Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

[mkharsh33]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

i grabbed this last night...read the reviews and comments here and looking forward to playing this with my kids doing most of the work.

[Dr.J]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

That game got boring real quick.

[Flawless]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Hasbro Family Game Night announced

EA has announced Hasbro Family Game Night, to be released on Xbox Live Arcade this spring. It was recently released on Playstation 2 and Wii, and includes Boggle, Battleship, Yahtzee, Connect Four, Sorry! and Sorry! Sliders. These games could be a nice relaxation to play over Xbox Live Arcade, hopefully the price isn't too high. First images inside.

[mkharsh33]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

That game got boring real quick.

i see what you're saying, but i have a 9 year old who plays it with me and it's actually a lot fun to play it with him, letting him figure out what we should do next.

[bkfount]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Hasbro Family Game Night announced

I still don't get why EA decided to release Monopoly as a stand alone disk game for $40 with no online play. It could have been the new Uno if they put it on Live for $10.

[DaveDQ]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Hasbro Family Game Night announced

"Pretty sneaky, Sis."

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Interpol : The Trail of Dr. Chaos was one of the most fun games I've played lately. It's short and pretty easy, but the wife and I had a blast with it. If you play as a family or with wife/girlfriend, I highly recommend it, especially if you like those picture puzzle games.

[Flawless]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

The Maw is coming to XBLA next week. Looks pretty cool.

From the official website:

What is the Maw?

The pinnacle of alien evolution, Maw is a cowardly fat blob concerned mostly with snacking and lounging. He can, however, absorb the traits of anything he eats, is virtually indestructible, and can grow to unlimited size. If he wasn't a danger to all life in the universe, he'd make the perfect pet. In this action/adventure game, he's the best friend of our hero Frank, and only by working together can Maw eat their way to freedom. The Maw was honored with the Audience Choice Award in the 2008 PAX-10 showcase of independent games, and is a finalist at this year's Independent Games Festival for Technical Excellence.

Explore the website and enjoy the movies, screen-shots and free downloads we have available. Be sure to download The Maw on Xbox Live Arcade on Jan. 21st and experience the fun for yourself!

Price Point

The Maw will be available for 800 Microsoft Points ($10 USD). "We set out from the very beginning to create the most content-rich and impressive game that we could for ten bucks and 150 megabytes," said CCO and Director Josh Bear. "There are over 900 animations, 1000 sound effects, 25 music tracks, 200 visual effects, and 150 models, making this an incredible value for your $10… in the time that we have left." Bear then wept bitterly.

2GB == 150MB

The Maw will weigh in at a slender 150MB due to the superpowers of Granny 3D and its stupefying 85:1 compression ratio for animation data. Without it, The Maw would require more than 2GB of space, a size more attributable to retail titles. "I don't think we could have done it without Granny," says CTO Frank Wilson. "The simplicity of integrating the technology into our engine, the artist-friendly tools, and the brilliance of their compression algorithms are unbeatable."

Unlockable Free Premium Theme

The Maw will offer the rare opportunity for players to win a free premium theme as an in-game unlockable. The only way to get the theme (and free gamerpics too) is to play The Maw and find them.

Old trailer:

<object classid="clsid<param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/player/dd4c10ed/" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent"/><embed src="http://www.viddler.com/player/dd4c10ed/" width="437" height="288" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" name="viddler" ></embed></object>

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Um, did MS mess up? I went on Xbox.com to view new DLC, and saw Knothole Island for Fable 2, in 2 forms. One a free version with 500 and some MB, and one 800 points with 500 and some MB. Both the exact same MB. Both the exact same description. So I downloaded the free one and it's downloading away (had my Mom turn on my 360 since she's at home babysitting).

Anyone know?

EDIT - nevermind, this is the DLC so you can play co-op with someone if you haven't got the DLC.

[bkfount]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

MS is stupid as hell...

BlowOut Coming to Xbox Originals

http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2009/01/14/562699.aspx

Not only is this a horrible game, but it actually released in 2003 for $9.99. So now they throw it on XBL years later for $15. This is in addition to crap like Zapper and some Intellivision collection.

MS is seriously ruining what could have been an incredible feature. They simply release xbox originals whenever the hell they choose, and they've all sucked lately. If they are going to keep this going and charge $15 per game, is it really so hard to at least put the best available xbox games on there? I understand they may not be able to do this with every game, due to licensing or contracts.

[Behindshadows]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

My goodness anyone who buys this trash needs to be slapped repeatedly....why in the hell would I pay 1200 points for that trash.

I wish the bastards would add some real titles, like the Prince of Persia trilogy etc.

Why keep adding crap no one cares about?

[Flawless]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Teamxbox: The Maw Review - 8.5

Kobayashi may be the eating champion of this planet, but only Mr. Maw can claim such accolades on an intergalactic scale. You can see the alien with the ravenous appetite in Twisted Pixel’s new XBLA game The Maw: An Audience Choice award winner at last year’s Penny Arcade Expo.

With cut scenes that aren’t that far off of full-priced titles, The Maw will draw you into its Pixar-like world from the get-go. You’ll be playing as Frank—a somewhat wimpy player character/alien that befriends the not-so-wimpy Maw after a brief situation on a spacecraft.

Whereas fear-filled Frank looks like the more typical alien being from trailer park abduction accounts, Maw appears a bit lower on the alien evolution totem pole. Basically, Maw is a blob with a single eye and what appear to be shark’s teeth; imagine a more menacing Monsters Inc. character, the plant from The Little Shop of Horrors, or more simply, something from the mind of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth (the Rat Fink guy, for all you non-muscle heads).

The Maw ends up becoming somewhat of a pet to Frank, but really, the blob with the voracious appetite is mainly there to create the team-up element that is so popular in today’s light-hearted action games. In The Maw’s case, said relationship is quite odd in that Frank can make Maw eat anything which poses a threat. A simple press of the X button creates an electronic leash around Maw which allows Frank to lead “alien’s best friend” around the smorgasbord that is The Maw’s levels.

What you’ll quickly learn is the Maw begins as a small organism on the food chain, but continually grows in size to the point where it can take down any of The Maw’s threats by eating them. Therein lies most of The Maw’s fun (especially seeing Maw grow to massive proportions), but Twisted Pixel added a few additional moves in order to make this one more than just Katamari Damacy with aliens. Frank can leash enemies as well, and either slam them to the turf or spin them around before launching them into the atmosphere; a function which plays into some of the mild puzzle elements of The Maw. In certain instances, Frank may want/need to toss enemies to Maw for consumption, which is also possible with the do-all electronic leash. The leash can also attach to objects too—also a means of bringing easy puzzle elements into this third-person action affair. The result is a varied move set that allows The Maw to exhibit gameplay on-par with the better titles of the Xbox Live Arcade distribution channel.

There’s a sizable amount of gameplay fun to be had in The Maw for sure (especially when Maw mimics the characteristics of the enemies that he consumes), but it’s not without its flaws. Characters don’t always interact with the environments as well as they should. This not only affects the overall look of The Maw (objects floating in air), but also the gameplay, especially when these situations arise around context-sensitive objects. There are also some hit detection issues which arise that make The Maw a bit more frustrating than a game so lighthearted and whimsical should technically be. The detection issue isn’t a deal-breaker—it just means that you’ll spend slightly more time fiddling around with the controls rather than enjoying the character team-ups or comedic value of this game’s presentation.

The aforementioned gripes of The Maw’s quickly disappear once you factor in how solid the preponderance of the action is. But more impressive is how Twisted Pixel has given this XBLA title high-end production values in nearly ever facet of the code. The Maw is damn pretty, directed with an artistic eye and has been built off of a sizable amount of enchanting concept art. Even the audio—a boon for many casual devs trying to get by on the cheap—is spectacular in The Maw. Roll The Maw’s gameplay, visuals and audio together and you have one very tasty yumyum, not to mention one of the better original IP’s to hit Xbox Live Arcade in awhile.

[Flawless]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Hands-On Preview

While there may be nothing ground breaking in the concept behind Dishwasher—it’s, for the most part, a 2-D scrolling fighting game in the same vein as the old Final Fight or the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game—where it gets more of its buzz is the look. Everything in the game has a stylized look like it was a hand-drawn comic created in the margins of a student’s notebook during study hall. In fact, the between-level cutscenes aren’t animated, but a scrolling of comic panels and word balloons that gradually reveal the story to you. Each bloody spray from a sword or gun hit—and there’s plenty, believe me—is like a splash of ink on a page. It’s crude, but effective, like a bedroom-crafted graphic novel full of razor-sharp action and smeary gore. And despite the almost primitive visuals, Silva used some Xbox 360 effects, such as a near-transparent rippling that momentary distorts the area around the blade as it slices through the air.

The gameplay is just as crazy—a hard-core button masher if there ever was one. It doesn’t really matter that you play a dishwasher (duh, right?), because it’s a kill-everything-that-moves kind of contest. You can carry two weapons, switching between them with a tap on the Right Bumper, which can be anything from a sword to a cleaver to a chain saw.

Dishwasher’s move list, which you can pull up at any time by pausing the game, is enormous. The basic actions are a light attack (X Button), a heavy attack (Y Button), a body slam (B Button) and jump (A Button). Combinations and multiples of those unleash bigger and more action-packed moves, such as the Ocho Slam, which takes five quick X Button presses and releases a torrent of slashes finished off with one last lunging swipe. Doing enough damage on a foe will leave him stunned, at which point you can deliver a fatality of a sort: a messy kill (with the B Button) or a clean kill (with the Y Button), which can bring you a nice health boost.

Your adversaries come in many forms, with each having a characteristic offensive action. For instance, ghouls pop out of the ground and slowly slink toward you, while gunmen drop out of what seems to be a sputter of lightning bolts to fire in your current direction. While evading them is a good idea as you figure out their patterns, having multiple enemies (and different kinds) at nearly every turn makes casual analysis a bit more than difficult. You do have some evasive maneuvers, though, from a simple jump (which also may draw their gunfire above you) to a classic double jump to the ability to quickly scamper up the side of a wall or other vertical surface.

The single-player side of Dishwasher is broken down into two modes: Story Mode, which takes you through the whole adventure tale; and Arcade Mode, which basically throws you into a small area for nothing more than combat, with the need for you to dispatch a certain number of enemies to move on. Both modes start with only one level available to you, but your success unlocks others. Story Mode’s gameplay difficulty is limited to Easy, Normal and Ninja, but you’ll notice that Samurai and Tourney both have locks next to them when you start, so we figure you’ll have to get through the game at least once to open them up.

Additionally, there’s a Dish Challenge, which has you picking your two desired weapons, then trying to survive for as long as you can against an increasingly tougher onslaught of bad guys. A Practice Room is just what you’d expect: a place to try out the different moves without any threat, with the display showing you what buttons you pressed to unleash that specific action.

While we didn’t play it, Dishwasher will also offer a multiplayer component, which appears to support co-op gameplay on the same system, as well as System Link and Xbox Live contests. If it’s anything like the single-player action, it should be a big slice-and-dice festival.

And while it didn’t have achievements when it was just a “community game,” the final XBLA version of Dishwasher will provide the standard 200 points spread across 12 milestones. They’re listed at the end of this preview, though not being finalized, they could change before the game becomes publicly available.

While we don’t have a release date for Dishwasher, it’s our understanding that it’ll hit XBLA in the near future. At the least, it should be an inspiration for other budding game designers that there are other paths to getting a product out than to connect to a large publisher. However, if the Dream-Build-Play tagline is accurate, perhaps millions of Xbox 360 owners will try Silva’s game and come out the other side having enjoyed themselves.

[windseer90]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

Not sure where to put this, but if I have a month-to-month XBL gold subscription, where can I cancel it? I don't see any option to do so... so do I have to call a certain number?

[Eton Rifles]

Re: Xbox Live Marketplace and Live Arcade discussion Part III

call 1-800-4my-xbox.