YouTube Xbox 360 party games

So Christmas is fast approaching and for some of us, it’s a dreaded time when members of the family all come together, open their presents and then get a bit bored because it’s tradition. Well, if you want to change that trend, here are some ideas of what you can get for the whole family to play if you happen to bring along your Xbox 360 or are getting one from Santa.

In a move that blatantly rips off Sony’s ideas, Microsoft have released three Xbox 360 party games in time for Christmas to support their new philosophy to target casual gamers as well as the hardcore.

They’ve released a karaoke game called Lips, a new version of Buzz! Quiz TV-style quiz game called Scene It? Box Office Smash! and an PlayStation 3 Eye style game which uses the Xbox Vision camera called You’re in the Movies. Ok, so they may have many similarities to PS2 and PS3 games but if you only have an Xbox that’s no bad thing.

So let’s start with Scene It? Box Office Smash. This latest version is basically a movie quiz that shows you film clips and then asks you multiple choice questions about them. Up to four players can enjoy the game at once but of course, if you have a larger family round for Christmas, you can play in teams. The controllers are wireless and as sturdy as you’d expect and there’s a fair mix of movie genres so everyone should be able to at least get something right. Unfortunately there’s not a massive amount of questions so don’t break this from its box before the big day if you don’t want to have your fun spoilt be repeat questions.

If singing round the telly after you’ve had a few sherries is more your thing, then Lips could be what you want to bust out once everyone’s digested their Christmas pudding. Boasting a track list of 40 songs, it’s basically a karaoke machine in a box. There’s not much here for solo players so once again, this is ideal for parties. The wireless microphones put Sony’s USB ones to shame and they even light up and have motion sensors for use in the game. Each track has the original music video and lyrics to sing along to and there’s more content on the way via Xbox Live. You can even import your own music from your iPod but be warned, you won’t have the words on screen so you’d better know those words or you’ll just have to hum along.

Finally there’s You’re in the Movies. It’s basically a series of mini games bundled with the Xbox Vision camera, where you act out scenes into the camera and then they’re compiled into a little movie at the end. Horror, romance and action are all there but, although this may sound fun, it’s actually not. It takes a fair while to make all the scenes for your movie, and the bits at the end are a bit disappointing after all your hard work. It’s also tricky to get the lighting right as the software ‘keys’ out the background to fit you into the scene. Once again, it’s probably a bit of fun to try out on Christmas day but it’ll probably end up on eBay come boxing day.

So, there’s some ideas to make your holiday a little more fun this year if you own an Xbox. Next week I’ll be taking a look at some of the party games available to you if you own a PS3.

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New: Buy Scene It? Box Office Smash Bundlefrom Amazon.com
New: Buy You’re in the Moviesfrom Amazon.com

Tags: Xbox 360 party games, xbox 360 christmas, xbox party games, xbox 360 party games, xbox 360 family games

YouTube Call of Duty World at War review

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If you’re a regular Gamesweasel downloader you’ll know by now I’m sick of World War II games. The last Call of Duty was a breath of fresh air and now it’s back to the 1940s with World at War. This is where it all began for Call of Duty when it took on Medal of Honor and won. So, does it offer anything new this time around? Well, yes and no.

The last game had a great single player experience and addictive multiplayer that gamers are still playing today in their thousands. So, the formula and gameplay’s not really changed, just the setting, which will really please World War II nuts (and I know there’s lots of you out there).

The Call of Duty World at War single player campaign concentrates on America’s battle with Japan and Russia’s push back into Nazi Germany. When playing, you switch back and forth between them to keep the variety up. Of course, the game’s full of fantastic set-pieces as you advance towards your enemy and there’s the weapons you’d expect to be holding, including a new flame thrower which is fun to use as you burn out troops from their bunkers. Keifer Sutherland also provides his best Jack Bauer shouty voice as he leads the American troops to victory, and they’ve upped the music with modern-day heavy metal when it all goes off with a bang.

You can now play the single player campaign in co-op mode. This worked fantastically with Gears of War and it works well here too. You can now provide covering fire whilst up to three buddies try to flank the enemy and get off a quick head shot. And, similar to Left 4 Dead which I’ll be reviewing next week, you have to revive each other when you take a mortal hit.

Play the game on Hardened mode and you’ll have a hard time, particularly as the game seems to respawn enemies at you until you advance. If you’re used to waiting behind cover for your team mates to fell the enemies you’ll be waiting a long time.

Multiplayer is as addictive as always. If you played Modern Warfare you can jump straight in. You gain perks as you earn points and this time, instead of calling in a helicopter after 7 kills, you send in a pack of dogs to maul your enemies and there’s no escaping indoors, they’ll follow you upstairs too! Once again there are plenty of game modes to suit every taste whether you want to work as a team or just run and gun as a lone soldier.

This latest Call of Duty is another complete package. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, so they haven’t. Although it won’t take you an age to finish the single player campaign, there’s more than enough replay value with co-op and multiplayer. Despite some dodgy accents and some unnecessary F-bombs from Mr Sutherland, Call of Duty: World at War gets 9 out of 10.

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Related: Call of Duty 5,  Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack review,  Youtube Call of Duty World at War review

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YouTube Mirrors Edge review

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Here’s a new concept. Take the parkour element of Assassins Creed and make a first person run ‘em up set in a not-too-distant future where couriers now take important packages on foot over the rooftops, risking their necks in the process.

You play Mirrors Edge as Faith, one of these flighty people who have a head for heights. At the beginning of the game your policewoman sister is set up for her Dad’s friend’s murder and so you embark on a mission to find out who did it and clear your sister’s name. What this basically boils down to is you infiltrating a number of buildings via the rooftops, nicking something, then hightailing it out of there whilst lots of police chase you.

So how does the free running mechanic work? Well, to look and turn you use the standard FPS controls of the analogue sticks, then the L1 and L2 buttons to for high and low movements. Examples are jumping, vaulting and climbing, or sliding or dropping down. As you move about your urban climbing frame, red areas indicate where you should be going. If you get truly lost you can press the circle button and that literally points you in the right direction.

Although the game is mainly about running, you’ll sometimes have to fight so you can slow down time at the push of a button, or press the R2 button with any of the afore-mentioned buttons to flying kick, slide kick or punch enemies. You can even press the triangle button at the right time to disarm someone and steal their firearm.

And it’s not a bad looking game either. For once it’s not set at night and there’s a nice clean, crisp look to it that’s refreshing. I’m not too keen on the cut-scenes though, the strange animation technique looks like something from a cheap tampon advert.

When Mirror’s Edge works it’s genuinely fun. Running and vaulting away from the police as shots ring all around you is genuinely exciting. Unfortunately, it’s let down by its ambitious nature. Because it’s in first-person, it’s tricky to be precise at speed. When you’re not sure of your exact footing it’s easy to miss ledges and plummet to your doom over and over again. In fact it brought back memories of the original Tomb Raider which isn’t a good thing.

Luckily, the checkpoints are close together so you’re never thrown too far back into the level, except when you’re doing some of the chase scenes.

Mirror’s Edge is an interesting idea but it doesn’t quite hit the mark. Still, when it works it’s fun and it’s an original concept so because of that this free running game gets a good 6 out of 10.

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Preowned: Mirror’s Edge - Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
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Related: Behind the scenes of Mirrors Edge, Assassins Creed, Youtube Mirrors Edge review

Tags: Mirrors Edge, free running game, Parkour, FreeRunning, parcour, mirror’s edge, parkour games

YouTube Gears of War 2 review

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It’s been a couple of years since the first Gears of War and since then, lots of games have copied some of its innovative features – particularly the duck and cover gameplay mechanic of diving behind walls and popping out to take your shots to take out the bad guys.

Jump into Gears of War 2 and you get more of the same. The gameplay mechanic itself is exactly the same and luckily, developers Epic have a few new tricks up their sleeves to keep the game feeling fresh.

Since the last game the Locust Horde have been getting even stronger so this time Marcus, Dom and their fellow members of Delta Squad take the fight to them to wipe them out once and for all. Immediately you’re faced with all the big creatures from the first game. Corpsers and Reapers appear almost right from the off and we’re introduced to some new aliens to blow into the middle of next week. There are the Tickers, basically running landmines that charge kamikaze-style towards you, and also the Brumaks, basically massive locusts with guns on their backs and each arms. Of course, you’ll need some new firepower to take these down so now there are mortars to get to grips with and flame throwers to make them all hot under their reptilian collars.

There’s also the ability to now use a downed enemy as a meat shield, and use shields found on the floor. These mean you can advance with cover and use a pistol to take down your enemies which does change things significantly in multiplayer.

There’s also more variety in the gameplay. Some levels are on rails as you gun down enemies from vehicles, there are levels where you almost exclusively use your chainsaw in melee combat which you’ll never get tired of, and even a level where you have to make your way out of a giant worm sort of like a cross between Inner Space and Jonah from that book. There’s also a tank-driving mission which is probably the most disappointing as its turning circle is rubbish, resulting in frequent restarts when you fall off cliffs etc.

I’ll be brief with multiplayer as it’s so big and it’s ever-evolving. Playing campaign co-op is great fun as always and there’s a new Horde mode where you must fight waves of enemies as a team. Then there are the multiplayer deathmatch modes and team-based games which, apart from Horde mode, I can’t try out as multiplayer matchmaking seems to be broken at the time of reviewing.

Still, it’s another slick package that delivers both in single and multiplayer modes (when they get it working). There’s plenty of replay value to keep you playing well past your first single player campaign.

Gears of War 2 gets a monstrous 9 out of 10 - if you own a Xbox 360 then Gears of War 2 is an essential for your collection, true fans of the game should get hold of the Gears of War 2 Limited Edition before stocks run out.

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Related: Real life Marcus Fenix punch up, Gears of War 2 release date, Youtube Gears of War 2 review

Tags: Gears of War 2, Gears of War, Xbox 360, gears of war 360, gears of war gameplay, FPS, Youtube Gears of War 2 review

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If you haven’t switched on your Xbox in the last few days you’re in for a surprise. Initially spotted during Microsofts E3 highlights the new Xbox 360 Experience will begin to download giving you a better 360 experience. You can play with new avatars, play from your hard drive and communicate with other gamers in party mode. Watch episode 75 of Gamesweasel for the new Xbox 360 experience video featuring the latest features.

Related: Microsofts E3 highlights, Halo 4

Tags: Xbox 360, Xbox Experience, release date

YouTube Spiderman Web of Shadows review

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There’s a couple of Spider-Man games I’ve really liked over the years. I enjoyed one way back on the PSOne which had a more linear gameplay style, then there was Neversoft’s one which was more free-roaming round a big city. You could choose which missions to do when in a sort of ‘Grand Theft Arachnid’.

Since then they’ve all been a bit samey and based round the movies which almost always never makes for a great game. Fortunately, this game’s not constrained by the likes of Sam Raimi’s last Spidey disaster movie and so has license to play around with the Marvel comic character and some of his mates and enemies.

The game begins with Web Head caught in a mammoth battle with the Symbiotes. The first thing you do is have a scrap with Venom and then you get swallowed up by the alien infestation. The game then flashes back to less hectic days as you help to rid New York of gang troubles and invading Kingpin armies.

At first glance it’s not good. Although the animations and look of this SpiderMan game is superb as he swings round the city - the city itself also looks great with reflections shining off the skyscrapers, the tutorial makes you think this is just more of the same. Well, it is and it isn’t as there’s a few new twists that make this really quite fun.

First of all is the ability to switch between your red and black suits at the click of the left stick. Both suits have slightly different attack styles and if you’re wearing the black Symbiote suit, you can even chuck cars at enemies. Something you’ll learn to do straight away when you fight Venom.

As you complete missions you gain EXP which can be used to upgrade air, wall and ground moves. There are also some moral choices to make in the game depending on if you feel like a good or a bad Spider-Man. These choices shape the way the game plays and the eventual ending.

As usual with a game that can go topsy-turvy at times, the camera can sometimes flip out and the game can be a bit too easy. Our old friend rechargeable health appears once again so it’s possible to swing out of the way for a bit if things get too tricky. Another negative is the repetitive nature of some of the missions. Although they’re varied in themselves, sometimes you feel like the mission should end way before it does - one example being having to string together 22 attacks to kill 22 snipers in a massive combo, then having to do it all over again when a second wave turns up.

Although it won’t win any awards for originality, Spidey’s latest adventure is fun, slick and won’t disappoint fans of the tight-trousered teenager - if you like Marvel games then you might want to check out our Iron Man review too. The Spiderman Web of Shadows game gets a good 6 out of 10.

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Related: Iron Man review, Watch the Tricia Helfer interview about Spiderman Web of Shadows, Youtube Spiderman Web of Shadows review

Tags: Spiderman Web of Shadows, SpiderMan, Web of Shadows, Spiderman game, SpiderMan Web of Shadows game, Spiderman Web of Shadows Amazon, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii