Terrence Stasse
Articles by Terrence Stasse
Double D Dodgeball coming to XBLA July 30
Well this certainly is strange. Microsoft has been on such a quality control kick lately and then they go and do something like this. According to the incredibly misleading and ridiculous trailer for the game, Double D Dodgeball is going to be released to XBLA on July 30. Aside from the fact that the screens for the game look like a bad take off of Space Invaders and nothing at all like dodgeball, is the fact that Pirates VS Ninjas Dodgeball is also set to release during July; and that actually is a dodgeball game. "Sent to die," are the words we just can't seem to get out of our heads for this one. Why, oh why, would MS want this on XBLA? Unless it costs something in the neighborhood of 200pts, we envision it getting delisted at the first possible opportunity.%Gallery-25996%
Castle Crashers Super Survey: Hit up X3F!
While it isn't strictly news about the game itself, the so called Castle Crashers Super Survey is being held by the guys over at The Behemoth and contains a whole host of different metrics on which they would like their audience's feedback. The questions cover everything from your favorite blogs (wink nudge) to your systems and your digital distribution purchasing habits.Of course there's really no way to know exactly what this survey is in regards to. But now that development on Castle Crashers has wrapped up, The Behemoth is probably looking towards its next project and could be using this data to help them figure out exactly what direction to head. It seems likely, given Dan Paladin's art style, that their work will continue on XBLA, but their games have seen retail release before and they could be looking to expand the range of services on which their content is available (they do mention Steam after all, and do ask whether or not your consoles are online).
Xbox.com: Ticket to Ride and Happy Tree Friends
Y'know, this seems familiar. Hmm ... yes it does. While we already knew the solid release date of Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm (June 25), Ticket to Ride has been something of an unknown quantity, with not much information about the game having ever been relased to the press. However, the last time xbox.com pages appeared for unreleased XBLA games, they released exactly one week later. And with HTF:FA definitely hitting next week, we think we can say with some certainty that the electronic adaptation of the classic board game about building railroads will be hitting next week too. To tide you over until then, marvel at the screenshots below. %Gallery-17158%%Gallery-25815% [Source, Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm][Source, Ticket to Ride][Thanks Jonah]
Rumor: COD6 goes sci-fi?
To be honest, we almost feel a bit dirty posting this rumor. The game that for all intents and purposes, is COD5, is currently still being teased, and there's already rumors about the next game? Indeed there is, thus the faintly dirty feeling. Apparently an Infinity Ward team member spoke to someone from TalkPlaystation.com and told them that the company is at work on a new sci-fi title that may or may not see reveal at E3.With Call of Duty: World at War returning to the familiar territory of WWII, and the series' current hit staking the claim of Modern Warfare it would seem to make sense that Infinity Ward would want to jump things into the future. If this ends up being accurate (heck, they could be working on a non-COD sci-fi game too) let's hope Infinity Ward can do better than some other popular franchises that have used a futuristic setting. We can't help but get flashbacks of the ill-fated Battlefield: 2142 ...[Via Joystiq]
MK VS DCU: Flash, Power Girl, tie-in komic & more
Well it's been a strange project from day one, and while we were hoping that MK VS DCU wouldn't be market-tested and exploited to death, it looks like that simply won't be helped. A recent issue of the UK-based magazine X360 seems to confirm that the Flash, Robin (really?), Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Hawkman & Powergirl will all make appearances in the game. Also, the article does mention a possible two game deal, as well as DLC for the first game, hinting that they'd like you to buy even more content for this nuttiness.Additionally, and perhaps not so surprisingly in retrospect, there was the news that the game will have a tie-in comic to go along with it. Apparently the storyline for it has been completed and contains some sort of gigantic, life changing twist. Comic fans we may be, but color us underwhelmed.
PopCap promises "coolest collaboration ever"
PopCap are well known for their catalog of casual games, having released a bunch of them on the Live Arcade, and even more via other release channels. So it was no surprise when in an interview with Gamasutra, both the co-founder and CEO reasserted their commitment to continuing to make games that appeal to the widest possible audience. A surprise did come toward the end of the interview though, when it was announced that PopCap is collaborating with a company that has extensive console experience but also highly values casual games. In a fleeting moment of hyperbole, the project was described as "the coolest collaboration ever, I promise," then pulled back to the more reasonable "I'll maintain that it will be one of the top ten collaborations (in gaming)."Whatever it turns out to be, if the co-fonder of the company thinks this highly of any specific project out of all the ones that PopCap oversees, it's quite likely to be good. Or maybe this is all just marketing designed to get us to think that ...
Call of Duty: World at War Teaser Trailer
With COD4 still so popular, Activision and Treyarch needed to take the series in another direction if they wanted to see another installment sell well this fall. Since the announcement of Call of Duty: World at War there really hasn't been much seen of the game. Sadly while the teaser trailer does give us a short glimpse of the game, it is only that, a teaser. So for those of you who haven't gotten the trailer from the Marketplace, GameTrailers TV has a teaser trailer up too (which is embedded after the break due to GTTV's flash player being a bit finicky these days.)
ESRB trying to curtail early game reveals
It's the end of an era. For a long time now the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has been a great source for spotting games that had not yet been announced. This was entirely due to the open system that was used by the ERSB's site, which allowed anyone to check a game's rating as soon as it had received one. While this was in keeping with the purpose of the ESRB (to have an easy to access resource for those who needed it; parents mostly), it was not in keeping with the goals of game publishers.In response to requests from publishers, who were likely getting rather miffed at having their game's revealed outside of their plans for such, the ESRB is now offering the ability for games to appear on their site at specified dates. Now, when a publisher submits a game for rating they can fill in a box for the date it will see upload to the main ESRB page. While it was noted that "the ESRB system will not work for consumers if publishers arbitrarily select dates bearing no reasonable relationship to consumer interest in the product," we doubt if there is going to any publisher who doesn't take advantage of the new system and hold back ratings till the latest date possible.Oh well. Thankfully, we still have other countries ratings boards to leak our video game info for us.
New shoot-em-up coming to 360: Raiden IV
Top down scrolling shooters have had a short but strange history on the 360. Despite being a port, Ikaruga has managed to become the most popular game of the genre on the system. So when DoDonPachi and Ketsui weren't allowed onto the Live Arcade we thought that MS simply didn't like the bullet hell shooters as much as the rest of us. While the aforementioned classics likely won't see any form of full retail release, we're glad that someone out there (Moss Ltd) sees fit to release another game like this.Raiden IV is currently set for Japanese release in September, with the developer expressing interest in following up with a Western release (oh please, oh please). The game has most all the bullet points one would expect from a great shump: vertical screen mode, recordable replays, and worldwide leaderboards, but sadly no co-op. Partly thanks to the increase in the "standard" graphical fidelity of games, older gameplay styles seem to be slowly dying out. We just hope that our favorite hardcore genres don't end up going the way of the dodo.
Opus-model 360s begining to flow?
Thanks to a tipster in our last post, we've now heard our first real world tale of the previously rumored "Zombie Repaired" 360, code named Opus. The Opus "model" is for those who have had their 360's red ring and have sent them off to Microsoft for repair. In an effort to use (instead of toss) the older Xenon motherboards, Microsoft is basically upgrading repaired 360's with the Falcon model chips (65nm CPU, 90nm GPU) and one of the older motherboards that doesn't have have HDMI, effectively creating a zombie 360 that cannot be purchased in stores. According to a specific poster over at GameTrailers, when a repaired RROD is now returned to its owner it includes a slip of paper marked "OPUS" as well as a new power supply. So if you've recently had a 360 red ring, keep an eye out for that little slip of paper when it returns, as it basically says that your 360 is now of the undead, and thus is quite unlikely to ever die again.
Lost Planet movie possibly in the pipeline
With big budget action flicks making all sorts of money this summer, and with Hollywood's constant searching for the next big thing, we shouldn't be to surprised to hear that another videogame movie could be coming our way. Honestly though, this time our surprise has less to do with that fact in and of itself, and more to do with the details surrounding it. Over at the Evil Avatar forums, the news was posted that David "Solid Snake" Hayter is currently in talks with Warner Bros. to write a movie based on, of all things, Lost Planet. While we shouldn't forget that Hayter does have writing expierience, (X-Men 1 & 2) we just can't imagine that there's enough meat on a Capcpm third-person-shooter's bones to actually flesh things out into a feature film. Plus, if this ends up getting off the ground, what kind of significance will the IP have by the time the movie is actually released? Oh well, in Solid Snake we trust.
Marathon DLC (Jjaro Map Pack) hitting tomorrow
We here at X3F love our old-school FPS's just as much as the new-school ones, and at a price of 250MSpts, the upcoming DLC for Marathon 2: Durandal looks to get us back into the archaic swing of things. The new Jjaro Map Pack will hit the Marketplace tomorrow and includes twelve multiplayer maps, two Achievements (worth 30pts total) and three new multiplayer modes (King of the Hill, Kill the Man with the Ball, and Tag). For those obsessed with such things, the Achievement details can be found after the break. Oh, and according the post at 360sync, the devs will be Live and playing on the night of release.
Tecmo possibly facing Obliteration
After Itagaki decided to leave due to unpaid bonuses, it looked as though things might just end with that. Then came the rumor that around three dozen employees would follow suit. Now it seems like Tecmo has been dismembered and is just waiting for the inevitable OT. A lawsuit was filed in Tokyo District Court just yesterday on behalf of all 300 of Tecmo's remaining employees, and according to one translation claims that "Tecmo has falsified documents and accounting procedures in regards to employment statuses, overtime pay and various lapses in employment standards when filing documents for labor inspections." Additionally, a Famitsu article on the same topic also notes that employees were not getting their overtime pay, nor were they well-compensated for working on public holidays. The Google Translation of the original Japanese story is a bit dry and difficult to follow (as is to be expected from a computer translation) but specific words such as "forge" and "impersonation" hint at the kind of trouble Tecmo could be facing before this is all over.Whatever happens, we just hope that the talent from Tecmo's various projects all end up alright and get the compensation they deserve. We're certainly no experts, but from what we hear, Japanese game devs (heck, game devs in general) are run pretty ragged and really do deserve their bonuses ...[Via NeoGAF]
New Halo novel this fall: The Cole Protocol
Alright folks, time to demonstrate our nerdiness for all the internet too see. After the most recent Halo novel, Contact Harvest, we really hoped that if there was to be another that it would be by penned by either Eric Nylund or Bungie institution Joseph Staten. While we aren't quite getting the thing we really would have wished for, (Staten is likely hard at work on the secret Project Phoenix, and Nylund is likely writing stuff for Microsoft Game studios) we will be seeing another Halo novel before the year is out.Entitled The Cole Protocol the next novel is going to be penned by Tobias S. Buckell, an up and coming sci-fi writer, and is going to deal with a supposedly new perspective and the Spartan Gray team. So far the only mention of other Spartans (warned ya 'bout the nerdiness) in the books are a few passing references. There was this from Ghosts of Onyx: "And what had ever happened to Gray Team on a mission far outside the confines of UNSC space, now missing for over a year?" and then this from Fall of Reach: "Assembled here tonight, are all surviving Spartans save three, who are otherwise engaged on fields of combat too distant to be easily recalled." The book is set for a fall release and more about it should be revealed as the final date inches ever closer. You are all now that much closer to being Halo otaku. Glad we could help. (Also, to avoid any confusion, that cover isn't real, it's a 'shop.)
Guilty Gear coming to XBLA
With so many places to gather information from these days, it's rare that a game is actually announced by the people who are really making it, and this time is no exception. After the very recent release of Guilty Gear X2 #Reload to the Xbox Originals download service, this might seem to be a rather strange move, but still, Sega is looking to bring another Guilty Gear game to the 360, this time via the Live Arcade. The European ratings board just got up its rating for the game, which is simply entitled Guilty Gear. While it is of course unknown at this time whether or not the game is going to be a straight remake of the original or something new, given XBLA's history, a port of the original PS1 game seems likeliest.
Rumor: Lips is MS's response to Singstar?
While the "Lips" rumor has been circulating the tubes for some time now it was never really known exactly what the thing was. A game? A peripheral? A female fashion accessory? We just weren't sure. Now with Microsoft leaking like a sieve there are finally some details on the project.Apparently Lips is the codename for a karaoke game that uses a specialized microphone with built-in lights and a limited motion detector. To go with the pair of mics that are included in the default package, the game itself will have 30 songs right out of the box and features the ability to import music from a CD or Ipod to sing along with. To help with that, the game somehow reduces the vocals of the imported songs, and includes a way to place the lyrics of the songs on-screen a la "normal" karaoke.This is MS we're talking about here, so there is of course a healthy DLC component to the thing too. Lips is also going to have "hundreds of music videos" available for download to ensure that MS sees its fair share of continuing profits. However the likelihood of people paying for them, given the ability to import their own songs, is rather doubtful.
Rumor: Up to three dozen Team Ninja members leave with Itagaki, AND file lawsuits
Wait, you mean there's actually a rumor today that didn't come from the infamous survey? Yup, indeed there is. This one comes to us from the good folks over at 1up who have been keeping their collective ears to the ground for just this purpose. Apparently, when Tomonobu Itagaki left Tecmo for not receiving his bonus, key members of the team realized just how badly they'd been shafted, and left as well. So now the word is that they've all filed individual lawsuits of their own in response to not receiving their bonuses either. If Microsoft was smart they'd grab all these guys and give them a studio and game right away. Or maybe (despite what time and space may have to say about it) they already have ...
Rumor: GH4 costs $179.99 w/upgraded instruments
Continuing the flow of rumors from the aforementioned survey site, there's now the rumor that Guitar Hero 4 is still searching for a final subtitle and that it's going to try to make you buy even more fake plastic instruments, with the full version (including instruments) running for $179.99. The guitar is going to be wireless and have a touch sensitive neck slide, the drums are also wireless and have raised cymbals, plus the mic is also rumored to be wireless.As for the music itself the site lists a whole host of different artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Muse and more. Additionally, the game has tons of customizable stuff, with custom tracks, album art, characters and logos. How about it readers? Can GH4 truly take on Rock Band now?
Rumor: Possible COD5 box arts [update]
The rumors just keep coming readers! This next one is from the same source as all the rest, and has to do with the next installment in the Call Of Duty series. Just like the fourth installments various box arts, it seems that the fifth installment will have many different box arts before any single one is chosen to represent the game. Also, as you may have noticed, none of the box arts have the number "5" on them anywhere. Instead, the game seems to have solely adopted the recently announced subtitle of World at War. [Sources, Box art 1, Box art 2, Box art 3, Box art 4, Box art 5]Update: Clarified confusion regarding the World at War subtitle.
Rumor: Forza 3 will have 2 discs, 400 cars, more
We know there is a certain section of the readership that hates our guts for posting rumors, but frankly, we really don't much care. We do our best to show exactly where rumors come from, and always leave it to you to make the decision about their truthfulness for yourselves. This next one came from the same survey page that the "Xbox Avatar" rumor came from, and has all sorts of goodies in it. The page states that Forza 3 will ship on two discs, have some sort of "assist system", will be loaded to the brim with content (400 cars, 100 tracks, etc) and will have car deformation. Really though, the biggest news here is the possible hint (if the survey page is to be believed) that the game was constrained by the limitations of the DVD format ...