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XBLA Summer of Arcade '10 and You
The discussion of XBLA pricing over in the Scott Pilgrim thread got me to thinking about this year's Summer of Arcade offerings and their price points in addition to other peoples' takes on them. I figure I'll just run down the list here. I'll also note that I haven't played the demos of any of these yet and I'm going solely on what I've read and heard elsewhere. They're all priced at 1200 MS Points ($15), which puts them out of "impulse buy" range for me, but I'd love to hear the thoughts of anyone who as already purchased any of them.
Limbo - a puzzle/adventure game with a play-time of about four hours. I've heard great reviews on it, but after the hype of Braid and seeing how long I actually played Braid, I'm holding off on this one. I may change my mind after playing the demo, but dropping $15 on a game just based on the hype is something I've moved past.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane - A big fat pass for me. I was never a huge fan of the "Thunder" racing games or the original arcade game, so I won't be going near this one. Podcasts I've heard review this one note that it just doesn't feel like a high-speed racing game.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - Another one I'm withholding judgement on until I've played it. I love Castlevania, but I don't know if I want to sink $15 into a game that was basically described as "grind until you can either get your level high enough to defeat the boss or you can figure out the trick to defeating the boss".
Monday Night Combat - Looks like it could be fun and since it's 3rd-person it may not be barf-inducing for me. Will have to give this one a test run and find out - it might be a purchase, it might be a big fat "pass".
Lara Croft and the Guardian of the Light - Isometric platform action and co-op gameplay. The reviewer I heard talking about this one basically said it's a "fuck you" generator when it comes to playing with your friends because it's easy to be a dick to each other during the game.
Thoughts?
Limbo - a puzzle/adventure game with a play-time of about four hours. I've heard great reviews on it, but after the hype of Braid and seeing how long I actually played Braid, I'm holding off on this one. I may change my mind after playing the demo, but dropping $15 on a game just based on the hype is something I've moved past.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane - A big fat pass for me. I was never a huge fan of the "Thunder" racing games or the original arcade game, so I won't be going near this one. Podcasts I've heard review this one note that it just doesn't feel like a high-speed racing game.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - Another one I'm withholding judgement on until I've played it. I love Castlevania, but I don't know if I want to sink $15 into a game that was basically described as "grind until you can either get your level high enough to defeat the boss or you can figure out the trick to defeating the boss".
Monday Night Combat - Looks like it could be fun and since it's 3rd-person it may not be barf-inducing for me. Will have to give this one a test run and find out - it might be a purchase, it might be a big fat "pass".
Lara Croft and the Guardian of the Light - Isometric platform action and co-op gameplay. The reviewer I heard talking about this one basically said it's a "fuck you" generator when it comes to playing with your friends because it's easy to be a dick to each other during the game.
Thoughts?
Comments
I don't like being charged 15$ for an expansion to a game I've already paid for. I'll begrudgingly pay for a significant increase in content (Dragon Age), but map packs are stupidly overpriced (COD:MW2).
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair- I've bought, and I like it. I also played SOTN for hours on end. I wouldn't pay anymore then 15$ for it though. It's a fun little time killer. The multiple characters and multiplayer is an interesting direction to take the franchise. I hope the game does well so they look into making a full game with those features. I'm only doing a little grinding for gear/levels. Mostly to advance the spell binder girl and the soul collector guy.
Monday Night Combat - I played a bit of the demo at PAX East. Maybe.
I'm not interested in the other 3.
Hydro Thunder Hurricane - Played the demo. Feels like the old Hydro Thunder, which feels really good in a nostalgia sort of way. But the demo pretty much gave me all the enjoyment I needed from that game.
Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - I bought it, I like it, but I don't know if I'd recommend it. I haven't had a chance to play it multiplayer, which I think would make it a whole lot more enjoyable.
Monday Night Combat - Heard good buzz on it at PAX East, sort of kept an eye on it but not really. Then watched one of the developer walkthrough videos, and became a lot more interested in it. It's sort of TF2 (team, class based shooter,) sort of tower defense (computer controlled robots from the other team try to attack your base to take down your shields so the player characters can destroy the objective, all while your robots are doing the same to their base,) part Defense of the Ancients (where you upgrade the skills/abilities/weapons of you class with money you collect, but they only stay that way for the round.)
I played a little bit of the trial, and will probably go back and play it some more. I imagine I'll end up picking it up, since I think it has a lot of potential (which could be fully achieved if they port it to PC, probably.)
Limbo had an interesting vibe to it but struck me as being very similar to Braid. I played about a quarter of the way through Braid and haven't touched it since, so I think it's safe to say I'm not going to be picking up Limbo any time soon. If you loved Braid, Limbo will be right up your alley, so at least give it a demo.
Hydro Thunder was exactly what I expected - a racing game. Not going to be picking it up either.
Castlevania wasn't that bad after I figured out how to adjust the screen's zoom level. I may end up picking it up next paycheck.
Monday Night Combat left me with mixed feelings. I played through the demo's training level and still didn't have a good feel for the controls at the end of it. My thoughts are this: it has a cool, over-the-top "organized sports" vibe to it that was a lot of fun, and I wanted to like it, but it suffers the same issues that all console FPS games do for me - counter-intuitive aiming with the thumbsticks and a major annoyance when having to take my thumb off the aiming stick to get to the face buttons and use their functions. If they released this one on the PC, I'd pick it up in a heartbeat, but since I'm not used to playing shooters on the console with the gamepad this one is going to be a pass.
Anyway, not sure I'd recommend it. Maybe if you have a really awesome stereo system since the sound design is pretty great.
BRILLIANT!
At the very least, use this technique to control yourself. Here's a task management app that turns your todo list into a quest log.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/epicwin/id372927221?mt=8&ign-mpt;=uo%3D2
This game seems to be taking an interesting approach.
I still can't tell if it is a game worth playing.