DLC Monday: Pub Games.

Hello and Welcome.

Our first entry in Fable week will focus on the XBLA game:  Fable: Pub Games.

 

Pub Games was essentially a way to rack up gold in Fable 2 before the game came out.  It also offered 15 items that could be one from the tournaments in the game.  

There are 3 different games if Pub Games:  Keystone, Fortune's Tower, and Spinner box.

Each of these games offers numerous variations on the games and stakes as well as 5 tournaments per game, corresponding to your players star level.  The difference in a tournament game is you are betting against other "Players" and not just the house.

Keystone

Keystone is essentially a combination of Roulette and Craps.  You place primary bets on the "Arch Stones" around the top of the game prior to the game starting.  Before each dice roll you place inside bets on the Board, similar to the way you would place bets in Craps.

And that is what this game is: Craps.   Just like real Roulette or Craps, your odds of winning are painfully low.  I hate this game....

Anyway, the Prizes you win from the 5 levels of tournaments are:

• Plaits Hairstyle Card
• Dog Book: Backflip
• High Rollers Coat
• Potion of Will
• Championship Pistol

Fortune's Tower

 Fortune's Tower is essentially a type of solitaire (and probably exists in one of those 300 solitaire games collections...). After you make your bets, cards are placed one row at a time, starting with the face down "Tower" card and incrementing one card at a time for each subsequent row. Once a row is placed by the dealer, you have the option of taking the sum of that rows cards as your winnings. Sounds easy right? Well, if a card lines up with any card of the same number on the previous line the game ends and you loose your money.  Each deck has 4 "Hero" cards that can negate this effect if they are dealt in a row.  Also, the Tower Card will automatically be used the first time this happens.  If you make it to the last row without using your Tower card (hero cards are fine) you win the jackpot, which is the sum of ALL cards on the Table.

This game is by far my favorite because you actually have a chance at winning if you play it smart.

Ok, the five tournament items for Fortune's Tower are:

• Deepest Dark Chocolate
• Sleepmaster 3000 (its a bed, duh)
  
• Potion of Strength
• A Face Tatoo
• Championship Cutlass.

 Spinnerbox

Spinner Box is slots.  'nuff said.

The five tourney items are:

• Apple Pie
• Hat, Headband, and Mustache (its a book.)
• Body Tatoo
• Potion of Skill
• Mysterious Ring

Other than achievement points (like the 0 gamer-score "Fabled Financier") and some items there is not really any point to pub games ( you can play all these games in Fable 2) at this point.  You ESPECIALLY should not get Pub Games if you are planning on paying the 800 Microsoft Points ($10).  It came as a preorder bonus for Fable 2 (the only reason I have it. ;) )  and is definitely not worth $10 bucks...  I recommend hitting up your local Gamestop to see if they have any of the preorder cards left over(mine had like 15).

Other than that,  the concept of pub games is an interesting one.  The fact that a publisher would allow you to amass wealth in a game (as well as items)  BEFORE it is released is a bold concept (especially considering it shipped with numerous bugs that allowed you to cheat your way to wealth).  I guess it is the wave of the DLC future.

~K

DLC Monday - Castle Crashers

Hello and Welcome to our first DLC Monday.

This week we are going to focus on a downloadable game on Xbox Live Arcade: Castle Crashers

Castle Crashers is the newest game by the team that brought us Alien Hominid. [EDIT: some people where asking who the developer was: The Behemoth.  There, are you happy?] This game is basically an amalgamation of Gauntlet and Golden Axe with a few RPG elements thrown in. It all boils down to a fun beat'em up with a ton of re-playability.

Gameplay consists of running around while hacking and slashing enemies. As you progress through the stages you gain experience and levels, allowing you to upgrade one of four attributes; Attack, Magic, Defense/health, and Agility/Pet. Throughout the game you will collect various weapons that affect you stats in different ways (about 80 or so in total, with subsequent playthroughs) and include such ridiculous things as a fishing pole, Umbrella, Chicken, Sausage, LightSaber and more. You will also collect various pet "orbs"(kind of like animal heads...) throughout the game, all with varying abilities (increase defense, knock down foes, etc).

You start the game with only 4 playable characters(Red, Blue, Green, and Orange Knights) but unlock more characters by beating the game, with each knight, then beating the game again with the unlocked character. You can also unlock characters in one of the two minigames: The arena. Each character has a unique look, and a unique magic.

The other minigame is called "All you can quaf", an eating contest for up to 4 players which doesn't require any skill beyond who can alternate button presses the fastest. This is my least favorite part of the game, and luckily is completely optional.

The Character and level designs are often hilarious and just plain weird. The game rips-off borrows many games and popular culture memes. Lightsabers, ride-able mounts ala GoldenAxe, Terminator 2 death scene, All in a very Rube-Goldberg manner. While the levels are interesting and well drawn, they fall into the stereotypes (intentionally I believe) of most games: Desert, Forest, Ice, Lava levels, etc. There are many other homages to games that I won't spoil here.

The music in the game is silly at times, but for the most part complements each level nicely.

The game is not without problems however. Though it allows for online and local co-op, most people (myself included) have experience difficulties with connecting to an online session. Also, I experienced numerous anomalies in game play that caused me to repeat whole levels: Enemies freezin on screen and becoming invincible (you have to kill them all to progress), overwhelming number of enemies attacking me to the point that I was frozen in place and couldn't die (you have to fall down to die...). A patch is coming in the near future that should address some of these issues.

Despite these issues, I really enjoy the game (beat it last night) and look forward to subsequent playthroughs. I am sure there are a lot of features I missed, but, download the demo (then the game, believe me, you will) and see for yourself.


And now for this weeks DLC releases(and some of last weeks)Click the names for more info:
Virtual Console:

• Vectorman(800 points) - This was a great Genesis game that really pushed the system with some impressive 3D and great music.
  
• Super DodgeBall(500 points)
  

WiiWare:

• MegaMan 9 (1000 points) - A return to the roots of MegaMan. 8-bit graphics, sound, and difficulty!
  
• Plättchen: Twist 'n' Paint (1000 points)
  

XBLA:

• Domino Master(800 Points)
  
• Feeding Frenzy 2: Shipwreck Showdown(800 Points)
  

Xbox 360:

• Burnout Paradise Bike Update (Free)
  

PSN:

• COD 4 Map Pack - (repriced to $4.99 until the 25th)

PSN-PSP:

• Cube ($9.99)
• PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient ($9.99)

And that's it for DLC Monday! Let us know what you think in the comments.

~K