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Upper One Games is beginning a new frontier by combining Native Alaskan cultural storytelling with interactive gaming this fall with Never Alone. Never Alone follows a young girl who must find a …
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The Games with Gold program will celebrate its first anniversary this June.  To celebrate, Microsoft is expanding the program to include the Xbox One. Additionally, Xbox Live Gold members …
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Some big changes are coming to Xbox Live on Xbox One, with both paid and free subscribers getting new perks. Announced on Xbox Wire, the long-awaited Games with Gold …
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It is the first day of PAX East, and XBLA Fans is at our third appointment of the day. It’s with the Danish developer Press Play, which, just a couple hours before our meeting, announced its next contribution to Xbox, Project Totem. Little is known about the game, except that it’s a platformer involving totem poles. Arriving at the booth, I see two mini totem pieces moving along a world made up primarily of two colors corresponding to the totem pieces. Watching it, I think to myself, “Well, this looks simple enough.” But as it goes with most things in life that appear simple, reality is an entirely different scenario. Within minutes of sitting down to play the demo I was both equally addicted and frustrated.

Playing solo was challenging, but I had all the control. Enter co-op mode. Are you and a friend/loved one looking for that next classic two-player game that will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside like that fat plumber and his green-clad brother used to? Great, you should probably look elsewhere then. Project Totem‘s co-op mode requires a level of communication rarely found in games, which means it could make or break your friendships. You and your partner may realize that you make a great team and work well together — or you may end up never speaking to each other again, with one of you left with a bloody nose from the impact of the other’s Xbox controller.

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Microsoft’s Xbox One will achieve price parity with Sony’s competing PlayStation 4 on June 9. It’s on that date that a new One SKU sans Kinect sensor will become available for a $399 MSRP, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced today on Xbox Wire. This cheaper Kinect-free take on on the Xbox One will be sold in all markets in which the console is currently available.

Spencer noted the importance of fan feedback to the console holder, alluding to changes such as the elimination of the once-planned always-online feature of the Xbox One due to massive gamer backlash. “Today, we’re excited to share more ways your feedback is impacting the products we build,” he added.

The Head of Xbox also took the opportunity to point out that Microsoft isn’t forgetting about the millions of gamers who already have a Kinect sensor. “To be clear, as we introduce this new Xbox One console option, Kinect remains an important part of our vision,” Spencer wrote. “Many of you are using Kinect for Xbox One every day. In fact, more than 80 percent of you are actively using Kinect, with an average of 120 voice commands per month on each console.”

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Nutjitsu was developed and published by Ninjabee. It was released May 8, 2014 on Xbox One for $6.49. An Xbox One copy was provided for review purposes.

Nutjitsu is, quite simply, a mobile game. It has all the makings of a great iOS or Droid game: its top-down repetitiveness is perfect for wasting time in a doctor’s waiting room or in line for a cup of coffee. Nutjitsu is simple and fun for five minutes at a time, but this version XBLA Fans reviewed is not for mobile devices; it’s for Xbox One, which is the game’s ultimate downfall.

Nutjitsu is clearly inspired by Pac-Man. The player, assuming the role of an adorable ninja squirrel, must collect acorns of different colors that denote different point values all while avoiding equally adorable ninja foxes. The game is divided into two modes. Mission Mode requires the player to complete random objectives on a randomly selected map, such as collecting a certain amount of scrolls or collecting acorns of a certain color. Survival Mode simply asks the player to survive as long as possible without being attacked by the foxes and while racking up a high score. Various power-ups are thrown into the game, like speed boosts and freeze blasts, to spice thing up and give you the upper hand. The game doesn’t boast much more than that, leading to a lackluster experience.

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The Walking Dead fans rejoice, a new episode is right around the corner! Telltale has announced Episode 3: In Harm’s Way will shamble onto the marketplace this Wednesday, May …
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The team at Ubisoft that created Rayman Origins and Rayman Legends is creating a sidescrolling adventure puzzle game. Valiant Hearts: The Great War tells the story of five characters and how …
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The whispers that Microsoft is interested in selling or spinning off its Xbox division have been swirling for some time. Perhaps the most concrete evidence of that move being a real possibility emerged from a February Washington Post report claiming a pair of “influential Microsoft shareholders” were putting the pressure the software giant to move on from what they believed to be a non-essential product line.

Now Bill Gates himself has weighed in on that prospect. When questioned by Fox Business Network if he would support Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella if he chose to go in that direction, Gates responded, “Absolutely.”

That does not, however, mean that the company’s founder thinks unloading the Xbox division is the right move. In fact, he noted that doing so was not an “obvious” choice and emphasized that Microsoft has future plans for Xbox and gaming at large.

“Well, we’re taking PC gaming — Windows gaming — and Xbox gaming and bringing those a lot closer together,” Gates told Fox. “The power of the PC graphics chips means you can do great games there. So I’m sure Satya and the team will look at that, and, you know, it’s up to them. But we’re going to have an overall gaming strategy, so it’s not as obvious as you might think.”

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Approximately 30 seconds after picking up a controller to try Capybara’s Below, I was ready to call it quits. Don’t get me wrong – Below was the absolute best thing I saw at PAX, and I doubt that anyone on the XBLA Fans PAX East team would disagree. But a game built on the twin foundations of exploration and discovery is a game that should be played, as Capy president and co-founder Nathan Vella eloquently put it, “on my couch at home with the lights off.”

Into the unknown

It’s not just that the deafening, stroboscopic show floor at PAX East isn’t the best venue at which to play Capy’s latest effort. Below is a journey that players should approach with as little prior knowledge as possible, and figuring out how to play is meant to be almost as much of an adventure as the game itself.

“We have no text. There are no tutorials. There are no waypoints or directors or very little UI of any type,” says Vella. “You explore the island, eventually find your way into the depths, but you’re also exploring: what are the controls? How nimble am I? Why am I so small? Why am I weak? That exploration really feeds every element of the game.”

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