This game has great graphics and gameplay. If you are a “hardcore” longtime fan of the series some of the game’s slower pacing, when compared to previous iterations, may not be to your liking.  But I am confident that within a small amount of time this game will win you over. I am a longtime “casual” fan of the series and I appreciate the slower pace and the added difficulty with advanced techniques like repeling and guarding.  Namco has added a wealth of unlockables and a deep character creation feature. (I have not played SCIII so I don’t know how it compares.)This is a title that is definetely worth picking up. Bottom Line: Good Buy

They’re coming:

• July 30: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

• August 6: Braid

•  August 13: Bionic Commando: Rearmed

• August 20: Galaga Legions

• August 27: Castle Crashers

As exciting as all this is one can’t help but wonder will we be returning to Double D Dodgeball status in September? Why should I care? There is plenty of gaming goodness in August for us to forgive a lackluster September.

Gaming Goodness Coming next week, $80 worth. Bionic Commando has not been confirmed for the US but if the Japanese release date is the 31st, it’s a safe bet that we’ll get it too. I will have a lot of reviews to do next week.

Vader or Yoda?

Soul Calibur IV for the 360 and PS3

Rad!

Bionic Commando Rearmed – looks like this is delayed but Pixel Junk Eden is supposed to be released.

Geometry Wars!

Geometry Wars 2

Well we (Indifference and Couchlock) finally recorded a podcast. This is our first so please be patient with us.  There were a few hiccups with Skype but I did the best I could putting the files together. We talk a little bit about E3 but mostly about what we’ve been playing this week and some interesting news concerning the big 3. The show runs about 1:10 hrs. Check out some of the videos at GameEnthus.com then go to our forums at GameEnthus.com/forums and leave us some feedback.

Direct Download Right click and save as

Itunes

RSS Feed

For months I have been unable to download any video content from the Xbox Live Marketplace that requires media usage rights. I have only rented one movie( a year ago) from XBLM and have purchased no TV content so it hadn’t bothered me all that much. But lately I have felt like because it’s there, that it should work. I am able to use Microsoft Points on video content however the download never starts, instead I am met with an error that says that the media usage rights could not be downloaded(acquired whatever). I have been calling MS’s farmed-out tech suppor for 3 weeks trying to get this resolved. Hearing words like “escalating” and “priority” make you feel like something is actually being done. It isn’t. Almost every call to them from different phones in different locations result in them putting me on hold and hanging up on me. Perhaps they see the detail of my issue after pulling up my every changing reference number and they just hang up on me. Poor customer service. I am really getting upset. Especially because I attempted to rent a movie a step which I hadn’t tried before. I would get the error from the free content like a Voltron episode or something. MS deducted the proper number of points and once again I was met with the usual error. Now I have to either fight for them to fix my issue, thus enabling me to watch the film or get my points refunded to me.  Both of which require me to be on the phone with lackluster support who will most likely hang the phone up on me before I get my issue resolved. Needless to say I am not pleased.

Schizoid is a fun little romp. It is one of the first(if not the) XNA games to come to XBLA. It’s fun and as is often the case it’s easy to learn yet difficult to master. At 800 MS points it seems a little steep to be so simplistic. The co-op is fun but if you plan on playing this one solo I would recommend the trial.

I have been frustrated all day trying to get the feed and itunes to work correctly. I didn’t realize that getting all that working was such a pain. Honestly , felt just as much frustration getting the site, forums and everything else together. I didn’t give up on all that so I shouldn’t give up on getting the podcast stuff working.

Cut-scenes and a mini boss fight

More combat gameplay

Well after 10 years of talk, 3 different proposed systems, and several 1up Yours rants Too Human is finally playable for the gaming masses in the form of a 360 demo.  Having very little knowledge of Norse mythology I probably should have read up a little bit prior to playing the demo.  This game has a long history and recently the President of Silicon Knights(developer of Too Human), Dennis Dyack, upped the ante with a wager with some NeoGaf users.  I really want him to win his wager. Something inside me really wants to see Too Human defy all that critics and detractors and become highly successful.

Too Human’s controls seem like they will take some getting used to. I really wanted the right analog stick to control the camera. However, players can press the left bumper to switch to Baldur’s curren view. Combat was another aspect that I didn’t really get a good grasp on but some more time with TH can remedy that.  The types of enemies I faced seemed limited but that’s expected with a demo. My interest has definetly increased having completed the 40+ min demo. The full game should be out in a couple weeks and I look forward to putting some time into it.

A brief review of Ticket to Ride. The game is very boring in its description and in observance. But it is quite fun to play either against the AI or with others locally or over XBL.  It’s not flashy but it has a charming way of being quite easy to learn but difficult to fully master. I find that I play very one dimensionally, only focusing on my routes and not anyone else’s. But I think that as the game gets more challenging it forces one to plan routes that slow down the  progress of other players while still completing your own destination tickets. Go spend your 800 MS, it’s a good buy.

Having heard so much recently about the Bionic Commando remake, 1942, Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo and Splatterhouse(to a slightly lesser extent) Capcom just hits us in the head with a new retro Mega Man game. Mega Man 9 is not flashy, probably lack online play  and appears to be 8 bit and for whatever reason I am very excited to play it.