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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)"
A bunch of sports games and FPS's! On the new XBox! Who would have guessed?
(I don't suppose the XBox comes with, you know, a mouse, or some other controller that would actually make a console FPS fun?)
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Half of them are sports clones. These are the games you'll see in 2 months in the bargain bin for $10. Why not just release the 4-5 decent games and have a stellar-rated lineup then filling up the shelves with crap?
Steve, is that you?
I read Slashdot for the articles
18 total games at launch. 14 of which are sequels. 15 unoriginal games if you count King Kong. Yet, people will still buy the roster updates in droves and reinforce the gaming industry's (mainly EA's) lust for easy cash from recycled crap. Though I definitely expect to see half of these games on ebay for $30 right after launch since they're forcing you to buy the games with the systems. New system and theres just 1-2 new and creative titles made for launch and the sequels aren't even adding anything new to the game like Mario 64 did for the n64 when it created the first 3d platformer, sequel yes, but at least something new.
The XBox racing games are much better than the other consoles. The others could catch up if they stopped focusing on fantasy-type racing. Yes there are normal racing games for the Playstation but the Xbox racing games blow them away IMO.
Call of Duty 2 is a good cornerstone FPS for the 360. It is a proven franchise game that is focused on solid MP gameplay.
B O R I N G
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
"RPG/Adventure - Kameo, probably the best launch title out there. Great game."
Have you played it? For how long?
This is intended to be neither sarcastic, nor an attack. I'm simply an RPG fan, who skipped the XBox as it did not seem to have as much going for it in that department as the PS2 *coughFF Xcough*. I have my PC for MMORPG's, but if there were a couple nice RPG's for the XBox 360, I may give it another look.
Couple hours at a kiosk. I call this game a 'magical Zelda' - same type of action/adventure/rpg with more based on magic.
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.
I dunno... PS2 had SSX, which is still among the best snowboarding games out there, and, at launchtime of the PS2, it was quite "fresh". Perhaps one of these 360 games will end up similar to that, but it sure isn't going to be a yearly update of a sports game. Is there a reason they don't just release a game and update the player stats on a yearly basis?
Halo was a launch title for the first XBox. *cough*
TRHOnline - Staggering Towards Brilliance
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
I sorry to say to those of you complaining about originality, or the lack of, but Microsoft is given the people what they want. What are consistently over the years the biggest titles for consoles? Sports Who is the biggest in that genre? EA. so the best selling tittles are assured, granted they are the same versions that came out to Xbox an PS2 on better graphics, but they do that every year so no difference here. The biggest success on XBox? Halo. Halo is missing and for a good cause, Halo 3 has to bee very good so no way it could be a launch title, but 3 FPS hit the market one exclusive. Driving is also popular so also makes the cut with 3 games. Now that leaves Kameo with the promise of some difference, and also Condemned: Criminal Origins which is from Monolith and looks pretty good. So I would say this is a good lineup and looking at the lineup of past consoles presented in earlier article it look to be one of the best. But only time will tell if that's true.
Disclaimer: Don't own an XBox, and I'm not buying a XBox360 for the foreseeable future.
Uh, Halo was an Xbox launch title. It was THE Xbox launch title. Aside from PGR1 it was pretty much the only game worth buying from the XBox launch, as I recall. Also, I think you meant to say give ALL THREE consoles time. People who act like this is a two horse race (and presumably discount Nintendo as a non-player) are in for a suprise, I think. Unless you mean to say give them both a chance to see which one gets to sit next the Revolution everyone buys for the unique first party games?
All of that is prediction, how can something "probably be the best launch title out there" if it's not even been released for the general public?
Less hype please, you can't call something a "Great game" until you've played it, unless you're a media puppet.
And everyone knows sequels can be absolutely abysmal, we won't know anything until the actual system is released. Does anyone remember the hype for Halo, which was nothing more than a glorified generic FPS?
C17H21NO4
How many games do you need the first day you get a console? I'd say most gamers could find a couple games they want on that list, and more games will be out soon. So what's the problem?
Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".
It's that there are so many sports games.
Same here. Being an RPG fan, my PS2 got way more playtime than my Xbox (yes, I'm a Squeenix and Nippon Ichi junkie). When I saw the Xbox.com page boasting that all "popular genres" were covered, and no RPGs listed, that irked me. (I don't count Kameo. As good as it may be, it's really a platformer)
e -Nights/T -arM/
Fortunately, there are a couple of RPGs on the way for the platform. Ninety-Nine Nights looks interesting, but it's more action RPG-ish. What I'm really looking forward to are Enchant ARM and Blue Dragon.
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1278/NinetyNin
http://games.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1281/eM-eNCHAN
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/bluedragon/
-- jchenx
I'm going to get a 360 soon after launch and will probably only get two games, which will be plenty until more games come out, which they obviously will. Not everyone is going to go nuts over this launch line-up but some people will and a lot of people will be able to find at least a couple games to get excited about.
Feel free to mod me "-1 - Angry Jerk".
When has an RPG been a launch title for a console though? Their's usually some in the first year, but it's pretty rare for any to actually be ready for the launch itself.
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
It reminds me of when I got an xbox. I got ninja gaiden and then when I went to get more games, I realized it was all sports, racing, and ports from pc games that I'd already played. Not going to make that mistake again.
"Despite what the Anti-MS'rs will say below, this is an impressive lineup. It has a little something for every crowd that the Xbox360 is targeting"
What about people who want a unique gameplay experiance? The XBox 360's line-up is almost entirely sequels of copies of clones of original games.
What about people who like RPGs?
What about an entire 1/3 of the worldwide gaming market (Japan), what games apeal to them?
The XBox 360's line-up is great for 18-24 year old men who are only interested in sports games and FPS games; Kameo and King Kong pretty much the only games that actually addresses a broader audience than that (and King Kong is comming out for Gamecube, PS2 and XBox). The XBox 360 seems like the perfect platform for people who bought an XBox and were really happy with it; anyone who saw no point previously probably has no incentive to buy one now.
Wow... how many of these are actually not sequels or games based on movies? I rest my case.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
- The N64 was launched with only *2 games*: Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64.
- Both games were sequels
- While they were both very good games, neither was 'new': in spite of your claim, there were in fact 3D platformers and flight sims on the Saturn and/or the PS1 before the N64 launched.
I wont comment on the quality of the line up because I haven't played any of the games, and I wont even speculate as to whether the 360 will succeed in the long run. However, there's simply no getting around the fact beating your competitors to market by 6-12 months with 18 launch titles is very impressive.My bad about the Halo thing. But yeah, I'm not marginalizing the Revo at all. In fact, I agree with your final statement entirely. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of showing they'll have, especially how developers use the new controller style. Personally I don't think the industry can support two consoles that are basically just more of the same that's out currently, except with better graphics. A lot of the genres are tired.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
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.
So no complaining about a lack of paragraph tags?
Zing...
sorry I'm not used to writing in HTML anymore. All the boards I am on use board software that doesn't require them by default but does accept them.
Well maybe if you were wielding a gom jabbar...
Considering the N64 and GameCube both launched with 2 games, only by Nintendo, at least MS should be happy they have 3rd-party support.
So if there were two games you liked and one sports game, that would be ok. But if there are two games you like and ten sports games, that isn't?
Oh, how nice. A corporate apologist acting in a twisted "save the children from themselves" guise.
A video game isn't a breakfast cereal. It's not something you put into your mind every day because you need it to survive. It's not a nutrient and it's not a consumer item. It isn't a medium where you should just "be happy" with whatever crap the game designers want to turn out. Of course it's all about money--what isn't? More importantly, it's about art. Video games have become--rather, they MUST become a legitimate creative outlet if they're going to hang on to what's made them unique and so memorable. Tetris wouldn't have been fun if it wasn't an engaging puzzle. The same damn shtick over and over again isn't fun, it isn't creative, it doesn't make us a better humanity--it's just breakfast cereal.
It's not about paying for Tetris again and again. It's not about being "just entertained enough." It's _not about spending money, that just has to happen to keep things rolling along._ It's about advancing humanity through the unlikely artistic and social medium of video games. Because of the necessity of wrapping everything in corporate culture, that just can't happen, and it's very sad. Movies, music, video games--books will be next. Then it'll be painting, dance, theater. "Sponsored by PepsiCo" will start appearing on all easels. I'm predicting the Creative Downfall of Humanity right here and now.
Christ, I swear one of these days I'm going to write that novel, the one where people eat their chicken-flavored cereal three times every day and are _happy_ because they don't have to _worry_ about "not enjoying the flavor" or "making a choice." A blueberry will be introduced into this culture and will tear it to ribbons.
The gamecube had 12 launch titles.
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
Couple hours at a kiosk. I call this game a 'magical Zelda' - same type of action/adventure/rpg with more based on magic.
Geez, why don't you let someone else have a turn?
If you set the entry mode to "plain old text" it'll automatically insert paragraphs, and it still copes with any HTML tags you might want to add. But seriously, yeah, at the very least use the preview button and try reading your own post. I'm not ashamed to admit that I didn't read past the first sentence of that cluttered block of text.
Look, a new paragraph.
Comment of the year
There were a couple nice RPGs for the Xbox, but they were PC-style RPGs, and not console-style ones. I'm thinking specifically of KOTOR (which is somewhere inbetween, actually), Morrowind, and Fable. Oh, and Arx Fatalis, which is underrated IMO. And Jade Empire.
The only console-style RPG the system had was Sudeki which, frankly, was mediocre at best. (If they had re-recorded the audio and made the combat a little less repetitive, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it. But talk about bad voice acting! Sheesh! Worst in the industy! 1960s Godzilla movie dubbers would have been a better choice!)
Comment of the year
You hear a cranky old guy complaining about young people, and to magnify how cranky and old he is, he does not know how to use basic html tags.
It read like the emails I get from my grandmother who uses WebTV.
That's part of my point. It doesn't need to be deep and thought-provoking, necessarily (though it helps) to be an artistic outlet.
When was the last time an new _means of artistic expression_ was brought into the world? They can be significant--they can tell a story or communicate some idea, could hold their own blow for blow if they didn't require so great of an investment of money. Video games have the potential to become the next "book," the next "painting," the next "interpretive dance." They aren't there. Not by far. They could be.
Illustrative artists were supported by patrons once, right? Guys who paid them to paint what they wanted to have painted, I mean. Same thing today, only instead of the whims of some old guy, it's the whims of America's--really, the world's "consumers" as interpreted by sales numbers and people who're paid too much to do too little. I hate that term--"consumer"--and think it's an insult to apply, but really that's what they call us--what we are. We're consuming video games. What if books were becoming like this? What if... Wait, too late. Where's our generation's Dumas? Where's our Paton? Our Faulkner? Hell, our Bradbury? Hell, where's our Shatner? I _kinda liked_ Tekwar--I'm off subject, though.
Did anyone here play Deadlock? Remember how you could build an "art complex" (or something) that _manufactured_ art, which was used as a morale-boosting _resource?_ I laughed and made smug comments to my friends when I saw that one, but that's what's happening to video games these days. Games are approaching the point where they're being churned out, purchased, and _consumed._ Market demands more Halo--make sequels, make money. Who cares if it's buggy, badly balanced, and rather crappy in the storyline? Who cares? If you make it, they'll buy it. They'll complain, or they won't, but they'll buy it. Brand new console--same old crap--flashier graphics--$60 a game plus incidentals, no soul included, story and plot sold separately.
I want to wake up in a world where Russian folk music could take my neighborhood by storm without some pop singer to translate it. One where any crazy guy with a good idea can get a few airings of some nutcase TV show. A place where textbooks are purchased based on their factual content instead of price or contractual obligations--but I'm getting off subject again.
Congratulations sir, I can't tell if you're trolling or not!
Yes.
but are any of those a "killer app" for the 360 like Halo was for the original?
Gamecube released in Japan with three games (Luigi Mansion, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Super Monkeyball DX).
In the U.S., it released with 12 (adding Rogue Squadron, Crazy Taxi, Batman: Vengeance, and I believe a few sports games).
"If the good lord had intended us to walk, he wouldn't have invented roller skates." -Willy Wonka