Xbox LIVE Summer of Arcade

It's been quite a while since I purchased an Xbox LIVE Arcade title. There was a time I'd quite look forward to seeing what games would come out each Wednesday and try out the demo. A string of disappointing releases has gradually worn that away. They haven't all been awful, just a lot of very average games and I have more than enough games to not need average ones. This looks like it could all be set to change starting today with Geometry Wars 2 and the Xbox LIVE Summer of arcade.

By playing either the demos or full versions of the games below between the dates specified you'll also get entered into a sweepstake where you could win Microsoft points, an Elite console or a Gold subscription to LIVE. You can find all of the details here.

July 30 – August 5

The latest version of this great retro shooter.

August 6 – August 12

A mind-bending and artistic puzzle-platformer in which you manipulate the flow of time in strange and unusual ways... as opposed to completely normal and common ways.

August 13 – August 19

The classic eight-bit side-scroller reports back for duty in this HD remake.

August 20 – August 26

A reimagining of the classic arcade shooter created by the team behind the bestselling “PAC-MAN Championship Edition”

August 27 – September 2

An adventure featuring hand-drawn characters and an array of weapons to choose from as you defend your kingdom.

Check out the GAMEOV3R Forum

Assault Heroes - Why didn't I play this earlier??

I'd played the Assault Heroes demo way back when it was released and enjoyed it until I found myself face to face with a mechanical spider about halfway through the first level. I could not beat this metallic arachnid beast down, no matter how I tried. Consequently I didn't download the full version even though Lee raved about the game.

Last week, finding myself unusually stuck for a game to play, I decided to download the Assault Wars demo again. This time though I had a quick read of the control information. Ahh, so there are weapons you can cycle through and you can get out of your vehicle and your vehicle regenerates! Arachnid beast? What arachnid beast!? Some well place shots and this eight legged mechanical hell spawn was crawling back into it's hole wishing it had never been born. Or perhaps wishing I'd never been born.

I unlocked the full version and spent the next few days playing whenever I had the chance. It is a whirlwind of a game that doesn't ease off at all. If you've ever played classic Ikari Warriors or Commando then you'll feel at home with Assault Heroes. Assault Heroes takes these games, improves every aspect but retains a retro feel. It never once forgets challenge and the fun.

The enemies range from the weak, to the tough, to the insane, to the almost unstoppable. The stages take place on both land and water and you have the choice of driving or walking and, in the water, using a speed boat or a jet ski. There are machine guns, heavy canon, flamethrower, grenades and nukes all for your selection. These choices give you a varied range of tactical choices adding to appeal and longevity.

The sound is acceptable and I thought the graphics for an older XBLA game were of a very high standard. Sure there are rough edges but overall it looks rich and colourful. The water alone, lapping at the shore of stage one, is quite mesmerising. There are weather effects, day turns to night and the vehicles and animations are very convincing.

Four underground zones challenge you to get to the end without dying. Fail and you're kicked back up to the surface. No extra life and no achievement for you! Completing all four under ground zones in one game rewards you with Gamer Points though I forget how many. 20 maybe? It's something I've not managed yet. You even get a co-op mode. This game is full to the brim.

Full but short. Once you get the hang of it one and a half hours should see you through from start to finish but you'll have a blast the whole way through and considering this now costs 400 MS Points in the Classic XBLA Selection you should not ignore this game.

For more up to the minute gaming with Gameov3r check out the Forum. We always have our finger on the video gaming pulse. Though it's sometimes a bit difficult for Gameov3r's members to locate their own pulse. It's an age thing.

We don't do this for a living. We do it for fun!

Space, The Final Frontier...

Nintendo are finally coming round to the idea that the storage issues we keep complaining about when it comes to the Wii are actually affecting all gamers and not just the hardcore demographic as previously stated by Nintendo Europe's Laurent Fischer. Referring to these hardcore as "geeks and otaku" wasn't the smartest thing to do and he later attempted to retract the words saying they were taken out of context. He made a mess of that too by the way.

Reggie Fils-Aime now says they have "a sense of urgency to solve it" with many games lacking the downloadable content of other consoles plus VC games, Wii Ware, channels and even games like Mario Kart and Wii Fit coming with their own channels to install, space issues are getting worse by the day. A proper acknowledgment is at least something to go on now though.

There's plenty of space left on the GAMEOV3R Forum

Why Oh Why?

"There are no mistakes, just playing for the pure joy of playing" say Nintendo. I've seen the rather uncomfortable to watch video (see above) of several fully grown adults flailing around randomly and I didn't see or feel much joy.

Creating a music game where you remove all the skills required for playing a real instrument and in fact any skill or point what so ever I don't get. I know some people have similar feelings about Guitar Hero and Rock Band style games but even then you'd have to admit you need decent timing and coordination skills to score well. Wii Music requires none of these. There is no score, there is no skill, there is no point.

Holding a Wii remote to my mouth and randomly mashing buttons is some what unappealing at the age of 35. I certainly can't imagine my friends or family joining me for a run through classic public domain hits like "Yankee Doodle Dandy", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Turkey In The Straw". It reminds me of when I used to go to arcades as a lad and bash the buttons without putting any money in... I've grown out of that now.

Maybe that's it and this is aimed at very, very young kids but I kind of get the feeling that isn't what Nintendo are thinking, are they thinking? From the video I think this turkey should stay in the straw, in a very large field far away from shops and inhabited areas. Coming soon to a bargain bin near you...

Join the GAMEOV3R Forum, no turkeys allowed

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

Gameov3rite macchinmi has given us his views of the Wiiware game Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Like as a King. Released back on the 20th May, as a Wiiware launch title, mac has been putting in a good few hours with this one. Just ask his girlfriend! FFCC:MLaaK has recently received some DLC so it's high time that the forum spoke. Thanks macchinmi.

So I had some extra points from registering games and liked the look of this so took the plunge for the 1500 points.

Its quite phenomenally addictive and has already incurred the first 'wrath of female' reaction from my girlfriend when I accidentally {sure it was accidental mac! - Ed) played it for 7 1/2 hours last week.

I admit from the description it hardly sounds that enticing: you simply build the town and manage the kingdom and do no adventuring yourself, that being far too dangerous for the King, you hire suitable adventurers and send them off to dungeons to bring back reports. Initially there is very little you can build and do, the total build area seems very small, and you have to learn by trial and error and speaking to the inhabitants of your little town regularly.

Then you realise that having your adventurers explore certain areas fully and making sure they are experienced enough and have the right equipment allows you to, in the civilisation sense, follow the tech-tree and discover more and larger types of building, which in turn allow you to build more houses and entice more people to move in, giving a wider spread of suitable adventurers. Build a weapons, armour or item shop and your adventurers will stock up before a quest, and entering the shop allows you to fund research using the money you gain from taxing the population. Academies allow training in different classes, so your warriors can become wizards, clerics or thieves and gain the various benefits of specialising by your funding research into abilities in the different classes.

Controls are pretty simple, you control the little king as he runs around town in third person, and use the A button to talk to people, enter building or interact with things. wave the remote or press + and your assistant arrives and allows you to build structures and various other options. To build you simply stand on a suitably sized plot of land, choose the appropriate building type and place it in the relevant direction. the town has a specific layout and seems limiting but it is the positioning and streamlining of the town when you hit the limits which make the game interesting. choosing the correct location for a building is as important as having it, as the adventurers take time to prepare themselves in town before setting off and will return when it gets too late (they work nine-6 but will do overtime later in the game!), so having all their relevant buildings in a little shopping district is beneficial to time management. also having houses next to a training building will affect the children in that house, making them more inclined stats wise to be a cleric if they live near the temple.

so, the building is pretty basic, why is the game maddeningly addictive? Because of the people management, specifically the adventurers. being a 'hands-on' king and talking to the inhabitants of your town increases morale and allows expansion of the town. having your adventurers in a good mood makes them more likely to succeed, equally you have to make sure not to overwork them as they get depressed and so giving a hard worker some time off is also of value. at the start of the day you as king can place Royal Behests on the noticeboards, essentially quests you are looking for people to do. this can be as simple as 'go explore this dungeon' but can also be a request for volunteers to switch class and learn to be a wizard, or speak to the inhabitants of the town for information about a dungeon. you can also proclaim a holiday for everybody later in the game. any adventurer interested in the quest posted will hang about at the noticeboard, where you can speak to them and decide whether to send them or not. choosing the correct person for the job is essential later in the game, and building taverns allows you to create parties to send out. adventurers are on a salary and if they don't get a quest they will go off and explore and level up themselves. no-one gets killed, if they are defeated they will return to the town and stay at home for a couple of days to heal up. but if you visit them to see how they are doing they get better faster.

There is more than enough content in the game to justify the 1500 points, but you do have the option for downloadble content. so far I have purchased the extra buildings packs and the dungeons pack, as for the price they seemed the best value (if you like this believe me you will want more dungeons). the extra races can be bought as one pack or singly, these add different species which each specialise in a different class, the main one you start with are all-rounders. I haven't bothered with these as later in the game you get an inn which lets these races visit your town as tourists and wandering adventurers, which I kind of liked, although I will probably end up getting them eventually.

suffice to say that I thoroughly recommend this little gem of a game. it is stunning in its simplicity of design yet underlying complexity, and indeed random factors which increase its charm. works in short doses and long spells and has a surprising amount of replayability, having two harder difficulty levels unlocked allowing you to take your adventurers through with you, plus the prospect of continuing DLC. if you fancy this i urge giving it a go, although ultimately repetitive its charms make up for many of its failures.

The King of Gameov3r is indeed Gameov3r. Don't get any ideas about training yourself up with FFCC:MLaaK, joining the FORUM and then usurping him. He'll breathe on you. Enough to stop stampeeding wildebeest.

Installation Notes (Read First!)

One of the new additions coming to the Xbox 360 will be the ability to load your games from the DVD onto the hard drive to speed up load times. You'll still need the original disc in the drive to prove you actually own the game though.

For me the improved loading times come secondary to the fact that I won't have to see that message about the disc being unreadable and being thrown back to the dashboard again (something I seem to suffer badly with on Rock Band) and top of the list the noise my Xbox makes will be halved during loading times! Of course there will still be the jet fans blasting away on my aging premium but I guess you can't have everything.

Please join the GAMEOV3R Forum before proceeding with the installation

Forum member and Gameov3r's personal butler, Captainff, gives us his impressions of Capcom’s We Love Golf!

To start off with you can play with one of four characters, each of whom has 6 different outfits they can wear. You then choose what kind of game you want from simple practice to some mini-game style 'nearest the pin' or 'ring shot' (no sniggering Tooms!) to a tournament (only 18 holes, not 72) or character match. Winning, or completing, each of these then unlocks further challenges for you to overcome, or extra outfits, or new characters for you to play. Which is good because the biggest challenge I have at the moment is maintaining the will to trawl through the beginner stages of the game.

WHAT!?

Yes. So far this game is incredibly easy to me.

Way back in the mists of teenagehood I used to play golf games with a friend on his Amiga 500. Many of you may remember the swing mechanism .. .. .. click to start the swing, click to set the power at the top of the swing, click as the swing rushes back to hit the ball true (or hook or slice). A similar mechanism is employed in We Love Golf! except it involves the motion sensing on the wiimote. Press 'A' to start the shot and then swing the wiimote backwards while watching the power gauge .. .. .. hold it in position until the 'ghost club' reaches it then, swing the wiimote forwards so that it crosses the start line at the same time as the ghost club for a clean shot. Too early or too late produces hook or slice. This whole process can be performed using the 'A' button .. .. .. click, click, click but that would remove some of the fun.

The wiimote motion sensing is also used when setting up your shots. Point the wiimote up at the ceiling for an overhead view, point it down at the floor to take the shot, point at the TV to see a view down the fairway to the green. It works really well and is intuitive to use.

Keeping in mind that this isn't a serious golf game, I think the physics of the game are relatively good. The spangly music, cartoony graphics, silly catchphrases and animations when you sink a putt, the relative stupidity of the opponents to begin with, all point to a game that is designed to ease the non-golfer into the game gently.

Back to the difficulty of the game for a moment. I've not played a golf game for over 15 years and in my first tournament game, once I'd played some of the other modes to learn the controls, I scored -19 over 18 holes and my nearest opponent was 37 strokes behind at +18. Other people who have played it more than me have reported a Pro level in the game so hopefully the 1 player experience will eventually provide some challenges, because at the moment for me it is ridiculously easy. I suppose that if you have NEVER played a golf game that this would be a great place to start because you can make errors and still feel like you have achieved progress.

What I'm most looking forward to is meeting up with real people online and pitting my skills against theirs. Yes that's right. Online. As well as the ability to play with up to 4 players locally Capcom have included an online option. Play against friends or strangers online. I've yet to try it out for two reasons .. .. .. .. firstly I wanted to get an understanding of the game and secondly it seems that I'm the only person on the forum who has bought it!

Overall : So far I'm enjoying it but it isn't providing me much of a challenge yet. 7.5/10

Many thanks Captain.

GAMEOV3R will be pleased with you. He may even allow you a night off!

Massively Effective

Not to mention impressive.

I can't believe it's taken me until now to realise what a superb game Mass Effect is. I can't explain why I didn't play it sooner other than that I just thought it would not be my cup of tea. Which, when I think about it, is absurd because I knew what Mass Effect was and what it offered and in retrospect, knowing what I know now, there appears to be nothing about Mass Effect not too like. It's all very strange but I just seemed to develop an early aversion to it.

I was surprised and astounded when I actually started to play Mass Effect last week. I was instantly transported into this new galaxy and found myself wrapped up in the story line within an hour of starting the game. For an RPG it's easy to get into, the interfaces are easy to use and intuitive and there are no, not one, random encounters! Huzzah!!

If you can’t tell already, I think Mass Effect is fantastic! It's immersive, has a believable graphical style and score that create one of the finest gaming atmospheres around. There's a sense that Mass Effect doesn't take itself too seriously. The grainy graphical effect, that can be switched on or off as you choose, creates a kind of retro TV show feel. So much so that there’s a real feeling of being in a cult sci-fi TV show like Blake's 7, Space 1999 and Star Trek all mixed together, baked in the oven for 40 minutes at gas mark 6, allowed to cool and then topped with a layer of Star Wars and a dollop of that 8 bit classic game Elite.

I've found the game quite tough going in places and had to restart a couple of missions many times. I attempted to take down a former Alliance officer, Major Kyle, numerous times before I’d done any of the story beyond The Citadel. I got my ass kicked and kicked and kicked some more. I’m never one to quit though so I just sort of gave up and slinked back to my spaceship with my tail between my legs. I returned to this mission later in the game and to my surprise, and thanks mainly to my charming manner, Major Kyle agreed that he was off the rails and surrendered. Yay! No bloodbath and a nice example of how the game can develop based on how you level up and what approach you take to situations. If I’d gone back to Major Kyle with a lower charm rating or perhaps been more renegade than paragon it could’ve been quite different.

I've heard complaints about the main story being shorter than Halo 3 and that people think this is unforgivable for an RPG but considering all the side quests and the exploration of the galaxy I have to disagree. If you're the kind of gamer that wants to rush through the story then you're missing the point. The game constantly challenges you to decide what to do next. It forces you to examine situations and prioritise what you’re going to do next. Your decisions change your character and shapes future events as with my experience with Major Kyle. As I'm progressing through the story, so far I've completed the Prologue, the first visit to the Citadel and have been to Noveria and defeated whatsername the funny looking alien, I'm also attending to other events, helping people and generally enjoying flying around the galaxy in the Normandy.

I decided to follow the potentially more difficult route through the game by playing as a paragon. In other words a goody too shoes. My character, Matt Shepherd, is all for upholding the law and being generally understanding and helpful but some of the more sinister, suspicious missions are just too intriguing to ignore.

The game has a couple of annoying features. It doesn't kindly drop you back where you were when you die, oh no, it's back to the start of the mission or the last auto save! Most annoying until I started manually saving. It's a bit of a pain, just like not being able to skip cut scenes that you've seen 20 times already, is mind numbing, but because the game is so much fun and challenging in enjoyable ways these faults are forgivable and seem to grate less the more I play.

Still, let's hope Bioware iron out these oversights in Mass Effect 2.

Paragon, Renegade or just general riff raff? Gameov3r is never one to discriminate on his FORUM.

Are You Ready To Rock... Again?

Details on Rock Band 2 are coming thick and fast now. Originally it was stated that it would see a world wide release during September but that was later retracted, certainly as far as Europe goes. There are many improvements by the sound of it and best of all your downloaded songs from the first one will play perfectly in Rock Band 2. The new guitar and drums will be wireless with a sturdier strum bar, a reinforced kick pedal, quieter pads with added velocity sensors. All your current instruments will still function just fine if you don't fancy taking out a bank loan to afford the new replacements though. There will be no Spinal Tap style tactics of amps going to 11 as it's one more louder, so you won't be finding 6 fret buttons on the new guitar or an extra few drum pads to try and out do Guitar Hero.

There will be some form of drum tutor to teach you basic beats and fills. The World Tour mode will be available both online and off and there will be no more band leaders so your band isn't reliant on that one person always being there. You can even switch instruments mid tour. Online you'll be able to compete against other bands around the world with contests designed by Harmonix. All songs on the disc will be master recordings and there will be over 80 included. There have been a few lists leaked on the internet that may or may not be accurate but these songs are definitely confirmed:

Dream Theater “Panic Attack“
System of a Down “Chop Suey”
Foo Fighters “Everlong”
The Muffs “Kids in America”
Red Hot Chili Peppers “Give it Away”
Motörhead “Ace of Spades”
Cheap Trick “Hello There”
Elvis Costello “Pump it Up”
Journey “Anyway You Want It”
The Who “Pinball Wizard”

Are you ready to rock... again, on the GAMEOV3R Forum?

Snakes and Liberty Ladders

I'd read about the Heart of Liberty City beating away inside Happiness Island's Statue and decided I'd go and have a look. So I borrowed a helicopter, carefully flew over to the statue, hovered gently and precisely alongside it, at the perfect height of course, and pressed Y. Now I've finished the GTA story line, twice to see both endings, so it’s not surprising for me to say that Nico and I have got flying these virtual helicopters down to a fine art. So it seems ridiculous that, once Y had been pressed, that Nico would recklessly launch himself out of the helicopter and land in a slightly bloodied heap high up on the side of the statue. So ridiculous that I've just spent the last hour trying to find out if Nico Belic is the off spring of a pair of Eastern European lemmings.

With Nico back on his feet I pointed him towards the entrance labelled "No Hidden Content Beyond This Point" and walked through.

Inside, the inner walls of the statue vanish into the distance over Nico's head and in the gloom a feint red glow hints at the, not so secret, secret.

There was an obstacle though. A set of ladders were leading up to the chamber containing the heart. Surely ladders should pose no problem to a man of Nico's calibre and my gaming talents.

But could I get Nico onto the ladders? No. 20 minutes later and I’d pressed every button so many times that my fingers were bleeding. I'd approached the ladders from every angle possible too. I even walked in and out of the room numerous times and tried to mount the ladders again and again. I could not get Nico to climb them!

So a man that had just spent 5 minutes surviving on a 6 Star Wanted Level, Achievement unlocked thank you very much, couldn’t climb a set of ladders.

It’s not the first time in Liberty City that I couldn’t get Nico to climb ladders. In fact it’s been quite a regular occurrence and it has to be the most irritating aspects of the game. It could be that I’m doing something wrong and my gaming talent may all be in my imagination but after living in Liberty City for far too many hours I suspect it's not just me.

There are many holes to be picked in GTA IV and yet it still stands up as one of the finest games ever.

Super Smash Bros Brawl

I'm guessing most of the board have not bought this game but even after all the problems that emerged pre launch I was still excited about this title. I got up early and went to my local GAME store to pick up my copy.

I couldn't wait to get home to try it... But disaster struck! After putting the game into my Wii I stood dumbstruck as the disc wouldn't load. I started panicking! I wanted this game so bad and it wasn't bloody working!!!

A few eject's and re-inserts later found me in control of the game! (Hoorah! Ed.) It's massive! So many options and so little time to play them all!

Time to try good old classic mode which still sticks to the usual formula but with a few tweaks here and there. 2 one on one brawls, 2 team brawls, a metal brawl, 2 giant brawls, one featuring a pokemon and the other any character, 2 target rounds, looks like they got rid of race to the finish, a 3 on one brawl then a face off with master hand.

Once defeated the credits roll. If you shoot the avatar's you're treated to a few clips a congrats and maybe a secret bout...

Playing the game earns you Smash Coins. A shoot em up using the coins to earn more trophy's and stickers and music tracks too!

Having completed classic a few times I decided to play space emissary mode (the adventure mode) true to form you start as Mario or Kirby. The story unfolds nicely but I won't spoil it for you. One tip though, if you wanna unlock the bulk of the characters play this mode!! Some of the intros are really entertaining. Snake's is by far the funniest!

Event mode is there too. I've not played it a lot but I have made it to 13 so far. As usual you must complete the event using a certain character.

Home run contest has been greatly improved. As usual you start on a platform with the sandbag and the baseball bat and the objective is the same. Batter that bag until the countdown grab the bat a smack that bag as hard as you can. The main difference this time is that until the timer reaches 0 there is a glass shield to stop the bag falling over the edge while building up enough damage to the bag. Be warned perform a smash attack and you can smash the glass.

In terms of slow down I have only experienced this once during the ice climbers stage and it was pretty noticeable. The controls are really good. I've only used the Wiimote but am happy enough to stick with it.

All in all I'd say this is a great game and I'm looking forward to kicking that blue hedgehog in!

Oh and my Wii and Smash Brothers are going to Codestorm for a free clean to ensure that my wii will always play the game!

Fight on!

With thanks to forum member Metroid.

Got something to say about SSBB? Come and shout your mouth off if you think you're hard enough >>>> Gameov3r FORUM Or just come and say hello. Fisticuffs are optional.

Take Me Home

Home for the Playstation 3 has suffered so many delays that it even makes Network Rail look good. Consequently Sony have decided to run a 'real life' beta version to see how its fans respond. The idea is a simple one and ties in with the new Trophy system update. From tomorrow any trophies you earn will result in an actual physical trophy being posted to you for you to display in your own home, but here's the clever bit. The new beta means that you can contact your friends via a device called a telephone and invite them round to see your collection. The system also means that if friends aren't in to receive the invite you can leave a message of your actual voice using some new fangled recording technology magic! Your friend can then respond to this at a convenient time. Once your friend arrives in your home they can browse and compare trophies and converse with you using their voice in real time. You can even arrange to go bowling with them or visit the local cinema to watch a film.

If you prefer to try and meet random people Sony suggest visiting a local shopping centre as an example. Gameov3r did try this but has to admit the feature needs tweaking. Any random people we approached didn't seem remotely interested in our trophies or meaningless banter, some even walked away from us in a manner we could best describe as 'running'.

As a temporary measure I think in general this could work really well and even better news is that to access most of these features you won't even need a PS3.

Visit the Gameov3r FORUM today. Some posts even contain true facts unlike this one