UNSCleric.com

“UNSCleric.com” is now moving back over to my Windows Live Space.  I don’t have the ability to port over the theme that was worked on (and finished) for this site, nor do I have the ability to contact the person who made it, so until the day comes that the new theme finally comes over to this site, I’m going to be posting every now and then over on my other blog.  It won’t be traditional news stories, and everything will probably have more of a personalized slant to it, but anybody can comment and we can talk about recent news, and I may even post some stories and opinions about news from time to time.

A couple days ago I completely broke UNSCleric.com while trying to make it re-direct to my Windows Live Space and I thought my plan was dead, but this morning I thought of something new to try, and it worked!  UNSCleric.com will now bring you to http://unscleric.spaces.live.com, and UNSCleric.com/News will bring you to this blog you’re reading now, and that’ll continue to stay here.  When/if the day comes to start posting back on this blog, UNSCleric.com would revert back to redirecting you to this blog.

If you go over to the blog right now, you’ll see quite a few older posts, where I mostly talk about older GamerScore goals and my gaming.  The frequency of posts will be much higher than what I have done before over there.

EBGames.com now has the 360/PS3 title Dark Sector for $19.99 new or $17.99 used.  If you go for the used version, use the coupon code CAG16 and Saver for an extra 16% off and free shipping.

Dark Sector is currently my favorite game of 2008, and it’s the most fun I’ve had with a game since Halo 3.  Within minutes of finishing the game, I e-mailed the developers of the game (Digital Extremes) to tell them my thoughts, which I had never done before.

Dark Sector is everything I wish Gears of War would be.  It’s just as polished and solid as Gears of War, except it has some of the most inventive systems for weapon management and enemies that I’ve ever seen.  It reminds me of a mix between Gears of War, Resident Evil, and Metal Gear Solid…and that’s a very good thing to be a mixture of.  I’m hoping to do a review of the  game some time in the future as well, but for now, you can download a demo of it for free off of Xbox Live.  This game is a must for my collection.

By the way, Condemned 2: Bloodshot is also $19.99 new over at GameStop.com, but it is currently sold out.  It’s $19.99 in stores though, or you can pick up a used copy for $17.99.

Just wait until you see this…

Here’s a link to the original Diorama trailer.  For more on Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, which is scheduled to come out in just over a month, click here.

Add another title to the long list of games scheduled for the PS3 that have been canceled or delayed due to the PS3’s architecture.  It was revealed a couple months ago by EA that they had discontinued work on the PS3 version of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, but now we know what the cause for it was, and it’s a shocker.

“We actually announced a PS3 version early on but that was when we were still doing a lot of technical exploration of the architecture,” explained Ajami. “PS3 is a very powerful system but as you guys know it’s very exotic and tough to develop for and our engine really at the time wasn’t designed for PS3.” Couch commanders need not give up all hope, though, as Ajami notes EA “might go back and do something with the PS3 later on.”

The only good that can come from this, is that hardware companies like Sony and Microsoft see the problems that developers are having with their consoles, and work hard next-generation to put developer’s needs in front of their quest to cut corners or shove in proprietary hardware that is not gaming friendly.

Oh, and speaking of gaming hardware, Amazon.com has the new 60GB Xbox 360 in-stock already.

Two years ago, during my Next-Gen Infowar article series, I outlined how Electronic Arts was buying up the rights to publish many of the top games of this generation, and even the next-generation, and what EA’s endgame might be.  It became clear when researching EA, especially when looking at how they absolutely refused to support Xbox Live until they could use their own servers, that EA’s ultimate goal is to gain enough support and franchises so that they can justify charging to play their games online, especially their sports line-up.  Since two years ago, EA has gone on to buy up more developers and more franchises, like BioWare (Mass Effect trilogy) and Pandemic (Mercenaries 2).

Earlier today, the news hit that during yesterday’s EA conference call, EA Sports President Peter Moore briefly mentioned concepts the studio is considering for the future of their various titles. Moore stated they were looking at instituting “subscription programs” to the EA Sports library in order to “take advantage” of customer loyalty.

The fact that EA is looking at this “concept” is no surpise, but it falls in line with their past behavior and their agenda for the future.

Bungie.net - Luke Smith

As much as people would like a bit more information on what happened this week with our announcement, there’s nothing additional to add what has already been said. So, if you did miss this week’s events, you can read what’s what here.

E3 2008: Livin’ The Dream:

Earlier this week, I thought Sketch’s and my video project had been unceremoniously pulled from beneath my Sambas, but upon returning to Bungie Software Products Corporation we took a look at some of the “footage” we shot and believe with the right amount of dedication, post-processing, and Final Cut Light that someday, somewhere down the line we’ll have something to show from our E3 trip. It’s really going to be a footrace though to see if we can show our other rad thing first, or if E3 2008: Livin’ The Dream surfaces first (safe bet is on mockumentary E3 2008: Livin’ The Dream not surfacing anytime soon). We feel pretty confident that this piece of history would’ve been an awesome fit in an E3 Lineup; but we read on the Internet that sometimes there just isn’t time to fit everything in. (Nice jab at Don Mattrick there - Cleric)

Despite whatever eased into the ether regarding what we’re working on at Bungie, speculative hunches and guesswork certainly don’t tell the full tale.  We’d go so far as to say these ramblings are barely even a Prologue, not even a Foreword to the storybook we’re putting together. Rest assured, there are multiple machinations afoot at Bungie, one is so close you can feel its familiar warmth on your cheek while you sleep; another so far off and foreign that like a faint star in deep space, you can only look to the heavens as its light speeds ever closer.

Lo, there is still another.

Today, details are coming in about what Bungie intended to reveal at Microsoft’s E3 press conference. While specific information about its upcoming Halo project remain a secret, the developer reportedly planned to show a sixty second teaser trailer, only to have it pulled at the last minute.

“Bungie had a sixty second knock’em down teaser trailer made that was going to unveil the game and it was going to be the close to Microsoft media keynote at E3,” Jacob Metcalf explained. “This was going to be followed up by Bungie doing their separate press event later on in the week on Wednesday to show off the new game.”

“Microsoft has never really explained why they prevented Bungie from going on with their media event on Wednesday at E3. It has to be a new Halo game since if it was an new IP Microsoft would not have their hands on the control of the brand and would not have had the power to silence Bungie about it.”

Bungie informed fans that plans had been changed on Tuesday, later promising something “further down the road.” Meanwhile, Microsoft maintains that the announcement was held back for a “more dedicated event.”

“So soon Bungie and Microsoft will come to terms about when and how Microsoft is going to unveil this new Bungie developed Halo game and then show it to the public,” he said.

However the Microsoft executive that was in charge of their show at E3 is Don Mattrick and apparently there is some possible drama going on behind their evolving relationship with the now independent Bungie. The only person above Don Mattrick in Xbox is Robbie Bach then the chain of command goes to Steve Balmer and the board of directors. Don ordered the new Bungie Halo game to be cut from the E3 briefing at the last moment and essentially gag ordered Bungie from showing the game off that week.

Don didn’t want a non-Microsoft studio game to overshadow all of the Microsoft Studio developed games. He then went on to make a little quip about having an E3 breifing that was not all about Halo. This is sort of like inviting someone to the prom and leaving them at home at the last minute while they can’t get another date.

There is no Halo themed media event that is currently on the calendar. Bungie has been working towards a big media push about this game with the unveiling of the Superintendent character and they have been trying to build a buzz within their fanbase.

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It’s good to know more about what they planned to show, but I disagree with this confirming it was Halo they were going to show.  It probably was something to do with Halo, but no matter what project it was, Microsoft is the publisher, meaning they could have stopped the announcement no matter what.

The Bungie Weekly Update will be posted very shortly, and from the things I’ve seen Luke Smith post on NeoGAF today, I don’t think it’s going to bring much good news.

Warning: It’s a horrible excuse.

LATimes.com -

Turns out that Bungie’s latest Halo project was originally part of the program for Microsoft’s press conference on Monday, but it was taken out of the lineup at the last minute. Don Mattrick, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Xbox games business, said the company decided to pull Halo …

… to help trim its E3 presentation to under 90 minutes, from 2 1/2 hours, to accommodate attention-challenged reporters.

“We had an embarrassment of riches,” Mattrick said. “We felt we could do this game more justice with a more dedicated event.”

Bungie, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2000, split from the software giant last year but agreed to give Microsoft first dibs on publishing its games.

For Microsoft, the decision was a blow but not a critical hit. Although the Halo games have contributed over a billion dollars in sales for the Redmond, Washington, giant, the company is less reliant on the franchise than it once was. The first Halo game cemented Xbox as the console of choice for many serious gamers at a time when Microsoft was just entering the market and struggling to earn respect. Halo 3, released in September, singlehandedly pulled Microsoft’s console division into the black for the fiscal year ending in June, giving the division its first profit since entering the market in 2001.

So Microsoft’s decision to pull Halo from its presentation led to quite a bit of head scratching.

Mattrick put a positive spin on the development, saying that Microsoft had managed to build such a solid foundation that it no longer needed to depend on one or two games to succeed. He noted that the company also left out Grand Theft Auto IV. Microsoft snagged exclusive content for the game that will be made available to its Xbox 360 players this fall.

“Two big kahunas were left out of the show, and we were still able to deliver a strong performance,” Mattrick said.
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First of all, this guy is an idiot.  I’ve never liked Don Mattrick from the moment he came to Microsoft last year and took over Peter Moore’s role as the Xbox boss.  Can you imagine Peter Moore pulling some kind of stunt like this?  No, he never would have, cause he loved the gamers, and always had a genuine care for them ever since his Sega days.  This Mattrick guy though, is the former Worldwide President of EA Games, and that pretty much explains everything right there.  This guy doesn’t care about the gamers, never has, and never will.  Does this guy think that gamers and the gaming media are so stupid that they can’t handle a little bit more news coming out of a press briefing?  100% Arrogance.

Without Bungie, the Xbox brand would be most likely dead right now, and if not, they certainly wouldn’t be where they are right now.  How does Microsoft and the Xbox team thank them for that?  They **** all over Bungie’s new announcement that they were having a blast hyping us all up for for the last several months…and then they leak the project to the media.

Related:
08.08.07 - More EA @ MS (and Ubisoft)
07.17.07 - Peter Moore Resigns From Microsoft, Goes To EA Sports
10.11.07 - The EA Cancer Continues to Spread

After spending the last few hours trying to piece together what happened last night when Bungie.net announced that Microsoft was not allowing them to go ahead with their much-planned and hyped announcement, it seemed likely that the game was Halo-related, due to the amount of control Microsoft had over the announcement of the game.  This next piece of news, which just hit the Internet a few minutes ago on this early Wednesday morning, most likely confirm this.

In an interview shot for MTV News on Tuesday, Microsoft’s head of Xbox business Don Mattrick, confirmed that Bungie is indeed working on a new “Halo” game of some sort for Microsoft.

I had been asking Mattrick about the lack of “Halo” news at E3. He said that Microsoft’s Monday press conference was already loaded with content and so any announcements for that series weren’t needed to get gamers excited.

I pushed him on the lack of presence for the series and asked him if we should be worried about the no-show of Ensemble Studio’s real-time-strategy game “Halo Wars.” Not only did Mattrick say not to worry, but that announcements would be coming, he also said that Microsoft is working with Bungie on a “Halo” game.

I asked for clarification, wondering if Mattrick meant Bungie’s project was “Halo Wars” or the long-announced Peter Jackson “Halo” project. Neither, Mattrick said. The Bungie game is something else.

And then, not surprisingly, the topic was changed.

———-

Do you think it’s true?  Is Don Mattrick just confused and out of the loop as the boss, or does he actually know what he’s talking about?  Will this new Halo be a sequel to Halo 3, or will it focus on another part of the Halo universe and not star Spartan-117?  It could also be the expansion pack (Codenamed: Halo Blue) that was rumored earlier this week.  I have a feeling we may have had some answers to these questions if Microsoft wasn’t holding Bungie’s mouth shut.  This wouldn’t be the first time a high-up executive slips up on something big concerning Halo.

From: Harold Ryan
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2008 7:00PM
Subject: E3 Announce

For the last several months, we’ve been building toward a reveal of something exciting that Bungie is working on. We were looking forward to sharing that with out fan community during the week of E3. However, those plans were just changed by our publisher.

We realize that many of our fans are disappointed by this turn of events; members of the Bungie team share that disappointment.

When the right time comes, we look forward to sharing this exciting announcement with you. Until then, we appreciate your continued support and patience.

Harold Ryan
President
Bungie LLC

Is now:

(Click to enlarge)

It was discovered earlier today that more Superintendent wallpapers exist. Here are the ones that are currently known about:

• PLEASE REMAIN CALM
• HITCHHIKERS MAY BE ESCAPING INMATES
• YELLOW MEANS YIELD
• OBEY POSTED LIMITS
• TAKE IT TO MAKE IT
• NO PUBLIC ACCESS
• MIND THE GAP

Bungie community lead Luke Smith has confirmed the postponement is legitimate. “We already are deeply disappointed with how things unfolded to this point without getting our fans to the intended payoff.” When forum goers at NeoGAF assumed it was a joke Smith responded with the above comment and added, “Nope. Not our style.”

Luke Smith replied to a comment made in NeoGAF confirming the publisher in question is in fact Microsoft. Responding to the comment, “Bungie is the one who made this great little hype machine. And–although this will just add to the fire–they never say it’s Microsoft.” Smith replied, “Our publisher is Microsoft.”

Luke Smith has commented to Joystiq: “We still have an exclusive publishing agreement with Microsoft, as we confirmed when we announced the split last year. That arrangement has not changed.” Also, all teased images of an announcement have now been removed from Bungie.net and within Halo 3.

Light Map Changes

Originally featuring a circle of lights around the city of Mombasa, Kenya (a place well known to the Halo Universe) the Superintendent shaped lights have now vanished from Bungie.net.

Check out this odd, anonymous news posting over at Kotaku.com…posted at 9:07pm.  I think it relates to the following link about Phil Spencer.

Update: 2am - Microsoft’s Phil Spencer on Bungie’s E3 teaser, absence

As you will see in the comments to that news posting above, I currently believe that Phil Spencer, the newly appointed General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios, is the person to blame for this delay.

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Hey Microsoft, I wonder what the best way to make Bungie go multi-platform is?  You don’t have to answer that, cause you’re already in the process of doing it.  Idiots.