The Full Circle: 360 News Report 12.28.07

Posted by Mike Minotti on 12.28.2007

Christmas is over, and Mike Minotti is back with more 360 news and commentary. New details about Rainbow 6:Vegas 2 come out, and Ken Levine forgives those GameCocks. Also, a small rant for those whole like to complain about guitar controllers.



Well, I hope everyone had a good holiday. I certainly did, thanks to my new iPod Touch. I've already got an NES emulator running on it. Even better, I have ScummVM, which lets me play all of my favorite Lucas Arts adventure games, just about all of which rank as some of the best games of all time. It's a lot of fun to play Secret of Monkey Island while my I'm stuck at the dinner table with my boring relatives. Funny how I can get away with playing on my iPod, but not with my DS.

Thanks to my brother Ajguy for filling in for me last week while I was in NYC. I should probably also thank him for trying to fix my 360 as I write this. No, it didn't red ring, although that did happen before. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but a magnet in the disk drive got all messes up. AJ has been playing doctor pretty much all day, with no luck. I hope it works out eventually, so I can play my new copy of Call of Duty 4, which was on sale for $40 at Best Buy. Thank god for all of those relatives who only know me well enough to give me Best Buy gift cards.

Of course, one of his solutions involved using crazy glue, do I don't have much hope.

Oh, by the way, you know what else I can do on my new iPod? Listen to the Exploding Barrel Podcast!

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News is short, which tends to happen during the holiday week. Still, here's what I got:

News

New Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 details.



Sigh, I miss Photoshop.

A trailer for the game was shown at the Spike TV VG Awards, but not much in the way of actual content was shown. A recent press release from Ubisoft sheds some light. The game will be coming next March for the 360, PS3, and PC. So far, pretty shocking.

Alright, these details really aren't very exciting. There will be 13 new maps for multiplayer. I like how they actually say "new maps". Where they contemplating just releasing the game with old maps? Seriously, "new maps" is a pretty big given for an FPS sequel. I don't think it needed its own sentence.

There will be special co-op maps, and the ability to swap in and out of co-op at any time.

I didn't really play the first R6:V very much. This sequel seems like more of the same. I'm sure fans will be happy with ti.

Ken Levine does not hate.



You all remember that whole fiasco when the GameCock guys interrupted Ken Levine at Spike TV VGAs? Well, in an interview with 1up, Ken doesn't seem to be to upset about it:

1UP: What was going through your head during the Gamecock incident at the VGAs? Since the incident, Gamecock has publicly apologized, but still, that must've been a bummer for you and your team.
KL: All I really gave a crap about was that the judges (who were all top journalists) chose us from the field. The rest is kind of gravy.
1UP: Still, it must have been a pretty exciting moment. What were you hoping to have a chance to say?
KL: I had a tireless, amazing team who was on a mission to make BioShock great. We didn't have 300 people or five years. We had an insane amount of passion. I'd like to thank the people who made it with me, the families that patiently waited while we did our thing, the publisher with the guts not to make us change it, and the fans who showed that gamers have a much broader range of interest and intellect than anybody in certain parts of the media or the political space is comfortable giving them credit for.
I bet all of that BioShock money he sleeps with comforts him.

Weekly Releases

Another week with no 360 releases. I already checked the next week, and it doesn't look to hot either. Welcome to the drought.

Weekly Poll

I should probably get rid of this section since polls have been banned on 411 for about a month. But I'm not ready yet. I'm still in mourning.

Weekly Trailer

It's Devil May Cry 4! I have a feeling this will be the best next-gen action game yet. Well, it should be, since action games have more or less sucked so far for this gen. It doesn't say much when the cream of the crop is Heavenly Sword.



Target Topic: Guitar Compatibility Isn't News

I like to joke around about how I'm sick of reporting Guitar Hero and Rock Band news. Every week there's some new DLC or some bug or issue that everyone gets all worked up over. It's annoying, but it never bothered me as much as I may have made it seem.

Until this whole PS3 Rock Band/GH3 guitar compatibility thing came up, that is.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. If you want the details, look for them elsewhere, since the last thing I'm going to do is treat this whole fiasco like its news. Because it isn't. It's non-news. Alright, maybe its news, but just barely. More than news, it's something for everyone to bitch and moan about.

"Oh man, Activision's a jerk!" "They stole Guitar Hero from Harmonix!" "Money shouldn't be a factor."
Shut up, shut up, shut up! This whole thing is so small, so uninteresting, and yet every major gaming web site has had various headlines on the subject. This is what we're come to. People are more interested in news that gives us something to complain about than real interesting news.

What kind of interesting news? Remember that whole GameSpot/Gertsmann thing? Remember how it seemed like the relationship between publisher and media was way more cozier than we thought? Yeah, the gaming community was really in an uproar about that. For about one week. Then, when no new information was coming out, instead of demanding information, everyone got bored and found something new to bitch about. Guitar controllers, to be precise.

How much news generates discussion that resembles banter from an angry kindergarten class? Remember when PS3 loss backwards compatibility? How could you, since every gaming site made it out to be the first sign of the Apocalypse. I understand why it needed to be reported on, but the issue was brought up again, and again, and again.

"Sony is ripping people off!" "They're hypocrites! They said backwards compatibility was important and then took it away!" "Sony's lost it."

Who cares? Read about it, and then get over it. For every one person this kind of thing actually affects, there are a thousand more complaining about it. Please, stop the crying.

Well, that was a little mean spirited, but strangely therapeutic.

The Other Guys

Nintendophiles' Theo Fraser has a preview up for Nintendo in 2008. I would do something similar for the 360, but its 2008 line up is still a bit mysterious.

The SIXAXIS' Mark Salmela has picked his Game of the Year. I would tell you what it is, but I'd rather you go read his column.

Game Over

My brother's attempts to fix my 360 have been delayed thanks to a phone call from his girl friend. I like to keep track of the number of time he has to say "I'm sorry" to her in a single conversation. He's up to 6 this time.