In Warp you control an alien being that escapes from a lab and wrecks havoc on the scientists and security guards. You have special powers you unlock as you go but you are equipped from the beginning with the ability to warp through walls and into things such as barrels and turrets. Later on as you progress you unlock the ability to send out an “echo” which is a clone of yourself and use it to distract guards and turrets. Later on you can send your clone out to a barrel or turret and then switch places with the barrel to get you through thick walls and over water, etc. There are plenty of abilities to unlock throughout the game which keeps it interesting the whole way through. In addition to the campaign there are challenge rooms where you can test your skills. Warp has a sort of social feature to it in where it compares your scores with other people on your friends list. It also keeps stats such as how many times you’ve warp and how many times you fragged and compares it with your friends right on the screen as your playing. That was a nice little touch although I only had one other friend playing Warp to compare with.

I love the art direction of Warp, it has a sort of Portal mixed with Shadow Complex vibe even though it’s top down. The game is clean and sharp and controls great. It’s decently lengthy too, especially if you are trying to find all the collectible “grub” and film canisters. At only 800 MS points the game is totally worth the price. I’m hoping they have plans to make a sequel and/or downloadable content because I’d love to play more. Pretty much all of the game takes place in an underwater laboratory (which is awesome) but it would be nice to see a sequel bring it above ground.

Overall I thought Warp was great and it’s definitely going to be on my mind when trying to determine the best XBLA game of 2012. If you haven’t given the demo a try make sure you do that right now.

30 Second Review

(+) Fun and addicting combination of anagrams and strategy.
(+) Charming and colorful presentation with a lot of little touches.
(+) Excellent value for the price.
(-) Minor bugs.
(-) Customizable options would have added a nice touch.

Gameplay

The concept of Quarrel is rather simple. It is one part word puzzle and one part strategy game. In the game, you are pitted against up to 3 opponents on an island that is divided into territories. The object of the game is to conquer all the territories and be supreme word master. On each territory there are a number of troops at your disposal. You use these troops to either attack a neighbor territory or to reinforce your own pieces of land. If you decide to attack, you enter into an anagram battle.

I'm pretty sure Quarrel's dictionary is better than my phone's auto-correct dictionary.

Each player is given the same 8 random letters to work with and must form a word using these letters. After you and your opponent have selected a word, they are displayed against each other. Each letter has a different value and the total sum of your word will be added up. The player with the highest value word gets to beat their opponent senseless by hurling the letters at them. If you are the attacker and win, your troops move in and take over that space. If you are the defender and win, you keep your space and reduce your attacker down to one soldier. Pretty simple, right?

Here’s the catch, the size of your word depends on how many troops you have on the territory.  If you only have 5 troops, your word can only be 5 letters long at most. This is where strategy comes into play and takes Quarrel from being just a plain anagram game to an addicting and challenging Risk-style strategy game. The more players you add, the more complicated and challenging your strategies will need to become. Even against simple AI opponents, I found myself heavily debating on what move I should do next. Continue my conquest but risk spreading my troops too thin? Play defensive but miss out on the bonus of eliminating another player? The combination of strategies, risk-reward, and head-to-head battles really provides an exhilarating feeling.

Size doesn't always matter. Even with fewer characters, you can have close matches.

The game has a pretty in depth tutorial to help get you up to speed and understand how the game works. After the tutorial you’re ready to take on either AI opponents or real online players (sorry, no local multiplayer but for very obvious reasons). If you choose to take on the AI opponents, the game does a great job of giving you a wide range of competition to match your dictionary IQ. There are 9 AI opponents in total, each with their own IQ, personality, and playing style. In addition, there are four modes to keep you busy. You have Custom Play, Challenges, Domination, and Showdown modes. While each one is slightly different, it really does boil back down to anagram challenges giving a little bit of “been-there-done-that” feeling.

The presentation is extremely colorful and cartoony, giving the game a charming appeal to it. Everything from the soldiers, to the island, to the music, seems to have a quirky bounce about it and can be contagious. While this can become slightly annoying after a while, it’s not very noticeable and the gameplay action will easily distract you from paying too much attention to it. There are a few other issues with the game such as brief audio glitches and a possible bug where you are always “randomly” drawn last during order selection before the game begins. But again, these are very minor

I wonder if FUS RO DAH is in the Quarrel Dictionary?

There are a lot of little touches to this game that make it very enjoyable to play. When playing against multiple opponents, you don’t just sit along the side lines waiting for the battle to be over. You are given the same 8 letters as the two players and have a chance to craft a word earning you bonus points which can later be spent on calling in reinforcements. It’s a simple, yet wonderful addition to help keep you in the game. Another example is that after each battle, a scroll bar on the bottom of the screen will display the true anagram (the full 8 letter word(s)that could have been made) as well as the definition of the words used in the battle. One thing I do wish was added was the ability to customize your troop selection. There are several different types of troops ranging from soldiers, ninjas, robots (oh my!) and several more. They are randomly assigned to you when you turn on the game. While they don’t have any special abilities or behave any differently than the others, being able to select your own troops and even customize them would have been an awesome touch. But not having a customizing option doesn’t limit the game by any means and does not detract from its value.

Final Verdict

Overall, Quarrel is a fantastic game. Whether you’re looking for a short 5-10 time killer match or a 30 minute or more round, this game delivers. If you’re a fan of word-based games or strategy style conquests, this game is right up your alley. Quarrel is currently available on Xbox Live market place for 400 points ($5.00 USD) and is well worth the value!

[Side note: iOS users, there is also a mobile version of this game that came out in 2011. I have not played it so cannot tell you how it differs from this review]

Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a very entertaining XBLA title, and it was a great addition to Microsofts Summer of Arcade series.  The most enjoyable aspect of the game is trying to beat your friends race time.  Next to every event it will show you what your friends time was in the particular event, and it adds a nice replay value to the title, not too mention bragging rights against your buddies.

No exact release date or pricing has been mentioned for the “Tempest Pack” other than to expect it sometime in October.

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Turns out I need not have worried.

You got Tower Defense in my Team Fortress 2!

There is something truly satisfying about a good kill with an Assassin.

Monday Night Combat is a third person shooter unlike any you have ever seen. You have six classes of characters to choose from: Assault, Tank, Support, Assassin, Gunner and Sniper. Each class has distinct strengths and weaknesses, and you will have to take the time to learn which ones work best as you try and protect your money ball. Each character carries a primary and secondary weapon, and they each have their own little personality quirks that come out when they are attacking and dying, very reminiscent of Team Fortress 2. Some of the character classes even share characteristics with their TF2 counterparts; the Assassin can cloak and uses a knife for melee style kills, the Gunner carries a mini gun and the Support creates a turret that both fires on the enemy and heals his teammates.

It does not take long, however, to notice there are some major differences between Valve’s multiplayer masterpiece and Uber’s offering. The first is the skills; each character has three unique skills, mapped to the X, Y and B buttons. These skills not only give them an edge in combat, they can be leveled up with the money you win throughout the match, as can your character. These are just a few examples of the skills available:

• The Assassin at level 3 replaces her kunai knife with a katana, while her dash, cloak and smoke bombs are all more effective at higher levels.
• The Tank and Gunner can deploy themselves, turning into turrets that a much more accurate and protect from grapple kills.
• The Support can hack into turrets, making them stronger. At level 2 or higher on hack, you can turn enemy turrets against them.
• The Sniper can lay traps that will freeze enemies, and each level up to 3 that skill is increased means another trap can be laid.
• The Assault’s level 3 charge is flat out deadly.

At this point, you are probably thinking this is pretty straight forward: gain money for kills in the game and upgrade your stats to make your character stronger. The problem is that is only half of the strategy. Throughout each variation of the game, bots are spawned which will go after your money ball. These bots can range from the weakly armed and easily destroyed Slim Bots to the Jackbot, a massive robot that can be a real pain to take down. All around the area surrounding your ball, you will find little nodes where you can pay to have turrets built. These turrets can range from cheap, easy to upgrade but weak Laser Turrets to heavily armored but expensive Rockit Turrets (no, that is not a misspelling). Part of the strategy is deciding just how to spend your money; concentrate too heavily on leveling up your character and your money ball may be vulnerable, while never upgrading your skills will leave your character open to attacks from bots or other players. The great thing is there is not necessarily one right way to play; the more you play the game, the more you will balance which skills you upgrade and what turrets you set up where.

So that covers some of the basic gamplay mechanics. You might be thinking already this is an impressive amount of depth for an arcade game. You wouldn’t be mistaken.

Are you sure this is an XBLA game?

Blitz is Tower Defense with a twist.

Monday Night Combat has two basic modes of play. Blitz is the Coop mode for the game. You and a group of friends work together to protect your money ball from increasingly more difficult rounds of spawning bots. You have several turrets at you disposal, and it is your job to destroy the bots before they can lower the shields to you ball and destroy it. There are several different variations on Blitz, each presenting a unique challenge:

• Exhibition: 10 rounds of easy difficulty, this is really a good mode for newcomers to try out first. You can experiment with the different characters and turrets without running too much of a risk of angering your teammates.
• Season: 20 rounds including 2 rounds of Jackbots, moderate difficulty; Season is definitely a step up from Exhibition. Make sure you know what you are doing before you attempt this mode.
• Playoff: 30 rounds of heavy difficulty. Even though I have been playing this game for a while, I have yet to beat this mode.
• The Scramble: 10 rounds of crazy difficulty. The bots hit you fast and furious in this mode, and you will have to work as team to survive.
• Sudden Death: Never ending rounds of insanely difficult bots, the idea of Sudden Death is to last as long as possible. I am pleased to report the team I was on made it to level 42 before our money ball was destroyed.

You have to work together to win in Crossfire.

As you can tell, Uber put a lot of thought into this mode. That is only half the game, however. Crossfire is the team battle mode for MNC. Two teams of 6 players square off against each other, each trying to destroy the other team’s money ball. To do this, the players must help their bots advance to the other base so they can take out the shields, allowing players and bots to then attack the ball directly. At the same time, players must stop their opponents from doing the same thing to them.

This mode is where the different abilities of each of the classes really shines. You can sneak up behind an opponent cloaked as an Assasisn and kill them with a grapple, then drop a smoke bomb with allows you to jump a grate distance out of harms way. You can level up the Gunner’s deploy to level 3, which drops a protective shield over his head that protects him from the Sniper’s headshot kills. The Support can hack an enemy turret, turning it on it’s own team, and then tag an opponent with an air strike as he makes his exit. Crossfire is all about finding ways to breach your enemies defenses while trying to keep him from doing the same to you.

Now Crossfire has provided my one source of frustration with this game. There have been more than a few games where lag has taken over, which is really annoying when you are playing a precision class like the Assassin or the Sniper. While I understand MNC runs on Peer to Peer connections and the lag may not be Uber’s fault, I do hope there is something that can be done about it in the future.

But wait, there’s more!

As if what I just mentioned was not enough, Uber has added a few other wrinkles to the game.

• Juice: performance enhancers are not only legal in Monday Night Combat, they are encouraged. When you get enough kills or manage to collect enough, you can activate Juiced mode. This mode temporarily makes you nearly invincible, instantly healing you and severely increasing your firepower.
• 

  Darn it, Bullseye, I want BACON!

  Bullseye: What sports game is complete without a mascot? From time to time, Bullseye will appear in the middle of the field of combat Shooting him will give you money, juice, and the occasional bacon, which makes you temporarily better at everything. After all, isn’t everything better with bacon?

• Custom Classes: As you gain more money, you can buy custom classes. These are all based on the standard classes of characters, but you get to choose their sponsors. May not seem like much, but each sponsor gives you a different boost, such as faster reload speeds or a greater chance of doing critical damage. On top of that, there are three levels of sponsorship: gold, silver and bronze. A reload bonus sponsor chosen in the gold slot will have a greater affect than one chosen in bronze.
• Pro tags: As you achieve different feats within the game, you unlock different pro tags. You can shoose which of these pro tags you choose to equip, which will be diplayed next to your name and when you kill an opponent.
• Humor: Monday Night Combat is full of completely irreverent humor. from the Hawaiian Gunner to the ever insulting Sniper, you will find yourself at least cracking a smile routinely throughout the game. Add to that the completely over the top arena announcer, the ‘Good old Southern Girl’ attitude of the Pit Girl and the already mentioned mascot Bullseye, and you have an overall experience that will ahve you coming back for more.

The Verdict

I know 1200 MS points ($15.00) sounds like a lot for an XBLA game, but trust me when I say Monday Night Combat is worth even spending the $20.00 it will take to get a points card just to buy it. The mark of any good multiplayer game is that “Just one more match” feeling you get after finishing a battle, and this game has that in spades. Even with its lag issues, Monday Night Combat gets a 5 out of 5.

Release Date List: 7/18-7/25

This week the Summer of Arcade promotion kicks off on Xbox Live with LIMBO.  Also Need for Speed: World on the PC and Alien Swarm. Check out the full list of titles in the link below.

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Madden NFL 11 Demo Tackles XBL and PSN

Football season is right around the corner people, and with that usually means another EA Madden NFL game.  On July 27th you can download the demo that pits last years AFC Championship game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New York Jets.  The demo will have 5 minute quarters and give you a option to choose between four select difficulties: Rookie, Pro, All Pro, and All-Madden.

A lot of people are upset with EA for there Ten dollar online pass tactic, and rightfully so.  Will you be picking up the new Madden this year?

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XBLA Breach Gets Delayed

The Xbox Live title that had a lot of people excited at E3, Breach will be getting a pretty significant delay.  Instead of dropping this year, the game will release in January.

Atomic President Peter Tamte says the delay will give the studio the time they need to add a “hardcore” mode to the game to mimic the real life military situations.

Luckily there were features we had been thinking of adding to the title, and now we have the opportunity to do just that. Unlike with Six Days in Fallujah, which was delayed indefinitely when Konami pulled out, we are publishing Breach ourselves, and it will be out in January… I’ve always said, we don’t make simulations for the public and we don’t make games for the government. However, we have come to realize there is a growing segment of the gaming population that wants to test these simulation systems out for themselves, which is why we’re adding features, like a Hardcore mode, to Breach.”

Breach will now release day and day with the Xbox 360 version and will still carry a $15 price tag.

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Netflix Streams Over the Border

It is a happy day today for the Canadians as Netflix have announced today that their streaming service will be coming to Canada later this fall.  It may not be a big deal for people in the US because we have been spoiled with streaming content for quite some time now, but people across the northern border couldn’t be more happy.

The Canadian version of Netflix will have its first ever separate package that allows customers to choose a streaming-only package instead of having to pay for a DVD bundle.

No other details have been mentioned including pricing information, but we imagine that to surface shortly.

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LIMBO takes you on a beautiful and dark journey of a boy who is uncertain about his sisters fate.  The entire game is set in a black and white atmosphere that you will soon discover is a place you would never want to be.  My time spent with Limbo was nothing short of amazing.  The game starts off with you waking up in the middle of a forest not knowing where you are or what your in store for.  I refer to the main character as “the boy” because the game doesn’t have voice actors, nor does it have character development.  Only thing that matters is that you overcome the dangerous objects that await you, so you can find your sister.

As you progress through Limbo, you are challenged by mind bending puzzles that actually do take some thinking.  This is where the game absolutely shines.  It is almost impossible to be perfect and stay alive for a long period of time.  You will be electrocuted, drowned, and pummeled by the dangerous tools that surround Limbo.  You will die, respawn, maybe die again but then hopefully realize where you went wrong.  This may sound frustrating and even game breaking but it’s almost the opposite.  Playdead did an excellent job at making sure when you die you don’t feel like chucking the controller across the room.  When you fail at a specific puzzle you are put almost exactly where you left off right before you attempted it.  I also felt a sense of accomplishment when I figured out a way to get past a section that kept me engrossed in wanting to play for just “5 more minutes.”  The puzzles vary and never get old because they change up through out the game.  I never felt bored or felt like I have been doing the same thing over and over again.  Towards the end of the game your encounters with certain elements will get harder and the puzzles will challenge you more and more, but not once did I feel fed up with the game.  It’s just a beautiful display of balance and forgiveness.

The controls are very simplistic.  You move with the left analog stick and use A to jump and B to move objects.  It truly is another reason why Limbo could be a game for anybody who doesn’t mind using their brain a little.  One thing you should be aware of though is that your character dies in pretty horrific ways.  If he’s ripped up by a saw you will see body parts and limbs flying around.  It is hardly “graphic” because of it’s black and white art style but there is a setting to turn it off if your a bit squeamish.  One of the other elements of the game that I just have to mention is the sound.  I played the entire game with my Turtle Beach headphones on and it was very noticeable that Playdead put a lot of time in getting the sound just right.  Everything from the crackling of tree branches to the howling from the owls are heard through out your time in Limbo.  My suggestion, if you have a nice pair of gaming headphones use them and you will see what I mean.

Make no mistake, while LIMBO may be an Xbox Live Arcade title, I still consider it to be one of the top displays thus far of 2010 and I will put it up there with any of the other big boys for Game of the Year.  When a game can give you a different experience that you have never encountered before, that is something special.  For a title that costs 15 dollars, this is the biggest bang for your buck that your going to get this summer, or for that matter possibly the rest of the year.

Medal Of Honor Limited Edition Extras Revealed

EA has confirmed the Limited Edition content for Medal of Honor, and best of all it costs the same as the standard edition.  That’s right, the Limited Edition will be $59.99 and add a few more weapons to your arsenal right off the bat.  The MP7, TOZ-104, and 870MC2 Shotguns will be available day one.  Standard Edition owners will also have access to those weapons but will have to earn them through the unlock ranking system.

At E3 it was also announced that PS3 users will get a copy of the 2002 award winning Medal of Honor: Frontlines.  Which copy do you plan on picking up?

Medal of Honor will shoot its way onto store shelves October 12th for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 with a Europe release on October 15th.

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Halo: Reach Gets Down To Business With Limited Edition Bundle

You’ve dreamed, You’ve asked, You’ve waited.  Now Bungie is delivering the goods on there Limited Edition Bundle for the  next installment in the Halo universe.  The LE will cost you $80 and will include the following:

• Custom case modeled after a recovered ONI data module
• In-game Elite armor set for multiplayer
• Artifact bag, which contains the personal notes and documents of the creator of the Spartan program: Dr. Catherine Halsey
• Dr. Halsey’s ONI security badge
• An embroidered Spartan II patch

You can check out screen shots of the bundle from our source below.

Halo: Reach will come to a store near you on September 14th exclusively on the Xbox 360.

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Bayonetta Discounted On Amazon Today

Q1 of this year was a crazy time for gamers with what seemed like a new triple A game coming every week.  But in case you’ve missed out on Platinum Games “Bayonetta” today would be the best day to scoop it up.

Amazon is having a deal on the game and you can pick it up for 20$ for the PS3.  Unfortunately the deal is not running on the Xbox 360 as well, but if your looking for a great game to play before the “next big thing” then you cannot go wrong with Bayonetta.

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After 30 Years It’s Still Haunted

Atari is celebrating it’s 30 year anniversary of the 1980 classic title Haunted House by releasing a downloadable title this September.

The sequel will go back to its spooky atmosphere and return players to the Graves Mansion.  The sequel will have enhanced graphics and follow the same concept but will offer new locations and a character shown in the third-person.

Haunted House will be available this fall for the PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and the Wii.

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http://everydaygamers.com/videos/Snoopy%20Flying%20Ace.mp4

I have to admit, I hadn’t heard anything about Trials HD until the demo was released. I downloaded it out of curiosity and was instantly hooked. I’m not a huge motorcycle fan but you don’t have to be to like this game. The formula is simple for anyone. The great thing about Trials is that it’s easy to keep trying to perfect your run. You have two options when on the track, press the back button to start over from the beginning of the track or press the B button to start from the last checkpoint. Starting from the last checkpoint counts as a “fault” which will in turn affect your overall time so it is best to start over from the beginning if you want to get the gold medal. For each track you are either rewarded a Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal. You can also compare your times with friends that have the game. For example one of my friends has Trials and we’ve been competing back and forth to get a faster time on each track. This is what makes Trials so addicting. Yes competing for Gold medals is tough enough but trying to beat your friend’s score is added incentive. I almost wish I could host an Xbox Live party to bring my friends in the game so that we could watch each other race the tracks and see who can get the fastest time. I also like how Trials loads fast, if at anytime you want to restart a track you press the back button and instantly you are at the beginning ready to give it another shot. Because of this I always find myself saying “okay, one more try” even though it really is never my last.

You may ask yourself, “What is so hard about Trials HD?” Trials is physics-based meaning you must tilt your body either forward or backward at the right time to get the smoothest ride possible. It’s the combination of tilting your body and pressing the gas that makes this game what it is. In the later levels your skills are really tested, you must be pinpoint if you want to complete the track with a gold medal. Take for example the video below, this level requires a lot of precision:

Other tracks in Trials just look plain awesome, like the one titled “Dreamscape” that has pieces of wood floating in the air and doesn’t look like a track at all. RedLynx definitely knew what they were doing when they created these tracks. Not to mention Trials also comes with a track builder which you can use to create your own tracks and share them with friends. Check the video below to check out the “Dreamscape” track.

Overall I love the game, it was a pleasant surprise and that might be the main reason I like it so much. Trials HD is fun, simple, and addicting, everything a game should be. If you have an Xbox 360 and 1200 points I highly suggest Trials HD even if you don’t particularly care for motorcycle games.

Patrick: I too have been waiting for Castle Crashers to release for a long time now, the first time I heard about it seems like forever-ago. One of the main things that draws me in to games these days is the art-style. I was instantly hooked to CC once I saw the typical Behemoth art-style we are accustomed to. After waiting forever, Castle Crashers has finally released and it is all that I was hoping it would be. CC brings back fond memories of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time on the SNES, the hack and slash side-scroller that I grew up playing. It’s this simple style of game combined with some great RPG elements that make Castle Crashers the ultimate XBLA game.

Werner: The gameplay is very fast paced and hectic at sometimes, and other times it can also be very slow and steady and very combo driven and tactical. It all depends on how you choose to make your character grow. Before beating the game I had already created a green knight who fought using mostly magic, a grey knight who was a powerful combatant and a high speed thief whose agility was so high that he could kill most enemies before they had a chance to get close to him, or even come into the screen. I beat it with the thief, of course, so now I have to go make some sort of a tank who can take any punishment anyone could dish out.

Patrick: Unlike Werner I tried to even my orange knight out pretty evenly with an emphasis on magic. This made the game pretty steady throughout and I was thankful to have my wife beside me as a blue knight who leveled everything evenly also but with an emphasis on strength. This made the game turn out to be a standard medium difficulty game.

Werner: The game is not flawless though, and the flaws it does have are only made worse by the irony that they make this multiplayer aimed game be impossible to play online reliably, and frustrating to play offline. Online play is terribly laggy, followed by random disconnects which cause you to lose any progress gotten during that stage. Offline play requires the other players to each have their own gamertag. It only takes a few minutes to create these new gamertags, but this should really be “pick-up and play”, with the option for others to log in. Another problem with the game is a random bug which causes people to lose their saved files. This is extra annoying if you spent hours powering up your red knight to level 50 one day, and he’s back to level 1 next time you play.

Patrick: Yes, I agree. One of the main aspects of CC is the fact that it is meant to be played with at least 2 but preferably 4 people. This is also the downfall of the game. I tried to play by myself and I found it very difficult, the more people you play with the better, but this also means more chaos on the screen which makes it hard to even find your character, which brings me to my next complaint. Even though I absolutely love the art, the screen doesn’t seem big enough (even my 52″) and some of the enemies and characters are too big which makes it hard to know what is going on. I was playing with my two cousins and a friend and one of my cousins had been button-mashing for at least a minute before he realized he was already dead and had been for at least 30 seconds. This is how chaotic it can get on the screen. If you keep it down to 2 knights it keeps it pretty clean. I’ve noticed the later levels tend to me less-chaotic as well.

Werner: Castle crashers is an awesome game. Maybe my favorite XBLA game, and a game I know I will be playing on the down time in-between the Gears of Wars and Fables and Skates. Yes, the game does have it’s flaws, but these are being looked into, and fixes have been promised, so when that happens feel free to add another star to this rating.

Patrick: Yes, despite these two downfalls Castle Crashers is still an amazing game and I am still a huge fan of it. It is everything I was hoping it would be and more. With 3 different modes this game is truly a game to bring out during a party. Even non-gamers can get in to Castle Crashers. You need to buy this now.