Living LIVE 01.17.09: Red Ring of Death-Inducing Edition

Posted by Trace Aber on 01.17.2009

It's the fifth week of Living LIVE as I try to review a game that kills my system dead. And on the week where there is decent DLC and zero puzzle games...there is no justice.



Welcome to the fifth edition of Living LIVE. I have been on a trend of buying at least one new game per week, and this week is no exception. I have finally given in and bought Fallout 3...and I cannot believe that I waited to buy this game. I even got it 50% due to my local Wal-Mart having extra copies. I'll take it. I have only logged in about four hours thus far, but right from the beginning you know you are in for a special kind of game. Despite the obvious differences, I would like to check out the first two Fallouts as well.

I am now officially done with my second week of my second quarter at Wright State. Took my first test today and recieved an A, so I am off to a good start. It's a shame my psychology teacher spends most of his time talking about robots and saying 'uh'. After some calculations, it turns out he says 'uh' anywhere from 800-1,000 times per class. Quite impressive, actually.

My name is Trace Aber, and this is Living LIVE.

Game Marketplace - A weekly look at the arcade game, demos, and add-ons released this week.
I suppose I should be careful what I ask for as my wish came true of not having to review a puzzle game for the Arcade section this week. The problem, however, is that means there are zero arcade games to be reviewed. On top of that, there are also zero demos for the week. Maybe they figured the downloadable content coming up would make up for it. Your guess is as good as mine.

Community Games

Poker Squares (200MP)
Poker Squares tries to make the simple game of poker more interesting by having you play on a 5x5 grid, meaning you have 10 poker hands to worry about. You have a deck of cards and you have to decide where to place them one by one. The concept is simple, but if you want to you can make this game very in-depth. The graphics do their job and the sound, while annoying, is kind of fitting. You can play by US or UK rules for scoring and play against friends, the AI, or yourself.


I am not sure if the game is easier or harder than this picture makes it out to be.

The replay value is about the same as regular poker, except times ten as you have ten hands at once. For fans of poker, I suggest at least giving the demo a shot. You might like the new style of play.
Recommendation: The game is cheap and you will have some fun with it if you enjoy poker. Go for it.

Chromatism (200MP)
This is a fun little game in which you are some spaceship thing (it actually looks like a bookbag) and you have to collect small little orbs that correspond to your specific color. You can change your color by pressing the appropriate button (X is blue, B is red, etc). It starts out easy, but as you progress the screen becomes filled with tons of orbs and you will find yourself frantically looking for the right button at the very last second.


The screen is very simple, but it gets the job done.

Recommendation: For only 200MP, the game is cheap and frantic enough to recommend a purchase.

Exhaust (400MP)
Well, after two attempts to play this game, I have given up. On both times my system crashed and I got the dreaded RROD.


It is like the truck is riding on the RROD. Bastard.

Recommendation: Avoid it like you do homeless people.

And, well, it appears that is the last of my reviews for this week.


Game Add-Ons
Pretty big week in the world of DLC as we finally get the highly anticipated Fable II DLC, among some other treats.

Fable II - Knothole Island (800MP)
You can download two versions of this. One is free and updates some bugs and glitches, along with allowing you to join other players who downloaded the paid version to Knothole Island. The paid version, however, opens up the island along with three quests. In addition, you will also find new weapons, clothes, potions, and creatures to fight. Sadly, the DLC only adds about an hour of content based off my readings which is the very reason why I am holding off and waiting for Fallout 3's DLC. Maybe if the DLC would have came out in November or December I would have cared more, but I have had this game beaten a week or two after it came out...and that's taking my time with it.

Castle Crashers - King Pack (160MP)
This update adds two new players plus more weapons and animal orbs. While I love CC and think it is a great game, I feel like they need to patch the game before adding more to it. Unless, of course, they have already done it as I have not played CC in a couple of weeks. Still, more players to play as is always a good bet for me, so I say get it.

FIFA 09 Live Season Price Drop (Various)
The LIVE season DLC for Fifa 09 has dropped, and the new prices can be found below;
English Barclay's Premier League: 420MP (from 560MP)
Spanish La Liga: 420MP (from 560MP)
Italian Serie A: 420MP (from 560MP)
French Ligue 1: 420MP (from 560MP)
German Bundesliga: 420MP (from 560MP)
Mexican Primera Division : 420MP (from 560MP)
All Six Leagues: 1200MP (from 1600MP)

Shaun White Snowboarding: The Freebies Pack (Free)
Adds new clothes for your character and a snowboard from a contest winner. Is this game any good though? I have heard varying reviews about it.

Guitar Hero: World Tour (Various)
"Low (Travis Barker Remix)" by Flo Rida [Feat.T-Pain] (160MP)
"Lycanthrope" by +44 (160MP)
"What's My Age Again" by blink-182 (160MP)
Travis Barker Track Pack (440MP)

Rock Band (Various)
"Mr. Cab Driver" by Lenny Kravitz (160MP)
"Are You Gonna Go My Way" by Lenny Kravitz (160MP)
"Freedom Train" by Lenny Kravitz (160MP)
"Let Love Rule" by Lenny Kravitz (160MP)
"Entangled" by Lenny Kravitz (80MP)
"Megasus" by Lenny Kravitz (80MP)
Lenny Kravitz Track Pack (560MP)

Avatars (Free)
There are some new clothes in the Avatar section, for the people who care about this kind of thing. At least they're free.
Boys:
Striped Polo Shirt
Striped Jacket with Polo
Checked Jacket with Polo
Open Neck Cardigan
Embroidered Pants
Suspenders with Hi Pants (Dress Up)

Girls
Hacking Jacket
Chinos with Belt
Rainy Day Boots
Scarlet Pumps
Lavender Polo Shirt

This is just something interesting I found online. It's the most popular games on LIVE for the week of January 05, 2009:

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (based on Unique Users)
1 CoD: World at War
2 Halo 3
3 Gears of War 2
4 Call of Duty 4
5 Left 4 Dead
6 GTA IV
7 Guitar Hero World Tour
8 FIFA 09
9 Lord of the Rings: Conquest Multiplayer Demo
10 Fallout 3

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1 Castle Crashers
2 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
3 Worms
4 UNO
5 A Kingdom for Keflings
6 Interpol
7 Puzzle Arcade
8 Banjo-Kazooie
9 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
10 Braid

Original Xbox Top Live Titles (based on UU's)
1 Halo 2
2 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
3 Fable
4 Counter-Strike
5 Conker: Live Reloaded
6 Splinter Cell Chaos
7 Doom 3
8 Star Wars: Battlefront
9 Call of Duty 3
10 Burnout 3


Top Community Games NEW! (Full Versions purchased)
1 Air Legends
2 Golden Royal Blackjack
3 Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp
4 Dr. Popper
5 Word Soup
6 Machiavelli's Ascent
7 Weapon of Choice
8 CarneyVale Showtime
9 Fireplace
10 EZMuze Break and House edition

What upsets me the most about these lists is the fact that Fireplace ranks number 9 in the community games. There clearly is no justice.

Video Marketplace

Title (HD, STD)
Accepted (360MP, 240MP)
Man on Wire (480MP, 320MP)
Cavite (N/A, 240MP)
Color Me Kubrick (N/A, 240MP)
Jesus Camp (N/A, 240MP)
Wanted (480MP, 320MP)
Maxed Out (N/A, 240MP)
Tokyo Gore Police (N/A, 320MP)
Flawless (360MP, 240MP)
Appaloosa (480MP, 320MP)
About a Boy (480MP, 320MP)
The Nutty Professor (360MP, 240MP)

Recommended Movie of the Week:


Man on Wire is a documentary piece on Philippe Petit's 1974 high wire walk. Sure, a movie about a high wire walk probably does not sound all that exhilarating, but when you put into account that the wire was between the World Trade Centers, then things get interesting. He snuck up on the wire in August of '74 and spent roughly an hour atop it before coming down and being arrested. Afterwards, he was taken for psychological evaluation and released. Petit released a book and this documentary is based largely off the book. This film works because it is about something a lot of (especially younger) people do not know about and it is so rare that it is hard not to be drawn to the idea. The documentary has won various awards as well, from the the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival to the Sundance Film Festival. On top of that, the movie has also been on numerous top ten lists for 2008. You are missing out if you do not give this a shot.

Events

Monday: Arcade Afternoon - Bomberman LIVE
Apparently, this is all about getting together with your friends and family and playing video games. You know, like any other day.

Monday: Music Monday - Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3
"Music MOnday is all about expressing yourself," which apparently is best done by dancing on a floor pad. Enjoy.

Wednesday: GamerchiX Ladies Night - Need For Speed Undercover
A night for ladies only, and if you don't want to play Need For Speed Undercover, you can just go on the MyGamerCard.net Chix Tracker and search for other games that girls want to play.

Friday: Game With Developers
This is your chance to play against Midway developers in Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. I will ignore the obvious jokes here.

Sunday: Community Playdate
Play Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (long title, eh?) with Gear Live.

Closing
Sadly, there will not be a "Ten XBox-Live Arcade Games Everyone Should Own" this week as I am, thanks to Exhaust, without a working XBox. Hopefully I will be able to get this fixed or find another XBox to play on soon. I guess I needed to upgrade to the new Hard Drive anyways.

Screenshots
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