Microsoft Gets 30-Day Exclusivity for Skyrim DLC
A press release sent from Bethesda today has revealed that "The first two add-on content drops for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be releasing exclusively on Xbox 360, 30 days before it's available anywhere else," (check out Joystiq for the full PR text). The developer has a track record for extensive post-launch DLC content, and the scope and scale of DLC for Skyrim look to be the hugest yet (Todd Howard's interview with AusGamers sheds some light on DLC plans).
So all you PS3 and PC Elder Scrolls fanatics who just gotta have the DLC now now now are SOL. I would be very interested to see sales statistics for moves like this, and how many multiplatform owners choose to get the 360 version instead of the PS3 or PC version, just so they can get the DLC right away. Are there really that many multiplatform owners for that to make a difference? It's doubtful that many people who weren't already in the market for a 360 are going to jump up and buy one just for this deal. And if the numbers don't really yield all that much competitive advantage for the 360, then it just seems like kind of a dick move on Microsoft's (and Bethesda's) part.
Seems to be a lot of that going around right now.
Dungeon Siege III preview
It's been awhile since since a Dungeon Siege title hit the scene. This one marks the franchise's first foray into the console market, and Obsidian Entertainment has taken the helm for this transition over from original developer Gas Powered Games (with Square Enix taking over publishing duties from Microsoft Game Studios). If that makes fans of the PC series wince, I'm here to tell you that while Dungeon Siege III preserves much of the concepts of its forebears, I couldn't shake how strikingly similar the game "feels" to X-men Legends and its successors, only with fewer playable characters and more equipment tinkering. That's not a negative criticism at all - I loved those games - and it's certainly a well-executed, solid, basic, co-op centric dungeon crawler that will satisfy you if you're having a major craving for isometric swords and sorcery. But otherwise, I find myself balking at the idea of dropping a full $60 on it.
E3: All-new games on the horizon to watch for
Obviously E3 always comes with an avalanche of news and information about games, some new and some merely updates to games that were already announced. For right now, I'm going to focus on games for which the announcement was just made in the last few days, and disregard the likes of Batman: Arkham City and Aliens: Colonial Marines (much as I might ravenously anticipate them). Catch a quick list of all-new titles that have caught my eye so far after the jump, complete with trailers because I know what you ladies like.
E3: Microsoft shows some love to Kinect
Of the 16 completely new games announced at Microsoft's press conference yesterday, including a batch of 5 smaller Xbox Live Arcade titles, 8 of them were either Kinect-required or Kinect-enabled. Of the 27 games that were either announced or receiving some sort of feature-unveiling, 11 involved Kinect in one way or another. So for those of you who dropped some hard-earned cash on the watchful little peripheral and were greeted with impressive but rather unfulfilling minigame compilations, breathe a sigh of relief that Microsoft seems to at least attempt to follow through on evolving how the technology integrates into games. I'll break down specific titles after the jump.
Microsoft leaks Halo 4
I have to admit I didn't see this one coming. A pre-E3 screenshot on Xbox.com confirms that Halo 4 is in the works (good eye, NowGamer). If you're looking for details, well...that's it. It's worth noting that this new title is apparently completely separate from Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the HD remastering of the original game that launched the franchise.
The Halo series is an old favorite, but this news leaves me a mixture of stoked and confused. Halo 4 seems to be coming pretty hot on the tracks of Reach, which leaves me wondering what relationship, if any, Bungie will have with the franchise going forward. The torch for running the Halo servers was passed at least in part to 343 Industries, a Microsoft underling who is also handling the HD remake. I would assume they're at the helm of this project as well.
On a more geeky note, despite Halo 3's tease of Master Chief and Cortana crashing landing into new adventures on a mystery planet, I actually liked the finality of the trilogy's conclusion. It seemed fitting for this hero inspired by Greek history and mythology to pass into legend taking his rest among the stars, accompanied only by his watchful muse. It also looks like the above screenshot picks up right where we left off with them. Master Chief is clearly too much of a cash cow to let him stay asleep, so it looks like Cortana will wake him when she needs him sooner than I thought.
Update: The game is set to land in 2012, and will be the start of a new trilogy. Oh, by the way, check out the trailer.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to include Kinect functionality
According to some leaked box art, the next edition of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon series, due in 2012, will be Kinect enabled - "better with Kinect sensor," to be precise (Xbox360Achievements.org via That VideoGame Blog). This juicy info confirms some rumor-mongering from last year, that the Kinect functionality would be optional, used for things like hand signals that would translate into game commands.
This seems to me to be an excellent use of the Kinect's impressive technology to augment the player's relationship with the controls, a way to sort of combine the precision of buttons and sticks with the added dimension of body movement. There's no reason the Kinect can't be used with a game that still requires a player to hold a controller. In fact, I could see that being the future of this technology. For now, I can imagine a seated player using arm signals to command AI allies, or perhaps to avoid the need to speak via headset in multiplayer, something they could design to be audible to nearby human opponents.
In the future, I can see how a game could operate with a player standing and using entire body motions, while still operating buttons, thumbsticks, and triggers in each hand like the Wiimote + Nunchuck or the PlayStation Move stuff. This advancement would seem to me to be a necessary one, since Kinect's full abilities - while technologically impressive - are hard to extrapolate into games beyond the minigame compilations currently available.
Silicon Knights to Continue Too Human Trilogy, Still No Word on Eternal Darkness
Before the surprising resurgence of Duke Nukem Forever, the cyber Norse-styled Too Human held the title for mythic, epic game with a decade-long development time, the actual release of which was long assumed to be mere folklore. Then this videogame Bigfoot stepped out of the grainy, blurry photographs of hoax into the hands of gamers, and its legendary journey to daylight only served to exacerbate its poor reception. Now, Silicon Knights President Denis Dyack explained in an exclusive with IndustryGamers "We intend to finish the trilogy but no comment beyond that... You know, there's very public litigation around that."
The "public litigation" part refers to Silicon Knights's lawsuit against Epic Games, which charges that the copy of Epic's Unreal Engine provided to SK was incomplete, forcing them to rebuild the engine themselves. This wrangling did nothing to help the game's schedule or its final version, but Too Human's problems were more than physics. It's hard to tell if SK's determination to plow forward with the series is admirable dauntlessness or just folly - or perhaps with so much time and investment sunk into the first one, they simply have no choice.
My take on the game was less harsh than most, I saw some promise. If Too Human 2 can keep from fumbling the execution, maybe figure out a better system for the camera and work in 4-player co-op, this series's comeback story could be as epic as its downfall.
Atlus’ “Adult Thriller” Catherine Officially Coming to the U.S.
Every now and then, something comes along that makes even a mega-geek like me clench my fists and snarl "NEERRRRRDDDS!" Atlus's Catherine is one such item. The game's announcement made a splash at TGS last year for its weird, erotic trailers and out-of-left-field action/puzzle gameplay. The collective "WTF?" was quickly followed by excitement and then disappointment as Americans saw no planned release for North America. No surprise there, this weirdness is the kind that rarely ventures outside of its native Japan.
Yankees, Canucks...commence salivating like I know you do for anime babes. Atlus has confirmed a U.S. release for Catherine in Summer '11 (via The Escapist), for PS3 and Xbox 360. Honestly, I applaud Atlus for the potentially-risky move of bringing an unconventional sort of title stateside, and I'm interested to see if it delivers on its mind-trip thriller promise. The U.S. of A. unfortunately has a reputation of being a poor market for goofy/sexy games.
Microsoft to prioritize Kinect in 2011
Speaking to CVG about the 360's immediate plans, Microsoft's director of Xbox and Entertainment for the UK Stephen McGill promised that the software scheduled next year ensures that 2011 will "ultimately be all about Kinect. Kinect is going to blow people's minds. They're buying it, but we've got a line-up of Kinect games that will blow people away."
I suppose that boast comes as good news to only some of us, and others, not so much. Having finally had a crack at Kinect myself, I'm surprised to say I am very, very impressed with the technology. This is the first time motion gaming on consoles has actually made me get up and move in a way that was promised back when the Wii debuted. Although my athletic glory days are well behind me, I'm still a reasonably in-shape dude, but I had a bead of sweat or two after playing the soccer goalie minigame. I also may have accidentally punched through a ceiling panel while throwing an uppercut and shouting "SHORYUKEN!" during boxing.
Good times were had, but I can't shake the fact that I've yet to see a killer app for Kinect that takes it beyond (admittedly fun) minigame fare. McGill assures us the software lineup will deliver, so I want to see how it delivers a full-length, large-scale title for which getting up and moving my limbs improves my relationship to the game and how I control it. Kinect's technology has blown me away. Now give me an actual game that will do the same.
Indie developers seek to repair Xbox Live Indie Games image
Xbox Live Indie Games has garnered a reputation for being an unpredictable roulette wheel of weirdness, failure, and several real gems, so a coalition of indie developers are out to give it a little PR boost. The Indie Games Winter Uprising (via The Escapist) wants to start "fighting back against mediocrity and lameness the best way we know how - by releasing amazing games!" The first week of December will see a list of titles go up for sale for 80 to 400 Microsoft points (about $1.00 to $5.00), including a Soulcaster sequel, a secksy dual-stick shmup that emphasizes the tried-and-true combination of large guns and boobs, and something called Asteroids Do Concern Me. Well, they concern me too, buddy.
The Uprising is currently 14 games strong, and the biggest headline-grabber so far is Ska Studios's ZP2KX: Zombies and Pterodactyls!, sequel to ZP2K9. You might recognize Ska Studios from (cut-and-paste is my friend) I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 1NIT!!!1 and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. With indie pedigree like that, this Winter Uprising should have enough legs to storm the gates and kick the doors in.
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