Me too. The demo was alright, but really nothing special and as far as trippy, music based shooters go, I prefer Everyday Shooter. I didn't like E4 either.
I still might pick up Rez. It has very nice visuals and cool use of rumble. But I'm going to wait to try out Poker Smash and see if I prefer that instead.

Just let us know which you pick so we can wait until it's free to download.

Poker Smash sounds like a game that will be given away a year from now.

He should pick up Rez. It would make for a good freebie down the line.

Did I miss out on the free Undertow download? I looked yesterday & it said 800points???

Ha, Ha Ha! I got my 800 points back so I'm okay now. I've been reassured by CS that I won't get stuck like that again which raises one question : which game do you all want to get free next???

And yes, dvdsteve, the free game was only for four days and it's done now.

Yeah, it was last week iirc from Wed to Sunday.

It was only free for about 96 hours.

Edit to correct. Doh, that's what I get for opening multiple tabs and waiting too long to reply.

Well just tried Poker Smash. I immediately loved it. Yeah, we have plenty of tile matching games with slight variations among them (the last one on XBAL was Boogie Bunnies, about three weeks ago). This one however seems infinitely deep. The ability to match up hands and clear out big valuable hands is really cool and makes the game much more interesting than just matching colors. I bought the full game after my first achievement (yeah, I'm a sucker for that "buy now or lose your achievement" thing but I knew that this game was a keeper by then anyway).
It takes a little getting used to since most games let you switch tiles vertically and horizontally (I think the original Meteos had horizontal only switching, but I have the Disney version and that's both ways). I'll get more used to it I'm sure. I also have to learn to swap with the right stick; I keep wanting to select the tile with the A button instead, but that releases a bomb and destroys the tile instead.

I had 800 points earmarked for Rez, which is getting great reviews, but for my tastes, this game seems deeper and more enjoyable. I saw Flay is online paying it. I'm curious to see what he thought of it.

I picked it up because the developers are just a few counties away from me down in Lexington SC.

As for the game, it's a solid release and I agree that it's extremely deep. But I don't see multiplayer as being addictive or having a long life in my arcade selections after I finish off puzzle mode. I need to spend some more time with it.

I love the unlockable content in the game (gamer pics, new boards, and such), you don't have to spend Microsoft points on it. All you do is use the money you have earned in the game and spend it in the store.

Poker Smash is all sorts of awesome. I'll probably pick it up tonight after work. After all, it looks like I'll be saving a lot of money on RB DLC.

That's how they should ALL be done.

For once, we're in agreement

I picked up Poker Smash as well, and love the whole presentation and atmosphere. It looks so polished! I haven't put much time into it, but will give it a few plays later tonight.

I think the fireworks with every hand better than 3 of a kind is maybe a bit overdone and a touch distracting, but I just LOVE the mounting stack of chips that you acquire as your score goes up -- it's SO Vegas. And the optional instant challenges adds yet another layer of gameplay into a completely enjoyable game - frantically trying to put together a club flush in ten seconds while still managing the rest of the board? Friggin' brilliant!

Another vote of confidence for Poker Smash, the controls were a little tricky for me at first, but it didn't take long to adjust. The added challenges are a blast.

Bought the Poker Smash tonight around 6 and came out of the daze of playing just now. There goes the night

Tried out the demo today, I think I enjoyed it, I just think that it seemed a little 'busy' for me. I'll probably give it another go later this week and then make a decision about whether I want to pick it up.

I tried out Poker Smash figuring I would buy that over Rez since I wasn't impressed with Rez. I wasn't impressed with Poker Smash at all. The concept is a lot better than the execution.

That being said I decided to give Rez another shot due to all the glowing reviews. I've since bought the full version and am hooked. I love it. I've spent a few hours on it and am only on the third stage. It's also one of those game you pick up to play for 15 minutes only to realize 2 hours have slipped away.

I need some pointers from Pixy though. I can't seem to touch your high score. I've played score attack about 5 times and every time I end in the 140k range. I'm obviously doing something wrong. I think I'm maxing out all my multipliers but come up short somehow. I'm usually about 110k when I hit the boss which gives me another 30k upon completion.

There's a lot of reports on Poker Smash freezing up in extended games.

Rez is absolutely brilliant. I think it has the greatest final level of any video game EVER.

Corvin, I don't have any specific tips for you yet, this is surprisingly my first time really playing this game. Since you mentioned maxing out your chains that's about all I've got.. I only played each score attack once at the moment except for level two which took me about five tries to get through for some reason.

Cool. Browsing the thread at CAG might help. Someone mentioned there are three tiers of each boss depending on how you do in a level. Tier 1 (easiest) nets you 10k, Tier 2 is worth 20k. That's probably the main discrepancy right there.

I'm looking forward to getting back to it now.

I fucking knew it.

When I was trying to get 100% I thought I was going crazy when the bosses were suddenly kicking my ass something fierce. Oh, I will note that you can include the little power ups and enemy projectiles in your chains, so if there are four enemies and you cover them and their projectiles you'll get x8 for all of them.

I've also been getting back into Omega Five.. it's not the greatest, but that's probably because it's very much an homage to older games and I'm quite the fan of the modern shmup. But it worked for my friend, it FINALLY pushed him over the edge to get a 360 last night. I managed to get my first 1CC on it last night as well!

What's the word on this weeks XBLA game?

Commanders: Attack of the Genos (Advance Wars clone) and Discs of Tron.