Gamerscore Blog

Cool I guess

Oh man this game is going to pwn.  Too bad my wife is better at these types of games than I am.

While I do think that trying to release a game every week is a great effort on Microsoft's part, I'm sick and tired of the retro throw-backs. (DooM was of course the exception to the rule)

Pac-man? Time Pilot? Scramble? Dig-Dug? Come on guys! Get with it! We want something new, or atleast something recent.

My other complaint comes from the lack of information about the XBLA games.

When the XBox Blogs (Major Nelson, Gamerscore blog, etc) first came online, I thought this was going to be a great way to keep the community informed. Saddly for the most part it's been a long list of well masked marketing mixed in with a few "guess what's out tomorrow" (advertising) posts.

Then a few months back, we were given a list of upcoming games for the next few weeks when they announced XBLA Wednesdays...and I thought "Great! The XBLA is finally going to communicate with it's customers"  but the same list has been up for a while now, and we're stuck waiting and wondering.

Games like Lumines have been pushed back time and time again, (http://www.xbox.com/en-CA/games/l/lumineslivearcadexbox360/default.htm still shows JULY) and we have....NO communication from the XBLA team. No expected release window, no reason for the constant pushbacks, no.....well....anything. Instead we're left with silence, while we watch retro game after retro game get pumped out and the rest listed as TDB.

Dig-Dug will likely appeal to those looking to re-live their childhood, but as I'm 22, and am thus too young to care...so I'm stuck waiting for another decent XBLA game to come out.

As you may have heard , Dig Dig is headed to the Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow. As usual, I’ll post

@Dfx666 : A well written comment that I agree with too. I like knowing what's coming up, even if it's only for the next few weeks. I like to know what's happening, why something went wrong.

However, I'm older than you, Dfx, by a substantial number of years, and still feel much the same about retro games (and like you, Doom excepted of course - that was a great release IMHO).

Maybe the new stuff is still in development and the certification process is just damned hard and nitty, but I'm still hoping that very soon the floodgates will open and the brief snippets of games I've seen in videos as far back as E3 are almost (almost!) about ready to turn into actual games I can play.

love these retro games (sarcasim) but you know what would be better, indie games, huh huh?  You agree?  Back when this whole concept of arcade stuff was annouced that was the big push was all the new ip's that would be coming our way but when I go to xbox.com and look at the arcade games that are out I only count 4 out of 31 indie or new ip's there.  4 our of 31, thats only 13% as long as my figures are right.  We've been told that developers are lining out the door to make games for the arcade but non-retro game was totem ball and before that cloning clyde.  Now I have my beliefs why no new games are coming out but I'm not going to say it but I will say that I'm boycotting all future xbox live arcade games until new stuff starts coming out and I'm going to urge my listeners and friends to do the same.  Sorry MS but enough is enough

just for the record

I do still like the retro's BUT I'm not going to give MS any more MS points for them until I start seeing new content, otherwise they get the idea to keep giving us ports because its cheap, easy and they sell well

I'm happy Dig Dug has been released, but what about Mr Do!

I agree with the other posts about lack on information on XBLA releases - there needs to be a single page, updated weekly which lists upcoming releases (and proposed dates if possible).

I think putting old or retro games on arcade is a good idea, but I don't think we need anymore 25 year old games.  We need more games like Doom and Street Fighter II (even though SF2 on arcade was horrible).  Sure, games like Pac Man and Frogger deserve a spot because you can still find those games in bars and pizza shops across the country, but Dig Dug?  Come on, whoever's working on these games is just wasting their time.

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I for one, think that the release of Dig Dug is very cool and unexpected.  Instead of being disappointed, I'm glad for the sudden and great surprise....kinda like unwrapping a mystery present and SURPRISE!

Remember folks that these are arcade games and not the full-blown feature film type games like Gears of War, Halo3, etc.  That said, there are plenty of very cool games that most of the GenX and later gang have never played.  Go to most arcades and look at the games they have, there is a mix of old and new games.  In fact, take a close look and you'll still see PacMan, etc.  XBox Live is no different, except you're bringing the arcade into your home.

For some, the retro games are "reliving childhood", for others it's letting their kids play the same games they played at their age, for others it's about playing a variety of games.  Instead of looking for the next big game to "blow up" check out the variety of games that are available.  Dig Dug is a great little game and one that is addictive, but only if you get past your bias.  These games are another way to attract casual gamers, who might not otherwise have the time or patience to play the full-blown adventures.

I'm downloading Dig Dug now and am looking forward to doing the "four pumps to blow up the monsters" dance.  Why not do the same?

dig dug cool.. yes unexpected... no.  Dig Dug was announced i believe around a month ago, and I was looking forward to it, and I was going to buy it, just like I did with many other retro games, BUT due to what seems to be happening to the arcade and the direction it seems to be going, I won't be buying it now.

I know people say you don't have to buy it if you don't want to but I don't really think that is alway enough, you don't just start a movement by sitting on the sideline, you have to get the word and get others to back you up and this is what I'm trying to do.

I'm not saying that these games are bad, I enjoy these BUT I don't see this really helping the xbox out.  All this does is tell developers that instead of making new games and investing time into new ideas that they just can port old games over, spend little time and effort and still bring in lots of money.

This is all why I'm trying to start the movement and to get MS to take notice,  maybe start a ratio of 1 out of every 3 games is new instead of a ports, this still means they put out retro games just not at the current rate.

BTW, I do think that over the next few months (this holiday season) we will see a bunch of new games instead of ports coming to the arcade because I know of many games in the works.  What would be nice though would be a xbox 360 arcade outlook with it showing when future games would be released, not dates I know thats to hard but maybe in months or quarters of expected release

I'm all for pushing for more original IP bucket type games, and I'd love to see Lumines hit, but, uh... gonna have to stay out of the boycott line. 'cause I love Dig-Dug. It's in my holy trinity of retrogames along with Elevator Action and Q-Bert.

But, for instance, I didn't buy Pac-Man. Why? Because, meh, it's Pac-Man. I've played it out and I don't believe in maze memorization. I didn't buy Time Pilot because there's just nothin' there, and SCRAMBLE? Whose brilliant idea was that? It's good as a museum piece but nothing else.

We need some more variety going. We need release schedules. We had a strong start with the summer of arcade, where we KNEW what we'd be getting week to week, we could build hype and anticipation, but now... I log in each week and either see:

1. A title I don't really care about which had no pre-release announcement and just "showed up", or
2. Nothing.

Some consistency and communication would be appreciated. I'm sure there are various hushed whispers and political dealmakings going on which explain WHY we're not getting consistency and communciation but I honestly don't care why -- it's the end results that I, as the consumer, am focused on. Do what it takes to make it happen.

Yeah!  WTF ever happened to: A. That Super Smash Bro's-like game? (Small Arms') B. Alien Hominid? C. That puzzle game from the PSP? (Lumines) D. That Contra-like game? (Heavy Weapon) NOWHERE IN SIGHT!! All we get is alot of old ass games my dad used to play and he's 50! Where the hell is all these Indie games Microsoft promised us? Cloning Cylde... good, DOOM(althou not Indie)... good   F'ING DIG DUG!! ...bad, out dated and a waste of time!  (AND MY POINTS!!)

    I have to wonder why certain games make the cut. Must It must be easily ported to the 360? Does it have to have some kind of connection to a MS Staff member? Or do they just throw darts at an old Atari Line-Up Calendar?

Either way I don't think they are fulfilling what they stated the Arcade was going to be. The very definition of the word ARCADE implies a place to play the latest games. Or why not call it Retro-Arcade? If my local Arcade (and yes we still have a Namco Arcade at our Galleria) was managed like the XBLA, each week getting some janitor to dust-off one of the older games and try to place it back out on the showroom, I don't think it would go over well.

One last comment: Why not make it a "real arcade" Let us pay what amounts to a quater in MS ponts per credit. So we can get the  achievments or post a high score. Like the arcade days. Then we can move on without the feeling we had to shell out 5 bucks to play a game. I can honestly say, GALAGA-Frogger-Pac Man would have been 4 games max for me. Then just like a real-arcade. I would have moved on... like most of us are going to do from downloading these ports.

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