Team Originals is about to get another member added to the roster, according to the Gamescore Blog. On July 21, Jade Empire will be added to Xbox Originals -- the downloadable portal for Xbox titles on the Live Marketplace. BioWare's role-player adventure of martial arts and mystical powers will run gamers the standard 1200MS points. The version made available is the standard edition of the game as the limited edition has had issues with Xbox backwards compatibility in the past. Oh, and before you ask, yes there are dialog trees in the game. We are talking about a BioWare game, remember? Sorry, no blue aliens.
Alongside Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts at the Microsoft press reception earlier this week was Lionhead's anticipated Fable 2. For the first time, I was able to test out all of the game's combat options, perform social interactions -- including playing with the adorable dog -- and glimpse the game's story, which once again begins during the hero's childhood. While much has been said about how Fable 2 innovates on the concepts in the first game, what I really took away from the demo is that the game is essentially just more of what was great aboutthe original Fable with plenty of refinements. In other words, it's good stuff with more good stuff added to it.Read on for new hands on details.
Since it was first announced, it was made clear that Ensemble Studios' goal in creating Halo Wars was to do for real time strategy games what Halo did for first person shooters: take a genre predominantly played on the PC and make it work on a console. Bridging the gap between a console controller and the combination of keyboard and mouse is no easy task. Beyond that, RTS games just don't feel like they belong on consoles. So, Ensemble set out to build an RTS title for the Xbox 360 from the ground up, a game designed to work with a controller and work. Did Ensemble do it? Based on my time with the E3 demo, I'm inclined to say yes.
During a special reception last night -- held at the same venue as the Gears of War 2 reception -- Microsoft allowed the press to get their grubby mitts on Rare's upcoming Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts. The game has already been the center of some criticism from gamers, especially fans of the Banjo Kazooie series. Most of the coverage of the game thus far has dealt with the game's unique vehicle creation system, which allows players to build vehicles from dozens of mix and match parts, LEGO style. For those hoping this article contains a revelation regarding the platforming in Nuts & Bolts, we regret to inform you that the game's hub world -- where most of the platforming takes place -- was not available for play at the event. Here's the good news though, the vehicle creation is really, really fun.
In an interview with MTV Multiplayer blog Microsoft's head of Xbox Don Mattrick confirmed that Bungie is working on a new Halo title. Mattrick told MTV that Bungie's next title wasn't revealed because Microsoft felt they had enough content and excitement surrounding its other announcements (Sup, Final Fantasy XIII).
When pressed on the lack of Halo news, specifically regarding Ensemble Studio's real-time title, Halo Wars, Matrrick told MTV not to worry and announcements would be coming and then let it slip that Bungie is working on a Halo title.
Matrrick then clarified that the Bungie project is not related to Halo Wars or the the long-announced Peter Jackson project, codenamed Halo: Chronicles.
Was this the 10:07 AM PT announcement, the rumored Halo-based tactical shooter or were they the same?
A few hours prior to the madness that has become of the Bungie Announcement cancellation, Joystiq had a chance to speak to newly appointed general manager of Microsoft Game Studios Phil Spencer. The bad news, writes Joystiq, is no one was aware of the impending "changed" announcement agenda at the time but the good news is Joystiq was wise enough to ask why Bungie was left out of the press conference and about Microsoft's publishing partnership with the famed developer.
Spencer: "Our relationship with Bungie was always about a triple-A creative studio building content for our platform, and our working relationship brought about Halo 1, Halo 2, Halo 3 – which I think are great games. If that's the core of the relationship, creative people building content for our platforms, I don't think the relationship has changed. We have a relationship with a very talented studio who wants to create games for Xbox.
When Joystiq inquired about Bungie's teaser site and possible E3-timed reveal Spencer had some interesting comments on the matter. Jump in for more.
We're still getting our Gears of War 2 reception at E3. We've gotten a chance to play the game's multiplayer. So far, it's good stuff, and we imagine Gears fans will be pleased. We need to soak up a little bit more before we write up our impressions. In the meantime, check out a gallery of the event itself. Sorry, we're totally barred from capturing any shots of the screens, so you'll have to settle for pictures of the swanky club, Ciudad, where the event is being held in LA. Enjoy.
We'll add more pictures to the gallery when we get a chance.
You see that? You know what that is? That's a Dustin Burg experiencing pure elation. We're at Microsoft's Gears of War 2 reception. We are playing Gears of War 2. Specifically, we're checking out multiplayer, including the new survival co-op mode called Horde. We'll have impressions up sometime tonight, along with a gallery of the proceedings. You've been warned.
After sinking tens of dollars into research and development, our attempts to accelerate time and start E3 early have failed. As we can't force time to go faster -- not for lack of trying -- we'll just have to settle with a few digital hors d'oeuvres to tide us over in the meantime. And, since Halo Wars is definitely one of the must play games on our list, why don't we make those digital snacks some fresh, hot out of the capture station screenshots? We only have threenewshots but, again, since we cannot change the irrevocable flow of time, they'll have to do. Enjoy them in the gallery below.
Fable 2 community guru Sam has posted a hopeful (and obviously tired) developer blog over at the Lionhead community site. It seems like the crew at Lionhead has been in crunch mode for quite, working late nights with no days off. Sam notes, "The work is done, sort of. Not really, but most of it is." We feel for them, we really do, but we must admit that's not the interesting part of the blog. This is: "E3, next week. A lot is going to be happening. You'll just have to wait and see what exactly, but if any of you say 'this wasn't worth it' I will chase you and burn down your house." Dare we hope that our Fable 2 online co-op prognostication will finally come to be? We already scratched off one of our bingo spaces, here's hoping for another.
Oh, and the game will be playable at E3 and, yes, we will be playing it.
The internet is all atwitter thanks to an IGN hosted video of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts that features Microsoft's Ken Lobb mentioning that players will "twist the controller" to perform actions in the game. The video also featured Kazooie shaking her controller, which some took as a hint. Sorry to disappint, but motion control in Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts just isn't so. We have received word from Gamerscore Blog's Chris Paladino who told us "all of the motion controller hopes and complaints regarding the Banjo video on IGN are false."
There you have it folks. Consider this rumor busted.
Update: We've received further comment from Microsoft just to make things extra clear. Per Microsoft: "There is no truth to this speculation. Ken's comment is in reference to rotating the left analog stick while hitting the X-button to move different things in the game." Can't get much clearer than that, now can we?
Really want to play some Fable 2 co-op but don't have a character to import? No problem! Revealed in an upcoming OXM UK article, Peter Molyneux has made it known that second players will be able to create and customize their own henchmen in a flash. Plugging in a second controller brings up a menu which then allows the second player to create a new henchman and carry on playing. Sounds like just the ticket for some casual gaming friends who don't want to bother creating their own full character. The full Fable 2 preview will be in the next issue of the UK's Official Xbox Magazine, which goes on sale tomorrow. We expect details of that article will hit the net shortly thereafter, so stay tuned.
The Gears of War 2 footage is flowing again, only this time, it's all Epic approved (and direct feed). We've got a Gears of War 2 gameplay mashup, an interview with lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, and also a high quality version of the video included on the Unreal Tournament III disc. In Cliff's interview, he notes that he wants Gears 2 to be very memorable, stating, "We really want players to feel like they're playing a Hollywood blockbuster experience start to finish." In addition, he says that the environments in the game will be more varied than the first, ranging from underground tunnels (old!) to snow covered mountains (new!). Also mentioned in the interview, over 400 "tweaks" have been made to improve the cover system. Finally, the chainsaw can be used to cut through obstructions and reach new areas.
But enough reading. Start watching! Find the other two videos after the break.
Keeping tabs on the Lionhead Studios website, as we are wont to do, we noticed that the website was down for a significant amount of time last week for upgrades. It is now live once again sporting fancy new layouts and even a new feature or two. Undoubtedly, the biggest new feature is the Tales of Albion, which is essentially a digital story book. You can crack it open and read the first section entitled "Fragments of the Old Kingdom," which tells the story of Albion's past. Two other sections -- "Fall of the Heroes" and "Travels in Today's Albion" -- will detail events that occurred between the first Fable and Fable 2. If you're a Fable nut, go check it out.
This generation of games has seen the average price for a title rise to $59.99, so when a game looks to possibly be released at a price point lower than that, we take notice. Over at Gamestop's website, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise and Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Boltsare both currently listed at the price of $39.99. Now while this could just be a simple error (Amazon has themboth at $59.99), we'd like to hope that there's more going on ...
The rest of this is only speculation, but there are a few connections between the two games. They're both from Rare and so they're both Microsoft first party games. Now it could just be wishful thinking, but we'd like to hope that Microsoft might be willing taking a bit of a profit hit on these two to get them to be must-buys for a larger audience of gamers (read: kids).
