The Full Circle: 360 News Report 07.12.08

Posted by Joe Roche on 07.12.2008

It's a special Saturday edition of The Full Circle and we're in full hype mode for E3. We've got some news on Half Life 2: Episode 3 coming to a console near you, plus Mega Man 9 on Xbox Live Arcade, Fallout 3 being banned down under, and what did Cliff Bleszinski say about Kojima now? All of that plus an announcement about The Full Circle coverage of E3 in the Hot Button inside.



It's a super special completely accidental Saturday edition of The Full Circle. I know you're asking yourself how could I accidentally neglect the fine readers of this column on Friday morning and it's simple really – I spent a good deal of time last week playing Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm for my review of the game and I completely lost track of the days. I think this is officially a sign of old age (and as my birthday is this coming Tuesday that might have something to do with it), but regardless of what my reasoning is I completely flaked on my Friday deadline and instead am bringing you some Xbox 360 news on a Saturday morning. So shake the cobwebs out, stop the room from spinning, fight through the hangover and do whatever else it is that you need to do this morning because we're going to take you around The Full Circle.

No Fallout Down Under



Well it happened to Dark Sector and now it's happened to Fallout 3 – the Australian Office of Film and Literature Classification has refused to give a rating to Fallout 3 meaning for all intents and purposes the game has been banned. As most people know by now the OFLC only allows video games to be rated as high as 15+ even though movies in the country can carry a rating of 18+. What this means is that if a game contains enough violence, sex, or drug use the OFLC can refuse to issue a rating and the game cannot be sold in the country sans said rating. According to the OFLC: "the drug use, in particular the use of a proscribed drug, via means of selection from a menu, is related to incentives and rewards as the incentive to take the drug is to progress through the game more easily and the reward is an increase in the character's abilities and as such is Refused Classification."

Being refused classification does not mean the game will never see the light of day in Australia – when Dark Sector was banned D3Publisher's space shooter was edited for content and then released (earlier this week actually). That same fate might befall Fallout 3 although Bethesda might refuse to change their image of the game and instead the country that brought us Paul Hogan and Lauren Jackson will have to import the game themselves (much like they had to do with GTAIV).

Rock Band 2 Track Listing



There are a lot of rumors floating around right now about the possible track listing for Harmonix's Rock Band 2, and I am sure that after E3 we'll have a better idea of the full scope of the songs included in the game. However, for now we can say with some 100% certainty that there will be at least 17 songs on the game including:

"Panic Attack" – Dream Theater
"Chop Suey" – System of a Down
"Everlong" – Foo Fighters
"Kids in America" – The Muffs
"Give it Away" – Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Ace of Spades" – Motorhead
"Hello There" – Cheap Trick
"Pump It Up" – Elvis Costello
"Anyway You Want It" – Journey
"Pinball Wizard" – The Who
"Almost Easy" – Avenged Sevenfold
"Bad Reputation" – Joan Jett
"I Was Wrong" – Social Distortion
"Livin' on a Prayer" – Bon Jovi
"Rock'n Me" – Steve Miller Band
"Testify" – Rage Against the Machine
"White Wedding Pt. 1" – Billy Idol

There was also a rumor that the entire track listing from Rock Band 1 will be available as DLC immediately upon the launch of Rock Band 2 which makes the new game a great investment for those who are thinking of getting RB1 but want to wait for the wireless/more sturdy peripherals that will be released when the sequel drops.

One final update on Rock Band 2 – the World Tour mode will be going online. I am sure this was a huge complaint from the original game that Harmonix had to fix and they've apparently done it. You'll finally be able to shred with your band without being located in the same room. I mean c'mon if you wanted to play music with your friends together in your basement you guys would have just started a real band.

Cliffy Hearts Kojima



The Artist Formerly Known as CliffyB is an acquired taste – I think we can all agree on that, and when he said that Metal Gear Solid was an example of the type of game he was trying to avoid at Epic, it aroused a lot of heat from various corners of the internet gaming community. A lot of people saw Bleszinski's claims that "passive gaming was on the way out" as a direct shot at Hideo Kojima who is of course the patriarch of the passive gaming art form. I think most of the anger coming from the Kojima supporters was based more on an overall dislike of Bleszinski then on the content of his message but he has clarified in a move that I am sure was motivated by heading off some controversy before E3.

"I'm a huge fan of Kojima... The kind of scenes they do in MGS4 are phenomenal. I think it has the best sound and real-time [cut scenes] I've seen in the industry and since they're the best at what they do, players love it... It's the hallmark of the series - the camera angles and dramatic scenes and it's really taking film-making to this new digital level..."

So there you have it everyone – Cliff Bleszinski hearts Kojima and Metal Gear Solid 4, he's just not trying to copy them with his own franchise. That should settle this conflict for about twenty seconds.

Too Human Demo Coming



Remember when Silicon Knights told us that there would be a demo for Too Human on the Xbox Live Marketplace before the game was released in August? You probably don't because that news came so long ago that you've completely erased it from your memory – but as it turns out SK is going to come through with that promise. As part of Microsoft's E3 coverage on the XBLM sometime after the press conference on Monday the Too Human demo will go live for your enjoyment. This should be a pretty popular demo as there are enough varying opinions about Too Human right now that I'd be shocked if people actually go out and buy this game without at least taking a few minutes to try the demo. I know I'll be waiting with the high speed internet connection for the demo to go live, will you?

Ride to Hell Announced



If you know who developer Deep Silver is then you probably don't live in the United States, a fact that will change around the second quarter of 2009 when "Ride to Hell" comes out for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Details are a bit sketchy but the game has been described as a free form, 1960's biker game. I'd say think of "Easy Rider" except instead of just driving around doing acid, you can also drink beer, rape people, beat up hippies, and get into biker gang warfare with rivals. Of course while they claim this will be an adequate representation of the 1960's culture and lifestyle I'd rather think of this game as a good adaptation of what went on when the soldier you controlled in one of those Vietnam War simulations got home from his tour of duty.

Mega Man Going Live



Well the on again, off again news about Mega Man 9 coming to the Xbox Live Marketplace has finally been put to rest – and there is some great news for fans of tiny blue men in 8 bit side scrollers because the game is officially going to be available through the Xbox Live Marketplace. The story of MM9 is pretty crazy, but when you figure it's a Mega Man game I guess that shouldn't be surprising to many people. Apparently after the events of Mega Man 8 robots began going insane around the world, people believed it was Dr. Wiley responsible for the actions in another plan for world domination but it turns out that the robots are those that were designed by Dr. Light. I guess this story revolves around Mega Man trying to redeem his creator. I'm not sure anyone plays Mega Man for the story or plot so I guess all that this needed was confirmation that the game will be on the Xbox Live Marketplace so you've got that to look forward to.

Half Life 2: Episode 3(60)



There has been a lot of buzz around that little picture there – released by Valve as part of the "Advisor" concept artwork appearing at E3's "Into the Pixel" art exhibition. Frankly after playing hours of The Orange Box the mere possibility of hearing about Gordon Freeman and/or Half Life 2: Episode 3 gets my heart a flutter. Imagine my lack of surprise (considering the success of The Orange Box on the console) that this little piece of artwork contained information regarding the game's release on the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. That's right folks you can rest easy knowing that when the next episode in the life and times of Gordon Freeman hits store shelves it'll be coming to consoles as well as the PC, and that is good news for someone like me who operates a computer that has more in common with a typewriter then any machine that could run Half Life 2: Episode 3 properly.

THE HOT BUTTON

I had nothing planned for The Hot Button this week – so being a day late with the entire Full Circle doesn't do much to change my plans that much. What I did want to talk about was E3 but more importantly the Microsoft Developers Press Conference on Monday afternoon (1 PM ET), and what you can expect from little old me as it pertains to said conference. Instead of giving you a huge Full Circle today and an increasingly long Hot Button about the state of something in the gaming industry I'm going to save it and come back strong on Monday afternoon after the Microsoft press conference to give my thoughts both positive and negative about everything that was said.

Basically, I'm going to post a brand new column on Monday that will be nothing more then a full length Hot Button discussing at length what Microsoft announces to kick off E3. This is but a small piece of what 411Games will be doing for E3 as some of the more West Coasterly members of the staff will be at the convention on the floor doing whatever it is that a band of misfits does at a place like E3. For us east coasters who have things other then parading around a convention floor to distract us on Monday I will do my best to include the important details from the Microsoft event.

At this point all we know about what Microsoft plans to announce is that they've done everything in their power to put out as many spoilers as are humanly possible. If the most interesting thing that they show on the convention floor is the price cut then you might see the most critical and negative Full Circle you could imagine on Monday night. However, this special Monday Full Circle will not preclude me from coming back strong during my regularly scheduled Friday time slot where we'll wrap up E3 with the news from the convention floor coming out of the developers throughout the week. For the more intrepid Full Circle readers you will notice that I'll be book ending the convention with Microsoft coverage.

So with that in mind I leave you this Saturday to enjoy what is supposed to be a beautiful weekend and hope you all come back for my E3 coverage on Monday after the press conference.

Punching Out

Beyond The Report by Mark Salmela. My PS3 loving friend took it easy this week because he stole my idea of writing more then one column next week. Some might point out that his column comes out well before mine but like Kojima I don't care about the logic of what I'm writing as I write it – it's all about the final product my friends.

Nintendophiles by Theo Frasier. Hey Chrono Trigger on the DS that's good for people who like incredibly overhyped role playing games.

The PC Centric Extravaganza by Chris Evans. If I was going to beat Ulysses S. Grant in a Presidential election I'd turn the focus onto the fact that his real name was Hiram and he was virulent anti-Semite, seriously look it up.

The 10th Hour by Derek Robbins. By forgetting Friday I got to read Derek's column before posting The Full Circle and this week he's talking about the Top 10 games he hopes to see at E3 and I completely agree with his assessment for his #2 game.

The Hall of Shameby Vincent Chiucchi. Sonic the Hedgehog on the Game Boy Advance just seemed like such a good idea on paper.