The Full Circle: 360 News Report 11.14.08

Posted by Joe Roche on 11.14.2008

After surviving the second wave of Locust 411Games' Joe Roche returns with The Full Circle. This week we'll talk about the huge release of Gears of War 2, plus TNA Impact and GTA IV DLC, a couple new Arcade hits, Halo: Recon and what did Epic's Mike Capps say that has Joe all worked up? Find out inside The Full Circle.

Welcome back to Friday before getting into it this week allow me to recap my week in gaming.

- I'll address the elephant in the room first. Of course I got Gears of War 2 on Friday morning, of course I played it right through the weekend and yes I will have an official review up this coming week (Monday). Without giving anything from my review away though let me just say that Epic really delivered on their promises with this one. Admittedly some of the story felt like it peaked before the game ended but if you're one of those who skipped the credits I think you should go back and wait until those babies end, trust me.

- After finishing up the story mode on Gears 2 I jumped back into Fallout 3. I'm about 17 hours into the game or so and it is suddenly very buggy. Has anyone else reached Rivet City and hear about CJ missing only to see and talk to CJ inside Rivet City about ten times before you realize that she's also somewhere else? Still this game is really great and if you haven't tried it yet I strongly suggest getting your hands on a copy.

Honestly when you factor in Smackdown vs Raw 2009, Call of Duty: World at War, and Left 4 Dead into the equation with Gears 2 and Fallout 3 it really is a good time to be a gamer, well if you then discount the worst economic environment since the Great Depression. However, even with all of this good gaming going on the news is a bit slow this week. I shall do my best to keep you marginally distracted from the office as we move forward into The Full Circle.

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Gears of War 2 (million sold)

On Wednesday Epic Games and Microsoft announced that Gears of War 2 sold an astonishing two (2) million units since launch. This number does leave a little to debate because Epic didn't specify (at least in the press that I've seen) whether this number is the opening week sales, or simply the sales compiled from launch until Wednesday morning. The reason this is important is because due to Gears of War 2 launching on a Friday the opening week sales would only be compiled over two days (Friday and Saturday). If you're one of those people who wanted to see Gears 2 approach the opening week blockbuster numbers of that Halo 3 did then 2 million units sold in two days would be a good jumping point. Of course on the other hand 2 million over five days (Friday – Tuesday) isn't as impressive and leads me to believe that Gears won't touch Halo 3 numbers by the end of this week.

If I were a betting man I'd say that the 2 million worldwide units moved number comes from the opening weekend sales figures. I base this mainly on early projections which showed about 1.4 million units in North America, and 700k sold in other countries on opening day which would bring us to that 2 million mark. Epic and Microsoft also revealed that 1.5 million gamers logged onto Xbox Live during Gears 2 launch weekend, 19 million achievements were unlocked, 15 million gameplay hours were logged, and a new concurrent Live player record was reached. Congratulations are in order for Epic on what has undoubtedly been a great launch.



News About News

Up until this point the only news that we've learned about Halo: Recon, the new Halo project from Bungie was contained in a quick information dump, a teaser trailer and the box art. Well for those of you just dying to learn more about the upcoming expansion-like addition to the Halo Universe you might want to hit your local magazine stand and look for the December issue of Game Informer Magazine which is boasting a cover story about the game. Essentially what this means is you're going to get 10 full pages of information along with more pictures and probably as much information as Bungie will be releasing about the game for the foreseeable future.



XBLA Hits Price Drop

The fact that this story is both included in this column and so high in it should tell you how slow of a news week it's been here at The Full Circle. However, if you're an Xbox Live Arcade fan looking to pick up a fighting game, a party game, or a --- well or a fish eating game then you're in luck. Microsoft did not have any new XBLA games this week so they did the next best thing and made some of the old "favorites" cheaper. As of Tuesday morning you can now pick up Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, Feeding Frenzy, and Worms for the super low, discount price of 400 Microsoft Points. I enjoy that MK3 and Worms made the Arcade Hits family, but Feeding Frenzy, really?



Impact DLC

If you're the one guy still playing TNA Impact then you might be interested to know that those blank character heads in the selection screen can now be filled in with the DLC of Curry Man, Petey Williams and Mike Tenay. The two actual wrestlers in this pack will get you for 100 Microsoft points a piece. However, for those of you thinking that all this game needed was a little Curry Man to make it playable you'd be wrong. First of all I assume he plays like every single other character in this game since apparently everyone in TNA shares the same moveset, but also because his finisher wasn't even included. You read that right, the DLC of which all you're really doing is unlocking someone who is already in the game doesn't even include the finishing move of Curry Man. Again though you need to take that with a grain of salt, this game sucks regardless so unless you're the type of person who simply can't have a game without the complete roster just skip adding these characters to the game.


- Hot, Spicy and the same move set as Abyss?

Don't Hold Your GTAIV Loving Breath

In what should come as no surprise to anyone that promised exclusive Xbox 360 DLC for GTAIV still isn't out yet, and it won't be for some time. When GTAIV launched there was a good deal of hype surrounding the exclusive 360 DLC. I remember watching the commercials for GTAIV right around the title launch and it would always end with the warning "DLC Available October 2008." After awhile that message began to disappear, and then folks in and around Rockstar Games started saying November 2008, and then Christmas or New Years, but now Dan Houser of Rockstar is pushing our expectations into 2009. According to an interview Houser gave with the Variety Cut Scene blog:

It's going well. But we don't know a date. We hope to be announcing that in the next few weeks. We're still figuring out a few things. We're more focused on quality than dates, always have been. But the development is going really good. It's shaping up to be something we're very proud of. That was our goal

Now obviously some delay should have been expected. The game was delayed quite a bit (another tidbit according to Houser was that the delays were directly linked to the PS3 version of the game), so it is only natural that the original launch date for the DLC would be pushed back. However, moving into 2009 does anyone still care about this DLC? Maybe it'll give the game a second life when it finally does come out, but Microsoft paid a lot of money for the rights to this exclusive DLC and up till this point they've seen zero return on their investment, and who knows when they finally will.



Play Nuts & Bolts with Rare

I have a certain affinity for developers who do everything they can to make their game a success. I understand why people don't like Cliff Bleszinksi but frankly I can't get enough of him. He's the type of guy who I would love to work for because you know that anything he does he will stand behind 100%. Well it's in that vein that I mention that Sunday November 23rd, from 3:00 – 5:00 PM EST members of the team behind Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts will put their skill where their mouths are and take on all comers online. Of course there are those who might be interested in this to unlock the "What's that Smell" achievement for playing with a developer (or someone who has played a developer), but either way it's a great chance to show the people who made this game that small text and weird gameplay aside you're still better then them.

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Reader Rants

Drew Robbins doesn't agree with Cliffy B about Mirror's Edge. I can see why people wouldn't like Dude Huge for his comments but honestly after trying to use the fighting mechanism in Mirror's Edge I wished they had taken out the need to fight completely, or spent more time making it better.

Rod Oracheski had no problem with Banjo Kazooie text. For those of you who don't have a 60" screen like Rod, Rare is actually going to fix the text. Apparently my story and one comment about the problem made them change their mind.

S. Masters had his own cast for the Gears movie. Frankly I loved the Ryan Reynolds as Baird suggestion to the point where I got sad that I didn't think of it myself.

natedogcatta had his own Cole Train suggestion and it was great. Bravo my friend. Terry Tate is the perfect Cole Train.

Adam wants my gamertag. I have been trying to get online lately with Gears 2 but Fallout 3 has me cornered. When I do get online my gamertag is jdroche.

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The Hot Topic

Today's Topic: DLC Endings

"I've talked to some developers who are saying 'If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free.'" – Mike Capps

Excuse me while I let that previous comment sink in for a moment.

Ok you back? Allow me to be the first to say – WHAT THE F@!*?

It's obvious that one of the biggest problems for developers is the second hand game market. Places like Gamestop have perfected the art of selling you a game for $60, buying it back for $20 and then reselling it to someone else for $40 essentially making $100 off one game (assuming you do not then trade in the used copy and it winds up being resold a second time). It's not surprising that companies would want to steer people towards buying new copies of games over used copies since the developers don't make a cent off that used game you just bought. However, the fact that Mike Capps even floated this idea out there (although he claims it's not his idea) has been keeping me up with night terrors.

Here's my biggest problem with Mike Capps making this statement – it's completely unnecessary. First of all if you just think of the logistics of this idea you realize that it's completely unworkable. Granted Capps would say that if you don't have Xbox Live then you must go buy the new copy of the game, simple as that. Of course we all know that the reason you buy used copies of games isn't because you hate the developers, it's because you are broke. I mean we are living in a World War II era economy right now, so excuse me Mr. Capps if I'd rather save $30 and still play Bioshock. So you'd essentially lose the audience of non Xbox Live subscribers who still want to enjoy your work right off the bat. Next you'd see a pretty large decline (read: end) of the rental business. Goodbye Hollywood Video, see ya later Blockbuster, don't let the door hit you on the way out Gamefly. Can you imagine anyone renting a game only to get to the final scene and seeing "INSERT $20 HERE" flash across the TV? Oh and don't forget the audience that simply wouldn't put up with the pay to play mentality and would simply stop buying your product. I'd say there'd be a pretty hefty public relations disaster behind the DLC Boss Battle idea.

But forget about the logistics for a second and just focus on the means that we've already got at our disposal. When I got Gears of War 2 at launch (with pre-order) I got a handful of DLC codes for free goodies. When people bought the Game of the Year edition of Call of Duty 4 they were given a token to download all of the released map packs for free. When you see a game like Halo 3 in the used bin at Gamestop you notice it still costs about $50 because Bungie still supports the game. If you're like me you look at used copies to save money, but when the savings is that minimal I will just pick up a new copy of the game – so here's a suggestion, keep supporting your game and people will keep buying the new version.

My solution is a simple one: create DLC that becomes free for those who bought their game new. Hell if you want to take it even further, create DLC that is exclusive to those who bought the game new. You don't think the second hand market would suffer if people knew they'd get an exclusive three map pack for Gears of War 2 if they bought the game new? What you're doing with that suggestion is allowing people to keep renting games, keep borrowing games from their friends, and keep saving their money by purchasing games used but still create an incentive for people to buy games new instead.

For those of you who think this might only work for the shooter genre I say not so fast my friends. Look at a game like Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe. Would you say that someone would be more inclined to buy the game new if wrapped inside the package was a code for an exclusive character that wouldn't become available to those who don't have the code? Maybe a game like Lost Odyssey comes with a DLC code for an exclusive dungeon or dreams that can only be unlocked if you've got a new copy of the game. I can pretty much make this work with every genre except maybe sports games (Tiger Woods DLC for exclusive course?). But in the end you'd be providing an incentive to buy the game in the wrapper, but you wouldn't alienate people with a disastrous PR move that would undoubtedly back fire on you.

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Punching Out

Working Title by Jordan Williams

Fable 2 Feature by Ty Huston

Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser

B3yond the Report by Derek Robbins

The 10th Hour by Derek Robbins

Coming Attractions by Drew Robbins

Achievements Unlocked by Rod Oracheski

The PC Centric Extravaganza by Chris Evans

The Hall of Shame by Vincent Chiucchi