New General Manager for Gears of War Franchise

Kudo Tsunoda is now the general manager for Microsoft Game Studios' Gears of War franchise. I usually don't post about silly political corporate structure changes in the game industry, but what I found interesting was this specific comment made in IGN Xbox 360's report:

"There's additional content that we continue to do. Gears of War continues to be one of the most-played titles on Xbox Live. There's more that one can do to continue to deliver great experiences. And partnering with Epic on where we go from here. How can we make it even bigger and even better in the future. "

I certainly wouldn't mind seeing additional content added to Gears of War, specifically new Single Player content that fleshes out the story, and I'm not just talking about bringing the exclusive PC-content to the Xbox 360. Likely though, it'll just be a cheap cash-in on Multiplayer Maps.

Original news spotted at TeamXbox.

Half-Life 2: Episode Three Storyline

I called it, I've been saying it for years: Valve has no idea what's going on in their Half-Life universe, it's just a bunch of stuff that happens, and this proves it.

ActionTrip has reported that Valve is still figuring out the story of the upcoming Half-Life 2: Episode Three. That's right. We have a full trilogy of episodic content which takes forever to be released despite the fact that the purpose of episodic content is to expediate development time to quickly bring content to gamers, and Valve has no clue what the overall story arc should be for the climax episode.

Awesome. Such a solid development team worthy of all the praise they receive on their exceptionally story-driven, plot-defining games.

Hacks.

Golden Axe: Beast Rider

Sega of America is publishing a next-gen version of their classic hit, Golden Axe, entitled Golden Axe: Beast Rider.

Some new screens were released via TeamXbox this week, and the title's certainly looking nice. One to keep an eye on at least.

I wonder if I still get to travel on a giant turtle and if skeletons will still burrow themselves in the body of a giant eagle?

Duke Nukem 3D Coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade?

Earlier this week, there were rumours flying around that Duke Nukem Forever finally had a release date and that it was also coming to consoles, however that proved to be false.

What is interesting, however, is this quote:

"We're really excited about bringing classic Duke to the 360," said Miller during an interview with the DBJ. "We're talking to Microsoft about getting a release slot sometime this year. "

"Classic Duke" could mean any of the old side-scrolling Duke Nukem titles, but I'd wager we're going to see Duke Nukem 3D on Xbox LIVE Arcade before 2008 is over. Just a rumour, of course, but if this is true, than hot damn.

"Come get some."

Spotted at TeamXbox.

Mass Effect Downloadable Content Pack on the Way

BioWare announced earlier this week that on Mon. Mar. 10th at 2:00 am PST, they will be releasing the first Downloadable Content Pack for Mass Effect entitled Bring Down the Sky.

Yup, that's right, the official link takes you to the regular Gallery on the main site, and you can find two screenshots if you scroll up, but otherwise there's no info. On many professional game sites, like TeamXbox, for example, you _can_ find out the full details.

The big news is the official unveiling and inclusion of the Batarians, a race featured prominently in Mass Effect: Revelations, but who pulled out of Citadel Space for Mass Effect; they really don't like humans much.

The other big appeal is a new Achievement worth 50 Gamer Points.

Bring Down the Sky will be available via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points, which equals $6.20.

For me, I don't know. I still have a problem paying for "premium" content that should be free, but at least its not a bunch of overpriced Multiplayer Maps...

Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox) Completed for the... 7th Time?

I think. Suffice it to say, I've played through the Xbox version of Halo: Combat Evolved a lot since I first bought it in late November 2004, and its still a great game. Originally released in November 2001, it still looks good, plays great, sounds amazing, and provides a solid, generally well-balanced and challenging Campaign.

This particular play-through was special, however, as it's the first time I've played through the game on my Xbox 360, so instead of going into detail about the epic shooter everyone knows everything about, I'm going to talk about how the Xbox emulation held up on my Xbox 360.

For those of you unfamiliar with software emulation, you can get the jist of it here. In order to get the Xbox 360 to play original Xbox games, Microsoft had two options:

1) To include the original hardware components of the Xbox in the Xbox 360, which would have increased the Xbox 360's size and more importantly, been much more cost prohibitive.

2) Attempt to emulate the Xbox's hardware via software emulation.

For whatever reason, Microsoft chose the later option and took on the immense challenge of emulating the Xbox's architecture on the Xbox 360, no easy task with such vastly different graphic cards. To make a long story short, Microsoft's Xbox software emulation has allowed the Xbox 360 to play hundreds of Xbox games. Like all software emulation I've experienced, however, it isn't perfect.

The Xbox 360's architecture is very different from the Xbox, and no matter how well you're able to emulate the original hardware, it still isn't an original Xbox, and various glitches will occur. An example of this is occasional random or specific crashes, ghosting images, frame rate issues, etc.; it's different, though usually predictable, for every game.

Halo: Combat Evolved has no known issues listed on the Backward Compatibility - Technical Support and Known Issues page, so I'm going to list the bugs that I did experience:

- Occasional frame rate hiccups, often when Shades would fire and on extremely rare occasions, like when you're flooded with Flood or in a large, intense battle outdoors.
- Minor physics issue where an item, such as a corpse or weapon, would get stuck in or on top of an object and make an annoying static sound if you're close to it.
- Occasionally the screen would flash red for a second when part of a level loaded mid-level. This was very rare though.
- Very minor texture detail pop-in.
- The final post-credit video seemed grainy.

Those were the only issues I recall, and to be perfectly honest, they never once disrupted my enjoyment of the game or the pacing and rush of combat. Of the three Xbox games I've played on my Xbox 360, Halo: Combat Evolved has the best quality emulation.

Now, onto the good stuff. The Xbox 360 will both upscale and apply full screen anti-aliasing to any Xbox game. In English, this means that it increased the resolution to 720p, and it got rid of all those "jaggies" common in a standard definition image. To be blunt, Halo: Combat Evolved looked solid on my Xbox 360, I'd have to say as good as the PC version.

It also handled very nicely on the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller. With the exception of the "X" button (Reload should always be on "X." Stupid Bungie), I've adapted well to Halo 3's controls, so I had to quickly relearn which Bumpers to press for what, but once I got that down, it was smooth sailing. I will confess I missed the presence of the old "White" and "Black" buttons, but it wasn't a huge loss.

So, in the end, I've immensely enjoyed Halo: Combat Evolved, both on my Xbox and now on my Xbox 360. If you're a fan of Halo 3 and missed out on the rest of the trilogy, I recommend picking up a copy of Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo 3 really tried to capture the original title's feel over its sequel, both in design, sound (the musical score for Halo 3 was almost a complete remix of Halo: Combat Evolved's sound track), and gameplay.

Halo: Combat Evolved can still be found as a Platinum Hits title at various retailers, and of course as a used title. Failing that, you can now download it via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace as an Xbox Original.

"This is Jimmy."

Those of you who've played through Starcraft and Starcraft: Brood War's Campaigns will no doubt fondly remember Jim Raynor. The rough and tough rebel with a heart was a great badass, was betrayed by many, and watched all he loved be consumed, but still he fought on forging new alliances and never giving up hope. By today's standards, he's a lot like Hon Solo crossed with Mal Reynolds, except that Reynolds didn't exist when Raynor was created, so perhaps Raynor influence Reynold's character.

Anyway, Blizzard Entertainment has posted up a Bio for Raynor since he'll be featured in StarCraft II. You can check it out here.

Super Mario Fusion - Mario Meets Halo

Saw the below over at ActionTrip. It may be fan made, but its still awesome!

"Expert" Retracts Comments Made of Mass Effect

Cooper Lawrence, the so-called psychology "expert" who criticized Mass Effect this past Monday on Fox News Live Desk for depicting scenes of graphic nudity and sex, has officially retracted her comments yesterday on The New York Times.

"In an interview on Friday, Ms. Lawrence said that since the controversy over her remarks erupted she had watched someone play the game for about two and a half hours. “I recognize that I misspoke,” she said. “I really regret saying that, and now that I’ve seen the game and seen the sex scenes it’s kind of a joke. "

That's all well and good, but what bugs me is that she has _not_ apologized, and we all know she's only now saying what she now is simply because she's stirred up the hornet's nest with the entire Internet gaming community slamming her new book, and rightly so.

"“Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it’s like pornography,” she added. “But it’s not like pornography. I’ve seen episodes of ‘Lost’ that are more sexually explicit.” "

Now, let's say for the sake of argument that we forgive her, and let's look at the facts of this "expert." The above quote illustrates the kind of "research" that she does, so honestly, would you trust anything she writes or talks about? Personally, I feel her book should continue to be attacked simply on the basis that she is a proven fraud; it does not deserve to sell.

I mean, my God, this is the woman who's the monthly columnist for Dating and Relationships in CosmoGIRL!, and a lot of girls do read that magazine (which now explains a lot, actually), which means they're simply being fed, and modelling themselves around, nothing but misinformation. Very disturbing.

I also think the matter should not be laid to rest until Fox News issues a retraction, though I'm not going to hold my breath.

Original story spotted at ActionTrip.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Preview and Web Documentary

Its been a while since I've heard anything about it, but there's finally some real news on LucasArts highly anticipated title, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

TeamXbox has a three page preview of the game, including screenshots, here, and the official site has a new web documentary entitled "The Technology of The Force Unleashed" featuring some very nice gameplay footage that you can view here, or via You Tube below.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is slated for a cross-platform release during Summer 2008.

Xbox LIVE Arcade Awards 2007

Microsoft Game Stuidos is hosting the first ever Xbox LIVE Arcade Awards, and you can now cast your votes right here if you're so inclined.

Microsoft will announce the winners during the 2007 Game Developer Conference.

EA Ignoring Fox's Request to Appear on Live Desk

Continuing the Fox News/Mass Effect Drama, saw over at ActionTrip that Fox has apparently asked EA to appear on Live Desk several times to discuss Monday's episode in which Live Desk falsely reported on full graphic sex and nudity in Mass Effect.

Apparently, EA has not replied to Fox on the invitations.

This isn't really a bad move by EA as what would they accomplish going onto Fox's biased show, a property that Fox has complete control over. If Fox is so eager to discuss it with EA, they should do so in a properly moderated setting.

EA Responds to Fox News Live

EA, the parent company of BioWare, has responded to Fox News' ignorant, unsubstantiated, and false editorial about full graphic nudity and sex within the recent Xbox 360 RPG blockbuster, Mass Effect.

In a letter sent to Fox News, EA's vice president of communications, Jeff Brown, asks Fox to clarify the serious errors they made, siting several excellent examples.


Your headline above the televised story read: "New videogame shows full digital nudity and sex." Fact: Mass Effect does not include explicit or frontal nudity. Love scenes in non-interactive sequences include side and profile shots - a vantage frequently used in many prime-time television shows. It's also worth noting that the game requires players to develop complex relationships before characters can become intimate and players can chose to avoid the love scenes altogether.

FNC voice-over reporter says: "You'll see full digital nudity and the ability for players to engage in graphic sex."
Fact: Sex scenes in Mass Effect are not graphic. These scenes are very similar to sex sequences frequently seen on network television in prime time.

FNC reporter says: "Critics say Mass Effect is being marketed to kids and teenagers."
Fact: That is flat out false. Mass Effect and all related marketing has been reviewed by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) and rated Mature - appropriate for players 17-years and older. ESRB routinely counsels retailers on requesting proof of age in selling M-rated titles and the system has been lauded by members of Congress and the Federal Trade Commission. In practical terms, the ratings work as well or better than those used for warning viewers about television content.


Though I'm not a huge fan of Electronic Arts, their stance is well justified and I'd love to see Fox broadcast a retraction, though I doubt they'll actually bother.

Original story spotted at ActionTrip.

Undertow Free Download

Due to Xbox LIVE's poor holiday performance, Microsoft has re-released Undertow as a free download to all until 11:59 PM PST this Sunday.

You can go and grab it for free right now from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace, and I also heard that if you already purchased the game prior to today, you can get a re-imbursement of some sort by calling Xbox Support, however I sadly don't have a link to this.

Gears of War Action Figures Revealed

Saw over at TeamXbox that NECA has officially unveiled their upcoming Gears of War action figures due to hit this Spring.

They certainly look nice, and you can check them out right here.

Fox News Live Desk Mass Effect False Editorial

I'm not going to insult any of you by going into detail here about how ignorant this broadcast regarding Mass Effect is, just watch it and see:



If you have half a brain and any sort of familiarity with the technology and the subject matter, you don't need me to tell you that this is all a pile of crap. I just love how quickly Fox News brushes off the Spike TV Expert (and I can't believe I'm rooting for someone from Spike TV) when he right away asks them the simple, honest question of "Have you even played the game."

Ignorance, people: a guiding force of power.

Thanks ActionTrip, for the original article here.

Halo Movie Props

Bungie's Weekly Update this week has the Bungie boys and girls playing around with some of the props built by Weta Workshop for the now defunct Halo movie.

I only have one questions: Does she come with the Convenant Carbine?

You can check out all the nerdy goodness here.

The Last Man on Earth Review

The Last Man on Earth, is the first film adaptation of I Am Legend, and it follows the novel very closely, much more closely than the last two adaptations. Its Wikipedia page actually linked to where you can watch it for free on the web, so last night I got around to doing just that.

The film is presented in black and white, stars Vincent Price, and runs at just under an hour and a half. While I certainly admire how true to the book it was in terms of content, The Last Man on Earth sadly lacks the feeling of isolation and despair that the book has, or even the book's most recent adaptation: I Am Legend.

Not only that, but the vampires in The Last Man on Earth are simply laughable. Granted, it's a low budget film released in 1964, but still, they were really, really bad and completely unbelievable; more akin to really bad B-flick zombies than vampires.

The Last Man on Earth begins with Robert Morgan waking up to begin his daily routine, approximately 3 years after a deadly germ has swept through the world, infecting and turning the population into blood-thirsty vampires. Morgan, spends his days scavenging for supplies and hunting the vampires as they sleep, and his nights are spent barricaded in his home as the vampires constantly try to find a way in through his shoddy fortifications that couldn't even keep a 4-year-old girl scout out, but somehow works on the undead.

Seriously, Morgan's boarded-up windows have to be the single worst fortification I've ever seen, with large spaces and holes everywhere, but granted, since most of the vampires simply spend their time hucking small rocks at his house or standing out by the door lightly tapping wooden clubs ever so slowly against his door and walls, well, let's just say these vampires sure ain't trying anymore.

In fact, in once instance when Morgan is caught outside at night and surrounded, he simple pushes and shoves his way through the crowd of blood-sucking monsters unharmed. It was so bad it was hilarious. Granted, the vampires in I Am Legend weren't anything to jump and shout about either, and they were really a means to an end, the cause of Neville's isolationist self-loathing, sexual frustration, and alcoholism. Sadly, this depth and complexity is completely lost with Morgan.

His character is very generic, actually, and it was more interesting to watch his bland "I'm a professional scientist" performance magically switch to an over-the-top aggressive personality in the flashback sequence that shows the beginnings of the plague. Oh, and being a film from the '60's, men like to grab women by their shoulders and shake them violently a lot. It was apparently the style of the time needed to really drive a point home, 'cause you know, all women from the '60's have ADD or something.

If you are looking for a laugh, you can watch The Last Man on Earth for free here. If you're looking for a decent flick, you can go watch I Am Legend. If your looking for an excellent read that's both captivating and influential and better than both the above, go read I Am Legend, it's actually engaging instead of cheesy.

BioShock Completed for the 3rd Time, New Content

What an amazing game. Seriously, if you own an Xbox 360 and you have not yet played through BioShock, you are completely denying yourself the most engrossing and unique single player shooter experience on the platform.

I could go on and on about how deep the game is, how atmospheric, but that's what my review was for, and overall I think it did a pretty good job. Right now, I'm going to discuss my recent play-through of the game, specifically because it featured the game's third Title Update as well as some new content.

The first Title Update for BioShock was the single worst software patch I'd ever experienced period. It horribly broke the game and put me into a world of grief and panic that my Xbox 360's DVD drive was breaking down just prior to the release of Halo 3. I had to perform maintenance on my HDD to remove it, and was forced to play-through BioShock offline for my second play-through.

At some point there must have been a second Title Update which I missed, however I'm glad to say that this third Title Update has corrected the horrible caching issues the first Title Update introduced to the game. Not only did it fix that travesty, but it also added true wide screen support, which looked so much nicer (you can compare the wide screen the game shipped with to true wide screen with the switch of an Option), and since it carried over the bug fixes from the previous Title Updates, Splicers now made proper use of Health Stations, which I wasn't prepared for at first (Damn you Steinman!). Needless to say, I quickly began hacking any and all Health Stations on sight.

The huge addition to the world of BioShock, however, is the free Ryan Industries Plasmids and Tonic pack that was released for free over in early December via the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. This extra content adds 1 new Plasmid and 3 new Tonics, a new Secret Achievement worth 100 Gamer Points (for a total of 1100 GP for the game), and most importantly of all, an option to disable Vita-Chambers. Finally, my biggest criticism of BioShock has been dealt with; without Vita-Chambers, the game is actually challenging and so much more fun.

This play-through, I actually decided to add to that new challenge. I played on Hard with Vita-Chambers disabled, I rescued every Little Sister, and I never once used the overpowered Chemical Thrower. I also made little use of Hypnotize Big Daddy and Incinerate, and I didn't even purchase Enrage until the very end.

Since I could no longer whittle enemies down by abusing Vita-Chambers (My God were Big Daddies ever a real fight now), I needed to play smart. This meant making excellent use of Hacking and Security Bulls Eye (this Plasmid is one of the best Big Daddy killers ever if you have the patience), hucking everything and anything at enemies, including corpses, with Telekinesis (heck, corpses worked great at disabling enemy Trip Wires), and taking excellent advantage of the new Plasmid, Sonic Boom. Like all the new Tonics in the Ryan Industries Plasmids and Tonic pack, Sonic Boom only costs 1 Adam. That's right, it's all but free, and Sonic Boom 2 is one of _the_ most powerful mid-game Plasmids available. Simply put, it's Force Push from Star Wars, and you will be knocking Splicers back against walls and off balconies, and often killing them outright in a single attack. It's raw power is balanced by its cost in Eve, and you only get about 2 shots before you need to use an Eve Hypo. If you purchase the great new Eve Saver Tonic for 1 Adam, however, you can get three shots.

The other new Tonics are Vending Expert, which automatically reduces the cost of items at Vending Machines, and Machine Buster, which allows you to deal more damage to Turrets, Security Cameras, and Bots. Since Money is so plentiful and Bots are not _that_ difficult to deal with (I prefer to Hack them), I did not touch these two new Tonics, however I suppose for a 4th play-through I can limit myself by not Hacking Bots and such, in which case Machine Buster would come in handy.

Weapon wise, I really played strategically, placing Trap Bolts and sniping with the Crossbow, placing Proximity Mines, and I also found that I _love_ Exploding Buck. I also really needed to use First Aid Kits and to continually keep one eye on my Health, as carelessness would have me sent back to the game's main menu and loading my last Save. I was actually able to play up to Neptune's Bounty, and my first death occurred in the post office because a Hacked Bot got stuck behind me preventing me from moving, which let a Spider Splicer kill me.

Without exaggeration, with the 3rd Title Update and the Ryan Industries Plasmids and Tonic pack, BioShock is one of the best games on the Xbox 360, more so than before. Not only is BioShock an amazing game, but it is the single best example I've ever experienced to demonstrate how far video games have come, to truly show how games can be a compelling and immersive story telling medium. BioShock is not only the future of first-person single player shooters, but also a solid look at where interactive media can go if developers and publishers really work to create something of substance, instead of just throwing together a blast-fest for a quick buck.

Sci vs. Fi Mass Effect Episode Available on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace

The entire episode of Sci vs Fi Mass Effect, which aired on Mass Effect's release date, is now availabe in HD for free on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Not a bad look at the game, and certainly worth the viewing. It's just under 1 GB in size though, so you'll likely need to wait a bit for it to download.