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Crimson Alliance receives 'Vengeance Pack' DLC Oct. 12
Crimson Alliance for Xbox Live Arcade will spring into action once again with the "Vengeance Pack" on October 12 for 240 Microsoft Points ($3). The DLC includes a more challenging mini-campaign of four levels and a challenge map with new mode "Fistful of Coins." FoC has players tasked with surviving wave after wave of beast, collecting gold as they go along. The group can leave and bank their loot at any time, which will help them ascend the leaderboards, but if they die, they'll lose everything. It's Crimson Alliance meets the masochism of Demon's Souls. Certain Affinity president Max Hoberman said, "When we finished the game back in May we had a few months to wait before the Summer of Arcade was over. So we devoted ourselves to building the kind of maps that we wanted to play: fiendishly difficult ones that are perfect for co-op." "We built Crimson Alliance to be expandable," Tim Fields, director of business development at Certain Affinity told us this afternoon. "For those who felt they went through the original campaign and thought it wasn't challenging enough, the Vengeance Pack is for them."
PSA: 'Free' Crimson Alliance download isn't the full game
It may be thrilling to see the "full game" of Crimson Alliance available on XBLM for free -- you may think it's a pricing error on Microsoft's part -- but that's just how the game works. It's not actually the full game. We knew that Crimson Alliance would be available either as an 800 point single-character pack or a 1,200 point download with all three; what we're just now learning on release day is how Microsoft is handling that. The "full game" is available for free, presumably so everyone online is playing the same base game. But that free download only includes "trial characters," and warns the player upon character creation that "You are creating a Trial Character. Game content will be limited for this character." There are prompts ... everywhere to buy the characters for 800 points each. This model of giving the game away for free, but severely limiting it, almost makes Crimson Alliance the first freemium game on XBLA, which already offers free trials for all games. [Thanks to everyone who emailed us about this.]
Crimson Alliance review: Born-again gauntlet
In gastronomical terms, Crimson Alliance is Nutella on toast to fans of the abandoned top-down action genre. It's inspiring in its toast-like simplicity. It shares Nutella's life-affirming sweetness and palatable smoothness. It's a decent mix -- but then, somebody puts a heaping helping of peanut butter on the toast. Okay, it still sounds good, if not a little messy, except -- is that marshmallow fluff? Yikes, alright, I guess we're making s'mores toast now. Wait, are you adding raspberry jam? That doesn't even make sense! This is Crimson Alliance: A peanut butter and s'mores sandwich with raspberry jam. %Gallery-129401%
Crimson Alliance trailer goes rogue
Crimson Alliance has introduced the menacing mercenary and the wackjob wizard. Now it's time for the final announced playable character, Moonshade the assassin, to take a stab at earning your $10 (you can also grab all three classes for $15).
Crimson Alliance's strange pricing structure isn't so strange, after all
Crimson Alliance is going to cost $15 for the full game when it launches September 7 on XBLA, which isn't very weird. The game features three classes -- mercenary, wizard and assassin -- and people who only want to play one class will be able to buy a separate version of the game, with just the one class, for $10. That is weird in an "all games should be sold like this" way. We were suspicious of Crimson Alliance's pricing model back in July, and we're glad to be pleasantly surprised now. Producer Tom Potter (he must hate J.K. Rowling) explains the pricing structure as a way for players to have "more options when buying Crimson Alliance." We see it as a way to save $5 just for knowing what we like, and that's not a bad deal.
Crimson Alliance conjures up wizard trailer
The Crimson Alliance needs a magic user and it looks like all the goody-goody mages are busy teaching little wannabe wizards or wandering with hobbits. Direwolf, the mage, is just a little bit crazy, but when somebody can shoot fireballs from their hands, it's better to call them "eccentric."
Crimson Alliance groups together new screenshots
Crimson Alliance, which may have some price "flexibility" when it assembles for adventure on XBLA this September 7, has gathered several new action-oriented screenshots of dangerous dungeon crawling.
Crimson Alliance may have price 'flexibility' at launch
Certain Affinity is currently discussing Crimson Alliance pricing options with Microsoft to offer more flexibility when the game arrives on September 7. An ad for the Summer of Arcade on the Xbox dashboard states that those who purchase all five games in the promotion will receive "Crimson Alliance and all three characters as a gift." The line is oddly specific, separating the game from the characters, so we followed up with Certain Affinity. "When Crimson Alliance launches, the full game -- all the content and characters -- will be priced at 1200 points," the rep told Joystiq. "We've discussed other pricing options with Microsoft that gives players more flexibility. We expect that to be finalized and a formal announcement closer to launch." Crimson Alliance was a standout XBLA title at E3, where the developers alluded that the game might not follow the standard pricing model. With the "full game" costing 1200 MSP ($15), which is the standard price for most original XBLA titles now, it'll be interesting to see what alternatives are provided to those not seeking full membership in Crimson Alliance.
Crimson Alliance trailer reveals Gnox the mercenary
Potentially free XBLA dungeon crawler Crimson Alliance's first character trailer reveals what happens when one runs a poker scam in their world. Hint: It involves trekking into dank, dark monster-infested places fraught with danger.
Crimson Alliance assembles new screens
These new screens will likely do nothing to endear Crimson Alliance to you, so let's mitigate that by saying that the game can be obtained for "free," and that we actually had a good time with it at E3.
XBLA Summer of Arcade releases dated, buy them all for free Crimson Alliance
We knew which games were going to be part of this year's XBLA "Summer of Arcade" -- but not when. Today, Microsoft shared that information, allowing you to plan your season around buying video games. The Summer kicks off with the isometric action-adventure Bastion on July 20, for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15.) Eric Chahi's volcanic god game, From Dust, follows on July 27 for the same price. On August 3, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet will be available, also for 1200 MSP. August 10 brings a refreshing virtual fruit salad in the form of Fruit Ninja Kinect, for 800 Points. Finally, Toy Soldiers: Cold War arrives on August 17 for 1200 Points. Like previous years, there's a bonus for buying all five Summer of Arcade titles, and this year it's a free copy of Crimson Alliance when it's released on September 7 (for 1200 Points). Fruit Ninja Kinect's inclusion in the promotion means that you must have a Kinect in order to take advantage of the free bonus. That's a bummer of Arcade for those who haven't picked up Microsoft's camera yet.
Crimson Alliance preview: Surviving the gauntlet by torchlight
Crimson Alliance is shaping up to be a polished, modern successor to the legacy of Gauntlet. The dungeon crawler by Certain Affinity may initially give off the impression of being a Diablo or a Torchlight, but the game is far more focused on keeping the action going than fiddling with RPG elements and menus. The title supports up to four players in every combination of couch and online co-op. However, there are only three classes, so a four player game will have two folks playing as either the mercenary, wizard or assassin. Actually, all four players can rock the same class if they'd like, but it's definitely better to have diversity of expertise on the field. There is no skill tree or leveling in Crimson Alliance. Players acquire gear that increases their armor, which increases their health. "Leveling up" is all based on gear gathered from the "crafted" (i.e. pre-generated) dungeons and loot drops. It's also possible to purchase items in the store, but I didn't get to see that functionality in the demo. %Gallery-124905%
Crimson Alliance sends you and three friends a-crawlin' again
Here's a look at some gameplay of Crimson Alliance, that Certain Affinity-developed four-player dungeon crawler that was officially announced last week. It looks like pretty standard hack-and-slash fare, with three different players (color-coded, seems like) bashing, casting, and slicing their way through dungeons of baddies, collecting the sweet, sweet loot that drops from their corpses. We would say something here about how constantly fighting wave after wave of enemies in dimly-lit dungeons eventually gets boring, but you know what? If the quality and polish are there when they need to be, it doesn't. It really doesn't.
Certain Affinity's 'Crimson Alliance' is a co-op action RPG for XBLA [update]
Developer Certain Affinity cleared up some of the mystery surrounding Crimson Alliance, a game first spotted -- with the company's name attached -- on Australian and Brazilian ratings boards. For one thing, we now have the crucial information of what the logo looks like (see it in our gallery). That's the only thing on the new Crimson Alliance website. The developer also revealed on the new Crimson Alliance Facebook page that the game is "built for XBLA," and "features a campaign that can be played solo, or with friends over Xbox Live (or on the same couch!)" It won't be an XBLA/PSN title either -- it's exclusive to Xbox. That Facebook page also features another piece of artwork, which we've included above. Mysteries that remain include what the actual game is and what that looks like. Update: Certain Affinity sent out a lot of details in a new press release (after the break). Crimson Alliance is a four-player co-op action RPG coming to XBLA this summer, featuring three classes of character with five special abilities each: the Wizard, the Assassin, and the Mercenary. Read more about it after the break! [Thanks, Ethan]
'Kinect Me,' 'Crimson Alliance' among new Microsoft games rated
A trio of game ratings appeared on the Australian Classification website today, perhaps spoiling some of the titles Microsoft will announce just around the corner at E3. New entries for "Crimson Alliance," "Fusion: Genesis" and "Kinect Me" all list Microsoft as publisher and run the gamut from Mature-rated to PG to G. Only the Crimson Alliance page notes a developer, Certain Affinity, which is corroborated by the game's Brazilian classification. Likewise a rating for Fusion: Genesis has also shown up in Brazil, where both titles are listed for Xbox Live Arcade. Kinect Me remains the most mysterious of the mystery titles and could perhaps feature some connection to the kinect.me promotional site (pictured above) that's been live since last summer. A source tells Siliconera to expect an E3 announcement of "Kinect Fun Lab," which the site surmises could be a working title for Kinect Me -- both names are at least sufficiently generic-sounding to be one and the same game. Additionally, Brazil has classified two more Xbox Live Arcade titles, Fruit Ninja Kinect and Hole in the Wall (from Ludia), supporting previous ratings of the pair of pending releases.
One Shots: Outland skies
With Patch 3.3 bringing in lots of goodies, the holiday event coming up, and Cataclysm looming on the horizon, Outland may not be the place a lot of people are spending time these days. Nonetheless, the skies over this strange other-world remain a beautiful place to stop and enjoy a moment of quiet. This great World of Warcraft One Shots comes to us from Tristalus of the Crimson Alliance - a guild that he says has been together for 12 years this December! He writes in: Many of us have moved on from Outlands for some time now. One day while I was flying through gathering some materials, I looked up. Everything came together in the sky for a beautiful screenshot! You can almost picture flying through that can't you? When your server goes down for maintenance, why not take a little time and dig through that screenshot folder. That way if you find something tasty from your travels, you can email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a quick description. Any other info you'd like to share about your guild, group, character, etc, is welcome as well. We'll post it out here and give you the thanks for contributing to One Shots! %Gallery-9798%
