Exclusive. The gaming industry keeps using that word. We do not think it means what they think it means. Or perhaps they do -- only the meaning changes from press release to press release, requiring a keen knowledge of context and PR deciphering techniques in order to obtain it. Eurogamer today reports that a source within Rockstar North (probably an exclusive source) indicates that, like the Xbox 360 version, the PS3's Grand Theft Auto IV will receive downloadable and undoubtedly "epic" episodes of an exclusive nature. Surely this renders Microsoft's previous claims to exclusivity invalid? Actually, no. At this year's X06 event, the Redmond giant touted "exclusive access to two downloadable, epic episodes of GTA IV via Xbox Live, each with hours of entirely new gameplay and available only on Xbox 360 just months after the release of the title." As we suggested before, barring the case of Rockstar releasing only two episodes in the game's lifetime, such wording does not rule out different episodes for the PS3.
Exclusives and tired movie references aside, perhaps our concern should first switch over to the actual game (releasing in October 2007) before discussing the status of microtransacted add-on episodes. Is doubting GTA IV's quality ... inconceivable?
[Thanks, Meh and Ethan.]
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
(Page 1) Reader Comments
It just leaves room for the inevitable reselling of the game with all the episodes in them.
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and I think we all saw this coming. They will be different episodes than the xbox 360 will be getting, surely, so huge gta fans will get both versions just to play the new missions.
nothing but good business sense on rockstar's part
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Either way, all versions of the game will look like whatever system is the lowest common denominator at release time.
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Eurogamer continues to resurrect half year-old news in a feeble attempt to create "good news" to whitewash all the bad news from the Sony camp (including today's notice that PS3 would only ship 1 million units this year, instead of the 2 million promised when they notified that they would only ship 500,000 at launch).
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Xbox 360 gets the "Kill drug dealer with delivery truck" mission while PS3 gets the "Use delivery truck to kill drug dealer" version.
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Or a complete con of their customers. Depends on which side of the fence you're on. ;)
For me, good business sense is providing the greatest value for the customer. Not trying to squeeze every penny you can out of them. People will go to a different title.
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the only downloads I am going to pay for are wii vc downloads. if there were any "bonus" downloads for purchase for any wii game, no way in hell would I download them.
..ok, thats a lie. I would buy every zelda bonus dungeon ever, if there was any. I may be a crafty consumer, but I am a zelda whore first.
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1) The 1 million was in reference to the U.S. shipment, so they are on track for the revised shipment numbers.
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I laughed even harder at Judd's post.
Joystiq, nice job. You made a boring post a fun highlight. Judd, thanks for picking up on the movie quote and adding to the laughs. Man I love that movie...
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I'm with everyone else though.. makes sense that the PS3 would have different downloadable content.
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Nice!
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Buy both to play it all!
As for Saints Row being better than GTA4... doubtful.
I hated San Andreas. Despised it.
And Saints Row fixed almost all the enormous complaints I had with it.
So why don't I think Saints Row will be better?
Because I'd fully expect GTA4 to fix those issues as well, and build. And have the right humor. Saints Row had great gameplay, but its parody just wasn't extreme enough, often seeming less like parody and more like attempts to be cool. It brought the game down.
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Anybody want a peanut????
Best part of that movie is when Fezzick is nursing Inigo back to health and he gets up like a wet rat after being dunked in between two different barrels of water and starts screaming
"Thats ENOUGH!! Thats ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!"
Well maybe the Billy Crystal part was hillarious also. I am surprised they don't make a game out of that story. It would be a money maker. Millions of people love that movie.
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As for this, good for Rockstar. To improve competition, the three consoles need to be differentiated. The separate exclusives are a good way to cross-platform yet further differentiate. Instead of the Oblivion route, gamers can now argue who's exclusive content is better.
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Is your 360 properly ventilated?
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Lets see...
18 crashes
Voices cut out in and out in cutscenes (except Milia Kunis' voice, which is really annoying)
Game frequently muted itself for a few seconds then kicks back in
Graphical glitches like vanishing highways, vanishing vehicles, vanishing city streets, vanishing player character, vanishing car player is sitting in (while wathing my guy float across the city in a sitting position)
I got stuck in the geometry frequently and had to restart, like walking along the side of the building then seeing my leg go into the wall and hold me in place
Framerate is really bad and constantly slowed to a crawl when there were more than 3 exploding cars on the screen
Just to name a few pieces examples of techinical incompetence I experienced. Not the system, the rest of the games play fine and dandy.
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Saints Row is a plain GTA copy that didnt quite work. Anyways, just enjoy GTA, its probably the best thing to release, I'd look more foward to that then Halo 3, seeing as you'd simply have more fun and there is much more to do :P
I'm hyped for GTA4 :P
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(with gobs and gobs of sarcasm poured all over that...)
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Yes it is, but we LOSE here. How?? by purchasing the 'extra' content, we are telling developers that we are willing to pay MORE THAN THE $60+ games are gonna cost.
Rockstar: Hey lets put all this content in and be done with the game!!
Rockstar Corp.: ARE YOU CRAZY! just get the game out as quickly as possible, nevermind the fact that we are not even close to being done, well just tell those 'gamers' the actual missions we left out are 'bonus' missions and charge like $5 after they shelled out the $60 premium for the initial game!!
Rockstar: GREAT IDEA!!
You see whats going on here? Those rumors about games being $70 are TRUE because in order to 'fully' get all the content you have to BUY the microtransactions they are asking you for that they SHOULD have put in the game in the first place.
All you MS fanboi's complaining about how expensive the PS3 games are gonna cost need to STFU!!! You are ALREADY paying more than $60 bucks and us Sony boys are going to too.
/end rant
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