Quote: "Holy crap didn't see that coming!
MS just announced at their E3 conference that FFXIII is going to be released on 360."
There were rumours, kinda knew they would put a Final Fantasy on the 360 (other than FFXI) but for it to actually be the same game that the PS3 was getting AND for the announcement that it would be released the same day! Yeah that one was definately something I don't think anyone was expecting.
Another thing that really threw me was the new Dashboard design. Not so much because they're doing it; because it was really common knowledge they were, but more the fact of the design they've gone with. That was a bit odd.. We'll see how well it pans out. Might work, might not. I'm going to hazard a guess and believe only those 12yo retards who spoil my Halo 3 online experience and are the sole reason I don't play GTA4 online like EVER, will be the only ones to claim it's an awesome innovation.
I truely hope that there is a choice given to gamers, and they go back to the design we had at work with the expanded design of the new blades system (which is very very briefly seen at the end of their dashboard presentation)
Hopefully the Avatar concept remains core to Xbox Live Arcade titles, as it is now. I mean the concept is cool, and fun especially the obvious ripp-off of both WiiMii and Playstation:Home ... which has a few of my friends bitching at me about actually, but then I keep telling them. Xbox is Microsoft, all Microsoft do is rip off other companies and improve their concepts. It's how they began their business, why change a habit of a lifetime that makes money?
It's only once in a while that Microsoft actually create a service themselves that is actually innovative. Oddly enough those are the ones that usually fail business-wise.
I'm looking forward when the new changes to the social aspect of the dashboard are incorporated; but I do hope that the look ends up an experiment rather than perminant. Especially considering the way they've done it really accents the online movies and televisions downloadable content, something that Xbox UK just has failed to deliver the same in this country.
So I can see a whole (can I even call them blades anymore?) just being completely pointless here. I mean sure the 360 as a replacement to my cable box would be could; but while the North America territory has been enjoying this for the past 12months-ish they have still yet to deliver in the UK. Despite Microsoft's partnerships with BT and VirginMedia.
It's difficult to get excited about a service we've been promised for a while, and while the rest of the world gets to use it we're left wondering what the big fuss is about.
Something I do want to comment on is Gears of War 2, has blown my expectations. It really has. Epic for once have set themselves some high goals and actually been able to deliver. The videos so-far show all the enhancements including entire legions of Locust without any apparent framerate dips. I've heard nothing but praise for the new multiplayer features. The story also seems to be a bit more epic and fleshed out rather than their original concept of a number of set-peices that didn't really flow but were good fun.
Only thing that does really disappoint is still only 2 player co-op story mode. They could've easily expanded that, especially with 5 main characters now.
Resident Evil 5 also was quite impressive. Going in to the presentation for that title, I was expecting well Resident Evil 4 with a new setting. While for the most part that's true, the new co-op gameplay elements will really start to shine through I think and there seems to be some improvements in the quite slow-paced control system of before. Although they've not mentioned any multiplayer just yet, from the new aspects I wouldn't say it should be ruled out especially with over 6months of development left.
Fable 2, well same-old same-old. Peter Molyneux came out saying it was finished. Great ... so why do we have to wait 3months again?
I have a feeling this is completely down to wanting to release it during the Holiday season; but frankly they'll be competeing directly against The Force Unleashed, which is a BAAAAAAAAAAAAD idea.
Don't get me wrong Fable is popular but damn have they SEEN The Force Unleashed?!
Sorry but the opening two scenes of the trailer released last week really explain it all for The Force Unleashed.
The opening scene is a lightsaber slicing through a tree ripping it apart going straight through one wookie while another is impaled by the huge splintered shard of what was the tree.
The second scene is the main characters lifting an AT-ST in the air, crumpling it like a beer can before tossing it away like paper.
You add in to that the story looks to be very involving and that you actually get to play Vader at the start and fight him during the game. To me while you're playing what is basically "the bad guys" there is far more depth for the story to go where LucasArts have really have been allowed to shine. I don't get hyped for many games, in-fact there are only two right now that have me truely excited. The Force Unleashed though is one of them, it's like being 12years old again rushing to Game to get a copy of Elite 2 : Frontier on launch day after school.
The other title that has me truely amped is Mirror's Edge. It's one thing to say "our game is a first person", it is something truely extraordinary to actually pull off that look and feel for everything.. especially with melee combat involved! The Parkour aspects also are extremely interesting. It's like DICE took two of my favourite games Oni and Tomb Raider and decided to blend them together with the first person narative and gameplay style of Half-Life. If unlike other DICE games the controls don't feel removed and weak, that game is probably going to end up one of those titles that might not sell well; but will be a true landmark. A bit like without Kill.Switch no one would've really thought of a 3rd person shooter where you *must* use cover as a good idea.
After watching the Nintendo briefing, although I'd say far more interesting than their last... and obvious fun for them. They still are offering nothing new for gamers like myself. If anything they seem to be alienating us further and further by hitting that casual market harder and harder. Good for Nintendo.. I guess. Atleast they're making money now and I'm glad their doing well, but they now feel like a friend I've had for years but just drifted apart from cause we've changed.
I'm sure one of you will go into more depth about what they showed.
Currently as I missed it (cause I was at work), I'm waiting for them to get the Sony Press Conference up on archived LiveWire.
Still kinda hoping Bioware announce their new MMO, what new Star Wars title they're working on; as well as some teaser info on Mass Effect 2. I don't think we'll see that or Perfect Dark "Vector" until GDC, but I could be wrong. Also surprised that Blizzard haven't made any more new available about Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2; or what they're going to do with the WoW Universe next.
I can't wait until tomorrow with the Dawn of War 2 information. That game looks like a very worthy successor despite the jaded history of the previous game due to piracy problems.
I would say a big topic of GDC:London will definately be the rising piracy on the PC market. Although I'd agree that most of the time this is down to ppl wanting to know if a game will run on their computer (like Crysis) or it isn't available in certain regions (like Assasins Creed) or just that the normal anti-piracy measures cause legitimate users to have to see other means to play a title they've spend £40/$60 on (like Bioshock) ... this is actually becoming a true epidemic now to the point where developers are starting to bail out of the PC market, or releasing on the PC market to test to see response more than looking at it as a primary market in itself.
Microsoft, Valve and Activision recently have been making noises about measures they're looking to start using to prevent this; but I think the real main culpret is availability and price.
If you can't get a boxed copy, most will pirate. I personally can justify paying £40 for a game at a store to have a physical copy. I can't however justify paying the same price for a digital copy, and will ALWAYS wait for the price to drop; but if lots of people are saying "It's an awesome game.." sites like Pirate Bay (and others) are just too conveniant and so much of a temptation that honestly it is what many I know will go to when they truely want something.
There is something that needs to be done, although personally I can't think of any reasonable method that would work past actually legitimising piracy. Ritual actually became a victim of piracy of this method with Sin Episodes, as they found over 75% of the people contacting technical support were using pirated versions that was cracked by a Chinese team called Paradox.
The game only ended up selling 100,000 copies prior to Ritual basically having to get bought out by Modojo (which was a causal games offshoot of original Ritual developers) compared to the recorded 350,000 at time of that buy-out who were actually playing the game. It was the difference between the company staying in business and falling.
While piracy isn't hitting the larger companies as hard it's something that had budget or independant companies very conserned especially with rising development times and costs.
A method I feel would probably work would be to release a version of the titles in a broken state, either bugs that were yet fixed or deliberate issues. Ritual knew by issues people were having, bugs that didn't appear in the retail versions who was pirating the game when they contacted technical support.
If with the technical support they then have in the FAQ or via technical support basically a system that notes that the issue is they're using a pirated version. Then lead them to a website that via a browser plug-in or such would them patch and fix the bug but that particular program would force them to register and pay for the correction aspects (which they'd have to remain online for them to stay in effect); or simply tell them they could purchase the actual title.
This would be a good way of cutting down the number of pirates. Not in the sense of "oh it'll stop it" but more that people would loose faith in a cracked version they find being legitimately cracked by the public or one of these planted cracked versions.
It would also work very well as it would take a number of weeks for the public to realise these are not legitimate cracked versions; as such the guys who do this stuff won't try to do it from launch. So ya know more about the psychological break-down rather than the current strong-arm tactics currently employed.
You put a case around a cupcake and people will always do their best to actually get it just to say they can. You place several cupcakes on clear display most of which make ppl ill if they take them while keeping the real thing where they can't access without paying; you'll find more will buy and stop trying to just take them.
Of-course regional issues are still a huge problem and you'll find less people will pirate if they can just get their hands on something; it's funny really but it's more western culture that is about trying to get something for nothing... most in the east just can't afford what we sell. I think developers only have to look at how they retail games in China, India and Korea to notice; it's a very different way of selling titles.
