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Asher
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Calgary, Alberta
Nov 1999
time: 22:19
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Well, the 2002 Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) officially starts later this week in Los Angeles, but the news is rolling in now already.
Effective Tuesday May 21st, the Nintendo Gamecube will be $149US. The Xbox and PS2 are currently $199US.
Three new first and second party Xbox games have been leaked. 2 of them seem to be targetting a Nintendo-type audience.
The first game is called Blinx: The Time Sweeper, and is created by the same team that made Sonic games. (Screenshot)
The second game is called TaoFeng, and is a "realistic" fighter game complete with in-battle blood, wounds, and clothing ripping, etc. (Screenshot)
The third game is called Tork, which looks like Banjo Kazooie or something. (Screenshot)
Tomorrow @ 5pm PDT, Microsoft is holding the first news conference. Then tuesday morning, Sony has its conference, followed by Nintendo. Wednesday the expo starts.
It also has come out that Microsoft is spending $1B US on Xbox Live, including huge server farms in Tokyo, London, and Seattle, and plans to unveil the service tomorrow. The New York Times reports that it will be $9.95/mo for unlimited Xbox Online games, or $49/year (which includes the voice headset [Picture])
The following is what we already know about Xbox Live:
quote:
* Stats tracking across all games. Uses of this will be bragging rights, and even the ability to challenge someone around your skill level to a certain game.
* Consistent interfaces and features across all online games. ig, mandatory support of the voice headset (players can use it optionally, and if they use it they can use the built in voice morphing software and mute players they don't want to hear.)
* Ability to keep a buddy list of people you enjoy playing with, showing online/offline status and to talk to them.
* Ability to challenge other users to play even a completely different game than you've got in the machine. The Xbox actually supports you challenging people to a different game, at which point you swap the DVD while it keeps you connected and you boot up into the other game and immediately play with those people.
* Ability to pay a flat fee and play unlimited games online for that month/year. Nintendo and Sony opted for a route where developers can charge per game played, or what have you. |
Rumored Xbox games to be announced and shown at E3 include Halo 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Grand Theft Auto (either 3, 3: Miami, or 4, or a combination), Brute Force, Project Ego, Knights of the Old Republic, Splinter Cell, LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring, ToeJam and Earl III, Deathrow, Crazy Taxi 3, MechAssault, Duality, House of the Dead 3, Sega GT 2002, Yager, and a slew of unannounced titles.
More as E3 develops. 
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Asher
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Calgary, Alberta
Nov 1999
time: 22:19
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MS' pre-E3 press conference has ended with a bang.
The following games were announced, shown, and discussed, and it is by no means all games that will be announced at E3 for the Xbox. More will be shown every day.
Halo 2 (online with Xbox Live)
Ninja Gaiden
Half Life: Counter-Strike (online Xbox Live)
Psychonauts
Blinx: The Timesweeper (see below)
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
Tork
Midtown Madness 3 (online with Xbox Live)
Phantasy Star Online (online with Xbox Live)
Splinter Cell
Project Ego
Star Wars Galaxies
Brute Force
MechAssault
Dead to Rights
Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball
Tao Feng: Fist of the Lotus
Steel Battallion
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Project Gotham Racing (online with Xbox Live)
Amped (online with Xbox Live)
Rallisport Challenge (online with Xbox Live)
NBA Inside Drive 2003
NFL Fever 2003
Quantum RedShift
ToeJam & Earl 3
Turok Evolution
Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance
Kakuto Chojin
Here's what IGN said of Blinx:
quote:
Blinx could be the most innovative, industry-changing title of them all and as such we're gong to give you all we know about it right now:
Read it now and believe it -- Blinx is a revolutionary platformer. Not just for the platform genre (he's more than just a cat with vacuum cleaner and his name isn't Luigi), but for videogames as we know them. Blinx takes the Xbox hard drive and more or less makes it function like a Tivo or Ultimate TV system. Play is recorded using around 200 megs of hard drive space. When you die, the game rewinds in front of your eyes to a point where you can start again. That's not all Blinx can do, though.
Players will be able to fast forward, record, rewind, and stop time to assist them in their quest. For example, a barrel falls off a roof. You pause the game, then hop on the barrel and rewind the game, allowing you to ride the barrel to the top of the roof from where it had fallen. The title character in Blinx is not affected by the shifts in time, and can move independent of the affected environment.
Not only is the application of the hard drive in this game an amazing innovation, but has the looks of a second generation Xbox game. Created by Sonic/Nights game designer Naoto Oshima for his Artoon development house, Blinx should be bolting, as you read this, to the top tier of most wanted Xbox games. |
And other misc comments about the press conference by IGN:
quote:
As we said the next version of Halo (MS won't even refer to it as Halo 2) will be online but the company was not forthcoming with any details beyond this. This title of course drew the biggest cheers from the assembled crowd with Counter-Strike, Ninja Gaiden and Star Wars Galaxies splitting second place honors for the biggest ovations. Tecmo's take on volleyball featuring those oh-so-endearing women from Dead or Alive was the game that caused people to drool, shift in their seats and adjust accordingly. There was drooling with Star Wars Galaxies, but certainly no adjusting.
Beyond the multiple bomb drops of game announcements, the Xbox braintrust pointed to past successes of Xbox as well as financial plans for the future in their effort to reaffirm the strength of the company and the platform The first European sales figures from Microsoft were announced with the company claiming 500,000 units sold in that territory along with an 88% attach rate for the all-powerful Halo. That's 440,000 copies of Bungie's breakthrough first person shooter for those of you slow on the math. In fact, Halo was leading the pack of top selling Xbox games along with the four other titles that sold more than 500,000 copies. All tolled, the Xbox could boast more than 20 titles that have seen sales of 100,000 copies or more compared to the ten 100,000+ titles for the GameCube over the first five months of each system's US run. |
For those of you worried about stuff like CounterStrike playing without a mouse, you should know that "The Claw" is hitting the streets soon and allows any mouse with a USB adapter (all modern MS mice, for example) to connect to the Xbox for use in games like this).
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20-05-2002 14:23
Sony's really making some money here...
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