About Scott Baker

In the above screenshot of the Xbox One dashboard, you will notice that the categories above lists “Games” alongside other categories like “TV & Movies” and “Music” with equal representation. This matches our current Xbox 360 dashboard. However, in the Xbox 360, “Games” is further divided into categories such as “featured,” “arcade,” “on demand,” “indie,” etc. Each category represents the different tiers of games in expected presentation, length, genre, and pricing. Obviously, our own website is based exclusively around the Arcade games.

Well, it looks like all that will change with the Xbox One. In an interview with Eurogamer, Microsoft VP Phil Harrison said the following:

Phil Harrison: In the past we had retail games which came on disc, we had Xbox Live Arcade and we had Indie Games, and they had their own discrete channels or discrete silos. With Xbox One and the new marketplace, they’re games. We don’t make a distinction between whether a game is a 50-hour RPG epic or whether it is a puzzle game or whether it is something that fits halfway between the two–

Eurogamer: So no Xbox Live Arcade, no Xbox Live Indie Games – just games?

Phil Harrison: Just games, right. Search, recommendation, what your friends are playing, game DVR – these all go to helping you discover the games you want to play, so I think we solve fantastically some of the challenges that independent developers face, particularly around discovery and connecting their game to an audience, by some of the platform features we have in the machine itself.

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Your Xbox dashboard may be getting another facelift soon! Anonymous sources whispered to The Verge that Microsoft is planning an update to prepare for the still-unknown 360 successor’s …
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The folks at DarkSeas Games are huge fans of the classic Road Rash series, but we haven’t seen a new entry in over a decade. DarkSeas is fixing that. After …
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Mere weeks after the launch of the hotly anticipated Xbox 360 in 2005, rumor spread like wildfire of a dreaded video-game Grim Reaper. We didn’t know why, how or when he would strike — all we knew was that he manifested himself with three red lights, cursing 360 consoles with a permanent GAME OVER. Microsoft ensured us that it was a minor problem that happened only to a select few, but time eventually revealed the ugly truth: everyone was at risk. After class-action lawsuits and bitter word of mouth, Microsoft finally put a three-year warranty in place, guaranteeing that all systems affected by the red lights would be fixed at no charge.

Chances are you have your own story about the Three Red Lights of Death. Perhaps your console was under warranty and returned after a few weeks. Maybe you bought a new one to skip the wait. You may have even cracked it open and somehow fixed the problem yourself. For me, my first system was killed by Overlord, one month before the launch of Halo 3. Four years later, my second system croaked after the first level of Gears of War 3, at which point in time the warranty had expired.

The Wizard of X

A replacement Xbox 360 Slim would have set me back at least $300, so I was somewhat relieved when my local GameStop referred me to David Peyregne, owner of Computers for Less. Peyregne is an experienced technician who has run his own business fixing computers and video game systems for over a decade. A former journalism student who turned to computer science, Peyregne sometimes lets his southern drawl come through his hollow voice that was scarred from polyps at a young age. With a husky explanation, he handed my system back to me, good as new, for $100, a sum much less daunting than the cost of a new console. Recently, I sat down with Peyregne to get the whole story on the Red Ring of Death: what causes it and how does Peyregne fix it? As it turns out, it took him a long time to figure it all out.

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UPDATE: After checking with Andy Schatz, the game’s creator, the trial should be on its way soon.

Original post below:

After being delayed last-minute to fix a bug, Monaco …
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After being delayed to include the most recent title updates, European fans of Minecraft will get their retail edition on June 28, about three weeks after the North …
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The 2013 PAX East show floor was rife with crazy crowds clamoring for a chance to play the big games, but one odd figure stood out from the crowds. Imagine if Barney the Dinosaur had a little brother who forewent the path of children’s education and instead pursued hip beats, melodies and orchestrations of the newest, coolest music. That was Beatbuddy, the instantly lovable yet perplexing character rocking the show floor.

Nobody knows exactly who or what Beatbuddy is, but we do know that he lives inside a world where everything is musical. However, the Prince of Music, monarch of the music world, is so caught up in his fame and glory that he neglects a treacherous infestation of parasites corrupting the natural music ecosystem. Now, it’s up to Beatbuddy to step in and restore harmony (literally) to the land.

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In addition to a list of hot sales, a recent Major Nelson blog entry also included the release date of God Mode, a mythological cooperative third-person shooter from …
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If you scroll to the Games page on your dashboard, you can find a panel for “Microsoft Studios Sale” that includes a plethora of big XBLA Games. Some of our favorites like Dust: An Elysian Tale and Mark of the Ninja can both be picked up 600 MSP (50% off). You might also want to jump on the Trials bandwagon, because both the original Trials HD and Trials: Evolution can be picked up for 400 MSP and 800 MSP respectively.

The sale will be available until April 8th Here is the complete list of games, including a few extras that you won’t find in the dashboard (like Retro City Rampage). Here is the full list of what’s on sale: Read More

In a time when a lot of games are stretching themselves to incorporate co-op as a selling point, some game developers have slapped the feature onto their games in a way that feels forced, gimmicky and even annoying. Other games integrate co-op perfectly, yet they sometimes make players feel as though they’re playing simultaneously but not necessarily playing together. Former Ubisoft developers Simon Darveau, Malik Boukhira and Atul Mehra set out to crack the co-op code and deliver something that is cohesive, exciting and truly cooperative. Their creation is Tiny Brains, the first title from their startup independent studio Spearhead Games.

A mad scientist has imbued four lab rodents (that’s you) with superpowers and placed them into test tank puzzles. The catch: each rodent has a different power, and you will need every one to solve your way to freedom. The four rodents are named after the powers they wield: Force, Vortex, Teleport and Create. This forces you to communicate, brainstorm, experiment, coach and encourage each other. Every player is needed for success to be possible, so every player contributes. When you succeed, you succeed together.

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