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Lumines Live Hits Xbox Live

Lumines Live Microsoft today announced that Lumines Live will hit the Xbox Live Marketplace on Wednesday, October 18th when the service becomes available after the scheduled maintenance. The game will be made available in two parts; the main Lumines Live game will sell for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) and an “Advanced Pack” with 22 additional skins for 600 Microsoft Points ($7.50). If gamers pony up for the full Lumines package, this would be one of the most expensive Xbox Live Arcade games available to date. Microsoft does not sell a Marketplace Points card that has enough points to buy the complete game; the largest denomination that Microsoft makes available in stores is 1600 points. $22.50 is also more money than the PSP version of the game, which sells for $19.99. Of course, the Xbox 360 version offers features like online multiplayer over Xbox Live and a Skin Edit mode in the basic version; this package may be enough for the casual user as long as the title isn’t nagware.

Update: The “Advanced Pack” is not available right now, and will show up at a later date. Presumably so that gamers don’t look like dorks when they have to buy two 1600 points cards to pay for the game.

The full press release continues below.

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Guitar Hero II Announced For Xbox 360

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Simulation, Xbox 360,

Guitar Hero IIShortly after Guitar Hero II was promised for “every significant platform,” Red Octane has announced that the game will be coming to the Xbox 360 with support for downloadable tracks and a new “X-Plorer” controller. The game and controller should be viewable at the X06 show. Dusty Welch, Red Octane Head of Publishing did seem a little bit confused about what the Xbox 360 offers, claiming that the “large integrated hard drive… provides an incredible platform for facilitating downloadable content.” But this does indicate that exclusive downloads will be coming to the Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Marketplace.

The full press release continues below.

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Chromehounds Highlights Problems With Downloadable Content

Chromehounds BoxOn Friday, the latest downloadable content for From Software’s Chromehounds hit the Xbox Live Marketplace. For 100 points each, twelve new items were made available, including weapons. All of the new content is usable in online play and highlights some of the issues with downloadable content. The content has pretty much been criticized from all sides, and Luke Smith from 1up sums up the issues in a recent blog post. Other paid content releases have received scrutiny in the past, mainly because of the value proposition that they hold. The original offender, of course, was the almost useless horse armor for Oblivion. Some of the downloadable Ghost Recon content has also been criticized. The new content for Chromehounds will run US gamers about $12.50, which runs about 21% of the cost of the original game.

If things were just a matter of cost, however, there wouldn’t be as much of an issue. The big issue is that potentially game balance altering content is being made available for online play. So far, indications from the online forums indicate that statistically the new content isn’t more effective than existing weaponry. However, this merely highlights the bind that content providers can get into by making these kinds of add-ons available. Either the new accessories are weak and a poor value for the money, or they are stronger and will change the game balance to favor those that can afford the content.

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