I thoroughly enjoyed DeathSpank . I even gave it a 10/10 (here). So, when they announced that DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue would be out a month after the release of the first one I was pretty pumped.  I played through DeathSpank TOV this last weekend and has a great time with it.  It is just as funny as the first one.  There are great new weapons and off the wall story lines that were a lot of fun to play through. Right up through the final quest I was fully anticipating writing my review with another 10/10. Not that both games are perfect but any flaws can be completely overlooked by how great the game is.  Then I finished DeathSpank TOV and looked at the achievement list to see what I missed.  I missed not one but two achievements in DeathSpank TOV that I can’t go back and get by continuing the game.  I had no issues with getting all the achievements in DeathSpank so I was not expecting DeathSpank TOV to be any different.  I find these types of achievements really frustrating.  I should not have to replay a single player game well over half way through to get achievements that were missed when the game has an option to keep playing after you complete the main quest.  I realize they are just achievements and the game was still a lot of fun, but I should not be able to kill off characters needed for an achievement. In the same way I should not miss an achievement that requires me to perform a specific task when there is no hint that I needed to do that event. That is just bad achievement design.

I would still recommend playing DeathSpank TOV but just be sure to read through the achievements before you start.  There are some minor spoilers there but they pretty much tell you at the start of the game what you need to do to complete the story so it is not going to be a big surprise anyway.

Hydrophobia is the kind of game I would probably normally overlook. I don’t play a lot of survival games in general and I have quite a few other Xbox Live Arcade games currently in my backlog of titles.  However, with Microsoft running this Game Feast promotion all month I was given a review code for Hydrophobia and decided to check it out.  I’m glad I did because I had a lot of fun with the game.  The trailers leading up to the release all looked pretty nice graphically and in that respect the game did not disappoint.  The water effects and physics were great. The game is not perfect (the controls took me a long time to get use to) but it was fun.  I did not realize before I started playing that Hydrophobia is the first episode of a three piece game so the ending caught me by surprise.  It also left me wanting more so when part two releases I’m looking forward to picking it up.  I’ve got a full review on XBLAratings.com if you’re interested (here) but I would recommend checking out the demo.  Give the controls a bit to get use to and just enjoy the unique game world.

I was lucky enough to get to review Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions for VGrevolution.com (link). The game is very predictable and repetitive but yet I really enjoyed playing it. I don’t read a lot of Spider-Man comics but I do enjoy the games for some reason. The story was somewhat original in that you the levels are split between 4 different Spider-Man characters.  Three of them are pretty similar but the Spider-Man Noir was pretty unique.  Those levels were stealth based.  I was afraid they would be really frustrating before playing the game but they were actually some of my favorite levels.  Sneaking around in the dark and taking down enemies without being seen was pretty fun.  I played through it on hard in a little over 9 hours.  I only got about 1/2 of the achievements but I could probably go back through on easy and pick of the ones I missed. Not a great game but a pretty good one. Overall, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is a great game for a weekend rental.

Inferno is not the first Radiangame’s title that I’ve mentioned here.  It was not that long ago I was playing Crossfire.  Inferno is their third Xbox Live Indie Game and like the first two it is a blast.  At only $1 I would highly recommend checking it out.  It is a twin-stick shooter but with a level mechanic and power-ups that really make the game more than just another shooter.  I’ve got a full review on XBLA Ratings, but you should save yourself the time and just go grab the demo for yourself.

I’ve been playing Halo: Reach for a week now and really enjoying it. I’ve not played any multiplayer but I’ve played through the campaign on Legendary (solo) and a bit of Firefight. Like past Halo games I really enjoyed the campaign. That achievement for playing through it on Solo on Legendary was very tough. I still enjoyed it immensely but there were parts where I was trying the same section 8 or 10 or 12 times. I’m not sure if it was me getting better or just the way the game is setup but the later in the campaign I got the less I was running into times like this. The last few missions especially I really enjoyed the battles. The Firefight mode is a blast in Halo: Reach.  I’ve not played all the maps or Firefight modes but the ones I player were a blast with three friends.  I’m not sure I’ll play much multiplayer since I’ve never been that into this style of multiplayer but I might spend a little time with it.  I still plan to play a ton more Firefight and co-op going forward.  Halo: Reach is pretty much what I expected. A great campaign story and a lot of fun to play co-op (or firefight) with friends.

I’ve got a longer review of the campaign over on AC if you are interested.

When the demo for Vanquish hit Xbox Live Marketplace this week I was looking forward to playing through it.  I got to try Vanquish for a few minutes at E3 and it was really fun.  This demo is pretty much the same as what I got to try at E3.  However, it was nice to play it on my own system and actually be able to hear the sound.

I had fun playing through the demo but I suspect I’ll end up playing the full game on Casual because I was getting my butt kicked in the demo. The tutorial is way to slow paced but you only do it once so it was not a big deal.  I don’t think I was playing it like the developers intended.  It seems like a fast paced constant motion type shooter but I started off finding a sniper rifle and used it from one place until I ran out of ammo.  Then I went in close and used a lot of melee attacks with the slide ability.  It was really fun but when I tried to slide and shoot I had trouble keeping my aim where I wanted. I probably need to adjust the sensitivity settings…assuming their are some. Still, it was fun and I like that they are not afraid to have a ridiculously hard multi-stage boss fight.

For me Vanquish is going to be one of those games I rent for a weekend (or full week if it is longer) play through and them I’m done with. Fun to play once but not so great that I’ll be going back to it over and over.

Red Dead Redemption has been out long enough now that I don’t think a full review is needed. Everyone should have heard by now that RDR is a great game.  I’ve never played a GTA game so I’m not use to Rockstar’s open world game play but I am generally familiar with them given their general popularity. That said the sheer size and scope of RDR caught me be surprised.  There are literally dozens of things to do and see in the game. I think my saved game by the time I was done was around 35 hours. That is RPG length for a game where you don’t do much leveling or upgrades.  Yes, there are a few things you level up like your dead eye (aka. bullet time) and some better weapons to buy, but mostly you can do everything after you make it through the the beginning tutorial missions. I really liked this format because I was never punished for going to areas of the world that the main story mission had not gotten to yet.

The main story was a lot of fun to play through even though the character did not always make the exact same choices I would have in the things that were said and done, but given the situation the main character was in nothing actually felt out of place.  I liked how the main story progressed and the overall length of it.  However, it is the side missions that can suck your time. I would start off heading towards a main story mission and get side tracked by hunting doing side missions.  In some games there kinds of distractions would have been frustrating but I always enjoyed my time playing RDR.  Even when I was just riding around hunting or goofing off. The single player has been an absolute blast and I look forward to any single player DLC (or a sequel).

I have not played much multiplayer in RDR but I have played through the co-op missions with some friends and had a blast with them. We finished all 6 of them in one sitting on the normal difficulty and then wrapped up advanced mode the next time we played. So, not a lot of length in them but they were a fun few hours.

Overall I would recommend playing RDR. I had a lot of fun with and I don’t know anyone who has played it that did not like it.  Just be prepared for a lengthy single player campaign.

I’m not a die hard Green Day fan, but I like their songs for the most part and I like Rock Band. So, I decided to check out the game.  It is what you expect with over 40 Green Day songs to play Rock Band style.  About half way through the songs I realized a couple things. First, Green Day songs all have a similar feel that made things a bit easier once I got it down. Second, I know more Green Day songs than I thought I did. None of their songs are especially hard, at least on Expert Bass, and I was able to play through them all without failing.  Harmonix has done a good job making the game overall. There are a lot of Green Day clips to unlock for fans of the band and an export option to play the songs in Rock Band 2, or Rock Band 3 when it releases, once you’ve finished the campaign. Personally, I’ve enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to playing more Rock Band when RB3 releases in October.

While I’ve been enjoying Green Day: Rock Band for the most part but I am a little frustrated by some of the achievements. They have a lot of them tied to singing vocals and playing with a fulll band which is just not going to happen for me.  They also include some that require playing a song on every instrument.  Also not going to happen.  I get that they want to encourage people to play as a band but I tried playing on Xbox Live a couple times and never found more than 1 other person to form a band with. So, this is going to be a game where I don’t get the majority of the achievements.

About a year ago I played the first Tom Clancy’s HAWX and enjoyed it for the most part. A demo for the sequel,  Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2, came out and I finally got around to trying it today. They clearly wanted to use the demo to show off some of the new elements of the game like in flight refueling and taking off from an air craft carrier.  I think they went this route in the demo because the rest of the game is very similar to the original. The graphics look good, but then they did in HAWX as well. The flight controls are the same as in HAWX and it still has the two different camera styles.

Thinking specifically about the new stuff taking off from a air craft carrier was pretty fun.  Nothing especially hard about it, but it was fun.  Refueling in light was not nearly as fun.  It is was a 5 minute process to get lined up to refuel and if you are not fast enough then you fail and have to retry. It was really a pain in the butt. Getting behind the fuel plane was not to hard but because of the camera angle the last few meters is a real pain to accurately judge. Hopefully the full game has more air craft carrier type stuff and not a lot of refueling.

I think HAWX 2 is one of those games where if you like the first then you’ll probably enjoy the second as well, but if you were not then there is not enough new stuff to make HAWX 2 worth it.

After seeing the line up for this year’s Summer of Arcade I fully expected Hydro Thunder Hurricane (HTH) to be my favorite of the five titles releasing.  Especially after trying it at E3 this year. I had seen the trailers and screens for Monday Night Combat (MNC) and thought it looked pretty fun, but the nostalgia of HTH had my attention. I am enjoying HTH (see my previous post) but within 24 hours after the release on MNC I was hooked.  The co-op Blitz mode is challenging but a lot of fun and it scales the enemies to the number of people playing so you still have to work together when you get 4 people in a room.

While Blitz is fun I love the Crossfire 6v6 multiplayer mode.  Even though it is an objective based game type there is a strong focus on killing enemies first. It supports playing in a private room and still lets you earn experience and achievements which may games cut out of private rooms. We had 12 of us playing together last night and it was great fun. It would be nice if there was a little more control over setting the teams and the start of the match but as it is the games are still a lot of fun. Once you unlock a couple custom classes you can really start to tweak things to fit your play style which comes in really handy.

I wrote up a lengthy review on XBLA Ratings so I’ll not rehash all of it.  You can read it here.  I would highly recommend checking out the trial and doing so with some friends.