Official X06 Roundup

ALx · Post by **ALx** » 28 Sep 2006 09:17 am

I'm most excited about sensi soccer getting released on xbla, original has always been the best. Hopefully they'll look at releasing more Amiga games such as Moonstone or Speedball!

Shaneus · Post by **Shaneus** » 28 Sep 2006 09:20 am

PS Who else went for the impulse buy and picked up Doom this morning?

mech · Post by **mech** » 28 Sep 2006 09:25 am

Twiztid Elf wrote:"We're not forcing movie technology on game players"
Says it all really.

Stop being such a motherfucking retard.

re: Guitar Hero 2 - maaaaaaaaan I was hoping to hold on to my PS2 controller and re-use that... maybe I can sell it and grab two for the 360 version.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 28 Sep 2006 09:32 am

hehe i held out getting the ps2 version, i knew there would be a next gen edition coming soon, no point wasting money on a controller that can't be used in future over the next few years.

The graphics from the next gen version look improved too, which is a nice bonus.

mech · Post by **mech** » 28 Sep 2006 09:36 am

Alan Wake does look amazing.

And I want Mass Effect, BAD. Saw a video of it on a video podcast the other day and phwoar, it looked stunning. Loved KOTOR so I can't wait.

360 generation. Fuck the Wii and PS3

Texas · Post by **Texas** » 28 Sep 2006 09:37 am

lestat wrote: • A landmark partnership between Academy Award-winning writer,
director, and producer Peter Jackson, Academy Award-winning screenwriter Fran Walsh, and Microsoft Game Studios will create two new interactive entertainment series exclusively for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live®.
The first will be a collaborative effort with Bungie Studios to co-create the next great chapter in the Halo® universe.
The second will be an entirely original property targeted at bringing new audiences into the captivating world of interactive entertainment. In addition, Microsoft Game Studios will partner with Jackson and Walsh to establish Wingnut Interactive, a studio dedicated to the creation of world-class interactive entertainment.

Is this Halo 3, or something else???? Halo Movie Game?

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 28 Sep 2006 09:40 am

I'm actually quite excited for the Halo movie, knowing that peter jackson is quite involved in the project means the movie won't suck and could actually be one of the greatest sci fi flicks in a long time.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of wingnut studios, we still have fable2 to be shown and announced, more awesome news is coming.

AgOnNy · Post by **AgOnNy** » 28 Sep 2006 10:13 am

I really really really want a new Battletoads game to be announced. They always had great co-op action, weapons and story. A game like that being next gen would be awesome, imagine the interative environments, co-op, online play it would fucking ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!

Shaneus · Post by **Shaneus** » 28 Sep 2006 10:40 am

Halo Wars trailer
PGR4 trailer

Yeah... not sure what I think of the PGR4 idea. Hopefully doesn't reflect on the full game. Mind you, what else can you do once you've covered pretty much every major city? I'd <3 to see some more exotic cities rather than a futuristic landscape though... Dubai, perhaps?

Muzza · Post by **Muzza** » 28 Sep 2006 10:52 am

I think the PGR4 is just what it is, a trailer. I didnt get an impression that it will be based in a futuristic setting at all!

Halo Wars Trailer looked good!

So mUch stuff to look forward too.

Guitar Heroes 2
Banjo
PGR4
Bioshock
Sensible
Mass Effect

Its going to be a good year 2007

EDIT: I really want to see what Marvel Universe Online will be like.

jizzlobber · Post by **jizzlobber** » 28 Sep 2006 11:04 am

exactly, pgr4 was just an announcement video... if you see the "futuristic setting" you'll instantly know they would never make a game like that.
This will be the PGR we know and love, don't worry about that

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 28 Sep 2006 11:18 am

You know i would love to see a pgr with fantasy tracks/cities. could be interesting.

Most importantly i want to see 60fps/4xAA, do it!

Shaneus · Post by **Shaneus** » 28 Sep 2006 11:23 am

Oh yeah, not worried... just had me a little confused to begin with

Twiztid Elf · Post by **Twiztid Elf** » 28 Sep 2006 01:22 pm

mech wrote:
Twiztid Elf wrote:"We're not forcing movie technology on game players"
Says it all really.
Stop being such a motherfucking retard.

Eh?

Seraph · Post by **Seraph** » 28 Sep 2006 01:31 pm

The original XBox didn't support DVD movie playback out of the box. DVD licensing cost around $50 to include in the Xbox, so they made it an optional extra, an add-on if you will. Those who wanted DVD playback got it for 50 bucks. Those that didn't want it, saved 50 bucks.

This time around, with the XB360 though, even though I already have like 5 DVD playing devices in the house, I still have to cough up 50 bucks in licensing as part of the price of my XB360. MS is forcing dvd movie playback technology onto gamers.

Says it all, really.

Twit · Post by **Twit** » 28 Sep 2006 01:53 pm

I’d personally like to see PGR ditch the real city stuff and concentrate on fun, long, challenging and interesting circuits. Real cities are a novelty but they don’t necessarily make the best race circuits or eye-candy IMO.

mxlegend99 · Post by **mxlegend99** » 28 Sep 2006 01:56 pm

Seraph wrote:The original XBox didn't support DVD movie playback out of the box. DVD licensing cost around $50 to include in the Xbox, so they made it an optional extra, an add-on if you will. Those who wanted DVD playback got it for 50 bucks. Those that didn't want it, saved 50 bucks.

This time around, with the XB360 though, even though I already have like 5 DVD playing devices in the house, I still have to cough up 50 bucks in licensing as part of the price of my XB360. MS is forcing dvd movie playback technology onto gamers.

Says it all, really.

Are you retarded or some shit? $50 to playback DVD's?

That's the inflated price they charged for their DVD remote + dongle. Sony charged a similar price for their DVD Remote also.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 28 Sep 2006 02:01 pm

If the licensing fee's were $50, then those $60 dvd players you see around would be sold at a loss.

licencing fees are $5-10bucks probably even less considering that ms and toshiba have a special arrangement and toshiba/warner own a lot of the dvd patents.

mech · Post by **mech** » 28 Sep 2006 02:16 pm

Twiztid Elf wrote:
mech wrote:
Twiztid Elf wrote:"We're not forcing movie technology on game players"
Says it all really.
Stop being such a motherfucking retard.
Eh?

Forcing movie technology... stop being such a dolt. By that logic, as Seraph already pointed out, MS are "forcing" DVD movie playback technology on you. OMG we should just use carts.

Talez · Post by **Talez** » 28 Sep 2006 02:23 pm

mxlegend99 wrote:Are you retarded or some shit? $50 to playback DVD's? That's the inflated price they charged for their DVD remote + dongle. Sony charged a similar price for their DVD Remote also.

But you could play DVD on a PS2 without the remote. You couldn't play DVDs on an Xbox without the dongle.

Talez · Post by **Talez** » 28 Sep 2006 02:26 pm

lestat wrote:If the licensing fee's were $50, then those $60 dvd players you see around would be sold at a loss.

At that point in time I believe the DVD royalties were in the order of US$20. Cheap chinese manufacturers just didn't pay royalties when they shipped them.

Seraph · Post by **Seraph** » 28 Sep 2006 02:26 pm

At the time of Xbox's release, there was a lot of talk about licensing. One of the main factors in the price of DVD licensing is the price of the player. A unit has to pay around 5-10% of the machine cost for licensing. So an Xbox on launch was between 35 and 65 dollars. A 60 dollar unit like the one Lestat mentioned would've been around 5 bucks in licensing. Has the pricing system changed since then? Probably. Would there still be a licensing fee? Definitely.

In any event - no matter how much or little licensing fees cost, it's a cost that gamers have to pay, and they have no choice.

mech · Post by **mech** » 28 Sep 2006 02:30 pm

Difference with PS3 is that Sony owns the technology, so it's only paying the cash to itself.

lestat · Post by **lestat** » 28 Sep 2006 02:36 pm

Again since warner/toshiba/ms have special cross licencing deals in place. I would assume the actual cost to ms for dvd playback is next to nothing. Same goes for the hd-dvd drive, toshiba would be giving them the drive royality free and probably at cost or loss.

But trying to compare the cost of an expensive first gen drive(hardware) to licencing fee's is silly, especially when you consider that there is no guarantee either format will succeed. So consumers are stuck paying through the nose for a drive and technology that doesn't get cheaper over time due to the rest of the market rejecting it.

The hardware cost is the big problem here and the fact it could end up being a dead format with cost reduction ramifications down the line.

mxlegend99 · Post by **mxlegend99** » 28 Sep 2006 02:37 pm

Talez wrote:
mxlegend99 wrote:Are you retarded or some shit? $50 to playback DVD's? That's the inflated price they charged for their DVD remote + dongle. Sony charged a similar price for their DVD Remote also.
But you could play DVD on a PS2 without the remote. You couldn't play DVDs on an Xbox without the dongle.

No kidding. The point was that the "$50" was not just for DVD Playback, but also for the remote... which considering Sony charged "$50" for their remote also that didn't offer DVD playback, it's a moot point.

It's not $50 for DVD playback. I've seen DVD players sell for less then $50... bottom end DVD players sell for around that these days. DVD-ROM in PC's cost around $20 to $30 etc. Windows XP plays back DVD's for free.

Seraph wrote:At the time of Xbox's release, there was a lot of talk about licensing. One of the main factors in the price of DVD licensing is the price of the player. A unit has to pay around 5-10% of the machine cost for licensing. So an Xbox on launch was between 35 and 65 dollars. A 60 dollar unit like the one Lestat mentioned would've been around 5 bucks in licensing. Has the pricing system changed since then? Probably. Would there still be a licensing fee? Definitely.

In any event - no matter how much or little licensing fees cost, it's a cost that gamers have to pay, and they have no choice.

How many people would choose to save ~$5 by not having DVD?

How many people would choose to save ~$200 by not having HD-DVD / Blu-Ray? Ontop of having the console up to a year earlier.

DVD costs fuck all these days, and will not add much to the cost of the machine. Obviously Nintendo is happy to cut out those sorts of features to save a few bucks here and there... pity the cost of machines doesn't drop also. That is evident from when they cut back on functionality (component output) of the Cube to save money on it... and the price remained the same.