Reels and Replacements

I think I aggree with you there Hedge about Perfect Dark 0 replacing halo this season. IT wouldn´t make sense to have both products competeing with each other, besides we´re going to need something Spring 04 to tide us over till christmas 04.

perfect dark cant compete with halo..I want HALO... I hva palyed the original halo everyday for a yearnow. I need something new

I have some Hot info straight from a reliable source at RARE. Perfect Dark Zero release date 12-1-03. He also said Perfect Dark Zero will include our favorite shooter from years gone by, GoldenEye 007, updated to take advantage of the XBOX in every way. Both will be XBOX LIVE compatable and in the future will have new downloadable content.
As always "XBOX RULZ!"

Thanks for tossing out a bone, in a time of an informational Drought..I´m amazed that your able to keep up Hedgy.(especially with larger sites like IGN).

Your speculation that the Halo2 game might be held up because of the eminent release of Perfect Dark is interesting, and sure to generate conjecture and debate...but lets be real...The gaming publics interest in Halo is stronger than the incaculable force of a Hurricane,..more unstoppable than an earth quake hitting a "9" on the richter scale,...Its a driving force that originates in the tumultuos depths of a gamers soul.

Its similar to what drives those poor lost souls,.. who live in the rough places,..who manage to eak out $20 - $200 a day to purchase drugs even though they havent eaten in days and have no jobs or a roof over their heads.

Even if Doom, Fable, Deus Ex, Perfect Dark, and Halo 2 were to be released on the same day...gamers would find the cash to buy Halo. And M$ would rather have 10 winners on the shelf instead of just 1.(Halo is just that kind of game!)

Hedge,

Did I accidently let the horse out of gate a little early? Oops! You know what I mean.


Cody

Big J22:

I read your comment. Goldeneye will never come to xbox.

Rare nor MS have the rights to James Bond. EA owns the rights to the super spy.

Cody

certain spine-backed hogs make a funny sound when they get run over by large vehicles.It doesnt matter when halo comes out.its going to be mindblowing

I agree with Grampa Game. Perfect Dark, WHO? The masses want HALO 2!

its very possible for goldeneye to be remade because rare has already made that game and dont need to get the rights for it all over again.they may have to share some of the profits though.

Fable could come out this Winter as well.

hedge,
great article, as always, but seriously, use spell check, some of the mistakes are really unintelligent errors. That´s all, and please dont flame me for this. Is there something wrong with hitting the spell check button? That is what its there for right?

Excellent Hedge! News of this sort is exactly why xbox365 reigns supremem over other websites in my book. The push back makes perfect sense. As a gamer...this sucks. As a market analyst....this is a brilliant move. Halo 2 could come out whenever they choose and would still manage sell millions. However, other games don´t have the power or hype to compete on this level. It is wise to let the weaker hyped games shine for a while and then release the MAC guns of Halo 2.

Damn ,I was really expecting to play HALO2 around the holidays.

[ONLY ON XBOX]

we all want Halo2 but we all must admit we haven´t seen what Rare can really do on Xbox. What if they blow the world away with a version of Perfect Dark never thought of before? Then they tack on Xbox Live to it also? And even better it does come out during Christmas, and we then only have a few easy months to wait for Halo2. Why is this a good idea? Rare is mostly know for there NIntendo games right? Well why would Microsoft release Halo2 a game we all know will be huge, before Perfect Dark...only to over shadow it. Microsoft wants there new company to see success, and besides I would by Halo2 if I had to wait an extra year. Why? Because we all know it WILL be that good. There is no Halo2 killer......

Give the Hog some slack guys! I posted this thing at 1:00 AM this morning. And Coranto doens´t even have Spell Check!

Poptart think before you talk...You have to renew the license to make a bond game. Rare didnt to this so EA took up the license. Rare cant make goldeneye again without the license

coranto doens´t have spell check?

Hmm that would make sense. Even if perfect dark 0 some how managed to be a better game, the mere hype surrounding halo2 would have killed sales.

I dont think it is a bad thing that microsoft isnt buying bioware either, they allready like the xbox, and would no doubt remain in MS´s courner either way.

What MS realy needs to do is purchase a company that accounts for a significant amount of the hype that drives ps2 sales. Can you imagine how devistating a blow to sony the purchase of square-enix would be? Its not just about how much money you can make off of software sales, its about how much consumer interest you can generate.

-Orochi

Rare just has to buy the rights for Bond. No big deal. The
publisher just charges a fee for using the character and may have some specific input on how the character is used. Jame´s Bond is not owned by E.A.. E.A. just paid a licensing fee. E.A. would have spent many millions for the exclusive rights to the James Bond Character.

HMM. Sounds good Perfect Dark Zero. When does Doom III come out? I wouldn´t want to have to make a decision between Halo 2, Doom III or Perfect Dark Zero. That would be Hell.

This is a very good move by Microsoft. This will only give Bungie more time to make Halo 2 a better game, and give us a great game to play in the mean time.

Now I see why this was done, great idea, seeing as how Raw 2, Ninja Gaiden, and others are being released around that time. I guess they don´t want Halo taking up all the sales, or they don´t want to give Halo 2 competion for sales. I guess they want all games to sell well, so delaying Halo 2 i guess is good. I doubt they have anything else to do to Halo except Game test to make sure everything is good.

No, to even suggest Microsoft purposely delayed Halo 2 is LUDICROUS.
One: It´s the biggest title they´ve got. If you want to push units during Xmas, you need the necessary firepower. Perfect Dark 0 ain´t it. Xmas is THE selling season where the VAST majority of your sales will happen, you´re risking poor sales if you release after Xmas as witnessed by Panzer (and to a lesser extent, DOA:XBV), excellent titles that should´ve gotten more attention/sales.
Two: Do you think Bungie will push aside their ready title just so another can take their place on Microsoft´s preferred list? Hell naw. Halo propped up the Xbox for over a year (and continues to do so). Halo, so far, is the only Xbox game that has staying power. I´m sure Bungie really REALLY wanted to push for Xmas but just can´t make it. Hence delay it a few more months to make sure perfection is reached.

sounds like most of u havnt played PD.let me just say,i personly think PD would be 10 times beter than halo, if it is as well made as the original(they beter drop the cel shading, it suits zelda, but not a shooter!)
PS goldeneye on xbox? wat a load of ...

if M$ didnt by rare we wouldnt have this problem, and i wouldnt be selling myself for an xbrick ...

PD was a stayer on n64 and ther will be plenty of gcn and former n64 gamers that will want it bad.
PS shoking time to annonce rare bi-out id already got my gcn

Halo 2 should be sold in the slowest time,it will sell like rice, it was a smart move by M$(what I like to call Umbrella). It´s all about the money.

OK so does anyone have a LINK syaing that the HALO 2 TRAILER was not IN GAME? from all the rumours i have heard it was in game..hedge says its not.. so WHATS THE DEAL?

why everyone want halo 2 so bad?? Can anyone tell me what Sega games going to be release this year?

That Halo trailer was IN-game.
Buy the Dec. issue of OXM (w/ disc) and find out yourself.
Awesome. That ain´t no FMV.

On another note, people should play High Heat Baseball 2004.
It´s better than WSB2k3. I hate to admit that 3-Doh! actually made a good game but it´s true. I like how the character models are more realistic than WSB2k3 where there are generic character figures aplenty. Plus the face mapping was atrocious in wsb2k3.
Here it´s better. Sure the ground textures are muddy and the crowd looks like something out of the PS1, but it´s a damned fine experience, better than Sega´s effort. Kudos to 3-Doh! You keep making more games like this, you may actually escape from bankruptcy LOL.

Here is more fuel to the Rare fire...

On XBOX IGN, they have a interview with Ed Fries.

This little snip from the interview

IGN: What games are you personally most excited about in 2003?

EF: We were just talking about Deus Ex 2: Invisible War, that looks like it´s going to be really great. There´s Fable later this year. One of the Rare games that we haven´t announced yet I think is really going to surprise people.

IGN: Whoa, whoa. An unannounced Rare game? I asked about games for this year!

Now, here is something to think about. Its a considence that the box art for Venom X4 should magically appear a couple of days before the interview. But the fact is that Rare did say that one of the games they are making is a racer for xbox. It doesn´t take much sence to put 2 and 2 together.

Just something to think about.

Cody

Listen..Don´t be so gullable,..M$ isn´t delaying Halo2 as some kind of marketing ploy to spare PD the humiliation of poor sales. If the game is worth a Damn it´ll sell anyway. Have you already forgotten last year when Mechassault, Unreal, and Mortal Combat (along with several others) got released in the same week!!! It wasnt even Christmas and xbox owners posted the highest attatch rate of any new system ever, with gamers buying an average of 4-5 games apiece that month(and a lot of xbox´s too).sales rocked for xbox.

Any console maker wants to have the most "A" titles on the shelf to entice the greatest number of gamers to buy their system(remember the dreamcast?). Why do Think Sony is number 1,..because they have 600 or so games on the shelf!!!

There is only one reason for the delay of Halo(and don´t read this if you can´t handle the truth)...Bungi is making sure that Halo ships as not only the greatest single player action title in existance...( and unlike Unreal Championship)THEY WANT TO BRING US THE MOST MAGNIFICENT BUG FREE ONLINE multiplayer FRAGFEST MAN HAS EVER KNOWN, AND IT TAKES "HARD CORE CODING" TO DO THAT.

UNDERSTAND THE M$ WANTS ALL THE GAMES ON THE SHELF NOW!!(LIKE YESTERDAY)..BECAUSE MORE TITLES = MORE CHOICES = MORE XBOX´S SOLD.

BUT M$ DIDNT BECOME THE LARGEST SOLFWARE PROVIDER BECAUSE THEY PUT OUT HALF-BAKED PRODUCT. MICROSOFT IS NOT IN CONSPIRACY against Own SELF.no..because MORE TITLES SELLS MORE SYSTEMS!!

thats mean we still can enjoy halo2 this year?? right?? so what´s the biggest title for this year? could be ninja gaiden?

*can´t

YOU GO GRAMPS!!!!!!! Perfection takes TIME!!

Holy Perfect Dark Hedghehog!! When I told everyone to chill out about HALO2 and go play some Xbox games I meant like we will live until then. I also said that if any game comes out while HALO2 fever is rampant , it would totally ruin everything else. Ahh, I hope we can expect Perfect Dark Zero to have counter co-op,multiplayer madness, and XBL multiplayer madness. And on top of that ´Perfection´ we will have a HALO2 tidbit to show us how Master Cheif will kick alien posterior. Now, what did I tell you all about chillin´ out ?

i belive none of this. pd0 cant b comin dat early. halo 2 has been in production since 2001. the only way pd0 would come out dis holiday season is if pd0 had been in production for xbox before microsoft bought them......that, or the game was made quickly and is crap.

Great article, hedge. I dunno what some of you guys are smoking, but PD0 is gonna be dank.. the original had (imho) the best selection of weapons ever in a console fps, and if it hadn´t been for framerate issues, it woulda one-upped goldeneye on the playability.. to boot, the bots were fricking hardcore. Finally, props to Gramps for pointing out the obvious, that if it wasn´t for ms´s wanting halo 2 to be perfect, they easily could have released a less than stellar sequel to boost xbox sales in that all important holiday season.

grampa gamer and mad gamer, you guys took the word right outta my mouth. i dont even need to post on here anymore,lol. grampa gamer, could you change your name to grampa caddy.haha. peace

Halo 2 has to be amazing not very good but Amazing the Xbox
future rides on this one game alone.

I think hedge was more trying to draw our thoughts to what
M$ has up its sleeves know.

Fable defenitly be released this year and will be Amazing.

Guys look out for Breed this Summer it should tide you over until Halo 2!

Well, going to add my .10 cents worth like the page says.
Halo 2 was pushed back due to not having full bungie staff for the past 3-4 months. Anyone looks at the new screens/movies of brute force. Anyone notice that maybe, just maybe it resembles halo now. A couple of the bungie guys helped iron out BF. Hence, brute force was pushed back, now Halo 2.
(I was fortunate enough to play brute force back in october ´02. It sucked at the time. Looks 100x better now.)

The other big thing....well, its a shooter, but I doubt it is PD0. I can´t officially say that this came from anywhere...and I am no kind of insider, BUT, I hear that Gabe Newell was spending mucho time at Redmond this past few months.

On other news. MS will officially rule the video game world if Longhorn lives up to its billing.

We realy dont have any proof either way. It is reasonable to assume that micrsoft would be very willing to delay a game in order to maintain steady momentum after christmas. At the same time, they could very well just need more time. Not only is it common practice to put some space between high profile titels, it is a neccesity. This is not something specific to games, moves, videos, and even books follow the same marketing format. It is far to easy to cut the legs out from underneath your own product, by offering compedative products.

-Orochi

I say what ever Rare new titles will be, will be amazing. Remember this time they arn´t fighting against complicated hardware and the wishes of Nintendo. Direct X and freedom is there new enviroment and they love it.

Your not going anywhere Caddy...your uncanny gift for positive affirmation is desperately needed on this (hardest of hardcore xbox) site...your request to be dismissed has been denied.

its already been said by many others but i´ll say it again....no way would microsoft deliberately delay halo2. they want this game released yesterday, but they know how important it is that halo2 is as good as it can possibly be. i´d rather wait a while for excelence than have rubbish now.

If Rare game this year is a racer i will flip and buy a ps2 Halo2 or a racer..we have enough already good ones too and gr8 ones comin no racer no matter how good can replace halo 2
Better be perfect dark or another fps or man MS are gonna here me HOLLER

Great post as usual Hedge.

*sniff*
*sniff*

Does anyone else smell rain?

:o)

haha, thanks gramps. positive force baybee!! www.positiveforce-cc.net

PD0 should be great! It has to be. It is going to be the game RARE´s rep. is going to be based off of post M$ merge.

Death to SONY
H-low (halo for dumb people) is the greatest game ever
Hedgehog your the man

Another reason – could be that Halo 2 is absolutely amazing. Just like the original halo left all the @!*% generation xbox titles eating its dust. Halo 2 will probably destroy every second-generation title by an even greater margin – so yes it should come out as so as possible. But on the other hand - I don’t agree with what some people are saying – that the xbox market needs Halo 2 and needs it as soon as possible. The xbox has passed its necessary target audience (has gained a comfortable share of the market) and as such is no longer in danger (no longer in its rookie season – the media have shut up haven’t they). So why push – force – rush Bungie, to get halo 2 ready for Christmas? Let Bungie take it easy and have a peaceful holiday season. Plus a few extra months will help the online component of Halo 2.

On another note – if perfect dark 0 is going to be released this Christmas. Why the hell would anyone want Goldeneye as an Easter egg? Sure they could remove every reference to the bond license, but what a complete waste of time. Buying Rare was an attack against Nintendo. If perfect dark 0 is an amazing game, some loyal Nintendo fans will jump ship. Microsoft is squarely targeting the Gamecubes market share.

In my previous post, why was the word "@!*%" changed to "@!*%" ? Since when was the word "@!*%" a swear word.

It finally dawned on myseft why the word f-i-r-s-t was changed. I see the light.

Malak your post regarding the delay of Halo2 is compelling,.. ordinarilly I would be stunned into silence by any chaffing rebuke that proved true,..however,..Bungi has been giving the developers of Brute force technical support from the beginning(as stated in last years XBM and Xbox Nation mags). on Bungi´s website they even state (themselves) that Halo 2 is a massive undertaking (they are completely rewriting much of the orgininal engine),and getting it all set to operate on-line at max efficiency is a challenging task. They may still have to download some patches after the game is released to accomodate the high volume of players).

Can you imaging the number of people trying to play Halo 2 online? Well Bungi knows its going to be a lot and they want to be sure the experience is going to be running smoothly(like butta). Bungi didnt hamstring themselves by dropping everything to work on BF,..they just had a couple of guys doing technical support and advising. (however Malak, your feedback is appreciated)

Microsoft is gonna get killed this holiday season now that their only sure fire killer app is gone.

halo2 is cool but my long juicy d_ _ _ _ is better