XBL indie spotlight - I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1

I'm long overdue to write an article here, so here we go! While there's been many, MANY retail games that are well worth owning released this summer, it’s pretty obvious that with the economy the way it is and the sheer number of things going on in peoples lives that sometimes you just can’t afford to spend a full 60$ on something new. For those of you who are on a budget, there’s been plenty of great sales on Steam and some amazing PSN and Xbox Live Arcade games going from 10-15$. For people that aren’t able to spend that much either, this is exactly the type of game you’ve been looking for. Since Geometry Wars came out years ago, its formula has been reiterated and cloned many times, so it’s easy to think you’ve seen everything that can be done with twin stick shooters. Luckily, there’s some pretty amazing people out there that want to prove otherwise. Enter I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1: a game that I bought simply because of the laughable title, the fact that it only cost 80 Microsoft points (1$), and the incredibly minimalist box art which stood out in the Indie Games section. It sat on my hard drive for 2 days, unplayed but not forgotten, until I had some downtime two days later, so I finally decided to fire it up.



While its gameplay is still a reiteration of the tried-and-true twin stick shooter format, there’s a certain charm in its construction that has to be experienced once in everyone’s life. Since Portal came out, people have occasionally tried their hands at making a game with a comedic ending song (Portal - Still Alive, and You Have To Burn The Rope come to mind), but this game is almost built around this concept. While it’s fun to play on its own, the real humor of the game comes from the amazing song blaring in the background, which I don’t want to ruin here. The great thing about the music in the game is that just when it starts to get old, it switches into another version of the song and the map and graphics changes accordingly, along with introducing new enemies and weapons. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 is one of those things that might have benefited from online play or an online leader board, but even without it, there’s tons of laughs to be had each time you play the game. It’s hard to say too much about it without kind of spoiling or possibly overhyping the experience, so do yourself a favor and download it with those 80 points you’ve had laying around on your account or at least give the demo a chance.

Outrun Online Arcade review

There's a lot of people that have fond memories of playing the original Outrun in the arcade all those years ago, but a lot of those people are completely unaware of the fact that there is an Outrun 2 and one that was released on Playstation 2 (Coast 2 coast). Fortunately for any fans of the series or arcade racing games in general, OOA is completely new experience that still retains many of the same gameplay elements that made the previous installments so popular while incorporating some new gameplay modes along with achievements, multiplayer, and leaderboards to keep you coming back from more.

Gameplay - 8/10

Before you even start the game, you're asked to pick a car and what tuning you'd like. It's worth mentioning that every car is in one way or another attached the legendary sports car manufacturer Ferrari in one way or another, but regardless of your thoughts on the brand, none of this really matters aside from aesthetics because this xbla title is far from being a racing sim and every car pretty much controls the same. After picking your car, its color, and the transmission, you're then given the option to select one of 5 gameplay modes, the 3 primary ones being Outrun mode (finish a race against the clock, competing for score, with several moments appearing between courses where you're given a branching path, 14 various paths you can take to reach one of five endings) Time Attack (same deal, but the tracks are pretty much empty aside from ghost cars), and Heart Attack mode (do various objectives to impress your girlfriend to get a higher score while trying to make it to the end). The other modes are just an extended version of Outrun and Time Attack, taking you through all 15 courses in a predetermined order. As previously mentioned, this is an arcade style racing game, meaning that you're going to find yourself constantly drifting between traffic in a completely sideways position, all without losing any speed if done correctly, and you're constantly exceeding 150 mph. In the beginning, it might turn some people off that since you have a time limit, the only way to complete a race is by not crashing or losing too much speed to make it to the next checkpoint, therefore adding more time to finish the level, but once you get the hang of everything, you'll start to find yourself trying out the various paths, getting favorite courses, and maybe even venturing online or checking in on your position on the leaderboards. Unfortunately, even just a few weeks after it's release, it's pretty obvious that most people playing this are playing solo since there are so few games online unless you can organize one with a few friends. While you can’t full customize the controls, there are several presets available, so I’m pretty sure there’s something out there for everyone and for anyone wondering, yes, the game feels a lot better if you hook up a steering wheel.


Graphics - 9/10

It seems like so long ago when developers were complaining about Microsoft forcing all arcade titles to be under a certain file size. Outrun arcade looks phenomenal, and while it might not be as pretty as Crysis or whatever or major retail release; it is easily one of the best looking XBLA titles available. The car designs themselves are incredibly authentic to their real life counterparts while still capturing the feel of the old arcade version of Outrun. No racing game would be complete without tracks of course, and Outrun’s stellar visuals pass on to the beautiful environments. There’s nothing else quite like that first short track, speeding down a highway with your girlfriend in the car beside you as you dart in and out of traffic with the top down, sun shining, wind rushing through your digital hair and making that first turn or drift and can see the waves crashing against the beach out the corner of your eye. Each level is dramatically different in look and feel from the last, keeping you from feeling like you’re driving through the same environments unlike many other racers out there. Because the game is running at such a high framerate and the visuals are so well done, one of the downsides is that if you do mess up and either slow down too much or run into the back of another car, the generic cars and buses used as the traffic models feel a bit blocky. It’s a small sacrifice to make for such an otherwise beautiful title though. One thing that does need to be mentioned is that some people have reported issues with the framerate either dropping or freezing for a moment, specifically around the Milky Way track, but I don’t personally recall ever having that bug happen.

Sound 6/10

There’s definitely something charming about how arcade like the sound is, but just like many arcade ports have learned through the years, something that might work fine there doesn’t necessarily translate well to a console release. When you’re starting out your race, you’re also given an option of what song you want to listen to, but they’re that really bad type of pop music that you only ever hear in arcade games, and that’s mainly because you can’t ever really hear them clearly in those environments. Since most of the game modes are over within 5 minutes, you’re not going to be complaining about having to listen to the same song over and over, but you definitely might wish there were more, especially since most people only favor 2 or 3 of the songs anyway. As far as sound effects go, it sounds like an arcade racer, from that trademark sound of rushing air as you draft behind someone to your tires squealing as you drift as 100+ mph around a 180 degree turn. It fits the game itself fine, but I can definitely see why someone that’s into serious racing games or never spent much time in arcades might be a bit put off by it and opt to just use their own custom soundtrack.


Overall 8/10

Outrun Online Arcade is going to appeal to a certain audience, and I’m positive the developers knew this at the outset. While it’s easy for anyone to pick up and play instantly, some people are probably going to be put off by the fact that there’s not a free run mode to allow you to memorize the tracks, meaning that on your first few playthroughs, even on the easiest path, you’re probably going to get game over’s back to back. As a direct result from the difficulty of finishing the races the first few times, there’s an immense sense of reward for finishing the game, then slowly increasing your score and times for each path. Once you tire of Outrun mode, there’s always Time attack, but for people looking for something different, there’s Heart Attack mode as well. For fans of arcade games or arcade style racers, you definitely need this in your collection. If you’re expecting Forza 3 here, you’re going to be sorely disappointed, but it’s still an incredibly polished and addictive racing experience that I recommend everyone at least try out.

Geometry Wars 2 Review

When the 360 launched back in November 05, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved quickly became THE must play game, which was an unprecedented accomplishment considering that the title was only available online. When rumors began to surface of a sequel a few years later, many gamers found themselves returning to the previous installments, from the hidden bonus games in the PGR games to the retail releases on Wii and DS to practice, but nothing could prepare anyone for the second onslaught of the stellar gameplay of Retro Evolved 2. Taking all of the other games innovations and praises and improving on them in unthinkable ways, Retro Evolved 2 is a must-play and must-own title for any 360 owner, regardless of how you feel about the twin stick shooter genre. Where many others fail, Geometry Wars has returned to show everyone why it was hailed king of the 360 launch and is still one of the most successful titles on XBLA to this day.


Gameplay - 10/10

The original Geometry Wars, a simple yet addictive game found in the car gallery of Project Gotham Racing 2 quickly became one of the biggest attractions of that title and already had a dedicated following of gamers, even though the basic gameplay was simple and the graphics reinstating that. When Retro Evolved arrived, the simple shooter received a much needed facelift, added in a bit more variety in terms of the enemies, and showed gamers how addictive it could be when you were playing to get "just a few more points to go up a few spots, and then call it a night". While it was known for it's pick up and play gameplay, people were quickly drawn in to see how far they could push their own scores while trying to gain bragging rights among their own circle of friends to reach the highest spots on the leaderboard. For it's time, the game was perfect and still holds up remarkably well to this day. When the Wii and DS versions arrived, they introduced new gameplay modes and a multiplier system that stemmed largely from collecting floating gems called "geoms", all wrapped up in a game that presented the player with multiple planets to visit, each with their own goals. Finally, taking cues from all of the former, Retro Evolved 2 arrived during the flurry of stellar arcade titles over Summer '08, removing the planet system and instead opting for several incredibly different gameplay modes that were all twists on the standard "shoot ‘em all" formula the title had become associated with. Each gameplay mode has it's own leaderboard and the first thing it shows you when you sign in and look at the list of modes is the top scores on your friends list, which is motivation in itself to try to be the best at all of them. The modes themselves range from the standard Retro Evolved mode, which consists of you playing as long as you can, surviving against a constant onslaught of enemies, a new pacifism mode, where your objective is to run for your life, passing through gates to detonate large chains of enemies in order to score more points while being unable to shoot, to waves mode, which has a number of ships that appear on screen and fly back and forth until you eliminate them, making more and more spawn in different directions, then throwing in obstacles. Any single one of these modes on it's own would have been worth the price of entry, but considering that you have all of them for the low price of the game, there's absolutely no reason not to have it in your library. It's a quick to learn game, but thanks to the additional modes, the new geoms, and a new multiplier system, there is a lot more depth than anyone could have ever anticipated and the game definitely rewards those that invest time, yet appeals to almost anyone that gives it a try.


Sound - 8/10

The theme of geometry destroying (as I like to refer to it) has returned, to mixed results. On one hand, it's one of the most infectious songs in an XBLA title, almost capturing the classic feel of the nightmare inducing Tetris theme or the Overworld theme in Super Mario Bros. 1, but it's pretty much the only song in the game. The best use of the song is during Deadline, where the further you get into your two minute run, the more the music begins to swell, almost as if the intensity of the game is determined more by the soundtrack than the players’ actual skill. After a few hours of hearing this song, either you're going to love it and find yourself humming along or quickly looking for a custom soundtrack to replace it. The sound effects are pretty much the same from the prior outings as well, which isn't necessarily a bad thing and in a title like this, you really don't want the sound to be overly complex as it would detract the players attention from the frantic on-screen action. While there are no new sound effects or songs, it's a really nice addition when you find yourself being able to recognize what enemy is about to spawn as soon as you hear certain indication, such as the ticking sound that's made before random enemies pop up in the corners to the digitized swishing sound the snakes make or the wave sound as those tinier swarms make as the continue to spawn out of the corners, telling you exactly how many are coming without you having to stare at them and take your eye off the danger in front of you. You'll also grow to love the sound of a 1up as you have billions of enemies chasing you and billions of others in front of you.

Graphics - 9/10

The first time you start to play it, you probably won't notice that the graphics are even more overhauled than in the previous outings for the series, but I can guarantee you that once you start to play this game for a while, you'll find it hard to go back to any of the others. The excessive particle effects are back and look better than ever, especially when you start going for multipliers using black holes and gates, and then watching as countless enemies all explode into a puff of geometric stardust before your eyes. The background is very minimalistic, but that's actually incredibly desirable for a twin stick shooter such as this. The colors are more vivid than ever, making the game an incredible experience to watch to player and onlookers alike. While it might not have complex water color art or detailed bump mapping, what is here is something that's very visually pleasing to look at in a simple manner that is aided by insane particle explosions of your helpless enemies.


Overall - 9/10

This is one of those must buy titles on the 360. It's not as complicated as Halo or anything, but you'll quickly find yourself playing this over other titles as you slowly start to log in, planning on playing just one game, then convincing yourself that with just one more, you'll be able to push your score up just a little bit higher to beat another one of your friends. Thanks to the multiplier mechanic and leaderboards that are present the moment you load the game, you will quickly begin to sink hours at a time into this title that you may have been planning to spend on another game instead. While you may get into a few game streaks where you're dying almost instantly, the frustration is kept to a bare minimum with how quickly you're able to restart your session in seconds without any loading whatsoever and the more you'll play, the better you'll find yourself getting and understanding the mechanics more. Considering that the last game in the series was a retail title and all of the modes present in Retro Evolved 2 (any of them easily being worth 10$), this is one of the best values you can find on XBLA and deserves a place on every gamers hard drive.

A Kingdom For Keflings review

There comes a time in every gamers life where something is released from out the blue that finds a way into your heart. A Kingdom For Keflings was unfortunately written off instantly as being a cheap attempt to cash in on Avatars since it came out the day of the NXE update, but there's so much more to it than that. While it might not be another Halo, Gears of War, Fallout, or any of the other blockbuster titles, it is an incredibly easy to get into but very deep, rewarding, and charming title.

Story/Motivation - 7/10

There really isn't much to the game in terms of story, but there is something infinitely more compelling about just trying to see how large you can get your city to become. While the game does give you different missions to accomplish, it feels more like a logical progression of events than feeling like it's forcing these goals on you. Chances are that by the time you get into the game, you will set a mental goal for yourself to eventually make that castle and elaborate fortress your mind conjures up the more you play, so you would end up building all of the required structures anyway. A nice touch is that when you are able to finally elect a town leader by placing one of the keflings into the town hall, they are the voice that gives you the objectives you need to complete in order to gain more love (which counts as a resource. whodathunkit?) that in turn allows you to create more structures and have more keflings populating your world to do your bidding. The small bit of writing that is present is incredibly charming and once you sink yourself into the charming universe, you'll find yourself laughing at some of the more off the wall jokes. The reason I'm marking this section so low is that while everything that is there is pretty genius, it kind of feels like if they wanted to do it, they probably could have included a more story driven mode, since there's already a separate sandbox mode if you don't feel like doing the goals in the order they specify.


Gameplay - 9/10

I knocked it off one point because there is no cover mechanic which is ess...wait...wrong game! Keflings controls incredibly well and while the game itself may not be as complex as something as Sim City or Civilization, its simplicity is what makes it what it is. The big feature of the game is that you can either choose from a pre-made character or pop your avatar into the game and control them, which works somewhat like the creatures from the pc hit title, Black & White. Instead of watching your avatar freely roam about, you have direct control over their actions, which is a lot more intuitive than it sounds. While most games in this genre would have easily just placed a cursor on the screen, since your avatar takes up physical space and, while they may be a giant among the keflings, you find yourself moving some of the things around the town that the keflings would take a lot longer to do in a lot shorter time. The keflings themselves are people that you can assign different specialized tasks to and they continue to do them until you assign them to do otherwise. To be blunt, they are resource gatherers. If you were wondering, there are no enemies, so your main motivation in the game is again, to just build up your own city and to play it however you want to. If you find yourself getting bored or annoyed with a few of the keflings, you can pick them up and kick them, which is always a blast to do, and since the game isn’t to in depth, there is no hatred meter you need to watch out for. That's right, you can abuse your keflings all you want to and they will continue to do exactly as you say! Building structures consists of you going to one of the various factories that you construct, picking a building from the blueprint screen, then getting the various supplies you need and placing them in a predetermined pattern. Typically, building structures in these kinds of games is somewhat boring since it involves clicking on something, clicking on what you want to build, then sitting there and waiting, but since you're actively building the structures, it really does make the task seem to pass faster. A few of the larger structures that take a lot more time to build may possibly get on your nerves since you have to drag so many parts around, but overall it's not that bad. The one downside to the game is that, while there is a sandbox mode, the overall size of the world, which initially feels gigantic, starts to feel more and more confined as you start running out of resources and expanding your kingdom in every direction possible. Just to reinforce it, it needs to be said that this is not the most complex game ever, so don't expect having to build sewers or work out traffic routes, but what the game does give you for the low cost of 10$ is an incredibly enjoyable experience that really stands out and has a really creative use for avatars.

Sound - 5/10

Sound is not this games forte. The music, while it does reinforce the lighthearted feel of the world, quickly becomes grating since there's only a song or two. Luckily for 360 owners, there's always the custom soundtrack feature! The keflings themselves really don't have much to say, so the entire game is just pretty quiet overall, aside from the one song that's constantly playing. At the same time, if you were picking this game up expecting some sort of awesome sound effects, epic score, or whatever, you're probably in the wrong place anyway!


Graphics - 8/10

Similar to Fable, this game has its own unique style and that's why the graphics excel. While it's obviously not going to be on par with any of the major retail releases, it does hold it's own against most of the originals games present on XBLA. The characters that are already included in the game each has their own unique look that really captures the feel of being a hero, but most people are more likely to dive in and insert their own avatars instead. While there aren't any options for customization in game, it still looks pretty neat to see your avatar running around the lush world of KFK, gathering resources, helping the Keflings, etc. The Keflings themselves only come in a male and female variety, but as you gain more facilities and have them specialize in things, you'll notice small details, such as educated citizens wearing hats, shepards that carry canes with them, loggers pulling out their axes when the duty calls, and all sorts of other minor flourishes that really help to characterize your citizens. The world isn't as fleshed out as it could be, but it still looks very nice and has a slightly cartoon-styled look. As you play, you'll find yourself progressing through the different seasons, each showing its highlight, such as flowers beginning to bloom in spring to the cascading snowfalls of winter. Perhaps because I bought the game not expecting much out of it, I was more than surprised to see all that it offered when it came to the graphics, and the only part that I can distinctly remember any slowdown happening at was when the season transitioned to Winter and the snow falls, which is only temporary and doesn't really break the game. Speaking of the snow, another minor touch that was unnecessary but really helps is that during that season, the snow accumulates on the buildings. To go further into the type of customization you can do in the game, eventually you gain the ability to construct a paint shop, which allows you to designate one kefling as a sort of paint brush for your buildings. Using the basic structure, you have a palate of colors to choose from that, albeit basic; really help you make your kingdom your own. This aspect alone distracted me for probably an hour or two, as I went around randomly changing the colors of buildings until I figured out what way would benefit my playing style the most. Just to completely make you feel as though you are in control of these keflings, or that they are strongly dependent on you, until you designate a job to them (which is done by picking them up as they dangle helplessly in your grasp until you drop them on a building), they kind of follow you around and occasionally yell out to get your attention, which may be the cutest thing ever in a strategy game.


Overall - 8/10

Kingdom For Keflings is a surprisingly deep and addictive title, especially if you are a fan of the city building genre. As I've previously stated, don't go into it expecting Sim City or Civilization, but just a game that shines for what it is. Sadly, a lot of people are likely to pass this up because Microsoft did a terrible job of explaining what it was, but for anyone who does at least give it a shot, it's likely to find a permanent spot in your heart and really does deserve a purchase for it's low price. Due to me not having many friends with the game, and the ones I do are rarely on at the same time, I was unable to test out the multiplayer functionality, but it does sound like it would be a lot of fun to invite a friend to your city and enlist them to help you build! Of course, it's more likely that they would try to impede your progress, but since there is no real sense of losing in the game, it's almost entertaining to try to cause mayhem. Lastly, while the world isn't gigantic, it is big enough for you to completely lose yourself in for hours at a time, staying up to try to get just a little bit more love to make another house to get a few more keflings in your town. There's also a sandbox mode if you feel like just doing whatever you want to whenever you want to, which does open up the free-form factor of the game even more. If you've got the change, you should definitely pick this up, but if you're skeptical or don't have the money on you, do yourself a favor and at least try the demo.

Weapon of Choice video preview

Fable 2 review

This is your story

Fable 2 is a strange beast. It’s one of those titles that actually might be overlooked by many due to its release date, but will probably stand up as being one of the better games of the year. There’s a lot that’s been improved upon while a lot that still needs to be tweaked or minor additions that could have made this game a 10 out of 10 easily. Still, it’s an enjoyable experience for any gamer, whether or not they are fans of RPGs.

Story – 7/10

With a game that’s ambitious as Fable II, it’s a bit shocking that the story is almost underwhelming. Perhaps it’s due to insane amounts of hype, with Peter Molyneux referring to the game as being the one that fixes all of the problems and missing features of the original, but after playing some other newer games in different genres, it’s obvious that this is a weak factor. As did the original, this game takes you through the life of a hero that you are able to develop throughout the course of the adventure. While there is a lot that you can do in the world, the main story is fairly linear so don’t expect to get too sidetracked as was the case with Oblivion and most likely Fallout 3. Ultimately, the game is a quest for vengeance and justice, which is kick started by a plot twist in the first hour of gameplay. Aside from that, you do meet other significant characters, but part of the weakness of the game is that it relies heavily on a reputation system to unlock new quests, which can only be earned through side missions. So, while you might want to just press on through the game and follow the main story, eventually you’re going to be forced into doing side missions that have no impact on the story and actually detract from the experience because you kind of forget what it was that you were doing. The other characters you meet in your adventure all do feel as though they have their own lives and motives, which is a nice addition, but even with them, you’re really only on a few missions directly involving them so you won’t find yourself getting as attached as you would to your party in a traditional RPG. The end of the game also felt very…forgettable. I do like the fact that the game presented you with a primary villain at the beginning and you continue to pursue him throughout your life, but the ending just didn’t feel like it was what I was waiting for. The story in the game isn’t that bad and this would probably have been more impressive had their not been such high expectations. Lastly, there’s this really bizarre feeling that none of the characters go through any development. When you meet them, because they’re only with you for a short time, whatever it is that they portray, they stay there all the way through the end. On the plus side, the world that they crafted does feel as though it is actually a living environment with real human beings instead of AI that waits until you activate their trigger.



Gameplay – 10/10

I’m not going to lie: when I first started playing Fable II, I was absolutely loathing most of the gameplay mechanics. I didn’t like the fact that there wasn’t any range with the ranged weapons and that there was no zoom, there was just a basic hit for melee, there weren’t that many expressions and they didn’t seem to have any real effects. My list could go on and on with all of the things that are broken about the game, which is exactly why Fable II succeeds incredibly well here. Using a leveling system similar to that found in Oblivion, you gain 4 possible types of experience from fallen foes: Will (magic), Skill (ranged attack), Strength (…strength?) and General (…I’m not explaining this one). When you first encounter the experience orbs, it’s really confusing on what it is that you’re supposed to do. By holding down the right trigger, the hero summons all of the experience towards them, which can be used to buy and upgrade abilities. It’s in this part where you really start to see Fable II shine. Whereas most games that have this combat mechanic automatically level you up and force you to find or buy tomes to learn spells, Fable leaves the choice of what you do with the experience to you. By accessing the abilities section in your menu, the game shows you all of the possible skills that you can learn, and there are an insane amount of them. Generally speaking, most people are going to need to use melee combat simply so they can gain the toughness and physique skills, which increase HP and melee damage, but just a glimpse into the Skill section shows you how much this plays a part of the game. If you choose to focus on the Dexterity option, you’ll slowly start to gain more and more control over how you attack your foes from a distance. By the end of the game, I had this ability leveled up so that I could quickly dodge, zoom in, then aim for a head and scoring a headshot, which is an instant kill on most enemies. The Will screen has several spells from you to choose one and not a single one of them is useless. At lower levels, there’s not too much of a benefit, but if you focus specifically on one or two of these, you realize how important they are and how quickly they can turn the tides in combat. Speaking of these abilities, it’s important to know that whatever you choose to focus on has a direct impact on your characters appearance. If you choose to focus on magic, eventually your character shows glowing will lines running across their body. Focusing on melee makes your character more muscular. Ranged attacks allow you to slowly grow in height, and while none of those affect the real gameplay, it’s a nice little addition. There’s plenty of jobs and quests to be found, so you might actually find yourself taking the WoW approach of visiting a town, taking every quest possible, then completing them and gaining the reputation boost by finishing them in quick succession.




The job system is new to me here in console RPGs at least. You can find different jobs hiring throughout the world, but they’re basically minigames that earn you money. The better you do and the more gold you accumulate allows you to increase in that job skill, which earns you a higher base pay and more money as you max out your multipliers. Something else that really is a different perspective on RPGs is that you don’t ever really level up. Because you’re constantly trying to improve your abilities, it’s technically possible to defeat everything in the game if you can purchase a powerful enough weapon and are skilled with the in game combat mechanics. There’s the real estate and homeowning systems, which aren’t super deep, but are incredibly beneficial in the long run. As you earn money, instead of investing it in items for yourself, you could go buy property to move into alone or with your family or rent it out. If it’s a shop, you have direct control of the price margin, which can also affect your appearance. Marking up prices, while it may earn you more money, will affect your corruption stat which alters your appearance and people’s response to you. Marriage and having children is in the game, and it’s another nice addition that wasn’t really necessary. In order to convince people to marry you, you just have to do things they like, give them presents and… bam. Once I reached adulthood, it literally took me 5 minutes to get married for the first time, then another 2 to find a house and have a kid. While your child does grow, it’s important to know that they don’t do anything that affects the real game, so don’t expect to go back through the game again playing as your child. Peter Molyneux got too ambitious again, I guess! Last but definitely not least is the good and evil system. Most of the actions you do don’t really affect the outcome of the game, with a few minor exceptions. I took the evil approach from the outset and as a result, one of the towns in the game looked completely different when I got older and had a different group of citizens populating it. If you chose to do more and more nefarious deeds, you’ll eventually find yourself sprouting horns, with altered skin color, and citizens running in fear at your mere presence. While this might sound like a downside, it does have some nice benefits: unless they hate you, store owners are more inclined to give you discounts out of sheer fear for their lives and villagers will be so frightened that they give you presents (…what?) Sure, you could be nice and have all of the same things ultimately, but I mean…if I see a person that has a present, instead of wasting time and being nice, I could easily just turn off the safety mode and kill them to get it! Trust me, it saves a lot of time! The total playtime for me was 21 hours, but you might be able to finish it in 16 or so if you sprinted through everything and didn’t get involved in the marriage or property owning thing. Oh. There is no minimap, which means you’ll have to go into the menu, wait for it to load, then look at where you want to go and set it as an objective, leave, causing it to load again, then load the next scene. It’s not the best thing ever, but ultimately, it didn’t detract too much from my experience.



Sound – 6/10

This was a super weak effort in my opinion. There’s nothing in the game that really stands out to me when it comes to sound, especially after having playing Dead Space right before this. While there’s plenty of talking in the town, it really does sound like there are only about 3-4 voice actors/actresses for the hundreds of townsfolk you meet. I understand that it’s impractical to hire a lot of actors, but.. even the game points out during the loading screen that all of them sound the exact same. There could definitely have been some work done here. The weapon effects are pretty underwhelming as well, even considering that they are just standard swords and crossbows for the most part. The enemies don’t really sound as menacing as they look, with perhaps the exception of the bandits that you face which do occasionally yell something at you. The banshees are particularly creepy because of the altered voices they have, voices barely emanating above a whisper, but I only encountered 5 of them at the most in my playthrough, and they aren't around until the last few hours. There’s funny dialogue written in there, but you seldom get to hear it. Lastly, there’s the soundtrack. It’s a really good soundtrack but, there’s like..1 or 2 songs, just as in Morrowind. Taking that into consideration, I’ll take my same opinion and refer to the song as The Love Song Of Fable. Thank heavens for custom soundtracks! The Heroes also have some very distinct voices and each sounds injected with their own personality, sans the main character (who is a mute hero in the vein of Crono from Chrono Trigger).

Graphics – 8/10

When you first start up the game, you’ll probably be visually offended by the horrendous character models, which are the same as the ones from Fable 1 on Xbox, but with more detail. The world is just another drab city, full of browns. The main characters walking and running animations is, to put it a nice way, very animated and cartoony. With all of those negatives, it’s amazing how the weird character designs start to grow in you. Instead of trying to make hyper realistic characters, Lionhead stuck with a very cartoon-like style, but utilized a very imaginative color palate. The easiest way to tell that this was the look they set out to achieve is that almost none of the models suffer from any texture warping or jagged edges that usually results when people try to upscale lower resolution models. After you grow, you get to finally adventure into the world and it really is quite impressive. The entire world is actually reminiscent of Oblivion, but with the character models, it almost reminds me more of World of Warcraft. Due to the artistic style though, it’s very obvious that some are going to be a bit refrained in actually enjoying the game since it’s not really designed to look like something for everyone. Just think about it as if you’re reading a fairy tale, or… a fable! Ha! I made a pun!



Overall – 7/10

If you go into this title expecting a successor to Oblivion that features a more developed storyline, actions taking a strong effect on the world (such as completely changing it), playing as your child, etc, you’ll be completely let down here. The way the game was hyped portrayed it was like that, but in reality, it’s a bit closer to being a blend of World of Warcraft and Zelda. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do know a lot of people will probably pick this up expecting something a bit different. In terms of replayability, there are 3 different endings, but from personal experience, the one I made didn’t seem to make too much of an outcome on anything and doesn’t really make you feel like you need to play through it again. While the game is 20 hours, I would actually recommend most people to rent it if possible instead of investing 60$ into the title. There’s better purchases out there this holiday season, so wait for an inevitable price drop or pick it up as a rental.

Castle Crashers Review

It seems like it was ages ago when Castle Crashers was

supposed to see the light of day. I remember how excited

I was, yet somewhat hesitant to play this new game from

Dan Paladin, the creator of Alien Hominid. Every time it

was shown at a press event, it was met with critical acclaim

but for some reason, it always got delayed and pushed

further and further away. Well, with the game now

available on XBLA, I can comfortably say that the wait

was totally worth it. 

Castle Crashers is one of those games that, on paper,

sounds extremely cliched and somewhat boring, but its

execution is unparalled by any other titles that have been

released. At it's heart, all the game really is is a a simple

beat-em-up, in the vein of Streets of Rage, Final Fight,

or Double Dragon, but what it does is what makes it stand

out. The gameplay feels extremely solid, allowing the player

to actually improve in gameplay to the point where they

can make it through entire levels without taking any

damage, something that can't be said for many other games

in the same genre. The graphics are done in that same

style as Alien Hominid, his previous gaming endeavor. Just

like the game preceding it, it's easy to fall in love with the 

adorable, if vicious characters and enemies you encounter.

Just like any good sidescrolling game like this, there are three

main buttons you focus on. Hit. Hit harder. Jump away. Is there

anything else you need? Why, in fact...THERE IS! Instead

of ending there with just the basics, the game has a blocking

mechanic, an inventory that you can go through on the fly by

tapping the bumpers, and even a magic system. Another 

unique take on the genre is that instead of just going through

the levels in a linear fashion, you are able to increase your characters

stats as you level up from fighting enemies. Another bonus is that

instead of just stopping at two players, the game is four players,

with four characters availible from the start and many more are 

unlockable as you progress through the story. Just in case you

feel lonely, you are also able to find different pets, each with their own

unique abilities. Some assist you by helping you find items, others

boost stats, others even help you fight, even though they aren't the

most damaging things. 

The environments are extremely varied, and it's cute to see that

they implemented some of gamings cliches and embrace them

instead of trying to cleverly hide them. Boss fights? Check.

Ice world and Lava world? Check. Fighting teammates to the 

death for the love a woman? Check. It's all here, folks, and it's 

all done flawlessly. The fact that the game was rendered with

HD in mind really does help the characters stand out, looking 

incredibly vivid and it also breathes life into the environment.

Castle Crashers offers a few additional features that help

ensure that you get the most out of your money. One

of the things that's incredibly important for a title like this is

yes, it does have online multiplayer. Fully fleshed out at that.

You are able to go through the entire single player game with

friends or strangers, bringing your own character into the fray,

and the best part of all is that any money, items, pets, or experience

gained online is kept and allowed to be used offline as well, so

you don't have to worry about making separate characters. There's

also the offline four player, which is a feature many games are lacking

nowadays. 

In short, the game is long enough to keep you engaged, has

enough depth to keep you coming back for more, and 

is simple enough that you could play it with your family.

The humor will have you smiling throughout, and the imaginitive

environments will keep you coming back for more. All in all, I'd give

this game a solid 9/10. Once the few online issues there are are 

hammered out, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't have

this in your collection.