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We got a lot of racing and some DLC on XBLA Wednesday this week. First up, Wrecked Revenge Revisited for all you battle racing fans. You’ll race against competitors …
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This week join myself, Perry, Todd and Andrew as we discuss the latest XBLA releases. Kicking things off with a lengthy discussion of Sine Mora which everyone but me played, and mostly enjoyed. Myself and Andrew briefly touch on Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havok, but we both agree if you want a Rayman platforming fix, track down Rayman Origins.

Then it’s onto an especially raucous edition of the news segment with Perry. To say we go off on some tangents might be an understatement, but we still deliver lots of newsy goodness for you guys so don’t fret!

Todd Talk tackles promotions, do they help or hinder the games in and around them? Andrew finishes things up with Crews’ Community Corner, with a couple of interesting twitter questions and the Remember the days game. Be sure to play Alien Hominid HD this week and let us know what you think on twitter.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp55.mp3[/podcast]

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Xbox 360 owners now more frequently use their consoles for viewing movies and TV shows and listening to music than they do for playing online games, Microsoft told the L.A. Times yesterday. All told, Xbox-equipped households are now devoting 84 hours monthly to all of those activities, with a smidgen over 50 percent of that time being spent taking in non-gaming media, said Xbox marketing and strategy boss, Yusuf Mehdi. The total usage figure represents a 30 percent jump from one year ago.

“What we’re seeing is that people are turning on the Xbox to play games and then keeping it on afterwards to get other types of entertainment,” Mehdi said. Entertainment features on the console falling under the broad “other” umbrella have increased drastically since the console’s November 2005 launch. Today alone Microsoft rolled out MLB.TV, Xfinity On Demand and HBO Go applications. As the Times noted, their inclusion brought the current tally of entertainment media services available on the platform up to 36.

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Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment returned from the money-filled vacuum of space today and used its massive gravitational pull to acquire Finnish developer Futuremark Games Studios. The studio is the gaming wing (terrible pun definitely intended) of 60-employee-strong Futuremark Corporation, which develops tools and services for PC and mobile applications.

“Futuremark will now focus on supporting gamers and industry with 3DMark, our professional grade benchmark which, in a new version to be released later this year, will allow unified gaming performance comparison across operating systems and form factors for the first time,” Jukka Mäkinen, Futuremark CEO, said of the move.

The developer is probably best known among gamers for its work on the tower-defense title Unstoppable Gorg, which is currently available on PC and iOS. An XBLA version port of the game was previously announced and is currently listed as “coming soon” on the game’s official website.

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With a licensed game it would be easy to slap a different render on the same character build and just pretend that makes them unique, especially with a property …
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This week’s Deal of the Week is aimed at those petrol-heads amongst us. As well as some offers for Forza fans, 3 XBLA games will get a 50% discount …
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As part of a push for an enhanced presence at the upcoming PAX East, Ska Studios has unleashed upon the world the first official logo for its upcoming side-scrolling …
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Xbox owners who choose to stream Comcast Xfinity On Demand to their consoles once the service launches won’t have to worry about the data adding up towards their 250-gigabyte bandwidth caps, according to a Comcast FAQ. The reasoning is that “since the content is being delivered over our private IP network and not the public Internet, it does not count against a customer’s bandwidth cap,” reads the FAQ.

Users will thus be able to stream all the on-demand national broadcasts, premium channel programming and free videos they please once the Xfinity service makes its way to Microsoft’s console. They will not, however, gain the ability to watch live TV on their 360s. Furthermore, Comcast currently has no plans “at this time” to offer live TV streaming at any future date. What Xbox 360 owners will be able to do is take advantage of Kinect and the dashboard’s search function when they’re looking to enjoy a little HBO Go or other compatible programming.

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Two is always better than one — except, of course, when it’s not. Whether it actually is or not in developer Demiurge’s Shoot Many Robots is a topic that is open to no small amount of debate. In fact, there is so much disagreement as to whether the game’s current single-stick controls or a more modernized dual analog scheme — which is not currently an option available to players — is best, that the Boston-based studio has decided to host what it’s dubbing the “Control Scheme Throwdown” at PAX East in April.

A special build of the XBLA title will be playable at the dev’s booth during the show (April 6—8) that is going to enable play with the power of not just one but two analog sticks. Attendees who wish to participate will be pitted against players using a single stick in a competition to help Demiurge decide whether or not to patch in support for the additional stick. Should the team reach the decision to do so , the control style employed by the PAX competition’s winner will become the standard once the option is added. The gauntlet — it has been thrown down.

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Second Update: The game has been delayed by a week, so next Wednesday, April 4.

Update: The game will launch as a four table pack for 800 points.

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