How long have we waited for this?

Well we knew eventually it would come, but I was starting to get a little scared it wouldn't be in my lifetime!  What am I talking about?  Well obviously, a Halloween themed RPG.  Thats right ghouls, the fine folks over at Double Fine have been working on a little treat for us thats all set to debut on October 31st on Xbox360 Arcade!! (Which I find a little weird since arcade games usually come out on Wednesdays, but who's complaining!)  In case you don't follow video games I think it is of importance to note that the founder of Double Fine is the one and only Tim Schafer!  Tim did most of the writing duties for two of my favorite games in the entire universe, The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: Lechuck's Revenge.  Mr. Schafer also went on to work on such classics as: Full Throttle, Grim Fandango (go play this one now, I demand you!), Psychonauts, and Brutal Legend.  Yes all of those legendary games have been helped along by the hands of Tim Schafer and hopefully this will be another one of those legendary games.  In other words I'm hoping now we all have a reason to stay home on our favorite night of the year and fire up those Xbox 360s.  Hopefully you'll be burned out from playing Halo: Reach enough to actually play something else by then!  Here is the cover art (yes, even arcade games have cover art) and some screenshots for you.

 Here's the lowdown on the game as seen on the Double Fine website;

             Explore, Collect, Battle!                         

Play as Wren or Reynold, in this action-adventure role-playing game that unfolds on Halloween night across seemingly peaceful suburban neighborhoods, a mysterious village carnival and a monster-infested shopping mall.

Go door-to-door collecting candy, points, cards, battle stamps and quest assignments to prepare for combat. Use your wit, bravery and home-made costumes with superpowers to rid the neighborhood of creepy monsters and SAVE HALLOWEEN!

 Sounds like absolute video game gold to me!  Come Halloween I'm sure Double Fine will have us all sitting in front of our t.v. screens playing this instead of watching the same old lame Halloween movies right? (Just kidding, I would never talk that way about our most beloved seasonal movies, but I'm sure we will be bumping one or two of them off the list to make room for this game)  Below you can watch the trailer for the game and a behind the scenes video of Mr. Schafer and Tasha Harris, the games creator.  Also I can't say much more right now, but if all goes as planned (and this is not for sure, just something I'm working on) then hopefully this isn't the last you've heard from myself and Double Fine this Halloween season.  Keep your eyes tuned to HalloweenOverkill and hopefully I'll have some more treats and not just some tricks coming your way!  Although maybe I could turn some tricks to get us some more treats here at HalloweenOverkill.  Hey honey, I have an idea!!!!!! haha

This behind the scenes video was shown on 1up.com and can also be seen here.  By the way this might be the last time I remind you ghouls but we still need like 2 more fans to enter the horror draft.  Click here and sign up please!

Source: http://halloweenoverkill.blogspot.com/2010/08/how-long-have-we-waited-for-this.html

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Review - Limbo (Xbox 360)

By Jay

Genre: 2D Puzzle Platformer
UK Release: 21st July 2010
Developer: Playdead Games
Publisher: MGS
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Other Formats: None

Limbo kick starts Microsoft's 3rd annual 'Summer of Arcade' promotion on Xbox Live. It's a very tidy 2D puzzle-based platformer and it's unlike any game you've played before. Both the plot and story are kept simple. The blurb for the game reads "Uncertain of his Sister’s Fate, a Boy enters LIMBO…" That's all we're told. No really, that's it! As the game starts you wake on a forest floor and off you go. Left stick moves the boy left and right. 'A' jumps whilst 'B' is used for actions (such as pulling or pushing an object). That's your lot.

It's not the controls or story of Limbo that instantly grab your attention though. It's the wonderful graphical and audio style that Playdead have so masterfully crafted. The game is essentially black and white with every shade of grey imaginable in between! Shadows and silhouettes unsettle and confuse in equal measures. Effects such as film grain and focusing are played out over a film noir style setting. It's very difficult to describe how effective it is without having a look yourself. Why not visit the official website where you can watch videos and view pictures of the game.

The gameplay has you navigating your way through a world fraught with danger in search of your lost sibling. Releasing platforms and pulling switches is only the half of it. The number of ways the boy can die is quite disturbing. Giant spiders, rotating saws and pits full of spikes all hinder your progress through a heaven/hell paradox. You'll lose limbs. You'll be decapitated. Having said that though the difficulty level is never in question, increasing throughout as you better understand and appreciate the world around you. You'll scratch your head over a problem for 5-10 minutes but then suddenly the solution dawns on you and you're making progress again.

Whilst true that Limbo is unlike any game you've played before some comparisons will inevitably be made to fellow Xbox Live Arcade title Braid (released August 2008). Interestingly both games contain a similarly hellish achievement. Limbo requires you to beat the game in one sitting with 5 or less deaths where as Braid calls for a sub 45 minute speed run. Braid is a great game but was very stop-start. With Limbo there are 24 main puzzles but this is never made obvious to the player as the experience is played out as one seamless sequence of events. Only from the main menu can you select the 24 different chapters.

This may sound like a lot but make no mistake that Limbo is a fairly short game. You'll be done in 4-6 hours. There are hidden eggs to find with many linked to the games achievements but beyond that you're done. Based on this I offer one piece of advice: never Google the solution to a puzzle. I'm not the sharpest knife in the draw and I managed to complete the game without cheating once. To do so would only be cheating yourself out of this fantastic experience.

Limbo isn't for everyone. It's a unique and rare title but one that is over far to soon, raising question marks over the price point that Microsoft has placed on the entire Summer Of Arcade line-up. However it is the type of rare gem that further provokes the argument that video games can be art. If you enjoyed Braid you'll love this even more. Give it a try and see if like me you get lost in Limbo.

9/10

Good:

• Graphical and audio style


• Stimulating puzzles


• Sense of accomplishment

Bad:

• Short


• Expensive for an XBLA game


• Not for everyone

Source: http://inferiorgamers.blogspot.com/2010/08/review-limbo-xbox-360.html

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Demo Review: Monday Night Combat

Welcome to Monday Night Combat!

Before we get started, let's keep in mind that this is a Demo Review. Since it's a demo, that means I can't play this game like I imagine it was meant to be played: online multiplayer. I can only imagine what this badboy plays like on line... so that's exactly what I'm going to do!

Monday Night Combat is a pretty simple game. Simplicity, when it's well executed, can breed the heck out of fun, and this is exactly the case here. You have six classes to choose from, each varies in special abilities and combat prowess. You have one goal: protect your moneyball (flag) from the hordes of robots (online you can play against other live opponents, I imagine this is more fun than beating back the robots) that are attacking you. To help you with this goal, you can build up a handful of turrets for some automated defense.

I'm going to rock this backwards.

Turret defense is huge. In fact, it's the only thing you need to use in order to beat the demo. I'm sure this is less of a giant advantage in multi, but just against the bots it's an auto win. Get yourself a few Level 3 Laser Turrets and you can prop your feet up as you watch bits of bots fly. Did I not mention there are 4 kinds of turrets that you can build? There are. I only played around with the Laser Turrets. I saw the word Laser and was completely satisfied.

The object of the is to protect your moneyball. Think capture the flag, except replace "capture" with "destroy" and "flag" with "moneyball". FYI, the moneyball is a big yellow orb (or ball) that hovers in the center of your arena. Fortunately, it takes a bit of damage from the bots before the ball's shields are lowered and the ball itself can be damaged. I haven't lost yet, so I can tell you the ball can take a solid amount of damage before you lose.

Here we get to the fun stuff, character classes! From left to right we have: Gunner, Support, Assassin, Assault, Sniper, Tank.

For your general combat purposes you're going to want to use either the Gunner or the Assault Class. With the Gunner you have a class that's all about overwhelming power. You're going to be slow, but you have a big gun that shoots a lot of bullets really fast. The Assault class is more well rounded, in that you can run and gun effectively, but you make up for the speed with a softer punch. Both are fun to play, for my time I'd go with the Assault class. While I do love overwhelming power, I enjoy options a little bit more.

If you want to get up close and personal, pick either the Tank or the Assassin. The Tank is great for getting all up in someone's grill. Damage doesn't really faze him and he packs a nasty punch. He even has a great area attack that will hit anyone in a complete 360. Solid damage, solid damage reduction. He's slow as heck, but when you catch up to your opponent he's going to pay. The Assassin is just like the Tank... when it comes to close combat prowess. She tears through machines with her katana and has a nifty Predator-esque cloaking device to get in close. The problem with her is that she folds quick. I can see her doing well online, but for the demo...

Lastly, we have the Support and Sniper classes. I'm sure both can be interesting when it comes to online play, but for purposes of the demo... Support is all about healing turrets and hacking opposing turrets, which I'm sure is fun, but here he just doesn't do anything. The Sniper will likely play a lot like the Assassin in multiplayer, just, ya know from range, cause he's a Sniper. Here, his rate of fire sucks, so he's not going to help you with anything.

As it stands, I'm sure if I had 1200 Microsoft Points and a Gold Status membership I'd buy the heck out of and play the heck out of this game. As it stands, I'm not huge on Online gaming, so I don't have it. Maybe I'll change my mind at some point.

Source: http://whatithinkisfun.blogspot.com/2010/08/demo-review-monday-night-combat.html

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