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RISK: Factions invades Facebook
Friendship fracturing game Risk: Factions is available now on Facebook. Compete with friends and continue the endless debate of whether streaming out of Australia or South America is more advantages. Don't forget to mock and deride anyone who tries to hold Asia! That's, like, a rule. The Facebook version of Factions features a single-player mode, player-vs-player against Facebook friends and a "friendly fire" mode against Facebook randoms. The game also features bonus cards and other aspects that didn't exist in the console version. It's definitely Risk, but where the console version of Factions was a twist on that formula, this Facebook version seems like a twist on Factions. %Gallery-144379%
Big discounts on EA games, DLC on Xbox Live this week
Xbox Live is hosting some decent deals on Electronic Arts content this week. Notable games include Risk: Factions for $5, Shank for $7.50 or Dragon Age: Origins for $15. Plenty of DLC is up for grabs as well, including Dead Space 2 "Severed" or Mass Effect 2 "Arrival" DLC for $3 each, or Dragon Age's "Witch Hunt" DLC for $4. You can check out the full selection of sale items – oddly split into two different lists – here and here.
Risk: Factions coming to Facebook, bringing special faction-based weapons
EA just announced at its Summer Showcase that it will bring its downloadable version of the timeless strategic board game, Risk: Factions, to Facebook this summer. The title will feature the same competitive multiplayer components of its XBLA, PSN and PC counterpart, and will add "special weapons" to help distinguish each of the different factions therein. For instance, humans will have an ability that boosts their attack, while zombies have a weapon which makes them "better brain-eaters." (Sharper teeth, we guess?) Risk: Factions is currently in closed beta, meaning we should find out how these new special abilities influence the game's tightly-balanced strategy soon enough. All the tactics in the world can't overcome razor-sharp zombie molars, you know?
Risk Factions deploys from Australasia, dominates Steam
Risk Factions, an excellent translation and reimagining of the classic board game, is available now on Steam for $10. The game is already available on XBLA and PSN. For those of you not yet familiar with it, Factions includes a short single-player campaign and the ability to play multiplayer using several variants. If you're a traditionalist, the classic game is in there, too. However, in time the updated versions will likely grow on you for their faster pacing and deeper strategy.
European PSN releases for December 22
Brace yourself for holiday avarice -- this week, the Eurpoean PSN plays host to dozens upon dozens of discounts on games for PS3 and PSP. There's some new stuff, too, including Risk: Factions and the free Buzz Quiz Player, but don't let your hunger for the new distract you from the cheapness of the old. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
PSN Tuesday: Mega holiday edition overflowing with goodies
We honestly don't even know where to begin with this week's PSN update -- it's like staring down the business end of a five-foot Philly cheesesteak. There are demos for Dead Space 2, Mass Effect 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2. Not interested in demos? Well, there's RISK: Factions and Echochrome 2 for PS3 and Valkyria Chronicles 2 for super cheap on PSP. It really is an amazing update for the holidays. Check out the full PSN update after the break. (Philly cheesesteak not available, sold separately.) Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
New Year's XBLM sale discounts multiple items, offers daily deals
Microsoft has launched its "Countdown to New Year's" promotion today on Xbox Live, which will see numerous pieces of Marketplace content discounted in the days leading up to the ball drop. The deals are highlighted by several XBLA games on sale now through December 31, including Super Meat Boy, Carcassonne, Comic Jumper, Castle Crashers and Risk Factions; all of which are 33–50 percent off. Daily deals are also on offer, beginning with today's deal: Red Dead Redemption DLC. Both the "Liars & Cheats" and the "Legends & Killers" packs are available for 400 Microsoft Points ($5) each, half their usual price. Meanwhile, "Undead Nightmare" and the "Undead Nightmare Collection" (which bundles together all three aforementioned add-ons) are 25 percent off at 600 ($7.50) and 1200 points ($15), respectively. And tomorrow, December 22, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light will be available for half-off at 600 points ($7.50). Additionally, Microsoft has listed clues to the rest of this year's daily deals on the Xbox Live Dashboard. We've compiled the clues, along with our best guesses, after the break. Be sure to check it out before you start spending your holiday points! Finally, buying discounted items, watching Netflix movies or playing Halo: Reach and Fable 3 multiplayer during this 11-day promotion will automatically enter players into a sweepstakes to win a massive prize package, featuring a 50-inch HDTV.
Risk: Factions invading PSN today
Six months after Risk: Factions brought its cartoony take on all-out war to Xbox Live, Stainless Games' board game update is seeking out more territory on PlayStation 3. Risk Factions will be included in today's North American PSN update, priced at $9.99. For those of you who have yet to play Factions, it's a revamped version of the original, with a single-player campaign about war between "factions" like the Yeti, Zombies, and Cats. It also includes a "Classic Mode" for those who prefer not to take risk with the Risk formula.%Gallery-111800%
Risk, Snoopy lead this week's pet-themed Xbox Live deals
Whether you're a cat or dog person, the choice between the two most popular pets isn't so easy when it comes to aligning with a side on the irresistibly cute ... battlefield -- especially when both are enlisting you at a discount. Check out what's on offer in the Xbox Live Deal of the Week.
New and coming soon to XBLM: $5 RISK, BioShock 2 and Borderlands DLC deals, more
Major Nelson has posted highlights from the Xbox Live Marketplace content schedule for the rest of the month and into November, with some notable releases and deals to look out for. Jump past the break for the lowdown on DLC deals, discounted XBLA games and more. Also, seriously, buy Super Meat Boy ASAP.
XBLA sales stats for first half of 2010, as deduced from leaderboard data
Gamerbytes has compiled a list of several Xbox Live Arcade games and their performance in the first half of 2010 based on data derived from leaderboards. First, there are the top performers: Trials HD apparently had the biggest user base, jumping from 600,000 players to over a million during the first half of 2010 (not counting its DLC, which had almost 300,000 players over that period). But how about games that launched this year? Well, Perfect Dark enlisted 265,000, and Toy Soldiers and its DLC managed to recruit a combined 346,000 players. Risk: Factions and Snoopy Flying Ace have yet to reach 100,000. Other games didn't fare so well, with several failing to capture the attention of even 1,000 users -- Voodoo Dice, Ben 10 and Fret Nice were near or below that mark -- and of the 24 new games that Gamerbytes catalogued, only 13 managed to reach 10,000 players. Seeing how deals and promotions affected the growth of user bases on older titles is particularly interesting in the case of Zombie Apocalypse and TMNT: ReShelled, both of which came darn close to doubling their respective audiences when discounts were applied.
XBLA in Brief: Space Ark, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, Risk: Factions
Three new games this week. Three. All are 800 MS Points and all are radically different. We've got the cutesy, Breakout-esque Space Ark, some 2D action with Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project and a classic board game with some new twists in RISK: Factions. See all three after the break. Note: Space Ark actually released last week, but we were kind of busy at the time. [iTunes] Subscribe to XBLA in Brief directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the XBLA in Brief directly. [RSS] Add the XBLA in Brief feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly. There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and you may not have time to download and examine each and every new XBLA game. You've got busy, attractive person stuff to do, after all. Not to worry though, because we've done the work for you, downloading every single trial game and giving you a taste of what to expect. Watch XBLA in Brief every week to see which games deserve a closer look. When you have the time, of course.
Joyswag: Risk: Black Ops board game & Risk: Factions XBLA codes
Update: Risk: Blacks Ops will now choose whose home it goes to. Yes, IT will choose. To celebrate tomorrow's release of Risk: Factions on XBLA -- something the board game aficionados at Joystiq HQ have been geeking out about for months -- EA has offered up a copy of Risk: Black Ops for this giveaway. Now, if you don't know, Risk: Black Ops is the most delicious and desired version of the board game ever created -- and it's never been available for retail purchase. We're also hooking up our winner with two download codes for Risk: Factions, since it's best enjoyed with a friend -- or better: an enemy. To enter for your chance to win, follow these simple rules: Leave a comment with this oath: "Risk: Black Ops is beautiful and I promise to care for it, always." You must be 13 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). Limit 1 entry per person. This entry period ends at 3:00PM ET on Wednesday, June 23, 2010. At that time, we will randomly select 1 winner to receive two download codes (via email) for Risk: Factions on XBLA (ARV $10 each; Xbox Live account required for download) and the Limited Edition Risk: Blacks Ops board game (no ARV; promotional item not for resale). Please check your emails! For a list of complete rules, click here. %Gallery-20806% What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.
Risk: Factions media introduces us to the Yeti
Click image to transcend this post into gallery nirvana Given Risk: Faction's known cast of characters -- kitty cats, gruff military general-type dudes, robots and zombies -- it only makes sense that the latest faction revealed would be a bit ... off. Enter: the Yetis, a species that makes its home in the cold-kissed mountain tops. When push comes to shove, the seemingly peaceful Yeti race apparently doesn't mind going to war. Don't believe us? Head past the break for a video explaining how the cousin to the Great American Sasquatch was drafted in this global war. %Gallery-94985%
Zombies enter the Risk: Factions fray
Well, naturally. This is how we assumed the make-up of the five different armies featured in Risk: Factions would evolve: first, there are humans, and then there were cats, who were bested by robots, and now somehow there are zombies. You wouldn't think them to be brilliant global strategists, but judging by their introduction cinematic which we've posted above, we think they won't have any problem holding their own. Until, of course, they start infecting the robot faction. The resulting zombie-robots (or, if you will, "zobots") could pretty much run the board in less than three rounds.
Robots to join the struggle for world domination in Risk: Factions
We'd like to take a moment to wish all of humanity (and felinity?) the best of luck when dealing with Risk: Factions' recently announced, third group of soldiers: the unfeeling, unstoppable Robot Menace. Check out the video above to see the origins of this once-domesticated group's violent self-awareness, and the screenshots below to see the Robots in action. EA also revealed an Avatar costume piece based on the new faction, which turns your online representation's typically dopey head into a Robot's horrifying countenance. We're sure it will strike fear into your wall of adversaries in 1 vs 100. %Gallery-91249%
Hands-on: Risk Factions (Classic Mode)
Risk: Factions is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this summer, and a version of the classic Risk board game, dubbed Classic Mode, will be included. The verdict? It's classic Risk, albeit with a couple of key tweaks. Most game-changing is a bonus star feature, which randomly awards players 1-2 "stars" at the end of a turn. Stars can be used to make additional troop movements. Additionally, Classic Mode abandons the card system of the original game. Getting rid of the cards streamlines the game a bit, and so does the option to skip the dice-rolling attacks (and just view the results), but the random star bonuses can lead to one player steamrolling the opponents rather quickly -- as happens to me and another human player in the video above. Just like in the original game, once a player builds up a powerful army, there's nothing to stop total domination of the game board. But that's always been a part of the game of Risk, and now, through Xbox Live, diehard tabletoppers can test their riskiest maneuvers on a truly worldwide battlefield, say, against an opponent from the Ukraine. One thing Risk: Factions is sorely lacking, however? Little wooden cubes. Toss in some DLC wooden cubes, and I'll be happy. %Gallery-89574%
Hands-on: Risk Factions (XBLA)
I have an admission to make: I haven't played the original Risk board game. For hardcore fans of the game, that fact alone may discredit my opinion. However, after playing the upcoming XBLA adaptation, I wish I had discovered the board game sooner. Risk Factions looks and feels like a Penny Arcade game: the art style is similar, and the writing is just as irreverent. As evidenced by the shorts released by EA so far, the world of Factions is animated (in more ways than one). The Colonel, who's fully aware that he's in a game, is one of the funniest characters I've seen in recent memory. Knowing his audience well, he promised that if I kept playing, I'd see tons of nudity in the game. (An EA representative hurriedly reminded me that it was just a joke, though.) While Factions will allow players to play classic style Risk, newcomers will undoubtedly want to play through the main campaign first. The campaign does a good job of easing players into the basic rules of the game, and offers shorter, focused, objective-based challenges to conquer. The level I played didn't take place all over the globe: instead, it was a rather small map comprised of about a dozen tiles. One tile offered occupation of a missile silo, allowing you to launch a devastating area-wide attack against enemies. %Gallery-83207%
Risk: Factions sets the stage for war with two trailers
There's no gameplay in the two recently release Risk: Factions trailers, but the clips do give context to the previously presented and purrrr-fectly bizarre screenshots. With animation that looks like it's straight out of Penny Arcade Adventures -- not surprising, considering both are done by Powerhouse Animations -- the trailer sets the stage for a grand war between humans and felines. Of course, there are still three other factions yet to be revealed. We really have no idea what to think about Risk: Factions, but we're definitely interested. Sure, it seems a bit silly, but regular Risk is included in the package and the game is being developed by Stainless Games, the same studio that did XBLA's incredibly competent Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers. XBLA has been without Risk too long, so let's get this puppy (possible faction?) out the door. %Gallery-83207%
First Risk: Factions screens released, surprisingly cartoony
Click to Kitty-size Usually, when playing the physical, real-life version of Risk, we like to pretend that we're bloodthirsty conquerers -- ones capable of forging (and betraying) alliances with hated enemies, and eradicating the military forces of neighboring nations with extreme prejudice. We don't think we've ever envisioned ourselves to be person-sized felines during a heated global bout. Not that we have anything against the idea, per se -- it's just never occurred to us to try. The first batch of screenshots from EA's upcoming XBLA version of the strategic board game, Risk: Factions, depicts the scenario mentioned above in an unexpectedly animated fashion. If said fashion looks familiar, you've probably played the Penny Arcade Adventures series -- Powerhouse Animations, which brought Gabe and Tycho to life in those Hothead-developed adventure titles, also did the cinematics for Risk: Factions. Judging by the extremely Penny Arcade-looking soldiers seen above, we're guessing they had some input on character design, as well. According to the press release which accompanied the images, humans and cats are just two of the five factions featured in the game. Anyone wanna place bets on the remaining three? Our money's on Spartans, Huns and puppies. %Gallery-83207%
