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Rumour: Metal Gear Solid Coming to XBLA

Patrick Steen — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:35:48 +0000

Yes, I’m British. I spell “rumour” with two u’s. What U going to do about it? Well hopefully you’ll have no time to do anything, because either you’ll be embedded in Snake’s final mission on the Playstation 3, or engrossed in one of Snake’s first on the Xbox 360.

Yes, with knowledge comes…well, snappy Ripten headings, and this time it could read; “Metal Gear Solid Coming to the Xbox 360.” At least, not in the form you might expect. As we all know MGS4 couldn’t possibly fit on a measley DVD, but Metal Gear Solid 1 might fit into 350mb (though even that’s questionable.)

Indeedy do, MGS may be following its tactical steps onto the Japan PSN Store by infiltrating Xbox Live Arcade. This is not too surprising, since the series has made its way onto non-Playstation consoles a number of times, and Microsoft even published MGS for the PC release.

I expect you’re asking how we know, or who our source is. Lets just say a reliable individual tapped into our codec frequency after spying the game on a certain pre-release network. We shall say no more – nudge nudge, wink wink – except this; there are problems in bringing Kojima’s masterpiece to this new playing field.

Naturally, rumours can turn out to be false, so we’ll bring you more information as it becomes available.

*Update* – Some have responded rather violently to this story, so I must mention a few words of solace. This was posted as rumour, not fact. Nor is the rumour itself any challenge to PlayStation fans. I am not talking of Metal Gear Solid 4 being ported to the Xbox 360, but a 10 year old classic that has found its way onto a number of platforms, with Microsoft themselves publishing the PC conversion.

Of course, it’s hard to understand how MGS1 could fit into 350mb due to the lengthy dialogue, but it wouldn’t be surprising for Microsoft to make an exception.

I originally withheld our evidence due to possible difficulties, but after the response I will spell it out. MGS was spied by our contact on PartnerNet, the developers-only Xbox Live network used to beta-test unreleased downloadable Xbox 360 games.

Moreover, we’ve reported on rumours in the past and have mostly been proved correct. One notable example was our article on MGS4 using a 50GB Blu-ray, which was subsequently sourced around the web and on the infamous Neogaf forums. The news was finally confirmed by Ryan Payton in the following week’s Kojima Productions Report.

Of course rumours may offend you, for which this story is not of interest, but if they do interest you, we’re pretty confident in our sources this time.

Motörhead Songs Available for Guitar Hero III

Toni Dimayuga — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:20:40 +0000

If you need something to tide you over before the June 29 release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, this might be the ticket. Activision has announced that five song packs will be released throughout this month. Starting on yesterday, two of the five packs are from Motörhead and three headline acts from the 2007 Isle of Wight festival.

The Motörhead pack contains “We Are the Road Crew,” “Stay Clean” and the self-titled “Motörhead.” The Isle of Wight pack features master recordings of Kasabian’s “Shoot the Runner”, Kaiser Chief’s “I Predict a Riot”, and The Sex Pistols’ live rendition of “Problems”.

Both track packs are now available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

Looking Over the Precipice: Penny Arcade Game Coming May 21

Wade Larson — Tue, 13 May 2008 20:45:47 +0000

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, also known to the internet as Gabe and Tycho, the stars of web comic Penny Arcade, are about to embark on one of their biggest adventures yet – pixelizaiton.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is the first game created by the pair (the script was written by ‘Tycho,’ so fans should expect witty dialogue interspersed with penis jokes).

The game was developed by Hothead Games and will be available for digital download for PC, Mac and Linux, from Gabe and Tycho’s – excuse me, Krahulik and Holkins’ – independent distribution site, Greenhouse Interactive, on May 21.

PAA:ORSPD (now that’s an acronym) will also be available on Xbox Live. The game will run at $19.95 or 1600 Microsoft Points.

The game itself features a user-created character doing battle against Fruit Fuckers alongside characters from the Penny Arcade universe.

The comic-style art is right on par with the source material and the combat system plays out not unlike a Final Fantasy game, with action timers for each character. Episodic content is planned as well, so the downloads should keep on coming, Sam and Max style.

The game is billed as an “adventure” game, but if it lives up its Penny Arcade moniker,“adventure” might be an understatement.

Mr. Driller coming to XBLA

Dylan Duarte — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:36:08 +0000

The phallic puzzler Mr. Driller is coming to Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, April 2nd with some nifty features. Hit the jump for details. Mr. Driller Online, as it will be called, will feature two single player modes and two multiplayer modes.

The singe player modes will include Standard Driller and something called Quest Driller, while the multiplayer modes will allow up to four people to go head-to-head for the higher score or two people to team up and complete the game cooperatively.

Mr. Driller Online will be available Wednesday for 800 MS Points.

XBLA Rejected Cave Shooters

Geoff Haugan — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:22:51 +0000

At the beginning of the month I was puzzled why 5pb, in bringing Cave shooters Ketsui and DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou Black Label to the Xbox 360 in Japan, would choose retail as their distribution medium when digital download seems so much more fitting. As it turns out, they were given no choice… by Microsoft.

Famitsu magazine included some words from Masaki Sakari of 5pb recently. 5pb are responsible for the ports of the two Cave shooters. He revealed that they had a plan to port many popular arcade titles to Xbox Live Arcade and even convinced many of the original developers to grant them licenses to do so, only to be shot down by Microsoft.

Sakari had this to say of their transaction with the company:

We secured these licenses, and finally talked with Microsoft. There they rejected all of our proposals saying, ‘We are going to cut down faithful arcade ports.’ We felt so frustrated. We wanted to show them that their decision was wrong. So we switched our two most promising projects into retail.

If that’s how Microsoft feels it’s certainly unlikely we’ll ever see these games available in North America, as a retail release here of such niche titles would probably be completely overlooked and require too high a price point.

It’s too bad Microsoft would turn down more choice for its online users on the download front, but perhaps they feel they have their bases covered and these titles wouldn’t garner enough interest, in either region, to be worth the bother.

Seeing complete re-imaginings like Super Street Fighter II HD and Bionic Commando Rearmed, as well as a number of original high-quality downloads on PS3, may have Microsoft wanting to up the ante on what makes it on to their online service.

Hopefully, as many quality, hard-to-find, niche and independent games as possible can find greater audience and preservation on XBLA and PSN. Perhaps the quality of these titles just wasn’t there in Microsoft’s opinion. After all ,Ikaruga is still set to appear on XBLA sometime very soon.

Source: Neogaf via Xblah

Beta Due for Super Street Fighter II HD Remix

Geoff Haugan — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:15:47 +0000

Street Fighter fans out there may have been distracted by all the recent Street Fighter 4 info, but Capcom doesn’t want you to forget about its upcoming HD re-creation of the classic Super Street Fighter II. They’ve released a couple new screens and some info about a beta stress test coming your way.

Planned as a downloadable title for the Xbox 360 and PS3, HD Remix is based off the original Super Street Fighter II game code while updating the visuals with brand-new, 1080p artwork. It will also feature online play.

To get the kinks worked out, Capcom is planning a beta test. Xbox Live Gold members will be able to access the beta by purchasing Commando 3 on Xbox Live Arcade, due out this spring. PSN users are out of luck, I guess. The beta will only allow play on one stage and include the characters Ken and Ryu. It will last for eight weeks.

If that sounds spartan to you, you’re not alone. Hopefully the test will serve its purpose and they’ll get the online play running smoothly.

The full release, arriving later this year, looks to be much more feature-rich. Aside from the original game, there will also be a “rebalanced” mode that makes changes to all the characters, an option to play in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios, and a remixed soundtrack to augment the inclusion of the original.

Source: Gamespot

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Edition Announced – Free GH3 DLC Coming Soon

Roly Reyes — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 22:08:23 +0000

After being leaked by guitarist Joe Perry quite some time ago, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has now been officially announced.

Think of it like this: Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s is to Guitar Hero II as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is to Guitar Hero III. Neversoft will continue development and Activision is, of course, publishing.

The set list as a whole hasn’t been confirmed, and we don’t know how many songs there’ll be. What we do know is that ‘Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing’, ‘Dream On’, and ‘Love in an Elevator’ are all shoe-ins. And for those of you that despise Aerosmith, you should be semi-comforted by the addition of “celebrated artists that the band has either performed with or has been inspired by in some way.”

Apparently as a peace offering, on February 16-18 Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’ will be available for free download for use with Guitar Hero III. It’ll be obtainable on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network (Sorry Nintendo!) for those few days only.

Microsoft Offers Xbox Live Members A Front Row Seat At GDC 08

Chad Lakkis — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:17:06 +0000

If you are a little bummed out about not being able to attend this years GDC, and you happen to be an XBL subscriber, you’re in luck.

The thoughtful folks over at Microsoft are bringing the event (their version of it, at least) into your living room starting February 20th.

Xbox LIVE members will gain access to the event starting on February 20th, and be treated to Microsoft’s keynote (A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Community), breaking 360 news, never-before-seen gameplay, demos, screenshots, game trailers, show floor interviews, and other Microsoft related free high-definition content.

So prep your living room and make sure you have a clear line of site from your couch to the TV — but don’t forget to keep your laptop handy, because we here at Ripten will be offering you our own brand of GDC coverage as well, starting the moment the Moscone Convention Center doors swing open on February 18th.

XBLA: Omega 5 Review

Emily Balistrieri — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 15:03:50 +0000

While Omega 5 may be easy to overlook as just another Xbox Live Arcade shoot’em up, to do so would be a bad decision.

Whether you’re in it for the novelty of a Japanese developer creating an Xbox Live game, the fancy HD graphics, the absolutely jammin’ soundtrack, or just the thrill of the bullet dodging; Omega 5 is a game that, despite initial appearances, proves to be both accessible and addictively fun.

Starting out, players are given the choice between Ruby and Tempest. Each character has three upgradeable, variable direction weapons types (controlled with the right analogue stick), a dodge move that consumes part of your life bar, a special power, and a bomb attack fueled by enemy drops called pink chips.

Ruby is smaller and faster and her leech claw felt more useful than Tempest’s multi directional shot or whip-like specials that depended on the weapon type.

Beating the game with Ruby unlocks R.O.D., essentially a souped-up version of the female character. Finishing with Tempest reveals the absurd katana-wielding Sensei, who sics his dog to mark enemies so he can shower them with his magic bullets.

Reaching the end of the game at first seems impossible, never mind unlocking extra characters. You are given three lives, and unless you’re a half-way decent shmupper, you’re not likely to make it past the first level on your initial attempt.

Some degree of memorization is handy, for example, to know exactly when the robot crashing around in the background makes his dramatic foreground leap to pester you with his ice breath.

Just as you begin to despair of ever escaping the robot-infested swamp that is level two, you’ll get a message after a ‘Game Over’ that you’ve been upgraded to five lives. Two hours later you’re up to eight, and after five hours they’ll give you unlimited ‘Continues’. This is really great, because it helps the casual player complete the game, but won’t affect the people who obsess over beating it “properly” with one credit and getting every achievement.

Beating each level unlocks a Challenge mode version, which is just a score run. Finishing the Arcade mode in full will unlock Arcade++, a brutal one hit death scenario for those with the hardest cores. Replay value is incredibly high if you’re of a mind to attempt these feats, and the awesome background music will have you pumped up and ready to try again.

The graphics ooze “next-gen” goodness all over, and when you expect to see slow-down, you don’t. It’s pretty exhilarating when a screen full of bullets just marches along at that brisk frame rate. This isn’t to say that slow-down never occurs, but just that I usually count on slow-down to relax for half a second, whereas Omega 5 impresses from start to finish.

All in all, for ten bucks, Omega 5 is a steal. Four levels may feel short to some, and maybe the pro shmuppers can ace it pretty quickly, but after battling through for hours, I felt like I had a full experience.

I only wish the hitbox was a bit more obvious, because it can be hard to tell whether a pixel will hurt me or not when things get heavy. Oh, and if Ruby’s claw could be a little more amiable… but now I’m just nitpicking.

All in all, from the Japanese accented level announcement voice overs, to the funny yipping of Sensei’s dog, I really enjoyed this game. Lets cross our fingers that the team at Natsume has some more up their sleeve.

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.

New Stranglehold Maps on Xbox 360, Coming Soon to PS3

Ian Ennis — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:03:31 +0000

Buy them or die!

A fan of Stranglehold? Well then I have some good news for you. Today Midway have released 10 new Stranglehold maps onto the North American Xbox Live marketplace.

You can now go guns a-blazing from Kowloon Market to the Rooftops of Chicago. Accompanying the new maps, come 21 new online character skins and 10 new achievements stacking up to 250 points.

The bad news? Even though you get a lot of bang for your buck, it’s $15. Are Midway going to do well with this pack? Only time will tell.

As for the PS3 version, these maps are “Coming Soon”, which is understandable since the game released later on this platform.

Top 5 Reasons To Love Xbox Live

Dan Landis — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:35:14 +0000

As we previously reported, Xbox Live has not been having a good time, what with all the disconnects and general wonkiness. All this was meant to be fixed by the end of the weekend.

Well, the weekend is officially over and the service is officially “getting better” – so says Major Nelson.

Given that my beloved Live is now working again, I “jumped in” to reminisce about all of the things that made me enjoy Xbox Live in the first place.

So, without further ado, I present to you the Top 5 Reasons to Love Xbox Live!

5. Universal Gamertag – No matter what game I play, my Gamertag is the same. People that meet me on Call of Duty 4 can see my tag again later in any other game, and they know I’m the same guy.

The last people you played with show up in a “players list”, which if I look at now… wait… oh, I guess I haven’t played with anybody, EVER, because my players list is empty. Weird…

4. Friends List – Unlike other services, which I refuse to mention, my friends list is tied to my Gamertag, so I can always see what my friends are doing – watching a movie, playing any game, etc.

For example, right now all of my friends are… uh… I guess they are all offline. Either that, or I’m not really online. Hmmm…..

No you won’t Robbie, nobody will be

3. Marketplace - The Marketplace is awesome, offering movies, television shows, original Xbox games, Live Arcade games, demos and trailers for upcoming 360 games.

They just released a demo for Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom that I really want to check out, but I’m unable to retrieve content from the Marketplace.

2. Media Center – If you have a Media Center PC, you can easily stream movies, pictures, and music from your computer to your TV through your 360. Even non-Media Center PCs can do most of this without any problems.

Right now a friend of mine “found” I Am Legend on his PC, so we’re going to watch it on his big-screen. What? You must sign in to view this content? I thought I was signed in? And why would I need to sign in to look at crap on my PC, er, his PC anyways? Well, never mind. I guess we’ll actually go pay for it and watch it in the theater like suckers.

1. You’re Always Connected – From the moment I turn my 360 on, my Gamertag auto-signs me in, and I am connected to everything – Marketplace, Friends, my PC. I can launch a game and immediately get into multiplayer, or I can join a friend’s game in progress.

This is something I would love to do right now, but whenever I attempt to do so my dashboard screams obscenities at me (not that I could see or connect to any of my friends anyways). This is the best feature Xbox Live offers, and it’s the one thing that gets people to pay to upgrade to a Gold membership. So that begs the question: What exactly am I paying Microsoft for again?

So as you can see, there is plenty to love about Xbox Live. I wish I could love those things right now, but I can’t.

For me, Xbox Live is the worst it’s ever been, so I’m not quite sure what language Major Nelson was speaking when he said the service is “getting better”.

Major Nelson and his bottle of lies

Hopefully Microsoft realizes that they need to apologize to all the Live subscribers if they wish to keep us as just that – paying subscribers. And by apologize, I mean I want some free shit… or some cake.

360 Holiday Sales Wreak Havoc on Xbox LIVE Servers – Seriously

Dan Landis — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 00:38:05 +0000

All I want for Christmas is to play online, but Microsoft won’t let me

As of Wednesday the 26th, my experience with Xbox LIVE could best be described as “inconsistent”. I am randomly and sporadically kicked off of the service, and by that, I mean any time I try to do something — anything.

To make sure this wasn’t an isolated case of shitty broadband service on the part of my cable provider, or a local “malfunction”, I rang up some friends in various parts of the country to see if they were having similar issues — they were.

Around noon today, my annoyance got the best of me, and I called up 1-800-4my-xbox. I was greeted, as always, by the never-helpful automated super-dork — Max.

I’ve been down this road before, so I know to skip past his bullshit by spouting off “Agent” a hundred times until he finally gets the hint.

Anyhow, long story short, the agent tells me that the Xbox LIVE servers are having difficulty dealing with the massive influx of users that apparently got a 360 for Christmas. “Seriously?” I asked. “Yes, seriously” he responded.

In fact, it’s such a problem, that they have temporarily disabled the ability to create a new LIVE account. I went ahead and tried to create an account (out of curiosity) and I wasn’t able to.

I am unsure if this is the “official” Microsoft stance regarding the issue, but it does seem logical, and it did come straight from the mouth of a Microsoft employee — Tier 3 even! His Thetan levels must be off the chart.

The agent estimated that the problems will be fixed by the end of the weekend, if not by the end of the night. So I guess I just want to say “thank you” to Microsoft for making such a killer system. If it weren’t so awesome, I might actually be able to sign into the Chromehounds servers and, you know, play some freaking games.

First Ever Silverlight Gamercards Emerge

Ian Ennis — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:45:30 +0000

An official Xbox Community Developer on Xbox Live Nation has released some very interesting new Gamercards using new Microsoft software.

The Gamercards are powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight; a flash like technology powered via API web services, where the dynamic data is generated by a php engine.

Overall these new gamercards look pretty sweet, and even check gamestatus/gamerscore in real time, furthering interactivity. This is just one example of how Silverlight can be used, since it will evolve in the coming years to create even more impressive Gamercards.

Here is the disjointed announcement by an Xbox Community Developer:

After some major programming hours I’m proud to announce that we now feature Silverlight based Gamercards.

Silverlight is a flash-like technology from Microsoft.

The xln cards are rendered using our own API web services and the dynamic data is generated by a php engine.

The overall architecture is quite complex but it works.

The cards can be seen in our forums.

This is in beta so please report any errors.

Via Stonyarc of XLN