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So, the holidays are upon us, and if you’ve been good, you could be the recipient of a fat stack of Microsoft Points from friends and family. That’s a great feeling, but it’s also quite daunting. After all, there’s a lot of content on Xbox Live Marketplace.

So, what do you spend those points on? With this handy guide, we give you some solid suggestions based on several categories and include everything from Xbox Live Arcade games to Indie Games to Avatar props. Just select from your favorite genres below. (Joytip: Click on a game title to see its Xbox.com listing; and check out our links to reviews and XBLA in Brief videos to help make crucial purchasing decisions.)

Action | Braid | Family & Board Games | Hardcore

Party | Puzzle | Retro | Shooters | Spare Change

Continue reading Buyer’s Guide: Xbox Live Marketplace

Buyer’s Guide: Xbox Live Marketplace originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This past Saturday brought us the Spike TV Video Game Awards and – before experiencing the litany of world exclusives that awaited us inside – we spent some time outside cruising the red carpet and talking (briefly!) to many of the game developers and talent. We squeezed them for information as fast as we could while simultaneously wishing them holiday cheer and good tidings. Yes, it was as awkward as it sounds. HHere’s what we learned from Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski.

So you segued from Gears into Shadow Complex … what are you working on now?

I can’t tell you that! It’s actually quite agonizing for me right now, because there’s a bunch of awesome shit we’re working on, but I can’t say a damn thing about it no matter how many alcoholic beverages you might try and feed me! Well, maybe if you bribe me with hookers and blow, that might work.

Shadow Complex will be on sale during the holidays. Was that Microsoft’s idea or Epic’s?

Microsoft is doing that promo. They’re doing some other stuff as well to help drive the holiday sales. I mean, in this day and age look how crammed Christmas is, and it’s like March is the new holiday. Everybody’s moved out to March. I think it’s good because the good games will rise, and the bad games will sink, right? I was getting tired of the fact that everyone had to cram everything into the holiday season. Hopefully we’ll get some quality releases in March that will do well, and the gaming industry can sell more than 80% of its games outside of a three month period.

What are you playing right now?

I’m playing the hell out of Modern Warfare 2 and I hate those guys, because those guys are so awesome. Uncharted 2 I beat, which was absolutely stellar. Borderlands co-op is amazing … that’s the only way to play, really. I gush about it not just because it’s our engine but because Randy and those guys are good friends, and it’s the kind of game I really want to play. It’s the perfect blending of the shooter and the RPG.

So when will we hear about this “awesome shit”?

Maybe sometime when the weather’s warm, you’ll be hearing something.

VGA 2009: Cliff Bleszinski teases new projects, more to come ‘when the weather’s warm’ originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Shadow Complex setting very specific week-one sales records on XBLA, Epic and Chair would be kind of nuts to not consider a sequel. One job listing out of a recent crop on Microsoft’s employment boards seems to out that likely scenario, implying that Shadow Complex is a bona fide franchise for Microsoft Game Studios and Epic. Said listing specifically calls for a Lead Producer to “lead the publishing side of games made by Epic: Gears of War and Shadow Complex.”

Additionally, Microsoft appears to be looking for more able bodies to join its growing pool of Project Natal and 343 Industries employees. Existing job listings call for everything from designers to engineers to even a few artists. Sadly, the company isn’t looking for MJOLNIR armor models yet, but just in case, Microsoft, you know how to reach us.

[Via Develop]

Microsoft lists more jobs for Project Natal, 343 Industries; hiring Shadow Complex, Gears of War franchises lead originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Namedropping exclusives from Halo 3: ODST to Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City to Shadow Complex, as well as reaffirming Microsoft’s “year-to-date growth in console sales compared to last year,” Microsoft’s director of product management Aaron Greenberg sounds extremely confident in the Xbox 360 (that’s his job, right?). Thankfully, he’s not always above admitting when his competitors are going to win. “When NPD releases September sales later today, we fully expect PlayStation 3 will come in as the console with the most units sold for the month,” he tells Game Informer in a recent interview.

Unsurprisingly, though, he’s sanguine on the prospect of Microsoft’s console beating out Sony’s. “We remain confident that Xbox 360 will not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation.” His confidence wanes though when asked about beating Apple with the Zune HD, offering only, “Our strategy has always been to completely focus on delivering the best games and entertainment experience in the living room and not get distracted by anything else.” Gotta know when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em, right?

[Image credit: gamerscore]

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg touts holiday exclusives, 360 sales growth in down economy originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thanks to some digging from the MTV Multiplayer blog, we’ve got a glimpse today of one of the prototype maps for the summer Xbox Live Arcade hit Shadow Complex.

The site is running a post-mortem about the game all week, which would be interesting enough based on Shadow Complex’s roots as a dream project of the brothers running Epic-owned Chair Entertainment.

The look back at the game is all the more interesting due to the fact that people who make Super Metroid-style adventures seldom talk publicly about the process of designing the games and the maps that serve as their core feature.

Here’s a bit from Chair’s chief designer, Donald Mustard:

“We created these little grid blocks and lines. We did a lot of it by hand at first, but then we went and transcribed it all into [Adobe] Illustrator…you could literally see a side view of the map, it was all just gray, with lines and stuff. And we had a stick figure that represented the player, and we’d say, ‘Ok, the player can jump this many units high.’ And we had a little graph that showed how high you could jump and how long it would take to build up to a speed run and stuff like that. So we’d ‘play through’ the entire game with this little stick figure guy.”

Check out the MTV post for a bigger look at this prototype map and for more on how the game came together.

Exclusive: ‘Shadow Complex’ Prototype Map Revealed [MTV Multiplayer]

Microsoft had a good summer, according to the company’s summary of Xbox Live events. 1 vs. 100 reached nearly 3 million gamers during its beta season by Microsoft’s estimates, and the Summer of Arcade Xbox Live Arcade promotion enjoyed a reported 200 percent growth in revenue over last year’s sales.

While Microsoft has already relished in Metroidvania success, a press release claims that Trials HD and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 also performed well in first-week sales; and both titles join Shadow Complex in the top five bestselling week-one XBLA games of all time. Sales were no doubt boosted by a cloudy economy that kept folks indoors and looking for inexpensive entertainment. Microsoft capitalized, too, by raising the average price of its Summer of Arcade titles.

During last year’s promotion, three of the five Summer of Arcade games were priced at $10, but this year, only two of the five were $10 — the other three costing $15 apiece. (It’s unclear if Microsoft counts Battlefield 1943’s sales toward revenue growth; the $15 title was not technically part of Summer of Arcade this year.)

Microsoft also saw success in its bold, new free entertainment department. 1 vs. 100 averaged more than half a million users during each of the game show’s live sessions. According to Microsoft, the game’s near “three-million” downloads within its 13-week availability places 1 vs. 100 within the top ten downloads in Xbox Live history. If we’ve learned anything on this gloomy fall morning, it’s that people like summer gaming and Microsoft has way too many “top” lists cluttering up its offices.

XBLA Summer of Arcade sales grow 200% originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chair Entertainment’s Shadow Complex is officially the most downloaded single-player title in Xbox Live Arcade history, with 200,000 copies purchased since the game went live on August 19th.

We loved Shadow Complex, and so did you folks apparently, with stellar review scores and one-week sales so spectacular that Microsoft had to issue a celebratory press release. Multiplayer titles dominate Xbox Live Arcade, and single-player games generally don’t perform nearly as well, but Chair seems to have knocked this one out of the park.

“Congratulations to Chair Entertainment and Epic Games for creating an outstanding game,” said Scott Austin, director of digitally distributed games at Microsoft. “As the capstone title of the second annual Summer of Arcade program, “Shadow Complex” has raised the bar for downloadable games. We’re proud to offer such high-quality content on Xbox LIVE Arcade.”

I found the game to be one of the most complete game offerings ever made available on Xbox Live Arcade. I would have easily paid full price for it, which makes the 1200 Microsoft point ($15) so much sweeter. If you’ve not yet played it, it comes highly recommended.

Look, I’ve told you just about everything I know about Demon’s Souls, the upcoming PS3 action role-playing game. The next step from here is having us spend some quality time with the title so we can tell you what we think. That’s happening soon, as review code is headed to our office as we speak. So for now, enjoy some screenshots.

Demon’s Souls is one of those games that can pull off darkness, but still be visually stunning. As you’ll see in our gallery below, there’s almost always a source of light in the darkness, and that usually comes from someone kicking someone else’s ass. And then there’s that one picture that looks like a pile of wrongness, seen above. Nasty. What is that? Let me guess: it’s something you’ll have to fight.

October 6th. I’m ready. Look for our preview and review soon.

As seen on GamOvr [via GameSetWatch]