Download Games Roundup
StarDrone! Oddbox! Pix! TorchLight! Cogs!
Torchlight
- Xbox Live Arcade - 1200 Microsoft Points (£10.20) - Trailer
- Previously released on PC and Mac - Steam £14.99
Another port? Yes, I know this week's roundup feels like a celebration of The Download Hits of 2009, but when you're talking about something specifically designed to take away the cravings for Diablo III you can forgive us for covering old ground.
Whether you can forgive Runic for essentially going over old ground with Torchlight probably depends on how much you hanker after its horribly addictive dungeon-crawling formula.
As Alec astutely observed in his original review, it's a kill n' collect that offers nothing new or original. But, my God, it's nigh on impossible to stop playing the blimmin' thing once you're sucked in.
The trick is in the almost incessant rewards and the tight level construction. This game never bores the player with useless padding. Almost every step of the journey is an action-packed frenzy of combat, made all the more enjoyable thanks to the fact you're accompanied by a pet the entire time.
With so much booty to hoover up and endless upgrades to consider, it barely matters that the whole thing's completely hollow and inconsequential - it's the old Bungie 30-seconds-of-fun-over-and-over formula, in abundance.
Given Blizzard's determination to make us wait as long as possible for Diablo III, you may as well sink it into a game that eats time for breakfast.
8/10
Cogs
- Mac App Store - £2.99 (currently 50 per cent off) - Trailer
- Previously released on PC (Steam - £6.99), iPhone (currently free) and iPad (£1.79)
As part of Chillingo's well-oiled plan to conquer the world and every device in it, delicious puzzle charmer Cogs has now found itself a fourth home.
As the title handily suggests, this is another one of those insidious little offerings that attempts to break your brain via the wonders of cog placement.
But rather than allow you to freely lay down a bunch of parts of different sizes (like, say, Geared), Cogs bases its machinery meddling around good old-fashioned tile sliding.
To make things more interesting, Lazy 8 Studios throws in three dimensional objects for good measure. You end up having to make sure everything's connected on all sides before the machinery is happy with your work. You'll also face the odd pipe-connecting challenge as well.
Unsurprisingly, it all works brilliantly on the MacBook's touch pad - better, in fact, than the iOS versions, which always seem prone to confuse slide motions with rotation.
A word of warning, though - you'll need a machine that supports Open GL 2.0. If that's the case, you should absolutely give your money to the mighty Chillingo.
8/10