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This week has seen yet another high profile demo arrive on the XboxLIVE!
Marketplace. This time around it’s the next manifestation of UBi
Soft’s signature Xbox franchise;
 Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell.
The Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent demo is
currently Multi-Player only but, UBi Soft promise a Single-Player
demonstration in coming weeks. For the uninitiated, Tom Clancy’s:
Splinter Cell is a series of high-tech Stealth games laden
with conspiracy and world threatening events, similar to the
Metal Gear Solid and
Syphon Filter franchises, and Tom
Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent looks to be no different.
This time Sam Fisher, the series’ protagonist, must infiltrate a
terrorist cell by acting as criminal. This time around the player
may choose his side; save the world or watch it burn. Tom
Clancy’s: Splinter Cell has long been a staple of the
Xbox library so, despite its multi-format status, many are already
expecting the Xbox360 version to be pinnacle of the series.
Not content with merely releasing a demo, there is more news from
UBi Soft this week, this time regarding the XboxLIVE! Vision
Camera. Although the mediocre TotemBall relies on the XboxLIVE!
Vision Camera for control and Uno allows video chat in-game,
few titles support the Eye-Toy alternative in a meaningful
way. However, in order to immerse players further into the world of
Counter-Terrorism, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Las Vegas will
allow players to map their faces onto Character Models. The feature
will only be allowed for online play, but then, that is really the
point of character customisation. Expect to see your friend’s ugly
mugs in your sights on XboxLIVE! soon.
Not ones to shy away from making some easy money, EA is offering a
few downloadable extras for its signature Xbox360 golf game;
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007. For prices ranging from 200 to 350
Microsoft Points, players can download cheats for the game that
include access to all Courses, maxed out character stats and a
“Sunday Best” Tiger Woods. Want to pay extra to totally unbalance
your £49.99 RRP game? There’s one born every minute.
Tired of the clunky XboxLIVE! Marketplace interface? It seems
you're not alone, and Microsoft knows it. The solution?
www.xboxlivepipeline.com. The XboxLIVE! Pipeline allows
you to look through the available downloads via a Web Browser,
aiding gamers in finding what they want whilst skipping the unwieldy
Xbox360 interface. However, the site is not without flaws. No dates
are shown on game demos, making finding new updates difficult, XboxLIVE!
Arcade titles are listed in Demo’s, making the list seem overly
long, and there is still no way to see Themes before you buy.
However, XboxLIVE! Pipeline should help absentee and offline
Xbox360 gamers see what they are missing and perhaps more
importantly, form a basis for the LIVE! Anywhere system
unveiled at this year’s
E3.
Valve, creators of the outstanding Half-Life series, and this
journalist’s namesake, have announced the completion of a Xbox360
optimised version of Source, the game engine behind Half-Life 2
and Counterstrike: Source. The program will be available
to developers as middleware
 soon and considering many current
Xbox360 games are merely on-par with the visuals of the two year old
Half-Life 2, this can only be a good thing.
At the time of writing, XboxLIVE! is offline. Microsoft has
denied this is for the official Fall Update, so what could it be?
The rumour mill is working double-time, so here’s a few
unsubstantiated claims for your amusement; a
Gears Of War
demo is coming to XboxLIVE!, the XboxLIVE! Marketplace
is being overhauled, Lumines LIVE! is on the way, and of
course, it’s for the actual Fall Update. None of these rumours are
supported or substantiated in any way, but will the blogs be
correct? We’ll see tomorrow. |
