We've got a spiritual sequel and an actual sequel this week. The former is Ancients of Ooga, a successor of sorts to the ancient XBLA title, Cloning Clyde. The latter is Puzzle Quest 2, which essentially amounts to an apology about that whole Galactrix thing.

Check out XBLA in Brief and see if either game is for you.

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There are new Xbox Live Arcade games released every week. We realize that our readers are busy, attractive people, and 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.

Continue reading XBLA in Brief: Ancients of Ooga and Puzzle Quest 2

XBLA in Brief: Ancients of Ooga and Puzzle Quest 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to a Joystiq source, NBC is developing a pilot for a show about gaming, focusing on gamer culture and the people who make games. According to the source, the project is being helmed by TJ "Ocman" Allard, a former Ubisoft designer. His co-host is Audrey Cleo, who currently works on Qore. The team is currently editing footage recorded at E3 for the pilot, including interviews with Kinect's Kudo Tsunoda and Mortal Kombat's Ed Boon.

Specific details, like a show name and distribution, have yet to be settled upon. However, our source says that the working title is currently "Game On." The pilot -- planned for primetime -- may even premiere as early as next month. If you happen to know more about this project, feel free to send us a tip. We will keep you anonymous!

NBC working on video game show pilot for primetime originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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All of the questions about Gaikai and OnLive have revolved around whether the streaming technology actually works. Can a company actually process your games on a remote server, and then stream them to you in a playable format? For Gaikai's CEO Dave Perry, there's no question: It works. "Yeah. Yeah," he says. "Absolutely. No problem at all."

The question that Gaikai is trying to answer, then, isn't about whether the cloud works, but how. OnLive has launched with a subscription model, but Perry's doing it differently. Rather than build a service for customers, he wants Gaikai to serve as a sort of distributor -- a go-between for game publishers (like EA and Activision), online content creators (like Joystiq), and game players. Gaikai's "secret sauce" isn't in the streaming technology itself, but in the business model that makes it possible and profitable for everyone.

Perry explained his plan to us in detail at the company's headquarters in Southern California last week, and told us why and how Gaikai is different from all of the other streaming services out there.

Continue reading Dave Perry on the innovation of Gaikai

Dave Perry on the innovation of Gaikai originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Valve's agonizing piecemeal delivery of footage from the Portal 2 E3 demo continues. These clips introduce Pneumatic Diversity Vents and Thermal Discouragement Beams, because simply creating conduits between two points in space (four in co-op) wasn't complicated enough.

Sure, those are just vacuums and lasers, respectively, but it's still enough to give us a headache in anticipation of future gameplay complexity. Luckily, no space-bending guns are required to see the videos -- simply click past the post break and they'll go directly into your eyes.

Continue reading Time for a bit more of the Portal 2 E3 demo

Time for a bit more of the Portal 2 E3 demo originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Perhaps it's my Canadian roots and the fact that I am one of two staff members that enjoys sports games but NHL 10 was one of the best titles released last year. After a shaky start in the current generation of consoles, the team at EA Canada has transformed the NHL brand into the premiere video game sports franchise.

Not content with adding a few adjustments to last year's winning formula, EA Canada is making drastic changes to NHL 11 - the 20th anniversary of the longstanding sports franchise. Unfortunately, of the gameplay changes I've seen, there may be some cause for alarm.

Continue reading Preview: NHL 2011

Preview: NHL 2011 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A complete list of games, for all major Platforms, coming out in July.

Here are the latest review scores from Nintendo Power.

Videogameszone is showing their top-20 games for the second half of 2010.

The latest software top ten sales estimates in Japan from Famitsu have been released.

EX: "June was a pretty sparse month for gamers. That's not to say there weren't any good games released, but for the most part, everyone's attention was focused almost exclusively on the presentations at E3 2010. July is really more of the same. Developers and publishers spoiled gamers during the first quarter of 2010, and now there's a noticeable decline in quality games being launched during the summer months. However, July still has more than enough top tier games shipping out to put a severe hurting on your wallet. It's not the onslaught of AAA exclusives like in January and February, but you'd be foolish to skip gaming in July entirely. Besides, what else are you going to do during the summer? Go outside? Please --quit fooling yourself, bust open your piggy bank and go buy the games on this list."