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Join Wordsworth the Owl on his mission to solve “KrissX®”-ed word puzzles, for the first time on Xbox LIVE Arcade! Switch around letters to complete mind boggling terms and use helpful hints to achieve reward badges and high scores. Venture through 150 c
Games are given points from 1st = 10 points to 10th = 1 point.
Points are tallied through the month.
You can change the order of you favourite games from month to month.
Developers can vote for their own game.
You do not need to send in ten games for your votes to count. You can send in any number of games. See below to see how points are calculated.
Race for Favourite Game of Year
This is a little more complicated.
The race is calculated thus.
The current month is added to previous months, but previous months are not worth their full points.
For example the previous month is only worth 11/12 of its points, 2 months before are only worth 10/12 of it’s points right down to 11 months ago being worth 1/12 of it’s points.
If you send in a list of less than 10 games the points are given out accordingly. For example if you send in 9 games the number one game will only get 9 points. If you send in 6 games your top game will only get 6 points.
The minimum score your favourite game will get is 5 points. For example, if you send in a list containing three games the points will be allocated 1st. 5 points, 2nd 4 points, 3rd 3 points.
There are currently no prizes for sending in your top ten, this is for fun and to give consumers an idea of what games to try.
Welcome to the first in a series of articles on XboxHornet, looking at the courses available in Easy Golf Course Architect. Today we will be looking at Desert Oasis designed by Nicholas (gamer tag Shake N Baco).
Desert Oasis comes with the latest update of Easy Golf, so if you haven’t got this course available, you need to re-download the game as community games do not have automatic updates.
Later in the series we will be looking at some of the courses available to download for free from the Easy Golf community, a feature that will keep you coming back to Easy Golf again and again.
Nicholas was kind enough to answer some questions for XboxHornet, first off we asked where he got the idea for the design of Desert Oasis?
“The reason why I wanted to create a Desert Theme course was because of the Mario Golf series to be honest. I loved the Mario Golf series throughout the years, and something they always had was a Desert Course. Desert Courses where something really challenging to do, but luckily thanks to some new improvements to the Easy Golf editor, it was a breeze to make. Personally, I wanted to create my course with a lot of sand dunes. I love the idea, of having to hit around these giant monstrosities of nature (Or over the dunes on the second par 5). I felt like it added a lot to the starting 6 courses, showing players you can do “theme” courses”
Having only dabbled so far with the course architect, we thought we would ask the expert if he had any tips for aspiring course designers?
“I think one of the biggest mistakes when using the course editor is making the greens. I notice many users create greens, and they are near impossible to putt on. I suggest setting a certain height marker, and place about 10-20 markers all around and throughout your green (All the same height of course). Now if you want to make a few hills, grab the existing markers and slightly change the elevation. After this test the green with several putts. Make sure you don’t roll all the way off the green, because that is no fun for anyone. Of course, everyone has their own way of doing things, but I like to put a lot of markers especially on my greens.
My second tip is: Be creative, have fun and design what you want.”
We would have to agree with Nicholas that making the putting too hard is no fun for anyone, we love the way that his courses challenge you to get to the green in regulation, then reward your effort with gettable putts. Gettable, but they have some very subtle inclines that can catch you out!
Our last question to Nicholas was how it came to be that his courses were included in the final version of Easy Golf?
“Let’s just say I was a dedicated fan, and it was my lucky day.
I was always a huge fan of Mario Golf, and other golf games, and something I always wanted to do was create my own courses. I had to settle for Sid Meier’s Sim Golf to satisfy this craving for the longest time. When community games came available, I quickly notice a golf game, and to my pleasant surprise it had an editor. Let’s just say, I played Sim Golf for several years, but I will be playing Easy Golf for even longer.”
So now let’s take a look at Desert Oasis and see what Nicholas has designed and how it plays.
As the name would suggest, sand, cacti, palm trees and the occasional watering hole are the order of the day.
Hole 1: Paradise
With this long par three, accuracy is the key. The small green is surrounded by sand and water and if you want to stay out of the drink pay close attention to the wind and make sure you hit the sweet spot in the hitting zone.
Hole 2: Hot Dog Leg Right
This par four is a dog leg right with massive dunes to the right of the tee. You can hit over these, but it is unlikely that it will be to your advantage. Head for the corner and you have a good line into the green, if you can cut some of the corner off by going over the end of the dune, you’ll have an easier shot in. The green has no rough round it, so don’t worry too much about missing it.
Hole 3: Hot Sun
A tough par four, if you are not accurate enough to hit the tiny patch of fairway on the left of the huge dune it’s going to be difficult to hit the green in regulation. You can take the right hand route, but this has a lot of palm trees to contend with. When you add to this the fact that the green is protected by sand and rough, getting par here is a good result.
Hole 4: Overheating
This Par five is a definite birdie opportunity, but first you have to avoid the two huge dunes with your tee shot (not easy). A little bit of fade will help and with a little luck you’ll have a long second shot into the green, although the fairway is loaded either side with palm trees so make sure you hit that sweet spot.
Hole 5: Toast is also Hot
As long as you don’t hit the well placed tree in the centre of the fairway on this par four, you’ll have a good line into the small green which is surrounded by sand, good luck staying out of it.
Hole 6: Deep Fried
This par four looks harder than it is – if you take a little power off and play safe by making sure you hit the fairway you should have an easier shot into the green.
Hole 7: Over the Dune
If you want to reach the green of this par five in three, you’ll have to make sure that you hit the fairway with your drive. You then have the choice of trying to hit it over the dune or onto the small patch of fairway on top of it. When you play your shot into the elevated green make sure that you hit the back of it to avoid rolling down onto the fairway.
Hole 8: Hole 8
To get to this par four green in regulation, make sure you hit the left hand side of the fairway, otherwise you’ll find yourself having to lay up or trying to take on the massive dune to get to the elevated green.
Hole 9:
With this very long par three be careful to take the wind into account if you want to stay on the wide but shallow green – some backspin may help too.
Overall impressions:
Desert Oasis is a course that despite its desert nature is very scenic thanks to the huge dunes and palm trees.
It’s a challenging course with not too many birdie opportunities, but with practice it’s very rewarding. We liked the fact that you have to make subtle use of fade to leave yourself in prime positions on some of the holes.
Desert Oasis gets the thumbs up from the XboxHornet blog and it is a course that we have found ourselves coming back to time and again.
Nicholas has two other courses on the full version of Easy Golf: Robot Retreat and White Mountain C.C., just look out for those designed by Shake N Baco.
Other Shake N Baco courses available to download via course sharing are Green Pines, Robot Dunes, Red Club, Joe Joe Heights, Apple Crest, Pro Open, Mountain View (Front & Back 9) and Sea Resort (Front & Back 9)
If anyone out there has a course that they would like to share with XboxHornet and the world please email us at:
Snake 360 on the XBLCG has had an update-listed below are the new features;
“Version :
1.1.0 – New 2-player mode added: Competition Mode! Choose any unlocked course and face off against a rival. You will play one life on each stage. If you survive the stage you’ll receive the time bonus. Win or lose, you’ll go to the next stage, and continue until all 10 are played. Highest score at the end wins.
– New 1-player mode added: Practice Mode! Choose any unlocked course, and pick a stage for practice. You can only select a course’s Extra Stages if you’ve at least reached the first.
– Marathon Mode now awards a bonus for lives left upon clearing stage 60. The value depends on the difficulty you’re playing: Easy: 100000. Normal: 125000. Difficult: 150000. Expert: 175000. Master: 200000. I have decided NOT to clear the leaderboards.
– USB keyboard support added. ENTER = Start, ESC = Back, arrow keys/WASD for movement. To use the keyboard, press ENTER during attract mode. Multiplayer is disabled while using the keyboard.
– “Cheat” debug menu added. Hold buttons (which? it’s a secret!) as the intro screens end (”Aaron Teplitsky Presents”). Instead of attract mode, you will see a menu fade in with two functions: Unlock All (self-explanatory), and Disable Profiles, which disables loading/saving and prevents players from having to sign in. This mode is ideal for party settings.
– fixed bug where “how to play” window for first-timers would re-appear if the game was paused.
– Occasionally, the game would crash while trying to save profiles in multiplayer modes, because it believed that the player had signed out and the save could not occur. Now, If this situation occurs, the game will put up a notification saying that the save failed, but will continue running. If you encounter this, I recommend that you quit to the main menu, then sign in all players again before continuing. If you still encounter this error often, you are encouraged to use the Debug Menu cheat and activate Disable Profiles.
– Normal is now the default difficulty, not Easy.
– Changed color of some of the text in the “How To Play” screen for first-timers, to help point out that the face button control method is best.
– Rich presence strings (AKA spy on your friends) are more accurate than before.
– Target appearance in the “How To Play” attract mode demo was slightly wrong and was fixed.
The latest version is 1.1.0, released on February 27th, 2009.
To upgrade, download Snake360 from the Game Marketplace again. There is no “auto-update” feature for Community Games. For best results, delete the old version first (go to System Settings > Memory > Hard Drive > Community Games). Delete only the game itself, easily identifiable by its size. Leave the save files, as the new version should recognize them without issues.
You can check what version you have by looking in the bottom-left corner of the screen during Attract Mode. You will see the string “XBLCG VERSION x.x.x,” where x.x.x is the version number you’re currently running.
Note: There is only one difference in scoring between 1.1.0 and earlier versions. It affects Marathon Mode only.”
In Tomato Blaster you will have to collect all of the coins and make your way to the exit but in doing so you will be presented with a number of puzzles to solve including Bombs, Gates, Cannons and an evil Mango! Or make your own levels using the game builder.
Tomato blaster looks like a solid puzzle game, if you have bought it we would love to here your opinions. You can email us at xboxhornet@gmail.com
Right off I am going to say that Barf and beer on XBLCG is going to split opinion right down the middle. For some it´s going to be considered a piece of puerile/vulgar tripe. While others are going to find it a hilarious experience.
Either way it is going to get people talking. The object of the game is to drink a pint of beer as quickly as possible, but you´ll need to burp to fit in all that beer or else you´ll barf.
In essence it´s a button bashing game that is very simple and in single player mode did not hold much attraction for me.
Get a few mates round and there are more than a few laughs to be had for your 200 MS points. The one part of the game that got more belly laughs than any other was where when someone burps, you can punch them to make them sick. Believe it or not this bought into play quite a few tactics, team up or die would be my tip.
Now I have to say this game is not for kids and has a community rating to show that, so parents, stop being fools and turn on your family settings – and stop buying your 12year old GTA while you are at it!
We had a chance to ask Dan Haffner what was his inspiration for making Barf and Beer. Here is what he had to say;
“The main inspiration was the fire-building game in Caveman Games for the NES! It was basically a button-tapping game, with the twist that you could interact with the other player by clubbing them on the head! Back when I was about twelve my friend Brian and I played the fire-building game for hours, and it stuck with me to this day how adding the ability to interfere with your opponent’s button-tapping made the game more fun and intense. There are probably more recent games that have this gameplay mechanic, but Caveman Games was the first that I remember. When I got the opportunity to use Game Studio I thought it would be fun to make something edgy, since I’ve always been accused of stepping over the line. So I decided to make a drinking game, which fortunately could make great use of similar gameplay!”
I think Dan´s higher education may have played a part too. Only joking.
Well, Barf or Beer is indeed vulgar, so if you don´t like the name of the game I suggest you steer well clear. I for one am happy to see the widest variety of games possible on XBLCG, after all that is why MS made the service available. It is just a pity that it is only available in the US at the moment.
Featured XBLIG No.2
Banana Split is a 2D Puzzle/Platformer set in the exciting world of BREAKFAST! You play as Ben Ana, a banana with a top hat and a mission. That mission is to stop the unhealthy breakfast foods from turning breakfast into a bad meal. Ben will jump on heads
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