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The Giana Sisters are back for another adventure; this time up to a four person multiplayer race in local co-op or online matches. As a game inspired by Micro Machines and Speed Runners, Giana Sisters: Dream Runners is a race to place first and leave everyone else in the dust. Obstacles look to impede your path and your opponents aren’t going to stop racing if you stumble.

Five characters are usable to navigate the maps but only 4 versions of Giana will be available at first. Eventually a ninja and a robot will also be unlockable. The developers wish for the races to be fair so all characters will have the same skill set.

Players will be able to dash, twirl, crouch and use something called gem boost which speeds up a character for a short time at the cost of all gems on hand.

Sound intriguing? Check out the trailer after the jump.

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Resident Evil Revelations 2 was developed and published on Xbox One and Xbox 360 by Capcom Entertainment Inc. The last episode was released on March 17, 2015 and the complete season is available for $24.99 on Xbox One. XBLA Fans’ Michael Cheng purchased a copy out of pocket for review purposes.

Alas
We’ve finally reached the end of the crossroads, and it’s been a long journey. You can find reviews of individual episodes at the Resident Evil Revelations 2 hub, which gives finer details on each leg of the campaign. If I were to score to just the campaign, it would be “Try It.” The campaign is somewhat short but fair at its current price tag, and it has a bunch of interesting concepts filled with exciting highs and lows — and a few other concepts that just didn’t work very well. It is not, however, the only gameplay option available.

Resident Evil Revelations 2‘s Raid mode is an arcade-like experience featuring players hunting down hordes of enemies in an arena-like setting while trying to survive and ultimately reach a goal. Players level up from killing enemies, which allows drops of higher level weapons and weapon parts and gives skill points to upgrade perks that increase character durability. It’s similar to a role-playing game in which you play to see your character grow stronger, tackle harder levels, progress forward and hopefully beat the toughest challenges. Raid mode is addicting to play through and features 15 playable characters (two are DLC characters and one is unlockable from an extra episode) and six different weapon types with multiple weapons in each category. I’ve put over 200+ hours into it, which is much more time than I spent on the campaign. Raid is not without its faults, however, as you’ll find out below.

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You’ve no doubt heard the saying “it’s not rocket science” before. Well, when it comes time to choose your class in the new base defense game, Fortified, that saying takes on a very literal meaning. In Clapfoot Games?? new multiplayer game you’re probably going to want to go with the Rocket Scientist.

Set in the 1950s with an urban sci-fi feel, Fortified features four classes; the first of which is the Rocket Scientist. This redheaded little lady was the first character Clapfoot developed, and maybe that’s why she’s arguably the best.

While at PAX East, XBLA Fans had a chance to play Fortified and spoke with Technical Artist, Henrique “HB” Barbieri, who made it very clear that when given my choice of character we should go with the Rocket Scientist. So I did.

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The XBLA Fans Twitch Stream Team has grown drastically in recent months thanks to the support of our viewers. I’d love to personally encourage each of our readers to check out at least one broadcast this week. We will be updating the site on a weekly basis with a plethora of streams for you to enjoy.

In addition to our scheduled streams below we also sometimes do impromptu streams. The best way to stay informed of those is to follow XBLA Fans on Twitter and follow us on Twitch.

If there is a game you want to see streamed, please contact us.

All times are listed in EST.

Monday 4/6

• 4:30p – 7:30p Manic Ado – Slender / Outlast
• 7:30p – 10:30p K4rn4ge – Tower of Guns

Tuesday 4/7

• 4p – 7p K4rn4ge – Stealth Inc 2

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Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones was developed by Carbon and published by Curve Digital. It was released on April 3, 2015 for $14.99. A copy was provided by Curve Digital for review purposes.

One of the most unique things about XBLA Fans is our rating system, which encourages reviewers like me to rate games based on a simple “Buy, Try or Skip” scale. Although this can occasionally make our jobs more difficult, I believe that the system means that the written content of our reviews becomes ever more important in getting the message across about how a game plays.

With this in mind, there has perhaps never been a game more deserving of our “Try It” rating than Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones. This is a game that riffs heavily on other roguelike and metroidvania games (not to mention the extremely popular Portal) but also offers its own brand of gameplay and humour across a very expansive package. Stealth Inc. 2 is likely to attract a number of diehard stealth fans, but the steep learning curve and a few minor issues might make casual gamers think twice.

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Microsoft is officially shutting down production of the Kinect for Windows v2 sensor and has no plans of producing a new sensor in the future, the company has announced. …
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The journey of a little girl and her teddy bear.. sorta.
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Super Time Force received a free update this week. The new Ultra Update includes the Helladecks, made up of 50 new challenge levels that force players to use their time-rewinding skills in a different way, and a new Ultra Force mode which is unlocked after you complete the game and is said to be an alternate style of time-forcing with extra-powerful versions of the Time Force team. Achievement hunters will also be pleased to know that the update brings five new achievements worth a total of 375 Gamerscore.

Sling TV recently launched a new app exclusively for Xbox One. The new app, which allows viewers to watch live TV instantly without a cable company, offers the same great features gamers have come to expect, including the ability to Snap, Pin to Home and use voice or gesture controls with Kinect for Xbox One. Microsoft are also offering a limited time deal of three free months of Sling TV service with the purchase of an Xbox One console via the Microsoft Store (US only).

And finally, current Xbox One darling Ori and the Blind Forest secretly paid tribute to one of XBLA Fans all-time favourites Super Meat Boy. Meat Boy himself can be spotted behind a hidden wall in the Blind Forest, apparently fallen victim to a bed of spikes. Check out the video on how to spot this charming easter egg after the jump.

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Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious was developed by Playground Games and published by Microsoft Studios on Xbox One and Xbox 360. It was released March 22, 2015 for free and will remain free until April 10, 2015 when it will begin costing $10.

When I first heard about Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious I was blown away by the fact that the power of advertising had reached this point. A limited-time free game to promote both an upcoming movie and a six-month-old game was completely mind boggling to me. But the sheer brute force of advertising that is apparent is actually quite irrelevant. All that really matters was if Forza Horizon 2 Presents Fast and Furious was any good. And to be blunt, my mind was quickly put to ease about the game’s quality and soon focused on the task on hand: finishing sets of races to unlock the next new and shiny car.

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Resident Evil Revelations 2: The Struggle was developed and published on Xbox One and Xbox 360 by Capcom Entertainment Inc. It was released on March 17, 2015 for $4.99. XBLA Fans’ Michael Cheng purchased a copy out of pocket for review purposes.

The Struggle is a side story that bridges the gap between the end of Claire’s campaign and the end of Barry’s campaign and features Moira Burton and a character who was introduced in Episode 3 . As such, for continuity purposes, this episode should not be played until after finishing the main game.

The goal of the extra episodes seems to be to provide an alternative gameplay experience to the original campaign, and The Struggle does not shy away from that. About two minutes into playing The Struggle, I was already dubbing it “Moira Gear Solid 3,” as it contains small animal hunting for rations as well as stealth sections. After a hunting segment, multiple battles take place that function remarkably similar to Revelations 2‘s Raid mode only with the frailty of using a campaign character.

Is this extra episode worth playing?

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