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Hot on the heels of the beta on Xbox One, a digital version of Titanfall is being bundled with Xbox One consoles for a limited time starting March 11 …
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Now that Minecraft is on more consoles than ever, it’s time for the game to expand yet again with a new update. 4J Studios has teased some changes with the screenshot above, showing …
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There was a time when playing a single-player game meant playing alone and playing a multiplayer game meant mandatory exposure to the (often annoying or offensive) thoughts of random players on the other end of Xbox Live. That time ended during the last console generation thanks to an Xbox Live feature that caused many to pick Xbox 360 over PlayStation 3 as their choice system for multiplatform games: party chat.

Fixing the problem

The introduction of party chat to the Xbox Live equation was a game changer. No longer did the desire to play an online multiplayer game mean that players would — almost without fail — be subjected to nonstop barrages of insults streaming into their ears from other players. No longer was getting into a game with friends and communicating with them while playing a hassle. No longer was it necessary to remember to inform friends how cool that single-player game you were playing was and why it was so cool after you played it. Up to seven of your friends were now right there with you in a party, and nobody else was getting in the door without you first putting their name on the guest list. You now had your own private party, and damn if it wasn’t fun.

So improved is the party chat experience over the only option that preceded it (chatting with random individuals) that I now refuse to play online multiplayer games without first entering into a private party. Even when no one on my friends list is available to play I still start my own private party, just to keep the cacophony of the internet’s worst amateur comedians and trash talkers out of my ears. The multiplayer experience is exponentially improved thanks to Xbox Live party chat, and, until very recently, no other home console has been able to compete with it.

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The original assassin is back! Developed by Double Helix in conjunction with Capcom, Strider is a reboot of the arcade classic that originally debuted over 20 years ago. Hiryu’s back with …
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Roundabout, a crazy game about driving a spinning limousine through a city full of obstacles while picking up items and accomplishing various tasks (and probably crushing a lot of …
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World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition was developed by Wargaming.net and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on February 12, 2014 following an initial beta release and is free-to-play. Additional in-game resources were provided for review purposes.

A low sun sets over an open field marked by hedges in autumnal colours of yellow, orange and red. The ground is marked only by the brown furrows of a farmer’s plough and the occasional tuft of unkempt grass. A boggy lake glistens to the left, and the only sound – aside from silence – is that of crickets calling out from the reeds. Suddenly, a red diamond appears on your mini-map. A German light tank speeds across the field, and the shots of your comrades begin to ring out as each takes aim and fires. You lead the target by a few metres and make a final adjustment to the height of your shot. You fire. The German tank explodes in a shower of hot metal. Welcome to World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition. Read More

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine has been purchased more than half a million times, developer Pocketwatch Games revealed on Twitter earlier today. Unfortunately for Microsoft and fans of indie games on Xbox platforms, a paltry 36,000 of those sales took place on Xbox Live Arcade, with the remainder coming from the PC, Mac and Linux versions of Monaco.

The multiplayer stealth-action title was first released on PC in April of last year; an Xbox 360 release followed in May after a delay resulting from a bug that popped up during the Microsoft certification process pushed back the console version. The game’s PC, Mac and Linux versions were able to achieve sales to date of approximately 484,000 at least in part do to its inclusion in various Steam sales and its recent appearance as the bonus game in the Humble Indie Bundle 11.

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Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate, the handheld companion game to Batman: Arkham Origins will soon make the jump to the Xbox 360. Subtitled Deluxe Edition, the new Metroid-esque, 2.5D brawler will retain the gameplay of it’s less deluxe parent, but will improve on visuals and adds Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Console players can also unlock a Zero Year Batman suit by signing into (or registering for) their Warner Bros ID account. The Armature studio title feature motion comic-styled cutscenes and a fully voiced narrative. The game arrives April 1, 2014 and will retail for USD 19.99. No word yet on whether any cross-unlocks will occur between the original Origins and Blackgate. Hit the jump for a trailer, additional screenshots, and the press release.

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Last week, you may have caught our five-part feature looking ahead at as many XBLA games and their Xbox One brethren as we could possibly cram into one week’s worth of articles. If you missed it, go ahead and check it out right now. Start here.

All done with that? Great. Now you know what’s coming. What you may not know, however, is which of those games you should be looking forward to the most. Don’t worry — XBLA Fans has you covered. Read on to find out what upcoming XBLA and Xbox One games select members of our team are most looking forward to getting their hands on. Once you’re done, let us know which ones you’re most excited for in the comments section. We’re asking you to read through our many thoughts on the big releases ahead, so we figure the least we can do in return is to read yours as well.

Strider

Ryan Thompson, Contributor — When Capcom first announced that it was releasing a modern Strider title, my first thought was to listen to a track by game composer Jake Kaufman entitled “Dracula Man X2 Alpha Turbo.” Kaufman was clearly having fun when he created the track, giving one potential answer to what the Castlevania franchise’s music would sound like if Capcom had developed it instead of Konami. With the imminent release of Strider on the 18th of February, Capcom is poised to give something of an official answer to the same question Kaufman must have asked himself — what would Castlevania be like if Capcom released it instead?

First of all, it would have the same level of polish as the best of Capcom’s 2D games, with controls that never fail, leaving players without excuses for failure in the tradition of both the original Strider for NES and the more famous Mega Man games. Second, it appears that, judging by the trailer, there would be more emphasis on combat and slightly less on exploration, though that might be just the frantic flow of activity in a short video speaking. Finally, as Kaufman hints in his tribute, this game would come with a soundtrack worthy of the rest of Capcom’s 2D oeuvre.

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South Korean programmer Jae Kwan Ko has developed a Kinect-based software system that is being used to monitor the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea.

Its existence …
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