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GAF Recomends: XNA Indie Games - That Don't Suck

Gowans

Member
Useful Links:


This thread is just for recommendations and follow up discussion the and does not replace the XNA Indie Games thread

Suggested so far:


MADE BY GAF MEMBERS:


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Download Trial - 240 points - Easy Golf (Sports) by barkers crest

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Download Trial - 400 points - Snake 360 (Action) by yyr


GAF Input:
Artoon, The Perfect Match and Red Box Reality - Soundtracks by Anso






HIGHLY RECOMMENDED:
Top games


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Download Trial - 400 points - Blow (Puzzler)


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Download Trial - 80 points - bricks 4Ever (breakout/arkanoid clone)


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Download Trial - 400 points - CarneyVale Showtime (Swing Platformer)
OFFICIAL THREAD


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Download Trial - 200 points - Groov - (twin stick rhythm shooter)
OFFICIAL THREAD


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Download Trial - 400 points - Halfbrick Blast Off - (Action/Puzzle)
OFFICIAL THREAD


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Download Trial - 200 points - Halfbrick Echoes - (Action/Puzzle)



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Download Trial - 200 points - Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp (platformer)
OFFICIAL THREAD


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Download Trial - 200 points - Miner Dig Deep (Mining Sim)
OFFICIAL THREAD


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Download Trial - 400 points - Weapon of Choice (Platform Shooter)
OFFICIAL THREAD









RECOMMENDED:
Games that have several recommendations

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Download Trial - 200 points - Angry Barry (Beat-em-up)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Artoon (Puzzle Platformer)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Battle Havoc (Multiplayer Combat Game/Death Tank)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Being (Platformer)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Biology Battle (Twin Stick Shooter)


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Download Trial - 80 points - bricks4ever (Arkanoid/Breakout Clone)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Colosseum (Action/Combat)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Duotrix (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 240 points - Hexothermic (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Lines (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Solar (Gravity Collection Game)


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Download Trial - 80 points - sin(Surfing) (Action)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Supercow (platformer)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Word Soup (Word Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 200 points - World Revolution (Strategy/War Games)


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Download Trial - 80 points - Zoomaroom (Physics Platformer)


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Download Trial - 200 points - ZP2K9 (Platforming Combat Game/Smash Bros)










PRAISED:
Games that have one or a couple of "votes"


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Download Trial - 240 points - A Fading Melody (Artsey Platformer)


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Download Trial - 80 points - Beat Blox (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 400 points - CaveIn - Miner Rescue Team (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Clover (Adventure)


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Download Trial - 80 points - Dr. Popper (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Galax-e-mail (Top Down Shooter)


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Download Trial - 400 points - Loot, Steal n Destroy (Multiplayer Ship Combat)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Pegzo (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 80 points - Penga's Peril (Puzzle)


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Download Trial - 200 points - Philip Muwanga's Hexy Trench (Towerdefence RTS)


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[URL="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585501fb/]Download Trial[/URL] - 200 points - Pocoro (Puzzle)


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[URL="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550230/]Download Trial[/URL] - 200 points - Puzzwords (Puzzle)


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[URL="http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/games/media/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585501c0/]Download Trial[/URL] - 400 points - SLAM (Arcanoid/Breakout clone)
 

Gowans

Member
Weapon of Choice - 400 points
weaponchoice915.jpg

CG Description said:
INSANE ACTION and HUMONGOUS ALIENS tied together by a TWISTED STORY. Branching levels, 4 unique endings, 7 characters each with a Weapon of Choice. Reap revenge with the Vengeance Missile. Cheat death with Deathbrushing! Scale walls with the Spiderpack. Rock out to original, blistering metal guitar tracks. Enough gameplay to rot your teeth! Third Place Winner of Microsoft’s Dream Build Play 2008.
Marketplace Download Link

I'll start with a oldie (on the service) but a goodie, Weapon of Choice was my first purchase on Community Games, along with Carnivale Showtime its one of the most polished games on the service that looks & plays better than a heap on XBLA games.

I've spent a lot of time with it, I love the graphic style which reminds me of the old Amiga action platformer/shooters I used to play as a kid.

It's as hard as contra to me and I really need to get further in the game but I have a tonne of fun with the unique parts in the game, the range of characters, the control of the gun along with its power boost, the little robot legs that let you climb and the fact you can carry your last incarnation when you died.

Defiantly one where I would suggest everyone tries out the demo here on GAF, should be us a few people's alleys.



yeah for 200 points I picked up Johnny Platformer too.

Its a really nice 2D stage based puzzle platformer ripped right from DS home-brew and plonked on Community Games.

Again not a one I managed to finished but I spent a couple of hours on it till the stages got frustrating and left it. Really solid though the graphics are really basic but it gives it a little charm along with the cute little biscuit and tea theme.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
The images link to demo download links:


Score Attack Puzzle-Platformer


Simple, indie PC-style platformer


Sort of a more puzzle-y version of Soul Bubbles.


Like Donkey Kong: King of Swing or Clu Clu Land, a peg-based puzzle platformer. Extremely high production values.


Like Sokoban mixed with Chip's Challenge mixed with others games. Truly eclectic.


Hot Shots Golf-esque golf game, features course editor.


Platformer that seems inspired by Braid, great art style.


Indie-style vertical platformer.


Reflex-based score attack game, bounce off objects to get to the top of the screen. Like that one flash game.


Dig down into cave, get resources, return to surface, sell resources, buy better equipment, repeat. Like that one flash game.


2d Tony Hawk meets nerd math.


Amiga-style platform shooter.


Really clunky and somewhat racist platformer is strangely greater than the sum of its parts.


Addictive word-based arcade puzzle game.
 

PSGames

Junior Member
Nice post Stump, but somewhat overwhelming... what game out of the group would you recommend the most?
 

Gowans

Member
Stumpokapow said:

Dig down into cave, get resources, return to surface, sell resources, buy better equipment, repeat. Like that one flash game.

I haven't had the chance to really 'dig deep' (Boom Boom!) into Miner Dig Deep but the praise it got from everyone who's played it for a while and another 200point game I just plopped the points right down.

The artstyle is simple but clean and appealing and along with the simple but unravelling gameplay much like A Kingdom for Keflings which it sucking you in and getting deeper it seems a perfect fit to what I'm looking for on community games.

I think the price and the clean art may also have had an impact on people trying it as with these games people tend to judge first with their eyes then get into controls and gameplay which this has.
Loved the ad for this someone did in the creating advertising thread on gaf, tink tink!

PSGames said:
Nice post Stump, but somewhat overwhelming... what game out of the group would you recommend the most?

Agreed maybe we should keep it down to real top stuff and explain why or it will fall into the traps of the library.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
PSGames said:
Nice post Stump, but somewhat overwhelming... what game out of the group would you recommend the most?

Just Puzzles: Word Soup
Just Arcadey Games: Miner Dig Deep
Overall: Carnivale Showtime or Miner Dig Deep

Honestly, my recommendation would be that people click all the links, which go to marketplace.xbox.com download links. From there, a one-click process will add the demo of the game to your Xbox 360 download queue. That way, you can download them all while you're away from your 360, and when you get home spend 5 or 10 minutes with each! :D

Gowans007 said:
Agreed maybe we should keep it down to real top stuff and explain why or it will fall into the traps of the library.

This is my pruned down list. Instead of including everything I thought people should try, this includes everything I think people should buy. If someone asked for XBLA recommendations, I wouldn't want people to reply "Braid" "Castle Crashers" "SSF2THDR". There are clearly at least a dozen awesome games on the service, so I'd hope people would cast a wide net with their recommendations.

But don't take my word for it! XNPlay does reviews of XNA games. They have a RECOMMENDED category. Check that out. XNARoundup is a regular iTunes podcast that highlights only the cream of the crop. These are both great tools.
 
There's quite a few Community Games now that I wouldn't mind picking up. Does anyone know of anywhere in the UK that are selling points cards for cheap?
 

VALIS

Member
I've said it in another thread tonight but I'll just repeat it here, Miner Dig Deep is one of the 5 best games I've played so far this year.

Here's a brief review/look at the game, although he doesn't really go into much detail outside of the basics, perhaps not wanting to spoil anything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-R_w8UYB_A

It's 200 points, which is what in Microsoft Moon Money, $2.50? The price of a Starbucks coffee or Slurpee for a game you could probably play for over 20 hours. I'm not even sure how far down the mine goes.

miner-dig-deep.jpg
 

Sean

Banned
I'd also recommend Johnny Platform’s Biscuit Romp, nice visual style and gameplay and at 200 points is cheap.
 

acm2000

Member
well cock, most the best games already been listed above, but heres my list anyway:

DUOtrix
Colosseum
Easy Golf
Miner Dig Deep
Snake360
Biology Battle
Artoon
Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp
CarneyVale Showtime
Word Soup
Weapon Of Choice
Sin Surfing
Blow
Being

Notable Mention:

Solar
Battle Havoc
Super Cow
A Fading Memory
ZP2K9
World Revolution
CaveIn - Miner Rescue Team
Lines
 

yyr

Member
The thread title should read "GAF Recommends" =)

I recommend Supercow and Carneyvale: Showtime to anyone. I also like Johnny Platform a lot. Miner Dig Deep is a buy! Smashell and Galax-e-mail are very good as well, if you like those kinds of games. Give the trials a shot and see what you think.

I played the trial of Tomato Blaster last night as well and I was impressed by the gameplay...it's better than it looks.

It's good to see so many games being mentioned in a thread like this; hopefully this will convince some people that the Community Games channel is not short on quality.



Snake360 was already mentioned so I don't feel quite as bad plugging the game I developed =) But just in case it still seems a bit suspect, I'm going to let some of my players do the plugging for me.

Post by gothicrevue.com on Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:09 pm
"A great game.. I recently bought Fable 2 Left 4 Dead and Saints row 2..and yet all I find myself wanting to play is snake 360..(drives my family(kids and wife) rather batty... great game..love the internet rankings..."

Post by slowbro on Wed Dec 24, 2008 5:22 pm
"I've got to say that for someone who enjoys competing on online scoreboards this game is a godsend, one of the best I've played including big-company games on disc and XBLA."
"It's obvious that many hours went into designing all those levels."
"In my opinion this is one of the few games I've ever played with absolutely perfect control. Also I think the scoring system and the options for slow people and the way levels and modes unlock are top-notch."

Post by mrofir on Tue Dec 30, 2008 4:23 pm
"congratulations on putting together such a solid package. A game like snake is simple enough that it demands absolutely perfect execution, especially when it comes to control -- one nagging flaw and the whole experience would be hollow, and internet rankings meaningless. I took a chance downloading this game and it was worth it. I own a decent collection of games.. COD4, Saints Row 2, sports games (madden et al), and many arcade games. In the past few weeks Snake has probably taken up the majority of my xbox time."

Post by Babylonian on Tue Jan 20, 2009 9:41 am
"Snake 360 was being played nonstop in the living room of this dorm for at least 3 straight hours tonight.
Thanks for making a great game that everyone (especially in the lenient suffocation mode) can get into!"

Post by Mr. Domino on Sat Mar 14, 2009 12:57 am
"It's great to see you supporting the game after the initial release, and the game is definitely one of the better available titles on Community Games."
 
I was expecting the OP to have more in it. How is this thread any different from the original XNA thread?

---- My Picks (All images are links to the trial) ----

Biology Battle



Bricks 4Ever



Miner Dig Deep



Supecow

 
What we need to have is an OP that tallies all the recommendations from each poster into a list that is ranked by votes. So if I post my list of recommendations, each game gets a vote. This is tallied in the OP occasionally and creates an easy to see/read "Top Ten" of CGs as recommended by GAF.

And it needs to lead at the top with just the list. No screenshots or descriptions. That makes the OP too busy and lazy people may just back out when faced with that wall.
 

Kafel

Banned
I don't think I've seen this one mentionned yet : Hexothermic.

Relax puzzler, aesthtetic and sound top notch.
 

Gowans

Member
Dr. Zoidberg said:
What we need to have is an OP that tallies all the recommendations from each poster into a list that is ranked by votes. So if I post my list of recommendations, each game gets a vote. This is tallied in the OP occasionally and creates an easy to see/read "Top Ten" of CGs as recommended by GAF.

And it needs to lead at the top with just the list. No screenshots or descriptions. That makes the OP too busy and lazy people may just back out when faced with that wall.

That would be good for a top ten but this is just a thread to recommend good games to check out. The people looking can see what's popular

I didn't want to put stuff into the op so people could have there say on the few games they like and I hate list threads so this was intended to be where you could list a good game and a quick description so people know what they could check out.

The thread is different to the XNA thread as this is just for recommendations the XNA thread has a bunch of stuff in it.


Guys please back up your recommendations with reasons why?
 

Hunahan

Banned
edit: Gowans, you're sentiment is fine, but the problem is that it will quickly get disorganized and difficult to navigate for quick recommendations, and the only people using it will be the same people discussing games in the XNA thread.

In other words - you haven't solved the only reason why the original XNA thread is not useful, and we're basically back to square one.

The reason most of those list threads are stupid is because they basically just advertise games that everyone already knows exist, mostly just so platform cheerleaders can feel good about themselves.

The reason a list is appropriate here is because the majority of the board has no idea which community games to check out. That's this thread's primary purpose, to help separate out the good recommendations for them. Having them all easily findeable in the OP is the most effective way to do that.

Also, I recommend adding Solar to the list of recommendations......
 

Speevy

Banned
I need a new hard drive. These games look far more interesting than the stuff I haven't bought yet on the XBLA.
 

lobdale

3 ft, coiled to the sky
VALIS said:
I've said it in another thread tonight but I'll just repeat it here, Miner Dig Deep is one of the 5 best games I've played so far this year.

Here's a brief review/look at the game, although he doesn't really go into much detail outside of the basics, perhaps not wanting to spoil anything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-R_w8UYB_A

It's 200 points, which is what in Microsoft Moon Money, $2.50? The price of a Starbucks coffee or Slurpee for a game you could probably play for over 20 hours. I'm not even sure how far down the mine goes.

miner-dig-deep.jpg

Another vote for Miner Dig Deep. It's kind of a spacey-outy game I've been watching my roommate play in down time. Nothing too complex, and a lot of potential that is largely unexplored, but definitely worth 2.50.
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
GAF recommends Gowans gets a dictionary.

And I strongly recommend Carneyvale, it's pretty short, but it's polished as hell, and the presentation is better than 99% of XBLA games. Really simple, but adds new dynamics just at the right times to aid progression.
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Carneyvale Showtime & Miner Dig Deep are better than ~50% of the XBLA titles I've purchased. And I've purchased 50+
 

yyr

Member
Odrion said:
JESUS. That looks good.

It *is* good! Supercow plays as good as it looks. Buy it =)


Dr. Zoidberg said:
What we need to have is an OP that tallies all the recommendations from each poster into a list that is ranked by votes. So if I post my list of recommendations, each game gets a vote. This is tallied in the OP occasionally and creates an easy to see/read "Top Ten" of CGs as recommended by GAF.

And it needs to lead at the top with just the list. No screenshots or descriptions. That makes the OP too busy and lazy people may just back out when faced with that wall.

I completely disagree. Why limit this to one short list? If I combine my experience from what I've seen and played with what I've heard, then as far as I know, every game mentioned on this page so far is good. The point of this was to cut the crap and point out the good, and so far, this thread is doing a fine job of that.

Lots of good retail/XBLA games come out every year and none of us have time for all of them. We simply figure out which ones we want. Random folks can take a look at this list, figure out what sounds most interesting to them, then try or buy without fear that their money will be wasted.
 
Bah, I've tried to download the trial of two of the recommended games (Supercow and Bricks4Ever) and both are not available in my region. Are there any XNA games for Europe?
 

Speevy

Banned
I really like Being, just feels good. Bought that and Johnny Platform's Biscuit Romp

Trying some others.
 

yyr

Member
Notorious_Roy said:
Are there any XNA games for Europe?

At this time, Community Games are available in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. They are coming to Japan soon. As of right now, other countries have not been announced, but I'm sure CG will be expanded to other countries in the future.
 
yyr said:
At this time, Community Games are available in Canada, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. They are coming to Japan soon. As of right now, other countries have not been announced, but I'm sure CG will be expanded to other countries in the future.
:(

(Holland)
 

soldat7

Member
My favorite by far is Blow. Vid here.

Great music, great gameplay, looks good, and cheap. I'd put it up there with either of ThatGameCompany's games.
 

todayzee

Member
Speevy said:
I need a new hard drive. These games look far more interesting than the stuff I haven't bought yet on the XBLA.

Did you know that once you buy a game you always own it? So, if you need to delete one to make room for another you can always go back and download it again if you want to play it again. I'm not trying to be condescending - I recently discovered this and I was so excited about it. :) It isn't as great as a bigger HD, but it helped me out TONS.

xxoo
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Started a new Miner Dig Deep save, thanks to think topic. I hadn't played it in a while. This game is like CRACK. The "into the mine, out of the mine" gameplay leads to an INCREDIBLY STRONG "OK, just one more go..." gameplay loop. I had "one more go" like 10 times before finally managing to turn it off and get back to work.
 

nli10

Member
M.J. Doja said:
XNA reminds me of PC shareware.. in a good way though. that supercow does look nice.

It's the 'made in MS Paint' game covers that gave me that vibe.

NNot bought one yet but i've got a fair few demos.
 
I think I'll buy few from this list. Thanks.

todayzee said:
Did you know that once you buy a game you always own it? So, if you need to delete one to make room for another you can always go back and download it again if you want to play it again. I'm not trying to be condescending - I recently discovered this and I was so excited about it. :) It isn't as great as a bigger HD, but it helped me out TONS.

xxoo

Community games really need "User Ratings" feature which is displayed with game description. Also, allow sorting on xbox.com based on ratings.
 

Speevy

Banned
todayzee said:
Did you know that once you buy a game you always own it? So, if you need to delete one to make room for another you can always go back and download it again if you want to play it again. I'm not trying to be condescending - I recently discovered this and I was so excited about it. :) It isn't as great as a bigger HD, but it helped me out TONS.

xxoo


I did know that. Thanks. It's the collector in me that avoids deletings things off a hard drive, I guess. But if it came to that, it's good to know.
 

Brakara

Member
Notorious_Roy said:
:(

(Holland)

If you don't mind going through some hoops to download (and buy) Community Games, then do the following:

- Create a US XBL account
- Purchase US Microsoft Points from www.maximuscards.com (by using a credit card through Google Checkout or just PayPal)
- Reedem the code (you get after buying) with your US XBL account
- Download (and buy) the games with your US XBL account

And, since this is the recommendation thread, here's my picks:

* bricks4ever - Good and cheap (200 pts) Arkanoid clone
* CarneyVale Showtime - Extremely polished (even more so than most XBLA games), and fun too
* Easy Golf - I bought this after the price cut (to 400 pts); and it's much better than the XBLA golf game (although I hate the robot avatar)
* Miner Dig Deep - Has old school gameplay (and graphics), but it's very addictive in that you just want to find more gems in order to upgrade your inventory (and ultra cheap at 200 pts)
* Solar - Relaxing game where you control a star that tries to find planets to orbit you (also just 200 pts)
* TV Calibration - Best $2.50 I've spent on the service, since it figured out that my HDTV's display image was aligned too much to the left (and it also has a good color calibration feature)
 

daycru

Member
Speevy said:
Bought Fading Melody, not as good as the other plaformers, but artistic enough to remain interesting.
I just bought this, about half way through. As a video game, it is horrible. The controls are super stiff, the roll randomly works and the collision detection is wretched. Still, there is something about it that draws me in, I've never seen a concept like this in a game before. Basically, you are a woman in a coma and are playing through her dreams. Each level is preceded by a bit of text setting the stage and the enemies represent her various fears and such. Each enemy you kill lights the screen up a bit and if the screen goes too dark, you die, so you need to keep her brain running.
 

Xenon

Member
.
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.
.
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<------ Great game that's an amazing bargin at $2. If the game had some achievements it would be perfect.
 

Speevy

Banned
I bought that calibration tool. My TV is a 720p native TV running in 720p mode.


Is it at all useful to see how much of a 1080p image displays on my screen?
 

Speevy

Banned
Okay, bought

-Supercow
-Easy Golf
-Fading Melody
-Johnny Platform and the Biscuits or whatever
-Being
-Carnyvale Showtime
-TV Calibration (I needed one of these)


Need two more, probably will go for Miner Dig Deep and something else.
 
Some great suggestions so far. I REALLY really hope MS lets future games throw in 100 achievement points. Reason being is that it would really help sales for some of these very solid games.
 

Kafel

Banned
Speevy said:
Okay, bought

-Supercow
-Easy Golf
-Fading Melody
-Johnny Platform and the Biscuits or whatever
-Being
-Carnyvale Showtime
-TV Calibration (I needed one of these)


Need two more, probably will go for Miner Dig Deep and something else.

Blow. Buy Blow.
 
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