Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay

[schild]

Whoa. I'm going to have to pick this up tomorrow. But uhm. 9.3?

The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay is one of those exceedingly rare types of games that delivers exceptionally high quality through and through and single-handedly ups the ante for all similar games. It's so unbelievably good that it almost feels like it was brought back in time, because most all of today's action games (on the Xbox or otherwise) just aren't in the same league.

Wha wha whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

[geldonyetich]

Sometimes movie money actually lands a pretty solid game.   I haven't tried out this one yet, but it does sound like a pretty good X-Box FPS.

(At least as good as FPS can be on a console.  Blech - give me a mouse and keyboard interface any day.)

[schild]

Well, it apparently has pretty good melee combat. It's really the only reason I want to see it.

[Alkiera]

One of the guys where I worked mentioned playing a demo that came with some XBox-centric gaming magazine he gets, and being rather amazed by it.

--
Alkiera

[SurfD]

Is this thing going to be on PC or is it an X-Box exclusive?

[schild]

I would hope they had the foresight to start working on a PC version. A console only FPS is one of the stupidest fucking ideas. Ever.

[Glamdring]

Come on now.  I think plenty of us spent many an hour fragging away on each other in Goldeneye.  If I could suffer through playing a 4-way split game on a 19" TV then I'm sure I could handle playing an FPS on Xbox Live.

[daveNYC]

I would hope they had the foresight to start working on a PC version. A console only FPS is one of the stupidest fucking ideas. Ever.

With X-Box Live you get online play and the ability to make people pay for any and all mods.  I'm not sure what making a PC version would get them.

[Alrindel]

I'm not sure what making a PC version would get them.

Potential box sales to a couple of million people who have a PC but no XBox?

[Sky]

And people who won't deal with crappy thumbsticks to aim with.

[daveNYC]

I'm not sure what making a PC version would get them.

Potential box sales to a couple of million people who have a PC but no XBox?

Not that I'm a numbers maven, but isn't a couple million a bit on the high side?  They get the most return on their effort when they produce an X-Box game.  Not to mention that there's probably a fair amount of overlap between X-Box owners and PC gamers.  How many additional sales would they get?

I could see them releasing a PC version if the X-Box sales are huge, but even then there's no real business necesity to do so.

[kaid]

I have seen the demo level of this on the xbox and I must admit it is one hell of a lot more slick than I ever expected. Nice to see a movie to game conversion done well.

Kaid

[Alrindel]

Not that I'm a numbers maven, but isn't a couple million a bit on the high side?

I could see them releasing a PC version if the X-Box sales are huge, but even then there's no real business necesity to do so.

I wasn't suggesting that they would necessarily sell a couple of million units, but there are certainly more than a couple of million households in North America that have PCs but not XBoxes.  The point is that if you've already developed the game for XBox, the port to standard Windows PC is trivial.  Given that the expensive dev work is already done, and given the $50 retail price point, you don't have to ship a lot to cover the cost of the port.  The only way it makes business sense NOT to release a PC version is if you're being compensated for the exclusive platform rights, in the hopes that the success of your game will drive console sales (Halo, Knights of the Old Republic).

[HaemishM]

I'm not sure what making a PC version would get them.

Potential box sales to a couple of million people who have a PC but no XBox?

I think you have severely overestimated the number of potential PC customers. Not to mention the fact that it isn't necessarily a trivial port to the PC; perhaps easier than porting say, a PS2 version, but certainly not trivial. If it was, would Halo have been released almost 2 years later on the PC?

Everyone I've heard talk about this game online says its much better than it has any right to be (coming as it does as a licensed movie title).

[Alrindel]

Halo was originally slated to be a PC release.  The only reason it became an XBox exclusive was because Microsoft bought out Bungie lock stock and barrel.  The two-year wait for the PC version, and the six-month delay for the PC version of Knights of the Old Republic, were strategic marketing decisions.

I think you have severely overestimated the number of potential PC customers.

There are something like 60,000,000 households in the United States with at least one computer.  I'm not claiming that every single one of those would rush out and buy two copies of "The Riddick Chronicles", I'm just saying that KOTOR PC sales more than demonstrate that there is still a healthy, non-overlapping market for PC and XBox versions of the same title.

[WayAbvPar]

And people who won't deal with crappy thumbsticks to aim with.

Bingo. After the debacle that was Halo, I will never play another FPS on the console. Years and years of mouse look aiming has ruined me.

[kidder]

Just let me plug a keyboard/mouse combo into my stinking X-Box.  It IS a PC at heart after all.

[Sky]

Not to mention that there's probably a fair amount of overlap between X-Box owners and PC gamers.

If a title is released on both, I'll always buy the pc version. The xbox pretty much blows monkeys, but it's good for football and fighting games. Hell, if Sega would release ESPN Football 2k5 on computer, the only game my xbox would see is Soul Calibur 2.

480p is unfair to some, and that's pretty much the best you'll get from the most powerful console, the 720p games are a little framerate bound, noticeably so. In fact, many xbox 720p games (the other two can't do true HDTV: 720p or 1080i) are only in 4:3 aspect ratio, despite the 480p resolution being at 16:9 aspect ratio. The xbox simply can't keep up with 1280x720.

Some people still care about quality.

[schild]

Come on now.  I think plenty of us spent many an hour fragging away on each other in Goldeneye.  If I could suffer through playing a 4-way split game on a 19" TV then I'm sure I could handle playing an FPS on Xbox Live.

Fuck the N64 controller and fuck it's muddy graphics. Sorry, I never saw the appeal of Goldeneye, especially without a keyboard and mouse. Sorry to be a purist.

[Venkman]

Potential box sales to a couple of million people who have a PC but no XBox?

Potential box sales to ten people who hand it out as party favors to those millions.

X-Box exclusive with X-Box Live plays into the exact reason M$ bothered entering the console market. It wasn't just another business to assimilate. It was one they could continue leeching money from hardware, operating system, user interface and the programs people install themselves.

However, I personally will wait for the PC version anyway, no matter how long it takes, once I test someone else's X-Box copy :). I'm too locked into the much more freedom of movement the keyboard and mouse gives me.

[Rasix]

Although it was fun, I always sucked at Goldeneye. After years of training on keyboard + mouse, I just thought aiming with a thumbstick was clunky as hell.  It's not the way to play a FPS.

The friends that could beat me at Goldeneye would often lose to me about 27-3 in a game of Quake2.  Once they got in an environment where their gigantic hands didn't give them an advantage, where the toons move faster than mollasses, and where people can actually strafe and aim without having to manipulate a clunky joystick, they were reduced to mere nothings.

Goldeneye was a great dorm game. Other than that it was pretty fucking average for a FPS. Keyboard and mouse is the only way to make aim in a FPS.  No thumbstick can compare currently.

[schild]

I will say one thing though, from the looks of it, this game will run much better being optimized on an xbox.

Still don't care, can't aim for shit with an analog stick and auto aiming is for counterstrike players, fucking n00blers.

[Sky]

Goldeneye came out at a great time. That's really it, being in the right place at the right time. I spent a lot of time playing it at the eqholic's pad, my old unloader crew used to gather there after work and play over a few beers.

[Morfiend]

I have the Demo of this, and my innitial impression was "meh".

I didnt feel the need to go buy it one bit. If it came out of the PC, and got stunning reviews, then I might consider it.

I just cannot stand using the thumbstick for any sort of FPS. The only one I like was metroid, and that had lock on target aiming.

[Alluvian]

The lighting and metallic shaders make the environments very much like Doom 3.  They also do a very good job of making you feel like more than just a floating camera and that you are actually in the game.  Things like they also do in Thief3.  Look down and you see your body, the lights cast reflections of yourself on walls, enemies, etc...  During certain actions like mantling up on boxes the camera goes momentarily third person.  You can't force it into third person though.  All that said, the game does suffer from a distinct lack of anti-aliasing.  At least in the demo.  Usually I don't care at all about AA or AF, but in this game you can see a decent amount of pixel 'shimmer' depending on where you are.  The very beginning of the xbox demo on the last OXM demo disc showed this pixelization off pretty heavily, but either I got used to it or it became less of an issue for the rest of the level.

The demo lets you punch, but really quickly gives you a gun as well.  I almost wish I had to use my fists more as boxing the first enemy in the game was pretty damn fun, intuitive, and reactive.  Block when he swings, your movement controls the type of punch you throw, jab, right and left hook, uppercut.  Apparently you can also combo these moves into more advanced attacks, but I never figured out how in the demo.

The game has the potential to play like a thief/shooter hybred type game.  Lots of sneaking to get into position, but I wish the gun and ammo was not so readily available in the demo.  The shooting bits were nice and all, but the sneaking and the hand to hand combat were the more creative / entertaining bits IMO.

My response after just playing the demo is that there was a lot of potential there for a damn fine game, but also a lot of room for the game to slide into the realm of generic shooter.  I truly hope they avoid the latter.

[SirBruce]

Not to mention that there's probably a fair amount of overlap between X-Box owners and PC gamers.

It only works one-way though.  Nearly all console owners (96% in 2001) owned a PC, but the reverse was much less.  Something like 60% of households owned a PC but only 33% owned a console in 2001.  And in 2001, 62% of gamers preferred to play games on the PC while only 20% preferred to play on the X-Box.

Now, console penetration and popularity has grown in the past 3 years, so I'm sure it's much closer now.  But as far as I know, a good title can still sell more on the PC than on a particular console.  The biggest obstacle is making sure the game runs on a wide enough range of PCs and not just the ultra high end.

Bruce

[Glamdring]

I was in Blockbuster while on my lunch break today and took a look at the Riddick box.  It didn't have Xbox Live or System Link checked on the back so forget about it.  I picked up Full Spectrum Warrior instead.

[schild]

And how is Full Spectrum Warrior?

[geldonyetich]

So long as we're talking console FPS and Goldeneye, lets not forget 007: Everything Or Nothing which was released just 3 1/2 months ago for all three major consoles and secured an 80%+ average ranking for each.

As for Full spectrum warrior, I'm waiting for the PC Demo to be released.   There's actually a lot of competition for games like that, such as Soldner.

[Rodent]

Releasing stuff on PC this day is like paying money for giving away the product for free. Alot more people buy console games rather then download them, compared to the PC scene.

Atleast that's the way it is in Sweden. Not sure how it's in the US with the less built out infrastructure... It's alot easier to crack a PC game then it is to crack and Xbox.

[Glamdring]

And how is Full Spectrum Warrior?

I'll hopefully be able to give ya some insight on that first thing tomorrow morning.

BTW, while we're on the subject of Xbox, who else runs a nicely modded (chip + additional HD space) setup?  I gotta tell ya... if you have an Xbox and haven't modded it yet then you are completely missing out on what makes this system so much better than the rest.

[Rasix]

I already have a computer that I've spent more than enough on... I don't imagine ever modding my xbox, even for just the fear of having it banz0red off Live completely.

I don't get the appeal beyond piracy. If you're into pirating console games, then yah, it's superb.

[schild]

And how is Full Spectrum Warrior?

I'll hopefully be able to give ya some insight on that first thing tomorrow morning.

BTW, while we're on the subject of Xbox, who else runs a nicely modded (chip + additional HD space) setup?  I gotta tell ya... if you have an Xbox and haven't modded it yet then you are completely missing out on what makes this system so much better than the rest.

Mine's modded, 250gb hard drive. It's glorious.

Rasix, as for being banz0red off xbox live, I have a switch on the back of mine, when it's in the '1' position I can't even connect to xbox live, when it;'s in the '0' position it boots the regular OS with none of the modded stuff and connects just fine.

Appeal beyond piracy? At $350 it's the best home media center I could imagine buying. Plays all my divx, xvid, and whatever other codecs my craps encoded in, plays dvds without the kit, and emulates tons of systems.

[Sky]

At $350, I could build a much better pc to do the job. I mean, a pIII with 64MB of ram? Also, I don't consider component connections to be 'the best you could imagine buying'. My HTPC runs over DVI, a pure digital signal to a digital monitor. That's the best I can imagine with current technology :)

I don't get the appeal beyond piracy.

I know a lot of the home theater folks have theirs modded for the progressive scan dashboard. On a bunch of hdtvs, the EDTV and HDTV inputs are different. My component input choices are 480i/480p (EDTV) and two 720p/1080i (HDTV) inputs (which also accept 480p but not 480i).

If I want to use the dashboard, I need to be in input 1. If I want to play HD xbox games, I need to be in input 2 or 3. With a modded xbox, I could access the dash (and play any non-progressive scan games) in inputs 2 or 3.

And fuck Sweden for good measure. Sounds like terrorist activity to me! ;)

[Glamdring]

Okay, Full Spectrum Warrior...

This game is different from anything I've ever played.  It bears some resemblance to Rainbow Six but is different in that you don't actually control a character from a first person perspective.

Basically, you control multiple squads of troops to achieve an objective.  The largest squad I've seen so far is 4 and the most squads I've had under my control is 3.  The setting is urban, so you will be taking cover behind buildings, cars, rubble, household appliances, etc.

To be completely honest, I've never been a huge fan of these super strategic, slow-moving types of games.  I like a game that puts me in the middle of the action from the get-go and that is fast paced from start to finish (Ninja Gaiden).  With that being said, I was very surprised to look up at the clock and realize I had just spent about 3 hours playing the game.  

I called one of my friends last night who is a major fan of Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon/Splinter Cell games and gave him a description of exactly what I was doing.  From laying down covering fire with one squad so that I could send another squad at a dead run across an open area so  they could take up a better position to get a clean shot at the target to calling in an airstrike on a tank because my guys just didn't have enough firepower to take care of the problem themselves.  Descriptions like these seemed to get him pretty excited about the game, so I guess I can safely say that if you're into this type of gaming then you'll definately want to give this one a serious look.

Oh, and if you haven't figured it out, I really suck at reviews.