by Ludwig Kietzmann 
{ Sep 27th 2006 at 9:25PM }
Major Nelson has once again
updated his blog with a convenient list of X06 additions to the Xbox Live marketplace. If you're in any way enamored with glitzy trailers, pre-rendered footage or relentless teasing, you'd best switch on your console and start downloading some of these clips:
- Call of Duty 3
- Banjo Kazooie
- Marvel Ultimate Online
- Viva Pinata
- Assassin's Creed
- Splinter Cell: Double Agent
- Blue Dragon
- Lost Odyssey
- Bioshock
- FIFA 07
- Rainbow Six Vegas
- Halo Wars
If you're a more
traditional gamer and actually enjoy interactive forms of entertainment, you'll be pleased to learn that several of our readers have spied
F.E.A.R. and
Sonic the Hedgehog demos scurrying about in the marketplace. Be sure to let us know what you think of them, but not before viewing the embedded video (after the break) and answering one simple question: What the hell is going on with
that nose?
Tags: Banjo Kazooie, BanjoKazooie, Bioshock, Bue Dragon, BueDragon, Halo, Halo Wars, HaloWars, Lost Odyssey, LostOdyssey, Microsoft, MSFT, Rainbow Six, RainbowSix, Rare, Splinter Cell, SplinterCell, X06, XBL, XBLM, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace, XboxLive, XboxLiveMarketplace
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
LordMinogue @ Sep 27th 2006 9:33PM
There's no denying how awsome the Halo Wars trailer was, even though its pre-rendered. If the Halo movie is that quality, I'll actually go and see it.
arch @ Sep 27th 2006 9:35PM
omfg banjo kazooie looks amazing. OMFG, HOLY CRAP IN HELL! the memories!!!!!!! /CRY!
Duo @ Sep 27th 2006 9:40PM
/me drools
Mini Wii @ Sep 27th 2006 9:40PM
This is the end for Sonic. It's official. Sega killed this great game.
Please you need to download this demo to see how bad this really is.
Richard Mitchell @ Sep 27th 2006 9:42PM
We have some impressions of the Sonic demo at 360 Fanboy. (Hint: it's bad.)
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2006/09/27/sonic-demo-is-craptastic/
BIGGEN @ Sep 27th 2006 9:45PM
yeah, that sonic demo is pretty shitty. you can't control him. hope they make some tweaks to it.
nick @ Sep 27th 2006 9:47PM
at least sonic on Wii rocks.
rdj75 @ Sep 27th 2006 9:50PM
to 3 and 6
When I played this demo earlier and realized how crappy this game really is, I just wanted to start crying. Sonic used to be so good back in the day, what in the hell is sega thinking, I mean come on, who sits there at sega and says this is cool lets release this pos to the public. You have got to be kidding me, I need to go and apologize to my hard drive for allowing this to be downloaded unto it.
Tom @ Sep 27th 2006 10:03PM
ZOMG! Banjo Kazooie?!!! Ahhh I'm at work right now and can't watch!! No no no!! Ahhhh! I thought it was cancelled! Ahhhhhh!! Must watch! just 2 more hours to go!
The1 @ Sep 27th 2006 10:03PM
The Halo Wars video was off the hook. I wish Bungie would have insisted that any video made for a Halo Franchise would use the Halo engine that was used to create the Halo 3 video. Boy, did that look awesome.
Jeffers @ Sep 27th 2006 10:04PM
Publishers should be more selective when releasing demos (for their own good). I'd say a good number of sales of Dead Rising were influenced by the demo (mine was - but I wish I had just stuck with the demo), but this will probably just hurt sales of this game.
Good news for gamers though - we get to avoid the crap.
Nick @ Oct 4th 2006 1:45AM
The Sonic demo was horrid. Sure it looks pretty, but the controls were crap. They still haven't fixed that thin where Sonic dashes through a row of rings to get to another place. The camera was still annoying. Nothing redeeming besides the visuals.
FEAR was awesome.
Crazylink @ Sep 27th 2006 10:14PM
Damn it Rare! I didn't want to have to buy a Wii and a 360.
Adam @ Sep 27th 2006 10:16PM
I want to see the live gameplay demonstration of Assassin's Creed that the publisher showed on stage. Will that be available for download on Live or the internet anywhere?
Mark D @ Sep 27th 2006 10:16PM
I even gave the Sonic demo a second shot. I played once, didn't really like it, but played it again anyways. Ya, it sucks ass.
Banjo on the other hand....can't frickin' wait.
ninx @ Sep 28th 2006 10:48AM
The memories from the Banjo trailer made me smile. The new look of them is well off though & the lack of Kazooie's normal demeanor is lacking :(.
I guess we really need to see some gameplay now though...
arch @ Sep 27th 2006 10:19PM
i need a release date right this friggin second.
superbagman @ Sep 27th 2006 10:20PM
Yeah, so everyone is all hyped for Banjo-Kazooie, but that trailer pretty much makes it clear to me that it's gonna be the same old "Collect a bunch of crap" platformer that Rare "mastered" back on the N64. Last time I trusted Rare with a platformer was Donkey Kong 64...And after looking for friggin' bananas for hours...well... I'm not looking forward to collecting hundreds of Notes or Jiggys or whatever the hell they want us to look for these days. I could easily get behind a Banjo sequel if Rare was actually trying change the way we play platformers/adventure games instead of just rehashing their old styles.
AC91 @ Sep 27th 2006 10:27PM
You really have to work to get Sonic to be good. I died about 15 times (literally, had to restart demo) before I beat it. After you get used to the controls, you can have the game almost play itself in a lot of parts, sort of like it was back in the 2d days. Just keep trying to get it right.
friedgreenmushrooms @ Sep 27th 2006 10:26PM
You know what? I'm a Nintendo fanboy...have always been. But lately, I've really been having huge urges to replay the Banjo-Kazooie games. And this teaser comes along, right when I feel this nostalgia...Fuck. I feel so depressed, knowing I'm never, ever going to play this game.
Oh, Nintendo...why did you ever let Rare go...
Isn't it weird that, within the next year, I'll have 200+ hours of Mario, Metroid, and Zelda to play and play again, yet I feel bad because I'll miss, like, 30 hours of Banjo Kazooie...I honestly feel like crying...or selling myself on a street corner to afford the Wii60.
Pyronite @ Sep 27th 2006 10:30PM
You'd like to think that Microsoft could manage to spell "Banjo Kazui" correctly. Apparently not. :-(
CJC @ Sep 27th 2006 10:35PM
@16
Why fix what ain't broken? The Sonic series should have followed that plan...
As for BK, Banjo's kinda got a "teddy bear" look to him now.
Jason T. @ Sep 28th 2006 5:15PM
What in God's name did they do to Banjo? He looks all... blocky, with a fur texture. And yes, what IS going on with that nose? It's good to see this'll see the light of day though, even though I won't be playing it for a looooong time.
JFink @ Sep 27th 2006 10:44PM
You know, another Rare collect-a-thon really seems pretty... crappy to me. They just got boring real fast after trying to the 50th jingo so i can get a 6 puzzle piece so i go after some other crappy item. everything else seems good, well maybe not Sonic...
Poor, poor Sonic. Can only be done right on a Nintendo platform these days, how ironic.
Prayzboy @ Sep 27th 2006 10:46PM
@ 13
The Assasin's Creed in game video is up at gametrailers.com among other places. It looks pretty awesome!
Drew @ Sep 27th 2006 10:55PM
I loved the first Banjo so I hope the second is good. The Sonic demo didn't really do much for me but I haven't liked a 3d Sonic since the original sonic adventures for the DreamCast. I'll have to go back and play it again just to make sure I'm not missing anything.
FreeCajunLove @ Sep 27th 2006 11:04PM
You could watch the press event at
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/events/x06/99-300-livestream-high-primary.htm
Russell @ Sep 27th 2006 11:36PM
AHHHHHHHH!!!!!! BANJO KAZOOIE!!!!
The Xbox 360 is turning out to be so much more amazing than I ever imagined it would be.
Subcon @ Sep 28th 2006 2:53PM
@ 23
you mean the third BK, two were released in the N64.
By the way, did anyone else think that the character models for Banjo and Kazooie looked kinda ugly. Like before, i guess because they were simpler models that werent overly textured, they had a cute, happy look to them, and know they look a little mal-proportioned. I also noticed that while Kazooie still sounded the same, Banjo's voice sounded different, so there goes some of the nostalgia.
Either way i dont have a 360, but i love platformers. if they could just have banjo loosen up a bit and have him jump better (a la super mario sunshine, that game's control system was smooth)
Agrajag @ Sep 28th 2006 12:29AM
"I loved the first Banjo so I hope the second is good."
The fourth, really.
JJ @ Sep 28th 2006 1:12AM
is it just me or does it seem odd that everyone is all hyped and excited about Banjo after the garbage rare has shoveled out the last few years?
I mean come on Conkers was horrible even though it was updated and PD0 etc? Gimme a break.
as much as I liked banjo back in the day i dont think it'll do well this time around.
They shoulda just stuck with Killer Instinct or something.
Exo @ Sep 28th 2006 2:56AM
Rare hasn’t made a good game since the earlier N64 days.
-DK64 was a crappy collection fest.
-Jet Force Gemeni was a shooting collection fest that wasn’t all that interesting.
-StarFox Adventures, was a lame Zelda rip-off that copied the same last boss from SF64.
-Grabbed by the Ghoulies was a REALLY bad collection fest
-Kameo was a short game that lacked in about everything.
-Perfect Dark Zero was forgettable.
I cant see any reason to be hyped for this game. most of the dev team that originally made rare good has since left. I think Nintendo was pretty sure in what they where doing when they let them go. I bet MS bought them right away cause they thought they were taking something good away from a competitor
luki @ Sep 28th 2006 3:05AM
#27
Hey just give them a chance, i WANT to play good ol' fashioned RARE games. This could work.
JJ @ Sep 28th 2006 5:42AM
I've given them enough chances luki!
Now if the game comes out and its good. Well then i'll dang well play it.... but if its another Conkers live and reloaded or PDZero... i will torch rare offices myself.
Jdoki @ Sep 28th 2006 7:02AM
I agree with most of the previous posters that Rare's glory days have long gone. Nintendo must have laughed all the way to the bank when MS offered them a phat 200million.
But I just can't help giving Rare more chances. Kameo was fairly competent if lacking for the amount of development time Rare had. I really disliked PD0, but I can see why some people would like it.
Even though I know that the chances are the Banjo Kazooie will be another collect-em-up, I just can't write off the company that made Blast Corps - surely a game that is screaming to be re-created on the 360!
And y'know what... even if Banjo Kazooie is a huge collect-em-up, as long as the controls are tight, and the humour quirky I'm about ready for some for that type of action again.
Petey @ Sep 28th 2006 7:13AM
I see the new Banjo game & I think to myself, well just the old Banjo stuff only prettier, I'm sure there will be new shiny stuff, but the gameplay seems to be the same... nevertheless 360 fanbots that bash Nintendo because "always the same games, another sequel to Mario, blablabla..." are extatic with a game that really seems to be the same... whereas games from Nintendo -because they are creatives & not afraid of inovating & simply unbeatable at making games- despite using the well recognisable characters everyone knows, are fresh & always radically different from previous iterations... just look at the Mario games & open your eyes, for your own sake fanbots, take your head out of your asses!!!
andrew @ Sep 28th 2006 7:48AM
i hope banjo comes to ps3 i still play the N64 version
Dave Smith @ Sep 28th 2006 7:56AM
Wow! that was fun to watch. Hopefully Rare will remember to eliminate the endless backtracking that made the N64 Banjo series such a drag. As far as Sonic goes, I downloaded the demo and after the first play I felt the same as most here: It's pretty but the controls and the camera pretty much suck. After about five more plays though some of that ol' Sonic magic came creeping back in. There were multiple paths to follow ( love the Eagle),some hidden things to find, some areas to run all out... not bad. I hope some of the developers are reading the control and camera complaints ands are taking notes, but the level layout was good and the charm of the series was still there. I'm holding out on judgement for release.
Thryon @ Sep 28th 2006 8:12AM
I played the Sonic demo a good dozen times, and the last few times, it was quite good. I finaly mastered the complicated (but yet simple) controls, and was able to breeze through the demo. I do think Sega has work in front of them to make this game more friendly to thier target audience, witch are younger kids. For a game that relies heavily on jumping puzzles, Sonic's jumping comtrols are far from easy. Even after 12 games, I still lost control of him at times.
My favotire trailer was BioShock....that game had me at ARGHHHHH!!!!
Tillman @ Sep 28th 2006 9:02AM
Is it just me or was that Sonic demo boring?
Lion @ Sep 28th 2006 9:23AM
I didn't like the Sonic demo ... But honestly, I think they just chose the wrong level to demo. They should have chosen a level with a few more long stretches of speed. That's Sonic; not this jumping around bouncing on tightropes and hanging from eagles' feet.
I think that the game will be a lot more fun than the demo was. I'm still not going to buy it though. (With all the good games coming out in the next year for the 360, some have to be left on store shelves.)
32_Footsteps @ Sep 28th 2006 9:29AM
I can understand getting hyped about some of those games. But Banjo-Kazooie? It was a nightmare collection quest as is on the N64. I shudder to think how many useless pieces of crap I'd have to collect in a BK game that took up an entire DVD.
Though it leads me to wonder - if Microsoft sold "everything in a given level in Banjo Kazooie" on Xbox Live Marketplace, how many people would buy it just so they could get on with the game?
Mal F4cti0n @ Sep 28th 2006 11:07AM
Yep, didn't like the Sonic demo either. The controling sonic aspect seemed to be lacking. I ran into some camera problems too.
Another problem that I noticed was the fact that if you went to fast you ended up falling off to often, which is stupid because if you take your time and go slow.....well that kind of defeats the purpose of the game.
Basically it ends up being a memorization of where you need to point sonic in the levels in order to get thru them. So you will end up doing a trial and error process until you figure it out. That is not the way to design a game like sonic.
maximus @ Sep 28th 2006 12:07PM
LOL! Sony get slated for the Killzone2 video yet MS are praised for the pre-rendered Halo video?
The Banjo announcement is a waste of time, the days of RARE games being huge are long gone. Everything they touch ends up being average at best.
Where are the huge announcements, where are the surprises and the games that will crush Sony? Nowhere to be seen.. Assassins Creed isn't exclusive, PGR4 is yet another sequel, Halo RTS everyone already knew was coming and will never be as good as using a mouse and keyboard, Guitar Hero2 is not exclusive, GTA4 is not exclusive, anyone who knows anything about Peter Jackson is aware he already has a huge workload with his upcoming movies so his involvement will be minimal at best.
Bioshock and Lost Planet look the best of the bunch but 360 fanbois are drooling over multi platform announcements and games purely made to counteract the equivalent games on the PS3.
foobob @ Sep 28th 2006 12:40PM
you know what happens to videogames when their primary creative forces (read: creators) abandon them? They die.
The list:
* Metroid (the late Gumpei Yokoi)
* Sonic (Yuji Naka)
* Mario (Shigeru Miyamoto only worked on until SM64)
* Banjo-Kazooie (the original Rare team)
yeah, yeah, there're still games based on those characters. They have absolutely nothing to do with the original genres that bought them to fame. Mario star in lots of sports, fighting and party games and that's it. Metroid was handed over to an american developers and guess what? They turned the incredible side-scroller action/puzzle-packed classic into another mindless FPS...
This Sonic looks truly shitty, specially as Sonic's fast paced scrolling action is only really proper to 2D side-scrollers. And, well, M$'s Rare is not the same Rare behind the old Nintendo consoles classics. At least graphically it looks impressive...
They are all dead! Long live the dead!
chimp o death @ Sep 28th 2006 12:52PM
Halo Wars- A great pre-rendered teaser that doesn't pretend to represent actual gameplay (unlike Killzone 2, maximus). It remains to be seen if the final game can be a truly great console RTS, but everyone involved knows the importance of the Halo series, and thus it shouldn't be some slapped together product.
Bioshock- It's pre-rendered, which may cause people to miss the point of it. I think this trailer is trying to show that, beyond the beuatiful yet creepy game world, tis game is about complex moral choices. It's no accident that it's done in the first person, involving you in the potential murder of the little girl. Combined with the voice-over it seems to be about losing one's humanity, physicaly or moraly. Gameplay aside, it's great to see these kind of issues put forth as central to the games' image.
Splinter Cell:DA- I'll go on record that I thought Chaos Theory was one of the best games of the last generation. With the change in the overall play mechanic (lots of levels with no gadgets) I'm not sure if I'll like it better or worse than CT, but I'll be buying it for sure anyways (too bad Amon Tobin isn't doing the music again!). Looking at the mix of cut scenes/gameplay footage and concentrating on the gamepaly: this game really looks amazing. I don't want to start a flame war, but the black hawk downish outdoor city combat compares favorably to what I've seen of MGS4. I think if nothing else the graphics on this game will be a real 360 showcase.
Assassin's Creed- One of my most anticipated. I think this trailer is mostly in game/game engine, except sometimes not from gameplay angles. If everything comes together with this game, it should be astounding. On a side note, weird how from E3 to X06 AC went from PS3 exclusive to 360 poster child. It goes to show you at least MS knows what to do with a promising game (i.e. show it to lots of people during your presser).
Rainbow 6 Vegas- Looks a litlle better graphicaly than GRAW, and the gameplay looks like as much fun as I remember.
Viva Pinata- I really want this game to be good since I love Animal Crossing. The irony is there's no real way to judge games like these until they're out. It looks good in the graphics department. If Rare can't pull this off MS should just bury them in the desert with all those ET cartridges.
The Darkness- Another rendered trailer for I game that looks amazing from what I've seen and heard of actual gameplay. The Riddick games (despite the movie being a load of poached ass) was one of the top ten xbox exclusives, and the sick, bloody, funny vibe of this game looks great. Plus, they say that all of the in-game TVs you run across in people's apartments, etc. have full length movies (real movies, like the original Nosferatu) that you can sit back and watch.
Knoxximus @ Sep 28th 2006 1:32PM
Dammit! Sega is phuckin' UP!! When I played Sonic at E3, I thought, "Hmmm, if they could just fix the controls....".
I downloaded the demo just to see if the controls were improved....no dice. Will SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL SEGA TO FIX THE DAMN CONTROLS!!! NOW!!!
Autumglo @ Sep 28th 2006 6:52PM
Seeing Banjo again makes me happy. I hope Gruntilda's back as the main villian again! Whoo!
And by the way, it's a myth that all the old Rare crew left after Microsoft purchased Rare. The only people I do know of leaving were the leader of the GoldenEye team, (who left before the buyout, and went on to found Zoonami), and a couple of the others after they finished work on Perfect Dark. I would imagine a few others from various teams have left since (it happens), but key people are still there.
I know most of the Donkey Kong Country and Banjo team are still there. Know Viva Pinata? That's the Donkey Kong/Banjo team. God knows which team's working on this Banjo sequel, though.
Bridget @ Sep 28th 2006 10:33PM
Ya know, I like platformers, and Im a BIG fan of Mario. And other characters like that too, like Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, Crash (from the older games) and so on.
But Banjo-Kazooie......
That game was the first real indication that Rare had lost their touch.
That whole game was just run around and grab endless/useless gidgets that you need 80 zillion of to do absolutely nothing, while beating up REALLY easy enemies, and earning moves that you could only use on special "pads".
It's like a reviewer once said in relation to Rare: Their idea of game design was to take one of Nintendo's Mario platformers, remove Mario and crew, and replace them with goofy talking animals and then throw random junk all over the Mushroom Kingdom. And then call it a day.
I havent touched a single game Rare made since Blast Corps. Everything since then, has just been a travesty (Star Fox Adventures, anyone?).
Trauwyn @ Sep 28th 2006 10:54PM
Erm, okay. Usually, I just enjoy myself with the articles and stuff, linked from the various websites that I follow like a sheep to reach this point, then entertain myself with all the comments and stuff. But I felt I had to actually post this time.
This is in regards to those bashing Microsoft/Nintendo respectively:
M'kay, yeah, hate towards all the Microsoft fanboys or Nintendo fanboys, whatever angle you're looking at it from, but doesn't it seem kind of funny how you both act the same? I understand you don't like it when people say bad things about something you're fond about, but that's what reality is, people don't like everything you do, and all that nonsense, so you just gotta put up with it. Is it really worth it to look like just as much as a fool as the one doing the bashing?
Yeah, Mario is cool, Master Chief is cool, the 360 sucks, but so does the GameCube. Yeah, both Microsoft and Nintendo make do some pretty stupid things, and yeah, both did some really cool things.
As Scott Ramsoomair (VGCats) said in one of his news posts, "I go where the games are."
It doesn't matter who makes it, or funds it, or what ever you want to get your undergarments in a knot over, so long as it's a good game that gives you entertainment.
If you have fun, isn't that enough for you to make you right in your own way instead of trying to prove it by discrediting the other?
Ignorance is bliss until you open your mouth, then we beat you silly for being narrow-minded, no matter what system you like or hate.
~END OF RANT~