Hydro Thunder Hurricane

Back in the winter of 2001 eager gamers stood in the cold overnight in anticipation of getting their hands on Microsoft’s first console, the Xbox. They took their new console home along with their selection of about a dozen launch titles. About a month later a second wave of games were released, among them was Stormfront Studios’ Blood Wake. It was an innovative title that focused on combat on the open waters. Like many titles from that time the plot had a certain amount of cheese factor, but somehow was still incredibly satisfying. But the real gem was the water physics, something ahead of its time.

Funny thing is, without Blood Wake we wouldn’t have Hydro Thunder Hurricane. See, Stormfront housed the brains and brawn behind Vector Unit, Hurricane‘s developer. Ralf Knoesel and Matt Small both worked on Blood Wake as a programmer and artist, respectively. Knoesel designed the water simulation which became one of the building blocks for the system in Hurricane. These guys have a special place in their heart for this little gem, and there are a lot of good reasons why.

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Weekend Rant is a non-regularly occurring weekend mini-editorial. In layman’s terms that basically means that if a staff member has something they want to rant about they can do so on any given weekend.

I have a confession: I’m a dreamer. Amidst having a career, being a husband and a dad, and life in general I constantly have daydreams in my head. One of those has always been to help develop or fund a game. Last night I was up until the wee hours with friends playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane, and as I dozed off my dreams were that of being a rich man. Since I can’t indulge my fantasy in real life, I thought it might be fun to throw out some of my XBLA dreams and hear some of yours.

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In the past few years we’ve often had people ask us what Xbox Live Arcade games are worth the money, but unlike us they usually don’t shell out a lot on XBLA games each year. It makes sense, after all 1200 MSP every month or so adds up in the end. Every site has those “you should buy it” lists where games like Limbo, Braid, Castle Crashers, Bastion, and Trials HD sit, but sometimes with other games you’re still not convinced. That being said here’s list of games you shouldn’t pass up on a sale. After all, we’re all on a budget. So if you’re one of those that won’t buy it at retail price no matter how good the reviews are, take a look at this list for the best titles you can find on sale.

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We’re starting yet another feature here at XBLAFans that will showcase any newly announced Xbox Live Arcade-based avatar awards from are friends over at AvatarAwards. They’re a great site that somehow gets news on avatar awards for all 360 games before they’re released. Be sure to check them out if you’re curious about any non-XBLA related avatar awards. For simplicity’s sake and so that we don’t leech from them, each of the links below will take you to their site. Remember, these are awards, so they’re given out to the player by completing criteria in each game. For more detail hit up the Avatar Awards site. You can also follow them on Twitter at @AvatarAwards360.

We’ve got a big backlog to fill between the AvatarAwards and things that pre-date their site, so this one’s a lot longer than usual. Hit the jump to see the list. Also, let us know if we missed one.

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Fans of Hydro Thunder Hurricane who also own a Windows Phone 7 device can now get their boatin’ on anytime they like. Pixelbite Games and Microsoft Game Studios have …
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Hydro Thunder Hurricane developer Vector Unit wants to to hear from you. In a recent Facebook post the developer posted the following: “Question for you HTH fans out there: …
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Although it’s a little late, we wanted to give a huge thank you to the Xbox Live community, and particularly our readers for coming out and throwing down against …
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This is a new piece we’re starting to let our readers know what we have been playing for fun over the past week.

John Laster – I’m playing …
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Tonight is our Xbox Live Community Playdate. This isn’t a “let’s get together and play”, it’s an official, Xbox Sponsored playdate. We’ll be playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane, one of our many favorites around the XBLAFans offices. Jump online from 8-11PM Eastern Standard Time to game with our staff.

We probably won’t be playing the DLC maps as it requires money to play them, but we will be requiring the multiplayer Tempest Pack patch, available here for free. This compatibility patch (technically free DLC) will let those who like DLC-only boats and skins use them, and people who don’t own the paid DLC can see them. For those interested the full version of the DLC includes three new achievements two new boats, three new tracks, expert versions of the novice and pro boats, and new skins for every boat. It’s well worth the 400MSP, as indicated by our review of it. If you want to buy the full version of the Tempest Pack, you can do so here.

Hit the jump for a list of gamertags participating.

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Being a site focused solely on XBLA and XBLIG titles we occasionally get to do some cool stuff that makes us feel like celebrities. Enter the April 29 Xbox Live Community Playdate. This isn’t a “let’s get together and play”, it’s an official, Xbox Sponsored playdate. We’ll be playing Hydro Thunder Hurricane, one of our many favorites around the XBLAFans offices.

We probably won’t be playing the DLC maps as it requires money to play them, but we will be requiring the multiplayer Tempest Pack patch, available here for free. This compatibility patch (technically free DLC) will let those who like DLC-only boats and skins use them, and people who don’t own the paid DLC can see them. For those interested the full version of the DLC includes three new achievements two new boats, three new tracks, expert versions of the novice and pro boats, and new skins for every boat. It’s well worth the 400MSP, as indicated by our review of it. For those wanting to buy the full version of the Tempest Pack, you can do so here.

Hit the jump for a list of gamertags participating.

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