About John Laster

We at XBLA Fans are incredibly excited about the state of indie games on the Xbox One moving forward into 2015. In the next two weeks you’ll see an article from us highlighting some of the fantastic games we are anticipating. In the meantime, though, we highly suggest looking at some of the great games that released in 2014. We posted our Game of the Year awards yesterday. In honor of those games, we have a week full of streaming for you over on our Twitch channel. Make sure to give us a follow (or subscribe if you are feeling super generous).

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Join us tonight (12/11/2014) for a Jackbox Party Pack twitch stream at 8PM EST. The beauty of streaming this title is that anyone can join along in the fun …
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While Microsoft’s stance on games may be that “a game is a game“, there is a huge breadth of experiences on the Xbox One. The console boasts some fantastic …
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Earlier today Microsoft posted a press release informing us that five ID@xbox games would be released this week. Two of which, Never Alone and The Jackbox Party Pack, launched Tuesday evening. Thomas Was Alone, Piers Solar and The Pinball Arcade will release tomorrow rounding out the week.

Never Alone was developed in part with the Alaskan Native community and features beautiful arctic landscapes and with Limbo-esque puzzle segments. Our Never Alone review went up earlier this week and Nick Santangelo wasn’t a huge fan, saying “Never Alone exposed me to [the Iñupiat] culture, and I’m thankful for that. Unfortunately, it didn’t do so as part of a satisfying game experience, which makes it impossible to recommend anyone else learn the Iñupiat ways through the same means I did.”

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One of my favorite features on the Xbox One has been the ability to pre-order and pre-download games. There is something truly satisfying knowing that your 60GB Halo Master Chief Collection download is ready and waiting for you when the clock strikes just past midnight (even if Matchmaking isn’t). We’ve been requesting this feature for ages (check out some old XBLA Fancasts), specifically with smaller digital titles that sometimes can be forgotten about. It looks like Microsoft is on the right track with this, as Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions is now live for pre-order. To make the deal even sweeter, the bundle comes with an exclusive level: “Blood Count” on a Torus-shaped grid with exclusive background. The game will not be live until 7:01 PM EST on November 25, 2014.

Geometry Wars should need no introduction to XBLA Fans. The franchise has been huge for the platform. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved and RE2 ranked 13 on our best XBLA Games of all time. As such, there is obviously a bit of hype for the sequel with Lucid Games at the helm, a successor company to Bizarre Creations. With a ridiculously blatant pun title, Geo Wars 3 breaks away from previous games with the addition of a 3D grid playspace that will feature a few different shapes.

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Never Alone stands at a distinctive place for gaming. Built in partnership with the Alaska Native community, Never Alone attempts to introduce players to the unique culture of the Iñupiat …
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Telltale Games has proven to be a master of storytelling with numerous successful adaptations of exciting intellectual properties, including two recently released on Xbox One: The Walking Dead Seasons 1 and 2 and The Wolf Among Us. Telltale now looks to expand upon the mythology behind Pandora, the setting for Gearbox Software’s highly successful Borderlands Series, with Tales from the Borderlands. The game will be released for multiple platforms including Xbox 360 and Xbox One. Episodes may be purchased for $4.99 each. After buying the first episode players will have the option of getting a season pass for an additional $14.99 (saving the price of one episode).

The first episode, Zer0 Sum, will be releasing soon. The series will feature some pretty recognizable voice actors: Troy Baker as Rhys, Laura Bailey as Fiona, Chris Hardwick as Vaughn, Erin Yvette as Sasha, Patrick Warburton as Vasquez and Dameon Clarke as Handsome Jack. The series will take place after Borderlands 2 with some plot tie-ins to the recently released Borderlands the Pre-sequel.

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We’re hiring. Come write (or stream) for us!
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Want to join our team? Then get in here and find out how!
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Two of the most respected curators of others intellectual property, Zen Studios and Telltale, have come together to bring Telltales’ Game of the Year winning The Walking Dead experience to pinball. …
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