This week in XBLA:The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai

This week The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai is slashing it way onto XBLA for 800 Points. I have donloaded and play the full version and have to say its a blast. The game is basically is side scrolling hack and slash that if very combo heavy and bloody. It basically Nnja Gaiden or God of War in 2d, which is a great thing. There are many branching paths as well as upgrades for your swords. The graphics are very styleized as well. It has online and offline co-op, multiple modes, and a really neat guitar mingame. Id give it a 8 combo chains out of 10. Check out the free trial below:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/d/dishwasherdsxboxlivearcade/

Lots of DLC

A new gears of war map pack will be released on March 31. The Snowblind map pack will cost a pretty much standard 800 Points ($10). The pack contains 4 maps with a snowey/winter theme. They include Grindyard, Under Hill, Courtyard, and a version of the the Gears 1 map Fuel depot. Epic has also stated what fixes will be in title update 3 as well as some new achievements. Check out the full list here, and it should be released by the time the map pack it released.

On April 9th the Mythic map pack for halo 3 will be released for 800 MP. This collection contains 3 maps: Orbital, Assembly, and Sandbox. I will have some map impressions sometime before they are released. There will also be some new forge items as well.

And Finally Left 4 Dead is getting a new mode (survival) plus all 4 campains becoming playable in versus. Valve said that the DLC will be out on April 21 and the best part is that it will be free.

Follow The Site On Twitter!

The blog has a twitter now! Follow at www.twitter.com/GamesInANutshell .Also follow me at www.twitter.com/corgon67 (I dont post too much).

The New E74 Hardware Error, and is This the Real RROD?

With the Red Rings of Death still hitting hard throughout the gaming community, nobody can afford anything else that can go wrong. But alas a new hardware failure called the E74 error has been spreading throughout the masses.When asked about it, Microsoft says that they really don't know the source of the error. The error has been popping up more frequently since the NXE update, and, on top of getting the failure, it's not covered in the warranty. This raises the question of "Did Microsoft change some type of code during the NXE update to change the, what we used to know as the red rings, to this new E74, so it wouldn't be covered in the warranty?" Who knows, but Microsoft should really start fixing this problem or stop making consoles that will break indefinitely. The only information that we know is that it causes 1 red light to flash and it also may be a problem with chips melting or not being connected. The only thing people can do if they get this error is to buy a new Xbox, unless Microsoft turns around and starts fixing the problem. And I highly doubt that, because Microsoft has already lost a ton of money fixing the original problem, the RRODs.

Max Payne 3 announced for 360/PS3

Rockstar has just announced their latest game Max Payne 3. The game is scheduled to be released 4th quarter this year on both the xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.

"We're starting a new chapter of Max's life with this game," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "This is Max as we've never seen him before, a few years older, more world-weary and cynical than ever. We experience the downward spiral of his life after the events of Max Payne 2 and witness his last chance for salvation."

To see the full press release click here.

When more information becomes avaible we will let you know.

Name change

We are going to change the name of the blog to Games in a Nutshell, the new address will be www.gamesinanutshell.blogspot.com.

IPhone Games- MGSTouch, Jelly Car, Heavy Mach

Okay, for those of you who don't know, I own an iPod Touch 2G(Jailbroken). So I'm going to review some apps. The first is Metal Gear Solid Touch. The game follows the story of MGS4, and you play as Snake. You don't move- instead you hide behind cover, and when you see an enemy, you move your finger across the screen to aim. Then you tap the screen to fire. You can "zoom in" by pulling two fingers apart on the screen. It's pretty fun, but it does get repetitive. One aspect I liked about the game is that when you kill people, you get Drebin Points. You use these points to buy wallpapers for your lock screen. I thought this was a cool feature and should appear more often.

My next game is Jelly Car. You control a 2-D car on the screen, and drive across the level. If your car flips over, you can tilt the screen to flip it upright again. The level are varied, and often require some problem solving. It's very addictive to beat your previous best time, and I have wasted many hours in this game.

Heavy Mach is a 2-D sidescroller, in which you play a tank-like vehicle, and shoot enemies shooting at you. Pretty basic. It's fun. There's no story. It looks good. The end.

Peggle on the iPod Touch- Nonexistent. I might die.