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About Steve Melton

Steve is an Indiana native with a degree in Computer Information Technology and a background in technical writing. He has also written for the newspapers and other periodicals at the schools he attended. A gamer for over 20 years, Steve finds that Xbox Live Arcade is the perfect fit for most of his gaming needs; classic gameplay at a bargain price.
Latest Posts | By Steve Melton
The nitty gritty on State of Decay’s gameplay mechanics
12 years ago

The nitty gritty on State of Decay’s gameplay mechanics

By  •  News

State of Decay developer Undead Labs took to their forums post-PAX Prime to address fan questions that lingered after the game’s demonstrations. We could bore you with a lot …
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Editorial: What I need Star Wars: First Assault to be
12 years ago

Editorial: What I need Star Wars: First Assault to be

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As a mega-huge Star Wars nut I squealed a bit inside when the box art for the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title, Star Wars: First Assault was leaked a few days back. I scoured the internet looking for additional clues as to what it could be about. What type of game was it? A shooter? A Rogue Squadron-esque game? *gasp* A Battlefront game? The possibilities swam through my head. I had to know more, but every turn led to dead ends. Could Pandemic be developing it? Nope, they went under after The Saboteur was released. Maybe Slant Six Games is working on it. After all, Star Wars game load screens and character textures were found buried in the files for Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, and Kotaku reported in 2010 that they were working on something called Star Wars: Battlefront Online. Could this be that same game, but with a more finalized name? Maybe Spark Unlimited has the project? Nah, they denied it after stringing us along for months and finally revealing Lost Planet 3.

But one thing is for sure, between the leaked box art and domain names Fusible found registered to LucasArts, this game is happening. That being said I think it’s a Battlefront game. It’s the biggest sub-franchise LucasArts has ever produced, and fans have been clamoring for another real installment since Battlefront II came out in late 2005 (the portable games don’t count). It also fits the XBLA stereotype. Look at how many online shooters we have. Battlefield 1943, Breach, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Blacklight: Tango Down, and Hybrid. Clearly it fits the bill. But if it’s actually an online shooter it needs to be more than its competitors. Slapping the Star Wars brand on it isn’t enough.

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Newsbit: Tony Hawk DLC won’t land in September
12 years ago

Newsbit: Tony Hawk DLC won’t land in September

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The upcoming Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD downloadable content pack, now titled the Revert Pack, recently failed certification. The team behind the game had the following to say on …
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October release planned for The Walking Dead Episode 4
12 years ago

October release planned for The Walking Dead Episode 4

By  •  Media, Videos, News

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Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead has been the subject of many a thrilling conversation in the past few months. With each episodic release …
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Special Forces Team X sneaks onto xbox.com
12 years ago

Special Forces Team X sneaks onto xbox.com

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Announced mid-August, Special Forces Team X didn’t have any clear platforms listed out of the gate. This morning a listing snuck (sneaked?) onto Xbox.com, which with games like these usually indicates an Xbox Live Arcade release. If the gameplay looks mildly familiar, that’s because it’s Zombie Studios latest project. They’re the team behind Blacklight:Tango Down and its non-XBLA sequel Blacklight: Retribution. But Xbox Live Arcade has already seen its fair share of multiplayer shooters. Blacklight: Tango Down, Breach, Counter Strike: Global Offensive and most recently, Hybrid. What sets this apart?

Apart from its cel shading and third-person focus, Special Forces allows players to play dynamically generated levels. Each round players vote for one of a number of tile combinations for a given map. It’s like Halo‘s Forge maps, except as near as we can tell you don’t get the opportunity to customize the maps yourself. That may be a slight downer, but no other XBLA shooter has dynamic map generation, meaning that the replay value here is likely to be huge. Zombie Studios boasts over 100 different combinations between the game’s maps. Player characters can be customized, too. Weapons, appearance, player skills and taunts will all be at your leisure to modify.

Hit the jump for a general list of features and screenshots. Oh, and don’t worry about the CENSORED tags in the trailer. Zombie says they were just for fun. They won’t be in the game.

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Trials Tuesday Wednesday: Week of September 26
12 years ago

Trials Tuesday Wednesday: Week of September 26

No Supercross or Skill Games this week, it’s all raw Trials courses. There’s nothing too difficult here, so if you’re a more casual player you’ll still be able to enjoy these little gems. Each one is themed, and each theme has that charm that’ll put a smile on your face. Do yourself a favor and put Borderlands 2 aside for a few minutes to take a spin on these great Trials Evolution tracks.

To download these tracks by entering Track Central, selecting Get Tracks, then pressing X to search. Enter the gamertag below to find the track. Be aware that the search is case sensitive. A big thanks to the Trials Evolution community for the borrowed videos. Hit the jump to see this week’s picks.

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XBLA Friday: Fire Pro Wrestling, launch day DLC
12 years ago

XBLA Friday: Fire Pro Wrestling, launch day DLC

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Fire Pro Wrestling hits digital shelves today as part of an ever-growing trend of Friday Xbox Live Arcade releases. The avatar-based fighter ships with Avatar FameStar support, meaning that …
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XBLA version of Torchlight II unlikely
12 years ago

XBLA version of Torchlight II unlikely

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Fans of the Xbox Live Arcade version of Runic Games’ Torchlight may need to look elsewhere for their sequel fix. Colin Campbell of IGN recently interviewed Runic CEO Max …
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Hybrid XP boost details
12 years ago

Hybrid XP boost details

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XP-based multiplayer games are sometimes a tough sell. If you don’t get in early it’s difficult to really compete. Hybrid developer 5th Cell is remedying that for the month …
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