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This Week on XBLA (1-17-2011)

Dylan Radcliffe
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This Week on XBLA (1-17-2011)

EA is bringing in the Robots and has confirmed that its XBLA platformer, Spare Parts, is coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace this Wednesday for 800 Microsoft Points. Play as a robot duo who find themselves stuck on a planet with what seems to be no life on it. You must collect the ship parts in order to get off the planet, by yourself or with a friend in co-op.

The Deal of the Week this week is one that a lot of you have probably been waiting for (or not). Plants vs Zombies is finally being discounted for 800 Microsoft Points. Many of you are probably thinking that it is worth all 1200 Microsoft Points from its normal price, and you may be correct; but 800 Microsoft points makes it all that much sweeter and cheaper!

Also, don’t forget that EA is having a massive sale on many items this week as well. We’ve already shared the list today here, but I’ll put it back up here for those of you who didn’t see it. There is speculation floating around that a few of the items are still unknown, since it was initially advertised as “over 25 items from EA being discounted” and now they reveal a list with less then 25 items. We’ll just have to wait and see if the speculation is true.

  • Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening
  • Dragon Age: Origins – The Golems of Amgarrak
  • Dragon Age: Origins – The Darkspawn Chronicles
  • Dragon Age: Origins – Witch Hunt
  • Dragon Age: Origins – Leliana’s Song
  • Medal of Honor – Hot Zone Pack
  • Battlefield 1943
  • DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue
  • DeathSpank
  • RISK: Factions
  • Madden NFL Arcade
  • Hasbro Family Game Night: Battleship
  • Hasbro Family Game Night: Scrabble
  • Hasbro Family Game Night: Boggle
  • NHL 3 on 3 Arcade
  • MicroBot
  • Madden NFL 11 Max Pack
  • NCAA Football 11 – NCAA Power Pack
  • Tiger 11 – Favorites Course Pack
  • FIFA 11 – Live Season All Leagues
  • Fight Night Round 4 – Champions Pack II
  • NHL 11 – 20th Anniversary Bauer Boost Pack

Plants vs Zombies Launches for the DS…

Dustin Spencer
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Consider this post more of a reminder that one of last year’s biggest titles, Plants vs Zombies will be out tomorrow (1/18) for the Nintendo DS. While this version doesn’t seem all too different from the standard Plants vs Zombies we have all seen, it does offer a great way to take the addicting title with you at all times as fully utilizing the Nintendo DS’ touch screen control scheme, letting you drag and drop your army of plants straight on the battlefield.

I think one of the things that makes this version so appealing (at least to myself), is the low price-tag that goes along with it at just $19.99 (US) as well as all the features such as survival, 2-Player, and some brand new mini-games will all be playable on this new portable version. You check out the trailer below and get your survival plans ready as the zombie invasion is just hours away from hitting the Nintendo DS.

Codemasters Looking For Testers for Dirt 3…

Dustin Spencer
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Dirt 3 doesn’t launch until a bit later this year, but Codemasters are reaching out to their fans to give some lucky gamers to try the new game way before it hits shelves. A post recently hit Codemasters’ forums straight from the developers as a call to recruit a few gamers to “focus test” the game. By focus test, they mean of course to play the game and give feedback so they can improve any areas of the title.

Here is the full post which includes requirements and what Codemasters are looking for when it comes to testers:

DiRT 3 has more cars, more locations, more routes, more events, and more fun than any other game in the series. This is your chance to be one of the first people to play DiRT 3 outside of Codemasters. You’ll also be grabbing a unique chance to meet the developers behind the game. So are you interested?

Before you jump up and down at the chance we’ve got a few small requirements we need you to look over first.

* You need to be free on the Thursday 3rd of February. If you have work or go to school you’ll need to arrange some time off.
* You need to be able to get yourself to the Codemasters HQ in Southam, UK (near Leamington Spa). We promise it will be worthwhile!
* If you’re under 18 we will need your parents consent.

Still waving your hand in the air? Great! Then to register your interest we just need you to answer 5 short questions so we can get to know you better.

1. What’s your age?
2. What’s your Gamertag, PSN ID or Steam ID?
3. What are your top 3 favourite games?
4. On average how many hours per week do you play games?
5. Why would you like to come and play DiRT3?

We’ll be contacting the lucky individuals next week, so don’t miss out, apply today!

I would love to get the chance to do this myself, but a trip to the UK is just not in the cards at the moment for myself. Those who do live near Southam though should not miss out on this opportunity though as your input could very well shape how the final release is completed. It’s pretty awesome for developers to reach out to the people who actually play their titles. So go ahead and head over to the post by clicking here to get signed up if your interested and for the rest of the world, we will just have to wait and see the good things that Codemasters has in store from us when Dirt 3 is released later this year.

Activision to attend Toy Fair 2011 Mario and Sonic included

Justin Mienkiewicz
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Toy Fair is a convention much like E3, TGS, GDC, PAX or Comicon except that it’s mainly about toys (shocker).  If you happen to live in the UK, Toy Fair 2011 is kicking off January 25th-27th.  Part of the reason why I’m posting this here is because gaming giant Activision is making it’s first appearance at the event complete with Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario  appearances which is sure to liven things up.  Activisions main reason for attending is to show off 5 toy related titles, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Bakugan™: Defenders of the Core, Zhu Zhu Pets: Wild Bunch, Zhu Zhu Pets: Kung Zhu and iCarly: iJoin the Click!

“We’re delighted that Activision has chosen to exhibit at Toy Fair 2011,” said Simon Pilling, BTHA Fairs & Events Manager. “An increasing number of toys aimed above pre-school age are now one element of a 360 degree entertainment experience (often with a licensing programme at the hub), including the toy, online, TV programme and video games. So the relevance of Toy Fair to the interactive entertainment industry has never been stronger and we look forward to welcoming more publishers to the event in coming years.”

It’s no surprise to see games, movies and TV at the various conventions.  After all, games are simply a form of entertainment and interpretation which pulls inspiration from many places such as movies, books or television (and vice versa).  It’s no surprise that we are starting to see toys getting into the mix now.

Bejeweled Blitz Live XBLA Details

Roger Ma
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Bejeweled Blitz the popular Facebook game spin off from the Bejeweled series by Popcap Games, is making a move to the console. The Facebook game is insanely popular hitting an average of 11,373,722 mouthy users thanks to its fresh takes on Bejeweled, most notably a Bejeweled Blitz game only last for 60 seconds.

Bejeweled Blitz Live for the XBLA, set to be released as a part of upcoming Xbox Live Arcade House Party event, will deliver the same fast paced action as seen in the popular Facebook variant but in crystal-clear, high-definition graphics. New game modes including 16-player simultaneous Party mode and head-to-head Battle mode over live. Also included are the real-time leaderboards and the new Friendscore, providing up-to-the-minute scores with the latter a combination of your score with the scores of your Xbox live friends for the highest weekly and all-time totals.

Bejeweled Blitz Live will hit the XBLA soon in Q1, 2011

How Lexar makes its memory cards

Justin Mienkiewicz
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Memory cards, something every gamer needs to have and know about nowadays.  USB flash drives, memory pro stick duos, SD cards are some of the more commonly used forms of memory today.  Ever wonder how they are made?  The process is actually quite interesting.  Each one taking more than a month and being produced in a facility that is far cleaner than anything you can imagine.  Ya know how in movies whenever the main character meets with God (Bruce Almighty/Matrix), God is often in a pure almost blindingly white room.  Yeah, it’s like that only with machines n stuff running around.  Unless everything happens to be a smooth, futuristic amber hue (just like in the new Deus Ex) because, ya know, amber/gold is pretty cool, too.

Ar Tonelico Qoga rated by ESRB, gives NIS America first M rating

Travis Bruno
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Despite having plenty of suggestive dialogue and having girls wearing relatively skimpy clothing NIS America has yet to receive an M rating on any games that they have brought overseas to the US. But that has just changed as the ESRB has given their upcoming JRPG Ar Tonelica Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel a M rating. Now what exactly does the game contain that makes it even more suggestive than previous games released by NIS A? Find out below with the ESRB‘s description:

This is a role-playing game in which players control a character named Aoto, an apprentice who becomes entangled in a three-way war on the fantastical planet of Ar Ciel. Players roam through towns and use swords and magical attacks to engage monsters and human-like enemies in hand-to-hand combat. Battles are accompanied by punches, kicks, colorful light effects, and loud cries of pain; enemies collapse or disappear in brief flashes of light when defeated. Some power moves cause female characters’ clothes to vanish in layers; the characters are often depicted holding (covering) their breasts, wearing only underwear, or standing behind strips of light that obscure their genitals.

In one cutscene, male characters encourage a woman to strip (e.g., “Uh . . . do I have to take off even more clothes…?” and “Quit teasing us and do it already!”); another sequence depicts a male character “removing” a magical crystal from a female character—this scene is accompanied by suggestive moans and comments (e.g., “Aoto’s putting his hand inside Soma” and “Fumble around every inch inside of her . . . you will find what you’re looking for . . . !”). One brief cutscene depicts a female character’s exposed buttocks. The words “sh*t,” “a*shole,” and “b*tch,” appear in the dialogue.

It sounds like most of the transformation sequences are why the ESRB gave the rating, plus I can guess that the second paragraph didn’t help out very much either. But regardless of this fact it is good to see some more information for the PS3 RPG which has yet to receive a release date yet even in the US.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution can clock at least 25 hours of time

Travis Bruno
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It has been in debate whether or not long games are better than short games. Sure long games will usually give players more bang for their buck, but short games sometimes can fill in that gap between big releases and even if they are bad games, a short game is usually forgiven. But for those who love long games, such as myself, then you will be glad to hear that Eidos Montreal has just said that Deus Ex: Human Revolution will take at least 25 hours to finish if played through simply to beat the game.

Producer David Anfossi revealed in the latest issue of PC Gamer that apparently even game testers couldn’t complete the game within the six days that they had to finish it. A excerpt from PC gamer was provided by CVG and can be seen below:

“So far with them playing about six hours every day, most of them don’t complete the game,” he brags in PC Gamer.The ones that are more casual gamers, who are used to more ‘corridor, cut-scene, corridor, cut-scene’ type of gameplay — they play it that way for a while. Then suddenly, there’s this new world that opens to them, and they start getting a bit more creative.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike map pack given trailer

Travis Bruno
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With every Call of Duty game there has to be a few map packs released at least to help heighten the multiplayer experience. The first of such downloadable content for the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise is set to drop on February 1st for the price of 1,200 MSP ($15). The downloadable maps will be exclusive for the Xbox 360 for quite some time as the release date for the PC and PS3 versions has not yet been revealed.

Now each of the maps that will be included with this DLC are Kowloon, Discovery, Berlin Wall, and Stadium are all detailed in the video and show off the highlights of each map. What isn’t shown however is a new zombie map that has yet to been detailed extensively but more information is likely to arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Latest LA Noire screens are suspicious

Travis Bruno
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Latest LA Noire screens are suspicious

Now with previous screenshots we’ve seen the different facial emotions that L.A. Noire can express with their MotionScan technology. This means that although you can be right in the middle of the action during car chases and shootouts between criminals and yourself, there is the investigative side as well. There is your standard collecting of evidence, but the best way to gather information is from an old fashioned interrogation.

We aren’t talking about beating somebody into talking either. By paying attention to the suspects facial expressions and behavior you will be able to figure out what questions to ask them and whether or not they are lying to you or being truthful. If this mechanic works as well as Team Bondi and Rockstar are saying then this creation will definitely put L.A. Noire on a new level as far as mystery games go.


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