Do not be fooled by this puppy-eyed, bushy-tailed exterior, readers. I am a man of private shame. Most nights, my Xbox 360 and its burgeoning assortment of downloadable treats are enough for me. But it is mankind's curse to always be wanting more, and over the weekend, I Lapsed. A PC game caught my eye on some indie blog or another. That game led me to another. Before I knew it, an entire 12 hours had been sacrificed upon the altar of my confessedly above-average gaming laptop. My Slim cried out mutely for attention, but I merely turned the Kinect sensor to face the wall and pressed on. Who will save me from this demon that slumbers on my desk, readers? Who can stem the corruption?
Microsoft, that's who! This year's Xbox Live Arcade releases are notable for (a) an abundance of quality, and (b) an abundance of PC ports. We've had Minecraft - soon to be utterly transformed by downloadable updates - and there's the wonderful Spelunky to follow this very week. Later this year: Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Ah, just typing these words out loud eases the burn of my unnatural midnight lusts. Are there any other games Microsoft should enlist for the service? Why yes, yes there are. Click on without further ado.
27 comments so far...
Grummy on 2 Jul '12 said:
Legend of Grimrock. Played it on PC, was fantastic fun, and would work brilliantly on 360.
It's very similar to Ultima Underworld, just with modern graphics etc. It has some nice puzzle elements, some nice gameplay elements, and a very good magic system. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would certainly pay to play it on XBLA.
CunningSmile on 2 Jul '12 said:
Didn't you work for a PC mag before coming to OXM Ed? With that in mind we'll forgive your relapse.
I really enjoyed Vampire the Masquarade: Bloodlines on the PC. Buggy as hell but really nice RPG with a wide variety of side quests and personalities along the way whether investigating a serial killer, recruiting people to work in porn or visiting a haunted house. Would love a XBLA port or a sequel. Pity the dev went bust.
Can I also put in a request for the Blade Runner PC game? Aged badly but was brilliant and really made you feel like you were tracking down a group of replicants.
OXM ETboy on 2 Jul '12 said:
Yes, yes I did. Those were Dark Times. I'd lose whole days to Mount & Blade multiplayer.
Clanger67 on 2 Jul '12 said:
Eventhough it was mentioned in an article a couple of months ago,i wouldn't mind seeing Amnesia-DD on the 360.We are overdue some good horror.I second Vampire,also a shame Troika are no more they did some good rpg's for the pc.
Lazarus22nd on 2 Jul '12 said:
I've been gagging for a remake of X-Wing Alliance, or a new one, as well as the fabled Wing Commander reboot. Been too long since I played a good space sim.
Plamsa wing on 2 Jul '12 said:
Think I might need to get Vampire the Masquarade out when I get home, damn you Ed.
Although I've had them for years, I'd like to see Fallout 1 and 2 hit XBLA on day.
msbhvn on 2 Jul '12 said:
They probably will, when Bethesda get their hands on them. They've re-released Quake 4 and they're about to release an updated Doom 3 in a few months, so it's looking good.
Clanger67 on 2 Jul '12 said:
msbhvn on 2 Jul '12 said:
The "Armor-mounted Flashlight" is one of the new features. Search "Doom 3 BFG Edition" for details.
Clanger67 on 2 Jul '12 said:
Yeah cheers for that,i knew it was coming and had a few extras but didn't know a lot else.Thought it might have been a cash in to start with,bit cynical with the amount of times Doom has been released.Anybody would think it was the first,FPS ever,lol.
STE MO on 2 Jul '12 said:
Tribes would be great. It's one of the biggest games on PC and it would be an pleasure to play it. Been wanting to for ages, it's just my laptop is, well it's over 5 years old.
I've been getting the urge to cross over, once again, to the PC lately, must be something in the air
SidTheSloth on 2 Jul '12 said:
I always think about it and then remember the faff and decide against it. Seeing games like Divinity - Original Sin coming out PC/Mac only though again lures me back towards the dark side...!
schwepterbrowser on 2 Jul '12 said:
I recently rebought Mount & Blade on Steam as it was on sale, so easy to lose a day to that game!
Magicka is good fun; I think that'd work well on XBLA. Haven't played any of the others, though I do have Lone Survivor and Tribes: Ascend, just yet to play them.
I gave in to that temptation around 2 months ago, each week I spend less time on the Xbox and more on the PC...
STE MO on 2 Jul '12 said:
The wife won't let me otherwise I'd have a nice gaming rig in the corner of the front room. Thank god for women keeping us grounded
Gh05td0g76 on 2 Jul '12 said:
Another World should be remade it was ahead of its time, maybe this was an Amiga title
SidTheSloth on 2 Jul '12 said:
Well stores like steam are firing out such amazing deals nowadays it's getting increasingly more difficult to ignore. GoG is another one on the rise of course! A lot of indie & kickstarter stuff is PC focused too with lots of innovation and trial/error in different genres... I like the direction PC gaming is heading in compared to the general malaise around console based DLC/pre-order bonuses and all that stuff. I still can't be faffed with going back to the hassle of building/upgrading and maintaing though, that's why i've always loved my consoles too, but this brings me onto my next point...
Had my eye on this for a while, they've just upgraded the spec with the ivy bridge processors - Dell X51 - the same size as a n xbox elite, it'll fit nicely under the TV and has lovely HDMI out so will plug into your regular TV - how can the wife object? She can even use it to look at kittens or whatever else she does on the internet while you're not around!
Graphics card in it looks to be the weak link, but if you're into your benchmarking and shit it performs well above what it should on paper, the whole thing works very well together. You can build your own for cheaper though, but for the price, size & style and the fact you don't have to be arsed fiddling inside i'm sorely sorely tempted...
msbhvn on 2 Jul '12 said:
She's on Amazon ordering that dirty S&M book all the ladies are into.
After I got my new 360 and freed up my PC's Ethernet port, I thought I'd sample the delights of my "SMART" Blu-ray player. Having spent an excruciating hour trying to input my email address using the remote control, I finally got it set up. Then it updated and promptly forgot it all.
STE MO on 3 Jul '12 said:
It's too tempting, I have to stop these thoughts. Good price for a DELL though
STE MO on 3 Jul '12 said:
I wish
don't do that anymore
Maverick_McCool on 3 Jul '12 said:
50 Shades of Grey , my wife read the entire trilogy in just under a week , I can't seem to go anywhere without hearing about this damn book!
It does get the ladies sticky though , maybe I should add it to my Books that could be Games thread....
Plamsa wing on 3 Jul '12 said:
I have had nothing but trouble will Dell in the past, their laptops are always going dodgy on me, thankfully I ended up getting a full refund and got a better non Dell one.
I do love Steam and it's deals. Might need to start balancing out my console/PC gaming again, I've become more of a console gamer (again) in the past few years.
Think I might build another computer again one day, one that hopefully can fit under the TV stand instead of a massive desk in the room. Shame I'm saving up to hopefully move out in the next two years.
One of my co-workers is reading those books, must be interesting if everyone is going on about it like the holy grail. As my mate says, it's just gentleman's literature for women.
IrishBoy86 on 4 Jul '12 said:
Hmm would love to see a release of Planescape Torment(remember that gem) on live not sure how it would handle with a controller though. Have recently got back into PC gaming again myself, mainly due to my love for DayZ, but with the current gen coming to an end and at least a year before next gen consoles ship, I'm really tempted to get back into PC gaming full time. A top line rig could already handle far and above what next gen consoles will handle and having seen how good BF3 and Witcher 2 look on max, not to mention the trailer for Watch Dogs, it makes it harder and harder to resist making the switch.
SidTheSloth on 4 Jul '12 said:
A lot of horror stories over the years with Dell, but they upped their game recently and my friends used them twice in the last year and had no issues, even with a free monitor replacement for a dead pixel!
There's stronger machines than the X51, and you could build your own ti it's spec for cheaper, but size, shape, price etc i think it's a very attractive package, it's designed for easy upgrade too. I'm expecting them to up the graphics card soon so that may well tip the scales.
Steam had a reputation like Dell for a while, i remember having terrible issues with them back in the day but i think they're brilliant nowadays, so many bargains etc. I hardly use it as i'm not much of a PC gamer but most of my friends are and i get insanely jealous of stuff they get, holiday sales especially!
msbhvn on 4 Jul '12 said:
PC gaming sounds good, but maintaining a gaming PC is a costly pain in the arse. I got a GT 440 graphics card a couple of months back, which is the most powerful of nVidia's budget range, mainly for emulation and older games. Every one of the nVidia drivers I've tried have caused my PC to frequently blue screen. The card isn't faulty and it's by no means an isolated incident, nVidia's forums are full of posts asking when they're going to fix it and they just get ignored. Say what you want about console gaming, but at least it's reliable.
Speaking of Steam, I bought Psychonauts from there for £2.99 in a sale after schwepterbrowser mentioned it. It plays really well on my PC and it's been updated to use the 360 controller, too.
Wonky Sausage on 5 Jul '12 said:
Mmm, whilst I agree with this list, a bit samey, genre wise... I would have like to have seen theme park or theme hospital in this list!
golliwoza on 5 Jul '12 said:
I killed my last Dell laptop using it for Crysis 2 and Gta IV. It worked well for a long while untill blowing out for good early january. I moved onto an Acer laptop to do the rest of my PC gaming untill I can build up a computer myself with a little help from some friends. I generally find myself however when using steam to just use it more as a media hub where I talk to my friends and play a little bit of PC gaming everyweek, the 360 is still my main hub as I can barely run anything new without it turning into a juddery mess.
But I would like to see more games like Amnesia, Cry of Fear and Penumbra come across to console I really enjoyed them for a scare and I find it hard to persuade friends to come across to the PC and try them out. Every other horror game just feels tame in comparison.
SidTheSloth on 5 Jul '12 said:
Any of you PC gamers heard about/seen Day-Z? It's a mod for Arma 2 that is basically now a game in its own right. It's a lot like a game version of 28 days later, you spawn in the middle of the map with bugger all, and you have to scavenge for food to stay alive whilst fighting off zombies (or better yet don't let them see you) and in some cases fight other players so you can steal their horde of goodies.
Find it here if you're interested!
One other PC game that already is on XBLA but never seems to get the recognition it deserves is Orcs must die - great little game!