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BG&E HD, Torchlight Coming to XBLA
Company: Microsoft
Product: Xbox Live Arcade House Party
As part of its 2011 CES Keynote, Microsoft announced the 2011 Edition of the Xbox Live Arcade House Party promotion.

Similar to last year's promotion, which included titles Perfect Dark, Toy Soldiers and the Game Room, the 2011 House Party will bring one new game on the XBLA Marketplace each week over a five week period.

Headlining the promotion are UbiSoft's release of Beyond Good & Evil HD, an HD upgrade of the GameCube/ PlayStation 2 cult classic, and the Diablo-esque hack n' slash RPG, Torchlight.


Beyond Good & Evil is a Michel Ancel (Rayman) directed action-adventure. Though it received praise from most gaming enthusiasts for it's story and Zelda-like gameplay, the title never reached the sort of critical success other games have enjoyed. Still, fans have held out hope for a sequel. Hopefully, the HD remake is the first step towards its eventual release.

Alongside running at 1080p resolution, Beyond Good & Evil HD will feature updated character models, new textures and an updated soundtrack.

Torchlight is already available over Steam for both PC and Mac. The XBLA version is being reworked to take better advantage of the Xbox controller, such as dual-stick movement and hot keys on face/ trigger buttons. The game is also getting a new interface to go along with the control changes, as well as new quests, armor and a new pet.

Joining Beyond Good & Evil and Torchlight are Hard Corps Uprising, Konami's follow-up to the Genesis's Contra: Hard Corps, PopCap's Bejeweled Blitz, which will apparently feature 16-player multiplayer, and Microsoft Game Studio's Avatar-enabled poker game, Full House Poker.

The House Party will begin February 18. No prices or specific release dates for games are available.





-Starscream, GameVortex Communications
AKA Ricky Tucker
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