XBLAFans

Another four man show this week, for no reason other than we felt like it! Myself and John Carson join Andrew and John Laster to discuss the upcoming XBLA releases and some of the cooler looking games on the horizon.

None of us bought Torchlight but that doesn’t stop us talking about it some, check out our review if you want some more informed information on the game. John Laster reviewed Full House Poker and Andrew tried it out, so they talk about that for a while. Then I talk for way too long about Battle: LA (review forthcoming) and Andrew chimes in with his thoughts too. Spoiler alert: we weren’t overly impressed.

Before we say goodbye John Carson talks about his experience watching the Game Informer guys break a world record and Andrew asks us what we think about how aesthetic changes are spread throughout games.

As mentioned before we’ve changed hosts for the podcasts, as a result the iTunes feed isn’t updating properly at the moment. We’re trying to get this fixed but in the meantime you can download the MP3 below or add the new RSS feed straight into iTunes or your favourite reader software.

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Alot of news came out of GDC this week so it’s a slightly longer show as the guys try to hit some of the bigger stories and announcements. Double Fine revealed their next XBLA game and the guys are pretty excited by the prospect, 5th Cell finally showed off Hybrid and it has peaked some interest and the guys talk about some other trailers and sneak peeks that came out of GDC.

Beyond Good & Evil was the XBLA release last week, all three of our hosts tried it and have varying things to say about their time with the game.

We’re now on iTunes! So please subscribe, rate and review us there. As before if you have any feedback or general comments then feel free to get in touch. You can either post something in the comments below or shoot us an email to podcast@xblafans.com.

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Some technical difficulties threatened to stop the XBLAFanCast after one episode but thankfully we recovered and can happily bring you Episode 2!

Andrew shares his thoughts on the closure of MyGamerCard.net and the guys are excited to see what former Bizarre studios employees do over at the newly formed Lucid games.

Is Bejeweled Blitz Live really worth paying for on XBLA? We debate that very fact before moving onto the surprise Friday release of Days of Thunder. A welcome surprise? Maybe not. John went to Robot Entertainment to check out their new game Orcs Must Die!, he tells us a bit about his experience with the game.

We’re now on iTunes! So please subscribe, rate and review us there. As before if you have any feedback or general comments then feel free to get in touch. You can either post something in the comments below or shoot us an email to podcast@xblafans.com.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

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Welcome dear reader to the debut of the XBLAFancast, the official podcast for XBLAFans.com.

In this first episode XBLAFans EIC John Laster is joined by Tyler Cameron and Andrew Crews to talk about the latest XBLA news and the House Party promotion on Xbox Live. With a few sidesteps into Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the age old topic of achievements.

This is our first shot so we are all still learning the process, bear with us while we figure out the kinks and solidify our format. If you have any feedback or general comments then feel free to get in touch. You can either post in the comments below or shoot us an email to the address podcast@xblafans.com. Until next week, enjoy the show.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

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Xbox Live Arcade has come a long way since its launch on the original Xbox a little over 6 years ago. Back then the selection of games was in the teens but now there are hundreds of games on the service. You can play anything from 16-bit classics like Streets of Rage 2 to exceptional original titles like Shadow Complex.

With so many games to choose from it’s hard to know what to spend your good ‘ol Microsoft Points on. Lucky for you however we at XBLAFans have taken it upon ourselves to compile a list of the 15 XBLA games you must own. The games featured (listed alphabetically because they’re just too good to rank on quality) are the best of the best. If you haven’t played a game on this list then you owe it to yourself to at least download the trial (which we’ve handily linked to) and give it a go.

So let’s get on with it shall we, below you’ll find the games we decided on and brief summaries from our writer explaining why they’re deserving of the term “must own”. If you agree or disagree with the list, or just want to comment in general please feel free to do so. Read More

What’s in a score?  We here at XBLA Fans believe that it is mostly an arbitrarily defined number. If a friend asked you to tell them about …
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On behalf of the XBLAFans staff, welcome to the first annual XBLAFans 2010 Game of Year Awards!

2010 was a fantastic year for the Xbox Live Arcade, filled with surprises, letdowns, and, of course, great releases that will be remembered for years to come, like Limbo, Super Meat Boy and Monday Night Combat.

We even saw the triumphant return of some classic franchises, with games like Perfect Dark, Casltevania: Harmony of Despair, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Hydro Thunder Hurricane lighting up friend lists everywhere.

Yes, it was a fine year for the XBLA indeed.

We at XBLAFans.com have spent countless hours playing, discussing and writing about our favorite games to come out on Microsoft’s digital store. We know you love the XBLA as much as we do, and nominating five titles for each of the categories below was difficult. Deciding the winners was even more difficult, as many great titles sadly did not make the cut.

In the end, only a few winners received our highest accolades, with an honorable mention given to the runner-up. Here are the winners for the 2010 Game of the Year Awards:

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The staff here at XBLA Fans are really passionate about games. Heck, we spend our free time writing about them. But there’s nothing better than actually playing …
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