XBLA

Get ready for a time suck everyone. Infinite Interactive is set to release the long-awaited sequel to one of the greatest puzzle games in recent history, Puzzle …
Read More

For today, and only today, Sonic the Hedgehog 1, 2 and 3, and Sonic and Knuckles are all 240 Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 Marketplace in celebration of …
Read More

In our interview with Hydrophobia’s developer Dark Energy Digital, fans got an idea of how the game originated, and how it was not originally intended as an XBLA title. …
Read More

We’re sure there are a lot of you out there that have been filling out your Xbox Live Arcade collection with the games in the blowout sale …
Read More

As what can best be described as Monkey Island meets Diablo, DeathSpank will be arriving on Xbox Live Arcade’s virtual shelves on July 14 for 1200 Microsoft …
Read More

While Shank may still be referred to in some circles as an indie darling, the game packs a whole lot of production value. What may have started as a homemade knife, has been proven to be one gracefully elegant weapon. The title’s story is penned by Marianne Krawczyk, author of God of War. The game itself is presented in 9 layers of HD parallax taking art direction cues from Jeff Agala, creative director on the project and creator of Cartoon Network Original Series Atomic Betty. The game is being published by EA Partners, who is responsible for EA’s dealings with People Can Fly (Bulletstorm), Valve (Orange Box), Harmonix (Rock Band Franchise), and more. To call all of that indie, just doesn’t cut it.

That isn’t to say Shank has lost its indie roots. Klei CEO Jamie Cheng and Jeff Agala set out to make an adrenaline filled action fest that would also push the boundaries on how digitally distributed games are made. The game mixes and blends genres, as it feels part spaghetti western, part grind house film. Jamie Cheng described the plot to us as a “pulp fiction revenge story through and through.” The main character feels like a total badass combination of Stallone from Rambo and Brock Sampson from Venture Brothers. All in all, it’s a thrilling concoction of just epic ingredients you can only expect to see with the complete freedom of an indie studio.
Read More

Along with all of the new Kinect games and slim 360, Microsoft unveiled its list of games for their annual Summer of Arcade event. Summer of Arcade began the …
Read More

Doom II was developed by Nerve Software/id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It was released on May 26, 2010 and retails for 800 Microsoft Points. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.

Fifteen years ago, Doom II was released on the PC and was at the cutting edge of first-person shooters. Of course, games have gotten exponentially more complicated over the years, but this doesn’t mean that Doom II is unplayable – far from it, actually. The game is still fun and full of personality, even if it is a pixelated mess by today’s high definition standards.

Read More

Playdead’s silhouetted puzzle-platformer has been given only one destination in it’s production afterlife following a mistake that was made when 2010 IGF Finalist, Limbo, was rated by the ESRB …
Read More

Since the launch of Xbox 360 Arcade, Microsoft has struggled to keep sales up during the second quarter of the year, according to research firm FADE (Forcasting and Analyzing Digital Entertainment). But last April, Microsoft might have figured out how to beat this – a huge sale. According to the numbers, XBLA sales in April 2010 were up 11 percent over last years sale. Add that into the increase of total Arcade sales (7%), bringing the total revenue for the year thus far up to $33.8 million.

With a huge inventory blowout on older games, XBLA grossed over $500,000 just off these titles, with many actually seeing a 200-400 percent increase in sales. Add in a strong lineup of releases like Toy Soldiers, Mega Man 10, Perfect Dark and Battlefield 1943, and Microsoft might have a winning formula, with Toy Soldiers leading the sales for two months even with a 74 percent drop in sales from the first month to the second.

Read More