Runic Games today released plans for Torchlight XBLA title for 2nd Quarter 2011. In the press release it states “We are proud to announce that Torchlight will be coming to Xbox 360 as a part of Microsoft’s House Party promotion in Spring 2011!”. it continued with “We couldn’t be happier to bring Torchlight to Xbox LIVE Arcade,” said CEO Max Schaefer. “This is what the fans have been asking for. Torchlight for the Xbox 360 is a new way to experience a great game, and we’re thrilled to work with Microsoft to bring it to fruition.”
The game has been completely changed to allow the conversion to the console with changes to the game–play, controls and navigation. Movement and attacks have been changed with melee attacks thrusting the character forward, which required a completely new animation for the game. The targeting system has been removed and a new attack structure replaces it. You don’t ‘target’ enemies on the console – you’ll get a red highlight for a ‘primary’ target that is in range, but for melee attacks you hit everything in your damage cone (secondary targets will receive secondary damage ).
The core game play remains the same on the console; however slight changes have been made. No skills have been omitted, although some skills have had alterations to their functionality to make them feel better ( i.e. you don’t select corpses to summon a Nether Imp – you just cast it and if there’s a corpse around). Mostly everything from the PC version remains. Runic press release states ‘We didn’t remove any features, with the exception of secondary weapon sets, because there was no way we could find that didn’t feel horrible in inventory management. Socketing, enchanting, fishing, the infinite dungeon, item combination, are all represented.’
Fans of the series will recognise characters from Torchlight 2 in the console version with a select number of the ‘Goodies’ being added to the story. Loading times have been reduced in the transition and better animation blending has made combat smoother. Other additions include three new armor sets (one for each class), new quests for one of the miners in town, and a new pet – the Chakawary.
All and all the game is coming to the XBLA 2nd quarter this year. Quarterly statistics in the gaming world show a steep rise in people becoming part of the reseller seo world in order to bring higher profits to their margins. No info on cost at this point and with Microsoft acting as the publisher for the release no news on a PSN release currently.
