OXM Message Center (July 2007)

SPACE: THE EXPENSIVE FRONTIER
I have a question for you guys. The new 120GB hard drive sounds great and I look forward to buying one once I fill my regular Xbox 360 hard drive. The only problem I have is that according to Microsoft, once you transfer the data from the 20GB to the 120GB, the 20GB drive is wiped. The 20GB hard drive was $100, but that money will have been wasted if the 20GB won’t be usable with my Gamertag. What can I do to still be able to use this hard drive and not simply hide it away? Thanks.
— Chris Bueno

We say: The “official answer,” Chris? Microsoft offers up this option: Use one HD for your movie downloads and the other for your game files  while using a Memory Unit to hold your profile while you’re in swap-o-rama land. As for what we think – honestly, there’s no real need to keep both. Assuming you don’t want to sell your 20GB drive to, say, a Core user who has no hard drive at all, you could always void the drive’s warranty, pull out the 2.5-inch SATA hard drive within the casing, and use it in a laptop computer — or put it into one of those little USB enclosures and use it as a portable external drive with your PC or Mac. But won’t you think of the poor Core users with no permanent storage at all? The capacity-challenged in our community need your old high-tech cast-offs.

PGR’S IMPERFECT STORM?
I’ve been a huge fan of Project Gotham Racing since its first installment, but after reading your article, I’m a little unsure about PGR4. When I heard that weather like sleet and snow would play a major role in gameplay, I was skeptical. PGR shouldn’t be a rally game; it’s a racer midway between arcade and simulation. Driving through sleet and snow in a souped-up Ferrari seems a little odd to me. I understand that the series needs to move in a new direction to be interesting and fun, but I hope that I don’t have to drive through a rain or snowstorm every race.
    How much do these weather effects affect gameplay, and do they change the nature of PGR? I’m a loyal fan of the series and I’d probably buy the game anyway, but I would hate to see the franchise turn sour.
— Anders Howmann

We say: Our May 2007 cover story feature was very focused on the weather effects because the Bizarre team was most stoked to show them off during our demo. They’ll change the way you play the game and you’ll face the same kind of inclement-weather challenges that real race drivers experience when Mother Nature turns nasty, but you won’t have to worry about dashing through the snow in a 450-horse open-wheel roadster in EVERY race.

MEET THE BEATLESS
I’m a big gamer but I haven’t bought Guitar Hero II yet. Why? Because I hate punk rock! I think there should a DJ Hero — or better yet, DJ Legends. Can you imagine scratchin’ to the beat with a stylin’ turntable? That would beat Guitar Hero any day. Please talk about this with RedOctane and Activision.
— Ben Davis

We say: It’s not Activision or RedOctane you should talk to, Ben. In 1997, Konami introduced its popular Bemani series of music/rhythm games in Japan, which grew to encompass Dance Dance Revolution, DrumMania, and Guitar Freaks (the clear evolutionary predecessor to Guitar Hero). But the entire Bemani series started with the game of your dreams: Beatmania. Armed with five sampler keys and a tiny turntable, players matched and scratched their way to DJ accuracy.
    Ten years later, could Beatmania rock 360? Konami released Beatmania IIDX and its seven-button turntable controller for the PS2 in the U.S. (simply called Beatmania), but beyond DDR Universe, the company officially has nothing to announce for the 360 market. (We asked.) Sorry.

“ANYBODY SEEN A GHOST?”
I just heard that Dan Aykroyd will be reprising his role as Dr. Raymond Stantz for an upcoming Ghostbusters videogame. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the OXM Rumor Mole say that the Ghostbusters game was no more due to legal reasons? Ever since my eyes were given the pleasure of seeing that extraordinary video of test footage on the web, I have been champing at the bit to play the game. I was ecstatic when I heard someone was making it for the Xbox 360. However, that soon led to heartbreak when I was told it got the ax due to some greedy execs. So will you please tell me if this game is being made? And for all our sakes, please, if these new revelations are false, let us down easy. We can’t take another heartbreak. At least I know I can’t!
— Daniel Sorrell

We say: It’s a case of overlapping information, Daniel. Slovenian developer Zootfly released that Ghostbusters game footage on its website without permission; it’s not too surprising that Sony (owner of the film license) told them to take it down. Whether it was a bait-and-switch tactic to promote Zootfly’s upcoming 360 game TimeO remains to be seen; it’s possible that the test footage will turn into an official Ghostbusters game, but it doesn’t look likely. Meanwhile, Aykroyd has let it slip in recent interviews that something Ghostbusters-related is in the works — might be a game, might be a CGI movie. It’s too early to tell and nobody’s talking. Until someone comes out and says “Hey, we have the Ghostbusters license and a release date in mind,” consider the game…vaporware.

NO, THE OTHER GHOST
I’ve been looking for StarCraft: Ghost in OXM. I first saw it in your April 2006 issue, page 62. I realize the status is “on its way,” but have you received an update on it? I play the RTS game StarCraft on my computer, and it never gets dull online. Do you know when Ghost is coming out, or if anyone is even working on it for the 360?
— Robert

We say: Unfortunately, you can change that status from “on its way” to “lost its way.” StarCraft: Ghost (not an RTS, mind you) is one of gaming’s great disappearing acts of the last few years. After two developers took a crack at it (Nihilistic Software and Swingin’ Ape) between 2001 and 2005, Blizzard officially announced that the game was “indefinitely postponed” for Xbox in March 2006. If the game resurfaces, it’s fair to suspect that it would be on Xbox 360, but we really don’t think Ghost will reappear at all.

TOKYO EXPRESS
Has XNA reached Japan? Are any XNA games coming from the Land of the Rising Sun?
— Darnell Hiller

We say: Good games can come from anywhere. Says Microsoft: “XNA is an international effort. XNA Game Studio Express is available worldwide for free at msdn.com/xna, encouraging developers from all countries, beyond U.S./English-speaking territories.” So, whoever has a good idea, wherever they live, is hereby empowered to make those ideas into games.

D-PAD SMACKER
Okay, I’m extremely frustrated with the 360’s controller. Why is it so incompatible with any game that depends on the digital pad? I used to love playing Street Fighter II on the Super NES, but it’s more of a chore than anything else on Xbox Live Arcade. Now I’ve been forced to make a decision about whether to purchase Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. I wouldn’t think twice about this $10 purchase, but, after playing the demo, I’ve found that the 360’s controller makes it nearly impossible to play! The analog controls aren’t conducive to button-mashing accuracy, and somehow the digital D-pad is even worse.
    The original Xbox had the “mushy” digital control pad, and I was sure it would be corrected on the next-generation console. Nope —  not a bit. Why has this problem not been addressed?
— XI AlphaMale IX

We say: Because everyone loves those analog sticks. Modern games are designed to take advantage of the thumbsticks, almost to the exclusion of the traditional eight-way directional pad. That leaves Live Arcade gamers in particular in a sad state, as many of the games of yore weren’t designed with smooth-flowing thumbsticks in mind.
    Clearly, Alpha’s cry for help proves that we absolutely need — need! — a quality arcade-style stick. The gang at X-Arcade would like to make their controllers 360-friendly, but at press time they don’t have the license to make an adapter. We’re told that one major peripheral manufacturer was working on a design for a fighting stick, but the project has apparently been at least temporarily shelved. Maybe Virtua Fighter 5 will give someone the excuse they need to finally bring precise arcade-quality controls to the 360!

DOING THE MATH
When I heard that Microsoft raised a game’s maximum Achievement points to 1,250, I began wondering why they had a maximum point limit in the first place. I hope you can shed some light on the matter.
— Derek

We say: Achievement points are valuable because there are only so many of them per game. Gamers take a lot of pride in collecting all the Achievement points a game has to offer. The ceiling is there to keep them all even across the board. For instance, if one game offered 1,000 points but another offered only 200 points, it would be…oh, wait a minute.

FRAGGING BEGINS AT HOME
After reading the “Business of Xbox” (May 2007 issue) with the picture of the “staged photos of plastic people playing Wii,” I saw this “family-friendly” picture on Xbox.com (www.xbox.com/en-US/live/?WT.svl=nav). What game do you think they’re playing? Gears of War? Maybe Dad just chainsawed his daughter. Looks like Microsoft is trying to get in with the family, too. Here’s to seeing if they’ll do a better job then they did with the black box.
— Dante D’Orazio

We say:  Pwned.