Features

In 1997, a unique side-scrolling platformer launched for the Sony PlayStation called Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee. Featuring innovative gameplay, impressive graphics, as well as a unique, engaging, and creative universe packed full of humor ,the Oddworld franchise officially made its way into player’s hearts. By 2005, the franchise’s creators, Oddworld Inhabitants were ready to take their love child in a bold new direction; Enter Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. Deviating from its platforming and puzzle solving roots, Stranger’s Wrath was a first/third-person shooter hybrid that traded the franchise’s traditional industrial setting for an all new adventure set in the wild west.

After releasing Stranger’s Wrath for the original Xbox, Oddworld Inhabitants closed up shop deciding that they were no longer happy with the direction of the gaming industry. Fans of the franchise were left to fret about what could have been, and the reality that the franchise may have come to an end. Luckily for us, that is not the case. Developer Just Add Water Inc, has inherited the Oddworld mantle and is currently working on a high-definition remaster of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. You know what that means: we want it on Xbox Live Arcade.

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What we are playing is a weekly column that appears each weekend. Various staff members let the world know what games had them hooked the past week and which ones …
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Monday Night Combat developer Uber Entertainment recently announced Super Monday Night Combat. The game is essentially the next evolution in their gameplay, sporting new classes, adjusted gameplay and new locales. But so far it’s only been announced for PC. Uber has declined to comment on other platforms which could possibly mean that it would come to Xbox Live Arcade as well. But what about XBLA players of MNC and their promised additional DLC? Uber stated that with MNC being their freshman effort on consoles they didn’t fully understand the process. The continued updates and content proved to be a daunting process, and one that they could not sustain themselves on. Sorry, XBLA players, you’re not getting your promised DLC–not even the PC-exclusive map Uncle Tully’s Funland. Executive Producer Chandana “Ekanaut” Ekanayake had this apologetic statement for fans:

We fully expected a sh*tstorm from our console players and rightfully so. We’re sorry you feel like we’re kicking you while you’re down but for us to continue as a developer we need to push for changes and be able to sustain ourselves as a development studio. I wish I could say more about ongoing developments, but like you’ve seen with our posts, changes happen fast sometimes and somethings take a lot longer then we think.

This is somewhat of a departure from what we gathered back in June. Ekanaut stated that “Everything we’ve posted over the years on this forum has been the truth at that time. We gain absolutely nothing by leading or lying to our fans.”  He further cited Valve’s Managing Director Gabe Newell’s desire to bring Steam service to the Xbox 360, noting that until this happens frequent, live updates are much more difficult.

Fan reaction was about as varied as you could get.

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Indie Games Summer Uprising (IGSU) is here and in full swing. These are the eight games chosen out of 70 that entered, 2 of which you the fans selected. IGSU is a annual promotion to show you the abilities of Indie developers and how diverse the games can be. We here at XBLA Fans have always stood by the XBLIG games and believe that some of the best gems for the Xbox 360 can be found here.

It is because of this belief in the Indie developers that we have put together this piece showcasing all the stars of the IGSU so that you can see them for yourself. We have brought everything to you in just one simple article so nothing is more then a click away. You will find game descriptions, developer website links, download links (once released), review links (once completed), trailers and screenshots.

Make sure to check back with us every so often as we update the article with the rest of the download links (saving you the search) and so you can get our final verdicts on each game.
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It’s Trials riding at its simplest.
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While playing Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team this past week something occurred to me; Xbox Live Arcade is the perfect venue for developers and publishers to introduce players to a gaming universe. Kill Team is a perfect example. Here you have a straight forward old school arcade style co-op shooter set in the Warhammer universe. I bought it because I had always read a lot about the Warhammer universe online and because I’m a fan of shooters. I invited a buddy down, we had our fun with the game and I quickly picked off the last few achievements in Kill Team by myself in the following days to officially “complete” everything the game had to offer.

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Before Deus Ex: Human Revolution graced our consoles and reignited our admiration for the FPS/RPG hybrid, there was its predecessor (technically, the second iteration of the series) Deus Ex on the PC that basically created it.  Gamers at the time were delighted to discover a game similar–mechanically and atmospherically–to System Shock, but  intrigued by a storyline complex enough to challenge contemporary literature.  It confronted the social implications of human augmentation as well as the overarching status of the fictional political stage in America–a future rife with corruption and conspiracies but also feuding organizations bent on national hegemony.

You play as J.C. Denton, a government agent of the United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition (UNATCO).  Denton is your typical anti-hero equipped with a raspy voice and a general curiosity that gets him into many sticky situations.  But what makes Deus Ex so great is how it allows the player to approach these scenarios.  For example, if the game shoves you into a seedy section of Hong Kong and requires you to bypass a dozen or so criminal types, you can go gung-ho and blast your way through, hack a door that leads to a side entrance, silently take down your foes or even dive into a pool of water and avoid the gunfire all together–all of which lead to the goal of that particular level.  The game is about choice.

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You are the operative. Your mission: to stop an out of control missile before it destroys the world.
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We love having Crazy Taxi on XBLA, but it could have easily been more.
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During the peak of the original PlayStation, legendary game designer Shinji Mikami rose to fame by creating several classic franchises. First in 1996, Mr. Mikami created Resident Evil, and with it, the entire survival horror genre that we know and love today. A few years later in 1999, Mikami created his second survival horror franchise; Dino Crisis. While not quite as commercially successful as its older sibling, Dino Crisis and it’s sequel Dino Crisis 2 were both met with praise from the media and the growing survival horror fan base.

Starring a leather clad red head named Regina, Dino Crisis swapped mindless zombies for everyone’s childhood wonder: Dinosaurs! Players were now struggling to survive in a world that has been overrun by one of the mightiest and most vicious species to ever walk the Earth. Dino Crisis took the survival horror formula, and turned it up a notch by making the enemies deadlier, trading the narrow corridors of a mansion for a facility deep inside the jungle. What could be scarier and more heart pounding than trying to survive a dinosaur infested jungle?

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