Matt's Somewhat Serious Bit
This week hasn't exactly been the best week in gaming this year, with the announcement of a significant delay for Zelda: Twilight Princess, and the pricing of the Xbox 360 being revealed. Despite the fact that the Games Convention is in full swing in Germany, we don't seem to be getting the wealth of announcements from the festival that we did last year. However, the show itself is proving to be a success, with increased attendance numbers. Perhaps in a few years, it'll be the European equivalent of E3.
I'm sure this issue is going to be done to death on gaming blogs over the next few days, but you really have to wonder what the heck Microsoft are thinking by offering two SKUs for the Xbox 360. By doing so, Microsoft have essentially turned their back on what they said at E3, which was that all of their functionalities will be available out of the box. Well, they will be if you are prepared to pay the extra $US100 for our real model!
With the complete lack of features in the Xbox 360 base model, you have to wonder what sort of market segment they are targeting. Sure enough, Microsoft claims that the $US399 is for those "hardcore" gamers, despite the promotion of the 360's great abilities on their arguably mainstream MTV show in May. If Microsoft are trying to coax mid-product life cycle customers into buying their Xbox 360 early, they're going to be in for a rude shock.
The $US299 model of the Xbox 360 just screams "reduced functionality" to me. No Xbox Live out of the box. No hard drive, meaning no custom soundtracks, no backwards compatibility and no saving. No high definition support. The $US399 pack does seem like good value, even if it is pricing territory not seen since the Sega Saturn - the machine does a lot of great stuff, though many critics believe that the Saturn was unaccessible at this price point. I believe that Microsoft are potentially limiting the Xbox 360's abilities by offering the cheaper model - there are already stipulations which developers must abide by, such as the fact that no game (bar Final Fantasy XI at this point) is allowed to require the hard drive to be present.
If a user were stupid enough to purchase the $299 model, they'd be up for quite a bit of dosh to increase the capabilities of their base model machine to that of the $399 model. Microsoft are presumably desperate for money after sinking over $US2 billion into the Xbox with no return, and it looks like they're going to try to make this back on peripherals - heck, they're already going to charge royalties on them. At this point, it doesn't look like we'll VelocityGirl on Xbox Live soon.
Could the Xbox 360 become a text book case of marketing gone wrong?
The only parties that benefit from this pricing decision are Sony and Nintendo, though Ken Kutaragi has been running around quizzically saying that the PlayStation 3 may not be priced for general household use. Announcing a $US299 PlayStation 3, and showing off a few nice demos in the next few weeks could have a "Dreamcast effect" on the Xbox 360. Nintendo are set to make a set of announcements on the Revolution front in the next few days, something that I await with great interest.
As for me and the Xbox 360 - if you were to ask me if I was going to buy an Xbox 360 today, you'd be met with a barrage of laughter. $AU525 + shipping (and presumably import duty) + power converter for a system showing off games that barely outpace current generation PC titles (at $US60 a pop) - you've gotta be kidding. If the local release is a cent over $530, a few calls to the ACCC will be in order - it's time to put an end to price fixing.
Time to give it a rest #1: Tony Hawk
Everybody seems to think I'm at my best when I'm bitching about gaming, so I've decided to dedicate a little section of my opinionated drivel column to game series I believe should be given a rest, or even killed off entirely.
In 1999, Activision introduced Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the PlayStation to critical acclaim and ridiculously good sales. The game captured most of the essence of skateboarding while providing most excellent gameplay - even people who hated skateboarding were drawn in by the game's intense combo system. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 followed in 2000, and was seen to be the best of the series by many fans, with the addition of the manual, create-a-park, gaps list and some excellent stage design. In 2001, the series reached its peak with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3. Many purists will argue that the game was a little unrealistic, but I found it to be the most fun of the series, with the smooth gameplay, solid stage design, a barrage of new tricks and a ton of unlockables.
As good as it gets?
In E! True Hollywood Stories style, the Tony Hawk series began to dive after it hit the top. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 was released to reasonable fanfare and still scored reasonably well with critics, but it was apparent that their series regular format was growing stale. Attempts to spice the game up generally fell flat, with the new career mode proving to be rather awful compared to the old 2 minute run system. Sales for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 were nearly half of what the third game yielded.
The worst was yet to come - Tony Hawk's Underground. The two Underground games have removed almost all of the serious skateboarding elements and added silly Jackass inspired elements, GTA inspired free roaming level design which has basically killed the classic skate park style designs of the first three games, and a plot.
This October will see the release of the 7th main title in the series - Tony Hawk's American Wasteland. The game appears to continue in its silly quest to be GTA with skateboards, though it also adds BMX to the mix. With Tony Hawk in semi retirement and the series becoming more stale than 6 month old bread, it's time for Activision to shape up or ship out. Tony Hawk is contracted up to something ridiculous like 2015 - I believe he will be pushing 50 when his contract with Activision is up. I believe that Activision should take some extra time to work on their next generation titles for the series - perhaps using 2-3 years instead of 11 months to make their next title. If things continue as they are, the series will be completely dead in 3 years.
Is this really the right way to go?
From the bowels of the Internet #1
Every so often, one stumbles upon something rather cool while browsing the Internet, and this section will highlight a few of the things I've managed to run into while doing PALGN related research, or littering the Internet with pictures of Brendan in a compromising position.
Many people like video game music, especially from the 8 and 16-bit eras. This week's link goes to the site of a Brazillian band called MegaDriver. MegaDriver are dedicated to doing heavy metal renditions of your favourite game music, and they're bloody good at it too. There's quite a few album type works (Altered Beast, Golden Axe, and some mixed work) as well as a bunch of work in progress. Check it out if you need a break from those remixes.
Anyone with a Megadrive for a guitar is cool in my book
It came from Japan #1 Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting (GBA)
When people tend to cover Japanese imports, they go for the games which are either insanely popular in Japan, or are due for a release over here anyway. In this section, I was hoping to bring up some lesser known Japanese imports that I found to be pretty good.
Hajime no Ippo is the story about a young man named Ippo who takes up boxing after having been picked on for his entire school life. The manga has been running for 15 years, detailing Ippo's training and rising through Japan's featherweight boxing ranks. An anime series ran from 1999-2002, which covered the first 35 volumes of the manga. There were also two movies produced.
Ippo takes on his long-time rival Miyata
Three Hajime no Ippo games have been produced to date, but only two have been released outside of Japan, those being Victorious Boxers and its sequel (due for release next Friday). The missing title is Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting for the Game Boy Advance. This arcade-style boxing sim was developed by renowned 2D development house Treasure, and plays a lot like Nintendo's Punch Out!! series, with added super punches which tie into the moves that Ippo learned throughout the manga. The game isn't really long as such, offering story, tournament and exhibition modes, but provides some rather good boxing action. One for the portable pugilists to check out.
The views expressed in the Easy Mode article are those of Matt Keller, and are not shared by PALGN, its affiliates or its advertisers.
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