Though the official release is saying that the reason founders Chris and Tim Stamper left Rare was to try new things, the truth behind their departure may be that their latest game(s) (such as Viva Pinata) sold extremely poorly. Since Microsoft bought Rare for $375 Million, five games have been put out: Perfect Dark Zero (X360), Viva Pinata (X360), Kameo (X360), Conker (Xbox), and Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Xbox). Many of these games are merely shadows of what Rare’s games used to be like, and many of them were commercial and/or critical failures. Microsoft is promoting from withing for these now vacant positions as Mark Betteridge and Gregg Mayles will replace Chris and Tim Stamper.
January 2007
EA investigates porn scandal
News / by
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With over five million copies of Madden NFL 07 sold, nothing like this happened before. 14 year old Kolton Mahoney received the Xbox version of this year’s Madden roster update from his uncle that he purchased in a Circuit City in California, for Christmas. To the surprise of the whole family, the box contained a hardcore porno DVD instead of the popular game. EA, the distributor, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force as well as local authorities are investigating this. The family, however, will not press charges (which is rather surprising).
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sure there are plenty of people out there that would be glad to receive some hardcore S/M porno instead of Madden.
[i]Editor’s Note: While I was at Best Buy last week a family was exchanging a non-working 360 and a copy of Tony Hawk’s Project 8 because there was no disc inside. Seems that some people are having manufacturing problems.[/i]
[i][b]”If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”[/b][/i]
For the most part, Konami didn’t do much “fixing” for [i]SuperNova[/i]. As with every [i]DDR[/i] installation, Konami continues with its winning formula of simple game mechanics, catchy pop tunes, and bright graphics.
The only thing that really needed fixing was the “mission mode,” which was the primary mode of play in Extreme 2 and continues to be the case in this game. In the previous version, you had a disorganized mess of a map that got more nightmarish and convoluted as you progressed. This time around, you get “Stellar Joints,” each having a nice list of objectives to complete, and you are allowed to choose which songs with which to complete them.
My only gripe with the mission mode has to do with those requiring completion with a certain character. Since the mission mode assigns you a random character with each song, you could play for quite a long time before you are able to complete that particular mission. These missions are supposed to be about skill, not luck.
After completing a number of objectives, you unlock one of three “Stellar Master Modes,” a kind of nonstop stage with a unique set of challenges that build upon and are slightly more difficult than the missions. This, in turn, unlocks songs, characters, and nonstop stages upon completion. You then buy them with your points (accumulated during play) in the shop for free play. I was able to unlock all the songs before things got too difficult for me to continue, but not without a little cheating via use of the regular handheld controller.
I royally hated the mission mode in [i]Extreme 2[/i], but if Konami continues with the set-up they have here, it could be something I will grow to enjoy.
The songs are the usual Konami fare. American pop songs, techno, electronica, trance, and Konami’s usual J-pop contributors (such as Naoki and Be For U) are all present and accounted for. What I found amusing was that a good portion of the American pop songs was from the early A
[i]Doom[/i] is probably one of the few games to hit the Xbox Live Arcade that surprised almost everyone. Fortunately, it was a pleasant surprise, because id software’s classic game is as fun as ever.
It took me a little while to finally get used to the simplistic(!) controls, as the game requires the use of only a few buttons on the controller. As you may know, nowadays most (FPS) games use all buttons for at least one thing. What do you do in [i]Doom[/i], in case you don’t know?
With the help of some awesome weapons, you, the lonely marine, will have to battle through four episodes of hell, destruction, and macabre. Since the game is essentially a port of the original PC game (with a few graphical and sound updates, more on those later), the gameplay is the same. Run around, kill stuff, collect keys and items, and repeat six million or so times. Monotonous for some, but it’s [i]Doom[/i]. What did you expect?
The graphics, by today’s standards are…well…just plain crappy. 2D sprite monsters aren’t that intimidating, and after a while, can make your eyes hurt. I personally think that you shouldn’t play more than 30 minutes at a time, because with these graphics and effects, you could get epilepsy or a seizure quite easily. However, these graphics also provide a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor (how “awesome” graphics were not that long ago) and nostalgia to those that played the original game.
Sound-wise, the game matches the graphics department. [i]Doom[/i] sounds old and outdated but also fun and nostalgic at the same time. The music is meant to be creepy, sort of like an 80s horror movie, but I was smiling the whole time. A few sound effects have been added, such as fireballs from imps, groans from zombies, and so on. These little add-ons by Nerve (who ported it over) improve the overall game experience.
The game, depending on how good you are, should take you only a few hours to beat, maximum. There are multiple difficulty levels, but I don’t suggest playing on the first two, easy, difficulty levels- unless you are a complete noob in life and video gaming.
There is also a multiplayer portion of the game which I did not try, as whenever I wanted to play online, there was no one to be found. Deathmatch, ranked and unranked, is offered, along with co-op. Go ahead and try your luck online if you can find anyone to play against.
If you played and liked [i]Doom[/i] on the PC back in the day (or enjoyed one of the many ports), then I suggest cashing out the 800 MS points (10 dollars) for this incarnation. The Xbox 360’s [i]Doom[/i] is fun, replayable, online capable, and not that expensive.
For months now we’ve been salivating over gameplay videos, trailers, and the mere thought of running a chainsaw through hordes of Locust like a hot knife through butter. As is always the case when a game has this much hype behind it, we all ask ourselves, “Can it really be that good?” Is [i]Gears of War[/i] the system selling “Killer App” that it’s been presented to us as, or have we been hoodwinked again with just another mildly entertaining title that has been hyped up more than a Don King fight? The answer might not be quite what you think.
First of all let me set things straight. Gears is a 3rd person, tactical, stop-n-pop title. This isn’t Black with a chainsaw attached to the gun and better graphics. You really do need to pay attention to where enemies are, and more importantly where they are headed because the AI in this game is superb. Enemies will flank you; they will split up and try to get behind you, come from unexpected angles, and more than likely give you a good scare. Likewise, you will need to use all these same tactics if you are going to take down the Locust force with any efficiency, especially on the harder difficulties where you will very quickly learn that if you don’t take cover, you won’t last long. These features all work to make the co-op play in [i]Gears of War[/i] one of the best multiplayer experiences around. There are very few times I’ve had more fun on my Xbox360 than when a friend and I get together and play co-op in Gears. There’s really nothing like completely immersing yourself in the game- calling out positions, communicating, and working together to flank a pack of locust; it’s just a truly rewarding and fun experience.
The campaign is very entertaining, and the gameplay doesn’t seem to get old or repetitive (at least it hasn’t for me yet, and I’ve played through 3 times, on my fourth time through right now, and still having lots of fun with it). The game isn’t very long, but isn’t particularly short either at around 15 hours or so the first time through, probably a bit more on the harder difficulties. Gears does, however, lack in the story department. You never really know the story behind what’s happening or why you are doing what you’re doing. This is made even more disappointing by the fact that the few little tidbits of story that are in the game make it seem as though the story really could be quite promising if they had just elaborated on it all.
The Multiplayer versus mode is pretty lackluster in comparison to the great campaign and co-op options. Firstly, the game only allows for 4v4 action. In this day and age with games like [i]Call of Duty 3[/i] allowing for 24 players, there is really no excuse for not having at least a 6v6 or 8v8 setup. On top of this there are only 3 online modes, all of which are variations of your basic deathmatch. Warzone is simply that, a basic team deathmatch. Execution is a team deathmatch where you must be right up near an enemy to finish them off. Finally, a third “protect the president” style variant called Assassination has one player as the leader of the team, and if the leader is killed, it’s round over. While all of these options are pretty fun, I don’t see the harm in throwing in some capture the flag or maybe (gasp) coming up with something original to bring to the multiplayer arena. The lobby system is a bit out of wack as well, allowing people to start games with lopsided teams in ranked matches, and it would be nice to create a lobby with your friends and not have to quit out and regroup every time. The good news is that Microsoft is working on fixing some of these problems and that the update will not cost us a single, red, micro-transacted cent. Now even with all of these problems, the online versus modes are all pretty enjoyable, especially with a bunch of friends. I mean honestly, can you think of anything more fun than curb stomping your best friend? Yeah, me neither.
Now this is what most of you have probably been waiting for. The graphics. [i]Gears of War[/i] is by leaps and bounds the most graphically impressive title on not only the 360, but any console, and I have a hard time thinking of many PC games that can contend with it; especially when played on an HD set. It seems that the Cliffy B and company spent a considerable amount of time on every single visual aspect in the game. The over the top gore in Gears is impressive with a rather unique effect being applied to the blood which I’ve never really seen before. The water and rain are stunning. The first time I loaded up Act III and saw how the rain glistens and runs down the bark on the trees, I watched that for a good five minutes in awe. The lighting and reflections in the game are of course top notch as well. Although, I will say that some of the reflections may be a bit overdone as sometimes in darker areas it looks almost like your armor is glowing, but it’s a rather minor blemish that really doesn’t take anything away from the pure beauty of the game.
So taking all of this into consideration, is [i]Gears of War[/i] the killer app that we’ve been waiting for? Is [i]Gears of War[/i] worth dropping 400 bills on an Xbox 360? I’m still a bit torn on this one. The gameplay is great whether you are playing alone, co-op with your best friend on the same screen, or with your buddy across the pond. The online versus is entertaining and adds to the already very healthy replayability. The lack of story is a little bothersome because there is a good foundation for story within the game; it just isn’t capitalized upon. The graphics are amazing, and the 15-20 hours of gameplay each time through will keep you busy for a while. Killer app? In my eyes probably not, but the sales numbers tell quite a story, and it seems that many people would say that it is. If I had spent 400 dollars on my Xbox 360, 60 bucks on [i]Gears of War[/i], and whatever other expenses you might incur when first getting a 360, I can’t honestly say that it’d be worth it for this one game. Don’t get me wrong, [i]Gears of War[/i] is a great game and is one of if not the best on the console right now, but I don’t think it could justify buying an entire system. If you like shooters, if you like action, if you like having to use your brain a little bit when killing hordes of enemies, this is most certainly going to satisfy your need.
