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X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Watchmen 2, NBA 2K10 Draft Combine, Invincible Tiger
The Summer of Arcade is finally over and, in a seeming effort to console us all, Microsoft has released not one, but three new games onto XBLA. We've got two beat-em-ups and one basketball game this week, in the form of Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2, Invincible Tiger and NBA 2K10 Draft Combine (we'll let you guess which categories those each belong to). NBA 2K10 Draft Combine (400 / $5) is probably the most interesting of the bunch, as it lets you create a player that you can later import into the retail version of NBA 2K10 when it releases later this year. Meanwhile, Invincible Tiger (1200 / $15) is a unique brawler inspired by old kung fu movies and Watchmen ... well, Watchmen 2 (1200 / $15) is exactly like the first one. Whether or not that's a good thing, we leave to you. Check out the latest XBLA in Brief and get a taste of what each game has to offer. Download the trial version of NBA 2K10 Draft Combine Download the trial version of Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2 Download the trial version of Invincible Tiger [iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly. [RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly.
This Wednesday: The NBA drafts the Watchmen on XBLA [update]
Update: Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao is also releasing this week.This week, we're officially jumping straight from the Summer of Arcade into the winter of our discontent with ho-hum XBLA releases. Don't get us wrong -- we have nothing against basketball, but NBA 2K10 Draft Combine (400 / $5), which lets those who purchase it build and train a player for use in October's NBA 2K10, ain't exactly Shadow Complex. Its title does makes it sound like the NBA is going to draft the bad guys from Half-Life 2, though, which we'd totally pay to see.So, that's about it -- oh, that's right, there's another Arcade release this week. It's part two of Watchmen: The End is Nigh, the movie tie-in beat-'em-up best known for exposing those who've played it to near-lethal levels of boredom. If you really, really love Watchmen and really, really don't mind the liberties this game takes with the license, it can be yours for 1200 ($15). Wow, really? Actually, if you simply must have the game, it's been available on disc along with part one since late last month ... for $20 on Amazon.
Interview: Watchmen: The End is Nigh producer Andy Abramovici
We didn't exactly love Watchmen: The End is Nigh, Part 1 when it came out earlier this year, and now there's a sequel. Although it was always planned to be a two-parter in order to avoid the shoehorn effort of rushing a movie/game adaptation into development, how do you handle building the second half of a game that got raked across the coals by critics on its first outing? We spoke with Warner Bros Interactive producer Andy Abramovici about both halves of the game, the retail packages, and if we might ever see an actual Watchmen RPG, or indeed any other game at all. Watchmen purists and PS3 owners out there might want to pick up Watchmen: The End Is Nigh The Ultimate Experience to get the director's cut and both halves of the game. Read on for the interview, which does not include first-hand descriptions of WBIE employees reading our review and cursing our name.%Gallery-69401%
Wait, what? Watchmen game-plus-movie hybrid Blu-ray comes on two discs
In February it was revealed that Sony was working on making game-plus-movie hybrid Blu-ray discs. A great idea that appeals to something movie-goers and gamers share -- an inherent laziness. The first game to feature this was to be Warner Bros' comic book masterpiece, Watchmen, which includes the downloadable game Watchmen: The End Is Nigh on the disc. Well, on a disc, at least. The game and the movie are on separate discs which sort of renders the entire process pointless. Whoops! Still, at least you get the game and the director's cut for for $50. Plus, now you can throw away your copy of The End Is Nigh once you realize how bad it is, without parting with your copy of the movie. Still, bit of an epic fail all around, really.
Watchmen sequel and retail pack dated, priced and still (likely) boring
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has put its Watchmen: The End is Nigh release plan cards on the virtual table of scheduling. Watchmen: The End is Nigh The Complete Experience: Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 for PS3 + movie (Director's Cut with 25 extra minutes) on July 21 with MSRP of $50. Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 on single disc for Xbox 360 on July 21 for $30. Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2 available July 29 on PC for $15. The title will hit PSN and XBLM on July 30 and August 26, respectively, for $15 (1200). We've previously said and shown all we need to about the quality of this downloadable movie tie-in title. The "make it expensive" trick won't work this time, like it did with Part 1. If there's a burning desire to purchase a downloadable title in your heart, there are plenty of better games on both systems to drop coin on. %Gallery-44353%
PSA: Watchmen: The End is Nigh is coming to the PC
Yesterday, and for seemingly no particular reason, Warner Bros. told GameSpot of its decision to not distribute the second episode of Watchmen: The End is Nigh on PC. Today, when asked for comment, a WB representative told Joystiq, "It is actually coming to PC. What we told GameSpot yesterday, as of yesterday, was what we knew." Whoops! These things do happen though -- the question now is whether or not the publisher is doing the public a disservice by continuing to release poorly made games based on the classic Warner property. But that's a question you'll have to ask yourself. And maybe Justin. %Gallery-44353%
Watchmen movie / game Blu-ray combo on the way
Look out for another edition of the Watchmen Blu-ray disc hitting on or around the launch date of July 21, but this package -- probably inspired by The Dark Knight's deep console ties -- is a two disc set with the Director's Cut on one disc and the Watchmen: The End is Nigh Parts 1 and 2 videogame for PlayStation 3 on another. Not quite as cool as packing both on a 50GB disc, but it should allow fans to get the special features of the movie, and cop the previously download-only game all at once. Without a price it's hard to say how interesting of a proposition this is but we're sure that and other details will appear before this hits shelves.
Watchmen: The End is Nigh coming to retail disc
Both chapters of downloadable title Watchmen: Please Make it End The End is Nigh will be available on a retail disc around the time the movie makes its way to DVD/Blu-ray on July 21. 1UP confirmed the information with Deadline Games director Søren Lund at the Nordic Game Conference yesterday. A press release with the full details should be made available today. Reviews for the The End is Nigh weren't exactly glowing (a la blue dongs), but perhaps having the two Nigh episodes together on one disc will reveal the undiscovered brilliance of the simplistic beat-em-up. %Gallery-44353%
Rumor: Deadline Games in serious trouble
DigitalBattle.com reports that developer Deadline Games is in dire straights, with CFO Christian Pedersen-Bjergaard saying that the company will face bankruptcy if it doesn't nab a paying gig soon. As you may remember, the company put its Faith and a .45 on hold to work on the not-particularly-great Watchmen: The End is Nigh.We've got "Rumor" in the headline because the article in question was written in Danish, which isn't one of the many (Read: 1.5) languages we speak. The free online translator we used gave us this quote: "Vi shall the land a agreement to nærmeste future , or threaten a bankruptcy," so take that for what it's worth.
Mirror's Edge vs. Age of Conan at Nordic Awards
Nordic Game 2009 is fast approaching and, like you, we're gearing up by listening to loads of ABBA, driving Volvos and wearing nothing but H&M clothing. That's all they do over there, right? Anyway, with the conference comes the obligatory awards show, though this one comes with a uniquely nordic theme. While über nordic games like LasseMajas and Englekræsj show up on the list, EA DICE-developed Mirror's Edge and Funcom-developed Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures are duking it out for two major awards: Artistic Achievement and Best Nordic Game. We can't speak to the ... ahem ... games we've never heard of running against Mirror's Edge and Age of Conan, but retro remake Bionic Commando: Rearmed is also competing for the Best Nordic Game award, while Watchmen: The End is Nigh takes on the two for Artistic Achievement. The awards are set to be a veritable smörgåsbord of gaming, if you will. (Those are Swedish, right?)[Via Edge]
Trophies: Watchmen: The End is Nigh Part 2
The End is Nigh ... again. Nite Owl and Rorschach return in the next episode of the Watchmen episodic adventure. View Trophy List | Visit Trophy Portal
Watchmen: The End is Nigh provides more of the same in Part II
Poor reviews won't stop the episodic Watchmen game. The End is Nigh: Part II has been rated by the ESRB, and it looks as though the next installment won't stray far from the first. For those that have played the first episode, that's not a good thing. According to the ratings board, Rorschach and Nite Owl return in the second episode, dashing our hopes of playing as other characters in the Watchmen universe. Once again, Rorschach and Nite Owl will take advantage of rudimentary brawling skills to take down "bikers, gang members, and thugs." The setting of the second episode seems a bit raunchier than the first, with players tracking down "a villain who has molested an actress appearing in a pornography film." Players will then have to enter a strip club that contains caged dancers, peep-show booths and porno playing in the background. Hot stuff? We're hoping that, in spite of the ESRB rating, the next episode of Watchmen takes its time to come out. Who knows? With a bit more development time, the developers might be able to churn out a more solid product. If not, can they at least drop the price?
Microsoft 'wrestled' with Watchmen XBLA size exception
Following the debut of Watchmen: The End is Nigh on Xbox Live Arcade, Ars Technica spoke to Microsoft regarding the game's size. The title clocks in at over 1.2 gigabytes, making it the largest Xbox Live Arcade title to date. Honestly, the size restriction on XBLA -- originally 50MB -- seems to change so much that we're beginning to lose track. Still, even with games regularly hitting the service at over 300MB, 1.2 gigs is pushing it. So, what pushed Watchmen over the edge? We imagine being tied into the release of the film had something to do with it, not to mention that a refusal by Microsoft would have made the game exclusive to the Playstation 3. Ars Technica reports that Microsoft "wrestled" with the decision to make an exception, but eventually allowed it in order to "ensure the best customer experience and optimize overall gameplay." If 1.2 gigs is indicative of the overall quality of Watchmen, the next game had better be twice as big.
X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Watchmen: The End is Nigh
If you haven't already read Joystiq's review of Watchmen: The End is Nigh, you really should. If you have read it and you still have the masochistic desire to learn more, allow us to direct you to the latest installment of XBLA in Brief. Unfortunately, the game just isn't all that great. Of course, we expect that from licensed games, and we might even be willing to forgive it, but the $20 price tag makes The End is Nigh difficult to recommend. Don't take our word for it, though. Give the video a watch and see what you think. Download the trial version of Watchmen: The End is Nigh [iTunes] Subscribe to X3F TV directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the X3F TV directly (Zune Marketplace link coming soon). [RSS] Add the X3F TV feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly.
Joystiq Review: Watchmen: The End Is Nigh
Before we get to the review in earnest, I'd like to address the die-hard Watchmen fans, the ones who fall asleep with their nose in the book every night and who are positive that the upcoming film will be incapable of capturing the book's dark yet occasionally cheerful nihilism. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is everything you fear from an adaptation, and anyone who tells you differently is not and has never been your friend. Run far, far away. ... OK, with those nerdlingers gone, let's talk about Watchmen: TEIN's merits as a game, shall we? %Gallery-44353%
Watchmen available now from the European PSN Store
Checked the PSN Store today? Of course not, why would you? It's Wednesday. Perhaps as a sign that the End truly is nigh, the European PSN Store has updated today (a Wednesday, in case you forgot) with the first episode of Watchmen: The End is Nigh. There's no telling whether this was mistakenly released a day early, or whether it was placed on the Store on purpose. At the time of writing the American Store has had no such update. If you're not sure about whether to grab the game, you can try out the demo first, though it does weigh in at a pretty hefty 1.2GB. If you enjoy that chunk of gameplay, you can upgrade to the full game for £12.99/€14.99. We're not sure if the offline-only co-op brawler is worth that sort of money (that's four copies of Noby Noby Boy!) but it might do a good job of getting you in the mood for the movie which releases this Friday. [Thanks, Mads]
This Wednesday: 'Watchmen: The End Is Nigh' blows up XBLA
We'd love to be more excited about this week's release on XBLA, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh, but we're having a tough time of it. We're fans of the book and we're sure the movie will be great, but when you combine our lukewarm impressions of the game with the nothing-short-of-indulgent 1600 ($19.99) asking price, we're somewhere between mildly curious and totally unenthused. But if you're the sort that's excited about helping Rorshach and Nite Owl punch and kick a seemingly unending stream of generic thugs, please, don't let us stop you. %Gallery-44353%
Watchmen: The End is Nigh will be $20 on XBLA/PSN/PC
Is it just us, or are digital downloads getting progressively more expensive? Just last summer we were reporting on why Jonathan Blow was charging $15 for Braid and now here we are less than a year later reporting what Warner Bros. Interactive told us this afternoon: The XBLA/PSN release of Watchmen: The End is Nigh next week will be dropping for 1600/$19.99 (respectively). Steam's PC release will also carry the same price tag. The amount of visual polish that goes into a title as graphically intensive as Watchmen may justify the unusually high price tag. If the similarly priced Penny Arcade Adventures are any indication of where this series is headed, we'll be waiting a few months for a price drop before sinking into this beat-'em-up. Feel free to check out the gallery below and see for yourself why Watchmen: The End is Nigh received its luxury price. %Gallery-44353%
Watchmen: The End is Nigh hitting 360 and PC March 4, PSN March 5
We've known for a while now that the release of the downloadable, episodic brawler Watchmen: The End is Nigh would coincide with the March 6 release date of the slow-mo film adaptation of the same name, but for the sake of certain specificity (say that five times fast), Warner Bros. just clarified the launch date of the game. Xbox 360 (and PC) users can find it in their usual Wednesday offerings on March 4, while PSN users can can pick it up on Thursday, March 5. They're cutting it awfully close to the film's opening night, but we doubt anyone will have much trouble blowing through the game's two-hour-long campaign in time for a midnight screening. %Gallery-44353%
The End is Nigh: Impressions of Watchmen
Click to embiggen. Watchmen is regarded by many to be one of the greatest graphic novels of all time. For years, fans have been able to put Alan Moore's creation on a pedestal, and many are afraid that Zack Snyder's upcoming film adaptation can only disappoint. In conjunction with the movie's release is a video game tie-in, which should be cause for more concern, considering the poor quality of most licensed video games. In theory, Watchmen: The End is Nigh, should be able to overcome the typical woes of movie-game development due to its distribution method. As a downloadable game, it doesn't need to offer the depth expected out of a retail box. However, it's clear that The End is Nigh simply isn't ambitious enough to do the franchise justice. Although much emphasis has been placed on the game's expansion of the franchise's canon, the core game experience simply isn't very satisfying. It can be summed up in just three words: beat-em-up. %Gallery-44353%
