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XBLAFancast Episode 62 – Shut up!

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:43:34 +0000

First thing’s first, apologies for the low quality audio in this weeks episode. Numerous technical difficulties caused some issues which led to some parts of the show to dip in quality, I did try to salvage it as best I could but it’s not perfect. Thankfully the show is still mostly listenable and everything should hopefully be fine next week.

This weeks episode sees the return of former podcast co-host and current Game Music Fans Managing Editor, Tyler Cameron. He shares a familiar story of getting sucked into Minecraft and not quite knowing why. Perry is on the review for Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 2, he gives us his not so great impressions.

Todd Talk this week is all about episodic gaming, after which we discuss what we think does and doesn’t work when trying to make an episodic game.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

Break music:

C418 – Minecraft

News discussed:

Release Dates/Windows: Mad Riders on May 30 for 800 MSP, Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown June 6 for 1200 MSP, Sega Vintage Collection: Golden Axe and Streets of Rage out May 30 for 800 MSP each

DLC/Etc: Minecraft sells a million in less than a week + Minecraft most played XBLA game in the week, just below COD, The Walking Dead sells a million, New map for Gotham City Impostors + Steamy Punk Pack, First DLC for THPS HD coming from THPS 3, Tenorman’s Revenge receives an update, Fez update sent for cert

XBLAFancast Episode 62 – Shut up!

XBLAFancast Episode 61 – Your junk’s gonna get fried

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 16 May 2012 00:22:44 +0000

It has been a pretty big few weeks for XBLA, so fittingly it’s a pretty big episode. We start things off by of course talking about Minecraft, myself and Todd played a ton and we’re sort of beguiled by it.

Perry brings lots of news, so much that Todd has to jump in to tell us all about some big Awesomenauts leaks. We round things out with a big twitter topic and discussion of the Remember the days game.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, Carmageddon XBLA now a Kickstarter project, Combat Wings

Release Dates/Windows: Tony Hawk HD out in June

DLC/Etc: Awesomenauts community address with patch details and new character, Rumor: Awesomenauts DLC character info, More Iron Brigade content hinted, Microsoft cancels Inside Xbox in U.S. and Europe, $99 subscription-based Xbox confirmed, Internet Explorer 9 rumored for Kinect coming

XBLAFancast Episode 61 – Your junk’s gonna get fried

XBLAFancast Episode 60 – The Misadventures of Scuba Steve

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:33:19 +0000

A return to the full regular roster leads to a slightly longer show than usual this week. Myself, Perry, Todd and Andrew get straight down to business with game talk, starting with Fable Heroes. We weren’t too keen on it ourselves but you can check out Christine’s review for a more in depth look at the game. After that is a lengthy discussion of Awesomenauts, in which Todd tells us all about MOBAs while Andrew and I lament our disconnection issues.

Perry of course brings all the big news stories from the past week, then Todd uses this weeks Todd Talk to ponder bots in multiplayer games and what their roles should be.

Andrew rounds things out with Crews’ Community Corner, this weeks remember the days game is Golf: Tee It Up!. Be sure to send your thoughts to us on twitter.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

Break music:

Balance Slays the Demon – Old Gods of Asgard (Alan Wake’s American Nightmare)

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Sega Vintage Collections Streets of Rage & Golden Axe info leaks, Twisted Pixel announcing new game at E3

Release Dates/Windows: Jam Live Music Arcade out May 16

DLC/Etc: Might & Delight detail renting an XBLA spot/self-publishing, Haunted Temple change name to 17-Bit, Worms Revolution will have a class system, No plans for Tribes Ascend on XBLA, Rumored $99 Xbox with subscription plan, Trials Evolution over 500,000 players, Microsoft’s E3 conference streamed over Xbox Live

XBLAFancast Episode 60 – The Misadventures of Scuba Steve

XBLAFancast Episode 59 – All four trumpers

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 01 May 2012 23:15:53 +0000

No Andrew this week so we brought on PSNFans writer and new podcast producer of the PSNFancast, Josiah Renaudin. He joins us for one of our longest new releases/what we’ve been playing discussions possibly ever, in which we talk about Bloodforge, Deep Black: Episode 1, The Walking Dead and the Hybrid beta.

Perry of course brings all the big news stories, followed by Todd Talk and a twitter topic. You still have another week to play the Remember The Days game, which is Heavy Weapon, and send your thoughts to us on twitter.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Guest:

Josiah Renaudin (@josiahrenaudin)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

Break music:

Disasterpeace – Adventure (Fez)

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Planets at War announced, Joy Ride Turbo

Release Dates/Windows: Dragon’s Lair out on May 18

DLC/Etc: New Supercross Tracks for Trials Evolution, Microsoft hiring Skype for Xbox Engineer, Rodeo Pirate Pack now available in Gotham City Impostors, Dungeon Defenders DLC and Patch out now, Skullgirls hits 50k sales, updates soon

XBLAFancast Episode 59 – All four trumpers

XBLAFancast Episode 58 – Too Fast, Too Furious

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 22:32:30 +0000

The regular crew of four gets back together for the first time in a few weeks, and as such it’s a bit of a bumper episode. We kick things off with Perry telling us about Bloodforge, he has some mixed feelings about it. Then it’s onto this little game that came out last week, you might have heard about it, Trials Evolution. We briefly talk about Fez again but there’s not too much new to say on that front.

Perry brings all the news as usual, then Todd Talk is more like a question than a discussion. Andrew rounds things out with twitter questions and the remember the days game, this weeks game is Heavy Weapon, you’ve got two weeks to try it out and let use know what you think!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: The Banner Saga hits Kickstarter target for XBLA port, Starbreeze working on P13 for XBLA

Release Dates/Windows: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus coming out this summer

DLC/Etc: Archer might get his own Pinball FX 2 table, The Walking Dead future episodes will release as DLC, Gotham City Impostors update brings new map and mode, Fez claims weekly top spot in XBLA action, Xbox Live monetization won’t include microtransactions

XBLAFancast Episode 58 – Too Fast, Too Furious

XBLAFancast Episode 57 – Eightieser

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:03:20 +0000

While we did record a regular show last week in addition to our three PAX specials, it got lost in the dark recesses of my hard drive never to be heard from again. So here we are back with a regular show, minus one Andrew Crews. Myself, Perry and Todd struggle on without him though and discuss some of the big releases from the past week. We hit on The Splatters and Skullgirls but the bulk of the game talk goes to Fez, don’t worry though there’s no spoilers!

Perry rushes through what little news there is before taking the opportunity to talk about some of his favourite XBLA games he saw at PAX.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Rock Band Blitz (RB3 not compatible), Penny Arcade Adventures 3 going to XBLIG, Double Dragon Neon in July

Release Dates/Windows: Sonic 4 Ep2 May 16 1200 MSP

DLC/Etc: Minecraft XBLA to receive DLC, Amy gets a second patch

XBLAFancast Episode 57 – Eightieser

XBLAFancast – PAX East 2012 Wrap-up

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:08:38 +0000

John is once again joined by Andrew Crews, Nick DePetris and Nick Santangelo to round out our trio of PAX podcasts. In this episode the guys cover pretty much every game they saw at the show, inlcluding Dust: An Elysian Tail, Awesomenauts, Mark of the Ninja and far too many more to list. Needless to say if you want to know about the XBLA games shown at PAX this is the podcast for you. If you have any additional questions hit us up on twitter or you can contact the guys on their personal accounts (linked below).

If you missed our other PAX specials check them out, from Day 1 and Day 2 of the show.

Please subscribe, rate and review the podcast on iTunes. We appreciate it! Check us out on Twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site, BlurredEdge, and why not follow him on Twitter (@BlurredEdge) too?

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Co-hosted by:

Nick DePetris (@ndepetris - XboxKinectFans)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Nick Santangelo (@nicksantangelo)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast – PAX East 2012 Wrap-up

XBLAFancast PAX East 2012 Special – Day 2

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:42:06 +0000

John Laster once again takes the hosting reins as Perry Jackson, Nick DePetris and Andrew Crews join him to discuss day 2 at PAX East. In this show, Crimson Dragon, Wreckateer, Charlie Murder and Super Time Force among others are discussed.

Due to the nature of recording in a hotel room and passing the mic the audio is a bit spotty, we apologise for that but hope you still give it a listen.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site, BlurredEdge, and why not follow him on Twitter (@BlurredEdge) too?

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Nick DePetris (@ndepetris - XboxKinectFans)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

Check out more awesome XBLA game previews and impressions from PAX East 2012!

XBLAFancast PAX East 2012 Special – Day 2

XBLAFancast PAX East Special – That’s a game

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 20:18:43 +0000

Our Editor in Chief John Laster returns to the hosting chair for this special episode of the podcast, recorded at PAX East. He’s joined by News Editor Perry Jackson, Reporter Nick Santangelo and Nick DePetris from XboxKinectFans.com. They chat about some of the games they saw on the first day of the show, including Mark of the Ninja, Runner 2 and Rock Band Blitz.

Due to the nature of recording in a hotel room and passing the mic the audio is a bit spotty, we apologise for that but hope you still give it a listen.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Nick DePetris (@ndepetris - XboxKinectFans)

Nick Santangelo (@nicksantangelo)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy - GameEnthus Podcast)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

Check out more awesome XBLA game previews and impressions from PAX East 2012!

XBLAFancast PAX East Special – That’s a game

XBLAFancast Episode 56 – Podcast coordinating

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:29:13 +0000

No Todd this week, but myself, Perry, Andrew and special guest Shawn Saris get by without him. I talk briefly about Wrecked: Revenge Revisted, while we all talk for a good while about South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge. If that’s not enough, you can check out Andrew’s review for more in depth details.

Perry brings the news as always, which this week includes some high profile release dates. Andrew finishes things up with a twitter question and telling us about the new Remember the Days game, which is Gripshift. He won’t be here next week so you’ve got two weeks to play it and share your thoughts on twitter.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy - GameEnthus Podcast)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Shawn Saris (@MrTheVestman – GamesRadar)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Majestic-12 coming to digital platforms, Team 17 announce Worms Revolution, Sega Ages Collection revealed

Release Dates/Windows: Skullgirls on April 11 for 1200 MSP, Fez releases April 13 for 800 MSP, Awesomenauts on May 2 for 800 MSP

DLC/Etc: Rumor: Joy Ride Arcade might come to XBLA, Beat Lionhead’s score at Fable Heroes, win big!

XBLAFancast Episode 56 – Podcast coordinating

XBLAFancast – Interview with MagicalTimeBean’s Ian Stocker

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 22:06:01 +0000

Josiah Renaudin from our sister site PSNFans recently had the chance to chat with MagicalTimeBean founder Ian Stocker. Ian is the man behind the hit Xbox Live Indie Games SoulCaster I & II and the recent success story Escape Goat.

Josiah talks to Ian about how he got into making games, how the process of making a game for XBLIG works and what might be in store for MagicalTimeBean in the future. If you want to keep up to date with what Ian is doing you can check out MagicalTimeBean’s website or follow him on twitter @MagicalTimeBean. If you haven’t checked out his games before then why not download the trials, SoulCaster, SoulCaster II and Escape Goat.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

Josiah Renaudin (@JosiahRenaudin)

Guest:

Ian Stocker (@MagicalTimeBean)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music featured:

Entryway – Ian Stocker (Escape Goat)

XBLAFancast – Interview with MagicalTimeBean’s Ian Stocker

XBLAFancast Episode 55 – Minecraft, May 9th, 1600 MSP

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:38:57 +0000

This week join myself, Perry, Todd and Andrew as we discuss the latest XBLA releases. Kicking things off with a lengthy discussion of Sine Mora which everyone but me played, and mostly enjoyed. Myself and Andrew briefly touch on Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havok, but we both agree if you want a Rayman platforming fix, track down Rayman Origins.

Then it’s onto an especially raucous edition of the news segment with Perry. To say we go off on some tangents might be an understatement, but we still deliver lots of newsy goodness for you guys so don’t fret!

Todd Talk tackles promotions, do they help or hinder the games in and around them? Andrew finishes things up with Crews’ Community Corner, with a couple of interesting twitter questions and the Remember the days game. Be sure to play Alien Hominid HD this week and let us know what you think on twitter.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Dragon’s Lair with Kinect support, Hybrid Beta details, Zuma’s Revenge this summer, Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition confirmed, Signal Studios teasing new game at PAX

Release Dates/Windows: The Walking dead priced 400 MSP an episode, due out in April, World Gone Sour coming April 11 for 400 MSP, Arcade Next promotion

DLC/Etc: Rumor: Crystal Dynamics working on a new IP, February XBLA sales figures, Next week’s XBLA sale: 50% off Joe Danger, Sega Rally, Daytona USA

XBLAFancast Episode 55 – Minecraft, May 9th, 1600 MSP

XBLAFancast Episode 54 – I guess I’m AAA

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:00:28 +0000

First off, apologies once again for the spotty audio this week, techinical difficulties once again mean we’re stuck with the lesser quality backup.

We mix things up a little this week, after a talking about the latest releases it’s onto Todd Talk, in which Todd tells us his thoughts on leaderboards. Todd then has to leave us but that means Perry can drop his news bombs mostly uninterrupted. We finish as always with twitter topics and discussion of Andrews game of the week. Be sure to try out Mutant Storm Empire for next week and share your thoughts on twitter.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

Music featured:

Mine, Windbag, Mine by Darren Korb (Bastion)

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Marvel Pinball: Avengers Chronicles announced, Jeremy McGrath’s Offroad

Release Dates/Windows: Wrecked: Revenge Revisited March 28 for 1200 MSP, Kung Fu Strike: The Warrior’s Rise March 28 for 800 MSP, Dungeon Defenders DLC coming out April 11, The Walking Dead Episode 1 coming out in April, Babel Rising reveals spring 2012 date

DLC/Etc: XBLA Games to get more achievements/gamerscore, Third Xbox won’t be unveiled at E3 or in 2012, James Silva wants a Dishwasher 3, Trine 2 Expansion teased, No plans for more episodes after Sonic 4 Episode 2, Shenmue for XBLA has been finished for “over a year” Team 17 making Worms related announcement, Obsidian XBLA title on hold

XBLAFancast Episode 54 – I guess I’m AAA

XBLAFancast Episode 53 – Robotokami

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:57:09 +0000

It’s back to the regular crew this week. We kick things off by talking about last weeks release of I Am Alive, we have some mixed thoughts on the ambitious survival game. Then Todd tells us all about Shoot Many Robots, check out his review to find out more.

Perry drops the usual news bombs, of which there are a lot this week. Andrew grabs a twitter question about the worst XBLA games and challenges us to play Aces of the Galaxy, send your thoughts to @XBLAFans on twitter.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Spring Showcase – Fable Heroes, Wreckateer, Joe Danger: The Movie, Trials Evolution, Deadlight, Bloodforge, South Park: Tenorman’s Revenge, Minecraft

Game Announcements: Laika Believes, Super T.I.M.E. Force wins XBLA Prize, Fez wins big prize, Bellator: MMA Onslaught

Release Dates/Windows: Diabolical Pitch 800 MSP April 4, Bloodforge end of April, The Splatters releasing April 11 for 800 MSP, Counter-Strike in the Summer

DLC/Etc: February NPD results Xbox on top, Tony Hawk details, Frozenbyte details DLC and New IP, Hydrophobia for 400 MSP, ilomilo 50% off for Gold Members, Fruit Ninja Kinect sells a million, Deal of the Week – Konami Sale

XBLAFancast Episode 53 – Robotokami

XBLAFancast Episode 52 – Maple syrup, Moose

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:53:41 +0000

First off, apologies for the dip in audio quality this week. Some technically difficulties meant we had to use the backup for this episode.

No Andrew this week, but Todd is back and we brought Shawn back in to fill the gap. We talk a bit about last weeks release of Nexuiz, which we are somewhat baffled by in many ways. With not much else XBLA to talk about we chat some about SSX which most of us have been playing over the past week.

We recorded over the weekend, meaning we missed a lot of big news that came out on Monday. So if you’re wondering why the new segment is missing some pretty big stories there’s your reason. We round things out with some Todd Talk and don’t forget to play Small Arms for Andrews Remember The Days feature.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Shawn Saris (@MrTheVestman - YouTube - GamesRadar)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Sega, Arkedo announce Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit, Rumor: New Fable game coming to XBLA

Release Dates/Windows: Hybrid beta with details next week, The Splatters arriving April 11

DLC/Etc: Dungeon Defenders DLC details, XBLA will continue to evolve then die

XBLAFancast Episode 52 – Maple syrup, Moose

XBLAFancast Episode 51 – Alan Wake’s Canadian Nightmare

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:52 +0000

With no Todd this week we’re joined by our other guide co-ordinator, Shawn Saris. He joins myself and Perry in a pretty long discussion of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, so if you want to hear why you should be playing that, come listen.

Perry has some slightly more organised news bombs this week, with lots more announcements and such to talk about. After a week off Andrew brings back Crews’ Community Corner with a twitter topic and the Remember the Days game of the week for everyone to play.

Check out the music special we put out to celebrate the podcasts one year anniversary.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Shawn Saris (@MrTheVestman - YouTube – GamesRadar)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Game Announcements: Jet Set Radio possibly? Confirmed with a contest! – Klei announces Mark of the Ninja for Summer

Release Dates/Windows: Shoot Many Robots March 14 for 800 MSP – Sine Mora March 21 for 1200 MSP – Trials Evolution Spring 2012 - Sonic 4 Episode II Attack of the Clones coming Spring 2012 – Fez mix-up – Quantum Conundrum out in the Summer

DLC/Etc : Zen Studios announce Thornament 2012 – Gotham City Impostors DLC available now for free – Trine 2 receiving large DLC pack

XBLAFancast Episode 51 – Alan Wake’s Canadian Nightmare

XBLAFancast Music Special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18:17:09 +0000

To celebrate our recent milestone of 50 episodes, which also coincided with our one year anniversary, we decided to do something a little different. In this special episode of the XBLAFancast we focus on the music of XBLA, with some choice tracks from some of the best soundtracks XBLA has to offer. So please, sit back and enjoy the XBLAFancast music special.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music credits/links:

The Mancer’s Dilemma – Darren Korb (Bastion)

Rock Club – Anamanaguchi (Scott Pilgrim vs The World – The Game)

Retro City Rampage Title Song – virt (Retro City Rampage)

Go Straight – Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage 2)

Dancing with Domz – Christophe Heral (Beyond Good & Evil HD)

Intruder Alert – Simon Viklund (Bionic Commando Rearmed)

Mad Gear Zone Act 1 – Jun Senoue (Sonic 4 Ep 1)

Space Pirates – The Behemoth (Castle Crashers)

Sunstorm Theme – Attila Heger (Pinball FX Mars)

Raven – Jake Kaufman (BloodRayne: Betrayal)

Asteroid Belt – Steve Burke (Fusion: Genesis)

XBLAFancast Music Special

XBLAFancast Episode 50 – Anniversary Edition

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 22:57:55 +0000

Believe it or not, we’ve been doing this for a whole year (to the day!). We’ve gone through a lot of changes but we like to think we have a pretty good show on our hands at this point, we hope you do too.

Andrew’s out this week so it’s myself, Perry and Todd. We kick things off talking about Warp and a little about Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, Todd has a somewhat unique perspective having never played the original. Then Perry drops some news bombs as per usual. He also takes over Crews’ Community Corner, during which we have a couple of fairly long discussions about the future of the site and XBLA in general. Big thanks to @MRX93 and our own Steve Melton for their contributions to the twitter topics.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn - FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Retro City Rampage releases in May

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus announced

WWE WrestleFest Announced

Gotham City Impostors glitch – Temporary fix with patch on the way

Dungeon Defenders DLC and Updates coming soon

New Skullgirls Characters

XBLA publishing negotiations for Stranger’s Wrath

XBLIG get a spot on the dashboard

XBLAFancast Episode 50 – Anniversary Edition

XBLAFancast Episode 49 – I give that news story a “Skip it”

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:48:40 +0000

It’s a bumper episode this week, with one of our longest ever. We kick it off by talking about last week’s release of Shank 2, which we pretty much universally enjoyed. Be sure to check out our character unlock guide if you decide to pick it up. Speaking of guides, after spending a lot of time with Rise of the Martian bear for the guide, Todd isn’t keen to play it again any time soon.

After discussing some of the other random games we’ve been playing Perry brings the news. Which includes some Kickstarter discussion and debate about Gotham City Impostors approach to DLC. Then Andrew poses @MizzouGaming‘s twitter question to us, which leads to a long discussion about our thoughts on the past and future of XBLA. He then challenges us all to play Assault Heroes, so check it out and let us know what you think on twitter or the comments.

Big thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn – FunHaversClub)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Girl Fight coming to XBLA

Bodoink coming Spring 2012 for 400 MSP

Haste becomes Mad Riders

Double Fine’s new project funded through Kickstarter (not coming to XBLA) – Schafer on XBLA’s limitations

Skulls of the Shogun releasing in the Fall – Rumor: Shoot Many Robots releasing March 14

Gotham City Impostors receiving free DLC

XBLAFancast Episode 49 – I give that news story a “Skip it”

XBLAFancast Episode 48 – Kinectin’ with Nick

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:17:58 +0000

Last week was a big Kinect week on XBLA, so we decided to get Xbox Kinect Fans writer Nick DePetris to join us and share his thoughts. Sadly that means no Todd this week, but don’t let that put you off we still have a fun packed show for you.

Nick kicks things off by telling us about Double Fine’s Happy Action Theater and Rhythm Party, both of which are pretty interesting additions to the Kinect library. Myself and Andrew played a bit of Iron Brigade DLC pack, Rise of the Martian Bear, which we don’t mind telling you is pretty tough!

Perry drops many a news bomb on us, check below for links to the full stories we discussed.

In Crews’ Community Corner Andrew chooses a twitter question in which @wolvie75 asked what our dream Summer of Arcade line up would be, choosing from the previous promotions. You’ll have to listen to the show to find out our answers though. Also be sure to check out Carcassonne for Remember The Days and let us know what you think on twitter.

Please subscribe, comment, review the podcast on iTunes and tell your friends! We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question. We are also now on Stitcher, so you can stream the show on your smartphone, give it a go!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn – FunHaversClub)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Nick DePetris (@ndepetris)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Trials Evolution out in Spring 2012

Pinball FX 2 expansion Epic Quest – out on February 15

Rayman 3 HD 800 MSP

Hawken not getting an XBLA release

Dungeon Defenders hits a million downloads

Gotham City Impostors DLC Extravaganza

Recently Reduced – Deal of the Week – Square Enix Publisher Sale

Andrew’s link: Achievement timestamps are back

XBLAFancast Episode 48 – Kinectin’ with Nick

XBLA Fancast Special: Shank 2 Interview

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:26:53 +0000

We love ourselves a good 2D anything here at XBLA Fans, so this week we interviewed Jamie Cheng, Founder of Klei Entertainment. Klei is known for many things, but chiefly here on XBLA we know them for developing Shank, a 2D brawler filled to the brim with weapons, stabbing, shooting and most of all, shanking. We’ve interviewed Jamie before about the game, but this time we got in-depth and talk at length about all things Shank, Shank 2 and Klei in general.

Specifically speaking Jamie discusses a bit of his opinions on Shank and how he and his team wanted to improve on what they achieved with Shank. We discuss some of the flaws in Shank and how they’ve been addressed in Shank 2. On top of that, we discuss the reasoning behind choosing a survival mode as this game’s multiplayer mode instead of another co-op campaign. There’s also plenty of Klei-related talk for those interested in learning more about an indie developer.

Any fans of brawlers should check out Shank and Shank 2, the latter of which has had plenty of awesome coverage over the last couple months. There’s single player footage and footage of the new survival mode as well as all kinds of cool things for fans like this Shank 3D papercraft. There have been quite a few changes to the Shank experience for Shank 2 and Jamie and I spare no detail when discussing them, especially with survival mode.

Shank 2 is out on XBLA on February 8 for 800MSP.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Special Guest:

Jamie Cheng, Founder of Klei Entertainment (@klei)

XBLA Fancast Special: Shank 2 Interview

XBLAFancast Episode 47 – The UNO Diaries

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:58:02 +0000

Andrew returns this week for a bumper episode, lots of games and news to talk about and we even debut another new segment!

We kick things off talking about last week’s releases of Quarrel and Puddle, unlike some other weeks we’ve actually played enough of these to have an informed discussion!

Perry of course brings all the big news stories, for the full posts of those check below for links.

For this week’s Todd Talk, Todd has some feelings on The Behemoth’s recent statement that they’re going back to the drawing board with Battleblock Theatre.

Finally, we debut Community Corner, in which Andrew grabs some twitter questions from you guys and also sets a challenge. This week he wants everyone to check out Switchball and send their thoughts to us on twitter, so get to it!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Hybrid trailer

Anomaly Warzone Earth out in March for 800 MSP

Harmonix working on an unannounced XBLA game

Trials Evolution leaked

Activision to publish Dark Reign for XBLIG

Gotham City Impostors Open Beta

Rumor: The Simpsons Arcade game maybe coming out this month?

Deal of the Week: Bastion 50% off

XBLAFancast Episode 47 – The UNO Diaries

XBLAFancast Episode 46 – I love pork

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:33:01 +0000

Back to a three man show this week, myself, Perry and Todd haven’t been playing too much this week. There has however been a whole lot of news so we talk about that, there sure are a lot of games coming out in February.

We also debut a brand new segment! It’s called Todd Talk and it involves Todd talking, it’s ingenius naming I’m sure you’ll agree. For his first Todd Talk our guide co-ordinator extrordinaire shares some thoughts on DLC in relation to XBLA games.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Happy Action Theater price – Rhythm Party also for Feb. 1 – Shank 2 release date and price – Gotham City Impostors possible release date?House Party release dates and prices

Deadlight announced for 2012 – Teaser trailer

Rumor: Microsoft phasing out MSP? – Minecraft inspiring Microsoft to speed up XBLA patching process?

Candy wins Kingdom of Keflings DLC

XBLAFancast Episode 46 – I love pork

XBLAFancast Episode 45

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:47:28 +0000

I’m joined by the regular crew of Perry, Todd and Andrew this week for a pretty packed show. We kick things off by talking about the very disappointing release of AMY. It’s a game that is getting pretty much universally panned, Perry and I talk about some of the reasons why. We also wonder if there’s any chance the game could be saved by post release patches much like Hydrophobia.

Other than that it’s up to Andrew to talk about what he’s been playing, as the rest of us haven’t played all that much. Thankfully his games lead us into an interesting discussion about XBLA multiplayer communities and whether bad games being released have any affect on them.

Perry grabs a few of the notable news stories from the last week for us to talk about, including a few Double Fine related snippets.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Quarrel launching Jan. 25 for 400 MSP

House Party begins Feb. 15 – 800 MSP for buying all the titles

Nexuiz for 800 MSP

Happy Action Theater launches Feb. 1 – Iron Brigade: Rise of the Martian Bear trailer

You decide on the next Keflings DLC

XBLAFancast Episode 45

XBLAFancast Episode 44

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:48:57 +0000

Sorry for the late show this week folks, lots of technical difficulties this week. As such the podcast may sound a bit odd in places, little jumps in audio and such. Not ideal but it shouldn’t effect your enjoyment of the show too much.

In this weeks episode we talk about the upcoming House Party promotion and then take the opportunity to discuss our most anticipated games of 2012.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

News discussed:

House Party 2012 begins Feb. 15 with Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, I Am Alive, Nexuiz, Warp

Top Selling XBLA Games for 2011

Gotham City Impostors delayed to February

Deal of the Week

Iron Brigade Community Game Night with XBLAFans

XBLAFancast Episode 44

XBLAFancast Episode 43 – Games, games, games.

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:55:45 +0000

Happy new year! With the holidays not long ended there’s not much news to speak of so it’s a bumper episode of (almost) nothing but game talk.

Community Manager Andrew Crews joins the regular crew of myself, Perry and Todd to talk about all the games we’ve been playing over the break. It’s a long list which includes everything from Renegade Ops, Sonic The Hedgehog 4, Battlefield 1943 to Meteos Wars, All Zombies Must Die!, Doritos Crash Course and many more. It’s packed show, so stop reading this and get listening!

Apologies if the audio is a bit off this week, we had to resort to a backup because of some technical issues.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too@BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Guest:

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast Episode 43 – Games, games, games.

XBLAFancast Episode 42 – Game of the year edition

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 23:26:16 +0000

To celebrate our game of the year awards, which you should totally check out. Myself, Todd and Perry discuss a few of our favourite XBLA games from the past year. What were some of yours?

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too@BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green - Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast Episode 42 – Game of the year edition

XBLAFancast – Elfsquad7 Special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:13:59 +0000

I recently had the chance to talk to Derek Paxton and Scott Tykoski from Stardock Entertainment. They joined me to talk about their recent and surprising Xbox Live Indie Game release, Elfsquad7. We talk a little about the unique situation of a well known PC developer like Stardock putting out an indie game as well as the process around Elfsquad7′s creation and release.

Elfsquad7 is a Christmas themed co-op platformer, you can grab it on the Xbox Live Marketplace right now for 80 points.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too@BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Special guests:

Derek Paxton

Scott Tykoski

XBLAFancast – Elfsquad7 Special

Interview: THQ’s Russell Brock on Voltron

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 17:00:12 +0000

In this special we talk with Voltron: Defender of the Universe Producer Russell Brock. We take a little time to reminisce about the good ole’ days when Voltron was on TV, the franchise’s recent resurgence, and most importantly THQ/Behaviour’s fantastic twin-stick shooter. Be sure to check it out for the 411 on the background of both the game and the series, and while you’re at it, check out our review.

Please subscribe, comment, review the podcast on iTunes and tell your friends! We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question.
As always thanks to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

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Hosted by:

Steve Melton (@GTTeancum)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@RandomlyRossy)

Special guest:

Russell Brock, THQ

Interview: THQ’s Russell Brock on Voltron

XBLAFancast Special – Bodoink interview

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:12:33 +0000

In this special edition of the XBLA Fancast we sit down with Robomodo’s Lead Designer, Patrick Dwyer. In addition to the recently announced Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign for their pachinko/pinball hybrid, Bodoink. The main idea of the Kickstarter is to get community input on how they should design the game, and depending on how much you donate you’ll have different levels of involvement in the decision-making process. We discuss how the game is coming along, the cool prizes of the Kickstarter campaign, and a lot of other topics ranging from achievements to a more holistic view of Kickstarter. Check out the interview, and then check out our other coverage of Bodoink right here!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too@BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Nick DePetris (@ndepetris)

XBLAFancast Special – Bodoink interview

XBLAFancast Episode 41

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:55:19 +0000

It’s just the regular crew of myself, Perry and Todd for a regular episode of this here podcast.

This week there’s plenty to talk about, as we’ve all been playing Iron Brigade after the big update and European release. Both Perry and Todd have played a bunch of this weeks release of Joe Danger: Special edition. Read Perry’s review to find out more about his thoughts on the game.

Then we discuss a bunch of news from the last week, including the new dashboard, Xbox Live on iOS and the XBLA trailers from the VGA’s.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Xbox Live comes to iOS

Bastion gets DLC for the holidays

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD developed by Robomodo – Trailer

Alan Wake’s American Nightmare info – Trailer

Sonic CD on December 14 for 400 MSP

XBLAFancast Episode 41

XBLAFancast Episode 40

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:38:16 +0000

This weeks show starts off a little different as Nathan Bowring joins myself and Perry to talk a little about the new dash (which is now out).

After that Todd joins us for a regular show as we talk about last weeks releases as well as a few other things we’ve been playing. That includes Iron Brigade, Voltron, Mercury Hg and Half-Minute Hero. Then onto news and listener/reader questions to round things out!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Guest:

Nathan Bowring

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

Music used:

Sushi Box – Anamanaguchi (Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game)

News discussed:

Might & Delight unveil Pid

Trine 2 release date, December 21

IGF entrants have chance at first ever XBLA prize

Alan Wake on XBLA “effectively Alan Wake 2″ – NOT ALAN WAKE 2

Portal’s glaDOS takes over new Defense Grid expansion

XBLAFancast Episode 40

XBLAFancast Episode 39 – “I’m not gonna help you bro”

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:48:17 +0000

We talk about XBLA this week! Honest!

John Carson once again joins the regular crew of myself, Perry Jackson and Todd Schlickbernd. We talk briefly about last weeks release of Xotic before spending a little too long talking about Saints Row: The Third. Then it’s onto XBLA news, of which there was some this week.

We close things out by answering some of your questions, yay for you! Thanks to everyone who sent some in.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Guest:

John Carson (@John_Carson)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Ocotber sales analysis

Splosion spouses in Retro City Rampage

Minecraft XBLA trailer

Iron Brigade to launch November 30th

Orcs Must Die! DLC will be coming to XBLA

Ghetto Golf coming in 2012

Blossom Minds debuts Walter

Rayman 3 coming to XBLA in Spring 2012

XBLAFancast Episode 39 – “I’m not gonna help you bro”

XBLAFancast Special – A Virus Named Tom interview

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 17:42:48 +0000

We recently had the opportunity to play an early build of quirky action-puzzler A Virus Named Tom and were able to follow it up with an interview with Tim Keenan, creator of the game and founder of its development studio Misfits Attic. After a brief intro to the game and the company, we break into a discussion of the art, humor, influences, and focus on co-op/multiplayer that makes this game different from a lot of what’s out there on XBLA. Along the way we hit on a lot of development talk including what makes a good achievement and why working with non-gamers can be a good thing. It was a lot of fun to record and thanks go out to Tim for taking the time to talk.

We’re looking forward to hearing more about A Virus Named Tom as it draws closer to release. Check them out on Twitter at @Misfitsattic or at the links above. They do a lot of community interaction – including incorporating ideas generated by the community in the game – so head on over and let them know what you think! Stay tuned here as well for more information as we hear it.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Nick Depetris (@ndepetris)

Guest:

Tim Keenan

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast Special – A Virus Named Tom interview

XBLAFancast Episode 38 – Jet Set …Radio

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:32:49 +0000

It’s a pretty slow time for XBLA games and XBLA news at the moment, so there’s not a lot of XBLA discussion on this weeks show. That doesn’t stop us though, as the regular crew of myself, Perry and Todd are joined by John Carson to talk for around an hour.

Subjects include Fusion: Genesis, Skyrim, Dragons, Modern Warfare 3, Jet Set Radio and Dragons. It’s a fairly offbeat show (with some cursing, apologies) but we think it made for a fun one. So give it a listen and let us know what you think!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Guest:

John Carson (@John_Carson)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast Episode 38 – Jet Set …Radio

XBLAFancast – Iron Brigade interview

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:01:04 +0000

I recently had the chance to talk to Iron Brigade (AKA Trenched) Project Lead Brad Muir from Double Fine. Brad talks a bit about the upcoming update and European release for Iron Brigade, which will include a bunch of new content. He also outlines what we can expect from the first DLC pack, Rise of the Martian Bear which sees the Iron Brigade story take the fight against the tubes to Mars.

After that we get into a discussion of XBLA in general and talk about some of the pros and cons of the service as well as what the service will hopefully evolve into.

Thanks to Brad for coming on the show and keep checking back for news on that update, which should be out very very soon.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast – Iron Brigade interview

XBLAFancast Episode 37 – Space!

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:32:29 +0000

A slightly late show this week, technical problems and business were the cause. Once again we’ve got lots of discussion though, so hopefully that’ll make up for it!

Todd and Perry have been playing a bunch of Guardian Heroes (check out Perry’s review) so they talk the so 90′s it hurts brawler for a while. Then Todd and I move onto Fusion: Genesis (review forthcoming), we try our best to describe our time so far with this ambitious, if confusing, space-faring game.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Awsomenauts releasing in Feb 2012

Amy gameplay trailer

Ubisoft acquires Red Lynx

Joe Danger Special Edition officially coming to XBLA – Trailer

First screenshot of Alan Wake on XBLA (Alan Wake’s Night Springs?)

XBLAFancast Episode 37 – Space!

XBLAFancast Episode 36

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:28:07 +0000

We decided to skip the news this week, since there really wasn’t much that would make for good podcast discussion. Thankfully we all played a lot of XBLA and boy to we talk about it, can you believe we were worried we’d have a short show?

So, if you want to hear us talk about all of last weeks XBLA releases as well as a fewer other things, such as Orcs Must Die! and Trenched then this is the podcast for you!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

XBLAFancast Episode 36

XBLAFancast Episode 35 – Most Wanted

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 19:37:54 +0000

It’s a weird show this week. There’s not a whole lot to talk about XBLA related as a result this show is full of a few more tangents than the average one. We do talk some more about Dungeon Defenders though and there’s a few news stories to cover too. But we also hit a few retail related things, such as a certain Bat person’s newest game and some demos we tried out.

At the end of the show we try a little something new and bring the site’s Most Wanted feature to the audio realm as myself, Perry and Todd pick a game we’d like to see come to XBLA and explain why.

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Co-hosted by:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

News discussed:

EA announced NFL Blitz for XBLA

Joe Danger Special Edition coming to XBLA?

Minecraft coming exclusively to XBLA in Spring 2012

Netflix UK

Sales!

XBLAFancast Episode 35 – Most Wanted

XBLAFancast Episode 34 – Hells of bass edition

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 22:53:25 +0000

I’m joined by Todd and Perry this week and we have theme music! Huge thanks to Chris Green for that, we love it!

We’ve changed things up a little bit with this episode, we start off with what we’ve been playing. For me and Perry that’s not too much but Todd has been playing a whole lot of Dungeon Defenders both for review and for a guide. He likes it quite a lot, listen to find out why!

It’s then onto news before we bring back the twitter topic! Thanks to @downsouthtigger for the topic, sorry we didn’t have more to say!

Big thanks again to Chris Green for the awesome theme music, be sure to check out his site BlurredEdge and why not follow him on twitter too @BlurredEdge.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Intro music:

Chris Green – Blurred Edge

News discussed:

Xbox Live accounts hacked for Fifa items

Fusion Genesis, new space shooter form ex-Rare devs

South Park Tenormans Revenge coming to XBLA in 2012 (Trailer)

Sega FINALLY confirms Daytona USA is coming to XBLA, October 26th

Microsoft buys Twisted Pixel

Iron Brigade/Trenched DLC, Rise of the Martian Bear

XBLAFancast Episode 34 – Hells of bass edition

XBLAFancast Episode 33 – Shooting dudes in the butt

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:27:09 +0000

Perry Jackson and Jon Cole join me this week for a fairly light show. We kick off discussing a bunch of new game announcements from this past week and then talk a little about what we’ve been playing, which unfortunately isn’t too much.

Apologies for the spotty audio this week, not sure what happened there. Shall try and get it sorted for next time.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Jonathan Cole (@jonathanacole) - GameThingDaily

News discussed:

Double Fine set to make multiple announcements on Friday

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet gets new DLC

(Bit Trip) Runner 2 coming to XBLA

Capsized coming to XBLA this Dec

South Park Who wants to be a millionaire coming later this year

Leisure Suit Larry HD set to pervery XBLA in 2012

Microsoft and partners to bring TV to Xbox 360

XBLAFancast Episode 33 – Shooting dudes in the butt

XBLAFancast Episode 32 – Stick it in

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:27:58 +0000

Back to a three man show this week as I am joined by John Carson and Jon Cole. It’s been a fairly slow news week so we get through the weeks stories fairly quickly and move swiftly onto talking about what we’ve been playing. We get a nice mix of XBLA games, including Burnout Crash, Section 8 Prejudice and Clash of Heroes, before talking a whole lot of mess about the Battlefield 3 beta.

I am in the middle of moving house at the moment so it’s a fairly quick and dirty edit to the show this week, apologies if it sounds a bit rougher than usual.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

John Carson (@john_carson)

Jonathan Cole (@jonathanacole) - GameThingDaily

News discussed:

Deadliest Warriors going retail

Counter Strike: GO new modes etc

Shank 2 announced for 2012 release

Fez delayed till early 2012

I Am Alive is alive, on xbla this year

XBLAFancast Episode 32 – Stick it in

XBLAFancast Special – Orcs Must Die! interview

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 16:41:02 +0000

Orcs have been a problem throughout the universe for all eternity. Well. Maybe not, but they still have to die! And so they will in Robot Entertainment’s action tower defense strategy game Orcs Must Die! Justin Korthoff, Community Manager at Robot Ent, joins myself and John Laster to discuss the game’s origin, some details about Robot Ent, and of course the awesome points of the game.

Justin goes over the bit of time following Ensemble Studios’ collapse all the way up through the beginning of Orcs Must Die!, and how small the game started at first. On top of that is the birth of a lot of the game mechanics, how three traps turned into over 20, and how the crossbow and various other elements of the game were balanced to ensure that each of the game’s levels played differently. This podcast is full of great insight into the processes regarding this game’s development and the result of those design strategies.

Venture forth and listen!

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Hosted by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)
John Laster (@cain141)

Special guest:

Justin Korthoff (@SixOkay)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

XBLAFancast Special – Orcs Must Die! interview

XBLAFancast – Skulls of the Shogun Interview Special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:32:45 +0000

Upcoming turn based strategy game Skulls of the Shogun is being developed by a core team of three gentlemen at Haunted Temple. We were lucky enough to talk with the founder and design director Jake Kazdal (the guy in the dev diary). Fresh from his showing of the game at Fantastic Arcade, Jake was kind enough to venture into the netherworld and sort out some of the details, or rather, pretty much all of the details on Skulls of the Shogun.

Of the massive plethora of topics discussed, up first was mechanics. While the game may look shallow at first, we can guarantee you the tactics go far deeper than one might imagine, without being all that complicated. Spirit walls, eating skulls and haunting structures are just some of the finer mechanics in Skulls of the Shogun. Jake goes on to discuss art direction and story, telling of his time spent in Japan and the myriad of influences that period of his life has had on the development of Skulls of the Shogun.

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Hosted by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Special guest:

Jake Kazdal (@jkooza)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

XBLAFancast – Skulls of the Shogun Interview Special

XBLAFancast Episode 31

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 17:57:07 +0000

After a week off due to scheduling crazyness we’re back, although it’s just myself and Todd. We hit some of the news from the last couple of weeks before the usual what we’ve been playing. Including the few XBLA related things I played during my time at Eurogamer Expo.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

News discussed:

Iron Brigade marches into certification

Orcs Must Die out on Oct 5th NBA Jam On Fire Edition on Oct 5th

Just Add Water asks fans to sign petition in support on Oddworld 360

Shadow Complex 2 still lives says CliffyB

Xbox Live to be integrated into Windows 8

Massive XBLA sale

XBLAFancast Episode 31

XBLAFancast Episode 30

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:36:17 +0000

It’s a four man show this week as Damon Fillman and John Drawdy join myself and Perry. It’s a longer than usual episode too, we also ran into some technical issues so apologies if there are any audio oddities.

In this episode we discuss why it matters that Crysis isn’t coming to XBLA, or rather whether there needs to be more distinction on the different parts of the marketplace. We also hit on the Indie Game Summer Uprising as well as the recent public argument between Team Meat and Zen Studios.

We talk about last weeks releases, most of which we tried out or in my case reviewed. Then we round things out with this weeks twitter topic, which was provided by @Talus.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Damon Fillman (@DamonFillman)

John Drawdy (@pwjuggalo)

News discussed:

Real Steel game announced, October release

Indie Game Summer Uprising gets dashboard spotlight

Trenched becomes Iron Brigade everywhere, more content/dlc coming

Team Meat vs Zen – Editorial: Not everyone thinks Microsoft is evil

Counterstrike Global Offensive details

Crysis is not coming to XBLA

XBLAFancast Episode 30

XBLAFancast Episode 29 – Forgetting how to talk

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 16:04:26 +0000

It’s a madcap episode this week, in which everyone on the show forgets how to speak English at least once. I’m once again joined by Perry and Todd jumps on to talk some Crimson Alliance. In case you were wondering, he rather likes it as you can read in his review.

We quickly run through the news, as there isn’t too much worth talking about and then there’s even less to talk about game wise as we haven’t played too much of the recent releases. Thankfully Todd saves us with Crimson Alliance talk and we slip in a little (slightly related) iOS game discussion.

Please subscribe, comment, review and spread word about the podcast. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

News discussed:

No DLC for Bastion

Joe Danger possible coming to XBLA?

Playdead studios now own Playdead studios

Uber done with XBLA Monday Night Combat

Guardian Heroes coming out October 12

Skydrift coming out in Europe only tomorrow?

XBLAFancast Episode 29 – Forgetting how to talk

XBLAFancast Episode 28

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 21:37:03 +0000

With John and Andrew both stepping down from the podcast for a while it’s left to me to take the hosting reigns. I’m joined by Perry Jackson and John Carson, who were good enough to record this particularly episode twice after we had some technical difficulties (surprise).

There was quite a bit of news out of PAX last week, from game announcements to title updates so we spend a while talking about some of them.

Sadly Street Fighter III is the only release from last week any of us spent much time with, but Perry and John spent a lot of time with it. They share their thoughts and John gives a little preview of his review which should be on the site soon. Since we had some time to kill we take a detour to some retail game discussion with the recently released Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Please subscribe, comment, review and spread word about the podcast. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question.

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Hosted, produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Guests:

Perry Jackson (@prryjcksn)

John Carson (@John_Carson) – Game Informer Smashathon documentary

Music used:

Darren Korb – A Proper Story & Build That Wall (Zia’s Theme) from Bastion

News discussed:

Saints Row Money Shot?

Kim Swift’s new game Quantum Conundrum

Counter Strike Global Offensive details

Penny Arcade Episode 3 is a thing

Castle Crashers gets title update and content 3 years on

Crimson Alliance pricing details

Guardian Heroes gone gold

Mortal Kombat Kollection August 31st.

XBLAFancast Episode 28

Interview with Choplifter HD’s Senior Game Designer, Jairo Silva

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:00:20 +0000

We got a chance to talk with Jairo Silva, Senior Game Designer on inXile Entertainment’s upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title, Choplifter HD. The game’s premise is simple, there are people out there that need rescuing and you’ve got to be the one to rescue them. The majority of the game therefore consists of managing your helicopter’s fuel and damage while either dodging or eliminating threats and of course touching down to pick up stranded civilians from a variety of perilous situations.

Jairo details much of Choplifter HD‘s finer points for those who aren’t entirely sure what’s going on from the gameplay. Beyond that as with every indie developer we at XBLAFans always like to talk about what it’s like on the inside, so listen in and find out some of what the team has done in working with the original designer of Choplifter to make this version a more modern, fleshed out game- the game Dan Gorlin wanted to make years ago.

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Hosted by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Special guest:

Jairo Silva (@Inxile_Ent)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Interview with Choplifter HD’s Senior Game Designer, Jairo Silva

XBLAFancast Episode 27

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:35:08 +0000

Once again technical difficulties have conspired to make this show late but we powered through and bring you this late but still pretty good podcast.

John is stepping down from the podcast for a while so this week Andrews steps up to the hosting chair, joined by myself and Todd. We hit some news first off, including an unexpected rant about fighting games and some bemoaning of Fruit Ninja DLC.

We sadly lose Todd for the what we’ve been playing section, his internet didn’t want you guys to hear about the games he’d been playing, but myself and Andrew talk about a whole bunch of stuff. Including this weeks release of Crazy Machines Elements which Andrew thoroughly enjoyed.

Andrew shares the news of his new job as a member of Xbox Support on twitter, as a result he won’t be on the show for a while. So tune in next week for a totally on time edition of the show hosted by myself with some new voices for you to listen to.

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Hosted by:

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News discussed:

Sonic CD coming to XBLA

Sonic 4 Episode 2 not till 2012

Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown announced

XBLA Sales July 2011

Trenched becomes Iron Brigade for September Euro release

XBLAFancast Episode 27

XBLAFancast Episode 26

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 05:36:41 +0000

Feels like it’s been a while since we’ve spent quite a bit of time on news, but we did! Yay us. Or rather, yay you, because you get to enjoy the tagential and more than a few times irate banter that John L, Andrew and I share on this episode as we discuss the Xbox 360′s superiority and how Xbox Live Arcade still has some popular genres and mechanics left untouched.

We also discuss the mysterious absence of Dungeon Defenders and the mysterious still-in-the-works of Sonic 4: Episode 2. Beyond that, with Counter Strike and Gotham City Imposters representing the first person shooter genre on the XBLA, we wonder if either will work out.

After the news Andrew and John go on and on about how great Toy Soldiers: Cold War is and I nod all the way through. I tell a whimsical From Dust story which may be just slightly spoilery if you haven’t finished the game yet. It’s more of a gameplay spoiler than a story spoiler, though arguably the two are pretty close in that game. Regardless, to top it all off we have a wonderful Twitter topic which gets us angry at games (again), but will we want to punch babies this episode? Find out!

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

News discussed:
Counter-Strike returns with a Global Offensive in 2012

Creators of Just Cause “definitely” making more downloadable titles

Xbox 360 top-selling console for past 7 months

Make an Impostor of your very own

Get your hands on Trials Evolution at PAX

Sonic 4 Episode 2 information “soon”

Dungeon Defenders finally passed Microsoft’s certification

XBLAFancast Episode 26

XBLAFancast Episode 25

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:50:38 +0000

It’s another slow news week and we’re also down one John Laster. Thankfully Todd fills the void and brings with him a ton of games to talk about. Myself and Andrew have a few to talk about to, so what could have been a fairly short and empty show is packed full of XBLA game discussion. So, get listening!

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News discussed:

New XBLA Kinect game every month throughout the end of the year

Sine Mora coming to XBLA this winter

Rumour: Rally X Rumble tradmarked by Namco-Bandai for Namco Generations

Indie Games Summer Uprising trailer

Bloodrayne Betrayal delayed

XBLAFancast Episode 25

XBLAFancast – Fruit Ninja Kinect Special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:00:35 +0000

In this special episode of the XBLAFancast we chat with Matt Knights of Halfbrick Studios about their upcoming game, Fruit Ninja Kinect. We discuss what exactly Fruit Ninja is, for those who haven’t played the portable version, and how it’s been changed to suit the Kinect interface. Matt explains the additions to the game including more blades and backgrounds in the dojo and a whole new feature for unlocking new shadows. Unlike the portable version, FNK has a multiplayer mode, so we talk about that as well, how it’s different from the solo and what players can expect from it.

To round out the episode we talk some lighter chat including some Halfbrick info. Matt talks about how it’s been working on their second XBLA title and how porting an existing game differs from the processes involved in creating their first XBLA game, Raskulls. FNK is a score-centric game, so we of course demand Halfbrick’s top scores in all their modes so that we might demolish their scores, however intimidating they may seem! Here they are:

Fruit Ninja Kinect Developer High Scores
Arcade: 1064
Zen: 278
Classic: 816
Team Arcade: 2012
Pomegranate: 86 Hits

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Special guest:

Matt Knights (@Halfbrick)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

XBLAFancast – Fruit Ninja Kinect Special

Crimson Alliance audio interview and walkthrough

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 21:08:13 +0000

At Comic Con we were lucky enough to get some quality time with Mike McCarthy, UI designer on Certain Affinity’s Crimson Alliance. Mike discusses the goals and focuses of Crimson Alliance as well as explaining what’s going on bit by bit. As we play solo through the demo level with the wizard Mike sets up each situation, introducing enemies and explaining gameplay mechanics. We also endeavor to tackle the record for highest combat multiplier to date.

This audio accompanies (or can be listened to instead of) our hands-on preview.

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Hosted by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Special guest:

Mike McCarthy (Crimson Alliance)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Crimson Alliance audio interview and walkthrough

XBLAFancast Episode 24

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:02:55 +0000

We had an exceptionally late episode last week, but we’re making up for it this week with possibly the most punctual episode yet! The usual cast of myself, John Laster and Andrew Crews are joined by Deputy Editor Steve Melton to discuss all things XBLA.

It’s a very slow news week this week so we spend more time that we should discussing just why we don’t want yet another Worms game on XBLA.

Things take a better turn when we hit the what we’ve been playing and twitter topic segments, in which there is some pretty interesting discussion of topics ranging from retro remakes to the often discussed friends list limit.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Steve Melton (@GTTeancum)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News discussed:

Fruit Ninja to come with The Gunstringer

Double Dragon 2: Wander of the Dragons coming to XBLA (1200points, September)

Worms Ultimate Mayhem combines Worms 4 and 3D, coming later this year

XBLAFancast Episode 24

XBLAFans interviews Dan Paladin of The Behemoth

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:00:34 +0000

XBLAFans’ coverage of San Diego Comic Con isn’t all text and hands on, we’ve also got an interview with the one and only Dan Paladin of The Behemoth.

Dan Paladin and Todd Schlickbernd discuss all things Battleblock Theater. Dan discusses some of the methods in which Battleblock has been influenced by Castle Crashers and its massive community. Of course the meat of the talk is all things Battleblock including a detailed description of the game’s player to player trading function.

The Behemoth and XBLAFans are crashing down the theater in this interview so be sure to check it out. For some related reading, head on over to our hands-on preview of Battleblock Theater‘s story mode.

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Hosted by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Special guest:

Dan Paladin (@thebehemoth)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

XBLAFans interviews Dan Paladin of The Behemoth

XBLAFancast Episode 23

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:43:32 +0000

Please pardon another late release for the podcast here, we had some major issues with the recording and then further issues on the editing, so it all sort of snowballed. But it’s finally here! If you haven’t yet (and there’s a pretty good chance you haven’t since this is going up first) check out our interview with Dan Paladin from The Behemoth.

We’re in the thick of the Summer of Arcade promotion and there’s a lot of love for Bastion going on. But before that there’s some news bits here and there, very business heavy as we cover some of the sales figures from Q2 and reflect on some past releases and the House Party promotion.

Andrew talks about what he doesn’t like about Bastion because if we all just talked about what we liked the podcast would never end. John and I gush about Orcs Must Die! and I discuss my time at Comic Con and highlight some of my favorite games and experiences in a reply to this week’s twitter topic.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Todd Schlickbernd (@Emessai)

Music used:

None, sorry.

News discussed:

Ms Splosion Man prologue DLC

Voltron coming to XBLA this October

Ghost Rider for Marvel Pinball

First half of 2011 sales numbers + June 2011 numbers

Ubisofts digital sales grow thanks to recent xbla hits

Crimson Alliance pursuing other pricing options

XBLAFancast Episode 23

XBLAFancast Episode 22

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:33:39 +0000

Apologies for the delay in getting this weeks episode up, the various technical difficulties with the site caused some issues. But here it is, only a couple of days late. In the meantime you hopefully checked out our special episode about Bastion featuring Greg Kasavin of Supergiant Games. If not go listen to it now!

It’s a slow news week so there’s only a few things to discuss before we move onto what we’ve been playing. Andrew talks about the trials of MLB Bobblehead DLC as well as the much more agreeable Warhammer 40k Kill Team which he reviewed. John and I discuss a few of the things we’ve been playing before we round out things with some twitter topics and questions.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music used:

Ms Splosion Man Theme – Twisted Pixel

News discussed:

Konami turn to fans for their next XBLA game

More South Park on XBLA

Indie Games Summer Uprising line-up announced

XBLAFancast Episode 22

XBLAFancast – Bastion Special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:00:01 +0000

We have a special episode of the XBLAFancast for you this week, don’t worry we’ve got a regular show coming tomorrow too (cause we love ya).

For this special however John Laster and Stephen Haberman are joined by Supergiant Games’ Greg Kasavin. As one would expect this episode focuses on Supergiant Games’ debut title, and the Summer of Arcade opener, Bastion. An action RPG with a beautiful art style, wonderful music and a unique hook in the narrator who comments on your actions throughout the game.

Greg talks about how he got into the industry before moving onto the creation of Supergiant Games and the development of Bastion itself.

Be sure to check out Stephen’s review for a more detailed look at what he thought of Bastion.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Stephen Haberman (@themarriedgamer)

Special guest:

Greg Kasavin (@kasavin)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music featured:

Bastion Theme courtesy of Supergiant Games

XBLAFancast – Bastion Special

XBLAFancast Episode 21

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:30:40 +0000

It’s another three man show this week with John, Andrew and myself. We’ve officially decided to bump our episode length to one hour, we weren’t very good at sticking to the 30 minute one anyway so here’s hoping this works out better!

A little bit of a slow news week this week but we still find a few stories that spark some interesting conversation. Including Ms Splosion Man getting a table in Pinball FX2 and those Resident Evil ports heading to anywhere but XBLA.

We had a few new releases last week, John and Andrew played with them some so they talk a bit about those. Spoilers: Andrew is not a fan of MLB Bobbleheads. Since I haven’t played the newer release I talk about my continuing love of Half-Minute Hero (and it’s music) and of course Trenched.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music used:

Jump by Laura Shigihara (Plants vs Zombies composer) from the Play For Japan charity Album.

News discussed:

Ms Splosion Man table coming to Pinball FX 2

Burnout Crash finally (officially) revealed

Resident Evil ports not XBLA afterall

NBA Jam: On Fire Edition details

XBLIG devs talk about low sales

XBLAFancast Episode 21

Community: Be a part of the XBLAFancast and win prizes

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:56:30 +0000

We here at XBLAFans would like to further involve our community in our weekly podcast, the XBLAFancast. So starting this week, we would like to introduce a new section into our show, the Twitter Topic section.

The Twitter Topic section is an open invitation for you the fan to provide a topic or question that you would like to hear discussed on the show. To enter your Twitter Topic into the weekly running, all you have to do is tweet your topic at us @XBLAFans and include the hashtag #XBLATT. The podcast staff will choose the Twitter Topic that makes it on to the show, it will not be a random drawing. So make your submission count because we want to generate a good discussion with this feature.

If your Twitter Topic is chosen by our podcast staff, you will be given credit in the show (we’ll mention your twitter handle) and we will also send you a redeemable code for and XBLA game, XBLIG game, Avatar Prop or DLC code. The prize really depends on what codes we happen to have in our reserve for that particular week. So get your submissions in today and become a part of the XBLAFancast!

And if you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to the XBLAFancast on iTunes.

Community: Be a part of the XBLAFancast and win prizes

XBLAFancast Episode 20

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:03:01 +0000

Apologies for the delay this week folks, various technical difficulties and the like as usual attempted to take us down but we won’t be stopped!

Todd Schlickbernd joins John and Andrew to discuss all things XBLA, including everyone’s thoughts on the future of digital distribution.

The guys also hit on last weeks releases including Backbreaker: Vengeance and Half-Minute Hero.

In case you missed it, we had a special episode all about Awesomenauts in which we talked to Ronimo Games co-founder Jasper Koning. Be sure to check it out!

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

XBLAFancast Episode 20

XBLAFancast – Awesomenauts special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 17:31:03 +0000

John Laster and Todd Schlickbernd are joined by Ronimo Games co-founder Jasper Koning to discuss Ronimo’s upcoming game Awesomenauts. Jasper shares a ton of details about various aspects of gameplay aswell as changes to the games style since it began development.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music used:

Awesomenauts theme

XBLAFancast – Awesomenauts special

XBLAFancast Episode 19

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:38:56 +0000

It’s the (now regular) cast of three again this week. It’s a news heavy show, stories below, among the stories and subjects discussed are pricing, remakes and of course the Summer of Arcade.

Lucha Fury gets a little time (but it’s not very good so we skip over it mostly) while we round things out with a bit more Trenched now that all of us have played it.

Big thanks to Insane Ian for letting us use his awesome Achievement Unlocked song in this episode. Check out links to his stuff below.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music used:

Achievement Unlocked by Insane Ian (@insaneianb)

News discussed:

Bejeweled 3 coming to XBLA

Indie Game The Movie trailer

The Baconing (Deathspank) first details and screens

Double Dragon series returning to XBLA?

TMNT Turtle In Time Re-shelled being delisted June 30th

Dead Block coming July 6th (800 Points)

Backbreaker to cost 1200 points (out next week)

Summer of Arcade dates and pricing (Free copy of Crimson Alliance)

XBLAFancast Episode 19

XBLAFancast Episode 18 – Shuggy’s Magic Trench

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:11:47 +0000

A three man show this week and we’ve got a whole lot to talk about. John is joined by Andrew and myself again and as usual we start off discussing the past weeks most interesting news stories. (links below)

We finally got a couple of XBLA releases last week in the form of The Adventures of Shuggy and Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. Andrew and John played each of these respectively and enjoyed them quite a alot. I reviewed Trenched, which is out this week so I talk about that for a while.

Please subscribe, comment, review and spread word about the podcast. We appreciate it! Check us out on twitter (@XBLAFans) where you can win codes for games, give us feedback or just ask a question.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music used:

Excerpts from the Spelunky Teaser by Eirik Suhrke

News discussed:

Spelunky trailer/details

Lucha Fury: Life as a henchman isn’t all its cracked up to be. (older gameplay video here) This is going to be released on Weds alongside Trenched according to AceyBongos.

Indie Games Summer Uprising

Warhammer 40k: Kill Team & Red Factions: Battlegrounds dev shutdown, Kill Team set for July release.

Minecraft Kinect port coming to XBLA

Radiant Silvergun details

Undead Labs shed light on Class3

XBLA sales for May

XBLAFancast Episode 18 – Shuggy’s Magic Trench

XBLAFancast Episode 17 – E3 Special Part 2!

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:54:41 +0000

E3 may be over but there’s still plenty to talk about and this week we even have people who were there, which certainly helps. If you missed last weeks episode (it was a bit late going up) be sure to check it out here.

John Laster is back in the hosting chair this week and since he was lucky enough to see pretty much every XBLA game being shown at E3 he tells us about all of um. There’s really not much else to say about this weeks podcast, so get listening!

If you want to know even more about what John, Stephen and Kaitlyn saw be sure to keep an eye on our previews section. Be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes and hey if you like the show why not give us a review?

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guests:

Stephen Haberman (@themarriedgamer)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Music used:

Violent Jade Suite – Christophe Heral (Beyond Good & Evil)

XBLAFancast Episode 17 – E3 Special Part 2!

XBLAFancast Episode 16 – E3 Special!

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 12:03:46 +0000

Various events far too boring to describe led to a very delayed podcast this week. But that shouldn’t stop you from listening because this hour and 30 minute long podcast is well worth it. Unsurpringly it’s all about E3 which just finished up in LA.

Andrew takes up the hosting chair again since John was at E3 itself checking out all the cool new stuff. He’s joined by Ross Adams, John Carson and Damon Fillman. While none of us in the podcast were at E3 we all watched the Microsoft conference and we go through it point by point.

Those who watched will note that there was absolutely no XBLA related stuff at that conference, but don’t worry we hit all the latest XBLA news first. That includes the announcement of the Summer of Arcade line-up so get listening!

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Hosted by:

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guests:

John Carson (@john_carson)

Damon Fillman (@pwjuggalo)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

XBLAFancast Episode 16 – E3 Special!

XBLAFancast Episode 15

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:59:06 +0000

John Laster is out this week so Andrew Crews takes his place in the hosting chair. He’s joined by Ross Adams, Jonathan Cole and John Drawdy to talk about a ton of XBLA news that has come out over the past week. We’ve got new release dates, pricing, game announcements and a few pretty cool trailers. No one played much or any of last weeks release, Daggerdale, but we played a few other things so we talk about them a little.

Due to some technical issues we had to use the backup recording for this weeks show so apologies if the audio is a bit worse than usual.

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Hosted by:

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guests:

Jonathan Cole (@jonathanacole)

John Drawdy (@pwjuggalo)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured Music:

Main theme – Lara Croft & the Guardian of Light

XBLAFancast Episode 15

XBLAFancast Episode 14

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 25 May 2011 16:17:46 +0000

Another week another almost on time podcast, as always this one is worth the wait however. We’ve got over an hour of XBLA discussion for you guys.

John and Andrew are joined by Steve Melton and Damon Fillman this week and there’s a ton of things to talk about. Forgive Damon’s quietness during the first part of the show, due to technical difficulties we unfortunately lost his audio for that portion. As usual news is up first, this past week we broke another big story this time about Alan Wake. John has to be careful what he says but the rest of the guys chime in on what they think of the idea and talk a little about retail vs XBLA in general. There’s a lot of other stuff discussed but too much to summarise, you should just listen to the show yourself. Go on, it’s right down there.

Please do subscribe to us on iTunes and review us, if you’d be so kind. We are always looking for feedback and ideas to hit us up on twitter @XBLAFans or shoot us an email.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guests:

Steve Melton

Damon Fillman (@damonfillman)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured Music:

Undercurrent (Jon Schatz Remix) from Braid

XBLAFancast Episode 14

XBLAFancast Episode 13

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 17 May 2011 20:58:03 +0000

Bit of an odd show this week, John and Andrew have a two man show for the usual segments. While Steve is joined by special guest Robb Rinard Creative Director at 2XL Games, who just announced they’re working on a new Jeremy McGrath game.

John and Andrew discuss the quite substantial list of recently announced XBLA games that will be heading our way in the near future. They also talk a bit about bad voice acting in games while also hitting on some of the recent releases.

Once that’s out of the way it’s onto Steve’s interview with Rob. Apologies for the spotty audio, those are just the pitfalls of recording things over the internet.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Steve Melton

Special guest:

Robb Rinard (Creative Director 2XL Games)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Voice clips from Grandia and Castlevania Symphony of the Night (Courtesy of Audio Atrocities)

XBLAFancast Episode 13

XBLAFancast Episode 12

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Fri, 13 May 2011 21:37:24 +0000

This podcast is meant to come out on Tuesdays, we promise.

Anyway we had another delay this week due to illness and scheduling issues, but we have two special guests to make up for it. John Laster is joined by John Carson and Damon Fillman to talk about the latest XBLA news and catch up on the new releases they didn’t have the chance to cover last week.

Small correction, the guys referred to the XBLA Dead Space game as “Extraction”. The game in question is in fact called Dead Space Ignition, Extraction which is an on-rails shooter has yet to be released on XBLA.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Special guests:

John Carson (@john_carson)

Damon Fillman (@damonfillman)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News stories discussed:

http://www.xblafans.com/guardian-heroes-for-sega-saturn-remastered-on-xbla-this-fall-13003.html

http://www.xblafans.com/saints-row-drive-by-canceled-13132.html

http://www.xblafans.com/help-unlock-new-mode-in-section-8-prejudice-13161.html

http://www.xblafans.com/sega-rally-online-arcade-rumored-for-may-18-13174.html

http://www.xblafans.com/ea-already-has-the-new-xbox-13181.html

http://www.xblafans.com/rayman-origins-no-longer-being-slapped-on-xbla-13200.html

XBLAFancast Episode 12

XBLAFancast Episode 11

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 05 May 2011 14:12:48 +0000

Another late episode, we promise we aren’t planning on making a habit of this. We’ve got a pretty special episode to make up for it though! John, Andrew and Tyler are joined by very special guest Matt Davis of Barkers Crest Studio. Matt is responsible for one of the most popular games on the Xbox Live Indie games marketplace, Avatar Golf.

The guys don’t waste the opportunity to pick the brains of an Indie Game developer so we’ve got a whole hour of in depth discussion of just what it’s like to develop an Indie Game. A ton of stuff is discussed, from what Microsoft can do to help elevate the games to Matt’s upcoming game Avatar Legends.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Special guest:

Matt Davis (@BarkersCrestStudio)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

Devil N’ Bass – dB Soundworks (Super Meat Boy)

XBLAFancast Episode 11

XBLAFancast Episode 10

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 21:23:30 +0000

A day late due to technical issues but we’ve got a jam packed show so let’s get to it!

Stephen Haberman joins John, Tyler and Andrew this week and kicks things off by talking a bit about Bastion which is now code complete. Andrew chimes in on Gatling Gears, which now has a date and price, while he’s a big fan of the game he’s not too keen on that price tag. What looked to be a Hydrophobia sequel was discovered (we now know it’s another revamp) and the guys discuss whether they think the original deserves one.

Fancy Pants Adventures and Section 8: Prejudice came out last week and the guys have been playing both, they share their fairly positive thoughts on both. Tangents into discussions of other games and even a little about reviewing games are also interspersed. Don’t forget to join us for our playdate on the 29th, details are here.

We’re back on iTunes! Please subscribe and leave us a review, we’ll be your bestest friends if you do.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Special guest:

Stephen Haberman (@TheMarriedGamer)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News stories discussed:

Bastion reaches content complete

Gatling Gears release date and price announced

Microsoft adds new measure to indie game ratings

Hydrophobia sequel flooding XBLA

XBLAFancast Episode 10

XBLAFancast – Episode 9

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 07:22:52 +0000

Steve Melton and Stephen Haberman join John and Andrew this week and they cover a lot of topics. Links for each individual news story can be found below.

Among the news stories is a Burnout game headed towards XBLA that has most of the guys excited. They also discuss the abrupt delisting of the very popular Marble Blast Ultra. Needless to say, this news was fairly shocking to all XBLA enthusiasts and the guys share their thoughts on the sad news. News of Backbreaker Vengeance heading towards XBLA spins into a heated discussion about how important player licensing is in sports games. And a quick look at March sales figures rounds out the news section.

The past few weeks have seen a few new games that the guys finally got around to talking about. Mixed opinions are given to Yar’s Revenge while Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes seems to have looked over one minor detail that is a deal breaker for John. They also discuss the failure that is Red Faction: Battlegrounds and obviously the upcoming Section 8: Prejudice comes up as Steve has been reviewing the game.

We also discuss the news that our very own Stephen Haberman has been selected as one of three lucky gamers to be sent to cover E3 for the Kmart Gamer promotion. Congratulations to Stephen and the other two lucky gamers. More details can be found here.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guests:

Steve Melton

Stephen Haberman (@TheMarriedGamer)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News stories discussed:

http://www.xblafans.com/burnout-crash-is-an-arcade-action-game-11645.html

http://www.xblafans.com/backbreaker-vengeance-due-to-hit-xbla-this-summer-11513.html

http://www.xblafans.com/red-johnsons-chronicles-episode-1-receives-mature-rating-11504.html

http://www.xblafans.com/marble-blast-ultra-delisted-11417.html

http://www.xblafans.com/xbox-live-free-to-play-games-11293.html

http://www.xblafans.com/march-2011-xbla-sales-analysis-11684.html

Reviews for games discussed in this episode:

Yar’s Revenge

Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes

Section 8: Prejudice

XBLAFancast – Episode 9

XBLAFancast – Section 8 Prejudice

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 20:24:39 +0000

This week John, Tyler and Andrew are joined by very special guest Mark Yetter from TimeGate Studios to talk about Section 8 Prejudice. A downloadable follow-up to the original Section 8, which was a full priced retail release.

The guys pump Mark for as much info as they can, from how the game went from retail to download to many aspects of gameplay. At almost an hour it’s a fairly extensive interview so get listening!

Apologies for this spotty audio, the perils of having to record a podcast via Skype. Thankfully the issues are very few and pretty minimal so hopefully it doesn’t hurt your listening experience too much.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Mark Yetter

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

XBLAFancast – Section 8 Prejudice

Brawler Week: Team Meat Interview

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:54:47 +0000

Technically Brawler Week is over but we have a slight addendum…

Associate Editor John Carson recently got the chance to speak to Edmund Mcmillen and Tommy Refenes better known as Team Meat. While Super Meat Boy isn’t a brawler the guys are big fans of the genre and hope to make a brawler at some point in the future. Edmund and Tommy discuss some of their favorite brawlers and also share their observations and ideas about the genre. You can listen to the interview below or download it to take with you wherever you may go.

Download

Brawler Week: Team Meat Interview

XBLAFancast – Episode 7

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 19:32:32 +0000

Jonathan Cole and Todd Schlickbernd join John and Andrew this week and the guys cover a lot of stuff. There’s a ton of news up front (links to the stories can be found below).

Last week saw three releases, not all of them great. Strania and Rush ‘N Attack are try it games at best but everyone is quite taken by Islands of Wakfu. It’s something a little different from the norm on XBLA.

The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile is out this week (review’s up here) and Todd has played a lot of it. Needless to say he’s pretty in love with the game and sings its praises for awhile, even grunts some praise too.

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Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guests:

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai)

Jonathan Cole (@jonathanacole)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

ZUNTATA: Reproduce (Genetic) – Space Invaders Infinity Gene

News stories discussed:

Could Hawken bring mech combat back to mainstream

Bloodrayne Betrayal announced for XBLA

Just Cause developer announces Renegade Ops

Microsoft investigating recent ratings skewing on XBLIG

Might & Magic Clash of Heroes dated

Warlords returns this summer on XBLA

XBLAFancast – Episode 7

Brawler Week: Brian Provinciano of Vblank Entertainment

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:15:56 +0000

I recently had a chance to sit down to do a short interview with Brian Provinciano of Vblank Entertainment. What I had intended to be a short interview that wouldn’t take up too much of his time turned out to be a great 30 minute conversation about his roots in the gaming industry, Retro City Rampage, and its predecessor, Grand Theftendo. Below you’ll find just a few of the highlights from our conversation. Special thanks to Brian for giving us such an in-depth interview. We’ve posted the audio below. Give it a listen and see some of the highlights after the jump.

Download

You’ve been working on Retro City Rampage for a long time, but you have your feet wet in a lot of other areas. Tell us a little bit about your background.

In the beginning I started out just doing software on the ‘net, free games and game creators. That lead to my job in the industry, so I was kind of an indie before the term was coined. My first job in games was at Digital Eclipse in 2004 where I started working on those TV joystick games; the ones that cluttered up living rooms before people stopped buying them. Back then it was like I was working on retro games, because that hardware was basically like a Sega Genesis.

I worked on a bunch of great Midway games like Mortal Kombat emulations and stuff, then I worked on Sonic Rivals 1 and 2 on PSP. Then I moved on; I did some contract work for a company on some Wii games, then went to Propaganda [Games] and worked on Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned. That was when I quit and decided to go full-time indie.

Are there any of the modern games that have an influence into what you’re putting into RCR?

I’ve taken a lot of enjoyment from modern games, such as the stealth element and cover system. That was a big thing for me. That really is what I like most about GTA4. … When I’m in those gunfights and I’m taking cover behind pillars or behind cars and everything – those to me are the favorite parts of GTA4 and I wanted to add that. A lot of retro games it’s “there are enemies on screen, they’re shooting at you and you shoot back” but if you start having to take cover and add more strategy to it and have to plan where you’re going and how you’re getting there it adds a lot of depth.

Can you tell us about the music in the game and who is composing it?

We’ve got three music guys – Virt, who pretty much everyone in the world knows. When people think of NES chiptunes they think of Virt. He’s the pioneer of that stuf. He’s worked in the industry on a helluva lot of games as well including Contra 4 on the DS, TMNT on the DS [and] he did Batman: The Brave and the Bold recently on the Wii and the DS. He’s really talented; he’s amazing and I’m lucky to have him.

The second guy is Leonard Paul who goes by Freaky DNA, and he’s been in the industry since the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo, so he’s quite experienced. He did a lot of stuff on the Commodore 64 and things like that. I worked with him on Sonic Rivals 2 at Backbone [Entertainment]. Then we hooked up again to work on Retro City Rampage. He was an instructor at the Vancouver Film School as well and now he’s started his own school. Videogameaudio.com is where you can find him.

Finally there’s Matt Creamer who goes by Norrin Radd. The most amazing thing about his story is that he was inspired by Virt, the pioneer of the NES chiptune. As a result he had written hours of this amazing chiptune music, almost as an homage to Virt. [It was] in the style of Virt, [and] in the same format as Virt. The freaky thing was he happened to be in Vacouver as well which is where [Leonard] and I are based. His music plugged right into the game; it fit perfectly. He’s since done a lot of original tracks. It was a match made in heaven.

Is there anyone else on your team?

Yes, the additional team member is Maxime Trépanier (www.maximetrepanier.com). He’s an artist based in Montreal. He’s a mutlti-skilled guy definitely fit for the indie life. He does pixel art, painting, Photoshop, 3D, 2D, and tattoos. He’d say “can I do a monster truck” and I’d say “Sure! Why not?” He threw it together and now we have a monster truck in the game. I was like “This is awesome, I gotta add a mission with this!” It’s nice that we have the freedom to do that.

Mr. Destructoid was announced as an alternate character. It looks like from the screenshot that he’s a hat, essentially?

Yeah, he’s a hat which you can buy from the store which gives you his costume, effectively. It gets unlocked after you beat the Mr. Destructoid mission in which you face off against a guy named Dr. Von Butnik – which could be inspired by a hedgehog hater of some kind…

Does he have any special powers when you put on his hat?

There’ll be a special ability, yeah.

You’ve got some other familiar faces coming soon as well?

Yes, I do; hopefully those will be announced soon. Fez had just announced that they just reached [the] code complete [milestone]. I’ll be there soon, I’m reaching content complete very soon. I’m finishing up the final levels, which are all the special guest star levels that I have to do. I should be able to announce them next month.

We’ve got four core cameos, Mr. Destructoid being one of them. Those guest stars will be playable characters but they’ll also have missions surrounding them. In addition there will be a few more smaller cameos of characters in the background.

Having that 80′s look are we going to see references to 80′s culture?

Absolutely. [Retro City Rampage] isn’t limited to games, it’s the whole NES era, really – the late 80′s and early 90′s. Some of the stuff I’m most proud of are playing off Saved By The Bell, The Fresh Prince, things like that.

Retro City Rampage will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade and WiiWare this summer. Additional information on the game can be found at retrocityrampage.com, and chiptune lovers can also download the game’s soundtrack for free via their music page. Here’s hoping we see RCR in the 2011 Summer of Arcade.

Brawler Week: Brian Provinciano of Vblank Entertainment

XBLAFancast – Episode 6

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:17:12 +0000

Apologies for the delay this week, numerous technical issues meant we lost our original episode and had to record again. We made up for it though with another 4 man show which runs for almost an hour!

As usual we discuss some of the past weeks more notable news stories, which this week includes Resident Evil 4 coming to XBLA, the awesome trailer for No time to Explain, Islands of Wakfu and some of the sales figures for the first House Party games.

Then Andrew talks a lot about Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, as he said in his review the game isn’t great and is plagued with technical problems. John has been playing a lot of Swarm too which thankfully seems to be much better.

We close out the show by talking about Brawler Week which we just kicked off yesterday. We’re going to have a ton of content for you guys so check out the hub everyday to see what’s new. We’ll even something special in podcast form very soon too.

As previously mentioned we’ve had to switch podcast hosts, sadly this means if you have subscribed before you will have to do so again. The new RSS feed is below and we hope to have the new iTunes link by next week, sorry for the inconvenience but it really couldn’t be helped.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Todd Schlickbernd (@emessai )

Produced & edited by (and special guest #2):

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

News stories discussed:

Resident Evil 4 & Code Veronice X coming to XBLA in HD

There’s no time to explain this awesome trailer

Islands of Wakfu trailer

See how the first half of the house party promotion fared

Huge XBLA dashboard sale

XBLAFancast – Episode 6

XBLAFancast – Episode 5

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:45:09 +0000

Another four man show this week, for no reason other than we felt like it! Myself and John Carson join Andrew and John Laster to discuss the upcoming XBLA releases and some of the cooler looking games on the horizon.

None of us bought Torchlight but that doesn’t stop us talking about it some, check out our review if you want some more informed information on the game. John Laster reviewed Full House Poker and Andrew tried it out, so they talk about that for a while. Then I talk for way too long about Battle: LA (review forthcoming) and Andrew chimes in with his thoughts too. Spoiler alert: we weren’t overly impressed.

Before we say goodbye John Carson talks about his experience watching the Game Informer guys break a world record and Andrew asks us what we think about how aesthetic changes are spread throughout games.

As mentioned before we’ve changed hosts for the podcasts, as a result the iTunes feed isn’t updating properly at the moment. We’re trying to get this fixed but in the meantime you can download the MP3 below or add the new RSS feed straight into iTunes or your favourite reader software.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

John Carson (@John_Carson)

Produced & edited by (and special guest #2):

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

Pac-Man CE DX Main menu music

XBLAFancast – Episode 5

XBLAFancast – Episode 4: PAX East Special

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 20:58:16 +0000

A tad late, a lot longer and a bit rougher. That’s how one would describe this weeks podcast, John, Tyler and Andrew are joined by new writer Stephen to talk about all things PAX East. Both Andrew and Stephen attended so they share their thoughts and experiences from the show, while a jealous John and Tyler quiz them.

Apologies for the spotty editing and audio this week folks, various events and technical difficulties conspired to make this show as big a hassle as possible. Still we persevere and bring you a new episode.

We’re also changing hosts for the podcast, these changes might not be reflected on iTunes right away. We’re still working out the technical details but in the meantime you can listen below or download the MP3.

We’re now on iTunes! So please subscribe, rate and review us there. As before if you have any feedback or general comments then feel free to get in touch. You can either post something in the comments below or shoot us an email to podcast@xblafans.com

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Special guest:

Stephen Haberman (@themarriedgamer)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

Deathspank – Boss battle rumble

Danny B – It ends RETRO (Super Meat Boy)

XBLAFancast – Episode 4: PAX East Special

XBLAFancast – Episode 3

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:39:32 +0000

Alot of news came out of GDC this week so it’s a slightly longer show as the guys try to hit some of the bigger stories and announcements. Double Fine revealed their next XBLA game and the guys are pretty excited by the prospect, 5th Cell finally showed off Hybrid and it has peaked some interest and the guys talk about some other trailers and sneak peeks that came out of GDC.

Beyond Good & Evil was the XBLA release last week, all three of our hosts tried it and have varying things to say about their time with the game.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

Simon Viklund – BCR Menu Theme (Bionic Commando: Rearmed)

Christophe Heral – Fun & Mini-games (Beyond Good & Evil)

Links:

Double Fine reveals Trenched

Hybrid redefining multiplayer in new trailer

Skullgirls

The Fancy Pants adventures trailer

Magicka hopefully receiving console port soon

Battle: LA announced

Red Faction: Battlegrounds release date

XBLAFancast – Episode 3

XBLAFancast – Episode 2

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:39:25 +0000

Some technical difficulties threatened to stop the XBLAFanCast after one episode but thankfully we recovered and can happily bring you Episode 2!

Andrew shares his thoughts on the closure of MyGamerCard.net and the guys are excited to see what former Bizarre studios employees do over at the newly formed Lucid games.

Is Bejeweled Blitz Live really worth paying for on XBLA? We debate that very fact before moving onto the surprise Friday release of Days of Thunder. A welcome surprise? Maybe not. John went to Robot Entertainment to check out their new game Orcs Must Die!, he tells us a bit about his experience with the game.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

Waterflame – -techock- (Castle Crashers)

Vincent De Vera & Jason Garner – Red Lights (Shank)

Twisted Pixel – Stats (Comic Jumper)

XBLAFancast – Episode 2

XBLAFancast – Episode 1

podcast@xblafans.com (XBLAFans.com) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:12:16 +0000

Welcome dear reader to the debut of the XBLAFancast, the official podcast for XBLAFans.com.

In this first episode XBLAFans EIC John Laster is joined by Tyler Cameron and Andrew Crews to talk about the latest XBLA news and the House Party promotion on Xbox Live. With a few sidesteps into Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the age old topic of achievements.

This is our first shot so we are all still learning the process, bear with us while we figure out the kinks and solidify our format. If you have any feedback or general comments then feel free to get in touch. You can either post in the comments below or shoot us an email to the address podcast@xblafans.com. Until next week, enjoy the show.

RSS | MP3 | iTunes

Hosted by:

John Laster (@cain141)

Tyler Cameron (@tylertr0n)

Andrew Crews (@twixprintmatic)

Produced & edited by:

Ross Adams (@randomlyrossy)

Featured music:

Danny Baranowsky – Can o’ Salt (Ch 3 Light World) (Super Meat Boy!)

Anamanaguchi – Sushi Box (Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game)

Halfbrick Studios – Pirats ‘Til We Die (Raskulls)

XBLAFancast – Episode 1