The Full Circle: 360 News Report 03.20.09

Posted by Joe Roche on 03.20.2009

For one year Joe Roche has been bringing you The Full Circle help him celebrate his anniversary with 411Games by talking about Godfather II, Mass Effect 2, Mr. Potato Head, NCAA Football 10, and Hannah Montana? It's all inside, plus some long overdue thank yous in The Full Circle.

Welcome once again to another edition of The Full Circle. This Friday I'm in an especially good mood this week because it was March 21, 2008 when I wrote my first Full Circle for 411Games. By using my powers of deduction that would make this the 1 year anniversary of my taking the reigns of the Full Circle, and I'm sure there are those who are still disappointed every week when they check this column out. Check this week's Hot Button for my one year later thoughts.

On the gaming front it's been a heavy diet of Star Ocean: The Last Hope this week with some Call of Duty 4 thrown in for good measure. I understand all the complaints about Star Ocean, but I have to confess that the game keeps me coming back. It took me about 13 hours of game play to reach the point where I was completely invested in the game, but it has held up thus far.

The only other thing on my plate right now is the NCAA Tournament. I am writing this section on St. Patrick's Day so let me just say this. As a UMass – Amherst graduate I am invested in three teams, Memphis (Former UMass coach, John Calipari), Oklahoma State (Former UMass coach, Travis Ford), and Rick Pitino (UMass alum) and out of those three I'd be stunned if at least two aren't playing next weekend. My money is on Louisville, a team that wouldn't surprise me if they won or were knocked out before the weekend is up.

Alright enough mindless banter – lets go around The Full Circle.

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Mass Effect 2 Official
This week EA officially announced that Mass Effect 2 is in development for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Slow news week as I'm leading off with a story that has basically been confirmed for a month. I don't think many people thought that Bioware would work on a Mass Effect 2 teaser trailer only to then announce that the real tease is no Mass Effect 2. The real surprise that this announcement carried with it is the news that there appears to be no PS3 version of Mass Effect 2 in the pipeline. When ME2 was first brought up there was some agreement that it'd be cross platform, which apparently now means PC and Xbox 360 as Heather Rabatich at BioWare told Joystiq "We have no comment beyond the platforms we've announced it for." This isn't really a denial that Mass Effect 2 won't see the light of day on the PS3, but it seems pretty obvious that at least as it stands now, there is no plan to have Cmd. Sheppard in Blu Ray.



Free Godfather II DLC at Launch
EA announced that a new Godfather II multiplayer mode will be available as a free download on April 7, when the retail game launches. The game mode – called "Don Control" allows players to build a family, command them in battle and view the action from a bird's eye vantage point. Don Control introduces an additional layer of gameplay on top of the four multiplayer modes and six maps already available in the game and invites players to compete to see who is the ultimate Don of Dons. Players can now challenge one another in 16-player battles for their in-game currency from the single-player game. As a Don online, players can recruit others to join their family by giving them a cut of the profits. But if a player loses as Don, the in-game currency they wagered will be removed in their single-player campaign and their empire can come crumbling down.

Make no mistake about it – it was not a mistake by EA to release this news at the same time people were complaining about "versus" mode for Resident Evil 5 being DLC that you had to pay for. EA saw an opportunity to come off like paragons of DLC virtue and they took it – can't blame them there. If it's possible I'm starting to think that the online portion of Godfather II is going to be better then the single player mission. It's almost like EA took what was fun about GTA: San Andreas turned it into a mafia theme and then let people run wild. I was lukewarm when the game was announced, but I'm impressed EA to the point where I may even pick this game up now.



New Mistwalker Art
This week a new piece of art was released from Mistwalker Studios that gives people a hint on the next game the studio is working on.

This is really not an Xbox 360 news story since there is no way to really know what system this new Mistwalker project will be available on. However, I thought it was my duty as a news report to put this picture up here for speculation. I've seen some rumblings that this looks a bit like the Drakengard cover, which is true – and that might hint towards Drakengard 2, although there is no denying the resemblance that this picture has to the characters in Lost Odyssey, so it might be the teaser for Lost Odyssey 2. Let the speculation run wild.



Hell Hath Frozen Over
This week Disney Interactive Studios released screenshots from the upcoming Hannah Montana: The Movie Game

This story is in honor of Drew Robbins. Some people might not realize that my brother from another mother is a huge Hannah Montana fan – I'm not kidding folks he has a Hannah Montana wig on the side of his bed. In related news – for everyone who says that the Xbox 360 only caters to the lowest common denominator in video game fans, please take a look at this screen shot and tell me again that all this system has is first person shooters.


Hasbro Family Game Night Available
EA's EA Play Lable launched the Hasbro Family Game Night destination on Xbox Live Arcade on March 19. Through this destination players can access some of the world's most beloved family friendly board games including SCRABBLE, CONNECT 4, BATTLESHIP, and YAHTZEE. The HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT destination on Xbox LIVE Arcade allows fans to join MR. POTATO HEAD, who acts as host, as they play classic and new-fangled versions of the following games: SCRABBLE, CONNECT 4, BATTLESHIP and YAHTZEE. In addition to classic gameplay modes, each game offers brand new ways to play, including Advanced Mode and Party Mode, allowing players to play mini-game versions of each title.

The HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT lineup takes full advantage of the special features offered via the Xbox LIVE Arcade community. Players can show off their skills, increase Gamerscores, utilize voice chat and earn Achievements as they compete for a top spot on the Xbox LIVE Arcade leader boards. The games also offer avatar support so players can incorporate their own Xbox persona into any of the games available on the HASBRO FAMILY GAME NIGHT destination.

Each of the Hasbro Family Game Night games carry an 800 Microsoft Points price tag which makes them about as expensive (if not more) as their real world counterparts. I must say that as a video game addict, and someone who loves the strides Microsoft has made with integration into the NXE I just can't see myself ever playing these games on XBLA. The reason that I don't play Battleship with my family in my kitchen isn't because I hate my family, it's because I hate Battleship. However, don't let my negative attitude effect you if you've got family across the country that you'd love to play CONNECT 4 against – please be my guest, and with the party feature of the NXE you can talk to your whole family while you embarrass your grandmother in XBLA Yahtze.



NCAA Football Release Date
EA has announced that NCAA Football 10 will be released on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, and PSP on July 14, 2010. The game will tout new game play features that push the bar on innovation. The announcement also mentions Season Showdown, a new mode that allows players to pick a favorite school and show their support in a "nationwide competition." Credits will be earned in-game, as well as in "web-based games" that can then be spent in Season Showdown to show support. Your guess is as good as ours as to what that actually means.

When NCAA Football 09 came out I was waiting in line to get it on Day 1. I talked about my love of the 08 version of the game and couldn't wait to get my hands on 09. I can say that I was utterly disappointed. I'm not if it's because the game felt too much like 08 (a game that I played to death), or if my taste had just changed, but I played almost none of NCAA Football 09, and sunk all of time into the much improved Madden 09 (a huge change from 2008). That doesn't change the fact that I love college football and I am hopeful that EA will deliver some innovation this year and brings their college game back to the forefront of my heart. With the great strides EA has made in their NHL and NFL licensed games I will remain cautiously optimistic that they'll make similar strides this year with the college game.


- You cannot have college football without the Song Girls

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The Viewing Room

Here is the "Escape" trailer for Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. After playing the demo for this game I will say that it's dark…but I'm not necessarily sure it's any good.



Some gameplay footage from Fight Night Round 4 – this game gives me chills of anticipation.



A cinematic trailer for the upcoming Velvet Assassin – a game that I have more anticipation for then I probably should. Some people are down on the rock ending to the trailer but I actually dig it, so I guess I'm in the minority.

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Reader Rants

This week Drew "7th Best" Robbins kicks us off with his attempt at a comeback: 7th favorite?! This is getting out of hand!

Alright, this is war, I'll find a list of six cooler Roches than you.

I've compiled a list like I promised! Six, no, Seven Roches that are cooler than you.

1)Dick Roche - Irish Politician
2)The Roches - Female Singing Group (That counts as three)
5)William Roche - Rugby Player
6)Eric Roche - Irish Fingerstyle Guitarist
7)"Not 411's" Joe Roche - American Columnist from Minnesota
8)Joe Roche

Have at ye!

A clever trick by Mr. Robbins but the key is that he had to google all of those names whilst my list of greater Robbins were well known, can't be argued better Robbinses. I will say one thing all of those Roches are fantastic Irishpersons who hopefully enjoyed the celebration in honor of the patron saint of Ireland (and the Arch Dioceses of Boston) as much as I did.

Mark Salmela by one time arch nemesis throws his hat into the Roche ring: I volunteer to be a Roche as well.

I can have multiple last names.

Oh, and if you dare try to make a list of Salmela's, the one requirement is that they love Target Terror, than they can become an honorary Salmela.

I think this should be a lesson to Drew Robbins – people are clamoring to leave their Robbins heritage behind them and become a Roche. The days of the Robbins brother domination of 411mania has come to an end.

Fellow 411er Rod Oracheski has something to say about our favorite ex-attorney: Jack Thompson is on a plane to Germany - he's not known as a lunatic lawyer there!

Well at least the German's don't have a history of being roused into a stupor by someone with a sharp tongue….oh wait.

Frequent commentor Tubby provides some more insight into his feelings about last week's Hot Topic: Always the Video Games, always the Music, never the parents fault, never. Video games and music don't makes kids/teens/adults go insane and go on a killing spree. In most of these cases over the years, what has been said about each suspect... "The boy was a quiet child, had one or two good friends, but mostly kept to himself".

It's either the parents neglected to notice their child was troubled, or kids at school picked on him/her so incessantly, he/she snapped... in which yet again, the parents neglected to notice their child was troubled. That has a much stronger effect on someone than a video game or music could ever have.

Sure, maybe I'm biased towards this too Joe, being a Gamer and a music fan. But no one can tell me, or fully convince me that in today's society, parents neglect their children more and more everyday. That and people clearly not fit to be parents become parents. Of course there are people who are great parents out there, don't get me wrong. But I speak of the unfit ones.

It's a sad world we live in. If it's this bad now, with the ages of these suspects being between 16-24, the world is in for a hell of a lot more of these screwed up actions. I haven't seen any improvement in kids attitudes for the last 7 years or so.

I would like to point out that I am not trying to say everyone is fucked up. I'm strictly speaking of the parents who neglect their children and/or can't control them, and the kids who treat certain children with no decency, who cause them to snap. Personally, that's where I feel the real problem lies.

I can go on all day and night about this, so I'm gonna stop while I'm only kinda pissed off.

I'm wondering if Tubby wrote this comment while sitting on a porch swinging shaking his fist at the kids coming onto his lawn…just kidding pal, I'm with you for the most part. I do agree that much of the blame has to be put on the shoulders of the parents for not noticing the blatent signs that their children are displaying of depression or their potential to do harm to themselves or others. It seems that we now live in a world where kids are either waaaay over medicated because their parents are too hands on, or completely ignored because their parents do not take an active interest in their children. Luckily I'm from the grey area where my parents let me grow up and learn my own lessons, but always kept an eye on me to prevent me from falling off the path.

Tubby followed up his contribution with a question that I will gladly answer:And Joe, a question. Have you heard anything new on Lost Odyssey 2? I heard they have decided to go ahead with it, but other than that, I haven't heard a thing

Not since very early last year. The original Lost Odyssey was a fantastic game (well the first three discs were – I am still trying to get back to finish it), and was relatively well received in this country selling over 500k units. I believe, but don't quote me on this one that it's the best selling (or second best selling) JRPG on the Xbox 360 in North America, and there was some veiled conversation about LO2 being worked on. Of course if you check out the news story above about the picture released this week from Mistwalker Studios then you might fathom that Lost Odyssey 2 is coming sooner rather then later. I'd stay tuned to 411Games as we have boots on the ground at GDC and will be at E3 as well to find out anything we can on Lost Odyssey 2.

The normal closer byzdalmyt comes in a bit early this week with his thoughts on Fight Night Round 4: I don't have anything clever this week but just wanted to comment that I am very jacked up for Fight Night 4. It's been one of my favorite franchises over the years & keeps getting better with each installment.

I just pray they do follow the current gaming trends and ruin it by putting in some random Quick Time Event button garbage. I can see it now, when you get them in the knockout zone or whatever the hell they call it when you have those few seconds too knock out your opponent, that QTE buttons flash up to perform a ko sequence.

I hope not because I'm really sick of those & I already have to put up with them in the upcoming WWE LoW & I'm avoiding Ninja Blade because of them!

I hope they don't

I just had a cold chill run down my spine. God of War is almost completely to blame for the Quick Time Event button mashing prevalence in video games today. Somehow we reached a point where developers think it's clever to take the action out of the hands of the gamer so that the cinematic they chose will be played out on the screen. Luckily I can't possibly see EA doing that with Fight Night Round 4, and if they do I will openly weep. Here is a lesson to any game developers out there reading this column – we are all sick of the QTE prompts, it's over – move on.

Jim420 says something that is so insane that I can't even form a rational thought to respond: Boston is so superior to The Steve Miller Band it makes my balls hurt.

I can't even begin to talk about this statement Jim, and as a lifelong Massachusetts resident I'm required by law to never speak ill about Tom Scholz and Boston. They were a successful band I won't take that away from them, but Barry Goudreau and Sib Hashian are also now playing bar gigs around Boston with the son of a car dealership mogul in Ernie and the Automatics, so it's tough for me to be impressed.

We'll close it out with one of the favorite relatives (at least more so then one of my other brothers) Derek Robbins: I'm better than 6th. I have the evidence to prove so. I'm taking this to court, Roche.

On an un-related note, are you willing to prosecute yourself and defend me? Thanks.

So bro, I'm much to expensive for you, no family discounts – I gotta eat too.

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The Hot Button

Today's Topic: One Year Later

So it has been almost a year to the day that I took over writing The Full Circle. On 3.21.08 I introduced myself to the 411Games readers with this gem:

If we were all in a church basement sitting in a circle I'd stand up right now and tell you all that my name is Joe, and I am an addict. Luckily there isn't an Xbox 360 Anonymous group in my neighborhood so instead I'm here, talking about what I find interesting as the newest and probably not the last voice of The Full Circle. If you thought that joke was lame, you might want to click the back button right now and read something else because I fear that it won't get much better from here on out. Nice to meet you all, hope you'll give me a chance to get acclimated, and let's get to it shall we?

There were some obvious bumps in the road along the way. I will never admit to being the best writer on the staff here at 411Games, but I am comfortable with the work that I've produced. In the one year since I first began writing for 411Games I have done 49 editions of this column, so I can't even claim to being the most punctual having missed 4 columns in a one year span.

However, I can say that I've grown both as a writer and as a person since I took over this gig. Everyone who has kept up with this column can tell you that the past 12 months have been the biggest and most eventful of my life. When I took over The Full Circle I was halfway through my third and final year of law school and living at my father's house. Since that time I moved in with my then fiancé, graduated law school, took the Massachusetts Bar Exam, got married, passed the bar exam, was sworn in as an attorney, and got a job working for a small firm in Worcester where I've had the pleasure of spending more time in court then I imagine anyone else I graduated with. All in all I'd say that's a pretty productive year for someone who only missed four columns during that period.

These past twelve months have been a blast. When I started writing here I was a pretty one dimensional gamer. I was that guy who only played sports games, with the occasional JRPG throw into the mix. Since I started here I've fallen in love with the Gears of War franchise, I've re-embraced the JRPG genre, I've expanded into the fields of the RTS, and platform games, all the while expanding my horizons while being called a "bitch" by a twelve year old in Savannah, Georgia over Xbox Live.

I owe a lot of people thanks for getting through this past year with The Full Circle and I think I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't take a moment to mention them.

Ramon: I'm not sure people appreciate the hard work that Ramon puts into 411Games. I know that he also does a hell of a lot for the sports/boxing sections but I don't spend enough time over there for the sake of this article lets just talk about Ramon's work here. When I took over the Full Circle last year the Games section was an after thought. This was, after all a wrestling website. In the 12 months that I've been here our numbers have gone through the roof – and while I've love to take credit for all of that the lions share of the props has to go to Ramon. He does a lot of stuff behind the scenes that no readers see, so he flies a bit under the radar but when dealing with a bunch of people like the 411Games crew Ramon has showed incredible patience (not the least of which has been expended on his dealings with me). He has turned this games section into a pretty popular place, and I owe him thanks for putting me on, giving me this opportunity and sticking with me during those times over the summer when my brain was melting and I couldn't get a quality column up on time.

Ashish: Ramon is the guy who has to put up with me on a daily basis, but Ashish is the mad genius who makes 411mania run. It was great for Ramon to give me this job, but it was Ashish who pointed me in his direction. I have absolutely no idea how Ashish keeps this place running from what I imagine is a sensibly decorated walk up apartment in a barrio somewhere, but I appreciate that he's given me a platform to talk about the games that I love and hasn't had Ramon kick me to the curb (yet).

Mrs. Circle: Let this be a lesson to all people who aspire to thank people someday – if you're married it's always the best bet to throw your wife on the list. My wife puts up with a lot out of me. She essentially lives in a nice house on a lake that she allows me to squat in because I don't have the income necessary to support myself (let alone my family). The fact that she also puts up with my desire to do nothing but play video games when I get home from work and then write about them for free is a miracle that I am thankful for every day. She's also contributed to this site through her playing of Madagascar 2 so that I didn't have to spend my time with the entire game. I'm sure it's not the most glamorous thing to tell people around the water cooler at work, that your husband, the attorney dreams of a day when he can just sit around playing video games and hearing "one shot deal" jokes all afternoon.

411Games Crew: This goes to Rod Oracheski, Drew Robbins, Derek Robbins, Mark Salmela, Todd Vote, John De Large, Greg Bruno, Adam Larck, Chad Alan, Armando Rodriguez, Sean Garmer, Theo Fraser, Jonny Richardson, Jordan Williams, Scott Simpson, Natalie Shoemaker, Trace Aber, Tommy Coloma, Jacob Lopez, John Curry and Chris Vicari and anyone else that I may have overlooked (completely unintentional…or was it?). I am lucky to be able to write with a group of writers that has as good a time as you all. Thanks for putting up with my inane emails and borderline inappropriate humor, keep up the good work and let's keep this place growing every week.

The Readers: It would be cliché for me to sit here and thank you guys for contributing, and for reading week in and week out – so for the sake of this becoming a bit mushy I'll skip that. Thanks for being vicious bastards at every turn. Thanks for being unapologetic fanboys and girls, and thanks for being ready to jump on me the minute I miss a gaff in my draft. Thanks for killing me when I try to liven up a Fact or Fiction, or Three Player Co-Op by saying something ridiculous like "graphics mean more then gameplay," and most of all thank you for making me better at what it is that I do. I hope that at some point you've actually wanted to read one of my columns because I know I can build on that.

Alright – that's all for this week. Year One is in the books and there is no looking back. I'm going to try and keep getting better, making this column more enjoyable and contributing as much as possible to the continued growth of 411Games in the year ahead.

Thanks again – see you all next week.

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Punching Out

Top 8 Greatest Boxing Games by Ryan Kaye (of the Sports Zone)

Working Title by Jordan Williams

What I Hate About You by John De Large

Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser

B3yond the Report by Derek Robbins

The PC Spotlight by Chris Vicari

The Release List by Tommy Coloma

Three Player Co-Op by Drew Robbins

The Gamer Girlfriend by Greg Bruno

411Games Top 5 by Todd Vote

Living LIVE by Trace Aber

Fact or Fiction by Ramon Aranda (feature Joe Roche this week)