By Stevie Smith Jan 21, 2008, 17:57 GMT
Following hot on the heels of today’s revealed nominations for the prestigious annual TIGA Awards, which honour the achievements of independent videogame developers, Microsoft has outlined that voting for the inaugural Xbox Live Arcade Awards will open on Tuesday, January 22.
Microsoft announces the Xbox Live Arcade Awards... and also gives away Undertow for FREE. Credit: Chair Entertainment.
Spread across a variety of categories, the Xbox Live gaming community will ultimately decide which game(s) emerge as last year’s most deserving online titles when the awards are bestowed during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) this coming February.
The awards up for grabs include the likes of ‘Best Overall Arcade Game,’ ‘Best Classic Game,’ and ‘Best Original Game.’ While other performance-related gongs will be handed out for ‘Best Selling Game,’ and ‘Most Played Game.’
The list of finalists, which can be voted on by clicking HERE, were decided upon by a panel of consumer and videogame industry journalists – although the eventual winners will be selected via popular vote.
Also, lucky Xbox Live members across the globe will be able to freely download Chair Entertainment’s award-winning aquatic shooter ‘Undertow’ this Wednesday. Available for a limited time, Undertow will be open for download from 10:00am on January 23, and will remain open until 7:59am on January 28.
It is presently unclear whether the sudden arrival of Undertow is the promised ‘free Arcade game’ that Microsoft has spoken of by way of an apology for the recent problems experienced by Xbox Live users over the Christmas period… or whether it's a free download to merely mark the very first Xbox Live Arcade Awards.
Either way, Live will surely be feeling the strain again on Wednesday when members the world over attempt to get their gaming paws on the software freebie.
Also, serious Untertow fans can look forward to sharing a little group time with the game’s development team when they hit Live on January 25 at 3:00am. The team will host player matches, provide handy gameplay tips and also give players the opportunity to snaffle Undertow achievements too.
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