Category: Xbox 360

Karateka is now available through Xbox Live Arcade. This is an updated version of a classic game made by one of the industry’s true living legends — Jordan Mechner. The game is a boy-rescues-girl tale filled with martial arts combat. I fondly remember playing the original on my Commodore 64 and was struck by its simple, yet effective, storytelling. At the time, I thought videogames were about bouncing balls off of bricks, shooting alien invaders, and gobbling up ghosts. I had no idea games could tell stories!

The remake’s art was headed by Jeff Matsuda, a longtime Marvel Comics penciller known for his runs on Wolverine, X-Men, Generation X, X-Factor, and Avengers. It has a cool, cartoonish look that retains some design elements of the original work.

Karateka costs 800 MS points, which I believe is $10 to normal humans.

I’m psyched to play a modern version of the game. Mechner is awesome and I’m looking forward to his fresh take on one of his classics. Any of you guys and dolls intrigued by Karateka?

Microsoft has announced details and pricing for Halo 4‘s War Games Pass. This $24.99 subscription gives gamers three upcoming Halo 4 map packs at a discounted price. Fans will receive the Crimson Map Pack, Majestic Map Pack, and Castle Map Pack  in December 2012, February 2013, and April 2013, respectively. Here are additional details from Microsoft’s Major Nelson:

Retailing for $24.99 USD (2,000 Microsoft Points), the “Halo 4” War Games Map Pass confirms your access to three War Games map packs as they become available in December, February and April, and represents a savings of more than 15 percent versus purchasing the packs individually. In addition, Map Pass purchasers will receive two bonus in-game helmets, as well as a unique in-game emblem.

There’s no doubt that Microsoft will sell millions of copies of Halo 4, but will it also sell millions of Halo 4 War Games Passes? The discounted price is sweet and unique in-game items are always fun, but some players will want to wait to see how the map packs are reviewed before spending money on them. Then again, it’s Halo. The quality has been consistent and there are tons of players that will always want the latest.

How about you guys and dolls? Do you see yourself paying $24.99 for a Halo 4 War Games Pass?

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The full version of Halo 4 has leaked and opportunistic people are selling Xbox 360s — with the game preloaded — on CraigsList. Kotaku’s Evan Narcisse did some honest-to-goodness (and high-quality) journalism on the matter. He interviewed some of the sellers and found a wide variety of justifications. None of them were very good. Disappointingly, though not surprisingly, these sellers will surely find customers.

Let’s be honest. I’m sure that most of us have pirated a song or a movie at some point. While it’s a bad practice, one of the common justifications cited is that pirating a movie/song doesn’t necessarily mean a sales loss for the publisher. In this case, Microsoft is definitely losing sales. People that spend a lot of money to buy pirated copies of Halo 4 almost definitely would have purchased the game legitimately.

Piracy-for-profit is just bad news. If it becomes more rampant (and I think it will) then companies — big and small — will tighten their belts. While some pirates justify taking advantage of large corporations like Activision and Microsoft, the people making “normal” wages at these companies will be the first to suffer. If people sell pirated versions of games developed and published by medium- and small-sized companies, the ramifications are even scarier.

That’s my take on it anyway. What do you think of the Halo 4 piracy-for-profit deal? Will this develop into a bigger issue for several companies? Or do you think it’s no biggies? Definitely check out Evan’s article when you have a chance. It’s one of the best pieces of videogame reporting I’ve read all year.

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