John Elliott
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COGConnected Latest Reviews
Some of you may have had the same reaction I had when I first found out about #IDARB and that is “What the frak is #IDARB?” With some research I discovered it stands for “It Draws a Red Box” and from my understanding the creators of the game crowd sourced a bunch of ideas from Twitter and #IDARB was the end result. #IDARB is one of those games hard to describe as it is a love child of Rugby, Basketball, and 8-bit graphics along with a healthy dose of speed and cocaine to kick it up a notch. This game is so freaking insane if you jump in head first you will not only feel like a moron, you will look like one too.
First things first, you are provided with a choice of which Warframe to play as. You can choose from three starter types including the Excalibur warframe for complete newbies or Loki & Mag warframes which are for more experienced players with each offering up different play styles. Your warframe can always be switched out later on in the game too. Once you choose you start off in a tutorial mode to help you get adjusted to the gameplay particulars including controls and some of the storyline to make things part a bit more interesting. The real tricky part about the tutorial is actually getting into the actual missions as it took a painstakingly long amount of time and was constantly bugged with numerous disconnects and freezes. A handful of times I actually had to reboot the game completely, and that in itself added additional time as the game goes through its loading sequence including checking for new content. To say this was incredibly frustrating is an understatement, especially when I just wanted jump into the game and kill some enemies.
When our Editor in Chief sent me the code for an XBLA title called CastleStorm the name had me intrigued, but also had me wondering what the heck did I get myself in to? After downloading the title I booted it up and was pleasantly surprised to see the Zen Studios logo prominently displayed on the introductory screens. For those of you not familiar with the studio they are best known for their work on Pinball FX2 and the many tables created for this great pinball simulator. As a huge fan of Pinball FX2, and seeing that Zen Studios was the developer of this latest XBLA title, I had high hopes for CastleStorm as it was a title that was made by a developer I had faith in.