is one of these, and the Xbox Live Arcade game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet has found a clever new way to use this kind of gaming.
Bastion is a very deceptive game. A casual look at screenshots won’t do the product justice. Even seeing video won’t fully demonstrate its most unique properties. Yes, the art is pretty, and hand-drawn to boot, but what makes it special is the way that all of those art assets come together on the fly as your characters moves, literally constructing the world around you while a narrator tells your story as you go, offering more of a spontaneous play-by-play than a linear narrative.
Developed by Atlus, Catherine has made the jump to the U.S markets from Japan where it was known as キャサリン Kyasarin. What we got here is a treat for both fans of anime and for those who are looking for something different, because this is something you never played before.
As
a longtime college football fan, I fully embraced my
local college team. Painting myself in blue and yellow and watching
games, the Cal Bears running out of Memorial Stadium became a ritual on
Saturdays for me. If you are like
me, then these are the memories that stick with you and that’s what NCAA Football 12 is. This is developer EA Tiburon’s latest stab at taking one of America’s favorite
pastimes and turning it into something you play on your console. NCAA Football 12 hits the field
running as it takes your favorite teams, stadiums, fight songs, as well as
rivalry games, and crams it all into one disc.
So far Cap has appeared as a playable character in games like Marvel VS Capcom and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but it took a blockbuster film to get him his own game and, while licensed games don’t have a good reputation in the game industry, Captain America: Super Soldier actually does things right. First of all, the game doesn’t follow the plot of the movie, and rather offers up a stand-alone side story in which Cap infiltrates a secret Hydra base run by Emil Zola. If you just like the character, or want to play an action game, you can still enjoy Super Soldier separately from the film.
“Reefer Madness” is the second L.A. Noire DLC that Rockstar has put out. Unlike the “Nicholson Electroplating”
case, this one is not based on real world events. “Reefer Madness”
takes on the biggest drug problem in 1940’s Los Angeles: marijuana. “Reefer Madness” is for the Vice
desk and will set you back $3.99. But is it worth it?
Like previous L.A. Noire DLC, the story for “Reefer Madness” is a diversion from the pain plot. The plot centers around a marijuana
ring in L.A. and your job is to shut it down. Normally I would be
excited about the case but it just doesn’t pack enough in there for me
to enjoy. The first thing you do is get your normal mission brief like
in all the cases and go to see a snitch who rats out the marijuana ring. Then it just becomes more L.A. Noire. When I first played L.A .Noire,
it was new and had me asking for more to experience. Here you’re just
chasing bad guys who are obsessed with silver dollars. This case really
does drop the ball in terms of storytelling that we came to enjoy in L.A. Noire.
Ms. Splosion Man packs a tremendous amount of fun into a downloadable ten-dollar game. Perhaps that high-pressure fun is what makes her so explosive? Actually, she’s splodey because she was developed by Twisted Pixel, the madmen behind the 2009 XBLA hit Splosion Man. The Girl Power sequel is not only better than the original game, but it will also teach you everything you need to know about women.
Dead
Block is set in the U.S. during the 1950s and takes place when a gallon of gas
cost a few pennies, when movies were in the “golden age” and when rock ’n
roll swept the nation and causes the decease in the walking
dead apocalypse. The campaign tells a story through a TV series, which portrays the fight for
survival of the three protagonists in several episodes. Every time you start a
new mission you get a short fifteen second intro that summarizes what you need
to do in that mission. It’s very original and I really like the approach to
this since the story isn’t the main focus. That’s a good thing because the
combat is horrible.
Five all new Call of Duty Black Ops maps have
exclusively hit the Xbox Live first as of June 28, 2011. Yes this means that
all of you Black Ops fans can now go and purchase the highly anticipated
Annihilation map pack from the marketplace. Following the previous two packs,
First strike and Escalation, Annihilation does not have much competition at
becoming a fan favorite. The folks of Activision put their talents and wits
together nicely for this pack, which could make it popular very fast.
