XBLA

Life’s full of heated, bitter rivalries. Microsoft v. Sony. Chevy v. Ford. Pepsi v. Coke. Yet with the big names gobbling up most of the confrontational spotlight, 3AM Games has dared to strike out and ask the unlikely questions. Questions like, “Cthulhu and… magnetism?” The answer, it seems, is yes.

Magrunner, the first title from the independent studio, is a first-person action-adventure puzzler set in the near-future, developed on Unreal Engine 3. By harnessing the power of the Magtech glove, Magrunner aims to test your reflexes and your wits based on the simple principles of magnetism as you square off against the Cthulhu Mythos inspired by the works of the author, H.P. Lovecraft.

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This week’s Deal of Week seems to have a board game/puzzle theme, letting gold subscribers grab these great puzzlers for half off.

Carcassonne – 400 MSP Catan – 400 …
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As the first season of Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead nears its conclusion, the developer invites players to see how their decisions from episode four, Around Every Corner, stack up against the community as a whole, just as they have with the other three episodes. See the jump for more – but be warned, spoilers for episode four abound.

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XBLAFans was able to sit in on a conference call last week with Guardians of Middle-earth Producer Bob Roberts and Senior Producer Ruth Pomandl. They shared intricate details about the game’s development process, what it was like to balance a MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) game for the console space and some details about how various systems will work in the game.

Players new to the MOBA genre should consider checking out Monolith’s own video tutorial series explaining it. The basic idea, though, is that players choose one of a number of heroes (five of them are unlocked initially, and the others are unlocked via in-game currency), and fight on a team of five champions against a team of five other champions. While each champion has unique talents and attributes, there are five basic character archetypes. These include:

• Enchanters –- low maximum health and low physical damage, but they output lots of ability damage and withstand ability damage better than other classes.

• Defenders –- high survivability but low damage.

• Warriors –- the most balanced class and the most versatile as a result. They take a fair amount of damage and deal a fair amount in return.

• Strikers –- the physical damage equivalent of Enchanters, meaning lots of damage but very low survivability.

• Tacticians –- slightly more survivability than average but focus on AOE disruption and controlling the flow of movement across a lane.

In most PC MOBA games, players shop at an item store for items to upgrade their characters as the game progresses. Guardians mixes things up by introducing a less UI-intensive series of systems that should help make the console experience go more smoothly. Players can set loadouts similar to League of Legends rune and mastery systems  before a game begins, except that the loadout options in Guardians are even more extensive. There are three loadout systems in place for players to manage and utilize throughout a game — Potions, Commands and Guardian Belts.

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Magic: the Gathering Duels of the Plainswalkers receives two new decks today for 240 MSP. The first deck is a white and red deck called “Act of War.” The …
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The Halloween skin pack DLC for Minecraft released on October 26th to great success, making over $500,000 in less than two weeks. All proceeds went …
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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Monolith Productions have released the second installment of their video series designed to get you into fighting shape for Guardians of Middle-earth. Dubbed “MOBA Mastery,” the series takes a look at the multiplayer online battle arena genre, from a basic overview on match structure and map layout, to the progressively more complex elements of play.

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These days, zombies are ubiquitous in video games. They’re the all-purpose enemy (and genre) that just won’t die – you’ll find them all over the place in shooters, adventure games, strategy titles, the works. Only a handful, however, have tackled the zombie apocalypse in open-world format. Undead Labs’ upcoming State of Decay aims to diversify the portfolio of flesh-craving corpses.
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Two more heroes were recently revealed for the upcoming Guardians of Middle-earth.

This time around, the new hero fighting on the side of good is Ori, dwarven scholar and brother to Nori and Dori, giving him a tie to the upcoming Hobbit film. As an Enchanter, Ori functions in the role of a mage, and looks designed to deal out lots of damage utilizing combinations of magical spells. One of his abilities, “As it is Written,” marks enemies, making followup spells deal even more damage. He looks to be a fun combo-based mage.

Agandaûr, Sauron’s lieutenant, fights on the side of Mordor in a similar role, despite his knight-like appearance. Agandaûr’s Overcharge ability powers up the remaining skills at his disposal, making his Shockwave a formidable strike. It is worth noting is that Agandaûr possesses a teleport — usually extremely powerful in MOBA games, since the teleport can be used for both offense and defense. He will be a hero to watch once the game releases in December. Check out the video below for the full rundown on each champion:

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Once upon a time, Neocore Games’ upcoming XBLA hack-and-slash title The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing was set to star Van Helsing Jr., son of the legendary vampire hunter. Now, however, Junior’s out, and who takes his place is up to you.
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