Toy Soldiers: Cold War was slated to see a DLC release this week, titled “Evil Empire Pack”. Unfortunately, the content was delayed without much explanation or warning after simply not appearing in the Marketplace this Wednesday. Signal Studios has little to say about it so far, simply confirming a delay rather than cancellation and asking fans to stay tuned for more details on their Facebook wall.
Evil Empire is slated to add three Soviet-themed campaign levels, new achievements, new unit types, and many more features at a slim 240 MSP. We’ll provide updates on this situation as more details arise.
Orcs Must Die! and Worms: Ultimate Mayhem will be the next games to feature avatar awards. To see more XBLA-based Avatar awards, check out this link. If you want the latest Avatar Award related news as it hits the scene, be sure to follow @AvatarAwards360 on Twitter.
Upcoming games: **Awards are the same for male and female unless specified
With Gamescom and PAX back to back this year, Monolith’s upcoming title Gotham City Impostors has seen quite a bit of coverage. In an interview with Destructoid, WB Games reaffirmed earlier promises of deep character customization in addition to a reveal of Fumigation mode. Fumigation is similar to the conventional control point mode, presenting gas canisters throughout an arena that can be captured to release either team’s gas throughout the city. Each canister increases the rate of gas saturation and the first team to reach 100% wins the round.
Additionally, the pricing of Gotham City Impostors was revealed to be 1200 MSP on XBLA. A specific release date was still yet to be released, but WB does promise a early 2012 window.
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 the game’s publisher indiePub sheds more light on how the puzzles actually work than a couple of screenshots originally released. Vessel will be released sometime in the holiday season at 1200 MSP.
Hothead Games and Valcon LLC have finally announced a release date for their much anticipated third entry into the Deathspank Xbox Live Arcade series, The Baconing. While the game is seeing a release on August 30 on PSN as part of their PSN Play promotion, XBLA users will only have to wait a day longer to pick this one up. Be sure to check out our preview from earlier this month or one of the many trailers to hit in past months.
Source: Joystiq
Since the announcement of Zombie Apocalypse 2: Never Die Alone in June, developer Backbone Entertainment has released a trailer featuring the familiar twin-stick shooter gameplay spread among four new controllable characters in a post-apocalyptic world. One particular point of detail is the main character who narrates part of the gameplay in colorful style, drawing from his roots as a “Canadian pro gamer” with “noob”-laden trash talk.
If you want to see more, check out the announcement post with a handful of additional screenshots or our review of the original title in the series.
Source: GameTrailers via Co-Optimus
The Xbox Live Indie Games service is seeing yet another uprising this summer and a trailer has finally sprouted up to give some insight into the gameplay of the eight titles to hit later this month. Clearly each of the games is distinct from all the others, with genres including from train simulation, first-person platforming, traditional turn-based JRPG, and many more. Also, community voting has begun on the Uprising Facebook page, which gives fans a chance to decide two additional titles to join this solid XBLIG lineup.
Source: Joystiq
What we are playing is a weekly column that appears each Sunday. Various staff members let the world know what games had them hooked the past week and which ones they look forward to.
John Laster - I’ve been working on a special project on an unreleased game. All I can say is Summer of Arcade looks like it will end with a bang.
Steve Melton - Tried out From Dust. Kaitlyn was right; it’s definitely a Try It.
Todd Schlickbernd - I played Bastion for about two hours, loved it, then I had to leave for another convention. Can’t wait to get back to it.
Stephen Haberman - Well, it has been a busy week on iOS, playing a lot of Swords and Soldiers and well as Zombie Gunner. Both have kept me plenty busy while on the road. I look forward to a more conventional week of gaming this week.
Perry Jackson - Been playing this one cool game but I can’t talk about it so you’ll just have to wait and see. Other than that, beat Bastion and it’s pretty great but I don’t find it as brilliant as others see it. Still totally recommend it!
Jonathan Cole - I’ve been running through much the same as the other guys here at XBLAFans as far as Summer of Arcade goes. Aside from that, I’ve still been addicted to Team Fortress 2 and trying to finish up Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Damon Fillman - I went back to the amazing Torchlight and I don’t plan on stopping until I reach the level cap. I’ve also been altering terrain in a little game called From Dust. Who knew crafting worlds with sand and water would be this much fun?
In a recent interview with Chris Charla, portfolio director of Xbox Live Arcade, GamesIndustry.biz talked a bit about the rising prices of XBLA games and how they relate to other segments of the industry. Charla said that “you can see that average prices on XBLA have crept up over the last few years, which has been an interesting trend because on some app markets there’s been a race to zero as fast as possible”, referencing specifically mobile app stores that often offer games and other apps at 99 cents and below.
GI.biz detailed some interesting numbers concerning the rate of release of 1200 MSP games:
In 2009, 21 of the 86 games released were priced at 1200 Microsoft Points. That figure rose to 27 out of 85 games released in 2010, and 2011 already has 20 games confirmed at 1200 points, with a number of significant releases due before the end of the year.
While these numbers might look grim to budget-conscious gamers, this trend also correlates to a rise in quality content that helps support the rising price trend. The Metacritic average has risen by a significant 12 points over the past three years for XBLA titles, reflecting a greater attention to satisfying experiences within the more modest scope compared to retail releases. On that note Charla said, ”I think the games that we’re shipping – a Limbo or a Castle Crashers – are as good as anything on the market.” Furthermore, he believes that the restraints of XBLA help contribute to this attention to quality and detail, which ultimately spells for a promising future that bolsters respect for upcoming gems like the Summer of Arcade lineup.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz via Eurogamer
When it was announced that Crimson Alliance would be the bonus gift given to people who buy the whole Summer of Arcade lineup, the stipulations on the dashboard mentioned “all three characters” being included in the offer. That ambiguous yet specific language has been further explained by developer Certain Affinity, who told Joystiq that the full title with all possible content and characters would sell at the normal 1200 MSP but that they were also exploring other pricing options.
While these options aren’t yet clear and Microsoft has yet to approve of any unique pricing model, the wording of these two statements seems to imply that characters and possibly content could be offered piecemeal for anyone looking to simply dip their toes into the water on this upcoming Xbox Live Arcade game. We definitely look forward to seeing more creative pricing on XBLA and will follow up on this story as more details are revealed.
Source: Joystiq
