Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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There hasn't been a lot of excitement around here about Undertow ever since a bunch of the regs drank the Aku Jiji kool-aid.
 
Diablohead said:
Every time I see this thread get bumped I hope for castle crashers... :(
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From the time it was announced, it has always been an early 2008 game. I'm not sure why you've been expecting otherwise.
 
Aaron said:
From the time it was announced, it has always been an early 2008 game. I'm not sure why you've been expecting otherwise.
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I don't know why people are expecting it this year, either, but definitely the early word was that it was coming out in 2007. (But it's been known for ages that it's coming out in '08)

Here's an article for July 2006.
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/castlecrashers/news.html?sid=6154472

"currently slated for release on the Xbox Live Arcade early next year."
 
The OFLC has had another new, unannounced board game rated:

WITS & WAGERS by HIDDEN PATH ENTERTAINMENT

http://www.criticalgamers.com/archives/party-games/wits_wagers_review.php

It's a trivia game where the answers are all numbers, could be something like "How many kills has Jack Bauer made in 24?" or “What year did Ben Franklin perform his famous kit experiment?”. You bet poker chips and get returns based on who is closest.

Sounds interesting. Not officially announced but considering Microsoft applied for it, and Hidden Path Entertainment has been working on XNA tests as well as some panels at Microsoft Gamefest.. it's a very fair bet.

You know, maybe they shoudl start announcing and showing off this shit before it's rated, maybe? :lol
 
Rlan said:
The OFLC has had another new, unannounced board game rated:

WITS & WAGERS by HIDDEN PATH ENTERTAINMENT

http://www.criticalgamers.com/archives/party-games/wits_wagers_review.php

It's a trivia game where the answers are all numbers, could be something like "How many kills has Jack Bauer made in 24?" or “What year did Ben Franklin perform his famous kit experiment?”. You bet poker chips and get returns based on who is closest.

Sounds interesting. Not officially announced but considering Microsoft applied for it, and Hidden Path Entertainment has been working on XNA tests as well as some panels at Microsoft Gamefest.. it's a very fair bet.

You know, maybe they shoudl start announcing and showing off this shit before it's rated, maybe? :lol
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Damn, I'll be really interested to try that out. Been calling for XBLA trivia games since forever. The number gimmick seems a bit limiting, but if the questions are good....
 
Boy how awesome is Carcassonne (sp?)? I had my first Live experience so to speak in playing it with Dormer and StrikerObi online.. felt like old times (not that I ever played the dorky boardgames that they did -- maybe I should have!). We bought the King and the Baron expansion which definitely makes things interesting. The Rivers II expansion seems so pointless though -- seriously, who's going to spend money on that?

I wouldn't mind giving a Catan a shot next.
 
Meier said:
Boy how awesome is Carcassonne (sp?)? I had my first Live experience so to speak in playing it with Dormer and StrikerObi online.. felt like old times (not that I ever played the dorky boardgames that they did -- maybe I should have!). We bought the King and the Baron expansion which definitely makes things interesting. The Rivers II expansion seems so pointless though -- seriously, who's going to spend money on that?

I wouldn't mind giving a Catan a shot next.
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How is the DLC? i have thought about picking it up but then it seems silly for a couple of tiles.

Catan is also AWESOME, I prefer it over Cacassonne. Let me know if you ever need someone to join in a game :)
 
Gowans007 said:
Catan is also AWESOME, I prefer it over Cacassonne. Let me know if you ever need someone to join in a game :)
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Me too. I already have you on my list I think Gowans, but Meier if you pick up the game my GT is AstroTheLad, feel free to invite me any time. Haven't played in forever but Catan's a great game.
 
Carcassonne and Catan are great. But the board game I'm really looking forward to is Talisman.

It was supposed to coincide with the release of the 4th ed. of the game last month, but it's now delayed until April 2008. :(

DSCF1203.jpg
 
More board games and trivia games on XBLA and I'm fucking ecstatic. Brings me one step closer to my ultimate XBLA fantasy of Robo Rally coming to the service.
 
Meier said:
Boy how awesome is Carcassonne (sp?)? I had my first Live experience so to speak in playing it with Dormer and StrikerObi online.. felt like old times (not that I ever played the dorky boardgames that they did -- maybe I should have!). We bought the King and the Baron expansion which definitely makes things interesting. The Rivers II expansion seems so pointless though -- seriously, who's going to spend money on that?

I wouldn't mind giving a Catan a shot next.
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Catan is much better than Carcassone.
 
I tried it, I didn't really like it. I know it could shine online, but the single player was annoying me. The second you get near an enemy, he starts hitting you with such precise accuracy. Dashing makes them miss for a split second and then they continue the pummelling.
 
xbhaskarx said:
Catan is much better than Carcassone.
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It offers deeper gameplay, but after playing the demo I don't see how you could just play Catan with strangers. Most people barely have the patience to play a 2 minute Bomberman match. You practically have to plan your afternoon around Catan.

Carcassone, on the other hand, is more like Uno. It's great for a quick round or two before you move on to something else.
 
Marathon XBLA postmortem on Gamaustra:

Was an updated port a good idea in the first place? Why do people play old games, especially old games they have never played before? Some do it for nostalgia, to reinforce their memories of when the game was brand new. Some do it to satisfy their curiosity about an experience that others feel is worth remembering even after countless other games were released. Some do it to witness the evolution of modern games, and see brand new concepts in their unrefined states. Fundamentally, the goal is the same regardless -- to go back and experience the game as it once was, to see for oneself the greatness that was once discovered in it without preconceptions or the relaxed standards of hindsight.

We had decided to go in a different direction. We felt the core of what made the game great -- the level design, the feel of working the game’s controls and weapons, the story, deserved a stronger technological foundation. Some of the game’s limitations added nothing to it and could be discarded, and additions could be made that enhanced the parts of the experience we felt were lacking. In hindsight, this was a fundamental mistake. Fidelity to the original should have been absolutely paramount, and it could have been done while playing to the 360’s strengths all along. Our long experience with the game and its tightly-knit original community led us to fail to consider what a player approaching it for the very first time was expecting to find.

Practically every other port on Xbox Live, and older games running under emulators or virtual machines on PCs, can be made to look so similar to the original that it’s practically impossible to distinguish screenshots of the two. Ours cannot. Texture filtering is always used; the blocky nearest-neighbor look of software texturing is gone. Vertical foreshortening always occurs in the truly 3D renderer. The new HUD, while unavoidable for reasons stated above, is nevertheless new. The port’s 60 fps performance makes some effects carefully tweaked for half that rate look strange, such as the flamethrower or the rocket’s contrail.

The high-quality mode is not simply a tweaked version of the standard, but a completely new look that warps the aesthetics of some areas in unexpected ways. These changes may be superficial to the gameplay, but they are pervasive and unavoidable and they make the game a unique experience to old and new players alike; an experience that can’t decide whether it wants to be judged as a modern game weighed down by gameplay and rough edges a decade old, or a relic of the past that tries to deny its players the very reason they sought it out. Lost in the gap between contemporary expectations of polish and the implicit forgiveness in gaming archaeology, the experience is not exactly what we had intended for any one player.
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Project Stats

Developer: Freeverse
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)
Release date: August 1, 2007
Development time: 10 months
Number of developers: 5
Hardware: Mac minis running Windows XP under Boot Camp
Development software: Visual Studio 2005, Adobe CS 2.0, Xcode
Technologies: DirectX
Lines of code: 42,000
Budget: $300,000
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Indeed, indeed, there are by my reckoning at least three games that were slated for this month that have yet to be released, Omega Five, Sensible World of Soccer and Spongebob Squarepants: Underpants Battle. Obviously at least one of these games is going to slip into at least next month, as so often the case with XB:A games. Speaing of which, I found a bit of new info regarding SWOS over at Eurogamer, it could be good tidings or bad tidings, not sure yet, one thing seems clear though, its status is going to be updated clearly and soon.


http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=88179

Codies cagey on SWOS date(News)

by Rob Purchese

23/11/07 15:26

Codemasters Online Gaming remains cagey about the release date of Sensible World of Soccer.

Earlier this month producer Jim Brown told us the revamped retro classic would be out before the end of November. But when pushed today about whether this was still true, Codemasters Online could only offer than an announcement would be made in the coming days.
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This could all be good news, of course, with the publisher keen to unveil its imminent release date to everyone at once. But we cannot help fearing the worst, like having an elephant trunk sloppily attached to our shoulder as we sleep.

Jim Brown told us everything was currently in Microsoft's hands, and SWOS simply had to clear the certification process before it could go on Live Arcade. However, we have seen this take a long time in the past - Jeff Minter and his troubled masterpiece Space Giraffe took weeks to clear.
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I'm still waiting on the old trackball game...I think it was called: Crystal Castles? In which you moved a Bear (with Wizard hat on it's head I believe) on a 3D Isometric playfield, picking up red crystals while avoiding baddies.

C'mon, make it happen!
 
womp said:
Wasn't Omega Five supposed to drop in November?
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Speaking of Omega Five, I've been meaning to post but have been forgetful. They changed the controls in the latest build I played; it's not a Forgotten Worlds-alike anymore, but is now a double-stick shooter. Still great, though. (And maybe you can change that in the options.)

I actually prefer it. I dig FW but have always thought it was unnecessarily hard to control.
 
There really are a complete shit ton of games that have been announced for "2007" which have no good chance of even making it. Hell Capcom expected Commando 3 and Rocketmen to both drop in 2007 [which seems highly unlikely since they're very similar]
 
SapientWolf said:
It offers deeper gameplay, but after playing the demo I don't see how you could just play Catan with strangers. Most people barely have the patience to play a 2 minute Bomberman match. You practically have to plan your afternoon around Catan.

Carcassone, on the other hand, is more like Uno. It's great for a quick round or two before you move on to something else.
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Catan is probably one of the better games for playing with strangers. Sure, most people don't have the patience for Bomberman, but those are probably not the same people who play Catan. In my experience Catan players tend to be older, more friendly/social (as in talkative without the swearing and rudeness), more international (lots of Europeans), and have a higher f:m ratio than the average multiplayer game.

No one talks in Carcassone because you don't really need to negotiate with others as there is no trading. Talking to strangers can get you wins in Catan, as they're more likely to help you out at the end.
 
Anyone ever play Spyglass Board Games online?

I've played a few matches of Chess and just as I was about to checkmate my opponent they quit on me. Happened a few times.

This wouldn't matter if there were penalities for quitting mid-match but of course, there aren't. So when the hell are developers going to get the fucking hint that sitting there and playing online, putting all this effort in to get a near victory only to see my opponent quit and myself get no recognition for my efforts is just completely fucked up?

You'd think it would be common sense to punish quiters. You'd think.
 
xabre said:
Anyone ever play Spyglass Board Games online?

I've played a few matches of Chess and just as I was about to checkmate my opponent they quit on me. Happened a few times.

This wouldn't matter if there were penalities for quitting mid-match but of course, there aren't. So when the hell are developers going to get the fucking hint that sitting there and playing online, putting all this effort in to get a near victory only to see my opponent quit and myself get no recognition for my efforts is just completely fucked up?

You'd think it would be common sense to punish quiters. You'd think.
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I just spoke with Aaron Fothergill, head programmer of Strange Flavour, and pointed him to your post; here's his response:

Aaron Fothergill said:
We're working on a title update for it (we didn't expect so many people to be such bad sports and quit before losing so often)..

If someone *does* quit early. remember to use the dash to provide feedback on them. That will penalise them in game searches (in all their games) however there is one case of confusion where your opponent might not be quitting early...

in ranked matches, the match ends once either player wins. In that case you'll often get a message saying your opponent left (because they saw the game win/loss screen and continued before you did). That's normal and doesn't mean your opponent quit early.

The title update is taking a while (one programmer, more than one project and the title update will have to go through the full certification process) but will have fixes for a few other issues too.
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xabre said:
You'd think it would be common sense to punish quiters. You'd think.
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It's cool that they're patching it, but every online ranked game needs to have this out of the box. It's insane to think that not penalizing someone for quitting (other than feedback, har) is somehow tenable. I've seen people do much crazier things to uphold their pristine records--no reason to make it easier. I'd wager that in online ranked games where you can quit to avoid getting a loss on your record, more than half the people do on a regular basis.
 
AstroLad said:
It's cool that they're patching it, but every online ranked game needs to have this out of the box. It's insane to think that not penalizing someone for quitting (other than feedback, har) is somehow tenable. I've seen people do much crazier things to uphold their pristine records--no reason to make it easier. I'd wager that in online ranked games where you can quit to avoid getting a loss on your record, more than half the people do on a regular basis.
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I don't disagree, but I don't (personally) know what difference penalizing someone in one game for quitting actually makes. I mean, great, they've quit a bunch in Spyglass and so they're penalized and can't find games - so now they'll skip over to Uno and do the same shit all over again. It's not applied across multiple games.

Best I can tell, MS intended for the feedback mechanism to account for this - of course, it's horribly flawed since everyone just ranks up their friends even if they are dropping assholes.
 
Remy said:
I don't disagree, but I don't (personally) know what difference penalizing someone in one game for quitting actually makes. I mean, great, they've quit a bunch in Spyglass and so they're penalized and can't find games - so now they'll skip over to Uno and do the same shit all over again. It's not applied across multiple games.
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Well yeah, it both weeds people out who rely heavily on cheating and encourages people to finish games. In PES, for example, if you quit you get a 3-0 loss (and it tallies the disconn), so there's an effective bit of disincentive there. Put that up against the 360 version from last year--where the pause was infinite and people would literally wait days sometimes in games where they were trailing to avoid getting the loss.

The point is that if you give people the opportunity to disconnect to avoid losses, or to pause forever, or to otherwise beef up their stats, people will take advantage of it constantly--usually to the great detriment of the game.
 
Remy said:
I don't disagree, but I don't (personally) know what difference penalizing someone in one game for quitting actually makes. I mean, great, they've quit a bunch in Spyglass and so they're penalized and can't find games - so now they'll skip over to Uno and do the same shit all over again. It's not applied across multiple games.
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Yes, but at least the community that surrounds that one particular game will be safe from that ass. Protecting one community at a time is the way to make it thrive.
 
aku:jiki said:
Speaking of Omega Five, I've been meaning to post but have been forgetful. They changed the controls in the latest build I played; it's not a Forgotten Worlds-alike anymore, but is now a double-stick shooter. Still great, though. (And maybe you can change that in the options.)

I actually prefer it. I dig FW but have always thought it was unnecessarily hard to control.
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Really?

Have you played the arcade version? At first I thought you had to depress the spinner EACH time you wanted to fire but then quickly discovered you could HOLD it and get auto fire which made the game, IMO, a snap to play.

I actually beat it in only a few credits along with a 2nd player along for the ride.

Now the home versions (TG16, Genesis, PS2/Xbox) is a different story...Arguably harder to control I thought.
 
Well, I got a fixture on one or should I say two of the games being released this week, most unexpected, though not sure how it or they are going to be received.
 
cjelly said:
Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe?

WTF?
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Like I said, a most unexpected release.

Atari’s Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe Blast Onto Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday!

Hello!

Get ready for classic space shooting action with the release of “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” which will be available jointly for download on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, November 28 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PST).

Save the earth from a deadly deluge of asteroids and re-experience the beloved arcade classics “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Players control a spaceship in an asteroid field and shoot to destroy asteroids and saucers, all while trying to avoid a costly collision. Complete with re-mastered HD visuals and the whiplash inducing high-speed “throttle monkey” mode, players will be hooked for hours! “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” will be available worldwide as a joint download for 400 Microsoft Points and are rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

For more details on “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” please visit: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/a/asteroidsxboxlivearcade

Also, don’t miss out the new downloadable content for “Bomberman Live.” For more details please visit www.xbox.com/livearcade.


Filed Under: Media Alerts, Press Releases and Media Alerts, Xbox Live Arcade
 
Shard said:
Like I said, a most unexpected release.

Atari’s Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe Blast Onto Xbox LIVE Arcade this Wednesday!

Hello!

Get ready for classic space shooting action with the release of “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” which will be available jointly for download on Xbox LIVE Arcade for Xbox 360 this Wednesday, November 28 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PST).

Save the earth from a deadly deluge of asteroids and re-experience the beloved arcade classics “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Players control a spaceship in an asteroid field and shoot to destroy asteroids and saucers, all while trying to avoid a costly collision. Complete with re-mastered HD visuals and the whiplash inducing high-speed “throttle monkey” mode, players will be hooked for hours! “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” will be available worldwide as a joint download for 400 Microsoft Points and are rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

For more details on “Asteroids” and “Asteroids Deluxe” please visit: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/a/asteroidsxboxlivearcade

Also, don’t miss out the new downloadable content for “Bomberman Live.” For more details please visit www.xbox.com/livearcade.


Filed Under: Media Alerts, Press Releases and Media Alerts, Xbox Live Arcade
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... and how are you going to conrol this? The original version used buttons to move and all that. And will the hi-def mode simulate the old-school vector graphics? I want to know! :D
 
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