We were recently given the opportunity to interview Tian Mu of Naked Sky, developers of the Live Arcade game, RoboBlitz. Chances are you're going to be hearing a lot about this game when it releases on Xbox Live Arcade. RoboBlitz is powered by Unreal Engine 3 (you know, the engine that Gears of War runs on), making it one of the most visually impressive games ever to hit the Arcade. Even more impressive is the fact that RoboBlitz looks fantastic and manages to stay under the 50 MB limit set by Microsoft for Arcade titles. Another standout feature of the game is its use of physics. Everything in the game is based on physics, from environmental objects to character animations. In gameplay terms, this means that almost anything is possible (check out a video demonstration here). Each puzzle can be attacked in different ways, giving users plenty of options and no scripted sequences. Read on to learn more about the world of RoboBlitz.
What did we ever do to deserve this? Halo 3 info is everywhere, Call of Duty 3 on the cheap, movies and TV on Marketplace, Gears of War, and now Contra all in the same week. There's so much stuff that it's actually hard to take it all in. Like staring into the sun, its radiant beauty is simply overwhelming.
Anyway, the point is that Contra is now available. I powered up my 360 this morning just to grab it from XBLA. Lo and behold, it said I'd already downloaded it. It was then that I realized the new Arcade auto-download feature was doing its job. Huzzah! If you thought you died a lot in Gears of War, just see how long you last in Contra. Home to one of the greatest game weapons of all time, the spread gun, Contra is a shooter for the ages. It also helped make co-op gaming one of the greatest experiences in life. If you're old enough to remember the good old days, download this puppy and blast through it with a buddy. It won't take very long, but it's not like you ever would have gotten through the original for under five bucks, so 400 points is a pretty good deal. And even if you don't remember the good old days, you might as well give it a try, right?
Contra -- like other retro titles -- has some control issues. It doesn't seem nearly as responsive as it should. The core gameplay is still there though, and that's what counts. The remixed graphics and music aren't that much of an improvement, but welcome nonetheless. Still, as we said above, the amount of gaming you get for five dollars seems adequate. Has anyone stopped playing Gears (or COD3 or Project 8 or Viva Piñata or ....) long enough to try Contra?
You've been dreaming about it, you've pondered the idea, and come November 22, 2006 it'll be here. Soon you'll have the ability to download HD/SD movies and television shows from the Xbox marketplace for a small fee. Microsoft has partnered with CBS, MTV, TBS, UFC, NASCAR and Warner Bros. to make content available via download off of the XBLM, over 1000 hours of content by the end of the year! Just check out the list below of some of the content you'll have access to this year ... start drooling fellow fanboys!
- "Robot Chicken" and "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" from Adult Swim
- "CSI," "Survivor" and "Star Trek" from CBS
- Emmy and Peabody award-winning "South Park" and "Chappelle's Show" from COMEDY CENTRAL
- "The Real World" and "Pimp My Ride" from MTV
- "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "SpongeBob SquarePants" from Nickelodeon
- "Skyland" and "The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival" from Nicktoons Network
- "M:i:III," Nacho Libre" and "Jackass: The Movie" from Paramount Pictures
- "Carpocalypse" and "Raising the Roofs" from Spike TV
- "Race Rewind" provided by NASCAR.COM
-Select episodes of the original season of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series and the "UFC: All Access" shows from the UFC
- "Breaking Bonaduce" and "Hogan Knows Best" from VH1
- "The Matrix," "Superman Returns" and "Batman Forever" from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Alongside the press release for Contra hitting XBLA, Microsoft sent another press release outlining a slew of Atari classics heading to Live Arcade next year. The six Atari games to be released are:
Centipede/Millipede
Battlezone
Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe
Missile Command
Tempest
Warlords
All of the games will feature both original and "evolved" versions. The evolved versions, similar to Konami's offerings, will feature revamped graphics and sound. All games will have leaderboards and achievements, and multiplayer games will have Live support. Surprisingly, many of these games are receiving some pretty impressive new features, including Live Vision support for Battlezone and Warlords. It looks like many of the games will receive three dimensional upgrades instead of simply using high definition sprites, too. Finally, and this is not a joke, Centipede evolved has motion blur. Motion. Blur. In Centipede. If that's not worth $5, we don't know what is.
Also worth mentioning, the press release confirmed that the following titles should hit the Arcade before the end of 2006:
It should be noted that this isn't necessarily all the titles we'll be seeing by year's end (we're looking at you RoboBlitz). Full press release after the break.
It looks like someone over at Microsoft realized that a new UNO deck doesn't exactly inspire excitement on Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, because this week they're getting the word out bright and early. Releasing this Wednesday for 400 points is everyone's favorite old school, alien-blasting shooter, Contra. A side scrolling shooter of the highest order, Contra is one of those games that people have been pining for ever since the Xbox Live Arcade service was announced. Like Frogger, another Konami XBLA release, Contra will feature both original and enhanced graphics and sound. We have to wonder if the enhancements will be an actual improvement or if they will feel as strange as they did in Frogger. The game will also feature Xbox Live and local co-op play, leaderboards, and 12 achievements. What we don't know is whether or not the game will incorporate the Konami code. We realize that the code wasn't actually in the arcade version of Contra but it's the principle of the thing.
So, what do you think fanboys? Is Contra so magnificent that it even overshadows that other game that comes out tomorrow, or is it just another retro title clogging the Arcade?
It's official, the people at Stootsi.com are nuts about the Xbox 360. We've covered them selling wireless controls and Live headsets, and the Live Vision Gold bundle in the past. Now they're doing it again. The Live Vision Camera deal apparently sold so fast that Stootsi decided to offer it a second time for all the people who missed out. They are currently selling the Xbox Live Vision Camera Gold bundle for $54.99 plus $5 shipping. So, you can grab this for $59.99, $20 off the retail price. Just for a moment, let's peruse the contents of this pack:
Vision Camera
Live Headset
1 Year of Xbox Live Gold
200 MS Points
Two Live Arcade games (Totem Ball and Robotron 2084)
That's a lot of stuff for not a lot of scratch. If you've got the cash and you don't have a Vision cam, this is a hell of a deal. Anybody plan on getting it? You've got just over 22 hours to pick one up.
Oh boy, I'm only just discovering the joys of Lego Star Wars II. This game, like, totally roxxorz my boxxorz. The compulsion to collect studs, minikits, and bricks is a powerful one, and I can no longer resist. Still, whenever I can manage to pull myself away from toothpick-sized plastic lightsabers, I'll probably be gunning for a few Achievements in UMK3 and maybe the more difficult time trial Achievements in Lumines Live. Oh, and with any luck, my copy of Phantasy Star Universe will show up today. I know the single player won't be Phantasy Star V, but hopefully it will scratch the itch.
How 'bout the rest o' yas? Splinter Cell perhaps? DOOM?Marvel? Tell us what's going down this weekend. Hmmm ... I wonder what everyone will be playing next weekend. Hopefully something will emerge.
The 2nd XNA beta was officially released yesterday, bringing with it a boatload of changes that a mere blogger could not possibly comprehend. I'm fairly sure it has something to do with code, pixels, and the relative position of the sun. Basically, it's bigger and badder and includes new 360 development support. You can find the goods on Gamerscore Blog. Also worth mentioning, a closed beta for the new Torque X toolset is beginning as well. Torque X is from GarageGames, creators of several Xbox Live Arcade titles, and contains tools for streamlining the game creation process.
Wading through all this talk of assets, component architecture, and whatnot, I was lucky enough to find something I can understand: statistics -- something all bloggers crave with a passion.
"The list of universities adopting XNA Game Studio Express into their curricula has grown to more than 30 worldwide. There have been 150,000 downloads of XNA Game Studio Express Beta 1, over 30 new XNA communities launched, 100 user generated tutorials shared online and more than 60 independent games already in development or completed."
60 games in development? Wow. That dream of a user created Xbox Live Arcade may not be so far off after all. If you're reading this and you happen to be developing one of those 60 games, let us know. We'd love to check it out. Anyone else out there thinking about making a game?
Microsoft sent out a press release yesterday trumpeting the latest UNO deck for Xbox Live Arcade. We didn't get around to posting it. So, we start typing up this post when we notice something:
"This week's Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday release brings the award-winning Kameo franchise to everyone's favorite card game, UNO." [Emphasis ours.]
Now, we like UNO. It's one of our favorite games to use for editorial "meetings." But an UNO deck is not, we repeat not, an Arcade Wednesday release. It's new content for a game that we already have. Yeah, yeah, a new deck introduces new rules, so you could argue that it's like a new game, but why would you?
Ah, we're just pissed it wasn't Small Arms. If you're interested, the Kameo deck contains a card that lets you swap hands with another player. Seems kind of mean really. Should you desire this deck, it will only set you back 100 MS points. Now, if you'll excuse us, we're going back to the Rainbow Six demo.
Update: This deck has been pulled from Marketplace. Apparently there's a bug in it. Sorry to get your UNO hopes up.
Sharp-eyed 360 Fanboy reader, Gregg Smith, noticed something after this morning's fall update. If you list your Xbox Live Arcade games by category, there is a section for Vision Camera enabled games. In that category, Texas Hold 'em -- or as I call it, Texas Hold Them -- is listed as Vision enabled. Granted, I don't play Hold 'em very much, so I fired it up just to be sure. Lo and behold, there is no Vision support. Does this mean that Hold 'em will have an upgrade in the near future, or did someone at 360 HQ make a mistake?
In a recent forum post, GastronautDon, a developer at Gastronaut Studios, claimed that SmallArms will be coming our very soon. In his own words:
"Soon. Like for real soon, not 'video game industry soon'. If I say more, I'll get in trouble. "
This post was made a week ago, so, "soon" could be any day now, say, tomorrow. After all, it's Wednesday, it's November, what more could you want? Come on, GastronautDon! Throw us a molotov cocktail bone here!
So, we finally got our greasy hands on the Halloween dash update this morning. Unfortunately, our LCD TV here at Fanboy Towers doesn't support 1080p, so we are currently unable to utilize it. We can confirm that the resolution is selectable, though. Marketplace is, um, different, but we're not sure we'd call it an improvement just yet. We have to admit, the images on the buttons are pretty slick. Live Arcade, on the other hand, has definitely improved. The list populates instantly, so you don't have to wait for your game of choice to pop up. You can now also sort your games by category, alphabetically, or by most recently played.
In the end though, the real meat of the update -- in our eyes anyway -- is streaming video from XP. We spotted this feature in Media Player 11 last month and lamented that it didn't work. We're happy to say that it does now. All you have to do is set up media sharing in WMP 11 and you're done, instant video streaming. You know all those hi def trailers that look like crap on your little monitor? Well, now you can watch them on your HDTV. We can also confirm that you cannot stream video from an iPod, at least not the tiny videos that are formatted for the device -- and really, why would you want to anyway? We're pretty sure the Zune will work just fine, though. The video marketplace feature that has been bandied about the rumor mill is there as well. It is, however, not as exciting as many thought it would be. It isn't a video store or anything; it's just the video section of Marketplace.
All in all, it's pretty good stuff. So now that the update is here, are you satisfied? What features would you like to see implemented in the next update?
More impressive looking gameplay footage from RoboBlitz, aka the first Xbox Live Arcade game to boast Unreal Engine 3. Sony loudmouth David Jaffe better remind indie evelopers like Naked Sky, Gastronaut and Ninja Bee that XBLA is only for retro titles.
Reader James has not-so-stupid question about this part of the Fall Dashboard Update:
Support for upcoming release of XNA Game Studio Express (separate download and subscription required.)
This means that a subscription (should be well under $1000 for the professional edition) will be required to run code on the 360 using the XNA Game Studio Express development tools. As far as I know, there will be no separate subscription for playing "homebrew" games that ultimately make it to XBLA (aside from whatever the devs decide to sell them for), although it does sound like a nefarious idea.
It's official folks, details of tomorrow's dash update have been confirmed. Oh yeah, and the dash update will be happening tomorrow. Everything we reported earlier today is true. New features include
1080p resolution for games and movies
Video playback from data CDs and DVDs, flash drives, even 360 memory units
Video streaming with Windows XP and Media Player 11 (sounds familiar ...)
Live Arcade enhancements
Support for XNA created games
The Arcade will now populate almost instantly, which means you won't have to wait for your favorite game to pop up on the list. Another interesting feature is the "Tell a friend" feature, which sends a buddy a message that tells them about a certain Live Arcade game. And the best feature (one we also predicted earlier) is a a feature that automatically downloads the latest trial versions of Xbox Live Arcade games.
We've been waiting for this for a long time, especially the video streaming, and we'll be back tomorrow with a full report. See the full press release after the break.
What did we ever do to deserve this? Halo 3 info is 
Alongside the press release for 
It looks like someone over at Microsoft realized that a new 
It's official, the people at Stootsi.com are nuts about the Xbox 360. We've covered them selling wireless controls and Live headsets, and the Live Vision Gold bundle in the past. Now they're doing it again. The Live Vision Camera deal apparently sold so fast that Stootsi decided to offer it a second time for all the people who missed out. They are currently selling the Xbox Live Vision Camera Gold bundle for $54.99 plus $5 shipping. So, you can grab this for $59.99, $20 off the retail price. Just for a moment, let's peruse the contents of this pack:
Sharp-eyed 360 Fanboy reader, Gregg Smith, noticed something after this morning's fall 
"
So, we finally got our greasy hands on the Halloween dash update this morning. Unfortunately, our LCD TV here at Fanboy Towers doesn't support 1080p, so we are currently unable to utilize it. We can confirm that the resolution is selectable, though. Marketplace is, um, different, but we're not sure we'd call it an improvement just yet. We have to admit, the images on the buttons are pretty slick. Live Arcade, on the other hand, has definitely improved. The list populates instantly, so you don't have to wait for your game of choice to pop up. You can now also sort your games by category, alphabetically, or by most recently played.
Reader James has not-so-stupid question about this part of the Fall Dashboard Update:
