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XBLA: Recovering from the Great MS Point Exodus of '08
Lunker
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
THIS WEEK:
Aug. 27: Castle Crashers: A four player online co-op RPG-slash-brawler from the makers of Alien Hominid. Think "Guardian Heroes XBLA."
***
Also, MS has released full details on the Xbox Summer of Arcade (those fuckers stole my thread title!) here with all details.
Geo Wars 2: July 30
Braid: Aug. 6
Bionic Commando Rearmed: Aug. 13
Galaga Legions: Aug. 20
Castle Crashers: Aug. 27
And they're running a sweepstakes where you enter by playing the featured game the week it comes out. You can play the full game or the demo, and you get an entry into the sweepstakes for the week.
Prize Information
After the sweepstakes is over, five winners will be selected (one for each Prize Period).
-Five Weekly Prizes: 4000 Microsoft Points
After the five Prize Period drawings, one Grand Prize winner and two Second Place winners will be chosen at random from all eligible entries.
-One Grand Prize Package:
100,000 Microsoft Points
Xbox 360 Elite console
Xbox LIVE 12-month Gold subscription card
-Two Second Prize Package:
10,000 Microsoft Points
Xbox LIVE 12-month Gold subscription card
And I know I'm going to likely be buying and playing all of these games, so what better prize for playing XBLA games than ... the chance to buy more XBLA games!
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I'm assuming the PSN release date is the same week as the XBLA one, of course.
I would think so. I find it comical that there's about a bajillion times more interest in the PSN/XBLA title than the actual full-retail game coming up later this year.
It's not too surprising for me... They should just go ahead and cancel the 3D one and make a side-scrolling sequel to the PSN/XBLA game.
It's a shame too, since the previews so far for the new version have been bafflingly positive.
I think I'm looking forward to Galaga more than any of the others, but Bionic Commando is definitely way up there (though would be moreso if it were online co-op). Though with remote play, and supposed PS3 only bonuses, I'll probably not be getting that one on the Arcade.
Geo Wars 2 and Castle Crashers are definite won't-even-bother-downloading-the-demo purchases. I'll try out Galaga but I'm almost sure I'll buy it, since Pac-Man CE and Space Invaders Extreme have made me hungry for more.
Braid seems really awesome, so it's actually Bionic Commando I'm not sure about, but mostly because I'll be playing all these other games and then we start the deluge of fall/winter games.
Castle Crashers and Geo Wars 2 rank right up there in my "most anticipated 2008" list.
Shame there is supposed to be no co-op over Live for Geo Wars RE 2 though; Link.
I'm gutted about that, but it makes sense from a 10-million-things-onscreen-and-half-a-miliisecond-lag-equals-death-complete perspective, but still.
I'm not going to say this makes my wallet happy, but it certainly makes it less sad. All five of these are must-buys for me.
Fuck that. I'll still buy it, but it's no longer a must buy for me. I would put up with some BS lag deaths to be able to dick around playing Geometry Wars with 3 friends over Live.
For what it's worth, they technically weren't the ones who removed the Nazis from the game. In the original American NES version of the game, you were fighting against the "BADDS" or something like that. In the Japanese version, it was clearly the Nazis, though.
My Backloggery
son of a... if N+ and Schizoid can handle the lag issues (albeit sometimes poorly), why can't geometry wars?
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
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I also noticed that the Galaga Legions page on XBox.com has a screenshot with the main menu. There's a Championship mode with 5 areas as well as an Adventure mode. Anyone know what the Adventure mode is?
Oh and here's a video of all of the games in this thread minus Bionic Commando: http://uk.gamespot.com/video/0/6194181/videoplayerpop?rgroup=e32008_live
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
Castle Crashers = Insta-buy
GeoWars 2 = Insta-buy
Bionic Commando, though, will be a try before you buy deal. Yeah, it looks awesome on every aspect, and I'm pretty much guaranteed to buy it, but you know what sometimes happens with these 2.5D remakes of old games: The controls suck pure ass because of the hit detection and character animations. If it passes the control test, then I get it. It's that simple.
It's really weird that I'm more excited about XBLA/PSN titles than most of the next-gen games to come out soon. But I'm not complaining, I'm getting the same ammount of fun for a much cheaper price tag.
< 3:00 = Lode Runner
4:00-8:00 = Geo Wars 2 (King Mode)
8:30-14:30 = Braid
15:30-22:40 = Castle Crashers
23:00+ = Galaga Legions
Lode Runner looked pretty traditional to the original, presentation notwithstanding. I was a big fan of the game back in the day, so updated graphics & online leaderboards mean an almost definite purchase from me.
I'm not sure how I feel about having to collect chips from enemies (isn't the screen crowded enough?) in Geo Wars 2, but I'll see how it plays before judging it. In King mode, you can only fire while in these circles that protect you for a couple of seconds. That was the only mode they showed in the video, but they also mentioned pacifist mode where you can shoot, but there are gates you can go through to eliminate all enemies.
Braid didn't look like anything special, but then again, they pretty much only showed the tutorial. I could see how it could get very clever later on.
Castle Crashers looked like a fun mindless brawler with minor RPG elements. The visuals are really nice.
And Galaga Legions looks freakin' awesome. I saw one brilliant innovation: enemies come from all over the place, however to prevent cheap deaths, you see a brief wireframe path before enemies actually appear. Looks like it'll be an intense and highly strategic shooter.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
I just played about an hour of Castle Crashers today.
All I can say is that I would pay way more than $10 for the game. It's easily worth $20, probably could even standalone as a $40 game.
4 player local co-op, innovative side scrolling elements involving reviving your fallen teammates, and RPG elements with attack, defense, magic, and agility.
It's like Gauntlet mixed with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and dash in some experience points. With a heavy dose of steroids.
Oh, and it's fuckin hi-larious.
Braid is also really good. Some neat time reversing platformer.
Galaga Legions, haven't tried yet, but looking forward to it. I
Same goes for GeoWars 2. I expect it to be nothing short of perfect.
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It prevents the game from being incredibly cheap and unfair, but at the same time it makes you nervous if a wireframe crosses your ship, because you're thinking: "Oh shit shit, I gotta move my ass!" while trying to destroy hordes of enemies.
Thegreat2nd: How are the controls in Castle Crashers? I always thought that even the retail version of Alien Hominid felt like a very cheap flash game, with really bad "physics" for movement and jumping, and annoying hit detection. Videos for CC look very promising though. How does it actually feel?
Rocket Riot
Shred Nebula
I'm dead now.
Abit off-topic; The 360 I bought was used, and the guy I bought it from said he bought a 20GB HDD at some store. Does this mean I can just buy a 120GB, remove the other HDD and just slide it in there? How does this work?
steam
XBox 360 hard drives are really easy to remove and install. Just make sure that it's an official XBox 360 hard drive (PC hard drives won't work).
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
I'm all over some Bionic Commando, though. I played the original constantly despite being terrible at it. Probably will pick up Geometry Wars, as well. Maybe Galaga. And Braid. And everything else I was planning on picking up at retail. Probably will have to mug some people in there somewhere. Then build some kind of device such that I have time to play all of it...
:whistle:With my freeze ray I will stop the world.:whistle:
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
You played Castle Crashers? How have you done so!
Sounds like PartnerNet to me... I know what I'm doing at work tomorrow...
So, if I get myself a 120GB hard drive, and redownload everything I purchased, it'll still work even offline?
Neat. I was worrying all this XBLA was going to eventually fill my HD (it's already halfway there).
You don't have to redownload; IIRC, you can sign up at xbox.com for a free transfer cable, which zips everything over neatly (including nontransferrable saves, like in DOA4).
And as an aside, CAG is bristling with this news: If you can find a used 120GB hard drive at a GameStop, you can use this coupon from GameStop's website:
The 120GB drive is now normally $130; this coupon brings it down to $104, and if you have an Edge card it brings it down to $91. It's arguably the best price you're going to find the drive for, even though it's still highway robbery.