Sweet, I was already heading to Circuit City after work to pick up my new camera.

Thanks for the tip!

This Week's games : Elements Of Disaster and Sea Life Safari. I know nothing about "Elements", but my daughter was looking forward to "Safari", a Pokemon Snap clone that takes place underwater. Not many people's cup of tea, but seems fun for kids.

The demo was released for Civilization. Is it going to be a Live title or a disc title?

Disc.

Wow, really bad timing on that Elements of Disaster game:I'm sure this will be a huge hit in Iowa.

More like Io-waaaah.

Not to be a graphics-whore snob or anything, but did you see the stills from "Elements"? They'd look bad on a PS1. Who knows, maybe the game is fun anyway, but Lord those are fugly graphics.




Don't have time to read it yet, buy IGN gives it a 7.9

Wow, widely different views on Sea Life Safari.

IGN gives it a 4.5 while Team Xbox gives it an 8.1. OXM gave it a 7.0 and that was the review that got my daughter excited for the game. I'll buy it regardless since it looks like fun for the kids. I don't imagine I'll see any friends on the leaderboards with this one though. Still, it's nice to find a quality arcade game aimed at children that may not suck.

I'm always floored by the licensed dreck that developers push on kids and am more amazed that the parents don't pay the least amount of interest to the quality of the title, just the name on the box.

So, I'm gonna stress test Castle Crashers tomorrow night on Live with a few friends who make the game. Hopefully it's a blast to play...I'll give some details if I can tomorrow night.

It isn't a valid stress test unless you add one more person. I am willing to sacrifice some of my time for the greater good.

Sorry, it's not up to me Apparently it's the 4 of us here in SD, than a bunch of Microsoft employees somewhere....

Hope you aren't all a bunch of racists, stu.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Re-LQDdnEWU&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Re-LQDdnEWU&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

haha I love that video

Ok, so the game is pretty awesome. We played briefly with the artist Dan and some of the other members. I got my ass kicked online in arena mode Then, 4 of us played through some of the story in 4 player co-op. Overall, it's one of the most fun arcade games I have played and will be money well spent when it finally comes out. Sorry I can't post any more details or any of the achievements yet

There hasn't been a game to grab me since Rez. All my points have been going to music packs. Maybe Castle Crashers will rock.

This week on Arcade: Happy Tree Friends False Alarm! and Ticket to Ride
Both Happy Tree Friends False Alarm and Ticket to Ride will be available this Wednesday for 800 points each.

The trailer for ticket to ride kinda got me excited. I LOVED the Aerobiz games on the SNES for some reason, and this reminded me of that. Does anyone know if that's truly the case?

Really? That's the worst trailer I've seen in a long time (even though I've known for a while that this will be a day 1 purchase for me).It's not that complex. It's an adaption of a board game -- probably the closest thing currently on XBLA is Catan.

Basically, each player has hidden destinations that they are trying to connect. The various cities require a certain number of train cars to connect them. Each round you can obtain more train cars, play some on the board, or get additional destinations. If somebody claims a route before you do, you'll have to find another way to connect your cities.

Your final score is dependent on how many of your connections were made (you are penalized for those you miss), how many train cars you laid down, and some other factors.

You can play it online for free at: http://www.daysofwonder.com/en/

yeah, basically because of the reminder of Aerobiz. That's all, the gameplay in it didn't show anything but still.
Ahh - well, if it has even 1/2 the fun of Catan then it's a no brainer for me too. I'll check out the online version - thanks Groucho.

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty lackluster trailer when I DL'ed it.

Have no clue about that other game. Haven't heard a thing about it.

edit: If nothing else, it's the bloodiest game in the history of XBLA.
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i6aH2F1WjsY&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i6aH2F1WjsY&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

what's the word on that Happy Tree Friends game? I love the cartoon. Oh, and where is my XBLA Scrabble ??

I notice Ticket to Ride has 15 achievements and 250 points available. Is there already an expansion pack in the works?

There were expansions for the board game, so it would be surprising if they weren't planning to do the same for this version.

would be nice if they'd give us another expansion for Carcasonne

Fixed.