Robert Workman reports:
''Namco Bandai's latest attempt to milk an arcade franchise for Xbox Live Arcade just turned sour. Mr. Driller Online is a halfway decent addition to the quirky arcade digging series, as it carries the same bouncy presentation and addictive gameplay as previous Drillers. However, the online portion is so broken that you might think something's wrong with your system.
In Driller, you select from a family of diggers and then work your way through a series of caverns throughout the world. These caverns vary in depth, ranging from a simple one hundred meters (easily beaten in a matter of minutes) to one thousand meters and beyond. Part of the challenge comes from picking up air capsules. It's hard to breathe that deep underground, so you have to snag them to keep your air supply from running out. The deeper you dig, the more unstable the surroundings become. Foundations shake loose very quickly, threatening to crush you flat unless you're smart enough to get out of the way.''
Microsoft has once again released another trio of backwards compatible games which are now ready to play on Xbox One and Xbox One S consoles.
Rubbish. If you're doing BC do it right. I don't own XB1 but they should add Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Midnight Club LA, Burnout Paradise, and Modern Warfare 2.
Craig H writes: "The Xbox LIVE Arcade has done a lot of great things. Among the accomplishments of the download service was bringing downloadable games to the mainstream of this generation’s consoles. Of course, the year head start did help blaze the trail. Sadly the service suffers from the same type of bad games that every platform has to deal with. We’re looking at those games and listing all the reasons you should avoid ever picking them up. We might lose a couple friends in the PR departments of these title’s publishers, but we’re sure they’ll understand."
That list needs to be 10 times longer at least. I love many games on XBLA but there's A LOT of junk out there.
Yaris might have been free, but it was so bad that it got removed from the lineup. That game was awful.
Microsoft's recent announcement of delisting XBLA titles has surprised some people in the industry but the staff at Married Gamer thinks it is a matter of simple economics even though MS seems to be skipping a step...
M$ should lower the cost of ALOT of those XBLA games, and I'm sure more people would make those "impulse" purchases. $12+ for a pinball game with like 2 different tables? then charge me for each additional table? no thanks. I bought a pinball game for my wii with 10+ classic machines that were actually in arcades for $20. Most of the games on XBLA are either some kind of puzzle game or "re-done" old '80's arcade game for $10 a piece. Sorry M$, but most of those puzzle games are either free or $1 or $2 and I have complete complilations of the old '80s classics a generation ago so why should I pay $10 a piece again because its in "HD"? NOT. Geo wars, assault heroes, mutant storm, outpost kaloki x, etc, are fun and I show that by buying such a fun original title. M$ should actually rip a page out of SONY's book and put certain titles on "sale" at certain times to get those "impulse" buys. M$ is all about fast cash and it shows. Charging for themes, pics, etc. its all about nickle and dimeing you. $8-$10 for 3 maps for every shooter that comes out? give me a break. please.