Wasn't this announced as one of the first year XBLA titles? Good to see it finally come out.

Kamakazie

@Emiat:

ps3 doesnt use points. It uses real money. so stuff is listed in the store for $9.99, and you need to pay $9.99 to get it.
psn is also really nice b/c you can purchuse only what you need too. Need $1.39 extra for some game? you pay $1.39, you dont have to buy like 5-10-15-20-50 etc dollars of a set value of points

the_grimace

Weakness:

Not called Mega Man 9.

Len Bias Cocaine Surplus

@ac2334: For my money, I'll take points over cash any day. If MS says this game costs 10 bucks, it costs 10 bucks. If I get a 1600 points card on sale for 15 bucks, I'm only "paying" 7.50.

KaneRobot

Sounds way to good to be true. Has to be some kind of catch.

Ultraseamus

I'm a huge Mechassault fan, so this should be awesome if it's as much like Mechassault as the screen-shots look. I'm totally looking forward to this one.

Sylar

This game was supposed to drop like a year ago - I remember getting excited then forgetting about it, kindof Like StreetFighter2HDRemix

TheLegendof_Erick

So, this is like earth defense force 2017 with mechs?

lordargent

@Cell9song:

That's strange, guess MS was just pulling their strings.

RaptureScientist

Mike, the game was made by former members of RARE (Thirdwave Games) who released this as a PC only game a couple of years ago. It caught the eye of ubisoft and they bought the rights to it and it was picked up by MS for Live!. As I mentioned earlier, the game has been ready for well over a year (from what the devs said) but MS has been waiting for the right time to release it.

Cell9song

@Wrecks_:
princess bride reference I officially grant you kudos

souljacker86

I actually think that the MS point system has nothing to do with confusing consumers and more to do with accounting. If Microsoft allowed users to simply add money to their accounts in dollars rather than points, they would not be allowed to claim income from that account until its spent. Similarly, retailers are not permitted to show revenue in their accounting from the sale of gift cards until the cards are actually exchanged for items. By using a points system, the customers have already exchanged their cash for an item (the points themselves). In that way, Microsoft can show revenue immediately.

Also, various states have unclaimed property laws requiring retailers to turn over the dollar value of unclaimed gift cards. Microsoft probably avoids this liability to states by using points. There is no unclaimed property because the consumer received their good, rather than having an outstanding credit.

Neither of these are "unethical." If Microsoft has to change their practice and lose money (or turn unclaimed credits over to state governments), then the company raises its prices to replace the lost revenue.

KWA

I remember seeing this game demo'd a long time ago. It should be fun, in a Mech Assault sort of way. It looks like an arcade style, giant-robot shooter. I could be fun, but then again, it could be overly simplistic and get old fast.

DugDawg

@RaptureScientist:

it didn't take them long at all. The game has been ready for well over a year. MS/Ubi were waiting for something or other. I don't think the devs knew exactly why it was being held up so long.

Cell9song

@CrimsonSin:

Its a lot faster paced than Mechassult. its more of a 3rd person shooter than mecha sim.

Cell9song

Oh SNAP!
I'm glad not to have wasted my remaining 900 M$-Points on some other Arcade game!

Laviathan

I was their very first paying customer for the PC version. The game is quite a bit of fun. Fast paced (for a mech game) and it looks fantastic. The only downside compared to the PC version is that you can't choose or upgrade your weapons.

Cell9song

@SAKY: Publishers pay for getting the game through ESRB and other rating boards around the world. They also pay for localization. Lots of stuff that the devs may not have the cash for.

Rectangle

@ac2334: The reason we're in this financial crisis in the first place is because people spend money without realizing the consequences. When you have a debt, you do not have disposable income and if buying an XBLA game is going to break you then you should probably pass. The only unethical thing here is the stupidity of consumers.

...

If I count right, There are 4 XBLA games coming this week if you add this to the list Owen posted yesterday:

- War World
- Zombie Wranglers
- Megaman 9
- Age of Booty

okenny :) ...building bridges (to hide under)

@ac2334: The only thing unethical about points is that I haven't ever purchased points at full price. I pay, at most, half price for Microsoft points by buying the cards when they are on sale, or using coupons to buy the cards.

$10 for 1600 points is my limit. And I buy them for this price all the time. I currently have 5 or 6 cards sitting on a shelf next to my games. Stock up when they are cheap.

So everything I buy on Marketplace is now half price.

I much prefer this system to the Playstation's system where everything costs what it says it costs.

So, keep up the good work, Microsoft! :-D Don't listen to the points haters!

Rectangle

On Major Nelson's site he has it listed up there with no word on Megaman 9. You should see the comments on there because of it.

I will trial this game but it won't be a purchase unless it has some good co-op features.

The Chicken Kicker

I remember seeing this on "On The Spot" over at gamespot a long time ago... any ways it looks like Mechassault and we can only hope that it will play like it to.

CrimsonSin

was this one of the features on that awful gamespot show that they forced people to watch in order to get a chance to win an LBP key...?

Charlie Kelly

@Wrecks_: ethical means doing the right thing even though its unpopular or won't allow you to buy that third house in the Hamptons

ac2334

@ac2334:

I think the only unethical thing is that it's trying to get you to stop paying with points to spare, which MS will bank.

The points system is just unnecessary confusion.

arstal

@Emiat: not playstation - when I buy things on that it gives we what I spent in DOLLARS...quite convenient really : )

ac2334

@Emiat:

And that whole dollars thing. Way unethical!

Wrecks_

@ac2334:

Unethical? You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Wrecks_

I remember this game from the 2007 E3 video on XBLA games, guess it took them a long time to port from the PC.

RaptureScientist

@ac2334: Guess that applies to the Wii and the Playstation points too, and anything else that lets you carry out micro-transactions for games.

Emiat

@Rotmm: i agree that if you keep track of it closely, you should know how much you are spending...but the system exists to help confuse people as to how much they are spending (think younger kids) and TO ME seems to be unethical...I'm open to criticism though..

I don't see any other legit reason for it to exist and not be 1:1 with the amount that you spend..

ac2334

@SAKY: One of the publisher's biggest jobs is to pay the developer's salaries and otherwise fund development during the actual development process. Even on a platform like XBLA, development takes long enough that the devs would need to, you know, eat, long before any profit comes in.

Moonshadow101

@SAKY: I would guess that it's more to do with funding to actually develop the game.

Rotmm

@SAKY: The developer may need financial help.

MouseCircus

@ac2334: Unethical? How exactly?

Rotmm

I've heard that you have to submit your game for testing, and that you pay for testing... but just because I heard it, doesn't make it true.

DragonYen

Sounds great to me too, as long as the mechs don't move too slowly. Nothing fun about slowly lumbering/hovering towards your opponents. Doesn't seem to be any kind of customization options, though, which is disappointing for a giant robot multiplayer fighting game.

therage33

Someone help me out here, why does a digitally distributed game need a publisher? Does a company need to pay MS to put it up on XBL?

SAKY

Maybe this new decrease in disposable income will open peoples' eyes to just how unethical this MS "points" system is..

ac2334

I originally heard about it here on Kotaku, but that must have been months ago as I had completely forgotten about it.

It does look great, though.

MouseCircus

I've never even heard of this. Anyone else? looks cool though.

Shin_Ein

This game was scheduled to come out a loooong time ago on XBLA. I tried the PC version and found it to be pretty boring and very mediocre. I honestly don't have much hope at this point for the XBLA release.

Tinsel

Hmm? It seems like ever since MS raised the size limit, XBLA games have been getting better!

Coincidence, I think not.

Raise it to 600mb! Lolz

TheTimeisback4Good

this game fits under the size limit of XBLA titles?

meekzzz

@ac2334: Huh? I've never had trouble finding points cards in any of my local stores. They always have stacks of them at Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, etc... And those are the places where you can buy them cheap, too.

Rectangle

@KWA: This has nothing to do with accounting: you could as well buy dollar-prepaid-cards.

It's not by accident that the 100 ms point unit is sightly above the 1$ and 1 euro -mark. It's indeed there to make it more difficutl to keep track of your spendings.

Bedlam

@Rectangle: hey morons - there aren't enough of these cards for everyone. Why do think that is? Because MS doesn't want to pay for printing ink?

ac2334

I remember this from years ago.

S'actually not that bad. S'kinda like a 3rd person mech game that plays like UT.

belo

@the_grimace: So some people like paying full price. Others like paying half. I'm in the 2nd group. ;) Of course, most people don't realize they have a choice. Just buy the cards when they are on sale.

$1 Rock Band songs cost me 50 cents on Marketplace. $2 Rock Band songs cost me $1. Penny Arcade Adventures? $10. Castle Crashers? $7.50.

I'm willing to put up with always having unspent points in my account in order to always have my own personal 50% off sale in Marketplace.

Rectangle

A build of this game has been floating around on Partner Net for a while now, and quite frankly, it sucked. I'm a huge fan of mech sims but this thing...I dunno, perhaps they made some huge and significant changes between whenever that build was put up and now, but if they didn't...

Atheist Jew

@Ultraseamus: I would expect some sort of DLC shortly after release. Perhaps more mechs and weapons or something. This is wayyyy to cheap to be a standalone without a bunch of add-ons coming out.

Hollowcow

@denki: Now all the 360 needs is a High-Res version of D.R.O.D.

Razgriz1

This reminds me of Monolith's SHOGO. There should be more shooters with a Mecha theme. I'll try the demo and hope for the best.

+ Watch video

K-dash

Is it just me or is Xbox Live starting to resemble the golden years of shareware? I remember playing game that looked hideous compared to this game, but was offered at a low price and offered little in gameplay except to blow shit up, maybe even over LAN or, god forbid, the internet. With some of the recent stuff that has popped up- Duke Nukem, other things I can't be bothered to look up or care about, it's like everyone is dusting off the games they made for DOS, pimping the graphics, and selling it as new. Which there isn't anything wrong with, as I have fonder memories of the games I never played full versions of more than half the crap I play nowadays. Ah man, Return Fire...

denki

@Bedlam: thank you Bedlam

ac2334

Megaman 9, where art thou? :(

King of Fun UK

I remember this advertised at frickin' E3 2007... looked terrible back then. Maybe they've made some improvements since then?

Lebensbaum

@therage33: You've apparently not played Chromehounds, or if you did, hated it. There's everything to love about a slow moving mecha game, as long as it is done well. Ah Mechwarrior 2- I weep.

denki

Xbox Live lately has been getting some pretty impressive-looking titles. Usually downloaded games across all platforms are 2d, 2.5d, or really simple 3d (or re-released 3d games that were released in the PS1 era).

Shin-san

@SAKY: Braid still costed something like $180k. You can do it alone, but that kind of cash is still hard to get for a small team.

Shin-san

The game was mentioned and even had early gameplay video like 2 years ago. It's about damn time they release this game, I've been waiting for it since I first saw it at some game expo show (can't remember which one).

Delvar15

Woah, this looks like a real game rather then an arcade title. And its only $10?

Quicksilver4648

"it's going to have to suck pretty hard to not be completely worth the price."

Didn't you read the part about it being by Ubisoft?

dowingba

@the_grimace: Actually PSN will only take a mininum of $5 off of a credit card. So what you need better be at least $5.

Here's a story on how I got supremely ripped off over the weekend. PSN cards haven't come to my town yet (and probably won't, for like, years) so I decided to get one of those prepaid VISA gift card things. I got a $25 one. It cost me $25 plus tax at the register. It came to something like $28.

Then I get home, open it up, and it tells me there's a (forget the percentage) user fee to use this card, and that I'm not allowed to use it for more than $21. So already I've paid $28 for a $21 card. Alright, I say, at least I can still get myself Wipeout HD!

Whoops, but PSN only lets me take money off the card in either $10 or $25 increments. So I have to make two transactions of $10 each (because I can only spend $21 of my card, remember). But that percentage user fee thing? Yeah, it's compounded for each purchase. So suddenly my $21 is barely more than $20. Whatever, Wipeout HD is only $19.99.

Whoops, but the PSN charges tax above and beyond the price they display for items. So the price is really $21 something. Damn, and I can only add money to the PSN in $5 increments. Fuck. So, because I was charged tax twice (once at the register and once on the PSN store) and I was charged double the "user fee" on the card because the PSN forced me to make twice as many transactions as I had to, I can't afford a $19.99 game with a $25 card.

I just thought I'd relate this story to anyone who thinks the "points system" is any worse than PSN's "real money" system.

dowingba

@icarusprime:

aout = about

icarusprime

@ac2334:

but he didnt go aout it calling people morons.

icarusprime

Whoa, this game completely dropped off the radar a long time ago. Glad to see it back.

MasterNinja

it looks very bland and dull.

jimmyNewtron

@dowingba: Wow, thats ridiculous. Why hasn't there been more uproar about this? I guess you didn't get WipEout then?

duckmouth

@Menasor:
wasnt directed at you duckmouth. just too lazy to scroll all the way back up to get the right guy :P

Menasor

@duckmouth:

ever think they did the points thing as a way of introducing a universal currency for their system? i mean if a game costs 800 points regardless of where i am, thats a hell of a lot easier to work with than checking the price of something, working out the exchange rate, then buying it, or just waiting a few weeks til the exchange rates change and then getting it.

i know that when a games announced, that unless someone says otherwise, its 800 points. with something like the PSN, which uses monetary values, each time a games announced i'd have to work out am i getting ripped off this week as opposed to last week?

keep the points. lot easier

Menasor

DO you wall know why microsoft and nintendo use points?

Because there are no tax on points. You are purchasing these points and because they don't really exist on a physical plane, you can't tax them. Think about this, either a game could be 800 MSP, or $11.50. I'll be honest, with all the arcade games I dl, by doing points I definetly saved much more than the PS Network had going.

See, on the PSN they charge tax!

Wasted_Paper_Cow

@duckmouth: No, I got Mega Man 9 instead. Because at $9.99, it was pretty much the only game I could actually afford with my $25...sorry $28 card.

Note this is as much a problem with those ridiculous prepaid VISA cards (that people often recommend on this site in the absence of PSN cards or legit credit cards).

dowingba

@dowingba: I thought Third Wave made the game but UBI published it?

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

@Shin-san: hmmm, since launch, PSN has gotten, Gran Turismo HD Concept, Super StarDust HD, Pain, Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Warhawk, Ratchet and Clank: Quest for Booty, BurnOut Paradise, Fatal Inertia and Wipeout HD as well as the other 2D/2.5D games. I've said it time and again, PSN overshadows LiveArcade because of LA's size limitation. PSN has more robust 3D games than WiiWare or XBLA

Striderhayasa - Phillyyakk on PSN and Live.

It's interesting to see people get all excited for a game just based on a few screenshots.

This was supposed to come out a year ago and everyone who played it said it was terrible. A year later maybe that has changed, who knows, but I would definitely play the free trial version before spending $10 on it.

XbhaskarX

Yes i have been waiting for this game for a while i thought it was never going to come out.

Haber

@Wasted_Paper_Cow:

I'm not sure that has anything to do with it. I don't get charged tax on any of them, including PSN,

Vidikron

I saw this at some convention, I think it was E3 07 or TGS 07. It was on one of those compilation videos that they put up on LIVE for Bringing it Home. It reminds me of my first XBOX LIVE love, Mechassault.

Xer0Ph0kus

Yeah, because, you know,Microsoft is responsible if you can't manage your money (or points or wtf). Also, Mc Donald's is responsible for people getting fat and the cigarettes compagnies are responsible of people dying from cancer. You,my friend,aren't responsible for anything.It's all the government/big corporations fault! You can live in peace now. Christ,I wish people would stop whining about everything and assume themselves. What? A man can dream, can't he? Losers.

UltimaCrete

Ive been waiting for this game for over 6mo. but it was only a blip on the radar back then and then disappeared. I taught they got rid of it but im happy they didn't.

tix_master

I remember this from a couple of years back. I asked the developers point blank on whether or not this would hit Xbox 360 and they wrote back saying pc first but that they were actively pursuing the Xbox as well. It does have customizable weapons so you can upgrade/ purchase/change out your weapon load. Not sure if the mechs themselves can be upgraded but it looked and played pretty nice. The 360 controller ought to translate nicely too.

SaumyaJellyfish

Its about damn time.I've been waiting for this to come out for a LONG while...

HeathKestrel

Or maybe the lack of disposable income will open peoples' eyes to just how much value can be found in a 800msp ($10) game that can often provide as much fun as some retail games for a sixth of the price...

OdellGaze

@denki: You are correct sir, I have not played either one of those. I was in love with Armored Core for a time, but I had to upgrade to faster movement parts or I'd lose my mind. I also like Custom Robo, if that even counts. :)

therage33

Sounds interesting but my copy of Armored Core For Answer is giving me the evil eye...

Zen Grenadier