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X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Warlords and Buku Sudoku
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Warlords play Buku Sudoku at the Live Arcade
The Xbox Live Arcade grows today with a pair of new additions. Buku Soduku and the Atari multiplayer classic Warlords are now available on the Xbox Live Arcade. Clocking in at 800 MS points, Buku Soduku brings the popular number-puzzler to the Arcade minus all the charm of being able to play it on the bus and/or while breaking the speed limit driving down a highway as you scroll through duplicate Moby tracks on your iPod, while texting death threats to your best friend for adding Moby tracks to your iPod. 'Cuz, Moby sucks.
Warlords, ironically, is less exciting. For 400 MS points you're invited to checkout another classic Atari title, re-imagined for the Xbox Live Arcade. Note to any potential Buku Soduku buyers there is also a free challenge pack with 1,200 additional puzzles (rounding out the total of puzzles to a cool 2,400).
This Wednesday: Warlords and Buku Sudoku on XBLA
As for Buku Sudoku? Well, there's a reason this is the "first and only" Sudoku game on XBLA. Leave the number crunching to the pencil and paper, and go shoot some more hookers.
Gallery: Warlords
Gallery: Buku Sudoku
XBLA Wednesday: Buku Sudoku and Warlords
Available for purchase off the XBLA for 800 Microsoft points is Merscom's Buku Sudoku, a puzzle word game featuring over 1,200 puzzles, online multiplayer, co-op and well ... lots of Sudoku puzzles. Over fifteen Sudoku books of puzzles ... or so we're told. The other half of this week's XBLA twofer is Stainless Games' 400 MS point Warlords, a remake of the classic Warlords but in prettified HD and four player Xbox Live support. Though, if you want to be all old-school, they've generously added a pixel-perfect remake of the classic. Browse the screenshots below and ponder an XBLA purchase.
Gallery: Buku Sudoku (XBLA)
Gallery: Warlords (XBLA)
GameTap Thursday: Mardi kicks up DiRT and Pop-A-Tronic Warlords
- DiRT (Windows) - An exceptional racer that broke one of our writers. Hours of gameplay to be had for those looking for something between simulation and arcade style racing.
- Pop-A-Tronic (Windows) - It's a color matching casual game. As with all match-three color games it's best enjoyed with some pharmacological enhancement. Not that we condone such actions.
- Warlords (DOS) - A strategy game from many moons ago which eventually transformed into the Warlords Battlecry series.
MarkerMan, MarkerMan, doing the things a marker can
We haven't heard much about Glyphic Entertainment or the studio's Warlords DS port since publisher Strategy First dropped all of its DS titles, so we assumed the worst for the Ohio-based developer. Apparently, however, they picked up another publisher for Warlords DS (Fog Entertainment) and are hard at work on an original game for the Wii and DS -- Markerman!
MarkerMan!'s mobility and physics-based puzzles are like a cross between Kirby: Canvas Curse and Crayon Physics (or its DS homebrew equvalent, Pocket Physics). We would accuse it of looking too much like Crayon Physics, actually, especially with the identical soundtrack, but there's still plenty of time for Glyphic to establish MarkerMan's character before the game's scheduled "Q3 2008" release.
Though it doesn't look like a high-budget production at all, that's part of the charm! We're in love with the graph-paper background, crayon scenery, and the stick-figure dog. We wish we had a stick-figure dog, now.
[Via GoNintendo]
Looking for closure with Puzzle Quest
For all its charms, Puzzle Quest is not a game that ends well. Once you've completed every mindless fetch mission and julienned the anticlimactic final boss, you're dropped back into the worldmap with hardly any ceremony save some brief epilogue text. The landscape appears just as you left it, unaffected by your victory or valor.
The New Gamer laments in its review, "I keep hoping that, finally, my character will have some complete and utter impact on the lands, that all those I've interacted in will pronounce the lands free of evil, free of conflict and that they can finally live their lives in peace." But your deeds are quickly forgotten by the townspeople you've saved, and there's little to indicate that you've had an impact on the kingdom of Etheria. In short, it never feels like the Challenge of the Warlords has actually been completed.
Though this lack of finality isn't exclusive to Puzzle Quest, we really expected more from an otherwise fantastic game. Hopefully, Infinite Interactive will take pains to address the issue before putting out its next puzzle/RPG hybrid, Galactrix. Until then, we'll be haunting Etheria's dusty roads, matching gems against any soul that stumbles across our path, sighing no matter what the outcome.
Homebrew Warlords invades the DS
Though we hate to think of the Nintendo DS as a system overrun with ports of old games, we won't raise any arguments when those ports consist of PC classics. Homebrew developer Beathwho has started work on bringing over a DS version of Warlords, one of the finest turn-based strategy titles to hit home computers in the early 90s. If you've played Puzzle Quest, then you're already familiar with the series' fantasy world of Etheria.With Infinite Interactive already planning a commercial release of Warlords 2 for the DS, we can't imagine that they'd be too happy seeing games from their franchise put out for free. Still, it's great to see someone deliver these old favorites to our handhelds. Now all we need are ports of X-Com and Civilization!
[Via PAlib]
DS Fanboy Favorites: Eric's top five
All this week, the DS Fanboy staff is letting you in on a few of their favorite titles. Each day, a different member of the staff will present their personal top five DS games along with a snapshot of their gaming paraphernalia and habits, in an effort to provide our readers with a little more information on the tastes and personalities of our writers.
When my afternoons aren't busied by hours of photoshopping cat heads onto pictures of my friends, I pass the time with puzzlers and plumbers on my DS Lite. But those kitten-free days are few and far between, so I end up being able to only fit either the most polished or the most eccentric games into my packed schedule. Wario: Master of Disguise? Sorry, I've got things to do and feline faces to retouch. Lost in Blue 2? I'll have to pass -- I'm already lost in trying to get these whiskers to look perfect.
My collection is a mishmash of AAA titles and niche releases, their cases piled atop one another like a Jenga stack of mismatched blocks, threatening to topple over at any moment. Just pulling a game from the middle of the shaky structure is an act preceded by hours of anxiety and self-doubt. Having my wife provide commentary during the ordeal, remarking "Oh god, it's going to crash this time for sure, I just know it. Why'd you even try, Eric?! Game over, man! Game over!" as I tug out my copy of Advance Wars DS doesn't make the challenge any easier.
So when I do manage to put aside the pussycat photos and secure a game to play, it better damn well be worth it. Journey forth and read which of those titles have captured a place not only on my top five list, but in my heart.
Puzzle Quest loved by Penny Arcade, tossed aside by game shops?
Ever since Infinite Interactive released a PC demo for Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, gamers have been scrambling to find a DS or PSP copy of the title. The addictiveness of its Puzzle/RPG blend is matched only by its apparent rarity in stores. NeoGAF forumer Eric P aptly described the game and its limited distribution when he posted, "If Bejeweled is crack, then this is Space Crack that you can only buy from Space Crips in Space Angeles's space ghettos."Don't expect those Space Crips or your local shop to hang onto unsold copies for too long, though. According to Penny Arcade, Electronics Boutique stores in Canada might already be taking the game off their shelves due to disappointing sales. Considering that this much sought-after title was released only a week ago, ousting it this early in its lifetime seems downright unconscionable. We really hope this isn't a trend that other North American retailers will follow.
Meanwhile, both the DS Fanboy and Penny Arcade offices have been caught by Puzzle Quest's steely grip, rendering us incapable of focusing our thoughts on anything else. Tycho and Gabe have drawn up two comics about the title in just the past week, dedicating several posts to their adventures obtaining and playing the game.
Infinite Interactive's Steve Fawkner published a short comic of his own, explaining Puzzle Quest's shipment shortage. Check it out past the post break.
Warlords developers answer questions
Over at the Infinite Interactive forums, the developer behind the title is taking time to answer questions about the title. The game is to be available during the Summer of this year, so that gives us all plenty of time to poke and prod the fine folks holding the reigns on this magnificent beast. Even before the questioning started, we are told that Warlords DS will have the same design philosophy as Warlords 2, as well as similar gameplay and graphics.A lot of the questions are rather in-depth and the fine folks at Glyphic Entertainment, as well as Stephen Fawkner, do a good job at answering. Check the thread out.
[Via 1UP]
Puzzle Quest producer spills the beans
Andy Pan, producer on the upcoming puzzler Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, recently spoke about the game with Siliconera. The game has caused many to raise an eyebrow in question of its goal to combine puzzle and RPG gameplay into the perfect hybrid. Andy explains some of the battle pieces on the board:"The battle system takes place on a puzzle board in an 8 x 8 grid. There are 8 elements on the puzzle board – 4 mana gems (fire, water, air, earth) as well as experience (the purple icons) gold (gold coins) and skulls and finally, the wildcard."
The game is turn-based, with the goal being to completely wipe your opponent's hit points before they do the same to you. Obviously, before you can deal out the damage, you need to gather the appropriate mana pieces to cast spells. Or, you can match 3 skulls, which will also do damage to your opponent.
Atari games on XBLA, holiday titles confirmed
Alongside the press release for Contra hitting XBLA, Microsoft sent another press release outlining a slew of Atari classics heading to Live Arcade next year. The six Atari games to be released are:- Centipede/Millipede
- Battlezone
- Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe
- Missile Command
- Tempest
- Warlords
Also worth mentioning, the press release confirmed that the following titles should hit the Arcade before the end of 2006:
- Small Arms
- Assault Heroes
- Novadrome (?)
- Heavy Weapon
- Defender
Metareview - Civilization IV: Warlords
Just in case Civilization IV hasn't consumed enough hours of your life, Sid Meier and his team at Firaxis are giving you one more reason to spend the rest of the summer indoors. Warlords is the first expansion pack to 2005's near-unanimous PC game of the year, and was built with the aggressive Civ gamer in mind. There are six new playable civilizations, including the Barbarians, and a new warlord unit to help pump up your military production. Get to war!
- Yahoo! Games (90/100) likes the diverse settings: "There are scenarios for all tastes, from combat-oriented conquests like Alexander the Great or Genghis Khan, to diplomacy heavy episodes like Chinese Unification or The Rise of Rome. These scenarios provide new and distinctive experiences no matter how many times you've played Civilization IV."
- GameSpot (86/100) notes the bias toward ancient warfare: "These new scenarios are engaging, though they do skew a bit toward ancient-world settings and conflicts. Still, the campaigns here are interesting, and each features a unique challenge. These scenarios are essentially modifications of the core game, and they feature rewritten tech trees and unique units that are appropriate for their settings. There are also a number of new wonders of the world."
- GameSpy (70/100) questions the value of this expansion with so many free mods available: "The biggest problem with Warlords is simply one of value. For all the fun the scenarios, new units, and new civilizations add to the game, they simply don't push the game far enough. The only really new gameplay element added in Warlords is the vassal state. This is a gameplay dynamic that allows a player to offer political subservience to another empire."
Civ IV Warlords preview vids
The Warlords expansion pack for Civilization IV hits store shelves this week, and Civilization resource site Apolyton has uploaded some exclusive preview videos from their ApolyCon '06 conference. Firaxis designer Jon Schafer gives attendees a walkthrough of the new features in three downloadable segments.You can also view the E3 trailer and some gameplay vids at GameSpot.
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