The Full Circle: 360 News Report 07.31.09
Posted by Joe Roche on 07.31.2009
It's time to cap the month of July with your weekly dose of Xbox 360 news you need to know. This week we're talking about Gears of War 2, gaming with developers, Mass Effect 2 having official box art, and Fedor teaming with EA. All of that plus some harsh words towards Bioware as 411's Joe Roche takes you around The Full Circle.
Well it's Friday once again and that can only mean one thing – but before we get to the reason you're here let me just run through a few bullet points.
- Picked up "Prototype" this week – well picked up would be the wrong way to put things; I was given a copy of Prototype this week (that's more accurate). I must admit that while I'm not very far into the game there are some things that are great, and some things that I could do without. In the great department I'd list the ultra violence, and the freedom to go anywhere, in the not so great department I'd list the storyline, crowd interactions and basic overall game play. Somehow with those complaints I'm still enjoying the game.
- After playing a multitude of games between the time I first picked up "Fight Night Round 4" and then always returning the sweet science I can say that this seems to be the second year in a row where a sports franchise is topping my list of favorite games of the year. Last year I was torn between Gears of War 2 and NHL 09 for my first annual TFC GOTY award (which I gave to Gears 2). This year it's a one horse race with Fight Night Round 4, and maybe Fallout 3's DLC in the running.
- Final note this week is a bit rushed because I went to a Red Sox game on Wednesday night, and will be going to a Keith Urban concert tonight, as well as attending the IBF welterweight title fight at Mohegan Sun on Saturday night as part of the 411mania Boxing Zone crew. There is still always a reason to check out TFC, but if you're a boxing fan please come back tomorrow around 6:30 to find out whether or not I'll be doing a live blog from Mohegan Sun and the second Delvin Rodriquez – Issac Hlatshwayo fight.
With that out of the way allow me to take you on a fantastic voyage, Coolio style as we go around The Full Circle.
EA MMA Takes Shape EA has announced the first three fighters who have signed deals to be virtually represented in the upcoming EA MMA. The group is led by WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko, former K-1 fighter Gegard Moussai, and Renato Sobral.
Well it's all coming together for Dana White now isn't it? When it was first announced that White would ban any fighter from appearing in the UFC if they signed on to appear in EA MMA (and not UFC Undisputed by THQ) I immediately said that if Fedor signs on to the EA game, Dana will backtrack so fast he may turn the world back in time like Superman. This week Affliction goes under, Fedor is suddenly without a promotion to call home, Dana is from what everyone seems to understand negotiating with Fedor to bring him to the UFC and now he's appearing in the EA MMA game. So does Dana turn his nose up at a potential MASSIVE coup for the UFC and not bring arguably the best heavyweight in the world aboard or does he hope nobody mentions his earlier threat when the EA game drops and Fedor, who by that time could very well be the UFC world champion appears on the cover? The other concern for EA has to be the fact that by the time EA MMA comes out there may not be another MMA company running in the US not named UFC – at which point would it be economically viable to release another MMA game with Fedor (who really isn't a major draw in the US yet) and a bunch of people fighting for companies like DREAM who very few people in this country have a chance to see? It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Thumbs Down Bioware In an interview with The Escapist, Casey Hudson who is the producer on Mass Effect 2 said "there's something that's happening with the story that explains what happens with your abilities. It's something we can't go into detail about for obvious reasons.
Ok hold the effin' phone (was that to over the top?) – you mean to tell me that ever since Mass Effect came out I have been grinding away at this game, building up the best Commander Shepard imaginable because Bioware themselves kept telling me that my abilities would transfer over, and now that's off the table? Two years into playing Mass Effect, two years into your prolonged period of building up the ability to carry over your character from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, now you're coming out and telling me that it was all for naught. You know I loved Mass Effect, but this is kinda bullshit. It isn't like the ability to carry over your abilities was mentioned two weeks ago; it was one of the major selling points of the game since it was released. Ever since I first started hearing about Mass Effect one of the more frequently talked about bullet points was always that the abilities would carry over between the games, and now nonchalantly Bioware tells us – oh by the way that thing we promised you for the last two years, yeah we're not doing that now. I get that Bioware has to make the story make sense, and having a superpower Shepard isn't great for business, but that was the case two years ago and I don't remember this being discussed then. Hell I don't remember this being discussed at E3 when Mass Effect 2 was one of/if not the best received game by this very site. Is anyone else upset with this news? Am I the only one who feels cheated right now?
I'm Number One Due to a glitch in Xbox Live this past week all of the leaderboards for Halo Wars were wiped clean. Developer Robot Entertainment has said that they're not sure the leaderboards are recoverable.
This seems like it might be problematic. I'm not one of those people who gets overly hyped about online game leaderboards, but then again I've never spent enough time playing an online game to rise to the top of said leaderboard. I imagine if I had spent enough time with Halo Wars to reach the pinnacle of online mastery and then suddenly everything was wiped clean I'd be pretty upset. It's very likely that this situation is going to cause a lot of people to stop playing Halo Wars. I honestly can not think of one scenario where I would return to a game that I had put in so much time to excel at only to have all of my hard work for naught because the server crashed with no back up thanks to some weird glitch in the Xbox Live matrix. The real question though is any TFC readers affected by this? And will you return to Halo Wars and try to rise to the top once again?
Cover Art Revealed Bioware and EA revealed the cover art for the upcoming Mass Effect 2 on Thursday.
Sure I might be mad at EA and Bioware for how they have handled the ability carry over situation but that's no reason to not have a fanboy moment when you see the box art.
Epic Employees in Dark Corners Tonight (Friday) from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. ET ten Epic employees will be online playing Gears of War 2's new "Dark Corners" playlist.
Can you feel this week's news column running out of steam? I just wanted to mention this for those of you currently enjoying the Double XP week on Gears 2. If you check out Epic's website you're going to be able to learn more about this deal but I thought I'd do you all a solid by mentioning it here so that you know from 4-7 ET tonight you can be killing the guys who made that game that you liked.
The Viewing Room
Hey a trailer for Aliens vs Predator – does that mean this game is actually going to come out?
Wyatt Beougher is going to kick us off this week with a fantastic comment as per usual: Wow, Joe, it's not bad enough I'm a Bengals fan, you have to rub salt in the wound, too? I haven't picked up NCAA yet, but I intend to tomorrow after work so I can get some gaming in this weekend (because my work entails so much travel, I'm on the road every other weekend, which is when I do a lot of my gaming). Alas, no matter how good NCAA is, I'll eventually get mad at not being able to run between the tackles and start running the option with Penn State, even though they've only done that with any regularity in 2 of JoePa's 200 years as head coach.
That's probably my biggest complaint with any EA games - the power rushing game just isn't there. Without pressing a million buttons, it's next to impossible to break a good, long run on the higher difficulty settings (especially when the Madden Skills test in 09 puts you on All-Madden level if you can essentially breathe without difficulty). Not only did 2k5 have the awesome training features (take the position group and assign them to different tasks each day, but don't go over your daily budget of hours - oh, yeah, and improvements actually stick from week to week!), there was just something much more poetic about the Sega's rushing system. And even lighting up the old guys with Ickey Woods in All-Pro wasn't enough to keep me interested in that game. I just hope the NFL opts not to stick with EA exclusivity when this contract is up.
Ok first things first – Wyatt raises a very solid point concerning the option in NCAA football games. It doesn't matter how often I try to build up a power rushing game, or an aerial assault type of offense I always wind up signing up the most athlete guy that I can find, making him a QB and running the option. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I'm usually a pretty crappy team but there is something calming about the option in an NCAA Football Game. I will say that this year's version seemed to take some of the sting out of the option so you're less likely to have huge gains on the option. I should also mention that I apologize for hammering the Bengals – I'm sure they'll be fine this season, any chance they sign Vick to play QB?
My favorite 411Games contributor Rod Oracheski is back: I don't mind picking up the Banff Springs course. It's the first time it's been in the game, and I've actually golfed on it a few times. At least you get something for this purchase, not like the many 'unlock this using Points, not time' stuff.
This is a valid point by my colleague here – namely that the Banff Springs course was appearing for the first time in a Tiger Woods game so I can see the appeal for those who love Tiger Woods for picking it up. Also I do agree that at least you're getting something tangible and not just a shortcut to something you could have unlocked with a little effort.
Good comment from AlaskanHero that made me chuckle at the end: As a fellow Bengals fan, I must agree with Wyatt; why ya gotta kick us while we're done, eh? Ah well, the team's looking good this year so maybe we'll surprise some folks.
I think I only played a NCAA game once, back on the PS2. I rented '04 I believe and enjoyed building a dynasty. I fondly remember playing some extra weak team and my kick/punt returner/halfback amassed like 600 all-purpose yards in one game and won the Heisman based on that one game. Good times. But yeah, other than that one time, I've been a Madden guy, except the year I played NFL 2k5. I miss the post-game recaps and being able to mash the X button to power out of tackles. It actually allowed my running back to get some decent stats, unlike in Madden where 12 attempts for 25 yards was not uncommon at all for me.
Also, as a Black, college-age young man, I didn't know that Black College Football even -had- an Experience. Go fig.
I think the black college football experience has more to do with the bands and the atmosphere at the game then the actual on field experience. Then again my only experience with Black college's is from that Nick Cannon movie "Drumline" so what the hell do I know?
Todd Vote 'I am especially worried that I'll have to pay for the fourth quarter of every game if I want to play through to the end. "Oh I'm sorry Mr. Roche you wanted to play a full game of Madden? Well that'll be 150 Microsoft points before you switch sides of the field."
Wait...What? Can you elaborate? I think I may have missed something...
Yes Todd I'll elaborate – it was a joke. I think it's a sad indictment on EA when I can make the above insane remark and at least one person thinks that there is at least a 1% chance that I might be telling the truth.
Wii60 has an interesting take on the GTA IV DLC: Very smart move by Rockstar but I would hope that they would charge a premium to play a standalone version of the DLC for GTA IV. Or simply charge a little less for owners of the main game. Why not expand the buying audience for any add-on as much as possible? I still think it's screwing over copy holders a bit, but why do I expect a big publisher to be nice to me anyway?
I wonder why you think that the standalone version of the DLC being released to retail would be a detriment to you as a hard copy owner? You're still going to be able to download The Ballad of Gay Tony as DLC and enjoy it in the same manner that you enjoyed "The Lost and Damned." All Rockstar is doing my creating a standalone version of the DLC is opening up the content to the hundreds of thousands of people who traded in their copy of GTA IV and otherwise would never pick up this DLC. It seems like a great move by Rockstar to create as wide an audience as possible while still letting those who kept their retail disc enjoy the DLC as they always have.
Drew Robbins comes through with some helpful info but also a highlight: Roche the game with highlights was 2K5...can't remember if 2K4 had it or not, but I do know that they are apparently bringing it to Madden this year.
If this is true, and they are bringing the highlights of games you didn't participate in to Madden this year, that'll be the addition that puts me over the top and leads me to pick up a copy of Madden.
Byzdalmyt seems to be on the same page as me with GTA IV: I may go for the standalone GTAIV dlc disc if it in fact can run without the real GTAIV game. I traded that crap off about a month after release because I couldn't get into the story & could give a shit less about Nico and Roman. Lame
Saints Row was a lot more fun & I'm finally ready to open Saints Row 2. GTA Lost & Damned looked pretty cool, but I didn't want to have to buy the main game to play it. I guess it will depend on what type of feedback & reviews Gay Tony's DLC gets to see if it justifies by that combo disc
As I said above I think the standalone DLC is going to be a very good move by Rockstar. Also I did a review for Saints Row 2 on this site and I thought that it was much more fun then GTA IV. That by no means should be taken by anyone as me thinking it was deeper, or better written – but it was more fun, and much more like a throwback to the San Andreas style GTA that everyone knows and loves, and missed with the more honest storyline driven GTA IV.
David gets to close us out this week: I though the Madden demo was meh. I found a large number bugs in it. It frustrated me a bit. I may pick it up, but I hope it is not as sloppy as the demo version.
I haven't even tried Madden's demo yet because I think we all know what to expect. Although I will reiterate that if they're bringing back the highlight features from the old 2K football games I will pick up Madden, that's how easy I am.
The Hot Button
Today's Topic:Reopening This Discussion
Alright I'm taking a new route with The Hot Button in an attempt to not overload you on a Friday with 10+ page columns. I'll just be throwing out questions unless I have a huge topic to discuss so for now lets get some conversation started.
Awhile back I started a quest to find the best bargain bin video games – I did a review of "Prey" as part of my Bargain Bin Classic series and then never got through my second game. I want to rev that engine one more time so I'll throw it out to the crowd.
What game(s) do you think I should be picking up as Bargain Bin Classic's and why do you feel that your game didn't get the love it deserved the first time around?
Nah, I'm sure you arne't; but to me this irrelevant.
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the pwoer level of your character at the end of ME1 was too much to make the sequel(s) even remotely challenging so either they would have to nerf the character or make you face the most ridiculous enemies ever.
The 'story reason' is just an excuse.
It was just plain, old fashion hype. You are a sucker for being so delusional as to fall for it. Sorry.
Posted By: Volourn (Guest) on July 31, 2009 at 01:50 AM
Even though Mike Brown (Bengals owner) has taken a flyer on quite a few guys with character issues, he's been firm that he won't be signing Michael Vick this year. What boggles my mind is that it's not because of the media circus that would result, it's because he feels the Bengals already have their three quarterbacks. And while it's true that Vick wouldn't fit the Bengals system (which relies on accuracy over scrambling), I would certainly think he'd be a better backup if Palmer gets dinged up again than either JT O'Sullivan or Palmer's younger brother Jordan. That said, I think he'll end up in Minnesota.
I don't know what it was about the 2K series but it seemed like you could take a big back (I used to use the Detroit Lions and trade for Larry Johnson) up the gut, and as long as you hit the hole properly, you could break for some decent yards. With Madden, you can hit the hole properly, but nine times out of ten, you're going to get ENGULFED by the linebackers, and even if you do get by them, a 190-pound cornerback can easily arm tackle a 230-pound power running back. It's frustrating.
Posted By: Wyatt Beougher (Guest) on July 31, 2009 at 10:31 AM
"Dana is from what everyone seems to understand negotiating with Fedor to bring him to the UFC and now he's appearing in the EA MMA game. So does Dana turn his nose up at a potential MASSIVE coup for the UFC and not bring arguably the best heavyweight in the world aboard or does he hope nobody mentions his earlier threat when the EA game drops and Fedor, who by that time could very well be the UFC world champion appears on the cover?"
What everyone seems to have already forgot is that Dana also said it would be dealt with on a case by case basis.
Posted By: Todd Vote (Registered) on July 31, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Highlight show for Madden was shown on IGN this week, just thought I'd update you on that.
It seems functional, though I'll miss the NFL Primetime music and Berman, even though I can't stand the guy in real life.
Posted By: Drew Robbins (Registered) on July 31, 2009 at 07:24 PM
how the hell can you say Fedor is not popular in the U.S !!!! anyone who knows MMA and there is a HUGE following in the states have definately heard of Fedor, if you follow MMA you know who Fedor is, all the top sport stars and actors know who fedor is...c'mon guys he might be a russian but at least he don't cheat...this guy is a freak,Dana knows it,anyone in mma knows it, affliction is under but fedor fights under M1 promo and will not sign with UFC, Fedor will hopefully fight some of their fighters because to be honest he has dominated all other promo's bar 1 fighter who decided to take steroids as a excuse not to fight him... yeah thats you Josh B.... and just like the ufc heavy weight champ said he doesn't want to fight fedor until another 4 or 5 years (chicken shit) and thats coming from the Champ...well all i can say is i hope fedor does fight the top notch from ufc and then retires undefeated... yes undefeated because that 1 loss is so full of crap it's not even worth talking about.
Posted By: MMAFREAK... (Guest) on July 31, 2009 at 08:29 PM
Too Human is my pick for underrated bargain game. After reading dozens and dozens of negative reviews for the game, I finally ignored them and bought it anyway (for 12 bucks!). I must say, I'm really enjoying it so far. There are a few issues, but the core gameplay is fun, and the limitless customization really appeals to me.
Posted By: Sam Pow (Registered) on July 31, 2009 at 09:24 PM
MMAFREAK... I think that what Joe was trying to say is that the vast majority of MMA fans in America right now are only casual fans. In the US, the UFC is the only option the casual fan knows about. It takes surfing to find coverage of other events and fighters. And if Fedor's loss doesn't count, then Brock's loss doesn't count. And Kimbo's loss doesn't count. And no one's loss ever counts in the history of ever.
Posted By: Big Joey Spade (Guest) on August 01, 2009 at 08:31 PM
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