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Pictionary: Ultimate Edition - uDraw (Xbox 360)
by Seven17
What better way to spend family time together than play pictionary. Now you can spend even more time sitting in front of the TV and completely ruin the spirit of the game with this nonsense digital version of the real thing.
The gameplay is quite simple and you can customise it to suit your house rules or the games standard ... rules. It also takes advantage of being a digital version of the game, by introducing effects and what not to your drawing, whereby you have to draw in the dark, upside down and other things which make the game more of a challenge.
As you play you begin to pick up points for each team and these are shown in a scoreboard at the end of the game which cannot be skipped. The explanations before you play are just excessive. The voice actor who does the instructions says about 5 sentences before you are allowed to even start drawing. Every single time. This means that a quick 5 minute game actually gets each player 2 drawings per game. If you're lucky, and if you're a fast drawer that is. A real pain in the backside if you ask me, and no there isn't a way to turn them off, believe me i've tried.
You can also create your own drawing suggestions in a custom mode, and I do like a lot of the customisation features but this doesn't make up for the fact that the game already has a lot of obvious and impossible pre loaded picture suggestions. The difficulty goes up far too quick. Easy are obvious, Medium are a serious challenge and Hard are impossible. There's no middle ground here!
This game is also notorious for glitching and breaking apart. Bugs are crawling all over the place, particularly with the achievement for landing on 20 special squares. This took me 25 lands to unlock, and I know because I was writing them down. You also need to finish a game to save your unlocks, as they can't be unlocked them memorised by the game, a real pain in the backside yet again.
The achievements are an easy 1000G but some take a little time and luck to unlock. Drawing 20 pictures and saving them in the free draw mode takes ages because while you only need to draw a squiggle for each one, the save and load times of menus are just ridiculous.
The landing on 20 special squares achievement is luck based and requires a good 30+ games to unlock, not to mention the tens of other game based achievements. So sit back, relax (if you can) and spend hours getting the full 1000G. I've unlocked the lot and can safely say, it's easy but grinding.
Overall not a great game, it has replaced family time in real life so now children have an excuse to spend more time sitting in front of the telly. A complete waste too, this game lacks everything I expected and so the only thing it's worth buying for is a gamerscore boost. That's the only reason i bought it, and i certainly wouldn't play it with the family. It doesn't work and old fashioned board games are still the best.
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Hexic HD (Xbox 360)
by AverageJoseph
Those new to the Xbox 360 will be greeted by a handful of simplistic game trials, available to purchase on Xbox Live. You also get one free 'full' game, which takes up minimal space on your harddrive and offers you a fun little option to keep you occupied when you want a slow paced, light puzzle style game. At first glance it looks ... simple enough, with little hexes as the name suggests, in bright primary colours. The objective of the game is to create stars and black pearls. You can scroll across the board of about 100 hexes (see the image in description), with a selector highlighting 3 of them and only 2 moves available - A & X flip the 3 selected either clockwise or anti-clockwise. If three of the same coloured hexes collide, they explode and you gain a low amount of points, while more hexes fall from the sky to refill the board. When you explode enough hexes, you reach the next level. The main objective however, to create stars, is a much harder art that requires patience and foresight. There are three modes to choose from - Marathon Mode, the main game with no time limit, Timed Mode and Survival Mode which varies greatly from the first 2 in that you must keep the hexes down to a minimum or they become rock solid, cluttering up the board similar to Tetris. (each mode has three difficulties, easy, normal & expert)
HEXES
These are the building blocks of the entire game. They come in primary colours (including green and purple), with added secondary and tertiary colours being thrown into the mix after set levels in the game. Only a block of three can be rotated and can consist of stars, bombs or black pearls
STARS
To create a star, one must maneuver 6 of the same coloured hex, into a flower shape (or indeed star) with the middle hex being a different colour entirely. Stars themselves can be highlighted on their own and when rotated, move all 6 hexes around them to aid in the production of more stars, moving about and creating black pearls. When three stars collide together, they disintegrate providing a high amount of points, but this will prove a troublesome point grab.
BLACK PEARLS
Are crafted when 6 stars are shifted into the star/flower position. A black pearl can move only 3 hexes in an inverted Y position. The combination of 3 pearls into a cluster ends the game in victory. These can give you millions of points.
BOMBS
look like ordinary hexes but with a number inside them. This number is the amount of moves you have before it explodes and its game over. To remove them you must either colide them with 2 other hexes of the same colour or make use of star hexes. Towards the later levels, these bombs decrease the amount of moves left to get rid of them.
STAR HEXES
Spice up the game even more. Combining them with 2 more star hexes of any colour, explode a large section of hexes. Combine them with a bomb however and remove all hexes of the bombs colour.
The game is at first rather difficult, which is why so many people ignore it irrationally. But give it time and get the hang of it and you'll find it rather addictive, especially as you can compete with your friends high scores on the leader-boards. To explain my appreciation for it, I purchased a second hand Xbox which had no copy of Hexic on it. I went to the effort of trying to find it on the marketplace and even copying it from other friends consoles but nothing worked. Luckily it has been made available for free download on the xbox live marketplace. I played it so much at one point that I saw all the hexes when I shut my eyes. There is some really atmospheric, ambient music that makes it feel really trippy to play but you can always play your own music over it - Massive Attack is a good choice. It also has a sequel, Hexic 2 which I don't recommend as it mixes up the game a bit too much and of course, this time costs microsoft points.
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Tetris Evolution (Xbox 360)
by simon020187
== TETRIS EVOLUTION ==
Tetris Evolution is a much improved and far better looking version of the old Tetris games. Tetris is an arcade puzzle game that involves falling bricks or blocks which ever you prefer to call them. THQ developed and published the game for release back in 2007 and is possibly the better known Tetris game ... around at the moment. Tetris has been around for many years with the first game being released way back officially in 1984. There have been absolutely lots of different Tetris games released but this is the only one available for the Xbox 360 (not including Xbox Live Arcade). The game is not the type of game to feature a storyline but it does feature numerous game modes and lots of other features that can be played. Tetris Evolution is one of the best and most addictive Tetris games released so far.
=== GAMEPLAY ===
The aim of Tetris is to simply get the highest score you possibly can as the game gets faster and faster as you start racking up the points. Also the aim of the game is to rotate the bricks to make lines of bricks to score points. The bricks in the game come in different shapes and colours but it doesn't matter how you match them up as long as they fit into place and can score you more points. The more lines you get in one go the more points you will receive and the more bonuses you can get. You also gain levels whilst playing which makes the bricks fall down much quicker to make things harder.
There are a total of 8 different playable games in Tetris and each one can be played online against other Xbox Live gamers if you have Xbox Live and a gold membership. The games that are playable include Marathon Mode which is unlimited and just keeps going and going, Ultra Mode which is timed and you can set the time limit and try and score as many points as possible before you're out of time, Cascade is one of my favourites because the bricks that are a different colour fall in the gaps as long as they aren't connected to the same brick and there are other game modes of different varieties.
Also the game does feature leaderboards so you can put your name at the top if you're good enough and let friends compete on the same console to try and beat you a bit like an old arcade game except you don't have to put in your 20p. Also on the game you can change backgrounds to suit you for example there is one where you can have a giraffe eating in the background and many more. You can also play against friends on the same console or over Xbox Live. The Xbox Live features are just the same as single player but against other people and the game modes are pretty much dead now. You will be lucky to find someone online to play against. There are also online leaderboards as well you having the ability to change your player icon and other bits and bobs. You can also change the skin of the game you are playing to make it look better or if you fancy a change. That is pretty much all what the game has to offer but it is quite enjoyable at times.
=== GRAPHICS & SOUND EFFECTS ===
Now to be honest Tetris isn't a game that has to feature the best graphics because all you're doing is slotting in bricks into spaces and so on. However the bricks do look much better than the older Tetris games but still nothing special because they are just bricks. The game does feature some really good and interesting backgrounds though which include the giraffe and others such as waves, a mountain, a lightning storm, clouds and many more. Also each background you choose has its own unique music track to it so it gives you a little bit of variety. I really like the music to the game as well because its still very much like the first Tetris game but just sounds slightly improved and overall it gives a good feeling about the game. Also the skins of the games you can play can be changed and they look reasonably good. Other sound effects in the game are also really good such as when you complete lines the sound effects are really smart. Also as you gain levels and it starts getting hectic the sound effects speed up a little. Overall both of the graphics and sound effects are reasonable.
=== DIFFICULTY & LONGEVITY ===
Both of these aspects vary to be fair mainly because Tetris is the type of game that can be played again and again and again after years and years. Its also the type of game that can be hard especially when the games get faster but as you play it more it does seem easier and you do get the hang of it eventually. Its basic common sense on what to do and its quite easy to understand all the playable games. Each game lasts a certain amount of time some games may only last a few minutes depending on your skill level and what game you are playing. The controls are very easy and overall its a simple game that can be enjoyed by many. Also these games can last a lifetime so that's another good thing.
=== ACHIEVEMENTS ===
There are a total of 40 achievements on this game and most are earned from doing certain things like get so many lines or reaching a certain amount of points. There are also a couple of online achievements that are probably going to be impossible to get unless you have friends that have the game because nobody plays it online nowadays. Overall there is a decent mix of achievements but some are pointless.
=== PROS ===
*There are lots of different playable games in the game that offer a bit of variety.
*Some beautifully designed background each with their own soundtracks.
*Change the skin to each game to suit you and the games get faster and faster.
*The sound effects are still great and the music is even better.
*Its Tetris and a lot of fun.
=== CONS ===
*The graphics are a little weak but it doesn't alter the game much in terms of quality.
*Online is dead and its hard to find people to play with.
*Fairly simple game when you master it and the multiplayer options on the same console are poor.
*Some gamers might get bored easily if they play it a lot.
*Might not be everyone's cup of tea.
=== FINAL THOUGHT ===
Tetris Evolution is my favourite Tetris games and one of the only Tetris games that I have because it adds something different with the backgrounds, multiple games and features. Its fun to play in my opinion and can last forever. Its a shame the online play has died because online play was really good at the time and definitely a plus point. Also it is one of the best looking Tetris games ever.
I would recommend the game if you like a good puzzle game that offers fun. If you love Tetris then this is for you and if you don't then its probably best avoided as that is all it is. The game manual is quite good and lists all relevant information needed. Also the game has an age rating of 3+ and is suitable for all gamers.
The price of the game varies but it doesn't seem to be dropping below £10 which in my opinion is a little pricey for a Tetris game. The game cost me around £12 which included packaging and the game still sells on Amazon for around that price mark. I think its worth it mainly because its Tetris. I have recently bought my mum a copy of the game for Christmas too.
Overall Tetris Evolution is an okay game and I would give it a 7/10!
Review also on Ciao under the username: MrBrightside1987!
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