The Full Circle: 360 News Report 07.28.07
Posted by Mike Minotti on 07.28.2007
Godfather 2 gets announced, Resident Evil 5 gets a new trailer, Virtual Fighter 5 and Army of Two get release dates, Guitar Hero 3 gets 4 new songs, and the HD-DVD add-on gets $20 cheaper. All that and more in the first ever Full Circle.
Hello and welcome to the very first The Full Circle: 360 News Report, the brand new Xbox weekly news report here at 411Games. Every week I'll be bringing you the latest 360 news, releases, and other information. I'll also review the demos of each week's new Live Arcade releases to let you know if they're worth trying, buying, or ignoring.
To give you a bit of an idea of where I'm coming from, let me introduce myself. I'm Mike Minotti. I've been writing at the wrestling zone here at 411 since April, and have most recently been filling in for Mellick at the SIXAXIS. I've been a gaming nerd for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are of watching my older brother play the various MegaMan games. You see, I'm 20, so I was fortunate enough to grow up with the NES, which in my opinion started the modern video game scene, meaning I've been able to follow this industry my entire life. All the way from the epic days of the Genesis vs. the Super Nintendo to the current console race between Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony.
Which brings us to the Xbox 360, a system I love for its incredible online capabilities and solid game library. I think that's enough of an introduction. Let's get to this week's news.
News
EA confirms Godfather 2 development.
This news comes from a recent EA shareholders meeting, where EA Games head Frank Gibeau casually stated that Godfather 2 is in development. And that's all he said. He didn't even say what platforms the game will be available on. Of course, judging from the number of platforms the original Godfather was on, I think it's a safe bet that this game will appear on the 360.
Extended Resident Evil 5 trailer available on XBL Marketplace.
I really recommend you go download it now. This trailer shows much more than the short thing shown at Microsoft's E3 press conference did. It even shows some actual game play. The game looks a lot like a prettier Resident Evil 4, which is freaking awesome. The trailer also confirms that Chris Redfield, who was in the original Resident Evil, will be the game's main character.
Virtual Fighter 5 coming this Halloween.
Virtual Fighter 5's release date has been confirmed for October 30. The game will include online versus matches, improved AI, and all of that other good stuff Virtual Fighter fans want.
Army of Two dated by EA.
The buddy action game will be coming out for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 on November 15. EA's also already talking about making a sequel. Let's see if this game can manage to get good sales in an incredibly crowded fall season first, guys.
PC Gears of War content not coming to the 360.
Looks like those of us hoping that the new levels that are going to be included in the PC version of Gears of War would become available on XBL are out of luck.
Gears of War PC Producer Rod Fergusson:
"There is no plan to provide the PC exclusive content to Xbox 360 gamers for a number of technical reasons. One is simply the size and scope of the new content which would be difficult to deliver as an update. But more importantly, Gears of War for Windows was not created with the same version of Unreal Engine 3 as Gears of War for 360. We wanted to take advantage of all the latest and greatest optimizations and features that are constantly being added to UE3 and as such, this new content is not easily compatible with the Xbox 360 version."
Bummer. I guess you'll have to buy GoW again if you really want to fight the Brumak.
HD-DVD add-on now $179.
The previously $199 device's price has dropped 20 dollars. Also, purchase the device any time between August 1 and September 30 you'll get a mail-in offer for 5 free HD-DVD movies. The movies come from a set list, so you can't get any movie you want, but it's still a nice deal.
Four new tracks announced for Guitar Hero 3.
Including the master track version of Iron Maiden's "Number of the Beast". Oh hells yes!
Here's the full list:
• Dragonforce: Through the Fire and Flames (Master)
• Iron Maiden: Number of the Beast (Master)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers: Suck My Kiss (Master)
• ZZ Top: La Grange
GH3's track list is shaping up rather nicely.
XBL Arcade Demo Reviews
The two new releases this week were Super Contra and Wing Commander: Arena. I played both demos, and now I'll let you know if they're worth playing.
Super Contra - 400 points
This is the arcade version of the second Contra game. It's a good arcade simulation, with some slight graphical improvements that you can turn on or off. The game itself is definitely fun, and should please Contra fans. The biggest difference between this game and the first in the addition of sloped terrain. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can make the game more challenging, not that the game isn't challenging already. It took me a few tries to beat the short demo level.
Still, Contra fans know what they're getting themselves into. Even if you aren't all that familiar with Contra, this is a fun co-op game. Co-op is even available through Xbox Live.
Rating: Try it.
Wing Commander: Arena - 800 points
I'm not very familiar with the Wing Commander series, but from what I understand this game doesn't really have much in common with the older Wing Commander games. This game is pretty much spaceship dogfights that take place on a two-dimensional field, which is kind of a weird way to approach a game that takes place in space. You may as well just have a bunch of kids running around a flat field shooting various Nerf guns at each other. No need to bother with all that galactic stuff if you're keeping things as simple as this game does.
The combat is pretty derivative. You can shoot lasers, rockets, homing rockest… there may be some other power ups, but I never found any. I suppose the appeal here is supposed to online multiplayer, but I think you'd be better off playing something else if you want a good dogfight deathmatch fix. I wish they'd make a new Crimson Skies.
Rating: Ignore it.
Weekly Releases
There actually aren't any, and the Live Arcade game/s for Wednesday hasn't been announced yet either.
A dang.
Weekly Poll
Weekly Trailer
Check out this new trailer for Mass Effect, the new space opera style RPG being made for the 360 by BioWare, the guys responsible for the first Knights of the Old Republic.
Mass Effect comes out this November.
NOTE: This post originally said that Mass Effect comes out this September 3. My bad.
The Other Guys
Nintendophiles' Theo Fraser celebrates the announcements of two new "Tales of" games. Tales of Symphonia has been my favorite game in the series, so I'm hoping the Wii sequel will kick some serious ass.
The SIXAXIS, currently written by me, has all of the Metal Gear Solid and FFXIII updates you could want. Well, for FFXIII, it's more like lack of updates…
Game Over
That's it for the first Full Circle. I hope you guys enjoyed. If there's anything else you'd like to see, please write and let me know. Also send any questions you might have. I'd love to add a Q&A section to the report if I get enough feedback.
