Skip to main content

Windows phones are getting new Xbox Live features, games soon

xbox-mango-mobile
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Announced during the Gamescom conference this week, Microsoft previewed a series of new mobile games for the Windows phone platform as well as a series of updates for Xbox Live that are packaged in the next release of the operating system, Mango. Avatar Awardables are one of the upgrades to Xbox Live. Players will be able to earn wearable items for avatars and have a visual representation of bragging rights for tough achievements.

kinectimals-mobileWith the upcoming release of Splinter Cell: Conviction this fall, Microsoft is also adding parental controls to lock out access to content when a game is rated M for Mature. Other improvements include DLC content which can be purchased through the smartphone as well as turn-by-turn asynchronous functionality for games between two players. The ability to purchase add-on content is a helpful step for developers on the platform. Free-to-play games on the iOS platform are often lucrative for developers and publishers due to players spending large quantities of money to advance quickly in the game.

Recommended Videos

Microsoft claims that 70 percent of all Windows Phone 7 smartphone owners have downloaded at least one game over Xbox Live. The company announced 14 titles for this fall including a mobile version of Kinectimals and a puzzle game called Orbital that has some similarities to Geometry Wars. Also in the mix of new titles includes a couple simulation style games similar to Zynga’s FarmVille or Nintendo’s Animal CrossingBug Village is a game where the player tends to a colony of bugs and Farm Frenzy 2 puts the player in charge of a farm to grow crops, tend to the animals and create a profitable farm. Other games include Gravity Guy, Collapse!, Chickens Can’t Fly, Burn the Rope, Beards & Beaks: Cave Area, Fight Game Rivals, IonballEX, Mush, TextTwist 2 and Toy Soldiers Boot Camp

Mike Flacy
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
How to open the Warden Vault in Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Inside the Warden Vault in Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

If you thought the puzzles in Dragon Age: The Veilguard were too easy, you haven't tackled The Warden Vault quest yet. Available in the Rivain Coast, The Warden Vault is a side quest, one of many incredible side quests, that has you figure out how to open the locked door to the Warden's Vault underneath a huge castle.

This puzzle requires you to solve three separate puzzles within the castle, but they are far from obvious. Without the right guidance, Rook and the party can easily get lost throughout this castle and not know how to unlock the Warden's Vault in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, so here's how to solve it.
How to unlock The Warden Vault side quest

Read more
The fastest ways to gain XP in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Kill Order gameplay in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6.

Ever since Modern Warfare, Call of Duty fans have been obsessed with finding every tip and trick they can to level up faster. Now that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 has arrived with a refreshed Prestige system, the drive to grind levels is again at an all-time high. While everything you do does earn you XP, they are not all created equal. Just like picking your Wildcards or Perks, earning XP as fast as possible takes a bit of thought and planning. If there's a piece of equipment you have your eye on at a high level, or just want to grind through some Prestige ranks as fast as possible, here are the fastest ways to grind XP in Black Ops 6.
Do your dailies

We'll get the most obvious tip out of the way first. Daily challenges are back and work just as they always have. Every 24 hours you will be given a handful of small optional tasks to complete for a heap of bonus XP. These can be things like getting Scorestreak kills, getting Point Blank Kills, and getting kills with a specific weapon type. Most daily challenges are worth 2,500 XP, which is already a nice bonus, but there is also a fourth one that can be worth between 3,000 and 5,000 additional XP. Each day you log on, you should prioritize your daily challenges.
Tailor your loadout and play the objective

Read more
Halo 2 multiplayer maps are making a return for 20th anniversary
Master Chief holding a gun and a flaming grenade with a city behind him.

For the 20th anniversary of Halo 2, Xbox is releasing many of the game's multiplayer maps in Halo Infinite on November 5.

Halo Studios (the new name for 343 Industries) announced Monday that the seven maps will be featured in a playlist called Delta Arena. The maps -- Ascension, Boulevard, Canopy, Conjurer, Inquisitor, Serenity, and Beaver Canyon -- have been recreated in Forge by community members, so they feature some nice visual upgrades, along with new names. For example, Beaver Canyon will be listed in the playlist as Beaver Creek. The developers have also tweaked the gameplay so it feels more like Halo 2, with higher jumps and friendly player collision, and added a new starting weapon: the MA5K Avenger.

Read more