Top Down Perspective 30 - 08 - 10

Top Down Perspective 30 - 08 - 10

This week Nathan starts us off with some talk on older PC games and moves into the XBLA version of Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Sean picks up from there and rolls into some Shank and Monopoly. Jon finishes off with more Scott Pilgrim.

On the news side, Microsoft strictly watching Halo: Reach pirates and is sending out beta testing kits for its new Kinect peripheral. Sony slows down sales on the new modding chip and chooses not to release the new Kingdom Hearts game on their PSP Go. Death Spank gets an incredibly early sequel and the new Xbox 360 Dashboard and Avatars are leaked.

Loot of the Week

I picked up a TON this week. I'm going to write about it all!

Alpha Bounce
This was the first game I ever picked up for the DSiWare. I found an article over at IGN that updates weekly with micro reviews for each DSiWare title. I basically ran through that seeing which ones they liked (or loved) and decided if the price point sounded alright. I believe this was 500 points and they really loved it. It's a traditional brick break game with some RPG elements (specifically a loot system). I definitely see myself playing this game a lot.

Escapee Go!
This was another of the DSiWare games I found from the IGN article and mainly bought because they "liked it" and it was 200 points. I find the $2 price point very appealing, that's basically pocket change and even if the game sucks, oh well. I haven't played much of it yet but the premise I got from the first level sounds interesting. Looking forward to diving more into it on the way to PAX.

Don't Cross the Line
This was the last DSiWare game I picked up this week. It's the most puzzle oriented considering it's literally a series of variations on one logic puzzle. You need to connect like images without letting your connecting lines cross - hence the name. It's very straight forward and the number of different levels make this an easy steal for $2. The one downside I find with it is the lack or a quick restart to each level.

Gunpey
I'll be honest; I know nothing about this game besides that it got some average reviews from almost everyone. I just found it for $3 and the box art immediately drew me in. The concept of a simple puzzle game developed by Q Entertainment is what sold me though. Considering the fact I'm going on a series of trips soon, it was an easy choice. I am really looking forward to playing it.


Ultimate Board Game Collection
I have no idea if this is really the ultimate in board game collections. I highly doubt it is. The fact alone that it doesn't have Scrabble is criminal, but it does have Go so there you are. It was $5 and I could really go for some Go (see what I did there?).


Shank
I am very much enjoying this game and feel that it's worth the 1200 Microsoft Point price. There is a great single player campaign and the fact that the co-op has its own prequel campaign is great. Co-op specific bosses and some great silhouetted moments are amongst my favorite parts to this game. I'll probably run through it again on hard to get every last achievement.

I've decided to start doing a "winner" or "prize pick" section to these each week. The prize pick (maybe "choice pick"?) will always be at the end and will be either the item I had the best time with, or maybe spent the longest with. It may also be the purchase I'm most interested in and haven't even tried out yet. I'll go about explaining them each time they come up.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
My love for achievements made me wait for this game to finally come to the XBLA and I'm glad I did because they are easy. I've played through the game three times now and I'm already on my fourth and awaiting my fifth. Really great game, can't say that enough. Despite the numerous bugs I've found it still remains incredibly charming. There is so much detail in this game and the fact that it came out for 800 was amazing.

Gamerscore Update: 29/08/10

This week was mainly downloadable games and the total stands at 74 585.

Shank
This was an overall good game and, though I'm not done the main campaign, the achievements are coming in quite regularly. The majority of them are from beating each of the single player bosses so I'll get those at some points. I currently have 80 of them and since there's one for 1000 kills and beating it on hard, I'm pretty sure I could S-rank this game.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game
I am loving this game and the fact that the achievements are quite easy. I've beaten it three times already and plan to do it another two times to wrap up one more of the achievements. I currently have 170 points in it.

Monopoly
This is where the points really came rolling in this week. I have 480 points in it so far and that was around five hours of play. I should note that three of these hours I had another TV on so I could watch something else because Monopoly is SLOW. Most of the points seem relatively easy, and considering all of this game seems to be pure chance, I think I can get another hundred or so just by having it on in the background. I don't plan to spend too much more time with it however.

Everything about this is awesome

This game is my pick for the best movie tie-in game ever. It is so fun and there is so much detail in this (especially if you follow the comics and the creator).

First Impressions: Shank

• Wonderful art style
  
• Very fluid movement and combo systems
• The co-op has its own campaign which is a great feature
• Doing some of the co-op combos are very tricky - I have yet to figure out just how exactly I was pulling any of them off
• This game is a hard Mature rating
• Nice silhouette moment in the first level of the co-op
• Long load times
  

Top Down Perspective 23 - 08 - 10

Top Down Perspective 23 - 08 - 10

Nathan starts us off with some Fallout 3 and moves into Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days. Sean also shares his time with K&L2 along with X-Men Origins Wolverine, Bioshock 2 and Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Jon wraps us up with Adventure Island, more of his usual old games and one very obscure Mario game at the end.

Gamescon is going on this week in Germany and we get news such as Mortal Kombat getting real time updates when launched, Microsoft announcing Flight and Mass Effect 2 heading to PS3s. THQ bumps up their online play to $10 and begins development on a tablet peripheral on the Wii, Microsoft also announces a list of games coming to Windows Mobile 7.

Loot of the Week

This week was packed with games old and new!

Street Fighter 4
I constantly heard good things about this game and, though I'm no where near as competitive as the core audience for these games, I always wanted to play it. I have only put it on once so far and choose to turn on the anyone-can-jump-in-and-play-you-whenever feature which was a huge mistake since. I'm really bad at this game.

Bioshock 2
I am really enjoying this game, it feels great and the controls are smooth. I played through the first one far too long after it was out but did enjoy it. I'm only about four hours into this game so I am planning on wrapping that up soon.


X-Men Origins: Wolverine
This was a game I got in a three for $25 deal (along with Street Fighter 4 and Bioshock 2) and ran through it completely this week. I mainly picked it up after enjoying Singularity so much and wanting to try out some more from Raven Software. I love the references those guys put in their games. For the most part this game was great but it dragged on near the end.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
This was last week's XBLA release and the final item in Microsoft's Summer of Arcade '10. I ran through it completely in the local co-op with a friend and really enjoyed it. There are some, surprisingly, really good set pieces in that game. I do recommend it and I can't wait for the announced DLC.

Nintendo Points
I bought these to finally use on my DSi. I am hoping to pick up some DSiWare games before my plan trip to PAX this year. I'm currently looking at games like Divergent Shift and Chronos Twins. Hopefully I can find something good to occupy me. It's ridiculous that your points can't be used on both the Wii and the DSi.