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Schizoid is a unique game from Torpex Games that’s guaranteed to make your brain scream. On paper, Schizoid is a mix of Ikaruga and Geometry Wars. While this isn’t a real twin-stick shooter, you will have to play it like one. The concept is simple. You have two ships — one orange and one blue — and can only destroy the same color enemies. You’ll have to take out every enemy in the level to continue. It can be pretty fun, provided that you’re playing with a friend.

You have two options on how you want to play the game — single-player or cooperatively. The single-player experience brings you Wingman Bot Training, which lets you control the blue ship while the AI controls the orange one. This mode is only good for a tutorial, as it’s not likely you’ll want to finish every level with the not-so-smart AI partner. When the AI partner has nothing to do it’ll stay still; when it’s in danger it just seems to stick against the wall, which is where it tends to die a lot.

Uberschizoid mode is where the real challenge waits. You’ll take control of both blue and orange ships with the two analog sticks. This is probably one of the hardest things you’ll do in a video game. There will be two lines coming from off-screen to help indicate where both of your ships are. It’s fun to try it, but unless you’re some two minded freak, this mode will drive you crazy.

Since this game was made with co-op in mind, this is the best and easiest way to get through the game. There’s over 100 levels to play through, which get harder as you play on. While the level design is basically the same, the enemies will keep you from getting bored. For the first 26 levels the enemies are pretty simplistic. At level 27, you’ll encounter an enemy that lays eggs of the opposite color, and if you don’t dispose of the eggs quick enough they’ll hatch, spawning more enemies for you to deal with.

The visuals are what you’d expect from an arcade game such as this. The levels have a psychedelic touch to them with some techno-esque music thrown in to round out the effect. In various levels you’ll find items to help you take out enemies. Both ships must make contact with the item to activate it. Some of the items include a bomb; which takes out nearby enemies, and a razorwire; which has a connecting wire between the two ships and kills anything that gets in the way.

In the end, you might not have too much fun with this game if you’re not playing with a friend, but if you’re playing co-op you’ll have a blast. Schizoid was made using Microsoft’s XNA tools and the finished result is pretty impressive. With the game only costing 800 Microsoft points, ($10) you’ll get a game with a lot of value — just keep in mind that this game is focused around cooperative play.

The best weapon-based fighting has returned with a new entry into the series, Soulcalibur IV. While not much has changed with Soulcalibur IV, that’s not a bad thing at all, and will please series fans. The visuals have been vastly improved, the fighting remains much the same, and the modes you’d expect from a Soulcalibur game return to make this a great package that’s very easy to recommend.

Soulcalibur IV has been made accessible for anyone to pick up and play, while maintaining enough depth for hardcore players. The fighting still remains the same–it’s all about blocking, attacking and dodging at the right times. There aren’t very many lengthy combos to memorize so timing is very important. And as with any other fighting game, you’ll need to defeat your opponent by depleting their health bar or knocking them out of the arena.

Besides just worrying about your health bar, you’ll need to keep an eye on your ‘Soul Gauge’. As you block more and more, the Soul Gauge will change from green to red, and then start flashing. When the gauge is flashing the player will enter a state of ‘Soul Crush’, leaving the player defenseless. Another way to take your opponent’s defense down is by destroying their equipment. If you attack your opponents armor enough, it will break off and decrease that player’s defense. This doesn’t effect the fighting too much, but it is a nice feature and a good visual touch.

There are a number of modes you can play through. The most simple is Arcade mode; which has you go through eight battles, each one increasingly harder than the last. During those fights you can earn points, unlock new characters, arenas, and equipment. Story mode is also included, but is a bit disappointing. You’ll still be unlocking the same things as you would in Arcade mode, but you’ll be fighting more opponents in each battle and following a story with that character. The stories aren’t as good as in previous games though. Aside from the very few cutscenes you’ll see, the majority of the story is told through text. Story mode also seems a little short, even though you are fighting 1-4 opponents per battle.

Aside from Story and Arcade mode, the Tower of Lost Souls will be the main attraction and most challenging. Before you start, you can choose to ascend or descend. If you choose to ascend, you’ll have to go through at least three floors at a time, fighting one battle on each floor. During those battles, you’ll be fighting “boss” characters, who often just have more health and a lot of defense. Choose to descend and you’ll see how many enemies you can defeat with one life bar, similar to a survival mode. The challenge to the Tower of Lost Souls is not being able to regain health after a battle. Every floor has treasure chests you can unlock by meeting a specific requirement in that fight, netting you new armor or weapons. For example, in order to get a treasure chest in one particular battle, you cannot take damage during the fight.

For the first time ever in the series, online play is present. You’ll have two options online, Special Versus or Standard Versus. Special Versus allows players to use their characters customized equipment, weapons, and skills. Standard Versus does not allow customized characters. The online play works well and has virtually no lag.

The roster in Soulcalibur IV is pretty much the same as in III, but of course new additions make an appearance. Most notably, Yoda is playable on the 360 version while Darth Vader is on the PlayStation 3. Darth Vader’s Apprentice also makes an appearance in both versions. Some of the new characters include Shura; who wields dual katanas, Ashlotte; who is basically a big robotic doll with a pole-arm, and Angol Fear; who is about 14,800 years old but looks about 20. You’ll also be able to make your own character, which will have to be based on an existing characters fighting style. Thankfully, all the new characters fit nicely into the Soulcalibur universe and don’t feel like they were an afterthought.

Every character is customizable with different equipment and skills. Everything can be changed from head to toe, hair, skin color, etc. Different pieces of equipment will grant more attack, defense, or HP. You’ll be able to equip four different skills per character. The skill types include Power, Impact, Boost, Gauge, and Special. The skills aren’t very necessary to get through Story or Arcade mode, but once you get deep into the Tower of Lost Souls it’ll be important to manage your skills accordingly.

The visuals in Soulcalibur IV are stunning, and may be the best looking fighting game to date. The detail on the character models is amazing. The detail in the different levels looks great as well. You’ll notice particles floating around, much movement in the background, a nice amount of bloom, along with great lighting. If someone is thrown onto the ground, a small crater will appear and small rocks will be left on the ground. The music in the game sounds great, but may seem a bit over-the-top at times.

Overall, Soulcalibur IV is a fantastic game that needs to be played by any fighting game fan. Whether you’re new to the series or not, it’s great to pick up and play. With downloadable content clearly on the way, there’s enough content to keep you busy for quite some time.

PixelJunk Eden is the third game in the PixelJunk universe, with every edition being completely different than the others. Eden, the newest entry, is all about collecting seeds in a psychedelic garden to grow plants to find new ‘Spectra’. The look and concept of the game might not sound so great, but it needs to be played to be completely understood.

As said before, the whole point is to find Spectra. These Spectra are located around 10 massive gardens, five in each one. Once a Spectra is collected, it goes straight to your Eden and starts growing. Getting to them is not always the easiest task though. You’ll be controlling a little Grimp. He’ll need to find pollen to complete seeds, make said seeds grow, and get higher up in the garden.

Controlling your Grimp is made simple. You use the left analog stick to aim where you want to go, press X and let him fly in that direction. If he comes across a plant, he’ll stick to it. By holding down the X button while in mid-air, he’ll spin and go through plants, not landing on them. While on a plant, simply press the X button ( while not aiming) to release a strand of silk. You’ll be able to spin around in a circle to collect pollen or seeds. Spinning on the silk thread also acts as a radar of sorts, telling you which direction the nearest Specrta is located.

The visuals are both psychedelic and relaxing. Everything is 2D and seems to flow nicely. As you progress further into a garden, you might notice the atmosphere getting brighter, and more enemies looking to stop you. The music also plays a significant part in making the atmosphere of the whole game seem more spacey. Unfortunately, you’re not able to relax too much, as there’s a timer constantly counting down–one of the only negatives of the game.

There’s also a multiplayer aspect in Eden. Three players will take control of three different Grimps and explore gardens together. While it’s only local multiplayer, the game gets much easier as everyone can contribute to collecting pollen.

PixelJunk Eden is a game that needs to be played to be fully appreciated. It’s a wonderful addition to the PixelJunk name and is absolutely worth the $9.99 price tag. While challenge is not absent from this game, addiction will reign supreme and you’ll be coming back for more and more.

Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People is made by Telltale Games - who master in episodic content. Alongside the popular Sam & Max episodes comes a new line of content, Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People. Telltale plans to release five episodic games of Strong Bad, with Homestar Ruiner being the first.

Homestar Ruiner takes place in the Strong Bad world - as you would see it in the online episodes. The game will take you to Marzipan’s house, to Bubs’ Stand, and even the King of Town’s Castle. If you’ve been watching the Homestar Runner episodes, then the game won’t introduce any new environments. At the same time, if you’ve never watched any of the episodes, then some of the locations might not make sense–like The Stick or the Cool Car. Strong Bad will tell you what they’re all about, but you won’t get the full meaning of the locations.

Simply put, this is an item-based game. To get through the game you’ll need find various items and find the correct use for them. For example, you’ll need to order a bottle of ‘Total Load’ from one of your e-mails to frame someone for using illegal pills. Getting the items and putting them to use is not the easiest take since the game doesn’t directly tell you what to do. That’s not to say the game is extremely challenging–you do have the option to change the hints up to high–but I found that it didn’t help too much.

There isn’t much depth here. You point and click to where you want to move and click on items you want to use. The entire game will take about five to seven hours to complete. There are hidden items to find, mini-games to partake in, and a photo booth to dress Strong Bad up in.

Telltale did a fantastic job on getting the dialog right. If you are familiar with Homestar Runner, you’ll see familiar faces saying familiar lines. All the dialog is smart and quirky, while still remaining clean for kids. Everything remains funny throughout the entire story, which unfortunately gets held back by all the item searching. The basic premise of the story is Strong Bad trying to ruin everything for Homestar, who no doubt annoys him. Everything Strong Bad tries to do ends up turning against him and he needs to fix it.

Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People will cost $8.95 and is worth the price. Besides the lack of information with the items, it’s a good game for fans of Homestar Runner. But if you’re coming into this game without any knowledge of what this is about, just beware that there will be a lot of jokes that you won’t understand, draining a lot of the real enjoyment that is to be had from Strong Bad.

If you want to get your first small taste of Fable II, then Fable II Pub Games will give you just that. While gambling your gold away playing three games, you’ll be able earn extra gold and items that you can use in Fable II. The games can be fun and quick to play, but since there are only three games to choose from you might not be playing this for too long.

The Pub Games are all about pushing your luck to win money for your character in Fable II. The first game you can play is called Fortune’s Tower. Once you place your bet, the dealer will start dealing the cards in a pyramid fashion, one row at a time. The total value of the cards determine the value of that row — depending on how much you bet of course. As the number of cards increase in the rows, your chances of winning big get better. This game is the most entertaining and addicting to play.

The second game is Keystone. Keystone is a mixed version of craps and roulette. The table is a half circle with 16 arch stones on the edge with the numbers 3-18 on them. You start off by placing bets on the arch stones and then start inside betting. Inside betting is where you bet on what number will be rolled, if it’s an odd or even number, black or red spot, pair, run, etc. This game is fun to play for a while, but if you play it in a tournament it’ll take a very long time to finish.

The last game to play is Spinnerbox, which is similar to a slot machine. You simply place a bet and spin. Depending on what box you’re using, a certain number of discs will spin; if you get a combo (usually 3 or more) then you win. Note: this is a very fast way to lose all your gold.

There is also a tournament mode to play. Simply choose which of the three games to play and you’ll be placed up against some AI opponents. They’re not that hard to beat, but that doesn’t mean they can’t come up from behind and score thousands of gold.

Fable II’s Pub Games is a neat and fairly unique way to earn gold and items before you play Fable II. It’ll cost you 800 Microsoft points ($10) if you didn’t score yourself a pre-order download code. I wouldn’t say it’s totally worth $10 since there’s only three games to choose from, but it does provide some addicting gameplay and could hold you over until the release of Fable II.

Too Human has been shrouded with bad press. With gaming forums talking both the game and Denis Dyack down, it could of been easy to put this game off to the side. I went into the game with a lot of negativity, but it quickly flew out the window. Too Human, at its core, is a very fun game. With an interesting story, addicting gameplay, and so much loot to wrap your head around, Too Human is absolutely worth giving a shot.

The game’s story is based around Norse mythology but is set in the far flung future. You’ll play as Odin’s son, Baldur, who is basically a Cyber Viking God. Throughout the story you’ll be fighting off hordes of robots and eventually zombies who are attacking your city. The first half of the game will have you watching flashbacks to catch up on what’s been happening. This God named Loki has escaped prison and is out to kill the rest of the Aesir Gods. The whole story will last just over 10 hours and remains pretty interesting throughout, with an ending that sets itself up nicely for a sequel.

Besides the single-player mode, there’s online co-op. You and a friend can fight through hordes of enemies, trade items, and collect loot together. Unfortunately you won’t be able to view any cut-scenes while playing co-op, which might lead you to wonder why you’d even want to do that. The answer is simply the game’s five different character classes. From the Berserker; who specializes in melee combat, to the Champion; a well-rounded fighter, to the Bio Engineer, who acts as a healer class. These different classes all work well together, as one class can always benefit from another. No matter which class you choose to play through in the single-player campaign, it won’t make much of a difference since you’ll mostly be hacking through hundreds of enemies.

As I previously stated, an interesting aspect of the game is that quest for more loot. Almost every piece of loot looks different, something sorely needed in more RPGs, so no two characters will look exactly alike. As you start to ascend to higher levels, the armor and weapons start to look more impressive as you’ll improve on your God-like status. Aside from the loot looking cool, the character models look pretty good themselves. On a close-up shot of Baldur, the blue lines on his face look great. On the down side, facial expressions seem to be non-existent, which hinder in the telling of the story.

The four environments you’ll travel through look pretty good for the most part. One part that sticks out in my mind is the beginning of the last level. Fighting through a horde of zombies while these huge tanks in the background move around and try to shoot down a wall was pretty impressive. Not everything looks good in Too Human though. Some stiff animations, visual clipping, visually rough-looking levels make the graphics seem a tad dated.

The gameplay isn’t very challenging due to the lack of a real death penalty. When you die you’ll be forced to watch a beautiful Valkyrie come down from the sky and carry you up to Valhalla so you can resurrect. This whole scene will take about 10 seconds. Once it’s over, you’ll continue exactly where you left off in the battle. Personally, I’d rather watch that than start over at a checkpoint and re-clear a room. In single-player, you’ll be be teamed up with some AI teammates. They aren’t very smart or useful. Instead, they like to stand back and tell silly jokes about the situation.

The musical score in the game is nice to listen to, but it can become misleading at times. Sometimes when you pick up a certain item or are just running through a room, some over-the-top epic music will start playing, making you think something important is going to happen when, in reality, there’s nothing going on. To help with the lack of facial expressions, the voice acting is good for the most part, but nothing really memorable.

Too Human is not a bad game. It could give you 20 hours of enjoyment if you’ll just let it. It’s best to put all the bad press aside and give the game a shot to see what it’s all about. With downloadable content and a sequel clearly on the way, I recommend giving Too Human a shot.

As more and more RPG’s come along for the Xbox360, they keep getting better. Tales of Vesperia is no exception. This latest Tales game offers a very long story, great looking graphics, good narrative, and enough content to last about 60 hours.

As the case with all Tales games, Vesperia has a long story that involves the world being in danger. The main role is accompanied by Yuri Lowell, an ex-Imperial Knight who lives by doing only what he wants. When the blastia core (magical devices) of the lower quarter gets stolen, Yuri sets off to find the thief and return order to his part of the town once again. Along the way, Yuri runs into characters such as Estelle; a run away princess, and Karol; a monster nerd.

Throughout the story, Yuri and his friends will run into new characters and get into new messes while fixing some along the way.  If not skipping scenes or rushing, the story can last up to 40 hours and wraps up nicely. Similar to other Tales games, the “talking heads” scenes make a return. While they are completly optional, they do give more insight as to what is going on or character opinions on certain issues.

As you travel further into the world of Terca Lumireis, you’ll run into more characters that will join you on your quest. At first you’ll only start off with a few, but later they’ll keep coming one by one. Each character has their own personal goals that they would like to accomplish while on the epic quest. Everyone’s goal is written out well and it can be hard not to care about them. The character relationships can be heartwarming as well. When Yuri and Estelle talk one-on-one you can’t help but smile sometimes.

When looking at the world of Terca Lumireis you’ll find beauty everywhere. The visual style is most similar to Eternal Sonata with the cel-shading, but side-by-side, Tales of Vesperia would look more crisp overall. Some of the cutscenes are completely animated, like an anime show, and look fantastic. While their aren’t a whole lot of those scenes, they can pick up the pace since some of the real time scenes can be a bit lacking.

As you travel more you’ll run into a number of towns. As you enter a new town you’ll need to talk to every party member, who will be scattered around the town. A lot of information comes from these towns, monsters may attack, you might find new friends and possibly new enemies, and more quests. You wont spend too much time in these towns since there aren’t many errands you have run in them.

Tales of Vesperia runs and plays very well. There’s virtually nothing to slow down the pace of the game, as there aren’t any time consuming puzzles or vast arenas you have to run through. Vesperia stays true to the formula of other Tales games. The combat is virtually the same here. It runs in real time and you’ll have a nice sized field to fight in. The default option is auto-targeting enemies while you press the B button to attack, while pressing the A button along with pressing the left analog stick in a direction to perform Artes. Everything looks and flows beautifully in combat and is pretty easy for the most part, though some strategy is required for some later boss fights.

The combat is not all about mashing buttons until you win. There is the option to change the strategy for you three AI-controlled teammates, or have three of your friends pick up controllers to play as them. In later fights, item usage and character placement is imperative. If you’re lucky enough while using an Artes, a green, red or blue decorated circle will appear over the enemy. If you press the right trigger in time you’ll perform a fatal strike. These usually don’t kill an enemy right away, but if it does you’ll be rewarded with more EXP and Gald.

As stated before, Vesperia has other aspects that other Tales games have. For instance if you look carefully enough you’ll find the Wonder Chef, who will give you new recipies for you to cook and you’ll get new Artes as you level and find new weapons. In the end, Tales of Vesperia does not disappoint in the least. It’s refreashing to see an aging series get such a fresh update. While Tales of Vesperia isn’t too much different from the others, it absolutely is the best. It’s one of the best RPG’s on the 360 to date and is worth a purchase.

The Guitar Hero series has taken twists and turns lately. The latest, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, is the first in the series to be based on one band. The game shows how Aerosmith took their rise to fame, taking the player through their first days all the way to the Hall of Fame. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith doesn’t do anything new with the gameplay or visuals but it still is fun to play, provided you like Aerosmith.

The back of the box says the game has over 40 tracks, and it means just that. Toping at 41 songs, the career mode has 31 plus 10 to buy. Most of them are, of course, Aerosmith songs, but you will find some from The Clash, Run DMC and Lenny Kravitz. The career mode is set up differently than the rest of the series. At the beginning of each set you’ll have to play a couple songs from bands that inspired, or just toured with Aerosmith, as if supporting the band as opening acts. After those few opening songs, Aerosmith will take the stage. You’ll find that the majority of the Aerosmith songs are from their earlier stuff, “Sweet Emotion”, “Uncle Salty” and of course there are more recent ones such as “Beyond Beautiful”. “Walk This Way” featuring Run DMC even makes an appearance. Paying full price for 41 songs is a bummer, especially since there won’t be any downloadable content.

All of the six different venues in GH: Aerosmith are real and have some significance with the band. You’ll start at Nipmuc High School, make a stop at the Super Bowl halftime show, and play all the way up to the Hall of Fame. There’s nothing new visually that makes it look better than Guitar Hero III, but it’s all about the details in making Aerosmith look right in the video game. You’ll notice Steven Tyler’s outfits get more crazy after every set, Joe Perry will use the talk box during “Sweet Emotion”, and even Joey Kramer moves fluidly (unlike the Guitar Hero III drummer). The band members look almost realistic, but they have that cartoony Guitar Hero look to them. At the beginning of every set, you can watch a short documentary video which includes the band members talking about the meaning of the venue or what was going on with the band at the time.

The difficulty compared to Guitar Hero III is vast. Skilled players will be able to play through on expert with ease. Some may find it too easy. Hammer-ons and pull-offs seem easier to perform and you won’t find any excruciatingly hard solos to practice and master. Though that doesn’t mean the game lacks any difficulty, “Walk This Way” can get a little tricky towards the end. You will need to get good at some of the songs if you want to get more money to purchase songs, outfits, characters and videos. The game comes equipped with online leaderboards so you can see where you stack up with other players.

If you’ve played Guitar Hero III, you’re more than likely familiar with the multiplayer options. All of those return in GH: Aerosmith. You’ll be able to play cooperatively with another player, which has one person playing lead guitar and the other with rhythm or bass. If you want to test your skills with another player, Face-off will have you alternate parts of the song and each player will be able to choose their difficulty. Pro Face-off has players playing the whole song on the same difficulty level. Unfortunately, Battle mode returns. Instead of star power, you’ll receive attacks to throw at your opponent such as a broken string, an over-loaded amp, or double notes. It’s still not fun. Luckily this time around you’ll only be forced to play it once against Joe Perry. Even if you fail a few times, you’ll have the option to skip it and continue on to beat the game.

With fun songs to play, video documentaries to watch, leaderboards to climb and Run DMC, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is overall a good game. Aerosmith fans will adore this game while others may loathe it. It seems like they could of easily replaced some of the solo Joe Perry songs with other Aerosmith hits, or just add a bunch more songs in general. It’s hard to justify the $60 purchase price with only 41 songs and straight up lack of content. If you like Aerosmith, by all means pick this game up. But if you’re looking for something more than Aerosmith songs in a Guitar Hero game, you may want to pass.