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Wizards partners with Carmageddon devs for downloadable game
Crazy rich card game, role-playing, and now social networking company Wizards of the Coast has announced that it is venturing into the downloadable games space with a partnership with UK developer Stainless Games. Both parties remain tight lipped as to the nature of the project, though Stainless CEO Patrick Buckland teases us by calling the game "one of the most treasured IP's in the games field." While we wait for more information to come in early 2008, it's anyone's guess what will come of this digital love in, especially given Stainless Games' eclectic development history. The studio's recent efforts have been focused on recreating Atari classics for XBLA, though its roots are much less tame, having been responsible for the "racing game for the chemically imbalanced," Carmageddon, as well as its road stained sequel.
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 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.
