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Quake Arena Arcade was developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks for XBLA on 12/15/2010 and retails for 1200 ms. The publisher provided a copy of the game for reviewing purposes.

Prepare to experience Quakelike never before, as you fight for ultimate survival on 33 classic maps and in 12 Xbox-exclusive Arenas. The latest from id Software for the Xbox Live Arcade is packed full of many features for all Quake fans to enjoy, as you select from six playable game types to lay waste upon your enemies while using 12 brutal weapons in fighting for the top spot.

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A World of Keflings was developed by NinjaBee and published by Xbox Live Arcade.  It was released on XBLA on December 22nd.

With games like Cloning Clyde, Band of Bugs and Ancients of Ooga under their belt, NinjaBee has become one of the most beloved XBLA developers to date.  In 2008, the release of A Kingdom for Keflings solidified their spot as an XBLA powerhouse.   After the success of the first installment, A Kefling sequel was evident.  As one of the most anticipated XBLA games of 2010, A World of Keflings generated high expectations from both the fans and the developers.  With a ton of new additions and upgrades, the difference between A Kingdom for Keflings and A World of Keflings is clear.  The game has improved in nearly every area. Read More

Hydrophobia developer Dark Energy Digital has released details of a pretty substantial patch coming to the hugely ambitious but ultimately disappointing XBLA title. The patch, entitled “Pure”, aims to rectify the many problems that reviewers and gamers has with the game upon it’s release.

The update coincides with a 400 point discount for the game, meaning it can now be picked up for 800 points rather than the original 1200 release price.

Almost all of the games major game mechanics have been changed in some fashion, the cover has been improved, gunplay has been redesigned to be more intuitive and fun, the graphics have been bumped up slightly and the button layout has been changed to be more in line with similar titles.

Whether these changes actually improve the game remains to be seen but it’s certainly impressive that any developer would go back and change their game in such a fundamental manner in response to complaints.

Check out what Tyler had to say about the game upon release in our XBLAFans review. You can see a video detailing the changes below, along with a screenshot gallery.

Source: Eurogamer

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If a series of tweets from Indie Game Winter Uprising orgraniser Robert Boyd are to be believed Microsoft may be putting their weight behind the iniative sometime soon. While there’s no official confirmation as yet, Boyd’s tweets (which you can read for yourself below) heavily imply that Microsoft are planning to do something to help with the promotion, or at least the games that will be released before the 23rd of Decemeber.

Presumably this help will be in the form of advertising on the dashboard in a more prominent location, possibly the spaces usuall reserved for Deal of the Week sales and the like.

This would certainly be a win for the Indie Game developers, with the Uprising being a response to Microsoft’s lack of advertisement of the service.

Due to several delays the Uprising hasn’t been quite the success it was expected to be, as a result it was extended to the end of the month. You can find out more about the event and the games involved by visiting our Winter Uprising hub, which has now been updated with more reviews. Read More

Ubergridder was developed by BadgerPunch Games, and is available for 80 Microsoft Points ($1) under the Indie Games section of the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Xbox Live Indie Games are quickly becoming one of the best places to find retro-inspired games from the arcade and NES era. One of these latest games is Ubergridder, a maze-chaser that features gameplay mechanics similar to Pac-Man, which was a clear influence here for BadgerPunch Games. As Robert the robot, players must move along grid lines to repair a busted ship, all while being chased by aliens. It’s not the most original idea, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

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Major Nelson has released a lovely post outlining what will be coming out on Xbox live on December 21 and lasting until December 31.   I am not sure if this has anything to do with the deal days they are planning that counts down to the new year.    Click read more of course!

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Perspective is key in the long unreleased indie darling Fez. A new trailer released by developer Polytron Corporation has given us perspective as to where development has taken them …
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The game was designed originally by Konami and then brought to XBLA by Backbone Entertainment, a division of Foundation 9 Entertainment.  The player chooses one of six X-Men:  Cyclops,  Colossus,  Wolverine,  Storm,  Nightcrawler, or Dazzler. Their objective is to stop the villain Magneto from wreaking havoc on human civilization. They must fight through an army of hundreds of Sentinels and supervillains such as Pyro, Blob, Wendigo, Nimrod, The White Queen, Juggernaut, and Mystique.  Later, Magneto kidnaps Professor X and Kitty Pryde, prompting the heroes to go on a rescue mission. The heroes fight their way to Island M and ultimately to Magneto’s base on Asteroid M where the final battle with the Master of Magnetism takes place.

If you were lucky your arcade had the full on 6-player mode, and if you didn’t have the nice arcade, you had the cheesy 4-player cabinet.   The question is, how well did this classic age?   Is it worth spending the 800 MS Points ($10 US)?

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Drizzle is a game that is damn hard to assign to any specific genre.  You could call it a puzzle game, a strategy game or a casual/family game.  It was developed by Annihilated Games although the marketplace lists the developer as AnonymousDevs.  This game has been well over a year in the making after many setbacks.  It sells for 240MS points ($3) on the Indie games section of the Xbox marketplace.

Drizzle places you in charge of riding the world of pollution.  You control a robot hand that places cups under acid rain clouds in order to filter and recycle the rain water.  Different colored clouds require different colored cups to collect the rain.  The water is used to grow trees and make the world a better place.  A few unlockable robot friends will help you along the way while evil corporate robots will try to stop your progress.  It sounds like a terrible idea but it’s actually pretty fun. Read More

Section 8 was a flawed gem. A diamond in the rough relegated mostly to bargain bins, the original Section 8 pushed new ideas into the first person shooter genre. It overcame minor bugs, mixed reviews and the stigma of being a full priced multiplayer only game, developing a small cult following along the way. Section 8 is back and ready to do an orbital drop again, but this time TimeGate Studios is rewriting the rules.

With the freedom that self publishing gives them, TimeGate Studios is pushing the boundaries of what has been traditionally accepted as normal. Section 8 Prejudice is a fully fledged sequel to Section 8; however, it will be released on Xbox Live Arcade in early 2011 for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15), nearly a fraction of the cost of the original. The transition from a $60 retail product to an Xbox Live Arcade sequel is a new one in this industry. We had some trepidation that the production values would suffer or that the game might feel too much like a rehash of the first, but that was all alleviated when we went hands on with Prejudice this past week.

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