Doom on Xbox Live, Jackson Making Halo Game

Microsoft is pulling out all the stops in its X06 Keynote today in Barcelona. The announcements are flying fast and furious: Ensemble studios is making a Halo RTS, and Peter Jackson is making a new Halo game (unrelated to Halo 3 or the RTS). The HD-DVD will be $200 in the U.S. with a release aimed at November of this year. They've got a good deal of 360 exclusive content including the next Splinter Cell and GTA IV Episodes, and (initially) Bioshock. Bioshock will also be on Windows, of course. Windows is also the platform on which Microsoft is announcing a new Massively Multiplayer game from Cryptic Studios, a new super-hero MMOG based on Marvel Comics' IP: Marvel Universe Online.

Thank God

I was wondering what I'm going to do with my Windows machine...

Re:"Leak"

People buy the Xbox to play Halo, get it? Not the other way around.

I'm glad, "People buy the Halo to play Xbox" wouldn't have made any sense at all...

Re:Thank God

There should be a law that if you have no sense of humor you shouldn't be allowed to make jokes.

ATTN: Peter Jackson !

Please don't work on the Halo thing until after The Hobbit.
Your actors aren't getting any younger.

backward-compatibility

What about the promises of backward-compatibility? Or did they forget about that again?

(yes I'm aware that they didn't specify how much of the library would be backward compatible... but 75% is reasonable, right? or whatever we have now + Psychonauts)

Marvel Universe

The MMOG sounds pretty neat. I will never play it (nothing like enough time) but it sounds like it has the potential to do quite well.

Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising!

Halo the toilet paper, Halo the lunchbox, Halo the flamethrower! (The kids love this one).

Good thing the game industry is such a source original thought and creativity.

What's that I hear?

I think I just heard Sony slit their wrists.

Really though...these are some big announcements and I haven't heard Sony coming with anything to match them yet.

Non FPS Halo games?

So for a non-initiate into the cult of Bungie, could some one please explain how they plan on making games that consist of sometihng OTHER then Master Chief running around blowing stuff up?

I know that Marathon and Halo are suposedly linked some how.
I know there is supposedly a plot to Halo (I could never actualy sit through one of the games to find out).

Just how could an RTS be made outta the HALO franchise?
And wth is Peter Jackson working on for HALO?

So friken confused.

There is actually a story to Halo

There is actually quite a bit of story in Halo and Halo 2, and certainly more than your typical FPS. There's enough in the "Halo universe" to spawn a few books as well, not to mention the Halo movie that Peter Jackson is working on.

I'm not a Bungie cultist myself (although I have a friend that works there), but I think there is definately enough to like in the Halo universe, if you're a general sci-fi fan like I am. And if you don't, there's nothing wrong with avoiding what you don't like.

As for people yelling at MS to be more original, and to stop milking the franchise for all it's worth, you can easily say the same for Nintendo's games. How many Zelda, Metroid, and Mario games have there been? And how many of them have been good? Plenty. Franchises != the suck.

Misread

Did anyone else read that title and think: "Sweet. Steve Jackson [sjgames.com] is going to make a Halo game!"

Noooo!! Not my beloved GTA! :(

"They've got a good deal of 360 exclusive content including the next Splinter Cell and GTA IV Episodes, and (initially) Bioshock."

Ooh this makes me so mad. Curse you, Microsoft! CURSE YOOOUUU!!!! *shakes fist*

Ho Hum

Still no MMP M.U.L.E.

Halo RTS

Didn't the Halo idea start as an RTS for the Mac eons ago? I've seen a video where the developers were commenting about an RTS which had Halo-based units.

Talk about coming full circle.

Halogen

What we all suspected when Microsoft issued a cease and desist to the modders behind Halogen (the Halo themed Command and Conquer mod) has turned out to be a reality. You have to give props to MS for responding to all of the interest for a Halo RTS by creating their own (albeit based on the Age of Empires engine). The official site has already launched with trailers and screenshots (mostly prerendered) at http://www.halowars.com [halowars.com].

Doom, still going to cost you.a bit.

Doom costs 800 points.. that's 10 dollars for those of us who don't remember the conversion.

Seriously XBLA used to be a place to get cheap legacy games, and interesting unique games, now with every game coming out at 800 points it's sad. I'm probably going to end up buying doom at some point, but while it was a impulse buy at 400 (1.25 per episode, 4 episodes) I'm going to have to consider it now.

Any game that's older than 10 years needs to either have significantly new gameplay (not just co-op, time pilot, but you were 400 points so I love you more) for a 10 dollar investment.

First level 60 superhero

Spider-man.. Spider-man.. does whatever a Spider can...

THREE UNDEAD ROGUES APPEAR

Cheap shot! Cheap shot! Ambush crit!

"OH NOES SPIDEY USE YOUR WEBZ!"

"HE CAN'T! HE WAS BLINDED/KIDNEY SHOTTED/GOUGED/VANISHED/CHEAP SHOTTED FIFTEEN TIMES!!"

"EEEEERRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZ!!" /laugh /spit /dance /violin /vanish /vanish /vanish

Can't wait.

What about a 360 MMORPG?!?

Forget about yet another Windows MMORPG (yet another "WoW Killer" no doubt), what about a Xbox 360 MMORPG?!?! Every since Live came online for the original xbox, we've been waiting fore this and so far, zilch. It's the perfect plaform for it to, the built-in speech capabilities would make raiding and teaming-up easy (and no need to find additional software or pay for a teamspeak server, either)

And, don't give me that "FFXI" bullshit, either. That was just a poor port of the PC version ("Wait, I need a USB keyboard to talk, WTF?!?!?!"). If I wanted to return to the year 2000, I'd buy it. But I want a modern, *REAL* MMORPG.

-Eric

Re:What about a 360 MMORPG?!?

When you're chatting around the water cooler with your friends at work do you need a fucking keyboard?!?!

"Yes"

-Stephen Hawking

1.1

Did anyone else listen to the ilovebees story? A game featuring Janissary James and the other 1.1s could be amazing. Especially if Durga was involved.

Marvel MMOG

Now that the Marvel MMOG is back on, I'm not quite sure how to feel. I was pretty upset when I heard that it was getting shelved, but then I went out and bought City of Heroes/Villains (which was developed by the people who are making the Marvel MMOG).

I am a recovering WoW-head who switched to CoH/V for a change in scenery, and I have to say that the change wasn't necessarily pleasant. CoH/V has some great qualities that WoW can't match, but it also fails miserably when you try to compare the gameplay experience. Can anyone else weigh in on this comparison?

The character creation in CoH is obviously much better. You can fully customize the look of your hero/villain. In terms of looks and ease of use, I have never used a better character creation tool. I could create all the different heroes/villains that I wanted. That was nice, after WoW, where high level characters of each class wear pretty much the same armor (ie every lock in a AQ raid has just enough pieces of the Nemesis set to look vaguely alike).

The graphics in the games are pretty much a pickem. CoH looks more realistic, but has nowhere near the sense of style that WoW has.

And the most disappointing thing in CoH is the gameplay. If you WoW players think you know what grinding is, you have no idea. CoH/V redefines grinding. It brings grinding to a whole new level (unfortunately, not literally). And this is where I'm woirried.

If the Marvel MMOG has the same kind of ridiculously slow and repetitive gameplay, it will be a huge failure. Anyone else feel the same? Think I'm an idiot?

Re: Jackson Making Halo Game

Do you HAVE to be a boy under 12 in order to play it?


Oups... wrong Jackson.

And Sony is too expensive?

Okay ... so I can spend $400 for an XBox360, and $200 for the HD-DVD player, and I get a game console that uses DVDs, and an HD-DVD player, both of which sit taking up space. ... all for the same price as the 'high-end' PS3.

Not bad, but it seems like Sony made the right move to integrate the drive into the console so it takes up less space, and can relied on as 'standard' hardware to released games on. It might not be the perfect system today, but it has a lot more room to grow, and will be looking a lot better within the next year or two (pretty early in its life-cycle), while the 360 might start seeming long in the tooth.

[rant]
I've read a lot of articles about people complaining about it, and saying it should be optional, but since when is that any different then any other console?

Complaining about not wanting the PS3 w/BluRay is equivalent to complaining about the PS2 w/DVD, or the DS with a second screen (i.e. "I think the touch screen idea is nice, but I only want to get one with one screen that is a touch screen. They should be able to release it that way and drop the price. Those who WANT the second screen can buy it as an add-on that plugs into the hand-held.")

If you want a PS3, get it on their terms, the same way as any other Console. If you don't, be happy there are other options, and get a Wii, XBox360, or Coleco-vision if that floats your boat. The PS3 isn't a monopoly like windows, and they have a right to include/exclude anything they want in their system. [/rant]

Re:And Sony is too expensive?

Don't think of it as being about Blu-Ray, necessarily. It's not. Really, it's about the price. $600 (or $580, if you count the 20% of production that will be priced at $500) is, to many people too much money. It's really that simple.

Blu-Ray is something that many people aren't excited about that also drives the price up and the production quantity down - this makes it the obvious target for people who don't want/aren't willing/can't afford to shell out $580 for a game console before purchasing even a single game (much less any of the usual hardware accessories).

Had the DS been sold at $500, with the only obvious thing that might account for its far-above-the-competition price the second screen, then yes, you would have heard similar complaints about it. If the Wii was priced at $500 because of problems with the Wiimote, then you'd be hearing similar complaints about that.

Say what you want about how great Blu-Ray is, or how it's actually for games, not for pushing Sony's pet format, or whatever else you want to say about it. But what it comes down to is that, for (seemingly) a lot of people, $580 is just too damn much money. And it doesn't matter how cool Blu-Ray is if the price is more than people are willing to pay.

The most unnecessary phrase ever

"Windows is also the platform on which Microsoft is announcing a <insert anything here>."

Dude... please take a freshman composition class, or middle school English... anything would help.

I can do this too. Let's see... "Water is probably what made this <object> wet."

HD DVD Attachment

The price for the attachment isnt so bad. I was at my local Circuit City and HD DVD players are costing more than what Microsoft is charging for this attachment. I also talked to the sales person about blue ray DVD's but when i went to the section where they are selling them there were hardly any movies for sale on that platform yet. I have no idea which will take the lead HD DVD or Blueray? Any opionions on this

That explains the recent Cease & Desist

This completely explains the cease & desist that was sent to that Halo RTS mod team earlier this month...

GTA IV Episodes? That also explains why Sony got their act together finally with the online stuff. It'd be a shame for them to completely lose that exclusive.

Re:That's It?

Halo RTS was left to the homebrew crowd until about 3 weeks ago, when they were sent a C&D letter from Microsoft. [slashdot.org]

Re:How many Halos are we supposed to play at once?

Judging from sequel- and spinoff- sales, I think most of the world disagrees with you.

And as long as the games as good, I think most gamers would disagree with you.

Re:How many Halos are we supposed to play at once?

Yeah! Spinoffs suck!! Like, say, Starcraft, World of Warcraft (what a blunder!!!), the whole Mario franchise (Donkey Kong spinoff), those are just to name a few of the most egregious "brand dilutions." What morons, eh?

m-

Sorry, No RC3

EA bought Dice, and Microsoft Game Studios owns the RC series. If there's another RC in the future, it won't be made by Dice.

I find this particularly sad because I, too, loved the second iteration.

Re:Please bring out Rallisport Challenge 3!!!!

Better than Archon? I fail to see how any racing game, no matter its qualities, can be better than Archon. Most strategy games aren't better than Archon.