Official Xbox Live Arcade Thread

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bigmakstudios said:
Should I get the XBLA release of Sonic the Hedgehog 2? I'd really like to play it with the Wii's classic controller, but I don't feel like it's worth paying $3 more. >_> Either way, I don't have any Wii points right now...
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I brought it and had a great time replaying the game without level cheats and such, plus you can save anywhere if need be.

You can also play the multiplayer levels across xbox live if that is your thing.

BTW sound is slightly off but most emulation does that, even the ps2 and cube versions.
 
omg rite said:
Abysmal port?

wtf.
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- Filter can't be turned off, unlike other XBLA games.
- Atrocious framerate.
- Silly censorship that can be bypassed by changing the language / country of 360, strangely enough. Should've been available in the Options menu.
- Apparently harder to shoot diagonally.
- No level select after you finish the game, unlike the other Metal Slugs.
- Worthless co-op due to lag, even when the guy you're playing with lives really close to you.
- Missing content from the Xbox version.
- Broken leaderboards.

Really now, if the game runs better on the Xbox and PS2, something went horribly wrong with the XBLA version.
 
Vigilante 8: Arcade finally offically announced and confirmed.

http://www.gaming-age.com/cgi-bin/previews/preview.pl?sys=xbox360&game=v8_arcade

V8: Arcade is a remake of the classic V8 series of vehicular shooters by Luxoflux/Activision from the late 1990s: Vigilante 8 for PS1/N64 (1998) and Vigilante 8: Second Offense for PS1/N64/Dreamcast (1999).
Advertisement

V8: Arcade is a brand new re-imagining of the original themes and gameplay, engineered from the ground up for today’s hardware by the original founders of Luxoflux and V8 developers. Could things get any better?Absolutely, because quite soon, the magic of V8 car-combat will be available to millions of Xbox Live Arcade users via digital download, presented in cutting edge audio-visual splendor, and… at quite an affordable price, too!

In addition to local split-screen mode, multiple players will be able take their car-crushing skills online, competing and/or teaming up with other V8 players the world over!

Players will rediscover the joys of weapon-based off-road car mayhem by savoring the following features, currently being cooked up at the ‘labs’:

Features:

* Five newly designed, highly interactive arenas, using Bezier patch technology for maximum surface smoothness!
* Eight gorgeous, highly varied ‘70s vehicles, rendered using advanced metallic shaders at 10,000+ polygons each
* Classic V8 character personas and unique special weapons
* Six standard weapon pick-ups with three advanced attacks each, featuring both ‘classic’ (combo) and ‘casual’ (charge-up) input methods
* Multiple collectible power-ups and ‘salvage points’
* User-customizable car paint color
* Advanced car physics for hyper-semi-realism and ultra high replay value — easy to pick up, difficult to master!
* Spectacular pyrotechnic, destruction effects, and physics-driven interactive hazards
* Single player modes against advanced bot AI
* Local split-screen modes up to four players
* Online multiplayer with up to eight human players
* Voice and (hopefully) camera support
* Leaderboards, achievements, unlockable secrets, and more!
* Free and premium extra downloadable content planned...

The game is currently slated for April 2008 release.
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MicVlaD said:
- Filter can't be turned off, unlike other XBLA games.
- Atrocious framerate.
- Silly censorship that can be bypassed by changing the language / country of 360, strangely enough. Should've been available in the Options menu.
- Apparently harder to shoot diagonally.
- No level select after you finish the game, unlike the other Metal Slugs.
- Worthless co-op due to lag, even when the guy you're playing with lives really close to you.
- Missing content from the Xbox version.
- Broken leaderboards.
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None of that qualifies for "abysmal" status.

- But it's not even a bad filter, like the one SOTN has by default. It looks fine.
- That's supposed to be true to the arcade original.
- Also true to the arcade.
- Not really.
- Also true to the arcade, and the way a game like this is supposed to be played.
- Not even true. I'm in Sweden and I played most of my games with a guy in the UK. We had sub-50 MS which was completely acceptable for this game.
- Again; unfair as this is an arcade emulation.
- I'll give you this. The leaderboards was a huge fuck-up.
 
Wits N Wagers, a cool trivia board game is coming to XBLA.

Wits & Wagers, the trivia/party game from North Star Games, will be available as an Xbox LIVE Arcade download sometime after its debut at New York Toy Fair (February 17-20, 2008). The XBLA version, designed by Hidden Path Entertainment, supports four players on one console and up to six players online and includes 700 questions. I’ll be at Toy Fair next week and will hopefully get to try out the game then.
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Source: Board Game News

http://www.boardgamenews.com/index....s_wagers_coming_to_xbox_live_arcade/#comments
 
N+ Update, N+ Update, N+ Update.

http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/02/14/n-likey-on-xbla-next-week/

Fanboy
N+ likely hits XBLA next week

Posted Feb 14th 2008 6:00PM by Xav de Matos
Filed under: News

Place this one in the we'll see category. According to a comment made on the MetaNet Software blog, developers Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns (as poster M&R) hinted at a February 20 release of their upcoming XBLA version of N+. The, formerly free flash based game, promises the standard boost to sound and high resolution graphics found in other XBLA game as well as a multiplayer mode. On the official developer blog for Slick Entertainment, the team behind the XBLA version, N+ passed certification January 10 and has been awaiting a release. The title was nearly released on January 30 but was held back in favor of RezHD and Chessmaster.

In the comments on February 13, M&R told readers, "I don't know.. maybe we can post something tomorrow [about the release], we're still waiting to hear back from Microsoft, because as mentioned it seems like every other game was announced a week early (which led us to believe that was the rule)." Earlier today, M&R posted, "We'll have a proper post soon about the launch party!." While its hardly a confirmation it looks like N+ will be gracing XBLA any time now, we hope.
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aku:jiki said:
None of that qualifies for "abysmal" status.

- But it's not even a bad filter, like the one SOTN has by default. It looks fine.
- That's supposed to be true to the arcade original.
- Also true to the arcade.
- Not really.
- Also true to the arcade, and the way a game like this is supposed to be played.
- Not even true. I'm in Sweden and I played most of my games with a guy in the UK. We had sub-50 MS which was completely acceptable for this game.
- Again; unfair as this is an arcade emulation.
- I'll give you this. The leaderboards was a huge fuck-up.
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- I personally don't mind, since I'm not a hardcore pixel purist or whatever you call, but that's just one of the many oversights.
- Don't care: could've gotten rid of it like they did with other versions. Especially on a 'next-gen console'.
- Doesn't matter: blood was in XBLA version either way and should've been selectable in the Options menu.
- Don't know. Haven't played the Xbox / PS2 version myself yet, an acquaintance just mentioned it.
- I play the game like that, but again: other versions had it and yet another oversight.
- Played it with a guy that lives a few towns away from me, someone I don't experience lag with in any other game and yet it lagged like hell in MS3. And we both have Open NAT. Combine that with the constant framerate drops...
- They could've still added it, since they had no trouble including online co-op (which wasn't in the arcade version obviously).

Either way, Metal Slug 3 on XBLA has 'laziness' written all over it.
 
First Vigilante 8: Arcade Screenshots

v8arcade_wk1_01_2.jpg


v8arcade_wk1_02_2.jpg


v8arcade_wk1_03_2.jpg


v8arcade_wk1_04_2.jpg


v8arcade_wk1_05_2.jpg



Also, 1UP.com presents the first preview of Roogoo.

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3166250
 
Vigilante 8 is interesting because it looks like they updated the textures and bumped up the resolution but kept the geometry the same. I would rather get a port of Interstate 76.
 
SapientWolf said:
Vigilante 8 is interesting because it looks like they updated the textures and bumped up the resolution but kept the geometry the same. I would rather get a port of Interstate 76.
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That is most likely due to that 150 MB limit.
 
Shard said:
That is most likely due to that 150 MB limit.
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Increased geometry isn't that much more data, really. Personally I would guess that it's to maintain a real good framerate at all times. If this ran at 60fps even with 4 player splitscreen in HD, that would be perfect. I would not, never, ever, miss the potential for more background detail if that were the case.
 
I went on another spree today. Checked out some new stuff, as always. I didn't write anything down this time, so I'm probably gonna forget half the stuff I noted, but here goes.

Frogger 2: Finally there's a working version up. Normal frog with no backpacks or RADTACULAR ATTITUDE confirmed. It plays just like Frogger, but with bigger levels and stuff. I didn't enjoy it due to the cheap Flash-looking graphics (by that, I don't mean that ALL Flash graphics look cheap -- I love Alien Hominid's look for example) and the game was too strict in how you jumped on leaves and stuff. The level-design with branching paths where you have to go to the dead-end to pick up a coin or whatever, and then head back and to the right path...yeah, no. Boring.

Go! Go! Break Steady!: Err, the name was something like that. It's a break-dancing game with horribly forced "urban style" and rhythm-based gameplay. It plays like the button mini-game in Gitaroo Man, where button symbols come flying toward the center and you press the corresponding button when the symbol hits a circle in the middle. Pretty simple and slightly lame. This one was too strict too, but it kinda felt like the controls couldn't really keep up with the strictness. Still in beta, so it could be improved. The song selection screen was still totally beta ("Song 1, Album 2" were the songnames, basically), but there were album covers by Prince and Run DMC.

Some Shogi Game: Don't remember the name. It looked all right, but I don't know Shogi so I didn't get anywhere.

Warlords: Never played the original and didn't have time to play it here, but this is yet another Stainless game. It was actually pretty fun and I didn't see anything game-breaking, but then again I don't know the game very well so I probably just missed it. I trust Stainless to have squeezed something totally fucked-up in there.

Wits & Wagers: Funny presentation with funny avatar-building (and you can make your avatars dance around at any time with the right stick, which we had a bunch of retarded fun with :lol), but annoying game. The gameplay works all right (but had some odd quirks that I hope will be fixed before release, like there was no indication that a player had pressed A to pick an answer), but...the questions! WTF is this shit?!

The questions we got were:

What's the average life expectancy in Botswana? (32.9, apparently.)
What percentage of US exports went to Canada in 2006?
In 2006, 54% of US citizens thought having a computer was a necessity. How many thought the same in 1996?

What the fuck? How is any normal, casual player supposed to know shit like that? Especially as a european, the second question is just a complete mystery to me. I get that the concept is that you're not really supposed to know, and instead you need to guess...but it'd be nice if it were questions regarding something you could possibly have any sort of clue about.
 
aku:jiki said:
What the fuck? How is any normal, casual player supposed to know shit like that? Especially as a european, the second question is just a complete mystery to me. I get that the concept is that you're not really supposed to know, and instead you need to guess...but it'd be nice if it were questions regarding something you could possibly have any sort of clue about.
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It's b/c the game is not so much about the questions as about the gamesmanship of betting on the answers. You'll find the game has a lot of fans--especially among board game geeks who usually shun most trivia games b/c the mechanic is quite clever.
 
AstroLad said:
It's b/c the game is not so much about the questions as about the gamesmanship of betting on the answers. You'll find the game has a lot of fans--especially among board game geeks who usually shun most trivia games b/c the mechanic is quite clever.
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Insane Clown Posse has a lot of fans too, you know.

I just don't get what the point is supposed to be. How are you supposed to even bet if you have NO idea what the answer is? You're just randomly throwing out markers at a number you think sounds good. I have no idea what's supposed to be fun about that.
 
aku:jiki said:
Insane Clown Posse has a lot of fans too, you know.
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Well, I wouldn't exactly say that board game geeks have bad taste in board games, if that's what you're arguing. Maybe if I had said "Candyland has sold like a billion copies!" I merely mentioned its popularity among a group of people whose expertise and opinions on the subject I respect; I wasn't making a sales=good argument.

I just don't get what the point is supposed to be. How are you supposed to even bet if you have NO idea what the answer is? You're just randomly throwing out markers at a number you think sounds good. I have no idea what's supposed to be fun about that.
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Because when you're betting you're also considering the odds you are given and estimating who may know something better than you did. I'm not going to argue to you that you should have been having fun--if you weren't, you weren't. Make no mistake about it; the game is definitely a party game and the more the better (sort of like Balderdash). The questions are also rather US-centric. But like I said before the fun is in making your best guess, seeing how other people guessed, and then showing either courage or confidence in your betting. I'm going to gank a description from boardgamegeek for anyone wondering what the hell we're talking about:

Game Play for Wits & Wagers
Everyone is given a laminated Answer Card, two Betting Cubes of the same color as the Answer Card, a dry erase marker, and 80 points worth of blue (ten points) and red (five points) chips. A 30 x 15 flexible, rubber-backed green mat is laid out in the center of the table. It evokes a felt roulette betting table. It’s divided into eight rectangles, each marked with a payout.

One player is assigned to read the questions. Another is given the banking chore of handling payouts.

Players write down numerical answers to trivia questions such as, “In 2000, what percentage of U.S. residents were of Hispanic origin?” When all the answers are revealed, the Answer Cards are placed on the mat, ranked in order from largest to smallest. Duplicate answers are placed together. On one end of the mat a bet on the largest answer will pay out 4 to 1 odds. The smallest answer will yield the same 4 to 1 odds. The payouts reduce to 3 to 1, then 2 to 1, then 1 to 1 for answers in between the two extremes. You can also bet that the correct answer is smaller than any of the given responses. That will pay 5 to 1. Depending on the number of players and the number of duplicate responses, not all of the payout slots will be filled. The rules have illustrations showing how the responses should be sorted. Basically, an odd number of responses starts in the middle (even odds) and moves out in both directions. An even number of responses leaves the middle slot blank and begins in the 2 to 1 slots before moving out in both directions.

When the answers are laid out, all the players select one or two answers they wish to bet on. The limit is ten points per round. You bet by putting your chips identified by your Betting Cubes on the appropriate slot. The winning response is the one that is closest to the correct answer without going over. The author(s) of the winning response gets a blue chip. Players who bet on that response are paid out according to the odds and how much they bet (either 5 or 10). Everyone else loses the money they bet. Answer Cards and Betting Cubes are returned to the players and the next round is played.

This goes on for seven rounds. In the final round the 10-point limit is lifted. Bettors can bet their farms and their firstborns as long as they have the chips to cover.
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http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/172717
 
SapientWolf said:
That's a pretty cryptic response. Are you talking about N+, or is this a new game announcement? Or something else entirely...
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Actually I was referring to that XNA stuff that Microsoft likes to trot out every now and again, I am pretty certain that Microsoft will be hyping it up again at GDC.

Anyway, ESRB Updates.

Mr. Driller Online NAMCO BANDAI Games Inc. E No Descriptors Xbox 360

Elements of Destruction THQ Inc T Mild Violence Windows PC, Xbox 360
 
Has anybody heard about Bungie working on an XBLA title? I have a friend who works in the Windows 7 team (Windows after Vista) and he mentioned something like that, but when I got it, he retracted it. Is there any chance of this happening?
 
AstroLad said:
Well, I wouldn't exactly say that board game geeks have bad taste in board games, if that's what you're arguing. Maybe if I had said "Candyland has sold like a billion copies!" I merely mentioned its popularity among a group of people whose expertise and opinions on the subject I respect; I wasn't making a sales=good argument.



Because when you're betting you're also considering the odds you are given and estimating who may know something better than you did. I'm not going to argue to you that you should have been having fun--if you weren't, you weren't. Make no mistake about it; the game is definitely a party game and the more the better (sort of like Balderdash). The questions are also rather US-centric. But like I said before the fun is in making your best guess, seeing how other people guessed, and then showing either courage or confidence in your betting. I'm going to gank a description from boardgamegeek for anyone wondering what the hell we're talking about:



http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/172717
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It's a really good game to play in person with people you know, but I can't see the charm in playing it with random people online. The most fun elements are the bluffing and reading your opponents. You don't have to know the answer, but you have to know who else does, and then decide to trust or not trust that they even wrote down the correct answer if they knew it.

The last game I played, I ended up winning on the last question by writing down the exact answer when I knew I was right, then bet first on someone else, and placed a larger bet on my own answer right as the betting phase timer ran out. Nobody else bet on mine because they saw my lack of confidence in my own answer.

Plus, not every question is as obscure as the ones listed above. I've played games where every question had at least one person at the table get the exact right answer. Or maybe the people I play with are just really smart.
 
godhandiscen said:
Has anybody heard about Bungie working on an XBLA title? I have a friend who works in the Windows 7 team (Windows after Vista) and he mentioned something like that, but when I got it, he retracted it. Is there any chance of this happening?
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I have heard nothing beyond idle speculation.
 
Shard said:
That is most likely due to that 150 MB limit.
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Textures would take much more room than geometry. I think people forget how low poly DC games were. These models have much more polys than the DC version.
 
Shogmaster said:
Textures would take much more room than geometry. I think people forget how low poly DC games were. These models have much more polys than the DC version.
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Yea, I have been doing some research and I think you are correct, Isopod Labs stated on thier website that the engine that they are building for Vigilante 8: Arcade is going to push the boundries of the XBLA size limit.
 
Shard said:
Yea, I have been doing some research and I think you are correct, Isopod Labs stated on thier website that the engine that they are building for Vigilante 8: Arcade is going to push the boundries of the XBLA size limit.
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I suggest that in doing that research that you don't look up pics of the DC version... YIKES! Reality just shat a big wet pile on nostalgia for me.
 
Shogmaster said:
I suggest that in doing that research that you don't look up pics of the DC version... YIKES! Reality just shat a big wet pile on nostalgia for me.
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Yea, there is a reason this game is being built from the ground up, need to get rid of the 2 generations ago ugliness.
 
Shard said:
Yea, there is a reason this game is being built from the ground up, need to get rid of the 2 generations ago ugliness.
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You mean 1 generation ago. DC is in the same generation with PS2, GC, and Xbox whether you want to believe or not.
 
Rottweiler said:
You mean 1 generation ago. DC is in the same generation with PS2, GC, and Xbox whether you want to believe or not.
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I was waiting for this, I am prepared, yes, the DC was only a generation ago, Vigilante 8: Second Offense however remains a relic from 2 generations ago. you see the Dreamcast game was not built with the system in mind, it was an upscaled Playstation One game. Such things are commonplace during the beginning phases of a new generation and also the Dreamcast was the Wii of its time in regards to porting.
 
Awesome work aku:jiki, thogh I won't post them on XBLAH since I don't want you to get in trouble :)

Outside of those there are two other games that have appeared on Partnernet - one that nobody knows about at all - and should not be talked about until it's announced somewhere (from what I've been told, it's not even really named yet, so don't post about it Aku :)) and one other that WAS up for a Day, but was then taken down! It's one we know about from OFLC / ESRB / USK stuff. Was able to snag it though :)
 
Rlan said:
Awesome work aku:jiki, thogh I won't post them on XBLAH since I don't want you to get in trouble :)

Outside of those there are two other games that have appeared on Partnernet - one that nobody knows about at all - and should not be talked about until it's announced somewhere (from what I've been told, it's not even really named yet, so don't post about it Aku :)) and one other that WAS up for a Day, but was then taken down! It's one we know about from OFLC / ESRB / USK stuff. Was able to snag it though :)
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:lol

So mean.
 
Not necessarily arcade related but marketplace related and I didn't want to start a new thread for it. Plus theres a bunch of "insiders" in here anyway...

On Tuesday I noticed there was some DLC for the newly released Might & Magic: Dark Messiah @ 400 pts that included new weapons etc. I got the game on Wednesday (Launch) and I've since discovered the DLC has been noticeably missing on the marketplace.

Anyone know what happened to it?
 
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/01/29/chair-to-bring-enders-game-to-the-xbla/


Chair to bring Ender's Game to the XBLA

Posted Jan 29th 2008 12:45PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade, Game announcements
Orson Scott Card and Chair Entertainment (the developers behind Undertow) just announced today that they're collaborating on a project to bring sci-fi novel Ender's Game into the video game world. Geeky fun!

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal confirmed that Chair Entertainment will begin developing Ender's Game sometime later this year and that the gameplay will not be focused on the entire novel, but instead will be more focused on the Battle Room. Croal also confirmed that Chair will be developing the game as a digital distribution title for release on services like the Xbox Live Arcade.
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Ender's Game is my favorite book ever. But I can't help but think I'd prefer a game version of Fairy Land from the book than the Battle Room.

still do want
 
MicVlaD said:
Wasn't the majority of that information already known from the initial announcement, though?

Either way, I'm interested in this after playing Undertow.
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I recall the initial announcement being given its own thread but nobody ever informed the downloadable sectors till now.
 
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