monolith

Guardians of Middle-Earth, the latest Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game to aim for the Xbox Live Arcade scene since Awesomenauts, wastes no time jumping into the action. We talked at length about the game in our preview from E3, but Monolith explains further how they manage to carefully select what elements of MOBA are strongest here. “We wanted to get players in and out of the game quickly”, designer Scott Compton told us in a roundtable press conference, “We wanted to get players in and out of the game quickly. 45 – 60 minutes is too long of a game.”

This Lord of the Rings MOBA was built from the ground up to be about the action and overall have shorter match times than other games in the genre. To achieve this, the foundation had to be set with the controls. While the answer to how a MOBA would work on a console has been of some debate lately, Monolith claims they had a rather easy time with it. Compton told us that “putting the player in direct control was a really satisfying experience. Using the left stick and “driving” the character around on the battlefield, rather than clicking and orienting your character that way.” Using rectangular, wedge and circle attack radii all aimed with the left stick, the game achieves precision even without a mouse. Read More

The Lord of the Rings franchise is no stranger to video game adaptations. Of the many we’ve seen over the years, most of them are translated directly from the fiction into a playable form. We’ve guided Frodo on his journey to Mordor and fought to defend Minas Tirith as Aragorn. Guardians of Middle-Earth is not an adventure but instead a war waged by good and evil in a massive arena.

Guardians of Middle-Earth is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game with many of the genre staples. Unlike other MOBA forays on XBLA (Awesomenauts, Monday Night Combat), Guardians of Middle-Earth is the classic isometric experience complete with three lanes (in the main map), creeps, towers, the whole shabang!

Well. Mostly. There’s no hiding the core MOBA-ness of this game, but the developers at Monolith also want to bring new mechanics to the table and tailor the experience to the console. For instance, you can upgrade your minions and towers, but there’s no shop and there are shrines to fight over which grant buffs. How’s that for new mechanics? Read More

It’s official: those psychotic bats and jokers are clinically insane. Gotham City Impostors will soon be receiving a new map based in Arkham Asylum, free of charge. The new map brings …
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Welcome to our gigantic Fez completion guide! This guide will take you from no achievements to 12, zero g to 200g and we’ll take you there… delicately. Thanks to community member MRX93 for helping us ever so slightly here and there. Without further ado… we have to explain some things.

[Editors Note: We highly recommend not using this guide until you can’t go any further on your own. Fez is about exploring and getting lost. Polytron put it best when they said “play like the internet doesn’t exist”. That being said, we know many people will become frustrated and want help. This guide is written for them.  Please use  it only as an emergency cheat-sheet.]

There are two ways to complete Fez. Complete it like you’re playing it, and to complete it for the sake of completion. We here at XBLA Fans are aware of this and have set up our guide in accordance with the different types of Fez players.

We have taken great care to separate anything and everything that would be considered a spoiler. Our policy follows that any puzzle that requires knowledge acquired outside of the area to which the puzzle belongs (barring basic knowledge and specific sections) will be posted in the SPOILER ZONE. Each area has one, and each zone is marked very clearly in text and with pictures. Each picture hints at what the spoiler covers. Once you’re done with many areas and have accrued much knowledge you’ll want to come back and check each spoiler tag to see if you can now complete that puzzle. Read More

Good news, children of Gotham! Monolith will be delivering yet another free update to Gotham City Impostors. The new update will feature a brand new map, The East End, …
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This area will serve as an introduction to the rest of the guide. You’ll note you probably don’t need the myriad pictures and instructions for this easy of an area, …
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Let’s be clear about something: the Central Hub and the Main Hub are two different places. The bulk of Fez occurs in on gigantic area which can be accessed for …
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Welcome to the Waterfall area! This area of Fez is a big deal, not just because it’s pretty, but because there are tons of secrets locked away here. …
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Something about the Lighthouse is tricky, though really it shouldn’t be. Let’s grab all the bits we can before going inside, then let’s find the rest!

Treasure Map – At …
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Ahh, the Bell Tower, what wondrous mysteries are stored here! Let’s find out. In the actual Bell Tower area, there really isn’t much to do. There’s some bits, grab those, but then …
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