Super Splatters - PC Review

I have played a lot of puzzle games over the years, but The Splatters came across as something quite different when I was first introduced to it last year. There is a lot more to it than the typical puzzle games, which usually present themselves with some strategy such as aligning three colors in a row or working disparate shapes into one another to create full rows.

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Sagi Koren of SpikySnail Games - Interview

When The Splatters first came out, I was fortunate enough to get to play it right off of the bat. I enjoy a good puzzle game, and this physics-based title is one of the best I have played to date.

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Dragon's Dogma - Xbox 360 Review

I have been following Dragon's Dogma pretty much since it was first announced.  I play a wide variety of games for the most part (just this week I have been playing a JRPG, a trio of mobile CCG's, a platformer on PSN, an NFL game on my PS3, a FPS on my 360 and an online competitive medieval title on my PC - there's been variety).  That being said, Dragon's Dogma falls into the space I am most comfortable in - Fantasy RPG.  Obviously, there is a lot of wiggle room from there, whether you are playing a more turn-based affair like Final Fantasy or something more action oriented like Dark Souls.

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The Splatters - Xbox Live discount this week

Good morning, everyone.

The Splatters was a title I really enjoyed and scored it an 8 out of 10 when it first came out.  It's a puzzle game with some serious physics at work, with a graphic style that sort of reminded me of the Worms series with its use of colors and odd animations.

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What have I been up to? Some Gaming Thoughts...

It would seem like with me regularly working 55-65 hours a week over the last month, my dad visiting from Florida for a couple of weeks and the kids starting up on school again that I would be struggling to find time to play games, but that really has not been the case.  I think what I'm sacrificing (other than sanity) is sleep as a result.

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"Broken" Fez patch to be placed back on Xbox Live

I have not played Fez myself, but the game released to considerable acclaim on the Xbox Live network.  Then they updated it with a new patch that was quickly rumored to have a serious bug in it - one that could corrupt your game saves.  Accordingly, that patch was pulled down and the team at Polytron began to investigate the issue.

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Double Dragon: Neon - screens and thoughts

So as a kid?  Huuuuge fan of all things Double Dragon.  Probably one of the first arcade games I played and actually beat - no easy feat when you're playing cabinets meant to eat your quarters as quickly as possible.  Now there has been an announcement that Double Dragon Neon will be coming out later this year.

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Mass Effect 3, NBA Jam, Final Fantasy XIII-2, Kid Icarus and game deals

I have had a pretty focused run on games over the last week or so.  Once I beat Sakura Wars and Kingdoms of Amalur, I decided to beat up on Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Mass Effect 3.  I'm only about twelve or so hours into Final Fantasy at this point, but I am enjoying the game quite a bit so far - but then I enjoyed the initial XIII as well.

I am really enjoying NBA Jam: On Fire Edition for the PlayStation 3 as well.  I squeeze in a quick match or two every morning before work, and have been for about two months now, so hopefully I'll get a review of that up in the near future.

Finally got my copy of Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS yesterday (I had it on pre-order, but standard shipping.  I wanted to play it pretty quickly, but I knew I'd have a day or two of playing some other title by the name of Mass Effect 3).  I can only say that my initial impression is pretty positive.  I loved the pre-order bonus of the original Kid Icarus game from the NES, but 3D-ized (yup, that's a word now.  True story).  I haven't touched the original in soooo long (despite having the old cartridge still bouncing around here next to our NES).  My son has been giving Icarus a thorough playing so far too, already on level 5 and having done a lot of multiplayer, which he says is pretty awesome.

And then there's Mass Effect 3.  I know this release has been polarizing people, and no - I haven't seen the ending yet.  Based on what I have heard, I suspect I will be slightly disappointed because my actions do not greatly effect the ending from what I have seen and heard.  However, there is talk now that Bioware is going to change or add to the ending.  What that means?  No one really knows at this point.  Maybe new endings, maybe more content with future DLC?  I am not really sure what to think at this point.  I know that the game itself has played out as my favorite so far, and that while there are quirks (some texture pop in is pretty rough graphically, and just odd audio/video things like James 'talking and playing cards' but not being visible, or Liara conversing with Jacob and not being visible) - the game itself plays very solidly.  Right now, I'm using the default character and not an import, but it's easy to see how my actions from ME 2 could radically change my experience in ME 3.  I'm already plotting my next play through.  If I am looking forward to another round of the game, it would be safe to say I am enjoying it.

And multiplayer is pretty solid.  Not perfect.  You can get stuck in spaces where Brutes beat you and you just can't move, and when you mean to roll you stick to a wall in coverage, but the gameplay is a lot of fun in my opinion.  The dual currency of coins and experience really helps keep me invested in growing.  But as of writing this, my lowest level character is 14, and my highest is 17 and there's a level 20 cap.  Between that and the relatively limited number of maps, I wonder if Bioware is eying DLC for the multiplayer as well as the single player or not?

I just can't see the ending, even if it underwhelms me, causing me to get up into arms the way so many other players are yet.  The rest of the journey has been entirely too much fun so far.  That said?  It sounds like Bioware is taking the commentary to heart based on their impending patch to fix the face import bug as well as planning to 'address' the ending in some fashion.

Now, onto the deals...

Atlus has several great RPGs for the PSP downloadable at pretty hefty discounts via PSN here.  The most notable are the Persona titles, but there are several others worth taking note of as well.

Steam has a King Arthur sale - the original titles are 75% off, and King Arthur II is 40% off as their midweek deal.  Their daily deal for the next five hours or so is the Luxor Collection for 66% off - or $13.59.

Fox Xbox Live Gold members, racing is the name of the game.  Various packs for Forza Motorsport 4, Joe Danger Special Edition, Daytona USA and Sega Rally Online Arcade.

Good Old Games has some DRM free indie titles such as Trine, The Whispered Word and a pre-order for legend of Grimlock, plus having recently added Anachronix as well to their lineup. 

GamersGate has Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days and Thief: The Dark Project for 75% off, and Lunar Flight for 50% off.

Amazon has James Bond 007: GoldenEye for the Wii for $14.99.

Sony's offering is pretty weak for PlayStation plus, with nothing really free, though there is a lot of discounting, including the new Closure puzzler that IGN scored an 8.5 this morning. also, there is a very heavy Tom Clancy theme as you'll see.

PlayStation Plus:

• Closure (PSN, Discount)
• Dead Block (Mini, Discount)
• MotorStorm RC (DLC, Discount)
• Skydrift (PSN, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's End War (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Predator (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (PSP, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory HD (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Classic Trilogy HD (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Retail, Discount)
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell HD (PSN, Discount)
• Zack Zero (PSN, Discount)

General Discounts:

• Armored Core 3 (PSN)
• Armored Core: Last Raven (PSN)
• Armored Core: Silent Line (PSN)
• Puzzle Dimension (PSN)
• Zack Zero (PSN)

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Midweek deals and thoughts

So I'll start with a quick few gaming thoughts off of the top of my head:

- I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect 3 and so far am digging it.  For my initial play through I am not doing an import of one of my prior Mass Effect 2 campaigns as I want to approach it using default settings, something like a new player would experience.

- I'm doing a lot more of the multiplayer than I had originally thought I would.  The mulitplayer ties into the campaign mode by raising your Galactic Readiness - which impacts the final ending it seems.  I got mine to 100% in all areas in about a day and change of heavy multiplayer.

- Multiplayer Pros: The variety sprinkled into the missions is nice, and the ability to create and use a bunch of different classes makes leveling up lots of fun.  The credits system works for me too, because as a one-time sports card collector, the idea of 'opening' a pack of 5 random items is sort of fun, especially if you get a rare or uncommon (I tend to save up for the top-shelf Specter package).

- Multiplayer Cons: The matchmaking needs work. When the host leaves, it gives you a message that you are mgrating, but in truth you're just getting punted back out to the loby.  Also, there needs to be a way to force people to 'ready' status after a time.  You can have four people to a team, 3 of them ready, and you can sit there twiddling your thumbs on that fourth unready person indefinitely.  When you find a good group of 4, you can plow through the waves pretty wel, but for every 1 really good group, I go through about 5-15 failed matchmaking attempts just to get a round of play going

- I'm probably about 1/3 of the way through the single player campaign and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far.  I got the collector's edition, so I will be touching on that as well as my regular review soon.  I'll be kicking off a series of Mass Effect reviews starting Friday I believe.

- Speaking of big, backlogged games, my Skyrim review will be going live soon too.  I don't really plan to go through my impressions quite so much as Mass Effect 3, which is a much newer title, but suffice to say I have enjoyed Skyrim quite a bit as well.

- RPG Maker VX Ace has been awesome so far.  I've been digging into it several different ways.  I made a very short game as just sort of a test demo for my son to play, and I have approached it from the building standpoint, to the ease of adding your own materials and also applying and tweaking scripts.  I will do two different write-ups on the software.  One for Otaku Gaming that is a straight review of the experience, and one here on this blog discussion it and the changes I see from being a heavy RPG Maker XP user and skipping VX to go to VX Ace.  The tiny game I wrote up for my son (seriously, it's like a 10 or 15 minute play through) is something I may post somewhere for others to view as well if interested.

- A little title called Diablo III is announced to be releasing exactly a week before my birthday.  I know what I'll be asking for. :)

So the above are just some bullet point updates for those interested.  I definitely have more on tap to post about here over the coming weeks, but my hope is you will really enjoy the Mass effect series, which will probably span about two weeks of posts on here.  Now, for the weekly deals on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network and more.

Gamersgate has Warhammer 40,000 for 66% off, The Guild Complete for 75% off and Neverwinter Nights 2 for the Mac for a whopping 95% off.

Amazon has a couple of smaller deals like a discount on the latest Mario and Sonic Olympics and an offer to get FF XIII with the purchase of XIII-2.

Steam's midweek madness deal is Portal 2 for half-off and their daily deal up until around 1PM EST today is Spellforce 2 Gold Edition for $3.74.

The Deal of the Week is all Bioshock 2 related - with DLC packs and Avator items being 50% off on Xbox Live for Gold members.

With the PlayStation Plus it is pretty evident that most of the free stuff happens at the beginning of the month, but some of the deals throughout the month are definitely of note too.  This week?  Huge emphasis on the Final Fantasy titles.  Here's the full list below of PSN updates:


PSN Games

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD ($9.99)
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine ($39.99)
Warriors Orochi 3 ($49.99)


Vita Games

Sumioni: Demon Arts ($19.99)


PlayStation Minis

SAR: Search and Rescue ($2.99)


PlayStation Plus

Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (PSP)
Final Fantasy V (PSone)
Final Fantasy VI (PSone)
Final Fantasy VII (PSone)
Final Fantasy VIII (PSone)
Final Fantasy Origins (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc HD


DLC

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon -- Various DLC (Free-$4.99)
Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend -- System Voice Arrange DLC ($5.99)
Disney Universe -- Various DLC ($0.99-$2.99)
EyePet & Friends -- Various DLC ($0.69-$2.99)
Hyperdimension Neptunia Mk. 2 -- Various DLC (Free-$2.99)
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning -- The Legend of Dead Kel ($9.99)
MotorStorm RC -- Various DLC ($0.25-$0.99)
Ninja Gaiden 3 -- Online Pass ($9.99)
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City -- USS Wolfpack Uniforms ($2.99)
Rock Band 3 -- Various Tracks ($1.99 each)
Rock Band Network -- Various Tracks ($0.99-$1.99)
Rocksmith -- Various Tracks ($2.99 each)
Saints Row The Third -- The Trouble With Clones ($6.99)
Tales of Graces F -- Various DLC (Free-$3.99)
UFC Undisputed 3 -- Upsets Pack ($4.99)

Vita DLC

Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend -- System Voice Arrange DLC ($5.99)
MotorStorm RC -- Various DLC ($0.25-$0.99)
Ridge Racer -- Various DLC (Free-$1.49)


Demos

Birds of Steel
Rayman 3 HD
Under Siege


Discounts

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (DLC)
Coconut Dodge (Mini)
Dissidia Final Fantasy (PSP)
Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (PSP)
Final Fantasy V (PSone)
Final Fantasy VI (PSone)
Final Fantasy VII (PSone)
Final Fantasy VIII (PSone)
Final Fantasy Origins (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PSone)
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP)

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Zuma's Reveng! launch info and Articles on Otaku Gaming

It has been a pretty busy week or two for me.  Some of the games I've been working on have a lot of meaty content to work through and it is definitely going to affect the number of reviews I have trickling out over the next few weeks.  In the meantime, I have had a few other interesting observations and articles I have written. 

I'll start with the Ys series, which I have never actually played despite its long history.  It's one of those I keep meaning to try, and haven't gotten to yet, but for fans of the series, there is an announcement that there will be two titles taken to Steam - one already released and another on the way.

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Gaming Thoughts 1/6/12... Online Odds n Ends

So, I thought I would just toss together a handful of different items and observations from the last couple of weeks.  I'll start off with a nice horror story - a woman who apparently had her Xbox Gold account hacked, and how it cost her hundreds of dollars.  I've never had to contact Microsoft for a problem like this, but I recall how hard it was to simply get my gold account properly renewed again, and have little trouble in imagining that this issue has driven this lady a bit nuts.

http://hackedonxbox.tumblr.com/post/15365217063/microsoft-a-company-with-no-brains-heart-or-soul

And this was a fun one - major PR fail that got some time on Penny Arcade last week.  Since I work in Tech Support and am always dealing with customer service issues, I tell our techs to handle every customer like gold, and that you never know who they are.  This provided me with amusement though, as this guy's horrible attitude clearly landed him in hot water:

http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html

I've also had some time to spend with the Xbox Live's new dashboard, and at first I really didn't like it.  Since then, I've more or less gotten used to navigating around it, but I'm still not thrilled with it.  The ads are a bit annoying - especially so if you're a gold member who pays for their access.  On top of that, the cloud saves are a nice enough idea, but it's still a pain to move around from one machine to another.  I still have to use a USB stick for my profile so I can jump from one system to the other.  It's also harder and harder to customize your backgrounds as they have gone from the bladed, very customized background view to one where all of the crud in front clutters the view.  There's a bunch of new stations and features added, but almost all of them are ones you have to buy on top of it - so there's still little there for gold members that's new, IMO.  All in all, I'm a bit disappointed with the update, and still feel that Xbox Gold and Xbox Live in general are lagging behind Sony's Playstation Network overall, at least for me and my family.

I will give some credit - there were some interesting Xbox Gold deals over the last few weeks, and I picked up a few games like Bastion, Contra Hard Corps and Radiant Silvergun cheaply and have been enjoying those.

Speaking of PSN - if you are a Playstation + user, there's a ton of cool stuff this month.  My susbscription runs out in a week or so, but I will definitely be renewing.  Between Hydrophobia, Tomb Rader: Underworld, the Minis, Spryo games and everything else I've gotten in the last week, the games actually have had both value and appeal to various members of my family.  Better yet?  I can use those games and so can my kids.  That's so very cool.  I have no interest in Spyro - but my daughters do.  I couldn't care less about Crash Bandicoot games, but my son's playing them like crazy.  My wife was enjoying Tomb Raider.  My new 360 games?  Turns out since I downloaded them on the 360 in my room, my kids can't play them on the living room 360 - only I can (if I tote in my USB drive).  I realize they want to protect developers and make as much money as possible, but it's disappointing all the same to have to deal with.

And lastly, here's the PS+ deals right now - but I've had several friends nudging me about Back to the Future so that right there should pay off this month's investment.

• Back to the Future: The Game (PSN, Free)
• Darksiders (Retail, Discount)
• Darksiders (Retail, Full Game Trial)
• Rocket Knight (PSN, Discount)
• Swords and Soldiers (PSN, Free)
• Syphon Filter (PSone, Free)
• Syphon Filter 2 (PSone, Free)
• Syphon Filter 3 (PSone, Free)

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Gaming Thoughts 12/6/12 - Playstation + vs. Xbox Live Gold

I have been fortunate enough to have access to most systems from this generation of gaming, and as a result have found myself in a somewhat rare space in that I have had a chance to see the best and worst of all the different gaming systems and offerings out there. One of the biggest changes to this generation in gaming has been the social aspect of it. For PC users, the option to play games with others has been around a very long time. For those who stick strictly to consoles, there were options in the past with Dreamcast and Xbox and Playstation 2, but the console community has really blossomed this generation (with little to no thanks from Nintendo, who still have a very last generation approach to online gaming with the Wii).

I have stated before that for my household, the PS3 is king. The primary reason? Because everyone has access to online play for free. My daughter would love to play Castle Crashers and my son would love to play Halo with people online on their own accounts. Instead they have to use mine because I refuse to pay $100/year for a family pack, or another $60 for my son to get a gold account. The result for me? A lot of kids I don't know on my friends list randomly asking me to play Left 4 Dead or Halo: Reach. More than that though? It turns my kids away from the 360 because all things being equal, if I have a chance to pick up a multiplayer title - I get it for the PS3. Microsoft's loss.

Beyond that though, PlayStation did create the Playstation Plus service some time ago, and I have had it twice now. The first time was the one month complimentary offering from Sony as part of their Welcome Back package. I tried it again recently due to a coupon code and a desire to port some save files around.

I also recently had to weigh the merits of renewing my Xbox Live Gold status. This gave me an opportunity to consider several things when weighing the two services, and here's my thoughts on them both.

Xbox Live Gold:

The discounts are nice, especially if you buy a lot of downloadable games and content. I go back and forth on this. Sometimes I see a particular deal or set of deals (I'm still holding out home for a Mass Effect 2 or Dragon Age 2 discount sooner than later) and I'll gobble it all up at the discounted price.

The cross-game chat is nice. I like how flexible it is chatting with a friend or group of friends while I'm playing a different game.

The Netflix access. We're a big Netflix family - so this is nice (but again free on Wii and PS3)

The Xbox Rewards program - which I believe is open to everyone (you fill out surveys, sometimes get deals offered, etc where you earn points - that can then be turned into Microsoft points). They also do some small Gold Only rewads now and then (like some Avatar items, or bonus Microsoft Points - but in truth there's only been 4 of those this calendar year). Still, I like free points to spend, so this is nice.

For me however? The biggest perk is that you can play games online with people. That's frustrating for me though, since the PS3 offers that functionality for free. There are some other services offered, but I don't make any use out of them to be perfectly honest.

PlayStation Plus:

Full game trials - you download the whole game and you get a full, 1 hour rental to see if you like it. Any trophies you unlock also 'stick'. Not my favorite feature, because I already get in trouble with my cable company for our bandwidth usage. If it were not for that? I'd probably like this a bit more.

Early access to Demos & Beta Invites - I honestly don't participate in demos or betas real often, so again this feature, while nice, sort of misses on me.

Automatic updating, trophy synching, and a few other automated processes are nice I suppose, but not worth updating my service.

Cloud saves - this has been pretty handy for me for bouncing my saves around from one system to another.

Discounts - Like the Xbox gold, there are weakly discounts. There seem to be more of them on the PSN than the Gold account, but not many more and they're about the same in terms of value.

Free games - this is probably my favorite 'find'. You get a lot of free games every month, it seems. They are generally minis, PSone Classics and even sometimes standard titles - I'm trying out Hydrophobia: Prophecy now for example, and snagged a bunch of Crash Bandicoot games a few weeks ago too.

An additional note: the renewal process for Xbox really, REALLY peeved me off about a month ago. My credit card the service was linked to didn't have enough room to re-up, and you can't cancel via the dashboard on the 360 nor online. So, a friend got me a Gold Subscription gift card so I could just do it that way. Problem was, by the time I had, Microsoft had locked down my account. I was less than their free/silver - they had actually frozen my account because my credit card could not process their auto renewal. I went to go online to try and enter my gift card, and it would not take my account. I tried to move it to a new credit card, and it would not let me. I emailed their support, and they said I had to call in. I called in 3 nights in a row - first two nights on hold for over an hour before I gave up because there were some other technical difficulties that night that caused their call volume to spike.

I did finally get it all straightened out, but as you can probably guess - I was not really all that happy with the above headaches. By contrast, the PlayStation plus service is also set up to auto-renew, but you can turn that feature off right in the console's account settings. What a world of difference that made for my experience.

Currently, I'd consider the PlayStation plus a better deal and service overall. That said? There are some new changes coming today for the 360 that addresses some of these things, from what I have read. One feature is going to be the ability to turn off the auto-renewal via your dashboard - something that would have saved me hours of frustration a month ago. Xbox is also going to be adding some new channels - but it has not been really clear what that means (what all the channels are, what they provide, and if like Hulu Plus or Netflix they will require additional subscription services). Lastly, Xbox is apparently going to add some cloud saves as well.

I am also curious about whether or not this will have any bearing on how profiles are handled on the Xbox. I got a new Xbox for free a few months ago with my wife's cpu - but I discovered something rather annoying. While the PlayStation 3 stores your accounts on each device, and simply updates trophy information with their servers when you ask them to, the Xbox 360 does not handle the account profiles nearly so gracefully. Each time I tried to log into one Xbox or the other, it would tell me I had to recover my gamertag. Apparently, while my profile was on the Xbox servers, there is a locally saved component too. This recovery process took upwards of 15 minutes each time I wanted to go from one Xbox 360 to the other.

Finally I got smart and tossed it on a USB thumb drive that I had handy and had a few gigs formatted to for Xbox use. Still, I have to take it back and forth from one machine to the other every time, and one small annoyance with it is that it rattles back and forth when I am playing disc-based games, tapping the framework of the 360 repeatedly and creating an an annoying sound during my entire playtime. I am hoping that with the introduction of cloud saves that Microsoft will introduce more cloud-friendly means of handling our profiles with this update of service as well. I'll post on it in a few weeks after I've had some time to digest the latest update.

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Limbo Review

This is actually a slightly older review of mine (from when I had almost no followers to this blog), but with the game coming out for PS3 and PC now, I thought I'd dust it off as I found it to be a very interesting Xbox 360 game. Here it is once more for those who may have missed it:

What is Limbo? Well, here’s one set of definitions:

–noun, plural -bos.

1. ( often initial capital letter ) Roman Catholic Theology . a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of infants) and of the righteous who died before the coming of Christ (limbo of the fathers or limbo of the patriarchs).

2. a place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date: My youthful hopes are in the limbo of lost dreams.

3. an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.

4. a place or state of imprisonment or confinement.

That said, it’s also an Xbox 360 game that is part puzzler, part platformer and filled with more questions than answers in the end. My oldest daughter is not much of a gamer, and this is a game that caught her eye in one of my Game Informer previews, and then she has since sat and watched me play through about half of the game. It’s a almost disturbingly captivating experience that is far too short but deeply engrossing as well. Here’s my review of the game.

Graphics – 9:

There’s no color. The detail is not amazing, with loads of textures and flashy 3D effects. But visually this game is incredibly unique, and it’s deeply involving. I’ve included some screenshots and the usual video at the bottom. If this is a game you have any interest in at all? Do yourself a favor and check these out. There’s gorgeous play on shadows and light. Darkness and fog. It can be a bit disconcerting at times – a world of shadows and movements, and you will die wandering into the dark now and then. All the same, turn off your lights and play this in a dark room to fully appreciate the contrasting environment.


Music and Sound – 8:

Really almost no music to speak of, but honestly? You don’t miss it in this game. That’s because the environmental effects are so good. They don’t help you in the way that a surround system in Modern Warfare 2 does – you don’t hear a bullet striking near your back, left shoulder or anything like that. But there’s a wide variety of creepy sound effects, squeaking sounds and specific cues that not only effectively assist in presenting a spectacular atmosphere, but are useful in some of the puzzles as well (especially near the end where listening to the beats can help you navigate some very precisely timed puzzles).

Gameplay – 8.5:

The controls, like so much of the presentation, are both simple and yet beautifully implemented. You move your character around, and you have a jump button (that if you hold down can enact a sort of skipping animation that is rather nice) and an ‘action’ button that you press to interact with various things in your environment. That’s it. And while the control scheme itself may look shallow at a glance, its implementation is anything but. That same action button can pull crates, flip switches, activate levers and all of these things tie into the puzzles in their own way. Just when you think you’ve figured out what the game is going to throw at you, it tosses you something new. The difficulty of the puzzles scales nicely, from very simple early on to rather complex by the end of the game, but you very seldom get too frustrated. There were a few puzzles where I died a lot, but the game is very kind in that you respawn at the start of a new puzzle. Now, some puzzles are a bit longer to complete than others, so you may find yourself doing the same thing over and over again as you try to get your timing down, but the game doesn’t cheat – it’s your own fault and your own timing you need to perfect.

Intangibles – 7:

The game has amazing atmosphere. I was lost in it while I played, and it was almost jarring at times when one of my kids would ask me a question or if I had to get up to do something. There’s some unlockables that you can get which are kind of cool. For starters, the achievements are mostly based on finding ‘eggs’ along the way, and most of these are not in plain sight and easy to acquire. You can get a couple of items for your avatar though, if you enjoy changing those around on Xbox live – you can get a “Limbo” shirt (naturally it’s black with white lettering – simple yet fits the theme) for finding an egg, and another item you can get is a little critter as a pet. He’s a little black… well, critter, and you earn him by beating the game. It’s a small set of things, but it’s nice. The puzzles are varied and the game never really bored me. So why only a 7? It’s just too short. Short enough for me to recommend against it? Probably not – I’m very glad to have gotten to play it and I picked it up as part of the Xbox summer of arcade deal – having grabbed 2 other games and getting the bonus 400 Microsoft points. But the came can be beaten in about 3 or 4 hours. 5 if you die lots. In fact, there’s an achievement I haven’t gotten to try yet but plan to where you have to beat the game in a single sitting without dying more than 5 times. Taking a look around the internet and leaderboards, and it looks like quite a few people have done this. For roughly $15/1,200 points, that just doesn’t feel like enough game time. Make it 800 points/$10 and I think it’s a bit more fairly priced.

Overall – 8.2:

This is a very atmospheric game that is a fun blend of platforming and puzzling. It’s just short. Way too short. And without any kind of multiplayer and online, there’s really not much to encourage a 2nd playthrough other than looking for the achievements you missed the first time through. Also it should be noted that the main protagonist is a young boy. This young boy meets a variety of grizzly ends. You don’t see red blood splattered over the place, but you die often and to things such as spiders, buzz saws, drowning and even bear traps. The imagery may not be suitable to young children, especially those prone to nightmares. The game is like a single giant nightmare for a young boy, really.

And then there’s the story. Limbo – one of the definitions from earlier: a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of infants)

The game starts with a simple cut scene. Keep in mind, there’s no voice narration or even long scrolling blocks of text to detail the story. When you reach the end it’s left a bit ambiguous. The developers have even said as much – that they are leaving it open for interpretation. I know how I took it, but it’s certainly not the way everyone else will – just looking up limbo ending discussion on Google returns tons of theories on it, and I will link these three here – each site/link is different for those curious about it – but it’s left open-ended by the developers for us to draw our own conclusions. It’s open-ended stuff, and there’s plenty of spoilers on those pages. What else can I say about the game? It's a bit too short for its price, but it's a hauntingly beautiful yet eerie one that certainly made an impact on me during and after playing it, and I'm glad I had to chance to do so.

More Limbo Videos

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Haven't had a lot to report lately...

... but I should have some new reviews coming up soon. The reason my time away from posting has been good however - I have a slew of new games I've gotten my mitts on recently (Record of Agarest war - a turn based strategy game, the new Transformers: War for Cybertron, NCAA Football 2011 and Lego Harry Potter). I'm also headed to Gamestop a bit later to burn through a giftcard I got - and they have a pretty good deal going right now - buy 2 used games/accessories and get a 3rd one of equal or lesser value free. That deal ends today however. They've got another as well where if you trade in any 3 games from Wii, PSP, PS3, 360 or DS - as long as the trade-in value exceeds $1, you'll get a bonus $10. So armed with a trio of beaten games and a giftcard, I'll probably pick up a few older games today as well.

Last up, IGN is running a promotion with Microsoft to give away 20 free copies of some of the new Xbox 360 live arcade games here. Might be worth a peek - I entered, and they are doing a new one every week for the next few weeks. Check it out - and I'll be tossing up some new review shortly.

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Updated to add: not bad - I snagged Super Mario Party 8, Red Steel 2 and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn from Gamestop and I was out .78 cents after trade-ins and my gift card and weekly deals. I've been looking for Fire Emblem for awhile (I'm a sucker for strategy games) - but the disc does look a -bit- rough. Going to have to test it and make sure it works. It's the only copy I've seen used at any of the Gamestops around here though over the last year of looking. Hopefully this means some new reviews soon though. Anyone played any of those 3 games or the other 4 I've recently acquired?

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Red Steel 2
Mario Party 8
Record of Agarest Wars
Transformers: War for Cybertron
Lego Harry Potter
NCAA Football 2011

Curious what your thoughts on them are, if so.

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