This week pretty much rounds out our PAX 2008 coverage. We've got interviews with The lead artist and writer behind Gears of War 2 as well as an interview with the creator of Schizoid. Let's not forget our hands-on look at Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball and a chance to win a copy of Smash Court Tennis 3. Click on.
Well looky here! The X3F Week in Review is back! We've finally put E3 to bed, and things are finally starting to return to normal. Our regular community features like Ask X3F, XBLA in Brief, and Community Content should be making their way back soon, so stay tuned. In the meantime, soak up our latest Fancast and some of this week's more interesting news items.
The room is stuffed with a handful of game journalists. It's dark. Drifting from the (very nice) speaker system are the sounds of ocean waves lapping against a boat. On screen, Lara Croft stands on the wooden deck wearing scuba gear. Thrifty girl that she is, it looks like Lara didn't want to spring for a wetsuit with legs in it. Apparently not worried by the deep cold of the ocean, she dives into the water. It's time for me to play Tomb Raider Underworld.
During our guided demo of Microsoft's upcoming stable of XBLA games, Microsoft's Scott Austin informed us that all the games on display would be available in the next four to six weeks on Xbox Live Arcade. All of 'em. If you've been reading the impressions on Joystiq, you'll know that this a reason to be excited. For the record, the XBLA games being shown by Microsoft are:
A few things. First, I love the Silent Hill series. Second, E3 really isn't the venue for demoing a Silent Hill game. Even in Konami's relatively quiet meeting room, it was impossible to hear any dialogue or music in Silent Hill: Homecoming -- headphones were available, but they were broken ... grrr. Considering that the soundscape of any given Silent Hill game is responsible for half of the atmosphere (arguably more), it makes it hard to judge how the game feels. So, you'll just have to settle for a look at how the game plays.
There are two things we know about Pyramid Head. One, he is a physical manifestation of guilt. Two, he generally causes the physical manifestation of crap in your pants. Oh, actually, there is a third thing we know about Pyramid Head: he makes an appearance in Silent Hill Homecoming. This raises the question: what is protagonist Alex Shepherd guilty of? Our guess is that he feels guilty about the desperate fan service required to keep gamers interested in this series.
While spending some quality hands on time with Halo Wars at E3 (hint: it's good, more on that later today), Microsoft's Jim Ying, who was guiding our demo, gave us some great news for Halofans (there are lot of them, you know). The Covenant, the alien race hellbent on humanity's destruction, will be playable in Ensemble's upcoming Xbox 360 real time strategy game Halo Wars. The only question that remains now is whether or not the parasitic Flood will also be playable. We asked, but Ensemble isn't talking. For the moment, we'll just have to be satisfied knowing that we can finally slake the Covenant's (Grunty) thirst for blood.
When we sat down to get a fresh look at Rock Band 2 at the HarmonixE3 booth, the musical members of the dev team were happy to tell us that many people who try Rock Band wind up pursuing real instruments as a result. When discussing the new drum trainer in Rock Band 2, Senior Designer Dan Teasdale told us, "I feel kind of bad that we're turning people into drummers." Teasdale, as it turns out, is a bass player bassist.
Microsoft held a special Gears of War 2 reception at E3 on Monday, giving eager journalists a chance to play the game's multiplayer modes and test their mettle against other journalists. We're proud to say that we managed quite well against our competition, slamming active reloads all the while, though that's perhaps beside the point. You all want to hear about Gears 2, not about how awesome we are at it. Read on for our hands on impressions.
We'll admit it, with all the E3 planning going on, the minds at Xbox 360 Fanboy are a little frazzled. So, we'll make this Week in Review simple. That's the official X3F sticker up there. We'll be taking a truckload of 'em to E3. Very soon, you'll see pictures of Cliff Bleszinski, Peter Molyneux, Dennis Dyack, and all the other relevant 360 designers wearing our stickers and promoting our website ... whether they want to or not. As long as we can slap a sticker on someone and snap a picture before we get arrested, we figure it's fair game.
If we have any stickers left afterward, maybe we'll give 'em away at the Joystiq reader meetup.
Well kids, it seems like everyone is holding their cards close to their collective chests as we begin the final run up to E3. That doesn't mean we don't have a few interesting news bits to share though. For one, the Xbox 360 Mega Man 9 evidence continues to pile up, despite Capcom's claims to the contrary. Gears of War 2 news also continues to dribble out, and we're more than happy to relate it to you. Find these stories and more below.
Another busy week at X3F. We've got a new XBLA in Brief (try Ticket to Ride, seriously), new Points>Life and new ... news. We've got everything. Gears of War 2, Halo Wars, Fable 2, you name it. We also got a chance to check out Deer Hunter Tournament and Smash Court Tennis 3. Browse the links below and slake your Xbox 360 thirst. That's right, slake it.
Believe it or not, the massive Intellisponse leak wasn't the only thing that happened in Xbox 360 this week. True, it was probably the most interesting and the other stories kind of pale in comparison but ... um ... you know we're not really sure where we're going with this. Just check out the links below to see what else we covered this week, mmkay?
After last week's video extravaganza, we return the Week in Review back to its normal, news-laden self. While there is plenty of worthwhile news contained in the links below, we implore you to watch the latest edition of XBLA in Brief. In short, Frogger 2 is one of the worst games (if not the worst) on the Xbox Live Arcade service. Watch the video, and be thankful that it will spare you the trouble (and immense pain) of actually downloading and playing the trial version.
Videos, videos, videos. This week was apparently all about video features at X3F. With demos for Ninja Gaiden 2, NASCAR 09 and Crash Time, we had more impressions that we could shake a stick at. Add these to our regular stockpile of video features -- Community Content, XBLA in Brief, and Points>Life -- and you've got an audiovisual smorgasbord of delights. A smorgasbord, we say! Not only that but we have retrospectives on Ninja Gaiden and Tomonobu Itagaki. Simply amazing.
For your viewing pleasure, we've embedded our video impressions of Crash Time. After the glorious light that was the Ninja Gaiden 2 demo, Crash Time reminds us of the fetid depths of bargain bin gaming. Watch the video and then peruse the links below to cleanse your palette. Trust us, you'll need to.
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
