The Full Circle: 360 News Report 10.05.07

Posted by Mike Minotti on 10.05.2007

Halo sales soar, but is Bungie getting ready to leave Microsoft? Also, more rumors for a replacement to the Core SKU.



Well, I'm sure everyone is still playing Halo, collecting those skulls, beating Legendary, getting your multiplayer rank up, all that good stuff. But important things are happening in the world of the 360! I need you to stop playing Halo 3, just for a few minutes, and read what I have to say.

Rumors a plenty await. Take them. They're yours!

That was a Troy reference. Awesome trailer, horrible movie.



Don't forget to visit the Exploding Barrel podcast's site. A new podcast will be up on Saturday. Check out the podcast's site here. As always, I appreciate it.

News

Halo 3 makes butt loads of money.



$300 million dollars in seven days. If there is some sort of record regarding sales, Halo 3 probably beat it. I also heard that weekly console sales have just about doubled. It'll be interesting to see how long that momentum sticks. Anyways, it's clear that Halo is still as strong a mega-franchise as ever, and may be unrivaled in the video game world.

More new Guitar Hero 3 tracks.



Alright, let's get to it:

• Same Old Song and Dance (by Aerosmith)
• Helicopter (by Bloc Party)
• Stricken (by Disturbed)
• Monsters (by Matchbook Romance)
• Before I Forget (by Slipknot)
• Kool Thing (by Sonic Youth)
• When You Were Young (by The Killers)
• Devil Went Down to Georgia (as made famous by Charlie Daniels Band)
• Sunshine of Your Love (as made famous by Cream)
• Holiday in Cambodia (as made famous by Dead Kennedys)
• Cliffs of Dover (as made famous by Eric Johnson)
• Hit Me with Your Best Shot (as made famous by Pat Benetar)
• Black Magic Woman (as made famous by Santana)
• Story of My Life (as made famous by Social Distortion)
• Pride and Joy (as made famous by Stevie Ray Vaughn)
• The Seeker (as made famous by The Who)
• Black Sunshine (as made famous by White Zombie)


I have to say, I'm really pleased with Guitar Hero 3's song list thus far. Devil Went Down to Georgia is an absolutely awesome choice. I just hope the cover is good. It'll be interesting to see how much they supplement the song list with DLC in the future.

Carcassonne expansion released.



Carcassonne is a fun old school board game that you can download on Xbox Live Arcade, in which you place random tiles in order to build cities and roads. It's sort of like a bizarre combination of Scrable and Sim City. This new expansion pack pretty much offers new scenarios for gaining points. The person at the end of the game with the most roads (the Baron) will get an extra point for each road, while the person with the largest town (the King) will get an extra point for each town. The expansion is available for 300 points.

New Sku? Xbox 360 Arcade.


There have been rumors of a new SKU replacing the Core system for awhile now, and it's looking like this mysterious Arcade SKU is it. Leaks from Amazon and Toys R' Us indicate a release date near the end of October, with a price of $279.99 (the same as the current Core SKU price). This Arcade SKU will supposedly come out with a wireless controller, a disk containing five Xbox Live Arcade games, and HDMI port, and a 256MB memory card. I'm expecting an official announcement pretty soon.

Two new controller colors.



Starting October 9th, you can buy blue and pink 360 controllers. They'll cost $49.99. I'm not really sure what else to say. They're kind of fugly…

Bungie leaving Microsoft?



This is a big old rumor at the moment, with the source being someone who "knows" someone from Bungie. Sigh. Still, let's entertain this one. Supposedly, Bungie is soon to become an independent studio, with Microsoft retaining the rights to Halo. This means Bungie is free to make new games for different platforms, while Microsoft can make all the Halo games it wants without Bungie's support. Not too surprising, really, when you consider the fact that Bungie already has very little to do with the next Halo game, Halo Wars. Both sides refuse to confirm this speculation, but they're not doing much to deny it.

Weekly Releases

I'm seeing orange.

The Orange Box – 10/10
This package includes Half Life 2, Episodes 1 and 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. If you don't buy this, I hate you and want you to stop reading my column.

Sega Rally Revo – 10/9
Hey, I remember when Sega rally was relevant. I think it was during the time when Michael Jackson was still cool.

FIFA Soccer 08 – 10/8
I always forget if this or Winning Eleven is the "good" soccer game.

Weekly Poll



Well, did you buy Halo 3 on launch day?

Yes. 71%
No. 29%

Shocking.

Weekly Trailer

Alright, I was mean to Sega Rally earlier. Why don't I let you be the judge:



The Other Guys

Nintendophiles' Theo Fraser has a pretty video fo that new Final Fantasy IV for the Ds. Best check it out.

The SIXAXIS' Mark Salmela called me a news whore, which I took as a blindingly positive compliment.

Game Over

They used to call me DaDoc. I had the mad medic skills.