Vessel

We’re late, and it seems that’s become somewhat of a trend for us lately. Our Game of the Year awards weren’t doled out until January, and now our look forward at the XBLA and Xbox One XBLA-type games of 2014 is just making its way to you now in February. You were on your own when it came to planning out January’s releases, but now it’s time for our annual look ahead at the top downloadable games likely to arrive on an Xbox platform during the (remainder of) the year ahead. Read on to find out what you can expect out of Xbox over the next (not quite) 365.

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Trials Fusion

Developer: RedLynx

First announced by Ubisoft at E3 2013 and heading to Xbox One and XBLA at an unannounced future date, Trials Fusion is the next game in RedLynx’s physics-based motorcycle racing series that found no small measure of success on Xbox Live Arcade. The first XBLA take on the series, Trials HD was extremely popular due to the fierce competition it inspired among players to hit the best runs on each of its 50 courses. That was nothing. RedLynx followed it up with Trials Evolution, which added an in-depth track editor and turned the franchise into a true obsession for its many fans.

With Trials Fusion‘s announcement trailer showing off player failure, it’s evident that RedLynx once again intends to scratch the competitive itch inside gamers as vehemently as motorcycle tires scratching the dirt of a Trials course.

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Namco Bandai’s XBLA port of puzzle-platformer Vessel may have been canceled. The XBLA version failed to meet its planned 2013 release window, and publisher Namco Bandai removed the game’s detail page from its website in December. Following that, Vessel also briefly disappeared from the Xbox Games Store. While it has since reappeared on the Xbox Games Store, the information listed there is sparse and extremely outdated, with November 2012 being erroneously cited as its release date.

Regular XBLA Fans reader @lifelower noticed Vessel’s disappearing act last month and reached out both to Namco Bandai and developer Strange Loop Games about the incidents. While Namco Bandai remained silent, Strange Loop Games confirmed to our frequent tipster that Vessel was still on its way to PS3, but was no longer heading to XBLA.

Speaking with XBLA Fans directly via email, Strange Loop’s John Krajewski again indicated that he believes the XBLA version of Vessel is no more. He did, however, go on to hmention a possible next-gen release. “Our publisher owns the rights to the XBLA version, and to our knowledge they’ve indeed stopped work on it,” Krajewski told us. “PS3 will be coming out soon, though, but we’re planning to announce that later this month. Sad news I know. It’s possible there will be an Xbox One version someday, though.”

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Here we are once again at the start of what’s sure to be another fantastic year of XBLA releases. Each day this week XBLAFans will be rolling out a list of eight of our most anticipated Xbox Live Arcade releases of 2013. While we can’t possibly cover every single XBLA game planned for this year, we’ll be giving you a varied list of 40 of the most promising titles we expect to release on XBLA in 2013. Once it’s all done, be sure to check back in next Monday when each staff member makes his/her picks for the game he/she is most looking forward to.

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Special Forces: Team X

Developer: Zombie Studios

[springboard type=”video” id=”642009″ player=”xbla001″ width=”640″ height=”400″ ]

No stranger to downloadable shooters, Zombie Studios’ upcoming Special Forces: Team X capitalizes on its expertise honed crafting Blacklight: Tango Down and Black: Retribution. Don’t be fooled by the colorful cel-shaded visuals; Special Forces targets frenetic third-person team-centric combat with brutal executions and an arsenal of real world weapons. Its dynamic map tile system puts players in control of generating the environment in a pre-round vote, with over a hundred possible combinations of individual tiles to choose. All this coupled with a healthy rank progression and customization system means Special Forces: Team X stands to deliver quite the bang for your buck when it hits XBLA on February 6 for 1200 MSP.

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Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews, and releases from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

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Vessel is already out on Steam, so we didn’t want to bore you with a giant preview. We did, however, stop by the booth at PAX East to chat with  head John Krajewski, who confirmed that the physics-based puzzle platformer is still safely on its way to XBLA. As a quick recap for those of you who aren’t familiar with Vessel, you play the part of a genius scientist whose liquid-based automatons have gone a little mad, and it’s up to you to stop them. To help you on your way you’ll have to use the predictability of the automatons and a sweet liquid-sucking-and-blowing backpack to make your way through the world.

John didn’t need to say much, he mostly stepped back and let the demo speak for itself. One area Vessel shines in is the difficulty department. The puzzles increased in difficulty over the course of the demo, and while some of them took a while to figure out, it wasn’t in a frustrating way — in fact, it left us with a sense of accomplishment that some games struggle to achieve. Almost overshadowing the puzzles are the amazingly beautiful backgrounds and sounds. While much of the demo took place in steampunk-y factories, there are also outdoor areas that looked just as good. If that wasn’t enough, Strange Loop tagged Jon Hopkins – former producer and contributor to Imogen Heap, Coldplay, and Brian Eno – to create the incredible soundtrack.

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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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The folk over at SlushyTV recently received an early copy of upcoming game Vessel from Strange Loop Games and lucky for us they’ve kindly posted a quick video preview. …
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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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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:

XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases A-B
XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases C-F
XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases G-L
XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases M-O
XBLAFans Anticipated 2012 Releases P-R
XBLAFans Anticipated XBLA Game Releases S
XBLAFans Anticipated XBLA Game Releases T-Z
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqa4C0R6VAs

Earlier this month, developer Zoo Entertainment announced an upcoming puzzle/adventure game called Vessel. With the focus rested on the game’s liquid physics system, a new gameplay trailer released by …
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