XBLA Activity for week of 5/12, 5/19 & 5/26

XBLA Activity for week of 5/12

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Assault Heroes 2
2 UNO
3 Brain Challenge
4 DOOM
5 N+
6 Ikaruga
7 Wits & Wagers
8 Worms
9 Bomberman LIVE
10 Assault Heroes

XBLA Activity for week of 5/19

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Penny Arcade Episode 1
2 Assault Heroes 2
3 UNO
4 Brain Challenge
5 DOOM
6 N+
7 Worms
8 Ikaruga
9 Bomberman LIVE
10 Sonic The Hedgehog 2

XBLA Activity for week of 5/26

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Penny Arcade Episode 1
2 Buku Sudoku
3 Warlords
4 UNO
5 DOOM
6 Assault Heroes 2
7 N+
8 Brain Challenge
9 Worms
10 Ikaruga

It appears that Penny Arcade Episode 1 is still selling incredibly well - beating both releases from last week. Looks like that high price point hasn't made much of a dent!

Source: Major Nelson

Review wrap-up: Wits & Wagers, Assault Heroes 2

A little behind but here are a list of recent reviews for Assault Heroes 2 and Wits & Wagers for the XBLA!

Wits & Wagers

- Xbox360 @ IGN Review by Ryan Geddes - 6.4 / 10

- Gamespot Review by Justin Calvert - 4.5 / 10

- Team Xbox Review by Dale Nardozzi - 7.0 / 10

- Eurogamer.net Review by Dan Whitehead - 4.0 / 10

Wits & Wagers has gotten some fairly poor reviews, usually noting that the game's main draw - that you don't need to know the true answer and have to guess at the answers - isn't all that fun. You also need to get the closest answer below the true one, and not simply the closest, which can be kind of a pain.

The graphical style of the game can be a little off putting too.

Assault Heroes 2

- Xbox360 @ IGN Review by Nate Ahearn - 8.5 / 10

- Gamespot Review by Tom Mc Shea - 7.5 / 10

- Team Xbox Review by David Chapman - 7.0 / 10

Assault Heroes 2 has gotten a lot of good reviews - They're enjoying the bigger campaigns and weapons - more of the same more or less - and more fun in cooperative (which a lot of the achievements end up pushing you towards)

Incidentally - website MEGATONik has a new competition for Assault Heroes 2! You can win Caps based on the game - simply go to this topic on their site and reply with something you enjoyed about AH2 - and you might be randomly selected for a prize!

Assault Heroes 2 is up! Rocketmen Expansion is up!

Assault Heroes 2
Developer: Wanako Studios
Publisher: Sierra Online
Genre: Action
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
Availability: Everywhere

Click here for images of Assault Heroes 2!
Click here for the official Xbox.com webpage!

Rocketmen: It came from Uranus Expansion Pack
Developer: A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. Games Inc.
Publisher: Capcom
Genre: Action
Cost: 400 Microsoft Points. Requires Rocketmen: Axis of Evil
Includes: 3 new levels, 3 new main weapons, 2 new secondary weapons, and new enemies.

Click here for images of the Rocketmen: Axis of Evil Expansion!
Click here for the official Xbox.com webpage!

Major Nelson Podcast - Assault Heroes 2 and Wits & Wagers Interviews!

This weeks episode of the Major Nelson podcast has an interview with two Xbox Live Arcade Developers - Michael Fahrny, a Producer from Sierra Online (previously with Battlestar Galactica) about Assault Heroes 2, and Mark Terrano of Hidden Path Entertainment about Wits & Wagers.

This week’s show:
Co-host : e
Xbox News
Interview: Michael Fahrny, Assault Heroes 2 (23:43–30:36)
Interview: Mark Terrano, Wits and Wagers (30:38–47:44)
Name the game
and more...

Download the podcast here or join the RSS feed.

The Assault Heroes 2 interview is unfortunately very short, but the Wits & Wagers one is good, talking about how XBLA is currently doing and how Mark believes it should work.

Source: Major Nelson

Assault Heroes 2 is your game of the week!

Assault Heroes 2 is your game of the week! It's more crashing, more carnage, and more destructible than before!

Assault Heroes 2 reveals that the original enemy in Assault Heroes is merely a pawn of a more sinister force, which players must now seek out and destroy. Armed with stronger weaponry and the ability to hi-jack more powerful enemy units, players must prepare to face relentless enemies and outrageous bosses in climactic battles, including an all-out skirmish in outer space.

In the sequel, players can experience the full fury of war outside of the safety of their vehicle with even more intense on-foot gameplay, where increased firepower and the new dodge roll feature are necessary to survive. Players can choose to fight alone or battle with a friend using the enhanced two-player cooperative mode. Either way, players will travel through diverse and interactive environments on land and in space to overcome the newest enemy and save mankind.

For those worrying it may now come out everywhere - Sierra is touting that the game will be released everywhere on Wednesday, May 14, 2008 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (1:00 a.m. PDT).

As well as this, the second trailer showing off the big bosses has shown up! Watch it from the Youtube video above!

Click here for the Xbox.com webpage!

New Assault Heroes 2 footage - Bosses!

Team Xbox have gotten even more footage of Assualt Heroes 2 - this time showing the players match up with some of the games giant bosses, "including the Mecha Quadriped, the Mecha Gorilla and the Mecha Scorpion."

To watch or download the video, click here.

Source: Team Xbox

On The Spot - New Assault Heroes 2 preview!

This week on Gamespot's On The Spot was a new preview of Assault Heroes 2, complete with new footage and a bit of playthrough, in between bits of Secret Agent Clank and GTAIV. Watch it above or download it below!

Source: Gamespot - On the Spot - 05/01/08

IGN, X3F and Joystiq - Sierra's Digital roundup

Websites outside of Team Xbox have started putting up their previews of Sierra's XBLA titles from their recent expo.

Zombie Wranglers

Amy, for example, is the "cool kid" of the group. With Boombox gun in hand, she fires CDs to cut into the undead. She can also unleash a Sonic Boom Zombomb which first stuns zombies and then lets loose a sonic boom. Another of the Wranglers, Uju, can drop voodoo dolls, which gets the zombies to ignore their hunger and dance in the streets. He also uses a special blow dart gun that drives zombies into an insane frenzy. You damage zombies enough and they are ripe to be wrangled. So, they are more like cows than your traditional zombies.

IGN Preview
Xbox 360 Fanboy - Sierra XBLA Roundup
Joystiq impressions: Assorted Sierra XBLA games

Sea life Safari

Sea Life Safari is a colorful kids' game that casts the player as an ambitious underwater photog. Your goal is to snap as many high-quality fish pics as possible with a limited number of exposures. As you float through a pre-set course under the waves, fish will appear briefly and you'll have to quickly compose a good shot before they swim away.

IGN Preview
Xbox 360 Fanboy - Sierra XBLA Roundup
Joystiq impressions: Assorted Sierra XBLA games

Assault Heroes 2

The graphics in Assault Heroes were quite good for an XBLA game, and what we've seen of the sequel so far looks impressive, too. Environments are more destructible than before – trees can be set alight or even frozen solid, depending on which weapon you're wielding. Wanako has also paid close attention to perspective, adding nice touches here and there to create the illusion of depth.

IGN Preview
Xbox 360 Fanboy - Sierra XBLA Roundup
Joystiq impressions: Assorted Sierra XBLA games

Gin Rummy

So it was with a bit of suspicion and bitterness that I sat in on a recent preview of Sierra's upcoming Xbox Live Arcade version of the popular card game. The game was being shown at Sierra's recent Gamer's Day event in San Francisco, and it was my briefest preview of the afternoon. So I can confirm that the game exists, but it still hasn't really been shown in action.

IGN Preview
Xbox 360 Fanboy - Sierra XBLA Roundup
Joystiq impressions: Assorted Sierra XBLA games

Source: IGN, Joystiq, Xbox 360 Fanboy

Assault Heroes 2 coming out May 14th!

Shacknews has gotten a hold of a Sierra press release stating that the sequel to the popular twin-stick, cooperative shoot-em-up Assault Heroes will be dropping on May 14th!

Along with the news - in Sierra's PR blowout on TeamXbox they've released a whole slew of new videos:

Access Multiple Weapons On-Foot

Destroy the Rainforest

Hijack Enemy Choppers

Extended Trailer

They've also got a quick rundown of features, which you can view here

Assault Heroes 2 and Commando 3 are coming out very soon... hopefully they don't cannibalize each others sales since they're both from the same genre. Even if they're both quality titles, the pure fact that Commando 3 comes with a Street Figher II HD BETA will very likely destroy AH2. Let's hope Sierra and Microsoft know what they're doing.

Speaking of releases.. pure speculation, but there's probably a good chance that nothing will be released this week. Why? A little game called Grand Theft Auto IV. Same thing happened with Halo 3, and anything released this week might get sent to die, so to speak.

Source: Team Xbox, Shacknews - Assault Heroes 2 Hits XBLA May 14

Major Nelson Podcast - Interview with Sierra Online's Ross Erickson

After making the rounds on the Three Red Lights Podcast, Sierra Online's Ross Erickson has popped up on the Major Nelson Podcast, discussing their recent and upcoming XBLA games!

On Lost Cities:

"Possibly 3 weeks out [before release, maybe]"

On Assault Heroes 2:

"Bigger Badder, Better, Bolder. A lot more enemies, lot of weapons. [...] Playing with the camera for different opportunities, hijacking weapons.."

On Aces of the Galaxy:

"Pure Adrenalin Space Combat, a cross between Starfox 64 meets the original Warhawk on PSOne."

On upcoming games:

"We have roughly a dozen titles in production for the XBLA right now, we're very committed to the platform."

On the quality of games:

MN: "Recently there has been some Buzz on the internet with the quality of games on the XBLA. That's got to hit you right below the belt!"

RE: "Well it kind of does in two ways, number one I'm responsible for identifying and fighting for some of these games to come to the XBLA and that covers a wide variety of game experiences and types for different kinds of users, and you're also talking about games I'm publishing right now.

I can appreciate when people - particularly hardcore gamers who have their favorites talk about their favorite game. I think the situation is that gamers are very wide and diverse these days. I like Astropop but I don't think many people pay attention to it much.

Some categories on XBLA on the original vision was diversity and something fun for everyone. I can't get my wife to pay Assault Heroes for instance, and I like N+ and Commanders but they're very different kinds of games."

On bringing classics to the service:

"There is a lot of buzz around Bionic Commando and the fans of that, and we're looking at some of our old franchises and not just figuring out how to quickly put a coat of paint on it, but how to reinvent the franchise without turning it into another franchise.

A lot of our franchises at Sierra have been known as retail 50-60 dollar games and here we are with Sierra Online and seeing how we can bring IP we own to the online space, so it's a challenge but a lot of fun too!"

There is also a great discussion about just how much Erickson loves Lode Runner, and his difficult time in trying to find just who owns the rights to the franchise. A great interview.

Download the podcast here or join the RSS feed.

Three Red Lights Podcast - Ross Erickson from Sierra Online as guest!

Ross Erickson, Vice President of Content Acquisition at Sierra Online Games popped up on IGN's 3 Red Lights Podcast to discuss their current Xbox Live Arcade initiative. It's a great listen - here are some interesting tidbits:

- Sierra will be publishing an XNA game in the future, one which won an award.

- The best selling game they've released for XBLA is 3D Ultra Mini Golf, and they intend to expand on the 3D Ultra series. (Note: Personally, I think it's because it's the first game on the list)

- Lost Cities is nearing completion - might be in certification right now. The price is still up in the air - it may just be 400 points. (Note: Admittedly I forgot to add the previews some places had recently, check it out here)

- Assault Heroes 2 is also completed and hoping for release in April.

- Several other games in the pipeline for 2nd half '08, not announcing till later (Though we already know of a couple)

- They have been thinking of bringing back classic franchises such as the Sierra point and clicks, though it sounds like outside of XBLA - in a similar fashion to the new Sam & Max series.

- Loves Boogie Bunnies!!

- Expansions tend to sell to less than 50% of the original owners.

Check out the whole podcast below.

Source: Three Red Lights Podcast: Episode 28

Half Price DOOM and Assault Heroes are your games for the week!

This week is nothing new! Those poor people are waiting for Ikaruga and this is what you do!?

Kidding - DOOM and Assault Heroes are both great games, and with the upcoming sequel to AH this is probably the best thing to do for the original. Maybe Mutant Storm should follow suit?

“Assault Heroes” (Sierra Online). Become the only surviving member of an elite special forces unit searching for a secret underground lab. Play the mission alone or fight side-by-side with a friend in the two-player cooperative mode. The winner of IGN’s Xbox LIVE Arcade game of the year for 2006, “Assault Heroes” will be available for 400 Microsoft Points.

“DOOM” (id Software). Originally released in 1993, “DOOM” introduced millions to the white-knuckle excitement of the first-person shooter (FPS). Relive the classic demon-blasting action with up to four players over Xbox LIVE*, complete with 5.1 surround sound and smoother graphics. “Doom” will be available for 400 Microsoft Points.

This'll go up on Wednesday at the usual time.

Source: Gamespress

IGN: First look at Assault Heroes 2!

The long known about yet unannounced game Assault Heroes 2 has finally shown up in a new preview over at IGN.

Blowing out the game means new and more powerful weapons, interactive and destructible environments, hijackable vehicles, improved level design and a 30% longer experience. Stages have now been added that stray away from the vertical design, creating a path that snakes in all directions. The team has also made the stages more three dimensional in appearance. One area we saw had the heroes riding on a bridge high above water, adding a sense of grandiose perspective. That water, by the way, looks very cool and is quite impressive for an XBLA game.

Check out the whole preview below, and check out this new video!



Source: IGN.com - Assault Heroes 2 preview