About Steve Melton

While the world cries in pain over the “varied” endings in Mass Effect 3 we were given yet another little jab to the heart. During development of ME3 Bioware Montreal was working on a competitive first person shooter in the Mass Effect universe. The idea was eventually transformed into the multiplayer mode found in Mass Effect 3, but we think the idea of a multiplayer-based game in the universe is utterly brilliant.

For the curious with an iPad you can download the app The Final Hours of Mass Effect 3, which chronicles Team Assault and several other goodies. You’ll even find test footage of the game. We think it’d work amazingly well as an Xbox Live Arcade game. Think about it, as Battlefield 1943 is to the Battlefield series, so could Team Assault be to Mass Effect.

With a few changes, anyway. . .

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We’re just curious–how much do you shell out each year on Xbox Live Arcade games? You know our team is nuts about them. Now we’re turning the tables.

Sega recently announced their Vintage Collection for PlayStation Network and WiiWare. Sadly the Xbox 360 wasn’t in the original announcement, however a marketplace listing reveals that a slightly different collection will be coming to our platform of choice. Sega Vintage Collection: Monster World is a combination of three classic Wonder Boy titles: Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Wonder Boy in Monster World, and Monster World IV, the latter of which will be making its debut appearance outside of Japan. The listing shows a release date of April 25, 2012, however these dates are sometimes placeholders, so we can’t confirm that as an actual release. Thanks to @lifelower for the initial tip that got the ball rolling. Hit the jump for the official description and a slew of screenshots.

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Virtua Fighter 5 was first released in 2006. Since then it’s seen multiple iterations. The newest of those is Final Showdown, which could be defined as the ultimate version of the game. When Final Showdown released in the arcades in 2010 it featured new animations and character costumes. Also included were two new fighters, Taka-Arashi who hasn’t been playable since VF3, and Jean Kujo, a character introduced in Virtua Fighter 5 R. As far as XBLA fighting games go, this looks to be the definitive version of the game. Sega had this to say on the matter.

“Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is the definitive version of the Virtua Fighter 5 series, incorporating all of the enhancements the arcade team has rolled out since 2007[.]”

“Final Showdown makes significant improvements to the fighting mechanics and adds new single player and online modes while maintaining the series’ classic balance and precision.”

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown is slated for release sometime later this year. Until then whet your appetite on the above trailer (courtesy of GameSpot) and additional screenshots after the jump.

Source: CVG

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RedLynx’s Jason Bates recently gave GameSpot a tour of Trials Evolution‘s updated track editor. It’s a major ‘evolution’ (har har) from the one found in Trials HD, which was …
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We’ll never play the game the same way again.

Source: Dorkly

Nexuiz was developed by Illfonic and published by THQ. It was released on February 29, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Arena shooters are something of a lost art. To find a newly developed one is like finding money on the sidewalk: no matter how much is there you’re just happy to see it. But sometimes they miss the mark. The controls can be tight, the maps can be solid, the graphics can even be impressive, yet you turn delete the game from your drive and go back to one of your old staples.

Nexuiz is one of those. It’ll seem really enticing by its screenshots, but in the end there’s not much to keep you playing.

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It’s not a matter of trying to swindle gamers
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Racing games are an interesting sort. Like shooters, they’re at times so oversaturated with decent-yet-forgettable titles that it’s hard to pick the quality ones out from a sea of titles. Luckily XBLA is limited to 20-ish titles that revolve around the genre. Even still we have our favorites that we feel best represent what Xbox Live Arcade racing games should offer. While 20 participants enter the ring, only five make our list.

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Major Nelson just tweeted that the dashboard update this morning was to “quickly fix some voice recognition issues affecting our non-English speaking members.” Xbox Live support also confirmed that this …
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