Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

A new year is right around the corner, and with it comes the usual half-hearted resolutions, existential fear of time’s steady passing and new games for Xbox Live Gold members. …
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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. This week …
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After a long wait, on December 9, 2014, the sequel to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light finally comes to the Xbox One in Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris. This time Lara and her rival, Carter Bell, are trapped in the Temple of Osiris and with the help of two imprisoned gods, Horus and Isis, they must work together to solve puzzles, fight deities and find a way to defeat another god, the evil Set.

“After the immensely positive reception we received for our debut co-op adventure Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, we always hoped that we would find the time for Lara to return in another classic AAA digital arcade title,” said Darrell Gallagher, Head of Product Development and Studios in a Square Enix press release

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Major Nelson announced yesterday that Microsoft would be discounting prices on a number of Xbox 360 games during this week’s Ultimate Game Sale. Discounts will range anywhere from 30 …
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In addition to an announced sequel to the retail Tomb Raider game that redefined the character for modern gaming in 2013, the XBLA title Lara Croft and the Guardian …
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Starting today, Xbox Live Gold members can download Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light free of charge, courtesy of Microsoft’s Games with Gold program. Games with Gold serves …
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Xbox Live Arcade began its life on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 simply enough. When eager gamers bought up Xbox 360s on launch day (November 22, 2005), they found a free copy of Hexic HD pre-loaded on their hard drives. Of course, it was another launch title that secured the platform’s success. Bizarre’s Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved both gave birth to the twin-stick shooter craze and demanded gamers take Xbox Live Arcade, which started in disc form back on the original Xbox, seriously as a digital games platform. Bizarre’s side project paved the way for the enormous variety of retro revivals, HD remakes, original indie projects, major studio releases, free-to-play games and more that have come to call XBLA home in the years since.

Today, we’re approximately one month away from the launch of the Xbox One, which will signal the end of XBLA as we have come to know it these past eight years. While Microsoft’s Xbox line will continue to be home to myriad low-cost downloadable video games, the XBLA moniker will not make the transition to Xbox One. It’s going down with the figurative (and literal) Xbox 360 boat. So what better time than now to count down the best XBLA games to ever grace the Xbox 360?

It wasn’t easy, but our staff has sorted through all of the best XBLA releases over the years and picked the ones that we feel are the true standout stars of the platform. Check back with us throughout the week as we run down five of Xbox Live Arcade’s top games every night. And don’t forget to head to the comments to let us know how much you love (or hate) our picks.

(Editor’s Note: voting was conducted in early September. No games released post-Summer of Arcade 2013 were considered eligible.)

20.) State of Decay

Matthew Smail, Contributor — Featuring a solid 10 to 20-hour-long campaign, a fun and engaging storyline and a range of deep and rewarding gameplay mechanics, State of Decay is considered by some to be a better game than many boxed AAA zombie titles. Arriving as it did in 2013 (during what is essentially the Xbox 360’s twilight year) State of Decay has certainly proven one thing: digital delivery of serious gaming content not related to Minecraft can be both commercially and critically successful on the Xbox 360.

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Look after the pennies, and the pounds (or dollars, euros, pesos or whatever) will take care of themselves. Or at least, that’s what our parents used to tell us, right?

That may be sensible where traditional currency is concerned, but it’s not a strategy that converts well into MSP. Waiting for sales and bargains may be the cheapest way of buying XBLA games – but what if the game you want never goes on sale? What if everyone else has moved on and you lose out on the best bit of a fantastic co-op game like Lara Croft: GOL or a community-focused game like Section 8: Prejudice? What if you think you’re buying something you want, but actually you just bought it because it was cheap and you end up wasting MSP anyway?

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A quick reminder of today’s XBLA releases and a look ahead to the next couple of weeks. This week we have two Wednesday releases, Sega’s HD remake of the Dreamcast …
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Traditionally there’s not many discounts on offer for XBLA bargain hunters during Summer of Arcade, however this week’s Deal of the Week does include some DLC for the excellent …
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