The 'Hitman: Absolution - Sniper Challenge' is Quite Lovely

I usually pay little attention to pre-order bonuses, not caring about a poster or some in-game outfit I'd never wear, but Hitman: Absolution - Sniper Challenge is a rare exception that grabbed my attention immediately. Sniper Challenge is a little mini-game, a non-demo demo, a taste of Hitman without representing the actual retail game, at least the majority of the retail game. It's not the first pre-order bonus of its kind—Fable II Pub Games says hi—but it's still a rarity and something I'd like to see more of.

Now the game itself is a single-level sniper challenge with leaderboards and about a dozen or so challenges that increase the score multiplier upon completion. It's extremely simple upon first viewing, but it's full of so many small details and different ways of accomplishing the various goals and challenges. You can shoot a guard as he's leaning over an edge to knock him off the building, taking him out and hiding his body in one quick shot—ignore the commotion that would come as said body hits the ground; you can shoot out this or that to cause a distraction; and plenty more I don't want to mention because much of the fun comes in trial, error, and the discovery of something unexpected.

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Save and Save Often in Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

Minecraft on the Xbox 360 is the popular girl in school right now and even I managed to get sucked in despite owning the PC version and knowing the XBLA version is a year-old build. I love building whatever I want with no set goals and the tension caused by the potential loss of hours of work from a creeper exploding, sending lava or water flooding throughout my ADHD-created mine; it keeps the game exciting. What doesn't keep the game exciting, however, is losing hours and hours of work because the game kicked me to the main menu.

I was indeed kicked and it might as well been a kick to the balls, my blocky, pixelated balls. At first I thought all was well as the game claims to autosave whenever a certain icon pops on screen, but I learned the hard way that the autosave system is either a lie or broken. Hopefully this little problem will be patched and patched soon, but until then, I recommend you save and save often if you're one of the million people already playing Minecraft on the Xbox 360.

Thomas Was Alone - Final Stages Crowdfunding

Thomas was alone, but he didn't want to be. He thought of a solution that could keep him from needing to grab a loan—not that there's anything wrong with loans—and that solution looked an awful lot like friendship, a friendship started without the use of kicking.

 Now that I've had my fun with words, it's time to get serious my fellow ladies and gentlemen. Thomas Was Alone is a puzzle platformer I enjoyed when it first showed its face years ago as a simple flash game and I'm really excited to see the concept and beautiful minimalist art refined into a full-fledged game—I'm excited to the point where I made two posters a while back just because I felt like it. But as the game starts inching closer and closer to release there are expenses that need to be paid and this is where you can lend a hand.

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Tony - The Darkness II

Ronotra Koss - Sine Mora

Random Doll - Stacking

Review: Sine Mora (XBLA)

I am a fan of shoot 'em ups, a casual fan, a fan who won't stand at the top of any leaderboards in the near, far, or any-point-in-time future. That said, I do love 'em and love seeing the genre continue to thrive and shoot up the present with a hefty amount of support via all platforms, from handhelds to PCs to consoles, and now with the recently released Sine Mora, a new shoot 'em up co-developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade.

The game is beautiful and colorful, full of variety, and does a great job of keeping the visuals fresh with constant jumping between different areas. As hectic as things may get on screen, the game area is always clear and I never once got confused as to what was going on. Accompanying the visuals is a subtle atmospheric score and the sound design in general is rather lovely and only adds to the somewhat haunting atmosphere brought about by the more serious story. Speaking of the story, the previously mentioned jumping between areas is great for keeping the visuals fresh, but it does muddle up the story which, a far as shoot 'em ups go, isn't that bad.

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Adolf - The Darkness II

Garcia - Shadows of the Damned

Kinnison - Suikoden II