The Full Circle: 360 News Report 05.23.08

Posted by Joe Roche on 05.23.2008

It's another week of The Full Circle and we've got news on Square's exclusive Xbox 360 title "Infinite Undiscovery", plus even more details about Guitar Hero World Tour, the storyline behind Gears of War 2 will rival what?, and Niko Bellic wants to get paid but so does Michael Hollick. Plus I've got some news on a partnership between two well known game developers, and I'm hanging out some personal thanks in a new segment. All of that, and a question about your favorite achievement is ahead in The Full Circle.



It's another week, another edition of The Full Circle. I know this isn't a sports column but I wanted to take a moment to recognize Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox. Being a Red Sox fan my entire life was never something to be proud of until 2004, and then it became something to be ashamed of because of the bandwagon jumpers and Jimmy Fallon, but Monday night when Jon Lester threw a no hitter I could not have been more proud of the team that I have grown up supporting. Lester is an inspirational story and by now you all know about his diagnosis from lymphoma 19 months ago, his recovery and now less then two years back from cancer he has won the clinching game of a World Series and thrown a no hitter. That's not real life folks that's a Disney movie and I am just glad that I was smart enough to watch it over JBL's jiggly man boobs on Monday Night Raw.

Bringing it all back to video games though since that is afterall why you're here, watching Jason Varitek catch his fourth no hitter since 2001 (almost his fifth if Curt Schilling doesn't shake him off with 2 down in the 8th last season) got me thinking about the time virtual Jason Varitek caught a Josh Beckett no hitter for my MLB 2k8 Boston Red Sox earlier in the year. I've played a lot of baseball video games and it was my fisrt no hitter and I'll admit, that's the first achievement that I've unlocked that really made me mark out for a second. Which brings me to my question for all of you - what achievement have you unlocked that made you happier then a video game probably should make you?

I look forward to your answers in the comments section and without further ado let's get to it.

Square Going 360



For the last couple of days information has begun trickling out of the Square Enix camp relating to the upcoming release of the Xbox exclusive "Infinite Undiscovery" the action-RPG will ship on September 2nd. There is a trailer floating around somewhere and as you'd expect the game looks beautiful. I'm not sure how traditional Square fans will react to what will not be a turn based RPG, but after playing through Crisis Core (that review is coming I promise), I am much more excited about this game then I would be if it was going to use that old school combat system.

My biggest problem, and I feel like this has become a weekly feature on The Full Circle, is that the name of this game is horrendous. I'll give some length of rope to the fact that these games from Square are all coming over from Japan so the language barrier might create some of this mess, but "Infinite Undiscovery?" I'm at a loss for words. I just hope that this game turns out to be better then the name, because right now it's one of those games that I'm somewhat anxious for later on this year, and it'd be a shame if this name issue is a precursor of things to come.

The other news relating to Square is that they plan on releasing two titles for the 360, and perhaps upwards of four at some point. There is speculation that Last Remnant is one of those games being teased, but if you're a Final Fantasy fanboy don't hold your breath.

Epic Is Crazy



In an interview with OXM Carlos Ferro (better known as Dom Santiago) claimed that the story behind Gears of War 2 will be as engaging, or perhaps exceed that of Bioshock. Now I'm not going to discount this statement out of hand, for all I know the team at Epic has been writing their ass off since the original Gears came out in an attempt to craft a game that has a deep, emotional storyline. That being said, I'm not sure I buy into this. Did the original Gears even have a storyline? Did it matter?

I do admire the move though, because from all the gameplay footage that I've seen, and most of the bits and pieces of information that have become available GoW2 seems to be nothing more then an expanded version of the first game. It feels like a roster update improvement like they've been making for Madden for the last seven years. The best way to change that perception would be with a strong storyline to go along with the brutal violence and massive battles which we're all being told to expect.

Guitar Hero: Don't Call Me Rock Band Update



Last week I talked about the new details for Guitar Hero 4, and since then the real name has been released. Well some would say it's been released, others would say that it's just another in a series of steps taken by Activision to create Rock Band 2 with the Guitar Hero name. So the next installation of the game, which will add features that actually move the series forward, will be called Guitar Hero World Tour. The game will add a Band Career mode which can be played with up to four people online. You'll also be able to compete in a battle of the bands, and the details from last week including uploading your own songs on the internet.

Some of the information about the peripherals has started to come out including the fact that the drum kit for GHWT will include three pads, two raised symbols and a bass pedal. The drum kit will be "velocity sensitive" which wasn't explained but it seems like it'll have something to do with the speed that the drum is played. I never played Rock Band but I can imagine that in a song like "One" you're drumming faster then the game can recognize the contact with the drum, so perhaps Activision has found a way to solve that problem (which might not even exist).

Say what you will about Guitar Hero and how stale the franchise has become and I won't argue with you, even as a rabid supporter of the game. However, it's tough to deny that they're doing everything that they can to bring a fresh take on the franchise for the fourth installment (I'm not counting Rock of the 80's, or Aerosmith) even if most of the improvements were already done by another company.

The Struggles of Niko Bellic



As I said last week due to finishing up school I had not really had the chance to delve into GTAIV until these past couple of days. I fully intend to write about the largest entertainment release ever next week after I've really gotten into the game deeper. But as it turns out that the American dream and the large paycheck that Niko Bellic is searching for in Liberty City seems to be a bit elusive for his voice Michael Hollick as well.

This story has been around for a couple of days but it's a pretty bland week around here so you'll have to deal with it for a moment. The New York Times did a feature on Hollick who went from complete obscurity to one of the most recognizable characters in video game history basically overnight as the voice (and mo-cap) of Niko. The feature also highlighted the fact that even though the game has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in sales, there are no royalties for the voice actors who help bring the game to life. In the end Hollick was paid $100,000 to provide the 15 months of voice work to capture Niko Bellic and while that might seem like a pretty good payday for most of us, in the grand scheme of things that's a pretty paltry sum for the biggest video game release (or entertainment release for that matter) of all time.

Put into prospective the insufferable Mike Myers was paid $3,000,000 as the voice of Shrek the first time out, $10,000,000 for Shrek 2 and while I can't find the numbers off hand I can assure you that the third movie brought an even bigger paycheck to Myers. Taken with royalties and endorsement money that Myers would have made, you come to understand that paying $100,000 flat out to Hollick to be the voice of Niko turned out to be a pretty great deal for Rockstar.

Now, before you jump all over me for making that comparison I understand that it's a terrible example. I am merely pointing out that major entertainment releases put up huge money for their voice actors, and it's not like GTAIV was going to be a small time release. I'm not sure anyone knew early on that the game would generate this much revenue, but everyone was pretty confident going into the game that it was going to be a cash cow. I will give credit where credit is due though because Michael Hollick is not going after Rockstar for his paycheck and lack of royalties. Sure he's upset, and he probably has a right to be upset since the contract he signed did not take into account the viral marketing and commercials which his voice is being featured on. Instead, he is more focused on the union that he is a member of, the same union that did not protect his interests by putting some language into the contract and requiring that video game voice actors be given a slice of the pie when it comes to royalties.

Ezra J. Doner, Esq. was quoted by the New York Times (Attorney Doner is an entertainment lawyer in New York) as saying that the actors behind the characters are rarely marketed, and as not nearly as important to the success of a game as the game itself. This might have been true at one time, but I'd love to hear from some of our regulars whether or not they believe the quality of the voice acting can harm a game just as much as it can help one. I respectfully disagree with Attorney Doner who I think may be speaking from a position where he isn't necessarily qualified to comment on video games, and the importance of having top notch voice acting in the game. Granted, you will rarely see Grand Theft Auto starring, Michael Hollick on the box, but I've seen many games advertise the strength of their voice acting, and if the voice of Niko Bellic had been performed by Bobcat Goldthwait you wouldn't have had the giant release that you wound up having.

Michael Hollick is not going to be able to improve his position. He was already paid for the work that he did, he signed a contract and he'll have to life with the consequences of that. However, I do believe that by bringing this disparity to the forefront of the Screen Actors Guild and the industry he might be able to change the way the medium is approached. Regardless of what Ezra Doner claims about video game actors and their importance, just by looking at the sheer numbers alone Grand Theft Auto IV has proven that video games are as valuable, if not more valuable then movies as an entertainment medium. I believe that currently the voice actors on The Simpson's are being paid something like $350,000 per episode, and hope to get a raise to $500,000 per episode for next season. Those voices are extremely important to the success of the longest running non news show on television and I'd find it hard for Ezra Doner or anyone else to argue that other actors could jump into those roles without hurting the show in the least bit. It will be interesting to see where this story goes from here, or if it just dies out without changing anything in the medium.

Talking Merger



It's been announced that Bethesda the developers behind Oblivion and the upcoming Fallout 3 have entered some sort of partnership with Splash Damage the company responsible for the recently completed Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. There wasn't much else announced about the new partnership except that both sides are very excited and there will be some news about a "brand new" project coming from Splash Damage in the coming months.

Peter Molyneux is Cryptic



Everyone waiting anxiously for Fable 2 can head on over to Gamespot because they've posted a video interview with Peter Molyneux which includes game play footage spliced into the video. There isn't a whole lot of information spread throughout the six plus minute interview except that Peter makes passing reference to "playing together" being an important aspect of the game. There is video available of the co-op Fable 2, but some people are speculating that the next big announcement as it relates to Fable 2 is the ability to play online co-op which would be a great feature for the game.

All in all it's a pretty cryptic video with Peter claiming that "when the evenings draw in, and it's a little bit chilly, but not very chilly at night, I think we'll all be playing Fable 2." Now I have absolutely no idea what that means except that it seems to hint at a fall release, maybe September/October, although if you live in New England like I do it might mean next week since it's been absolutely frigid these past few nights. Either way if you're a Fable 2 fan waiting anxiously it seems like you're entering the home stretch now.


The Hot Button

This will be the section that we close out each Full Circle with and it'll include either something from me touching on anything 360 related that doesn't really fit into the mold of The Full Circle News Report, or something from you that you want to submit. Remember that I'm looking for reader feedback so keep it coming either in the comments section, or to my email at xjdrochex[at]gmail[dot]com. However, this week I want to use The Hot Button for my own personal reasons, and give a huge thank you to everyone who reads this column, and everyone who I am associated with through 411mania who have extended a great deal of congratulations to me after my graduation this past week.

So in that vein I just wanted to take a moment to thank Matt Young, Will Scott, Mark Salmela, and Derek Robbins, and a special thanks to Ramon Aranda who had to put up with me during finals when I was basically a ghost around these parts.

The one thing that they don't warn you about when you enter law school is that when it's all said and done, and graduation ends you haven't actually accomplished anything. The Massachusetts bar exam is on July 30 and 31st and beginning next Wednesday and continuing right through July 15th I have a class to prepare for the bar exam. For all the hype and talk about how difficult the first year of law school is, there are no books about the Dead Zone that happens between graduation and the bar exam, or the two months that it takes to grade the bar. So if I can only pass on one lesson from this column to anyone in college, or high school right now thinking of making the leap to law school one day just understand that while the first year is the most stressful, and the third year is seemingly the most meaningless, the most important part of law school comes after you've already finished law school.

So once again, thanks to everyone for their regards, and now it's back to Liberty City until tonight and Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals which I am unable to properly discuss at this point for fear of jinxing the team that I watched embarrass themselves for most of my lifetime.