Slashdot Mirror
Doom on Xbox Live, Jackson Making Halo Game
Microsoft is pulling out all the stops in its X06 Keynote today in Barcelona. The announcements are flying fast and furious: Ensemble studios is making a Halo RTS, and Peter Jackson is making a new Halo game (unrelated to Halo 3 or the RTS). The HD-DVD will be $200 in the U.S. with a release aimed at November of this year. They've got a good deal of 360 exclusive content including the next Splinter Cell and GTA IV Episodes, and (initially) Bioshock. Bioshock will also be on Windows, of course. Windows is also the platform on which Microsoft is announcing a new Massively Multiplayer game from Cryptic Studios, a new super-hero MMOG based on Marvel Comics' IP: Marvel Universe Online.
I was wondering what I'm going to do with my Windows machine...
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Please don't work on the Halo thing until after The Hobbit.
Your actors aren't getting any younger.
"If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
What about the promises of backward-compatibility? Or did they forget about that again?
(yes I'm aware that they didn't specify how much of the library would be backward compatible... but 75% is reasonable, right? or whatever we have now + Psychonauts)
// I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
The MMOG sounds pretty neat. I will never play it (nothing like enough time) but it sounds like it has the potential to do quite well.
This post climbed Mt. Washington.
Halo the toilet paper, Halo the lunchbox, Halo the flamethrower! (The kids love this one).
Good thing the game industry is such a source original thought and creativity.
I think I just heard Sony slit their wrists.
Really though...these are some big announcements and I haven't heard Sony coming with anything to match them yet.
So for a non-initiate into the cult of Bungie, could some one please explain how they plan on making games that consist of sometihng OTHER then Master Chief running around blowing stuff up?
I know that Marathon and Halo are suposedly linked some how.
I know there is supposedly a plot to Halo (I could never actualy sit through one of the games to find out).
Just how could an RTS be made outta the HALO franchise?
And wth is Peter Jackson working on for HALO?
So friken confused.
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
Did anyone else read that title and think: "Sweet. Steve Jackson is going to make a Halo game!"
"They've got a good deal of 360 exclusive content including the next Splinter Cell and GTA IV Episodes, and (initially) Bioshock."
Ooh this makes me so mad. Curse you, Microsoft! CURSE YOOOUUU!!!! *shakes fist*
Still no MMP M.U.L.E.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Didn't the Halo idea start as an RTS for the Mac eons ago? I've seen a video where the developers were commenting about an RTS which had Halo-based units.
Talk about coming full circle.
"liberty and justice for all those who can afford it"
What we all suspected when Microsoft issued a cease and desist to the modders behind Halogen (the Halo themed Command and Conquer mod) has turned out to be a reality. You have to give props to MS for responding to all of the interest for a Halo RTS by creating their own (albeit based on the Age of Empires engine). The official site has already launched with trailers and screenshots (mostly prerendered) at http://www.halowars.com.
There are alot of people who would like to be me. I just haven't met them yet.
Doom costs 800 points.. that's 10 dollars for those of us who don't remember the conversion.
Seriously XBLA used to be a place to get cheap legacy games, and interesting unique games, now with every game coming out at 800 points it's sad. I'm probably going to end up buying doom at some point, but while it was a impulse buy at 400 (1.25 per episode, 4 episodes) I'm going to have to consider it now.
Any game that's older than 10 years needs to either have significantly new gameplay (not just co-op, time pilot, but you were 400 points so I love you more) for a 10 dollar investment.
Spider-man.. Spider-man.. does whatever a Spider can...
/laugh /spit /dance /violin /vanish /vanish /vanish
THREE UNDEAD ROGUES APPEAR
Cheap shot! Cheap shot! Ambush crit!
"OH NOES SPIDEY USE YOUR WEBZ!"
"HE CAN'T! HE WAS BLINDED/KIDNEY SHOTTED/GOUGED/VANISHED/CHEAP SHOTTED FIFTEEN TIMES!!"
"EEEEERRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZ!!"
Can't wait.
Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
And, don't give me that "FFXI" bullshit, either. That was just a poor port of the PC version ("Wait, I need a USB keyboard to talk, WTF?!?!?!"). If I wanted to return to the year 2000, I'd buy it. But I want a modern, *REAL* MMORPG.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Did anyone else listen to the ilovebees story? A game featuring Janissary James and the other 1.1s could be amazing. Especially if Durga was involved.
Halo RTS was left to the homebrew crowd until about 3 weeks ago, when they were sent a C&D letter from Microsoft.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
There is actually quite a bit of story in Halo and Halo 2, and certainly more than your typical FPS. There's enough in the "Halo universe" to spawn a few books as well, not to mention the Halo movie that Peter Jackson is working on.
I'm not a Bungie cultist myself (although I have a friend that works there), but I think there is definately enough to like in the Halo universe, if you're a general sci-fi fan like I am. And if you don't, there's nothing wrong with avoiding what you don't like.
As for people yelling at MS to be more original, and to stop milking the franchise for all it's worth, you can easily say the same for Nintendo's games. How many Zelda, Metroid, and Mario games have there been? And how many of them have been good? Plenty. Franchises != the suck.
-- jchenx
Now that the Marvel MMOG is back on, I'm not quite sure how to feel. I was pretty upset when I heard that it was getting shelved, but then I went out and bought City of Heroes/Villains (which was developed by the people who are making the Marvel MMOG).
I am a recovering WoW-head who switched to CoH/V for a change in scenery, and I have to say that the change wasn't necessarily pleasant. CoH/V has some great qualities that WoW can't match, but it also fails miserably when you try to compare the gameplay experience. Can anyone else weigh in on this comparison?
The character creation in CoH is obviously much better. You can fully customize the look of your hero/villain. In terms of looks and ease of use, I have never used a better character creation tool. I could create all the different heroes/villains that I wanted. That was nice, after WoW, where high level characters of each class wear pretty much the same armor (ie every lock in a AQ raid has just enough pieces of the Nemesis set to look vaguely alike).
The graphics in the games are pretty much a pickem. CoH looks more realistic, but has nowhere near the sense of style that WoW has.
And the most disappointing thing in CoH is the gameplay. If you WoW players think you know what grinding is, you have no idea. CoH/V redefines grinding. It brings grinding to a whole new level (unfortunately, not literally). And this is where I'm woirried.
If the Marvel MMOG has the same kind of ridiculously slow and repetitive gameplay, it will be a huge failure. Anyone else feel the same? Think I'm an idiot?
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Erm...you contradict yourself from one sentence to the next.
Do you HAVE to be a boy under 12 in order to play it?
Oups... wrong Jackson.
Microsoft has a monopoly in the personal computer space. They do not have a monopoly in the home video game console space.
Exclusive titles did not start with Microsoft - it did not start with Sony, either - and it's nothing to get all atwitter about.
Okay ... so I can spend $400 for an XBox360, and $200 for the HD-DVD player, and I get a game console that uses DVDs, and an HD-DVD player, both of which sit taking up space. ... all for the same price as the 'high-end' PS3.
Not bad, but it seems like Sony made the right move to integrate the drive into the console so it takes up less space, and can relied on as 'standard' hardware to released games on. It might not be the perfect system today, but it has a lot more room to grow, and will be looking a lot better within the next year or two (pretty early in its life-cycle), while the 360 might start seeming long in the tooth.
[rant]
I've read a lot of articles about people complaining about it, and saying it should be optional, but since when is that any different then any other console?
Complaining about not wanting the PS3 w/BluRay is equivalent to complaining about the PS2 w/DVD, or the DS with a second screen (i.e. "I think the touch screen idea is nice, but I only want to get one with one screen that is a touch screen. They should be able to release it that way and drop the price. Those who WANT the second screen can buy it as an add-on that plugs into the hand-held.")
If you want a PS3, get it on their terms, the same way as any other Console. If you don't, be happy there are other options, and get a Wii, XBox360, or Coleco-vision if that floats your boat. The PS3 isn't a monopoly like windows, and they have a right to include/exclude anything they want in their system. [/rant]
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
I didn't see the original article about the Halogen shutdown on Slashdot until just now, but it doesn't look like anyone pointed out the fact that the sentence "We'll be Back and legal, soon!" appears twice on the page when you highlight the text.
People buy the Xbox to play Halo, get it? Not the other way around.
I'm glad, "People buy the Halo to play Xbox" wouldn't have made any sense at all...
People that believe in their opinions don't post AC.
Seeing as the North American numbers have the Gamecube and Xbox in a near statistical tie, and the PS2 outsells/sold them 10:1. I don't think MS has a monopoly in the console market. Not to mention, if the Xbox sales were doubled as you say due to Halo licensing, I think the opposite of what you claim is true. Exclusive licenses tend to DRIVE sales, not limit them.
And as long as the games as good, I think most gamers would disagree with you.
Sony is ending it all over what exactly?
You mean having a competitor who included HD playback as an add-on that brings up the full price of the 360 to above the cost of the base PS3?
Or perhaps you think the expansion of the Halo empire into RTS is reason enough for hari-kari. Or perhaps Bioshock releasing on the 360 whole months before poor PS3 owners ever see it!
Yes, I'm sure all those things send shivers down Sony spines. Or perhaps not.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There are very simple ways to deal with that. Limit the number of voices heard (outside of one-on-one coversations and team chat) to the nearest 10 or 20 people (I know Xbox can support that, because I've been in plenty of Battlefront II battles where there were at least that many people talking at once). Combine that with private channels for one-on-one and team conversations and it would be little different than it is now, only you wouldn't have to wear your hands out typing.
Mute them or simply walk away from them, same as you would if they were *typing* trash.
It's not a "hardship," it's just stupid. A console is a console, not a PC. The whole point of the console is to have a simple system that you can kick back on the couch, in bed, or wherever, and play on a gamepad without having to "install" the game (FFXI, I'm looking in your direction) or add on a bunch of additional hardware.
If you throw in a keyboard and mouse, it's not a console anymore--it's just a shitty PC. If you're going to toss out everything that makes a console so fun and unique, why not just buy a PC in the first place? Even the cheapest PC is going to be more powerful than the console within 2 years after it launches, anyway.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Or Archon for that matter? Especially since they're releasing an Xbox live dev kit... I don't do much programming, but I would think that it wouldn't take too much effort to do those games... The game play is simple, the graphics would not have to be complex. The only problem would be finding out who owns the rights... Dani Bunting (creator of M.U.L.E.) has been dead for several years, and she wouldn't have necesarilly had the rights anyway....
Dude... please take a freshman composition class, or middle school English... anything would help.
I can do this too. Let's see... "Water is probably what made this <object> wet."
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Yeah! Spinoffs suck!! Like, say, Starcraft, World of Warcraft (what a blunder!!!), the whole Mario franchise (Donkey Kong spinoff), those are just to name a few of the most egregious "brand dilutions." What morons, eh?
m-
You catch enchiladas by picking them up behind the head and holding them underwater until they don't kick anymore -VeGas
The price for the attachment isnt so bad. I was at my local Circuit City and HD DVD players are costing more than what Microsoft is charging for this attachment. I also talked to the sales person about blue ray DVD's but when i went to the section where they are selling them there were hardly any movies for sale on that platform yet. I have no idea which will take the lead HD DVD or Blueray? Any opionions on this
.:[ Ultra Hits Radio ]:. [ All of Today's Hit Music ] www.ultrahitsradio.com
Most popular fiction has a plot summary on Wikipedia. Go look it up. No, I won't give you a link, you lazy bastard.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
http://www.gamesradar.com/us/xbox360/game/news/art icle.jsp?articleId=2006081195220737049§ionId=1 006
2 035
Pics:
http://www.xbox365.com/news.cgi?id=GGrirdrLru0511
The PS3 may or may not be quiet, but going by EVERYTHING I've read and seen about it, no one can use the size of the PS3 as an advantage over the 360.
EA bought Dice, and Microsoft Game Studios owns the RC series. If there's another RC in the future, it won't be made by Dice.
I find this particularly sad because I, too, loved the second iteration.
Every industry, be in TV or movies or games, takes advantage of good franchises. The most obvious examples (especially for us geeks) are Star Wars and Star Trek. Numerous TV shows have had spinoffs, some made into movies, and vice versa.
The games industry is definately no stranger to this. Nintendo is arguably the first to do this (or at least do it well). There are Mario Bros. characters in all sorts of genres: platformer, sports, puzzle, RPG, and even rhythm (Mario DDR for the GameCube). You've also got Square-Enix with the very strong Final Fantasy franchise, which has found itself in all sorts of different platforms (mobile, portables, various consoles) and genres (traditional RPG, MMO, and even action).
Why bother? No, it's not terribly original or creative, but people eat it up (myself included). If you happen to be a fan of that franchise, you often WANT to see more of it. And you'll gladly pay money for it. The exception is when developers and producers start stretching the franchise too thin, or just do a bad job representing it. Star Trek is a great example of this, where lots of fans balked at the recent TV series and numerous bad Star Trek games. We'll see if this is the case with Halo, but obviously it's still too early to tell. (At least play the games first!)
So, the fact that Halo is becoming the uber first-party franchise for MS is no surprise. It's exactly what they want and needed out of that IP. And, frankly, it's what a lot of fans want. It's hard to argue against that.
-- jchenx
This completely explains the cease & desist that was sent to that Halo RTS mod team earlier this month...
GTA IV Episodes? That also explains why Sony got their act together finally with the online stuff. It'd be a shame for them to completely lose that exclusive.
Insert Sig Here
How do you make such a fragile fantasy work as a movie?
The closest example would be Robin Williams and What Dreams May Come.
or "People who play Halo to buy the Xbox" doesn't quite work either.
HD Trailers
Better than Archon? I fail to see how any racing game, no matter its qualities, can be better than Archon. Most strategy games aren't better than Archon.
just some guy
It's external on 360.
360 + 360 power supply is a lot larger than PS3.
360 + 360 power supply + HD-DVD drive is about double the size of the PS3. And a lot louder.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Dude.
I imagine backwards-compatibility is going to become less and less important as time goes on. IMHO, BC has always been one of those bullet point features for systems, that's rarely utilized by most gamers. Obviously, it's most important when the console first launches, when you've got a number of slightly-older titles that you still want to check out. But as time goes on, many of those slightly-older titles will end up being ones on the next-gen system anyway. And it's rather rare to want to play a REALLY old title.
Of course, there are exceptions. But in those times, gamers usually have the original system anyway, and can just re-hook it up. Or there's also the emulator-route. And with Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii Virtual Console, lazy gamers can play the really old titles on their new machines anyway (with some potentially added features, like multiplayer and achievement tracking).
Personally, I would have been fine if Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo didn't focus at all on backwards compatibility, especially if it meant reducing the cost of the system, or adding some other extra feature that I might actually leverage. I know there ARE some people that are big on playing the same X game on every version of a console, but I would imagine that's a pretty small percentage of the total audience.
-- jchenx
The current test units are quiet. Not 'quiet', but quiet. The units have the final design. They're built just like production units, in fact they're basically just the first production units off the line with a different ROM. And additionally, reviewer tests of production units will be available in a few week, significantly before release. So we'll know for certain production units are quiet a while before they hit customers hands.
Also:
"Also Adding the HD-DVD drive to your size comparison doesn't make sense as it assumes every person with a 360 wants/ needs one."
is incorrect.
Your statement implies that because not every 360 customer wants an HD-DVD drive, my size comparison is invalid. That isn't true. My size comparison including the HD-DVD drive is valid for those who want the HD-DVD drive. The other comparison (which 360 still loses) is valid for those who do not want the HD-DVD drive.
And for the record, the 360 is not a big truck, it's a series of tubes.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Oh, and I already know Sony does the same console-exclusive licensing and attempts to achieve vendor lock-in. But I don't consider Sony a serious monopolist. They may try, but they'll never get to where Microsoft is. And I don't think Microsoft should have a monopoly, either.
An exclusive title isn't vendor lock-in. When Microsofts Xbox cover 80% of the market and start develop a closed propritary signal transfer standard "HURT-SCAM" exclusive to Xbox only (like a 100hz 1080p over fiberoptics), and subsidice TV manufactorers so we see only displays with that and a low-quality composite video standard on the market.
Add some DRM into it and it would be illegal to reverse-engieer thanks to DMCA, and you got Internet Explorer all over again.
Teasing the nobles, and rightfully so!