UncleGramps

Are you talking about the first "Who Knows Where" section? The one you get to via the smoking pipe? I thought that was optional?

Decker

No. That one's annoying and goes on and on as well. I'm talking about the first level where you start looking for shards instead of cores. You find one, then are transported back to previous levels/scenes. It just keeps going and going and while I made it back to the earliest flashback, I still haven't made it all the way through. Lose three lives and you have to start the whole thing over again.
My son implored me yesterday "keep trying dad! Don't give up!", but fuck it, I have a life and can't be messing around with a single level of an XBLA game over and over again.

superfro

Especially one you're so terrible at.

pinata242

You know I'll be rocking this, especially on the cusp of football season!



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Decker

Could you be a bit more specific, please? Here is the complete list of my XBLA games that I'm not terrible at:



Besides, don't you have a hostile picket line to cross or something?

Liver&Onions

Scab!

UncleGramps

Oh, that one? I didn't have any problem with it.

You might have better luck by doing some of the Vigils or Who Knows Where levels to get more money, then upgrading some of your weapons and/or getting the booze from the Distillery to get additional health potion slots.

fumanstan

I think the only levels that gave me a lot of issues in Bastion were the optional "dream" sequences and a few of the challenges.

UncleGramps

Same here. For me, the key was using the Distillery and Armory to upgrade abilities, and completing Vigils to get the money necessary to do so. The right weapons/upgrades/spirits make a huge difference.

Decker

Did anyone else check out the demo for "Rock of Ages"? That's a crazy fucking game. It's a tower defense-bowling game, sort of. It's got a cool art style, and a sense of humor. But reading a review they totally screwed up the execution and you don't need to build any defensive structures to win. That's a shame because I bet it could have been a lot of fun with a few tweaks.

pinata242

According to the new achievements that TA posted, it looks like Magic 2012 is getting DLC where you get to be the Archenemy. That should be fun for a bit, even if each battle is bound to be completely lopsided one way or the other.

pinata242

Brace yourself for the awesome September Rewards promotion!



Also, the September survey is one yes/no question.

Matt

That's kinda lame, but there are a bunch of 40 point accessory-type avatar items available, like glasses and wristbands and such:



You could get those for free, essentially!

pinata242

You're pandering to me with that wristband

Matt

Exactly!

Jcheckel

Just noticed my codes for Crimson Alliance from Summer of Arcade deal came, one for the game, one for the characters, haven't tried to redeem them yet because xbox.com appears to be messed up at the moment.

Decker

And the glasses.

Decker

I got the codes last night and downloaded it. I still don't know if I understand the pricing scheme. The full game download only seems to allow trial versions of the three characters with limited abilities. You can select any one of them and go to the purchase screen, but as of now it's blank. So I don't know how the pricing will work : whether the game will be 800 points with limited characters and like 200 points per character, or whether the full game is free with limited characters and 500 points per character unlock. In any case, I guess it's nice that you could try out each character class and if you only liked one style, you could buy that one and save some $$$ that way.

As far as the game -- I like it so far. I only did one level last night. The three characters travel together in the cursory story and are very Trine-like : A big burly warrior, a sleek, fast female thief and an elderly wizard. The gameplay is a lot like Torchlight, ie a dungeon crawler. Maybe not nearly as much loot, but again I only played the first level. No magic yet for my thief. Maybe that's to come. No health potions, just jars scattered around to find. There are Lara Croft and the GoL type 2-player puzzles to solve in the level. It has that isometric 3D appearance with disappearing walls, like MUA or the Alien Breed games. Looks pretty good, but some frame rate issues -- nothing terrible though and pretty nice for an XBLA game. I look forward to some online questing. I wanted an online Torchwood type game on XBLA that didn't such (Daggerdale) and now it looks like we have one.

Decker

Just to post an update : I'm actually really enjoying Crimson Alliance. It's a dungeon crawler, yes, but one with some depth. Each level has several hidden areas, some of which are really well hidden. I'm through like 8 or 10 levels and haven't found all the hidden areas in any one yet, despite always looking out for them. It owes a debt to Lara Croft and the GoL not only on the two-person puzzle areas, but also on the combat scoring whereby you can get a multiplier going by stringing together multiple kills without taking damage. At the end of the level you get a level score that you can compare on the leaderboards. What's extra-cool is not only do you get a score, but that score is broken down to Combat, Hidden Areas and Time Bonuses -- I'll see someone else next to me on the leaderboard with a much better time bonus but far fewer hidden areas or maybe a huge combat score, but lacking in the other two.
No true leveling up, but as you progress you get access to better weapons and equipment to buy that will increase certain stats. Collectibles you find in the levels also can increase your stats. They have a cheesy way to buy gold through the Marketplace (iOS-style), but that seems pretty unnecessary considering if you bought the 40,000 gold for 80 points right off the bat, there still wouldn't be much to spend in on initially. I haven't played online yet, but I can say I think this is a pretty solid game for what it is.

DJLinus

Has anyone played the new DeathSpank game yet?

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I had a hell of a good time playing the first two games last year. Still, I'll probably wait for a sale for this one since I have plenty of other games to play already.

Kedrix

Glad somebody had fun with those. I bought the first one when they had a sale a while back. The first half was awesome, I really had a good time with it. Then somewhere in the middle, it stopped being fun and became this ridiculously hard affair. Some fire demon was really whipping my butt and I hadn't seen it since.

pinata242

Decker

So that's how they were going to price Crimson Alliance. Interesting.

I wonder what the ITSP add-on will entail. If it's a meaty amount of content, it might be worth it.

I also wonder what the "Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 Expansion " is. If it brings the original game up to 2012, or whether it's an add-on for 2012.

And to answer your question from last week pinata, it looks like the ITSP expansion is coming out on a Tuesday, not a Wednesday.

slop101

Holy shit! That's the first I'm hearing of this!

pinata242

I told you last week it was an Archenemy expansion

Don't count on Tuesday just because Major Nelson fat-fingered the schedule.