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For many moons, the two most recent Call of Duty titles – Modern Warfare 3 and the original Black Ops – have dominated Xbox LIVE Activity charts, never straying far (if at all) from the top two spots. The games’ psuedo-realistic and ever-popular multiplayer combat consistently draws in millions of players, even months after their release. The series’ chart dominance has been more or less unmatched – until now.
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Worms: Revolution was released a few weeks ago on XBLA, but Team17 has released its first DLC. Like the name suggests, the Funfair Pack will add a …
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The following is an editorial. It represents the views of the author only, and not the XBLA Fans staff as a whole.

Every few years a new game surfaces that’s “cool” to play. In the early part of the 2000’s it was Halo, then it was Grand Theft Auto 3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare started a trend that’s seen yearly addon pa–err titles to the series. But the most recent trend of only three years is Minecraft. It’s a game that every teenage boy carries on his USB thumb drive, hoping that while in the computer lab he won’t get caught playing the no-need-to-install version on a school PC. But it’s become more than that. It’s a social thing now. PC players host and join mulitplayer servers, working and battling creepers cooperatively. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition brought a near-perfect experience to home consoles, and while it’s not quite as strong as it’s PC brother, it’s been enough of a success to post over 3 million players to the leaderboards and get the attention of Red vs Blue‘s Rooster Teeth, who have created a series of Let’s Play videos and challenges.

But I just don’t get the appeal of this game.

I get that it’s well made, that it has a social appeal, and that those who love it enjoy it immensely. And to that I say good for them. But try as I might I just look at the gameplay and scratch my head. Maybe it’s because I’m playing solo. Maybe it’s because I’m in my (early) 30’s. Maybe I just feel like it takes too much time to get to the fun stuff. Whatever the reason I wish fans and the faithful developers the best, but it was like grinding teeth for me to play this game.

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Most of you will already be aware of the latest imminent dashboard update and many of you are possibly already using it. What you might not know, however, is that …
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Only one XBLA release this Wednesday. Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus, the 2D fighter from Arc System Works, is available from today for 1200 MSP. Players can choose …
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Need a 360 system in time for the holidays? Well, you’re in luck – Microsoft has confirmed a recent $50 price drop on 4GB and 250GB systems at select retailers is a temporary promotion for the holiday season.
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Heading to XBLA later this fall, Enigma Software’s Alien Spidy is a game that’s about as true to the descriptor “traditional platformer” as modern games come. It doesn’t arm the player with crazy weapons. It doesn’t have sandbox, shooter or RPG elements. Its story is set up with the time-honored tradition of the protagonist’s girlfriend going missing. Players guide a space-traveling spider from left to right and run, jump and swing over enemies, pits and other environmental hazards. Simple, right? Maybe when broken down like so, but it also has that other element of the classic platformer: when you play it, you sometimes die.

Certainly it’s not the first game on modern consoles to make simply progressing from left to right a challenge. Other games featuring far tougher gameplay have come and gone over the past decade, but it’s still a trait worth mentioning. Alien Spidy approaches difficulty by stripping the player of any and all offensive capabilities, putting deadly hazards in his way and keeping him coming back for more with a forgiving checkpoint system. Anyone who’s played a platformer before can pick this one up and immediately start progressing, but don’t expect to do so unchallenged. To find out more about how the game works, XBLA Fans spoke with Enigma CEO Daniel Parente.

Alien Spidy is, as the name implies, a game starring an alien spider. Now, it seems to me that there are plenty of good (bad?) spiders right here on planet Earth, so I have to ask: why make the character an alien?

Daniel Parente: Indeed there is quite a lot of spiders on Earth, but we thought that an alien one would give us greater freedom to make it different and less “spidery” with a more human touch to avoid the arachnophobia to take place. Plus, an alien spider was giving us the logical possibility of [a] player with power-ups [and] a cool spaceship.

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• Microsoft continues to reward their customers for their loyalty. A few weeks ago Microsoft announced that they will be offering discounts for their gamer score.  This time around, …
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Zombie Driver HD was developed by EXOR Studios and published by Cyberfront Corporation. It was released on October 17, 2012 for 800 MSP. A copy was provided for review purposes.

Have you ever watched a zombie movie and silently pondered the cathartic value of a vehicle? Zombies are scary up close, but get inside an armored sports car and suddenly survival doesn’t seem so impossible. Then, imagine what you could do with automatic weapons strapped to the side, a flamethrower at the front, and rocket thrusters in the back. This is the prospect behind Zombie Driver HD–pick your vehicle, load it with heavy weapons, and blaze a bloody trail of carnage through the forest of undead. It’s the zombie apocalypse, and you are the only person daring enough to take on the horde in whatever vehicles you can find.

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Developer Hello Games has released a video on its YouTube channel showcasing some of the development process for Joe Danger 2: The Movie. The developer …
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