Be Excellent To Each Other

1) Put the trial in your download queue now, so it will start downloading the MOMENT you get home. Trust me.



2) If in our time prattling here you've grown to even slightly trust my opinion. Or even just occasionally think I judge a game fairly then don't read on in the thread and just play it asap. Then read the help in the game. Then play again. Then post. Oh and you can fly through white things.

This is because going in blind is best.


3) It's a community game but I'm not putting this in the Community games thread, because community games as a concept are kinda dead to people, so I know that the people who NEED to check it out won't if I put it in there.



4) I played the game once, and then bought it. Despite my huge dislike of the Community Games ToS (can only play when on-line). It's only 200 points (£1.70). This is noteworthy.



5) It's Geometry Wars. Except much, much uglier. And has less content. And will grow older quicker.



6) But it is ugly because it isn't about the visuals. It is about the sound. Another synesthesia game if you are getting arsey. Every bullet you fire and enemy you hit plays a note or sample. Killing makes a song. The aim is to get to the end of the song. Every thing you shoot has a color, each color a different sample. Once you shoot it, it turns white and is queued to 'go' at the next beat.



7) About two minutes into the game a smile came across my face like it did when I played the first Rhythm Tengoku remix. It all just clicked in a lovely, lovely way.



8) I noticed LewieP mention it in a thread over on Penny Arcade and so you should thank him, not me.



9) Seriously, everyone on BeeX who bought Geo Wars and/or everyone who has played Rez owe it to themselves to give it a go.



10) It's a cheap, ropey, low production values game on Xbox 360. But it is exactly what cheap ropey low production value games on Xbox Live should be.

It sounds interesting but also exactly the sort of thing I'd be fucking rubbish at. Will check out the demo though.

Try it now, come back and back me up.

I'm rubbish at it.

Probably the best 200 points I've spent on the 360.

Edit: and it is not all that hard.

Also if you are a stickler for content it really is quite short. I've already 'finished' the first mode.

Still for this game it's a bit like moaning that a pop song is only 3 minutes long.

Nevertheless you can exploit the trial mode to a great extent if thats your thing.

Personally I wanted to get money into the hands of the maker asap.

I also don't think it is all that ugly either. Especially compared to some other community games.

Just reviewed this for a community games feature I've writtenfor a mag. gave it a very positive write-up IIRC.

I'm going to check it out tonight.

I too shall check it out. I haven't even glanced at the community games on the Xbox 360 apart from a downloadable clock I saw round a friends house.

Sold


I'll check it out tonight.

I've queued it up. Maybe I'll buy it instead of Easy Golf.

I'll give it a whirl.

So is it called 'Groov' or 'Grov'?

Groov

Grov is a Biker game set in Newcastle.

I tried this last night - the controls felt a little 'sticky' after being used to Geo Wars, but it definitely has a lot of merit. Worth 200 points? Yes.

I also decided to download a few other XNA games. Drum Kit is good fun if you have a RB/GH drumkit.

I forgot.

I did have a lovely time with RE5 though.

Played and bought! Lovely stuff. Thanks for the tip.

I also finally bought Easy Golf, because it's although it's quite basic in gameplay terms (though it certainly works), the course designer is awesome.

So that's two community games bought. I also may well buy Weapon of Choice and Hexy Trenches at some point.

Cheers for the tip.

btw - I bought Solar for 200. it's nice.

I'm attempting a full roundup of ALL the XNA games for Peoww but there are 17 that begin with the letter A and 3 of those are Pong clones. FML.

What extra stuff do you get if you buy the full version of Dromedary, anyone?

some gameplay I'd hope.

that demo was a very empty experience!

It was fun until I noticed that it seems to be down to luck whether you manage to get enough ground at the beginning to outrun the lions. Once you're ahead it's just a matter of using 'run' sparingly and remembering to sleep so the camel doesn't die.

That's weird. I just tried searching for Groov 360 in Google and the top match was my blog post about it from this morning.

mmm, you can';t download the trial in my regio, stupid funsquare..

I think you can get a USA account, get some USA points, then play them from any profile.

When I first attempted to play it, I was told 'your family settings prohibit one of the currently signed in accounts from playing user-created games'.

Except not really, as I tried again and away it went.

It's certainly a lovely cross between Gash Wars and Every Extend Extra Extreme Exalted Eczema Exunt Egghead 32Eiger Extraneous Xzibit Exgirlfriend Exandcressandwich Extraterrestrial Exige Excalibur.

It's like Geo Wars and Rez's lovechild.

For 200 points it's a no brainer.

im not very good at it, but I like it

Oooohhh what a lovely little game, the price of entry is pretty much justified by the music alone, the first mode is pretty easy to beat, the second one is proving a bit tougher - having to time the slow-down bomb with the music is an evil dynamic.

Thanks for the heads-up on the this one Lave, it would have completely passed me by otherwise, and considering it costs less than a pint of beer, you'd be a bit daft not to get it.

I am very glad this game is getting played. Even if there are only 4/5 games of this quality, community games will have been worth it.

I'm struggling to get past wave three or four (next wave at 25k). I clearly suck at this. Is good though. Think it'll be a purchase.

Solar, HexyTrench, Nextwar and Drumkit so far seem like good purchases.

Dunno what good tactics are 'officially' as it were but I found that not moving as much as you do in Geometry Wars works well, although that changes quite a bit for expert mode.

Blueprint Racer 4D is certainly interesting.

It looks gorgeous but will probably give you motion sickness. Car handling is alright in a Trackmania kind of way and, at times, it reminds me of Stunt Car Racer.

Only 200M$P.

I played the demo of blueprint, problems I found, I COULDN'T FUCKING TELL WHERE I WAS GOING!

The car needs to be more different to the road and stuff... but it was fast and fun for a bit

you can change the colour of the car.

i went with red and it all seemed okay.

Red on Blue would give me a bad head... that is all.

there are like 12 choices but the game will give you a bad head anyway as the extra dimension seems to be the wibble dimension.