The Psychotic Monkey » Live-Arcade

Carcassonne on XBLA

The Monkey — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 10:14:57 +0000

1up has published a preview (here) of a new game coming to XBox Live Arcade in June. Entitled Carcassonne, it follows the same play as the board game of the same name. Not one I’m familiar with I must admit, but it looks like it might be good fun. There are a number of tiles split between all players, and they must place them to build up castles, roads, fields and monasteries. Once all the tiles have been placed, the scores are added up (based around the choice of tiles and their positioning) and the winner has, you guessed it, the highest score. What I find strange about this is the fact that details of a Live Arcade title that is scheduled to arrive in June has appeared so far in advance with any kind of date attached to it, but irrespective of that it looks like this could be another fun multiplayer Arcade title…

Jetpac coming to XBLA

The Monkey — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 09:47:32 +0000

What more is there to say?? First details here…

XBox Live Wednesday: 18th October

The Monkey — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 07:01:07 +0000

So the XBox Live Arcade title being released in about an hours time is the one lots of people have been waiting for. Lumines Live! should be available to download in about an hour and will cost 1200 points, the most expensive Live Arcade game to date. Also available will be an optional pack for a further 600 points which will allow the gamer to make changes to the music score, and also unlock a further 22 skins for the game. I must admit I was a bit apathetic about the launch of Lumines Live!, even though I loved the game so much on the PSP. However, now that the day is here I will probably download it, even though I think the price is a little steep.

Scramble delayed

The Monkey — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:44:20 +0000

Major Nelson has announced here that Scramble has been delayed by one week. Today’s contribution to XBox Live Arcade Wednesday is, instead, a new Project Gotham Racing themed deck for UNO. Still no news on Lumines Live!, althought with Scramble now released next Wednesday (13th) chances are we are still at least 2 weeks away from it appearing…

No Lumines today

The Monkey — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 10:37:58 +0000

It seems that the people who run the XBox Live Calendar may have dropped the ball here. As reported here before, there was an entry for today saying that people should log in tonight and enjoy Lumines Live! on XBox Live. As confirmed by Major Nelson, today’s contribution to XBox Live Arcade Wednesdays is Time Pilot, and not Lumines after all.

Lumines Live to appear Wednesday?

The Monkey — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 15:46:38 +0000

It appears that Lumines Live may be making an early appearance on the XBox Live Arcade. It was rumoured that the game would appear after the next raft of already-announced titles had been released (i.e September 13th). However, the Xbox Live Calendar seems to suggest that it may be available on Wednesday August 30th. Fingers crossed it is….

Texas Hold ‘Em

The Monkey — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 06:54:24 +0000

Just read this on the Gamerescore blog that indicates that Texas Hold ‘Em won’t be released today after all. It’s gone back to the original date of August 23rd, and is free if you donwload it between 0800 (GMT) Wednesday 23rd and 0800 (GMT) Friday 25th. After that it will cost 800 Microsoft Points. Today’s contribution to XBox Live Arcade Wednesdays is a Picture Pack for Cloning Clyde. The article also confirms that Time Pilot will be released on Wednesday August 30th, and that Scramble follows a week after on September 6th.

Texas Hold ‘Em and Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays

The Monkey — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 07:25:35 +0000

Reports started appearing on the internet yesterday that the long awaited Texas Hold ‘Em will appear on XBox Live Arcade on Wednesday August 16th. This is a week ahead of the originally rumoured date, but I for one am not complaining as I’m really looking forward to this title. Other highlights from this list are that Lumines Live will appear at the beginning of September, with Scramble due out a week before that. As with recent releases, all games will appear at 0800 GMT (0900 BST) on a Wednesday morning. The full list of currently announced releases is:

August 9th – Pac-man

August 16th – Texas Hold ‘Em

August 23rd – Time Pilot

August 30th – Scramble

September 6th – Lumines Live!

So quite a good looking line-up for the next month. Not sure about Time Pilot but I’ll definitely be getting Texas Hold ‘Em, Scramble and Lumines Live! That should at least tide me over until Dead Rising and Test Drive Unlimited…

XBox Live Arcade

The Monkey — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 07:15:34 +0000

I thought it was about time to share my thoughts on the XBox Live Arcade (XBLA). For anyone who doesn’t know, the Live Arcade is an area within the XBox 360 blades (the menu system if you like) which allows you to download arcadey type games. I guess the nearest thing to this would be the RealArcade system that is available alongside RealPlayer on the PC.

The games cost a lot less than a full price game (typically 400 or 800 Microsoft points which works at around £3-£6) and tend to be far simpler. There are some classics on there (Smash TV and Gauntlet being 2 of the biggest names from days gone by) as well as new takes on old games (Bejeweled 2 Deluxe) and brand new games (like the recently released Feeding Frenzy). Once you’ve downloaded the games as a Live Gold member (only gold members can download from XBLA) anyone who has an account on your 360 can play them, and anyone else who has at least a silver account on your 360 can gain achievements and upload high scores.

Without going into the details of the games it’s very difficult to give a feel for what XBLA adds to the system. I’ve always felt that XBox 1 and XBox 360 was aimed purely at the more hardcore of gamers (whereas PS2 catered more for the needs of casual gamers as well) but I really think Microsoft have got it right with the arcade. I no longer feel the need to own a Playstation as well as whenever I need a fix of a casual game (a puzzler or something similar) then I now have the XBLA. It’s a stroke of genius to my mind, and the pricing model is right. It’s also quite telling that XBLA games are starting to appear in the top 10 games played on XBox Live at the moment, mixed in with the likes of Perfect Dark Zero and Need For Speed:Most Wanted.

So in summary, long live the arcade game, long live XBLA, and if anyone fancies a game of Marble Blast Ultra on line then give me a yell!!