eat. sleep. game. » XBLA

Live pays customers back with a free game

Chufmoney — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 04:07:33 +0000

Whether or not you have been online in the last few weeks, whether or not you are even a gold or silver member of Microsoft’s XBL service, you will be able to download a free XBLA game. The details of what game are still under wraps, but Microsoft promises to make these details available soon.

While it would be awesome for them to allow the user to choose the game, I fear that we will have to suffer through something that is only so-so. My guess is that we’ll either get something that is over a year old (Catan, anyone?), or that we’ll get some new XBLA game that was never going to do that well to begin with. Hell though, at least they are doing something.

Chufmoney

[via 1up]

Xbox.com Update

Jayslacks — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 14:06:11 +0000

Xbox.com has recently had a face lift. If you’ve never visited the site before, you will not notice anything exceptionally special and will probably think that the site is solely an ad delivery system. Which, uh, it is. But those who use Xbox.com to check messages and see who is on-line will enjoy a few simple updates. The home screen is still mainly for advertising with a few game shout outs. But type in your gamertag information at the upper right and you are taken to your gamertag home page. Once here, you’ll probably have no reason to go to another portion of the sight. The tabs now have translucent drop downs. It makes the movement on the site very quick and less cumbersome. The Xbox Live Marketplace information is still hard to find, which makes absolutely no sense to me. Why would Microsoft make if difficult to find out what movies are coming out and when? And why do they stagger their release? I’m ranting, sorry. The messaging system for Xbox live on the website is still good and bad. It is not as user friendly as I’d like and I’m not sure why audio can’t be heard from the site. If a friend leaves you a voice message, you have to log on through you Xbox 360 to hear it. I’m sure it has something to do with some technical mumbo-jumbo that is beyond me. But it would be nice. The best thing about this minor update is that the site is cleaner, a bit easier to navigate, and is more focused around your gamertag. Hopefully updates like this will continue, with more direct links and interactions between specific games. Hey, we pay $50 bucks a year for something, right?

JaySlacks

XBLA Catan: First Impressions

Chufmoney — Wed, 09 May 2007 06:51:38 +0000

After an incredibly frustrating time of trying to get some multiplayer Catan on, Aegies and myself finally succeeded in playing a two on two (we two and dos computadoras). Catan is every bit as good as you have heard.

The game is a rather exhaustive board game adaptation. At first it can be rather daunting to just jump in and play, because it throws a lot of information at you, but after a short period you’ll be throwing dice with the best of them.

In Catan the goal of the game is to gain victory points. You gain these through completing certain objectives such as having the largest army, building the longest road, or building settlements and cities. In order to build the objects you need for victory points you have to acquire resources. You acquire resources by having settlements on board pieces that have a corresponding dice number on them. For instance if you have a settlement along a spot that is designated “6,” then you will gain the type of resource on that spot each time someone rolls a six.

However Catan is not just about lucky dice rolling. The real fun of the game comes in the form of negotiations. Players can trade resources with one another and can wield “development cards” in order to totally fuck one another. Most of the fucking comes in the form of the “robber.” The robber is the game piece that the player can move if they either roll a seven or use an Army Development Card. By moving the robber to a space the player can not only steal from another player but can also keep that space from developing resources. Nasty, I know.

If strategic board games aren’t your thing Catan might not be for you. However if you are a fan of board games and have no friends with which to play them with in real life, then Catan is totally for you. Besides, at least the escapism of an online game will provide you with somewhere to go that is outside your totally lonely and depressing life.

Chufmoney

p.s. I am only kidding about the lonely and depressing life, but it is definitely great for escaping from reality.

Puzzle Quest is coming the XBLA, because really, I’m finishing college, and it’d be a shame if I did anything meaninful with my life.

Aegies — Tue, 01 May 2007 15:51:21 +0000

Our favorite publisher of quirky weird shit like Earth Defense Force has just announced our next great Live Arcade obsession, and go figure, it’s the same as our current DS obsession: Puzzle Quest. And it’s adding the one thing we wish it had that it doesn’t already, which is online multiplayer. The images in the Kotaku story aren’t from the game, as there’s a timer on the bottom and no skulls on the board, so that part isn’t worrying me yet. And it’s such a simple game that’s already amazing (and shrunk down to XBLA size to boot) that I don’t see what they could screw up, knock on wood. But let this story be a message to you that we really like, and recommend, Puzzle Quest, whether you buy it for your PSP or your DS, or now, if you wait to buy it on the XBLA. My warrior will red jewel all of your asses.

-Aegies

Is Download Only Warhawk Such A Bad Thing?

Chufmoney — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 05:05:06 +0000

After Kotaku reported about how the latest IGN weekly confirmed that Warhawk would be a Playstation Network only release, I asked myself the above question. And I think the answer, for me at least, is a resounding no.
Warhawk could have been a decent single-player experience, but I have a hard time seeing how they could have diversified the gameplay enough to make it such a unique experience that you would want to pay 60$ for a physical copy of it. I think that if Sony really nails the multiplayer, and it truly is capable of supporting 32 player combat, then there could be a real gem in this release. I would love to see this game released with team combat as well as all out multiplayer. Twisted Metal made me love car combat, perhaps Warhawk can do the same for me and jets.

Moreover I think that if Warhawk stays looking as sharp and awesome as it does so far, and it delivers with a good multiplayer interface, then it could be a great tool for showing how Sony’s downloadable content is different than that of Microsoft’s. Don’t get me wrong, I love XBLA games, but I have yet to see something released for the arcade that looks as graphically next gen as Warhawk (Note: I still feel Alien Hominid has the best art style of any downloadable game for console). If you disappoint me on this one Sony….I can only stick up for you so much.

For screens click here!

Chufmoney

Telltale Games and Episodic Content for XBLA?

Chufmoney — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:22:54 +0000

Telltale games told Eurogamer about their curious job listing that was looking for a person who loves adventure games. Furthermore it should be stated that this posting was for an xbox 360 programmer. Concerning this posting they stated, “We can confirm that we’re hiring an Xbox 360 programmer, although we do not have any official Xbox project announcements to share right now.” However they went on to say that ,”For a potential Sam & Max Xbox project, we’d certainly look closely at a downloadable digital solution like the Live Arcade.”

The Sam & Max games thus far for PC have been great. They not only stay true to the characters from the original release, but they also are released episodically. Not episodically as in years apart, like Half-Life, but month to month. If they could get this games past the Microsoft certification process in a timely manner it would really help push the Live Arcade as a venue for episodic content. More importantly, I just want to see the Sam and Max titles get a Live Arcade release because the games are great and could use the 360 sales. Seriously these games alone, if you love adventure games, are worth the fee for a Gametap account. But, if you do not feel like paying two monthly fees, i.e. Xbox Live and Gametap, then just keep your eyes open cause I have a feeling we’ll see confirmation of Sam and Max hitting the arcade this year.

Chufmoney

Worms For XBLA Gets Certified

Chufmoney — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:09:59 +0000

This one comes straight from the 1up report. Worms has finally been approved for release onto the arcade. However it still does not have a release date. The good news about all this is that we wil see it soon. That means that soon we’ll all have the chance to murder eachother’s worms over the arcade. In my opinion, next to Alien Hominid, this might be one of the greatest XBLA releases we will see in 2007. This game really never gets old, even though it has seen many incarnations. I got hooked on it in its PS1 release and have since played it on almost every format its ever been released for. This one is a must buy, and yes, I feel I can say that even without having played it.

Chufmoney

New Castle Crashers Trailer Hits Gametrailers.com

Chufmoney — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:20:51 +0000

Castle Crashers might be one of my most anticipated titles of 2007. While it is just a hack n’ slash sort of game, it also supports co-op (up to four players!), for which I am a whore. The art of this game is really unique and well-done. Morever, it is made by Behemoth, whom you may know from their previous release Alien Hominid. If you loved that title I think that you should keep a close eye on the development of this game. While its story probably will not be anything that will blow you away I think that this game will set a new standard for XBLA content.

Chuf

Oblivion’s Shivering Isles will include another 250 Gamerscore points; I buy more gamerpoints in anticipation.

Aegies — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:49:55 +0000

So Bethesda has confirmed that upon release over the XBLA Marketplace, the Shivering Isles will indeed have additional Gamerscore points, which I’ve sort of been whining about for some time now. Oblivion is a fantastic game, make no mistake, but it’s sheer size and passive insistence on progression can make it very, very difficult to get a handle on for many, myself included. Achievements in Oblivion are a measuring point of your progress in the game. Finish the Fighter’s Guild questline? You know about it because you’ve fulfilled that line of Achievements. And in a game with bugs as random and unfortunately often game-breaking as Oblivion has, not triggering an Achievement when you know you were supposed to is a good indicator that something has gone horrendously wrong. I actually had to go to the Oblivion and Elder Scrolls Wiki more than once to figure out what the hell was happening. I killed the Gray Prince FIVE TIMES without gaining the final Arena Achievement before going online to find out that because I had killed him with a bow, the game wasn’t recognizing that I had completed the requirements for the quest-line. But really, that’s an understandable bug; what are the possibilities that someone would kill an important figure in the game with, you know, a bow.

My point here is that I only knew that something was up because the Achievement for becoming the Grand Champion of the Arena didn’t pop up.

The game is still fun without Achievements, don’t get me wrong. I’ve recently been reintroduced to the crack-like appeal of Oblivion after an extended absence after gaining a perfect 1000 Gamerscore points and logging in well over 120 hours. I blame Chuf; seeing him go back to it again after a long absence, and realizing that I had downloaded Mehrune’s Razor free over the Christmas holiday was all it took to send me spiraling back into a pit of addiction and realizations that it’s 2am and I NEED TO GO TO SLEEP RIGHT NOW AFTER I FINISH EXPLORING THIS CAVE. This, along with 1UP’s recent extended video preview of the Shivering Isles, already had me anticipating the expansion quite a bit. The announcement of the Gamerscore policy shift and it’s application to the Shivering Isles is just a confirmation for me that I’ll be picking it up on release day (and given how badly the Crackdown demo boned Live, I probably won’t be playing it til a few days later).

-Aegies