The console makers are on to a winner with these so called "micro transactions", providing relatively cheap add on content for games via digital download. Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace is the first example we've seen get released into the wild, with people buying credit (and that's a critical part of the equation) for people to spend on items ranging from wallpapers to customise their console to add on maps and items for games.

Some of the stuff, like the Oblivion horse armour for example, has received a mixed reception from gamers. However they have been spending their credit, and Call of Duty publisher Activison has reported that they have sold almost $1 million in expansion maps for CoD 2, the most played multiplayer game on Xbox Live.

That's a serious amount of ongoing revenue intake, but the really surprising thing is that people have also been spending their credits to purchase things that, in the past, PR and marketing types would pay you to take. Things like wallpapers, to "customise" your desktop, can only be provided through the Xbox Live Marketplace, and so it is a sellers market. People have been literally buying promotional materials - only, when you spend "1000 credits" as opposed to "$12.50" it makes the medicine go down that bit easier.

Of course, a stingy person might point out that in games like Day of Defeat: Source and Red Orchestra we're getting bonus materials just as good as the Call of Duty map packs for free. Indeed, there was a time (once upon a better time...) when we got map packs for free. EA have tried selling smaller expansions for PC games, like the Battlefield 2 booster packs, and the exercise has largely been a failure. It seems that this sort of success story for publishers will only work in the highly managed, "sellers market", of something like the Xbox Live Marketplace or Sony's upcoming answer on the PlayStation 3.

But here's the thing. Sometimes they're right. And for the small number people
out there that indirectly warned me that Call of Duty 2 was just okay and didn't
measure up to the original, well, I'm sorry I didn't listen.

I had been dying to play Call of Duty 2. The original Call of Duty blew me away
and easily ranks on my top 5 best first person shooters ever. It was visceral,
it was grand, and it was bloody brilliant. So when Call of Duty 2 came out, I
figured it couldn't miss. Word of mouth as well as many reviews were very kind
to the sequel, especially the Xbox 360. Well, I can't say I've tried the 360
version yet, but I have played the PC and Mac version of the title (which I own)
and here's basically what I got for my $50.

Same graphics.
"New" missions that seemed eerily similar to previous CoD games.
Smoke grenades.
A "grenade indicator."
No health meter (instead, you get a red, blurry screen and panting/gasping that
sounds as if it's been lifted from a porno).

Here's the thing. If I had never played CoD 1 or the United Offensive expansion
pack, well, I probably would have rated CoD 2 as a pretty rockin' game. But to
play a game that takes the same formula/graphics/outline of the original and
adds very little -- well, it just feels more like a glorified expansion pack
than an all new sequel. All in all, it was a short and uninspired game that
immediately made my top 10 list of most disappointing sequels. The multiplayer
functions on CoD2 are good, but I've never judged a game's merit on its
mutliplayer death matches first. One thing I had hoped to see changed was the
NPC functions (seriously, tons of allied soldiers get chewed up on some of the
campaigns yet somehow replacements soldiers materialize out of thin air and you
never seem worse for the wear); it would be great to be able to give orders,
make critical decisions during battle, and see the missions depend more on
protecting your troops, for example.

It'a hard to fault Activision or Infinity Ward; they're raking in the dollars
from CoD2, especially on Xbox Live for the 360 [see Aaron's post below]. But
unless they come up with some new developments for Call of Duty 3 -- how about
more detailed NPC interaction? Maybe a little more strategy? -- then I won't be
making a third tour of duty with this one.

There has never been a better time to buy an Xbox than right now this second, I've decided to myself. In fact, I decided it to myself with the launch of the Xbox 360, but I'd like to reiterate the point since I've just returned from a lunch hour excursion in which I saw quite an amazing sight.

In a major game retail store they were (and please do excuse the euro pricings, just think in your native equivalent currency and all will be well) selling an Xbox for €90. Or, you could grab one with 5 games (decent ones at that, spreading the spectrum of fighten' and driven') for €150. And then, beside these now "retro" consoles, were games going for €30. Actually, they were going for €15 as there was a straight up "Buy one, get one free" offer. A "BOGOF" offer in the video gaming sphere is about as common as good music aimed at 14 year olds.

Every game we've been told is so, so bloody great over the past two years was there. This was no display of the shoddy wares that the Game group want to offload onto the streets - this was a display of the great games that the Game group wants to offload onto the streets.

When you consider that an Xbox 360 game costs €75, or €15 less than you can get an Xbox for these days, and even a PlayStation Portable, with no games, is gonna set you back €205 (at least in this particular store), well you begin to see, if you're not an avid Xbox player, how becoming one can be such an appealing financial alternative.

The Xbox was a modders dream after it was cracked, enabling the console to be used for anything from pirated games to a file server. In the wake of this Microsoft had promised us that the Xbox 360 would be secured "at the silicon level", apparently making it very difficult to crack and the results even more difficult to replicate on multiple consoles.

Well in South Korea they're reporting a booming trade in modified Xbox 360's which allows copied discs to be played in the consoles DVD player, and Microsoft has gone from talking up its vaunted security to downplaying the piracy. The company is promising to fix any bugs such as this with patches and updates pushed through Xbox Live, reminding me somewhat of Sony's farcical ongoing back-and-forth with the homebrew crowd on the PlayStation Portable. One would crack the system, the other would release a patch, this would be cracked a few weeks later, another patch, rinse and repeat.

At the moment times are good for South Korean pirates, where the modification costs around KRW 70,000 (60 Euro); and pirated software is said to be readily available for as little as KRW 15,000 (12 Euro), compared to the standard retail price of around KRW 40,000 (33 Euro), says Gamesindustry.biz.

Can we please, please, pretty please get over Pac-Man at some stage in the next 20 years? The game is over 25 years old, as any

PR

Well, now Xbox 360 players, with all that raw graphic processing power, can get it on Xbox Live Arcade for a mere 400 Microsoft points - that's around $5 in real money. There's something about graphics which have been "upgraded to high-definition but still maintain the charm and retro-look of the original iteration" that seems like an oxymoron to me, but maybe I'm just not high-def enough.

Well, if you want to spring a fiver for a game that's possibly older than you are, be my guest.

...Though we're told there won't be any cheap Sony copycat attempts with motion sensitivity just yet.

This is the news that Microsoft will be (hopefully) releasing a separate extra controller for the Xbox 360 which will replace the already much lauded standard one for the purpose of playing first- person shooters; a genre of games not immediately suited to a console controller even as good as the 360's one.

If it is introduced, the new controller will have a redesigned right analogue stick (the equivalent of a mouse in most console control systems) to allow for more precise movements, we're told.

What Microsoft won't be doing quite so immediately is releasing, or even announcing, anything to do with motion sensitivity. To heck, let Nintendo chart that ground and Sony make themselves look like a bunch of eejits I say.

If we sit back and take stock of what this "next-gen" in gaming has delivered, and will be delivering, to us I would say that the entire thing is one major cock-up, and gamers have been fools to be taken in by it.

The Xbox 360, the first herald of this next-generation of loveliness. What did we get with it? A whole heap or PR tripe, leading up to a disastrous launch pockmarked by shortages; alleged price hiking by retailers, via forced selling of expensive bundles to consumers; and then a first year of operation which basically saw Microsoft and partner developers sitting on their hands waiting for the launch of the PlayStation 3 to be, coincidentally, also marked by the launching of big-name titles for the 360.

Ohh, and one other thing: All new games now cost about ten or fifteen quid more than they used to, depending on where you live. Having been around games for such a long time, I recall when around €30 (before we switched to Euro in these parts, so I'm calculating a little there) was the norm for a new game; then €50 and now, for the pleasure of new titles on the Xbox 360, €75, and more such price hikes expected for the PlayStation 3 games. Allow me to give you another view of €75. It's €25 short of €100, and we're seeing such price inflation all over the world. (I could complain that while €1 is worth about $1.25, we get a 1:1 conversion ratio on these prices, so a $600 console actually costs Europeans $750.) The next-gen is late, not up to much and expensive.

Over the past year and a half alone we have witnessed some amazing cock ups where video game hardware launches have been concerned. You may recall the PlayStation Portable launch, particularly if you happen to be a European left out of pocket for six months after Sony panicked and sent all its European units to sit in warehouses in what turned out to be a soft US market.

More vividly, perhaps, folks might recall the launch of the Xbox 360 alluded to above, which saw panic buying and retailers like BestBuy allegedly hiking prices and profiteering by forcing consumers to buy expensive bundles instead of just the console and the game they wanted.

Shortages and extortionate pricing seems to be the order of the day where modern console launches are concerned, and for the launch of the PlayStation 3 Sony execs seem to have studied these debacles carefully and chosen all the worst elements to emulate in their launching of the "Next-generation"; which won't be starting until they say so, apparently - November in North America and sometime in the misty sands of 2007 for Europe (don't tell me you're not expecting further delays?)

Shortages? Check, as we've already seen with the pushing back of the European release. Something like 400,000 units for the lucky North Americans, who will actually be getting to crawl over one another for the console this side of Yule... 400,000 units is about one for every 1,285 people, I believe. If you ignore the Canadians, or just divert their shipments, that's one unit for every 750 people... still a lot of bodies to clamour over to get that special "value" bundle that'll be waiting for you.

Shortages lead to price hiking even in the pre-order stages, and considering the PlayStation 3 is expensive to begin with you can now expect to pay around $2,500 on eBay for a $100 pre-order slot that's not even a guarantee that you'll get a PS3 on launch (same, incidentally, as it was with the Xbox 360... a pre-order isn't worth much more than $100 these days, eh?)

As much as retailers took a good bit of flak for the dogs dinner they made of the Xbox 360 launch, will anyone in this room, cynical or not, stand up and tell me that with a comparatively tiny launch allocation, extremely high demand and really expensive peripherals and games to tout; we won't be seeing a repeat of the Xbox 360 "value bundles" come November?

What, at the end of the day, are gamers scratching one another's eyes out to get at? Fancy graphics, online capabilities and a game or two that'll still be worth playing in six months time. There are better things to get excited about in life, I daresay (and the most amusing thing about it all is that the one console that looks truly innovative, the Wii, is the cheapest and least sophisticated looking of the lot.) I for one don't intend to buy into it. Unfortunately for those of you who are intent on wasting your money, I'm in Europe and so I'm not actually one less person for you to bid against on that $2,500, non-assured unit, pre- order.

KHAAAAAAAAN!!!

Good grief. I had been looking forward to Star Trek: Legacy for quite some time, and for a few reasons. First, Star Trek has sucked lately. And second, I love a good strategy game. And third, I needed a really good Star Trek game to come along. So I was pretty pleased when Bethesda Softworks announced that all five actors that played Star Trek captains in the television series would be lending their voices to the game. Even better was the news that longtime Trek writer Dorothy "D.C" Fontana and writing partner Derek Chester had penned the script for Star Trek: Legacy.

So I was pumped for some good Trek. And then after the PC version of Star Trek: Legacy was released a week ago, poor reviews and seriously negative user comments started popping up everywhere about poor control systems and highly flawed game design from Mad Doc Software. Well, at least I had the Xbox 360 version to look forward to, which was released yesterday and has fared much better in its initial reviews and feedback than its PC counterpart.

Well, that got photon-torpedoed pretty quickly: news broke yesterday via Xbox360fanboy.com that story for Star Trek: Legacy had been cut significantly from the proposed script provided by Fontana and Chester. In fact, the information came directly from Chester himself, who weighed in on the game via the Bethesda Star Trek forum. Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the Mutara Nebula, another weak Trek game comes along. Seriously, just stick a Ceti Eel in my ear and get it over with.

Here's what Chester said on the forum: "A lot of what was intended was cut. From rendered cinematics and interstitial cutscenes to a great deal of backstory and events that took place between the eras to tie them together. The total portrayal of the intended story was incomplete. Dorothy and I wrote a lot for this game...but not everything made it in. As a result there may be some difficulty in following the motivations for characters or the reasons for crucial events. The story as was written, tied together a great deal of Trek history and events to make it seem more substantial than it came across in the final game."

Well, double-dumbass on Bethesda!

Microsoft has just announced that Epic's action title Gears of War has sold 2 million copies (one of which I own) in about six weeks. As a result, Gears is the first mega- hit for the next-generation consoles. Not only has the game sold plenty of copies, but the game has also been a hit with critics who have lauded Epic's eye-popping design and graphics. In addition, Gears is doing crazy business on Xbox Live and finally unseated Halo 2 as the most played game for Microsoft's online network. Will Gears of War help push the Xbox 360 to 10 million units sold by January 1st? We'll see.

And wouldn't you know, Epic is hard at work on sequels to Gears of War. This is a good thing because the enjoyable single player campaign came off like an example of episodic gaming: brief content that's part of a larger story. Indeed, there are plenty of details that were left unexplained in Gears of War, such as Marcus Fenix's backstory, the Locust Horde's origin, and the identity of the spooky female voice-over at the end of the game.

While I think Gears is a tad overrated at this point, it was well worth the money spent and has been the best example yet of the next-gen consoles' potential. And even though I got totally annoyed by NPC Augustus "Cole Train" Cole, I'm pretty excited about a Gears sequel. If Epic can add some new elements to the already enticing game play, expand the single player campaign and then fill in the story, then GoW 2 will be even better than the original.

Yes, you read that headline correctly. According to Research and Markets, Sony's PlayStation 3 will eventually win the hard-fought next-generation console race. It's time to ask a simple question: does this research firm know something that the rest of the world doesn't?

Let's think this through for a second. First, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has an enormous head start on Sony and has already sold around 10 million consoles. In fact, another research firm, NPD Group, recently reported that Xbox 360 sold 2 million units in the U.S. during the holiday season (November to Dec. 25). Plus, with hit titles like Gears of War and forthcoming games like Halo 3, the Xbox 360 has a stronger library of games than the PS3.

Then there's Nintendo's Wii, which sold nearly 2 million units in North America since its launch on November 19th and has attracted positive buzz like it was a giant flood light pulling in hapless moths. The Wii has gotten outstanding critical reviews for the most part, while the PS3 has been ravaged by negative reviews in the mainstream press from the likes of the New York Times.

Plus, the PS3 suffered shortages for its launch and sold less than half the number of Wiis Nintendo sold. Also, the PS3 launch library is significantly weaker and a number of big titles scheduled for 2007 will be available on the Xbox 360 and in some cases the Wii as well. Oh, and don't forget the seemingly endless stream of stories about people returning their PS3s because they couldn't sell them on eBay for a mammoth profit and numerous retailers with PS3s sitting on the shelves, unsold and collecting dust.

So why will the most expensive console with the least amount of buzz and positive reviews eventually win the race? That's a good question, and frankly, I don't have the answer. And I'm not sure that Research and Markets does either. I haven't read the report - because I don't have it - but here are some excerpts from the press release:

"The PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360, dubbed the next generation of consoles, each hold a unique position with regard to console offerings. While Sony and Microsoft aim towards increased functionality as a key driver for adoption, Nintendo look for innovative game play and the elusive fun factor. The Sony PlayStation 3 is expected to win the console war in the long term with an install base of around 75 million globally by 2010. The console is not expected to dominate as much as its predecessor, the PS2, due to late launch issues in the PAL region and the early lead of Microsoft's Xbox 360."

If you figure this one out, please let me know.

Another hallowed game developer is experiencing the all-too predictable talent exodus that comes after being acquired by a behemoth. Brothers Chris and Tim Stamper, who founded Rare in 1982, have departed the developer, which was purchased by Microsoft in 2002 for $377 million (quite a high number, historically speaking, for a game developer).

Rare is responsible for creating some of Nintendo's greatest titles, such as Donkey Kong Country, Killer Instinct, Perfect Dark, and the immortal GoldenEye 007. Oh, how I love GoldenEye. I loved that game since the first day I played on the N64, and I still play it today, which is the true sign of a classic.

I haven't cared for Rare's recent work, as Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo: Elements of Power failed to impress me. While some felt Rare's best days were far behind and that the developer's games had slipped since becoming part of Microsoft, its latest game, Viva Pita, has emerged as one of the most critically acclaimed and popular next generation titles. I haven't played it yet, but a number of people have raved about it and encouraged me to pick it up, including Vicious at UncleGamer Radio.

Still, Rare pretty much dropped off the map for me after 2002. The developer stopped making Nintendo console games, sticking only to Microsoft console and Nintendo GBA titles, which was great disappointing. I can't help but wonder if being pigeon-holed to the Xbox platforms led to their departure. Now the question is, will the Stamper Brothers start a new game developer? Perhaps they want to flex their muscles on the Wii platform. Let's hope so.

I had a long - and I mean real long - talk with Liquilife and Vicious over at UncleGamer Radio about CES 2007. I chatted with the guys about some of the more interesting news and events at the show, such as Bill Gates' keynote and Microsoft's Windows Vista, as well as some of the hot gadgets and technology like a $15,000 gaming chair.

In addition, we discussed how Apple and the iPhone pretty much trumped everything in Las Vegas and how MacWorld stole CES's thunder; the prospect of cross-platform gaming with the Xbox 360 and PC games on Vista, as well as the implications for the Xbox platform with Microsoft's IPTV technology. From there, we talked at length about how the next-generation console war is shaping up in 2007 and some of the new games coming out for the PC this year, such as Crysis.

What were the coolest gaming products at the show? Will Vista have a big effect on gaming? Will Crysis be Vista's Halo? Are console games overtaking PC games? And who's got the edge in the next-gen console war? Check out Episode 16 of UncleGamer Radio to find out.

Also, here are some leftovers from CES 2007, including some Wolf King gamer keypads, Sandio's 3D gaming mouse, the Novient Falcon controller, Voodoo PC's new laptop, the Straight Power cooling system and Enermax's cooling system, and some gaming chairs from D-Box, Hotseat Chassis, and others.

It's Tuesday at GDC 2007, or as I like to call it, "Microsoft Day." The software giant had lured many members of the games press, me included, away from the Moscone Convention Center to a nearby hotel with promises of juicy secrets and tantalizing previews of titles such as BioWare's Mass Effect and Lionhead Studios Fable 2.

The sessions started at 9 a.m. sharp and will pretty much run throughout the day. It's a bit of a grind, considering that Microsoft invited dozens of tech media members and games journalists to the hotel and packed them into very small rooms. During the waiting period this morning, there were close to 30 of us squeezed into a small foyer near the elevators of the Mezzanine level of the hotel. There was absolutely no room to move, and I couldn't stop thinking about how an earthquake at that very moment could have wiped out half of the games press in one fell swoop.

Well, an earthquake didn't strike, thankfully. And we were well rewarded for the wait. Microsoft gave us exclusive previews of Fable 2, Mass Effect, the new Conan title, and several other games for its next generation platform. More on those later.

A number of media members, myself included, remarked on how Microsoft is really turning the tide in its favor lately in the game community. Years ago, the company was catching nothing but flack for its initial Xbox effort. Hell, even after Xbox 360 launched a year ahead of the competition, people were still doubting them. Now Microsoft has assembled what is clearly is clearly the strongest library of next-generation games available today, with more titles like Halo 3 coming.

While Sony has run afoul of gamers lately with backwards compatibility issues, public relations gaffes and other eyesores, Microsoft has clearly gained momentum and credibility in the industry. To be sure, Microsoft is still a long way off from the buzz and gamer love that Nintendo is enjoying. But the software giant is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were with the first Xbox.

I got a chance last Friday to sit in as a guest on the All Games Interactive radio show with Scot Rubin and Lawrence Young. Good times. Lawrence invited me on their "Freeplay Friday" show to chat about the recent TwitchGuru feature on the "50 Greatest Female Characters in Video Game History," and hearing that there would be free beer and plenty of games, I happily obliged.

After chatting about PC gaming hardware, graphics cards and DirectX 10 for a while, we jumped in the topic of female video game characters and ran through pretty much all of the 50 gals on the list. I also got a number of interesting comments regarding omissions from listeners on the live AGI chat, as well as suggestions from Scot, Lawrence and other AIG regulars like L.A. games journalist Redmond Carolipio and Xbox Live "Achievement Whore" Chris Shima.

From there, the show pretty much spiraled gleefully out of control. We jumped into movies and comics, chatting about the new "Transformers" live action movie, "Heroes" plot theories, and the success of "300." We also talked about the upcoming "Watchmen" movie adaptation, and I was pretty much in heaven. At one point I remarked that I felt like I was in the Lambda Lambda Lambda house from "Revenge of the Nerds."

We did get into some serious talk. For example, Remond had just finished God of War 2 and delivered a glowing review of the game. I've played through about half the game since then, and while I've enjoyed it quite a bit, I'm not ready to give it a perfect score just yet. We'll see.

Scot and Lawrence and I also discussed the consoles war, specifically Microsoft's success with its second generation effort and Sony's tough times with the PlayStation 3. Sprinkled in here and there were some interesting calls from listeners young and old. I'm not sure we came to any conclusions about the consoles themselves, but one interesting topic we discussed was the idea that consoles are now eclipsing PC gaming. That's not to say that PC gaming is dying, but after speaking with the AGI guys as well as others in the gaming news business over the last couple months, I think many people agree that in the current PC/console cycle favors the consoles.

Why? Well, for one the new consoles are attractive, and each has its own strong selling points (the Xbox 360's game library and Xbox Live system, the Wii's motion sensor control scheme and affordability, and the PS3's hardware and free online network).

Second, we're seeing major titles like Call of Duty developed for the consoles only, while some big franchises are being created for the consoles first and then ported (quite poorly) to the PC later on, such as Splinter Cell Double Agent.

Another factor is the frustrating Vista upgrades. After investing in a new top line Vista PC, you expect Company of Heroes, for example, to run efficiently if not superbly. But when it hardly runs at all, well, that's tough to stomach.

The whole console/PC gaming cycle may yet shift again this year back toward PCs; highly anticipate shooters like Crysis, BioShock and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will certainly help, as will the enormous growth in MMOs.

Will 2007 be the year of PC gaming or console gaming? And if it's console gaming, which one? Let me know what you think.

To listen to or download the AGI show, go here.

The demo for Forza 2 hit Xbox Live early this morning, and after playing it for a while, I'm fairly impressed. The game is much more hardcore (in the vein of Gran Tursimo) than PGR, so you can't just keep the throttle down and hope to slide around corners. As with most driving games, the first thing I do is turn the car around and drive the wrong way on the track to see how it reacts. Either the AI is not programmed to try to avoid oncoming obstacles at that speed or it doesn't have time to react because I was able to stage a head-on crash with almost every car I saw. Head-on collisions at that speed would disintegrate both cars using real physics, but since your car disintegrating and ending the game may not be fun, the cars in Forza 2 just take maximum frontal damage and spin away. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a car upside down, but I'll continue to try.

The demo only features one track, but you can drive 24 different cars in three different classes. None of the customization options from the full game are in the demo (aside from choosing your car color) and it's single-player only but it's definitely worth taking a look.

Poor E3. For a long time it was the one time of the year when game geeks (journalists) could gather in Los Angeles and paw at underdressed spokesmodels with their clammy, sweaty hands. First they got rid of the booth babes, then they all but cancelled E3 all together. The E3 Expo as we know it is gone for good replaced by the E3 Media and Business Summit. Ooohh fancy. That doesn't sound like a place where hordes of game journalists recovering from hangovers would be welcome, but they will be in about a week. There will still be a lot of E3 coverage over the course of the show, but it still feels like the party is over. We'll have to see what it's like this year under this new, more serious disguise.

If you've always wanted to go to E3...well, it's too late. However, if you're an Xbox 360 owner you can enjoy much of the media that will be released that week over Xbox Live. Here's the press release from Microsoft.

/paste

"From Tuesday 10th July until Friday 13th July, Microsoft Corp. is bringing E3 home to owners of the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system through its second annual E3: Bringing It Home, which offers downloads on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace of the hottest content from the show."

"In addition to all this content, there will be many surprises, so fans should stay tuned to the Xbox LIVE calendar (http://www.xbox.com/en-us/live/marketplace/ticker.htm) for updates about what E3: Bringing It Home content will be available during the show."

Sounds like a lot of stuff to watch, and it will probably be much less painful than G4's coverage.