Top Xbox 360 pre-E3 lineup: what’s the most anticipated and what’s not
Yesterday we talked about the top sleeper hits for this year, today we go in depth and take a preemptive look at Xbox 360’s lineup pre E3 announcement. What games can 360 owners look forward to exclusively? Also what is the good and the bad you can expect.
1. Gears of War 2 – November 2008
The Good: This is the top Xbox 360 game I am looking forward to this year. The first Gears of War game was fun and exhilarating the story wasn’t all that deep, but what made this game good was the visceral gruesome violence.
Also add to the fact you get to kill hundreds of locust hordes as well as chain saw them in half, the feeling of satisfaction you get while their blood splatters onto the screen is indescribable.
Also the final boss battle was great; you fight him on a moving train while flying locusts blast you while you battle General Raam, how awesome is that?
If EPIC sticks to the same formula for Gears 2 then they have a winner on their hands. My guess, they will at least sell 5 million units minimum, which is around what Gears 1 sold.
The Bad: Gears 2 will be a solid game, but it won’t be a hardware driver. Everyone who is going to buy Gears 2 probably have already purchased Gears 1 and that stands at around 5 million to date.
The first Gears was too short; average players clock the game at five hours. I beat it around five hours on normal, but of course when I went back and replayed it on Insane it took me eight hours.
Not only did I purchase Gears of War for Xbox 360, I also purchased it for the PC just so I could play the extra level and fight the Brumak. Ah… Microsoft and Epic trying to milk it for all it’s worth. Believe it, Gears 2 will be out on the PC 8 months later with extra content and you will buy it again.
2. Fable II – TBA 2008
The Good: Fable II comes in at the number two spot as a highly anticipated game on the Xbox 360. It will sell well, just not as well as Gears of War 2. The first Fable game was ambitious gave incredible latitude in what you could do in an action RPG game. It promised so much and it did deliver on so many levels. This game managed to sell around 2.6 million units on the original Xbox.
There is a home for RPGs on the Xbox 360p, Oblivion verified this by shifting around 2.5 million units just on the Xbox 360 alone. Expect this game to be released late 2008. As it turns out Geoff Keighley has a bet with Peter Molyneux for a $100 whether Fable II will come out in 2008, lets hope Geoff looses that bet.
This game actually has a chance of driving Xbox 360 hardware. Considering the majority of 360 owners are hardcore shooter fans, other gamers who like RPGs or adventure type games may be seduced into getting an Xbox 360 just for this game.
The Bad: As much as there is a home for RPGs on the Xbox 360 it seems to have not grown since the original Xbox days. The fan base seems to cap off around 2.5 million. Just by looking at original Fable and Oblivion numbers, I estimate the total Xbox 360 owner population who are even interested in RPGs seem be about around 2.5 million.
JRPGs are even worse off with games such as Enchanted Arms selling around 140k units, that’s less than the PS3 version which came out much later.
The first Fable was criticized for not delivering on promises made by Peter Molyneux such as having children in the game. However it has been confirmed this feature will be in Fable II, let’s hope this time around everything promised is there.
3. Left 4 Dead – November 2008
The Good: Who doesn’t love to kill zombies, any takers? I know the graphics are seem like PS2 level, but I am actually excited about this game. I don’t think it will be a blockbuster such as Gears 2 or Fable II, but I can see it fairing well in sales around a million units or so.
Zombie games do decently on Xbox 360, Dead Rising for one did 1.7 million units not to shabby for a comedic Zombie game.
Left 4 Dead has a unique co-op experience that leaves you scared. The game makes you not want to wander too far away from the other players. The developers have said they wanted to create an experience where you’re so scared of dying it’ll make you want to stick around other players to have a fighting chance.
The game mechanics remind me of Resident Evil: Outbreak, which I personally enjoyed very much on multiplayer mode only (the single player mode was crippled beyond belief).
The Bad: This is a multiplayer game only, so for those who don’t even have Xbox Live scratch this off your list. You can play with AI bots, but as you all know how that goes. Games that depend heavily on bots to complete an objective tend to fail miserably (I’m looking at you Unreal Tournament III and Resident Evil: Outbreak).
If you like to play alone stay away from this game, however if you like to play with friends this game might be the ticket.
4. Too Human – August 2008
The Good: Another game that’s been in development hell for a while and is actually more notable for their lawsuit with EPIC regarding the Unreal Engine then the actual game. Despite all the development drawbacks this game is looking decent, it has that God of War meets Mass Effect feel to it.
With the inclusion of co-op this game attempts at delivering a great experience with a friend as well. It will be interesting to see the reviews for this game, will they be terrible or will they be good? Only time will tell.
The Bad: So far the gameplay videos show Too Human to be choppy with poor framerate, but this could be fixed by release date. Also the co-op battle can get very chaotic and confusing. A game like Too Human is a unknown quantity in the wilderness of the Xbox 360 fanbase, so there is much skepticism regarding the success of the game.
Okay folks that’s the end of Part 1 of the Xbox 360 lineup pre-E3 announcements. If you didn’t see the game you were looking for on today’s list it just may be on tomorrow’s list so stay tuned and come on back tomorrow for a spell for the 2nd part, where we will continue counting down the list of the Xbox 360 exclusive lineup for 2008.
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27 Responses to “Top Xbox 360 pre-E3 lineup: what’s the most anticipated and what’s not”
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June 23rd, 2008
Will there be a PS3 and Wii one as well?, like the 360 games we already know whats being released on the ps3, but it would be good to see a Wii one because alot of it’s games arn’t noticed till the adds are rolling on T.V.
June 23rd, 2008
@Me, I would think so.
For the article: Gears 2 FTW!!!!!!!
June 23rd, 2008
@Me,
Yes, there will be one for PS3 and Wii later this week.
June 23rd, 2008
To many shooters yay.
innovation anyone?
after the big dissapointment that was gears of war, im not even gonna touch gears 2 for a while so that is out.
June 24th, 2008
Seems a little lackluster, but I still can’t wait for Gears of War 2!
June 24th, 2008
it’s hilarious mike writes he bought a 360 FOR geow but geowII “won’t be a hardware driver”…
good gawd..where do they find these idiots…? lmao…
June 24th, 2008
I have said this before and I will say it again. Did not Halo 2 sell more then Halo 1 and did not Halo 3 sell more then Halo 2 and in all cases didn’t Microsoft sell more console because of it. There is only 1 game in the Gears of War series and your telling me it’s not going to get Bigger. Your precious MGS4 just helped move console for the PS3 and that is 4 series in. Mike get real this is just the beginning. This game will wipe Halo and COD off the LIVE list for a while. But then again there is the whole Halo vs Gears debate among MS People.
June 24th, 2008
David Herbert…aka DAVE PARRACK???
June 24th, 2008
For the most part this article is pro Xbox. All about the games for Xbox. You Xbots piss and moan about this site not writing anything positive about your console. Now you bitch about it when Mike does write one. You are truelly pathetic!
June 24th, 2008
Once Gears of War 2 launches, MS will cut the price on 360. The 360 will have GOW2, Too Human, Halo Wars, Fable 2 and 4 other exlusive RPG’s ( 2 from square enix ). There will also be Banjo Kazooie and Viva Pinata’ 2 for the kids.
Gears of War 2 looks alot bigger then the first. Gears 1 moved alot and people still use it to compare new games to. Gears 2 will sell alot of consoles compared to MGS4 because you will be able to get a decent 360 for $250.00, with hard drive and all.
June 24th, 2008
sigh… this article was supposed to be about thje new games on the 360… the games we’re (not only the fanboys but people in general) looking forward to…. and yet… its turned into anotehr MGS 4 and PS3 sucks discussion…
since you brought it up CAD… how bout you talk when Geow 2 is praised to be the most perfect game since Ocarina from a PS3 site (just like MGS 4 was from a 360 site)….
cant wait for Geow 2… though cant use the 360 anymore… gotta move… cant take the 360… Billy will send in the fibbies if he sees me using a modded 360 on LIVE… will still have my PS3… GET READY FOR PSN!!! YAY MGS online…
Looking forward to your next “Look at the 360 lineup” article MIKE FERRO!!! Good job…
June 24th, 2008
DWH – completely agreed. This was an article about upcoming xbox games (that all looks great – apart from Left 4 Dead [thats my opinion!!]) yet CAD STILL finds something to complain about. Just because Mike said something remotely negative about the xbox (GeoW2 wont sell many consoles…. OMG!!!) that was purely his own opinion, you still go on the attack.
It really does make me wonder….. :/
June 24th, 2008
What are you doing CAD, I thought you were going to stop coming here. While you are here, just out of interest – which do you prefer, Halo or Gears?
I prefer Gears, and not just because Halo’s guns look like they are made by Hasbro.
DWH what is your PSN ID? Mine is Royzy.
June 24th, 2008
ahhh so its you who added me, i thought someone did. Royzy if you see me playing RFOM either invite me, or i’ll invite you
June 24th, 2008
also my online Metal gear solid ID is JD009
June 24th, 2008
I dont have PSN right now Royzy… youll be my first *snif* “friend” in this crazy god awful world… itll take me a coupla months to settle down in a new place… and then we can play and bitch about kevin and CAD… behind their back…
by the way… youre not a 45 year old guy pretending to be a 16 year old girl are you??? you wont invite me to a shady motel room ??? I wont fall for that again…
Ooooh Gears was blood tastic… “teh” chainsaw… the blood… the guts.. the insane difficulty… the game of the year award…
what if… Geow 2 has huge boss battles like Lost Planet… but you gotta use the environment against it??? that would be cool… I dont know how they can get any better… they already have a pretty perfect game… for the genre…
June 24th, 2008
Yeh sorry Bourne I didn’t mean to frighten ya. Yeh ok I’ll keep an eye out for that then. I’ll add your MGO ID too. Mine is probably Royzy, but I’d have to check. It is for everything else.
DWH, maybe I am a big greasy 45 year old truck driver from Essex*, maybe I am not. You will have to wait until we get to that shady motel room to find out, big boy.
Why a new place? Are you constantly being tracked for those pirated games?
*I’m not from Essex
June 24th, 2008
GOW 2 – Looks good, hopefully they will improve single player. Will probably just play online and multi-player at my mates.
Fable 2 – My friend loved the first one (I didn’t think it was that good), but he isn’t buying this because it’s not on the PC. Be intresting to see if this can live up to expectations, unlike the first.
Left 4 Dead: Not even slightly intrested
Too Human: Well i’m a big fan of God War and I thought Mass Effect was very good, I havn’t heard much about this looks intresting but it will be difficult to break into the two separate genres a once with established games and audiences that tend to like either God of War or DMC and not much else, same goes for the RPG market(is this in any way RPG?, or does it just look a bit like Mass Effect?). Can’t see it selling to well.
June 25th, 2008
LOL royzy, werent you on crimewatch last night?
June 25th, 2008
You guys are real idiots to see that it is not a PRO 360 article. It’s about 360 but It is riddled with bias.
June 25th, 2008
Would you quit crying already CAD…. I thought you were leaving as well ….??? Bye Bye now, see you later then.
June 25th, 2008
What are u yappin bout CAD all he did was point out the possibilities of the games being good or bad, GAMES THAT ARN’T EVEN OUT YET
June 25th, 2008
Yeah, it’s funny, this is a site for opinions yet no one can have one except CAD and Kevin. Sorry Cad I don’t see it as Pro or Con, it’s just a list of game with one persons opinion of how he thinks they’ll do. Maybe he will be right, maybe he’ll be wrong, but that’s up to ALL the consumers, not just two! You sure have alot of angst against these writers, but you still read them everyday, maybe they should get a raise!
June 25th, 2008
HAHAHHHAHAH FUNNY!!! royzy…
I still havent finished Fable 1 (on my PC) its a great game… Its just a little spooky in the woods… and have you guys pulled that sword out of that stone yet?? is it any good? how do you do it??
Its like a kickass version of Oblivion… its fun.. dunno when Im gonna finish it…
dont mess with bourne… he’s a 30 million dollar US government assassin…. he’ll kick your japanese lovin ass… and then make a game and a movie about it…
June 25th, 2008
Bourne – Yeh might of been me on Crimewatch, or one of the other members of my pikey family.
Riddle me this CAD man, why are you so boring?
It is implying that games such as GeOW 2 are ‘firey good’. Sure it is bias, because IT IS AN OPINION. Now go, like you said you would. Bye bye.
Bourne, gota say, you can kill as many people as you want with only a Biro and a rolled up newspaper, but I will never forget how careless you were to be shot on that boat in the first place.
June 26th, 2008
eh?
June 29th, 2008
WTF that’s all Microsoft got OMG they going down big time this games are all average over hype.