NovaDrome
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New Vehicles and Tracks for Novadrome
For the low, low price of 250 MS Points you can get your hands on eight new vehicles and six new arenas for the Xbox Live Arcade title Novadrome. Not only can you take this online in the multiplayer mode, but they are featured in a new Career mode as well. So, while the game didn't receive the best of reviews, it still had some merit, if only to remind us of Re-Volt, the Dreamcast title and Xbox Live Beta game of choice. Will you be picking this up, given that you actually have Novadrome?
Novadrome: how not to make a trial game
There are two ways to make a trial version of a game. The first way is to give players a healthy chunk of gameplay that gives a sense of the fun and variety that a game has to offer. The idea here is to get a player genuinely excited to own the game. Some good examples of this are the Prey and Lost Planet demos, which allowed players to experience several levels, play online, and gave them access to lots of cool weapons. The other way to make a trial game is to give players a very narrow view of the overall game, hoping that players will buy the full version just to see what they are missing. Unfortunately, this method can backfire and make players assume that the entire game is limited and not enjoyable. Such is the case with Stainless Games' latest Arcade offering, Novadrome.
Novadrome rolls onto XBLA, gets power-up
This week's arcade release, Novadrome, is now available on Xbox Live Arcade. We mentioned yesterday that we were very excited at the chance to bring the pain in some car combat on Arcade, and today is no different. We're downloading it now and we'll give you our impressions as soon as possible. Oh, and there's a video for a small art house production called Halo 3 available as well. Just for kicks, we'll download that too and give you the skinny.
Novadrome crashing into XBLA this Wednesday
Oh, praise be to the man who first welded a cannon to the bonnet of his otherwise unimpressive vehicle. This week's Xbox Live Arcade release is none other than Novadrome, a game that straps combat onto a four-wheeled monstrosity and rams it into a concrete barrier. As twisted chunks of black metal rain down, recall that the developer, Stainless Software, once gave us controversy poster child of yore, Carmageddon. Though distinctly lacking in unfortunate pedestrian targets, the game boasts eight-player matches, 15 arenas (they're in "3D," apparently), over 20 different vehicles, plenty of weapons and, perhaps most importantly, "gladiatorial robot opponents." Novadrome costs 800 MS points ($10) and releases this Wednesday, December 20th at 9AM GMT (1AM PST). [Full press release after the break.]
Novadrome battles onto XBLA this week [update 1]
Update: Reader, DJ Dunk, has unearthed 8 screenshots of Novadrome. Check them out here.We love it when rumors pan out (it makes us look so cool). Last week's rumor that Novadrome was this week's Arcade release have come to fruition. A car combat game from the makers of Carmageddon, Novadrome could bring an entirely new experience to Xbox Live Arcade. The title promises 8-player Live play(!), more than 20 vehicles, 15 arenas, and loads of different weapons. Strangely, there is hardly any media available for the title whatsoever, so right now we're stuck hoping for the best. We're just going to put on our hoping hats and assume that Novadrome will be Live Arcade's answer to Twisted Metal. For 800 points, it had better be the answer to one of the good Twisted Metal games, too.Full press release after the break.
Rumor: Novadrome is next XBLA release
A batch of review scores cropped from the most recent Official Xbox Magazine have raised an interesting question. Among the reviews are several scores for recently released Xbox Live Arcade titles, including RoboBlitz, Defender, etc. However, there is one score there that does not belong, Stainless Games' next title, Novadrome, which has yet to see the Arcade. We don't know much about the game except that it's a car combat game from the makers of Carmageddon -- we also know that Stainless Games is planning to have ten Arcade titles available by the end of next year. The fact that this unreleased Arcade title is listed with several released titles has led some to assume that Novadrome will be the next Xbox Live Arcade release. Frankly, we're skeptical. Some of you may recall that Lumines was reviewed in OXM months before it was actually released, and this could be a similar situation. Still, it's in Microsoft's best interest to put its best foot forward this holiday season, both to keep current 360 owners from defecting and to bring new ones into the fold, so it is possible.[Via ILoveXBLA. Thanks, Hexx.]
Atari games on XBLA, holiday titles confirmed
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.
