The Gaming Vault » Xbox 360

Sega snatches quarterly profit, 51% sales increase

Michael O'Connor — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 10:11:32 +0000

Looks like its not all bad for Japanese devs this week. Nintendo may have seen their worst financial quarter in years, and Capcom’s money pit may be diving faster than a sinking ship, but Sega, on the other hand, has inexplicably managed to turn a profit.

Sega has reported a 7 billion yen ($80.8 million) profit the period ending June 30. This is an impressive jump over last years, considering that at the time the company was reporting a loss of 10.3 billion yen ($118.9 million). The stockholders must be pleased.

So where did such a large portion of this profit come from? Pachinko machines. Sega’s pachinko and pachislot business sector contributed to 48.9 billion of the company’s 91.3 billion yen revenue. Yes, you read that right. The sustained future of the House of Sonic falls on the faith of a gambling game involving the vertical descent of tiny silver balls.

Total game sales for all regions are as followed: 1.68 million games in the U.S., 1.33 million in Europe, and a mere 270,000 copies in Japan and other regions. Alpha Protocol managed to make up about 700,000 of these, with the Iron Man 2 game shifting about 1.12 million units sold globally. It’s generally accepted that both games are universally terrible though.

So, what is the lesson that we can all take from this little story? Apparently, it’s the fact that when times get tough… people turn to gambling!

Random Awesomeness: Limbo on the PS3?

Michael O'Connor — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:11:58 +0000

Not quite, but it certainly comes close. Thanks to the wonders of one particularly talented creator, the Xbox 360 exclusive has been faithfully recreated in the PS3 exclusive LittleBigPlanet, and in impressive detail.

Is there anything this game can’t do? Apparently not!

Ubisoft and Bethesda reveal Gamescom line-up

Jens Erik Vaaler — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 21:05:10 +0000

It’s still summer, and publishers and developers are gearing up for GamesCom in Cologne, which will be held from 18 to 22 August. This will be the third big geek event of the summer. No wonder game publishing slows to a crawl.

Both Bethesda and Ubisoft announced their line-ups today, with seemingly different strategies. Bethesda is going for a small package of hard hitters with id’s RAGE, Fallout: New Vegas, Brink and Hunted: The Demon’s Forge.

Ubisoft on the other hand, has something for everyone, with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Drive: San Francisco, Michael Jackson: The Experience and Just Dance 2 being the stand-out titles. The full list from Ubisoft can be found below:

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Driver: San Francisco

R.U.S.E.

H.A.W.X. 2

Rayman: Raving Rabids: Travel in Time

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

Just Dance 2

Michael Jackson: The Experience

Racket Sports

MotionSports

Dungeon Siege III debut trailer

Jens Erik Vaaler — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:52:14 +0000

Square Enix has been curteous enough to release the debut trailer of Dungeon Siege III. Unfortunately, as is fitting a debut trailer, it tells us almost nothing, just exposits on kingdoms being lost and all that familiar jazz.

Dungeon Siege III is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment, the chaps who seem to only be doing sequels. Trailer can be found after the cut.

Review: Hydro Thunder Hurricane (360)

Michael O'Connor — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:45:17 +0000

Genre: Arcade Racer | Developer: Vector Unit | Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade | Players: (Offline) 1-4 (Online (1-6) | Rating: PEGI 12

Back in the late 90s, at a time when arcades were still being populated with people, Hydro Thunder was a well liked but by no means stand-out arcade title, and the franchise held enough weight to see it ported over to the popular consoles of the time.

10 years later, with the arcades of yore little more than a memory for most of us, Microsoft Game Studios and Vector Unit are attempting to bring those fondly remembered arcade experiences into the sitting room. Much to our surprise, this well meaning endeavour doesn’t turn out to be an entirely futile effort.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane doesn’t just try to emulate those old arcade experiences either. It goes out of its way to recapture those experience in all their worth. In some regards this is a good thing. In others regards, not so much – the first thing you experience upon loading up the game is a guy shouting the game’s titles at you in as loud and overblown a fashion as possible. Yes, it’s one of those games. And you’ll have to get used to listening to him whether you like it or not, because his feigned and contrived excitement permeats every single part of the game.

Thankfully, this annoying commentator doesn’t (completely) detract you from the experience of the game itself, and what we have with Hydro Thunder: Hurricane is a solid title with plenty of content. The game has a decent number of tracks for you to boat around, and different game modes for you to play them in.

There’s the standard Race mode, which sees you pitting yourself against 7 other A.I. controlled opponents in a number of uniquely themed levels. Then there’s the interesting Ring Challenge mode. More than just a simple “drive through these hoops” distraction, the Ring Challenge mode actually serves a second purpose, of helping you learn the many shortcuts and other routes through the levels.

Playing this mode will signficantly prepare you for the grueling challenge you’ll find from other human players should you choose to venture into the online multiplayer. Even that’s too intimidating for you though, the game packs a decent local multiplayer mode for up to four players, but you’ll want a damn big telivision to you want to make out what’s going on amongst all the watery chaos in that mode.

The two other modes are “Gauntlet”, which sees you venturing through the tracks by yourself, avoiding tons of explosive crates which have been conveniently placed on the water-ways just for the hell of it, and Championship mode, which consists of grouped content from all the previous modes which have to be completed in sequence. Make no mistakes, this game is aware of its arcade roots, and it’s proud of it.

All these modes would be useless without decent gameplay though, and Hydro Thunder does a great job in that regard. Aside from having possibly the best looking water you’ll ever see in a video game this generation, the way your boat moves in the water always feels great, and a balanced boosting system that rewards you for precision jumping and selective use of short-cuts, and punishes you for poor play.

The level design certainly isn’t pedestrian either, with giant gods creating huge tidal waves with their hammers that send you flying hundreds of feet in the air, and sea serperts that attempted to eat your boat while a whirpool attempts to suck you in, to name but two highlights. The levels are littered with these, and it keeps things entertaining all the way up to the final track.

Does all this make for a fun and enjoyable experience when it all boils down to it though? Well, that depends a bit on how much you can appreciate the game’s arcade routes, and all the conventions that come with – learning complex shortcuts through repeated experience, super-hard challenges (on the highest speed at least), and that “one more go” feeling that all the best arcade games had.

This is achieved in Hydro Thunder through the use of a credits system. Each time you complete a race in the top tree you get a number of points towards unlocking additional content. There’s always that nagging urge to get just a few more points to unlock the next item… and the next… and the next…

Hydro Thunder Hurricane wears its arcade heritage on its sleeve. It’s about over-the-top presentation and loud commentators. It’s about learning the ins-and-out of the levels until you suceed. But most importantly, it’s about the precise and precarious test of skill to stay in the game, and the great sense of achievement when you finally win.

Hydro Thunder isn’t interested in being progressive or original in its game design, and your appreciation of the game hinges entirely on this fact. Do you have found memories of crowding around an the machines in your local arcade, popping in your quarter, and having a load mouthed commentator screaming in your ear every five seconds?

If the answer to all of these is yes, then you’ll feel right at home with Hydro Thunder Hurricane. If the answer to these is no you may be left wondering what all the fuss is about. Regardless of your answer though, you’ll at least enjoy the experience. While it lasts.

8/10

Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken X Street Fighter announced

Jens Erik Vaaler — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 20:08:26 +0000

Well holy crap! The rumours were indeed true. The characters of Street Fighter and Tekken will clash on the Xbox 360 and PS3. We have the trailer, right here, not to mention some gorgeous looking gameplay footage from Street Fighter X Tekken.

Announced moments ago at a Street Fighter panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Street Fighter X Tekken is set to hit PS3s and Xbox 360s next year. The game will play like SF4, meaning 2D gameplay with 3D models. Judging from the gameplay footage, Street Fighter X Tekken takes the best from Street Fighter’s 2D gameplay, and mixes it up with Tekken’s tag-battle gameplay. The result: awesomeness! But that’s not all.

Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada also announced Tekken X Street Fighter (Namco Style), which will probably mean you can play as Street Fighter characters on a 3D plane. But don’t ask me how that will work. Dodging those hadoukens will be insanely easy when you can just sidestep them.

Thor and Amaterasu revealed for MvC3

Jens Erik Vaaler — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:57:42 +0000

Comic-Con is on, and while Capcom recently revealed four new characters to be in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Marvel has also taken the opportunity to reveal two new characters, bringing the total roster up to 16 characters.

Images appearing on Marvel Comic’s website last night confirms The Mighty Thor, who at this point really needs no introduction, and Amaterasu from the cult PS2 hit Okami that nobody bought.

While these characters haven’t been officially announced by Capcom, the images from the Marvel website included both character art and in-game screenshots, making them legit. The full game is out Spring 2011, and I can’t wait to get my ass handed to me online by vastly experienced players.

Final dimension revealed for Shattered Dimension

Jens Erik Vaaler — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 07:42:54 +0000

It’s Comic-Con! And we love us some Comic-Con. While it might have strayed a little from its pure comic book origins, Comic-Con today is a celebration of all things geekdom. Meaning plenty of video game announcements to boot.

As such the final dimension in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimension was announced: The Ultimate Universe. With Spidey wearing the symbiote suit, for some reason. The trailer revealing Ultimate Spidey also revealed some more villains like Carnage and Deadpool (He’s everywhere these days, isn’t he?) for the Ultimate Universe, Vulture in Noir and THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH! in Amazing.

While I understand the inclusion of the Ultimate Universe in the game, I think it’s a bit lazy. Ultimate Spider-Man is basically Amazing Spider-Man, only a teenager. The Symbiote Saga didn’t last very long in the Ultimate Universe, so I don’t really see why Ultimate Spidey’s wearing the symbiote suit. From what I understand Ultimate Spidey will be more melee focused, while Amazing Spidey dishes out damage using web attacks. Spider-Man 2099 is all about aerial combos while Spider-Man Noir uses stealth. I can’t wait to play this.

Video Games | Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions | SDCC 10: Exclusive Ultimate Dimension Trailer HD

Red Dead Redemption best selling US title this year so far

Michael O'Connor — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:55:22 +0000

To the surprise of… well… absolutely nobody this isn’t. Red Dead Redemption has been confirmed as being the best selling video game in the US this year, based on combined NPD platform sales figures.

The game sold over 1.5 million copies during its release month in May, at almost another million copies since then. It sounds like Red Dead Redemption is going to repeat the success of Rockstar’s other famous franchise and stick around in the charts for a while to come yet.

Second place goes to another no-brainer, New Super Mario Bros Wii, follow by Modern Warfare 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Wii Fit Plus…. ugh. You can get the full list over at IGN, or better yet, just look below!

Top Ten Individual Platform Sales (Jan-Jun)

1. New Super Mario Bros. Wii – Wii
2. Pokemon SoulSilver Version – Nintendo DS
3. Red Dead Redemption – Xbox 360
4. God of War III – PlayStation 3
5. Wii Fit Plus w/Balance Board – Wii
6. Wii Sports Resort w/ Wii Motion Plus – Wii
7. Pokemon HeartGold Version – Nintendo DS
8. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Xbox 360
9. Just Dance – Wii
10. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Wii

Top Five Combined Platform Sales (Jan-Jun)

1. Red Dead Redemption (360,PS3)
2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2* (360,PS3)
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360,PS3)
5. Wii Fit Plus* (Wii)

* = Sales across all platforms and bundles, CE, GOTY editions etc.

Project Milo back on, apparently

Jens Erik Vaaler — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 23:24:01 +0000

The development and potential release of Peter Molyneux’s Kinect project Milo & Kate can best be described as something of a clusterhump. First it would see release, then it wouldn’t, then no one knew, and now it appeares to be on again.

Last week at the TEDGlobal Conference in Oxford, Peter Molyneux said Microsoft wasn’t planning on releasing Milo & Kate. Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg said two weeks before “right now, it’s not a game”. Eurogamer spoke to Greenberg again last night, and there’s still a chance Project Milo will be released.

“You can see that it’s definitely not just a tech demo,” Xbox product director Aaron Greenberg told Eurogamer in an interview.

“They’re building something that’s pretty unique and compelling. We leave it up to Peter and his team to determine what that game is and when it would come to market. All we’ve said is that at this point in time it’s not coming this holiday. But as you can see it’s definitely quite a bit more than just a tech demo.”

From what I could tell from the complete interview, the final fate of the game is up to Peter Molyneux.

Thor: The Video Game announced by Marvel and Sega

Jens Erik Vaaler — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:11:59 +0000

In a move surprising absolutely bloody no one Marvel and Sega announced a third person action-adventure game based on the God of Thunder himself, Thor. It probably has nothing to do with the upcoming film adaptation. Oh wait…

“We are proud to be bringing Thor to his first solo video game adventure”, commented Gary Knight, senior VP of marketing at Sega.”

“Thor: The Video Game will finally bring the immense power of this iconic hero to lifelong fans, and introduce the God of Thunder to a whole new audience as a true Marvel Super Hero.”

The game will come out on all platforms that matter, in other words not the PC and PS2. Wii, PSP and DS players will be privy to comic booky visuals, but all players can bust some heads with Mjolnir to their hearts content, not to flinging bolts of lightning up their enemies’ asses.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t suck as hard as the Iron Man video games. But we all know it probably will.

Kinect gets priced at £129 and $149, 4GB Arcade announced

Kyle Gaddo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:34:58 +0000

Microsoft confirmed the Kinect price points in the major release territories: $149 in the US, £129 for Kinect in the UK, and €149 in mainland Europe.

Microsoft has also confirmed a new Arcade console, with a Slim design and 4 GB of internal flash memory.

A Holiday Bundle with the new Arcade console, Kinect, and Kinect Adventures will be available later this year for $300 US (and if you pre-order through Amazon, you get exclusive DLC goodies, like new Kinect Adventures levels and avatar items).

“Kinect for Xbox 360 offers fantastic new ways to be entertained for the whole family,” said Xbox Europe boss, Chris Lewis.

“With full body, voice and multiplayer play straight out of the box, Kinect is a unique way for everyone to enjoy controller-free fun and entertainment.”

Kinect bundled with Kinect Adventures by itself will cost £130.

Microsoft announced today that “more than” 15 games will be available for Kinect at launch, including Kinectimals, Kinect Adventures, and Kinect Joy Ride. Kinect games will retail for £40 in the UK and $50 stateside.

The new Arcade console will cost $200 in the US and comes out on August 3rd.

You know the great thing about all this? With everyone scrambling to get the new consoles with built in wireless, retailers and consumers are going to start dropping the price on consoles and accessories (like the overpriced wireless adapter) to sell get them out of the store. Rad.

DeathSpank Review (Xbox 360, PS3)

Jens Erik Vaaler — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:06:01 +0000

Meet DeathSpank: Hero of the Downtrodden, Dispenser of Justice and Vanquisher of Evil! Not to mention a few sticks short of a bundle. In an adventure both familiar and surreal, the titular hero sets out in search of “The Artifact”, an item both strange and mysterious, its power only outmatched by its mystery. Too bad no one really knows what it is. Not even DeathSpank. He only knows it’s his destiny to have it.

DeathSpank is the brainchild of Ron Gilbert, previously known for helming quirky and very funny adventure games for Lucas Arts. Fans of the Monkey Island games will undoubtedly be nodding their heads right now. In developing the game Gilbert has teamed up with Hothead Games, developer of Penny Arcade Adventures, which Gilbert served as advisor on.

Diablo meets Monkey Island in DeathSpank as you defeat enemies, gather loot by the mass, rescue orphans and do your best to recover The Artifact. The resemblances to Diablo are easy to see, as pretty much any NPC you can talk to have at least one quest for you to complete, rewarding you with new gear or other items you can use in your journey through the world.

If you’re a completionist, there are over 100 quests to complete, most of which boil down to “go here, kill this, bring back X amount of item Y”. And while slaying chickens, orques, greems and unicorns can both be fun and fulfilling, the game does skirt the edge of tedium from time to time. The amount of gear and customisation does help break up the monotony, however.

The amount of loot present within the game is staggering, and you’re constantly switching out your weapons and armour for something bigger, better, sharper or pointier. You can customise DeathSpank however you’d like, but the game comes with a “equip best armour”-button in case you wish to simply gather loot and focus on switching out your weapons.

Certain weapons are “weapons of justice”, which you can use to unleash a special attack once DeathSpank’s “justice meter” has been filled. These attacks do huge amounts of damage and can sometimes make or break a battle. Some weapon combinations unlock even more special attacks, which lets DeathSpank cut an epic swathe through his enemies. Said attacks look absolutely awesome and are fun to experiment with.

You’ll find the RPG elements within the game evolve the customisation somewhat, but it doesn’t go much beyond tweaking a few stats here and there. Said tweaks can seem a bit insignificant when viewed as standalone stat boosts, but serves with pushing DeathSpank in the direction suited to your style of play. There’s no multiplayer though, so you can’t pit your custom DeathSpank against a friend’s.

Ron Gilbert’s humour permeates the entire world of DeathSpank. This is a game where you can literally beat the crap out of demons with a hammer; a salesman asks you if you want to get felt; and a young girl teaches DeathSpank how to lure children into a burlap sack. There are a lot of chuckle worthy moments, so fans of Ron Gilbert know what to expect. DeathSpank as a character is basically like Guybrush Threepwood, only stupider, yet at the same time more competent at what he does.

The music isn’t a lot of write home about. It sets the mood, but doesn’t really stick in your mind once you stop playing. What you will notice is the game’s aesthetic. DeathSpank is filled with lots of colour and variations thereof. Things like graveyards are dark and foreboding, whilst the Demon Mines are red and fiery. The Enchanted Forest, pink and girly, has to be seen to be believed. I wonder what they were smoking when they came up with that.

DeathSpank’s cylindrical game world is rendered seamlessly without loading screens, which makes it feel much bigger than it actually is. The scenery takes on the look of a pop-up book, rendering houses, trees and rocks completely flat. It’s a unique appearance that separates DeathSpank from other Diablo knock-offs.

Overall DeathSpank is a fun little game that should take you about 8 or so hours to complete. The script is fun, and it offers up a lot of customisation. Unfortunately the constant questing and slaying can get a bit tedious in the long run. Thankfully the steady influx of new weapons and armour helps break up the tedium somewhat, but more varied quests and more puzzle elements would be welcome. There are worse things you can spend $15 on, and DeathSpank is well worth the time and money spent.

8/10

Wada: “Difficult to determine” where Final Fantasy should “go”

Kyle Gaddo — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:41:30 +0000

Yoichi Wada spoke with Gamasutra and said that it would be “difficult to determine” what would follow Final Fantasy XIII, which was released back in March of this year.

The Square-Enix president said the team was having trouble deciding whether the Final Fantasy games should become something of a new type or not.

“I think this is a product that was able to meet the expectations for those who know Final Fantasy,” said Wada. “There are all kinds of games around in the market today. Should Final Fantasy become a new type of the game or should Final Fantasy not become a new type of game?

“The customers have different opinions. It’s very difficult to determine which way it should go.”

Wada had previously stated that XIII would mark the end of “this type of game” being developed.

Looking at the numbers alone, Final Fantasy XIII did vry well, selling over 5 million units in the Japanese, European and US markets alone.

But Wada said that fan reaction was skewed – many commended the game while others said that it “wasn’t very good.”

So, what does the future of Final Fantasy have? Who knows?

Final Fantasy XIV comes out pretty soon here, an MMO for the PC and PS3 (but not for the 360). Maybe that’ll be good. Maybe.

Xbox Live’s 1 vs 100 being put down

Kyle Gaddo — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 16:40:09 +0000

Microsoft has announced that Xbox Live’s “1 vs 100″ has been cancelled.

The game was downloaded over 3 million times and played by 114,000 users in the US and 81,000 in the UK and Republic of Ireland during its Beta period, but it apparently couldn’t sate Microsoft’s hunger.

MGS GM Dave McCartney spoke with Kotaku on the matter.

“When we started on this journey, we knew we were creating an entirely new genre of entertainment that would be a continually evolving concept.

“We’re very proud of the ‘1 vs 100′ team and their accomplishments, and are excited to apply what we’ve learned to future programming.”

Microsoft said that the development team behind the game will be taking away the technology and what they learned with 1 vs 100 and applying it towards new projects to be unveiled in the future.

The Gaming Vault » Xbox 360

Sega snatches quarterly profit, 51% sales increase

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