#goichisuda
Woody Allen once said that the reason why he makes a new game every year is so that his movies don't become events. A steady stream ensures that the hits don't become that big of a deal. Ditto for the failures. More »
#daytonausa
What's this?! A new rating for a Daytona USA video game? What could it mean?! If we're venturing guesses, we'll go with Sega reviving the classic arcade racer for an Xbox Live Arcade and/or PlayStation Network re-release. More »
#trenched
Double Fine Productions excellent World War I era tower defense-style third person shooter Trenched is getting two notable updates. One, we're not going to call it Trenched anymore. Now it's Iron Brigade. And not just in Europe. Two, SURVIVAL MODE! More »
Like an invisible super soldier jumping out of the bushes and suddenly landing right next to you, an Xbox 360 and PS3 release of Crysis 1 was (somewhat) surprisingly announced on last night's episode of GameTrailers TV. Crytek president and CEO Cevat Yerli explained that the game had been long requested on consoles, and will be arriving this October (that's next month!) via Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network.
Notably, the game is said to be "remastered" with new lighting effects, new Nanosuit abilities, and .... well, it looks just as bananas as it did on PC, though perhaps with a few fewer polygons. No price or exact date has been given to Crysis on consoles, but given the proximity to October, we expect to hear more very soon.
#xbox360
Last month, Microsoft very quietly swept a broom through the Xbox Live userbase, finding—and banning—a number of Xbox 360 owners for "illegitimately [accessing] Xbox LIVE Marketplace downloadable content". More »
#fez
When Polytron's Fez finally comes to Xbox Live Arcade, it looks like it will be a game worth waiting a long, long time for. Just take a look at this new screen shot from Fez for a good hard minute and you'll see why. More »
#quantumconundrum
This is Quantum Conundrum, the first-person puzzle game coming out early next year from a development team led by Kim Swift. She's someone who has earned my gaming trust, since she was a senior member of the team that made Narbacular Drop and the more famous game it was turned into, Portal More »
The first gameplay trailer for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is actually quite pleasing. That is, if you're into the fast-paced slaughter of virtual opponents. It's okay, folks -- they're terrorists, so that's kinda how these things work.
#quantumconundrum
While Valve busies itself thinking with portals, Portal designer Kim Swift let her mind wander to newer, fluffier dimensions. Quantum Conundrum is the result of those wanderings, and it looks amazing. More »
It's been quite a while, thanks to Microsoft's Summer of Arcade, but XBLA in Brief is back with two new games this week. First, we have Crazy Machines Elements, which takes more than a handful of cues from The Incredible Machine. Next, we have Hole in the Wall, which uses the power of Kinect to allow players to ... try and fit through a hole in the wall.
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There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and may not have time to download and examine each and every new XBLA game. You've got busy, attractive person stuff to do, after all. Not to worry though, because we've done the work for you, downloading every single trial game and giving you a taste of what to expect. Watch XBLA in Brief every week to see which games deserve a closer look. When you have the time, of course.
What with all the sensitive parts in a pinball machine, you'd normally keep one as far away from explosions as possible. Thankfully, digital pinball saves us from such hazards, allowing for the existence of this Ms. 'Splosion Man table in Pinball FX2. The table will launch later this summer.
#torchlight
Torchlight did land-office bidness on Xbox Live Arcade, but Torchlight 2 is so far above the memory limit on an XBLA game that the developer is focusing instead on a MacOS port after its upcoming PC release. More »
Bloodrayne: Betrayal really surprised us at E3 this year. We were taken by the game's combo-driven antics and Rayne's redesigned, nearly modest appearance. This diary details the redesign process, explaining developer Wayforward's goals for Rayne on her new adventure.
#doubledragon
Side-scrolling beat 'em up Double Dragon II: The Revenge, the arcade version is being remade for Xbox Live Arcade. Good news so far, right? What may be less exciting is the 3D remake of the arcade original, which looks... well... More »
#comiccon2011
Beautiful adventure game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet comes to Xbox Live Arcade next week. It is a mysterious, quiet game—Dimmu Borgir music notwithstanding—that is Metroid-like, full of exploration, power ups and re-exploration, at least on the single-player side. More »
While the majority of XBLA games are still in the 800-point-and-under bracket, XBLA's Portfolio Director Chris Charla admits that the number of over-1,200-point titles in the service's library has been steading increasing. During an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Charla said that XBLA's pricing trends are "a little bit of the opposite" of what one might normally see in an app-store ecosystem, where historically pricing structures have entered "a race to zero as fast as possible."
So far, 2011 has seen 20 1,200-plus games land on XBLA. In 2010, 27 of the 85 games released for service cost 1,200 points or more, an 8 percent increase over 2009, where 21 out of 86 titles hit that price point. Charla attributes the gradual pricing increase to an increase in the number of quality titles on the platform: "I think the games that we're shipping -- a Limbo or a Castle Crashers -- are as good as anything on the market." He went on to say that while it's "really gratifying" to know that gamers are willing to pay a "premium" for digital content, it is the market that decides what direction prices will go.
Remember the delightful puppet theater magic captured by the Battleblock Theater introduction? You'll be happy to know it carries right over into the game's prologue, throwing in some wonderful hats and terrible cats in the process. We suggest you brighten your day by watching it right now.
#batman
Who patrols the streets when Batman is out of town? Who is next in succession for the title of Clown Prince of Crime? Everybody, if Gotham City Impostors has anything to say about it. More »
#burnoutcrash
Burnout Crash seems to be a wonderful party game, the sort of title you pop on and pass and play with a group of rowdy friends. That it includes Kinect support only makes the experience better. More »
#bastion
Bastion is a brand-new game out on Xbox Live Arcade this week. I've been playing it in advance of release for a few days and have been loving it. I'm pretty sure it's very good, but I'm also pretty sure that this is the kind of game people like me who grew up playing the Super Nintendo are pre-disposed to like. More »
#firstlook
Size Five Games, the independent developer behind point-and-click hit Time Gentlemen, Please! and that one game about vaginas, are creating a game they say "plays a little bit like Deus Ex mixed with Sonic the Hedgehog." How does that work? More »
Xbox Live Arcade offers many developers a great opportunity, spotlighting their games in front of a large audience every Wednesday. As a result, there's obviously plenty of competition to get games on the service. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Xbox Live Arcade first-party director of publishing Ted Woolsey offered some advice for would be Xbox Live Arcade developers.
Woolsey's key advice is for developers to present something different from other offerings on the service. Getting the pitch right is important as well, with Woolsey noting that developers should "get all the great ideas you have out and make sure that they're understandable." In addition to coming up with new concepts, Woolsey also stated that Microsoft is "looking at different business models" and is "aware of what's going on out in the greater games community." Perhaps the Xbox Live free-to-play rumors are coming true after all.
Woolsey also offered other details about XBLA, notably that there are typically around 50 XBLA games in development, with about 30 being published in a given year. With so many titles, Microsoft is keen to expand on promotions like Summer of Arcade in order to offer more exposure to various games. Furthermore, Woolsey added that the upcoming 360 dashboard update should make browsing for games a less confusing process.
#voltron
Five-player co-op? Of course the forthcoming video game based on Voltron: will have five-player co-op, with each player controlling the mechanical lion of their choice, each player working together to wield Voltron's Blazing Sword to dispatch some big bad guy in 30 seconds or less. More »
#watchthis
Bastion is one damn pretty looking game. Fortunately, it's also one damn fun game. The action role-playing game hits Xbox Live Arcade next week for 1,200 Microsoft Points and PC later this year. More »
It's been exactly one month to the day since THQ announced plans to close both Kaos Studios (creator of Homefront) and its UK-based digital studio, THQ Warrington (creator of Red Faction Battlegrounds and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team). And while the former studio has been closed since last month, the latter has just finished up its legally required "notification process." But enough with the upsetting stuff -- there's good news, too!
Though the Warrington studio just closed, three companies have already sprung from its ashes: D3T,
a "concept team" named Alien Apple Studios, and an unnamed studio helmed by former creative director Don Whiteford and former production director Richard Badger.
Of the approximately 50 employees at THQ Warrington when it closed, 36 had their employment terminated "effective immediately," while another 10 are said to be seeing the studio through the PSN release of Warhammer 40K: Kill Team, set for some point later this summer. Additionally, THQ Warrington founder Colin Bell will be taking an extended break from game development, though he couldn't help but point out before leaving that the Juiced franchise (which his team developed) has moved "over 5 million" units in its lifetime, and that Kill Team "will be a great parting product for the studio."
Sony UK and Motorstorm studio Evolution have apparently extended offers to some ex-THQ employees for consultancy work, and we have high hopes that the rest of the studio's affected devs will land on their feet.
#watchthis
IndiePub's Storm places the forces of nature under your control through 49 levels of serene puzzle solving goodness. It's coming this summer to Xbox Live Arcade, PC, and the PlayStation Network for $9.99. More »
Though Ms. Splosion Man features online co-op and ghost data races against friends, the folks at developer Twisted Pixel are, like, really concerned with keeping you interested in their newest game. One such indication of this is today's launch day announcement that the "TMS" (or "Title Managed Storage" system, as explained here) will add "special rules and new content" to existing levels on a rolling weekly basis. Like previous TMS-assisted titles (Super Meat Boy, Monday Night Combat), no patch or update will be required for the new content to appear in the game.
There will be leaderboards specifically targeted at the TMS challenges, from which the studio will pull winners to award "real prizes and other fun stuff." It heralds a "new way of giving away free stuff to people who buy our games," says marketing director Jay Stuckwisch.
If you aren't already on that MSM tip (following our our review), have a look at the launch trailer just above.
It's been nearly two years since the last South Park-branded title landed on Xbox Live Arcade, but apparently at least one more is in the works exclusively for Microsoft's digital marketplace. In speaking with 345 Games creative director Prithvi Virasinghe during a recent Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon preview, I couldn't help but wonder what other Comedy Central properties his studio might work on next -- perhaps one of the network's most famous?
"Right now, South Park is actually in a first-party deal with Microsoft Studios, who published the first game, and they're doing a second game as well," he explained. Apparently South Park: Let's Go Tower Defense Play! was just the first of two titles in the deal, set to expire whenever that follow-up title launches. "After that, that first-party exclusivity window expires, and we get a shot of taking that back," Virasinghe explained.
Though his team is up to the challenge, Virasinghe also has some other projects he's interested in first, particularly a couple of ideas involving Stephen Colbert (as well as Colbert's hilarious side character, Tek Jansen). That said, the developer needs to leap some hurdles before that can happen, the least of which is deciding whether or not its game idea fits well with the brand. According to him, "It has to be the right combination of game idea meets property." Personally, I'm holding out for Tek Jansen.
#duds
Criterion Games has a Burnout spin-off coming to Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network this fall, a game inspired by game shows and pinball, its creators say. Burnout Crash! is also the first Burnout game to support Kinect, an option that may leave you with a burning sensation. More »
#ea
Remember that bizarre, leaked Burnout game that added lobster monsters and UFOs to the crashtastic street racing formula? Electronic Arts and developer Criterion Games just made it official, unveiling Burnout CRASH! for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. More »
