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360 Launch Lineup Released
Gamespot reports that the much-discussed launch title list for the Xbox 360 is now available. The list, from the article: "Amped 3 (2K Sports), Call of Duty 2 (Activision), Condemned: Criminal Origins (Sega), FIFA 06: Road to the World Cup (Electronic Arts), Gun (Activision), Kameo: Elements of Power (Microsoft Game Studios), Madden NFL 06 (Electronic Arts), NBA 2K6 (2K Sports), NBA Live 06 (Electronic Arts), Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts), NHL 2K6 (2K Sports), Perfect Dark Zero (Microsoft Game Studios), Peter Jackson's King Kong (Ubisoft), Project Gotham Racing 3 (Microsoft Game Studios), Quake 4 (Activision), Ridge Racer 6 (Namco), Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 (Electronic Arts), Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (Activision)"
FTA: "Official price points for games have also been released, and Microsoft Game Studios is cutting gamers a break on their three launch games (Perfect Dark Zero, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Kameo: Elements of Power). MGS-published games will retail for $49.99, and third-party games will sell for $59.99."
I really don't see how this is "cutting gamers a break." This is simply competitive pricing. MS is choosing to set a price that will increase sales on MSG games. Also, how will MS set the price on 3rd-party games? Seems shady to me.
Sure hope there's no retaliation by MS to retailers that want to offer a different price, say, $49.99 for third-party games, because that would be, you know, illegal.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Like the PlayStation or GameCube are any better: Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2, Dynasty Warriors 5, Romance of the Three Kingdoms X, Final Fantasy XII, Mario Party 7, Dragon Quest VIII, Soul Calibur III, and even We Love Katamari (remember the original, the game that was supposed to rid us of derivative games? It has a sequel).
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It's halfway through the regular season! Madden 06 is dropping in price for the other consoles. Do they really expect to sell a lot of copies for the 360? I imagine anyone who really wanted Madden 06 already bought it for their current system. Generally, the only potential purchasers who don't buy it by the beginning of the season are waiting because they expect to pick it up cheap later on. I could understand the decision to put out Madden 64 midseason because there was no current year (98?) for the SNES and Madden 64 did legitimately add something the other systems (Saturn and Playstation) didn't have (3D instead of sprite-based). I don't see the 360 version of Madden 06 to be so far above the previous generation's version to merit the purchase.
Erm, Halo WAS an Xbox launch title. And Super Mario 64 is often praised to high heavens (but it was the last console of it's generation to launch).
But I agree, it's pretty rare for a truely original game to appear at launch. I kinda doubt many of the games are really destined to become long lasting classics. I'm kinda "meh" on most of them, but I do think Project Gotham 3 is certainley going to be solid (I loved PGR2), and Kameo sounds interesting. But I'm not that sure about say, Yet Another FPS, or Sports Game 2006 are going to appeal to me personally. But I'm mostly going by the titles, I don't really know enough about the games to make much of a judgement.
Not that I can afford an Xbox 360 at launch anyway, by the time I can afford it there will probably be a better selection of games. (If I choose the get an Xbox 360 of course).
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
The only games listed above that didn't appear to be tied to an existing property or an existing game franchise were Kameo and Gun. I know it has been more noticeable recently in the current game market, but I worry that the next generation consoles (with their incredibly high budget games) will solidify the publishers' aversion to original titles. There is some truth to the saying, "if it's not broken, don't bother fixing it." But there is also truth in, "familiarity breeds contempt."
Come to think of it, it seems the game industry is suffering from the same ailment as all the other entertainment industries.
Have you played the madden series?
I am not going to say that it requires buying every year, but they do add in a bunch of new features each time around. I don't play other sports games much, but football has enough complexity to warrant updates over time. Franchise mode, training camp, QB vision, more advanced audibles, truck stick/hit stick, tournament mode, online play, different plays/formations, smarter player AI, more mini camps, Madden and Al Michaels get more and less annoying as commentators, graphics updates, etc. If you buy this game every 2-3 years you will find tons of new stuff to keep you interested. Sports games have evolved beyond simplistic "games" and now require a good knowledge of the sport. I would go as far as to say that if you're not very good at the sport, you are probably not going to be good at the video game version either.
Also, I have encountered a bug in madden all of once. Bugs are pretty rare in console games, and tend to be found in only a few games. Where are these thousands of bugs you speak of?
I thought that MS was going to try and win over some gamers in Japan this time around... that lineup for launch will likely only perpetuate their being the but of jokes in Japan as none of that is going to sell a system or get people excited there.
~Necromutant