Blog

Yuke’s Co. Ltd, best known for their yearly WWE wrestling titles have announced that they are developing an Xbox Live Arcade game based on the upcoming Hugh Jackman film, …
Read More

Recent XBLA puzzler Crazy Machines Elements got some brand new DLC today. The new pack, imaginatively titled Crazy Machine Elements, adds 20 new levels and 5 new challenges. We …
Read More

Pinball FX 2 fans may be keen to know that Zen Studios are planning on releasing two new tables: Paranormal and Sorcerer’s Lair. Both tables were previously exclusive to …
Read More

We’re your one stop shop for everything Crimson Alliance.
Read More

It’s a madcap episode this week, in which everyone on the show forgets how to speak English at least once. I’m once again joined by Perry and Todd jumps on to talk some Crimson Alliance. In case you were wondering, he rather likes it as you can read in his review.

We quickly run through the news, as there isn’t too much worth talking about and then there’s even less to talk about game wise as we haven’t played too much of the recent releases. Thankfully Todd saves us with Crimson Alliance talk and we slip in a little (slightly related) iOS game discussion.

Please subscribe, comment, review and spread word about the podcast. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question.

[podcast]https://xblafans.com/xblafancast/XBLAFancastEp29.mp3[/podcast]

RSS | MP3 | iTunes Read More

Crimson Alliance was developed by Certain Affinity and published by Microsoft Studios. It was released on September 7, 2011. The game is a free download, but characters must be purchased. One character costs 800 MSP, while all three can be purchased for 1200 MSP. A copy of the game was provided for review purposes.

Isometric cameras come with a whole myriad of expectations and memories for many gamers. Most jump straight to Gauntlet, the quintessential isometric beat stuff up game. Well Crimson Alliance is no Gauntlet. Granted, those enjoying the first minutes of their virgin voyage into this game will call blasphemy, but by the end of the first level the differences will be very clear. Crimson Alliance can, however, play like Gauntlet if allowed to, but it would take a lot of effort to ignore the awesome aspects of Crimson Alliance that make it such a different game.

Crimson Alliance has a slight flair for the retro in that it is very, very much about score. There is a story, and there are characters, but the real meat is in the mechanics; Crimson Alliance thrives on good gameplay. The game has three classes, Direwolf the Wizard, Moonshade the Assassin, and Gnox the Mercenary. Each class has its role, especially when it comes to co-op, but each has its offensive and defensive capabilities, none of them rely on each other necessarily, though they can assist each other. Each class’s ability to deal with the decent variety of enemies in Crimson Alliance varies greatly, so the game will play very differently based on which class is being used, and which skills of the class are being focused on. While it’s an action-RPG, Crimson Alliance isn’t so RPG-heavy, the stats are simple and easy to manage as they’re based off of the equipment and there aren’t too many permutations of skills. It’s easy to jump into, it’s easy to understand, but mastery is a different story. Living through a level of Crimson Alliance is pretty easy for the most part, but the multiplier mechanic used to get awesome scores is what really sends this game above and beyond. Every kill, every combo, every streak adds to the multiplier, but one hit, just one, will send the multiplier down one whole notch (it maxes out at 8). That whole mechanic is what Crimson Alliance hinges on and is why people that love to top leaderboards will be all over this game.

Read More

According to Major Nelson, Fuelcell Games’ Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be getting downloadable content next Wednesday, Septemer 13th. While the official details have not yet been …
Read More

Penny Arcade: On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode 1 and Episode 2 were developed by Hothead Games. They originally retailed for 1600 MSP and 1200 MSP respectively. They now both have been permanently reduced to 800 MSP each.

The Penny Arcade games are both fairly traditional RPG’s put together in an episodic format. With the third episode finally having been announced this is the perfect time to revisit these titles. Episode 2 makes some improvements over the first but they are largely similar except as far as story is concerned. With that in mind this will be a joint review for both episodes. The theme of the games is difficult to define. Seemingly set in the past it also contains a great deal of futuristic technology. But those up for an interesting mix of themes will be in for a treat.
Read More

Digital Reality have posted the final two parts to their SkyDrift developer Q&A series on Facebook. Part 5 discusses music, power-ups and a secret of which will only be …
Read More

http://youtu.be/h25fQNtmGks While we were bummed to hear about Major Nelson’s mistake, we now finally have a release date for long-awaited Sega Saturn classic Guardian Heroes. The new date is now …
Read More