Xbox 360/Arcade

NEW REVIEWS THIS WEEK:

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Sapph here with a review for Battlefield 1943 for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Battlefield 1943 is another great game in the Battlefield series except this one is only for multiplayer! It is also available off of PSN and the PC! This game mainly focuses on the Navel Battles of World War II between the USA and Japan. The game is like a spinoff of the original Battlefield 1942, which was the first game of the series. There are only three maps you play on, all from 1942, and there is only one game mode, called Conquest. In Conquest players are either the United States or Japan and try to capture and hold five strategic points. You can use planes or other vehicles to kill other opponents and help your team win. You can choose between three classes and get achievements. From the title screen you can create a private match, join a quick match, or join a match with friends! You can also create a squad of four people to play as a unit and share a voice channel during the game. Your squad members can easily be located on your HUD and mini-map, and they have the ability to spawn next to each other.   This game is a great pickup for any owner of an Xbox 360 and is a great XBLA game! I am not sure how many points this game is now, but I got it for 1,200 Microsoft points. On Sapph’s scale of gaming, this game gets a deserving 8.5 out of 10 and is a must have for anyone who is looking for a great arcade game to play with their friends!

~sapphire11

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Hello everyone! ruby331 with a review on Borderlands!

WOW, what a game! This game is one of the few rpg shooters out there and let me tell you that it is a masterpiece. This game has just over a bazillion guns and gun combinations. You will never be carrying the same gun throughout the game no matter how much you like it. Even though Borderlands lacks an impressive storyline, it has hours of gunslinging and multiplayer fun! You can play online with up to four people, and as more and more people join, the harder the enemies bcome and the better the loot is. If my friend and I find a rare weapon in a chest, we generally spend a few minutes screaming at each other about who needs it more. I generally give in knowing that when they get a better gun i’ll get that one anyway. Even if your playing on your own though, shooting midgets, rabid dog like skags, and bandits is just as fun. Borderlands combines comedy with hardcore shooting and really well done character progression. As you level up, you fill out a talent tree that increases your magazine size, or adds elemental damge to your weapons. This makes playing each class (Soldier, Berserker, Hunter, and Siren) a fun and fresh experience each time. Borderlands has everyhing you want from a good Xbox 360 game. Comedy, great times with friends and endless amounts of guns all make this game fantastic. Borderlands scores a 9.5/10 on the ruby331 scale. Don’t miss out, Borderlands is a must have!!

-ruby331

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Hey! ruby331 with a review on the Xbox Arcade and PlayStation Network hit Castle Crashers.

Castle Crashers is made by the titans of the internet Tom Fulp and Dan Paladin. Tom is the creator of my favorite site on the web (www.newgrounds.com)! It’s full of awesome stuff like flash animation, games, and some really breath taking artwork. Anyway, back to Castle Crashers. This game is best played with four people but can totally be enjoyed if you are playing on your own. You basically play as four knights on a quest to save four damsels in distress. The camera is side scrolling and the controls mostly focus on the A, B, X, and Y buttons. This makes gameplay solid and easy for beginners. Throughout the game you unlock a pool of over twenty characters. This makes the game hard to beat because as soon as you unlock one you want to play as them right away. Each and every level is full of comedic cutscenes and characters which will keep you interested at every twist and turn. Whether I was laughing or smashing up some barbarians I was always having fun. The only downsides to Castle Crashers was that in some early levels you needed things like bombs (which you couldn’t get until much later on in the game) to get to secret areas. Advancing fairly far in the game and then having to go back for secrets was a real pain. The story is long and the characters plentiful so it’s hard to get through the whole game. Those minor problems aside, I loved this game and I’m sure you will too. Castle Crashers for the Xbox Arcade and PSN scores an 8/10 on the ruby331 scale. Have a good day folks!

-ruby331

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Hello again! This is ruby331 reviwing Crackdown.

In Crackdown you play as an agent of the police who has super strength, running, jumping etc. You run around the city eliminating gang genrals and their bosses. The game does not have a very strong storyline and the gameplay is completely sandbox. I found the graphics to be severly glitchy almost to the pooint where the game was unplayable.For instance I would walk onto what I thought was a blacktop only to find that it was a building with an invisible outside. Some people would be sitting in invisible cars and the street texture would turn to solid gray suddenly. The gameplay is all right because it focuses on you leveling up your abilities. Like if you kill someone by kicking them you will recieve orbs that increase your strength rather than your grenade ability. I would suggest this game to beginners because they can easily learn the Xbox 360 controls. Otherwise the game is really shoddy and sometimes repetitive. Crackdown scores a 5/10 on the ruby331 scale. Crackdown 2 is coming to stores soon…hopefully that will be a better game overall.

-ruby331

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Hello! xghostbustersx here reviewing Dead Rising 2!

Dead Rising 2 is the second game in the Dead Rising series created by Capcom. In the first Dead Rising, you are a photographer who wants to get great pictures of the zombie outbreak. You are then in a mall filled with zombies and you need to survive until rescue comes. In Dead Rising 2, you are a moto-crosser who escaped from Las Vegas with your daughter, Katey. Katey was bitten by a zombie and to keep her alive you must give her Zombrex once every day. You arrive at Fortune City and are immediately swarmed by zombies, heading into the security room of the mall in Fortune City.  The game revolves around finding this Zombrex as well as getting framed to have release the zombies into Fortune City. Along with the story missions, there are side missions to save surivors or fight psycopaths around Fortune City. One cool new feature in this game are combo weapons. There are certain items you can combine together to make an awesome weapon by using a workbench. Workbenches are scattered across the city. Also there is now online co-op and a new mini-game called Terror is Reality. All in all, Dead Rising 2 gets a 8.5/10 in my opinion. Although there is online Terror is Reality, the only other thing to do is story mode and if you beat it there is really nothing you can do except for play it over again. If you like zombie games and 3rd person shooter games, I would pick this up for $60.00 (plus tax of course). Thanks for reading my review. Until next time, have fun killing some zombies.

-xghostbustersx

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Hey everyone! ruby331 here reviewing Dead Space!

Dead Space is a horror/shooting game that keeps you on the edge of your seat all throughout. The story is about a mining ship in space that sends a distress signal to you and your crew. You play as Isaac, an engineer whose wife just so happens to be on the mining ship in distress. So you and your crew of five people set out to help the ship. You crash land inside and find that every single crew member aboard the ship is dead. Isaac gets separated from the rest of the crew and gets attacked…this is where the adventure begins. Honestly, it does not matter what you are doing or where you are going in this game, for it will still be so damn scary. I know several times I was walking through a smoke filled room only to see a shadow on the wall flash past me that made me jump. I turned to gun down my enemy only to see a loose wire swinging back and forth from the ceiling. As I turn back to go where I was going I get attacked by an abomination and scream. The games graphics are flawless. There are no glitch spots where you can see through the scenery or rough texture patches. The gameplay is very clever because what you hear and what you see (like a shadow or scream) may be  just metal scraping together or a hanging wire. This game will keep you scared and tense whenever you play. If you aren’t a fan of horror games THEN THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. Dead Space scores a 9/10 on the ruby331 scale. I urge you not to play this alone or at midnight.

-ruby331

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Sapph here with my first review ever for an Xbox Live Arcade game. This one is one of my favorite games and it is called Defence Grid: The Awakening.

I found this game when it was one of the arcade games that were half off. I had to decide between a South Park style tower defence, or defence grid  after which is also a tower defence game. I then choose defence grid because it looked like a futeristic strategy tower defence game and I was correct.  There are 2 story modes in this game and 1 is much longer than the other. The first level of the game is more like a tutorial, but after that you get some help to the game. Almost after every level you get a new tower to use and to complete each level it is a must to use the new tower. You get towers by saving up credits by killing aliens, or using them before you start the first wave. The towers can be upgraded for more power and more range, and each tower is very unique. You get game over if the aliens take all the cores away from this computer dude who always talks to you. The aliens range from easy and take 1 core to more armored and take 2 cores to finally the hard boss aliens that can take 3 cores. Some are fast and some are slow. some can fly, and some travel in packs. This game really challenges your mind to correctly create a great defence, put your towers in the right place, and to make shure the exits are inpassable. One flaw of the game is that aliens can slip through towers you put when you block their path to the core. Another flaw is that the 2nd campaign called Borderlands is short, but a bit more challenging than the awakening campaign. The final flaw to this game is that there is no multiplayer to VS another person. On the Sapph’s scale of gaming, this game gets a solid 8.5. I got this game on sale for 400 microsoft points, but now I reccommend this game for any hardcore gamer who wants a good brain challenge that makes them think of stratgeies. Players can now get this game for 800 microsoft points and it is well worth the points. See all you fellow spartans on the battlefield! This is Spartan E11 signing out!

-Sapphire11

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Hey everyone! tedizslayer here to review Earth Defense Force 2017!

The best way I can describe EDF is as being just plain fun. It brings nothing new or defining to video games like COD or Bioshock, and is not as original as Mario or Metal Gear Solid. It’s just fun. One of the earlier games for the 360, EDF has pretty good graphics and balanced controls for a third-person shooter. The story is simple enough that it is 2017, and aliens decide to take over Earth by sending in giant spiders, ants, robots, and gunships, all lead by their mothership. You are a member of Storm 1, a small division of the Earth Defense Force, which was created to react to alien attacks such as this. You are stationed in Tokyo, and have the first encounters with most of the lifeforms that are sent by the aliens. While the other EDF forces stationed throughout the rest of the world are defeated, you continue to take out all of the aliens that attack your area. The game consists of about 30 missions in which you are given a task by your commander, and with the rest of your team, you must defeat the given enemies in the area (usually, they won’t all be there at first; more will come after you have defeated each wave). The voice acting in the game is entertaining, as the CPU soldiers on your team will suddenly start shouting “EDF, EDF, EDF” or “OH, NO! THEY KILLED TINY!” or something like that in the middle of the battle. Some of the things they say are so stupid that you can’t help but laugh. There is also a large variety of weapons, including shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, grenade launchers, missiles, and special weapons such as flamethrowers and deployable turrets. These weapons are gained by retrieving “weapon packs” that are dropped by enemies when in combat. At the end of a mission, it will list any new weapons that were gained during battle. You can equip any two weapons that you have gained on the main menu, and change them before each mission. The best way to play EDF is in the two-player co-op mode. It is exactly the same as the single-player mode, but will be a lot more fun to play with a friend. And due to the fact that your CPU allies lack any intelligence whatsoever, it’s nice to have someone on your team who actually helps. Overall, Earth Defense Force 2017 is a great game which is guaranteed to be fun for any shooter-loving gamer. Being one of the early games for the 360, it brings nothing new or legendary, just a whole lot of entertainment. I give EDF a solid 8 out of 10. Go get yours today, it’s guaranteed to be worth it!

-tedizslayer

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Hey, xghostbustersx here reviewing Fable 3!

Fable 3 is the newest installation of the Fable series, created by Lion Head Studios. Fable 3 takes place after Fable 2, where you are the son/daughter of the hero in Fable 2. Albion is under control by a corrupt man, your brother. You escape the castle and you go and recruit towns that hate what your brother is doing to start a revolution. Fable 3 is somewhat different from Fable 2. There is no pause button. Instead when you press start you go to the sanctuary, where you can switch your clothes, weapons, spells and also fast travel to places around Albion. Also the way you level up your skills now is by unlocking chests in the Road to Rule. You can level up ranged, magic and melee by using guild seals which generate by collecting orbs off bad guys and doing quests. There is also multiplayer but it is the same thing as single player, but with two people. Fable 3 gets a 8/10 which is kind of a opinionated score. I liked how Fable 2 had a start button to fast travel, change weapons and clothes, and level up spells. Instead, you need to go out of your way to go through a loading screen just to do some changes that take 30 seconds to a minute. Otherwise it is a great game and if you liked to other Fables you should defiantly pick this one up. Thanks for reading my review!

-xghostbustersx

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Howdy! xghostbustersx here bringing you a review for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is the 11th Guitar Hero game released by Activision. Like all Guitar Hero games there are 3 modes to play, quick play, quest/story mode and competitive mode. The main new feature of this game is in Story Mode. In the story you have 8 characters. These 8 characters each have a set list of their own (they seem to go by genre) containing 5-8 songs. In each song you will get stars. The better you do, the more stars you get. You can get up to 40 stars, but don’t expect to get that until the final chapter. You will usually get 1-12 stars. After getting enough stars, that character will unleash his/her inner warrior becoming a monster or something. After you get the first 4 characters to warrior status, you will then get a legendary guitar that goes with the story. Then you have to unlock 4 more characters’ warrior appearances. After that, you unlock the final stage. In quick play, you can play any song that is in the game, although you have to unlock some. In competitive mode, you play against people over Xbox live/PSN/ or Wii network. All three of these modes can be played by up to 4 people on one console. Some bands in this game are Queen, Blue Oyster Cult, R.E.M., Dragonforce, Rush, Def Leppard and many other great bands. I give Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock an 8/10 because it can supply endless amounts of playtime and enjoyment. GH: WoR is also a very great game to play with your friends and family. Definitely pick this up if you enjoy the GH series as well as music games. I thank you for taking your time to read my review. Until next time, this is xghostbustersx signing off!

-xghostbustersx

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Sapph here with my toughest review, Halo Reach.

Note: I did not go into full detail because it would be too big for this page, and what the hell happened to the SMG? It is not in this game and it is sad because it was an awesome weapon and my favorite one.

Here we go my toughest review and the last Halo game ever to be created. Ohhh where do I begin with? Campaign? Forge Word? Multiplayer? Firefight? The Customization? Anyway there is soooo much to talk about for this masterful game. Halo Reach by far is the best game of the series and Bungie ended the series with one damn great game. I will start with the campaign which is very hard even if you play on normal. Before you start the campaign you customize Nobel Six with armor you can unlock by leveling up and buying with the new EXP system called credits.  I will talk about the credits once we get into multiplayer. In the first mission you basically learn about the other members of the Nobel Team and they are named: Carter, Emile, Jorge, Jun and my favorite Nobel Team member, Kat. Kat is the only female on the team(unless you make Nobel Six a female) and she has a robotic arm. Everything about the campaign is awesome. The graphics are amazing, each mission takes a long time, the relationships between each character is great, there are awesome cutscenes, and characters do die in the game. From jumping off clips to having to go into space and have a dogfight, the campaign really never gets old and it just makes you play the game for countless hours. In one mission your sniping elites and night and in another you are evacuating civilians from a city that is about to be destroyed. What is cool about this game is that there are abilities you can use as you find them throughout the campaign. There is sprint which makes you run, armor lock which protects you from damage for a while, a drop shield that drops a bubble shield that looks 10 times better than Halo 3’s, Invisibility, Holograms which lets you put a hologram of your character wherever you want it, and jetpacks! Jetpacks are awesome because it is fun to shoot grunts from the sky and honestly, who does not like jetpacks? As for the ending of the campaign (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Every member of the Nobel Team does die but real Halo fans knew this before Reach came out because in the 1^st Halo the UNSC said Master Chief was the last Spartan. My final remarks about the campaign is that there are bad ass moments and there are really sad moments that keep you going! Just remember, no matter what difficulty you are playing on, the campaign is still tough and some missions will be a pain in the ass. If you want to be a loser just go on youtube and see how the game ends and see how every Nobel Team member dies. Now we will head to the Forge World which is much more different and more complex than Halo 3’s Forge mode. In Forge Mode players make their own maps and game modes from scratch. You can put anything you want in anyway possible. You can put platforms over, under, and even inside of other objects. Making maps is a pain in the ass because Forge World is very complex and it takes time to use so do not make this your first stop in Reach. One more thing about the Forge World is that you have a lot more credits to work with unlike Halo3’s Forge. Next up in the Reach Review is the new and improved Firefight. Firefight originated from Halo 3 ODST and what you did was fight off endless hordes of the covenant. However in Reach, Bungie added other game modes and a lot more options. You can edit how many rounds there are, what enemies appear, custom skulls, edit Spartan and Elite traits, and  have infinite ammo. Getting Firefight achievements are easy because you can make your guy an invincible juggernaut who never has to reload/recharge, loose ammo, do 300 times more damage/melee damage, have super speed, high jumping, low gravity, and edit each class so you start with the best weapons. One awesome weapon you can use in Firefight and Campaign is the Target Locater. Just aim and fire and in a few seconds you will see missiles fall from the sky and kill anything it touches. Be careful though because the Target Locater only can be used 2 times. My favorite mode in firefight is Gruntapocolipse. In this game mode you only have a DMR(updated version of the Battle Rifle) and a magnum(which has a scope and is one of the strongest guns in the game). Basically you just rip the heads of grunts in anyway possible before you loose all of your lives. Finally, if you save enough credits you can change your firefight voice to any Nobel Six Spartan, Cortana, Master Chief, ect.  That basically sums up Firefight so lets now move to customizing your Spartan. In this game you buy armor for your Spartan. You unlock more armor by beating the campaign, fulfilling acquirements on Halo Waypoint, and leveling up in Matchmaking.  You can customize your Helmet, Visor Color, Chest, Shoulder, Wrist, Waist, and even the knees, My Spartan has a blue visor and it looks sick! You get to buy armor by using credits. You gain credits by your performance in campaign, multiplayer, and firefight. Depending on how well you do you get loads of credits, or not so many credits. Last but certainly not least, Multiplayer. Multiplayer is much different in this game compared to all the other Halo games. First off there are many game modes in multiplayer as I said in my beta review.  In case you forgot some modes are: Invasion, Headhunters, Team Slayer, SWAT, Snipers, and Classic Slayer/Slayer Pro. Leveling up is different in this game because you get credits as I explained in the part before this. When the game first came out you were only allowed to rank up to a Lt. Cornal  because that was Nobel Six’s rank.  However, Bungie noticed many people were that rank too quickly so the highest rank you can be is I think Spartan and not General. Once you do get to the Spartan rank, Bungie awards you with Emile’s Helmet to use in any game mode. You can also buy a visor effect, but they are wayyy too many credits. If you were like me and got the Legendary Edition, you automatically got the legendary flaming head effect. I wish I went into more detail with everything, but this would be too long for the Reviews page. My final thoughts are that the campaign is very long, well thought out, has those awesome and heartbraking moments, and the music/graphics keep you going. As for everything else, the rest is masterful and thank you bungie for making this Halo the best in the series, and the best game ever to be created. On Sapph’s scale of gaming, this game gets an 100/10! That’s right I went above and beyond normal rating scales because this game truly is masterful and is better than any game Nintendo and Sony ever made! Remember Reach, Never fotget Halo, and thanks again Bungie for making one hardcore Halo fan 100 times satisified with this game. Good luck bungie on your next series and I wish the best of luck to you guys because you know you got my support!

R.I.P. Halo Series- November 15th, 2001-September 14th, 2010

-Sapphire11

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Aloha! Sapphire here and I am going to review Halo3 ODST!

The game starts with your character rookie dropping from the sky in a pod and crash in the city of New Mombasa. After that, you start exploring the city, learn all the new stuff, and use your visor mode wich is really useful in dark places. Some new guns you use are as follows: a silenced SMG and silenced Pistol. Both guns have scopes, but the SMG has recoil so it gets annoying at times. Your health does not regenerate like in the other Halo games. Instead, you find health packs to replenish yourself. The gameplay is much different than Halo3 and the storyline  and  Campaign in also good. One new mode in ODST is Firefight. In firefight, you fight hordes of enemies like: Brutes, Buggers, and Hunters. You have limited ammo and gunsand use the vehicles to your advantage. Overall, Halo3 ODST was a very good game and I would give it a 9/10. If they had multiplayer like in Halo3, ODST would be the best Halo game ever made!

-sappphire11

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Sapph here and I will be reviewing one of my favorite arcade games called Hydro Thunder Hurricane for the Xbox Live Arcade.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a remake of the classic arcade game with the same title for the Xbox Live Arcade, but with added features. Also, this is one of my favorite arcade games. In this awesome arcade game players race against computers, other people such as your friends or family, or start a race on Xbox Live by using high powered speedboats. There are 3 difficulties of boats: Novice, Pro, and Expert. Players gain credits to unlock more boats, Ring Master Events, Gauntlet Events, Championships, and more maps to race on. Players gain credits by either getting a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Trophies in any event in the game. You can get a lot more credits if you play on the Pro or Expert difficulties in the game. Now let me tell you about how each mode works and Xbox Live. Race mode is simply you or your buddies choose a boat to race against computers on beautiful created maps with many events and other randomness! Players can gain boost tanks to use and get a burst of speed, but the boost is limited and you have to gain more tanks to get the boost tank full. There are shortcuts that players can go through and some you can go through by using a boost jump.  (To use boost jump you press X when you have some boost in your boost tank). In Ring Master players must go through rings throughout each map as fast as possible, but for each ring you miss you lose all of your boost. Also there is a time penalty too that is different for each difficulty: Novice +1second Pro+2 seconds and Expert +3 seconds and they are added after you finish. In Gauntlet mode players have to finish maps in the fastest time possible while trying to maneuver through dangerous explosives. If you do wreck your boat, just press select and you will be placed back on the track. In Championship mode players must compete in a series of events and use only one type of boat difficulty. This mode offers a lot of credits so it is a perfect mode for players who want to win credits. There are achievements in the game that players can earn, and players can unlock gamer pictures and gear for your avatar. This game does have Xbox Live and there are 2 modes that can have a max party of 8. They are: Race and Rubber Ducks. Race is simply you VS other players or friends racing on any map using any boat even if you don’t have them and yes you can earn credits the same way you do if you are not playing on Xbox Live. In Rubber Ducks players are divided into 2 teams: Red and Blue. 1 person on each team must choose to be a rubber duck as their boat and the objective for the others is to stop the opposing team’s duck from reaching the finish line first in any way possible. The downside to this mode is that only the winning team gets the credits and its only 800. Overall this game is a must have for racing fans and for anyone looking for an arcade game that will last. It is priced at 1200 microsoft points and it was one of the Xbox Live Summer of Arcade Games game . On Sapph’s  scale of gaming, this game gets a 9 out of 10 and is well worth the 1200 microsoft points. See ya next time everyone and my next review is a great one: Halo Reach for the Xbox 360!

-Sapphire11

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What’s going on? ruby331 one here with a review on NHL11

I have never been a big fan of sports games, but NHL11 changed all of that. The gameplay is very realistic and the graphics are perfect. The controls are very well done because you can either have them set on classic, or the default settings. With the default settings on, the controls revolve around the analog stick while the classic settings revolve around using the buttons (which is the setting I use). You can pul off some pretty cool moves with the analog stick like skating behind the goal and wrist shotting the puck into the goal before the goalie can react. Speaking of goalies that is one of the elements that I hate about this game. The goalies are way too good. They block almost everything so a lot of the games that I personally play I only win by one or so points. Also, if you let the offense past you, they will score on your goalie almost 80% of the time. Though I suppose that it is good that these things happen becuase it makes you be more careful and makes it more rewarding when you score a goal. The funniest and most fun part of this game is the fights. When you get into a fight, you basically just slam on the analog stick to see who can punch the fastest. When tedizslayer and I played this game and got into a fight he lost every single time because he had no idea what he was doing. So, NHL11 scores a solid 9.2/10 because even for someone who doesn’t like sports games its very entertaining. See ya next time!

-ruby331

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Hey everybody. ruby331 here with a review on Overlord!

Overlord very much so reminds me of Pikmin for the Nintendo Gamecube because of it’s concept. In Overlord, you control minions to solve puzzles and beat up enemies for you. These minions will help you dominate towns and have people freeze with fear when they even your name. You, or “The Overlord” can learn spells along the way to help your minions out when they are completing tasks. For instance, let’s say they run into a nasty wolf. You can blast said wolf into oblivion with your burning hot fireball spell. You may end up having to use your spells a lot because your minions (if used incorrectly) can be easily dominated. As you prgress through the game you get new and different colored minions that know new abilities. Each ability is very helpful towards your quest to drive fear into the hearts of your servants. The game gets a little bit confusing as the story progresses so it’s easy to get stuck. I personally ended up fighting the first boss with no minions and just my fireball spell (which took twenty minutes). Overlord scores a 7/10 because it’s easy to have a strong emotionial connection to the story, but the puzzles are really tough without a strategy guide. Overlord 2 is also out, so if you liked this game I would suggest getting that one too.

-ruby331

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Hey everyone! tedizslayer here to give my review on (the first) SoulCalibur!

Often overshadowed by the stellar sequels of this defining game, SoulCalibur does not receive all of the glory which it deserves today. Established as the sequel to the earlier game “Soul Blade” (aka “Soul Edge”), Soulcalibur was first created as an arcade game, but later moved onto the Sega Dreamcast. It is also available off of the Xbox Live Arcade. It features the original 10 characters from Soul Blade (Cervantes, Hwang Seong-Gyeong, Inferno, Mitsurugi, Rock, Seong-Mina, Siegfried, Sophitia, Taki, and Voldo), as well as 9 newcomers (Astaroth, Edge Master, Ivy, Kilik, Lizardman, Maxi, Nightmare, Xianghua, and Yoshimitsu). Just like the other games, the stories for each character were revealed through arcade play, and each individual’s story was written to fit in with the events of the previous (and future) games in the series. The mechanics of fighting felt just as perfect as they do in SoulCalibur IV today, and although the graphics were not as developed as they are today, they were amazing for their time and are still impressive today. Overall, I give SoulCalibur a 9 out of 10. It is a game that should never be forgotten.

-tedizslayer

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Hello, Sapphire11 here to review Tales Of Vesperia!

This game rocked! The storyline was awesome and the gameplay was great too! The game had endless hours of funand was really difficult to beat. The main character in the game is a former Imperial Knight named Yuri Lowell. Yuri finds out that someone stole the Aque Blastia from the fountain in the lower courter and wants to find the theif. On the way he meets many friends like Princess Estelle (Estellise). Estelle can use healing artes which are very helpful in battle! Then, as you progress in the game you meet a member of a guild called the Hunting Blades named Karol. Karol is out searching for monsters to hunt and is looking for a member in his guild called Nan. When the gang reaches Aspio (the place Yuri thinks the theif lives). They then barge into a house that belonged to a Mr. Mordio (who Yuri thinks the theif is). It turns out the person was a female mage named Rita Mordio and she was not happy with Yuri. Rita can be very helpful in the game if you know how to use magic wielders well. Some of her artes are: Fireball, Stone Blast, and Splash. Some of Yuri’s artes are Azure Edge, Cerbeus Strike, and Crushing Fang. Some of Estelle’s artes are Sharpness, Pow Hammer, and First Aid. Finally for Karol’s artes, he can use Dragon Upper, and Nice Aid Smash. Overall this game is packed with action adventure fantasy, and fun! I give Tales Of Vesperia a 9/10! The only bad thing about this game is the compatability with Xbox Live because you can only get items and not VS other people who have the game.

-Sapphire11

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Sapph here with a review for Uno Rush for the Xbox Live Arcade!

Uno Rush is a classic twist on an all-time classic card game! In this game players must quickly get the cards they want to play in order to get rid of them. If you don’t play a card then you draw a card. The same rules for the regular Uno apply except for a few things.  To quickly get rid of cards play the same color and then if you have the same number as the current card in the middle, change the color and then use a wild, reverse, skip, or draw card to end you turn. Be careful when playing your cards because once you play a wild, reverse, skip, or draw card your turn is over! You can play this game with friends, family, or guests on your Xbox 360 and up to 4 players can play. You can obviously play on Xbox Live with friends, or find other players online (it is still up to 4 players). You can see your avatar as well as other player’s avatar and their gamertags. The standard game is up to 250 points, but this can be changed to another amont of points. You can even change the rules and even make it a team battle. That’s all to really say about that game since it has almost the same graphics and similar gameplay has the regular Uno for the arcade. On Sapph’s scale of gaming this game gets a 8.5 out of 10 and is a must-have for any card player, casual gamer, and for people who want a fun non-violent family classic for their Xbox 360!

~sapphire11

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