Sun interrupted;
Shadows cast on fresh cut grass
nature’s own pixels.
Sun interrupted;
Shadows cast on fresh cut grass
nature’s own pixels.
Soft dew on pine boughs
Brisk air is double quiet
a lovely eostre
This game took me by surprise. I had heard that Double Fine studios was releasing a new game, but I didn’t take too much note since my experience so far with their games has been that they are funny and have a lot of style, but lack fun gameplay. I was pleased to discover that Stacking brought the humor and style, but also brought an inventive, fun game along with it.
Stacking is not a challenging game - it’s really like living in a child’s fantasy world. Everything has its role, some of them ridiculously silly, and you have to figure out how to solve puzzles given that very simple framework. There is also a very generous help system that doesn’t seem to penalize you at all. The game is all about exploring the gorgeous worlds that are presented and not being afraid to play with all the abilities that the dolls have.
The dolls are gorgeous and the sounds that they make when stacking, unstacking or preforming their actions are wonderful. One of my favorite sounds in the game is of the old-fashioned flash cameras that one of the types of dolls have.
A fun, short romp that is just delightful. It was a refreshing change of pace to play a fun game that is also completely family friendly.
I first got into halo with Halo 3. By the time it had come out, I think halo felt a little old fashioned. There were modern games and design patterns that went with them. But Halo 3 was solid, well balanced, simple fun.
Halo Reach brings more of the same. There’s nothing all too special here, but it’s all extremely well done. The single player game flowed nicely with a good balance of challenge and some short changes to the action.
Where Halo Reach really shines though is in multiplayer. In Halo 3, I would always quickly exit the matchmaking screen so I could avoid getting insulted by the winning team (I’m not very good at halo). In Halo Reach, Bungie have provided several great ways to ensure that I don’t get verbally assaulted by a 13 year old. My favorite is the universal mute. I generally play halo to mindlessly shoot things, and in the free-for-all game modes, I really don’t want to hear anything from any other players. Bungie have now made that easily possible. I also really enjoy the “Pysch Profile” option, as it has improved the ratio of fun team communicators when playing objective team games.
Halo Reach also has an improved bungie.net service record. The online stats tracker has always been one of my favorite things about halo, and it’s better than ever now. After every play session, I go on bungie.net and check out how my new stats lay out.
Halo Reach is a fun, basic multiplayer shooter. There are always plenty of players online and it’s easy to play the game you want to play.
The first dead rising was the first xbox 360 game I ever played. I was stunned by the graphics, but the strange pace, frustrating save system and moronic AI made it so it lost it’s lustre fairly quickly.
As a result I wasn’t very excited for Dead Rising 2. I knew I would play it, but I was afraid all the annoyances would be back. Instead of a demo, capcom decided to make a short XBLA prequel to Dead Rising 2. I really liked the idea behind it. They were able to provide a hefty dose of gameplay (worthy of a good sized post release dlc) and provide it on the cheap (400 pts).
Because of my cautious interest in Dead Rising 2 and wanting to support this inventive new model of promotion - I snapped up Case Zero on release day.
I definitely was rewarded. Case Zero is a wonderful bite sized chunk of dead rising. It has all the elements there, but the smaller map and limited weapon selection make learning the basics a whole lot easier.
Case Zero is a little wonky in the graphics department (doesn’t seem to have kept up with the pace of 360 visuals), but it gets the job done. Hundreds of zombies are on screen most of the time, and all the weapons have appropriate feel to them. Crafting combo weapons is neat, and their ridiculousness adds a lot of fun to the game.
Almost all of the annoyances of Dead Rising are gone. Save spots are easy to find and the pacing seemed a lot better. Survivors actually do what you tell them and try to avoid zombies.
I’m really glad capcom made this game because now I’m really excited for the proper Dead Rising 2. For 400 pts, this game is one of the best values on XBLA - and despite its glorified demo roots, it does feel like a complete game.
