The Full Circle: 360 News Report 07.25.08

Posted by Joe Roche on 07.25.2008

It's Friday and we're talking Gears of War 2, Xbox Community Games, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Jimi Hendrix, a Gears novel gets a new title and author, Sam Fischer is going to be late to the party, who will play the Watchmen? Oh and I'm taking Don Mattrick to task. It's all inside The Full Circle.



Well even though my brain has tapped out, I do know that it's Friday morning which can mean only one thing – it's time for the Full Circle. If you're anywhere near me geographically speaking you've been sitting inside watching gallons of water pour out of the sky for the last few days so here's hoping that the weather is nicer today then it's been the past couple of days. Of course that usually means you've been given a good excuse to sit inside and play video games (yeah, excuse). Unfortunately for your favorite Xbox 360 centric writer I've been digesting thousands of pages of legal knowledge and am currently on the brink of a mental breakdown. With that for a backdrop let us take a quick trip around the news of the week in The Full Circle.

Community Games Update



One of the interesting features set to debut on Xbox Live before the holiday season (no not avatars) is the Xbox Live Community Games program. As a quick overview the program is basically in place to allow non major studio designers (think individuals or the everyman designer) to create games for the Xbox Live Arcade. Once the game has been created it is submitted to the XNA Creators Club for peer review, and if the game scores high enough it will become available on Xbox Live Arcade.

Until the middle of this past week that was all we knew – even though bits and pieces of the community developed games had begun to trickle out lately. Well now we know that the pricing plan has been announced by Microsoft who proclaimed that games will cost 200MS points for 50MB or less games, 400MS points, or 800MS points for 150MB games. Microsoft has also revealed that they are set to share up to 70% of the profits made off these games with the developers depending on how much effort Microsoft puts towards promoting your game. What this seems to mean is that if Microsoft pushes the crap out of your game they'll take close to 30% of your revenues and if the game isn't doing so well then they'll take around 10% of your total revenues.

One of the other less fortunate announcements to come out of Microsoft concerning this feature is that there will be no achievements attached to any of the community developed games, so while you might be able to convince your friends to play your games – achievement hounds will pass without giving you a chance.

Guitar Hero: Hendrix



While Rock Band 2 boasts songs from Bob Dylan, Guitar Hero: World Tour is bringing Jimi Hendrix and not just in song form, he's also going to be a playable character in the next installment of the game. The two songs that have been announced thus far are a live version of "Purple Haze" and the master recording of "Wind Cries Mary." The press release that announced those two songs included information that there will be exclusive Hendrix song DLC coming in the future so we can all cross our fingers for some "Voodoo Child," "All Along the Watchtower" and "If 6 Was 9" of course I'd settle for "Manic Depression," "Castles Made of Sand" and "Little Wing." Frankly I'm not sure this applies to everyone but the inclusion of Hendrix in Guitar Hero: World Tour is enough to get me to purchase the Activision title over Rock Band 2, am I alone in this?

Sometimes Even I Hate Microsoft



I know I'm not alone when I say that the rampant fanboy flame wars that take place on almost every single gaming website are a bit tiresome. Naturally I take some of the blame because Mark Salmela and I trade barbs but for the most part that's done in fun and not meant to drive the Sony vs Microsoft war of words further then it has already gone. The problem is that people who should not be adding fuel to the fire won't shut their mouths long enough to let people focus on the console they own, instead of worrying about the console they don't own. Take for instance Don Mattrick who is quickly becoming the most loathsome character in the Microsoft/Sony flame war. You can say what you want about Cliff Bleszinski but Don Mattrick takes the cake when it comes to people you'd rather not hear from for awhile, and yet he gave us this gem this week:

I think we got more than 12 months' work done, and others went on an extended vacation. Hopefully they got some good vacation photos, because they sure weren't showing up at work... Of course I'm going to be biased, but so far what I've heard is that Sony and Nintendo have disappointed. And Microsoft has been leading, innovating and driving a very comprehensive global programme.

Admittedly most people have said that Sony and Nintendo disappointed at E3, and many of those same people gave the crown to Microsoft but not because MS did anything earth shattering but because by default someone has to be the least awful of the bunch. Frankly I'm a Microsoft apologist but with the current state of things, and the way they handled themselves at E3 I think Don Mattrick might want to reconsider throwing those stones in his glass house. Yes the Netflix announcement was big, and Final Fantasy XIII was a huge coup for the company but outside of that what did people talk about all week – mainly that Don Mattrick was a douche for how he handled the Bungie situation. I'd chalk that up as a loss and keep my mouth shut for awhile if I were Don Mattrick, but I guess that's why I write a games column for a popular wrestling website and he runs a (for the first time) profitable division of an international corporation.

Gamestop Gears 2 Fun



As this column is posted on Friday morning if you're one of those people who doesn't like spending Friday nights sitting at home being called a "faggot" by a thirteen year old on Xbox Live then head on down to your local Gamestop at 9:30 tonight to take part in a mini Gears tournament. As part of the draw for this event Gamestop is promising an exclusive video from Cliff Bleszinski showing off some new footage of Gears 2. If you want to make sure that your local Gamestop is sponsoring one of these events the entire list has been released and you can check out here.

Splinter Cell: Delayed



In a surprise to absolutely nobody after no showing E3, Ubisoft has announced that Splinter Cell: Conviction has been pushed back to their 2009-2010 fiscal year plans. In a conference call with investors Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained the decision as being due to Splinter Cell being dubbed a "risky" venture for the company. Basically this means that the cost to produce the game is higher then some of their other titles, and they expect higher returns. Basically what all of this means is that they're reworking part of the game in order to make it better then whatever it was that they had already completed in order to provide something which will at least live up to the expectations that Ubisoft has for the title. When this is taken into consideration with the news that Ubisoft's first quarter fiscal returns were 29% higher then expectations this year you have to at least assume that they know what they're doing. This is a big blow to Sam Fischer fans though who have been waiting patiently for this title to come out.

Rorschach Coming to XBLA



When people talk about the greatest graphic novels of all time two titles come up 9 times out of 10 – "The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen." While seeing an aging Batman in his darkest hour is a great read no doubt, in my mind it doesn't get much better then "Watchmen" and to coincide with the movie adaption of Alan Moore's classic we will be getting our hands on two episodic downloadable games courtesy of the Xbox Live Arcade. Watchmen artist David Gibbons is on board for the game, but you shouldn't expect to hear nice things coming from Alan Moore since he has been pretty staunch in his hatred of all things "Watchmen" movie and I am sure video game related. However, apparently the games will follow Rorschach and Nite Owl who were in their own right a dynamic duo before the events of "Watchmen" took place. The games are being designed by Deadline Games (Chilli Con Carnage) so if nothing else you should expect some action in the downloadable episodes.

Gears Novels



This might not be video game news but it is fanboy news and I wanted to talk about it because I'm excited. On October 28, 2008 the first Gears of War novel titled "The Battle of Aspho Fields" (not the Pendulum Wars as was previously thought) will be released. The book is being penned by Karen Traviss (apparently Steven Kent is out) who has a pretty good track record with things of this nature, so at least we know the book is in good hands. Frankly I am a fan of marketing a game in this manner with this first novel leading right into the November 7th release of Gears 2, and then the rumored comic book series, movie and future novelizations even for a game that contained about two seconds of story in it's first piece you're able to build back story and characterization without clouding up the in game experience with cut scenes and drawn out dialogue. So while this isn't really video game news, it's Gears news and that's how I wanted to close out the week.

THE HOT BUTTON

I realize this week is a bit short, and with everything that has been going on you do deserve a better effort then this one but frankly my brain is fried. This week's Hot Button is going to be a apology ahead of time for not being here next week because as I am writing this we are one week away from the Massachusetts Bar Exam and there is simply no way for me to take that 12 hour, 2 day exam and write this column for next Friday. I am working on getting a replacement so that there should be a Full Circle next week even without me. For some of you I am sure that will be a welcome reprieve from what you're used to – and for others, well thanks for not piling on.

Punching Out

I haven't had time to read anything that was posted this week – I'm sure it was great as per usual, no direct links this week, all apologies.