Do you know what Tenebrae is?
25 Mar 05

I would say happy Good Friday to everyone, but Good Friday isn't that kind of holiday. It's a day for introspection on the price of sin. It's Good because you can't have Easter without the sacrifice. Otherwise it's pretty somber. So according to your beliefs, I hope you have meaningful introspection or enjoy Spring Break. I won't make any comments on the rituals of Spring Break.

I had earlier mentioned the Halo 2 bonus pack. It's somewhat more official today. However they made a curious announcement. They're releasing two free maps on Live soon plus more you can buy. Or you can wait for the $20 disk which has the maps and some bonus content including a CG cut scene. The curious thing was they announced that all the maps will eventually be free. As a policy that kind of makes sense, but the key is you keep that part secret so people still pay the money to get the maps while you're selling them. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will pay a premium to "get them now" and they might pressure their friends to get them to play on them. However, there are many more people who can wait a while if they know they'll get it for free soon enough.

The latest Xbox 2 (or 360) rumor is that backwards compatibility has been "officially" dropped. I think I've made my views on this clear. If the Xbox is the only next gen system without backwards compatibility and they don't have the "most powerful" title to fall back on, they risk falling into the niche category instead of soaring into serious contention for first place. Then again rumors persist about Nintendo making their new system so "revolutionary" that it will become niche as well. Perhaps the fight isn't for first place as we thought. They're going to bang it out for last. I love this irresponsible speculation based on rumor.

Gamespot has the news that KOEI is making a new Nobunaga's Ambition game for the PC. There's practically no information about it, but it's still exciting. I like KOEI. No word yet on a possible US version.

IGN has put up a very positive Darwinia review. Once again the impressive visual style is noted despite the lack of polygons.

Have a happy Easter everyone.

Jason