360 Archive

Review: Shadow Complex (Xbox 360)

Words by

Billy Withers

Posted on August 18, 2009

Chair have already been a part of everyone’s hard drive in one way or another, mainly because of the generosity of Microsoft after SO many people complained about really bad connection speeds during the festive season of 2008. It wasn’t a bad game, but it didn’t set the world alight either. Nevertheless, it was the recipient of quite a few high marks on release and even made the shortlist of a lot of Xbox Live Arcade game of the year awards. Not bad for a game that was only 48 MB.

Step forward 18 months and we see just how far this fledgling company have come. Taken under the wing of Gears of War and Unreal Tournament giants, Epic Games, they set about creating a new title based upon a genre that, like point n’ click before, had almost been forgotten and left to fester in the chambers of old.

The story is of an army boy named Jason Fleming, who along with his girlfriend decides to go on an outdoor pursuit and end up heading into a dark cave to do some exploring. When our accidental hero finds her gone and only her backpack left, he begins a mission that will open his eyes to a mysterious underground lair, filled with minions, big robots and a special suit, which he must find to help get Claire out alive.

The biggest jump with Shadow Complex is the size. Since Microsoft’s decision to uncap the level of space needed to create anything, this weighs in at over 800Mb, nearly 20 times the size of Undertow. You can see where a lot of this has gone, as everything is well polished and has a much more commercial feel about it, while still retaining a bit of independence.

It is graphically brilliant. The lighting and detail are of particular mention, as the scene is always set well with a mixture of bright futuristic corridors and darkened industrial areas, as well as some outdoor parts to break things up a little. Explosions are fulfilling without being over the top and the overall sheen on everything is very impressive for an Arcade title. There’s clearly been a lot of care and attention poured into it.

This has also spilled over to the audio department, with a moody title track backed up by music that only appears when it needs to and helps to create good atmosphere. With a team like Epic on hand you can no doubt tell the sound effect side of things are spot on and with comedy screams aplenty coming from the conveyor belt lackeys (so called because of their statutory uniforms and shiny headgear) you do have the odd snigger to yourself and you know it won’t lose appeal as time goes on.

Now, it’s usually a customary thing to get stuck into a game which you can download from the web if it has no real multiplayer option. Well, this is one of those exceptions. There are some Metal Gear Solid style virtual missions that are smothered with leaderboards to allow friends to better your efforts (and with potential future content to come that should swell up over time) but for the most part this is a single player experience, much in the style of Super Metroid and the now immortal Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The gameplay elements in these were all to find items and upgrade by moving back and forth across a huge map, whilst all the time trying to reach the end. Shadow Complex does exactly that and it really is a joy to play because of it and never feels monotonous or repetitive. The fact it’s a new, original game rather than a re-vamp or a re-release is another medal on an already well decorated title.

Another good point is the control system, which never has you feeling stressed out because of an over complicated layout. It allows you to perform all the moves Jason has in his arsenal easily and without fuss. Wall jumps, jet pack boosts and the multiple secondary armaments are all at the touch of a button. The options available to you grow steadily as you progress, with machine clogging foam tech. as well as the Godly ability to run on water when you eventually grab hold of your futuristic armour.

There is an achievement to finish this in less than 2 hours, but that is missing the point completely and is similar to someone playing Fallout just to fix the water shortage. If played properly, Complex will see you well over 6 or 7 hours and bearing in mind that Halo 3 and a few other guilty parties are usually around that length for 3 times the price, it still generates great value for money. The fact there is only one other game out there that’s ANYTHING like this on XBLA (that being Castlevania itself) also means you won’t have played something like it recently, so that eliminates tediousness from the equation.

Shadow Complex is an excellent advert for a long forgotten genre and my only hope is that it sparks other companies into giving this style of game the much needed and well deserved comeback it craves. What Chair and Epic have done is shown there is so much life left in the older ways and that sometimes you have to take a step back before you can ever move forward. There are some nice unique touches thrown in, such as the set-piece turrets and interactive background enemies who are automatically targeted when in sight of them, but it never takes away from the majesty of the core gaming elements on show.

I would strongly urge people to get hold of this and, points willing, also grab Konami’s Playstation magnum opus for 800 points as well and allow you to indulge in what true gaming is all about. For seasoned players and newcomers alike, this is as much an essential purchase as the fair majority of the Summer of Arcade games have been, in some ways even more so. Let us just hope that there’s plenty more good stuff coming and that we don’t fall into a winter of discontent.

VideogameUK verdict: 9/10

Review: Trials HD (Xbox 360)

Words by

Billy Withers

Posted on August 17, 2009

Last year was a great year for games, with Little Big Planet being one of the stars of the show with its broad and colourful take on traditional platforming fare. It also allowed console owners from around the world to share their custom made levels with everyone else out there in cyberspace, which made it a truly astounding piece of kit.

Trials HD, from Red Lynx Software has taken a leaf out of Sony’s modern classic and allowed people to create whatever they like in terms of track building with which to ride your “hog” (I use the term loosely as they’re mainly motocross bikes) from start to finish without falling off. Sure it may not be possible to share with the rest of the globe, but if enough of your friends get it (and judging by my own list I can say it’s getting there) then you’ll have plenty of variants to try out and literally beat them at their own game. In order for this to be worthwhile though there has to be a good product in the first place, so let’s run you through Trials and see what the verdict is.

First off, let me talk to you about the main idea of Trials. There are 50 levels of progressive difficulty, with 10 of those in each section. Easy is literally a cake walk, but does help to get your bearings for what’s to come. There is a definite and rather prominent learning curve and once you begin to go through the medium stages it becomes clear that you will not finish the whole thing in one sitting. There is a league option too, but it’s more a case of combining a selection of three arenas bundled together and allowing for you to post a time on the leader boards.

The ability to get one over on your mates on Xbox Live plays a very big part here, as apart from the leagues and stages providing tables for you to show your skills to the world (not to mention annoy your mates in the process if you beat them by a small margin) you also have mini games, which are unlockable dependant on how you do in the main part. These can vary from carrying bombs in the back of a trolley to see how far you can take them without them exploding, to rider bails more likened to the ones seen in the Flatout series of titles. If ever there was something to have your midnight oil burning like an arsonist’s birthday party then this is it.

Considering the amount of memory this title takes up, less than 300 MB, the graphical side of things is pretty slick and the engine itself is a pretty sturdy one, allowing for big explosions and comical dismounts with no lag or slowdown. The customisation isn’t exactly huge, with the colours being the only main thing you can alter to the machine and its rider, but with something like this you don’t really need it or miss it either. The backgrounds don’t vary too much, but they alter themselves enough to never become dull. It all runs at a lovely 60 frames per second as well, which for a game involving precise movements and feathering of both brake and accelerator is quite an essential.

The bikes do sound very good, with proper samples used with good effect, as well as the occasional yelp of approval from your designated bike/stunt rider as he or she goes on their merry way to the finish or an appointment with either a fiery destiny or a stationary object. There are some screams of pain too, but whatever the noise, it’s always accompanied by a casual and varied mix of music, which suit’s the game well.

Whatever you end up doing in Trials HD though you will, at some point, have a small giggle to yourself, as the rag doll physics help to add a generous helping of humour to proceedings. The well balanced handling of the bikes also boost the laughter stakes when you get that feeling of total control taken away from you by an over zealous trigger finger. It’s not often these days that gameplay wins over all, but you cannot fault the way this title works. Something so simple should not be this addictive, but it is. You know you’ll have to keep going back for more, whether it’s to get past a track that’s been marring your progress for days or to just make sure you have bragging rights when your friends wake up in the morning to realise they aren’t top dog anymore.

I have been going on for a while about how the simple games are quite often the best. This is a very true statement, but what makes these titles stand out even more is when they turn up un-announced and you hold your hands up when you know you never saw it coming. Medal of Honor was like that on the original Playstation and look at what that became (Call of Duty 4 for those that don’t follow the gaming politics). Trials HD, I’m happy to say, is another one of these “out of nowhere” games and it’s just a joy to play. The simplicity of how it works to the difficulty of later tracks and the great sense of achievement when completing a tough course is just so liberating that you wonder just how this piece of software does it.

I have nothing but admiration for Red Lynx and what they have given us here. Sure, its 1200 points and I do feel that whatever the title is, it’s still a high price tag in general terms, but this game is worth every penny, especially if many of your friends do the same, as the potential for sharing unlimited courses is limitless. It proves yet again that bolstering a modern day approach onto an older idea works like a treat (as our ‘Splosion Man review also shows). If I had to summon up Trials in one sentence, it would be this:

“Welcome to Little Big Planet for grown ups.”

VideogameUK verdict: 9/10

Hands-On: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

Words by

Billy Withers

Posted on August 11, 2009

Hands-On: Batman: Arkham Asylum (Xbox 360)

There are many people getting excited about the new adventure with the Caped Crusader, but for some strange reason, I wasn’t one of them. The reason is a simple one though: hype. So many times a game has come out to more fanfare than it can handle and it just seems to turn any title into an anti-climax and give it not just bad vibes, but bad ratings as well. I love Batman in it’s entirety, from movies to graphic novels and the original comics, but can Eidos and Rocksteady REALLY deliver that one thing that seems hard to do, bring a very good comic book game adaptation to the masses (well, at least one that doesn’t involve Lego bricks). Time to go through the demo of Arkham Asylum and find out.

Even hitting the menu screen and seeing Bruce Wayne’s alter ego standing there you begin to really appreciate just how sweet the graphics are. This is an amazingly beautiful piece of gaming and the dark and moody feel of everything associated with one of DC Comics’ favourite sons is present for all to see. The way the moon shines off the costume and the spooky styling of it all helps to put away any fears that this game looked great when stationary and not when there was movement involved.

Being a demo, things are noticeably limited, but it doesn’t mean we can’t look into what COULD be coming. Looking at the character bios section shows us a total of 42 people, of which only Batman and the Joker are shown at the start. This will be a mix of good and bad types, but could mean a decent chance of a good size of game, rather than a “finish before dinner” job. Fingers crossed.

The intro sets the scene very well, with Batman taking the Joker personally to Gotham City’s notorious madhouse. The atmosphere plays a big part in setting the scene and the visual style is very much a mixture of both movie periods, with Christopher Nolan’s gritty character look and feel mixed with Tim Burton’s craziness and a Batmobile that leans closer to the Michael Keaton era than not. The animated series lends a hand as well, with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill reprising their roles of the Caped Crusader and Joker respectively. Once our most loved villain is deposited into the asylum, he manages to break free from the wardens and, with a little help from Harley Quinn, begins to take control of his first home.

Now the real game begins and the control system feels very fluid, with a good balance of movement and button bashing. There are some lovely bullet-time style slow motion hits, but never too much to make it feel like a gimmick. Counterattacks and a good repertoire help to show a well thought out combat system. There have been games which try to implement counter moves and usually with a varied degree of success or failure, dependent on how you look at it. This control method gives you that feeling of any fault being your own rather than the game being unresponsive. These are the basics however, as things get more interesting a bit further on.

Serial killer, Victor Zsasz has a security guard hostage and won’t allow him to live if the winged hero gets anywhere close. As you cannot allow the officer to perish, you must find another way to eliminate the threat. This is where the Detective Mode comes into play, allowing you to see things your eyes wouldn’t normally be drawn to, such as gargoyle statues in this case to use your zip-line to climb onto and then glide kick Victor and incapacitate him. This mode also has a cool X-ray look about it, showing all characters as skeletal mass, which allows you to determine the good guys from the bad ones by having them show up as different colours. Could this have more input in puzzles later in the full game? Who knows?

After you deal with the staff problem, you then move on and find yourself up against three of the Joker’s armed goons. This is where you learn your silent takedown technique. This is very valuable and will no doubt save you from many tight spots later on in Arkham, but it doesn’t take long to get rid of these thugs once you know how. Once you head through a second vent shaft you then come across an office area with a few enemies walking about on patrol. It’s an ideal place to put into practice what you have learnt, as well as get one or two new moves down, like hiding in interactive bits of scenery until your target walks by or even dropping down on the zip-line, taking your enemy up with you and taking him out quietly without being detected.

Then just as you do all that and come face to face with your first big boss the demo decides to end. It does a great job in enticing you into wanting Arkham Asylum it has to be said. It’s even made me start to believe that this game has the credentials to stand up and be counted in terms of the product being the culmination of all the other parts coming good in equal measure. The only gripe I would have is that you don’t get to see the more intricate puzzle elements that are in this title, other than a brief glimpse in the video footage included in the download. There is definitely a little bit of stealth woven into the fabric of Batman’s latest adventure, which is a welcome change from mindless button mashing.

I’m really looking forward to the 28th August when this hits the shelves, which is so much different to the worry of it not living up to the hype I was thinking before. I would strongly advise you to grab the demo now and see for yourself what the fuss is all about and if the rest of the game keeps this quality up then I can’t see it doing badly at all on general release.

Review: ‘Splosion Man (Xbox 360)

Words by

Billy Withers

Posted on August 10, 2009

I’m a retro lover at heart. This means that I love anything old school and hinting towards that good old time when pixels were our friends and controllers consisted of just one button and a much easier time for our little grey cells. It also, for me anyway, meant simplistic gameplay that made playing software a joy, whichever side of the gaming divide (Sega/Nintendo or Commodore/Amstrad/Spectrum) you were on. So many games nowadays seem to ignore this in favour of repeating whatever they think works, but boring everyone else in the process. At least if you’re going to attempt that, you should make things more interesting.

Enter ’Splosion Man, Twisted Pixel Games’ new XBLA effort, which seems to combine the brutally addictive gaming from another downloadable gem, N+ with a graphical upheaval and a truly different (and very humorous) style. You play as the leading man, who is someone with a huge chip on his shoulder and wants to not only get out of the lab he finds himself in, but take out every single scientist in there with him as he does so. Between you and certain freedom lies 47 levels of puzzle and platform action spread across 3 worlds, but can he do it with a great explosion of fun or is it just a dud? Let’s take a look.

Something about this game just screams out fun in the graphics department. It isn’t in the cel shaded area of gaming (or as some would call it that dark, dank part of the industry that no-one really loves, but puts up with it) and it isn’t Gears of War serious either, finding a lovely 2.5D appearance that suits it greatly and helps to harbour back to the good old days. The main character is well drawn, as is everything in the game to be honest and I can’t fault the way it brings so much colour to your eyes, bearing in mind that you’re stuck in a laboratory for most of it.

A personality in a game character is hard to do well, but if you can picture a 1000 degree version of Pinky from Pinky and the Brain then you start to get an idea of who you are and it does a great job of making you smile, if not giggle and in some cases laugh out loud (I’m too old to abbreviate it, I’m sorry…lol). The actual humour in ‘Splosion Man is just so refreshing and lovely to be a part of as you help him reach his goal. The noises he makes as he runs from one level to the next never get monotonous and the donut song is a joy to behold. You feel that all seriousness was left at the door when this game was made and that is such a breath of fresh air in an industry that sometimes loses itself in its own progress.

Another good point with the way it plays is its difficulty curve, neither creating a barrier to put people off or have players finish it in time for dinner. The puzzles are well thought out and a lot of it involves timing, which helps to add a bit of suspense, but for some reason you never get fed up of trying. This could be because the checkpoints are nicely positioned so as not to annoy people who suffer from Cant-start-at-the-beginning-after-5-minutes-itis. As an example, I was fighting the first boss character and was stuck on the same level for 25 minutes and didn’t get fed up once, which says something (although I was being an idiot and could do it a damn sight quicker now).

Audio is also another feather in the already well spruced cap of ‘Splosion Man. The music is very upbeat and never annoys you, as the Donut song already mentioned proves. The sound effects are also very well suited for this game, but the most impressive and entertaining thing of all is the vocal talent, as it’s just so well done with the hot hero taking the plaudits. You can make a character as zany looking as you want, but you really need the sum of all the parts to work and you can’t fault the sound department for what it’s done.

The best part is the gameplay though. The simple retro styled 2 dimensional screen crammed with 3D images help to keep the progress fluid and the fun factor very high. It never feels like a chore, not to mention it’s a BLOODY fast game when it wants to be as you hit the exploding barrels in quick succession. It’s also quite varied, with moments of potentially certain death appearing every so often as water rises from the bottom of the screen. Other hazards await you, but there’s no point in telling you ALL of it. What would that leave you to find?

It’s usually about this time that you want to see what faults I’ve found. Unfortunately I can’t do that because as an XBLA title I would have to rank it up there with the already outstanding N+ and say it‘s as ideal an arcade title as you can get. The fact there is a multiplayer mode included and the potential for more levels via downloadable content just makes it an even more enticing deal. The up to 4 player alternative also has 47 levels which are different to the main game to incorporate more team based gameplay to get to the end and the fact that all this is available for 800 points is just fantastic. You don’t often get no-brainers in this section of the industry, but as it stands, this is an essential piece of software to get a hold of and at a very fair price to boot. The blending of the mature way of playing games with the modern day demands of graphics that cannot afford to be flat and dull is a hard thing to get right, but Twisted Pixel have managed to not just do exactly that, but they’ve set a high bar for others to try and reach.

This game is, quite literally, an absolute blast!!!!!

VideogameUK verdict: 9/10

Use PayPal To Buy Microsoft Points!!

Words by

Russell Maher

Posted on August 7, 2009

Major Nelson has posted on his blog that Paypal can now be used to buy marketplace items. He goes on to point out that this is for US Xbox LIVE users only and that it is only for purchases made via Xbox.com.

Hopefully this, and/or the opportunity to buy marketplace items on Amazon, will arrive in the UK soon!!