So me and a couple of other guys are going to do this really geeky thing – pick out one Xbox game per month and play it at the same time. Each of us has a ridiculous amount of titles and not enough time to play all of them. This of course means, that I don’t end up playing any of them because the thought of venturing into the myriad titles is just too overwhelming. Plus the idea of the same game alongside some other people that I know gives the experience a sense of purpose above and beyond the intrinsic progression through just another game. If you want to know more about the premise of the game itself, click on the image above which will open a link explaining the game.
Here is the plan. We use this walkthrough to pace ourselves so that one person doesn’t get too far ahead of the other. This way we can really ‘geek out’ about the same levels and such when we talk about the game. I have divided it into three areas using the table of contents. 1-13, then 14- 26 and 27-35. These will be done over the last 3 weeks of June. We are already done week 1 as of Sunday, June 11, 2006.
Synopsis so far.. in the beginning part of the game there are a lot of trainings and tutorials. Some of the useful things are the map which shows you exactly where you are and where your next destination should be (Start > scroll to the right to view the map). Also, there are numerous items you can go back and pick up to enhance your abilities and help to complete the game and these can be revisited without any penalty which gives the game more playability. The only thing I have found a bit unenjoyable was the repetitiveness of the last few levels of this section. You need to do what’s called a “Brain Tumbler Experiment” in order to earn a certain certificate. This is all well and good but you end up repeating the same type of level 3 or 4 times. You then need to face the boss which proves to be quite easy if you take the right strategy. So far the game is fairly easy but that’s what I want this to be. I don’t want anything overly challenging that requires a lot of replaying levels because this demands time that I do not have.
The next post will discuss the following section which begins with the Errands.
After some deliberation, we decided on Castlevania – Curse of Darkness as the Game of the Month for August. This game is a bit of a departure compared to the last few. While it is an adventure game much like Psychonauts or Spiderman could be classified, it has an old school feel, bearing the Konami tag and being a game not so much dependent on flashy graphics but more on storyline and gameplay. Here is the schedule with all of the maps for this game below and also, you can find a walkthrough here. Good Luck!