Microsoft have now moved the indies section back to the games and demo area of the dashboard after its brief cameo in the speciality shop area. Nice that they responded so quickly and fixed an issue that was bugging many XBLIG developers.
I know the section is fighting a tough battle with so many massage simulator titles and other assorted guff, but there are some genuinely good games available through XBLIG at a bargain price.
With nearly everything priced at or around 80 MS points, it’s the perfect place to use up leftover points from other DLC purchases… I’ve picked up a couple of fun titles that way myself and usually check the section every time I log in for new arrivals.
I’ve not tried it yet to confirm (minecraft too tempting right now), but apparently the new Xbox dash update tucks the indie games away into a “speciality shops” section along with avatar items and Game Room?
Anyone else find this a little strange? Why are they not listed with the demos, games-on-demand, and XBLA titles?
“Speciality Shops” just doesn’t seem right to me. Are indie games that specialist that they can’t be sold under the regular games section? Considering a large portion of XBLA hits originated with indie devs it strikes me as a little off that the XBLIG selection has been relegated to the area reserved for avatar fluff.
Very odd.
The universal greeting works every time!
I’ve been playing the multiplayer Transformers demo a little over the last few days and I have to say, I’m surprised at how good it is.
Don’t get me wrong, it wont bring anything new to the table that other 3rd person shooters already haven’t, but at it’s core the combat and controls feel very solid. Based on that fact, plus developer interviews regarding the story, the art direction (G1 FTW!), and the trailers showing snippets of the Omega Supreme/Trypticon fights.. I’m very optimistic for this title to say the least!
More updates after I pick it up tomorrow. Feel free to add me for some co-op action…
Back to regular gaming this week thanks to the new Xbox.
I’ll mainly be playing the following…
I still have a few missions to mop up on AvP but will be playing multiplayer to death this week. Rebellion really nailed this one in my opinion. With three different species providing three different play styles there is something for everyone here. The game is loaded with tension and atmosphere, and graphically the game is superb.
Jedi Academy is one of those games I’m kicking myself for not having played when it first came out and there were more people online. The single player, while good fun, pales in comparison to the online mode. A third person Jedi game that actually does lightsaber combat well, built on the Quake 3 engine? How can you go wrong?
Will post some more on these two games later this week after I get a good run at them.
Although I’m a big fan of the Last.fm service on Xbox Live, I cant help but think MS missed the target slightly with Last.fm/Facebook/Twitter integration.
Had they gone the extra mile and allowed some form of access to the services from other areas of the console, they would have been on a winner. As it is, you cannot listen to Last.fm while playing any games, only within the Last.fm area of the dash. The same goes for Twitter. Something as simple as allowing people to tweet from the guide button mid-game is sorely lacking from the service. Even some kind of pop-up notification system showing new tweets, similar to how the system deals with displaying friend logins, would have been something.
As things stand, the extra services are good, but a little extra effort and they could have been great.
The game is repetitive to the point of frustration. Clear a few generic corridors till you reach an ‘arena’ type room. Cant progress till every ‘spawn’ door has been closed and all enemies destroyed. Rinse, repeat.. all the way through the game. Little to no variety, pants voice over from Dushku, terrible script..
For entire levels the target reticle vanished. Fully vanished… multiple times. On more than one occasion Ruby (or whatever the main character is called, I really didn’t give a rats) took her ONE sword from her back and held it in hand, but magically the sword graphic remained on her back. Nice attention to detail there.
The end bosses die in about 4 key presses of a stupid quick time event designed to show off a silly cut scene of Ruby using her guns to block knife blades rather than shooting her opponent in the face. Seriously, the level trash takes more of a beating than the damn bosses! Who the feck thinks it’s a good idea to make the boss fight into a whack-a-mole mini game? When I reach end bosses in these types of games, I want to hand them their ass in a blaze of firey rage! If you have the player performing acrobatic gunplay all the way through a game, here’s a tip, make your boss fight the most elaborate, acrobatic, gunfight you can imagine… and if you cant imagine, pay someone to imagine it for you! DO NOT reduce these things to a cutscene and 4 button presses. Its called a fecking climax for a reason!
I know Bethesda only published the game, but c’mon! Did anyone play this stinker all the way through?
2/10 ..and that is being generous. Do yourself a favour, go rent it first and try it before handing over any cash. Or, go buy Stranglehold
or Max Payne
. Both games did/do slow motion gunplay a LOT better.
