BEAT.British

So last week it was announced that Fable 2 would not be shipping with Co-op and that it would be patched in a week later (that’s three days later for us folks in the UK), we all had a bit of a rant, I speculated that it was because they were waiting for the new Dashboard update. I was fine with this, many people were, the general consensus was most people weren’t going to play Co-op for a bit anyway. We had made our piece, Albion was safe-ish.

But today I got an email. From GAME.co.uk

“Dear Customer,

We have just been informed by Microsoft this afternoon that there is a significant supply chain issue regarding the contents of the Fable II Limited Edition. This affects the entire market.

They have advised us that neither the figurine nor the fate cards are going to be available. Which is incredibly frustrating!

However the Limited Edition WILL still come with a bonus disk with all Lionhead developer diaries, concept art viewer, music from soundtrack and new behind the scenes making of video footage, as well as bonus in-game content.

We have lowered the price of the limited edition to £39.99 to reflect the altered contents. I do hope this goes some way to alleviating your disappointment.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Kind regards,
Customer Services
GAME.co.uk”

What?! *insert lots of rude swear words here*

This is really irritating, the only special edition I’ve ever gone to purchase where everything in the box actually looks like it could be fun or a (dare I say it?) Collectible and Microsoft go and can it!

On the official Fable 2 blog has a bit more information on the matter, stating that:

The premium box, five printed fate cards, and Hobbe figure will not be available as part of the Limited Collector’s Edition.  We apologize for any inconvenience.

The Fable II Limited Collector’s Edition will now include the following content at this discounted price:

• Fable II game disc
• Bonus DVD with new ‘Making-of’ Feature
• Bonus in-game content (requires Xbox LIVE®)
  • ‘The Hall of the Dead’ Dungeon
  • ‘The Wreckager’ Legendary Cutlass Weapon
  • Spartan armor and energy sword

To further show our commitment to the faithful fans, we have created a special Fable album for free download for a limited time!  This includes a wonderful selection of Fable 1 music and 3 brand new tracks from the upcoming Fable II soundtrack.

It’s nice to know that Lionhead care, and I’m a little bit miffed but I suppose, I still get a bunch of bonus content for the same price as the regular version now. So I guess I shouldn’t complain….still sucks though I was planning on putting that figurine on my Xbox next to my yoshi and Ba-om figurines. It was going to be awesome, but now it’s over.

So much for that diarama, the hunt continues for a decent LE.

Paris.

Now Microsoft has jus made the Internet explode, no they didn’t release another sevice pack: it was the Microsoft games press conference for this years E3 show.

They Announced a few things, here is what I take away as note worthy:

New Dashboard
I think the new dashboard is going to be hit or miss, the avatars are a little on the crazy side…but perhaps have some value.

The Guitar Hero ‘World Tour’ segment
It was just embarrassing, the guy they choose to go on stage had no charisma and had a few cringe-worthy moments when he’d shout something expecting a HUGE response and get nothing from the attending audience. It was actually quite funny, like watching someone get kicked in the nuts.

Portal 1 and a half?!
It looks like a XBLA game based on portal is coming (new levels etc..), I want it, they know I want it. And they gave it. Thank you!

Rockband 2 having nearly ALL the songs from Rockband 1 plus over 100 new tracs at release, they clapped for that guy (haha stupid Guitar Hero guy).

Square-Enix is going to release FFXIII on the 360 in a similtanious europe and NA release. Delayed for the ps3 to have a exclusivity period? Maybe. We’ll have to wait till 2moro…

Another post will be er…posted 2moro, check back then and don’t forget to follow the twitter feed during the conferences and the rest of e3!

Paris

Bioshock 2? Well in Take two’s latest financial earnings report ‘Bioshock 2′ is listed as a future title. It even stated a ‘release date’ November 2009, much to the quiet keyboard tapping of the masses.

This comes during an interesting time for Take Two, with EA at their back, the hostile takeover is getting closer and closer. Personally I’m hoping that a hostile take over will be a fart in the wind. I starting to think that EA are geting a bit too big, what is this industry without competition? hmm?

No information was released as to what will be in the game, which would have been a bit weird in a financial report.

In any case a Bioshock 2? I’m happy and I know Ed will be when I tell him tomorrow.

Paris

So Toshiba and HD-DVD ‘Lost’ the High-Def disk format war. Toshiba bowed out last week and said that they would no longer be building for the format. What did this mean for gamers? Well firstly it ment that the PS3 wouldn’t be as useless as everyone thought, and second that Xbox360 owners who brought a HD-DVD add on, suddenly had a very expensive paperweight.

But all is not lost as on Thursday Microsoft spoke out on the subject at the ‘Mix08 Internet conference’:

“We’ve already been working on, for example, in Windows, device driver support for Blu-ray drives and the like, and I think the world moves on,” Ballmer said. “Toshiba has moved on. We’ve moved on, and we’ll support Blu-ray in ways that make sense.”

So things look promising for those Xbox360 High-Def Junkies, although no direct mention of A Xbox360 Blu-ray addon and no announcement yet. I’d say it’s a safe bet it’s going to happen.

Hey on the bright side, HD-DVDs are now really cheap…

Paris

Reasantly the intertubes have been reporting more and more on Crisis Core for the PSP.

Crisis Core is (incase you don’t know) a spin off of Final Fantasy VII for the PSP.

This has got me personally very exited as I LOVED Final Fantasy 7 (and most of it’s sequels). After reading a preview or two on this title I have discovered that the materia system is back (possibly the greatest magic system EVER devised by man), be it a little restricted.

The game will feature around a character called “Zack Fair” who works for SOLDIER, the company who owns Midgar and are sucking the life out of the planet they live on. It is only a spin off and will not be a long hawl big sprawling RPG. It’s battle system seems to be very in tandem with the latest final fantasy offering (Final Fantasy XII) a kind of real time/turn based mash up, something which I feel fixed the issue of grinding in the Final Fantasy series.

Crisis Core will feature voice acting, in engine cut scenes , a really cool FMV intro sequence (ahh the good old days…) and has no official release date other than ‘about a month’ in the US. Be assured that I will be posting a review and first impressions (not necessarily in that order) when I import it.

Paris.

What is Grapevine? It’s our news segment, when we here something on the grapevine, so will you.