The Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior: OMGHAXORZ, the Summer of Arcade, and QJ goodies
Sitting here on this computer chair, reading about the week’s that’s just passed, I’m amazed at how many updates have occurred in the interim. The spotlight happens to be shining on a few select games, with a number of updates, as well as surprising words from people in the industry. Let’s take a look at this week’s Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior, shall we?
Sitting here on this computer chair, reading about the week’s that’s just passed, I’m amazed at how many updates have occurred in the interim. The spotlight happens to be shining on a few select games, with a number of updates, as well as surprising words from people in the industry.
Let’s go and forget the spectacle (and specter) of E3 from the previous Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior and focus on what’s been up this week.
Unfortunately, however, I have to say one thing before we start: contrary to what I said in the previous Weekend Warrior, doughnuts do not look to be in the agenda this week. Sadness.
A tale of souls, swords, cybernetic gods and spaceships
There are quite a few new game announcements this week, so let’s do them in the order they showed up in on the blog.
First up is Jordan Mechner, who says he’s working on a follow up to an old game known as Karateka. If this is a 3D action game that lets me pick my fighting style (like God Hand) I will be extremely pleased, eventually somersaulting in my seat.
Link: Comic-Con 2008: Jordan Mecher working on new Karateka game
Next up, we have Denis Dyack‘s cybernetic deity Baldur. Too Human has been given a release date in Europe, has gone gold, and has over 900,000 demo downloads to date.
Link: Too Human dated for Europe
Link: Too Human goes gold
Star Trek’s also in the news this week, as Star Trek Online has been announced and will apparently get a console version.
Link: Star Trek Online announced, nine screenshots included
Also talking about a galaxy far, far away is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. A demo for the game has been slated for August, and it’s supposed to come with an ending unique for the demo.
Link: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo slated for August, will get unique ending
Delays are also in the news this week. The Afro Samurai game has been reset for a January 2009 release. Furthermore, Electronic Arts has pushed back the FPS known as Tiberium for fiscal year 2010. Lastly, the Ghostbusters game has been delayed to 2009 and is in need of a new publisher.
Link: Afro Samurai out January 2009
Link: Electronic Arts delays Battlefield Heroes and Tiberium
Link: Ghostbusters delayed to 2009, needs new publisher
Ubisoft is bringing robot action to the console this year as the company has announced that it will be publishing the sequel to Armored Core 4, Armored Core for Answer. Ah, robots.
Link: Ubisoft to publish Armored Core for Answer for US and Europe
Finally, we have Doom 4. More details have been announced for the game, though from certain perspectives, the details they’ve announced seem like hyped-up talking points. Not that hype is a bad thing, of course. Let’s just hope the finished product lives up to the hype.
Link: More Doom 4 details revealed at QuakeCon
Xbox Live talk… there’s a lot of it.
Strangely enough, all that talk of a tale souls and swords being eternally retold is nowhere in the previous section, so let’s start with that and move on to other Xbox Live business.
Let’s see… Soul Calibur 4. It’s a great game, and it’s been out a couple of days, but the news is all about the DLC for the game.
It’s been rumored that Vader will come to the Xbox 360 version of the game via DLC. More importantly, actual DLC out for the game includes tunes from the first Soul Calibur plus some extra equipment for character creation.
Link: Rumor: Yoda and Vader to become Soul Calibur 4 DLC?
Link: Soul Calibur 4 gets music and equipment DLC
Microsoft has big plans for Xbox Live in the next few months. They’ve announced the Summer of Arcade, bringing out some big-name games for the Live Arcade service. In related news, there was a quickly fixed rumor about Castle Crashers and Braid costing an obscene amount of MS Points. Luckily, the pricing for the two games is still being discussed.
Link: Microsoft announces Summer of Arcade, 100,000 MS Point promo
Link: Potentially expensive: Braid to cost 1200 MS Points, Castle Crashers going for 1800
Link: Castle Crashers and Braid still being priced, says Microsoft
Xbox Live Silver members are lucky this week. It’s been confirmed that Silver members will be allowed free online play on cross-platform titles for a limited time. When it ends, only Microsoft knows.
Link: Confirmed: Silver members get free online play for certain 360 titles
Here’s a fun factoid for all our readers. Microsoft’s John Schappert has said that video downloads are a growing industry for Xbox Live, with a third of Xbox Live paid downloads being videos.
Link: Fun fact: videos make up a third of Xbox Live downloads
Lastly, some grave news. Xbox Live users will have to keep on paying for their Gold status on Xbox Live. Microsoft has no plans of making Gold status free, sadly.
Link: Microsoft: no plans to drop Xbox Live Gold fees
This week’s talking points, in sandwich form. Delicious!
We have quite a number of talking points this week, beginning with a software hack and ending with a hardware hack, with some industry news of import sandwich in between.
First off, we picked up an intriguing news bit coupled with a rumor. Apparently, the current version of the Xbox Live Experience has been leaked to the public, and the rumor goes that some intrepid hackers managed to get the thing to run on a modded Xbox 360.
Link: Xbox Live Experience leaked, possibly running on modded Xbox 360s
GamePolitics brought some interesting legal talking points this week. After news of a new piece of videogame legislation getting introduced into the senate last week, this week brings us the actual legislation text. Read it and learn more!
Also of note is a new law that’s been passed in Illinois. It seems MMO companies are now legally bound to making cancelling one’s subscription a painless, easy process. We don’t know how they’ll implement this new bit of legislation though, but the law is a nice thought.
Link: Read all about it: Wicker’s Video Game Rating Enforcement Act of 2008
Link: New law in Illinois to make it easier to cancel MMO subscriptions
Here’s a Square Enix talking point for you. Yoichi Wada recently stated that Square Enix’s path is to become platform neutral, with the goal of the company being to reach as many gamers as possible. And yes, to make oodles of dinero as well.
Link: Wada: Square Enix is platform-neutral
Another talking point for some of you this week was the news that Opus motherboards were now circulating in repaired 360s. This motherboard is essentially a step up from older HDMI-less motherboards, so it should be a good thing, right?
Link: Opus motherboard showing up in repaired 360 units?
One bit of news that really got your guys talking was what a Sony VP said in relation to game development. He said that if games were developed on the PS3 first AND THEN port it to the 360, the 360 would get better games. Frankly, I have no idea what to respond, because it’s flamebait either way you put it.
Link: Sony: Developing on PS3 first will lead to better games on the Xbox 360
Now, we know that Google AdSense is an okay (though difficult to manage) source of revenue for QJ. What would happen, however, if you ported AdSense to the video game world? Anarchy from video game players, that’s what.
Link: Google cooks up AdSense for Games
Major Nelson also had a talking point this week. His talking point? That you guys can basically check your store at random points and pray for the 60GB Xbox 360 to come in from the shipping trucks. Why? Because apparently, there’s no street date for the Xbox 360 60GB console, that’s why.
Link: Major Nelson says 60GB Xbox 360 doesn’t have a street date
Naughty Dog’s Richard Lemarchand had a few words about the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 digital distribution networks. His thoughts? That the PSN would get a competitive edge over Xbox Live in the near future.
Link: Richard Lemarchand: PSN to get an edge over Xbox Live
Lastly, a hardware hack. I personally love the DualShock controllers on my PS2, so I was quite pleased to learn that someone had ported his Xbox 360 controller’s innards into a PS3 DualShock controller. Granted, the thing isn’t perfect, but it’s getting there. Now, if only it could be mass-produced…
Link: A nifty controller mod: a wired 360 controller into a DualShock 3 shell
QuickJump Musings: Some nifty original content for you to readI’m ending this week’s 360 Weekend Warrior with some stuff you might want to read in your spare time. Yup, no questions this week!
The first original content article we put up was written by Gino D., basically looking at every Cid character that’s ever graced the media with its presence. It’s a thorough look into each one, including the Donald Sutherland-Sid, and the Robin Williams-Cid from FF8.
And yes, the debate rages on: Is FF8‘s Cid a Robin Williams clone or an Elton John clone? The world may never know.
Link: Celebrating 20 years of Cid in the Final Fantasy series
To end this week’s Warriorliciousness, we have a primer that I did regarding hacking your Xbox 360. While I’m not a techie or an advocate of gutting out your 360 to make it better, I will admit that someone else’s ability to tinker with anything technologically superior to the human brain will probably make me jealous.
Link: Xbox 360 hacks: an introduction to thinking up useful extras for your console
That’s the Xbox 360 Weekend Warrior for this week. Next week, we’ll bring you more news, views, and hopefully, doughnuts. Mmmm…. doughnuts.
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