Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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SapientWolf said:
I'm thinking that this year's Summer of Arcade line-up is gonna be Deathspank, Limbo, Monday Night Combat and maybe Shank.
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It might be Deathspank OR Shank, but not both. Both are EA published. To be Summer Of Arcade they need to provide something exclusive -- be it the game itself or a timed exclusive.

Plus half of the SOA weren't announced before E3, so the best may be yet to come.
 
LSauchelli said:
I just got 4000 points and bought Shadow Complex & Pacman CE, what other games are recommended for spending the remaining 2000 points?
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Splosion Man. One of the best on the service, and an exclusive at that. Very nice difficulty curve and bursting with personality. Well worth it.
 
Rlan said:
It might be Deathspank OR Shank, but not both. Both are EA published. To be Summer Of Arcade they need to provide something exclusive -- be it the game itself or a timed exclusive.

Plus half of the SOA weren't announced before E3, so the best may be yet to come.
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This summer there's going to be more money spent on xbla titles then retail games for me :lol and I approve!
 
http://www.360sync.com/2010/05/13/meet-the-bad-guys-of-puzzle-quest-2

Meet the Bad Guys of Puzzle Quest 2

We have a very limited dossier on some of the baddies of Puzzle Quest 2 that we’d like you to take a look at. There are over 70 different enemies in the game, certainly more than you could shake a stick at. (Side Note: In our experience, we’ve found that you can shake a stick at 15-20, tops.)

Today, we’ll spotlight four of the enemies that you’ll encounter in your epic quest to save a village by matching like-gem stones. Keep in mind, these aren’t your Grandma’s “Those bad guys shut down our senior center” bad guys. These are your typical “Please don’t tear me apart limb by limb” bad guys.

Dark Orcs

Level Range: 15 to 40

Special Attacks: Enrage, Pummel, Darkness

Strong, tough, and uncompromising warriors, Orcs have waged long wars against the people of Etheria. The Dark Orc will use his Enrage Spell to create more red gems and then follow it with the pummel spell which does 1 point of damage for every red gem on the board.

The Dark Orc also has the staple spell “Darkness” which enables him to convert all red and yellow gems to purple.

Rakshasa

Level Range: 7 to 40

Special Attacks: Stealth, Freezing Strike, Darkness

He may look a bit like a certain Tiger from the cover of a certain cereal box, but he is the stuff of nightmares. Rakshasa hunts children, stealing them from their beds in the dead of night. You’ll first learn of this creature from Gess, a girl in the village who fears the “Cat Man”. Rakshasa has a “freezing strike” spell that converts all blue mana tiles on the puzzle board to purple mana, and deals one point of damage for every tile converted. You can find Rakshasa hiding in a remote room in the first level of the dungeon, defeat him, and return to Gess to complete this side quest and put the girls’ fears to rest.

Cockatrice

Level Range: 5 to 30

Special Attacks: Bellowing Crow, Petrifying Gaze

If you’ve come to snuff the rooster, you’re only prepared for half the job against the Cockatrice –

One truly hideous hybrid between a rooster and a lizard. The Cockatrice delivers a standard claw attack and also has two fairly powerful magic attacks, Bellowing Crow and Petrifying Gaze. The latter turn its opponents to stone (no doubt drawing its power from its own sheer ugliness) prohibiting them from moving for 4 turns. Apparently, the Cockatrice does not taste like chicken, and did we mention this is one really ugly creature? You have been warned.

Gelatinous Cube

Level Range: 6 – 31

Special Attacks: Slime, Engulf

Don’t let looks fool you this time as slow sometimes wins the race. The Gelatinous Cube is mindless yet fearsome as it’s fully able to engulf an opponent with its acidic gelatinous forms. It will make you look at mom’s jell-o in a whole different way after finishing this battle.
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'Blacklight: Tango Down'- Developer Interview

http://worthplaying.com/article/2010/5/13/interviews/74254/

Blacklight, an Unreal-engine powered video game, is a covert military action epic set twenty-five years in the future featuring the same characters and high caliber military action as the planned movie and comic book, but with unique, intersecting storylines that complement each other.

WP: Who has the honor to speak with us? State your name, rank and occupation!

I'm Jason Hughes, and I'm a producer at Ignition Entertainment.

WP: What was the genesis behind Blacklight: Tango Down?

JH: The universe of Blacklight has actually been in development for quite a while, and the team had a lot of ideas that they wanted to do with the IP. There's actually a company that was created in association with Zombie Studios called Blacklight Transmedia. The goal is to build this IP with an incredible story and visit that story through different aspects, and one of those is through this particular game, Tango Down. Now, it may be a multiplayer-focused game, but there is actually a story element to it. We're going to have a comic book that's out about the same time as the game comes out that gives a little bit of background to the story. The story is there if people really want to explore it.

WP: The comic book is something outside the game, though. How do you present story elements within a multiplayer game so that they don't seem tacked-on but feel like part of the game universe?

JH: You can see that in some of the maps themselves, some of the environments. The real focus of the story is in a fictional city that we call Balik. It's set somewhere in Eastern Europe, and one of the big themes of the universe and game is new being plastered over old. There are a lot of old buildings and a lot of history that you can actually see, but you just see this new technology that's pasted on top of it. Not only that, but our Black Ops missions, which we announced recently, are four maps/campaigns that you can play with up to three of your friends, and those are objective-based. You'll get a little bit of background on what's going on based on you accomplishing certain goals, and that's in addition to the regular multiplayer modes that we have.

WP: Can you quickly run through the multiplayer modes that you've announced?

JH: Sure, we have Black Ops, which we've just talked about. We also have Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. We also have Domination, which is a form of capture points, and we also have something called Retrieval, which is a form of capture the flag.

WP: Software-wise, you're running Unreal Engine 3. Have you made any tweaks to the engine? Have you customized it in any way?

JH: There's been a little bit in regards to some networking. Our PS3 version is using GameSpy. For PC, we're using Games for Windows Live at the moment, and for the Xbox 360, obviously, we're using Xbox Live. Outside of that, we are using PhysX, but a lot of that is built into the engine. It's a pretty robust engine. The artists and teams that have been working specifically with it have a lot of experience. Zombie themselves have been using it for about eight years, ever since it came out. There's a lot of good stuff out of the box, and we haven't had to add too much on top of it.

WP: Gameplay-wise, you guys have added a headset feature where you can basically see everything: enemies, capture point locations, and spawn point locations. What were the challenges in implementing that so it didn't totally break the game?

JH: Right. The big point is keeping it balanced. You want to have a game that people feel really familiar with, that they don't feel alienated by. Yet, at the same time, you really want to bring in what this IP has to offer, and part of that is the HRV mode that you mentioned, which stands for Hyper Reality Visor. It allows you to sort of see through the world. You can see enemies, you can see teammates, you can see refill stations for health and for ammo crates, in addition to particular points, like capture points in the Domination game mode. The real trick is that if anyone could use it anytime, it would be completely overpowering. We found that it was also overpowering if people could fire while they were using it. The trick is for there to be a benefit and cost to using it. You don't want to use it all the time because there's a cooldown time, it has to recharge, and you can't fire while you're using it. All those little tweaks really make it a benefit and something that's more fun rather than a frustration or people feeling like they're cheating and getting away with it.

WP: Let's talk briefly about weapon unlocks. You can customize different weapon loadouts, but you've got an unlock system built into the game where you can gain additional weapons and power-ups as you progress. Can you go into a little more details?

JH: Sure. We have five base receivers, which are the primary weapons. We have assault rifle, light machine gun, shotgun, sniper rifle and submachine gun. Then we also have sidearms, three secondary weapons. As you level up — we have 70 ranks — you can unlock different presets of those weapons. Let's say you continue along, you get a little notice that pops up, "Oh, I unlocked assault rifle preset number 2." Along with that preset come a different stock, a different barrel, and a different scope. Eventually, as you progress and unlock all the presets, you can actually go into that and customize and pick the pieces that you want. You may want this particular scope, this particular barrel, or this particular magazine. We did the math this morning, and there are something over 200 million different combinations for your weapons, if you want to. With eight different scopes, five different magazines, again, with the barrel, the stock, all of that can really make weapons unique, and we're hoping to not see two of the same.

WP: On the PC side, you're using Games for Windows Live. Are users going to have any ability to run their own servers, or are you forcing everyone to go through the Microsoft-hosted servers for that?

JH: As of right now, we're going peer-to-peer with their system for PC. We have certainly evaluated setting up ways to do dedicated servers for people. I'm a PC gamer at heart, I really am. Right now, we want to make sure that we can get the game done to the best of our ability, and that may be something that we explore post-launch.

WP: From the sales point of view, what drove your decision to make Blacklight: Tango Down a downloadable title versus retail?

JH: I think that's just part of what we wanted to accomplish with this game. It may really sound cheesy, but we really wanted to raise the bar of what people expect from downloadable titles. In the past year, there have been a lot of incredible titles. If you look back three, four, even five years ago, games like this weren't quite showing up in that space. Xbox Live Arcade launched, and while they were great games, they tended to be more along the lines of Geometry Wars and Bejeweled. I think you've seen over the last year a huge increase in scope on the size of games and what people are able to do with that space. It was a conscious decision to really push what we could with that, and to be honest, we all feel that's where the market is going to eventually go anyway. People don't really go to stores much to buy music anymore; they do it online. The same goes for movies these days, with video on demand and people being able to rent and purchase movies from their Xbox, PS3 and PC. We feel that games are going in that direction, and we want to be there right at the beginning with this form of distribution with a title that can really rival the other ones out there and really show that we can do something special.

WP: The big question with online multiplayer gaming is cheating. What are you doing to implement some anticheating measures so you don't have wallhacks and such on the first day of release?

JH: Of course. Well, I'll say two things. We're doing a lot of testing internally. It's almost impossible to catch everything; there's always going to be someone out there. Especially for the PC, we have a lot of measures in place to be able to prevent that and catch that. For the consoles, the first-party teams, Sony and Microsoft, they have ways to kind of combat that as well.

One other thing that I will say is that we are completely committed to this game, and we believe in it heavily. Should something pop up after launch that breaks the experience for people, we're going to be there to fix it.

WP: If you had to sum it up in two to three sentences, what really makes the Blacklight: Tango Down a game that's worth playing?

JH: This game is pretty special. When people get their hands on it and see what content is there and the amount of fun that they can have — it's pick-up-and-play in a brand-new universe and will cost close to $15. Bring your friends in; you're going to have a blast with it.

WP: Is there anything about the game that we haven't talked about that you wanted to add?

JH: At the moment, we're looking at a summer 2010 release for all platforms. We want to make sure we get that out there for everybody. We want it to be fun, energetic, we encourage everyone to give it a shot, and hopefully, you like it as much as we do.
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SapientWolf said:
I'm thinking that this year's Summer of Arcade line-up is gonna be Deathspank, Limbo, Monday Night Combat and maybe Shank.
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I'm convinced that Hydro Thunder Hurricane will be the flagship Summer of Arcade release this year, call it a hunch.
 
Aqua – Naval Warfare Official Release Date Confirmed
Get ready to dive deep on May 19.

Frankfurt, Germany - Today, the Slovak development studio Games Distillery confirms the official release date of its upcoming naval shooter "AQUA – Naval Warfare". The game will be released by Microsoft Game Studios for Xbox LIVE Arcade on May 19th 2010.

"AQUA – Naval Warfare" is a stylish arcade-action shooter with numerous tactical elements. In "AQUA" the player will take control of an elite cruiser and steer into the middle of a raging naval war where masses of enemies and allies engage in real-time operations. Being attacked from above and below the water surface the player has to destroy masses of enemies' troops to be victorious. By unlocking new ship-types, weapons and upgrades, the player will have the opportunity to enhance his ship and gear up for the next fight. Choosing from various tactics and forming special supporting squadrons, the player will also have the option to command offensive and defensive troops in order to overcome large enemy formations and defensive
installations.

About "AQUA – Naval Warfare":
"AQUA – Naval Warfare" is a stylish arcade-action shooter with numerous tactical elements, driven by an entertaining story with beautiful hand-drawn comic sequences. "AQUA – Naval Warfare" will be released in summer 2010 by Microsoft Game Studios on Xbox LIVE Arcade for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system. "AQUA – Naval Warfare is funded and co-produced by fiftyeight Productions.

www.aqua-the-game.com
 
SapientWolf said:
I'm thinking that this year's Summer of Arcade line-up is gonna be Deathspank, Limbo, Monday Night Combat and maybe Shank.
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I think that would be a massive step down in quality and sales from either 2008 or 2009.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I think that would be a massive step down in quality and sales from either 2008 or 2009.
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Sales are anyone's guess but I wouldn't say that it's a massive step down in quality. It's a solid lineup of original titles. There's nothing as polarizing as Galaga Legions or the TMNT remake. I thought Deathspank looked good enough to be retail, and the Shank and Limbo trailers are getting a lot of positive feedback. I was a huge fan of The Grid so I may be biased on MNC.

But someone said that it's unlikely that we'll see Deathspank and Shank in the same promotion. I don't think we would get both Breach and Monday Night Combat either.
 
Awww c'mon... most XBLA games that are announced, take AGES to get to release. I feel like I just heard of Aqua yesterday, and now, suddenly, it's to be released in a weeks time? Why couldn't this happen for things that actually have HYPE?

... Anyway, game doesn't look bad. I don't think I saw any multiplayer... which is a shame. Co-Op is always appreciated in such games. Doesn't this look alot like something that was released on Wiiware a while back?

Anywho, I'd love to see an SNKP game in Summer of arcade! XD KoF Skystage! ( O.o) I'd rather see that Magicka game than Deathspank, personally... I'd prefer the multiplayer aspects. Shank and Monday Night Combat would be pretty awesome, as well. Limbo... errr... what was the other game from a while back that also had a tiny character, that had loads of different gameplay, and a visual style kinda like Braid? Whatever it was, think that has a chance? Wouldn't be bad to have at least one platformer...

I wonder if Block Party will outdo Summer of Arcade this year...
 
Stumpokapow said:
I think that would be a massive step down in quality and sales from either 2008 or 2009.
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It doesn't have an anchor (a la Castle Crashers or Shadow Complex) but if you put those four side-by-side with the closest comparable titles from SoA 2009 I don't think "massive" is neccessarily accurate.
 
charlequin said:
It doesn't have an anchor (a la Castle Crashers or Shadow Complex) but if you put those four side-by-side with the closest comparable titles from SoA 2009 I don't think "massive" is neccessarily accurate.
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Summer of Arcade 2008 had Geometry Wars 2 (very well received, sold very well, probably not as enduring in the consciousness of the XBLA world as GeoWars 1 but pretty universally regarded as a worthy or even superior sequel.), Braid (universal acclaim, incredible sales, bizarrely popular given its weirdness--I'm thinking about the Souljah Boy video here), and Castle Crashers (something like 1.75 million on the leaderboards despite game-breaking bugs). I'm ignoring Galaga Legions intentionally; because this stuff is sort of long tail, I'm happy to erase the chaff from history.

Summer of Arcade 2009 had Marvel vs Capcom 2 (well received, hugely popular, lead into a franchise revival--and that's despite the fact that it's frankly a pretty lazy port), Splosion Man (great reception, noted for being a great value since many of the other offerings were 1200 points, the donuts song went viral), Trials HD (unquestionably a breakout hit--developer unexpectedly had to do DLC addons due to smash success, universal acclaim, insane sales even a year later), Shadow Complex (widely regarded as a product that actually transcends the definitions of what's possible on the downloadable service), and TMNT (middling reception but huge sales)

In other words, I feel that both years pretty much across the board (excluding Galaga Legions) hit the highest highs on either sales, reception, or both.I don't want to elaborate further on the specifics of why this lineup for 2010 won't because obviously any time you prejudge a game or games negatively it's essentially gotta be read as trolling. Of course, I haven't played any of the games mentioned, so it's a gut feeling. I guess it is trolling, then. I'll elaborate in spoilers with the one reservation that I don't intend to defend or continue further so if you think I'm a big idiot, duly noted;

I think that Limbo has a very good chance of being well received like PB Winterbottom (including the comparisons to Braid), but I think its commercial chances are more like Winterbottom, even if they elevate it to a spot in Summer of Arcade.

I think that Monday Night Combat will suffer from divisive and mixed reception, with the best commentary on it to be that's it's essentially fun and derivative. I think the online community will not last very long because Battlefield 1943 is the only remotely comparable title whose online community has lasted.

I think Shank is a good looking entry to a pretty crowded field on XBLA. Between The Dishwasher 1 and 2, Castle Crashers, and TMNT (to name a few), I think it's going to get a little lost. It might do well, it might not, but I don't see it being a breakout. I also see it being received well but not spectacularly.

Deathspank, frankly, looks like a mess to me. Obviously Gilbert is very talented, it looks visually decent, the promised amount of content suggests a broad scope, and the "like Diablo but funny" sort of elevator pitch works. I don't think the end product is going to work as well as many people do.

My hypothetical SoA 2010 that includes only announced games--there's nothing announced that could be a tentpole like Castle Crashers or Shadow Complex--would be Monkey Island 2, World of Keflings, either Doom II or Quake Arena or Hydrophobia, and either BattleBlock Theatre or Super Meat Boy (wouldn't be allowed, not exclusive) or Comic Jumper (although I'm skeptical this one will work out all that well). If MS really wants an artsy game, I think Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be better received than Limbo.

*shrugs*
 
I don't know why I've never ever seen or heard of this title but this has Summer of Arcade written all over it;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWn6kKfn-iE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGiKazYVjJg

Who knows what MS will announce at E3, but I'm sure they have a couple in the mix for it. Give me Fez though please. Also I'll just say it now give me Shadow Complex 2.


Summer of Arcade 09 was pretty good for me, but 08 takes the cake.

Also whatever happened to that indie game that won last year and got the XBLA contract (I think). It looked pretty good at the time.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Monkey Island 2, World of Keflings, either Doom II or Quake Arena or Hydrophobia, and either BattleBlock Theatre or Super Meat Boy (wouldn't be allowed, not exclusive) or Comic Jumper (although I'm skeptical this one will work out all that well).
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Wow, I feel like I had exactly the same reaction you had to the other list. :lol Doom II and Quake are awesome but they're still warmed over old stuff you can play everwhere, Keflings isn't really gonna rank high on the bro scale, Hydrophobia seems kind of sketchy to me, and Comic Jumper -- I <3 Twisted Pixel 4evah but I'm not feelin' it necessarily.
 
I agree with Stumpokapow on everything except the Galaga Legions hate (all that game needed was a softer difficulty curve and it would have been brilliant).

The fix is obvious too. Release Guwange.
 
I hope Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is part of this Summer of Arcade but who knows if it will be done by then...

I'd also like to see Fez, Limbo, and Comic Jumper.
 
xbhaskarx said:
I hope Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is part of this Summer of Arcade but who knows if it will be done by then...

I'd also like to see Fez, Limbo, and Comic Jumper.
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Realistically I wouldn't expect more than one of ITSP, Limbo, and Fez; setting aside the obvious visual similarities of ITSP and Limbo, I think Microsoft has had a long-standing policy of sort of segregating and spacing out "artsy indy" games to help get individual games maximum exposure, so I can't imagine Fez (or even, say, Cletus Clay) launching near Limbo/ITSP.
 
I finished up Things on Wheels yesterday and had a good time with it.

I don't get all the hate. Anyone else playing it?

I thought the track design was great. Physics and controls were pretty good and I enjoyed progressing through the championship.

I also really liked the art deco aesthetic they chose, the cars in particular look cool.
 
Stumpokapow said:
Summer of Arcade 2008 had Geometry Wars 2 (very well received, sold very well, probably not as enduring in the consciousness of the XBLA world as GeoWars 1 but pretty universally regarded as a worthy or even superior sequel.), Braid (universal acclaim, incredible sales, bizarrely popular given its weirdness--I'm thinking about the Souljah Boy video here), and Castle Crashers (something like 1.75 million on the leaderboards despite game-breaking bugs). I'm ignoring Galaga Legions intentionally; because this stuff is sort of long tail, I'm happy to erase the chaff from history.

Summer of Arcade 2009 had Marvel vs Capcom 2 (well received, hugely popular, lead into a franchise revival--and that's despite the fact that it's frankly a pretty lazy port), Splosion Man (great reception, noted for being a great value since many of the other offerings were 1200 points, the donuts song went viral), Trials HD (unquestionably a breakout hit--developer unexpectedly had to do DLC addons due to smash success, universal acclaim, insane sales even a year later), Shadow Complex (widely regarded as a product that actually transcends the definitions of what's possible on the downloadable service), and TMNT (middling reception but huge sales)

In other words, I feel that both years pretty much across the board (excluding Galaga Legions) hit the highest highs on either sales, reception, or both.I don't want to elaborate further on the specifics of why this lineup for 2010 won't because obviously any time you prejudge a game or games negatively it's essentially gotta be read as trolling. Of course, I haven't played any of the games mentioned, so it's a gut feeling. I guess it is trolling, then. I'll elaborate in spoilers with the one reservation that I don't intend to defend or continue further so if you think I'm a big idiot, duly noted;

I think that Limbo has a very good chance of being well received like PB Winterbottom (including the comparisons to Braid), but I think its commercial chances are more like Winterbottom, even if they elevate it to a spot in Summer of Arcade.

I think that Monday Night Combat will suffer from divisive and mixed reception, with the best commentary on it to be that's it's essentially fun and derivative. I think the online community will not last very long because Battlefield 1943 is the only remotely comparable title whose online community has lasted.

I think Shank is a good looking entry to a pretty crowded field on XBLA. Between The Dishwasher 1 and 2, Castle Crashers, and TMNT (to name a few), I think it's going to get a little lost. It might do well, it might not, but I don't see it being a breakout. I also see it being received well but not spectacularly.

Deathspank, frankly, looks like a mess to me. Obviously Gilbert is very talented, it looks visually decent, the promised amount of content suggests a broad scope, and the "like Diablo but funny" sort of elevator pitch works. I don't think the end product is going to work as well as many people do.

My hypothetical SoA 2010 that includes only announced games--there's nothing announced that could be a tentpole like Castle Crashers or Shadow Complex--would be Monkey Island 2, World of Keflings, either Doom II or Quake Arena or Hydrophobia, and either BattleBlock Theatre or Super Meat Boy (wouldn't be allowed, not exclusive) or Comic Jumper (although I'm skeptical this one will work out all that well). If MS really wants an artsy game, I think Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be better received than Limbo.

*shrugs*
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I'd honestly be disappointed if it were filled with sequels to games already available on the platform (DOOM, Kingdom of Keflings, Monkey Island) or games by developers who have had their chance to shine already (Behemoth, Twisted Pixel). The big promotions have usually been about new IP or big IP with a few exceptions (TMNT Re-Shelled)
 
I don't remember their names off the top of my head, but I believe there are 2-3 golfing/mini golf games on XBLA. Which one is the best?
 
Hands-on: Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/05/18/hands-on-lara-croft-and-the-guardian-of-light/

Perhaps you've been glossing over any stories with the words "Lara Croft" in the headline, sure that it couldn't possibly have anything to offer you. You and Lara had your thing ... but that was years ago. You're older now. You've moved on.

Well, so has Lara. The team at Crystal Dynamics did an admirable job updating the Tomb Raider series with the Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld trilogy but they understood that they "needed to make a drastic change for the studio and that continuing down the same path wasn't really going to cut it any longer." So, Crystal Dynamics split itself into three groups: one focused on making the "pillar games" that will use the "Tomb Raider" branding; another focused on controlling the Lara Croft intellectual property and brand in-house; and the last one intent on delivering fresh "experimental" gameplay in a downloadable format using the "Lara Croft" brand. And that gets us to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.

If you've been ignoring the Tomb Raider reboot, perhaps still spurned by the atrocious Angel of Darkness, you owe it to yourself to reevaluate that relationship once again. You see, Guardian of Light isn't a "Tomb Raider" game. It's something new: A $15 isometric co-op puzzle game. Ludwig's already given you his impressions of the game, but at a recent pre-E3 event I got to take the controller myself – along with Mr. Mike Schramm – for some co-op puzzle solving.

"One of the big things in the game for us was to give the player simple problems and give them tools that have a lot of utility," said creative director Daniel Neuburger, "and let the two people on the couch decide how they want to solve the problems." Some examples of those tools include Lara's grappling hook (a recent addition to the series from the Crystal Dynamics trilogy), Totec's spear and shield, and some remote-detonated grenades.

Now for the utility part: Lara's grappling hook can be used as a tightrope for Totec to walk across, or she can climb on Totec's shield, held above his head, to reach higher areas and use her grappling hook to pull Totec up. Or Totec can throw spears across (or up!) a wall and Lara can climb them. Or she can "double jump" by climbing on Totec's shield, having him jump and timing her jump at the apex. Apply those tools to environmental puzzles and you've got the core of Guardian of Light's gameplay.

The area Mike and I played didn't include much combat – though there's plenty to be found in the game. Instead, we focused on some of the "challenge tombs." These are special rooms, off the course of the main quest, which more puzzle-oriented players can opt to undertake. "So what we use those for is to be able to able to push our puzzles and some combat further than we normally would on main gameplay paths," Neuburger explained. "So people that really love those kind of difficult, mind-bending puzzles from Tomb Raider still have those tricky puzzles left in the game."

The example Neuburger showed us included a tall column with the relic on top. Unable to make the jump using either Totec's shield or climbing up a single spear, reaching the summit seems pretty difficult. However, if Totec backs up the stairs leading into the tomb and throws spears into the column as he ascends, it would create a vertical ladder that Lara can climb to get the artifact. Neuburger called this a "really simple" challenge tomb; one which rewards you with an artifact. "These are ways for the player to boost their character in a way that makes them different to their co-op partner," Neuburger says of the artifacts. "So when you pick these up [...] the artifacts will have different abilities tied to them. Like this one will make your weapon more powerful and makes you faster."

The co-op gameplay in Guardian of Light requires constant communication between both players – the mechanics don't work with anything less. And make no mistake, Guardian of Light was built for co-op. Neuburger told us, "We built the game co-op first, because that was really important to us to deliver a really true co-op experience. Where it wasn't just two people playing the same game at the same time but really working together."

The end result is an extraordinarily polished downloadable title. One that, along with games like Shadow Complex (unsurprisingly a game it's already been compared to) helps raise the bar on what you can expect from this new breed of not-quite-retail downloadable games.
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Jtyettis said:
Also whatever happened to that indie game that won last year and got the XBLA contract (I think). It looked pretty good at the time.
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Hushed rumblings in back alleys say that it is coming along quite nicely.

As for this year's Summer of Arcade... the love around Limbo cannot be denied. It's easily my most anticipated title this year. And Insanely Twisted (by inspiration and friend) Michel Gagne has my vote as a nominee, although I'm not sure if it's coming out that soon.

Shank seems like the easy answer for the marquee. Edit... however that's not exclusive, is it?
 
Stumpokapow said:
I'm ignoring Galaga Legions intentionally; because this stuff is sort of long tail, I'm happy to erase the chaff from history.
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Hey, fuck you, buddy. Galaga Legions is one of the best games on XBLA. It's criminal how misunderstood that game is.

Also, I think you're grossly underestimating the potential of Monday Night Combat, Shank and Limbo if they're part of Summer of Arcade. If they fall outside of it, yeah, they probably won't do great, considering pretty much no original content seems to do overly well on XBLA outside of the Summer of Arcade stuff lately.
 
Achievements: Ancients of Ooga

http://www.cracked.com/article_18377_5-reasons-you-should-be-scared-apple.html

There are 12 achievements with a total of 200 points.

Long Live Chief Berni-ni 5
Revive the Fire Chief, Berni-ni.

A Shocking Development 10
Use the Harvest Chief, Diggi-dodo's power on a Booli.

Sober the Stinkers 15
Get the stinkers off slugs.

Abracadabra, Alakazam! 20
Transform a Booli using the Animal Chief, Ali-mali.

Flotsam and Jetsam 25
Completely flood a level using the Swimmer Chief, Fini-ni.

The Way the Booli Crumbles 30
Shatter a Booli into pieces using the Stone Chief, Te-tera.

Dibs on the Drumstick 35
Make a feast for the flappers.

And Stay Out! 10
Kick the Boolis out of Ooga.

Taste Tester 5
Swallow 15 unique items.

Death Defier 5
Complete 22 levels without dying.

Bone Collection 35
Collect all of the bones of the Ancient One.

Join the Revolt 5
Complete a split screen cooperative level.
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mujun said:
Metal Slug XX
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5lnj3d.gif
 
Gamejunky said:
Anyone know all the new games added to arcade hits recently? I only remember seeing Cloning Clyde and 3 on 3 NHL.
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?! When did this happen. Went on dashboard it shows only 13, but Cloning Clyde now listed as 400 so bought. :D what else?! Runs off to check through ALL games.

Edit: Ima update as I go through :) add... To the list:
age of booty 400

Well I got bored at 100 (Greed Corp) if anybody wants to go through the rest. Also remember it doesnt show prices of games I own so some may be missed.
 
Aqua is pretty sweet. When doing the prologue, it pops up that you earned an avatar award, and it's this elaborate sea captain attire, not just some hat or a simple shirt. I thought that was rather nice.

The game itself on my SD TV looked to have a slightly choppy framerate during big cinematic explosions and multi-screen camera pans, and one time the textures flashed a bit odd for me for a brief second (nothing worse than seein an unreal game or something) but otherwise, it felt nice to control, looked really nice, and had pretty decent voicework for an 800 pts arcade game.

Hiring and commanding backup ships is a nice touch, bullets where easy to read and didn't get lost in environment, machine guy sounded nice and satisfying, seems to be a nice package overall, with a few rough spots, that might vary depending on who you are.

The pinup/propaganda artwork for the "buy now!" stuff was also nicely done. Nice powerups so far, reflector saws works suprisingly well, and the missle rain special of the first ship you have was very effective. Everything worked liked I wanted it do, which is pretty nice for such a game. Nothing that felt off, or lacking in usefulness.

Doesn't seem to have online multiplayer? But if offers such for same console.

Metal Slug XX offered no mention of Leona (Awww!) but the trial supposts 2 player local for the first stage. You only get to control Marco or Tarma. You can decide to have screen at 4:3 or what I believe is zoomed in/stretched "fullscreen". Seemed like a similiar port to 3, can't try out combat school in trial, and I have yet to buy it, so no full game experiences yet. Having never played XX though, I expect to buy it later t'day. Felt like Metal Slug, and it's one I don't own, so that's good right there!

Also note that gamepics for Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes went up today, along with screenshots. (O.o) So, are we getting it soon, or is this just a tease?
 
@SAB CA - There's no release date for the title, yet! S I guess you should enjoy the screenshots for the moment :D

Can´t wait to get my hands on it, looks great!
 
Wow, Metal Slug's frame rate was terrible. Deleted.

Aqua seemed OK, but I'm having an issue with the right stick on my controller so can't play it properly for now.
 
Went ahead and got Aqua this morning. Played through the tutorial and I was diggin' it. Noticed some framerate/screen tearing issues from time to time, but overall it seemed liked a good game for 800pts.

I'll have to give Metal Slug a shot after work.
 
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