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by Published on September 25th, 2007 03:06
via IGN
For those gamers who have been living in a remote, electricity-free cave for the past six months, we at IGN feel we owe you the service of the following announcement: Halo 3 goes on sale at midnight tonight.
Welcome back to civilization. Now take a long, hot shower, shave off the knee-length beard and finish the fight.
As if it were at all necessary to pound the point home further, Microsoft re-announced the pending release of Halo 3 today, reminding Master Chief-worshippers worldwide that the time-to-launch can now be counted in hours rather than days.
More than 1.5 million copies of Halo 3 have already been purchased through pre-orders, setting a new record for pre-launch sales and surpassing the previous record set by Halo 2 in 2004, Microsoft said.
After Halo 2 launched in November of that year, it generated a whopping $125 million in sales and remains the most-played game on Xbox Live to date almost three years later. But Halo 2's little brother is set to top even those record-smashing numbers, according to industry analysts quoted on the site GamesIndustry.biz today.
Goldman Sachs analysts Sarah Friar and Frederick Grieb predict in the article that Halo 3 may generate $170 million in revenue during Microsoft's first quarter, which ends five days after the game launches. Such a windfall would give the company's game division its first profitable quarter ever, the article notes.
More than 10,000 retail stores plan to open their doors for the Halo 3 launch at 12:01 a.m., and special Halo-themed events are planned at stores in New York, Miami, Seattle and Los Angeles. But will those retailers need to open a special station just for returns?
Now that some copies of the Halo 3 Limited Edition box set have shipped, some new owners are reporting that the game disk was found loose in the plastic case, unsecured by the plastic nub meant to hold the DVD in place. As a result, some of the disks appear to be scratched but playable, according to early reports.
A poster on the NeoGaf gaming forum said three copies of the Limited Edition disks they received were badly scratched. Three GameDaily.biz staffers report receiving scratched disks, and an IGN editor opened his Limited Edition box today to find a loose game disk with minor blemishes.
No similar problems with the Standard Edition and Legendary Edition have been reported. We'll keep you posted on the Limited Edition's reported issues and everything else Halo 3-related. For full coverage of the fight and the finishing thereof, head over to our Halo 3 launch center. ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 19:45
via IGN
If you're desperate to download Frogger but just don't have the dough to make it happen, Microsoft has good news - the hoppy arcade classic and two other Xbox Live Arcade titles will go on sale this week.
Frogger, Bankshot Billiards 2 and Hardwood Spades will drop in price beginning at 5 p.m. PDT Thursday and remain on sale through 4:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2.
Frogger will drop from 400 to 300 Microsoft Points, Bankshot Billiards 2 will go from 1,200 to 900 points and Hardwood Spades will drop from 400 to 300 points.
This is Microsoft's second round of price-slashing this month. Over the Labor Day weekend, Small Arms, Gauntlet, Zuma Deluxe and Dig Dug were each half price. ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 19:28
via MCV
Several readers contacted MCV to state that some Asda and Tesco stores have started selling Halo 3 early (game and receipt pictured). The latest twist in the tale comes just a few days after Argos went early, blaming the error on its store staff.
“We’re talking about very, very few copies....
It was an error on our part and we have instructed our staff that it musn’t go on sale until the official release date,” a Tesco spokesperson told MCV.
An Asda spokesperson added: “Nothing has been sold early and we have not followed Tesco or Argos in selling Halo 3 early. We are strictly keeping to the Wednesday release date.”by Published on September 24th, 2007 19:25
via MCV
Sega Of America president and COO Simon Jeffrey has told MCV that he expects Sony will enjoy significant sales of PS2 hardware for “two to three years at least”.
In a wider interview with MCV, Jeffrey pledged Sega’s long-term support for the console, predicting that it would have “longer legs than any [console in any] previous generation”.
He told MCV: “We believe that the PS2 will be around for quite some time,” he says....
“This generation of hardware will have longer legs than any previous generation, and that’s definitely healthy for the industry.
“We expect Sony to price manage the PS2’s shelf life for another two or three years at least. PS2 high profile titles, especially ‘wide market’ and licensed titles, will absolutely be part of the Sega portfolio going forwards.”by Published on September 24th, 2007 18:58
via Joystiq
An author on left-leaning AlterNet.org not only jumps on the controversy of Resident Evil 5's alleged racism, but calls it a "racist video game series." The article is such a mess that you really have to enjoy it for its absurdity. The piece starts by saying those who go to see the "blockbuster Resident Evil: Extinction" in the theaters may want to play the game, but those who do "will likely enter a world little-known beyond the expensive and expansive universe of gaming, a world increasingly populated with very dangerous depictions of nonwhites."
The author only covers RE4 and RE5 in declaring the series racist. For RE4 he says its Spaniards have "stereotypical Mexican accents" and that RE5 "could be a training video for a white supremacist race war or another U.S. military adventure in one of the increasing numbers of deserts on the planet." Beyond the Resident Evil series there is a rehash of the Haitian controversy from GTA: Vice City -- although the author is way off in his timeline calling GTA: VC "this year's most popular video game."
There's a lot more "racist" issues brought up, but the article really stands as great piece to highlight how even when you introduce diversity to gaming, it's not just the extreme exclusionists who get upset and don't understand why there are women, gays, non-whites in games, but the extreme inclusionists too. Although in the inclusionist's case they want a rosy picture painted of the non-majority group; however, that's boring for narrative, unrealistic and in the end racism really depends on context. There are more moderate views on race issues in video games and that really shouldn't be forgotten. The AlterNet article is just so weird in its "one step forward, two steps back" presentation, we can't help but share. ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 18:55
via Computer and Video Games
Just before the (official) launch on Wednesday Microsoft has put up its latest live action Halo short by would-be Halo movie director Neil Blomkamp - and it's the best of the lot.
We had a blast watching the real-life (well, CGI real life) spike grenades and warthogs in action, but why is everything being filmed in a rented-out paintball field? With the money MS has thrown on advertising you'd think they could afford something even vaguely similar to the game's environments. Ho-hum.
Check it out for yourself over on the Discovery Channel (we're as baffled as you are). ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 18:48
via Computer and Video Games
Considering Wii's almost non-existent online presence, it's hard to believe that Medal of Honor Heroes 2 will pull off its promised 32-player multiplayer, but it's real and this trailer offers the first glimpse of it in action.
It's only a brief look, mind, but if EA can achieve this feat on Wii, MoHH2 will raise the bar for online Wii games and lead the way for what will hopefully be much better online modes in future Wii titles.
Trailer here ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 18:45
via Computer and Video Games
The Wii version of Rockstar's Table Tennis will not include an online mode, Rockstar has just told us.
The online multiplayer mode featured in the 360 has been dropped on Wii because, as Rockstar explains: "All the focus is going into making it the most advanced control system on the Wii."
Granted, the control system is very good - you can read about that in our preview right now. But we can't help but feel it's completely unrelated to the omission of online play.
Surely a good control system AND an online mode in the same game isn't too much to ask. ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 18:39
via Computer and Video Games
A word of warning before you run out to the shops on Wednesday to pick up your Limited Edition copy of Halo 3; according to several punters in the US, the LE tine packaging is scratching discs something rotten.
"A friend just opened 3 copies of Halo 3 Limited Edition and with all three copies both disc were loose inside of the package and scratched to death," says one angry NeoGAF poster.
The problem is blamed on the plastic and foam nub in the LE tin designed to hold the discs - at least it's designed to hold the discs in but apparently they pop off with ease.
A number of gamers in the States who managed to get their copies early are reporting that the discs have shipped detached and scratched beyond repair inside the Limited Edition tin.
Tin enthusiasts will already be well familiar finding their games scratched to buggery; a similar problem was reported with the Prey Collectors Edition tin last year. All we can recommend is that you check your game DVDs before leaving the shop; we'll certainly be taking ours back if there's any damage.
We've left a message with Microsoft's PR squad - who surely have nothing better to do than answer our queries - and will hopefully have the official line on the issue shortly.
A few photographs of the disk-scratching problem right here ...by Published on September 24th, 2007 18:35
via Computer and Video Games
Just in case you missed the explosion of Halo 3 reviews over the weekend, Bungie's shooter is doing pretty well at review stage around the world. We say pretty well, but with the game scoring an average of 9.7 on stat crunching website Metacritic, we actually mean bloodily awesomely. You can almost hear the champagne corks popping at Bungie HQ.
It wasn't long ago that 2K's Bioshock rocked the world of review scores, coming out with nothing lower than high 9s if not straight 10s.
Surprise - Halo 3 is doing the same. Is it a surprise though - wasn't it always going to score really high? You can read our review here. We're more surprised that some haven't gone out there and said it's an 8 because it's 'more of the same'.
At time of writing Halo 3 was sitting pretty with an average score of 97 out of 100, or 9.7 out of 10. Check out the list here. But there's a couple of points to consider before Halo 3 is crowned the biggest scoring 360 in the world ever though.
The first is that the review NDA was only lifted on Sunday at 8pm. Now pretty much every major site knew this was coming and had time to get their reviews ready but there are still a lot of magazine scores to add into that average. Then the game goes on general release and everyone has their say. That 97 may move in a week or two, higher or lower.
So has 360 had its finest hour already? Can it get any better than Bioshock or Halo 3? Will the likes of Mass Effect, PGR4, The Orange Box or GTA IV dare score more? Sound off below. ...- Search DCEmu
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