Last week Major Nelson graced Australia with his presence as he travelled Down Under to witness the Australian Water Balloon Challenge and provide discussion with the local Australian Xbox communities. XboxZone were lucky enough to attend and capture the presentation on video, as well as previews of two highly anticipated upcoming Xbox Live Arcade Games, Street Fighter 2 and Cloning Clyde. Click here to check out the videos.
New downloads for eight games and movies now available on Xbox 360; new demo, themes, gamer pics, in-game items offered.
When the Xbox 360 launched, one of the machine's more intriguing features was the Xbox Live Marketplace, a virtual store that would let users download trailers, demos, bonus content, and Xbox Live Arcade games. Unfortunately, new additions to the Marketplace were few and far between to start. But just as the stream of Xbox 360s to retail has picked up, a flood of new offerings have also hit the Marketplace.
The early part of this week saw an Amped 3 demo, as well as free themes and picture packs for Nacho Libre and Mission: Impossible III hit the Marketplace, but no less than eight games and movies have seen new content hit the service since yesterday.
Yesterday's offerings included a new picture pack for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter; trailers for X-Men: The Last Stand, The Omen, and Ice Age 2: The Meltdown; a dozen new Tomb Raider picture packs and themes (six of each); and a demo of Xbox 360 launch-game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06.
Gundam, Culdcept, and new mech game underway; Pac-Man and Galaga heading to Xbox Live Arcade.
TOKYO--At the Xbox 360 Press Conference in Tokyo today, Namco Bandai Games made its first Xbox 360 presentation since its corporate merger on April 1. Company vice president Shin Unozawa appeared on stage as the conference room was filled with the familiar 8-bit music of Namco's classic 1981 arcade hit, Pac-Man. And indeed, that was the first game to be shown off.
Unozawa announced that Namco Bandai Games is currently developing a version of Pac-Man for distribution on Xbox Live Arcade. He presented a real-time demo of the game, and showed off that it plays as a full port of the original arcade release, albeit with functions that take advantage of Xbox Live. Its menu featured the standard options seen in most Xbox Live Arcade games, including leaderboards, achievements, options, and an Unlock Full Game selection (so a downloadable demo is assured). Unozawa also announced that the arcade shooter Galaga is being ported to Xbox Live Arcade. Details about the games release and cost have not been revealed yet.
Unozawa then moved on to discuss bigger projects. The first game he introduced was Zegapain XOR, a mech shooter exclusive to the Xbox 360. The game is currently being developed by Cavia for a summer 2006 release in Japan.
So here's the deal. You've just earned yourself a fat 6000 points and you're thinking "What do I do now?" The answer, my friends, is clear... get more points! But instead of having to leave your couch to head over to the retail store, rental place, or mailbox; you want to get as many points as you can without even getting up!
That's what Xbox Live Arcade is for!
Well, sort of. The funny thing about the games on Xbox Live Arcade is that their achievement points are actually about having to achieve something. It's pretty difficult in most cases to scam the points in these games, and after all your hard work, the most you're going to get is 200 points out of them. But if there were loopholes, I was intent on finding them.
Of course there are a few Xbox Live Arcade games with points that are so difficult to get that only the most devoted (and desperate) point-collectors will be able to achieve them. With this handy guide, you'll be able to maneuver through the Xbox Live Arcade menus, downloading only the games that offer you the most points possible. Because you don't want to play any game that doesn't have easy points, do you?
Crystal Quest:
Crystal Quest is the Xbox Live Arcade game that has the easiest points to get, and as an added bonus, the game is one of the cheapest on Xbox Live Arcade. The trick to getting the points out of Crystal Quest is to play the game several different ways on several different difficulty levels depending on what type of achievement you're going for. There is one achievement point that's pretty tough to get, and a few that require some patience, but if you apply yourself, you'll get them all.
Crystal Rookie - 5 Points:
You just need to score 10,000 points to get this easy 5.
You should do it in your first game, if you're awake.
Crystal Master - 10 Points:
Getting 1,000,000 points in one game is actually pretty easy on any difficulty, but a little harder at standard difficulty or less, which is what this achievement asks you to do. Put the difficulty at standard (level 5, which is right in the middle of the difficulty bar) and get as many bonus crystals as you can.
Smart-ass - 15 points:
Saving up 30 smarts is pretty easy, considering that you can play through most of the early levels without using them, and there's at least one smart bomb on each level. If you play through on normal difficulty then you should be able to collect these no problem.
Speed Freak - 20 Points:
The key to getting wave 1 finished in 5 seconds or less is the placement of the crystals on the first level. Keep restarting the game until they're all clumped close together and close to the exit and you'll be fine.
NinjaBee announced today they will be bringing a second title to Xbox Live Arcade for Xbox 360. Cloning Clyde is a 3D adventure and puzzle game that NinjaBee claims will bring new meaning to the word "schizophrenic".
Cloning Clyde makes full use of Xbox 360’s advanced processing, graphics, sound, and unique Xbox Live online game service features including achievements, leaderboards, online play, and more!
In addition to a single-player story and individual challenging scenarios, enjoy multiplayer split-screen or online play, both co-op and vs. modes, with friends from all over the world.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six makes its next-generation hardware debut in the most dramatic installment of the renowned first-person shooter franchise to date. Rainbow operatives take to the chaotic streets of Las Vegas as an escalating terrorist siege in “Sin City” threatens to take world terrorism to new, uncontrollable heights. The future of global security hangs in the balance as you battle to defend classic Vegas locations and environments like Fremont Street, the Strip and casinos.
Experience Las Vegas like never before – through revolutionary next generation technology as you work against the clock to protect one of the world’s most recognizable cities from utter devastation.