Consolation Prize

Released last Wednesday Ticket to Ride, another renowned board-game, swelled the ranks of Xbox Live Arcade and joined the list of other great boardgames which have been given the Xbox Live treatment such as Settlers of Catan and Carcassonne.

Ticket to Ride ranks as one of my favourite boardgames of all time, mainly because it’s so simple to learn, easy to play, fast flowing, and it’s just an enormous amount of fun when played with a group of good friends.

This version is a nigh on perfect conversion and plays exactly the same as the original board-game featuring the American version of the map. The aim of the game is simply to complete “Tickets” across North America, for example “Seattle to New York” by linking cities together. How you get from “A” to “B” is up-to the player but because in most cases there’s only one connection between cities, which when claimed can’t be used by any other player, competition for routes is fierce and claiming strategic positions on the map before your opponents is crucial to your overall success. Instead of going into more depth about the game mechanics I’ll instead just point you in the general direction of my board-game review
here.

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Dr Edgar Herbert is not a happy bunny. He was a top research scientist in the field of Weather Control Enhancements for the AIC but he’s been put out to pasture early. Like any bitter employee Dr Herbert is out for revenge and there’s no better way for a psychotic genius to show his disappointment at his golden handshake then to wreak havoc around the world against his former employees. I’m sure at some-point Dr Herbert may have even cackled to himself and asked for “one miiiiiiilllllion dollars”, and yes that was a deliberate reference to Austin Powers.

Anyway, onto the game. Elements of Destruction is a top down strategy game where the aim is purely to cause as much damage as possible to villages and cities whilst meeting your mission goals, such as “destroy five barns”. At your disposal are the elemental forces of nature enabling you to call down down lightning strikes, topple buildings with earthquakes, or even rip a path of destruction through neighbourhoods with a tornado. The title of the game sums it all up rather neatly really.

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So this is another sequel to the original arcade classic Frogger? Personally I’d have preferred it if poor old Frogger was left in peace to laze away his remaining days in the swamp rather than have this sequel dredged up from the murky depths. Needless to say I wasn’t that enamoured with this Xbox Live Arcade release.

Trying to build on the simplicity of Frogger we’ve now got a rather hokum story that involves a cute alien called Pico making a crash landing in Firefly swamp. In the process of the emergency landing some parts fell of the UFO and Frogger, being the rather friendly amphibian he is, decides to help poor Pico find the missing items.

Levels now span multiple screens and Frogger must make his way to the goal, and thus the missing part of the spaceship, collecting coins and musical notes along the way and avoiding swamp hazards like snakes and flying fish. Of course the journey involves river crossings, and seeing as Frogger can’t swim these must be navigated by hopping on the moving logs and lily pads as per the classic arcade game.

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Going back a few years I used to be a fan of Sid Meier, from the early flight simulators like F15 Strike Eagle and F-19 Stealth Fighter to his more strategic games like Railroad Tycoon, Colonization and of course the renowned Civilization. Eventually I just stopped following what Meier was developing but I’ve always remembered his name and his legacy.

I’ve been keeping an eye on how this console centric version of Civilization was progressing with keen interest, and over the last couple of days I’ve been playing the demo, trying to decide if I actually like the game or not and if it’s worth purchasing.

Well, after a shaky start I’ve warmed to the game. To begin with I wasn’t that enthralled; the cartoon-like art design didn’t immediately appeal and the random gibberish spouted by your advisors in place of a verbal language is very irksome. Maybe I was comparing it to the Civilization from old which I remember as being quite a hardcore resource management strategy game where cartoon characterisation and comedic advisors certainly didn’t have a place.

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Unfortunately I never got around to trying out the first installment but what’s on offer here in Assault Heroes 2 is a good old school style romp of a top down shooter.

Although in the trial you start in the “P.L.A MKI Jeep” it is sometimes necessary, by choice or by force, to leave the comfort and safety of your armoured shell and proceed on foot. During these occasions you’re more vulnerable and have reduced destructive capabilities, but on the plus side you can roll to avoid attacks and at certain points in the game hijack enemy vehicles.

The jeep is quite versatile and has access to a variety of death dealing weapons. The mini-gun is the default all purpose weapon but you also select the flak cannon, flame thrower, or ice gun, with each one being more suited to certain types of enemies and cycling through weapons via the shoulder buttons is encouraged but not necessary. In addition to your weapons you also have access a limited number of grenades and when times get extremely tough you can unleash a nuke to clear the immediate area of nasties.

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OK I admit it, I’ve never heard of this “classic” arcade game that was released back in 1980 by Atari. The easiest way to summarise this game is as a 4 player mash up of Pong and Breakout with each player occupying a corner of the screen, defending their fort from bouncing balls and hopefully deflecting them back in the opponents general direction.

As is the tradition with Xbox Live retro titles the graphics have been given an overhaul with the “enhanced” mode but if you’re a bit of a masochist you can play the original mode should you desire. The upgraded mode is definitely an improvement over the original and I really can’t see anyone playing the classic mode for any other reason other than historical interest.

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Sudoku was a bit of a craze a few years ago. At one stage it seemed like I couldn’t even turn on the TV without some minor celebrity promoting their Sudoku book or harping on about how good it was. Thankfully the celebs have been and gone (and probably made a pretty penny or two out of it in the process) and the craze has subsided. Buku Sudoku, for the Xbox 360, is a little bit late to the party but it does a decent job of wrapping up the logic based number puzzler into an interesting package with great presentation and configurable difficulty levels that should appeal to fans old and new alike.

For those not in the know Sudoku is pretty straight forward to play once you’ve learned the fundamentals. The player is presented with a grid, most typically 9 x 9, which is partially filled with numbers from 1 to 9. The aim is to ensure that each column and row contains the digits 1 to 9, in addition the grid is split into regions (nine 3 x 3 regions in this example) which must also contain the digits 1 to 9. However the numerics in each row, column and region must be unique i.e. appear just the once in that row, column or region. It’s a simple principle but guaranteed to give your brain cells a bit of a workout.

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Although I’ve never read any of Robert Ludlum’s original Bourne novels I have enjoyed all the Hollywood movies starring Matt Damon as the ex-secret agent Jason Bourne. The books and movies have been successful but is the video game adaptation going to continue the run? Well, you can decide how the game is going to fare by trying out the demo of The Bourne Conspiracy that’s available on both Xbox Live Marketplace (1.2GB) and PlayStation Network (1.65GB).

The demo provides the player with three levels to play through, two of which “Escape from the Embassy” and the “Paris Chase” I remember from the movies, but I’m assuming the level “Eliminate Divandelen” may have been taken from one of the novels. Firstly players will immediately notice that Matt Damon hasn’t authorised the use of his likeness for the main character. Those of us whom are more familiar with the movies will feel a little disappointed that a new “face” has had to be used to represent Jason Bourne, but on the whole this shouldn’t really matter as long as the game plays well.

The three levels on offer act to showcase the different gameplay styles available in the game, after all this is Jason Bourne we’re talking about so we expect close hand-to-hand combat, thrilling gun fights, and unbelievable car chases. The demo does it’s best to serve up a slice of each but is only partly successful in delivering an exhilarating experience.

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