Microsoft releases two free XBLA games with netplay

bmn

Edit history:

bmn: 2010-12-10 02:27:07 am

bmn: 2010-12-10 02:26:47 am

2010-12-10 02:25:28 am

Haven't seen any coverage on the Xbox itself, but on the 360's Game Marketplace, Arcade section, is two new games available at no cost. They're the result of a competition earlier in the year sponsored by Doritos to suggest a game premise, and both have online play for Gold members and 200G for achievements.

"Doritos Crash Course" (~60MB) is a pretty standard obstacle course game using your avatar, difference being the presentation and the netplay. Single player is 15 levels that, towards the end, will take about 5 minutes per level on the first playthrough. Knock that down to 2 minutes or so when you don't suck. Netplay is up to 4 people, but you only see a cardboard cutout of the other player that floats in the background showing their position.

"Harms Way" (~290MB) is a 3D dirt racer where you pick one of two roles. Driver has you, well, drive, against 3 others, nothing special there. Gunner, on the other hand, has you switch between a series of gun turrets lined around the course on hills, and your job is to help the driver by shooting out shortcuts, causing landslides to block the others, and just plain shooting at them. The switching mechanic is pretty sharp - LB/RB switches to the previous/next turret on the course, which most of the time selects the one you want - otherwise Y gives you a map to select one, which only takes a few seconds. I haven't tried this online, but it seems like a game where you need a friend or 7 to really enjoy it.

Thread title:

Haven't seen any coverage on the Xbox itself, but on the 360's Game Marketplace, Arcade section, is two new games available at no cost. They're the result of a competition earlier in the year sponsored by Doritos to suggest a game premise, and both have online play for Gold members and 200G for achievements.

"Doritos Crash Course" (~60MB) is a pretty standard obstacle course game using your avatar, difference being the presentation and the netplay. Single player is 15 levels that, towards the end, will take about 5 minutes per level on the first playthrough. Knock that down to 2 minutes or so when you don't suck. Netplay is up to 4 people, but you only see a cardboard cutout of the other player that floats in the background showing their position.

"Harms Way" (~290MB) is a 3D dirt racer where you pick one of two roles. Driver has you, well, drive, against 3 others, nothing special there. Gunner, on the other hand, has you switch between a series of gun turrets lined around the course on hills, and your job is to help the driver by shooting out shortcuts, causing landslides to block the others, and just plain shooting at them. The switching mechanic is pretty sharp - LB/RB switches to the previous/next turret on the course, which most of the time selects the one you want - otherwise Y gives you a map to select one, which only takes a few seconds. I haven't tried this online, but it seems like a game where you need a friend or 7 to really enjoy it.

slowbro

Edit history:

slowbro: 2010-12-15 03:43:45 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-15 03:42:48 pm

2010-12-15 03:40:14 pm

I really dig the new free Doritos game myself.

I actually came to SDA Forum today hoping to find a speedrunning thread about Crash Course Grin

It's a good game for competition.

If you want a taste of what IL speedruns would look like in Doritos Crash Course, here's my YouTube video of my two personal best stages:

Europe 4: Shaky Footing in 1:07.998
Japan 2: Domou Arigatou in 1:03.107
I have practiced some, but I am not extremely good at it.

If this post should be in the Videogame Video Megathread instead, could somebody place it there? Thanks.

mikwuyma

2010-12-15 06:46:15 pm

My feelings on The Demon Rush

Personally, I'm a fan of Crash Course and it's a great game for speedrunning, but Harms Way didn't seem like much fun to me.

Anyway, it's cool that the new xbla games are free.

InsipidMuckyWater

2010-12-15 07:33:16 pm

Visit my profile to see my runs!

Yeah, I had a lot of fun with these, though Harm's Way probably would not have been much fun without my teammate. The game benefits the more people that play. We had fun, anyway.

But yeah, Crash Course had us both thinking SPEEDRUN. When you're racing your friends, you're somewhat obligated to speedrun, in fact. Competent mix of reflexes and challenge, that one.

MAS8705

2010-12-15 07:58:32 pm

SDA Apprentice -- (3-1)

Man, this game is as fun as it is brutal... I can easily see Speed runs in the near future for this game... Best of luck to all who may attempt it..

slowbro

2010-12-15 09:14:30 pm

Quote from MAS8705:

Man, this game is as fun as it is brutal...

Well it's fun for me to see my avatar (who kind of looks like me) in pain when he gets squished or hammered into the screen, so I never really minded failing over and over ...

This game is decidedly not as brutal as Trials HD for me, I never got through that one, but yeah, this has a learning curve.

Looks like well over 650,000 people have this game Smiley

That has to make the people who created it feel good.

Rakuen

2010-12-15 09:53:11 pm

Weegee Time

Just checked out videos on Youtube. That Crash Course game looks like Trials HD + Mario, and that's a good thing. It's not the kind of thing I'd expect to get released for free.

I think Harm's Way needed a little more polish. The announcer by himself is annoying, and I'm not even playing. Still, I can see people going for track and lap times.

bmn

Edit history:

bmn: 2010-12-16 05:18:04 am

bmn: 2010-12-16 05:16:38 am

2010-12-16 03:26:57 am

I can't see people speedrunning Harms Way tbh. It's more of a competititive game than anything else, let more fun with 7 other people.

I managed to get 7th on USA 5 (Nothing But Air) by long jumping over the wall where you're normally forced to drop down a zigzag slide, fan slingshotting over the first gap at the start of the section at the end, and long jumping the second gap without the fan. They're all toughies though.

slowbro

Edit history:

slowbro: 2010-12-16 11:11:13 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 11:10:25 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 11:09:04 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 07:36:18 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 07:31:18 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 07:26:14 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 07:24:45 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 04:59:38 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 04:58:15 pm

slowbro: 2010-12-16 04:58:02 pm

2010-12-16 03:38:05 pm

Quote from 'bmn':

I managed to get 7th on USA 5 (Nothing But Air) by long jumping over the wall where you're normally forced to drop down a zigzag slide, fan slingshotting over the first gap at the start of the section at the end, and long jumping the second gap without the fan. They're all toughies though.

Impressive! Is that Europe 1? I've certainly thought of jumping that wall but haven't come close.

edit: I think the reason Doritos seems like such a good speedrunning game to me is that there are so many subtle ways to save time that require precision. Land closer or farther from the bulls-eye depending on how big a bounce you want, keep jumping as soon as you land to gain speed, etc. I still frequently gain or lose speed and don't know why Smiley

edit: I spent some time staring at the leaderboards; sucks there are so many cheaters of course. I think that SVVAV 101 is the real deal though; I think (s)he knows the game better than anyone else. It's also good to see one of the demons of XBLA up there (Fast n Bulbous); I wonder if Woody and White Hot Speed and Ibsoloaded won't be far behind.

edit: I'm finally beginning to learn to keep my speed up better than just by running. This video is kind of a tutorial for doing that:
USA 1 in 29.948
Maybe I'll learn to do that in other stages too.

[quote='bmn']I managed to get 7th on USA 5 (Nothing But Air) by long jumping over the wall where you're normally forced to drop down a zigzag slide, fan slingshotting over the first gap at the start of the section at the end, and long jumping the second gap without the fan. They're all toughies though.[/quote]
Impressive!  Is that Europe 1?  I've certainly thought of jumping that wall but haven't come close.

edit: I think the reason Doritos seems like such a good speedrunning game to me is that there are so many subtle ways to save time that require precision.  Land closer or farther from the bulls-eye depending on how big a bounce you want, keep jumping as soon as you land to gain speed, etc.  I still frequently gain or lose speed and don't know why :)

edit: I spent some time staring at the leaderboards; sucks there are so many cheaters of course.  I think that SVVAV 101 is the real deal though; I think (s)he knows the game better than anyone else.  It's also good to see one of the demons of XBLA up there (Fast n Bulbous); I wonder if Woody and White Hot Speed and Ibsoloaded won't be far behind.

edit: I'm finally beginning to learn to keep my speed up better than just by running.  This video is kind of a tutorial for doing that:
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEWbHZjrHOM]USA 1 in 29.948[/url]
Maybe I'll learn to do that in other stages too.

X

2010-12-17 01:46:57 pm

destroy them with lazers

i finished everything on harms way in 10 minutes but i guess thats what you expect from a free game

MAS8705

2010-12-17 04:04:05 pm

SDA Apprentice -- (3-1)

wow... have you seen the top times in the game!?! There are about 128 people who had completed all the stages in 0:00.001... Shows you that if this game is going to be featured on SDA, we will have the more official leaderboard... can never trust a hacked leaderboard...

slowbro

2010-12-18 05:06:52 pm

Quote from MAS8705:

wow... have you seen the top times in the game!?! There are about 128 people who had completed all the stages in 0:00.001... Shows you that if this game is going to be featured on SDA, we will have the more official leaderboard... can never trust a hacked leaderboard...

Oh yeah, and man all those cheaters at the top are ugly :/

Ideally, maybe they'll fix whatever glitches allow for those times and remove the obviously hacked times, and I'd say that is a possibility since the game is so popular. But having SDA as the top authority on top Crash Course performances would be cool too!

I am extremely curious to know whether SVVAV 101 is the best in the world, or just the sneakiest cheater. I think (s)he's the best but I don't know for sure.