The XboxGameZone community feature is back........ and what better way to see its return than with an introduction to each member of our review team, kicking off this month with Haly
Faaaa, Roooo, Miiiiii, Dooooo…Apologies XGZ readers, that was an attempt
to replicate the sounds of an ageing gamer warming his somewhat ropey larynx
(me).And what could possibly cause the
spontaneous warbling of one who is normally mute to the ways of singing?I’ll tell you what:Probably the best track listing for a
karaoke game I’ve ever witnessed.Lips:
I love the 80s is absolutely packed with some totally lush (forgive the
eighties-ism) tunes from arguably the best musical decade ever.
As I'm sure most are aware, the Xbox exclusive Halo
franchise continues with the release of Halo: Reach later this year.
However, before then we have an important job of assisting Bungie with their
rigorous testing process - the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta. The
beta will launch on May 3rd and will only be accessible for those with a copy
of Halo: ODST. Of course most of this is old news now, but those
teasers at Bungie have released a rather tasty trailer of the
upcoming beta.
The Xbox Community Network had the opportunity to fire a few
retro-flavoured questions about XBLA game Darwinia+, Mark Morris the
Managing Director of Introversion Software provides the answers. Now,
I’m not going to go all nostalgic, but I do remember when all this was
fields you know…
I doubt there’s many petrolheads without a copy of
Turn 10’s sublime racer - Forza Motorsport 3.Well, for those of you who missed the exclusive content bundled with the
limited edition copy, it’s not exclusive any more.And what’s more, if you download the “VIP Membership Car Pack”
during the month of March, you’ll be doing a good deed for charity.Turn 10 have pledged to donate $10 for every
download to Save the Children, whom are assisting with the Haiti earthquake
aftermath.They’ll keep going until
they hit a ceiling of $100,000, a not insignificant sum that will doubtless
help many stricken youngsters.As
for what’s in the downloadable content…
What would you do if you’d been sent to do a job, you accomplish your
task, and upon completion your boss gives you the sack? Well that’s the
situation that poor old WAR finds himself in THQ’s Darksiders. No
sooner than WAR and his Horsemen of the Apocalypse colleagues had
destroyed the world then they were all given their P45s.
Microsoft has announced a special promotion rewarding players who pick up all of March’s XBLA titles. Should you purchase all four forthcoming titles then you’ll be rewarded with a 400 MS point refund. Additionally, those of you with an Xbox Live Gold subscription will be given an additional months membership for free. So, to the qualifying titles, their release dates and prices:
Here’s something we haven’t seen much of on the Xbox
360; an epic space combat adventure title.Darkstar One: Broken Alliance has been announced by Kalypso Media along
with a Summer 2010 release.The
Darkstar One is your ship, a highly customisable and adaptable craft with
literally hundreds of permutations, you know the sort of thing; armour,
weapons, alloy wheels and tinted windows (well, maybe I exaggerate a little
with the last two).
A spot more Halo news for you – this time it concerns
Bungie’s forthcoming title Halo: Reach.As you may be aware, those of you with a copy of Halo 3: ODST will be
invited to join an exclusive multiplayer beta.Well, Microsoft have today revealed that the beta will commence on May 3rd.
As mentioned earlier in the week, Microsoft has
announced the closure of the Xbox Live service for the original Xbox and it’s
games (irrespective if you play them on the 360).As of April 15th the plug will be pulled and Halo 2
matchmaking, Ghost Recon and a multitude of other online classics will be no
more.
There!
That’s how you create a review using some cunning programming code. If it were
only that easy I’d have a lot more time to play games rather than write about
them. But of course my dilemma pails into insignificance when you consider the
plight of the games developer. These guys literally spend hundreds of hours to
create something that possibly reviewers dismiss as tosh, or the games buying
public overlook simply because it just hasn’t had much publicity. Imagine
investing huge amounts of blood, sweat and tears into your creation for it to
merely pass by unnoticed? On the other hand should you create the next 'big
thing', the world's your oyster in an industry that has eclipsed Holywood in
terms of revenue.
Let’s face it, arena based games are fun.Being encapsulated within a predetermined boundary,
whether it be a football pitch, boxing ring or grid based starfield solves one
big problem… you can’t get lost!There’s no brain processing power lost in trying to perform navigational
functions, instead you can concentrate wholly on trying not to die.For a bloke such as myself this is a
godsend, as is well known; we chaps can’t multitask.It is with great pleasure that I found Xbox Live Indie title Nebulon,
by Dark Omen Games, offering nothing whatsoever in the way of orienteering,
instead the prime objective is to shoot stuff.Lovely!
Ubisoft have finally revealed the existence of the
next instalment in the eponymous Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon series.Future Soldier is under development by the
company’s Paris Studio and we can look forward to its release at some point in
Q4 of this year.
Xbox Live for the original Xbox is due to be unplugged
on April 15th 2010 Microsoft have announced.This also affects any original Xbox games
that you play on your 360.Basically
offline play is still available, it’s the online component that will cease to
function.
Dilemmas are something that most of us encounter
pretty much every day; shall I wear the red socks or the blue ones?Do I stay in touch with my humanity and take
my chances against the invaders, or do I absorb some alien DNA and mutate into
something stronger?Yikes!The later of the two predicaments is
certainly not your typical choice… unless of course you’re playing 505 Games
The Swarm.
