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Xbox Live Hits Collection with Limbo,Trials HD and Splosion Man (Xbox 360)
by Lulzaroonie
Trials HD - One would think, that a game based on riding a motorbike would be about racing, but this is more a reflex testing obstacle course, set against a clock. And Trials isn't just a clever name about time trials. Sometimes you'll find you've sat there for a good couple of hours, trying to shave seconds off of your personal best, ... trying to angle your landings perfectly, whilst chanting the mantra, "Just once more! One more go!" when you fail.
Your main motivations in this game come from medals, and also the online leaderboard. Most people have that one friend who canes through a game and has a ridiculously high score. Well let that be your motivation to putting them to shame.
The tracks are great quality, and gradually get harder as you progress through the levels. Further tracks are available to download when you're sick of staring at the same courses.
Some have said this game is ruthless, and it is, but it's not unnecessarily so. You just need to be good enough to be able to progress to the next level of difficulty, and it all helps you to better yourself.
This is a great game to have in a triple pack of games, for the challenge, and for 'taking a break'.
Limbo - Limbo is one of the best games I've ever played, hands down. It's a very dark platform puzzle adventure, about a small boy who is searching for his sister. The world around you is grey scale, misty and ethereal. Background components may turn out to be foreground decoration and vice versa, so the game requires you to not only work out the puzzles but to also pay attention to your surroundings. Doing so may be the difference between life and death.
There is very little in game music, or even background noise. I don't feel this is a bad point since the game is so immersive, and I think this is probably done on purpose to give the player a sense of complete and total loneliness. When there is music, it's usually to enhance a dramatic or terrifying scene.
There is also very little in the world itself. Set in abandoned towns, factories and forests, there are very few signs of life. That's not to say there aren't enemies, because there are, and they will attack you. It's up to you to figure out how you protect yourself from their attacks. The further you progress towards the end of the game, the fewer signs of life you come across.
Controls are limited to basic movements, running left or right, jumping up or down, and climbing. You have to utilize these controls to navigate through this world of shades. It might seem too limiting, but the puzzles are set out that the most you have to do is just time things right or work out the puzzles.
The game is reasonably short, around 5 hours, but this doesn't make it any less enjoyable, and you don't even feel like you 'need' more. The end of the game isn't rewarding as such, as it will probably make you consider what the hell just happened, but the journey it took to get there is rewarding enough.
An absolute joy to play, I might just play this again soon.
'Splosion Man - Splosion Man is one of those games, I think that is a bit 'marmite'. You like it or you don't. Personally I find the game frustrating. I'll get to why.
This platformer is set in a laboritory, where Splosion Man is the result of scientific experimentation. And as you might guess from the name, Splosion Man splodes. I mean, explodes. Ahem.
As a 2D side scroller, your main aim is to get from one side of the lab to the other, taking out as many scientists as you can in the process. You can do this by exploding on them, near them, above them. What would be a jump is one explosion, and you can jump/explode in quick succession three times before burning out and needing to land to ignite again.
The controls are simple, and the game play is easy and clear. Basically, if you keep dying, it's your fault, since the game works fine. You just need to keep getting better. (This is why I find it frustrating, I'm not that good at platformers). There are check points throughout the levels, so you won't die a few feet from the safe room and have to start right back at the start of the level.
The levels again, get progressively harder, and after a certain number of deaths, you're given the option to 'skip' the level and advance to the next.
There are also collectables to find, so once you're sure of the game, and you've completed it as fast as you can (because speed is also a factor in this game, which ensures also that you will die a few more times), you can go back and find these collectables.
And when you're done with that, then welcome to online multiplayer, with new co-op levels!
The music is fun and crazy, and sets the soundtrack to a fast paced, mental game perfectly.
Splosion Man himself isn't without personality either. He seems to suffer from some kind of tic where he can't help but shout out strange things from time to time.
Having said all that, this game is stupidly fun, and something you will likely play for hours. You might suffer from rage quit a few times, but you'll be back.
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Sonic the Hedgehog (Xbox 360)
by Juls0419
I would like to start this review by explaining that I went into this game with an open mind. I didn't buy it until 2008 because I didn't have an XBOX 360. As a consequence I had already heard bad things about it, but had dismissed them due to the fact that as I had enjoyed the contreversial Shadow the Hedgehog despite the general ... consensus. I had heard some of the music from the game however and though it was excellent, especially the various versions of "His World".
However, when I finally bought the game I was extremely disappointed. They had stripped all the fun aspects away which existed in previous entries to the series and just left a buggy mess.
One thing many people complain regularly about is the loading screens which not only take an extremely long time, but also have to be endured at times when they shouldn't be. For example, when carrying out a mission for a person who is in the adventure field the entire adventure field reloads for their explanation of the mission, it then reloads for the mission, then it releoads for the results and finally reloads to return to the proper game. If the mission is failed this process loops. Another problem is loading screens that pop up several times during a single level of the game. One way of improving the loading times however, is by installing the game on your console's hard drive. (A feature which was not available when the game was released) This causes a significant reduction in waiting time, however it is still much longer than it aught to be.
One thing that some people dont like about modern Sonic games is "scripted" sections. This is when the game takes control of Sonic for a moment while he navigates an obstacle, such as running around a loop. In this game Sega manage to make this feature, which is, in theory, meant to reduce the difficulty of the game, regularly throw Sonic to his death. For instance, at times when you are running around a loop but didn't enter the loop perfectly centered, Sonic will run part the way around and off the edge of the loop entirely, he will subsequently be launched into the air, usually into a bottomless pit that was next to the loop.
Another problem is the general physics engine of the game. There are times when it is possible to go into a loop which is not scripted. At these times you can take a leisurely stroll up to the top of the loop, take a rest at the top (while still standing upside down) and then slowly wander back down again. There are even times where you can fall through objects entirely and to your death.
The gameplay is surprisingly slow for the franchise. Especially if you are used to games like Sonic Unleashed, Colours or Generations. Tails suffers really badly with this and is almost unbearably slow. The best way to play as tails is just continually fly wherever you want to, landing whenever Tails gets tired, and then starting to fly again. This method seems to be about three times faster than running! This slow gameplay goes with the exception of the "Mach Speed" sections that are sometimes added onto the end of one of Sonic's levels. At these times Sonic appears to forget how to stop running and all you are able to do is steer and jump as objects come hurtling towards you. In the case of the level "Crisis City" these objects may even come from behind you (and the camera), leading to completely unavoidable obstacles.
This game appears to have gone with an extremely dull graphical style, sticking, as much as possible, to dull realism instead of the vibrant, abstact environments which gave the franchise its name. Doctor Robotnik (Eggman if you prefer) looks terrible in this game and appears to have had a character redesign. This design is basically a generic overwieght evil genius with many visible veins all over his bald forehead. This design was subsequently dropped in later games.
The story of this game feels really bleak and doesn't make you care about any of the characters at all. It feels in many ways like a fanfiction by a 12 year old. The contreversial part of the storyline is that Sonic and a human princess fall in love, even kissing near the end of the game. Many people find this inappropriate, but I personally feel that they are overreacting in that respect. I do however feel that such a storyline doesn't work in this franchise.
Many people feel that this game is so bad because, when it was released in 2006, Sega rushed it out in time for the Christmas holidays. This meant that the game was incomplete and not fully tested. However, this only accounts for the bugs in the game, not the general problems with the style of the game. An indication of how the game could have been was once available in the form of XBOX Live Marketplace's demo of the game. This single-level demo used a later version of the engine than the final game, with many of the bugs removed. However, the demo was one day taken down from XBOX Live with no explanation.
Overall, this is an extremely bad game and I stuggle to find anything good about it apart from the music. I would only recommend it as part of a die-hard fan's collection, not as a game the average person should play.
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