XboxIreland.com launches, backed by publishers
XboxIreland.com has launched, it is “backed” by games publishers Microsoft, UbiSoft, Activision, Sega, Eletronic Arts, and Codemaster. Games Toaster
has identified least one person listed as a ’staff writer’ as being
an employ of an Irish marketing company who works for Xbox manufacture
Microsoft. The site is billed as an ‘Irish Xbox community site’.
A post on Boards.ie
says because of their publisher backing, they will “have great
competitions and tournaments, as well as insider news and reviews”.
The poster ‘XboxIreland’ states, “Also, news updates throughout
the day from a uniquely irish (sic) perspective”. A banner ad for the
Irish GameStop outlets is featured on the site.
The domain name was registered in September to ‘Xbox Ireland’,
under the name Mark Scully, registered with an address of Dungannon,
Northern Ireland.
Listed on the site’s staff page is Mark Scully, Armagh, Ireland,
and Jonathan Bucktrout, Leeds, England as ‘management’; Cian
O’Mahony, Cork, Ireland — Editor; Mike Cass, England - staff writer;
and Gamecon organisers Jermain Williams and Travis Mack, both in Dublin
and staff writers. Jermain Williams is ‘Interactive Creative
Director’ at the Dublin based marketing company Dialogue.
EuroGamer gives FIFA 06 RTWC 2/10
The highly respected
computer games website, EuroGamer.net has given ‘FIFA 06: Road to FIFA World
Cup’ a score of 2/10, saying, “Really, to describe what EA has produced here as
dreadful would be to do a terrible disservice to things that merely inspire
dread”.
The review was taken off EuroGamer.net after
publication because of an embargo on the review until December 2, but can be seen in this boards.ie thread.
Xbox 360: the latest
- Too many Core
systems
- Possible forced
bundles
- Few
non-pre-orders left
- PSU overheating
forcing shutdown
- Some
retailers selling at European price
Retailers
are saying the Xbox 360 shipments are split, with the cut down ‘Core’ system
making up sometimes half or more of the consoles they will have on its release
this Friday. This is despite the fact most consumers are expected to be looking
for the proper hard drive and wireless controller inclusive model. The problem
is expected to be compounded by a lack of sold-separately hard drives which can
be added to the Core package, with one source claiming that no hard drives will
be shipped to Ireland vie official distribution channels.
Further
restrictions may come in the form of console and game bundles, even where
people have pre-order a console at a certain price, they may have no other choice
but to buy one or two games with the console. This will be a particular problem
for people who have already ordered games from online stores such as Play.com
based in Jersey, and the Hong Kong based CDWow.
One toy
store retailer claimed that they were having problems obtaining sufficient
stock claiming this was partly because the official Xbox distributor in Ireland
is apparently giving preference to music stores, because music is more central
to distributor’s business, while ignoring the fact other stores have sold far
more original Xbox consoles.
While most
of the main games stores are now overstretched, expecting not to get enough
consoles to meet their pre-orders, Games Toaster has found at least one independent
music store with some Core packages left. Microsoft’s Chris Lewis has agreed
that estimates of only 300,000 consoles in Europe on day one “were not far removed from
reality”.
But for anyone who does get
to bring a 360 home with them on Friday, there could still be further problems.
In the US, over heating power supply units are been blamed for some consoles shutting
down, the advice is to leave a lot of room around it, not to conceal in is a
small space. Microsoft told Eurogamer.net that “because Xbox 360 has three
powerful processing cores, customers may notice that it runs a bit warmer than
other game consoles, but this heat output is well within the acceptable and
safe range for a CE device of this type and has passed all applicable safety
certifications”, and that “there is no systemic issue with Xbox 360. Each
incident is unique and these customer enquiries are being handled on a
case-by-case basis”.
As we reported before Microsoft is essentially charging customers in
Republic 10 euro more then most countries in the euro zone, setting the EPR at 409.99
euro, and 309.99 euro for the Core system. But some retailers in the Republic
are still said to be selling the 360 at the main euro zone prices. In
The Xbox
360 will be the most powerful console on the market, with graphics to match
modern gaming PC, which cost in excess of 1,000 euro, and features allowing it
act as a media centre. However, it is expected at first to only to appeal to
‘hardcore’ console ‘gamers’, the initial price tag alone may be enough to put
off many in that grouping.
Most independent commentators still favour the
PlayStation 2 as the ‘best’ home console because of its games’ wider appeal
made possible by inventions such as Singstar, Eyetoy, and recently released
Buzz.While it may be argued that the 360 will appeal to more non-gamers because
of the console’s media centre. This case may not be in the manufacture’s best
interest as such people may not buy games, thus hurting revenue streams of a
console which is reportably been sold at more then a 100 dollars loss (it’s
industry standard to sell consoles at a loss and profit from game
royalties).
We just can’t
wait to play the games!
How Games Toaster reported the run-up to launch so-far…
- Next Xbox to premiere on MTV (April 11, 2005)
- Xbox 360 images? (April 23, 2005)
- Xbox 360 officially revealed last night (May 13, 2005)
- First Xbox 360 in Ireland? (July 22, 2005)
- Xbox 360 - euro, UK, US pricing confirmed (Aug 17, 2005)
- Ireland’s 360 price difference due to VAT rate - Microsoft (Aug 21, 2005)
- 360 - 22/11 N. America, 2/12 Europe (Sep 15, 2005)
- 360: price in Ireland - inconsistencies in MS’s VAT reason (Sep 15, 2005)
- First Xbox 360 in Ireland, again… (Nov 02, 2005)
Editor’s rant
We’re going to try to talk more to you, and the rest of our
readers, about the workings of this site, what’s going on, and what
we plan to do: if you want to learn more about our history visit the
‘about’ page:
Not so connected
First off, Games Toaster would
like to inform our modest amount of, but ever growing, audience that
our current slowdown in publishing articles is because in the past few
weeks we have moved location (in the “real world”, that is), we
currently have no internet access at nights and weekends, thus we have
less time to do news-like research .
For the present time, our contact details, including postal address,
remain the same. Once we hopefully get a broadband connect at our new
location (sometime in the next decade), we will be exploring other
optional methods of staying in contact with our readers and industry
contacts, such as but not exclusive to instant messaging.
“But you lot were always slow”
That’s kind of unfair now, isn’t it? Toaster is still the only
Ireland-focused games news and review site which is updated regularly
(that we know of). Yes, there’s Gamedevelopers.ie, but we try to look
at all aspects of games in Ireland - from cultural to retail to
marketing to development. Maybe competition would give us a metaphoric
kick up our backsides, to be truthfully we’d welcome direct
competition, as it’d give us an affective gauge on how we actual rate –
even if we already know we can do better, and we’re going to try.
“What the fuck are you self-important wankers talking about?”
Ok, first of, if you are thinking this, you’d probably type it in
‘txt speak’, or maybe ‘CS speak’. We explained what ‘this’ is about in
the opening paragraph. Anyway, we’ll take the titles of ’slightly odd’
(not everyone sets up a games website), and even obsessive (our intake
of a few mediums is unusually high), but not ’self-important’ or
similar, and no, our use of ‘our’ and ‘we’ rather then ‘my’ and ‘I’ is
not going to help your case: and just a reminder, this is called
‘Editor’s rant‘:
Talking about communications:
There’s now a number of ways you can contact us, or have your views aired on Games Toaster.
The simplest are email, and our comments system - which is available at
the end of every article and does not require you to enter your name or
email address; you can leave either section blank or use a pseudonym.
A more noticeable way of getting your views on this site is to email
us an article of reasonable length to be published like any of our
articles just under the tag ‘emails’ — as apposed to the traditional
‘letters’ section of printed publications. As long as any article is
about computer games, either linked to Ireland or not and reasonably
interesting, it’ll probably be published. We’d prefer not to publish
such posts with pseudonyms, but exceptions may be made.
Lastly if you have any scandalise government or industry documents
(or even ones which are downright boring to anybody but us), or if
you’re just the paranoid type, you can use our postal address. Find
more in the ‘make contact‘ and ‘Have your say?‘ sections.
That’s it for now,
cian.ginty@gamestoater.com
Havok in profit
The Sunday Business Post
has reported that Havok, the Dublin based games middleware company, has
made a pre-tax profit of $176,413 last year, with revenues up 60 per
cent to $5.1 million: read more here.
Havok software is used in the Xbox 360 titles Perfect Dark Zero (pictures, right), Amped 3, NBA Live 06, and Condemned: Criminal Origins. And in the multi-format Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and James Bond from Russia with Love.
REVIEW: Fantastic Four
Developer: 7 Studios | Publisher: Activision | For: PC, PS2, Xbox, GC, GBA
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher The
Mediocre Four.., oops sorry about that. I mean, the Fantastic Four is
the latest film tie-in game that matches the expectations of anyone who
has seen the film. Like the film the game features Mr Fantastic,
Invisible Woman, The Thing and The Human Torch as the heroes and Sr.
Doom as the megalomaniac they face off against.
What follows is a series of levels concerning little more than
basing the same buttons over and over again. The control system is
rudimentary with the same controls being used for each of the four
characters. Worse still, during some pats of the game you are required
to bash a few buttons and then watch vie in game video the action take
place. You buy a game to play as the hero, not watch it happen. If
that’s all you wanted, then you’d just watch the film.
Like the film, the game isn’t very good but you no doubt grasped
that all ready. If you see the game in a store then ignore it in favour
of last years Spiderman 2 game.
REVIEW: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Dev: Backbone / High Voltage | Pub: T2 | Format: PS2, Xb, GB / GBA PC
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher In the past few months we have seen a number of
high quality games based on films. Batman Begins and
last. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a stark reminder of the good old
fashioned cash in. A poor game whose sole selling point is that it’s based on a
successful film.
The game begins well and perfectly captures the
feel of the film. The gaming environments and music perfectly reflects Tim
Burton’s wonderful world. But from the start problems are evident. The mission
structure is troublesome, you are given a task to follow such as follow the
money, and that’s it. There’s no help if you get stuck which believe me happens
far too often.
But things only get worse. Once you get to
Willy Wonka’s factory the game turns into a garnish colourful nightmare. From
here on in the games only saving grace is in how much fun you can have
controlling the Oompha Loompas, but like everything else in the game this soon
wears thin.
This is a game that will frustrate but adults
and children alike. The only good thing about the game is that it makes a nice
coaster.
REVIEW: Wipeout Pure
Developer: SCE | Publisher: SCE | Format: PSP
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher The
Wipeout series had varied success on the PS2 but no one can deny how
much of an impact it had on establishing the original PlayStation. It
almost single-handedly put Sony on the map as a contender in the
console race. And now it’s back to do the same for Sony in the handheld
race.
Like the previous games Wipeout Pure is and insanely fast futuristic
racer with an impressive array of tracks (more downlable from Sony’s
PSP website). A number of modifications have been made to the
game-play, most prominently are the changes to the weapons and energy
system giving the game an element of strategy to each race. The new
system gives you the ability to use weapons to destroy enemies or to
replenish your health. A choice which more often than not will make the
difference between wining or losing a race.
The game is stunning to look at, it’s difficult at times not to just
stop and take the view in. Its not t he kind of complaint anyone
usually makes but the game looks too good and you will often find
yourself distracted by this fact.
Wipeout Pure is one of essential games on the PSP. Owing a PSP and
not having a copy is a sin [Ed -- could you forget about rewriting the
Ten Commandments, just stick to reviewing].
REVIEW: Ridge Racer PSP
Developer: Namco | Publisher: SCE | Format: PSP
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher You
know the feeling you get when you’re cycling in the rain and some ponce
in a shiny new Ferrari races past soaking you? First you stare open
mouthed at the inconsiderate ****, but soon you marvel at the beauty of
the car. Well that’s how I felt when I first saw someone else playing
Ridge Racer.
On the surface Ridge Racer is a plastic surgeons wet dream. It looks
absolutely amazing, and I mean amazing. But underneath, it also has
heart. The game is packed with reworked tracks from the previous games,
from the arcade Ridge Racer as well as all the console versions.
The racing is fast and fun, rarely giving you time to breath let
alone think during races, much like the previous games. But the one
major difference is the addition of Nitro Boost which takes the game to
a whole new level. Forget the accurate recreation of real world driving
found in Gran Turismo, who wants to drive when they can race.
There’s a number of different gaming modes available, including
quick race, multiplayer, time attack, and world tour. Enough variety to
ensure that it’ll be a while before you get bored waiting for the bus.
Ridge Racer is a return to basics. There’s no customization of cars,
no hip hop soundtrack and no city to explore, and it’s all the better
for that. And guess what, it’s all the better for that.
REVIEW: Stuart Little 3: Big Photo Adventure
Developer: Magenta | Publisher: SCE | Format: PS2
Reviewer: Craig Gallagher Games
aimed at children are usually simplistic, cheap, and not very good.
Nine times out of ten they usually involve little more than jumping
around some badly rendered environment in search of a key or other such
token gaming element.
It’s refreshing to see a children’s game which at least tries for
originality. Stuart Little 3: Big Photo Adventure is as the title
suggests the third Stuart Little game, and like the previous entries in
the series its quite an enjoyable game, even maybe for jaded gamers
like those found at Games Toaster.
The game centers around Stuart’s quest to save the day by replacing
his brothers photography project which he accidentally destroyed. You
must journey around New York City taking photos of everything and
anything which peaks your interest.
There are a number of in game vehicles which you can use to complete
this task, including tanks, airplanes, amongst others. The game-play
isn’t the most challenging but it delivers in the most important area.
It’s fun, and as anyone will tell you, nothing else matters, when it
come to games.
Stuart Little 3: Big Photo Adventure is a lot of fun for kids and
adults alike, so if you fancy some quiet time this Christmas you could
do a lot worse than picking this up, it may keep them entertained for
most of the holidays.