Sparkle 2 Review – Xbox One

Game – Sparkle 2 Release Date – January 27, 2016 Platform – Xbox One Developer/Publisher – 10tons Ltd. I have never reviewed a game in my entire life. I have always spoken about how much I enjoyed a game, or how frustrating a game was to me,  but to say that I have done a review would be false. So, this is my first review. I normally gravitate towards games that are in the First-Person genre, or even action adventure. The game I was assigned is neither one of those. Sparkle 2 is a game that is very different from my usual tastes. Sparkle 2 is an action puzzle game that consists of matching three marbles that are following along a predetermined path. If the marbles make it to their goal then you lose the game. The game is very simple and straightforward, which is what makes this game great. The player’s job is to shoot the marbles to match three colors in a row. To me, the game is like a modern-day Tetris, a moving puzzle that the player is trying to stop. The player is actively matching the marbles by hitting a moving target but also has to be sure that he/she is quick enough to not let the marbles reach their goal. As you progress, the game’s difficulty increases. More marbles can appear, the speed of the game can increase, and more colors can appear to increase the difficulty. To help the player, power-ups will begin to appear in the game. Also, the player will be able to customize their marble launcher with different equipment, such as the ability to increase the speed of your launcher. If you ever find yourself stuck on a level, then try switching out some of the equipment so that it benefits your playstyle. Visually, Sparkle 2 looks amazing. The game is very well-polished, from the background of the puzzle board to the attention-grabbing details of the marbles. The music in the game is very enjoyable as well. The music changes to mirror how the game is progressing. When the player begins, the music is very relaxing and peaceful. However, if the player begins to struggle, the music will reflect by becoming more hectic. I have always enjoyed when a game uses music to influence how you feel, and Jonathan Geer (as well as 10tons Ltd.) did a fantastic job of that! GAME MODES When you first boot the game up, you will begin playing the story mode. Honestly, I found the story mode to be pointless. The game tries to tell you a story, but you quickly find yourself ignoring the goal of finding keys since that task is completed by simply completing the puzzles. The voiceovers are extremely well done, but the story itself is not needed. Within Story Mode, there are over 90+ levels, which is a great amount of content. Playing through story mode is how you will begin to unlock the other game modes. I only played a few matches of Challenge Mode, but I enjoyed it. You pick a level out of a small handful and then play it on the easiest difficulty. As you beat that difficulty, the next difficulty will unlock for that level. After beating all difficulties on a level, you will unlock an additional level. It is simple in the early levels, but I noticed how quickly the difficulty increased. If you find yourself looking for something more difficult, then Challenge Mode will be the game type that will excite you. I can’t even imagine how tough the highest difficulty will be.   In Survival Mode, the player will try to “survive” a level. There are endless waves of marbles that keep appearing until you lose. The goal is to earn a five-star rating. To earn this rating, you have to endure a certain amount of waves. This ongoing game type is different than both the story mode and challenge mode because you are playing until you cannot win, which is a different kind of challenge for puzzle genre lovers.   Cataclysm Mode is the new mode that is being released on the Xbox One. It is super intense. “More marbles, faster speed, and total chaos” is the only way that I can describe this game. I completed two levels on Cataclysm Mode, and I am still not sure how I made it. It was early levels, so they were very basic, but I was able to complete it. The elite puzzle genre fans will be delighted at taking on the daunting task of completing Cataclysm Mode. CONCLUSION Sparkle 2 is an incredible video game that really surprised me. I did not think that an action puzzle game could hold my attention as long as this game has. I often find myself wanting to try and complete more and more challenges. Honestly, I had never found games like this to be addictive, but this game certainly is! Besides the forced narrative in story mode, the game is fantastic. Definitely a game that any puzzle gamer should pick up!

Xbox 360 preview members can now send gift cards in a Xbox Live Message

If you are a Xbox 360 preview member and you live in the UK, US, Canada, France or Germany, you are now able to send gift cards as a Xbox Live message up to $100, which the person who you are sending it to, can buy Apps,Games,Music, Movies on Microsoft’s online stores (does not work on Microsoftstore.com however) , there is also no expiration date or fees. Hopefully Microsoft will allow Xbox One preview members to do this as well, as it’s something I know a lot of us have been waiting for. If you want to send someone a gift card by using Xbox Live message, all you have to do is go to Social twist or the Xbox Guide, select the profile of the person you want to send a gift card to, then select send gift and just pick how much, confirm the purchase, and you are done!. Source:MajorNelson

Left 4 Dead 2 to be made backward compatible with Xbox One?

It seems that Left 4 Dead 2 may become the latest game to join the Xbox One backward compatibility list, a picture posted on Reddit has show the game downloaded onto a Xbox One console, but people who are in the Xbox Preview Program have said that the game does not work. While it is likely that this is a fake, It is also one of the most requested Xbox 360 games to be backward compatible  with over 64,000 votes on Microsoft’s Xbox feedback website. Source:ICXM

Homefront: The Revolution gets Resistance Mode and pre-order bonus revealed

Homefront: The Revolution will be getting a brand new co-op online mode according to Deep Silver today. Resistance Mode is a brand new four-player co-operative online experience. Form a Resistance Cell with your friends online and wage guerrilla warfare against the KPA military in thrilling narrative-driven missions across occupied Philadelphia. Customize your personal roster of Freedom Fighters as you and your teammates go from rookie civilians to battle hardened soldiers. Unlock new skills, earn weapon blueprints, rare equipment and combat gear to upgrade. Xbox One owners can be the first to try it out when the Closed Beta runs February 11-14 exclusively on Xbox One. In addition, registered members of the Homefront community may also be invited to participate in a sneak preview of Resistance Mode via one of the upcoming Closed Beta Stress Tests which will take place on Friday, January 29th and Friday, February 5th on Xbox One. “Homefront: The Revolution is this team’s most ambitious project yet,” said Hasit Zala, game director at Dambuster Studios. “In addition to our epic 30-plus hour single-player campaign, we expect to launch Resistance Mode with 12 Missions, packed with re-playability, and hope to release another 20 Missions within the first year. To ensure our community can always play together, all Resistance Mode Missions will be free to download.” All pre-orders for the game will receive the “Revolutionary Spirit” pack. The “Revolutionary Spirit” pre-order offer gives players unique skins and instant unlocks of select weapons for the campaign. The Revolutionary Spirit pack available at all retailers includes: the Red Skull motorbike skin and the Golden pistol skin for campaign along with instant unlocks of the Marksman Rifle, Sniper Scope and Remote Explosives for your Resistance Mode character. Homefront: The Revolution releases May 17th

Star Wars Battlefront DLC detailed and dated; Deathstar and Cloud City inbound

EA has detailed all of the free and paid DLC upcoming for Star Wars Battlefront. Beginning tomorrow, a number of free and paid packs will be added to the game. They are as follows: January 27th, 2016 The Tatooine Survival map will now support the Blast, Droid Run, Drop Zone, Hero Hunt, and Heroes vs Villains multiplayer modes, and is called Raider Camp. New Hoth-themed outfits for Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, both of which will be available to all fans when they play as these two iconic characters on Hoth – these were unlocked by our players for completing our Heroes’ Holiday community mission last month. We are giving players the ability to create Private Matches, which makes playing with friends even easier. The introduction of Daily Challenges and Community Events. These are designed to rally the Community around certain goals and objectives, giving players the chance to earn credits and unlocks even faster. We’ll have more news regarding Community Events and Daily Challenges in the days ahead. February Survival and Multiplayer mission on Hoth. Turning point will be available on all maps that allow Walker Assault and Supremacy March Multiplayer map on Endor and Tattoine survival map Season pass content Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Outer Rim (March 2016) – Fight among the factories of Sullust and battle within Jabba the Hutt’s palace on Tatooine Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Bespin (Summer 2016) – It’s hunt or be hunted in this action-packed experience set in the Cloud City of Bespin Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Death Star (Fall 2016) – That’s no moon! One of the most iconic locations in the Star Wars universe makes its debut in Star Wars Battlefront. Star Wars™ Battlefront™ Expansion Pack 4 – Title TBA (Early 2017) – We will have more details to share about this exciting new expansion pack in the coming months  

Livelock – Dubstep shooter featuring robots- headed to Xbox One, PS4 and PC

Perfect World Entertainment and Tuque Games announced their new shooter Livelock today. Although Perfect World is known primarily for free to play titles, this will be the first buy to play game they will be publishing. Livelock is the first game developed by Tuque games’ and is a top down shooter featuring robots and dubstep music with sarcastic voice over. Color me sold. Livelock transports players into the 22nd century, the age of the machine. Nearly a century after the cataclysm, humanity is on the brink of survival. Clusters – groups of corrupted machines control what remains of the earth, fighting each other in an infinite war over resources that now threatens the very planet itself. Players take control of a Capital Intellect, a human consciousness uploaded to large mechanical body. Armed with a unique arsenal of weapons and special abilities, the Capital Intellect must fight the corrupted machine Clusters and break the cycle of an infinite war, before humanity is forgotten in the annals of history. Livelock will launch later in 2016 with no specific release date yet

Latest Halo 5 update also adds Forge pieces

So we are all excited over the new awesome armor or the Halo 2 BR or even the new skins. In the Infinity Armory update they also add new pieces for the forge community such as new toys like the kill ball and gravity volumes . Here is the list of Forge peices: New and Updated Features: Bounding box preview when navigating through objects in palette menu “Delete all objects” button added to map properties (fire team leader only) “Reset map properties” button added to map properties (fire team leader only) New Objects: PROPS > TOYS Kill Ball GAMEPLAY > WEAPONS > UNSC Halo 2 Battle Rifle Grav Volumes (GAMEPLAY > GRAVITY VOLUMES) Grav Volumes; Visible & Invisible Added additional 16′ ring permutations to match other ring systems; Ring: 16′ [48x48x12; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x12; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x12; quarter] Ring: 16′ [48x48x16; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x16; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x16; quarter] Ring: 16′ [48x48x20; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x20; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x20; quarter] Ring: 16′ [48x48x24; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x24; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x24; quarter] Ring: 16′ [48x48x2; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x2; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x2; quarter] Ring: 16′ [48x48x4; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x4; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x4; quarter] Ring: 16′ [48x48x8; eighth] Ring: 16′ [48x48x8; half] Ring: 16′ [48x48x8; quarter] Ring: 16′ [64x64x16; eighth] Ring: 16′ [64x64x16; half] Ring: 16′ [64x64x16; quarter] Ring: 16′ [64x64x8; eighth] Ring: 16′ [64x64x8; half] Ring: 16′ [64x64x8; quarter] Ring: 16′ [80x80x16; eighth] Ring: 16′ [80x80x16; half] Ring: 16′ [80x80x16; quarter] Ring: 16′ [80x80x20; eighth] Ring: 16′ [80x80x20; half] Ring: 16′ [80x80x20; quarter] Ring: 16′ [80x80x8; eighth] Ring: 16′ [80x80x8; half] Ring: 16′ [80x80x8; quarter] Ring: 16′ [96x96x16; eighth] Ring: 16′ [96x96x16; half] Ring: 16′ [96x96x16; quarter] Ring: 16′ [96x96x20; eighth] Ring: 16′ [96x96x20; half] Ring: 16′ [96x96x20; quarter] Ring: 16′ [96x96x8; eighth] Ring: 16′ [96x96x8; half] Ring: 16′ [96x96x8; quarter] Forge grid system (PROPS > GRID >) Grid: 1x [10×10] Grid: 2x [20×20] Grid: 5x [50×50] Grid: 10x [100×100] Grid: 20x [200×200] New Props: PROPS > CRATES > Crate [5x8x5; UNSC; single] Crate [5x8x5; UNSC; covered] PROPS > MISC > Hazard Suit [5x4x11] Locker [3x2x7] Shelves [4x8x12] PROPS > CONSTRUCTIONS > CANISTERS > Canister [46x18x18; triple] PROPS > EXPLODING > Power Core [7x5x5] Forge Bug Fixes: General Stability updates to Forge Grouping two or more groups together now properly updates the budgets and works as intended Fixed various objects with missing descriptions (+ English strings in non-English languages) Fixed a crash caused by duplicating a group with a maxed out budget Fixed a crash caused by trying to delete scripts when none are in use. Fixed an issue where adding objects to groups did not reset the group count. Fixed an issue that capped scripts useable on an object at 7. Players can now use 8 scripts. Fixed crashes caused when working with groups that had objects that don’t exist Fixed issue with setting fog to “None” doesn’t actually result in no fog Forgers can no longer “weld” Mantises Fixed broken bullet collision for: Accent: Ceiling [32x80x16; corner; left] and Accent: Ceiling [32x80x16; corner; right] Resized Block [32x32x16] to be correct size Resized Block [64x64x48] to be correct size Fixed Cylinder [24x24x80; full] so collision model matches render model Fixed Cylinder [24x24x80; half] so collision model matches render model Fixed Cylinder [64x64x24; full] so collision model matches render model Centered text on Sign [armory; 2x10x8] Fixed incorrect physics behavior with the soccer ball Fixed some missing object/folder descriptions Forerunner [Pulse] sound object now attached to the correct sound Tweaks & Cleanup: Changed default physics of some objects from “Fixed” to “Phased” Cover: Solid [2x4x4.5] Cover: Solid [2x8x4.5] Cover: Solid [2x16x4.5] Cover: Solid [2x32x4.5] Cover: Jersey Barrier [3x4x4.5] Cover: Jersey Barrier [3x8x4.5] Cover: Jersey Barrier [3x16x4.5] Cover: Jersey Barrier [3x32x4.5] Cover: Street [4x4x4.5] Cover: Street [4x8x4.5] Cover: Street [4x16x4.5] Cover: Street [4x32x4.5] Cover: Street [8x8x4.5; corner] Cover: Tech [4x4x4.5] Cover: Tech [4x8x4.5] Cover: Tech [4x16x4.5] Cover: Tech [4x32x4.5] Sign [star; 1x3x3] Sign [cinema; 1x4x14] Sign [hotel; 1x16x4] Sign [green-cross; 2x8x8] Sign [armory; 2x10x8] Sign [exit; 2x10x8] Sign [robotics; 2x10x10] Billboard [1x128x64; golden warthog] Decal: Number [0; 4×6] Decal: Number [0; 8×12] Decal: Number [1; 4×6] Decal: Number [1; 8×12] Decal: Number [2; 4×6] Decal: Number [2; 8×12] Decal: Number [3; 4×6] Decal: Number [3; 8×12] Decal: Number [4; 4×6] Decal: Number [4; 8×12] Decal: Number [5; 4×6] Decal: Number [5; 8×12] Decal: Number [6; 4×6] Decal: Number [6; 8×12] Decal: Number [7; 4×6] Decal: Number [7; 8×12] Decal: Number [8; 4×6] Decal: Number [8; 8×12] Decal: Number [9; 4×6] Decal: Number [9; 8×12] Rearranged some extra structure object palettes STRUCTURES > ACCENTS > RAILINGS > moved to STRUCTURES > RAILINGS > STRUCTURES > ACCENTS > GLASS > moved to STRUCTURES > GLASS > STRUCTURES > ACCENTS > PLATFORMS > moved to STRUCTURES > PLATFORMS > STRUCTURES > ACCENTS > PISTONS > moved to STRUCTURES > SUPPORTS > PISTONS > Rest of patch notes can be found here

R.B.I. Baseball 16 announced with new features

R.B.I. Baseball 16 is back this year and its sporting a bunch of new and upgrades visuals. Although it will only be a digital release, there is still a cover athlete to the game. Mookie Betts, the outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, will be the lucky athlete selected who also just so happens to have his initials be “MLB”. Pretty cool, huh? All of the 30 stadiums have remained in the game while receiving upgrading visuals and the batting, pitching and baserunning systems have all been improved with better AI. The roster limits are still set at both 40 and 16, but a simulated schedule feature has been added. This allows you to simulate the entire season and jump right to the playoffs if you choose. Rosters will be updated throughout the season and you can track your progress by individual stat, player or team as well. There will be online play limited to the PC and console versions only. Handheld versions of the game will be a different version with limited features. R.B.I. Baseball will launch later this year on PS4, Xbox One and PC for $19.99 and $4.99 on mobile devices. [Official site]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan Announced

Activision and Platinum Games have just announced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC, It will be released sometime this Summer. From all of the screenshots that they have posted the game looks amazing and if it is anything like Platinums other games such as The Wonderful 101, I will be happy. Source:PlayStation

Quantum Break has been listed for PC, could be false

  UPDATE: The listing for Quantum Break to PC could be false. Thanks to a spanish site showing an image of it being listed on PC and being taken off. So it is most likely a mistake. Let’s not forget Alan Wake did come to PC as well. We will keep an eye out on official news on this.  Thanks to this site  A listing for the upcoming Xbox One exclusive Quantum Break has filed by the age regulator in Brazil for PC, this would not be the first time that a Xbox One exclusive has been released on PC, Microsoft themselves have said that they plan to support PC gaming with Windows 10 a lot more then they used to with Windows 7 and Windows 8 with games such as ReCore also being announced for PC, and it’s great to see Microsoft keep to their word. What do you think about Xbox One exclusives being released on Windows?, let us know!. Source:GameSpot