Children have no problem making their own fun.  Give them a few outdated toys, a handful of couch cushions, or a backyard, and a child will use their imagination as the catalyst to somehow create something entertaining for themselves.  This is an ability that’s likely lost on most people as they age, but Double Fine Happy Action Theater is a quick and enjoyable return to form.

DFHAT is a composition of 18 scenarios, the vast majority of which impose no goal or direction on the player.  The game simply provides a setting and lets the player make their own fun.  Smashing a city and swatting at helicopters a la King Kong, or feeding and subsequently scaring a group of pigeons is surprisingly cathartic when you aren’t prodded to do these things; rather, you do them because you can.

It’s immediately clear that while developing DFHAT, Double Fine made sure to place an emphasis on accommodating the way kids would play it.  DFHAT has no menus that are necessary to play the game; each situation starts as soon as the last one ends, and they cycle endlessly.  There is no drop in/drop out process to go through; players can join and quit DFHAT seamlessly and the game does a great job acclimating accordingly.  Lastly, each scenario only carries on for a few minutes, which is probably on par with the attention span of most children.

While the functionality of DFHAT is tailored to children, it doesn’t mean that the game is made exclusively for them.  Adults will be able to find enjoyment in each of the scenarios at least a couple of times through, and it certainly works better as a party game than a solo endeavor.  However, it seems that adding young ones to the equation will make for exponentially more opportunities to replay the game.

Ultimately, it’s near impossible to provide a review for a game that doesn’t strive to be a game.  DFHAT quite competently puts all the pieces in place for players to have fun, but it’s up to the players to make something of those pieces.  So, in lieu of a collection of deep statements about where the developer succeeded or failed, all I can really offer is that I had fun while playing DFHAT, which must mean that I was doing something right.

While the nitty gritty details surrounding the Xbox Live Arcade House Party have been slowly trickling down the grapevine for weeks, the last specifics were finally revealed today by, the host with the most, Microsoft.

The emphasis of the announcement may have been on the releases and their prices, but Microsoft also confirmed that the guests with the best attendance will receive a parting gift for their dedication.  Anyone that purchases all four House Party games will get a nice 800 MS Point kickback.

Here is the full list of games, release dates, and prices:

• February 15 – Warp – 800 MSP
• February 22 – Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – 1200 MSP
• February 29 – Nexuiz – 800 MSP
• March 7 – I Am Alive – 1200 MSP

Anyone interested in learning more about any of these titles would be well-advised to check out this post which gives a bit of a description about each one.

Mr. Hawk’s long-running video game franchise is getting a reinvention of sorts this summer.  The next installment of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater will be an amalgamation of the series’ first two titles, in an effort to revitalize the skating legend’s brand by taking it back to its roots.

Recently, the first seven levels to be included in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD were announced.  All seven courses are fan favorites and sure to resonate when the game’s released.  The revealed levels are:

• Warehouse
• School 2
• Mall
• Phoenix
• Hangar
• Marseilles
• Venice

As an aside, the screens that were released confirm the inclusion of Rodney Mullen, Nyjah Huston, and, of course, Tony Hawk.

As we get closer and closer to the agonizingly ambiguous “2012″ release date for the highly anticipated Trials Evolution, the folks at Inside Xbox have conducted an interview with RedLynx Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Jason Bates to help quell the anxiety.  Bates drew attention to a lot of the same things that we did in our preview, such as the mentality behind multiplayer races, the outdoor environments, and the inclusion of Skill Games.

We’ve contacted RedLynx about whether they have a more concrete release date in mind.  We’ll be sure to update you on the off-chance that they do.

I hate overly negative reviews.  They don’t do anything but discourage developers from venturing out and taking a shot at creating something that could be truly special.  Behind every game are thousands of hours of manpower, and it’s unfair to venomously and unjustifiably rip a game to shreds in the interest of creating waves.  That being said, you must trust me that this review isn’t overly negative; it’s properly negative.

AMY is bad.  Terrible, in fact.  It’s a veritable Murderer’s Row of poor game design elements heaped on top of a hazy narrative.  It’s been a long time since the games industry has experienced a title this offensively awful, and the one good thing to come from AMY‘s existence is that maybe good games will be more appreciated in its wake.

AMY follows the story of a woman named Lana who finds herself in a temporary parental role to Amy, an autistic 8-year old girl.  As they’re travelling by train, an explosion derails them and thrusts them squarely into the zombie apocalypse.  This is all established in the opening cut scene, and it’s the clearest the plot ever gets.

The most disappointing aspect of AMY‘s shortcomings is that it was built around a genuinely interesting concept that had a ton of potential.  If VectorCell were able to achieve a narrative that was emotionally charged and focused on the mutually symbiotic relationship between Lana and Amy, it would’ve inspired the player to wade through the severely lacking gameplay in the interest of reaching a conclusion to the game’s narrative.  Instead, the story carries so little weight and the mechanics falter so profoundly that the player feels no investment in the characters and is easily (and almost constantly) detached from the experience altogether.

The most egregious of AMY‘s missteps is how it controls.  While it doesn’t have an excessive number of movements and actions, the controls are laid out in the most unintuitive way imaginable.  It left me routinely delaying several seconds while I tried to remember simple commands such as how to run.  However, just because the proper buttons were pushed doesn’t mean that AMY will actually respond.  Regularly, the game would stubbornly refuse to obey inputs; it would usually take a third or fourth try, a change of the camera angle, or a slight step forward for the game to comply.

Touted as a horror survival game, AMY puts more emphasis than is customary on combat.  Unfortunately, the combat system is also (unshockingly) sluggish and broken.  Battling the infected monsters is nothing more than an exercise in chance and tedium, as the player has no discernible control over Lana’s wild flailing attacks and her spotty dodging.  This, coupled with the fact that it’s incredibly difficult to use syringes that restore health while engaged in a fight make dying a deplorable inevitability.

By far the most frustrating and baffling facet of AMY‘s game design is the omission of regular auto-save points. The spotty controls and unpredictable camera swings lead to a lot of unwarranted deaths.  A bit of self-awareness on the developer’s part by adding gracious checkpoints could have gone a little ways toward salvaging any shred of dignity that AMY could muster.  As it is, dying will set you back a long ways, sometimes three-quarters of a chapter.  It’s completely inexcusable for a game to subject the player to the same 20 minutes of unbearable stretches of level, time and time again, due solely to its own incompetence.  It’s also the reason that the vast majority of players, including myself, will never finish this game.

After only a few hours with AMY, it’s evident that this is the most intolerable, infuriating, and inexcusable title in recent memory.  While it may have been passable in 2002, it certainly has no place in 2012.  This game has absolutely no redeeming features and is nothing short of a train wreck, as maybe the opening cinematic was inadvertently foreshadowing.  The best thing that we can do now is to move forward without looking back, and just pretend that AMY never happened.

Given the requirements necessary to earn “Seriously 3.0″, we knew that Epic Games isn’t exactly interested in handing out easy Gamerscore in Gears of War 3.  However, “Fenix Rising”, the game’s third DLC pack, adds another achievement that’s going to serve as an arduous uphill climb for anyone striving for a 100% on their Gamercard.

The arrival of “Fenix Rising” brings a new feature called “re-upping” — the ability to reset the level to 1 after reaching level 100.  In essence, it’s the equivalent of Call of Duty’s prestige ranks.  One of the “Fenix Rising” achievements requires players to re-up after level 100.  Sure, that’s a tall task, but certainly reasonable.  However, another achievement requires re-upping a second time.

That’s right, if you want full Gamerscore in Gears of War 3, you’ll need to hit the level cap twice.  Given this turn of events, we don’t think it’d be unreasonable for Cliff Bleszinski to fly to the houses of everyone with a 100% in Gears of War 3 and give them a big congratulatory hug.

Here’s the full “Fenix Rising” achievement set:

• Now They Begin To Understand - Complete all 12 waves of Beast on all Fenix Rising maps. 20G
• Defending The Past - Complete all 50 waves of Horde on any of the Fenix Rising maps. 25G
• Come To Poppa! - Win a Versus multiplayer match as a team of five Recruit Claytons (any mode). 15G
• Locust, Forever! - Win a Versus multiplayer match as a team of five Savage Marauders (any mode). 15G
• Time To Re-up! - Achieve level 100 and choose to re-up for another tour of duty. 50G
• Again! - Achieve level 100 a second time and choose to re-up for another tour. 50G
• I’ve Done It All! - Earn at least one of each of the original 132 combat ribbons. 75G

Source: Xbox360Achievements

With the new year in full swing, Xbox Live Indie Games developers are getting a few new policies that will hopefully make their games more accessible to the general public.  As outlined on the XNA Game Studio Team Blog, there are three major changes in effect.

First, the maximum size limit has been dramatically increased.  In the past, Indie Games were capped at 150 MB, but that’s been upped to 500 MB today.  Additionally, the pricing ranges for Indie Games has been altered.  Any title that’s under 150 MB can now be priced at 80 MSP, whereas the cutoff for $1 games used to be at 50 MB.  Titles that are over 150 MB need to be priced at either 240 MSP or 400 MSP.  Lastly, Indie Games developers can now develop a maximum of 10 games on the App Hub as opposed to the old restriction of 8 games.

Source: XNA Game Studio Team Blog

For the most part, the Kinect, Microsoft’s little nodding robot camera peripheral, has seen its fair share of family-friendly titles that don’t necessarily aim to incite controversy.  The glaring exception to that rule is last September’s Rise of Nightmares, a Sega title that finally added blood, gore, and dismemberment to the Kinect’s résumé.

Anyone looking for a sample of Rise of Nightmares‘ wares will surely be interested in the free demo released today.  The rest of you that may be a bit more adverse to the grotesque nature of the game, stick to the Kinectimals that you know and love; we heard there’s even bears now.

[Rise of Nightmares Demo] 334MB

Fueled by Ramen, one of the biggest emo-pop labels in the music industry, is getting the red carpet treatment by Harmonix next week, as six of their most popular bands see their tracks landing in the Rock Band library.  Those unfamiliar with Fueled by Ramen may know some of their bands such as Paramore, Panic! at the Disco, and Cobra Starship.  The occasion is celebration of Fueled by Ramen’s 15th anniversary since being founded in 1996.

The entire pack will be available on December 27 for 800 Microsoft Points.  The complete set of tracks is as follows:

• Cobra Starship – “You Make Me Feel…”
• Gym Class Heroes – “Stereo Hearts”
• Panic! at the Disco – “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”
• Paramore – “Pressure”
•  Sublime With Rome – “Panic”
• Travie McCoy – “Billionaire”

The Kid was minding his own business, just wading through a sea of bargain bin deals.  The whispers around town proclaimed that the impending new year was reason to celebrate.  Gems that would usually cost a pretty penny were suddenly cheap.  Real cheap.  The Kid stumbled across a game that told his own tale — something called “Bastion”.  The Kid knew his story was the stuff of legend.  Some even declared it “Best Downloadable Game” and “Best Original Score”, but The Kid was never one to toot his own horn.  No, not when others would toot it for him.

Download Bastion for 600 MSP (50% Off) Today Only!