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E3 2007: Golden Axe, Sonic The Hedgehog On Live, Marathon 2 And More On The Way

Posted by Kyle Ulrich Categories: Action, Bungie, E3, First Person Shooters, Release Dates, Retro, SEGA, Xbox Live Arcade,

Announced during Microsoft’s press conference not long ago, Genesis classics Sonic The Hedgehog and Golden Axe are now available for Live Arcade. Sweetening the surprise is the pricing; they’ll only cost you five bucks (400 Microsoft Points) each, exactly three dollars less than their $8 Wii Virtual Console counterparts. Sega’s giving 360 owners a discount.

Also announced via the same Live Arcade footage reel was Marathon: Durandal. Development is being outsourced to Freeverse, a smaller Mac-focused outfit who’ve decided to remove the “2” in the games title. This is no mere re-branding: what was shown reveals a major visual overhaul. All of the games sprites and textures have been re-painted, resulting in a more polished version of what staunch Mac addicts got down on twelve years ago. No price or release details, but it’ll have a good home when it arrives: a Bungie classic reborn should sit well with the audience.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend E3 this year – instead, I’m on vacation in Cape Cod, using awful hotel Wi-Fi to watch streamed press conferences. Not the most glamorous way to take it all in, but exciting announcements, great games and new details are welcome no matter how you hear about them.

Here’s my personal transcription (in very brief form) of all the announcements and showings, along with some reflection on what Microsoft had to show.

Click to continue reading E3 2007: Microsoft’s Press Conference Recap And Impressions

Halo 3 Campaign Screen Emerges; Bound To Be Second Most Viewed Image On Internet Behind Paris Hilton

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Screenshots, Xbox 360,

Luke Smith has posted a drool-worthy Halo 3 screenshot over on Bungie.net, saying only that it is in-game and from the game’s campaign. That’s it. We know nothing more, but at least we can stare to our hearts’ content. Come on, September 25!

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OMG Call of Duty 4 Gameplay Video Looks Incredible

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Activision, First Person Shooters, PlayStation 3, Trailers, Xbox 360,

Apparently this is in-game footage, folks. That’s right – looks like we’ve got an FPS that actually stands a chance during the Halo 3 onslaught later this year. I just can’t figure out if that smoke looks really good, or really out of place…

Don’t Expect Infinity Ward To Include Cross-Platform Play In Call of Duty 4

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Activision, First Person Shooters, Internet, Microsoft, PC, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,

I hate Games for Windows Live. I love the potential, but currently I think it’s a horrible, horrible excuse for an online system. It’s completely gimped in comparison with Xbox Live, and ultimately worthless right now; I could go on and on, but frankly it’s just not ready for mainstream use, and doesn’t warrant any sort of subscription fee. And as far as cross-platform play goes… so far, not the greatest thing in the world. And I’m not the only who thinks so – in an interview with IGN, Infinity Ward’s Grant Collier stated:

Our rep left us a message saying ‘hey, want to talk about this, Live Anywhere, it’s big, it’s cool’, and I thought, well yeah, if you’re playing online poker, but who wants to be playing an RTS on a console and have some guy on a PC clicking and dragging all his troops, attacking your base while you’re sitting there with your thumb sticks. So I think for FPSs and RTSs, no way, but for, y’know, card games or Tetris or something like that. There are games that I think it’s cool for, but there are other games where I don’t think there’s any point. So they just didn’t respond.

So if you’re looking for a safe bet to make with an uninformed friend, gambling that Call of Duty 4 won’t be featuring cross-platform play is about as safe as you can get.

RIP: Halo 3 Beta. It’s All Over

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Microsoft, Release Dates, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,

Oh, Halo 3 beta, how I will miss you. We had such good times together. Whether it was VIP on Snowbound, Territories on Valhalla or 1 Flag CTF on High Ground, you never failed to entertain me. The countless kills with the Spartan Laser were never any less satisfying than my very first one. Headshots, ohhh the headshots; the way you would fling the recipient’s body backwards. The satisfying noise spike grenades would make when sticking to someone. Intense firefights, bubble shields, endless bouts of profanity-filled gaming – you were only a beta, a simple beta, yet few things could measure up to the experience you served up each and every time I played a game.

In fact, you mean so much to me, I’ve written you a Haiku. I hope it has the correct number of syllables, because I’m far too depressed to do the appropriate research.

Oh Halo 3 beta
Man cannons are so so silly
Please don’t change their sweet names

RIP Halo 3 beta. September 25 cannot possibly come soon enough.

Chatlog: The Halo 3 Beta: Two Weeks Later

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, Features, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,

The Halo 3 Beta has been available to the public for nearly two weeks, and with well over a hundred games between the two of them, editors Chris Pereira and Kyle Ulrich have a discussion about the experience thus far - what they like, what they don’t, what needs to be changed, and more.

Kyle: First off, the graphics. While the beta looks good, it’s absolutely clear that what is there is merely a foundation for what the finished product will become. A lot of people have been quick to criticize the game for looking too similar to Halo 2, without taking into consideration that the majority of the assets that we’re seeing in this beta - the levels, weapons, and character models - have been finished for months, as early as last October. Particle effects are nonexistent - grenades and muzzle fire lack flourish. From my perspective, we’re going to be looking at almost an entirely different game come September. I’d imagine that there are layers and layers of polish that have yet to be implemented. Believe.

Chris: You’re right. Bungie is the type of developer that waits until the last moment to slap on that extra layer of gloss that makes everything oh-so-pretty. And unlike many games, gimmicky bloom effects aren’t what make Halo look good. And after all, this beta isn’t a tech demo; don’t expect it to wow you with its graphics.

Kyle: The gameplay is an entirely different story, though. Even in this early, unfinished stage, the balance is remarkable. Nothing feels particularly unusable and the power weapons are exactly what they should be: hard to use, one-hit skill kills. Everything from the recoil of the sniper rifle to the shortening of the Shotgun’s ammo chamber make major strides at leveling the playing field. The even smattering of spray and prays and one-shots coalesce and riff off each other beautifully. For my money, an unfinished product has never played so marvelously. Also, the tweaking of the objective game types shakes things up well. Territories is simply awesome.

Click to continue reading Chatlog: The Halo 3 Beta: Two Weeks Later

Half-Life 2: Black Box Gets The Axe

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: First Person Shooters, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360,

Gordon Freeman Half-Life Black Box, the PC-only package which included Episode 2, Team Fortress 2 and Portal has been canned by Valve. The reasoning behind this was not revealed, but it’s likely a move to help promote Steam.

“The Black Box has been cancelled,” said Doug Lombardi, Valve’s director of marketing. “We’re going to have one package, The Orange Box, available on the PC (US$49.99) as well as the 360 and PS3 (US$ 59.99). In addition to the three new products—Portal, Team Fortress 2, and Half-Life: Episode Two—The Orange Box will also contain the full version of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One. Those who purchase the PC version of The Orange Box will get three separate Steam product codes: One for the three new games, one for HL2, and one for Episode One. This way a PC Orange Box owner can give away their Half-Life 2 or Episode One unused Steam product codes if they don’t need a copy of those games. We are excited to deliver the highest value of new gaming content ever offered in one box.”

It sounds like a fair bargain to me – that’s a lot of content for $50 (or $60 if you’re on consoles). Those who wish to save money will be able to download all of the new content directly from Steam – a route which many gamers are likely to take, meaning Steam will see a nice boost in traffic. With more and more games looking to Steam as a viable means of distribution, this increase in download numbers will likely help to coax some naysayers into jumping on the bandwagon.

Halo 3 Beta To See Maintenance And Playlist Update

Posted by Chris Pereira Categories: Bungie, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,

This week will showcase the first substantial change to Halo 3’s matchmaking playlist. Team Training is going bye-bye in order to be replaced by Big Team Training – 6v6 games of the objective and slayer variety on High Ground and Valhalla. Luke Smith also stated on Bungie.net, “… we’ve made some slight tweaks to the Team Skirmish playlist that should add greater variety in the opponents you’ll face.” If only that meant no slayer games in the skirmish playlist. Slayer is not an objective game! Go play Team Slayer if that’s what tickles your fancy.

In unrelated news, later today (May 23), some sort of proverbial flip will be temporarily switched between the hours of 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. PST. It supposedly should have no impact, but Frankie warns of what may potentially happen:

Should your game encounter a rare crash, your Xbox 360 will give you an alert screen, explaining that it’s uploading data to Bungie servers. We actually need this data, and we need your cooperation too. Although you probably won’t see that screen, if you do, let it finish uploading the data. It may take some time – upwards of 10-20 seconds and perhaps longer. So we beg your patience. When the process has completed correctly this is the message you’ll see, “File upload complete. Visit http://www.bungie.net/forums/halo3beta for more information (safe to reboot).”

Video of Halo 3 Zune Unboxing

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Bungie, Features, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360,

We just got our hands on one of the new Zune Halo 3 Edition units, and we thought you might like to see us do an unboxing on video. That is the goal of this episode of Unboxing Live. Peep the video, and then check out the Halo Zune unboxing gallery if you wanna take a look at the stills, yo.

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