Jackbox Party Pack

Thanks for joining us again for the weekly round up of the Deals with Gold. Please remember that all prices listed below require an Xbox Live Gold membership.

If you’re looking for a break from Battlefield 1 we’ve got three new indie game releases for you to choose from this Friday. First up is the threequel to party …
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Welcome to our new weekly Xbox sales update. This post will keep you informed each week as to what has gone on sale through the Xbox store and what this …
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Last month, XBLA Fans was streaming Resident Evil Revelations 2 on our Twitch channel when something unexpected happened: the feed abruptly cut to the pause screen pictured above. XBLA Fans’ Michael Cheng hadn’t stopped playing and was still attempting to actively broadcast gameplay, so we knew something external was affecting the stream.

That something was Capcom. The game’s developer-slash-publisher, in an effort to minimize gamers’ exposure to certain scenes that are critical to determining what ending players receive, blocks segments of Revelations 2 from being streamed via the Xbox Twitch app. Capcom kicks all Xbox Twitch streams to the pause screen during the final boss fight, cutscenes, credits and after-credits cutscene. Speaking with XBLA Fans, a representative for the company explained that it wants to “give players a pure and un-spoiled experience,” so it “chose to disable the native capture so that video sharing during those segments was limited.”

This got us thinking: how do other ID@Xbox game developers view Twitch streaming? Are they worried about potential gameplay or story segments being ruined for viewers? We asked a few developers if they had official Twitch policies and whether or not they felt streamers were helping their games to find larger audiences. Official stances on Twitch were a bit mixed, but everyone we talked to agreed that streaming could benefit them. One in particular, however, cautioned against giving streaming codes to anyone and everyone and noted that not all games companies need help from streamers.

Of streams and spoilers

There is perhaps no ID@Xbox developer more well-known for story-driven experiences than Telltale Games. Unfortunately, the studio that popularized episodic game releases declined to comment directly on the issue. Telltale, however, did partner with The Nerdist to stream the entirety of the first Tales from the Borderlands episode a week ahead of its release last November. It also got together with voice actors Troy Baker and Laura Bailey to stream the second episode a few days after its release late last month. It remains to be seen whether or not Telltale will be so eager to stream the season’s surely spoiler-filled final episode in full, but its past actions paint a picture of a studio that does not shy away from streaming spoilers.

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Jackbox Games, the developer most recently behind Jackbox Party Pack, has announced Quiplash. Quiplash is a brand new party game for up to eight players that forces one another to invent unique …
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It’s January, which means it’s time for XBLA Fans to take a look back at the best and brightest games of the last year.

2014 was a transitional year for the Xbox brand. It was Xbox One’s first full year on the market, and it bore witness to Microsoft going all-in on its complete reversal of the console’s strategy and public image. Redmond distanced its next-gen console from being some sort of multimedia wonderbox as much as possible and did its best to focus on the games. Despite a litany of exciting ID@Xbox game announcements, the program got off to a bit of a slow start, though. Ports and re-releases dominated much of 2014’s ID@Xbox release calendar, and last-gen Xbox Live Arcade releases on Xbox 360 were used to buoy Microsoft’s greater indie library.

If you paid as much attention to ID@Xbox as as XBLA Fans did, though, then you know there were some standout stars even if there was not a terribly high quantity of them. We’ve played the games and cast our votes, and how we present you with our 2014 Game of the Year awards. Don’t like our picks? Fair enough. Head to the comments and make your case for why yours are better.

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Join us tonight (12/11/2014) for a Jackbox Party Pack twitch stream at 8PM EST. The beauty of streaming this title is that anyone can join along in the fun …
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The Xbox One just received a huge helping of party games in the form of the Jackbox Party Pack. The pack contains a collection of five games, all of which can be played from the comfort of your phone or tablet. All players need to do is sign on to game’s website from any internet-capable device and enter the game’s room code, then they can play along with the action on the console. Most games support up to 8 players, expect Lie Swatter, which has a massive 100 player limit.

So what games are in the pack? First and foremost is You Don’t Know Jack 2015, the newest installment of the hit comedy-trivia series. Fibbage XL is a lying-based trivia game that builds on its predecessor, featuring everything from the original release plus over 50% more content. Drawful is a twist on classic drawing games, making good use of the game’s device capabilities by having players draw on their phone. Word Spud has players race to finish unfinished words, complete with adjustable levels of rudeness. Last but not least, Lie Swatter is a true or false trivia game filled with strange and unusual questions.

Jackbox Party Pack is available now for $24.99. Check out some screenshots and the launch trailer after the jump.

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