Xbox 360 Fanboy

This Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday, we will sadly not be treated to any new Arcade releases. And we agree, that's a stinker. But there is a bright spot this week when, this Wednesday, March 19th, both the previously released XBLA games Assault Heroes and Doom will graduate to Xbox Live Arcade Hits status. And, as everyone knows, when an XBLA game becomes an Arcade Hit it means that its price gets slashed and in this case, in half to 400 Microsoft points each. No new releases is a bummer, but we haven't seen any new Arcade Hits since the program's launch in December so how could we not be thrilled for discounted XBLA fun? Remember, there's always next week.

Let's say your game shipped with a horrendous multiplayer bug that prevented many people from connecting to online co-op sessions. Would you fix it? Would you fix it quickly? If you're part of Wanako and Sierra Online, and your game is Assault Heroes for Xbox Live Arcade, then your answer is clearly "no." Yes, Assault Heroes was added to the XBLA library last December and played host to a serious co-op problem, namely that co-op games could not be joined by many people. Now, seven months later, a title update for Assault Heroes has finally been released. There's only one problem: you can't download it. In a particularly delicious bit of irony, you are greeted with an error message the moment you accept the update prompt. Oy vey.

Let's hope the Assault Heroes team gets their ducks in a row and fixes this problem soon.

As Jerry Seinfeld might put it, "what's the deal with Assault Heroes?" We posted our favorable impressions of the game last week, and we have since encountered a serious problem. During our first play test we encountered some connection problems with co-op games. In some cases we could never get one started and were left hanging on a "waiting" screen. Other times, we've been left hanging at the same screen in between levels -- after we've already established a connection. Playing with a blogger from Joystiq today (Ludwig Kietzmann), we managed to join 1 out of 3 games. According to Kietzmann, the one successful game we played was the first one he had ever been able to join since the game's release.

We haven't played the title enough to assess how serious this problem is, but if it is widespread, then it needs to be dealt with. Have any of you encountered this problem? If so, speak up.

In celebration of the release of Assault Heroes on Xbox Live Arcade, Sierra is giving away 100,000 MS points (technically 100,800). The award will be dealt out as an unwieldy stack of 63 separate 1,600 point cards. The best part is that it will take you only seconds to enter. The only info required is a name, email, birthday, and zip code. Hit submit and BAM!, you're entered. The winner will be announced in March. Sure, there's basically no chance that any of you will win, but there are certainly contests that require you to jump through more hoops for much less. As our informant XBLArcade mentions, this is enough points to buy RoboBlitz 84 times, so the prize is sweet. Go enter while the entering's good.

Update: This contest is open to US residents only. We apologize for not mentioning this earlier.

[Via XBLArcade]

We hooked up with Gamertag Radio's Godfree to play some co-op Assault Heroes earlier, and except for some connection problems, we enjoyed the game quite a bit. Assault Heroes is a top-down shooter akin to many shooters of the nineties. The only direct comparison we can thing of would be Jackal, which also involved a jeep. Assault Heroes finds players driving and shooting in multiple directions, à la Geometry Wars. You start the game driving a heavily armed jeep, not unlike Halo's Warthog. There are three selectable weapons: the minigun, flamethrower, and flak cannon. The minigun is your all around weapon; it's medium range, rapid fire, and effective against most targets. The flamethrower is powerful but has very limited range. The flak cannon acts like a gauss rifle: it's long range and causes heavy damage, but it has a slow reload time. Players also have access to limited grenades that are great for causing heavy damage to structures and bosses. Finally, there is, of course, a screen-clearing nuke.

Just a reminder from your friendly neighborhood fanboys, Assault Heroes is now available for Xbox Live Arcade. We've downloaded the trial version and look forward to blasting baddies to bits. As soon as we get a little "me"-time with the game, we'll post some impressions. We do this as a service to those that are chained to desks (office or school) and cannot try the game themselves.

As for the rest of you -- the crazy ones who stay up past midnight just to download Arcade titles -- do you like it thus far?

Tomorrow marks the release of Assault Heroes on Xbox Live Arcade. It also marks the third original Arcade title in a row that we've received, which is something of a Christmas miracle. But what the hell is Assault Heroes you ask? It's a top down shooter of the old school variety, full of giant enemies, plenty of weapons, and some nifty team maneuvers. Watch the video embedded after the break for a heaping helping of shootery goodness. It's unfortunate that YouTube has enfuzzinated* the picture, because the game is actually very sharp. We're looking forward to giving it a try tomorrow.

Tomorrow, December 13th, Assault Heroes will be slamming onto the Xbox Live Arcade and be ready to download. Assault Heroes is a vehicular combat game where you are part of the special forces searching for a secret underground lab and fighting to save humanity. The game also allows for campaign co-op via Xbox Live and allows quite a bit of freedom from land vehicles, to boats, to battling it out on foot. Download Assault Heroes on the XBLA for 800 Microsoft Points this Wednesday. Full press release after the break.

Alongside the press release for Contra hitting XBLA, Microsoft sent another press release outlining a slew of Atari classics heading to Live Arcade next year. The six Atari games to be released are:

• Centipede/Millipede
• Battlezone
• Asteroids/Asteroids Deluxe
• Missile Command
• Tempest
• Warlords

All of the games will feature both original and "evolved" versions. The evolved versions, similar to Konami's offerings, will feature revamped graphics and sound. All games will have leaderboards and achievements, and multiplayer games will have Live support. Surprisingly, many of these games are receiving some pretty impressive new features, including Live Vision support for Battlezone and Warlords. It looks like many of the games will receive three dimensional upgrades instead of simply using high definition sprites, too. Finally, and this is not a joke, Centipede evolved has motion blur. Motion. Blur. In Centipede. If that's not worth $5, we don't know what is.

Also worth mentioning, the press release confirmed that the following titles should hit the Arcade before the end of 2006:

• Small Arms
• Assault Heroes
• Novadrome (?)
  
• Heavy Weapon
• Defender

It should be noted that this isn't necessarily all the titles we'll be seeing by year's end (we're looking at you RoboBlitz). Full press release after the break.

Godfree and the gang at Gamertag Radio have been having a blast at Digital Life in NYC. And just to rub it in our faces, they have posted several shaky cam videos of themselves playing upcoming Xbox Live Arcade games. See video of Small Arms, Assault Heroes and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 after the break. Which one are you most excited for?