The Full Circle: 360 News Report 01.14.09

Posted by Joe Roche on 01.14.2010

It's a retro week at The Full Circle as former host Joe Roche returns to the column to discuss 3D gaming, Ubisoft delays, EA release schedules, Activision making money and everything else that's hot in Microsoft gaming this past week.

Much like Jay Leno while the kids might not be happy to hear it ladies and gentlemen I have returned to The Full Circle. That's right folks after it became apparent that the powers that be at 411mania simply couldn't replace the awesomeness of yours truly they came crawling on their hands and knees begging me to return to my post. I of course turned them down initially but when they upped my salary threefold I couldn't resist the temptation to return to my old stomping grounds (note: zero times three is still zero).

In all seriousness folk it's nice to be back but this isn't a permanent situation. As the transition to a new regime takes hold here in the Games Zone I have taken to the frontlines in looking for my replacement (since the last guy obviously didn't work out). So in the short term I will be back handling the reigns of The Full Circle but the job is open so if you want the pleasure of being taunted by PS3 owners in the comment section every week please do not hesitate to offer your services to 411Games.

In the meantime you're stuck with me and you know what that means don't you? Without further ado – let's go around The Full Circle!

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Microsoft Not Thrilled With 3D Gaming
One of the focal points of this year's CES was 3D gaming. However Microsoft's Xbox team lead Aaron Greenburg told G4TV that "I don't know about you, but when I play games or watch TV, I've got my phone, I've got all kinds of things going on. I get up, I get down, I'm looking outside at the weather and it's ... I'm not in a dark theater, wearing glasses, staring at a screen. I think it's just a different environment."

I can't blame Greenburg for being a bit hesitant to embrace 3-D gaming. Honestly I share similar problems with the format that he does and I'd extend it beyond gaming and include the idea of a 3-D television being a bit hit in a home environment. Regardless of what James Cameron would have you believe the 3-D format is a very singular experience which is fine in a theater setting but not exactly welcoming when you're in the living room with your family. Of course Greenberg tempered his statement by saying that "as consumer interest in 3D grows, we'll grow with it" which makes sense I'm just a bit unsure about how much growth you're going to see in the home 3D environment, especially when you take into consideration how slow people have been to embrace HD.


- Is there 3D gaming in your future?

Ubisoft Delays Again
In their financial performance update released on Wednesday Ubisoft included the news that Splinter Cell: Conviction had been bumped from an anticipated "February 23, 2010" release date to "April 2010." Ubisoft also announced in the same document that R.U.S.E. had been pushed back to "2010-2011."

At this point should we even be marginally surprised that Splinter Cell: Conviction has been delayed yet again? I mean this game was originally slated for a November 2007 release window and here we are in January 2010 having seen a great deal of Sam Fischer even though nobody has been able to get their hands on him. Frankly I tend not to think this has much to do with quality control of the game as I don't think much can be done in the additional two months to change the actual game mechanics – what I think has happened here is that Ubisoft realized they were going to take a big hit in their 2010 fiscal projections so instead of get partial Splinter Cell: Conviction sales figured in Q4 of 2009 they pushed it back into April 2010 so that all of the sales figures for a game that they are anticipating to sell well will be included in Q1 of 2011. Of course I have absolutely nothing to back that assumption up with however in their fiscal performance release Ubisoft did mention that they are anticipating an operating loss in 2009 due to a "50 percent year-over-year decrease in casual game sales." On the other end of the spectrum I feel less certain about R.U.S.E. as it's now been moved into the no-man's land release window and something tells me we'll see Duke Nukem Forever before that RTS lands on the current generation of consoles.


- Hi I'm Sam Fischer -- well I'm a Sam Fischer, have you seen me?

Modern Warfare 2: A Billion Strong
Activision has announced that Infinity Ward's massive blockbuster Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 crossed the $1 billion threshold in sales. That number includes the fact that the game sold $550 million in the first five days meaning that more then half of the games worldwide sales took place in the first five days.

Am I the only one surprised as how front loaded the Modern Warfare 2 sales appear to have been? I mean there is no question that the game has been a massive hit, and any game that generates one billion dollars in sales is a certified blockbuster – but the pessimist in me sees those figures and wonders why the sales numbers have tapered off to dramatically. Essentially what I take from those numbers is that everyone who wanted the game bought it the first week it was out and things have dropped precipitously since then. Obviously that's the case with every game, but for something that was as heavily marketed as Modern Warfare 2 you would've thought it would have a more drawn out sales pattern. (note: Am I being overly critical of sales data this week?)



Weekend of Left 4 Dead 2
This weekend Micorsoft has announced that Xbox Live silver members will have 72 hours to enjoy Left 4 Dead 2's multiplayer, and Last.fm. The free service begins on January 15th at 9 PM/PST and will run for 72 hours.

Good news for all of you Xbox Live Silver subscribers who also happen to own Left 4 Dead 2 – although I imagine that accounts for like four owners of the game worldwide. I really only posted this story to say that I love L4D2 and I've only played through one of the five campaigns so if there is anyone out there wanting to kill some zombies feel free to hit me up on Xbox Live (jdroche) and I can easily be swayed to grab an axe and chop some living dead heads off.

EA Release Dates
During EA's investor conference call CEO John Riccitiello announced his companies planned releases for "fiscal 2011" which falls between April 1, 2010 and March 30, 2011. The games that Riccitiello announced included Medal of Honor, a revitalized Need For Speed, Sims on the console, FIFA in a World Cup year, an innovative new take on Madden, Dead Space 2, Crysis at full margins, and new MMA and many others.

Nothing shocking about this list – I think everyone had these games somewhere on their list of anticipated releases over the next 12 months, although I hadn't hear much about FIFA World Cup which I had assumed EA had scrapped. Out of everything on this list the game I'm most excited for is obviously Dead Space 2 (more on this later), although from everything I've seen the new Medal of Honor looks pretty awesome too.



Fable III To Be Revealed Next Month
Lionhead community manager Sam Van Tillburgh revealed on his Twitter account that he spent last weekend "writing storyboard summaries for two new Fable 3 videos," which will "come out when we show Fable 3 for the 1st time at an event next month in SF."

I have no idea what Van Tillburgh is talking about here because I'm not entirely sure what event in San Francisco (that's SF right?) Lionhead is looking to debut Fable III at – but if you're in the Bay Area you might want to keep your ears and eyes open for some debut Fable III footage.



Mass Effect 3 Will Be Current
BioWare Project Manager Casey Hudson told IGN this week that the developer has already began work on Mass Effect 3. According to Hudson the developer is looking for a "fairly short turnaround" looking to have the conclusion to the Mass Effect trilogy released before the end of this console cycle.

It's tough to know how I feel about this story. On the one hand Mass Effect remains one of my favorite games (possibly of all time) and I can not wait for ME2. However one can only assume that by jumping right into ME3 BioWare will either not be supporting Mass Effect 2 with DLC, or the content that they do release will be stuff that should've been included on the disc in the first place. It's tough for me to be overly critical of BioWare because they've given me so much joy – so I'll reserve judgment until this whole ordeal plays out but it remains to be seen how quick of a turnaround we're talking about here. Just to be on the record I'm going to say that the game should be expected by holiday 2011.

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My Week In Gaming

I used to use this space to post videos, comments, or talk about the hot button story of the week. However, for my version 2.0 run with The Full Circle I'm going to use this space to talk about what I'm playing over the past seven days. For the initial period of this column though I'll be doing some mini-reviews of all the games that I've been spending time with since the last time I appeared on The Full Circle. These will be abbreviated game thoughts and reviews but I thought it might be nice to start some conversations because I'd love to get your own mini-reviews in the comment section so I know what I should be playing heading into the new week.

Dead Space: Anyone who has been reading this column for awhile knows that I was very excited for Dead Space when it came out – which is why it was such a shame that I completely missed it when it finally hit the store shelves. I couldn't avoid it when it moved to the Platinum Series and I could pick it up for $20 and it is a purchase that I am very grateful for having made. Dead Space is the type of game that you must play in HD with surround sound – and when you do your skin will crawl. I'm not kidding that there were points in Dead Space that I was legitimately nervous playing through. Now I must confess that I haven't finished the game – in large part because of the plethora of other games I have been playing but also because I actually got uncomfortable playing the game. In my mind when a sci-fi/horror game induces levels of terror that leave you not wanting to play the game any more that has to be considered a major success. So if you're not a fan of being scared you should avoid Dead Space but if you want a quality over the shoulder shooter set in space that will provide a few heart stopping moments then you'd be doing yourself a disservice to not try Dead Space.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance: This is the original game and not the sequel (which I have yet to pick up). For the price this game is an excellent value as you can now get it for like $7.99 used at your local games store with Forza 2 in the pack. For comic book fans the roster alone is worth the price of admission, but when you factor in all of the extra tidbits of comic book nerdism that is thrown into the game it becomes a must have for comic book fans and brawler game fans alike. The one problem that I had with the game is that it does get a tad-bit repetitive which you can say about almost every game that has ever appeared in the "brawler" gaming category. However, as I said before the price (especially if you can get the copy with Forza 2 included) it almost seems crazy to now own this game.

Left 4 Dead 2: I've touched on this a bit already in this column but I picked up L4D2 on Black Friday (yes I'm one of those people who shops for himself on Black Friday) but I haven't put much time into the game since getting it. My major complaint is that you can't play 4 player local co-op, although I understand why you can't play with four players on one screen it's still disappointing. The addition of melee weapons is a fantastic move for the L4D series and there is nothing more satisfying then running around with a sword chopping zombie heads off. I'm open to jumping back into L4D2 if anyone out there in TFC land wants to play some co-op and my gamertag is somewhere above (jdroche) so hit me up and we can fight off the zombie apocalypse together some night.

Dragon Age: Origins: Very deep character customization, excellent storyline, a plethora of different origin stories – deep, passionate, adult and interesting relationships. Frankly I could go on with the great things about Dragon Age: Origins but the best thing that I can say about it is that it's the first game that I can remember (since Mass Effect) where I played it exclusively until I was done with the storyline (roughly 50 hours) and when the game was over I couldn't wait to keep playing with new characters.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: This one doesn't need any more hype. The single player campaign is pretty fantastic and the final half hour of the game is superior to any military first person shooter that I've played in recent memory (possibly ever). The online multiplayer is fantastic fun and it's been very difficult for me to pull myself away from the multiplayer to play other games that I actually have to review for 411mania, and the Special Ops missions add a lot of replay value to the game and give you something to do when friends come over and don't want to engage in a deathmatch.

NCAA Basketball 2010: I'm reviewing this game for 411mania.com so expect my full write up soon. Short and sweet though the presentation is fantastic, the crowds are great, the atmosphere is great, the dynasty is fun, but it's just basketball and thus the amount of fun that you can actually have with the game is a bit limited.

Darksiders: I have no put nearly enough time into this game to give my full feelings but it's a beautiful game, that is both dark and bright (if that makes sense). The art style is great if you like Joe Mad's work (otherwise you'll hate the art), and the game combine so much of what makes video games great that you won't be able to help yourself but have fun. Essentially Vigil made this game for game fans which is good for me but probably not great for some people. I love being able to double jump from any point in the jump, I love the swimming, the fighting – frankly the fact that this game is essentially an adult Zelda game set in a post-apocalyptic future makes it at the very least a must-play game.

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Punching Out

Alright it's still a little rough around the edges but it's nice to be back. As I said earlier this column is currently looking for a full time writer so if you have a passion for video games with a focus on Microsoft then please apply to the powers that be – this is a great place to get your chops wet in both writing and the video game business plus you get to work with such luminaries as Mark Salmela and Todd Vote – so who could pass that up (just make sure you love light gun games).