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AICN Games: Quint at X06! PJ's Wingnut Interactive! HALO WARS! GEARS OF WAR! CALL OF DUTY 3! HD-DVD! GTA 4 and more!!!
QUINT HERE - For some reason the story went offline shortly after I posted it. I saw a flurry of frantic emails about pictures and code not working from Merrick, but I'd like the story to stay up, even if it means the majority of the pictures have to wait a bit for the new server goodness to work out. Here's the story, posted last night! As you'll see, some pics have made it, some are still broken links. Please bear with us while we fix the broken links...
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here, typing on some sidewalk somewhere in Barcelona, waiting for the shuttle that'll take me back to my hotel. The afterparty for the big presentation/opening for Microsoft's X06 is still swinging inside, but I have an early day tomorrow and my flight came in this morning. So, I really hit the ground running. Plus, I had my fill of delicious Spain cooking, what more do I need?
Inside I played a few upcoming games, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Let's start at the beginning. There was a big pre-party set up at a theater here in Barcelona. I do not know a soul here, so I spent most of it feeling out of my element and awkward, but as soon as they opened the doors to the theater itself I was in, getting a good seat for the presentation. I knew in advance that Peter Jackson was going to be there, announcing some partnership with Microsoft, but I didn't know what that partnership was. This happened at the end, but let me start with that.
Peter came out, shortly after the announcement of the HD-DVD drive that is being put together by Microsoft as an add-on to 360. That'll be $199 in the US and it starts bundled with a universal remote control and a copy of the HD KING KONG DVD.
That made a good segue to Peter. He came out... and the big news was...
WINGNUT INTERACTIVE
Which will be overseen by Peter, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. If you remember my interview with Peter a week ago he talked about wanting to see games evolve to something that acted as a sort of amalgam of movies and video games.
They are going to kick off with whatever this hybrid is with HALO. Bungie will be working on it, but they were clear to say whatever this project is WON'T be HALO 3 or 4, which Bungie is deep into right now.
Even cooler is that Jackson said over the past 10 years he's had a lot of original ideas come up that he couldn't quite decide on bringing to film, so those projects and ideas will be put into this team-up with Microsoft. I just hope that means we'll see a BAD TASTE or BRAINDEAD video game. Here's a blurry pic:
MARVEL UNIVERSE ONLINE
I found out before the presentation that Cryptic Studios will be doing MARVEL UNIVERSE ONLINE. Not through any special means, mind you, just the fact that I was sitting behind IGN's Douglas Perry who was working on his story even before it began. I got to watch him chew out the poor geeky guy next to him who was reading over his shoulder.
Anyway, they did announce Cryptic as doing the big Marvel MMO and showed some really great looking models of the characters, including Spider-Man, Captain America, Dr. Doom and The Hulk, each frozen into a trademarked position, with The Hulk ending the clip by throwing his arms back and Hulk Smashing the camera.
BANJO-KAZOOIE
The whole presentation opened with these two as full on 360-fied graphics. They were trapped in a plane, white room with crude drawings for furniture and an angry pencil that would not let them see through a door marked TOP SECRET. Think Daffy Duck fighting the animator. These two do everything they can to get through and finally the bear pulls the bird's ripcord and turns his beak into a chainsaw, which they use to cut through the wall, finding the big secret behind the door being a new video game world, with their familiar music notes and green hills, but again... 360-fied.
TIDBITS
Here are some tidbits from the presentation:
-Regarding XBox Live's arcade, they've gone from 17 million downloads around the time of E3 to over 57 million.
-New really cool game trailer for KANE AND LYNCH is available right now via Live
-X-Box Live Arcade are getting some really badass additions, including DOOM which just went live. Here are some others: SENSIBLE WORLD OF SOCCER (available in its original graphics or a new updated version if you like), CONTRA and SYRUSS. Doom is up right now, apparently, and SENSIBLE WORLD OF SOCCER will hit early 2007.
-This holiday, the 360 will have 160 HD-quality games world wide.
- Nothing new regarding HALO 3, but we were told Bungie will have "something new to tell you by the end of the year."
- Rockstar Games is not only releasing GRAND THEFT AUTO 4 for 360, but they're also going to release 2 "chapters" to be released on X-Box Live within months of release. There are promised to be additional levels that translate into many more hours of gameplay, not just costumes and vehicles.
- Capcom is working on the DEAD RISING follow-up game, called LOST PLANET: EXTREME CONDITIONS. Note, this is not a sequel... completely different game. Played a little bit of it at the afterparty, will tell you folks my thoughts at the end.
-RESIDENT EVIL 5 is on its way to 360. Currently under development.
- Next TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL (called DOUBLE AGENT) is exclusive to the 360.
- Games For Windows, to be played with Window's Vista, include: HALO 2, ALAN WAKE, HELLGATE, AGE OF CONAN, LEGO STAR WARS , LOTR: THE SHADOW OF ANGMRA and more.
- And here's a picture of the DJ at the reception just because I think it's a cool pic:
HALO WARS
They showed this clip at the end that was this badass HALO-set thing. Wasn't exactly sure what the fuck it was, but it was really sweet. (I've now looked into it at halowars.com and found a FAQs sheet that tells me it's a Real Time Strategy game set in the Halo world. Not as big of a fan of RTSs, but this still looked sweet). The level of animation on the Helljumper's faces (you can see their eyes and brow area through their face shields) was almost FINAL FANTASY movie level of detail. It had a ton of marines/helljumpers scrambling as Elites run rampant in a city. It started with a pair of marines running, terrified, getting hit from behind by a blast from a Covenant weapon. Both fall, but one's still alive and looks up as an Elite decloaks. The energy sword is held, threateningly over the soldier and then it plunges in, killing him.
From here on out, there was crazy action of Phantoms taking out human ships and soldiers. One of the human ships explodes and we see it reflected in a Spartan visor. Camera pulls back to reveal a team of Spartans as the leader (Master Chief?) says something cool about going into the fight.
It's not HALO 3, but I hope the level of detail seen in that clip is what we're going to see with HALO 3.
BIOSHOCK
Another clip I saw was from a really cool looking game called BIOSHOCK, exclusive to the 360.
The clip starts out with a narration, pretty much the typical "you can choose your own destiny, good or evil" type thing as the camera travels through water.It comes to an underwater city. Not like Atlantis, but as if New York City or Basin City was built underwater. The camera pushed in through a window off a skyscraper and we see the inside is dry... Well, not dry. Water's leaking in everywhere, but it's like you were in a leaky crappy building, not flooded.
The camera rushes into a character's head and we see through his eyes. He sees a little girl hiding in a pipe. He violently pulls her out (keep in mind, this whole thing is all from this character's POV), sending her crashing to the floor. She cowers as he finds a wrench on the ground. He grabs it, raises it up to strike the terrified girl when a sound comes from behind him. He spins and it's a giant creature, kind of like a Hunter from HALO. Squat, strong, armored. This creature beats the hell out of this guy and then we see the creature has a drill for an arm and he goes to stab us. Our character puts his hand up, screaming as it drills into his flesh. We can see it come out the back of the hand, facing toward our point of view.
Our character shoots this thing, knocks it back and then jabs a needle into his hurt arm. I thought, "Okay, he's healing himself..." Nope. Our arm turns black and then little deformed, green-eyed flying bugs pop out of it and with a wave of a hand they go attack this creature. It struggles and we saunter up to it, blast it full on in the face with whatever gun we have and watch as it falls past a railing and down a few floors.
We look down at the body and all of a sudden our vision goes blurry as we jolt forward. We look down and see one of those drills piercing our chest. We're spun around and killed by another one of those creatures. When it finishes with our body, we look on as it turns towards the whimpering little girl. It approaches and she cowers more. A beat, then the creature extends a hand (not a drill) to the little girl. She thinks for a moment, then reaches out to take it. The trailer cut off with her hand out nearly touching the giant hand of the creature.
It was very interesting. Really curious to see what this game is actually like to play. The graphics in the cut scene were phenomenal.
ASSASSIN'S CREED
They had a really, really cute lady by the name of Jade demo this game for us. She's one of the developers. Who says only flabby ugly geeks like me are into these things?
Anyway, again this was a great showcase for the new graphics. This game is much less frantic, at least the demonstration was, from the other stuff we've seen, relying heavily on stealth. Plus the demo was more to show us how they're utilizing the next gen graphics and potential, having our character interact with the peasants of a village (ie pushing them if they block your way, but if you do it in front of your target or do it too much, there will be consequences), climbing up any architectural surface, etc.
As you'd guess by the title you're the best of the best, an assassin with different jobs to do, different targets to hit. Made by the guys that did PRINCE OF PERSIA, this is set in period... something like 3rd Century. You dress all in white (at least in the clips I've seen) and look ninja-y as you take out your targets. You have the ability to focus (by pressing Y) and your intuition tells you who are threats, who are not and which of the people in the mob is your target.
You have many options. You can run in, hellbent for glory, and take the fucker out or you can slyly do it by hiding in plain site, doing average everyday things to blend in. If you get in a fight, you don't have a hit meter or that kind of thing. They want it to be as realistic as possible, so if you get hit in a crucial area, all it takes is one strike. You attack mainly by blocking until you see an opening.
Looked very cool. 3rd person... Don't know how long the stealth stuff can hold up without making it kind of tedious, but I really dug what I saw.
GEARS OF WAR
Coolest looking game so far. I played some of the multiplayer and it is great. They demo-ed it onstage and showed off the purty graphics. Like most games of this sort, you're a military looking dude and you're fighting big, brute-like mothers with big guns. The handling of the game was pretty great, which is a big plus for me. It's one of the reasons I love HALO so much is it's one of the few games since GOLDENEYE where I feel 100% in control of the character I'm playing. GEARS OF WAR isn't there, yet, but I've only spent about 10 minutes playing it.
The aiming was great and you have a little buzzsaw built right the fuck into your automatic rifle, so you can melee with a buzzing saw.
Don't know much more about the game, other than it was the coolest thing I played. It's released November 12th in the US and 5 days later in Europe.
LOST PLANET
Played a level of this and was a little lost. It's a 3rd person game and it starts in the snow. You're shooting these alien bug things that pop out of what look like infected sores in the earth. You gotta blow up the sores to stop them from flooding in. You can grab rocket launchers, machine guns and shotguns (in the level I played). The graphics were fine, but nothing that freaked me out. The gameplay felt a little laggy, but it was still fun to play. I'll have to spend a little more time playing this one before I make up my mind.
CALL OF DUTY 3
Played a couple levels of this and this title was by far the buggiest of what I played. But it felt totally like a CALL OF DUTY game. It could have been a direct continuation of CALL OF DUTY 2 for all I could tell, cut off the tail end of the first game and made it's own game. You still shoot at those Nazi bastards, get hit like you always do... The only thing different is there's an ability for hand to hand combat now. For instance, if you walk into a room and German is waiting for you, there's an extended sequence where he's trying to stab you. You have to hit the left and right trigger buttons really fast to keep him off of you and follow the buttons listed on the screen, to finally do him in. The one I fought (in some house in France), I had to keep him from stabbing me twice and hit Y to finally pull a pin on a grenade hanging from his belt, before pushing him through a window.
More of the same is fine by me. I love passing an afternoon shooting Nazis.
Tomorrow is a big day, my first day on the floor of this thing. I'm hoping to get more time in with GEARS OF WAR, play some single player on that. As for now, I'm back in my hotel room, about to enjoy a good 6 hours of much needed sleep. Be back with more info soon.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
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Hehe, what a shit title that would be. :^) ----- Interesting that Bioshock and Splinter Cell Double Agent are listed as 360 exclusives - the PC mags have been all over them for a while. Oh well, back to waiting for Half-Life 2 Episode 2 and Unreal Tournament 2007.
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lol.
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Maybe she'll read this talkback and call you. Now that Ann Coulter, she's no lady: she's a full-grown woman. Call me, Ann!
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Bioshock is definitely the most interesting upcoming game on the platform. Was the game that won big time as well back at E3. It's all about choices in an 1940s underwater city (in great art deco style) gone horribly wrong.
Btw, the full name of the woman is Jade Raymond and here are some pics:
http://media.g4tv.com/images/imagedb2/315/31583_L.jpg
http://img478.imageshack.us/img478/8496/assassinsassassft5.jpg
http://thesangreal.net/gafpics/jade.jpg -
Quint meant to say Splinter Cell: Double Agent is exclusive to 360 on NEXT GEN consoles. It's being released on Ps2, Xbox, Gc, and PC as well.And the Marvel super heroes and villians will be NPC's in the MMORPG. I just hope they make the X-mansion big enough for all of us that are gonna roll mutant when it hits.
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in the Marvel MMO. I'll definitely pick it up if a.it's good, and b.if I'm still on broadband.
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... Games aren't movies and movies aren't games. These comments stink of twenty minute cutscenes á la MGS. The criteria for judging quality in movies and in games are completely different. If they're mixed, the developers have new objectives to make the game more like a movie and these detract form development time to perfect actual game-improving factors like control, design, structure and gameplay.
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GTA 4 updates after just a few weeks is a bad idea too. The developers have a whole freakin year to finish this game (maybe longer) and they're already talking about excluding content so people will pay more money to make their game complete. And another thing: Bioshock looks better than Gears of War.
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Those twenty minute cutscenes in MGS, especially Snake Eater were better than %97 of the horseshit action flicks Hollywood continually throws at us.
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Why of why do we always get shafted regarding prices? 199 Euro is NOT the same as $199!! Things are always more expensive here :(
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First time poster long time reader. Sorry guys couldn't resist a few corrections on Quints post. Acknowledging that AICN is the best in movie TV DVD & comic news I would still prefer my gaming news to be accurate.
1. Next Splinter Cell game will be exclusive but its not Double Agent (that one has a multi platform relase) it the one currently in dev due for release next year currently (according to leaked knowledge) its called Conviction.
2. Halo Wars is not being developed by Bungie but by Ensemble who currently make the Age of Empires games (kinda cool).
3.Assassins Creed is historically accurate (sort of) with cities being modelled on actual cities of the time (incl Jeruselum)and Jade Raymond is actually the games producer and not the developer.
Like I said I really am anal (from the UK after all). Let the flaming begin!!! -
I dunno about you but I don't like to pay £40 (and now £50) for each of the top 3% of movies I see in the theatre or on DVD. And that's with me generously conceding that MGS's script or cutscenes are actually better than most movies because I can't be bothered going down that other long, well-travelled road.
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But Kojima loves the PS3 for some awful reason. Man I love those MGS games--they're incredible. Great lineup this year for the 360, I'm pretty interested. Nice to see AICN covering videogames properly. Good work Quint.
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For your 40 to 50 quid, you get a much longer and engrossing experience than you would by shelling out cash to see a movie. (assuming its a good game). Most movies made nowadays are disposable crap. A good game? Not so much.
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fuck RTS games. fuck them in their stupid asses. turn-based all the way, baby.
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But knowing Bungie, thats not exactly set in stone. RTS games aren't all that bad, if you've played "Battle For Middle Earth II" for the 360, you'd be aware of that.
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This seems odd considering its been touted on the PC as well.
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Is that sucka full-on middle ages? I read it was a Crusades-era game.
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Most of the games Quint lists as 360 exclusive are also going to be on PC. Halo comes out sometime in '07. Not to add more, but pandamaster, did you ever play Indigo Prophecy? That game was the closest thing I've seen to a movie-game ever, and it was damn good! And props to Quint!!! FINALLY a good gaming article on AICN as compared to that Monki/Dan shit.
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Sep 28, 2006 8:34:40 AM CDT
dont know if any of you care but the wwe demo is out
by jeanluc dickhard
for down load on xbox live..
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It looks like the Transporter, but pretty kick ass.
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...concerning Resident Evil 5? Not just here, but everywhere I look. I thought they were planning to roll this game out for the holidays this year?
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...like pretty much all the other good games.
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Yea it really does suck they would put it only on PS3. That makes Zero sense to me considering that thing costs as much as a downpayment on a car, without the game. Its just confusing.
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I agree that gaming is a different experience from movies and therefore the cost is different. That's what I'm trying to argue. Who's idea was it to make games more like movies, in the sense that you don't play half the content? I know: it was some developer who wanted to pad out his game whilst appealing to a whole new emerging demographic. Movies and games only became similar to the mainstream with the birth of FMV. Then some developers followed suit with hours of non-playable in-game footage. I'm totally up for playing games with IN-GAME atmosphere, such as Resident Evil, Prince of Persia, Ico, Rougue Leader etc but for me that's the only connection games should have to films: they should feel cinematic when being PLAYED. I think someone at IGN said it best when they were talking about Mario Galaxy and said "I'd be happy if the game just started and said "Mario in space: collect 120 stars"". Now, I realise that there's a big difference between MGS and Mario, but that difference should be focused on within the game, not while sitting watching the self-indulgnt and pretentious output of a bunch of hack writers who can't get into the movie business.
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Since I brought up the argument in the context of Peter Jackson starting up a games studio. But my comments stand for the majority of game cut-scenes with their shitty clichéd writing. richier123: I haven't played Indigo Prophesy (I'll take your word for it that it's good) but I'm sure that if it didn't have good level design, structure and controls it would be a bad game even if the script was by Shaekespeare.
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He won't be one of the Legends in WWE SMACKDOWN vs. RAW '07. Dang it, I was hopin' for a dreadlocked version of him this year. Oh well, at least they added Mr.Perfect and The Anvil. (I just hope since he's in there, that doesn't mean Bret will be stuck with the Hart Foundation tights.)STILL NO RANDY SAVAGE OR YOKOZUNA. *sigh*
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He's the Muslim bard.
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all because macho man was the one who took Stephanie McMahon's virginity .... yes its true.
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Straight up.
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I was expecting a bit more about GTA4 than that
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They always wait until the last minute to release stuff on the GTA games. It was like that with Vice City and SanAndreas.I hope Vice City Stories will get a Ps2 port next spring, Vice was my favorite of the series, but I'm not buying a Psp to play this.Speaking of Miami themed games, Scarface is coming out in two weeks, and from the videos I've seen of it, it looks great graphically. I just hope the soundtrack is at least half as good as Vice City's was, because I'll probably pick it up, just to cruise around.I definitely gotta pickup the Ultimate Edition dvd next week. I'm glad I never bought it on dvd yet, it's sound always bothered me. They got a link to the comparison between the two version over on ign.com's mainpage. Yeah, they rerecorded the effects, but it was worth it in my book.
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Oh God!!! It's the return of Starcraft!!! And it looks fucking sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Seriously, Quint did you forget it's coming out on THE gaming platform as well? Ie. THE PC!!
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Sep 28, 2006 12:09:33 PM CDT
even if the savage thing is a rumor, it is a great one
by jeanluc dickhard
but makes you wonder ... no savage classic figure, no legends wrestler in the game for the longest time... no hall of fame ... i'm just saying it does add up a bit... but machoman is my favorite....
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Maybe I'm just a pleb who hasn't sufficiently experienced the holy power of HD, but I feel like we're being hustled into yet another format a little quickly. Why the hell are they releasing a seperate HD drive for the 360, when they could have waited a year and released it with internal HD around the same time as PS3? Yes, I wouldn't have had this whole year with the three great games available for my 360, and I'm sure the 360 is really benefitting from the year head start(read:it isn't going to make that much difference) We all know the real console wars start when Halo 3 comes out. the 360 has squandered its head start by not offering enough games. the 360 is essentially the two-game Dead Rising/Oblivion box right now.
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She is gorgeous! I mean, holy GOD she is gorgeous. I met he many years ago at a convention (when I think she was a lowly programmer) and I almost passed out from the heat she generated from just standing there. HOT.
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For the 360:
Gears of War,
Mass effect,
Alan Wake,
BioShock.
All exclusives. All killer apps. All original IP's. So far what have you got on PS3 to get excited about? MG4, GT: HD? The only thing that looked good was White Knight Story. -
System Shock 2 is one of the best FPS games ever made. I can't fucking wait for Bioshock.
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http://tinyurl.com/ov8b5
I think the issue with games compared to movies, would be to look at games more along the lines of having and experiencing a lucid dream, and a movie is just remembering the dream.
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And I'd agree that their year head start hasn't been well used. But surely it isn't that bad that Microsoft are actually offering the choice to add in HD rather than forcing you to pay that extra two hundred bucks for the privilege of playing their system? Microsoft say their console wont be using HD-dvd for games whilst Sony say they will be fully utilising the Blu-ray's capacity for some games. I'll believe that when I see it. Games that size wont be available until next gen unless they already went into development about four years ago. Sony have to say that to justify Blu-ray's presence and justify the extra expense. By releasing the optional HD attachment, MS are taking a risk riding on the HD-DVD format. But at least they aren't displacing that risk onto the consumer. All those PS3 fans who are buying the system just to play games are going to be shafted.
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Im excited about watching people waste their money. I cant wait for the guy who brags about having one, and puts in GT: HD only to find out its an upgraded port of 4, and he has to purchase cars and tracks. Oh I will love that oh so much.
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It's exclusive on the 360 as far as consoles are concerned, meaning the PS3 and Wii won't have the game. It is on the PC too, but PC gaming is not considered to be a true competitor of console gaming.
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Still waiting for that, so XBOX 1 is fine for now, and my PC is being upgraded today (video & audio).
PS3 no way at that price, my PS1 & 2 collect dust and I don't need a new one.
Speaking of the HD war, the beauty of the MS solution is they can also add a Blu-ray drive too.
I wonder how much space the games will take up on the PS3 discs, half of my PS2 games were on CD. Most PC games fit well on a DVD, so I think most of the space will be wasted... -
The extra space could theoretically be used to create super compilations.Final Fantasy I-X on one disc, anyone? Isn't it a critical mass issue, simply making longer games, vs. higher detail level in a shorter game? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think a blu-ray disc could theoretically be filled by an average length game, if the level of detail and data processed at once completely pushed the PS3 to its limits. Of course, I hear the PS3's hardware is needlessly difficult to code for, but I'm sure developers will find a way around it.
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I don't know much about processors etc. But even with the development of new techniques used to render textures and other high res shit, I'd be surprised if developers could be so advanced as to develope a game that uses up a whole Blu-ray disc instead of just one or two dvds in the space of even four years. Hell the final fantasy movies take that long to make: imagine doing those in a fully interactive environment with interactive camera and hundreds of animations and character models. That's what would probably be needed to fill all that extra space for an average length game. I suppose they could keep borrowing engines to save time, like the Unreal engine etc, but then we'd be left with better looking versions of the same damn games. The compilations idea is a good one though.
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reminds me of Deus Ex...
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...whose cock do I have to suck to get Knights of the Old Republic III in development? Because until that day comes, no Xbox 360 for me. Ya hear that, Microsoft? Remove thumb from ass, get off the fucking pot and give us the game we all want.
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what studio will produce a game that large? The game would cost you over a grand for each copy. With the exception of a few games, most will be created to cross platforms, and are created on a PC. Until PC's are standard with HD/BRD don't expect any game over 9 GB. Look how long it took them to get most PC games to DVD. BRD on the PS3 is rather stupid for the game side of things. Other than movies, a BRD is wasted on games, no company would produce the content and stay in business for very long. Expect to see a bunch of filler - making of, trailers, and other crap. Oh and the idea of FF I-IX on one disc? don't hold your breath, not enough money for them. And it would be expensive to you, just like a box set DVD.
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wait, did this just say that Age of Conan is played with Windows Vista? meaning I need a vista-equipped PC AND a, xbox 360 to play it? I sincerely hope that isn't the case. I presume they are referring to Hellgate London as well, which I thought was a strictly PC game what does this have to do with the 360?
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In the industry, exclusivity is related only to consoles generally. The PC itself does not factor in, hence why most games that are 'exclusive' to one console, more often than not appear on the pc. Anotherwords : Exclusivity applies only amongst consoles, not pc's.
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Quint, I can't believe your amateur coverage of games. Yes you do have most of the info right, but you leave important facts wrong as hell. Assassins Creed is set in 1107 (or something near that in the early middle ages). Um, you said 3rd Century? WTF...
And Bioshock? I just heard on G4 it's 360 exclusive.
___KNEEL___ -
City of Heroes/Villians any good?
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http://www.crypticstudios.com/
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Correction Quint, Jade is not a developer, she's the Producer. She's also a host on G4's Electric Playground. And yes, she's pretty, prettier than Natalie Portman. And yes, i want to mary her
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Kojima seems to love the Cell processor and Blu-Ray. And now, this is unconfirmed... but it seems Kojima stated something like the Octocam suit can only be done on the Cell, and that MGS4 will run at 1080p and they will require the space on Blu-Ray, probably not all of it, but significantly more than a dual layered DVD9. Not that he hates the 360, he might develop an original title for it... We know he's doing one for Wii... Probably with Suda...
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I believe the idea of games being more like movies is not the cutscenes, but trying to actually use cinematic camera angles and storytelling during gameplay! Half Life 2 accomplishes this somewhat, and well, cinematic camera angles happen during cool times during gameplay, like God of War, or stuff like in Resident Evil 4 where you get to press buttons during action packed times during in-game cutscenes... Every now and then, a non-interactive cutscene is cool to give you a break and pace the game, those moments are good for slower scenes involving a love story or even interesting ones that give historic details or something! Sometimes, something cool is even a reward for your effort in playing. That sort of thing... it ain't perfect, but that's ideally where we want to go! The point is to get it to an even space where between playing and watching you'd be so gripped by it you wouldn't even notice...
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Vice City Stories is apparently not going to be ported to PS2, reasons seem to be that they're pulling in their resources to work on GTA4...
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Thus far, HDDVD has been better than Blu-Ray, but it seems that the Blu-Ray camp is getting their act together, now using better codecs that everyone wanted, as well as Java for their menu systems and early word is that it surpasses HDDVD...
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Man, there was SO much mis-information in that piece it boggles the mind.
Stick to reviewing movies and leave the gaming journalism to the real gaming journalists dude.
Jesus..... -
Splinter Cell is not exclusive either unless Ubisoft was just making versions for Sony & Nintendo for the fun of it.
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It most likely means that the next gen graphics looking version is only coming out for the only next gen system out thus far... being Xbox 360. But the same game is heading to PS2 and Nintendo Gamecube/and, or, probably only/ Wii. This is sort of like how Chaos Theory had better graphics and more features on Xbox rather than PS2 and Gamecube. It's likely they won't release it again for PS3... As for the next Splinter Cell 5 being exclusive to 360? I'd say it unlikely, but you never know... though Ubisoft seems to want to be a multiplatformer...
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As systems go and if you had to choose one which would it be X-Box 360 or PS3? I ask because I know that those reading this are hardcore gamers and don’t have too many vested interests in company. The man in the red suit is waiting to jump in time for Christmas – he just doesn’t know if he should wait or not. Thankx.
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Look's like I'll have to pick up a PSP, when it drops, or the eventually revamped system hits. I wanna check out that soundtrack.
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Theres still a bunch of great stuff heading to current consoles, like Twilight Princess, FFXII, and Bully.
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To the point where it made me sick of the GTA series. Playing GTA4 will not be like playing GTA3 for the first time.
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What a mess it is! What if you buy an HD-DVD Player and Blu-Ray becomes the leading format? They'll stop making HD-DVD movies and you'll be stuck with a useless piece a junk. What If you buy a Blu-Ray Player and HD-DVD becomes the leading format? What if you buy either player and both HD-DVD & Blu-Ray merge into one format? Would either your HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player be able to play this new merged format? What if you buy the $599 Playstation 3, which uses both Blu-Ray for games and movies and HD-DVD wins the format war. Will it cost Sony too much to exclusively produce Blu-Ray themselves and have to pay third party companies to use Blu-Ray even though these companies have switched to the HD-DVD format? For now don't buy anything until the dust settles from this Blu-Ray Vs HD-DVD war ends and prices go down too. Crazy times
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FPS are so tired!
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Gears of War isn't a FPS. FPS means First Person Shooter. The game is Third Person like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter or Resident Evil 4.
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Vice City's soundtrack was the best of the series. Yes, even the "AM" stations."You think you can screw with me? Maurice Chavez?""Whatchu thinking ASSHOLE?"I loved the Fernando stuff from GTAIII though.
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sony is not as strong as it once was because it cost to much for devs to make games for the ps3 thats why there are so many multi platform games but in the end all the systems will sell they are both the same thing with the 360 supporting hd /dvd and sony suporting bluray while borrowing xbox live from microsoft, and borrowing motion sensor from the wii..... and making all of its investors shit their pants thats all
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I know what FPS means. I've been gaming since before you were a twinkle in your fathers veins. Gears Of War has you running around shooting enemies in a 3D perspective. It might as well be a FPS. I mean clunky in the animations. The way the character moves. I'm sure it's a great game. But it just doesn't get me excited.
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I’ve been leaning in the ‘wait and see’ direction – I think you’re spot on the money. Thank you.
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FPS=First Person Shooter: Where you play the character through their eyes.
TPS=Third Person Shooter: Where you play the character over their shoulder.
Might as well be an FPS? Oh boy...to your warped brain it might. Clunky animations? The human body is a clunky glob of water and proteins. Why don't you try to move like a soldier through a battlefield and see how 'clunky' you can be. ___KNEEL___ -
I think what Orionsangels means is that a genre is much more than where you put the camera/feild of vision. As such, Gears of War is just a FPS in terms of gameplay and controls. I think everyone knows what FPS literally means. Look at it this way: some stores will put Star Wars DVDs in the fantasy section. Some bookshops put LOTR in the sci-fi section. In Gears of War, you shoot stuff and take cover. It's not like other third person action games like Splinter Cell or Prince of Persia. It's like when Duke Nuken changed from FPS to third person. The genre and gameplay didn't really change. Sure, it wasn't leiterally FPS, but every element was preserved except the position of the camera. Conversely, games like Metroid Prime and Oblivion are first person but they wouldn't be seen as FPS despite also being able to "shoot" stuff. I think Gears of War is visually impressive but it just seems to look pretty generic at first glance, like Duke Nukem and Syphon Filter. Remember: Killzone looked and felt great at first and was hyped up to the moon, but after half an hour it was the same old crap. Hopefully it will have some inspired level design and set pieces.
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just watched the new video of GOW footage. Yeah, I guess my faith in the 360 is renewed. If anyone else has seen it, is that "grenade arc indicator", with the blue sprites showing the path of the grenade a new invention for this game? It's pretty damn cool. It must be hard to tell your guys from the bad guys, in this game, though. Everybody's loaded down with 90 lbs of armor that make them look like hunchbacked monsters.
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Yes Gutair Hero has been confirmed for the 360. There are pics of the guitar all over the place - and it looks sweet.
The Splinter Cell game AFTER Double Agent will be exclusive to the 360 (and probably PC). And let's get one thing straight - anytime MS talks about "exclusivity" there are referring to console exclusivity. The PC is never part of that conversation.
That being said I was looking forward to a jet black 360 that had been rumored, but nothing was mentioned. Oh well, still one hell of a showing from MS. They are kicking all kinds of ass right now and giving everyone a reason to buy a 360. And for those with Media Center hooked up to the 360, you know how sweet it is...wait until Vista launches and everything gets ratched up another notch. It's going to rock. Gears of War, then Forza 2 with the wireless wheel, then Halo 3. Bliss. -
If you need something now, Xbox 360s are readily avialable for $299 and $399. The more expensive comes with a Hard drive. Unless you're willing to wait in line and risk getting a buggy launch console, then there's PS3 at $499 and $599, the more expensive one has a larger Hard drive, both have a Blu-Ray player with HDMI. If you've got a nice HDTV, then either 360 or PS3 will do you good, if not, and you're not a hardcore gamer nor want to spend a lot of money, the Nintendo Wii is the best choice at $250. But if you're going for either PS3 or Wii this Christmas, chances are slim you'll get your hands on one even if you pre-order. You'll have to inquire at your nearest store. 360s should be readily available and might include some good priced bundles. If you really want to wait it out, then I reocmmend waiting till next Christmas, when you'll get a clearer picture of which system is doing well, and maybe even get price drops. Or, better yet, if you're new to gaming, pick up a PS2! Those are like, what? $120? Huge library of games and will continue to be suported for another 5 years, can't go wrong!
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Especially when they're from microsoft. They're a bad enough company, but buying up great independent developers really sucks. Gates is going to hell for that.
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Well, no that's not the same thing with FPS. FPS stands for something specific. FIRST-PERSON being the key here. There is already a genre that GOW fits neatly into and thats 3RD PERSON SHOOTER.
There is no point defending a fuck up. We didn't get this far with gaming only for every to call something FPS with a fucking gun in it. Surely we've got a bit more intelligence than that? -
Gears of War is a 3rd person shooter, not a 1st person shooter and they are definitely not the same thing.
GoW will allow you to pull in right to the characters shoulder for a tighter aiming view - something Cliffy B calls 2nd person.
That said, there is a vast difference between 1st and 3rd person perspective.
If you want to just say shooter, that's fine, but FPS and TPS are 2 different things... -
Here's another tool playing the "Microsoft is the devil" card. Grow up moron. They are in the position that MUST be occupied - that of the technological juggernaut. If it wasn't them, it would be Xerox, Lotus, IBM, etc... Point is you can hate them because they are huge, but you absolutely cannot argue one point: Their products are getting better with every generation. They address matters direct from their customer base and they have a finger on the pulse of the gaming community. I would assume you're also one the many fools who plays Sony off like some small upstart company? Gimmee a break. They are the most arragont pricks in the industry and I hope they get their dicks kicked in this generation, since they ass raped loyal fans over and over again with their proprietary formats and high front end pricing. Did you also forget how many developers they swallowed up? Naughty DOg, Worlds Apart, Red Zone, ...those are just off the top of my head. Every criticism lobbed at MS can also be directed at Sony. Remember, they were the company that knowingly put a MAJOR security hole on your computer with that rootkit fiasco. That seems to be forgotten about rather quickly. Had it been MS we'd still be reading about it.
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I am arguing from the perspective of genre, not literal meaning. The point I was trying to make was that there isn't always a change in "genre" as the term is commonly accepted just because the camera is in a diferent place. A factor as trivial as the view doesn't change most games enough to warrant a different generic classification. As such, veiwpoint shouldn't be considered in the labelling of a genre, so you're right in that sense: they should just be called "Shooters". Again, most people wouldn't accept that Metroid Prime is a FPS despite the fact that it's in first person and you can shoot things in it, simply because the game fits better into other genres. Factors that are inconsequential to the classification of a game shouldn't be included in the labelling of their classification. What would you rather call Star Wars: An Adventure Film, or a Light Sabre Adventure Film?
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It's called Mass Effect. Go pickup a 360.
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with your Xbox gun games. It's all blasted war games. The American mentality. That's why Jap gamers will never accept Xbox. Real gamers like storylines and progessive gameplay, not mindless shooting. Your kind gives gaming a bad name.
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Thanks for the information – very useful! I gotta tell ya, the Nintendo Wii's controllers are looking to be pretty groundbreaking. What is everyone’s spin on those?
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While it's true that the Xbox 360 is heavy on shooters, first person or otherwise, shooters are not my favorite genre of games and I love my 360. Knights of the Old Republic, Final Fantasy XI, Fight Night Round 3, Madden 07, Geometry Wars (the most addictive game ever made), NBA 2k7, I can't wait for Guitar Hero, Blue Dragon, Marvel Universe, etc. So there's plenty enough for everybody's varying styles of gameplay. While shooters aren't my favorite genre, Ghost Recon:Advanced Warfighter is more of a real time strategy simulation 'shooter', I am looking forward to Gears of War and let's not forget the real reason why shooters are so popular on the Xbox...Halo...and if Halo 3 ain't enough to get you excited then you don't have a pulse. Just the stuff I've seen from Bungie on Xbox Live is off the charts amazing and with 10 million Xbox 360 units sold by year's end I'm very happy with where Microsoft is positioned going forward and with their 3rd party support. So the 360 is alot more than just "American mentality" gun games and that sentiment comes from the insecurity of Japanese based console makers who are feeling some real heat in the lucrative North American and European markets from a US based company no less. I think this time around its Microsoft that has all its ducks in a row and it won't be easy for a $499 and $599 system to close a 10 million unit lead.
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I think it'll depend on third party support, which the gamecube didn't have enough of. But the controls should make up for the lack of strong visuals. Any dumbass who writes it off as a gimmick or a party game system (which there are only a few of out of the many launch games) don't give Nintendo the credit they deserve. I bet they thought shoulder buttons, analogue sticks, rumble features and wireless pads were gimmicks too. Well, now they're the standard, not because Nintendo invented them, but because they had the testicular fortitude to pioneer them and their rivals followed suit. If you look at Sony, they've settled for what they see as the standard dual shock controller- their version of which has always been flawed- simply because they don't wanna risk rocking the boat after the results of previous generations. If this mentality is reflected in software too, expect to play endless gangsta sims, annual sequels and other generic bullshit on their system. That said, Wii can only be as good as its games. It'll have its share of crap, so keep an eye out for the gems. In order to do that, I'd recommend ign's wii channel.
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I am pretty excited about the possibilities of the controller, but aside from it's revolutionary aspect, I find it's graphics to be heavily disappointing compared to the power of the 360 and PS3. I'm also not so excited for a lot of the games aside from the new Zelda, Mario Galaxy, RedSteel and Super Smash Bros Brawl. The rest just don't interest me (That I've seen so far). I bought a DS and initially enjoyed the touchscreen, but later on I got bored of the games releasing for it after initially enjoying them... The only one I play now is Mario Kart and it doesn't use the stylus... So the touchpad does seem like a gimmick for most games, plus I really only enjoy story driven games... DS has rarely any... It's disappointing from a single player view for me because of that, but great for multiplayer. I'm getting the feeling that it'll be the same for Wii... it'll have few great single player games, but the motion sensitivity excitement might wear out if there's nothing worth playing, but it'll be a cool a fuck thing to have at a party with 4 controllers. Plus I haven't played the Wii, so I can't tell you much as it looks like something that has to be experienced first hand in order to appreciate. Another complaint is that the Wii controller may be great for some unique innovative control schemes in games, but as for existing genres, it'll rock for FPS, sports games like Wii sports that comes free with the console and RTS type games, but it seems fighting games are rather awkward to use with the controller. Even Super Smash Bros may stick to using a traditional controller. You can either buy a shell for your Wii controller, or you can plug in regular Gamecube controllers. Recent news is that Gamestops may get some kiosks in, so if there's one near you, I'd recommend finding out and trying before buying... If you're a fan of old school games from the SNES to the 64 era, the Virtual Console can't be beat, vintage, but cheap games downloaded right to your system!
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REAL gamers? As opposed to what? The fake evil clone gamers? Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good story as much as the next in a game, but I also enjoy war games, and I don't think one is a more 'sincere' reason for gaming then the other. And as far as japan goes, I'd say Gears of War seems to be a direct descendent of the most badass war series of all time; the aptly titled Contra. Which happens to be japanese.
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Almost forgot. I agree that there usually isn't much of a difference between FPS's and TPS's, but while it may look like just another typical third person shooter, GOW's gameplay relies heavily on finding cover and using it well. Its a system that I can't really see being done very easily in an FPS, since any real cover means you probably see a wall in front of your aiming reticle.
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I think... can't remember...
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Surely it's Angmar not "Angmra"
Now who's being anal. -
but not before my present Oblivion character on xbox360 is level 40 and happily retired, having become head of every guild and every daedric prince's best buddy(with the exception of the four-armed dude, of course) . So I'm perfectly happy unless they add extra content on the ps3 or something.
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admitted that Xbox360 version will be better. I don't know what they mean about that. But I'm getting more and more interested in 360 after their relatively poor headstart year. I might get one when I graduate and don't mind the distraction. Especially since Bioshock, Mass Effect, Half-life 2, Assassin's Creed etc will be out by then, with GTA4 and Halo 3 not far off. Spleesh.
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I went to ign to verify it. Turns out its easier to develop the AI for 360 due to its processors, but they say the end results will be the same on both formats.
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