Awesome Radical Gaming

Peter Molyneux announced two new features for Fable 2 this week at the GDC. This first and most radical is co-op play. At any time you can jump into a friends single player game, play for awhile, and leave, keeping all the items and experience you get. I love co-op play and games, and that pretty much sealed the deal for me, I really want this game now.

The other feature is eh, whatever…a few weeks prior to the release of Fable 2, Lionhead will release a XBLA game. This game will feature all sorts of gambling mini games.All the money you earn in the games can then be transfered over to your character in Fable 2 once it’s released. Apparently the only way you can earn money in the game is to either work for it, or win it by gambling. I mean, I guess that makes sense right, because yeah why do monsters have gold on them or whatever, but just because it’s more realistic does that make it more fun? I have no clue.

I also found a Fable 2 facts sheet on the Xbox press site, which you can view below…
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Tomonobu Itagaki announced at Microsoft’s GDC keynote that Ninja Gaiden II has a confirmed North American release date of June 3. Also announced was a cool new feature. You can record all your radical ninja moves and upload them on Xbox Live for others to view, sort of like watching Halo 3 replays. But with a ninja. Seems pretty awesome to me.

You knew it was coming sooner or later, Gears of War was just too radical. The trailer really doesn’t show that much game play, but what are you going to do? There is already some box art for the game, one for the limited edition and one for the regular edition. No details about what the limited edition comes with yet, but I’m sure it will be super awesome.

Gears of War 2 is set to come out in November, and it is still Xbox 360 exclusive.

This week SquareTrade, a warranty firm, released a report indicating that the Xbox 360 has a 16.4 percent failure rate. This number was based on a sample group of 1,000 warranties. Microsoft has responded to IGN about they report and says they are unfamiliar with this “SquareTrade” company and have not seen the report…

“Microsoft does not comment on hardware failure rates [emphasis by Microsoft], nor do we comment on speculation,” Microsoft spokesman Joe DiMiero told IGN in an e-mail message today. “We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it. Based on the enthusiast community’s feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.”

Honestly, if I was Microsoft I’d take the 16% failure rate and run with it. I would have thought it was higher. Almost every single person I know with an Xbox 360 has seen it broken in one way or another. In fact, my step brother’s 360 just broke, for the second time, this week.

Also, some interesting points about the comment, to me:

- Why not comment on the failure rate if it’s lower? Wouldn’t you want to save face?
- Just because they don’t know the company means the report is invalid?
- They questioned the methodology of the report based on “community feedback”. What does that mean? The only reason they are questioning the methodology is some random person sent them feedback?

I’ve been thinking I want to get this game. It’s cheap, it’s Magic the Gathering mixed with Monopoly, and the demo was OK…but I’m still not sure. This review is pretty good, though.

Yeah, 1 million times. That’s like 25,000 downloads a day. I’m one of those 1 million people. I haven’t played it yet, but that doesn’t matter. What does matter is I downloaded it, I helped. The whole press release is below:

Howdy Michael,

Quick email to let you know that on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008, Capcom’s Devil May Cry 4 demo on the Xbox LIVE service passed its one millionth download, and is still going!
According to Microsoft, not only is this the first demo of the year to hit a million downloads, but it’s also one of the fastest downloads to hit the one million mark in the history of the LIVE service. The demo appeared on the network January 24, and has been averaging over 25,000 downloads a day ever since. Additionally, the game has been a huge hit at retail, with reorders coming from major retailers within days of the game’s release.

Email with any questions regarding DMC4, Capcom or any of our other games. As always, assets, information and images can be found at http://press.capcom.com.

Thanks, hope this didn’t hit your Spam bucket!

It didn’t hit my spam bucket Capcom, it didn’t.

Maybe so. But if Major Nelson lied and it’s not awesome I’m going to be fucking pissed off. Kotaku mentions a rumored Microsoft Japan announcement, so maybe there is some truth to the rumor. MGS4 confirmed for the Xbox? Final Fantasy? Who knows…

I feel like I know where this is…but I guess that could be anywhere in Brooklyn, really. I haven’t seen any yet, but when I do I’m taking it for myself. I wonder if anyone who doesn’t know about Grand Theft Auto IV will really get these ads, and if they wouldn’t, what’s the point of advertising to people that already know about the game and are going to get it?

Press releases are funny things. Like, I’m sitting here trying to think what I should add to this post to make it the least bit interesting…and I can’t think of anything. What more can I say? Rockstar Games announced that the release date is April 29, 2008 (PS3 and Xbox 360). That’s it, that’s the best I can do. But the people writing these press releases, they are good. They can always think of plenty of ways to embellish any announcement and make it sound interesting. I could never, in a million years come up with the phrase “genre-defining”, they’re good. They’re real good.

Rockstar Games Announces Release Date for Grand Theft Auto IV

Next-generation Console Debut of the Grand Theft Auto Franchise Set for April 29, 2008

New York, NY - January 24, 2008 - Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce the release date for Grand Theft Auto IV, the new title in the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto franchise. Developed by Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto IV will be simultaneously available for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and will be in stores worldwide on April 29, 2008.

“We are so excited to be releasing Grand Theft Auto IV,” said Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games. “We’ve pushed ourselves very hard to make something incredible and hope the game sets a new benchmark for interactive entertainment.”

For more information, log onto http://www.rockstargames.com/IV

Right before Mass Effect came out I started getting really excited about the game. I had watched all the trailers I could find, read everything that was out there, and it seemed like this was going to be a great game play experience. The Tuesday it came out I picked up the game and couldn’t wait to get home from work to play it. What could go wrong with a Bioware RPG, right?

After playing the game for a few days I’ve completely stopped. I can’t pick it up anymore, all the “little things” wrong with the game had started to add up, and I just wasn’t having fun playing it. I’ve heard the good out weights the bad, but for me it was the opposite.
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