Last December, Destructoid’s Jim Sterling broke the story that Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning would feature a seven-part quest line, hidden behind an online pass.

Sterling called the practice "slimy and unjustified" on his personal Twitter account, and the topic quickly became a hot-button subject amongst savvy internet-dwellers wishing to offer their tuppenceworth on EA's new favourite money-making strategy. Part of the anger stemmed from the fact that Kingdoms of Amalur’s online code was restricting access to single-player content already on the disc, instead of online content, like previous games with EA Online Passes.

This is not the first time this year that a kerfuffle has been raised over single-player content restrictions. Last September, Warner Bros. Interactive and Rocksteady Studios came under fire when they sealed off several playable sections of Batman: Arkham City featuring Catwoman behind an unlock code. The move came under fire from users who felt they were being cheated out of the full experience, especially from the perspective of gamers who may not have an internet connection for their console, or anyone who might try to buy the game used.

Unfortunately, online passes are likely here to stay, especially seeing as publishers are trying their utmost to head off used-game sales. What started as a justification to recover operating costs for online servers has turned into yet another way for EA to coax a little more money out of its customers. And, beyond EA and Warner, THQ has also used online passes for Homefront and both of its UFC games, whilst Activision has as yet chosen not to follow the online pass route.

A hefty amount of digital ink has already been spilled on the subject of online passes, forming everything from reasonable discourse to righteous indignation. Some see online passes as a regrettable but understandable business decision, a reasonable push-back against used-game sales. Others feel they punish a significant part of their consumer base, and provide gamers with a worse experience; after all, typing in a new code every time one buys a new game gets very old, very quickly.

On a side note, I’m not certain that used-game sales cut into profits quite so much as publishers say they are, but I bet the fact that one of the world’s largest game retailers depends so heavily on used games sales doesn’t help.

I used to be reasonably tolerant of online passes; as a gamer who tries to purchase new games and support developers, rather than retailers, it didn’t affect me too heavily. Most of the games using online passes were sports games: the likes of Madden and FIFA, games I wouldn’t usually play but would likely purchase new if I did - new rosters, after all. However, online pass implementation has become much more ubiquitous - and, one could argue, much more stupid - in recent months. Entering each new code becomes more tedious every time, and the content hidden behind these codes has grown from bonus, thank-you-for-playing content to important, central portions of the game as a whole.

Perhaps my worst experience with online passes came when I rented Battlefield 3, for what was supposed to be a review. I ploughed through the campaign in one five-hour session (my preferred method for tight, focussed FPS campaigns), and after watching the credits roll, I sat down for a few rounds of multiplayer, excited to spend more time with one of my favourite online series in recent years. Instead, I was greeted with a screen that told me I needed to buy a brand new copy of the game in order to try the multiplayer at all.

I was shocked. Not only was the game depriving me access to arguably the reason to purchase Battlefield 3, but it wouldn’t even let me try it out and decide if it was right for me. Rather than spend an extra ten dollars on top of the eight dollar rental, I returned the game, frustrated and unsatisfied - at least online sports games like Madden allowed a seven-day free trial for online modes. And the sad thing is, I decided not to purchase Battlefield 3 in the end, because I wasn’t sure whether I’d enjoy the multiplayer; without an adequate chance to sample it, the purchase became too great a risk, and caused me not to follow through.

On the other hand, I can understand why publishers use online passes, despite how much they're inarguably awful. 38 Games' Curt Schilling recently talked about why they chose to implement their 'day-one DLC', saying that, as a new series in a crowded market, they wanted to stand out and provide extra content to gamers who would buy it new; after all, if they don’t sell enough copies, the studio may not be around long enough to deliver a sophomore effort.

To me, it really comes down to expectation. Amalur is an absolutely massive game, and as sucky as it is to miss out on a seven-quest cycle, there’s still a huge amount of content already available for playing. In terms of Batman: Arkham City and its infamous gated content, I rented the game shortly after it came out, and during the time I played it, not once did I feel ripped-off for not being allowed to experience Catwoman’s sections. Batman’s main storyline was so fun and well-paced, I never felt like anything was missing from the experience, making Catwoman’s sections truly feel like 'bonus' content.

Perception is also a big part of this discussion. There are those who feel that, because both Catwoman and the seven-part quest are on the disc, they should be available right out of the box, lest the experience be otherwise 'incomplete'. Yet, for some reason, removing the content from the disc and forcing players to download it through Xbox Live or PSN seems to make it okay. Perhaps we’re all hardwired to expect a more 'transactional' feel when purchasing digital items, and the physical distance the data travels and the time needed to acquire it perhaps make the content more worth the money than if it were simply unlocked from the disc. For me, if the experience feels complete (like in the case of Batman), anything extra is worth the extra money.

A similar situation happened last year with Gears of War 3, when Epic revealed that their game had a good amount of on-the-disc DLC. Their justification? They had already drawn up and followed a projected budget for the main content (single-player campaign, multiplayer, co-op, etc.), and the DLC followed a separate budget, making both sets of content two different sets of costs. The $60 purchase covered the main game’s budget, while the on-the-disc purchases would cover the cost to design, develop and test the DLC.

Also - and this makes me part of the problem - I would much rather have buy-new incentives that are actually worth ponying up the money for. Remember the Cerberus Network, EA’s free-DLC service from Mass Effect 2? Remember how awesome your new equipment was, and how engaging your new party felt? Of course not; they were all terrible. If I’m resigned to expect extra content from buying a game brand new, that content had better be worth the money I spent over buying it used. There’s a thin line between withholding content that’s worthwhile and keeping players from experiencing the game to the fullest, but the latter feels so much more satisfying than discovering your 'bonus content' was an extra pea-shooter and two differently-coloured T-shirts.

I’m not trying to be an online pass apologist; they add new layers of difficulty to customer experiences, and they could easily lead to a slippery slope of paying for even greater and greater chunks of content. Still, I know there’s a middle-ground that can be attained, in rewarding players who buy new without penalising those who buy games used, and hopefully developers can find that happy medium in the future. In the meantime, let’s get back to complaining about something that is really irritating. Like pre-order DLC.

Labels: 38 Studios, Andrew Testerman, Batman: Arkham City, EA, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Online Passes, Opinion, PlayStation 3, PSN, Warner Bros., Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE

Xbox Live’s Summer of Arcade continues with Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, a 2D Metroidvania game from developer Fuel Cell Games, and animator Michel Gagné. The Xbox Live Arcade has no shortage of quality platformers, but Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet sets itself apart with a heavily-stylised art direction and an impressive atmosphere. The game has a few technical issues holding it back from greatness, but its offbeat, edgy charm and mostly-solid mechanics make for a well-playing and a highly-unique experience.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet opens with an unknown darkness enveloping the star of a small solar system, spreading its corruptive influence to the nearby planets. Players take control of a nameless spaceship pilot, as he attempts to thwart the planet’s darkness and restore his home. The story is told sans dialogue, through a small series of short cutscenes, letting gamers focus on the gameplay with little interruption from the plot.

Gameplay consists of exploring the eponymous planet, defeating bosses and discovering new tools for further exploration. Players will chart their way through six different areas, and, in true Metroidvania fashion, revisit them several times with new abilities. Hidden throughout the map are upgrades to the ship’s weapons and armour, with additional cinematics or pieces of concept art lying even further off the beaten path.


Play mechanics in Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet are fairly sound. Controlling a spaceship allows for greater mobility than other platforming titles, letting gamers zip about to their heart’s content. As a result, much of the game is built around solving equipment-related puzzles to get to the next area, rather than tricky jumps or intense combat. The tools collected throughout the game are varied, from object-destroying missiles to block-moving tractor beams. Many of the items collected can also be used in battle, such as the laser’s crowd-control abilities, or the barrier’s ability to block oncoming enemy fire.

Part of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet’s draw is its imaginative art direction, by Michel Gagné. Gagné, an effects animator who has worked on films such as An American Tail, The Land Before Time and The Iron Giant, gives every environment an off-kilter, malevolent edge, with stark and sharply-contrasting colours and harsh-looking landscapes. With its borderless designs and intensely-saturated aesthetic, the overall look of the game is reminiscent of the TV series Samurai Jack.

The art lends itself to the atmosphere as well. The backgrounds often have different activities visible in the distance, from flying birds to flowing liquid, whilst the sound design is filled with ambient noises of the planet functioning. The game uses progressively darker colours, as players delve further and further into the planet, making the excursion feel akin to Journey to the Centre of the Earth or, combined with the free range of movement, deep sea exploration.


Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is not without its faults, though. Many puzzles rely on the grappling tool for their solution, but unlike other items in the game, there’s never a clear ‘tell’ of what can be grappled and what can’t, leaving players to blind grab at various objects in the environment, usually with negative results. The map system also doesn’t do as good a job as other, similar titles at hinting at potentially-hidden items in the environment; completists looking to collect every hidden trinket are going to face an uphill battle.

At its best, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet flaunts several brilliant puzzle scenarios, making creative use of previously-gained equipment and making the player feel clever for solving them. At its worst, however, it creates many overly-vague and arbitrary situations, leaving the player to literally grope around the environment for a solution that will lead them to the next area. This wide split between the fun and the frustrating makes Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet a somewhat schizophrenic experience.

Ultimately, though, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a fine game, with addictive exploration elements and a look that is a welcome antidote to modern next-gen visual stylings (read: bronze-and-dirt-coloured). It’s the least of the three Metroidvania titles on the Xbox Live Arcade (behind Shadow Complex and Outland), but Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet’s solid hook, fun play mechanics and inventive art direction still make it well-worth invading.

8/10 [?]

Labels: 2011, 360, Andrew Testerman, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Michel Gagné, Microsoft, Review, Shadow Planet Productions, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, Xbox Live Summer of Arcade

Stacking is a simplified and more casual version of the adventure games of yore. To me it was particularly evocative of the Monkey Island series, titles known for their quirky, humourous stories and esoteric puzzles. Despite only being Double Fine’s second foray into the downloadable game arena, Stacking is a delightful game for anyone pining for a classic adventure game.

The player controls Charlie Blackmore, the smallest (and perhaps most adorable) doll in a family of Russian nesting dolls. Charlie can stack into, and 'unstack' from, larger dolls to solve puzzles and save his family, who have been captured by the evil child-labour propagator, known as the Baron. Charlie explores a larger-than-life, early 20th century Britain, as he quests to save his family from the Baron and undo nasty child labour laws once and for all.

In the same way that Monkey Island was about finding and combining items to solve puzzles, Stacking is about applying the correct item to the correct situation. The only difference is that your items are characters, the dolls, spread out across the environment and full of such personality and quirkiness that they colour the game a strikingly unique, enjoyable puzzle-playground. What would be static, menu-based inventory items in most games turn into a circus of charming dolls scurrying around the playable field. Each doll has one ability that it can perform, ranging from generally useless actions (breakdancing and flatulance) to uniquely applicable ones (vomiting cookies and playing pied piper). The flavour provided by these character-items makes puzzle solving much more visual and friendly to those not well-learned in the obscurity of adventure game logic.


Stacking actually does a lot to circumvent much of the frustration which adventure games can inspire, most notably the tendency for visual puzzle-solving to become repetitive and irritating. Take Monkey Island, or even more modern adventure games, like Sam & Max; it’s easy to get stuck or lost in the game’s language, which is often impractical or humourous rather than logical. Who knew that a rubber chicken could be used as a zipline trolley? A pot can double as a helmet? There’s a certain out-of-the-box abstract logic to adventure games that takes a conditioned mind to recognise, and that invites some negative frustration. Being able to see the dolls' abilities in Stacking helped me to understand how a particular doll could aid in a situation. Even though the puzzles are rarely brilliant, elegant, or even all that complex, the impressive visuality of it all is a nice design choice that cuts through a lot of that nebulous misunderstanding and frustration that adventure games have forced players to wallow in for years.

Every puzzle has multiple solutions, but usually it only needs to be solved once to proceed through the game. If you were to just go find one solution to every puzzle, Stacking wouldn’t take you very long to complete, but there’s fun to be had in discovering every solution: they’re usually clever and make use of an unfamiliar doll. The real upside of multiple-solution puzzles is that, chances are, you’ll be able to figure out at least one of the solutions without much trouble, which goes a long way in removing the dissatisfaction of getting stuck on a particularly tricky riddle.

A trend in modern iterations of adventure games that I really appreciate is the hint system, and Stacking has a three-step hint system that begins vaguely and ends by directly outlining how to proceed. This mechanic can help anyone along at any time, during any puzzle, only augmenting how ideal Stacking is for adventure game fans of any calibre.


Stacking bookends puzzles and levels with stylised cutscenes that mimic the silent films of the game's era: bouncy piano music plays whilst the dolls bounce up and down to indicate who's talking to whom, and after a second or two the screen shifts to text and dialogue. It's part of the charm, but the scenes come up often and run slowly, and none are skippable. If anything, their use highlights how antiquated the idea of a cutscene can be in a game, but given Stacking’s late 19th/early 20th century motif, the antiquation feels almost appropriate.

There’s a strong aesthetic in Stacking that’s both charming and cohesive. Dolls scuttle and wobble about with an almost stilted animation that feels very appropriate for they way they look. The garbled grunts and chubby faces of the dolls provide just enough enjoyment to make me fine with being stuck in puzzles momentarily, because at least the experimentation was still visually fun. Environments in the game range from a high-class train, to a cruise boat, to an ominous zeppelin. Each feels decorated and is populated with a cast of new dolls and puzzles that fit the setting. In one level of a train car I found a crowd of humongous dolls wearing monocles and top hats, feasting on piles of golden coins served to them by lowly child labourers, as a fire - fuelled by hundred dollar bills - roared behind them. Much of the reason to play this game is to enjoy the art style and the embedded humour.

Adventure games are definitely a 'certain type' of game, one that hasn’t changed much since their inception. Stacking is fun, and its design breathes some simple ingenuity into the concept of puzzle solving in game design. Fans of adventure games will certainly appreciate Stacking, though it is slightly skewed to be more accessible and inviting to the young or uninitiated. It works perfectly as a downloadable title, with satisfying length and plenty of replay value for those who like unexhaustive solutions. In short, Stacking is no breakthrough, but it takes the adventure genre and gives it its own unique twist. I’d be remiss to not encourage the unique.

8/10 [?]

Labels: 2011, 360, Double Fine, Parker Scott Mortensen, PlayStation3, PS3, PSN, Review, Stacking, THQ, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE

Oh Halo, the hours and hours I've lost to your stupidly addicting online multiplayer. Halo: Combat Evolved on the PC had incredible multiplayer; Halo 2 was amazing on the Xbox; Halo 3 topped it; Halo Wars was surprisingly good; and I sunk many an hour into ODST's excellent Firefight mode. However, along came a game called Modern Warfare 2, quickly followed by Left 4 Dead 2 and an obsession with FIFA 10 that led to me rather neglecting my Halo games. Then, on May 3rd, Bungie dropped the multiplayer beta for Halo: Reach, and I was sucked right back in again for the 16 days it lasted.

Now, there are some pretty significant changes in terms of the way Halo works now. There's a class system for a start and they all have their own starting weapons and unique abilities such as a jetpack, invisibility, a dash move, a shield and some other neat and useful ones. The way these affect the gameplay is noticeable in all the game modes that were available (Slayer, Team Slayer, Free-For-All, Crazy Kings, Oddball, Capture the Flag, SWAT) but are most useful in the new game modes created for Reach.


First of all you've got Headhunter; a fast and frantic mode in which everyone in the game carries a flaming skull which they drop when they die. The other players have to collect the fallen skulls and take them to a capture point to score points. The points are constantly changing, and what makes it even more challenging is that the number of skulls you're carrying shows up above your Spartan, making you a more likely target for the opposition if they see you have a nice collection of skulls. I had 6 skulls at once one time. I died quite quickly.

Stockpile was the next available new mode, which tasks you with picking up neutral flags from all over the map and taking them back to your team's base. It's basically capture the flag on steroids, and it's a hell of a lot of fun. You can't use your class abilities whilst your carrying the flag, creating a challenging game mode, but making it a shame that you can't jetpack your way across the map, holding a flag aloft.


The final two modes are kickass to say the least; Generator Defence and Invasion. These are both setup as Spartan vs. Elites (you can't be an Elite at any time like in Halo 3; only for these modes) and each team has different weapons and abilities available to them. Elites can run faster at normal speed but Spartans can sprint; Elites can become invisible but Spartans have jetpacks; Elites can do rolypolys and dash but Spartans can power up a shield. It's perfecly balanced and both modes are great fun.

In Generator Defence, the Spartans are defending and the Elites are trying to destroy the generators. The Elites have to destroy all three generators within the allocated time, but the Spartans should be okay as long as they can save at least one generator.


Invasion is the real big daddy of the Reach multiplayer experience (unless Bungie announce something even better). The Elites' objective is to assault a giant industrial complex, fight their way to the rear, steal a data core and take it to a waiting Phantom for removal from the area. The Spartans have a time limit in which to stop the Elites from advancing to each stage of the map. The Elites basically have to complete objectives to push the Spartans back and eventually capture the data core. Each time the Elites advance, more weapons and vehicles become available and the classes upgrade. It's really, really good.

The base gameplay is very similar to Halo 3 but the abilities really push it up a few notches. What helps are the new weapons too; there are some really awesome new guns in Reach and there'll be plenty more in the full game. Some of my favourites from the beta were a Needler/sniper variant for the Elites, a grenade launcher for the Spartans and, best of all, a plasma grenade launcher for the Elites. Using that against a Warthog is ridiculously satisfying. Games seem more tactical than before too, thanks to the new modes and abilities. It feels like a nice mix between Call of Duty and Battlefield, which is no bad thing at all. Having said that, it doesn’t feel as viscerally brutal as rival shooters such as Modern Warfare 2. Instead, Halo Reach multiplayer plays like a peculiarly violent sport, perhaps a little like if Sky Sports decided to give tazers to all the players before Arsenal took on Chelsea.


Reach's matchmaking and menu systems are also upgraded to the extent that they're actually worth mentioning. It's incredibly easy to hook up with friends, with no need to enter the Xbox 360 dashboard: just nudge your analogue stick to the right and you get a list of all your friends online, represented by their custom-made Spartan. You can see what they're playing and invite them into a match as easily as pressing a button.

Speaking of custom Spartans, the feature has been expanded a little for Reach too. The new armour pieces are purely cosmetic, but there's more satisfaction in how you earn them compared to Halo 3. Master the new weapons and game modes and you’ll amass in-game points that can be traded for new bits of armour. Colours and emblems are also available. However, you cannot customise your Elite, but as you can only play as them in 2 modes (and you might not even play as them in these modes anyway) it wouldn't be a worthwhile feature if you were able to.


Graphically, the Reach beta was more impressive than Halo 3, but not quite by the massive margin that Bungie had led us to believe. Fair enough, it's a beta with a while until release, and it's multiplayer, so the single player will probably look better, but I was still a tad disappointed. Whilst the Spartan models looked really good, everything else was a bit bland and underpar. However, the sense of scale is something that I haven't seen online outside the Battlefield series and that was something especially impressive in the Invasion game mode.

By the time the beta was over, I was very impressed. The additions are really fantastic and, at the end of the day, it's still Halo and therefore still very fun. Of course, this is just a portion of the online multiplayer, and Bungie have shown hardly any of the campaign or the co-op. With four months for Bungie to polish and perfect, I'm confident that this could be the greatest Halo game yet.

Tom

Labels: 360, Beta, Beta Impressions, Bungie, Halo Reach, Microsoft, Tom Acres, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE

Microsoft just held a snazzy, press-only Xbox 360 event in San Francisco and there were plenty of exciting announcements that anyone with an Xbox 360 should be looking forward to. I'm here to bring you all the massive announcements from the show, straight after the jump.

Halo: Reach beta starts May 3rd

The next installment in the insanely popular Halo series may not be due for release until the holiday season, but Bungie have fulfilled a promise by granting all current Halo 3: ODST owners access to the multiplayer beta of Halo: Reach when it starts on May 3rd. It's already being billed by Bungie as 'the definitive Halo title', and gamers will be able to see what all the fuss is about come May.


Alan Wakes up on May 21st

Sorry for the god-awful pun, but I'm sure you can forgive me after I give you the news that the long-awaited Alan Wake from Remedy is due for release in Europe on May 21st. It's also been confirmed for a May 18th release in the US, and has been given a surprising 'T for Teen' rating over there. Nice to see a horror game relying on genuine scares rather than cheap blood and gore.


Dead Rising 2 hits September 3rd with exclusive Xbox DLC

Dead Rising was a rather awesome game so colour me excited for the sequel. Capcom confirmed at X10 that Dead Rising 2 is due out on September 3rd for us Europeans. Xbox 360 players get an extra special treat in the form of an exclusive piece of DLC prior to the game's launch which links together the story from the original game and the sequel


Find Lost Planet 2 on May 18th

Capcom's other big sequel for 2010 will be in stores very soon, as the Japanese company has confirmed a worldwide May 18th release for Lost Planet 2. They also announced that Xbox 360 owners would get exclusive playable characters in the form of Albert Wesker from Resident Evil 5 and Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago from Gears of War. Expect more huge bosses, incredible graphics and 4 player co-op goodness.


Become king in Fable III this Christmas

The third entry in one of my favourite game series' will hit stores in time for Christmas, according to Lionhead chief Peter Molyneux. Fable III was arguably the star of X10 in terms of gameplay and features. The game is all about power as you attempt to gain followers, overthrow the king and then take the throne for yourself. Prepare for plenty of tough moral choices, a new touch mechanic and possible Natal support - Molyneux didn't rule it out. Colour me excited.


Splinter Cell Conviction emerges from the shadows on April 16th

The much-delayed Splinter Cell Conviction has finally been given a solid release date, and we UK gamers will be able to get our hands on Sam Fisher's latest adventure on April 16th. I've been very excited about this since its E3 2009 showcase at the Microsoft press conference, so I'll be looking out for this when it hits stores.


Perfect Dark comes to Xbox LIVE Arcade in March

Rare's much loved N64 classic shooter, Perfect Dark, will be coming to Xbox LIVE Arcade this March as part of the Xbox LIVE House Party. The game features brand new graphics with 1080p support, and runs at a blazing 60fps. Most excitingly, it also features Xbox LIVE for both co-op and competitive play.


Never send a man to do a toy's job in Toy Soldiers on March 3rd

This ambitious RTS/Tower-Defense/Third Person Shooter hybrid, in which you command armies of little toy soldiers, will be hitting Xbox LIVE Arcade on March 3rd to kick off the Xbox LIVE House Party. It's like a cute version of Call of Duty and Company of Heroes rolled into one.


Go back to the arcades this March with Xbox LIVE Game Room

Microsoft also announced a March release date for Xbox LIVE Game Room. This new downloadable application will allow gamers to build their own virtual arcade and set it up with hundreds of classic arcade games from the likes of Konami and Atari. Games can be bought to own, or hired out for a single play. The feature - which is slightly akin to PlayStation Home - will support Xbox 360 Achievements, Xbox 360 Avatars and LIVE Leaderboards.

Keep an eye on Gamer's Guide to Life.com for all the latest from Microsoft's X10 event.

Tom

Labels: 360, Alan Wake, Dead Rising 2, Fable 3, Game Room, Halo Reach, Lost Planet 2, News, Perfect Dark, Splinter Cell, Tom Acres, Toy Soldiers, X10, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE

Games support for the original Xbox pretty much completely stopped when the Xbox 360 was released in late 2005, and now support for the console is to be stopped completely with the news that Microsoft will be closing down Xbox Live support for the original Xbox and all of its games on 15th April.

Microsoft PR man Major Nelson announced on his blog:

"I wanted to let you know that on April 15, 2010 Microsoft will discontinue Xbox LIVE service for original Xbox consoles and games, including Xbox 1 games playable on Xbox 360. Our first step in this process will be to turn off auto-renewals for those members who only use Xbox LIVE on a v1 Xbox."

"While I can't comment on the specifics, this change will allow us to continue evolving the LIVE service with new features and experiences that fully harness the power of Xbox 360 and the Xbox LIVE community."

"We did not make this decision lightly, but after careful consideration and review we realise that this decision will allow us unprecedented flexibility for future features."

That means no more online gaming on your old Xbox, and not even any online support for backwards compatible titles like the ever popular Halo 2 and Star Wars: Battlefront II. The only way to get your Halo 2 fix now is to pick up the shoddy Vista port on the Games for Windows LIVE service, which requires a LIVE Gold subscription.

It's a sad day for those of you still playing on Halo 2. It's a shame and it seems a harsh thing to do on Microsoft's part, considering that people still pay £40 a year to use this online service.

Still, on a slightly happier note, Bungie are planning a Halo 2 matchmaking extravanaganza on April 15th as a send off to the game that really got online console gaming started.

Tom

Labels: News, Tom Acres, Xbox, Xbox LIVE