DICE is currently performing maintenance on the soldier profiles in the recently released Battlefield 1943, so you may have noticed that your stats have been reset. Not to worry, my friends, as this is temporary.

Simon Dalziel (I presume of DICE) explains that the soldier profiles are actually being made “better than they already are” and that all of the kills will still count towards the Coral Sea challenge. After maintenance is over in the next few days, ranks and badges will be restored.

Game Stooge

Battlefield 1943 hit XBLA and PSN this past Wednesday with three maps – Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and Wake Island. When the global kill count on one of the services reaches 43 million, a fourth map, Coral Sea, will be unlocked for that service. While 43 million is quite a bit of kills, it’s coming faster than you think.

Players on Xbox Live have already racked up almost 10 million kills, almost a fourth of the way there, while PSN kills are almost at 6 million. Blend Games seems to think that the kill count will slow after the weekend is over, but consider that the service has been riddled with bugs and they’re currently working on it, I think the kill count will remain steady as more people are allowed to actually play.

I’ll see you on the Battlefield!*

*As long as the servers allow us to play.

In an interview with Kombo, PopCap Games’ PR director Garth Chouteau has noted that the highly acclaimed Plants vs. Zombies will follow its cousin Peggle onto other platforms: XBLA, PSN- even the DS and iPhone. Chouteau is quoted by Kombo on the matter:

…Peggle for XBLA is a good example of a game that we took that was popular on the PC and we spent probably twice as long as anyone else would have figuring how to make that game really good for Xbox and Xbox Live Arcade, and I think you will see that with Plants Vs. Zombies–I don’t know the exact order in which that game will make its way onto other platforms, but it’s certainly been successful enough, quickly enough, that we’re looking at other platforms and deciding where we’ll take that game next…

Since PvZ was such a success, both commercially and critically, it can only be good news that it can come to a bigger audience. I only hope that they make a DS version as good as Peggle DS.

Destructoid reports that the full XBLA release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 will happen on none other than July 29, 2009. The PSN release is not known at this point, although it is likely to be a very similar date. The game is also set to be sold at a price of 1200 MS Funbux™, and likely a similar price on the PSN but in actual Dollars/Pounds/Euros/Yen/Your currency.

I remember seeing this game in the shops when I was a kid. At the time, I wanted to buy it because it had Marvel characters in it. Now, I want to buy MvC2 because it has Capcom characters in it. Time changes things, especially the relative coolness of Ryu in my mind.

A 3D remake of the game is on its way to Xbox Live Arcade seemingly for sure, but nothing is known about PSN or WiiWare. This all comes from photos taken during the Ninja Turtles anniversary touring currently roaming the country. With E3 coming up, I would expect a formal announcement soon.

After news that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was being released on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network, resale values of the original game for PS2, Dreamcast, and Xbox plummeted. The original release is one of the most expensive and sought-after games for collectors and is hailed by many to be one of the best fighting games ever released.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 prices dropped across the board, the PS2 version reaching its lowest value since December 2006, which is still a surprise at over $60 used. The assumption is that the original games will now only be desirable to collectors, while the average gamer that merely wants to play the excellent fighting game will instead opt for the downloadable version with its enhanced graphics and online gameplay — not to mention the significantly lower price.

Good news for buyers, bad news for sellers. That’s the risk you run in the collectibles business, but at least gamers will no longer have to pay current-gen prices for a used game from the turn of the century.

For a couple of years now, we’ve been hearing rumors of Capcom and Marvel rereleasing Marvel vs. Capcom 2 online, but had never heard anything substantial, due to Capcom keeping a tight leash on any info they had. Well too bad, Capcom- an hour ago, in one fell swoop, Marvel announced Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes for XBLA and PSN, and even post a trailer to go with it.

While the original Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for the Xbox and Dreamcast are considered rare because of their extremely limited print- even used copies in stores can run you upwards of $80- fans have been waiting for a reprint of the game for five years. As one of the most popular crossover fighting series of all time, people have even been holding their breath for a MvC3 announcement, even though Capcom has promptly shot down those dreams. Well they can’t shoot down this one- Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is back this summer, with the same menus, characters, fighting styles, that so many of us maybe a few of us know and love.

When Rare announced Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts for the 360, they alos announced that the original games would be coming to XBLA eventually. A couple of weeks ago, the first of the two hid Xbox Live Arcade, and Rare promised that the second would hit sometime this month, complete with an enhanced frame-rate and full Stop N’ Swop functionality. Luckily for all Banjo fans (and fans of good games alike) that day is only two weeks away!

Rare’s forums today brought news of 4J Studios’s Banjo-Tooie port, announcing that it would hit XBLA on April 29th. Rare also posted images of the new gamerpics that would hit XBLA alongside the game’s release, which you can pick up for 80 MS Points, or $1. For those of you not familiar with the N64 blockbuster series, Rare also opened a section on their site devoted to the game. I don’t know about you guys, but this is a definitely buy for me.

Source: Destructoid

Although Banjo & Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released 4 months ago, it still has yet to recieve any of the DLC Rare had promised. Recently, Rare announced the first DLC for the game, entitled L.O.G.’s Lost Challenges, as well as the release date and price, April 7th for 400 MS Points. The DLC is pretty heavy too- it comes with 250 extra achievement points, 7 new multiplayer games, and 12 new challenges. After completing the challenges, you also gain access to Klungo’s arcade game, which is shown above.

Rare also mentioned that you’ll be able to unlock the winning vehicles from their design contest via Banjo Tooie’s Stop N’ Swop when the game is released on XBLA in the spring. For so many challenges and such a low price, I assume a lot of people will be picking this up. I’ll probably buy the DLC, once I buy the actual game. It’s on my to-do list, right after publishing a thesis in astrophysics. There’s also a trailer for the DLC after the jump.

Source: Destructoid

Shacknews reports that Telltale’s excellent Sam & Max series will be heading to Xbox Live Arcade as full-season packs. Season one is entitled “Sam & Max Save the World”, and the second season is entitled “Sam & Max- Beyond Time and Space”. Two promo posters have been released: one for season one and one for season two.

Sam & Max are, sadly, the only truly great point-and-click games out there at the moment. Having played most of season one on the PC, it’s great to see that even more people will be able to experience these games. Fans of laughing will most likely enjoy Sam & Max as much as I did, as it’s possibly one of the best written game series out there, and certainly one of the funniest.

In an attempt to market the Xbox Live Arcade game Go! Go! Break Steady, marketing firm ‘Taxi’ invited a bunch of B-Boys (and Girls) and pop-n-lockers to a fake audition. The dancers showed off their skills, but were then asked to do it again while solving a puzzle, emulating what you do in the XBLA game. Hilarity ensued. Check out the video.

Edge reports that the PSN version of Capcom’s Super Street Fighter II HD Remix has been delayed “and has no official release date” in the UK. The Xbox Live Marketplace version’s release remains unchanged in the UK, and releases today along with the US versions of the game. No reason was given by Capcom as to why this is the case. Any ideas why the Xbox and US versions remain unchanged but the UK PSN version has been delayed? I’d hazard a guess at a licensing issue, but perhaps there is a more… sinister explanation. Probably not. Anyway, let us know what you think in the comments.

For our readers in the US, rejoice! The demo for Dead Space, EA’s recent horror shooter, will hit the Playstation Marketplace and the Xbox Live Marketplace service on the 25th of November. For our European readers, rejoice slightly less! The demo for Dead Space is heading to Xbox Live Marketplace on the 25th as well, but the PSN release is set for the 27th. Still, it’s better than nothing, eh? Speaking of which, our readers in Asia may now begin not rejoicing- there is no date set for the demo on either marketplace, at least as far as Shacknews reports. PC gamers should also note that there hasn’t been any word of a demo for said platform.

Dead Space is a game that tends to garner mixed reactions; a demo is the perfect way to have a go at the game before you decide to buy. Roly’s review is another safe bet for those of you who need even more persueding. In any case, how do you feel about the game, or even the demo? Worth full price, or not?

Steam owners can now download the public demo of Left 4 Dead, Valve’s upcoming zombie shooter. Xbox 360 owners can also get their zombie freak on via XBLA, as the demo has been released there as well. This of course comes a week after the release of the pre-order demo, available to those who had pre-ordered the game. As you can see, I feel that this demo is much better than most full games out there, so I strongly urge all zombie fans (and everyone else) to download the demo and try it out. Look forward to the Ripten review of the game in the near future!

What the ding-dally is Plain Sight, you ask? Well, dear reader, just take a seat and I’ll run you through it. Before the Eurogamer Expo, I had no idea about this game either, but after discovering and playing this gem I’m sure more people need to know about it.

The game is developed by six Londoners collectively known as Beatnik Games, and will be available at the start of 2009 on PC and later Xbox 360. I’m sure what you really want to know is what the fuss is about- hit the jump for the full preview.

In answer to your question, I refer you to this page. You play as a little ninja robot, with one point. The aim of the game is to kill other ninja robots to get more points and multipliers. Try to contain yourself from the excitement of ninja robots for a second, because there’s slightly more to it than that- the only way to actually score those points is to blow yourself up. The more people you catch in the explosion with you, the more multipliers you get. It’s simple enough once you get playing.

You get the idea.

The attack button auto-locks on to nearby enemies, but don’t worry about it being too easy- you still have to be facing them, and that likely means they’re facing you too. If you miss, your ninja robot will fly past them, and you’ll get stuck on something for a while, as if your sword has gotten jammed in the wall. If there are no walls, you’ll simply be unable to jump or attack again until you hit the floor or a building.

Once you want you bank your points, you’ll want to jump around a bit and take people out with you, while being careful not to get hit- if you do, you lose all of your multiplier. This is a great mechanic, as it allows those who are behind the others in points to grab a sneaky kill and keep everything fun for everyone. Oh, and by the way, in the build I played, the buildings lit up with your colour when you touch them, but this doesn’t seem to have any effect on your points or the gameplay. It looks pretty, though.

The game, in a word, is fun. Really, really fun. The simple mechanics, even in the short amount of time that we played for, were intuitive and highly enjoyable. The build we played was set up on some PCs over a LAN connection, but we played with Xbox 360 controllers, which was nice n’ easy. The physics were fantastic: at least as good as those in Super Mario Galaxy. The jumping felt fluid and natural, even when triple jumping, and moving around the little world (with its own gravity like the planets in Galaxy) was a joy.

There was, however, a spot of lag on the build we played, although perhaps it can be forgiven; it was pre-beta, after all. Other than that, Plain Sight is definately worth playing. The website says it will be priced in the region of £10 (about $16), which in my book is a bloody good deal. The only thing more I can say about this game is that everyone should be keeping an eye on this- it could turn out to be the next Braid. I’m sure Soulja Boy will give it a glowing review.

20,000 years in the future mega corporations control the galaxy–and we mean the whole galaxy! There will be a lot of sci-fi flavored puzzle questing to be had, via many warp gates, when Puzzle Quest: Galactrix drops in Q1 of next year for XBLA, DS, and PC.

If you missed our E3 hands-on, check that out, but read on for an updated impression and a few details on crafting and other mini-games.

There are over 150 items in the game, and one way to attain them is through crafting. This mini-game uses the same (i.e. new) hexagonal grid set-up, with tiles that refresh depending on which way you drag them to match, but you’ll be matching color coded materials in order to create specific parts listed in the upper right of the screen.

Hacking, on the other hand, tasks you with making your matches based on the colors that come up, and mining is all about collecting cargo (the materials you’ll need for crafting.) The two other mini-games are haggling (which we’ve been told is pretty tricky, but worth the resulting price drop) and getting rumors off of moons (I guess maybe there isn’t much to do on a satellite but gossip?)

I will admit that matching hexagons is a bit harder than columns and rows. You have to remember that the game is looking for a straight line, and not just three that are touching. That said, the science fiction plot looks cool enough (and flying your fleet around on the overworld screen, even if only your main ship is visible) that this learning curve should not pose a threat to anyone’s anticipation.

You know, I think I was wrong about you, Soulja Boy. When I first heard your music, I thought you were a talentless punk who got rich from a dance that my two year old cousin could perfect. But, now I see the real you. You’re a thoughtful gamer who’s passionate about the medium. I now know that you can, at a moment’s notice, coherently gather your thoughts to defend it. Why didn’t you tell me you loved Braid, and gaming, so much?

I’m so sorry I didn’t notice before. I’ve noticed you playing Halo 3 with Jonathan Blow lately, and now it pains me, physically, to sign into Xbox Live. I want you back. I was careless and I feel downright terrible. I think we can give this another shot. Forgive me?

Source: YouTube

After the abomination that was Double D dodgeball, I can’t imagine anyone getting too excited over this; but for lovers of pirates and ninjas, they’ll be dodging balls on XBLA this coming September 3rd. Read more after the break.

The Gamecock-published title will feature ninjas, pirates, zombies, robots, and at least one unannounced team. Also, each character on each of the teams will be unique and have special movies.

The game will also feature multiplayer battles for up to eight players.

Source: 1up

Who says gamers are cheap and/or tasteless? Despite sizable Internet uproar over its 1,200 Microsoft point asking price, the artsy puzzle-platformer Braid has managed to win the credit card digits of over 27,000 downloaders, earning it a gross of $405,000, according to a recent glance at the game’s leaderboards. That makes it the 2nd best selling XBLA game in its first three days, no small feat for a game like this, especially considering the paltry fate of similar indie-grown titles like N+.

Strong word of mouth, an awesome demo and some extremely positive reviews (the game has a 92.4% on GameRankings) most likely drove the game’s sales. And it’s not hard to imagine that the publicity from the pricing controversy eventually ended up doing more good than bad, as it visibly increased the game’s profile. I’m sure plenty of people went from “WTF is Braid?” to “what the hell could be worth 1200 points” after which they tried the demo, loved it, and bought the game.

Creator and lead designer Jonathan Blow had previously defended the game’s price as a necessity:

“There is a significant possibility that Braid would have been the next Psychonauts or Beyond Good and Evil (critically acclaimed but nobody played it), even at $10. If that happens at $10 then I am in debt and have to get a job and can’t make games any more. If that happens at $15, maybe I can still make games.”

Guess you can make games, and buy a new car, eh Jonathan?

Though the game was announced for an August 6th release at E3, it seems that Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 has already sped through certification for a July 30th release. Yeah, that’s next week.

This morning, Bizzare Creations’ community leader Ben Ward let loose that 6 days from now, the sequel to Bizzare Creations’ hit XBLA SHMUP will be available for purchase on Xbox Live Arcade.

Ward also announced that the game’s trial is not as limited as other XBLA trials, as it will feature the full version of the game’s Deadline mode, in which you score as many points as you can in a limited amount of time. This mode also has 4-player local multiplayer support, in both the trial and full game.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 will be available for purchase on Xbox Live Arcade for 800 points ($10).

If Ikaruga and Geometry Wars exchanged drunken looks at a bar after-hours and stumbled into eachother’s arms, only to later regret their cheap hotel-room fling and the fact that they forgot to use protection, the result might look something like Schizoid.

A co-op game where the red and blue ships can only destroy their own types of colors, Schizoid also has the glory of being the first game pushed out the door via Xbox Live Arcade’s hot new development community, XNA.

From developer Torpex Games, Schizoid contains online and offline co-op, an AI partner for single player mode, and a faux-German Uberschizoid mode where you can control both ships at the same time. Although this seems more like a refinement of the frantic shooter genre, maybe Geometry Wars 2 can also take a few pointers from Schizoid.

Meanwhile, check out this brain-melting quote from Bill Dugan, the President of Torpex Games:

“Although it has been reported that Schizoid will ‘make your brain melt and ooze out of your ears’, I want to reassure gamers that in our testing we found no evidence of actual brain liquefaction.”

If your brain does melt while playing this game, your family now knows who to sue.

Got the (deep breath) Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Beta (phew) up and running on the 42 in LCD and roped my roommate, Josh–a gamer and game programmer–into sharing his thoughts along with mine.

It’s really barely a taste of what the final product will be like, but you at least get a sense of what the shiny HD will look like. Click through so you know what you are disagreeing with before you post nasty comments.

Josh: There is a strange disconnect between the precision of the graphics and the wimpiness of the special move effects.

Emily: Yeah, I guess I sort of understand where that is coming from. Feels almost just a like a Saturday morning cartoon.

Josh: Definitely. But it grows on you as all the nostalgic feelings come up, trapping your opponent in a series of punches or quarter-circling them for the last bar of damage.

Josh: To be honest though playing this makes me want to fire up Soul Calibur II on my Xbox.

Emily: Oh yeah, cuz Sung Mina is way hotter than Chung Li. But that isn’t saying much for this game, then, is it?

Josh: Well, if they let us play as more than two characters we’d get to see more of the redrawn Udon Entertainment art.

Emily: Ah, I’d probably be playing Ryu or Ken, anyhow. I guess I don’t know what the proper way to control this would be. I guess this will probably have stick support? I’ve been using the analog to halfway decent success–I mean, for someone who *cough* hasn’t really played much Street Fighter, I am pulling off my fair share of hadokens.

Josh: It’s true, my face was full of fireballs.  I’ve been sticking to the d-pad in an attempt to pull off tighter moves, but, well, any game relying on it suffers some from the 360’s pseudo-digital d-pad, as anyone who’s played Lumines on XBLA can attest.

Josh: The analogue stick is definitely the way to go.  Though that victory would have been way more satisfying if you’d actually fallen to the ground, a burning corpse of pain, instead of standing there with a stupid grin on your face while the announcer told us I’d won.

Emily: Yeah, time-outs suck ;p Ken sez, “Well, at least you threw a punch…”

Josh: Those were some dramatic dust clouds you kicked up there.  I’m have to say I’m underwhelmed by the supposed HD upgrade.

Emily: Welllllll, let’s just call ourselves spoiled instead. If you’re SO used to 1080p that you just don’t care anymore, then let the rest of us have fun until IV comes out!!

Josh: Oh, no, give it to us pixelated and raw, just don’t go halfway.  I’d love it if they gave it to us with original graphics.

Emily: There will apparently be an option for the original sprites in the final game, but it doesn’t seem to be in for the beta. Whoa, did we just do synchronized hurricane kicks?

Josh: That was pretty sweet. Still kicked my butt in the end, though. Poor Ryu. “You’re not bad, but you’re not good either.”  Ken pretty much summed it up right there, didn’t he?  For all my complaining, though, I can’t wait to see the rest of the art and play through the other characters.

Emily: Yeah, I’m not sure if Ken and Ryu, buff and sparkly as they are, will hold my attention for the duration of the beta, but the full release should prove more exciting.

Today is the day, all you proud Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 owners. Buying that unrelated Capcom-published shooter on Xbox Live Arcade has also bought you into the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix beta, which will last for about 8 weeks. That should be plenty enough time to get a decent re-handle on the two included characters, Ryu and Ken, during both local and online matches (including tournaments!) Check the jump for Capcom’s detailed instructions to getting off some early hadokens.

Step 1: Buy Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3 for 800 MS Points

Step 2: Select the “SFII HD Remix Beta” option on the main menu of Wolf

Step 3: You will be taken to a download blade where you can confirm your download.

Step 4: Once the Beta has finished downloading, head to the “Games” blade on your 360

Step 5: Fire up SSFIITHDR in the Demos section on the Games blade and enjoy the online multiplayer goodness!

Those of you who were wondering about the price-point of a project like Bionic Commando: Rearmed need not fear. Producer Ben Judd has confirmed that the price will be $10 (800 Microsoft Points) across all platforms – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed is definitely much more than other ‘remakes’ that have shown up on XBLA. They’re basically starting from scratch, keeping what was great from the original and updating it so that it’ll hold up in today’s marketplace by completely reworking the visuals, adding two-player cooperative play, new arm abilities, weapons and areas.

One can easily see how much work it takes, as opposed to other titles that amount up to nothing more than just an emulated version of a game with an eagle filter slapped on it.

Here is the official response from Ben Judd himself:

We first asked the question to our community about how much they would pay for Bionic Commando Rearmed here on the Bionic Commando community site.

Some people said it was stupid. Human nature dictates that people will choose the cheaper of two prices. Some people said we hated money. Well, while the results may suggest that $10 is the sweet spot for most people (in the US the final tally was 83% in favor of the $10 price point and 17% in favor of the $15 price point), there is another side of the story which wasn’t represented by the poll results – and that is the huge number of user comments that we received, where a majority were suggesting they would pay $15 or even $20 for the game.

When I first posed the question it wasn’t about whether people wanted something to be cheaper or more expensive. That answer is obvious. It was about whether people would be willing to pay more to support high-quality 2D gaming. 2D games are a bigger risk (no, they are not necessarily cheap to make. BCR has plenty of 3D models and uses much of the same tech and physics as the 3D version) because they are a harder sell.

However, when we started the community site it was all about hearing from Bionic Commando fans and connecting with our community. The poll says $10 so that’s what it will be. Since the title will have to do quite well at that price point to break even (no, I’m not going to give you a specific number), I guess we have to roll the dice and see where they land.

Oh well, I’m tired of meta-emulated crap. These old 2D titles are where games were born. With some solid adjustments, new modes, and updated graphics they can still provide a hell of a lot of fun. Just updating the graphics isn’t paying them enough respect.

Besides, I’d rather fail having created the best game I could, even if the end result doesn’t justify 2D games like this in the future. So $10 it is for the XBLA and PSN versions (we haven’t decided on the PC version because it may have some additional content that can be downloaded later).

Let’s ride this train to the end of the line. Thanks for your feedback and your support.

As of now, Bionic Commando: Rearmed has a tentative release date of Q2 2008.

Source: xblarcade.com

In an attempt to get you more excited about Fable 2’s release, Peter Molyneux and the studly geniuses at Lionhead are giving you an early taste in the form of an Xbox Live Arcade game.

Keystone is a downloadable XBLA game that will release prior to Fable 2. It’s just one of the many mini-games found in Fable 2, but Keystone will let you gamble and win gold that you can then transfer into your Fable 2 saved game. You can be a rich bitch before you even enter the world of Albion!

No release date has been given for either Fable 2 or Keystone, but the stars are aligning for a Summer delivery. Keystone already looks ready to go, so it can up and surprise us at any time. Be on the lookout for that crafty bastard on the marketplace, or just stay tuned to Ripten and we’ll let you know when it’s coming out.

As you may have noticed, Day Three exploits are going up a little later than usual. Unfortunately, we had a run-in with the Blaznatz chewing up our bandwidth, so we were unable to get a good connection. Damn him and his chainsaw bayonet…

We’ve decided to combine our day three info with day four, which would officially make this Ripten’s GDC 08 Coverage: Day Seven. Read on for all the goodness.

A lot of stuff happened over the past two days. Everything will be explained in more detail by the peeps that were there, so don’t bust my balls if I don’t deliver the full monty right now.

We got a sneak peak at a bunch of upcoming Xbox Live Arcade games, courtesy of the XNA dev tool. There were a few titles that actually haven’t been announced yet, so stay tuned for that.

We also met with the Zeitguyz team for Recoil: Retrograd, and saw quite a bit of Havok stuff (which you can read about here).

Jon ran off and did a bunch of interviews while Chad and I went to the Microsoft keynote. A lot of good stuff was talked about there, including Ninja Gaiden II, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, and XNA 2 — er, just XNA. Sorry, I got on a roll there with the 2s.

We got some coverage of the IGF and Game Developer Awards, had a Q&A with Sid Meier, saw new footage of Mercenaries 2, Prototype, and The Force Unleashed, saw RealTime Worlds’ new MMO, hung out with the peeps from X-Play, and had a quiet evening with Will Wright.

Of course there are other things we did, too, like your mom. Oh, snap! Seriously, though, we attended quite a few events and will give you the complete story shortly.

In the meantime, rest easy knowing that I was only once almost run over by a speeding fucktard in a BMW, and Chad was kind enough to half almost attempt to save me. Thanks Chad!

We also had a kind soul offer to taxi us back to our hotel for just slightly more than the cost of taking an actual taxi, but this ride had the added thrill of almost getting us murdered. The dude was kind, but very strange. He called us “country bumpkins” and never really answered me when I specifically asked whether or not he was going to kill us. I take that as a definite “maybe”, but perhaps he just didn’t do it because he knew we were expecting it.

Moral of the story here, kids, is that you should never cross the street — ever, and under no circumstances should you get in someone’s car before asking if they are going to kill you. Wise words from your good pals at Ripten.

Xbox Evolved claims that in talks with very reliable sources evidence has presented itself in the form of, well, we don’t know what form of evidence they saw. They just won’t show us, but what they did is tell us all about is what may be headed to our XBLA. Banjo, Ms. Dark, or dare we say, Bond?

According to Xbox Evolved, Microsoft, Rare, MGM Studios (studio that currently holds rights to 007 films) and Activision (publisher that currently holds rights 007 games) have come to an agreement to bring the Rare developed N64 classic Goldeneye 007 out to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Xbox Evolved goes on to detail that the title will feature updated graphics and online multiplayer. They even go on to say that in addition to Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark will appear on XBLA.

If all of this is true, this is a big success for the Xbox Live Arcade over the Virtual Console. I’m just hoping that along with updated graphics, they bring on some revamped controls, Why, you ask? Go break out your N64 and that dusted up copy of Goldeneye.

Source: Xbox Evolved

It’s the elegant, immediate control system of Sensible Soccer that makes it so enduring and influential. To play soccer, you need to kick, so give them a “kick” button. Oh, and we should let them run too. Finished.

Simple, and yet so effective, it makes you question the supposed “evolution” seen in gaming over the past 15 years. It makes you question shiny graphics, dynamic audio, cinematic sequences, and voice acting. It makes you wonder why so much has been added.

Everything you have seen in every football game since Sensible World of Soccer, the series’ pinnacle, is found within that classic’s code. It is possible within its game-space and a testament to the design genius of Sensible Software.

Aftertouch, that hallowed gameplay element most recently seen in Heavenly Sword, allows you to direct the ball onto the most fantastic flight-paths – up, down, and around the opposition with the minimum of intuitive input.

New players will be taken aback by the game’s pace, but will quickly overcome their initial troubles and grasp the game’s tactical underlay. Know your team (who’s talented enough to run with the ball and who kicks like a horse) and you can dart the ball to those able to make a difference.

Before matches, you can bring in, push out, and swap players. Your decisions’ clear impact on play is hugely satisfying when it’s successful, although rather heartbreaking when not. The football league’s structure, in whichever country you elect to play in, is perfect for videogames – the mix of immediate and long-term reward found in the points and ranking promotes a prolonged relationship between you and the game.

A faithfully styled graphical update is the great success of what’s otherwise a rather lazy port. Online play is functional but disappointing, often featuring lag and vulnerable to those quit-early undesirables of online gaming. The ranking system also favours those with the most time to play, ahead of those most talented.

The port’s the problem, though – it’s impossible to harshly criticise what’s a true gaming classic. Even if Kuju Entertainment struggles to pay homage, Sensible Software’s work remains design genius.

It’s my belief that Sensible World of Soccer is one of the most important games of all time. Playing it again today demonstrates that it’s one of the finest, too.