XboxScreens has your Xbox One and Xbox 360 splash screens

Posted on by Orion Williams
Games

When you start that new Xbox One game and a cool piece of concept art pops on the screen, you’re looking at a splash screen. A splash screen is an image, sometimes with text, that appears while software is loading. New game consoles have splash screens that differ from the content you see once the game is loaded.

XboxScreens.com is a new website for Xbox One and Xbox 360 splash screens. The splash screens are hard to come by because you can’t use the Xbox One’s internal game capture to take a screenshot. Each game must be manually launched and then recorded through a capture card. Because of this, XboxScreens.com can only capture splash screens for games that they have direct access to.

But thanks to XboxScreens, we can now share with the world that Titanfall 2 seems to favor left-handed soldiers. And that awesome NBA Jam loading screen for the backward compatible Xbox 360 version can now be saved as a wallpaper.

XboxScreens.com

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood Review

Posted on by Orion Williams
Game Reviews, Games

 gameplay Screen Shot 2013-12-22 04-17-36    A review of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood from Press Play, on Xbox One, Xbox 360

When Max comes home to find his little brother, Felix, playing (rather aggressively) with Max’s toys, Max reaches his last straw and decides to run a web search on “How to make your brother disappear!”  He finds an incantation that, when recited, summons a portal and seconds later Felix is gone.

Max has a rather instantaneous change of heart and jumps in after Felix and his monster captor.  This brief cutscene is all you get before jumping into Max’s beautiful adventure.  The gameplay starts soon after and has you control Max in an effort to bravely acquire Felix from the evil kidnapper that has claimed him, the mustachioed Mustacho. Continue reading →

Pinball FX2 Zen Classics Impressions

Posted on by Orion Williams
Game Reviews, Games

Zen_Classics_PFX2_key_art

Zen Studios has given us a steady stream of high quality, fun, and varied pinball tables over the last couple of years.  Over time, the quality of design of the tables has improved greatly, which makes the recent (re)release of these classic tables a touch bittersweet.

The Zen Classics tables originally appeared as part of Zen Pinball on the PS3, making this their first appearance on the Xbox 360.  Because these tables are remakes, albeit with improved graphics and physics, they don’t quite display the quality, flair, and balance that the more recently developed tables do.  On the other hand, all four tables bring a retro vibe that fans of the early 90’s pinball era should be stoked for.

Whereas the more modern styled tables typically include a 3D model of a character or two, these classic tables are more “realistic” and you really get the sense that there are physical mechanisms at work here.  The included tables are:

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Developer Interview – SpikySnail(The Splatters)

Posted on by Orion Williams
Games

spikysnail logo

When Xbox Live Arcade game The Splatters launched in April of 2012, my first look at the game was a launch trailer, the trailer persuaded me to download the demo, and the demo convinced me to buy the game.  I played it with my 11 year old son and we loved trying to beat our best scores and we marveled at the top scores on each of the levels.  The Splatters features some really cool “jelly physics” and some brilliant use of slow motion effects.  It also features a replay theater similar to the Trials games and allows you to see how the insane scores at the top of the leaderboard were achieved.

The Splatters also has a cute and humorous charm to it.  It’s got a wide variety of levels and several modes of play.  It also reviewed well.  Many of the larger video game review sites scored it 80/100 or above, and the Metacritic user reviews put it at a respectable 8.7 out of 10.  So then why is The Splatters developer and indie game studio SpikySnail more than a little concerned about their financial state?  Despite The Splatters being a generally well received game, it didn’t sell well enough to make all of their money problems go away.  So they labor on.  Doing that which they love most, making fun games.

Being a small team is a big job (just ask anyone at fizmarble).  SpikySnail co-founder Sagi Koren shed some light on how an indie developer gets it done.

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Zombie Driver HD Review

Posted on by Orion Williams
Game Reviews, Games

zombie driver title

Zombie Driver HD giveaway details:  Follow @Fizmarble on twitter and Retweet our post on this review to be entered to win one of 4 Xbox avatar award codes (skull shirt) or a full version of Zombie Driver HD for XBLA.

There may be some time in the future (whether near or far, no one knows for sure) where it will be boring to face wave after wave of various types of zombies, smashing them into pieces with your car and watching their mangled torsos roll off of the hood of your car.  Now is not that time.

While many gamers people may be bothered by use of zombies in…everything, driving your car into innocents isn’t as accepted as it may have been when video games were less mainstream.  Most folks are ok with killing zombies, so we won’t likely see the end of the zombie killing simulator soon.  And that’s ok, because it means we get fun, if flawed, diversions like EXOR Studios’ Zombie Driver HD.

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Realms of Ancient War (RAW) Review

Posted on by Orion Williams
Game Reviews, Games

RAW cover

Realms of Ancient War (RAW) is a hack n’ slash/action RPG from French developer Wizarbox.  It borrows elements of Diablo, Torchlight, and basically every other dungeon crawler ever made.  We don’t expect these types of games to break new ground, it’s pretty much entirely iterative now, and that’s ok.  But we do expect that if you are going make a dungeon crawler, you meet the standard set before us.  It is unfortunate that I must tell you that RAW doesn’t meet the standard.  I will however tell you where and how RAW fails to comply with the aforementioned standards.

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Xbox Live Deal of the Week (August 21, 2012)

Posted on by Orion Williams
Deals, Games

Those looking to save, while they spend their Microsoft Points, eagerly await the Deal of the Week.  Here you go super savers.

Deal of the Week Discount Dates Price
TNT Racers 21-Aug to 27-Aug 400 (50% off)
Faery 600 (50% off)
Crazy Machine Elements 400 (50% off)
Dead Block 400 (50% off)
Dead Block – More Dead to Block Map Pack 120 (50% off)
Skydrift 600 (50% off)
Skydrift – Extreme Fighters Pack 80 (50% off)
Skydrift – Gladiator Pack 200 (50% off)

 

Dust: An Elysian Tail Review – Art in motion

Posted on by Orion Williams
Game Reviews, Games

I don’t want to wait until the end of the review to tell you I think this game is amazing and that you should buy it.  I feel like it almost does an injustice to the efforts of it’s creators to pick it apart and tell you what I think of it’s elements.  But I was selected to inform you, based on my opinion, if this game is worth your time and money.  It is, and because it’s my job, I will tell you why.

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