Video Games Today

This week's "Deal of the Week" for Xbox 360 Owners is Bionic Commando Rearmed for only 400 Microsoft Points.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

Download Link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/games/offers/00000001-0000-4000-8000-0000584108f1?cid=SLink

With the release of the Primetime feature and "1 vs 100" rapidly approaching for Xbox Live Gold Members, a new trailer has been released from the Microsoft Vaults. This particular trailer shows a sneak peak at some of the possible prizes. These prizes, as expected, are redeemable items on the XBL marketplace. For example some of the prizes shown include 40,000 Microsoft Points, 800 Microsoft Point Arcade Games, etc. Hit the jump for the video.

Here is a link to Joystiq's article on the prizes (With a video included): Click Me!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

The Halo Wars demo has hit the XBL Marketplace and we have our demo impressions for you. Halo Wars was developed by Ensemble Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. The game is a Xbox 360 exclusive title and releases March 3rd in North America. Hit the jump for my impressions.



The demo gives you the opportunity to play 2 missions in the human campaign, and play unlimited amounts of 1v1 skirmish matches versus the computer. I'll start off with the campaign. Your army is on the UNSC ship the Spirit of Fire orbiting the planet Harvest. Your first mission is a basic tutorial on how to move around and fight. You are then given a hero unit and you set off on the missions. The missions are nothing to scream about, the main part of this demo is the skirmish mode.

Skirmish mode allows you to play as both the covenant and the UNSC, but you must use the preselected leader. For the covenant you can be the Prophet of Regret and for the UNSC you can be the Captain of the Spirit of Fire. Each leader (Six total in retail game; 3 UNSC/ 3 Covenant) has unique units, bonuses, powers, upgrades, perks, etc. to help define their play style. The Captain can use an orbital "sniper bomb" known as the MAC Bomb. With the MAC bomb you pinpoint an area and deal major damage in that small Area of Effect. The Prophet of Regret can use his power to destroy enemies quickly. The prophet, who is a decent fighter/defender early game, can call down a "holy beam" for 10 resources a second to nearly "insta-kill" and units found under it. He also has the unique Honor Elite Guards. These are basically Elites equipped with only energy swords and can cloak to sneak around. From what I tested they are only good to make an early rush with or defend from an early rush. Once the opposing side has middle tier units they are useless, except to be canon fodder.

The demo does not include all units or all of the tech tree so it is hard to estimate how deep this game will be, but from the demo it looks deep enough to keep you interested but will look like a flat experience to hardened PC RTS fans. Another issue is the controls. Many sites have critically acclaimed the controls, but I beg to differ. Sure, the controls work for a console, but there are many useless things maped to buttons that could be used better off. For example, you can use the right trigger to jump between bases and when you pass one and want to go back, you'd click the left trigger...right? Wrong. The left trigger is used to increase scroll speed accross the map. Sure, the increased speed is nice, but could have been implemented much better. They could have just made the scoll speed gradually increase as you scroll, for larger maps.

Overall, Halo Wars looks like a step in the right direction for a console RTS, but it is not the final step. Future console RTS should use Halo Wars as a model, but expand on it. Think of Halo Wars as the skeleton, we just need to add the muscle to it now. Also, after playing EndWar, lack of voice commands seems like a step backwards for a console RTS. I would have really liked to see Ensemble add an option for voice commands for tedious controls, that would free up the controller even more for a deeper experience.

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

With the recent storm of DLC for the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, you can never have too many Microsoft Points. Here at VGToday never run out of these precious points because we found a website that gives you loads of free gifts, like MS Points, for just doing simple 5 minute surveys! Here's our guide.

First, you need to sign up on the website with your real email address (And if you want to get free video games and consoles off this site you will need to enter your real address as well). Here is the link: Click Here!. (If the link is broken or does not work make a comment and we will fix it promptly!)

Now, after signing up log in and click the "Offers" link, then you will see a list of surveys to do. To make it easy on yourself click the filter option that says "Free". All 200+ surveys under this tab are FREE, and just take minutes of your time!

Here is the guide for doing surveys fast and easy. Download RoboForm, Roboform fills out the personal information segments for you instantly. Remember, for surveys, you do NOT need your REAL information. Just create an email account to use for these surveys, because the surveys send alot of Spam! Now, after the first two pages of the survey using Roboform, you can either click "No" on all the next pages which can take about 5 minutes or you can use this nifty bot to do it for you!

Download the bot here: Click Here! To use the bot, you must extract the .rar file using WinRAR then drag and drop the .xpi file onto an open Firefox window to install the add on. This will do the survey for you after the first 2 pages of Roboform.

If you do not use firefox or cannot under stand how to use this bot, just click "No" on all offers during the surveys yourself.

Have any questions, issues, a broken link/download, etc.? Leave a comment and we'll fix it!

Enjoy!
The VGToday Crew

Banjoo-Kazooie, the 1998 platformer hit, is now delayed until December 3rd for release on the Xbox Live Arcade. The game will feature a new control scheme, compared to the original Nintendo 64 game, and HD graphics. There will be no there will be no additional content that was not on the original game. Microsoft says they delayed the release, from November 26th, because of problems with pro-orders of the full retail Banjo game, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. People that preordered the full game, got a code for the XBLA for free, 2 weeks before the public release of the XBLA game. Due to shipping errors, and the codes not arriving to many costumers, Microsoft is extending the "Exclusivity" period another week. Once again, the game will be available via XBLA on December 3rd for 1200 Microsoft Points (15$ USD).

• Gears of War 2; Xbox 360
• Resistance 2; Playstation 3
  
• James Bond: Quantum of Solace; Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 3, Playstation 2
  
• Tom Clancy's EndWar; Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PSP
  
• Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm; Playstation 3
• Legendary; Xbox 360
• Secret Service; Xbox 360
• Valkyria Chronicles; Playstation 3
• Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World; Playstation 2