Fable 2 DLC Next Week

Official word has come down today that Fable 2's first downloadable content, Knot's Island, will be available on January 13th for 800 Microsoft points($10). The DLC had been delayed by Microsoft certification.

Lionhead Studios will also be releasing a patch for Fable 2 on the same day.

I guess I should get around to beating Fable 2 before I play the DLC.

Tabula Rasa Code Request

After Andy posted that Tabula Rasa was free for everyone, I decided I would check the game out. I've never played a MMO game and figured this looked like a cool game to cut my teeth on. Well setting up accounts and downloading the game were the easy part. Getting the code for the game is a different story.

For several days I did as the instructions asked me to. Start an account on PlayNC: checked, download the game: checked, acquire code from support: where do I do that at.

Each time I clicked the link on their instructions page I was taken to the PlayNC sites sign in page. I would then sign in and a new page would say something about the information requested has been removed. So I did some searching around their site and couldn't find a way to acquire the code needed to actually play the game. So yesterday I decided to email their support staff and this is what they replied back:

Thank you for your interest in Tabula Rasa.

I am escalating this request to the appropriate team for further assistance. They will reply to you again as soon as possible. Because of the high volume of Tabula Rasa code requests we are receiving at this time, please be aware that it may take up to 7 business days for your request to be proceeded.

Thank you for your continued patience as we work to resolve this issue for you.

Well that stinks. I guess there are a bunch of cheap bastards out there, like me, who wanted to play this game after it was free and that tied up their system. Hopefully the game will be really good and generate a lot of buzz and cause the game to stay available. We shall see.

January Game Releases

The new year has begun. After seeing what 2008 brought to the gaming table, will 2009 measure up?
 

DS Titles
January 6
• Jumble Madness
• Moon

January 13
• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

January 20
• Big Bang Mini

January 27
• The Chase: Felix Meets Felicity
• Coraline

January 30
• Peggle: Dual Shot

PC Titles
January 5
• Saints Row 2

January 12
• Fusion Fall

January 13
• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
• Mirror's Edge

January 20
• Commander in Chief

January 22
• Darkfall

January 26
• MLB Front Office Manager

PS2 Titles
January 6
• CID the Dummy

January 15
• Tomb Raider: Underworld

January 20
• Ar Tonelico II
• AR Tonelico 2: Melody of MetaFalicia
• PDC World Championship Darts 2008

January 27
• Coraline
• The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
• Nobunaga's Ambition: Iron Triangle

PS3 Titles
January 13
• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

January 19
• 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

January 20
• Skate 2

January 26
• MLB Front Office Manager

January 27
• Afro Samurai

PSP Titles
January 6
• CID the Dummy

January 20
• Mana Khemia: Student Alliance
• PDC World Championship Darts 2008
• Star Ocean: Second Evolution

January 27
• DJ Max Fever

Wii Titles
January 5
• Rock Band 2

January 6
• Fishing Master World Tour

January 12
• Neighborhood Games

January 13
• Deal or No Deal
• Deer Drive
• MotoGP 08

January 20
• Dead Rising: Chop
• Ultimate Shooting Collection

January 27
• Coraline

Xbox 360 Titles
January 13
• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest

January 19
• 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand

January 20
• PDC World Championship Darts 2008
• Skate 2
• Stoked

January 26
• MLB Front Office Manager

January 27
• Afro Samurai

Happy New Year!

Parts of the world are already in 2009 and I hear things are going well so far there in the future. Just wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year before I head out for the night. I'll see you all next year!

That's it. Nothing else. Last post of 2008.

Games of the Year

We at XYBA decided that we couldn't let all the big blog sites have all the fun so we went cagematch style to determine our own games of the year. In the end, after a bout of bloody fighting(Josh fights dirty) we decided to just post all of our picks. Our choices after the jump. (Face, Charlie!)

Game of the Year:

Andy: Fallout 3
Charlie: Gears of War 2
Josh: Gears of War 2

Gears of War 2 gets the coveted XYBA Game of the Year award. Josh and Charlie love the Horde mode and are constantly playing it. Runner-up is Fallout 3.

Casual Game of the Year:

Andy: Scene It? BOS
Charlie: Rock Band 2
Josh: *Declined*

Probably the hardest category for us because we aren't big casual gamers. We're giving the award to Rock Band 2 with Scene It? BOS receiving the runner-up.

Co-op Game of the Year:

Andy: Left 4 Dead
Charlie: Rock Band 2
Josh: Saint's Row 2

A three way split! There were some good co-op games this year, online and off. I went with Left 4 Dead because this is a game that truly requires cooperative play to succeed. I tend to often go lone wolf on a lot of co-op games, but if you do that on Left 4 Dead, you're toast. Josh went with Saint's Row 2 because the co-op on it is so smooth and makes the game ten times more fun. Charlie went with Rock Band 2... no explanation given.

New IP of the Year:

Andy: Left 4 Dead
Charlie: LittleBigPlanet
Josh: Left 4 Dead

Our New IP award goes to Left 4 Dead. Valve did it again with a post-apocalyptic world where an unlikely group of survivors bands together to try and escape the zombie masses. The AI and the "Director" make the game different every time you play it, and the online versus mode guarantees you'll be replaying this game. We can't wait for more DLC or Left 4 Dead 2. Runner-up is LittleBigPlanet.

RPG of the Year:

Andy: Fallout 3
Charlie: Fallout 3
Josh: Locks Quest

Fallout 3 is our RPG of the Year. Bethesda did it again. They took a beloved franchise and changed it without fucking it up. The massive post-apocalyptic world of Fallout 3 is beautiful and deadly. This is a game we spent countless hours on and still went back for more. Runner up is Locks Quest on the DS.

Shooter of the Year:

Andy: Saint's Row 2
Charlie: *Voided*
Josh: Saint's Row 2

Charlie's vote was voided since he picked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare which came out last year. Our Shooter of the Year is Saint's Row 2. I don't know if this won awards from many other organizations, but we love us some Saint's Row 2. This game has what so many games tend to miss: fun! Saint's Row 2 is possibly THE most fun game I played all year. Much of the fun is from co-op, but the game stands without it as well.

Rant: I Hate Game Freezes!

I've had to deal with some game freezing on my Xbox 360 lately. It seems to be certain games and not the Xbox itself(hopefully). But it's very frustrating, especially when playing games without a real save system.

I picked up Call of Duty: World at War on sale at Best Buy last week. I beat the campaign playing split-screen co-op in one sitting. It seemed like it was going to freeze at one point but unfroze after a few seconds. I then played online multiplayer for a few days - no problems. I went back to play the campaign on solo(there's more missions and achievements on solo). The game has frozen on me a few times trying to go solo. So I stopped playing.

I instead moved onto The Incredible Hulk. Sure, it got some bad reviews, but I picked it up from Gamefly for like $9. I found out that I actually enjoy it. It reminds me of Spiderman 3 except that it's fun.

When I'm doing the missions and such, it runs fine. But I'm trying to get an achievement for destroying an entire New York neighborhood. I chose Spanish Harlem. Because it's the smallest neighborhood.

However, it's froze up twice while I've been on a massive rampage. Today I took my score from 900,000 to 2.9 million while on a level 8 rampage and destroying 69% of Spanish Harlem. Just as I was thinking I should start a mission or something before it froze up - it froze. I did get an achievement or two while on my rampage, but all the powers and such I unlocked will be back to locked when I boot it up again.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from the XYBA Podcast crew!!!

Gears of War X-mas

Here's a video that we put together over the past weekend. A little tribute to Gears of War during the holiday season. Enjoy.

Tabula Rasa is Now Free

Tabula Rasa is a sci-fi MMO developed by Richard "Lord British" Garriott, the father of MMOs having helped create Ultima Online. Last month was the game's one year anniversary and the announcement that Tabula Rasa would be shutting down at the end of February. At the time, they announced the servers would go free in January. Apparently, they've moved that time up because you can now download and play the game for free.

You can click here to download the game's client. Then you need to go to the Support Page of PlayNC to request a code for Tabula Rasa. And you'll need to use that code on your PlayNC account. When making your account, they will ask for a credit card, but they say you will not be charged.

I always thought this game looked good, and if anyone could have made a good sci-fi MMO, I would think Garriott would be the one. For some reason, I've noticed sci-fi MMOs tend to do worse than others. Plus, this game had a character pose for Playboy! (Go ahead, do a Tabula Rasa Playboy image search on Google, we'll wait.)

I'm going to try to get my PC back up and running just to try out this game. (It hasn't worked since June.) Too bad there's not a Mac version...

Remember the game will go offline February 28th so get your free playing in while there's still time. Or better yet, give the file and code to someone as a Christmas gift!

Rumors: Crackdown 2

Edge has some interesting information about a new Microsoft game developer team being created in Scotland. Apparently the team is made of members who created Crackdown, the sandbox game where you play as a supercop.

For now it is all speculation that the team will be working on Crackdown 2. It stands to reason that Crackdown will have a sequel since the first one was well received after players realized the game was tons of fun and not just a source to get the Halo 3 beta. And since Realtime Worlds is busy working on APB, which should be awesome, there is a need for another team to work on the sequel in order to get it out sooner.

I'm hoping this rumor is true because I love Crackdown. I would like to see them improve it by fixing the driving controls and maybe come up with some cool fighting combos, so I can really beat the crap out of people. I say steal the grab and throw mechanic from Saints Row II.