Fruit Ninja Kinect

Apparently a lot of people have played Fruit Ninja on their phones and handheld devices. Being one of the four people who downgraded from a smart phone to a “normal” phone, I wasn’t aware of the title until it made its way to Kinect. I do, however, doubt it would be nearly as much fun on a phone screen as it can be using your body with the Xbox hardware.

Fruit Ninja puts a shadowed version of yourself up against a plethora of fruits. As they come up on the screen, you slash them in true ninja style. Depending on the game mode being played, you may have to slash against the clock, work to get as high a score as possible, or avoid a milieu of bombs as they fly through the air along with the fruit. That’s really all there is to the game – but it’s fun, and great with a group of people. Especially semi- or fully-drunk people.

Fruit Ninja knows its foundation stands on the very basic principles of gameplay, and it executes it well. That said, whether or not it’s worth 800 MSP is debatable. It probably isn’t, but not due to a lack of quality, only due to its thinness. While the game works well and is fun within its limitations, it’s ultimately still a pretty slim game with only a few different play modes that could grow old pretty quickly. Smashing fruit is very fun, but not for extended amounts of time. I personally don’t regret shelling out the 800, but I’ve certainly got plenty more for my money on other things. Its achievements aren’t very difficult either, once you get the hang of what you’re doing, which cuts down on replay value as well.

A little tip – the first time you play it, don’t do so longer than you’re capable. Your arms will be horribly sore the next day.

Hole in the Wall

This was a game show I remember hearing about a while back but only assume made it to the air at some point, as I never actually saw it on television. The idea is that you (or your team) are on a platform while a moving wall comes at you. The wall has a cut-out section in the shape of some ridiculous pose. You have to contort yourself to fit through the hole, else the wall pushes you backwards into a giant pool of green Mountain Dew-ish water. It’s a funny idea, clever and unique, and though it apparently failed for TV, makes sense as a Kinect game.

There is a “show” mode, which plays off how the television show worked. It puts your team up through three rounds of play where you have to fit through a number of walls. Three strikes (failures to get through the wall) and you’re out. After those are passed, there is a Final Round where you have another sequence of walls, but the lights are turned off and it is harder to see the holes you need to fit through. Obviously as you progress, the walls get more complicated and move a little faster.

The other mode is an endless survival mode, the point of which is basically to get through as many walls as you can without failing. And that’s about it.

The game responds pretty well using the Kinect. It recognizes your movements well and is fairly fun to play. But like Fruit Ninja, and probably even moreso, the game’s fun wears off fast. It’s good for a party, entertaining in concept, but falls flat quickly. With little else to the title, I’d say wait until this one is on weekly special for 400 MSP. It doesn’t deliver the substance to be worth the standard asking price of 800 MSP.

Now THIS is Fallout DLC.

After pitiful Fallout: New Vegas DLC performances thus far with Dead Money and Honest Hearts, gamers were given a treat at the end of July with Old World Blues. Not only is it easily the strongest DLC package for New Vegas, but it is arguably the best DLC to date among all of Fallout 3 and New Vegas’ DLC combined. A lackluster performance of late has been easily redeemed with this content, completely worth the 800 MS points.

Unlike Dead Money and Honest Hearts, Old World Blues adds a tremendous amount of gameplay to the New Vegas experience. While the former two took (at most) 3-5 hours to get through, Old World Blues kept me occupied for a week’s worth of playing a few hours a day. The story is long, the environment is vast, and – best part – you can return to it at any time while playing New Vegas, affording you endless opportunity to keep the DLC alive as more than a one-off package.

The game starts at the old mole rat infested drive-in theater outside of Nipton. You turn on a projector and suddenly find yourself waking up inside a medical wing of a Think Tank within the Big Mountain Research Facility, or Big MT, or Big Empty. The area is controlled by a handful of absolutely hilarious AI robots that are in an endless quarrel with Dr. Mobius, a former colleague of theirs turned mortal enemy. They fight amongst each other, suffer from extreme agoraphobia, and refer to your fingers as hand penises. You also find out they are responsible for many of the happenings and creatures in the rest of the Fallout universe. The world outside the Think Tank is inhabited primarily by lobotomites on which the Think Tank have operated, and whose ranks you have just joined. The difference between the other lobotomites and you? Dr. Mobius has your brain, which is somehow able to communicate with you, and have replaced your heart and spine with mechanical versions. It sounds insane, and it is, but it is a very humorous and well-crafted story that keeps you engaged and truly involved with the characters. And characters they are. Even the light switches are sassy.

The Big Empty has over 30 locations to explore, half of which are outside the bounds of where you need to travel to complete the main quest put forth by the Think Tank. Similar to Honest Hearts, the map is enormous, but unlike Honest Hearts, it is actually interesting. There are lots of places to go, interiors to search, secrets to uncover and stuff to find. The quests aren’t terribly structured, which allows you to go anywhere you want at any time and complete the DLC at your own pace. Some of the quests are repetitive fetch missions, but housed within such a great story, it isn’t all that irritating. Fast travel is possible and easy.

One certainty about Old World Blues is that it is very challenging, even with a maxed-out character. I used more stimpaks during this DLC than in any other package or area in all of Fallout. I started with over 300 and left the Big Empty with just over 100. Granted, I entered the world somewhat poorly equipped and low on ammo, which couldn’t have helped. I also wore Joshua Graham’s armor from Honest Hearts, which got completely ruined in a matter of minutes, leaving me only to scrounge for armor in the Big Empty – which is mostly crap – particularly because there are no other humans aside from the lobotomites who just wear hospital gowns. So seriously, get your stuff prepared before you enter. Don’t expect to get too much repaired while you are there. The only AI that can repair things for you charges an utter fortune.

Like any DLC, you come away with very powerful new weapons, new items, new perks (one of which is very handy for Hardcore mode), and another raised level cap. There are lots of valuable goodies to claim as well, providing you with a bundle of caps if you shop them all.

My heart was honestly broken with the first two DLC for New Vegas, and I was starting to worry. This package totally renewed my faith in incredible DLC production, and is by far the one to get if you were only to download one add-on for the title. Take your little hand penises, grab your controller, and download it.

Stacking is an adorable little game that puts you in control of Charlie Blackmore, the world’s smallest Russian stacking (matryoshka) doll, in a quest to save your family. They have been kidnapped and forced into child labor under the rule of an evil Baron. With your stacking abilities, you stack into dozens of other characters around the world, using their special abilities and talents to overthrow the Baron and free not only your family, but all others suffering under his treachery.

From a creative standpoint, It’s absolutely silly and super original. The game is a joy to play, narrated using silent movie-esque cut scenes with humorous dialogue and entertaining characters. The story is a straightforward rescue mission, pitting you in five locations with tons of unique and funny dolls to stack into and solve problems. Each area has a number of problems you need to solve, each with multiple methods for solving. It’s all good fun and not like any game you’ve ever played before. Its balance of aesthetics, originality, humor and seriousness are fused with a great control system, innovative play and grand visuals for an overall well-developed title.

The achievements for Stacking are all offline and are congruent with completing everything there is to complete in each area. Going after them all will also guarantee you do everything there is to do in the game. This would entail finishing each section’s story, stacking into each unique doll in every area, finding all the solutions to each problem in each area, and completing various hi-jinks that are unique to each level. The hi-jinks range from using certain dolls’ special abilities (farting, hammering a gavel, etc.) on other dolls, to influencing the environment in various ways. Each of these things adds a layer of depth to the story and keeps you playing a little longer in each level. The hardest of the bunch may be finding each unique doll in which to stack yourself, as there is little help in this regard when it comes to knowing who you’re missing, forcing you to stack with any doll that looks unique and interact with everyone on the level.

The downside is this game is painfully short-lived and easy. Doing everything above took me five hours from the time I turned the game on to the time every single thing was completed and I had a 200/200 gamerscore. This is because the story challenges are very simple, and if you aren’t sure how to obtain each solution, there are in-game hints that tell you exactly what to do. Finding the unique dolls and doing the hi-jinks, while the most time consuming element of the game, wasn’t that much of a problem as you generally unlock most of them by “accident” just playing through to solve the level challenges. There’s usually only a handful left to do by the time you’ve completed each section’s story, so it’s merely a wrap-up at the end of each part.

None of that would be that big of a deal if the game didn’t come with a 1200MS point ($15) price tag. That puts it in the top tier for XBLA titles and for something that only takes 5 hours to complete and has absolutely no replay value once done, you’re paying about $3/hr for the game. That’s pretty pricey. It’s a great way to get an extra 200 points into your gamerscore and add another completed game to your list, but those points come at a large cost. The experience of the game is certainly fun, but the price shouldn’t be more than 800MS points at most.

Seriously. 15 minutes or less.

The game is essentially a racer and a shooter, depending on which side you play. You have the ability to either take control of the cars going around the track, or as a series of gun turrets positioned along the sides that attempt to shoot the cars as they race. Most of the game’s achievements rely on you being a turret, but you’ll need to do both to complete them all. There are also two that are “multiplayer” achievements, but you’re able to get them locally without actually going on Xbox Live, or without even having any other people in your game.

Turret Downgrade – 10 pts – Activate a turret downgrade powerup
One of the multiplayer achievements. Just start a “multiplayer” game by yourself with bots, play as a race car, and run over one of the many, almost unavoidable turret downgrade icons on the track. Done.

Turret takeover – 10 pts – Shoot and takeover an enemy turret
Another multiplayer achievement. Simply start a multiplayer game with bots, play as a turret, and find a turret that allows you to see another turret. Give it a few shots and then push A when prompted. Done.

Affiliation – 10 pts – Join a multiplayer game for the first time
You don’t even have to play, you just have to get to the lobby screen for a multiplayer game and back right out. All it needs you to do is connect to one for a second.

Justin Carpenter Achievement – 10 pts – Just look at credits
The achievement says it all. Open the credits for 1 second and it’ll pop.

First Blood 20 pts – Wreck an opponent as a shooter
As a turret, fully destroy a car. It’ll take a handful of shots and kaboom.

Entertainer – 10 pts – Host a multiplayer game for the first time
Just like Affiliation, you don’t actually have to play. Start a hosted game and as soon as the lobby windows pop up, you’ll get it.

Missile-Fest – 10 pts – Get the missile launcher for the first time
Turret upgrades are achieved by shooting the turret upgrade icons along the track. The missile launcher is the 4th weapon for the turret, so you’ll have to upgrade 3 times. Just jump between turrets and shoot three of them, press X to switch to your missile launcher, and that’s that.

Mine-Fest – 10 pts – Deploy mines for the first time
Same story as above, but for the mines.

Flat Tire – 20 pts – Hit the tires of a driver
Another turret-based achievement. Simply shoot the tires of a car. You’ll most likely do this accidentally within your first handful of shots.

Get Wrecked – 10 pts – Wreck your vehicle
When playing as a car, do whatever you need to do to destroy your car. This will pop when you explode.

First Win – 30 pts – Win a game in Single Player
Self-explanatory.

One shot kill – 30 pts – Hit the windshield of a driver
Given the nature of this achievement and the amount of points it yields, you’d think it would be hard. It’s not. Just use the turret’s first gun, find a nice bit of track where the cars are coming straight in line with you, and fire at the middle of them. I hit the windshield about 75% of the time doing this without really even trying.

So that’s all you need to do. All the above can be done in under 15 minutes. You’ll likely get half of them in your first game. Harm’s Way really isn’t too bad a title for what it’s worth – and for free, who can complain? Give it a shot!

As everyone who knows anything about me is aware, I don’t care much for real-life sports at all.  I watch none, I play none.  And I certainly know nothing about any of the sports involved in Kinect Sports.  I point that out to note my review of this game is not swayed by some lifelong love of sports.  The game delivers a good enough experience to keep me playing because it is a well-made game, and a must-have for anyone hoping to use their Kinect for multiplayer purposes.  And I used the word “sports” way too many times in this paragraph.  Read on.

It was obvious that the Kinect would launch with a sports title.  The Wii is the most direct predecessor to the Kinect.  Its most popular title has been the one that came with it – Wii Sports – because of its variety, its fun group play, its approachability and when the hardware was released, its demonstration of the console’s potential.  Kinect Sports is all the same to its hardware companion, and showcases the next stage of motion technology much the same.  It’s also quite fun.

Up front, I’d like to recommend you wear shoes while playing – particularly if you have a house like I do built on a concrete slab foundation, in which there are only hardwood or laminate floors with no additional padding but an area rug.  Play a game like this too long in that situation with bare or socked feet and you’ll be drowning in ouchies.

Let’s take a look at the components one by one, rapid style:

Boxing - My least favorite.  Mainly because I don’t comprehend boxing.  And because it’s the least interesting.  You hit, they hit, someone falls first.  I found my character mis-punching a few times, making Boxing the culprit of my only real motion-sensing troubles with the whole title.

Bowling - Always a player favorite, bowling is awesome.  It takes some practice, for sure.  The angle with which you bring the ball back and release it matters, the direction your arm moves matters for spin, the quickness of your toss matters… it’s all very well-done.  My high score so far is 278.  Suck it.

Track and Field – This is really awesome and consists of a sprint, javelin, long jump, discus and hurdles.  Each takes its own practice to master and each use the Kinect camera brilliantly.  Lift your legs higher to run.  Hold the javelin back as you jog to get more oomph.  This is a very unique part of the sports package that really delivers.

Table Tennis – Another accurate and fun game.  What’s there to say about it?  You know how table tennis works.  And it works like that in Kinect Sports.

Football (Soccer) – The game calls it soccer.  The achievements refer to it as football.  Isn’t that cute?  I find this to be surprisingly fun, and I don’t like real soccer in the least.  It is fairly simple, getting in the way of your opponent’s passes and directionally-kicking your legs to pass to your other teammates on the field as the journey moves towards the opposing net.  There you kick or head the ball in the net and writhe with joy.

Beach Volleyball - One of the more complex games.  The way you hit the ball impacts a lot in this game.  Your timing, the direction, the placement… it all comes into play.  Get it?  Into play?  Terrible.  Shame on me.

The game also boasts an awesome soundtrack of clips that play when you do something awesome – i.e. score a strike in bowling or pound a smash shot in table tennis.  It ranges from Beyonce to Blur to Rihanna to MC Hammer.  MC HAMMER, I tell you!

Other fun little features include putting your arms in the air after winning a sprint to cause the crowd to stand up and cheer louder.  Omnipotence is bliss.  Even more so than seeing my avatar dressed up in track shorts.

The game also has a ton of minigames designed for every sport.  They’re simplistic, like scoring as many goals as you can in a minute, but they offer an added variety and replay value to each of the sports.  They are also designed for excellent quick multiplayer play.  Xbox Live also has some free DLC available for the game that adds more mini-games to the mix, which is bonus rad.

Side-by-side running

The Kinect sensor definitely plays to the strengths of the sports it is offering.  Rare has figured out ways to interpret the movements of the real sports in believable ways that you can act out in your living room with confined space.  And while you’re experiencing such finely-programmed wonderment, you will experience a pretty powerful workout that will likely leave you sweaty and sore and reaching to turn down the thermostat.

In lieu of typing any more, I suggest that if you have a Kinect, you go out and grab this game.   It’s jolly good fun even if you aren’t a sports fan, and it is required gaming if you plan to have friends over and use your Kinect as a tool to induce jealousy or seduction.

Time for a gin & tonic.  Adieu, friends.  I’ll be back with another Kinect review when I get another Kinect game.  JoyRide will likely be my next investment.  Feel free to buy it for me to expedite the process.

I’m terrible at this game.  After perfecting the finger disco during middle school, my dancing aptitude was tapped out.  I took some pas de deux (definition found here) classes with my wife during college due to a lack of ample male presence in their classes, much to my own dismay.  I did this leotard-free.

Miss Aubrey, my personal favorite dance leader.

None of that has any bearing on the quality of this game, however.  Dance Central has quickly rendered Dance Dance Revolution pads useless.  In my experience, this game is on par with Your Shape as being the most responsive, accurate use of the Kinect sensor of all the launch titles.

So here’s the idea – the fancy-looking on-screen character teaches you moves, and you mirror them.  A silhouette version of your body can be seen in a small box on-screen, but the focus is on your instructor.  Match their movements accurately, keep the rhythm, and you’ll build your score.  Difficulty comes in three levels for each song with the complexity of the choreography reflected in each.

Dance Central was created by Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero (you may have heard of those), which for some is enough of a statement to indicate a well-made music sim.   This is another success in their lineup of great moneymaking games.  From Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” to Tag Team’s “Whoomp! There it Is” (DLC), you can jam out to some pretty rad hits.

As mentioned, the Kinect sensor works like a charm with this game.  If you’re supposed to move your arms in a certain way level with your head and are six inches too low, it’ll know.  It maps your feet, legs, elbows, body, bum, head, hands, everything.  Unlike DDR and other now-relic dance games of the past where you only had to worry about your feet shuffling around like some cracked-out Michael Flatley nightmare, Dance Central is concerned with every part of your body.  In short, it’s a dance game where you’ll actually be dancing.  Some of the choreography is pretty complicated and looks quite serious when being performed.

At least, when I watch my wife do it.  I’m lucky to get through a song on easy.  Keeping rhythm and feeling the music isn’t my problem.  It’s that whole physical movement part…

The way moves are presented is nice – “flash card” style on the right-hand side of the screen so you can see what’s coming up.  Good for people like me with no brain to remember a move for two seconds on my own.  The entire user interface is well-designed.  Even the menus in this game are fun.  You navigate them by moving your hand up and down through the options, then swiping to the side to select.  It’s very much like those nonexistent computer screens you see on NCIS.  Or so I’m told, never having watched NCIS.  Or even knowing what NCIS stands for.  Naked Calcium Ingestion Scrutiny, I’d imagine.

There is, of course, a workout mode with Dance Central as well.  And plenty of DLC will no doubt become available, being a Harmonix title, and being a music game.  Plenty is already available, from Cameo to Rihanna.  The on-disc song bank is pretty nice, spanning a couple decades with things as modern as Jay Sean’s “Down” back to Salt N Pepa’s “Push It.”

Keeping this review short, I’m not sure what else there is to say.  It is exactly what you’d expect it to be, and it lives up to those expectations.  It’s a great, well-made game perfect for party or individual play.  If you are the type of person that would be interested in a dance game, you’re going to buy it, and chances are you’re not going to be let down.  Unless you’re a real snob.  Snob.

Dance Central certainly sets a new precedent for the next generation of dance titles.  Unarguably the best of its type ever made, it’ll be interesting to see where the genre is taken from here.  There’s one thing I know for sure – even if I suck at dancing, I’m damn glad to have a Harmonix music title that doesn’t require any more plastic instruments cluttering up my house.

From customized personal training to fitness games, dance workouts and demonstrations, Your Shape does everything it can to tailor a routine to your personal needs and get you on track to a healthier lifestyle.  The game features workout routines designed by Men’s and Women’s Health Magazines, and if you’re a fairly sedentary person like myself who is in terrible need of a workout, it’s certain to be kicking your ass from day one.

Let’s take a quick look at the game and its potential for delivering real fitness results…

The main feature of Your Shape is its personal training.  This is a feature that tailors a workout regimen specifically to you, based on its analysis of your body, a fitness test and a questionnaire about your goals.  This was the first thing I did when booting up the game for the first time, as it seemed prudent to let the game know as much about me as possible before getting started on anything.

Your Shape personal training works by having you mirror a trainer as he/she performs movements.  The Kinect sensor works impeccably well with this title, capturing your movements with fluid, precision perfection.  As you mirror your trainer, they will say things like “arms higher!” or “knees lower!”  Obey them, and it will know, congratulating you for following orders.  The point of personal training is to keep in rhythm with the trainer – if you go too fast or too slow, or follow the movements incorrectly, it will lower your score.  The pace of the trainer is the pace you should move to achieve maximum results.

On-screen at all times are calorie counters that monitor your daily calories burned, as well as all-time calories.  You can set goals for calorie burning on the game’s related website which will communicate with your console when you play.  You can also compare/compete with your friends or family using this tool.

The fitness test that gets all this started is a series of squats, lunges and aerobic exercises.  The Kinect will do a scan of your body for shape and posture, put you through the tests, then ask about your goals – i.e. weight loss, body definition, more energy, etc.  The personal trainer will then customize a routine based on all the data it has.  Get into them, and you’ll be sweating quickly.  And sore for days.  I invested in a foam roller this afternoon to work my extremely tight, sore calf muscles that are suddenly screaming with soreness after having not been used in my life to date and found themselves suddenly assaulted by Your Shape.

When personal training is becoming routine, there are also gym games and other exercises to keep you on your toes.  A boxing game where you punch out blocks that appear in front of you is fun and works your arms and agility.  A balancing game that requires you to hold weight over your head, stand on one leg and collect cubes that fall from the sky challenges your legs and dexterity.  A Simon-like color-tapping game keeps your legs moving and nimble, and a hula hoop game works on your gyration skills.  The hula hoop one is by far the most embarrassing should someone watch you do it.

In addition to all that, you can also exercise through zen training and cardio kickboxing.

Another good thing about Your Shape is that the developers seem to be releasing a steady stream of DLC.  While some people don’t want to constantly pour money into a game, when it comes to workouts, it’s nice to have new materials to keep things fresh and entertaining.  Nobody wants to do the exact same routines day after day.  There are already a number of DLC available for Your Shape, ranging from a 2011 New Year Workout to a Bollywood dance program.

Ultimately I have been very impressed by the ingenuity of the game and its excellent use of the Kinect Sensor.  My house doesn’t have the room for any type of gym equipment – even a weight bench is something I don’t have room for.  This game gives me a great opportunity to work out at home.  While nobody is going to shed 200 lbs. or become a bodybuilder with it, Your Shape is an easy way to get that 20-30 minutes of cardio everyone in the medical world suggests you should have, and offers plenty of means to shed some calories and better define your body.

Ahhh, Kinect Adventures.  The flagship title.  The Wii Sports of the Kinect peripheral.  It’s the game that everyone with a Kinect will have – by default the most popular title for the device.  What’s it like?  Let’s take a look…

I’ve already mentioned how well the Kinect performs on the whole.  Obviously, part of Kinect’s functionality depends on the game and its success in programming.  Titles like Game Party and Deca Sports Freedom have become famous launch titles for how poorly they respond to your movement.  Fortunately, Kinect Adventures doesn’t fall victim to that problem.  As one would hope for the game that comes bundled with the hardware and serves double purpose as a demonstration tool, Kinect Adventures works very well.

On its most basic level, Kinect Adventures is five mini-games in a greater package.  These mini-games can be played individually in Free Play mode, as an Adventure story with the games in a scrambled order in Adventure Mode, or in Time Attack mode.  The games are Rally Ball (a crazy dodgeball-ish game), River Rush (rafting), Space Pop (popping soap bubbles in a zero-gravity room), Reflex Ridge (a track-and-field inspired game on a rollercoaster-type track) and 20,000 Leaks (where you are stuck in a glass case underwater plugging leaks poked in the chamber by fish).  Each game has its own charms.

While playing, you are awarded bronze, silver, gold and platinum medals depending on your performance.  You are also awarded living statue trophies which you can bring to life with your own voice and movements, and your photo is taken three times per game by the Kinect camera and saved on your console.  Any of these recordings or photos can be uploaded to the internet and shared with your pals.

Of course, you can also play any of these games with a friend – either locally or over Xbox Live.

River Rush is my personal favorite.  Riding insane rapids through mountains, over huge jumps and even into the clouds never gets old.  The Kinect sensor works amazingly well with this game and every slight movement you make is registered.  The visuals are beautiful and it is easy to play this game continually for great lengths of time.  Or until you’re dead sore.

Rally Ball, in my opinion, can be the most challenging of the games.  That is, of course, a matter of perspective – as none of the games are all that hard.  But at least in my living room with my Kinect sensor, Rally Ball was the one with the most glitches in detecting my movement.  It can also be one of the fastest-paced games in Kinect Adventures, as opportunities to keep your eye on 8 balls at once are not uncommon.  The game is still quite fun and moves very quickly, well worth playing.

Space Pop is perhaps the least involved of the Kinect Adventures titles.  Bubbles appear and you touch them with any body part to pop them.  You move forward a step, backwards a step, flap your arms to go higher…. The movement isn’t very demanding and I’m not even sure it’s humanly possible to get less than a silver rating on a level if you’re bothering to try at all.  This game is admittedly somewhat lame.

20,000 Leaks is humorously fun in concept.  Watching a blowfish slam into the glass canister in which you’re held is enjoyable.  You plug leaks with your feet, hands, face, chest – whatever you can – and often end up in a vertical Twister position in order to cover them all.  The photos taken by the sensor during play can prove to be the funniest of all the Kinect Adventures games.  Leaks can be anywhere, and you have to contort to close them up.  Good, simple fun.  A very clever idea.

Reflex Ridge is by far the most tiring of the games.  In this game, jumping is key.  When you’re not jumping, you have to dart sideways quickly to avoid objects or duck low to not bang your head.  Add to that nearly continual arm movement to collect emblems as they pass you by and Reflex Ridge doesn’t give you too many moments’ rest.  It’s easy to get winded playing this one, especially if you’re in as *wonderful* shape as I am.  In my experience, it also required the most practice and form to get the timing right and not smash into everything you see.  Despite all that is going on, I find it somewhat boring and don’t look forward to playing it.

All together, Kinect Adventures is good fun with plenty of replay value on the games you enjoy.  It’s nice when a bundled game can make that claim, as it adds value to the overall product.  A good start, and one of many titles already available for Kinect that showcase the motion-sensing peripheral as an extraordinary new piece of next-gen technology.  Though it would have been nice to see more than five games in it, especially since a couple of them are not that interesting, I’m still a fan and gaga over the hardware.

So, we’re doing this again.

Back starting in 2008, Fallout 3 ended up reaming its millions of avid fans for another $10 every couple months as its five DLC packs were released with completely satisfying gaps between them.  An ample length passed between the last Fallout 3 DLC and the launch of New Vegas to get us all riled up and stiff for another Fallout title.  It came, we conquered, and now we’ve seen the release of the first New Vegas DLC, Dead Money, on December 21.  Let the process start again.

I don’t know about you, but I’ll buy a Fallout DLC just because it’s a Fallout DLC and I’m a hideously large fan of the games.  Some content for Fallout 3 was better than others and I assume the same will be true for New Vegas’ add-ons.  I didn’t much care for Operation: Anchorage with Fallout 3, its first DLC, just as I didn’t much care for Dead Money.  However, I paid my $10, played through it and don’t regret the decision merely due to my love for the series.  Even though I didn’t enjoy it a ton, it was worth playing – and raises the level cap to 35 – a nice little perk to take back to the main story.

If you haven’t yet heard, Dead Money takes you to a lost casino called the Sierra Madre, located in an isolated part of the wastes plagued by a poisonous cloud.  You find yourself there with a collar around your neck (much like the gun collar from Saw) and are somewhat under the whim of a nutter named Father Elijah.  The Sierra Madre is rumored to never have been opened, as the great war started right when the casino was to have its grand opening gala.  Elijah wants you to open it and you serve to find out all its secrets and uncover the truth of its existence and what happened.  The story itself is actually pretty interesting and unique, as the casino and its surrounding areas hold much to discover and have some good twists and ideas.  It’s the gameplay that is lacking.

The collar around your neck is detonated by radio frequencies, and the Sierra Madre is conveniently covered with radios.  You spend half of your play time trying to find and disable these radios within the few seconds you have before your head explodes.  This is somewhat neat at first, and annoying as hell after about an hour.

Part of what makes DLC fun is getting new weapons and armor to bring back to the wastes.  You’ll find a few- the police gun, cosmic knife, the bear trap claw, some machine guns, gas bombs, etc., but none are really that spectacular.  I ended up pawning them all at Gun Runners once I got back to the main game and buying the other main game weapons I couldn’t previously afford.  I think the police gun, which is essentially a .357, is the only one I kept.

And as for armor, you basically end up with some reinforced combat armor.  Joy.

The enemies are essentially two-fold.  You have Ghosts, who come in a few varieties depending on what type of weapon they use (bear trap claw seen above).  They are super strong and, until you learn the requisite skills from one of the other characters you meet, very hard to kill.  The other enemies are holographic guards that defend the casino areas.   These can’t be killed and will kill you with a few shots, so you’re generally left to find ways around them if you want to live.  Aside from a couple seemingly ill-placed radroaches and all those radios that can murder you remotely, those are the only enemies you’ll face.  The best tip for playing is to make sure you save often – your head will be blown off a number of times and the enemies can give you a good thrashing.  You won’t always want to retrace your steps, so a save at least every few minutes is recommended.

One neat element is that caps nor any faction money has any value in the Sierra Madre.  You find unique Sierra Madre chips nearly everywhere and, combined with other items you find around the DLC (cigarettes, pre-war outfits, etc.) you can trade them at unique vending machines for food, stimpacks and other essential items to get you through the DLC.  It really limits your resources and forces you to plan, be careful and pay attention to what you’re doing.

There is a lot more that could be said, but those are the essentials.  I don’t want to spoil what is actually a fairly interesting story.  Just know that at the end, you have a choice to make that determines your achievements.  Save first.  And before you go, find yourself some gold bars to take back to the wastes.  It’s certainly worth the payday.

Check back a little later for a Dead Money walkthrough/achievement guide.  The game has 140 points worth of achievements and sells for 800 Microsoft Points ($10).