Really?

USA Today (of all places) has a scoop:

GTA IV, which was released in April for the Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, focused on former Eastern European soldier Niko Bellic and his escalating life of crime in the boroughs of Liberty City. This new episode, available Feb. 17 via download exclusively for those who own the Xbox 360 version (no price yet), stars Johnny Klebitz, a member of Liberty City biker gang The Lost.

“Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background,” says Dan Houser, vice president of creative development for Rockstar Games. “I can’t go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City.”

The episode, titled The Lost and Damned, requires players to have the full version of the Mature-rated GTA IV (ages 17 and older) and an Xbox Live membership to download. It’s likely to carry an M rating, too. (Parents can use the Xbox 360’s parental controls to prevent children from accessing inappropriate content.)

…

Previous games have used downloads to add “new stages, weapons and costumes,” says GamePro Media features editor Dave Rudden, “but GTA IV’s content will reportedly add hours of gameplay.”

Rudden hopes the episode costs $15 or less, but Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter expects a $20 price and says Rockstar could sell 2 million to 3 million downloads. “I see episodic content as a natural progression of the quality of downloadable content.”

Wow. Ok, last thing’s first: this ain’t gonna sell 2 million copies, guys. Secondly, it sounds like a fairly run-of-the-mill expansion pack, whereas we had been led to believe (or at least was heavily implied) that we’d be looking at a huge new area and plotline; comparable to a Liberty City Stories, I believe were their words. And hey, maybe it will be… but this sure doesn’t look like it.

But - this content is exclusive to 360 (and requiring Live Gold!) for who-knows-how-long, for a nearly year-old game that is on the wrong side of this year’s massive xmas game deluge? I dunno. I liked GTA IV – I even finished it (once) – but I can’t see myself going back for this. Besides, “The Lost” were such a small, lame part of GTA’s universe, it strikes me as an odd choice.

Anyways, this is out February 17 2009. You know what else is?

Killzone 2. And Street Fighter IV.

Act accordingly.

Flickr finds are a strange thing. You can find the most amazing images that have little or no explanation to them. For example, this gorgeous marble statue of an angel playing a GBA. According to the tags it was taken in a cemetary. Is some poor GBA-loving child lying under this angels feet? Or is this just where they buried all the Virtual Boys?

Hit the jump for a better angle;

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Not sure what Pac-man has to do with fashion or even if the designer was going for the “Pac” look on purpose. Looks more funny then sexy but that could just be me.

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(Updated below.)

Here’s a Microsoft quote from a year ago. I love this quote, because it is so fiendishly slippery:

“Every game will work with every Xbox 360 system,” a Microsoft spokesman told GamePro when asked about the “Hard Drive Required” sticker. “But just like some games will require you to have a Memory Unit to save games, some games will require you to have a Hard Drive to experience them.”

Didja catch that?

All 360 games will actually run on all Xbox 360s. Huzzah!

Unless of course they require something else. Like a hard drive. So all 360 games will not run on all 360s. Just ones with the right overpriced peripherals attached to them.

When the 360 launched, MS was pretty adamant that there would be no breaking of this rule. Then we found out that you need an HDD for Xbox backwards compatibility. No biggie. Oh, and for MMOs. (Plural? Isn’t there just the one?) And for that UK football game. And for online co-op in Crackdown. And for online multiplayer in Burnout Paradise. But that’s all, we swear.

Check out the Ninja Blade product page.

This is why you don’t buy a Core system – even at the new, tempting $199 price. To make that system actually play all Xbox 360 games properly, you would need to add either a $120 20GB drive, or a $200 (yes) 160GB 120GB drive. The big HDD costs as much as the Core unit by itself. To contrast, a Pro system with the 60GB drive included will run you $299. You’ll end up paying more if you try to buy it piecemeal.

A few months ago, Gearbox sort of casually mentioned the fact that their forthcoming title Borderlands would require the HDD. And then MS made them backpeddle like crazy when a small furor erupted. How much do you want to bet they were telling the truth the first time?

It’s been said before, but I’ll say it again: they need to stop selling that Core unit. This is really disingenuous. A memory card is one thing, but requiring stupendously overpriced proprietary HDD is something else altogether. Something that rhymes with “bass tape”.

On second thought… perhaps they are dropping the Core, and this week’s fire-sale prices are just a way of clearing them out. We shall see.

(Also, let’s see if they edit that product page. I wouldn’t put it past them. “Sorry, it was an error.”)

Update: Yup, look at that. All mention of the HDD requirment is now gone. As is “user creatable content”. Somebody really needs to get their shit together on the MS Xbox site.

((Thanks Xav for the correction on the drive size. He points out that apparently they make this “HDD required” error a lot.))

I realize it’s a little hard to read but I really wanted to make sure to get it all in there.

Can you think of any names he should name this poor, poor child?

[Source]

I’ve watched this trailer over and over and can’t quite seem to find the titles of the games included in Apogee’s Duke Nukem Trilogy. Maybe you guys can help me? Please? I hate it when these trailers are so unclear about what you’re actually getting. Seriously, just give me the names of the games!

Sorry bout that, I just couldn’t resist. It possibly the worst game trailer I’ve ever seen, and was most likely put together by an intern 30 minutes before showtime. It’s amazing what one can do with copy+paste commands and crappy filters.

So you readers out there are probably starting to notice I have a new whipping boy in the video game world… and it’s the redesigned 360 interface and the (ugh) Avatars. I’ll be ranting and raving about it like a lunatic for the next few months, so Wii fanboy’s will probably be getting a break for the time being. I’m like the huge glowing Eye of Sauron, I can only seem to focus on one thing at a time.

What I can’t figure out is why they found it a good idea to waste so much screen space. Everything just seems to float in the middle of the screen with tons of grey nothing in the background (ad space perhaps?) Have they looked at this on a SD tv? I have a feeling those on smaller sets will have an honest to good problem seeing it. Oh and white text against a grey background? Brilliant. The Avatars are something separate and it pisses me off to think about them so I best just leave it alone. But I’ll say this: they fucking suck. God help those of you with tons of friends, having to look at a bunch of puppets bouncing about trying to get a “party” together.

It’s really weird that they always seem to refer to any group on this thing as a “party.” Reminds me of when I watch Cathouse on HBO and the hooker refers to what they do as a “party” when all they really mean is someone’s about to pay for sex.

Now this video below shows it all in motion. I didn’t like it when they first showed it at the Microsoft press conference, and seeing this just re-affirmed it. Maybe it changes your mind, maybe you like it even more. I know some people out there are going to agree with me and some aren’t.

I really and truly want to hear some opinions on the matter, so even though you don’t usually comment do me a favor and chime in.