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AICN Games: Monki's Weekly Wrap-Up plus HALO 3 screen grabs and news!!!
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Before we dive into Monki's weekly recap on everything video games, I'd like to point out some more breaking news. HALO 3 is probably the most anticipated game scheduled for release next year. Word is Microsoft has shown maps, designs and gameplay to some select press and that we'll begin seeing snippets here and there about the new game. On the message boards at www.neogaf.com there have been scans from a Swedish magazine with breaking images from the game, including new weapons and vehicles.
And GameSpot has this to say:
What we heard: Last week, Bungie mentioned in its weekly update that it had shown off early builds of Halo 3 to a variety of gaming press outlets and that magazine articles on the visit would start hitting mailboxes shortly.
It appears that Swedish mailboxes are plum stuffed with Halo 3 news, as purported scans of the latest issue of LEVEL have hit the Internet with gobs of info about Bungie's highly anticipated first-person shooter. The multiplayer-focused sneak peek dished out details on new weapons, vehicles, and features for the game, some of it expected, some not so much.
First, the bad news for hermitic gamers: According to the magazine article, Halo 3 won't have bots. If Halo 2 is any indicator, there shouldn't be any shortage of human opponents to frag online, but antisocial players or those who tire of powergaming play styles won't be able to fake their multiplayer fix. According to a translation on GAF, LEVEL quotes a Bungie rep as explaining that the developers would rather spend that time working on the weapons, levels, and netcode for the game.
Speaking of weapons, Halo 3 will apparently feature a few new ways to off opponents. The Spartan Laser should help players open up vehicles like so many sardine cans, while the self-explanatory nail grenade should be a real hit at parties. There's also a Brute spiker to play with.
As for new vehicles, the Mongoose ATV that was once intended for Halo 2 will be available. Although it lacks firepower of any kind, the Mongoose seats two and should be good for getting Spartans where they need to be ASAP. And while it isn't quite a vehicle, the "Man Cannon" will launch players across the map unprotected on air streams. Gamers launched by the cannon will be vulnerable to enemy fire, but they'll also be able to fire back.
Bungie's also switching up some of the familiar Halo gameplay, according to the scans. For one thing, the X button will no longer reload. Instead, players will use the left and right bumpers on the Xbox 360 controller to independently reload their primary and secondary weapons. As for what the X button will do, Bungie is keeping that under wraps for now. In another tweak, players' secondary weapons will be visibly slung over their backs at all times, so players will no longer be able to conceal the fact that they're carrying around four-foot plasma swords in their pockets.
Finally, the scan indicates that the limited-edition release of Halo 3 will be called the "Legendary Edition" and will come packed in a replica of the Master Chief's helmet. The four-disc set will include the game, documentaries and developer interviews, Red vs. Blue content along with other Halo tie-ins, and HD cutscenes from the whole Halo trilogy.
The official story: Microsoft isn't talking, but Bungie today put up a news post acknowledging that magazine scans with new Halo 3 content had started hitting the Web and threatening a permanent ban for anyone posting them on the company's forums.
Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus, although we hope the term "Man Cannon" is the result of a translation error.
Very cool that Red Vs. Blue will be included in the big souped up collector's edition release... I fuckin' hate button changes, but if they make it worth my while (I'm thinking it's a new melee move) then I'll learn to accept it. Anyway, thanks to Kraken for the heads up and enjoy the below scans from the Swedish magazine... and of course that darn Monki after all that... if he's not too busy playing with his red garden snake...
Greetings humans, Monki back in the great U.S. and A. to bring you some more fancy game news.
Almost immediately after getting back in from the Turks and Caicos film festival (which I still have another article to write....I'm lazy) I picked up the Project 8 demo on XBox Live Marketplace and went to work. Damn. This game is going to be saweeeet. In fact, the only press release I'm going to highlight is going to be about that.
On another note, I spotted a PSP on my trip back from the islands. Some creepy looking old guy was futzing around with his. But hey, one PSP out in the wild.
This should be a brief wrap-up as right now is the calm before the storm of November. PLAYSTATION 3, Wii, Gears of War, Guitar Hero 2. Huge month. Count me as very excited.
Press Release of the Week!
I have an interview with a project director on the Project 8 game that I'll be posting in a few days, in the meantime here is some info from the PLAYSTATION 3 version.
Santa Monica, CA - October 19, 2006 - Neversoft is taking interactivity to all new heights in the upcoming Tony Hawk's Project 8 video game for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system. By leveraging the next gen console's SIXAXIS wireless controller, players will be able to balance and steer skaters through every rail grind, manual, revert, ollie and combo, as well as control slow motion nail the trick moves as they compete to be a part of Tony Hawk's elite project 8 team. The game, which ships to retail outlets nationwide timed to the launch of the highly anticipated PLAYSTATION 3 system, has been rated "T" (Teen) by the ESRB and carries a suggested retail price of $59.99.
Tony Hawk's Project 8 features the likeness and skating styles of more than 11 world class athletes. By tilting and twisting the SIXAXIS wireless controller, gamers will have the power in their hands to control each skater's actions, which were captured for the game using three-dimensional body and face scanning technology, as well as motion capture data.
Joining Tony Hawk in Tony Hawk's Project 8 are well-known skateboarders:
-Bob Burnquist
-Dustin Dollin
-Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins
-Nyjah Huston
-Bam Margera
-Rodney Mullen
-Paul "P-Rod" Rodriguez Jr.
-Ryan Sheckler
-Daewon Song
-Mike Vallely
-Stevie Williams
For more information on Tony Hawk's Project 8, visit www.thp8.com
I don't even know if Sheckler and P-Rod were alive during the first release. These damn young-uns. I remember being holed up in my dorm playing THPS 1 on the Dreamcast. Man it looked so good.
So, again, keep an eye out for my Project 8 interview in the next couple of days.
Pretty Images of the Week!
I mentioned this one in last week's article which really became this week's earlier article due to the Gilligan's Island type setup I had for internet while I was in the Caribbean. Anyways, Def Jam: Icon is one I am REALLY excited about. I enjoyed the hell out of the first couple of games and this one looks sweeeet.
Obviously this one isn't even close to being done, but how sweet is the environment moving and bouncing around? Very very cool.
Next up is a new cinematic trailer for Gears of War. This one is just beautiful; the music and the images work so well together. Gorgeous.
Both of these vids are from Game Trailers, a site I visit about 10 times a day. Loads more cool stuff there.
My Goal in Life of the Week!
I'm not really sure what got me thinking about this, maybe it was the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pizza party at the Drafthouse that kick-started this dream of mine again. As all young filmmakers do, I have dreamt of my ultimate film to produce/create/direct/edit. That film?
THE WIZARD
That's right. I want to re-make the Wizard. The Christian Slater / Fred Savage / Super Mario Bros. 3 masterpiece. Why hasn't anyone else directed more children cross America via hitch-hiking and video game hustling? The Wizard was a huge part of my childhood and I burned through tons of tapes of it on my ancient VCR.
How many of you went out and picked up PowerGloves after seeing this incredible film because they "were so bad?" I sure as hell know I did.
So there ya go, I want to make this movie. If you work in the movie industry and have access to the rights of this one, e-mail me and we can go ahead and start the paperwork. I work cheap and the only thing I require in the movie is a cameo by Fred Savage. So, any super-rich producers out there ready to do this one? Let me know.
Stupid Wrap-Up of the Week!
So, that is it for this week's wrap up. By this time next week it will be November and everything will be going nuts in the game world. I can't freakin' wait. Also that means we are going to be one month closer to the Geek Christmas known as Butt-Numb-a-Thon. I got in by the hairs of my chinny-chin-chin and will be hopping up and down in my seat praying to Zelda that we will get to see Frank Miller's 300. That one looks so insane. Coooool.
I leave you with my poster I made for my BNAT submission this year. It is sort of an annual thing that I do for myself and my buddy Edison who comes in from Ft. Worth for the fest. My Photoshop skills aren't the best, but I'm happy with how it turned out.
For those of you coming, bring your DSes and we'll get our New Super Mario Bros. and our Tetris on.
Until then, back up the tree I go!
-Monki
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+ Expand All
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COOOOOOOOOLLLL can't wait
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Looks like the same ole shit from this series. I loved the first HALO and the second was MILDY entertaining, but I really don't think this series is all everyone makes it out to be. I could think of at least 10 other game franchies that deserve more attention than this series.
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Halo 3 looks the same as Halo 1. It reminds me of that Simpsions ep where lisa brings out her own doll "Lisa LionHeart" and the other company just puts a new hat on their doll and the cows go wild!
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Oct 28, 2006 3:32:48 AM CDT
"Why hasn't anyone else directed more children cross Am
by 1000yearfocker
Isn't it obvious? Kids today are stupid. I'm only 26 but I never seriously considered crossing the country a la The Wizard... besides, can you imagine the public outcry from the same people who criticize GTA and Bully.
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Halo was the first FPS i could get into on any format. I was never a big fan of the FPS untill then, i just want to finish the story the first 2 games started then I will be happy.
I do think however that halo isn't the be all and end all of the genre and there are moreenjoyable games out there that do various things better but i like where the story has been progressing and that's a good thing right?? -
Because it fucking rocked, that's why. Everything from the stunning graphics to the perfectly intuitive control scheme to the incredibly fluid playability, the Halo franchise encompasses the absolute pinnacle of achievement in the FPS genre. In fact, I challenge anyone who seriously enjoys video games to play the online multiplayer mode of either Halo or Halo 2 and THEN have the audacity to say it wasn't AT LEAST a little fun. How anyone can say it's "terrible" is simply beyond me. You must have played the solo campaign which, admittedly, takes a little while to really get good. But the multiplayer kicks all kind of ass right off the bat.
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"I could think of at least 10 other game franchies that deserve more attention than this series." Give it a go. And keep in mind, when saying things like "deserve more attention than..." in regards to an upcoming sequel, you need to take into account how wildly popular a franchise already is. Anticipation and publicity feed off of each other. So, while you might be able to name 10 franchises that you prefer, you can't honestly name 10 that "deserve" more attention.
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...when the environment would open up, the soundtrack would lift up and you would go "that. is. awesome."
Halo2 got it totally wrong and went all for blasting action and frame rates over style. But the online multiplayer was simply the best. -
I agree, the solo campaign and the multiplayer were completely different animals. Solo was good, multiplayer was great. And you're right about the soundtrack too, it was very good, very fitting in certain places.
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I own both, massive fan of the Halo series. But I do say that they tried to cram too much into part 2 graphically. This was evident when the bump mapping on the chiefs own hands in front of your eyes would switch on and off randomly. Got kinda annoying.
Anyhow, I'm wondering if they'll let us play as the Arbiter in this one as well :D
Personally I think the Arbiter deserves his own game but oh well... -
Anybody see the Halo 3 "annoucement" trailer that got released a few months back? I loved the voiceover, it was fairly badass. Oh, and I dig the Halo mythology/ storyline, and I don't even own an X-Box!!
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...I loved both games. Playing as the Arbiter kicked ass. Unlike most FPSs the voice acting in the Halo series is GOOD. The story is generally good (if, um, "inspired" by better SF). Doom and Quake and the rest suck ass. More aenemic tech demos for the ritalin poping crowd. Half Life was OK until you fight the retarded giant baby fetus. To date only three FPSs have held my attention to the end and two of them were Halo. The other was Half Life and the end of THAT was just fucking stupid. I cheated through the rest. Far Cry got retarded when it turned into Doom. I don't care how genetically engineered a monkey is. It's still a fucking monkey and you will not need a whole clip from an M16 to stop it.
Oh. I lied. I alos loved the Call of Duty series. Those are awesome as well. Fucking Nazis. -
...to say that H3 looks "the same" based on some low res scans tell me one thing : you are a smacktard.
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My friends always kick my ass in Halo because I never play console first-person shooters... I always tell em to bring it on a computer and of course they can't... until consoles offer keyboard and mice support, PC will dominate both FPS and RTS...
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...but they are _not_ "the absolute pinnacle of achievement in the FPS genre". Sorry. That one's a toss-up between the Half-life and Call of Duty series, depending on how cranky I am about Half-life's storyline. I'm referring to the PC versions, of course.
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Damn you Michael Bay
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Consoles are for poor people.
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What's the name of the song in the trailer? Who performs it? Can anyone help me out here?
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End of story.
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It was a Gary Jules cover of 'Mad World' as featured in Donnie Darko
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I think you mean "Mad World". Don't know the artist, but it is on the 2nd disk of the Donnie Darko OST. I'm sure you can find a preview of the track on the net.
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this is a version came out round the time of donnie darko. song made it to number one in england!!!!!!!!! come on ROONEY
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Hey, I touched up all of the scans (there are about 20 of them). Enjoy!
http://www.mediafire.com/?25lptj2x61v
(zipped) -
My most anticipated game by far. Can't wait to see what they come up with! And Gary Jules sung that Mad World song in the Gears of War commercial.
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Too Soon!
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you suck because you suck. Try inviting your friends to play Halo on the PC with you then. Even if they used usb controller converters and you used your keyboard and mouse, I bet they would still kick your ass.
Anyway, I myself am more than psyched for this game. I'll kind of miss hiding the sword though. It seems that that one should just look like the little hilt on your belt though. Doesn't it ignite like a lightsaber? Or does it have an actual sword underneath? I guess it does just lay on the ground when not carried. Whatever. -
Just can't stop laughing, dude. You made my day.
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those images are really early, with placeholder textures and no HDMI. Also, some guy who translated parts of the swedish article said that right now, the graphics (with the placeholder stuff) are better than Halo 2
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Probably because it's use in Donnie Darko was way better! Gears doesn't seem like a sentimental game, like, who are you kidding? :P
And yeah, those graphics for Halo 3 aren't final, weather, HDR lighting etc etc are missing. But don't expect it to look like Gears of War either... -
Bunch of fucking sellout whores! It's bad enough that Halo 2 is coming out for Vista ONLY after over a year on the XBox, but it gets worse. Bungie got started making games exclusively for Mac. The Marathon series was excellent. It was guys like me that made them what they are by buying their games. Marathon, Marathon 2, and then I just bought the whole boxed set. I didn't care when they did Myth for Mac and Windows. As long as they kept making them for Mac, it was fine with me, and they sure didn't seem like the kind of guys who would turn their backs on the core fanbase. Then they got bought up by MS. I groaned inwardly, but hoped that their much touted "full publishing rights" would make it so nothing would change. Then they rushed Halo onto the XBox and we had to wait two years for shitty ports to hit Mac/PC that had inexcusably horrible network code. Lag on a 100Mbit LAN? NO. FUCKING. EXCUSE. Now they aren't even putting it out for OS X, the final cleveland steamer on the chests of the core fans who have been with them from the beginning. Fuck you Bungie, you rotten sellout whores. MS needs a big, flagship game to help drive sales of Vista, and Bungie is all too happy to spread 'em. Nevermind their so-called full publishing rights, which were supposedly in their contract and said they could make games for any platform they wanted. This isn't about which OS is better, which is better for games, yadda yadda yadda. This is about not fucking the longtime fans that made you what you are. Rot in Hell, Bungie.
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Gears of War, man. Damn.
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That game kicks arse!!!
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It looks like the original turd halo game wraped in a shiney wrapper
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http://ps3.ign.com/articles/742/742417p1.html
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Bungie are having a nightmare with this. They're asking people to take these shots down; not to mention the magazine that supposedly had this as an exclusive is no doubt preparing the lawsuits for anyone infringing their copyright. Enjoy em while they last.
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hmm?
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a judgment on how good Halo 3 is going to be by viewing a fucking scan of a magazine of an alpha build of the game?
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Oct 28, 2006 4:56:09 PM CDT
wait, what are you talking about! ROONEY didnt do that!
by s0nicdeathmonkey
that song is by tears for fears and was re-done by Gary Jules. Jules is pretty awesome live. however, Rooney is very dissappointing live and judging by the new material they showed off, they will be having a major sophmore slump.
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of a baby and telling his mother that the baby is ugly and stupid!
Halo 3 has 13 months of work to be done fools. -
... that a game needs to utilyze a mouse and a keyboard to be considered great: Snap out of your delusions, please. PC vs. console gaming will always boil down to an individual preference but to say that a game is somehow automatically inferior (i.e. less fun) because it's a console game is just ridiculous. I myself far prefer console gaming. While PCs will have better graphics (though that gap has lessened considerably), the most important aspect of a game is playability and I just never could get into the whole keyboard and mouse thing. And while saying that the Halo franchise represents "the absolute pinnacle of achievement [to date] in the FPS genre" may, in hindsight, be stretching it just a bit (especially since I totally forgot about COD/COD 2 which both kicked major ass as well), it's not that far off. And besides, what do you want from me? It was 4:00 in the morning, my brain was fried and I was half-drunk still. Hyperbole was my perogative. ;)
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I enjoyed Halo and Halo 2 quite a bit, and while they certainly didn't change or alter my concepts of what a game could be (ala Zelda titles) they were extremely fun and I had a blast. That said, it seems that most developers today don't really know the true meaning of the world 'sequel'. Some people call this the "Maddenization" of gaming... where incremental changes in a short period of time justify the 'sequel' setting. I don't agree. While Halo 2 had a different number than the first, it was hardly a true 'sequel' in the true parlance of video gaming histories. It was a great continuation of the STORY, but as far as gameplay, graphics, interactions, etc...not truly a sequel. Not to beat a dead horse, but the truly best examples of games being truly SEQUELS would be both the Super Mario and Zelda series. Compare nearly any game in the series to nearly any other game in the series. This is especially true with the new Zelda title, Twilight Princess. But then, it's Nintendo we're talking about...
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Also, just the thought that in less than a month I'll be playing a NEW Legend of Zelda game gave me the jitters! There's a strong, strong arguement to be made for calling the Zelda series the 'best video game series' of all time, but with this one it's completed earned. I won't fall into Nintendo fanbase hyperbole (rabid and prepubescent nonsense), but if one game series has truly earned it's wings it's Miyamoto's masterpieces. The new game looks AMAZING, and hopefully the new Wiimote will add more than it detracts... There's never been an instance when a 'true' Zelda release hasn't garnered Game of the Year (yes, even Windwaker managed that) and was fantastic fun, so I'm thrilled. I would have LOVED to see a Mario title at the Wii Launch, but having Zelda is just as good... hell, it's HUGE. Thanks to that game alone, the Wii is going to be fucking HUGE.
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bring on gta4
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it won't be released until Dec.11. The one that's coming out on the 19th is a imposter.(Even the guys over at 1up have said that the Wii controls for Twilight Princess feel forced.)
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I'll give Nintendo their due; they really do try to bring something new to the videogame industry and for that i think everyone should tip their hat in recognition of what they've done over the years. That said, the wii-mote is perhaps the single most rediculous piece of hardware to come along since the severe migraine inducing, Virtual Boy. The novelty of Wii wears of very quickly and you soon find yourself feeling rather stupid, flailing around like a spastic in the deep end of a swimming pool. Sure, it's getting good press now but in 2 years time when there's little to no innovative software available and what is there looks appaling compared to its rivals you'll find Wii relegated to the smallest sections of game retail stores much like the Gamecube did. It's also going to come as a nasty surprise to the average fat kid who plays games when he realises that what games he does have on Wii make him tired and sweat too much.
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You can get a smartjoy Frag unit to play FPS console games with a keyboard and mouse. They aren't too bad actually. I've not tried it but i heard that COD2 on xbox 360 can be played with a USB keyboard and mouse because the debug routines were left in by accident...anyone tried that? Let me know.
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Considering it was originally for Gamecube, I personally speculate that the controls will seem 'forced', as someone said, on the Wii... Frankly since there is no real change in graphics, the Gamecube version might probably play better than the Wii, you can't lift the controller and swing your 'sword' faster than my thumb can push the A or B button, unless of course they tailored your enemy reactions etc. for the Wii version, which is why it's on a separate disc despite that they tried to make it a Gamecube disc game with additional control features if you popped it into the Wii, though fishing and stuff would be cool for the Wii mote. It's too bad they couldn't implement all the controls on the same gamecube disc so it's one disc that can go into both consoles and depending on your console those controls will be initiated, perhaps even leaving you with the option of using the Gamecube controller for the Wii. That was the original plan I think, and the reason for some extended delays... but ah well...
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Are you on crack? WTF does that mean? regardless of whether you like Sony or the games for PS3, whatever. You can't deny the power that's making MGS4 run, not to mention every other game they have. Wii? get the fuck outta here. I know some of you are so against Sony. That you're creating wishful rumors, but the get the fuck over it. Sony is back and eventually they'll be king of next-gen gaming and you know this maaan!
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Everything involving the war on terror and the end of the world revolves around the number 11. Everybody knows that.
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just like Halo 1. Amazing stuff, keep it coming Quint.
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...of a series that has never, when handled by Nintendo, ever been anything other than complete masterpieces. ALWAYS. It's the most venerated and honored game series of all-time.
Zelda games have ALWAYS pre-tested awkward...every since time. This is usually do to the fact that each one has unique gameplay and Nintendo is notorious for only allowing supervised, under-key play tests...measured in minutes. I'm confident that this latest Zelda (the first-ever system launch game in the series) will be just fine. -
I agree with Monki in regards to changing buttons, but being able to independently reload will make my life so much easier! think about for a moment, monki. you'll see ;)
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"In another tweak, players' secondary weapons will be visibly slung over their backs at all times, so players will no longer be able to conceal the fact that they're carrying around four-foot plasma swords in their pockets." Well, The sword still might be virtually invisible, since it's just a handle until it's activated. A rocket launcher or sniper rifle? Not so easy to hide.
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Checkout the few images they have there on the Halo 3 article.
I have to say, though, nothing beats Grand Theft Auto. Most other games feel like video games, no matter how good the graphics. GTA feels an orgy with the Gods of Splendor. Reverse "CJ", and it's no coincidence that you have Jesus Christ. -
bloody awesome! i would never have thought to put a trailer for a video game to Mad World but it works brilliantly. doesn't hurt that the song is an absolute classic though.
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"It's so bad." that is such a fucking gas assed line. I mean, of all the movies that would be impossible to remake nowadays, a movie about a bunch of kids hitch-hiking across the country might be near the top. And you forgot about Beau Bridges to top it off, who has more of a career nowadays than slater, which is kinda funny. Well, at least he's working anyways... And for a studio to entrust a first time director to work with a bunch of kids... might not be the greatest idea based on what little I've scene of project greenlight. "It could be the new Stand By Me" - Ben Affleck. Only Rob Reiner can make a new Stand By Me, Affleck. no raping of my childhood will be allowed. It would be odd though for them to remake this movie though, since they'd end up using modern day games. They could include Ninja Gaiden, which would be cool, but personally the TMNT franchise peaked with Turtles in Time on the SNES. Perhaps they could have perhaps the holdouts of people with their older systems, then you could have the truly great clips of Mortal Kombat instead of the craptacular robotic mo-cap games they're putting out now (judging based on one of the many recent sequels alone, can't recall which). Crazy Taxi on the DreamCast is all I've got to say about that one. Also the revival of the villain could be kinda juicy if he were the archetypal Pro Gamer that you just want to punch in the face. The type of person who trains and shit. The guy who will kill you in before you turn the corner in an FPS. Oh, and you'd have to have either a Def Jam battle or Wrestlemania 2000/No Mercy, some Asmik/Aki wrestling/fighting game. That's the shit right there. Fucking addictive multiplayer if there ever was one. Anyways, enough on this topic. Twas fun to post on AINC again. my password was saved on my firefox app and I ended up reinstalling os x so that I could repartition the drive and so I lost it, and after trying to retrieve my old password for what seemed like forever, I finally decided to just create a new account. Seems to have worked out.
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the only mac game companies are guys like Aspyr and MacSoft who just license PC games and port them over. The only guys left really supporting the mac platform is Blizzard. I'm not really a FPS fan, so I don't really give a shit. I enjoy the occassional multiplayer session, but personally hate the keyboard and mouse config and find that with the dual analog on the xbox, I'm standing on equal footing everyone instead of having the person who can snipe you from 50 yards. Bare in mind that BioWare has adapted to the same sort of release schedule, where the console version comes first and then later at some point the PC version and then after that the Mac version (although for Jade Empire, I wouldn't hold my breathe). This has to do with why BioWare didn't bother making a KOTOR 2: because they'd rather do something new than focusing on the grind, to steal WoW terminology. My fingers are crossed that the new BioWare game will come out for the Mac before they stop supporting universal binaries as I don't intend on buying an intel mac for many years to come, what with sitting on a dual G5. ANYWAYS, I just want to close strongly enough with a tangible point you can take home (if you're actually reading this), and that is this. It's the whole Chicken and the Egg issue here (pardon the pun); did Bungie become a great developer because people like you bought their games, or did people buy their games because they were a great developer? Think about that for a sec. Bungie made games exclusively for the mac when nobody made games for the mac. This allowed them to pretty much own the market when PC games were suffering from oversaturation as the aisles were filled with them. In fact, that's the reason why I wanted a PC in the late nineties (having had a mac lc2 with Prince of Persia and Sim City in the early nineties), because my dad had a pc around 95/96 and I got addicted to Command and Conquer Red Alert. I was mere months too early to get in on the ground floor of Baldur's Gate, but instead managed to almost beat FF7 (never owned a PlayStation, Nintendo fanboy up till the DC and then Xbox for the last gen, undecided on current, not that anybody asked)... So anyways I would figure that you should be grateful to Bungie for offering you great games for sale back in the day and say FUCK MICROSOFT (although that may be a bit overdone for Mac users to say...) for not giving you a better port on the Halo multiplayer angle, although perhaps you have a legitimate beef with Bungie on that point since I'm sure they really didn't care much about the whole porting task. Nobody does really. Aspyr pisses me off when the games are buggy, but what are they gonna do, really? Eventually they manage to get it right after 3-5 revisions. If you really want to enjoy a game as it was meant to be played, then you should play it on the platform it was originally designed on, in my opinion. Which means in this case that you should get an xbox, which assumes that you're comfortable with the dual analog as well as paying yearly for the privilige of multiplayer, unless it's a lan situation in which case you have a max of 4 players unless you don''t mind the split screen... And I'm ranting some more. Oh how I've missed AINC
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are touting the PS3 power regardless of its games. I'm guessing most of the fanboys owned PSones and PS2s. Are they frogetting how significantly less powerful they were compared to the consoles they're supposedly so much better than?
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It's a combination. Pathways into Darkness wasn't really fun for me, but it did manage to put Bungie on the map. They made great games, but I think Mac users were more apt to support them due to them making great games for the Mac. They never would've survived starting out in the PC world and they knew it. If it had been the PC platform they started out on, people might've bought one game. Guys like me bought multiple copies. Like I said, it isn't about platform advocacy, it's about fucking the people that got you started, regardless of the circumstances. Bottom line is that the Mac was their starting point and their springboard, and now they're abandoning it. Yes, part of this is doubtlessly MS putting pressure on them for a Vista exclusive flagship title, but they claimed to have those full publishing rights when they were purchased. The Halo port was partially Gearbox's fault (how in the hell did they think it was ready for release??) and partly Bungie's. I can almost guarantee that an inhouse port would've worked a lot better. Bungie sold out, plain and simple. The Mac users were always their most die-hard fans, and now Bungie has turned their back on them.
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The hell they do! I'm all for juxtaposition but putting Mad World and Gears of War together just reeks of contrivance. The shots weren't even paced to the tempo of the song, or edited in a montage-y way to suit the tone. They obviously saw the Domo-Kun version (THAT'S the way to do it) and went, "Hmmmmm. I'VE got an idea!"
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You can't blame anyone at Bungie for not making Mac games anymore. For one thing, they were BOUGHT by Microsoft. All of the old talent there is long gone and their offices are now located in the vast, evil complex of MS in Redmond. But, let's face it, Macs make up a shitty percentage of the gaming market. It's ludicrous. Infact, if i remember rightly, the old Commodore 64 still has more active gamers than the Mac platform. I can see that you're pissed off that your favourite piece of Hardware lost one of it's best developers but it stopped being a hobby for those guys and became a business. That's how things work today. As for the port of Halo to PC and Mac...can you tell me what you dislike about it? It's still one of my most played games on PC (in multiplayer).
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together IN THAT WAY. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the (unoriginal) idea - how many times have we seen it done in war movies? It's just the execution. I thought AICN was a site for MOVIE geeks! Time to learn something about filmmaking, boyos! The Domo thing works beautifully. And Tears for Fears rule (the world - geddit, old timers?)!
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Blue? Two pieces of plasticine fighting each other by turning into all sorts of shit? I loved that when I was little! Probably didn't show in the States.
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mentioned in the article
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he stated quite clearly what he hated about the mac port of Halo, that the multiplayer would stutter over a 100 Mbit LAN. At least that's what I got out of his post.
Also, I'm pretty sure that when Microsoft bought Bungie, they didn't just buy the name. The key staff members would still be there, but would be making their new stuff for the Xbox first and having other developer teams handle the porting to the other platforms (like how EA licenses their games to Aspyr to port over crap like Command and Conquer Generals, which just so happens to be just about the only RTS game on the mac besides WarCraft III). Just figured I'd respond as I doubt that Durendal is going to anytime soon. Just a hunch. -
I didn't even bother checking out the article (not much of a FPS fan) when commenting before, but hey, new def jam. That's pretty cool. Kinda curious about how fast they'll end up speeding it up considering Fight For NY. Made for reversals being quite difficult to be pulled off with any sort of consistancy, but from what I could tell from the video it looks as if the heavier punches and kicks can't be blocked, forcing you to either dodge or get the reversal going. I remember back in the day on the n64 there were times when there would be 3-5 reversals in a row as me and my friends would constantly be reversing punches until someone would mess up the timing and hit the floor. that was some fun times... BEGIN RANT: Here's hoping THQ will rerelease some of those games over the net, either on the Nintendo virtual console or on the 360 marketplace or whatever. Not sure how that might work with the rights seeing as though Aki is working with EA on the Def Jam games, but they still have the WWE license, which includes WCW so I really think that they should do it. It would be great to be able to enjoy a wrestling game again, as THQ seems to be struggling with getting good developer teams to put together good wrestling games (Wrestlemania 20 for the Xbox comes to mind, not to mention the PS games back in the day, Thunder and Nitro not Smackdown). Perhaps a compilation disc would be in order... of course then you might run into license issues with the individual wrestlers depending on how airtight McMahon made those contracts (and considering how he owns every publicity still of Bret Hart, that could be quite airtight indeed). anyways, enough about that.
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Knock two warthogs together on a LAN game. One second you'll be spinning in one direction, the next second your hog will be capsized about 20 feet away. Get blown up into the air by a 'nade and you'll find yourself falling in stutters. It's fucking inexcusable. And Bungie wasn't doing this as a hobby on the Mac in the early days, it was their business. It's what they did for a living. It's what got them started. The Mac isn't a big game box, sure, but there are still those who like to play some games on them. Jason Jones left Bungie a while ago, but Alex Seropian is still there and heading up the division. Bungie was big on touting their full publishing rights, saying they could put Oni out for any platform and/or console if they so chose. It turned out to be a load of crap. Hell, Mac gamers aren't the only ones pissed about this. A lot of Windows gamers don't want to buy Vista just to play Halo 2. They could NEVER have done that if they were still an independent company. They'd have lousy sales. But since MS is subsidising them to keep trying to pimp sales of their new OS, they can get away with it. They sold out. End of story.
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Pangaea! Yeah I'm a pussy gamer but I've got to give some love to Brian Greenstone for many happy hours spent with my son playing Otto Matic, Cro-Mag Rally, Nanosaur, Bugdom I and II (with 3D glasses!), etc...even Mighty Mike (aka Power Pete). We may not have a PS3, but we'll always have Bugdom. sniff.
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He set up another Dev studio called Wideload Games which, incidently, DOESN'T make Mac games either. He also took with him some of the older, more established members of Bungie with him. The Bungie of today is a very different place. As for using Halo 2 to sell Windows Vista; welcome to the world of games.
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Knew it was either him or Jason Jones that had jumped ship. Jones is still around.
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