The Official XBLA Update Thread

[TheCorpulent1]

I chuckled at a few of the things in the avatar marketplace, but I didn't buy anything. I see my avatar when I log into Live and that's about it. Doesn't seem worth it to spend money on anything for him.

[Raiden]

I wanted to buy some stuff for my avatar, but I can't decide which one to get because they are rather expensive, and I'm down to about 500 MS only. And lightsaber prop @ 400 MS is WAY too expensive.

[Erzengel]

I can't wait til they drop a green, red, purple, double sided lightsaber so everyone is going to be disappointed in their blue lightsaber. Thankfully, blue is my favorite.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Erzengel

I can't wait til they drop a green, red, purple, double sided lightsaber so everyone is going to be disappointed in their blue lightsaber. Thankfully, blue is my favorite.

I'd pay 500 MS for a Darth Maul dual red lightsaber.

[NightCrawler]

I would have loved to have bought the lightsaber... but it only says "yeah, i'm the fool that spent $5 (give or take) to have my avatar swing this around"

[Erzengel]

Ah, but a fool with a lightsaber.

[NightCrawler]

too true

[Dark Helmet]

I am a fool with a lightsaber & will buy any other lightsaber that comes out & hopefully Darth Vader & Darth Maul suits

[StrainedEyes]

Doom II is headed to XBLA
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/101/1013852p1.html

[Obi-Ron]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck2100

me too I really wasn't going to buy anything or the avatar but then i saw that, and i had no choice

Ha ha ha I was the same way

[Isildur´s Heir]

According to the official Japanese Xbox blog, the deal of the Week for September...all XBLA games

31st August - Penny Arcade Adventures Episode 2 (33% off at 800 MSP)
7th September - Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (50% off at 400 MSP)
14th September - Lode Runner (33% off at 800MSP)
21st Spetember - Pinball FX (400MSP)

[StrainedEyes]

The Peggle Nights expansion is coming this fall!
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/101/1018552p1.html

Peggle is so so good.

[Soapy]

Indeed it is. I wish they would put Plants vs Zombies on the Marketplace.

[StrainedEyes]

Originally Posted by Pandamar141

Indeed it is. I wish they would put Plants vs Zombies on the Marketplace.

They are going to, a release date just hasn't been announced yet. http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/100/1007121p1.html

[Soapy]

Oh, that's good to know. I'll be looking forward to it!

[StrainedEyes]

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom preview-
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/101/1019824p1.html

I think this game looks really slick, and have wanted to play it since it was revealed at last years E3.

[StrainedEyes]

Stepto gives a talk at PAX about XBL Enforcement-
http://www.stepto.com/Lists/Posts/Po...4269a3a&ID=584

To begin, a reading from the book of enforcement.
And it came to pass that the user did sign up for Xbox LIVE. And it was good. And the service smiled upon the user and did ask, "by what name shalt thou be known?"

But a shadow passed over the user's soul, and they were tempted. And they did indulge this temptation and entered a name unfit for the eyes of others. And the service spake forth, saying "Thy gamertag is not appropriate"

But the service was kind and forgiving and bade the user, "Please try another"

But the user had hardened their heart. and did carefully shroud their name in trickery. And it came to pass that O's became zeroes. The letter T became as a plus sign. Falsely clothed in their new finery, the service was fooled by the user and did bid them welcome with the customary ancient incantation "Poonhunter has signed into Xbox LIVE"

And the user did commit unspeakable acts of evil in their profile. The soul of those who looked upon the gaping maw of the user's Bio field were rent asunder, left as small and twitchy as a beaten purse dog.

Poonhunter did travel to the battlefields of 1943, where they intended to darken the hearts of their brethren. On the highest point of wake island they preached their dark fellowship aloud to their team mates, and poonhunter’s words became as stones.

Verily poonhunter intoned in great detail the false histories of their team mate's lineage. They bore false witness to the tendencies of the very wombs that begat them to lie with all manner of creatures, two legged, four legged, 8 legged, and even the very crops of the earth. And poonhunter did take the last plane on the carrier and then did use that plane to try and knock the team mates from the ship with the plane's wings. And in their dark blasphemy poonhunter proclaimed his team's habits of routinely spilling their seed upon the ground.

And the team did cry out in anguish to the sky "why, why is this douchebag on our team" And more than one among them did file a complaint.

But my children, the service heard.

A light shown in the void, and it blew over the game like a cool breeze and said "time to regulate".

And it came to pass that the service archangels swooped down, and poonhunter's mouth was suddenly silenced. Their words fell as inconsequential as a forgotten gas receipt at the pump. And suddenly the archangels did smite the user with such a force that the shockwave reached the other players, a shockwave that explained itself as simply as it was effective: "Poonhunter has left the game"

And on the other end of that judgment there was a wailing and gnashing of teeth. And the service looked upon the fires of a two week ban and smiled, and it was good.

The rest of the transcript is more informative.

[StrainedEyes]

Toy Soliders
http://xboxlive.ign.com/articles/102/1028066p1.html

September 24, 2009 - I never thought I'd write the following sentence. Today, I saw a tower defense game that looks pretty darn cool. OK, that was easier than I thought it would be. I'm not the biggest fan of tower defense games. They all feel rather the same and aren't very exciting. If you're like me, or even if you're a fan of tower defense games, then you might want to keep an eye on Toy Soldiers. It's tower defense with a bit of a twist. Announced today at the Tokyo Game Show, this exclusive Xbox Live Arcade game comes from indie developer Signal Studios.

Toy Soldiers is brings WWI action figures from 1918 to life. That naturally means that, while the battlefield looks totally real, you'll actually be playing in a bedroom filled with toy figures set up by a little boy or girl with a vivid imagination. Look through the grainy filter towards the battlefield and you'll see a raging war. Turn your sights up towards the sky and you might see a bookshelf or a desk lamp.

The visuals are quite good for an XBLA game, but they aren't what sets Toy Soldiers out from the pack. This game offers a more active role for the player than most tower defense games. Each round starts how you'd normally expect it to. You'll get a look at which enemies are queued up and preparing to charge your defenses and it will be up to you to set down towers of defense to keep your headquarters safe.

Once things are set in motion, they begin to get interesting. At any time, you can hop in to a tower and take direct control of it. Turrets allow you to aim and lay down covering fire. A sniper tower lets you become the sniper. You can even get in a plane and fly off around the world. And, of course, the whole time the enemy is attacking your defenses so it might be a good idea to upgrade a tower now and again to keep things even.

Toy Soldiers will also have a multiplayer portion to it, which Microsoft jokingly referred to as a sort of tower offense style of game. One side will defend while the other launches an attack. We didn't get a look at this mode, but it certainly sounds intriguing given the active role each player can take during the fight.

There wasn't any news provided on when you can expect Toy Soldiers to release on the Live Arcade, but we were told that it was coming soon -- either by the end of this year or early next.

Video of the plane flying around-
http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/3...rs_flying.html

[Erzengel]

That looks really cool.

[Isildur´s Heir]

5th Cell, the makers of Scribblenauts, Drawn to Life and Lock´s Quest, next game will be an XBLA game and it´s going to be pretty big.

"We're doing an Xbox Live Arcade title next, and it's going to be pretty big," he says. It's going to be really cool. We're very excited about it... it's totally not ready to be announced. It's far away. The only thing that we've really announced is we're working on console stuff, and we'll see where it goes."

[Isildur´s Heir]

In other news (it might be old to some, because it was announced last September), and very exciting ones, Microsoft raised the size limit once again, from 350Mb to a full 2GB.

I was already seen as such, but this move makes the XBLA a real "platform" inside a platform, and house of real fleshed out downloadable games, capable of going toe to toe with retail games.
So, episodic games, here we go...

[Raiden]

In case you guys don't know, the avatar marketplace now has NFL jerseys to purchase. Unfortunately, they don't have the NFL helmets also and if they do, I'd buy that in a heartbeat; jerseys only don't do it for me.

[William_C]

Toy Soldiers is about to get got I cant wait to try that.

[Raiden]

Is anyone buying the Halloween costumes from the avatar marketplace? I want to get one but haven't decided on which one yet.

[Erzengel]

I think my Mass Effect and Star Wars Armor is enough.