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!

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

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

Told you so #2, #3, and #4 - Gin Rummy, Sea Life Safari and Zombie Wranglers announced!

Team Xbox seems to be all nice and snug with Sierra lately - Sierra's online branch has exclusively announced Gin Rummy, Sea Life Safari - which XBLAH did some digging about some months ago - and Zombie Wranglers which we discussed just four days ago are all coming to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Gin Rummy is a classic card game, which is being brought to the XBLA supposedly by Sierra Shanghai - who just last week brought us Lost Cities, another card based game.

Gin Rummy for XBLA will feature the original game for playing over Xbox Live, along with many variations including Oklahoma Gin, Hollywood Gin, Three-hand Gin, as well as your own Custom Gin game. It will also support 4-player multiplayer with some Gin variants - which you can read up about in this page.

Secondly, Sea Life Safari is a photography game similar in design to the Nintendo classic - Pokemon Snap. As the player, you must go through different environments trying to get sea wildlife to 'show their best side' for the camera.

As mentioned in XBLAH's previous article, Wanako Studios are behind SLS (just like.. well, almost everything else for Sierra) and is already available for the PC, and had an achievement system set up inside it. Probably not too big of a job to port - certainly helps the casual demographic Microsoft wants!

And Lastly, Zombie Wranglers. This game allows the player to run around as one of 4 characters as you... well, Wrangle Zombies. It actually looks a little like Monster Madness that came out as a retail title last year (which really should have been XBLA material). It looks okay - it needs to be seen in action before any real comments can be made, at the moment they've just shown off the equivalent of a Ghost Buster Proton Pack or Luigi's Vacuum which turns Zombies into energy.

We can now confirm that this game IS being made by Frozen Codebase - the people behind Screwjumper last year and the upcoming Elements of Destruction sometime this year. Both their previous games were published by THQ - it's a little odd that this has now been picked up by Sierra. I may have stepped on a few toes with the last post too, since the blog and websites were taken down. Apologies to those involved! It'll be interesting to see how it holds up against Wiiware's Animales de la Muerte, which also seems like a lot of fun. Hopefully Sierra will spill some beans soon.

Check out Team Xbox for all the new images and previews for each game. Each of these games is currently slated for a Summer release.

Source: Team Xbox Sierra’s Summer ’08 XBLA Lineup Hands-On Preview

Edit: Fixed some information regarding Zombie Wranglers.

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