By Dimorphic

Hello to all the readers of Dimorphic 360 who may still frequent the site hoping for a new update. A few months before Christmas (I think mid November) the updates to the site have ceased. This is for a few reason, reasons which include lack of contribution from contributers, the increasing strain on my time and the effort of running a site, all lead to me deciding to take some unnannounced time off from the site, which as you can see lead to its demise.

I had fun running the site, but there is only so much a community member can do and the lack of resources and ability to gain access to previews and even new release games to review also sold my ability to serve you short.

Long story short it seems like the site is officially dead. I have had offers from OXCGN (formally known as XboxOz360-Gamer), another Australian community site and I believe I am going to take them up, so anyone who wants to continue to get Xbox 360 news with an Australian twist should head over there.

It’s been fun guys, good gaming and thanks for the support you have shown Dimorphic 360.

by Peaking Legoman

Rockstar have finally revealed the first (of 3) DLC packs for the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto 4. The Lost and Damned sees players taking on the role of Johhny Klebitz and will be available in February for around $15.

In addition, Lionhead have announced a new content pack dropping this December for 800pts, called Knot-hole Island.

By Dimorphic

The “New Xbox Experience” update that Microsoft will be dropping on November 19 has found its way, as all things inevitably do, onto ‘tha intarwebz’ in the form of a file download that you can install onto your Xbox 360.

However doing so will kick you from Live until the actual release date of the update, and worse, will incure the almighty wrath of Microsoft and score you a nice permaban. So the moral of the story here kids is just don’t do it, it really isn’t worth it. And if you think MS won’t bother banning you, this was taken from the official Australia Xbox forums by moderator tranceVib:

Lately you may have seen around the internet information and possibly links to files that will update your Xbox 360 to the New Xbox Experience now, before the official release date of November the 19th. Do not install these files. Doing so will get you banned and will stuff you up come November the 19th.

You’ve been warned!

Warned indeed.

By Dimorphic

It has been two years coming, but finally the next generation of consoles are delivering the next generation games. The recent releases of Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 and Fable 2 have shown off the next generation really should be.

The answer is freedom. Pretty graphics are all well and good, but true freedom and advanced gameplay is what this generation of consoles should be all about. The freedom to shape the game world you are playing in, the power to tackle a situation through means that you want too, and the ability to be immersed in a story that you help shape. These things are what I consider truly “next generation”.

Lets look at Far Cry 2 to start with. You are thrown into a fictitious country in war-torn Africa and told to go and find the Jackal. That’s your objective, and how you go about it is your choice. The missions you undertake, factions you align yourself with and ways you approach the mission objectives is all down to you.

To illustrate my point, I decided to scope out this big rebel base, surrounded by long grass. I hiked it from a fair way aways because I wanted to be all sneaky like and after I set up with my perfect position I decided to start picking people off. No sooner do I start shooting do I realise that the occupation of this camp is much, much larger than I thought and I begin to get overrun.

I switch to my MAC-10 and start pumping the guards that coming running at me, while I see others down near the garages run to their jeeps. I decided to bail and pull out my flamethrower. Now I decided to set up my escape route before I attacked the base and had my car ready to go a little bit down the other side of the ravine (away from the base), so I light a HUGE bush fire with my flamethrower so the other guards can’t chase me down (the ravine funnled into a narrow pathway so the fire engulfed everything on the other side.

After watching my handiwork for a bit from the top of the ravine I drove back to Pala and undertook some faction missions, and having experienced that previous attack my mind was working, figuring out all the different ways I could attack the scripted mission objectives.

I think that just illustrates the freedom you are given these days, you are god within the world and your actions decide the scope of the game.

Fable 2 is similar, you can choose to give a guard the warrents he lost or sell them to the criminals, both offer obvious immediate reactions (money for selling the writs, presitge for giving them to the guard), but come back to that part of town years later and depending on your choice the area will be a well kept, growing and vibrant city, or a hive of scum and villany.

Fable 2 has a fully working in game economy for gods sake! If I want to build up a nice little real estate buisness but don’t have the money to start it I can just run down the town that I want to buy out. Steal things, smash up shops etc, and that lowers their real world value. After that value has been lowered I can buy the stores and houses, rent them out and set the prices of the stores, as well as refurnish the houses and start to build the town back up, making it economically viable and earn myself a nice profit.

I think two years in we are starting to see the possibilities with the new technology these new consoles are offering to developers. And if the recent releases are anything to go by, we’re in for a fun ride!

By Dimorphic

Recently there have been some big, big releases. Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Fable 2 and Saints Row 2 to name a few. And all of these games have been street dated. Another thing they have in common is all their street dates have been broken!

Some by only one day, but then there was the catastrophie that was the Fable 2 street date breach. Kmart in Australia breached the date by a full week and had the full might of Microsoft fall down on them. On top of being fined $1000 for each copy of the game sold, they will be receiving Gears of War 2 later than everyone else and the CEO of Kmart Australia had to write a letter of apology.

This begs the question, why oh why do we have street dates.

My solution to the problem is simple, abolish them. You can set a date for when the game will be for sale but I think that as soon as a store gets the games in stock they should be able to be sold. I understand in theory that street dates are there to protect the smaller retailers so that everyone can sell on the same time, but honestly with bigger companies breaking the street date so often it dosen’t really matter.

For the most part, all it takes is for one game to be sold for the date to be broken and the free-for-all is on. In this humble gamers opinion, street dates are to the detriment of gaming and simply, to me at least, don’t make a lot of sense.

What do you guys think? Comment the article with your thoughts on the topic.

by Peaking Legoman

Times are tough right now; REALLY tough. And if you think I’m talking the international financial crisis then you couldn’t be more wrong. There are way too many games to play right now. We would usually refer to this as a ‘good problem to have’, but this year the gaming industry is just taking the piss.

We need ideas on how to attack this situation… which game to play first; which game to play last; which game to sit on; and which game to keep sealed and locked away until the inevitable drought next year.

WE NEED HELP PEOPLE!!

By BRJC13

The 360 iteration of Valves much hyped Zombie hack-slash-shoot a thon, Left 4 Dead, has just recently had its Achievements made public. Look through the list below and there’s pretty standard stuff, but there are a few which caught my eye, and give a bit of an insight into the nature of the game. Some of these are ones such as “Big Drag (20) – Drag a Survivor 100 feet with your tongue“, and “Stomach Upset (20) – All Survivors complete a campaign without being vomited on”. It can also be noted that the “Zombie Genocidest” achievement has you killing exactly one more zombie than was required with Dead Rising’s ‘Zombie Genocider” achievement. Cheekiness on Valves part there!

The full list is just below, but be careful, they could contain spoilers:

• Helping Hand (20) – Revive 50 incapacitated Survivors.
• Field Medic (20) – Heal 25 Survivors with a first aid kit.
• Pharm-assist (20) – Give pain pills to 10 Survivors.
• My Bodyguard (15) – Protect any Survivor from an attacking Infected 50 times.
• Dead Stop (10) – Punch a Hunter as he is pouncing.
• Cr0wnd (30) – Kill a Witch with a single headshot.
• Untouchables (30) – No Survivors take damage after contacting the rescue vehicle.
• Drag and Drop (20) – Rescue a Survivor from a Smoker’s tongue before he takes damage.
• Blind Luck (20) – You or another Survivor take no damage after being vomited on by a Boomer.
• Akimbo Assassin (30) – Survive an entire campaign using only pistols.
• Hero Closet (10) – Rescue a Survivor trapped in a closet.
• Hunter Punter (10) – Shove a Hunter off of a pinned and helpless Survivor.
• Tongue Twister (20) – Free yourself from a Smoker who has grabbed you with his tongue.
• No Smoking Section (15) – Kill 10 Smokers as they are pulling helpless Survivors.
• 101 Cremations (20) – Set 101 Infected on fire.
• Do Not Disturb (20) – Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.
• Man vs Tank (30) – Single-handily kill a Tank.
• Tankbusters (20) – Kill a Tank without it dealing any damage to a Survivor.
• Safety First (30) – Play an entire campaign with no Survivors taking friendly fire damage.
• No-one Left Behind (20) – Beat a campaign with all 4 Survivors.
• Unbreakable (30) – Finish a campaign without ever being healed.
• Witch Hunter (20) – Kill a Witch without any Survivor taking damage from her.
• Red Mist (20) – Kill 1000 Infected with a mounted machine gun.
• Pyrotechnician (20) – Blow up 20 Infected in a single explosion.
• Zombie Genocidest (20) – Kill 53,595 Infected.
• Dead Giveaway (10) – Heal a fellow Survivor when your own health is below 10.
• Stand Tall (20) – Survive a campaign without being incapacitated.
• Zombicidal Maniac (30) – Survive any campaign on Expert.
• What Are You Trying to Prove? (35) – Survive all campaigns on Expert.
• Nothing Special (30) – Survive a campaign with no Survivors taking damage from Special Infected.
• Burn the Witch (10) – Light a Witch with a Molotov.
• Towering Inferno (10) – Light a Tank with a Molotov.
• Spinal Tap (10) – Kill an Infected with a single blow from behind.
• Stomach Upset (20) – All Survivors complete a campaign without being vomited on.
• Brain Salad (15) – Make 100 headshot kills.
• Jump Shot (20) – Headshot a Hunter while he’s leaping.
• Mercy Killer (15) – Survive the No Mercy campaign.
• Back 2 Help (20) – Leave a safe room to save an incapped teammate and bring them back safely.
• Toll Collector (15) – Survive the Death Toll campaign.
• Dead Baron (15) – Survive the Dead Air campaign.
• Grim Reaper (15) – Survive the Blood Harvest campaign.
• Ground Cover (30) – Save another Survivor from a Special Infected while on the ground.
• Clean Kill (10) – Shove a Boomer and then kill him without him splashing on anyone.
• Big Drag (20) – Drag a Survivor 100 feet with your tongue.
• Chain Smoker (20) – Constrict two Survivors in one life as a Smoker.
• Barf Bagged (20) – Cover four Survivors with Boomer bile at once.
• Double Jump (20) – Pounce two different Survivors in one life as a Hunter.
• All 4 Dead (30) – Kill all four Survivors in one life while playing as a Tank.
• Dead Wreckening (20) – Dole out 5000 total Survivor damage as a Special Infected.
• Lamb 2 Slaughter (20) – As an Infected, incap a Survivor who has entered and left a safe room.

And the source article, from Succesfull.fr, http://www.succesfull.fr/index.php?option=com_succesfull&Itemid=22&l=en&JeuID=426.

By BRJC13

“Going down in a blaze of glory”. That’s the phrase isn’t it? That’s the phrase always associated with over the top aviator bravado? Yes, that’s got to be it. Bon Jovi even wrote a half decent song relating to it. However, in the development of Blazing Angels, Ubisoft Romania seems to have misinterpreted that phrase. They seem to have based their game on a very similar phrase, that being “Going down in a blaze of boring”. No wait, scratch that, and replace with “Going down in blaze of boring. And frustration. And laziness”. Yeah, I think that’s it.

You could probably tell by now that I’m not really a fan of the first of the Blazing Angels series. That assumption would be thoroughly correct. Also, if anyone had the idea that the Retrospective Reviews were about showcasing the previous best of the Xbox and Xbox 360, well, this review ought to change your thoughts. However, if you were right, then Ryan, I am so, so sorry.

Now, where to start with Blazing Angels? From the outset, as soon as I started playing, this was a terrible game. In short, shockingly bad physics, laughable dialogue, and so much more is wrong with this game. I’ll start with the visuals. Now, however bad the rest of the game is, it really does one thing right. Speed. The thrill of speeding over war zones in your fighter plane is really something that this game masters. Blurring light and roaring propeller sounds put you on the edge of your seat. This creates an atmosphere that other facets of the game fail to capitalize on. The moment of brilliance of speeding just off the ground quickly disappears when the effect of poor gameplay and dialogue kick in.

If you’re anyone who remotely knows anything flight physics, or even if you don’t, you’ll find the physics in Blazing Angels simply laughable. Yes, I know its an arcade game, but its like it doesn’t even have standards for itself. If I was this games flight model, I’d be ashamed to show my face! The planes don’t even have correct stability. What I mean by this, is that after you perform a maneuver in the air, the planes immediately return to their position. Trust me, this is not what fighter planes are meant to do.

This is not the only mistake that really does destroy the immersion. According to the game, Spitfires, the premier dogfighter of WWII, can carry rockets. However, to the games credit, it does provide a fairly decent roster of allied and axis aircraft. Any possible historical accuracy ends here. When you ride into battle, you’ll hear heavily accented German pilots scream at you “Ze Fuhrer will be displeased!”, and “You cannot defeat ze Luftwaffe” among many other cringe worthy comments. As Ben ‘Yahtzee” Croshaw said in his MoH: Airborne review (www.escapistmagazine.com), the Nazis really do feel like Saturday morning cartoon villains.

Your allies aren’t much better. You represent the anonymous leader of the little squadron, and you have three faithful companions, all stereotyped to within an inch of their lives. There’s the good old country boy Joe, who is touted as a mechanical wizard and gives you quick time sequences to fix your aircraft in battle. Then there’s Tom, “the Shield, and Frank, “The Hunter”. All of these characters just feel so forced, and really will make you cringe.

I feel I should make it known that I didn’t finish this game, simply out of pure frustration and anger. I couldn’t take it anymore. Level design in Blazing Angels is horrible, and really shows how much opportunity there was to make a decent game here. Your standard level will have you simply taking off, fighting off waves upon waves of enemies, and then landing. However, the developers decided to mix things up a bit by removing all weapons from your aircraft, replacing it with a camera, and then telling you to go and photograph three secret German bases in North Africa. Whilst in a sandstorm. However, this mixture of frustrating game play and level design apparently wasn’t enough. The end of this mission is steeped further in shit as you are made to perform an aircraft carrier landing more frustrating than anything in Flight Simulator X: Acceleration.

While there is an online multiplayer mode, I really have nothing to say about it, as there was no-one else online in the Blazing Angels servers. I’ll let that speak for itself. The game does provide you with extra challenges to go through the levels on harder difficulties, but going on what I’ve previously said, I wouldn’t recommend it.

So, the main thing that Blazing Angels provides the consumer with is thoughts of what this game really could have been. Through the terrible level design, stereotypical characters, and nonsensical gameplay and flight controls, there was a tiny glimpse of hope. However, there is really no resemblance to a good game here, and if you’re looking for flight combat games on the Xbox 360, this really is the bottom of the barrel.

Graphics – 3.0

Gameplay – 2.0

Sound – 3.5

Longevity – 3.0

Overall – 3.0

by Peaking Legoman

Well, its that time again – silly season for games. Just like last year we suddenly have a huge influx of quality titles to play and not nearly enough time in the day to play them. In between playing bouts of Fable 2 and making plans to rob a bank to pay for all these games I managed to get a few hours in with EAs new shooter Dead Space. The good news is that so far I’m loving it, and it’s easily one of the best 3rd-person shooters to come out in a while.

The first thing that struck me as I started playing this game was just how damned gorgeous it looks. It really is a stunning looking game, from the character models and lighting to the fluid and realistic anitmations. Admittedly we all like to put crap on EA from time to time, but there are benefits to having huge multi-nationals in the games industry, as can be seen by the incredibly high production values for Dead Space. Not only are the visuals some of the best seen in any game this year, but the sound design is also quite brilliant. Played through a quality set of headphones, or a a high-end 7.1 sound system, the range of audio cues Dead Space brings to the table is hugely satisfying. Staccato orchestral hits inform when to be scared, while unobserved footsteps and falling metal instruments inform when to be paranoid.

Word on the street is that Dead Space started out its development life as a sequel to Ken Levines hit game System Shock 2 bu for whatver reason EA decided to re-brand it. Probably a good move when you consider the amount of pressure EA would be under to create a game worthy of the System Shock label, as well as the fact that Ken Levine wouldn’t be involved. Despite the re-branding it’s clear that the designers were influenced by games like System Shock 2 and Bioshock as the entire deisgn and aesthetic seems very familiar. Not that thats a bad thing, because it really isn’t a case of being a clone game, rather, Dead Space does its own thing with nods to the classics of the past in all the right areas.

Im only a few hours into the game and so far the game hasn’t really been all that scary. Well not scary in a Slient Hill sort of way anyway. What it does do though is establish an ever present feeling of oppressive anticipation that can often cause a jump at the slightest sound. The fact that it is in 3^rd person rather than 1^st person, and you have a real feeling of weight and physicality about your onscreen character, means that things can get even more tense when your’re surpised by an attack.

That’s really all I have to say about Dead Space at this stage. Hopefuly a review up soon!

By Dimorphic

So Saints Row 2 has just been released and I had a pretty good bash around with it last night. The improvements from the first one are evident straight away and the good thing about it is, even though it is a free world game ala GTA IV, it really isn’t trying to be GTA IV. Volition is trying to pave its own way for the Saints Row franchise and while Rockstar begin to focus on drama and realism, SR2 is all about over-the-top action and craziness.

But does it work? Hit the jump to see my early impressions.

When you first jump into the game your treated to the opening cutscene that ties the first game together with this one. After being blown up at the end of Saints Row 1, your avatar has been sitting in a Stilwater Penitentiary medial ward, in a coma with full body burns. This is a canon excuse to create your character for Saints Row 2. The customisation options are varied, you can create all kinds of stupid and silly characters, from obese mimes to muscle bound lunatics. I decided to play it somewhat safe and create a normal looking character, but I couldn’t go past the Aussie accent for my voice.

After jumping into the game your first call of buisness is to bust out of prison and get back to the Row. This mission acts as a tutorial for the games controls, but is also more action packed than I’m used to for a tute mission in these kinds of games. You’ll be beating on guards with cinder blocks, shooting down helicopters from the back of a speed boat and blowing your way out of the prison, back to the mainland.

Once there you realise that the ‘Row’ has been taken over by the Ultior corporation. The entire city has changed from when you were last in Stilwater, and other gangs have come in and taken what was yours. The Saints basically don’t exist anymore.

Here is where you get your first chance to play around in the city, I went and bought some new clothes (nothing fancy from the first store in the game of course) and then went to have a beer. While in the bar you see on TV that Johnny Gatt, a good friend and Saint from the first game is about to be convicted and put on death row. Of course we can’t have this, so you go to bust him out.

This is the first good chance you have to get used to driving controls and gunplay. Driving is more ‘arcady’ than GTA IV and it took me a little while to get used to, but it really wasn’t a problem. As for the shooting, it is free aim, not based off a lock on system, which again, suited me fine. You can also duel-wield in SR2, something that was missed in the original and even in GTA IV.

After shooting your way out of the county court house you and Johnny embark on the task of rebuilding the 3rd Street Saints. This is where I left the main story and looked around Stilwater.

There are a lot of distractions in the city, dozens of clothing shops, music stores, tattoo parlours and all the things you would expect to find in a game of this sort. By far the biggest distraction are the activities. All the activities from the first game are back, with some new ones thrown in for good measure. I tried out Mayhem, Insurance Fraud, Crowd Control and Septic Avenger.

Mayhem is just like it was in the first game, cause as much monetary damage as you can in the allotted time. Your given a bunch of weapons with infinite ammo for the duration of the mini-game. Blow stuff up is the idea here, and it’s a lot of fun. Insurance Fraud is great, throw yourself in front of oncoming traffic and watch the money roll in. You get combos for hitting more than once vehicle in any given attempt, and eventually you will build up enough adrenaline to control where you are flung when hit by the traffic. Crowd Control is a new activity and has you protecting a celebrity at a random venue. Basically you just pick people up and throw them into scenery. Last but not least is septic avenger, whereby you hop into a Stilwater ceptic truck and flig shit all over houses, people, shops, basically everywhere, in an attempt to lower property values.

These activities all yield both a financial and reputation reward. You need rep in order to undertake main quest missions and these activities are one of the ways to get it.

I’ll have a quick look at the controls and graphics and audio before I sign this article off. Graphically the game is solid. They are not as good as GTA IV, or Gears or anything like that, but they are by no means bad. The audio however is great, the in game radio music is top notch and the voice acting is funny and great to listen too.

The controls are a bit tricky at first, as I was used to the GTA way of controlling your character, but after a bit of a play around you get used to them. New features you have in SR2 is the afformentioned duel-wielding, but also the ability to throw people and use them as human shields. Hold down the LB button to grab someone and use them as a human shield, or just tap it to throw them.

Be sure to look for the full review coming soon here on Dimorphic360