January 31, 2011

Hydrophobia Sweepstakes

Posted by: Cybermario @ 6:48 pm Share in Facebook

Have you played Hydrophobia yet? well this is a good chance for you to do it for a reduced price of 400 Microsoft Points but that it’s not all, you can win a very nice prize in the Hydrophobia sweepstakes from january 31st to February 6th, so if you live in the US or the UK dont miss this!



On Monday, January 31st, Microsoft is launching a Hydrophobia sweepstakes in the US and UK, in sync with the Deal of the Week promotion where the game will be featured for the reduced price of 400 Microsoft Points.




Those who download the game during the Deal of the Week promotion will be automatically entered for the chance to win a water themed vacation for two. In addition to a grand prize winner, 5 runner-up winners will be chosen to receive 4000 Microsoft Points each. The sweepstakes is open to residents of the US and UK, 18 years or older. For full details and rules and regulations, please visit www.xbox.com/hydrophobiasweeps.




Hydrophobia™ is a third person survival adventure set in a floating city, where terrorists take control and heroine Kate has to overcome her haunting childhood memories and fight back using all her skills and expertise as a systems engineer. Hydrophobia offers fast-paced action and breathtaking visuals; engage in mind blowing “flow combat†where emergent gameplay results in a never-the-same-experience. Unleash floating oil fires, electricity and the power of the water itself to wipe out your enemy as you discover the terrifying truth of the Malthusian agenda; Save the World, Kill Yourself.




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January 18, 2011

UPDATE: Square-Enix Confirms “Final Fantasy XIII-2 Coming to PS3 & XBOX 360 Next Winter”

Posted by: Digma 2 @ 10:33 am Share in Facebook


Original:





“We at Square Enix are delighted to let you know that the sequel to FINAL FANTASY XIII, FINAL FANTASY XIII-2, is coming next winter. We have a new story in store that stems from the previous title, a battle system that is evolved from “XIII†– and more…
We’re looking forward to sharing more details with you about this exciting new sequel in the future – in the meantime please check out the game logo and first screenshot!”







I’ll be brief… but all I want to say is, or ask is, Squenix . . . are you kidding me?! What happened to the other 2 games you guys were already working on for the XIII name? Are we not ever to see XIII-Versus? Is this game going to make me hate myself for playing it much as X-2 did? In theory, I could see where a sequel can work, but at the same time I can’t. For the sake of not spoiling anything, I won’t go deeper into why, you’ll just have to play the game yourself and find out. And before you bellyache about “how terrible” the game is, I’ve beaten it and have to say it was rather enjoyable. But still… another Final Fantasy #-2 . . . the terrible taste from X-2 still lingers in my mouth, and that was what . . . 8 years ago? Never-the-less I’ll be watching this very closely to see how things develop. Hopefully, they go in a direction I can follow.


Official source: Playstation Blog


UPDATE: Trailer posted on youtube, confirmed to be on the XBOX 360 aswell.




I’ll continue to add things as I find them.




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December 29, 2010

Raskulls XBLA Review

Posted by: Cybermario @ 2:43 pm Share in Facebook

Has been a time i dont spend a good time with a side scrolling game, and this one did keep me playing for a bit! Raskulls from Halfbrick is the second title taking part in “Games for the Holidays†along with A World of Keflings and Ilomilo, it is hard to define Raskulls as a simple platformer because is much more.



Story
Campaign is what is known as the Mega Quest, Space pirats want get the Shiny stone to powerup their ship and as you avoid that to happen your leg is injured and now you must train a novice, Dragon. In a silly attempt to save the stone the king offer it as the main prize for the winner of the race, but what if the thieves win? so now is up to Dragon to save the kindom, the stone and earn the love of a cute raskull.


The game is a mix of platformer, racing and puzzle all in one game, levels are filled with blocks that can be destroyed by using your magic wand, here a reference that comes to mind is Tetris, as you destroy blocks those of the same color will merge creating bigger blocks.



Powerups among the blocks help to fill your Frenzy bar, once is fully charged you can go into frenzy mode, run and zap faster, this also helps to attack and charge rivals in the race, it is important to master frenzy mode to win some of the races.


The races can be a mix of challenges, races versus opponents and time trials, giving the game variety to keep you interested in the campaign, the challenges also unlock cheats to use in the mega quest, avatar awards and new characters to play in multiplayer mode.


The cartoon like graphics are well complemented with a dose of humor, but music could have been better.



multiplayer
with the campaign done there’s not much to do but racing against friends in local or via xbox live, up to 4 players can join and there are differences between local and online, local give you the choice to pick a quick race and 1 of 4 grand prix races, online give you only a grand prix but this is not as bad as it sounds as there is a variety of maps to chose from. Hopefully there will be DLC giving us more maps to pick from, and maybe more characters to race with.




Extras
Games for the Holidays give us a plus that’s more than welcome, if you unlocked achievements in A World of Keflings and Ilomilo the cross-title with let us obtain skins and special items in Raskulls, this is one of the attractives not just of this game but the 3 titles taking part in this cross-title, a good way to promote and encourage people to get all 3 titles for their collection.



Overall
Raskulls is a title that can be loved or a dissapointment for the player, if you like the a side scrolling platformer with a feel of Mario, a mix of race and puzzles, then i highly reccomend it, if the genre is not your style the game may get boring fast but still.. is worth a try, for 800 MS Points Raskulls is a good game.




we give it an 8 out of 10




~Mario
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December 22, 2010

A World of Keflings XBLA Review

Posted by: Cybermario @ 1:27 am Share in Facebook

It was a pleasure to kick keflings in the first title and ninjabee games spoil us, giving us an amazing sequel to keep kicking keflings to our wits end, A World of Keflings has arrived and the improvements in this title are remarkable. I downloaded the game and could not stop playing until 2am, the storyline and gameplay are just great.



Storyline
Yes we got one! Compared to the first title, now there is a nice and fun storyline. You are frozen and theories such as an abandoned alien experiment or leaving your fridge door open may be the reason to why you ended up there. As you break free from your frozen prison you meet Bob and the Kefkimos. As you advance in the game you rescue Doug from the ice, and he is so impressed that he ask you to let them become your lackeys to help you build the kingdom, and to learn some of your awesomeness.


Here you meet a lost Kefling Princess and learn there are gates to travel between kingdoms. This is when your adventures begin as you must help her return to her kingdom. There are a total of 3 kingdoms for your exploring pleasure. The kingdoms consist of; the Ice Kingdom, the Forest Kingdom, and the Desert Kingdom.


Escaping from the ice, how you ended there anyway?


Improvements
The amount of improvements in this game are noticeable and welcomed. Having three different regions to travel through as the story and quests advance, give the game a great diversity and breaks the monotony from the first title after long gaming sessions.


Having quests integrated in the storyline and not as one exclamation mark over the mayor makes the game much more enjoyable compared to the first title. This time though, it’s not just the mayor, but many of the different keflings you meet asking you favors and offering rewards by completing the quests. Completing the quests are entertainment and they dont feel like a chore for the player.


build cannons, make keflings fly and compose music!


Buildings and backgrounds have a new and stunning look, and the music is both catchy and relaxing. The same relaxing pace from the first title can be found in A World of Keflings, thus making it a winner.


Unlike before, now keflings level up and don’t need a building to improve their abilities. You are also given the chance to name the keflings. This time you improve your abilities by using magic potions and not by finding stuff around the maps. You can’t get every magic potion so you need to be careful selecting your new abilities.


One of the new improvements are the Nursery and the Sculptor. In the first title these were not very useful unless you wanted to decorate or add random stuff to your towns. These 2 buildings have a major role in the game as sculptures and trees are required to build houses and many other buildings (even the castle.) This in itself was a smart move, kudos Ninja Bee!


Lackeys make building much faster as Bob and Doug (among others) help you carry pieces to site faster and even help you finish some of them. This saves time and makes it less of a chore to make long trips to different workshops.


Autosave is a hell of a feature in a game like this, in the first game you could forget to save, build a lot and a shortage take it away in a blink (yeah happened to me) this is a more than a welcome feature in this sequel and a good asset that saves time and headaches.


The Desert Kingdom, one of three zones to explore!


Gameplay
Just like A Kingdom for Keflings, the game has the relaxing gameplay we love and the way quests and storyline advance keep it interesting. You don’t feel bored to play it for long periods of time. Just like before the achievements are there from start to finish. Once more, the game is a great stress reliever and entertainment title for the player.


The way the game works make me think future DLC could be delivered as new kingdoms with new quests and storyline, and why not, more achievements.


This is a title you cant missout on if you like City-building games. Happy kicking… err… I mean gaming!




~Mario
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December 21, 2010

A Kingdom for Keflings XBLA Review

Posted by: Cybermario @ 12:32 am Share in Facebook

Few games give you a chance to use your avatar and the pleasure to kick your resource gathering workers to your wits, is there something better than that? (probably orange mocha frappuccino) that game is A Kingdom for Keflings released Wednesday 19 November 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade.





This is one city-building game, the story is simple, as a giant you have to help the Keflings build a kingdom and that’s it but the charm of this game dont come from the lack of storyline but the very special and relaxing pace the game has to offer.


You can pick a giant or your xbl avatar, personally i love to use my avatar and i think it was one of the main attractives when the game was out back in the day, nothing like a storm trooper kicking keflings uh? this is a little something the pc version lacks but do not make the game less fun to play.


The keflings gather resources for you, rock, wood, cloth and crystals, hese are the raw materials to start building the kingdom, you can grab a keflings and assign them task very easy, many times you will find yourself kicking them as they tend to go harvest a different area of the map and not that one you need to clean.
as they harvest, items for your giant will be discovered, these will aid you to walk faster and carry more materials.


assigning task to the keflings is easy



Relaxing Pace?
As stated before the game have a charming and relaxing pace you cant but love, specially after a long day at work or after a gaming session with 12 year old kids yelling at you in Halo, a kingdom for keflings scenery, music and gameplay offers this unique experience to the players.


Up to 4 players can join in multiplayer



Rewards
the stress relief is nice but the game also offer a nice bunch of achievements that can be unlocked up to advanced stages of the game, keeping the player interested for a time, this include 2 multiplayer achievements and must say i am impressed how after 2 years people still host games and join games making it easier to complete the achievements, kudos for that.


There are 2 map packs in the marketplace, dont have these myself so that will be a different review ;)


Kicking Keflings becomes a habit :)



Downsides
the same relaxing gameplay people love is also what make people feel the game is boring and this stack with the lack of a storyline, quests are nice but not enough to keep people interested.


Do not recommend to play the game for long periods of time (like playing it for 2-3 hours in a row) as monotony will be obvious and the charm will go away.


and unless you care much for the layout and how the kingdom looks (like me) the game may be boring after you complete the game.


Overall A Kingdom for Keflings is a nice title, if you like games like Sim City, Civilization, etc, im sure you will like it, if blowing up stuff is your thing the title may not be so attractive for you, still.. who knows you may like it and get addicted to kick keflings.




~Mario
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