Weeknd Rant: Why I don’t want another Xbox
Microsoft’s first foray into the video game business was a risky and expensive maneuver. Despite having Halo as a stellar launch title and hardware capable of feats its competition couldn’t possibly produce, the original Xbox failed to maintain the flash and evolution of its distant brother: the Xbox 360–which is nearly celebrating its 7th anniversary on the market.
Console generations generally don’t exceed the pre-determined life expectancy predicted by its creators, but sometimes an unexpected boom of success prompts the decision makers to reconsider. Last November, Microsoft sold 1.7 million Xbox 360 consoles in the U.S., defeating Nintendo’s Wii and 3DS consoles by a large margin. Profit incites investors, potentially explaining why Microsoft has yet to formally announce a successor to its commercial darling. The last thing Microsoft wants to do is create competition for its own product.
XBLA in review 2011: Is Summer of Arcade worth the hype?
Is Summer of Arcade Worth the Hype?
Believe it or not, we have been paying more money each year for lower average metascores. If that is the case, why …
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The Simpsons Arcade achievement list unveiled
An Xbox Live Arcade port of classic Konami beat ’em-up The Simpsons Arcade looks to be all but confirmed based on an achievement list made public today. Back …
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XBLA Fans Monthly Roundup (December 2011)
Didn’t think we’d keep this going? Too much work? Too much copy paste? No such thing! The XBLA Fans Monthly Roundup is back again this time displaying a clear love for features! December was a month of features as we all tackled new ideas, new plans and executed them (hopefully flawlessly). Witness the beginning of the Friday Top Five, a top five list of things pertaining to one awesome thing (because why not?), and the XBLA Primer, a nifty batch of background history on a developer’s XBLA history as well as a list of their games. Hopefully these features will be well liked as we have plans to permeate the rest of the new year with them as well as our other veteran features.
Lastly, don’t forget to check out our Game of the Year awards listed in the Features section!
XBLA Wednesday: December 14, 2011
We cover all the new releases for XBLA this week bringing you a little bit of everything from a new game to several DLC packs.
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Deal of the Week: Legendary Warriors
Deal of the Week this week sees 50% off three XBLA titles with a warrior theme. Fight historical figures in Deadliest Warrior and battle evil exes in Scott Pilgrim vs. The …
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A World of Keflings: It Came from Outer Space review (XBLA DLC)
The downloadable content It Came from Outer Space for A World of Keflings was developed by NinjaBee Games and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on October 26, 2011 for 320 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.
A World of Keflings released last December as part of the Games for the Holidays promotion, and was an instant success, building off the original A Kingdom for Keflings. The extraterrestrial DLC, It Came from Outer Space is now available to download. Featuring new characters, blueprints, building materials, and dozens of sci-fi references, the DLC looks to further plant the Keflings’ games as some of the best out there on Xbox Live Arcade.
Here’s what we liked:
New story/characters – Aliens have crashed their ship….stop me if you’ve heard this one before. It may sound like a plain alien movie, but that’s the story of the DLC. Some very weird looking people have crashed their ship, and it’s your job to help them fix it and get them back to their planet. New characters also appear in this new DLC. The characters have always been loved in the Keflings universe, and in the new DLC that continues. With names such as Captain Warfbart, Dr. Snippetoff, and Senator Hadookin, it’s hard not to just laugh and appreciate them. All the characters mentioned play a big part in the DLC, their spaceship crashed and you just happen to be there to help them. They assist you, giving you the newest blueprints, so you can help fix their spaceship. The characters throw around some crazy sci-fi references that almost everyone will get a kick out of. The new story fits right into the outrageous world NinjaBee has made with the Keflings, and even though this one might be the craziest, it’s also the best.
It Came From Outer Space crash lands on XBLA
The long awaited It Came From Outer Space add-on for A World of Keflings has crash landed on XBLA today. In the new DLC it’s your avatar’s job to build an alien city, repair the space ship and send the extra-kefrestrials back home were they came from. Andrew Hill from developers NinjaBee spoke with our friends over at PlayXBLA and revealed the inspiration for the add-on:
“With the new DLC for A World of Keflings we sort of took a bunch of popular sci-fi references and mashed them together with a 50s-monster-flick perspective of the future and aliens – hence the name, It Came From Outer Space.”
Ninja Bee have also revealed some out-of-this world concept art so teleport over the page to feast your eyes.
Leedmees review (XBLA)
Leedmees was developed and published by Konami. It was released on September 7, 2011 and retails for 800 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.
Leedmees is the third game in a string of Xbox Live Arcade releases to utilize the Kinect sensor and given the lack of quality Kinect titles warranting a full release, this looks to be a good move by Microsoft. Developed by Konami, Leedmees is a puzzle game in which you take on the role of a giant who must help tiny creatures called Leedmees on to safety by using your body to form a bridge and avoiding deadly obstacles such as spikes, ghosts and beach balls.
Doom & Destiny review (XBLIG)
Doom & Destiny was developed by Benjamin Ficus and HeartBit. It was released August 25, 2011 and retails for 240 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.
Chosen as a finalist in the Indie Games Summer Uprising promotion, Doom & Destiny is a turn-based RPG. It’s the first game created using RPG builder software to be given a commercial release and anyone familiar with Super Nintendo era JRPGs will feel right at home. The story revolves around a group of Dungeons & Dragons nerds up for some good clean role-playing fun only to find themselves transported into a real fantasy realm with magical creatures and bad puns.