Anyways, the program I use, FL Studio, made by Image-Line, is having a sale on all of their plugins. Now I’ll give you a brief rundown of what this means. Plugins are essentially external sounds, players, editors, etc. for the default program. If you have never produced music before, I highly recommend that you download the free demo of FL Studio 9. If you like it, purchase it and add some plugins!

Not only do I use this program, but I’ve convinced Elite Effect to use it as well, even though he’s still running the demo version. So if you’re looking for some good plugins, here are the ones I recommend:

• Sytrus
• Edison WAV editor
• Soundfont Player

You can check out the full list here. This promotion runs until the end of August 2010!

If you read this and wonder what the hell I’m talking about then check this out.

Basically if you’re a fan of the newly appointed Xbox Arcade Hit Cloning Clyde then you’ll want to be sure to give this a look.  It has nothing to do with Cloning Clyde in terms of story but it offers the quirky comedic action and unique gameplay that made Cloning Clyde the popular game it is.

In this game you’ll be helping other Oogani tribes uncover lost powers and tribal leaders in a mystical world in order to lead a revolt a ruler who is less than democratic.  It’s up to you to lead the way and apparently eat a lot of things while you’re at it.  The best news is that this will only cost 800 MSP.  Change the date, keep the price…..that’s cool with me.

You can check out all the hype by following Ninjabee on twitter and Facebook.  You can also dress your Avatar in some pretty cool NinjaBee stuff.  Everything else can be found on the official NinjaBee website.

~Scratch – the old new guy

Now this game has been somewhat under the radar during development, but it’s made a huge mark in the gaming world. Imagine the shenanigans and open-world choices of GTA IV… now just put that in a western theme and you have Red Dead Redemption. I love this game so much, I even gave myself a cowboy name and named my stallion.

You can’t just judge a man by his name and his horse, but only his actions. So for the rest of this article, I’ll refer to the adventures of my myself with my cowboy name, Uncle Twinkletoes, and my mighty stallion, Gravy Biscuits.

Welcome to New Austin

New Austin, your starting location in Read Dead Redemption. Obviously inspired by Austin, Texas, you begin your great adventure out on these plains. The introduction to the game starts out rather slow, much like GTA IV. But don’t worry, give yourself ten minutes and you’ll be off to do whatever the hell you want. Personally, Uncle Twinkletoes doesn’t like jumping straight into the story and enjoys exploring the vast plains, so that’s just exactly what I did.

While I’m not too far into the main story and various side missions, of what I have played so far, this game has an incredible depth of immersion. Instantly upon completing a mission, I feel obligated to go right on to the next one to see how the previous mission further plays out. One of the great mission mechanics of Red Dead Redemption is its style of choosing whenever to complete a mission. Let’s say you start out a mission and half way through your buddies want you to play Free Roam, simply save the game at a house or campsite and when you come back, you’ll be right back where you started.

Now let’s talk about my personal favorite in this game, multiplayer.

Free Roam & the Social Club

Taken straight out of GTA IV, Free Roam is essentially the entire open world of Red Dead Redemption left alone for you and your friends to explore. Invite up to seven friends and either roam the plains in a public or private Free Roam session. Join up together to form a posse and you can complete various tasks such as challenges ranging from killing a bear with a knife to trampling people with your horse. Feel like taking out a gang that’s been giving you a rough time whenever you are near their hideout? Take them out and collect their goods.

If you’re more into competitive modes than exploring the vast world, head over to a town and join in on multiplayer game modes such as Gang Shootout. Play against either members in your posse or random cowboys and cowgirls across Xbox LIVE. You can play multiplayer anyway you want, there are plenty of options. The Social Club offers challenges for you to complete in order to gain experience. You can always check for new challenges and updates for the Social Club in both singleplayer and multplayer.

Multiplayer Customization

Now let’s not forget multiplayer customization, one of my personal favorites. As you rank up from gaining experience from various tasks such as clearing out gang hideouts and completing challenges, you unlock various features for your character. For instance, character models, horses, and player titles are unlocked as you progress through the ranks. The higher level you are, the more goods you have for your own enjoyment. If you’re looking for some quick leveling to get past the first few ranks and get rid of the slowest horse west of the Mississippi, play solo multiplayer and take out gang hideouts. There are plenty of customization options to make yourself stand out amongs your friends and enemies online.

Wrap-Up

If you are hesitant about picking up a western style game, much like I was leading up to it’s release, don’t be. This game is worth every cent I spent on it and I have no doubts I’ll be playing it for quite some time. Red Dead Redemption offers reply value in so many different ways that if you get bored of the same routine, switch it up and try something new out west. If you get tired of killing animals and cowboys, head into the saloon, take a shot and sit down for a round of poker.  Hopefully Uncle Twinkletoes and Gravy Biscuits see you on the plains sometime soon so we can cook up some ole’ beans over the campfire and tell our tales of prosperity.

But, I am having a blast playing this game. The story is awesome and the suspense definitely keeps me on the edge of my beanbag chair! I am pretty sure I will have to play it again a second time because I know I am missing picking up some pages and coffee thing-a-ma-jobs because I get distracted when an ax murderer is chasing me and get turned around and forget where I was and where I am going!

One last thing… while playing to the game I am finding that I am talking back to the characters. I will say things such as.. “please continue what you are saying while I loot your kitchen for a coffee thermos”, and “OH MY FRAKING GAWD! You scared the bajeebus out of me!” and “Really, that’s a fascinating story”. So anytime I find the need to respond back to the characters in a game, I know it is good. If I didn’t want to listen to them or interact with them I would frantically be looking for a ’skip’ button.. with this game I wasn’t. I wanted to experience all of what was going on.

I mean, c’mon! Books, and videogames, and ax murderers all in one package? Right up my alley! For sure!

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Graphics: The game is colorful and cute.

Game play: Wonderking is an online game where you can complete quests and explore the world with other Wonderking players from around the world. In the beginning you create and customize your character. You can level up your character by completing quests and fighting the many creatures in the game.

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I did have a few problems with the game.
•The game takes hours to download
•I had the game freeze up on me in spots.
•Sometimes I felt like the directions for quests weren’t clear enough

But here are some good things about the game.
•good controls
•fun
•FREE!!!!!
•cool graphics
•overall, little lag
•works on almost every computer

So, what do I think about the game? It’s fun, addictive and cute. Should I get it? Sure, why not? It’s free.

Developer: DICE

Online: 2-24 players

Cost: 1200 MS points ($15)

 Battlefield 1943, what a great game! For only $15 you get an amazing multiplayer game that almost never gets old. This is probably one of the only games that I have played longer than 72 hours. So if you are into first person shooters and like the Battlefield games, I highly suggest buying this game. Here are some things that make this game great.

• Three maps for conquest mode
• Two teams (US & Japan)
• Jeeps, planes, boats and tanks
• Up to 24 player games
• Air superiority mode
• Squads
• Helpful tutorial
• Easy to pick up controls

 What makes this different from other games? No camping, if you try to camp the building you’re in will most likely be blown into pieces. The maps are enormous, with brilliantly placed vehicles and sniper towers.

 Let’s talk about vehicles. Jeeps hold three people and get you where you want fast. Tanks are extremely powerful and can destroy a jeep in one shot with it’s cannon. The tanks can hold two people. The planes can wipe out a tank with only one bomb although it’s extremly hard to master.

 Now lets talk about the bombers. They are extremely powerful and can flatten a base. You start a bomb run by going into a certain bunker. After you enter the bunker you have control of three bombers that release their bombs simultaneously at your command. But enemy fighters and AA guns can destroy the fighters so be careful.

 Overall the game is great except it has some major lag issues.

Darwinia+

Developed by: Introversion Software

Published by: Introversion Software

Platforms: Xbox 360 (XBLA), also available on PC as Darwinia & Multiwinia

Players: Singleplayer and Multiplayer (up to 4 players online)

Rated E for Everybody by the ESRB

Link to Purchase from Microsoft

The Breakdown

It’s hard to describe an RTS that takes cues from games like Lemmings and Smash TV and that also visually pays homage to old school vector graphics in a single sentence; so let’s use just a single word. Awesome!

The Important Stuff

Back in 2006 Introversion Software won a few prestigious awards at the Independant Games Festival, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, for their PC title Darwinia. Now their hard-to-classify-yet-extremely-addicting creation has made its way onto the Xbox Live Arcade. The gist of the game is simple. Crazy Doctor invents a crazy digital world called Darwinia using old school computers. Next he populates it with little digital beings that can live, grow and evolve; calls them Darwinians. Darwinians misbehave, unwittingly unleash computer virus upon themselves, and of course YOU are the only one that can save them all.

The game doesn’t just throw you into the world of Darwinia and let you fend for yourself though. The Crazy Doctor holds your hands for the first couple introductory levels before opening up a campaign world with objectives that span across multiple levels. So why is this game hard to truly classify?

At heart, Darwinia+ is a strategy title. You’re tasked with controlling units around an environment, destroying enemies and capturing buildings in order to complete objectives. The reason Darwinia+ stands out from the genre is because of the way that these things are accomplished. Most RTS games deliver a hands-off approach. You click a unit, you tell it were to go, and you watch it shoot enemies as the unit pathfinds to its objective. This is where Darwinia+ moves away from the pack. The units, or more appropriately called “Programs”, and their various properties. Let’s take a look at the units within the game.

To start out we need to take a look at the basic Darwinian. These fellas are strictly 2D, meaning when they turn sideways they’re so thin that you can’t see them, kind of like Kate Moss.  On their own and unupgraded (a word on this later), they will come into existence and generally just mill around without doing much else. You have no direct control over these little digital dudes, although they are required to control and make use of certain buildings. Darwinians are not spawned, they are “born”, and as such need to be generated by Engineers who have harvested the souls or soul factories (found later in the game)

Next we have Squads. Vanilla squads (again, unupgraded) come in a group of four and have the ability to shoot lasers and chuck digital grenades of pixel-death. You can directly control these units via the left analog stick and generally control the direction of their laser fire and grenade tossing via the right analog stick. Squads will be your first line of defense against the viral outbreak and can be spawned from any captured buildings like Radar Stations or level gateways (Trunk Ports).

The Engineer unit, which looks straight out of Disney’s TRON movie, are the harvestors of souls and claimers of buildings. They can be given orders to move to certain areas but may not be directly controlled. They have no attack capabilities. Engineers can be spawned immediately next to any Squad unit, or next to other buildings like Radars and Trunk Ports.

There is an Armor unit, a general transport for your basic Darwinians that has no attack properties itself but can also unfold into a gun turret. These units can be given orders to move, pick up or unload Darwinians or turn into a turret but can not be directly controlled. Armor may only be spawned near Trunk Ports.

Lastly we have Officers. Darwinians need direction and therein lies the birth of an Officer. Any Darwinian can be “promoted” to an Officer. A vanilla Officer (unupgraded) can give a general move order for any nearby Darwinians who will follow that pathway.

Are you getting the Lemmings and Smash TV references yet? The Squad’s dual-stick shooter controls are a welcome gameplay element to this RTS game. It’s a considerable amount of fun to dispatch your viral enemies and have direct control over their demise. And the Darwinians? They’re Lemmings for sure. Tell them where to go and they’ll march off to their deaths if you’re not careful.

All of your units and their main abilities can be upgraded. During the game you can pull up the menu to instruct the Crazy Doctor to research various aspects of your unit’s abilities. Squads can grow in size, shoot their lasers further or lob grenades farther. Darwinians can be given weapons, Armors can ferry larger amounts of Darwinians, Officers enabled to give more commands, Engineers can grab up increasing numbers of souls, and the Doctor can even research ways to allow the use of more units at once. For an Xbox Live Arcade game, Darwinia+ offers a hell of a lot of depth of gameplay.

All of this would be an amazing game for $15, but I haven’t even mentioned that this game supports Multiplayer yet. Five different game modes are included such as:

• Domination – A gametype to crush all of your opposition
• King of the Hill – A classic gametype, Darwinian style
• Capture The Statue – Send your Darwinians to carry statues back to their homebase before your opponents do the same
• Rocket Race – Refuel your rocket and blast into space before your opponents (Authors note: DAMNIT! THIS IS TOUGH!!!!)
• Blitzkrieg – A domination style gametype.

Multiplayer offers up a tons of different options to mess around with, and the addition of “crates” that fall onto the battlefield that dispense digital weaponry to the recipient makes the game extremely fast paced. I have to admit, dropping a Napalm Bomb on a thousand enemy Darwinians and watching them suffer horrible pixelated deaths is incredibly satisfying.

Tips & Tricks

• Controlling a squad can be tricky due to some minor camera issues. If the camera gets stuck, deselect your Squad and reposition the camera before reselecting them.
• Engineers can be spawned directly next to Squads. Once your Engineers drop off their souls to be processed, kill them with the Select button and respawn a fresh one next to the Squad to avoid the travel time!
• It’s tricky to learn how to properly utilize your Armors and turn them into turrets. Once it’s loaded up, move it to where you want the turret. As it’s moving, press the Y button directly on the intended spot until you see the turret icon.
• Upgrading your Officers early to unlock additional commands can help you move your Darwinians around the maps easier.
• Upgrading your Darwinians as soon as possible to give them weapons can help you avoid unnecessary losses.
• If you’re stuck on a level and have lost too many Darwinians, don’t be afraid to use the Reset Location option in the start menu. You’ll still have control over any previously captured Radar dishes.

Reaction

Can you tell I enjoyed the game? I’m going to try to not be biased, but if you’re a fan of strategy games you should definately check out this release. The graphics aren’t going to appeal to everyone, but being a 1980’s kid myself I have to admit it’s oddly amazing to look at. Something so simple can be so crisp and beautiful. Hey, if the 80’s style vector graphics weren’t incredibly cool then why would they even be bothered doing a remake of the movie TRON? I rest my case.

So you know from the description above that Darwinia+ offers solid gameplay, but this wouldn’t be a review without a little critique. The soundtrack to this game is outstanding, I just wish there was more of it. It’s so good and so cool that I wish that there was more background music during actual gameplay, rather than only ambient noises and sounds of weapons fire.

Another minor complaint is the camera control. Frequently when you’re attempting to direct a squad around the map the camera may get hung up on a mountain range or stuck in an awkward position. A remedy to this is mentioned in the Tips & Tricks section, but it’s worth talking about. It’s certainly not a gamebreaker by any means.

I had a heck of a lot of fun with this game, but I have to say that the demo version does absolutely NO justice to the full release! Introversion has brought a solid title onto the Xbox Live Arcade and I can only hope that they will continue to work on quality games for us. It’s nice to see independant developers getting a chance to release their creative works to a broader audience with digital distribution services like Xbox Live.

Stay tuned to Gamercide, because next week I will be releasing a special Q & A with Introversion’s Mark Morris, who has some special news for all you PS3 owners out there!

CoyAndChris gives this game an 8.5 out of 10!!

The game is great fun at a great price. The controls transferred  beautifully to the iPhone. I actually think the iPhone version has better controls at times!

Over all the game is great and is far worth the great price. If you have an iPhone I highly recommend it.

Developed by

The Breakdown

“Clean up” the mess you made and destroy the FLDSMDFR!

Breaking Points

In this wacky and fun family game, you play as Flint Lockwood as you try to save the planet from your invention; the FLDSMDFR. You go throughout town as you fight off mutated food enemies with your spiffy gadgets such as; the chopper, heat gun, the sucker, the fork-a-ma-jigger and punch gun. As you make your way through town, you have to avoid being hit by food falling from the sky and must solve little puzzles in order to advance in the game.

Tips & Tricks

• Don’t’ run too quickly on the butter, or you will slide into a hot puddle of chili
• Look at other locations first before going to your destination. You can always find hidden things.
• Can’t get all food items to unlock a puzzle piece? Not to worry- get back to them once you have upgraded to level three on your gadgets.

My Thoughts

This is a kid game, so I knew not to expect too much out of it- it’s no Batman: Arkham Asylum. The main reason I played this game is because it is an achievement game! If you are all about achievements like I am, this game gives you a total of 25 achievements equaling to 1000 GS. Another nice thing is, this game can be done in five hours or less- so you will have your achievements and be done with the game in no time.

Even though it was more of a kid’s game, I actually found it quite entertaining. It is nice to step away from “hardcore” games and just have fun. I am kind of ashamed to say this, but there were a couple times that I had to actually think about how to get to the next destination. Of course after I got used to the game, it became easier to solve these mini puzzles. I blame it on me being tired (that’s my story and I am sticking to it). �

Final Score: 7 out of 10

Those who pre-ordered the title at a few select retailers were given the chance to check out the demo before it is released to the Xbox community this Tuesday, Nov. 3rd, but sadly my pre-order was made at a smaller retailer in my area and therefore I was not lucky enough to get the demo code. Kiki was awesome as usual and bestowed upon me an early download code for the Left 4 Dead 2 demo, so read on for my impressions!

What’s In The Demo?

The demo allows gamers to experience the first two chapters of the campaign known as “The Parish” and this can be played either alone with the AI, or cooperatively online with other Xbox Live members. As soon as you begin the campaign, fans of the first release will notice right away the huge difference it makes in having the game set during the daytime. The environments are brightly lit and the overall atmosphere doesn’t necessarily feel as “scary” or “tense” as the original.

Even though this campaign is set during the daytime the zombies are still out in full force and looking to chomp down on some cerebral candy. L4D2 features all the grotesque goodness of the original infected, but also Valve has added a host of new ones as well. Other additions include melee weapons, weather effects, new guns, new items, and an enhanced “AI Director”. Some of these changes I had already known about and a few of the things I encountered definitely have me even more excited for the full game!! Below is a short list of changes, which may not include everything that will be in the final release.

New Survivors! Play through the game as one of the four new Survivors! Take control of Coach, Rochelle, Nick or Ellis as they battle the zombie hordes.

New “common” infected! I noticed a lot more variation in the regular zombies, including some infected SWAT members who are slightly bulletproof due to their body armor.

Variation in the “special” infected! I don’t know if this will be the case for all of the special infected, but I’ve shot my fair share of female Boomers. Gender equality for the win!

New “special” infected! In addition to the lineup of Boomers, Smokers, Hunters and Tanks, Valve has now added Chargers, Jockeys and Spitters. Chargers are basically mini-Tanks, Jockeys can hop onto the backs of survivors to guide them away from the group, and Spitters can spew streams of acid which damage unlucky survivors who come in contact with it. I also noticed that Witches no longer sit around and cry all day, instead choosing to wander around certain areas which makes them more difficult to avoid.

Melee weapons! Players are given the opportunity to ditch their pistols and pick up various melee weapons. In the demo I’ve come across a guitar, a police baton, a machete and a frying pan. It’s very satisfying and amusing at the same time to run through a whole level smashing in the heads of zombies using the frying pan and hearing that lovely little CLANG sound! Note to self: Do not hit the Witch in the head with the frying pan. She will not die instantly, and she will definitely not be happy with you! These weapons actually are very effective and it will be interesting to see how the whole mechanic works out, not only in campaign but also in versus modes.

New items! Adrenaline, which increases health, speed and jumping for a short time and also Bile Bombs, which essentially acts like a pipe bomb in that it draws out a horde of zombies to attack whatever it comes in contact with. I’ve been told that there are Defibrillators in the game, which can revive dead teammates instead of having to find them in a rescue closet, but I didn’t come across any during my playthroughs.

New guns! There are multiple different pistols now, variations on the shotguns, new assault rifles, new sniper rifles and even a silenced uzi which really serves no purpose that I’ve discovered.

What I haven’t listed above are some things that are inaccessible in the demo, such as the new “Scavenge” gameplay mode.

This demo will be available for all Xbox Live Gold members on Tuesday, November 3rd. Take my word for it, you should check it out!

*Author’s Note* If you get the chance, find the Jukebox located in a diner during Chapter 1 of The Parish. Walking up to it and pressing X causes it to play a few different songs. The third one is the gem of the group, and it’s entitled “Re Your Brains”. Jonathan Coulton, who did the “Still Alive” song for Portal, is the creative mind behind this awesome song and you should give it a listen! I’m told that the Jukebox also will randomly play “Still Alive” although I couldn’t get it to play myself.