Over the past couple weeks there has been much speculation about the pricing of the upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title Castle Crashers’. Today Behemoth, the developer of Castle Crashers’, announced that stle Crashers’ will cost 1200 Microsoft points ($15).
If you haven’t been keeping up with it, Castle Crashers’ is an action RPG/ side scrolling beat ‘em up. The game features “20+ levels, over 20 bosses, High Def gameplay, 4 player Xbox Live support, over 20 character to level up, Xbox Live multiplayer Areans, and Animal Orb helpers.”
This is definitely a game worth picking up. It hits Xbox Live Marketplace this Wednesday, Aug 27.
Read: 1200 Points, Behemoth Forums, PAX, and TGS.
As seen in the first Diablo III footage, Blizzard is allowing players to choose the gender of their character.
It seems that the people at Blizzard have taken a liking to shying away from Diablo traditions. First, Blizzard upset hardcore fans by changing the art style in Diablo III. Now the lead designer has revealed that the gender issue was a major undertaking for the D3 team.
Personally I don’t have a problem with a gender choice. I usually choose to play a female character because I’m too insecure with my sexuality to stare at a man wearing bear skins for hours on end. Now I can finally branch out to a class other than Amazon, Sorceress or Assassin.
What do you guys think? Leave a comment with your reaction to this change.
Read: Designer: ‘Diablo III’ Gender Choice A ‘Big Debate’
Yesterday I posted some info on the Fable II Pub Games. Well today Lionhead Studios has announced the content of the Limited Collector’s Edition of Fable II. For $80, you will get a Hobbe figure, a making of documentary, a trial Xbox Live account, the three Xbox Live Arcade Pub Games, and “addition in-game content”.
What do you guys think? Is it worth the extra cash? Personally, I think not, but then again I’m not a huge fan of the Fable series. Hopefully this new one will pull me in and make me a fanboy.
Read: Behold, The Fable 2 Collector’s Edition.
A while ago I posted a news item about the Fable II mini games that would be available on Xbox Live. You know, the ones that let you earn in-game gold before the game even comes out.
Well, it was announced today that the Fable II Pub Games, which include “Keystone,” a combination of Craps and Roulette, “Spinnerbox,” an updated take on slot machines, and “Fortune’s Tower,” a “press your luck” style of game, will be free if you preorder the game at participating retailers. If you don’t feel like forking over the cash now, you can always buy them on Xbox Live Marketplace next month for 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00). Either way, sounds like fun.
Read: Fable II Pub Games: Get Gold Before Game Day.
Yesterday Blizzard released patch 1.12 for Diablo II. The patch allows gamers to finally play D2 without having the play CD in the drive. In order to do this, you must have the selected the “full install” option when installing the game. Other issues the patch addresses deals with involve compatibility problems with Intel powered Macs. Patch 1.12 also reset the online rankings.
The internet is ablaze with speculation that this means that Diablo II will be heading to Blizzard’s download store. This may be the case, however Blizzard is notorious for patching their games long after their release date; Case and point Starcraft, which came out in 1998 and was patched as recently as 07.
Read: New Diablo II patch lets you play without disc.
Monday, June 16, two more original Xbox titles get a second chance at life. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and Guilty Gear XX #Reload will be up on Xbox Live Marketplace under the Xbox Originals tab. Both titles will cost you 1200 Microsoft points ($14.99).
Guilty Gear XX #Reload is a 2D fighter, much like the Street Fighter Alpha series. The cool thing about Guilty Gear is that almost everything has to do with, or is a reference to heavy metal music. If you are a fan of 2d fighters or heavy metal it’s definitely worth picking up
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning is your classic 3d platformer. A New Beginning marks the restart of the Spyro franchise and focuses more on action rather than puzzles and platforming.
Read: Xbox Live Originals: Spyro And Guilty Gear.
Yesterday at UbiSoft’s conference, Ubidays, they announced that work has begun on Beyond Good & Evil 2. While far from completion, a teaser trailer was shown showcasing two retuning characters, Jade and Pey’j. Not much else was revealed.
For those of you who don’t know, Beyond Good & Evil was an action/adventure game released on GameCube, Xbox, PS2, and PC. Despite being released on all the major platforms of the day and receiving critical acclaim from numerous sources, Beyond Good & Evil wasn’t really successful. If any of you haven’t played it, do yourself a favor and pick it up off of Steam. Its only $10.
The teaser is after the jump. Continued…
Today Ubisoft released some details on the upcoming Prince of Persia game. Developed by the original team who made Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, the new game will be released on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. Featuring new cel-shaded graphics, the game will focus more on “one-on-one sword fighting duels, with a very dynamic camera. It’s described as being more Soul Calibur than God of War.”
The story will follow a Zoroastrian myth, dealing with a war between good and evil. In the myth there is a “war between good and evil gods (and twins) Ohrmazd and Ahriman. Ohrmazd wins and imprisons his brother in a box hidden in an oasis. But Ahriman is freed by an unwitting thief centuries later, and remakes the world in his image, corrupting all living beings. It falls to the thief to undo his actions and return colour to the world, and in so doing he turns from robber into the titular Prince.”
All in all, it sounds pretty cool. I was never really a fan of the previous games, but if this one turns out they way Ubisoft says it will, I’m down to pick it up.
Read: New Prince of Persia previewed.
Yesterday it was announced that Saints Row 2 will hit the streets on Aug 26. Arriving on both PS3 and Xbox 360, the game picks up a few years after the first Saints Row ended.
Saints Row 2 will feature online co-op through the entire single-player campaign and an open world competitive multiplayer mode. It will also feature new vehicles, new locations and more options when it comes to player customization.
I was a huge fan of the first Saints Row, and the second one sounds pretty awesome. The real question is, How will it fare against Grand Theft Auto 4? I know that I will make room for both in my game budget.
Read: Saints Row 2 Release Date Announced.
There are so many stories about games being re-released via Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network that I have decided to condense them all into one news story–for the time being, that is.
Joining the ranks of Xbox Original, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey will be hitting Xbox Live Marketplace Monday, March 24. If you are a fan of adventure games, you might want to look into picking this up. However it will cost you 1,200 Microsoft points ($15).
On the PlayStation side of this news item, both Pandemonium and Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain have been rated by the ESRB and will be hitting the PSN shortly. For those of you who don’t know, Pandemoniumis a 2.5-dimensional platformer.
Blood Omen on, the other hand, is a top-down action adventure game. It is the first in the fantastic Legacy of Kain series. For anyone who hasn’t played it, I can’t recommend it enough. Unfortunately there have been no announcements as to when these game will be arriving on the PSN or how much they will cost.
Read Pandemonium and Blood Omen rated by ESRB for PSN and Dreamfall joins Xbox Originals lineup March 24.
Super Smash Brothers: Brawl Mania is here! Is it a real fighting game? Problems with the game make it unplayable. Microsoft says no way to Blu ray. After so many games, can you blame Infinity Ward for not wanting to do another World War 2 shooter? Pain is getting online support, and a new map! How does GTA4 stack up to the other Grand Theft Autos? We interview Josh Williams, CEO of GarageGames, and take a look at InstantAction.com - gaming in your browser.
At GDC it was announced that Fable 2 will feature some pretty interesting game innovations, provided Peter Molyneux can deliver.
First off, the game will feature co-op play, in the style of Crackdown. If you join someone else’s game, any items or experience your character gets will stay with your character.
Another cool feature is that players won’t get money from quests. The only way to get money in the Fable world will be by doing work or gambling. This is why the folks over at Lionhead will release a Xbox Live Arcade game that will contain a few gambling mini games. No word on the cost (if any) of the XBLA game. Any cash you get from these will transfer over to your character.
These features may seem a little gimmicky, but hey, they got me interested…now it’s time to, you know, actually make sure they end up in the final product.
Read: Fable 2 To Feature Co-Op, XBLA Minigames.
