We missed this earlier today because we were busy checking out the Rainbow Six: Vegas demo, but it looks like a demo for NCAA March Madness 07 is now available on Marketplace. That's right, the wind is bitterly cold, the sky is gray, and the leaves are falling, so it could only mean one thing: March Madness! Seriously, last time we checked it was November, so it's just a wee bit early, donchathink? At least this demo, unlike the Vegas demo, is available to all Xbox Live members and not just Gold members -- assuming you're in the US or Canada anyway. Go grab the demo and tell us what you think. Is it a worthy basketball title, or should it be put back on the bench?
March Madness demo (in November?)
We missed this earlier today because we were busy checking out the Rainbow Six: Vegas demo, but it looks like a demo for NCAA March Madness 07 is now available on Marketplace. That's right, the wind is bitterly cold, the sky is gray, and the leaves are falling, so it could only mean one thing: March Madness! Seriously, last time we checked it was November, so it's just a wee bit early, donchathink? At least this demo, unlike the Vegas demo, is available to all Xbox Live members and not just Gold members -- assuming you're in the US or Canada anyway. Go grab the demo and tell us what you think. Is it a worthy basketball title, or should it be put back on the bench?
Rainbow Six: Vegas multiplayer impressions
We just spent the last hour playing the Rainbow Six: Vegas multiplayer demo, and so far it's pretty damned good. First of all, the character creation and outfitting is surprisingly robust for a demo. There are plenty of faces available -- sorry, no Vision support in the demo -- lots of facial hair options, as well as a few different camouflage options. The amount of weapons and armor is very impressive for a demo. There are multiple types of rifles, machine guns, pistols, grenades, and plenty of armor and clothing choices for the whole body. What's more, there are even some gadgets and custom weapon attachments, too. Finally, the game lets you add a three character prefix to your Gamertag. This is great for those who haven't appended Clan prefixes to their tags (or those who don't want to). Unfortunately, none of these options are saved when you quit the demo, so you may not want to get too attached to your avatar.
Vegas multiplayer demo infiltrates Live [update 1]
There's nothing quite like a nice Friday demo. For those of you who can't get enough of the Rainbow Six: Vegas demo, you're in luck, because a multiplayer demo just dropped on Live Marketplace. According to the description, there are tons of modes available, including Adversarial, Attack & Defend, and Terro Hunt. Terro Hunt, 4 player co-op game in which your team slaughters hordes of terrorists, sounds particularly fun. We haven't finished the download yet (almost a gig), so we don't know if character creation -- or face mapping -- is available. We'll update you with our impressions as soon as possible.
Update: It looks like this demo is only available for Gold members. Silver members can get this on November 24th. Still, considering it's online multiplayer, how would Silver members play it anyway?
[Thanks, Chris Hipple]
RoboBlitz T-shirt contest: It's over!
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. The Xbox 360 Fanboy RoboBlitz T-shirt contest is over. Before we say goodbye, let's crown our final winner. And the winner one one extra special, extra large men's T-shirt is ... Tony, who will wisely use this brand new shirt to put off doing his laundry for one more day (what about pants?). Congratulations, Tony and all of our other winners. We'll be contacting all of you shortly for your shipping info.
So, how do we let go of a contest gone by? We're not really sure. Look at it this way, you may not have won a shirt, but soon everyone can actually play RoboBlitz. That's something to look forward to, right? We'd like to take a moment to thank Tian Mu of the RoboBlitz dev team, Naked Sky, for making this possible. Thanks, Tian. We'd also like to extend an invitation to other companies for game related swag. People love swag, you silly companies! Send us swag and we'll ceremoniously give it away in a fabulous, buzz generating contest. Seriously, drop us a line. Wait a minute ... do they make Small Arms T-shirts?
NCAA March Madness demo coming to marketplace
Love basketball? Love college basketball? Love NCAA college basketball? If you answered yes then you'll be gitty with anticipation when the NCAA March Madness demo hits the Xbox Live Marketplace November 20th. The demo is going to pit number one Florida against number two Kansas in typical basketball style. NCAA March Madness is expected to be available in retail stores January 2007. Put down the pre-season brackets and go download the demo November 20th ... March Madness FTW!
[Thanks, Matt T.]
Epic supports Gears of War updates
The oh so dashing Mark Rein posted a heart warming message to Gears fans on the official Gears of War message boards. Simply put, he stated that Epic was "going to support Gears of War and we're going to make improvements and enhancements for it." No dates or timetable was stated, but Epic just wants the fans to know that they are listening to us, hearing our complaints and praise, and will come out with updates and possibly new content in the near future. Now that's a real game developing company, actually caring about their customers and going the extra mile for them. Here's looking at you Electronic Arts, you're still grounded.
Small Arms in time for Turkey Day?
We know, we know. We just won't shut up about Small Arms, but Mike from the Xbox Domain just sent us an interesting find. Check out this list of the official Live Arcade game forums at Xbox.com. Look closely, and you'll see that Small Arms is the only unreleased Arcade game with a forum. What's more, it looks like both the Defender and Small Arms forums were created last night. Is it possible that Microsoft had Small Arms on deck to release and hit a snafu? Was Defender on standby for just such an occasion? We don't know, but we suspect that MS has a pretty large catalog of old arcade titles that are ready to be published at a moment's notice, just in case a bigger game hasn't made it through certification (and of course there are the UNO decks to fall back on). The upshot of all this is that Small Arms just might be releasing next week -- or maybe even as another surprise Friday release à la UMK3. Will Small Arms see the light of day before Thanksgiving? We hope so, because it sounds like the perfect way to wind down after a turkey dinner.
Superman demo doesn't suck, hell freezes
I just downloaded the Superman Returns demo and gave it a quick play through. In short, it's actually pretty good (I invite my fellow 360 Fanboy bloggers to disagree). It seems like for all the crap EA puts on the market, there's always one or two good games, too. It's the law of averages really. After all, if you put out 500* games a year, at least a few of them have to be good, right? Superman, however, is special, and not just because he's Superman either. No, the Son of Krypton has a sordid past in the videogame world. It's arguable that there has only ever been one Superman game that was actually fun, and that was the arcade game -- in fairness, I've never played the NES Superman and I somewhat enjoyed The Death and Return of Superman on Genesis/SNES. Read on for impressions (especially Live Silver members, who, we have just learned, cannot currently download the demo).
XBLA's retro fad continues: Defender
Another Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday is upon us, and this week's entry brings us yet another retro title, Defender. Yay, Defender. Granted, I'm all about Contra and maybe I'm not old enough to have fond memories of Defender, but every week that XBLA gets another Atari/Pac-Man era game, I die a little inside. When I write the headline, all I want to write is: "This week isn't Small Arms" or "Still no RoboBlitz." Where are all these exciting, independent titles? We've only got six Wednesdays left MS! Are you expecting people to buy Arcade titles as Christmas presents?Again, I apologize to all the Defender fans out there, but it's high time we got another indie release on XBLA.
Superman Returns demo X-rays Marketplace [update 1]
It looks like Xbox Solution was right, as the Superman Returns demo is now available on Marketplace. Clocking in at just under a gig, it will take you some time to download. As we've said, we're cautiously optimistic about this game, so here's hoping the demo can fill those big red boots. We'll update you with impressions as soon as we get the chance.
(By the way, we're aware of the Halo news. We're working on it. I promise.)
Update: 360 Fanboy has just learned that this demo is currently unavailable to Silver members. Our condolences to you, because it's actually pretty good.
The right price for XBL TV and movie content
November 22nd is coming up and is the magic date in which we'll be able to download movies and TV shows via Xbox Live. We've already touched on what is going to be offered, HD and SD content, along with movie rental and TV ownership. The only problem I foresee with this service is not how much content will be available, but how much the content will cost. If movies cost less than what I could rent them for at the local video store, XBL purchases could be a possible option. Same thing with TV shows. If they are relatively cheap based on what the cost per episode is if I bought the whole season on DVD, then I'd be inclined to make XBL purchases. My magic numbers are $2 SD movie rental, $3 HD movie rental, and $3 SD/HD TV show purchase. What are your magic numbers?
Superman demo tomorrow?
We revealed two weeks ago that a Superman Returns demo was on the way, and now Xbox Solution reports that it should show up tomorrow. We haven't seen anything official regarding the demo (and Xbox Solution curiously neglects to cite the source of their info), so chalk this one up to a rumor for now. If any of you have seen this info reported elsewhere, let us know. Frankly, we hope it does come out tomorrow, because we're actually pretty anxious to give Supes a try. Anyone else out there (cautiously) optimistic about this title?
Lost Planet webisodes 1 & 2 now on XBLM [update 1]
The Lost Planet viral marketing continues with the introduction of webisode 2. This webisode features a little more character interaction, but the meat of the trailer is clips of the actual gameplay, including the mech that transforms into a snowmobile. We really must commend Capcom on its marketing skillz, because they seem to be working. Starting way back in May with the demo, every little snippet gets us more interested in the game -- let's not forget the Turkey Day multiplayer demo either. Check out webisode 2 after the break.
Continue reading Lost Planet webisodes 1 & 2 now on XBLM [update 1]
Small Arms' old name, Lost Planet interview
Our friends at Gamertag Radio recently sat down with some of the team behind Capcom's Lost Planet and got a surprise interview with Gastronaut Studios (the team behind Small Arms). While he was at Gastronaut HQ, Godfree snapped a picture of the above poster. Apparently Small Arms was originally called Hipshot (good change, guys). Listen for talk of Lost Planet multiplayer (six grenade types?!) and plenty of info about the Small Arms development process. Unfortunately, the real questions were never answered. For example, will Devil May Cry ever see the light of day on 360? No answer. What about a Small Arms release date? "Soon." And so, we're back where we started. Still, if you're looking forward to these games, it's worth a listen.
Maybe we should do one of these "podcast" things ...
RoboBlitz T-shirt contests: Day 3 [update 1]
The RoboBlitz contest train keeps a-rollin' along. Now, before we get started with today's contest, it's time to announce Friday's winner. And the winner of a women's large T-shirt is ... Jack Lukic for his Green Eggs and Ham inspired quote:
"Look a box,
inside is a fox!"
Congratulations, Jack. Now for today's contest. RoboBlitz has cool robots. We like robots. We're betting that you like robots, too. So, today we'd like you to make one. No, you don't actually have to build one -- this isn't BattleBots. Just leave a comment about your dream robot. Give it a name and describe what it does. The winner will receive a large men's RoboBlitz T-shirt. Also, we know some of you have been holding out for XL sizes. Well, fear not, for they are coming. We still have a men's and women's XL to give away. In the meantime, start dreaming up robots.
Update: This contest is now closed. Please click here to see the winner and enter the latest contest.
