Feature List

Today’s Most Wanted is our first downloadable content article. As such it has a slightly different format.

The world has been bitten by the Trials Evolution bug. Over 100,000 players saddled up in the first day, and close to 350,000 after just one week. It shattered sales records on Xbox Live Arcade. DLC has been promised. Though we’re more than satisfied with the game’s default content and the endless supply available via Track Central we’re still itching for more. But what are they going to put in? We’ve got some ideas, and even a name: the Nitro Pack, inspired from RedLynx’s own Monster Trucks Nitro.

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The regular crew of four gets back together for the first time in a few weeks, and as such it’s a bit of a bumper episode. We kick things off with Perry telling us about Bloodforge, he has some mixed feelings about it. Then it’s onto this little game that came out last week, you might have heard about it, Trials Evolution. We briefly talk about Fez again but there’s not too much new to say on that front.

Perry brings all the news as usual, then Todd Talk is more like a question than a discussion. Andrew rounds things out with twitter questions and the remember the days game, this weeks game is Heavy Weapon, you’ve got two weeks to try it out and let use know what you think!

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp58.mp3[/podcast]

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We’re coming up on a week since Trials Evolution‘s release, and in that short time the community has already dished out several great tracks. We featured one, “AMA Supercross 4P” by sVVa eXTR3MZ yesterday in our preview. Today we’ve got even more great tracks. Hit the jump to find today’s gems, and if you’ve found a great user track post the name of it along with the author’s gamertag in the comments below.

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While everyone knows what strategy games are, and role playing games, and massively multiplayer online games somehow the multiplayer online battle arena genre remains confusing and mysterious. Perhaps this is because, despite being a combination of strategy, RPG and MMO (aka SRPGMMO, but nobody liked that acronym) being something everyone can understand, it in no way adds up to MOBA. However, like every other genre, MOBA is branching out, growing and adding elements from other beloved genres, so before things get out of hand let us explain what MOBA is.

Okay, so what is it?

The Multiplayer Online Battle Arena genre is a micro-MMORPG experience with strategical elements surrounding it, hence the combination of the three. MOBA combines some of the key features of each genre, and bakes a peculiarly delicious cake. First and foremost, however, MOBA games are team-oriented, with one team competing against one other team. Each team has a core (or something like one) which they must protect. If their core is destroyed, they lose. Read More

What we are playing is a weekly column published on Sunday. Select members of the team talk about the games they’ve been playing over the past week and which they’re …
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Welcome to our gigantic Fez completion guide! This guide will take you from no achievements to 12, zero g to 200g and we’ll take you there… delicately. Thanks to community member MRX93 for helping us ever so slightly here and there. Without further ado… we have to explain some things.

[Editors Note: We highly recommend not using this guide until you can’t go any further on your own. Fez is about exploring and getting lost. Polytron put it best when they said “play like the internet doesn’t exist”. That being said, we know many people will become frustrated and want help. This guide is written for them.  Please use  it only as an emergency cheat-sheet.]

There are two ways to complete Fez. Complete it like you’re playing it, and to complete it for the sake of completion. We here at XBLA Fans are aware of this and have set up our guide in accordance with the different types of Fez players.

We have taken great care to separate anything and everything that would be considered a spoiler. Our policy follows that any puzzle that requires knowledge acquired outside of the area to which the puzzle belongs (barring basic knowledge and specific sections) will be posted in the SPOILER ZONE. Each area has one, and each zone is marked very clearly in text and with pictures. Each picture hints at what the spoiler covers. Once you’re done with many areas and have accrued much knowledge you’ll want to come back and check each spoiler tag to see if you can now complete that puzzle. Read More

 

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Arcade Next is finally upon us with Trials Evolution launching earlier this morning. We are pretty excited about all four titles, but we’d love to hear …
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Awesomenauts‘ zany 1980s look is immediately appealing. Inspiration for the graphics was drawn from Galaxy Rangers and the Earthworm Jim and Bucky O’Hare franchises. The bright shades and disparate characters that clash in the outer-space battlefields send a message that the game is something fun and ridiculous. Aside from everything playing out on a 2D plane, though, nothing felt especially exciting when I first took the controller in my hands at PAX East. My options were pretty much limited to jumping or shooting in the early-going and death came swiftly. That all changed after building up some coin and getting the hang of what was going on. It was then that I began experiencing the joy and gratification the game’s silly character design and pretty colors had initially implied I would.

Playing as a cowboy character named Sheriff Lonestar I ran into the thick of things at the outset and began firing his laser blaster at the mindless drones marching ceaselessly towards my team’s first turret. Someone on the opposition was playing as the heavy robot class and he was relying on his thick armor and powerful weaponry to shred up poor little Lonestar. There are multiple levels to platform between in each map, but the side-scrolling nature of Awesomenauts still made it feel like there wasn’t much room for evasion. That coupled with the fact that there didn’t appear to be any way to recover from damage was making the situation look grim for our team of XBLA Fans writers.

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While we did record a regular show last week in addition to our three PAX specials, it got lost in the dark recesses of my hard drive never to be heard from again. So here we are back with a regular show, minus one Andrew Crews. Myself, Perry and Todd struggle on without him though and discuss some of the big releases from the past week. We hit on The Splatters and Skullgirls but the bulk of the game talk goes to Fez, don’t worry though there’s no spoilers!

Perry rushes through what little news there is before taking the opportunity to talk about some of his favourite XBLA games he saw at PAX.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp57.mp3[/podcast]

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Hi, my name is Andrew and I’m the Community Manager here at XBLA Fans. You might know me better as the guy running the twitter account that gives out codes for games every day. As you can imagine, I get asked a ton of questions about our contests. I strongly feels that openness leads to a better experience online and in life. So I figured I would explain my processes to you all a little in case you were curious about what I do and why I do it. So let’s talk a little bit about contests, shall we? Read More