Pac Man Roomba

Aces of The Galaxy Impressions

This fun little "3d space shooter on-rails" hit the Xbox Live Marketplace this past Wednesday and Ive given it a couple of spins. Im not sure how many of you owned an N64, but if you did, you might remember a little game called Star Fox. Aces of The Galaxy clearly takes Star Fox as its main inspiration, for better or worse. All thats missing is Peppy constantly screaming in your headset to "Do A Barrel Roll!" And a barrel roll you will need to do.

The game constantly spawns enemies from all around you, and although its possible to slow down time, you cant slow down your ship or speed it up, you're on rails with no gas or brake, just dodging abilities. This makes for a very hectic experience. You will constantly be swimming right to left while you cycle through your weapons and dodge asteroids, mines, oncoming ships and missles. Sometimes, especially with 2 players on the screen (XBL coop supported), its just too much to keep track of and your ship is lost in the clutter of flashing lights and blurs.

Luckily, you have a health bar and your ship is pretty tough, it can take a head-on collision with an asteroid or a walk through a mine field without losing 50% of its total health. You have 3 weapons, but for the most part the chain gun will be your main squeeze. Oddly, Sierra not choose to include auto-fire for any of the weapons. Thats right, to keep your chain gun going, you will have to constantly tap the A button, which I find to be pretty annoying. Luckily for me, I own a lot of annoying games like this so Ive already invested in an anti-annoyance controller - a Mad Catz 360 Microcon with built in turbo. With turbo set on the A button flying through this game is a breeze, you could just tap A but the game takes long enough that it might draw blood if you dont switch between fingers.

Ryan Geddes in his IGN review of the game says he was surprised by the lack of chain gun auto fire, but that after a while he began cycling through the other weapons enough that it didnt bother him. Well, Im telling you right now there is no way to get a decent score in this game, or even make it to the later levels with all your lives, without spamming that A button. The missles and torpedoes just dont hit enough of the enemies on the screen, they are great against larger ships but most of the game consists of shooting down groups of small ships that spawn from the sides or top of the screen ala Space Invaders, Galaga or 1942.

IGN gave the game an 8.4 and asked the question if it was the best shooter on XBLA. Im here to say no, and its not even close. If Aces of the Galaxy is an 8.4 then Omega 5 and Assault Heroes 2 are 9.8s, and Ikaruga is a 19. While Aces of The Galaxy is fun, its nothing revolutionary and at times it feels cheap, lackluster, and repetitive. There are no boss battles, the level designs are very linear and uninspired, and the story can be summed up with the 3 words "human vs aliens". The main draw is the graphics, which are fantastic for a downloadable game. Ive never been a huge fan of on-rails 3d space shooters aside from Star Fox, and while Aces is probably worth the 800 points, especially if you like coop shooters, its not even close to the top of the pile on XBLA.

Civilization Revolution Demo Hits Xbox Live

It looks like the demo for Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution has hit the Xbox Live Marketplace. If you are not too busy chopping people's heads off in Ninja Gaiden 2, I think its a no brainer to download this demo and give it a look. My initial impression is that the game is pretty much Civ, although it has been significantly streamlined, as you would expect. Workers can be manually assigned to different tasks, but the emphasis seems to be more on exploration and combat than on micromanaging your cities economy and resources. Its pretty rare that a demo has a much depth as is here, Im not sure how many turns you can play between the start and 1250 AD when the demo ends but Ive already conquered my neighboor and settled a few new cities. Even still with the depth thats here its going to be hard for people to get into it without seeing the endgame. Civ just isnt a game that demos well.

For starters, its slow. Civ has always been slow, even for a strategy game, and although the gameplay is faster here on the 360 its still closer to the something like Catan or Carcassone than anything else on the system. Secondly, the graphics just arent up to what the 360 is capable of. I really dont see why this game couldnt have been a downloadable title for 12-1600 points, because I think for a lot of people $60 is going to be too much for a strategy game they know nothing about and takes quite a while to really get into. So overall I can see this being a tough sell to a console crowd that prefers fast games with high end graphics. This is a title thats all about gameplay, and although Im hopeful that some people on my friends list will get it if they dont already have Civ4, I certainly wont be surprised if they dont.

Real Life Shenmue Quick Time Events

Street Fighter: The Beast Is Unleashed

Is it possible that md's return to Street Fighter 3 and its insane parrying system was inspired by this video? I don't know but every time I watch this 3rd round comeback by Daigo I get goosebumps. This is the way fighting games were meant to be played, in front of a huge, appreciative crowd! My skills arent up to par to battle Daigo so my cats will have to suffice for my audience. OK, now I have to go get the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection off ebay. Its a sickness, but hey its better than crack.

Xbox 360 Games To Check Out In 2008

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (DONT rent this game. just go buy it the day it comes out, and you can thank me sometime later down the road, or I refund your money)

Deadliest Catch ("Battle 40-foot waves, storms, ice and a nearly 100-percent crew member injury rate" - I cant believe they made this game. wow, thats sick.)

Mercenaries 2 (the first was really fantastic, its was like GTA set in North Korea. they dont need to do much with the sequel, just more of the same with coop)

Soul Caliber 4 (Yoda's lightsaber took Viagra and he is going to touch you with it)

Golden Axe (I heard a nasty rumour there is no coop, so it may just be a giant $60 Golden Shower and they dont give you a towel afterwards)

Brothers In Arms Hells Highway - (unreal 3 engine WWII shooter that might not suck)

Baja - (THQ's answer to Motorstorm - we'll see if they can pull it off as well)

Left 4 Dead (source engine 4 player coop zombie survival horror game. freaking sweet)

Beijing 2008 (I can hit the A button faster than you can! NoyouCANTyesICanNoyouCANTyesIcan)

Hei$t (any game with a $ symbol in its name garners trepidation. you rob banks and diamond stores and whatnot. maaaaaaaaaaaaybe)

Just Cause 2 (the first one was the best skydiving game ever made, but was kinda shallow beyond that. Plenty of room to improve, lets hope for coop)

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (the x is for extreeeeme!)

Halo Wars (Bungie's 360 RTS in the halo universe. I can has dead bond in halo? sweet)

Guilty Gear Overture (I like beating things up, especially digital versions of Evil Max)

Huxley - (MMO Shooter using the Unreal 3 engine. Ummmmm, yes please?)

Shaun White Snowboarding (EA fell asleep at the switch with their next gen SSX game so lets hope this rocks the snowboarding world like SKATE rocked the skateboarding world)

Bionic Commando (2 games, one is a downloadable remake of the original NES version, the other is a full $60 - Im buying both even if IGN scores them lower than HAZE)

Fable 2 (People like the original Fable, it made me fall asleep. Coffee served with sequel)

Fallout 3 (please dont mess this up...... just please)

Tom Clancy's Endwar (360 exclusive RTS set in the Clancy universe, I gotta try it)

Gears of War 2 (nuff said)

Mirrors edge (A shooter that doesnt rely on shooting, but platforming and broken mirrors. maybe)

Prince of Persia (I've played em all, Im just a PoP crackbaby)

1942 (shoot everything on the screen, while dodging everything else)

Inifinite Undiscovery (some crazy Square developed RPG that Blank Void, Shadownexus, or Darth Mikal will play and tell me about how awesome it is)

Ghostbusters the Videogame (just trust md, at least, thats what he says. all I know is be wary of any game that has the word "VIDEOGAME" in its title)

Alan Wake (I think they spent like $20M making this game, it might be OK)

Ninja Gaiden II (hiya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! now clean it up)

2 Days To Vegas (I remember hearing about this game in 2004. now? nothing)

This Is Vegas (hmmmm. apparently there is gambling. Im there, if it ever comes out)

Super Street FIghter 2 HD Turbo Remix (nuff said)

Street Fighter 4 (this actually might not suck. if it does, we have SSF2HDTR)

Fracture (ask md, Ive never heard of it)

Prototype (ask md, I'm just copying him at his point)

Thriller - Cebu Provincial Detention Center