The Digest: With the fate of the impending NBA season looking doubtful, NBA 2K12 provides a respite from the monotony of the disastrous and plagued labor negotiations. NBA 2K12 is graphically pleasing and it contains an easy learning curve to hold you over for missing a few, yet too many, games; however, it isn’t refined adequately enough to relieve the pain of the absent NBA. Plus, the lockout punishes this game by restraining the rosters to those of last year.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: October 4, 2011
PUBLISHER: 2K Sports
DEVELOPER: Visual Concepts
ESRB RATING: “E” for Everyone
GENRE: Sports

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

With over 5 million copies sold worldwide and over 20 Sports Game of Year awards, last year NBA 2K11 allowed you to BECOME THE GREATEST with MJ & the Jordan Challenge mode. This year the NBA 2K franchise is back and bigger than ever, providing fans with the opportunity they’ve always dreamed of – to finally END THE DEBATE as to who are the best teams and players of all time with the ALL-NEW NBA’s Greatest mode. Featuring 15 legendary players such as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Dr. J, NBA’s Greatest let you relive some of NBA’s most celebrated careers and rivalries, painstakingly recreated in historical detail. In addition, several innovative gameplay features have been added putting fans center court of an unprecedented basketball experience.

PRODUCT FEATURES:
• NBA’s Greatest – Experience 15 of the NBA’s most celebrated careers and rivalries, painstakingly recreated in historic detail. Featuring such legends as Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Dr. J,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and more.
• Most Accurate NBA 2K Game Ever – Building o! NBA Today’s real-time stats, rosters, schedules and ratings, NBA 2K12 now delivers the most visually accurate NBA game as well. From shoes to player models and even court floors – every graphic detail of the game can now be dynamically updated. Broadcast style gets a boost as well with player interstitials promoting their upcoming games and dynamic pre-game highlight reels set to 2K Beats music.
• Enhanced Gameplay  – NBA 2K12 adds +1,000 new animations this year and delivers all-new control mechanics for post play and ball control to make the game more intuitive to play than ever before

Seeing as I haven’t played a basketball game since the original Xbox, I jumped at the opportunity to play the only basketball franchise available. Living in Chicago, the eclectic disappointment I’ve felt from other sports has led me toward the Bulls because my other favorite teams have failed to do anything notable, albeit the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. Whether the Cubs or the Bears, it has been the same story year after year. Now, Chicago stands behind Derrick Rose; we are thirsty for another championship (and to beat the Heat).

NBA 2K12 suggests that Chicago doesn’t have a chance because the Bulls are lacking an offense, which is a real problem in the game: it undervalues defense. Unless you are the defending World Champion Dallas Mavericks, whom can block nearly every shot because of their massive size, the defensive rating of your team doesn’t seem to matter. While the game does make it easy for one to play defense, by presenting an arrow towards the man you guard, the game is wholly based off of your corresponding player’s streak. Once they get hot, they’re unstoppable. Once they get cold, they can’t make a shot.

Since I haven’t played a Basketball game for years, I wasn’t expecting to do particularly well. The game contains a learning curve, but it is well executed. I was initially destroyed in my first game because I didn’t know what I was doing. However, I went into the Training Camp mode and became proficient in shooting and dribbling. Although I haven’t mastered shooting with the right stick, the game lets me use the X button in place which reduces the difficulty of the game immensely.

In NBA 2K12 it’s the little things that count. Obviously it looks beautiful as demonstrated by the pictures included in this review. From the reflections of the score monitors on the wood floor, to the tattoos on the players, NBA 2K12 is there to strive. The players also hold their own facial expressions. The game feels mostly like a television broadcast; however, it can, like any other sport’s game, contain repeated dialog.  Where NBA 2K12 excels in presentation, it fails technically. Throughout my numerous hours of play through, I encountered way too many glitches. Teams can be displayed twice in the league standings, players kick the ball before the inbound pass and waste 25 seconds, and I still haven’t played a lag-free multiplayer game. In terms of player ratings, they can  largely be unrealistic. Perhaps this will all be fixed from an upcoming roster update though. For example, Lebron has a 90 for 3 point shooting. Yeah right.

The game mode I spent the most time in is My Player. NBA 2K12 allows you to pick your position; then you are thrown into a game that will determine your future. For each game you play, you are given a grade that is continuously updated. Particularly frustrating are the penalties that affect your grade. Such actions as “calling for a bad pass”, or “allowing your man to score”, negate any positive progress that you might have made. And giving the ball to your teammates is anger-filled. They take bad shots. They don’t pass. They lose the ball.

In order to progress into the playoffs or into the next season, you must play “key” games. There are around 30 key games that you have to play each year. Nearly every game I played was against another masterful  point guard. But that didn’t stop me. In my Rookie season for the Golden State Warriors, I led the league in scoring. Luckily, I picked the Warriors in my pre-season interviews. You are interviewed by 3 teams, and depending on your answers, you will be drafted by one of them. Knowing that the Warriors suck, and that I had the best opportunity  to start with them, I poorly interviewed with the other 2 teams. When draft night came, I sat around for 5 minutes (because you cannot skip through the earlier rounds) while I waited for the Draft to reach the 12th pick. From there, my NBA career began.

After providing a glimpse of the greatest in NBA 2K11 through Michael Jordan, NBA 2K12 combines 15 different legends. After playing as Scotty Pippen, Patrick Ewing, or Larry Bird, and winning, you unlock their respective team and can use those teams to play against the normal NBA teams. I found a great amount of joy taking the ‘92 Bulls and beating the overpowered Heat by a large margin. Hopefully you will too.

From my brief online play, I was immensely dissatisfied. There are 2 different modes: you can play against one opponent, or with 5 teammates and against 5 opponents.  I can see the potential in both game modes, but the combination of the 2K servers being down near launch, the long time it takes to find a match, and the lag associated with the 5 v 5 games have led me away from the online play and into the other modes. Hopefully 2K will pick up the slack when the NBA season starts because the NBA Today mode has promise. It allows users to reenact the daily games with updated rosters, stats, and streaks.

Conclusion: NBA 2K12 is a great game. Although it contains glitches and seems to be just a minor improvement upon last year’s game, it is still the best (and only) NBA game on the Xbox 360.

Single Player: 9/10 | Multi-Player: 7/10

Special thanks to 2K Games for providing us with a copy of the game for review.

The Digest:

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: October 5, 2011
DEVELOPER: Robot Entertainment, Inc
ESRB RATING: “T” for Teen
GENRE: Strategy, Action

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:  “Orcs Must Die!” is a white-knuckle blend of action and strategy. 
Orcs Must Die! challenges players to defend fortresses under siege.  With a wide variety of traps and weapons to choose from, Orcs Must
Die! dares players to find the best ways to hack, launch, flatten,gibletize, and incinerate an endless army of filthy orcs and their vile
allies. Orcs Must Die! features a vibrant look, addictive gameplay, and a blatant disregard for the welfare of orc

PRODUCT FEATURES:  

• Play as the War Mage and defend 24 fortresses from an enraged mob of orcs and 11 other villainous monsters.
• Choose from a selection of 6 weapons and magic spells and 17 traps that hack, launch, flatten, gibletize, and incinerate your enemies.
• Upgrade your traps, spells and weapons to cater the game to your personal play style.
• Cleverly combine traps and spells for higher scores on the leaderboards.
• Expertly wield your wits and your weapons through the storydriven campaign and unlock a brutal “Nightmare” campaign.
• Replay fortresses endlessly, combining different defenses and tactics every time

    

Ahh killing orcs.  Isn’t it every mage’s passion to defend the rift and kill some orcs.  Orcs Must Die! starts you out with about as much story as you need to know.  You are a mage’s apprentice that gets called to duty and you get cool traps and you get to kill orcs to defend your rift.  Now if you want more story the developers have included a comic on their website and you can find it here.

The orcs are well dumb and what would you expect from orcs I’m sure they have small brains so all they know to do is smash through your door and charge forward trying to kill you on the way to your rift.  Now some levels have just one rift and some levels have multiple rifts.  That is where the game gets fun.  You do though get many items to help defend your rifts.

Orcs Must Die! gives you a variety of traps to help defend your rift.  You get your standard spiked floors that shoot up spikes when an orc runs over them.  You get arrow walls that will fire a flurry of arrows at any orc that is within range.  You also get spiked traps that will fall from the ceiling when an orc tries to run under them.  All of them cost a different amount of coin and each level starts you with a predetermined amount of coins.  Whenever you kill an orc you get coins.  Get a kill streak and you earn even more coins.  Not much deviation from the tower defense formula.  Until you consider our hero. 

The hero of the game is the mage’s apprentice who is thrown into action.  He is a caricature of a buff Charlie Sheen.  Throwing around terms like “winning”.  He provides a little comic relief but after a while his comments get a little stale and old.  But with the hero comes the difference of other tower defense games.  You can actually run around in third person and shoot the orcs yourself.  Or if you have some of the magical add-ons you can flame,freeze, or blow your way to victory.  My personal favorite is the flame powers.  You can basically lay down a flame wall and stand back and watch the orcs burn.  But each power you use drains your magic bar and if you are out of magic you have to switch to your trusty sword or crossbow.

The games level design is pretty good.  Most of the levels provide you with a good choke point to funnel the orcs through for easy death and destruction.  Other levels are more open and require finesse to kill all the orcs before they enter your rift.  Some levels provide free traps to help stop the orcs.  They range from a spiked log to a molten metal to free guardians.  Guardians are NPCs that will help defend your rift.  The archer guardians are very useful in defending against flying enemies.

The variety of enemies are good.  You don’t just kill orcs.  Because apparently the orcs found some buddies to help take your rift down.  You have a Gnoll Hunter who will hunt you and your guardians down and try to kill you.  And you have Ogres that are 5 times as strong as an orc.  You also have some flying dragons that can spit fire at you.  They aren’t much fun but they add to the strategy of which type of traps to choose to take them down.

The overall graphics are cartoonish but do the job well of conveying the overall fun factor of this game.  The enemies burning and getting squashed is pleasant as ever.

The game has no multiplayer concept and with the third person aspect I think it would have been a blast to co-op or play online with another person to take down some orcs.  I hope the developers can work this in if they ever create a sequel.

Conclusion: If you want to find a game that provides an addictive action and strategy together than this game is for you.  It is an arcade game at heart and great for just killing some time and taking out frustration on some orcs.  I gave it a 3 out of 5 but its probably closer to a 3.5 out of 5.

Single Player: 3/5 | Multi-Player: N/A

Special thanks to Robot Entertainment for providing us with a copy of this game for review.

The Digest: The Gunstringer is one of, if not the best Kinect games around.  It’s fun, it works, and comes with so much at a budget price.  You’d be stupid not to give it a try.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: September 13, 2011
PUBLISHER: Microsoft Studios
DEVELOPER: Twisted Pixel
ESRB RATING: “T” for Teen
GENRE: Shooter

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
The Gunstringer has you playing a marionette cowboy skeleton who is looking to get revenge on his old posse who betrayed him.  Using nothing but your hands and arms, you can shoot your enemies down, punish them with your fists, and avoid obstacles in a very unique adventure.  The Gunstringer is priced at $39.99 and includes a free download code for Fruit Ninja Kinect and access to The Wavy Tubeman Chronicles DLC.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• Budget price of $39.99
  
• Variety of different enemies, bosses and weapons
  
• The first Kinect game that can be played sitting down
• Two player co-op throughout the whole game
• Comes with Fruit Ninja Kinect download code and free Wavy Tubeman Chonicles DLC

Microsoft’s innovative sensor has seen a lot of hatred from hardcore gamers since its release back in November.  Sure, the technology is cool but there really have not been many games that appeal to that hardcore market Microsoft has lured to their system.  Twisted Pixel, the genius studio that bought us hits on Xbox Live Arcade such as Splosion Man, Comic Jumper, and most recently, Ms. Splosion Man hope to remedy this with The Gunstringer.  The Gunstringer is Twisted Pixel’s first ever retail title.  It was originally slated to release on Xbox Live Arcade but after Microsoft saw it, they helped to make it much bigger than originally intended.  Does The Gunstringer deliver as the first must have Kinect title for hardcore gamers or does it fail to live up to the hype?

In The Gunstringer, you take control of a marionette cowboy skeleton that has mysteriously come back to life after being betrayed by his posse.  The Gunstringer is after revenge as you will travel far and wide to kill The Gunstringer’s posse.  The game’s story contains four acts along with a prologue and epilogue.  Each act has four levels and a boss battle while the prologue and epilogue each contain one level.  The Gunstringer’s time in the west is a pretty nice length for a forty dollar title, five to six hours for your first playthrough.  You’re definitely gonna want to play through the game multiple times as you can use in game cash to unlock behind the scenes videos and extra modes such as a hardcore difficulty mode and even commentaries by the game’s developers and Rooster Teeth.  With all of this bonus content on top of the core experience, there definitely is a lot to see and do in The Gunstringer.  Each act in the game has its own unique environments, obstacles, and enemies, forcing the game to never feel repetitive, even if you are doing the same actions in each level.

In order for this game to ork well, the controls have to be completely spot on.  This is the first Kinect game one could play sitting down which makes it not as physically intense as other Kinect games.  You hold your left hand up to control the movement of the Gunstringer and your right finger acts as a pistol which you can aim at enemies by pointing at the screen.  These controls are used through the majority of the game and they work pretty well for the most part.  They are accurate enough to make the experience work.  It was not one hundred percent accurate though.  Peaking out of cover by moving my body sometimes didn’t work so well as I had to thrust my body a few times for it to notice me.  The pistol is not the only weapon you use throughout the game.  There is also a shotgun, flamethrower, and sword which you are able to use for small portions of different levels.  Your body really is part of the experience and I can definitely say it works.  Multiplayer, which allows one other player to aim and fire at the screen during the campaign is fun but I would have wanted to see more from multiplayer.

For the price you are paying, you are getting plenty of content.  You get The Gunstringer, Fruit Ninja Kinect, and the Wavy Tubeman Chronicles DLC which is a 40 minute interactive movie and is one of the oddest experiences you’ll have on Kinect for a long time coming. It’s still a blast to play however, and it’s free.  You’ll definitely need to play it, it’s an experience.

The Gunstringer is easily the best Kinect game I have ever played.  The controls work well for the most part, I can play sitting down, and the game has enough variety and personality to keep me interested the whole way through.  Twisted Pixel did an incredible job to craft a game with characters, settings, and gameplay which stands out from the majority of games released this year.  The Gunstringer with all of its bonuses represents the best value for a new game this year.  It has enough content to keep you busy longer than many sixty dollar titles.  If you have a Kinect and are looking for a great game, do not even hesitate to pick up The Gunstringer.  No matter who you are, you will enjoy it.

Single Player: 5/5 | Multi-Player: 3/5

Special thanks to Twisted Pixel for providing a copy of this game for review.

Right from the start, the FPS Freek EPICs fit easily on the analog sticks of the controller and are also very easy to take off.  These add-ons make the analog sticks taller and based on my knowledge of physics, this provides better precision when aiming at your enemies.  They do feel a little uncomfortable at first and take some getting used to.  The pads feel quite nice and feel good on my thumbs.  On the pads themselves is what looks to be the trademark Gear of War cog and a skull inside of it.  Overall, the FPS Freek EPIC feels great and looks good too.

They may look good and feel good but did the FPS Freek EPIC change my performance at all?  I’m pretty bad at shooters in general so I really couldn’t tell.  The controller itself felt a lot more comfortable with the add-ons than without.  I felt like I did have more precision when aiming and running around.  I played a few matches in Gears of War 2 and according to my statistics, I did slightly better with the FPS Freek EPICs than without them.

For fun, I also tried out a first person shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops with the accessory. I think when KontrolFreek said these were designed specifically for third person shooters, they actually were right.  I didn’t feel any improvements when playing a first person shooter.  Probably one of the most important features of the FPS Freek EPIC is that it is tournament legal so even when your competing in MLG or in any competition, these controller add-ons can act as great performance enhancers.

Conclusion: Overall, the FPS Freek EPIC controller add-ons only slightly boosted my performance.  They feel really good and you are guaranteed that your thumbs will not skip off the controller.  The design of it looks great and the add-ons are easy to slip on and off.  The fact that they are tournament legal makes them extremely appealing to competitive gamers.  For $13.99, I’d say it’s probably a little overpriced but for those looking for an easy way to get better precision out of their Xbox 360 controller for third person shooters, look no further than the FPS Freek EPIC.

Special thanks to KontrolFreek for providing us with the KontrolFreek EPIC accessory for review.

The Digest:

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2011
PUBLISHER: Activision
DEVELOPER: Eutechnyx
ESRB RATING: “E” for Everybody
GENRE: Racing

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:
Take to the speedway as yourself or as your favorite driver with this NASCAR® 2011 The Game™ video game for the Xbox 360®. Battle it out for the Sprint® Cup Series™ Championship while earning experience points that help unlock rewards such as decal packs or special car designs, as well as career sponsorships and special races throughout Career Mode.

PRODUCT FEATURES:  

• Features 22 real-world tracks and full pit stop strategy action to capture the real atmosphere, sense of speed and spectacle of NASCAR®
• Includes in-depth multi-player modes that allow up to 16 players to battle it out online
• Damage is meticulously detailed and multi-car wrecks are the most extreme ever experienced in a racing game
• Career Mode 

NASCAR race fans should have something to celebrate with the release of this game.  It has been a while since a full NASCAR simulation has been licensed so I jumped into this with hopes that this game could deliver a successful NASCAR experience.  When you start the game you get a few options.  You can jump right into a single player race or go to your garage or jump right into career mode.  I found career mode intriguing so I jumped right into it.  I didn’t feel right selecting from the large list of NASCAR drivers because as a newbie to the game I didn’t feel I would do them justice trying to fill their shoes.  So you can easily select your own name and own racing team.

The introduction teaches you the basics of racing from the HUD display to the pit options.  At first I found myself driving wildly across the track and wrecking about every lap.  After a few practice runs I finally got into more of a groove and understood how to properly handle the corners and properly draft without taking out the entire field. 

During the race you can switch from many different views.  You can drive from the 3rd person perspective (my favorite), you can drive from the cockpit perspective where you can monitor all your gauges, or you can drive from the 1st person perspective.  You can also easily switch within the race to see a side view of your car although I am not sure what the purpose of that function was.

The detail of the cars are great.  From every sponsor decal to the numbers to the paint scheme every car looks just as you would envision when watching the race on live TV.  And the track details are excellent.  The tracks stay true to their design and even the road coursed are just as annoying as they are in real life.

The car customization is really nice especially for NASCAR fans.  When you unlock the custom paint scheme you can really come up with some wonderful designs.  Now I don’t have an artistic touch but I would imagine people who do can come up with some great car designs.

But unfortunately that is where the good ends.  When playing the game you will notice that the AI is either really dumb or really smart.  If you have the lead and you can keep from crashing you are a shoe in for the win.  Until the last lap and the AI gets just close enough to bump you and you spin out and lose the race.  Now every time I wasn’t in the lead I would try to do the same.  But for some reason I would be the one spinning out and causing a caution flag.  Caution flags are another sore spot in the game.  They came so inconsistent you just wondered how the developers determined when a caution was necessary.  There were times I caused a 20 car wreck and no caution happened.  Yet one car would spin out and the caution flag would appear and the race would be slowed.  The really bad part is you can use the caution to your advantage.  You can intentionally go too fast on a curve gain 7 positions wreck everybody and when the restart happens you gained 7 spots.  Do this every lap and before you know it you are in 1st place.

When I wasn’t wrecking my way up the ladder I found other ways to cheat my way up the ladder.  Several times on curves I could go all out bounce off the wall and move up the pack.  Now if you turn on the car damage you won’t last long doing this strategy but I still think it cheapens the game to allow this to happen.

The NXP system also gets a big who cares.  You get NXP points for leading laps, passing cars, drafting, dominating a race, and big points for winning the race.  But the levels you earn do nothing more than get you a different title and unlock invitational events so that you could earn more NXP points??? The only purpose I saw was to get new paint schemes for your car unlocked and maybe new sponsorships.

The multiplayer is a disaster.  When I could get it to work it was buggy and a waste of time.  The game overall has a few bugs that will completely crash the game.  There are several times the short NASCAR The Game loading screen will lock up the game and sometimes the only way to get out of it was to turn off my Xbox.

Last but not least is your call man.  This is the guy that is supposed to tell you when you have an opponent coming up on you.  The problem is there is about a 3 to 5 second lag.  So your opponent is on you and sometimes passing you before he lets you know.  And then there are these random sayings about how big the shrimp is or how he can see everything from up here.  I understand they were trying to give this guy some character but it is just flat out annoying.

Conclusion:Eutechnyx made a good first effort in trying to recreate NASCAR racing.  If you don’t take the game too seriously you can have fun with it but most of the time you will find yourself getting frustrated and restarting a race.  Nothing burns more than to lead an entire race only to get spun out a quarter mile from the finish line.

Single Player: 5/10 | Multi-Player: 3/10

Special thanks to Eutechnyx for providing us with a copy of the game for review.

The Digest:

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: July 13, 2011
DEVELOPER: Catnip Games GmbH & Co.KG
ESRB RATING: “E” for Everybody
GENRE: Family, Classic, Puzzle & Trivia

PRODUCT OVERVIEW: Rockford™ and Crystal™, heroes of First Star Software’s Boulder Dash®, one of the greatest classic video games, get their bits and bytes together to make their Next Gen-Debut. Back in the 80’s, when hairstyles were wild and music was electronic, Boulder Dash® won our hearts. The creative and frantic gameplay mix required both our reflexes and brains to avoid murderous rock slides of Boulders and get our hands on those precious Diamonds in those original 20 fun-filled Caves infested by Fireflies, Butterflies and Amoebas. Now, our childhood heroes appear for the first time on Xbox 360 in Boulder Dash® – XL™! Leaving the essence of what we all love about Rockford’s classic quest for Diamonds intact, this all new Next Gen-Style Boulder Dash® includes 5 exciting Game Modes (over 150 caves), 4 beautiful worlds, new Gameplay Elements, Monsters and more Diamonds to snatch than ever before!

PRODUCT FEATURES:  

• 5 Great Game Modes, providing both old school-computer gaming fun and challenges
• A total of over 150 Caves to conquer across multiple modes
• 4 beautiful game worlds infested by old “Friends” and a cast of new, cool adversaries
• HD Graphics and detailed animation bring the hunt for Diamonds to life

Digging for diamonds is any robots dream.  In Boulder Dash XL this is pretty much all you get to do and you can choose between a girl robot called Crystal and a boy robot called Rockford.  But in an addictive nature you sometimes can’t collect enough diamonds to satisfy your needs.  The game has a pretty simple concept : dig, collect diamonds, avoid enemies, and make it to the exit before time runs out.  Now there is some strategy involved but for the most part you won’t vary from this gameplay.

The game doesn’t provide you with many tutorials.  Pretty much every level gives you a splash screen that will give you hints on how to help you along each level.  And as you progress levels you learn new tricks of the trade and some levels introduce you to further game concepts like using the extending arm, digging and pushing without moving, using dynamite, and describing enemy types.

Boulder Dash XL tries to relive the glory days of arcade by providing solid graphics and tried and true gameplay.  The gameplay mechanics are solid but I found the collision detection to be more than annoying on several occasions.  Your character can only move one slot at a time but yet your character would get hit by dropping boulders when you had almost moved to a different spot.  Another issue I have is on the longer levels there is no checkpoint system.  You could spend 3 minutes fighting and digging your way to the exit to only get bonked on the head by a boulder at the last second or squashed by an enemy and have to restart the entire level over.  This is painful at times but does provide a nice challenge to the game.

There are five game modes Puzzle, Arcade, Retro, Score Attack, and Zen.  You will spend most of your time in Arcade mode but for C64 enthusiasts who played the original will enjoy the Retro mode that includes the classic style graphics.  Puzzle mode is one of my favorites because it provides some great challenges and has no time limit.  Zen mode is pretty much an untimed mode for any levels you have unlocked so you can practice each level to get a high score. Score Attack is essentially fast and furious mode of grabbing diamonds quickly and getting high scores.

The enemies in the game for the most part don’t provide much of a challenge.  There are very few that don’t move in a constant repetitive motion so getting by them isn’t all that hard.  But sometimes when the time is short and you have to run by the baddies they can reach out and give you a headache.

Overall the graphics are average for an XBLA game. The retro mode provides a take back to 80′s style graphics but the other modes are colorful and full of life but nothing spectacular. 

The games level design is a mixed bag. Sometimes you get stuck with an endless maze and very short time to traverse through it.  And others are very short and take no time at all to get through.  I found the easier levels were the levels where they introduced a new enemy or concept.  But as you progress further into the game the levels do provide a bigger challenge and become more frustrating.  But as I moved through the levels I felt like I was playing the same level over and over.

This game badly needed some sort of multiplayer concept.  If they could have done a two player or online co-op levels it would have made this game a solid winner but leaving it out doesn’t hurt the overall gameplay.  The online leaderboards does give you some bragging rights but that is about the extent of online play.

Conclusion: If you were a fan of the original you might want to jump on this game.  But even a new gamer that has never experienced this game will find this a nice change of pace.  This game is arcade at its heart and anyone should be able to pick it up and play from young to old.

Single Player: 3/5 | Multi-Player: N/A

 Special thanks to Catnip Games and Kalypso Media for providing us with a copy of this game for review.

The Digest:

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: June 29th, 2011
PUBLISHER: ZEN Studios
DEVELOPER: Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB RATING: “E” for Everyone
GENRE: Sports & Recreation
PRICE: 240 MS Points ($3)

New Additions:

Captain America swoops in to save the day and continue his fight against Baron Zemo and the Red Skull while also creating a nice setting for the pinball table. The WWII-based theme is obvious from the very start thanks to the small but effective changes in music, sound effects, and color scheme. Like always, ZEN Studios has paid more than enough attention to the small minute details which include spreading war medals throughout the pinball table.

Captain America won’t be alone on his fight against evil- he’ll be routinely joined by the Howling Commandos as they make their appearances on the pinball table and in voice-overs with each member of the team having their own unique lines. From neutralizing the threat from Zemo’s Death Ray and the Red Skull’s Cosmic Cube, there is more than enough action to provide for hours of pinball enjoyment.

In addition to a wide array of characters and unique pinball-missions, the Captain America table offers 3 additional achievements totaling 50 Gamer Score along with the usual ability to play a local split-screen match.

Conclusion:

Maintaining their strong relationship with the community by continuing to release high-quality thematic tables, ZEN Studios has provided another great option for those looking to purchase new tables. Captain America certainly doesn’t fail to deliver and provides those who download this table with a fun single- and multi-player experience.

Special thanks to Microsoft Game Studios for providing us with a copy of the game for review.

The King is back, baby! Duke Nukem, the self proclaimed King is back; And he’s better than ever… Or is he?

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: June 14th, 2011
PUBLISHER: 2K Games
DEVELOPER: 3D Realms
ESRB RATING: “M” for Mature
GENRE: First-Person Shooter

Product Overview:

Did the Alien bastards not learn their lesson the first time? Duke has been on hiatus for some time now, kicking back and franchising himself on the fame he gained from savin g Earth from the first invasion. The Aliens have returned to Earth yet again, messing up Duke’s sweet routine of dirty leisure habits. The Alien invaders are stealing Earth’s women, especially the hot ones! And they drank Duke’s beer. This-Won’t-Stand. As Duke battles his way through waves of aliens, the once beautiful gambling haven and Duke Nukem franchise chains are crumbling before his eyes. Time to bring the pain.

Duke Nukem returns to kick alien butt, indulge in his infamous vices and save the world, again.

Duke Nukem is one of the biggest and most recognizable brands in gaming history. Irreverent, UN-PC, and uber-Macho, Duke Nukem is the perfect antidote to the overdose of today’s clichéd gaming archetypes. The game’s cocktail of alien invasion, busty babes, bawdy comedy and big guns never gets old. The highly anticipated Duke Nukem Forever is a celebration of what video games are really about: an out loud good time. The game is huge, with hours and hours of over-the-top single player action, and a range of bodacious multiplayer modes like Duke Match, Capture the Babe and Hail to the king, players can rest assured knowing that the fun will last.

Product Benefits:

• Ego, and Then Some – Step into the shoes of Duke Nukem, the steroidal one-man army who never fails and always gets the babes.
• Bust-a-Gut – Duke pulls no punches. He does and says the things you are thinking. Duke’s constant stream of hilarious one-liners throughout the game will h ave gamers rolling.
• World Interactivity – Spend as much time as you wa nt shooting hoops, lifting weights, playing pinball, pool, air hockey, and slots.
• Scale and Variety – This game has it all — packed with explosive FPS action, outlandish settings, vehicle driving, and puzzle solving — gamers will never tire of the endless fun.
• Multiplayer Like No Other – Duke re-envisions classic modes of play in his own hilarious and humiliating way. Shrink your opponent and squash him with your foot. Freeze and shatter him. Attach explosives to his back. Roll a pipe bomb between.

Duke Nukem Forever isn’t a game that can be easily reviewed by one person. It’s a game full of boobs, half naked woman, jokes making fun of homosexuals, celebrity humor, and other immature things. Within the first hour of Duke Nukem Forever you’ll fight a one eyed monster, receive a blowjob from two twins, drive a toy race car, twice and even pick up a turd (Yes, a human turd.)

Duke Nukem is a game that feels like it’s from the year 2000, and it should. Duke Nukem Forever went through development hell ever since it was first imagined. It originally was supposed to be released in 1999 but later pushed back to 2003 and then 2008. Duke Nukem quickly became synonymous with vaporware – the term given the games that are never canceled outright, but have no finish line in sight.

The game is an old-aged first person shooter that tries too hard to be a platforming/puzzle adventure games. Throughout much of Duke’s game you’ll be solving puzzles, trying to figure out where to go in a toy car, doing fetch-quests, and completing stupid side missions to boost your Ego. Ego is the DNF equivalent of a modern day health bar and it’s increased by doing trivial things around the world such as dunking a basket, lifting weights, playing air hockey, and even admiring yourself in a mirror.

The level design is one of DNF’s many faults. The campaign’s missions seem severely disjointed and seem as though the developers simply took a gaggle of ideas and through them in a hat, then picked out of random from it. For example; One scene from the campaign has you adventuring through “Duke’s Titty City,” the Duke themed strip club. Once done there, Duke wakes up inside a helicopter over the top of the city. That made about as much sense to me as being able to get healthier by looking in the mirror, but that’s just me.

The controls and graphics of Duke Nukem Forever also leaves much to be desired. The aiming is poorly done, often leaving the enemy or area out of focus or even non-rendered completely. The controls are very stiff, aiming down sights is non-existent, you simply zoom towards the side of the gun. The sprint is somehow unlimited, the fist-to-fist combat is horrible to control, the list goes on and on.

The game’s multiplayer (although being the best part of the game), leaves much to be desired. There are four game modes to pick from: Duke Match, Team Duke Match, Hail to the King, and Capture the Babe (which mirrors the normal Deathmatch), Team Deathmatch, King of the Hill, and Capture the Flag.

All four multiplayer modes feel largely the same in a sense; It all comes down to a deathmatch style game that feels extremely similar to Valve’s Team Fortress 2 with the winner being whoever happens to grab the Devastator Rocket Launcher that is placed on every single map. The ranking structure is very similar to Halo. As you rank up you’ll unlock new hats, shirts, and names for your Duke as well as unlocking new items in “My Digs.” Duke Nukem’s mansion is where you’ll unlock multiple paintings, statues, and various woman to prance around and ogle.

Conclusion:
Duke Nukem Forever had the potential to be a truly amazing game – had it been released back in 2003. As it stands now, Duke Nukem Forever simply looks like a immature homophobes excuse for a porno. One good thing can be said about Duke Nukem Forever: It manages to capture the great feel of Valve’s Team Fortress 2 for PC and bring it to console. Duke Nukem Forever certainly isn’t worth $60, and depending on your only capabilities it may not even be worth the $30 it sells for now. All in all; Duke Nukem Forever is a poor excuse for a game; especially by today’s standards.

Single Player: 3/10 | Multi-Player: 6/10

Special thanks to 2K Games for providing us with a copy of the game for review.

The Digest: A Physics based shooter with a ridiculous concept and fast paced action. It’s Feline versus Grannies in this ultimate epic battle!

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2011
DEVELOPER: Derail Games
Price: 80 MS Points
GENRE: Shooter

Product Overview: : A gravity based shooter featuring 25 levels, using physics and other weapons to push the grannies towards a granny grinder. A humorous 2D shooter that also offers up some fun moments mixed in with some challenges.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

• 25 levels
• Challenging
• Ridiculous concept

CTG has you controlling a cat with a gravity gun which shoots out balls ranging in different strengths, with the ultimate goal of killing grannies. You read that right, cat versus grannie in this epic battle to end all battles! The grannies are pretty upset, but there’s this one cat that’s fighting back, but he isn’t using his claws to defend himself, he’s got himself a trusty gravity gun.

At the games heart this is an action game with a lot going on at once. Before I dive into the games story, yeah… I already told you what that was, grannies versus cats – the ultimate battle, moving on… The game features 25 levels, the basic structure here is, use your gravity gun to shoot the grannies towards what is called the grannie grinder. RB is used for your standard shot, while the LB button shoots out a ball that pushes up the grannies a little higher. LT and RT are also used for other higher powered shots that you would use in certain situations. Fighting off grannies you’ll also have to fend off these yellow creatures. These creatures are needed in some parts of a given level to bite off bricks removing an area that was previously blocked. This allows for the grannies to come down a level if the bricks were blocking them off, but also serves as a way of clearing the granny grinder so that you can push the grannies towards it.

That isn’t all you will face, as you progress you’ll have to face off against others in your way such as grannies in a bus heading towards you, as well as scooters and a few other obstacles. The grannies attempts to throttle your assault get more intense and the action really picks up as the amount of grannies on screen really multiplies and will have you scrambling to take out the dozens and dozens of them. These grannies aren’t here to feed you and play with you and snuggle. Nope, these grannies will dish out as much as they can until you’re looking pretty much like road kill.

The grannies will come out of the walls, those yellow creatures that attack you are part of your ally initially when the level first starts in the sense that they can bite off bricks that are blocking an obstacle that you need cleared; however once that is cleared there is no use for them and they can be destroyed. You earn multiple combo points for getting more grannies or other enemies in the grannie grinder. The more you can get in there at one given time, the more points you get for a pulling off that 19 kill combo. The combo points don’t give you any incentive other than to boast about your score.

The art design is not the most visually pleasing thing, visually the levels don’t look much different. You’ll see different placements of pipes, you’ll see other elements changed in another direction, but the basic look and feel of the backgrounds and characters are all the same no matter what level you’re on. There isn’t anything that makes the hordes of grannies or other characters different, there isn’t a lot of characters and the one’s that are there are all just duplicated copies, and something you’re not likely to care to remember.

The concept of the game is a ridiculous one. It’s humorous, and will make you laugh. The game has its moments of challenging gameplay and it does well to take the fast paced arcade aspect and run with it.

Conclusion: Although not the most visually pleasing indie title it does provide you with some good challenging gameplay. If your looking for a challenge and fast paced action with a touch of humor than you may want to give this one a shot. Unfortunately there isn’t a definitive thing about the game that stands out. The attempt at humor and its comical nature does win some points; it’s just not an experience that may be as memorable as some other Indie games at the same price.

Single Player: 3/5 | Multi-Player: N/A

Special thanks to Derail Games for providing us with a copy of the game for review.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: May 18th, 2011
PUBLISHER: ZEN Studios
DEVELOPER: Microsoft Game Studios
ESRB RATING: “E” for Everyone
GENRE: Sports & Recreation
PRICE: 240 MS Points ($3)

New Additions:

A very blue looking table greets you once the loading screen finishes, and like always the attention to detail doesn’t disappoint. All four members of the Fantastic Four are alive and kicking on the tabletop, and they aren’t just there for decoration. Each of them has a unique ability and can influence the pinball in some way. For example, The Thing is able to smash the pinball and the table while Invisible Woman can set up force fields to stop a pinball from going out of play. These abilities are a nice touch and can prove invaluable during a game to help squeeze those extra points out.

Each character has their own set of dialogue which brings life to the tabletop, and they’ll make their respective comments upon racking up bonuses or letting the ball fall out of play. ZEN Studios claims there are twice as many lines of dialogue as any previous Marvel table, which could explain why each character has so much to say.

As any superhero would, the team’s goal is to save the world. This time, it’s an evil and dastardly Dr. Doom and Galactus who face the quartet and pinball bonuses offer a wide array of missions to stop them. As always, these missions are very detailed in animation, design, and graphics so once you get the pinball in the right place to start them you’re in for a treat.

Conclusion:

Once again, ZEN Studios masterfully brings the world of the Fantastic Four to life with brilliant attention to detail. Containing more, high quality and immersive dialogue and having the characters all interact with the pinball and table itself, playing the Fantastic Four table will provide a wonderful and enjoyable experience each time you load Pinball FX 2.

For the low, low cost of 240 MS Points ($3) you can snag yourself the Fantastic Four table, along with 3 additional achievements which total 50 G.

Special thanks to Microsoft Game Studios for providing us with a copy of the game for review.