Games With Gold 09/16

Microsoft has finally announced September's Games With Gold and... its an odd bunch.

On the Xbox One front we are being treated to two download titles. First up is Earthlock: Festival of Magic, a title we actually backed on Kickstarter (the developers have since stated Xbox One backers can opt to save their code for the next chapter). Earthlock sells its self as a JRPG with a dash of Harvest Moon. Earthlock will be exclusive to Xbox One for one month

In Earthlock you grow the protagonist's ammo such as the deadly catshot.

Starting on the 15th gamers will be able to download Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China. This is the first entry in the Chronicles series and sees us taking on the role of the franchise's first playable female Assassin and Ezio's apprentice Shao Jun. Unlike the mainline entries the Chronicles series goes back to its ancient route (Prince of Persia) as an 2D platformer but filled with stealth kills.

Whilst on the 360 first we'll be getting the first Forza Horizon, the surprisingly great open world festival of racing spin off to the main series. It will be interesting how well the game holds up in light of Horizon 2 and 3's. Whilst the graphics will be lesser the franchise has always had pitch perfect gameplay.

On the 15th EA's cult classic Mirror's Edge. Whilst the Mirror's Edge gun play feels heavy (and very Battlefield-y) in comparison to the games melee, it more than makes up for it in its adrenaline fueled parkour.

Abe's TakeIt's a little distressing that this month's GwG doesn't feature a retail releases for X1 and once again another Indie title I was excited for on Wii U is getting an free release on X1. However as a backer who was delighted with all the work the team has done I am excited that so many people will be able to check it out.

Toy Soldiers 2 - Late Review

Toy Soldiers is a prime example of why the XBLA program (and Indie games) are good for the industry.

Full disclosure: We acquired Toy Soldiers: Cold War Via Games with Gold.

Toy Soldiers: Cold War is an hybrid title - A tower Defence game with Third person shooter elements combining strategic thinking and action gameplay. The original Toy Soldiers was set in World War 1 but the sequel has skipped the expect WW2 era and jumped to the 80's. Complete with Top Gun styled Music, 80's action movie references and iconic 80's memorabilia littering the levels.

3rd Person Tower Defender

It's hybrid nature is fantastic. At any time you can assume control of any of your turrets, which is a great feature seeing as it basicly fixes the issues I have with tower defence games. Most TD games either have me waiting for the cannon fodder to earn me enough to build the next tower or having built a good system have to stand back and watch the AI do foolish things like using anti armour against troops as the tanks roll by unharmed. Two issues that disappear when you can control the turrets yourself.

You place towers on special areas around the map there are 6 towers Machine Gun, Anti tank, Mortar, Makeshift, Anti Air, Artillery. Each of the towers have their unique uses. combined with the limited placement sites you cant just spam AT turrets or Machine guns and hope for the best. The Anti Air and Artillery require larger placements and so are limited to a few spaces per map increasing the need for forward thinking. Towers can be upgraded that improve their functions and at their highest levels allow you to damage thing they wouldn't E.G. A upgraded machine gun gets an secondary grenade launcher that can do damage to tanks, While it's not as effective as an Anti Tank weapon it dose help out on the larger enemy types.  

There are also special units that only work with you in control. There are various Tanks, Helicopters and Jets, all with different on-board weaponry. These vehicles are free to move around and attack enemies as long as you have the battery power. running low on power? either pick up some spare batteries or park on the charging plate. They are powerful and an enjoyable change of pace. They however pale in comparison to the Commando unit. Unlocked via the games combo system. A powerful unit who wields an RPG in one hand and an LMG in the other. He spews Action movie one-liners like a drunken Rambo impersonator and always brings a smile to the face when used

Toy Story
Almost everything in this game is in fact a toy and all the battles take place on scale model environments on a table top. Little details elude to the fact everything is a toy, a wind up key here or an battery there, even summoning the powerful commando who comes in his own little action figure box . Littering the battlefield are 'full sized' items like playing guards, aviator sun glasses and Rubix cubes. Outside the battlefield is an normal room so you can see desk lamps and wall paper. Its not original but its rather uncommon enough in games to make this feel fun and refreshing. The toy aspect really comes into play against the bosses which can range from flying aircraft carriers to giant plane-tank hybrids that also carries smaller tanks with in

Ways To Game
Toy Soldiers features an Campaign mode, Survival mode, Challenges and VS mode. All modes support local/online multiplayer, Leaderboards and challenges. Co-op is pretty much required on higher difficulties which makes it weird that you have to access level select to invite another player (online or off). Co-op is a lot of fun, both players have free reign to place and control turrets and better yet also earns their own money

Conclusion

Toy Soldiers is an easy recommendation for anybody interested in tower defence games.

Local Co-op and unit control make it a great game to convert a friend to tower defence.

+Plenty of replay value

+Co-op is fully integrated

+Direct control fixes Genre issues

+80's-ness

-Missions can be short

-DLC only adds Levels

-Co-op is hidden

Sleeping Dogs - Late Reveiw

Only a Little Late Review of 

Sleeping Dogs

Little Late Reviews - a review of an older title we only recently played

For disclosure I acquired Sleeping Dogs via Xbox Lives Games with Gold Promotion.

Sleeping Dogs was a surprise. A free title that made me regret not buying it. For a game with such troubled development having started life as True Crime 3 before being canceled by Activision (along with Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend) and bought by Square-Enix you'd imagine it be terrible as often the case (Duke Nukem Forever Aliens: Colonial Marines) but other than an issue of length it is an great game.

Hong Kong Nights

I never thought about Hong Kong being an setting for an open world Crime game before. Whilst i'm sure Hong Kong may have organised crime you never hear of it but it turned out to be a fantastic setting.

The island whilst a little hollow in the middle feels alive and lived in with all sorts of collectibles to be found.
The attention to detail spreads over to the population of Hong Kong there is less repeating civilians in a crowd. Some of them only have part of an arm !?!?!

Combat

Open world crime game you know how it'll play right? We'll you'd be surprisingly wrong. Guns are rare and you cant keep them after missions. Which forces you to use the wonderful Fighting, seemingly inspired by the Arkham Games. Your granted an attack button, a counter button and grab button whilst the first two are fairly straight forward but the last brings the games most visceral moments. 

Ancient Art of FACE BLENDER

You can pummel away at your enemy, (with upgrades) brake arms and legs. You can Judo throw and toss your enemies about and drag the to various environmental hazards; cars, phone boxes, AC Fans, phone boxes, buzz-saws and many more.

Brum Brum

Driving is a fairly standard arcade affair. Well with one exception - Action hijacking. you can leap from your car to another, Whilst not original certainly fits the game and helps out during missions. The cars and bikes aren't licensed but are clearly "inspired" by real world cars. 

The car physics can be a bit wonky but are fantastic during chases. Shooting out the tires of a pursing car or bike cause it to flip over and with the rag-doll physics lead to some amazing biker deaths .

To Do List

There is a host of things to do and Find. Shrines that increase health, Lock Boxes to find for money and clothing, CCTV cameras to hack, Drug dealers to bust, Martial arts fight clubs to unlock special outfits (bruce lee, Onk bak), the For-mentioned Jade statues, favors, Girlfriends, Karaoke bars and Races

On the Main missions front there is the primary Triad missions but also Police cases; whilst the Cases don't change the ending they do add more scenes more to the ending.

Actions during missions award (Triad) or subtract (Cop) XP at then end of missions. Increasing you Cop, Triad and Face (overall/general) levels allow you to unlock abilities from various skill trees 

And finally; Shenmue !?!?!  

I spent a small portion of the game collecting the Jade Statues that unlocm new moves, doing 'favours' (open world side missions) and beating on thugs dressed as Ryo Hazuki the star of Shenmue games. 

lets pretend its shenmue 3

The outfit is spot on and I have to believe was done intentionally as certain members of the Gaming Community (including us here at Game Knights UK) are crying out for a new Shenmue or even an HD port

Conclusion 

Sleeping dogs was a treat to play and i whole hardheartedly recommend it. 

Having played this after GTA V, I prefer this in some ways. 

There is an fantastic little Karaoke game that plays like Rock Bank/Lips 

+ Amazing Fighting

+Living Hong Kong
+Limited Use of Guns

+ Shenmue Patch

+Die Hard Level

-Smallish World Map

-A Little Short for an open World Game
-Stiff Wild Animation

Sleeping Dogs Classics (Xbox 360) £14.22

Himaru's Take

This game surprised me, I was expecting something along the lines of True Crime LA or that awful Vin Diesel game, but it turned out to be very refreshing. After playing GTAOnline it was nice to have something a bit different, whilst being familiar. The first thing i noticed; was the combat and flexibility of the open world. I would often just drive around and look at the vast cityscape, strolling into the market and purchasing some noodles or customising Wei's clothes and appearance, looking at the bustling night life or rumble down a back alley and beat up some thugs, I loved hijacking buses and driving around picking up passengers, because i'm a badass like that.

There were a vast amount of side quests and 'favours' that kept me busy when i didn't want to progress with the story. the CCTV hacking was a fun pastime for me and trying to obtain enough 'Face' to acquire new clothes and vehicles to make Wei more "Gangsta"

All in all, I enjoyed Sleeping Dogs. It could have done with a bit more meat on its bones, but for a free download, I ain't complaining. And will return to it again in the near future to start afresh, and Hopefully I won't screw Wei's life up too badly. hah!

June's FIVE Games With Gold

Good news Everybody! Have you been enjoying your Bi-Monthly (that's twice a month not random sexy time) free games for the last year but sadly there isn't 2 free games next month... THERE'S FIVE!

Yes 5 games are coming in June. 2 are the regular 15 day affair, 1 is a bonus birthday game and 2 are Xbox One games. Yes it has finally happened monthly free games for the New-Gen Xbox though there is a catch. The X1 games are only yours whilst you have Gold. So No Gold, No Play. We're unsure how this affects family members on the same Xbox as the One only needs 1 gold account to enable all to play online. Will family members need a gold account to play these games as they wasn't "bought like the 360 version? Dont Worry 360 owners this hasn't changed on the old-gen machine.

June's Games are 1st Dark Souls (360) & Max & The Curse Of Brotherhood (One). Then from the 16th it's Charlie Murder (360) & Halo Spartan Assault (One) and available all month long Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition (360), Which happens to be a good deal as the upcoming Ultra Street Fighter 4 can be bought cheaper and earlier as DLC for SSFIV:AE

Abe's Take
Whilst its good to finally see Games With Gold finally arrive on Xbox One I am a little disheartened about the PSN+ subscription lock out whilst maintaining the limited "buying" window. I suspect this was done in an attempt to preserve the featured games sale value. Something that has caused issues on Steam and PSN+

I can't help but be annoyed that Dark Souls is a free game, not because of the game itself but I recently bought it during the "Spring Sale" - I'd like in future that Games With Gold either locks out a game for several months after a sale or put GWG games on sale AFTER so people who missed the title has a chance.

Games With Gold - March

Well this months games with gold will no doubt re-spark the row about PS+ having "better" games, However I think these months games are pretty great.

The first game available this month (1st -15th) is Civilisation Revolution, a remiggiered version of the PC classic and the best its ever been (on consoles). I own this on the PS3 and was my entry point into the franchise. It boils the game down to it's more basic elements but is still a damn fine game. There is also free DLC available.

This month's second game (16th - 31st) is Dungeon Defenders, An Co-Op Action RPG/Tower Defence hybrid (the 4th Tower Defence game in the Games With Gold promotion). Though the PC version got an lot of extra content the XBLA version was pretty darn good. In fact it's split-screen demo kept us entertained for a week. The fact that this is free should mean there'll be no shortage of co-op partners this month.

Games With Gold February Part 2

War, huh, yeah - What is it good for - Absolutely nothing. Coincidentally the Price of XBLA exclusive Toy Soldiers: Cold War for the rest of the month.

The latest member of the Games With Gold Club is the XBLA title Toy Soldiers: Cold War. A tower defense/ third person shooter hybrid set on a table top with toys. You must place defense in order to prevent enemy toys from reaching your toybox, however unlike other titles you can posses turrets, tanks and special units (such as the Rambo-alike above) and control them directly Dungeon Keeper style (which you should have for free by now) allowing you to get in the thick of battle. The Commando spouts some fantastic nonce-sense much like a drunk Rambo. The game features an campaign mode, vs modes and split-screen co-op and well worth the price tag of FREE


Abe's Take
The Games with Gold program has drawn some flak for not offering recent games like its rival PSN, however unlike the PSN instant games collection you KEEP your games if you cancel your subscription fee and increases sales of its featured games as people without gold or missed a game are "persuaded" to buy it afterwards. My only issues with it so far is the games so far is that i've had some of them but not their sequels/prequels. An issue that'll disappear when it hits Xbox One later this year