Skulls of the Shogun (Skulls) is one of the most enjoyable turn-based strategy games available on XBLA, with a lengthy campaign, lots of replayability and lasting multiplayer potential. Here at XBLA …
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Be a pro at defending The Shire
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Welcome to the XBLA Fans GOME Good Characters Guide. In this article, we’ll offer some invaluable usage tips which are specific to the good Guardians which, if used in conjunction with our General Strategiies Guide, should enable even the greenest of recruits to become combat effective quickly.

Arathorn

Father of Aragorn, Arathorn is found in the Warrior section and proves to be a very powerful character. His basic attack is very strong, and is what most builds will be centered around. He has 3 main skills that he will utilize during combat. Staggering Shot is a long range stun that does moderate ability damage. It has a reasonable recast timer, so when attack other Guardians open up with this move. You then have a choice of two moves to follow up with. Chieftain’s Focus is a forward facing attack, that not only slows the enemies movement but increases your attack speed. The other choice is Ranger’s Strike. This is a power move that does massive damage, slows the enemy and renders you invisible. Using a combination of these three skills, or all three back to back will likely kill most weaker Guardians and stronger ones will think twice about continuing the fight. His final skill is less useful in direct combat, and should be used more when killing monsters in lanes. Dunedain Blade is a close range attack that will deal damage over time while also slowing the afflicted targets.

For Gems and Relics, it is suggested you boost his basic attack damage and speed. His basic attack is quite high already, and adding on to this only makes him stronger. With the right gems in place, his damage can reach 300+ on regular attacks. Couple this with attack speed increases and you will have a very powerful Arathorn, who can net kills even without his abilities. An alternate build involves stacking a lot of ability power with cooldown reduction. This will allow for the player to cast abilities more frequently, for more damage. Potions and Commands that increase damage or speed are both recommended for this character.

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Welcome to the XBLA Fans GOME Evil Characters Guide. In this article, we’ll offer some invaluable usage tips which are specific to the evil Guardians which, if used in conjunction with our General Strategiies Guide, should enable even the greenest of recruits to become combat effective quickly.

Sauron

Sauron is a Warrior class Guardian who features a strong basic attack and extremely high durability. These cornerstone statistics, in conjunction with 3 fairly damaging abilities ensure that Sauron is always useful when pushing or holding a lane, because he can engage multiple foes at once with his ‘Might of Barad-Dur’ ability and base attack. ‘Dark Lord’s Reach’ is a great skill when facing a single, weak enemy Guardian, as it roots them and enables Sauron and his ally’s to hammer on the stricken foe. Any team which features a player who is using Sauron should be aware of the fact that his ‘The Lidless Eye’ ability damages ALL enemy Guardians for a small amount of health, meaning that when used it can immediately kill an enemy who is running very low. Use this to your advantage by calling out to your Sauron ally that there is an easy kill available for using his ultimate and remember to do so yourself, when called. Read More

So you want to succeed in Guardians of Middle Earth?(GOME) right? Well, you’re going to need all the help you can get, because GOME is a complex game which is made even tougher because it is played almost exclusively online against other human beings. Don’t worry though, because XBLA Fans is here to help. Below are some of the most useful hints for new players, along with a few more subtle strategies which even experienced players are sure to benefit from:

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Our video coordinator, Shawn Saris, guides players through Joe Danger 2: The Movie’s Pro Medals
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We show you how to keep to the shadows and collect all the game’s scrolls.
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If you didn’t get enough out of our Hybrid build guide or are simply curious about how the folks at 5th Cell play Hybrid, check out these tips and tricks from the QA team. If you need more, there’s even some level guides available now as well.

Attacking

Jump Jetting

• Dodging: Get used to moving around while you’re attacking to avoid enemy fire. Not only will this tactic make it hard for your enemy to shoot you but the bots won’t be able to hit you if you’re moving in a circular motion.
• Boost Timing: Use boost often, but make sure you have it ready when you need it. Boost right when you take off and a second before you land to get through the landing sequence faster. If you boost too late, you won’t be able to fire for a short time after landing.
• Retreat: Make sure to retreat if you’re low on heath or something unexpected occurs. If you’re low on heath, try not to land at a cover in the enemies view since the landing sequence is slow.
• Scanning: You can use your selection arrow to identify an enemy’s position even if they are obscured from view. Select a cover you think an enemy is hiding and jump jet to it. While jetting to the cover press the vault button (Y) to move your selection arrow to the far side of cover and move it from side to side. If your arrow gets displaced from one of the main 3 positions there is an enemy there. Read More

For those of you out there still fighting the good fight between Variants and Paladins, we’ve got some extra assets for the war effort. 5th Cell was kind enough to send us some full images of each map currently available in Hybrid. They’ve color-coded the maps and we’ve added IDs to each cover (they’re different from the ones in-game because these are easier) for your assistance. Orange cover areas are ground-based, purple ones are below ground/other cover, and green ones are on the walls. We’ve provided some simple tips for you to design map strategies around, but feel free to download the maps and work your own magic on them.

Airfield

• Combat tends to localize over N, N1 and N2, controlling N1 and N2 simultaneously leads to map domination
• There’s a route from R1 – R3 and B1 – B3 which is great for escapes and surprise attacks
• R and B are the most defensible positions on the map, artifact/overlord gameplay will almost always centralize around those two points
• Having people at both R1/R3 and B1/B3 respectively is the key to removing map dominance from N1/N2
• The B2/R2 and B4/R4 spots on the map are great hiding places for catching people off guard, waiting for regeneration or resetting cooldowns

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Welcome to our guide for all things Dust: An Elysian Tail! Dust is without doubt my pick of the games released on XBLA this summer and an all-around fantastic game. While it’s almost impossible that you haven’t heard of this game by now, definitely check out our review for the game.

Dust can be pretty challenging at times, with a few tough bosses to defeat and a whole host of hidden content. In an identical way to classic games such as Castlevania and Metroid, Dust expects that players will revisit previously completed levels in order to unlock new areas and secrets.

In this guide, I’ll be providing some general tips and some combat hints on this page as well as a boss guide (beware spoilers) and a guide for the Bakers Dozen achievement (for finding all the hidden characters) on separate pages.

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