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Wolfenstein Xbox Map - Downloaded Or Unlocked?
Thanks to EvilAvatar for pointing to a Boomtown.net article discussing whether the new Xbox Live-exclusive Return To Castle Wolfenstein maps released a couple of days ago were actually downloaded. It seems the size of the files downloaded from Xbox Live were way too small to have been an actual level, despite the official press release indicating it was a "downloadable map", so it's possible the maps were on the game disc all along, and all that was downloaded was an 'unlock levels' message. The Boomtown article puts its own spin on this: "Providing these levels as a sweetener for Live Subscribers would be all very well, if extra development - over and above that of the game itself - is involved. But if the levels are already developed and present on the disk, then the publishers are inviting flak from the many Xbox gamers who don't have broadband."
This is just a plain invitation to hacking if I ever saw one. Any bets on how long it will take to figure out a way to "patch" the game to unlock the levels already on disk (assuming this is true)? Even better yet, if there are already levels hiding on the game disc, will it take very long to figure out a way to "unlock" these extra levels?
... this is just another blatant tar and feathering for MS? I might have taken this article more seriously if it was made out like the game felt incomplete without those levels.
Sorry, no sympathy here. Non XBOX-Live subscribers wouldn't have gotten the levels anyway if the maps weren't on the disc. Pardon them for saving you the download time.
"Derp de derp."
Still, none if this would happen if there were just clear up front. Now if they DO start to make levels that are ACTUALLY DOWNLOADED then that's fine with me too.
PS: All of this is on the assumption that it's not downloaded, because if it is then this whole argument is moot since the article is moot.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Just like /. to go off and assume the worst.
Maybe the maps were buggy and to save d/l time they put the incomplete maps on the disc, and the patches to the map on XBox Live.
XBL is still a fantastic service. The fact that MS runs it should in no way detract from that.
They advertised a certain number of levels that you get with the game, plus a certain number extra that you get with XBox Live. This is called an incentive- yes, an incentive to get you to spend your money on XBox Live. I don't see a problem with this, so long as they advertise it as such- which I feel like they did.
The exact way in which that extra content becomes playable to you is a design detail- not something to get all riled up about.
Nothing to see here.
I remember Sonic Adventure 2 for Dreamcast doing the same thing... there were costumes and menu themes that you could unlock by downloading files from the game's website, but each file was only 1k and so they must've been just "unlock this" messages. I think there were some new go-kart courses that you could download, too, but those weren't actually included with the game... you really did download those. Granted, there's a lot more space on the Xbox's hard drive than there is on a Dreamcast VMU... Sega at least had an excuse to offer files like that.
I produce electronic music and write little games. Have a look.
"But if the levels are already developed and present on the disk, then the publishers are inviting flak from the many Xbox gamers who don't have broadband."
Kinda like getting the "early peek" of unpublished news if you're a slashdot subscriber?
Christ, deal with it - you pay extra for Xbox live, you're rewarded with extra levels. You pay for slashdot subscription, you're rewarded with banner-free pages and early peeks of articles. Same difference!
Of course, there should be no criticism at all until someone gets into the downloaded file and tells us what's in it, but that would be too sensible for many Xbox detractors.
Meh, this is such a non issue. The main attraction of Xbox Live is to compete against other subscribers. The "downloadable" content is a bonus.
So Wolfenstein doesn't actually download anything? Who cares. Nintendo has been doing this for a while and nobody protested.
Consider Animal Crossing: You get the game, then get a GBA + link cable + e-reader (that plugs into GBA) so you can buy a pack of cards (on top of all that) that "adds" new functionality to the game.
Why do we accept this? Because console players (myself included) tend to be suckers when it comes to our platform(s) of choice.
No sig
The map is only FOUR blocks, not eight.
"Barn", the extra map, weighs in at four blocks: Is that possible? I highly doubt it. By comparison, the extra maps in MechAssault range from 627 to 2104 blocks. Hell, even your standard Wolfenstein profile weighs in at more than twice the size of Barn.
But really, does it matter? The multiplayer maps are inaccessible to the single player or the single machine (you can't do multiplay on the same box, only co-op). It's purely a Live incentive to get people to play on Live (which is the point of this game, as the single player campaign is poor, IMO). The only people missing out on these maps are those that do not have Live, and are running a multiple-XBox system-link LAN... and really, how many of those are there?
Unless the BSP tree for map viewability is computed at load time... I highly doubt it.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
You're a complete moron. The reason his comment is stupid is that KKK robes are used for the purpose of denoting that one is a KKK member. XBox live on the other hand, is for video games.
Unless it was the phrase "unlock map" in a word document, natch...
Can't those files on the cd be accessed in any way?
.pk3 files, which is a normal .zip file that can opened up easily and seen what's in there. That map would have to be in one of the .pk3 files of the xbox edition.
.pk3 files, not only in mods, but also in the shipped .pk3 files (developers configs and such stuff for example).
I mean wolfenstein is quake3 based game and it's maps and all are
In many cases there are some interesting file inside the
Thenagain I'm not at all familiar with xbox or what one can do with it's cds or whatever, I only know quake3...
1 Earth is warming, 2 It's us, 3 it's royally bad, 4 we need to take action NOW
Perhaps the maps weren't quite complete when it came time to release to manufacturing but weren't worth holding the release up for. So they dumped whatever version they had on the game disk so they could just issue a small patch later to put the fixed maps live.
I'm not sure if I believe this or not. If they'd already implemented an after-the-fact level patch system (and it'd be a sensible thing to do) then this would be a no-brainer. But if they hadn't, it would be a lot of work to save everyone a bit of download.
Haven't the XBox hacking lot already worked out if the content is on the disk?
Back a few years now, when I worked for a company programming console games, someone suggested that we make a game with add-on capabilities. As I recall, it was going to be a PlayStation game in which you could build your own monsters. The add-ons were to be new monsters and monster parts. We had to come up with a way to distribute the add-ons. One idea was to store them on memory cards. Another was to put them in the main game, and only distribute the unlock codes on the cards.
I'd argued against the unlock codes. I figured that players would be pissed when they found out that all the "add-on" parts were on the disc that they had already paid for, but were locked away until they paid extra for a key. Actually buying new content is psychologically different from paying again to unlock something you already have, even if the end result is the same. For example, how many of you would have felt cheated if, say, C&C had had expansion maps on the main disc which you had to buy an unlock code for? But how many of you happily plunked down another $25 each for the expansion packs?
The monster game was never made, but I'm happy to see that at least some gamers feel cheated, just as I'd predicted.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
Do these games not have a license that states that the game media contains additional data that is inaccessible to the user without the purchase of an additional Xbox Live license, or some such clause?
Apart from the alleged activation vs. download issue, I would think it reasonable for someone to assume that anything on the purchased media was for the use of the user who licensed the media, unless stated otherwise. Like the earlier french fry analogy, the fast food franchise would have to disclose that there were additional fries in the pouch but that you didn't have a right to eat those fries in the hidden compartment without paying for them.
I expect full access to the data in my possession. That Microsoft charged an extra fee for them to access something already in their possession and not being up front about it appears to be the sticking point. It makes them feel like they were deceived into paying twice for the same product (the additional maps). Whether they were charged twice or not, it is the impression that they were that matters.(*)
Compare the Furby where additional features were unlocked with the presence of multiple Furbys. That was disclosed up front.
But that was also a functional requirement for the feature: you couldn't have one Furby carrying on a conversation with another that wasn't there. So unless there's a reason why these maps are useless without being online, there's no functional requirement to be online to use them, so they should be freely enableable independent of Xbox Live.
(*) Does this sound like a DMCA-related problem? It's a bit like not being able to legally access the data on a DVD other than via a licensed player. One would find out quickly if one were to publicize how to unlock these levels without paying for Xbox Live whether Microsoft would think it is a DMCA violation.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Yeah, there's some pretty cool stuff hidden in quake 3's .pk3s. I don't have the wolfenstein Xbox cd/dvd, but can someone who does please check what's in there?