I tried a bunch of Arcade games this weekend and picked up a few achievements. Some of them seemed so easy (especially the "East 'A'" one in Boom Boom Rocket) that I wonder why I didn't pick them up sooner. I was only a level away from getting the RooGoo and Marble Blast achievement and just a half a level away from getting the Undertow achievement. Why I quit before when I was that close I'll never know. Or course I might not have known I was that close to getting another achievement when I was playing it the last time.
Getting the Boom Boom Rocket achievement was easy and although I didn't get another achievement I did manage to improve my score on several songs. All because of my headset. I have issues with noise and my upstairs and side neighbors. I bought a headset that has big ear pieces for both ears. It's kind of like wearing earmuffs. You plug it into your TV and your controller. And what you hear through the headset is in stereo so it's really easy to hear someone creeping up on you in Gears of War as long as you have the music volume setting turned way down. Using that headset helps to drown out the noise coming from my neighbors. Unfortunately it also drowns ou the sound of my phone ringing too. Oh well.
Because of the stereo sound and the quality of sounds, minus all the distractions, it's helped me focus more on my gaming. I think my friends in Gears of War have noticed a difference. At least now I'm not turning my head every time my chandelier shakes wondering if it's going to come crashing to the ground. Or cringing every time I can hear my neighbors speak from their apartment or when they slam their front door making my walls rattle every time they come and go (and they do that a lot). I have a little piece and quiet for my gaming and I'm making the most of it as my achievements show.
The only downside to the head set is that there's no mute feature for the microphone. If I had to cough and sneeze I've got to unplug the mic from the controller and then plug it back in when I want to speak again. For a slow paced game like Texas Hold 'Em or Hearts it's not bad but in a fast paced game, like Gears of War or Unreal Tournament 3, when even the slightest twitch can mean the difference between life and death while your fingers are still on the controllers, it's not very convenient to "mute" yourself. But the benefits outweigh the negatives so I'll live with the occasional mute/unmute distractions and hope that my friends can live with the occasional cough and sneeze from over my mic.
I may still have issues with how I see the game, but my mind is focused on gaming when I wear that headset. If you haven't looked into getting one for yourself and you think you might need one I highly recommend it. Coming from someone who'd rather play against you while you're distracted, maybe you should only use something like this while I'm on your team.
Showing posts with label Roogoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roogoo. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
When weird works...
There's weird and then there's weird. And sometimes weird works.
For instance, Puzzle Quest is weird because it's essentially a gem matching game, but it's an RPG game with a story and missions as well. That weird works.
Yet Poker Smash, with is also a "gem matching" game, is also weird, but I'm not entirely sure it works. Yes, it's fun trying to set up a matching straight or flush but other than that it really doesn't have much more to offer the genre than a Jewel Quest or Hexic HD.
Boogie Bunnies is the same way. You match bunnies and they disappear. Try to do that before the bunnies reach the bottom and that's all you need to know to play the game. But those bunnies are just so darn cute that when they get nervous because they're getting too close to the bottom you get nervous for them. And their costumes and signing can be hilarious.
And then there's games like Yaris. Is it an obstacle course, a racing game or a shooter? I don't think anyone knows. That's weird and NOT in a good way.
Some other weird games are Cloning Clyde, Space Giraffe, Lemmings (PSP), and Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4). And then there's Roogoo. It's a recent release on the Xbox Live Marketplace. And trust me when I tell you you've played this game before.
I know what you're thinking. "I've never played this game before. I've never even heard of it before." You might not have heard of it but you've played it. You were probably 1 or 2 years old at the time. The game is really simple to describe. You have to put the differently shaped blocks through the similarly shaped holes. You know, round peg in round hole type of thing. If you go into any toy store you'll probably see several versions of this game available. You also probably out grew the game by the age of two or three. But now that game play is back.
In Roogoo (a weird name you have to admit) you have several platforms suspended under the falling blocks and you can rotate the platforms to line up the holes the way you need them. It's simple gameplay any child could do it, but it's fun and addicting. Maybe because you know a child can do it and you want to prove you're smarter than a child. As you progress in the game it gets more difficult. There are more blocks with more holes to line up, more platforms to manipulate and longer blocks stretched out meaning you have less time to change things before they reach each platform. You should give it a try. It's weird and it works.
One thing I like about the Xbox Live Marketplace is that I can download a trail version of a game and see what it's like before I spend the money (or Microsoft points) to but it. That way if something isn't entertaining or just plain frustrating (Ecco the Dolphin) you're not going to waste your money on something you'll regret later on. It also means you can try some really weird games and discover things you wouldn't normally even consider playing. Because sometimes weird works. Trust me.
For instance, Puzzle Quest is weird because it's essentially a gem matching game, but it's an RPG game with a story and missions as well. That weird works.
Yet Poker Smash, with is also a "gem matching" game, is also weird, but I'm not entirely sure it works. Yes, it's fun trying to set up a matching straight or flush but other than that it really doesn't have much more to offer the genre than a Jewel Quest or Hexic HD.
Boogie Bunnies is the same way. You match bunnies and they disappear. Try to do that before the bunnies reach the bottom and that's all you need to know to play the game. But those bunnies are just so darn cute that when they get nervous because they're getting too close to the bottom you get nervous for them. And their costumes and signing can be hilarious.
And then there's games like Yaris. Is it an obstacle course, a racing game or a shooter? I don't think anyone knows. That's weird and NOT in a good way.
Some other weird games are Cloning Clyde, Space Giraffe, Lemmings (PSP), and Every Extend Extra Extreme (E4). And then there's Roogoo. It's a recent release on the Xbox Live Marketplace. And trust me when I tell you you've played this game before.
I know what you're thinking. "I've never played this game before. I've never even heard of it before." You might not have heard of it but you've played it. You were probably 1 or 2 years old at the time. The game is really simple to describe. You have to put the differently shaped blocks through the similarly shaped holes. You know, round peg in round hole type of thing. If you go into any toy store you'll probably see several versions of this game available. You also probably out grew the game by the age of two or three. But now that game play is back.
In Roogoo (a weird name you have to admit) you have several platforms suspended under the falling blocks and you can rotate the platforms to line up the holes the way you need them. It's simple gameplay any child could do it, but it's fun and addicting. Maybe because you know a child can do it and you want to prove you're smarter than a child. As you progress in the game it gets more difficult. There are more blocks with more holes to line up, more platforms to manipulate and longer blocks stretched out meaning you have less time to change things before they reach each platform. You should give it a try. It's weird and it works.
One thing I like about the Xbox Live Marketplace is that I can download a trail version of a game and see what it's like before I spend the money (or Microsoft points) to but it. That way if something isn't entertaining or just plain frustrating (Ecco the Dolphin) you're not going to waste your money on something you'll regret later on. It also means you can try some really weird games and discover things you wouldn't normally even consider playing. Because sometimes weird works. Trust me.
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