Dust: An Elysian Tail

Every year, E3 seems more hectic than the last. We spent five hectic days getting our eyes and hands on every XBLA game possible and we’ve picked out eighteen games that stood out from the crowd. Here is the run-down on the very best XBLA titles from E3 2012. Read More

Microsoft’s Major Nelson has announced the dates and prices for this years five Summer of Arcade titles. This years promotion will kick off on July 18 with Tony Hawk’s …
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Speaking with XBLA Fans on the E3 show floor today, Microsoft revealed that forthcoming Dust: An Elysian Tail will contain an arena-type gameplay mode and difficulty setting for …
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What we are playing is a weekly column published on Sunday. Various members of the team let the world know which games have had them hooked over the past week …
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Believe it or not my favorite part about video games isn’t the games themselves but the way they bring people together. Arguably no show demonstrates this bond better than PAX. Thousands of likeminded individuals flooded Boston this past Easter weekend. It didn’t matter where you worked or what you did or what you had to do when you hit the ground again on Monday; for one glorious weekend everyone was an equal: a gamer. It didn’t matter if your weapon was a die, a mouse, a controller or one’s own body. Everyone at this show had a passion for games.

A few of us from XBLA Fans made the trip and had the honor of mingling and checking out some of the upcoming XBLA titles for 2012 and beyond. We were able to hear developers in their element talking to fans about their projects. It was an amazing experience. Our own Andrew Crews has already elaborated on this issue, but in the end you remember the little things. That being said, there were some amazing games. Check out our full breakdown below!

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I almost missed it. I almost wearily shambled right out of the Boston Convention Center this past Easter Sunday without playing what just might have been the most gorgeous XBLA title on the show floor. Luckily, Kinect Fans Managing Editor Nick DePetris issued a last minute reminder that readers had been flooding the site with requests for coverage of developer Humble Hearts’ Dust: An Elysian Tail. So off the two of us went to Microsoft’s blessedly carpeted booth one final time before departing PAX East 2012.

Sandwiched between the 360s running four-player previews of Minecraft and Tequila’s Deadlight demo was the side-scrolling action title from the inspired mind of one Dean Dodrill. That a sole man could craft something so wonderfully creative is extraordinary. It’s almost impossible to believe that Dodrill is the only member of Humble Hearts given how excellent his work-in-progress is at this stage of development. He’s been working on it for several years (see its victory at Microsoft’s 2009 Dream.Build.Play Challenge for evidence of its lengthy development cycle), but there are still some months to go before its vague 2012 release date arrives.

The titular main character is an adorable-but-deadly anthropomorphic hero questing through the alluring world of Falana with a charming fairy sidekick in tow. Falana features dark and dreary caves with medieval castles looming in the background. Players will venture into at least one cavern that is darker still, but they’ll also emerge from the “it was a dark and stormy night” motif and find themselves in a gleaming, tranquil forest with cute woodland animals prancing about at some point in the adventure. I’m hardly the first to compare the aesthetics to the masterfully animated Disney films of old, and I am unlikely to be the last.

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John is once again joined by Andrew Crews, Nick DePetris and Nick Santangelo to round out our trio of PAX podcasts. In this episode the guys cover pretty much every game they saw at the show, inlcluding Dust: An Elysian Tail, Awesomenauts, Mark of the Ninja and far too many more to list. Needless to say if you want to know about the XBLA games shown at PAX this is the podcast for you. If you have any additional questions hit us up on twitter or you can contact the guys on their personal accounts (linked below).

If you missed our other PAX specials check them out, from Day 1 and Day 2 of the show.

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 (@BlurredEdge) too?

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

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Were you stuck at home this while your gamer friends partied at PAX this weekend? Well dry those eyes, for Gamespot have compiled a neat video showcasing five of …
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Our friends over at Play XBLA have provided a list of the games they’ll be showing off at PAX East in Boston next month. We …
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Huge thanks to the entire team of writers who worked on this article: Christine Mitchell, Nathan Bowring, Perry Jackson, Ryan Reynolds and Todd Schlickbernd.

We’ve spent the past week searching the internet and hounding our industry contacts in an effort to compile the ultimate 2012 XBLA Game Release List. We anticipated one heck of a year for Xbox Live Arcade. So epic we couldn’t even fit everything on one page. So without further ado, check out the list:

For detailed descriptions of each of the games and videos check the links below.

XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases A-B
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare
Alien Spidy
AMY
Anomaly Warzone Earth
Awesomenauts
Babel Rising
Bang Bang Racing
Battleblock Theater
Black Knight Sword
Blade Kitten: Episode 2
Bloodforge

XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases C-F
Capsized
Charlie Murder
Choplifter HD
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Deep Black Episode 1 & 2
Defenders of Ardania
Diabolical Pitch
Dust: An Elysian Tail
Dungeon Fighter Live (unannounced title)
Fez

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