PixlBit

                I renewed my Xbox Live Membership today. I almost thought twice about it, but I still play with my friend fairly often, so it was worth getting it for another year. However, I had to search around the dashboard to change various privacy settings to allow my renewal. I think it was to ensure that I saw the new Terms of Agreement and accepted it. They sent me to Settings/Privacy, but there isn’t any Privacy listed in Settings when you use the menu that you get when you push the center button on the controller. No, they meant the Setting blade on the dashboard which has a different menu that lists Privacy as a choice. Wah?! Microsoft sure knows how to make things unnecessarily confusing sometimes.

                Which reminds me of another annoying thing about the way 360 is setup I found out while trying to clear up space on my hard drive that each game has only one file and location now. Which means the save file is not separate from a full disc game install. So if you wanted to remove the multi gigabyte game installation, but not the save file, you can’t. You have to erase all of it at once and lose your save. The only way I could think of getting around this is that you could make a save to the cloud within the game. Then you could erase everything on the hard drive and still have the save file on the cloud. I see their strategy now. Very sneaky MS. You want us all on the cloud.

                                            Blood Knights [XBLA]

       I bought the full version after I watched my friend play the demo. He got so into it, that he bought it. I thought it would have online co-op, but it only has local co-op. Seriously, unless it’s a game for a parent and his kid (like the Lego games), why would it not have online co-op? I was annoyed, but I had clicked the button to purchase after seeing my friend’s enthusiasm and was stuck. The game was fine though, and I played it, alongside my friend, the rest of the day only pausing for lunch and to check in on the Philadelphia Eagles game.  

     You play as Jeremy, who wields swords, or as Alysa, who wields crossbows. Alysa is a Vampire magically bonded to you by a spell in order to help you fight other Vampires. Early in the game, Jeremy also gets Vampire skills and so the combat becomes as cross between sword combos and the use of a ranged blood extraction skill to regain health. You can also use that ability to manipulate objects in the environment. Alysa can do these things too, but within a more limited range. She also can’t do dodge moves. So unless you have a good distance on a foe, Alysa is not much use. Switching between them is quickly done with the “Y” button any time you want. I found myself using Jeremy most of the time with occasional use of Alysa if I could see enemies from a protected position.

       You level up in abilities and gather items and gold like Diablo and can quickly add to your skills or reassign equipment. Which equipment is better is clearly marked, so it is pretty effortless to upgrade everything as you go along. You can also buy equipment at every save point, which are thankfully pretty frequent.  

      There is some platforming which can be a little bit annoying, but the camera is placed pretty well for these short segments, so it wasn’t too bad (I only cursed a little bit).

     After gaining a few skills to enhance my melee fighting, the game started to look and feel like God of War, but with Vampire skills and a female archer you can access to shoot grenades or crossbow bolts.  I, as Jeremy, was doing power attacks to disarm my foes and then a spin attack to blend them up, creating an explosion of blood and flying body parts. I was like a sentient Cuisinart of bloody gore!

                                                 Other Purchases and Plays

                Ridge Racer Unbounded [X360]: By Bugbear, the makers of the FlatOut series. I didn’t like the racing in the FlatOut games that much, but the mini games featuring a driver flying through the front windshield, was pretty fun in FlatOut 1 and 2. Anyway, I heard lots of comparisons to the Burnout series for their take on Ridge Racer, so I had to check it out. Funny, that the game was a little scarce in the wild in my area, so I had my friend order this off Amazon for $7, still sealed.

                Skulls of the Shogun [XBLA]: It was on sale this week for $5 on XBL and I couldn’t pass it up. It’s a turn-based strategy game that has been called Advance Wars with shoguns. Just the mention of Advance Wars had me playing the demo day-one. I liked it but, for some reason, didn’t get around to buying it ‘till now.

                Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl [3DS]: Still love it. Play it every day for about an hour. Each level of the dungeon is more interesting than the next. I just finished the levels with a lot of water and fish, and now I’m onto the desert areas that have shifting sands that restrict your movement in the maze. I’m around level 47 now.  According to my Guild Card, I’ve discovered just over half of the monsters in the game suggesting that I might be halfway in the story. I’ve been playing it since Oct 1 and am well over 50 hours of play time.

              Lego Marvel Super Heroes [demo]: This game’s menu screens are still very similar to the 2007 Lego Star Wars Complete Saga I played earlier this year. You get to play as The Hulk, Iron Man and Spider-Man through a couple of missions that end with a boss battle against Sandman. The Hulk is a blast to play as you smash, kick and toss enemies and objects. You can reduce him to Bruce Banner and back again, which is fun to watch as well. I could tell right away this game will be a lot of fun to play whenever I get around to it.

                Diablo III [demo]: Diablo III looks really good and plays smooth as puddin’. I played as a Wizard. The magic effects looked great! I was launching magic missiles and blasting away with shock magic right away. The demo lasted a good long time too. I think it was an hour.