About Ryan Thompson

Major Nelson released a preview of new features coming to the Xbox One yesterday. These include Blu-ray support for 50Hz video output with a promise of more updates to …
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Zen Studios will soon release Star Wars Pinball: Heroes Within for Xbox One and Xbox 360. This pinball pack will complete the original Star Wars trilogy of pinball tables …
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella yesterday made public an e-mail sent to all Microsoft employees detailing some of the new directions in which the company is turning. The company intends …
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Indie developer bitComposer Entertainment’s Jet Car Stunts is coming to XBLA thanks to publisher Grip Games. The game, which will launch this May, will feature 36 courses and a puzzle mode that will invite players to “reach the unreachable.” Multiple difficulties and three different play modes should provide a fair amount of variety.

The gameplay appears to be similar to the early XBLA title GripShift and should be of particular interest for players interested in racers with a strong single-player component, if the two titles’ puzzle modes are as similar as they sound. Control will be more important than raw speed given the technical complexity of some of the jumps…though failure might be as entertaining as success given the physics and damage systems, as the trailer suggests.

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A tweet from Notch (creator of Minecraft) reveals that there are indeed at least preliminary talks going on between Mojang Studios and Warner Brothers for a potential Minecraft movie. …
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Zen Studios, most well known to XBLA gamers for Pinball FX2, is migrating a number of its titles to the Xbox One, including the well-known pinball franchise. In addition …
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We’re late, and it seems that’s become somewhat of a trend for us lately. Our Game of the Year awards weren’t doled out until January, and now our look forward at the XBLA and Xbox One XBLA-type games of 2014 is just making its way to you in February. You were on your own when it came to planning out January’s releases, but now it’s time for our annual look ahead at the top downloadable games likely to arrive on an Xbox platform during the (remainder of) the year ahead. Read on to find out what you can expect out of Xbox over the next (not quite) 365.

Developer: Capcom

http://www.youtu.be/watch?v=0jMwcJI0pEg

Capcom’s Strider, today most commonly known for the main character’s appearances in the Marvel vs. Capcom franchise, will be the star of his own game next week on February 19 for the first time in more than 20 years. This particular entry appears to draw more from his NES game than any of his other appearances, mixing the exploration of Metroid with the visceral combat of Ninja Gaiden. As a result, comparisons to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are inevitable and likely warranted. If any company can follow in the footsteps of these giants, it’s Capcom — seeing what it does in a two-dimensional environment given the horsepower of the Xbox One will be a treat.

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Polygon‘s Brian Crecente writes that Microsoft is interested in bringing something similar 1 vs. 100 to the Xbox One. Dave McCarthy, general manager for Lifestyle Entertainment at Microsoft Studios, …
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Final Exam was developed by Mighty Rocket Studio and published by Focus Home Interactive. It was originally released on November 8, 2013 for $9.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Final Examis a game that feels dated from the start. The zombie setting feels like an overused trope here, decided upon not because of any significant meaning to storyline or gameplay mechanics, but because zombies were popular at the time the game was being developed. Any game that casts a group of four people working as a team against zombies is going to owe something to Valve’s Left 4 Dead; Final Exam, owes a little too much — the first boss is called the Tank and looks like a ripoff of the monster from Valve’s popular first-person shooter. The game runs at 30 frames per second, which makes everything feel just a little slower than it should. There’s a neat idea or two to be found here, but nothing that adds up to a game worth any significant investment of time.

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Last week, XBLAFans ran down the 25 best XBLA games to be released on the Xbox 360. This week, some of the games that didn’t make the cut get …
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