The Full Circle: 360 News Report 01.28.10

Posted by Joe Roche on 01.28.2010

Once again your fearless leader returns and he's pulled himself away from Mass Effect 2 to talk about some DLC problems with a boatload of games, plus we'll touch on Halo: Reach and Final Fantasy XIII. To wrap the week up we'll talk about the week in gaming which means finishing Darksiders and starting Mass Effect 2.

Well we're into week three of my temporary return to The Full Circle and hopefully we're closer then ever to finding my permanent replacement. It's not that I don't love writing this column – frankly I just need a full time replacement because this week Mass Effect 2 was released and ever since it found its way into my house my entire life has come to a screeching halt. Instead of getting into the game in this space you'll just have to check out the bottom of the column for my "Week in Gaming" review where I've also got some final thoughts on Darksiders. But before we can talk about my news of the week we've got to talk about Microsoft's news of the week and for that we've got to go around – The Full Circle.

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Cerberus Is Online
The Mass Effect 2 in-game downloadable content network Cerberus had a bit of a difficult time on launch day however as of Wednesday evening the network appeared to be back online for Xbox 360 owners with the launch day DLC now available.

For those that don't know Cerberus should be available to everyone who purchased the game new – as there is a code to unlock the network inside the unopened packages of Mass Effect 2. For those of you who get the game second hand you'll have to purchase the network for 1200 Microsoft Points. The bonus for the network is that the DLC that becomes available via the network will be free to those of us who have it – with additional pay to play packs coming available at a later date according to BioWare. Well on launch there were some bugs with the network including the mercenary Zaeed not being available even though he is talked about in the in-game network news scroll. That all appears to be fixed as of the writing of this article and if you are missing Zaeed you can find him on the network now and download to your hearts content (also the Normandy crash site DLC is available). As a side note the jerks at Gamestop didn't give me my pre-order Terminus armor and weapon which pisses me off to no end but not enough to actually go there and complain – I guess I'm weak like that.



More BioWare DLC News
After being delayed at the very last minute BioWare's Dragon Age: Origins DLC "Return to Ostagar" will allegedly return to Xbox Live within the next week or so according to BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka.

I like BioWare – actually I LOVE BioWare but has any company had more trouble recently with downloadable content? The Mass Effect DLC was all buggy and crap when it was first released, especially the Pinnacle Station DLC which was so frigged that I never even bothered to try it out, then BioWare delays "Return to Ostagar" at the last minute, brings it to Xbox Live on January 13th and then makes it disappear again only to have their Mass Effect 2 DLC get botched at launch. Maybe these guys need to invest in some launch tools or something. Allegedly the "Return to Ostagar" DLC was fragged because of the Xbox update that launched at the same time as the first launch date for the DLC which caused some problems for the content. For some reason a bug was created by the Xbox Dashboard update that prevented progression in the DLC – I don't doubt that's the case, I just think that I'll take a few days before I download any BioWare DLC at launch.



Square Says No DLC
According to a snippet from an Ultima Guide for Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitasae has said that as present there is no plan for downloadable content to be produced for FF13.

This story is getting some play in this column because it's a bit strange. A few weeks ago it was reported that the people who edit things with knives went through FF13 and cut out almost an entire games worth of content. Now had Capcom cut out a games worth of content from one of their games they would absolutely try to sell it back to us at full price – Super Final Fantasy XIII anyone? However Square Enix apparently feels that the developer spends such a long cycle on developing a Final Fantasy game that instead of distracting the producers with DLC they will just move onto the next installment. I'm not broken up about this – frankly sometimes I feel like DLC is added just for the sake of bleeding some money from consumers, but I find it difficult to think that everything cut from the final version of FFXIII was garbage and I'd love to see what was left on the cutting room floor. Alas I guess we'll just have to wait for FF13-II or FFXIII – Director's Cut to find out what was considered cuttable material from the highly anticipated game.



Halo: Reach Art
This week Bungie released more art for the upcoming Halo: Reach.

Is this really TFC worthy? I thought so because Halo is such a huge franchise and I know there are a bunch of you out there waiting anxiously for Halo: Reach. There is no doubt that Bungie creates amazing games but I wonder what they'd be capable of outside the comforts of the Halo universe. Anyways here is a piece of the artwork that came out this week – enjoy.



'Splosion Man is a Great Deal
On February 1st ‘Splosion Man will have it's price cut to 400 Microsoft points.

Good week for the Xbox Live Marketplace. On top of the game that many people gave Platformer of the Year 2009 awards to we've also go Halo Wars and Dead Rising coming to Games on Demand on Jan. 26th and Medal of Honor: Airborne joins the service on February 2nd. As far as Xbox Live Arcade games we've got KrissX for 800 Microsoft points on Jan. 27th and Chime for 400 Microsoft points on February 3rd. For those Avatar lovers who want to play dress up Assassin's Creed outfits on Jan. 28th and Valentine's Day and Carnival collections will hit the marketplace on February 4th. Finally for those of you who just didn't spend enough money the first time around Assassin's Creed II: Battle of Forli (320 Microsoft points) hits on Jan. 28th, on Jan. 27th you can pick up Pinball FX Excalibur Table (240 Microsft points) and Halo 3 Mystic 2 Map Pack (800 Microsoft points) on Feb. 2nd.

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Week In Gaming

Before I talk about what is on everyone's mind let me first say that I finished Darksiders and holy mother of god did I enjoy the shit out of that game. I can't remember the last time I played an action/puzzle game through to the end. If I had one complaint about the game it's that the final stage puzzles are much more difficult then the final boss battle before the showdown with The Destroyer (also The Destroyer is a stupid name). I'm not giving away any spoilers here (I don't think) but the final battle against Straga is a bit of a let down once you figure out how to beat him it's pretty simple – though the entire sequence leading up to the battle with Straga is so difficult that I just treated the full tower as a boss battle and that made things seem more interesting.

On the storyline front let me say this – once the game comes together and you understand exactly how you as War got to where you wound up (this is tough without spoilers) the whole experience just clicked for me. So not only does the game really pick up about three quarters of the way through the story mode but it also ends on a great note. If the way to judge a game is how anxious you are for the sequel as soon as you are done then Darksiders gets high marks. I know a couple of the guys on the staff here have also recently finished the game and the final few moments of the game gave me goosebumps – not exactly the same reaction that I got when I heard Adam Fenix's voice at the end of Gears of War 2 – but still an awesome ending that had me wishing the sequel was out today.

Overall I would give Darksiders very high marks as a reviewer – and I'd say it's a game that you absolutely must play if you like games like Zelda and God of War. However, the one place that the game gets some lower grades is in the lasting appeal. After one play through there isn't a whole lot left to do in the game and Vigil Games has already said that there will be no DLC (and there shouldn't be) so I can't really see anyone getting much more then 20 hours tops in Darksiders which might not be enough to warrant a full price purchase. But as a rental this game is a MUST PLAY and that's almost the highest praise that I can give a game.

The highest praise I can give a game is to say that ten minutes into the opening sequence my stomach is already in knots and my teeth are clenched with excitement – that's a great game, and that my friends is Mass Effect 2.

I have to admit that I loved the original Mass Effect – it remains one of my favorite Xbox 360 games of all time and is one of the very few games that I have never considered trading in or selling online. So coming from the vantage point of a fan of the series already the opening sequence of Mass Effect 2 turned my stomach and I was hooked right then. To put everything into prospective as I'm typing this column I have already sunk about 7 hours into Mass Effect 2, and that's with the reality that I write two separate columns for this site, a column for another site and run my own website on top of being the most successful attorney with multiple non paying jobs on the internet. I seriously couldn't put the controller down last night – I thought about drinking a cup of coffee at 1 a.m. just so I could keep playing and that feeling hasn't taken over me in years.

Now all of my fanboy gushing aside the game is a bit wonky at first glance. I'm not entirely sure why rebel soldiers keep explosive gas canisters lying around near their hiding place but they do it in this game – and they do it a lot (you'd think they'd learn). Also if you equip armor with a helmet be prepared to drink and talk with your helmet on – the talking I could understand but it's a bit weird to see Commander Shepard drink at a bar with his Blood Dragon armor helmet still on. And anyone who played Mass Effect 2 remembers the elevators – and they're back, although not as pronounced (but still there). The loading screens still pop up from time to time, and at least for me the very first loading screen froze the game a couple of times before things started running smoothly so it's not all hand jobs and waffle sundaes (and let's not even get into the Cerberus network on launch night – yikes).

What the game does well is bring you up to speed on Shepard and the story so far – if you care to delve into it (which I did). There are also a lot of tributes paid to the original that fit nicely into the flow of the game and give you a little jolt of surprise when they pop up (I won't ruin it). One complaint that I do have is that Shepard seems to get over and past the idea that he was dead for two years pretty quickly – though I guess it's better then him lying around all emo for the first six hours of the game so there isn't much room to complain.

I'm not nearly deep enough into the game to rate the storyline – though things are coming together very nicely as I gather my new crew (recruiting Jack is frickin' awesome). The new Normandy is pretty bad ass and there is so much stuff to customize, build and improve upon that I spent about two hours last night just flying around unexplored planets mining for minerals and reading the stories attached to each planet. And that's the thing about Mass Effect 2 (and BioWare in general) – every seemingly miniscule detail in this game is explained in great detail. You might think that the tiny red planet on the outskirts of a solar system is nothing but they'll tell you every detail down to the density of the planet and how long a year is in Earth terms – it's the detail that really makes this game stand out beyond everything else.

Final note – by the end of the night last night Cerberus was working for me (the in-game download computer) and I was able to do the Free DLC mission that requires you to place a monument at the crash site of the original Normandy (not a real spoiler). The content is fantastic and as I was walking around the crash site picking up dog tags and having flashbacks I couldn't wait to get revenge for what had happened – and I couldn't wait to continue building up my bad ass Commander Shepard. I know sci-fi RPG's might not be the most popular genre for people but let me just say that you'd be missing out on a great, deep and highly addicting game if you didn't at least give Mass Effect 2 a shot – and while there is some tie in to the original game it's still worth playing if you're a newb to the series because BioWare does enough to catch you up on the important details.

I can't imagine that I won't have boatloads more to say about the game in this space next week.