Saturday 29 March 2008
Major analyst predicts Xbox 360 GTA IV will outsell PS3 version by a 2 to 1 ratio
Michael Pachter, the biggest analyst in the video game industry says the superior Xbox 360 version will outsell the PS3 version by a 2 to 1 ratio.
Pachter: "We expect around 6 million copies of GTA IV to be sold to Xbox 360 owners"
Janco Partners' Mike Hickey said that Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV would likely sell 5.8 million units in its first week. Now, in his latest research note on Take-Two, Wedbush Morgan Securites analyst Michael Pachter has issued a similar forecast, predicting that the game will ship six million in its first week and could sell more than nine million during Take-Two's fiscal year, which ends on October 31.
"We estimate that GTA IV is likely to sell over 9 million units during the fiscal year, and think that the company will likely ship 6 million units in its first week, and will sell 3/4 of that amount in a brief period of time. The performance of GTA IV will thus be responsible for more than 100% of Take-Two's earnings for the year, and the game is likely to mask the underperformance of the rest of Take-Two's portfolio," he said. "We think that GTA IV will generate around $450 million of the company's expected $1,073 million publishing revenue this year, and will generate an operating profit of around 30%, or $135 million. At the high end of company guidance, Take-Two will generate operating income of around $130 million, meaning that the game is responsible for 103% of overall company operating profit."
Pachter also questioned the profitability of the downloadable episodic content for the game: "[We think] Take-Two will have to generate over 2 million downloads (assuming a $15 per download price) on the Xbox 360 before it sees any more cash from this content. We expect around 6 million copies of GTA IV to be sold to Xbox 360 owners, and believe that around 65% of Xbox 360 owners are Xbox Live members, so the company has to sell a download to 50% of its addressable market in order to generate cash from the first download. This is possible, but not highly likely."
Elsewhere in the report Pachter noted his disappointment in Take-Two as a whole. GTA IV is the "one glaring exception," he said.
"We think that it is important to point out that U.S. industry software sales have grown by over 58% from the November 2005 – January 2006 period through the November 2007 – January 2008 period, while Take-Two's publishing revenues have declined by almost 23%. This is clearly a company that is losing market share, and as we review the lineup for the balance of 2008 and 2009, we see more of the same type of games we have seen over the last three years," he said. "The company's sports lineup continues to underperform, generating only $32 million of sales (26% of publishing revenues) for the key holiday period. This figure calls into question whether Take-Two can deliver sports revenues of $250 million for FY:08, as management implied in a prior earnings call."
Friday 28 March 2008
IKARUGA coming to XLM April 9th
# 800 MS Points
# LIVE Co-op + leaderboards
# Replay mode
# Horizontal mode (letterboxed) is higher resolution than even the arcade version
# Vertical modes (tilt) supported, both left and right rotations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToBdzV7w5Pc
Thursday 27 March 2008
UEFA EURO 2008 demo now available
By Neil Vaughan - 27 Mar 08
The demo for UEFA EURO 2008 is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
For those not familiar, UEFA EURO 2008 is the official game for the European football/soccer championships taking place this summer.
All Xbox LIVE regions are able to download the demo, which weighs in at 1.10GB.
The demo for UEFA EURO 2008 is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace.
For those not familiar, UEFA EURO 2008 is the official game for the European football/soccer championships taking place this summer.
All Xbox LIVE regions are able to download the demo, which weighs in at 1.10GB.
Wednesday 26 March 2008
Sunday 23 March 2008
Is Race Driver the Future of Driving Games?
Codemasters claims your favorite racing games, the Gothams, Forzas and Gran Turismos, aren’t actually about racing at all. What are they about? Maybe ownership, or glamour, or simple iterative realism. Anything but what they’re meant to be.
“Gotham 4 was cool,” admits Ralph Fulton, chief designer of Race Driver: Grid. “But when we started looking at what this game’s ‘thing’ was, we looked at our competitors and found that, as a whole, they were concentrating on everything but the racing experience. We concluded that our strengths, historically, are in providing that experience. We do excellent AI, excellent physics, world-leading damage systems. We look at the competition and they’re palpably not doing what we do really well.”
If it sounds like a rather flat description of a game about the innate buzz of racing, it’s understandable; Grid’s ‘thing’ is hard to put into words. It’s a truly generational sequel, as unlikely a TOCA game as Dirt was a Colin McRae Rally. What it hopes to capture is something ethereal: an air that exists wherever there’s a race, an electricity that runs through the mere notion of taking the wheel. Imagine a storied, charismatic driver – Kowalski, say, from the movie Vanishing Point – looking back over a life spent chasing that high, wherever it’s to be found. Grid has that same deep, universal, uncomplicated love.
Its issue with modern racing seems, primarily, to be its obsession with science and technology. Too many facts and figures. Too many publicized polygon counts. Too much telemetry written across the screen. In its three territories, Europe, America and Japan, Grid seldom stares at the intricacies of vehicle manufacture; it never feels like a Haynes manual. Despite inheriting Ego (formerly Neon), the most sophisticated engine a racer could have, its attention is drawn more to the bonnets themselves that what’s beneath them.
“I’m not sure anyone could argue there’s a chasm in the racing market,” laughs Fulton. “Last year, we saw AAA racer after AAA racer come out, and obviously we were thinking then about how we’d differentiate ourselves. With many franchises, particularly racing, each iteration becomes an exercise in box-ticking: more cars, more tracks. We didn’t want to go down that road.”
Not to sound too obvious, but roads are a big thing here. Rather than a fetish for clinical, famous straights and bends, its reverence veers towards the iconic. And in its treatments of Haruna (the celebrated hill-climb from Initial D), Milan (a sun-struck, hazy dash through and around the Galleria) and San Francisco (a sepia-toned tribute to Dirty Harry) it gives renewed meaning to that overused term. The open-wheel touring cars of European circuits, belching muscle cars of US cities and tuned drift cars of illegal Japanese street-racing all convey an uncommon sense of heritage.
Unlike the era of Colin McRae 04 and Race Driver 2, where the two companion brands ploughed damagingly through each other’s turf, this game is healthily unique. “There’s healthy competition, maybe, but no overlap in terms of content,” insists Fulton. “We’ve gone out of our way to make a clear distinction between the two brands; although they’re noticeably from the same studio, they’re palpably different. There’s an overlap of personnel in the art team and programming, and obviously our outsource studio in Kuala Lumpur is heavily involved. But the key personnel differ from project to project.” And he should know: a lead designer here, he wasn’t even involved in Dirt.
What the games share most of all now is experience. And, of course, shockingly powerful technology. Burned somewhat by the weak multiplayer and meandering singleplayer of Dirt, Grid hopes to make no such mistakes. “It was at pains with its literalness, wasn’t it?” Fulton laughs of Dirt’s career mode. “That you were climbing, literally, a pyramid. It’s a fair criticism. I think we’ve tried to ground our career mode much more in the notion of a world which evolves. And while a lot of racing games have the pretence of choice, where really you’re just moving in a linear direction, we want the player to choose his career path and what to do next.”
If it sounds like a rather flat description of a game about the innate buzz of racing, it’s understandable; Grid’s ‘thing’ is hard to put into words. It’s a truly generational sequel, as unlikely a TOCA game as Dirt was a Colin McRae Rally. What it hopes to capture is something ethereal: an air that exists wherever there’s a race, an electricity that runs through the mere notion of taking the wheel. Imagine a storied, charismatic driver – Kowalski, say, from the movie Vanishing Point – looking back over a life spent chasing that high, wherever it’s to be found. Grid has that same deep, universal, uncomplicated love.
Its issue with modern racing seems, primarily, to be its obsession with science and technology. Too many facts and figures. Too many publicized polygon counts. Too much telemetry written across the screen. In its three territories, Europe, America and Japan, Grid seldom stares at the intricacies of vehicle manufacture; it never feels like a Haynes manual. Despite inheriting Ego (formerly Neon), the most sophisticated engine a racer could have, its attention is drawn more to the bonnets themselves that what’s beneath them.
“I’m not sure anyone could argue there’s a chasm in the racing market,” laughs Fulton. “Last year, we saw AAA racer after AAA racer come out, and obviously we were thinking then about how we’d differentiate ourselves. With many franchises, particularly racing, each iteration becomes an exercise in box-ticking: more cars, more tracks. We didn’t want to go down that road.”
Not to sound too obvious, but roads are a big thing here. Rather than a fetish for clinical, famous straights and bends, its reverence veers towards the iconic. And in its treatments of Haruna (the celebrated hill-climb from Initial D), Milan (a sun-struck, hazy dash through and around the Galleria) and San Francisco (a sepia-toned tribute to Dirty Harry) it gives renewed meaning to that overused term. The open-wheel touring cars of European circuits, belching muscle cars of US cities and tuned drift cars of illegal Japanese street-racing all convey an uncommon sense of heritage.
Unlike the era of Colin McRae 04 and Race Driver 2, where the two companion brands ploughed damagingly through each other’s turf, this game is healthily unique. “There’s healthy competition, maybe, but no overlap in terms of content,” insists Fulton. “We’ve gone out of our way to make a clear distinction between the two brands; although they’re noticeably from the same studio, they’re palpably different. There’s an overlap of personnel in the art team and programming, and obviously our outsource studio in Kuala Lumpur is heavily involved. But the key personnel differ from project to project.” And he should know: a lead designer here, he wasn’t even involved in Dirt.
What the games share most of all now is experience. And, of course, shockingly powerful technology. Burned somewhat by the weak multiplayer and meandering singleplayer of Dirt, Grid hopes to make no such mistakes. “It was at pains with its literalness, wasn’t it?” Fulton laughs of Dirt’s career mode. “That you were climbing, literally, a pyramid. It’s a fair criticism. I think we’ve tried to ground our career mode much more in the notion of a world which evolves. And while a lot of racing games have the pretence of choice, where really you’re just moving in a linear direction, we want the player to choose his career path and what to do next.”
Review: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2
By Brandon Hofer - 22 Mar 08
In Rainbow Six Vegas 2 you are once again tasked with the mission of saving the city of Las Vegas from a group of terrorists. As you quickly learn, the events of Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2 are running concurrently, therefore you are fighting against the same group of terrorists in both titles. Going through the story mode you will encounter the familiar locations such as casinos and such, however, you will also go through an MLG convention hall, a theater and a few other new locations as well. Much like the first title you can go through the story by yourself or with a friend via co-op. Going through co-op this time around has been improved over the first game making this co-op experience a more well rounded experience. The “Terrorist Hunt” mode also makes a return and you can choose to tackle that either solo or with a buddy over co-op. Then of course there is the multiplayer aspect which features your standard fare of team deathmatch, attack & defend, total conquest and other modes that are similar. Customization is also a big part of the game as you can choose to customize your equipment, armor & clothing. Once you choose your weapons you can even customize those, choosing which type of attachment you would like to use and things of that nature. Going through the game you can choose to customize them even further by choosing whether or not you want to put a silencer on your weapon so that you can sneak up on enemies easier. As you progress through the game you will gain more experience, which will then unlock new gear that you can use to customize your character. You also have the feature to import your face using the XBox Live Vision cam, similar to how it worked in the original Rainbow Six Vegas. There is even an achievement for doing that so be sure to do that if you want some easy gamer score points.
One new addition that Ubisoft put into Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sprint button. While it seems like such a simple concept, when you went through Rainbow Six Vegas you were not able to sprint ahead. This lead to a lot of deaths when you couldn’t get to cover in time because your guy would simply walk over there instead of running. It should also be noted that a couple of the controls were changed for this sequel. In the first title you would tag enemies for your allies to take out using the “back” button. In this game Ubisoft changed it so that you have to use the “LB” button. To sprint ahead you also have to hold down the “LB” button instead of clicking the left stick like some other shooters. You still control your allies in much the same way that you did in the first title. You can still have them stack up against a door and then order them to clear out a room and all of that fun stuff.
Going through the campaign mode you will notice that graphics do look better than its predecessor, however, it is not a huge leap forward. They just tend to look a little more crisp and detailed in some areas. Another thing you will notice is that the frame rate tends to dip in certain areas of intense action. It is surprising that Ubisoft was not able to lock down a steady frame rate, especially considering I don’t remember the first Rainbow Six Vegas having that issue. With that being said, the frame rate dip does not happen often and only occurs in certain areas of the game. It is definitely not enough to ruin the game, it is just a minor annoyance. The online play in this title, however, seems to run smoothly. I have gone through the entire campaign with a friend over co-op and it ran without a hitch. There was no lag at all except for the aforementioned frame rate problems. If you went through Rainbow Six Vegas and still have the save file on your hard drive then as soon as you boot up Rainbow Six Vegas 2 you are immediately rewarded for being a “Veteran”. You will receive some extra XP which will help you unlock items in the game along with a flight helmet, ballistic goggles, a tactical helmet & Balaclava. In addition you can unlock a free map to be used alongside your other Rainbow Six Vegas 2 maps by using the code that we revealed earlier in the week.
Overall, if you were a fan of the first Rainbow Six Vegas, then you should enjoy Rainbow Six Vegas 2. There is nothing groundbreaking here however Ubisoft did improve on what was already there. The storyline follows the first game pretty well and closes everything off neatly as you finish the campaign. If you weren’t a fan of the original Rainbow Six Vegas then you probably won’t like this title either as it is more of the same. However for gamers who are fans of this series you should have a lot of fun going through the game’s various modes and trying to unlock everything in the game.
Game Ratings
Graphics
9
Audio
10
Gameplay
9
Longevity
9
Online Play
9
Overall 9/10 another great shooter!
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