About Nick Santangelo

Ronimo Games is finalizing a number of changes for the next Awesomenauts patch aimed at leveling the playing field, says the Netherlands-based developer. In its latest address to …
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Microsoft has dropped a couple of “mystery” screenshots for a motocross game on its Play XBLA site, but Eurogamer, as well as several commenters on the original story, was able to quickly decipher that the game in question is Avatar Motocross Madness. Not that doing so was particularly difficult: the file names of the images are AMX_Mystery_1 and AMX_Mystery_2, and the publisher trademarked Avatar Motocross Madness last month. The name of the game was to be officially announced during Microsoft’s pre-E3 media briefing on Monday, June 4, but it’s now obviously not going to quite be the surprise the publisher had in mind.

Avatar Motocross Madness will be the first release in the series since Motocross Madness 2 dropped in 2000. It was the sequel to the 1998 original, both developed by Rainbow Studios and published by Microsoft on PC. THQ acquired the developer in 2001 before shutting it down last year. The developer behind the Avatar-themed revival has not yet been revealed.

Sources: Play XBLA and Eurogamer

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Major Nelson has released the weekly most-played titles lists for both XBLA, XBLIG and Xbox 360 in general for the week ending May 14, and, unsurprisingly, Minecraft: Xbox …
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Minecraft for Xbox Live Arcade will be getting its first free update in just a couple weeks, Roger Carpenter, lead producer of the fastest-selling game to ever hit the platform, has informed XBLA Fans. Digital crafters can look forward to what has been dubbed an interim update fixing a number of bugs when it arrives. Carpenter confirmed that dummy glitches, sleeping, clay issues and more will be remedied when it goes live.

A more robust update (1.7.3) will then follow at an undetermined date in July. Designed as the first in a series of post-release downloads to bring the port up to speed with the PC version, 1.7.3 will not include any additional Achievements due to it being free. (Those players who feel the itch to bump up their Gamerscore need not necessarily worry: traditional Xbox Live DLC with extra Achievements is being considered for sometime down the line.)

 
[springboard type=”video” id=”496935″ player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ] Unfortunately the size of the maps (1024 by 1024 blocks) is not set to be bumped up yet. The reason, says Carpenter, is that the game’s creators want to make sure they have sufficient room to expand the game as it grows. Any PC bugs that were not fixed until later updates will not be taken care of with 1.7.3, but, as mentioned, the plan is to eventually update Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition enough so that it matches up with the PC version.

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Konami has released several new screenshots for Zombie Studios’ Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition, and unlike George Costanza‘s Frogger high score, these screens have successfully made it across the street to their destination: your browser window. Of course, not even Schlomo and Slippery Pete could have blundered this one. Ah, references.

In any case, this latest incarnation of the 31-years-old franchise, players will be able to square off against each other or the CPU in four-player matches to determine “who’s really the top frog.” And how!

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Microsoft Japan has revealed that Crimson Dragon, the on-rails dragon combat title from Grounding, Inc. and Land Ho! Co. Ltd., is set to release in Japan on June 13, reports Famitsu. The Kinect-enabled spiritual successor to the Panzer Dragoon series will cost gamers 1200 Microsoft Points. No release details have been made available in regards to American and European territories at this time.

A trio of new dragons were also shown and detailed for the first time, meaning that all six of the game’s dragon types are now known. Black Bone makes up for his lack of agility with powerful main attacks and skills such as his “homing-Ray,” which locks on to a multitude of baddies. Golden Hawk has strong defensive attributes and a move called “plasma Barrett.” A rough translation identifies the move as “a power attack fire.” Last up is Silver Tail, who is sort of the smarty-pants of flying lizards. Silver Tail has the highest mental strength but low stamina. His main “Vision Lightning” ability allows for a form of automated tracking, and his main attack will be customizable to some degree.

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Spanish developer Tragnarion Studios has announced that Scourge: Outbreak, a futuristic third-person shooter the team is currently working on, will be coming to XBLA, PSN and Mac “around …
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Update: Eurogamer updated with a more definitive date of June 13.

Ubisoft has announced that Babel Rising, the HD remake of the popular iOS and Droid game of …
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Microsoft, in response to a deluge of complaints from SDTV owners unable to play splitscreen Minecraft, has revised the game’s overview on the Xbox Live Arcade Marketplace, reports …
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Developer Polytron has handed the first patch of platformer Fez off to Microsoft for certification. The studio promised that the update will mean “crash fixes, recovered save files …
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