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Search Results for: monaco

Monaco submitted for Microsoft pre-certification; releasing before PAX Prime *updated*

By  •  January 24, 2013

Monaco XBLA

Update: The story originally noted that Monaco would release prior to PAX East, but Pocketwatch has since explained that it was referring to PAX Prime. The copy below has been edited to reflect this clarification.

The three-year wait for indie developer Pocketwatch Games’ 4-player co-op heist game, Monaco, appears to be nearing its end. Pocketwatch announced on Facebook last week that it had submitted its game to Microsoft for pre-certification.

Yesterday the studio got a report back from Microsoft and stated that there was “nothing too scary in there!” Stressing the obvious, the studio now says that Monaco is “inching closer to launch.”

Exactly how close has Pocketwatch inched towards launch? Monaco will release before this year’s PAX Prime convention. Pocketwatch responded to an inquisitive fan on Twitter by saying that the game would be out on XBLA (and Steam) before this year’s PAX Prime. Penny Arcade has not yet announced a date for its yearly convention, but the event has historically been held in late August/early September.

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Monaco officially headed to XBLA

By  •  October 21, 2012

Pocketwatch Games has confirmed to Joystiq that its upcoming stealth/action/heist video game Monaco will launch simultaneously on XBLA and PC. Although Monaco has featured at numerous video-game trade shows …
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Thief vs thief (vs thief vs thief) in Monaco

By  •  April 6, 2012

Sometimes there are games we have to let you know about even if it isn’t quite clear whether XBLA will be home to it upon eventual release. This especially includes indie darlings, such as 2010 IGF Excellence in Design and Seumas McNally Grand Prize winning, Monaco.

XBLA Fans’ PAX East discussions with Andy Schatz, Founder of Pocketwatch Games and designer of Monaco, have revealed extended plans for multiplayer in the over-head, co-op heist game that make a turn for the competitive.

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The 20 Best Backward Compatible XBLA Games

By  •  May 20, 2017

A few weeks ago, some of the XBLA Era staff of XBLA Fans took to Skype to debate the merits of the Backwards Compatible XBLA Games. We wanted a pound …
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Table Top Racing: World Tour Review: Combat racing along countertops

By  •  May 4, 2017

Table Top Racing: World Tour is a new entrant in the genre of miniaturized racing games. This type of game doesn’t come around all too often, and when they do, …
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Weekly deals: Xbox 360 and Xbox One sales and Deals with Gold

By  •  May 1, 2017

Thanks for joining us again for the weekly round up of the Deals with Gold. Please remember that all prices listed below require an Xbox Live Gold membership. Buying a …
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The Escapists review (Xbox One)

By  •  February 9, 2015

The Escapists was developed by Mouldy Toof Studios and will be published on Xbox One by Team 17 Digital. It is set for release on February 13, 2015 for $19.99. A copy was provided for review purposes.

TE1

The Escapists positions itself as a kind of craft-em-up roguelike set across a number of fiendishly designed secure facilities including prisons and POW camps. Think of it as somewhere between Terraria, Monaco and any number of top down action-RPGs. The main difference is that in order for you to be successful, The Escapists demands significantly more time and patience than almost any other game I’ve played — and what’s more, it’s perfectly suited to being a cute 8-bit indie title.

With only a very small number of simple core mechanics to rely upon, The Escapists turns the table on the typical sandbox approach taken by similar games. Instead, players are literally forced to adhere to a strict regimen of roll calls, mealtimes, break-times and work whilst simultaneously plotting their escape. It’s an inspired system that asks an awful lot from players and results in the rewards being all the sweeter.

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September’s Games with Gold announced

By  •  August 29, 2014

Earlier this week, Major Nelson revealed what we can expect from the Games with Gold program for September. On Xbox One we’ll be seeing Capybara Games Super Time Force, as …
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Pocketwatch’s next game is an RTS codenamed ‘Armada’ *updated*

By  •  March 19, 2014

Pocketwatch's Armada

Update: Following the publication of the original story below, Pocketwatch Games’ Andy Schatz responded to XBLA Fans’ requests for comment about working with Microsoft again. As he originally stated, Schatz hasn’t made any final platform decisions for Armada just yet.

“The deciding factor will be based on ho[w] closely we can interact with our fans and whether the platforms enable iterative development,” Schatz wrote in an email to XBLA Fans.

“We’ve been able to much better serve fans and interact with our community with the extremely easy process of rolling out updates through Steam,” he elucidated. “That’s not something I’ll be willing to give up for a game that may require constant balance changes and content additions!”

Gamers may remember that Microsoft was repeatedly lambasted by many in the independent game development community over the past few years due to its bug fix and game update policies. Those developers who complained were upset with issues surrounding costs, update sizes and certification processes and lead times. Some developers, like Uber Entertainment, went as far as to release subsequent games on platforms other than XBLA after feeling burned by Microsoft their first time releasing a digital game on Xbox 360.

Original Story: The next project from Pocketwatch Games, the two-man team behind 2013’s co-op heist title Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine, is a real-time strategy game codenamed Armada. Pocketwatch’s Andy Schatz stated in a blog post that the success of Monaco, which sold more than 750,000 copies total despite only selling about 36,000 on XBLA as of last month, has put the studio in a position to create whatever it wants. What it wants is an RTS optimized for gamepad controls.

“With apologies to those devs who have tried, no one has ever made an RTS that played well on a dual analog gamepad. We’re gonna be the first to do it right,” Schatz promised. That does not, however, mean the game will be restricted to only a gamepad. Schatz goes on to write that playing Armada should be as enjoyable with dual analog as it is with a keyboard and mouse.

And there’s more to the game designer’s desire to create an RTS than just showing predecessors how it’s done with a controller. There’s his passion. Schatz has a love/hate relationship with the RTS genre and wants to put his own spin on it, which means designing a game in which “strategy is creative and complex and the micro is accessible and fun.”

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XBLA Fans 2013 Game of the Year awards

By  •  January 10, 2014

Game of the Year Awards 2013

The year 2013 has come and gone, and you know what that means: XBLA Fans dropped the ball on getting our Game of the Year awards out during the same calendar year the games released. Apologies for our tardiness, but we’re here today to make it up to you with our awards for the very best XBLA games to release in 2013.

After eight long and (mostly) wonderful years on the market, the Xbox 360 saw the beginning of its end in 2013 when its successor, the Xbox One, launched in November. Of course, Microsoft’s last-gen console and Xbox Live Arcade platform weren’t about to go quietly into that good night. No, major releases continued throughout the year for Xbox 360 XBLA, and that trend looks to continue well into 2014 and possibly even beyond. That meant that picking out the best of the best XBLA games released last year was every bit as difficult for us as it’s been any other year. Games like Charlie Murder and Skulls of the Shogun were strong competitors that just missed landing on our list of 2013’s best.

But enough about the games that didn’t make the cut. Let’s get down to what you came here for: the best XBLA games of 2013. Read on for XBLA Fans’ picks and let us know what your favorites were and which 2014 game you think will be worthy of being named Game of the Year at the end of next December.

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