In Memoriam - Ophidian Wars

A quick break from reviews peoples. Some well-written articles by people I respect, deserve reading - so I am spreading the word. 1. The peeps at XNPlay offer more insight on the state of XBLIG. 2. Brandon Boyer of BoingBoing highlights some of the goods and bads. 3. GamerBytes (of Gamasutra creation) does some sales/success/failure analysis. These articles dial in on the key issues and the things that developers need to be thinking about. You should read them. My initial knee-jerk after consuming them is to take action. While we can all cross our fingers for better games and better Microsoft support, we can can also put some effort in to uncovering hidden gems on the indie scene (gamers I am looking at you), and spreading the word/promoting the service better (developers I am looking at you). One nice little page I am helping promote is this Facebook group for Indie Games which currently has 700 members. There is really no reason that word-of-mouth can't tap into all of our fri...

Comin' at you with some more recommendations. Twin Blades (240MP) A quick look at the screenshot below will give you a good indication of the polished visuals in Twin Blades. So you get a good deal of eye candy. Namely, lush landscapes and a cartoony skirt-wearing scythe-wielding nun who hacks and guns down zombies. I am honestly not sure you need much more to give this demo a whirl, but the gameplay is good enough to warrant a follow-through purchase. While I haven't done so myself yet (and I didn't receive a token, booooo), I am fairly certain that I can stand behind a recommendation. It's a side-scrolling zombie hacker with what looks to be a fairly standard difficulty curve (more zombies, and tougher zombies) paralleled by ongoing weapon/power upgrades. It's a well-tested hook/progression that many of you have probably experienced in other games in the same genre. Twin Blades looks to be a cut above, and at a good price. Pimpin'. The Impossible Game (80MP) ...