So, on may 8th the Canadian Beta of 1 vs 100 had begun. I was busy watching Star Trek at the time, so I had to wait till today. The 12th to play 1 vs 100 Live Canadian Beta. I've been playing for about a hour now and below are my impressions and a bit of a review about the overall experience.
1 vs 100 LIVE
Microsoft opens it's Primetime Xbox Lineup with 1 vs 100. Will it be a smash hit or flop?
When Microsoft changed it's dashboard from the slider system to the new xbox experience, they announced their Primetime Lineup. Perhaps a plenthora of scheluded games that when played allow Xbox Live Gold Members to win prizes and Microsoft Points? Well, I don't know about any future releases. But for now, we've been treated to the beta of 1 vs 100 LIVE. How does it hold up?
Gameplay
Gameplay is a simple gameshow format. Players are divided into three groups that all partipate in the game. The Crowd, The Mob, and The One. The two groups that play for prizes are the Mob and the One. While the Crowd Partipates in more of a friendly or competitive points gathering format where they're speed and score accuracy along with a few bonus points are tallied together agaist 3 other players to see which one of the 4 are the best. Depending on your stats for being part of the crowd, you'll end up in the mob or as the One.
Being part of the mob means that you're grouped together with 99 other players for a total of 100 players to be pitted agaist the One. You have no life lines and for every question you answer right. You progress to the next level with the One. If the One is eliminated, everyone remaining from the Mob gets a share of the prize. Sound's fun?
Finally you have the One, If your the lucky man chosen to be the one. You're on your own, save for 3 lifelines. Trust the Brain, Trust the Mob, and Trust the Crowd. Using these allows you to take the answer from the Majority of the Mob or the Crowd, or take the Answer from the Highest Scoring Crowd Player to use as your own. You can win big here if you manage to make it to the top, but you can also lose it all to the mob if you don't make it. Every they will ask you if you want to take your prize and go, or continue forth. Risking it to win bigger prizes, or lose in a flaming glory.
Prizes, everyone wants them. Now, during the beta no prizes will be given out. But on season one, starting from may 31st. Prizes will be given out, these are given to the Mob or the One depending on who wins. Prizes will be Microsoft Points or Arcade games. Ranging from 160 to 10000 Microsoft Points and Various arcade games. Like I said before, no prizes are actually being given out so no one has won anything yet. But on May 31st. Winners will be decided.
Questions are varied and moderately easy to moderately difficult. They range from Popular Movies, to Pop Culture, to Popular TV shows and Popular Video games. Yes, everything that has a moderately popular following seems to appear. They are generalized enough that most should know, and incase you don't. With 3 options you always have a 33% chance to get it right if you don't know.
Presentation
Presentation is important for this game, and it does it well. It feels much like a game show and follows the format well, if your familiar with any game show you know this means pausing before telling you the answer, being very suspenseful and having strong sounds that reflect well upon this. Soft music plays during the time when the mob gets eliminated, dramatic music during questions.
Avatars are a big thing here, for the first time you really get to feel although your avatar expresses yourself. What's this mean? Well it means I shouldn't have dressed up in a suit and tophat. That's what it means!
Overall, graphics are to be expected, if you know how your avatar looks like. You'll know exactly what it looks like. The backgrounds are very expected of a gameshow. Strong lights that change color from Blue to Purple to Orange representing certain periods of gameplay. Surprisingly it all fits together very well in a neat package. This isn't GTA IV, nor is it trying to be. The cartoony feel of the avatars bring much life to the game and adds to the excitement overall.
Value
There is absolutely no way this game would ever get less than 10 for value. Not only are you getting it for free with xbox live gold. But it returns the favor via arcade games and Microsoft points. Utterly Brilliant.
I hope you enjoy it, I'll be writing a bigger review on my profile page when I get the time. But for now I ended up dropping my accuracy to 73% while writing this while playing. Whoops.
Screenshots of my experience follows, You'll have to forgive the poor format. I didn't have anything to take screencaps of my TV at the time being.
Waiting outside for the game to start, I think I overdressed a little for the event. The screen in the background provides hints and occassional a ad or two from microsoft or a 3rd party if they want to buy the space.
Actual gameplay now, everyone you see here is part of the mob. You can see my party at the top and what they chose for this question. The answer is difficult to see but it was "MuchMusic".
Here you can begin seeing people from the mob who got the answer wrong being eliminated, the blue squares obviously mean they are still in the game. Red means your out. Below is the amount of mob members remaining in multiples of 10, and the total prize for the One. It's sitting at 300 microsoft points right now.
The question asked appears in this format, with answers appearing in sequence below. X chooses the left choice, A chooses the middle, and B the Right choice. Above you can see the points my party has gathered, as part of the crowd. We generally are in competition agaist eachother.
The box says "Trust the Crowd" as part of the One's lifelines. He can opt to Trust the Mob, Trust the Brain, or Trust the Crowd. Each meaning whatever most popular answer is the answer the One Chooses. This time he shouldn't have trust the crowd this time though. Our answers are all over the place.
Every so often, the One is given the chance to walk away with whatever prize he/she has currently. Or to continue to face the mob for greater rewards, at greater risks. Here you can see the prize the one can win is 800 microsoft points, or face the remaining 57 mob members.
Inbetween rounds, and occassionally during rounds. We're treated to a small break. You can see the advertisement space above the players. This is clearly a smart move from microsoft to earn a bit of bucks while being able to give away microsoft points to players.
Why must JRPG female leads suck so bad?
