Otherwise, it's all existing content and Games on Demand on Xbox Live this week. This week's Deal is Portal: Still Alive for 800 MS Points ($10.00 USD). This is the slightly barebones XBLA release of the world's finest first person puzzle game. From our Portal review:
"I can’t imagine the emptiness your life has been up to this point without having experienced the joys of the Companion Cube or the awesome song over the end credits. Portal: Still Alive is your chance to set your life right."
What do you mean you haven't played Portal?
Meanwhile, the seminal (and incredibly difficult) zombie shopping mall simulator Dead Rising debuts on the Games on Demand marketplace this week for $19.99 USD. From our Dead Rising review:
" Dead Rising is a game that takes the tried and true survival horror genre and turns it on its head. It melds brand-new gameplay ideas – and there really are a ton of new ideas to enjoy – with a B-movie style storyline that does an admirable job of keeping players engulfed in the strange goings-on in the Williamette Parkview Mall. It’s part Grand Theft Auto, part Resident Evil, and part Dawn of the Dead. The best news? Despite taking so many ambitious chances in the game’s design, it’s still great fun to play from beginning to end. And isn’t that what gaming is all about? "
Yes those are short shorts, and yes that's a bench he's swinging.
Also on Games on Demand this week is Ensemble Studios' console RTS swan song Halo Wars for $29.99 USD. From our Halo Wars review:
"Since that’s what RTS’s have always felt like to me, Halo Wars feels like the ultimate backyard battle with my friends, provided we had action figure versions of every last vehicle and character in the Halo universe. Since that’s somewhat impossible, we have a video game to realize our adolescent dreams. One heck of a video game, I might add."
It's like playing army mens with Halo toys.
In DLC news this week, the Pinball FX Excalibur Table releases today for 240 MS Points ($3.00 USD), and tomorrow sees the release of the first Assassin’s Creed II DLC, the "Battle of Forli," for 320 MS Points ($4.00 USD). While the story elements of the DLC are welcome (Caterina Sforza is expanded upon in very entertaining ways), things aren't all red wine and celebrations. From our AC2 DLC impressions:
"From a gameplay perspective, the Battle of Forli is sloppy. The missions in the DLC are all combat with little variation, save for a spectacularly broken chase sequence (or two), and the combat encounters in question don't feel very well planned out. There were repeated occasions where allies died well out of my sight in a confined area with little warning, and the sorts of combat arenas encounters took place in felt clunky and unnecessarily difficult to navigate."
And that's it for this week. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to play some Dante's Inferno.
Halo 3 Mythic Maps Releasing on XBLA Next Month‘Creation’: Natural Man, By Kurt Loder
