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This Wednesday: Hasbro Family Game Night matches with XBLA

by Justin McElroy { Mar 17th 2009 at 10:30AM }

If you, like young Mikey, love matching rows of similarly colored checkers but can't stand being around other people and all their germs, your salvation will arrive this Wednesday in the form of Connect Four, one of the first offerings in Xbox Live's Hasbro Family Game Night series.

Other games arriving today include Scrabble, Yahtzee and Battleship with Boggle, Sorry! and Sorry! Sliders coming later in the year. All the titles will be playable in a virtual game room that, in some way, incorporates Avatars. If you'd like to play beloved family games as you replace your friends and loved ones with digital simulacra, you can expect to pony up

800

($10) a piece. (Yeah, you read that right. A piece.)

Gallery: Hasbro Family Game Night: Xbox 360

Hasbro Family Games to release mid-March, include Avatar support

by Dustin Burg { Feb 25th 2009 at 4:00PM }

Nestled in a press release announcing the inclusion of Yahtzee in Hasbro Family Game Night (something we already knew) is confirmation that four Hasbro games will be releasing on Xbox Live Arcade sometime this March.

Scrabble, Connect Four, Battleship and Yahtzee will be the first four Hasbro titles made available when Xbox Live's special Family Game Night Destination launches next month. Boggle, Sorry! and Sorry! Sliders will release later this year.

The press release also confirms Avatars will be supported and that each title can be purchased individually for 800

($10). If that wasn''t enough information, we're told the Family Game Night Destination lets players launch Hasbro games from their own customized game room. This uniquely decorated space accommodates Mr. Potato Head, can be shared with friends and sounds to be somewhat inspired by Home.

Gallery: Hasbro Family Game Night (XBLA)

Scrabble is XBLA bound, Hasbro channel coming soon

by Richard Mitchell { Jan 6th 2009 at 3:00PM }

After it was first rumored nearly a year ago (along with Monopoly), EA has announced that Scrabble is indeed heading to Xbox Live Arcade. The company also announced the creation of a brand new Hasbro Family Game Night "channel" in Xbox Live Arcade. The channel will serve as a "digital game closet," according to EA Hasbro general manager Chip Lange, where players can quickly access various Hasbro games without leaving the channel. Players will be able to "earn virtual trophies, furniture and themes" to decorate their closets by playing Hasbro games. In addition to Scrabble, other titles planned for the service include Sorry!, Sorry! Sliders, Battleship, Connect Four, Boggle and Yahtzee.

The Hasbro Family Game Night channel is set to debut this spring, though no specific dates have been given for any of the individual game releases. Oh, one more thing: No Monopoly mentioned, folks. Sorry.

[Via Joystiq]

XBLA receiving Hasbro game channel; EA's Scrabble coming to handhelds, consoles

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jan 6th 2009 at 11:23AM }

Electronic Arts announced today that Scrabble will make its way to the DS and PSP in March, and to Xbox Live Arcade at a later date. Beginning in spring, XBLA will not only receive the perennial wordsmith board game, but also Boggle, Battleship, Yahtzee, Connect Four, Sorry! and Sorry!Sliders.

In a very interesting development, XBLA will also receive a branded "Hasbro Family Game Night" channel. Chip Lange, general manager of EA Hasbro, says it'll allow players to easily find family-friendly digital board games. We only wish that Microsoft would extend such a courtesy to the high-quality European board games that are also available on the service.

Yahtzee gets in front of the camera on Game Damage

by Justin McElroy { Dec 18th 2008 at 9:45AM }

We love Yahtzee, but our love is constantly being tempered by a severe mistrust of disembodied voices (A Christmas Story? Ho-ho-horrifying.) Thankfully, the fast-talking game critic has put on some pants, gathered a couple of friends (co-hosts Yug and Matt), gotten a camera and created Game Damage, a video game show pilot that they're hoping attracts some network attention.

The crew is still trying to find a balance between being TV hosts and just talking, and some bits fall flat. But Yahtzee (and the offbeat topics) would probably be enough reason for us to tune in. Watch after the break and see if you agree.

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Zero Punctuation takes on Sonic Unleashed

by Chris Greenhough { Dec 17th 2008 at 6:11PM }

In this week's Zero Punctuation, imperator of ire and maharajah of moodiness Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has taken time out to sling a few quick-witted barbs at Sonic Unleashed.

True to form, Yahtzee quickly sets about smacking Unleashed down a peg or ten; in fact, this could be one of the angriest pieces we've seen from Croshaw in some time. It didn't totally agree with our own mainly scathing review, either: for one, he seems to prefer the ~~Werehog~~ Wolfhog stages (madness, we say, but horses for courses, and all that), and for two, we actually quite liked the day stages, whereas Yahtzee is revulsed.

Gallery: Sonic Unleashed

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Zero Punctuation almost, sort of likes Left 4 Dead

by Justin McElroy { Dec 12th 2008 at 9:25AM }

It's been a while since we've checked in with our old friend Yahtzee, so we were eager to hear his thoughts on one of our favorite games in recent memory: Left 4 Dead. And guess what?! He didn't hate it! ... Well, since we're still in Reality Prime, he had plenty of mean things to say about it, but he was probably as nice as he could be without some sort of dimensional shift.

See how much of his assessment you agree with in the video right here.

Guitar Hero World Tour gets Yahtzeed

by Chris Greenhough { Nov 26th 2008 at 8:05PM }

For his latest Zero Punctuation review, renowned intertubes misanthrope Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw has cast his jaded eye over Activision's Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Things start off well between reviewer and game (though Rock Band's troubled relationship with Australia undoubtedly has something to do with this) but Yahtzee soon finds assorted holes to pick at, with some of his targets including the pointlessness of Spanish language songs in an English language release, the new slide bar on World Tour's guitars, and the game's credentials as a karaoke simulator. Hit up The Escapist for the review in full or simply jump past the break.

Gallery: Guitar Hero World Tour

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Zero Punctuation force chokes The Force Unleashed

by Chris Greenhough { Oct 8th 2008 at 8:08PM }

It's been a while since master of misanthropy Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw was featured on these pages, but now he's back, in full sneering mode, with a scathing review of the colossally popular Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Like many of us, Yahtzee hoped the Wii's motion-sensing capabilities would open the door to a whole new galaxy of light saber swish-a-thons that worked, only to be disappointed.

His ire is eventually directed towards the "temperamental" Wii Remote, which he describes as "like playing any other console but with all the buttons randomly reassigned every couple of seconds." Ouch. Bound past the jump for the full, NSFW review.

Gallery: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

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Zero Punctuation is unimpressed with Spore

by Justin McElroy { Sep 22nd 2008 at 8:40AM }

Oh come now, don't look so surprised, you had to know this was coming. After Will Wright spent a stone cold decade building his delicate sand castle of simulated life, did you really think Yahtzee would be able to resist letting his editorial foot careen through the spires, coating young Will's glasses in sand and tears? Of course not.

Yahtzee reiterates most of the complaints about Spore you've heard from reviewers already, but at least he does it a lot more entertainingly than most of them. Check it out after the break.

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Zero Punctuation apparently missed the actual E3

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 30th 2008 at 6:15PM }

This week's Zero Punctuation makes us wonder: What E3 is Yahtzee talking about? Perhaps things seemed different from the outside, but this year's show actually saw a slew of original titles -- shockingly enough, many from the maw of EA. Sure, there is some serious sequelitus going on (and certain outlets really need to stop riding RE4 v2 RE5's rooster), but we were pleasantly surprised by some of the new IPs. Oh well, no sense in trying to convey some semblance of reason here. Carry on with the amusing hate.

Check out Yahtzee's NSFW take on E3 after the break.

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Zero Punctuation visits Conan in Hyboria

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 23rd 2008 at 9:00PM }

No matter how much the hardcore MMORPG crowd may want to deny it, almost every game in the genre wants to be, or wishes it could have been, World or Warcraft. This week's Zero Punctuation says as much, with Yahtzee trying to enjoy his Hyborian adventure but wandering into familiar -- but not quite right -- WoW territory.

Check out the NSFW review of Age of Conan after the break.

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Zero Punctuation whips Indy into shape

by David Hinkle { Jul 10th 2008 at 11:45AM }

Yahtzee's at it again, this time turning his sights toward the latest LEGO title, LEGO Indiana Jones. While he does do his usual rant against the game's faults, Yahtzee did manage to squeeze some favorable adjectives out. As usual, head past the break to check out his NSFW ramblings and be sure to tell us what you think of LEGO Indiana Jones in the comments.

Gallery: LEGO Indiana Jones

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Zero Punctuation whips it good with Lego Indy

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jul 9th 2008 at 6:00PM }

Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee takes on both the Lego Indiana Jones game and the latest movie in his latest review. For his take on the game, the ornery critic comes up with an equation for figuring out how much you'll enjoy playing as Indy in the blockified platformer.

If doing mathematicals isn't your thing, just think about how much fun you'll have killing Short Round -- or Willie -- over and over again. Although it still doesn't beat the cathartic Jar-Jar killing of the Lego Star Wars game.

This week's NSFW ZP review of Lego Indy can be found after the break.

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Readers pick best webcomic, with or without Yahtzee

by Ross Miller { Jul 8th 2008 at 5:30PM }

Yeah, we figured the Zero Punctuation would do well in the webcomic wrapup, by a large margin. Here's how it breaks down, with and without the Yahtzee factor:

With the Yahtzee Factor