About Nick DePetris

The February Xbox One system update was supposed to hit on Tuesday, but it sounds like there were some unexpected delays. According to Microsoft’s Major Nelson, it will still …
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A few days ago, NeoGAF user ntkrnl took to the internet to dish out about a million Xbox rumors. You can read a summary of them here, but the …
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Xbox One’s Killer Instinct is soon going to be in new hands. Amazon has spent the last year beefing up its games division, and the latest addition is Double …
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Why spend money on flowers and candy when you can buy videogames instead? Twisted Pixel is banking on the fact that there are some gamers out there with this …
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Two major players in the related markets of TV/movies and video games are coming together to make beautiful music. Marvel Studios is fresh off the release of about two …
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Looking to get your next-gen indie fix? According to an Edge Online interview with ID@Xbox Director Chris Charla, you might not have to wait too long. “I think it …
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Holy texture packs, Batman! Major Nelson announced Friday that Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition has passed 10 million in total sales. To put that in perspective, this massive …
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When the dust settled on PS4’s first day, a massive one million units had been sold. To put that in perspective, the previous launch-day console sales record was held …
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Board games are making a comeback. While everyone remembers the classics – Monopoly, Scrabble, Clue (and so many others) – the board game industry has expanded dramatically over the past decade or so, thanks in part to the success of Settlers of Catan. Many of the most popular board games of today have made the transition over to XBLA, including Catan, Carcasonne, and Ticket to Ride. Despite that, we think there are some others that would fit right in among their XBLA brethren. Read More

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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