Archive: June, 2011

Xbox Live Arcade – Has It Lost Its Touch?

By Phil, June 24, 2011 3 Ramblings

I can remember back to the early days of the new Xbox Live Arcade, when it really hit the big time. I waited for each and every Wednesday to come round to see what was going to hit – ready with my trial request I’d play each new game before deciding to buy. Granted, most of the first batch of games were poor, simply aimed to get something on there, but after a while the good titles started to come through. Bring in the annual Summer of Arcade and the titles grew in both number but also in quality.

The awesome Shadow Complex is nearly two years old. Peggle, a game that continues to be enjoyed, is over two years old, released on XBLA in March 2009. Titles such as Uno, Zuma, Geometry Wars, Marble Blast Ultra, Trials HD and Castle Crashers are all great games delivered by an exciting service. It wasn’t just new games though, with classics such as Sonic, Doom, Street Fighter 2, TMNT, Worms and Outrun it enabled us to all relive our younger years, albeit through the rose tinted glasses of upscaling. By January 2007, just 14 months after it first came online the service had delivered over 20 million downloads.

It would be very difficult to try and summarise the service in just two paragraphs, especially as everyone will undoubtedly tell me I’ve forgotten their favourite game. A look through the most recent Top Arcade Chart from MajorNelson.com shows that a lot of the games we would call “classic” arcade titles are still there being purchased and played today. Which leads me onto the point of this post. What has Xbox Live Arcade done recently? Have we burnt out the new and exciting titles?

The most recent title, Trenched, isn’t even available in the UK. In fact the only place to have it is the US. I’ve not heard anything about it. It seems that these days Arcade titles just appear with little or no fanfare. Why? Has the Indie marketplace stolen all the good ideas – which is a shame because the Indie area of XBLA is so difficult to find many don’t bother.

So, really, my question to you all is two-fold. What was the last XBLA title you bought? And do you think the service is losing its edge?

Mine was Toy Soldiers – though I could have sworn I’d already bought it.

TGC Ep 14 – E3 2011 Round-up

By Phil, June 8, 2011 6 The Games Cast

It’s an E3 2011 round-up on The Games Cast, and with no Duncan this month it’s down to Paul and Phil to discuss the presentations from this years entertainment expo. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo go under the spotlight as we go through their presentations with a fine tooth comb. Plenty of discussion and conjecture plus the good ol’ RetroTunes competition.

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New Xbox 360 Dashboard

By Phil, June 6, 2011 1 Ramblings

Here are some of the first pictures of the new Xbox Dashboard, due to hit our 360′s in this years Autumn update.

Personally I love the new look. It looks a lot easier to get to to games and content, but what are your thoughts?

Click on the thumbnails to view the full image.

: It’s on the social page

E3 2011 Rumour Mill

By Phil, June 2, 2011 Comments Off Ramblings

E3 2011 is now just a little over three days away and as ever the rumour mill is on full speed ahead; expectations are as high as they will ever be. That is, of course, as long as no-one suggests that MS or Sony will debut their next-gen consoles – we all know Nintendo are, don’t we.

For most gamers the E3 week is like a whole bunch of Christmas Days all rolled into one massive week of highs, lows and disappointments, with maybe a phew “whoops” and high-fives included for good measure. It’s also a week of face-palms, general embarrassments - like Zelda not working properly during last years Ninty presentation – and general awkwardness after the presenter builds up your hopes to almost breaking point, only to find some half-dressed clown in an ice-cream van.

Here’s a round up of all of the rumours currently circulating the interwebs.

Ninty

After last year’s big 3DS reveal (and I use the word “big” in a sarcastic tone) it’s down to Nintendo to do something massive this year. Sure, everyone loves Kirby, but it’s not the big crescendo of your E3 presentation normally is it. Only when the line up is weak do you leave it to a ball of string to round off the presentation. Anyhow, here’s what the rumour mill has on our plumbers parents.

Project Cafe, aka Wii 2 (not really a rumour as it’s been confirmed)
A new Mario 3D game for Project Cafe
A new Mario 3D game for the 3DS

Sony

It’s been a very bad lead-up to E3 for Sony so they’ve got some ground to make up. The freebies have gone some way to make up for the lengthy PSN downtime but it’s hope Sony can revitalise their fans and reassure them enough to stop the loss of customers and give the brand some much needed optimism. I hope they can. I really do.

Sony NGP titles to include Uncharted, Killzone and Wipeout
Sony NGP price tag and release date to be announced
PSP Go 2 (Cough)
Metal Gear Solid 5
Grand Theft Auto 5 Exclusive to PS3

Microsoft

The Redmond boys (and Seattle guys too, and gals – jeez, this is a PC nightmare this sentence) have a tough act to follow from last years E3 winning presentation. We’ve mostly all got Kinect and the 360 Slim has been sat here quietly for just under a year, so what are they going to pull out of the hat this year? I fear that this year’s presentation is all about the software, much like Sony’s last year. Don’t get me wrong, software is great but E3 wins only really come about with new hardware – it’s got to be a mighty fine presentation to win it based on release announcements.

A new tier for Xbox Live
Kinect games
More kinect games
Even more kinect games
360 Dashboard redesign using WinPhone 7 tile look
Full on 3D firmware update
Milo on Kinect

Game Developers

We all know the new Assassins Creed game will be revealed at E3 but what about these bad boys below (okay, on some of them, I’m taking the preverbial)