Posts Tagged ‘downloadable content’
Newest COD Map Pack Sells One Million In First Week
I continue to be amazed at the sheer number of World War II based shooters that can be put onto the market and still perform well. There have been countless digital reenactments of almost every important battle in the entire conflict yet it seems that gamers aren’t sick of them yet. Despite being jaded about the genre, I admit to being somewhat interested in Call of Duty: World of War.
Everyone else is too it seems because Treyarch announced that in the first weekend the second map pack was downloaded over a million times. The $9.99 content pack contains four maps, including Shi No Numa. Yes, that’s right, it’s another zombie level. That’s got a lot to do with the appeal of this game for many I’m guessing. If you’re unfamiliar with the mode, it’s an online co-op mode similar to the Gears of War horde mode where players face wave after wave of enemies, only this time they’re a combination of two popular video game enemies: Nazis and zombies.
Halo 3: ODST Getting Preorder Bonus
Despite legions of Halo haters, the sci-fi series continues to perform well with thousands of people shooting, blasting and meleeing each other on Xbox Live every day. The newest installment, Halo 3: ODST will be releasing fairly soon, meaning that the marketing blitz begins. Players who pre-order the game will get a bonus character for use in the multiplayer mode.
If you’ve played through any of the single player campaigns you’ll have no trouble recognizing Seargant Avery Junior Johnson, the tough-as-nails cigar chomping soldier who despite being a bit of a cliche still made the series a little more enjoyable. You can use him in the game’s ‘firefight’ mode, an online co-op setting where players battle against waves of increasingly difficult opponents, similar to Gears of War’s ‘Horde’ mode, which seems to be the new trend in multiplayer gaming, a sort of synthesis between the standard team based deathmatches and single player campaigns, allowing for maximum carnage with none of that pesky story to get in the way. If that wasn’t enough, everyone who purchases the game, preorder or no will get access to the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta.
Molyneux Talks New Fable II Content
While many developers and studio executives issue simple ‘no comment’ statements when probed or prodded about any aspect of what they’ve got brewing, others like Will Wright and Peter Molyneux are always more than happy to discuss their games, even if only in vague promises of great potential.
IGN sat down with Molyneux at the Game Developers Conference and got his tongue wagging regarding Fable II. Since the game’s release Lionhead has released a single downloadable content pack, which was heavy on new items and short on actual gameplay time. Some of that Molyneux attributes to the fact that work was started on it immediately after the game’s release which meant that they were splitting their focus between Knothole Glade and patching any issues with the game itself.
Now that whatever the biggest issues are with Fable II have been ironed out and Lionhead is free to pursue other projects. Rumors have been circulating that Fable III is already in production and while Molyenux said nothing to confirm that, many things he said confirmed that they’re planning on it. The end of Fable II leaves plenty of loose threads and some of these will be wrapped up in the new premium content pack that will be released this spring.
It’s titled See The Future and it will give some hints at the future of the Fable story. This isn’t an official announcement but Molyneux says they’re not done with Fable II yet and to expect more content. This pack set to add more to the game and not only more clothes or weapons. It’s said to add entirely new gameplay features, new things to do and ‘new challenges’.
Capcom PS1 titles coming to PSN
Sony announced the availablity of full games for download from their Playstation Store some time ago but still there is a drought of Playstation 1 games. Well, a quick posting done by Capcom’s Christian Svensson over at the Capcom-Unity boards gives us all a ray of hope.
Apparently, Capcom has submitted a number of their Playstation 1 titles for later sale in the Playstation Store. However, he is quoted as saying the following, “Word I got back this morning is that this may take a bit more time than anticipated.”
More time than anticipated huh? They better at least be good ones if we’re going to have to wait. Which of Capcom’s Playstation 1 titles would you guys like to see for sale in the Playstation Store?
New York won’t tax downloadable content
I’ve you’ve stayed with us, you know that back in December we heard that New York had a bill in the works that would potentially tax things like downloadable map packs offered over Xbox Live.
Well, word has recently gotten to us that New York has scrapped the idea stating the reason as the passing of the stimulus bill. The original plan arised to help decrease the state’s $1.3 billion dollar debt but with the stimulus bill and more money coming their way, they deemed it unnecessary.
This is good news as Destructoid reports that this bill could have increased the price of DLC by up to 8%.
Two Worlds Game Review – In Celebration of What Might Have Been
Oh, what might have been.
I too remember the hype machine that surrounded Two Worlds. I remember how they swore up and down that it was “Oblivion on steroids”. And I remember getting my hands on it, slapping it in my 360, clearing my schedule and preparing for the glee that would surely follow.
And oh, do I remember my profound disappointment.
Oh, do I remember.
The plot is not even vaguely worthy of the title “Oblivion on steroids”–basically, the Orc god of war is dead, and they desperately want him back. The only problem is, no one knows where exactly the Orc god of war was buried, and this is probably a good thing as no one but the Orcs
wants this psycho back and operating. But, sure enough, a Dwarven archaelogical expedition digs
up what appears to be the tomb of His Godly Insanity and the Orcs smell an opportunity.
You, meanwhile, will pick up the thread of this adventure WELL on its periphery and instead be out looking for your sister, who you have haven’t seen since her settlement was attacked fully three years prior. Seems she’s been kidnapped by another group who ALSO wants to find the Tomb of Aziraal—the Orc god of war—and you’ll have to seek out that tomb before the Orcs do to get your sister back.
There’s plenty to like about Two Worlds. This is a strange thing to say about a game so incredibly maligned but I’ve got at least half a feeling that most of the ill will from this game came from the damage its own hype machine did. The gameplay is fairly fun, the story is fairly broad, the graphics and sound quality are at least fair…but this is not what we were promised. What we were promised was an experience that would make Oblivion look like a sick old woman and we were certainly not provided with that.
However, what we WERE provided with was a halfway decent, if a little buggy, game that had a lot going for it. It’s true that the game itself is solid if a bit unpolished. Some reports suggest that the game was actually supposed to be significantly larger, but was broken up into smaller pieces so that there could be downloadable content. This was in retrospect a bad move—they should have left it as-is and then added on content later if they wanted. Then they would have had an incredibly huge game and people would’ve been able to stack it up against Oblivion like the hype machine demanded in the first place.
One thing that’s really interesting—though it doesn’t up the quality of the game much—is the fact that Two Worlds’ map is about twenty five percent larger than that of Oblivion. Thus, if you want to get technical about it, you CAN say with some accuracy that Two Worlds is a much bigger game than Oblivion. I don’t know if this holds when you start applying the downloadable content—Sheogorath’s little looney bin was a pretty chunky addition—but still, it’s an interesting aside.
But all things considered, Two Worlds isn’t as bad as everyone lets on. It’s a grave disappointment, sure, but that’s just because the hype machine got seriously overexcited with this one and didn’t bother to check its claims. You’ll still have plenty of fun with it, especially if you’re one of those hardy souls that, like me, are just champing at the bit for Elder Scrolls Five. Or possibly Fallout Four, whichever.
New Mass Effect DLC Coming
Discussions of the sequel to popular sci-fi action RPG Mass Effect are already happening. What consoles it will be released for has come under discussion. The title has been around for quite some time and last year a downloadable content pack was released called Bringing Down The Sky, where the protagonist embarked on a mission to save a planet from a rogue asteroid. To the disappointment of many fans of the game this was the only DLC to be released.
At least until now. In a discussion this weekend at New York Comic Con Jay Watamaniuk let it slip that a second DLC episode is in the works. Unfortunately as you might expect he steered any further questions about the DLC towards a different topic. Details will likely be forthcoming as soon as they’re available since many gamers have probably already sold/traded in their copies.
Microsoft Creating Deal Of The Week, Starting With Halo Maps
After a successful promotion where a wide variety of themes and downloadable content packs had their prices cut Microsoft has announced a ‘Holiday Deal of the Week’ plan for December, giving gamers a chance to buy a gift for an online buddy or to pick up some stuff for themselves if they’re strapped for cash after buying presents.
The first deal is for the Halo Legendary map pack which will be available for 400 MS points or $5 real world cash. That’s a discount of 200 points which begins on Tuesday at 9AM pacific time until next Monday when a new item will go on sale.