Cyberball on Live Arcade next Wednesday (9/5)

[Kool Moe Dee]

Story (http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2007/08/30/552943.aspx)

I can't overstate how excited I am about this. And for 400 points, no less!

[Talisker]

Cool -- the half-price XBLA games on Sat/Sun are worth noting, too (Small Arms, Zuma, Gauntlet, and DigDug).

[Bob Cherub]

I hope I'm not raining on a parade and I hope I'm WRONG but given Cyberball is one of my favorite games EVER (I own a 4-player cabinet in my house), I am worried about the Xbox.com page:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/c/cyberball2072xboxlivearcade/

There's no specific mention of versus play. Nothing in the bullet points, though a mention of single-player "simulates" a live opponent. And the features only list co-op.

Please, please if there is a God, Cyberball will have versus Live play.

I will cry myself to sleep. I've waited 2 years or something for this thing (it was announced a LONG time ago).

[rhinohelix]

This is really, really awesome. Some good half-price games and then Cyberball? This will make my summer of Catan, Carcasonne, and Crackdown complete.

[VegasRobb]

Awesome. I have a friend who owns a 4 player cabinet. Good times. Run N' Gun for the win.

[Marcus]

Cool -- the half-price XBLA games on Sat/Sun are worth noting, too (Small Arms, Zuma, Gauntlet, and DigDug).

Dude what? For reals?

[Talisker]

For reals. But only those four :)


On top of that, four Xbox LIVE Arcade favorites will be available for half their regular price this weekend. Small Arms and Zuma Deluxe will be 400 points (regularly 800), and Gauntlet and Dig Dug will be only 200 points. Buy them beginning at 12 AM GMT on Sunday, September 2 (5 PM. PDT on Saturday, September 1) and continuing through 11: 59 p.m. GMT (4:59 p.m. PDT). Don't miss out!

[Marcus]

Fuck it I'm sold! I <3 a deal.

[LionelThompson]

Cyberball will be useless without multiplayer, but if it has it, then half of my dream has been realized.

They just need to get Rampart multiplayer available and I can die a happy man.

[Prodigy]

Cyberball, that's one thing, but Fatal Fury Special FFS !

[Xaroc]

I will be buying this sometime Friday when I get back from vacation. I really hope it has multiplayer as well. I did see XBL 2 player co-op in the description so hopefully that means multiplayer.

[Jim Preston]

I'm looking at Cyberball 2072 in the dev environment right now, and while it has the standard Quick Match, Custom Match, Create Match and Private Match, when I select Create I am taken to a lobby that is labelled Co-op Player Match. I didn't play a lot cyberball 2072 in the arcades, but as I recall it supported 2-on-2 local play, right? It's hard to tell if Co-op player match is just two people playing on the same side. That would be odd, because if digital eclipse was to go to all the effort to add net code so you could play co-op, why not do head-to-head as well?

[Xaroc]

That would be odd, because if digital eclipse was to go to all the effort to add net code so you could play co-op, why not do head-to-head as well?

Yeah that makes no sense so hopefully it is in there.

[Tyjenks]

If you cannot play 2 on 2 head to head there is no use for Cyberball. The AI is shit and there are bounce plays that are often guaranteed scores and other plays that kinda break the game when playing the A.I.

I would agree that this is one of the best multiplayer games in arcade history. I too have a friend that has a 4-player cabinet and we used to wear that thing out. I had to skip a game last weekend, in fact.

However, if done right, believe it or not, this could be the one game that sells me on the system.

[Bob Cherub]

Ugh.. I'm pretty sure how they botched Cyberball was there are two arcade cabinets.. a 4-player that supports 1 v 1, 2 v 1, 2 v 2, 1 v cpu, and 2 v cpu.

Then there's a 2-player cabinet that supports 1 v cpu and 2 v cpu only. The 4 -player has two monitors so you can compete. The 2-player cabinet only has one monitor.

So I figure Digital Eclipse used the 2-player cabinet "roms" for the port, which limits it to co-op play. Why this decision was made I have no idea. Was it a mistake or they really intended to not have live play?

Ugh.. I waited for this game since it was announced with Root Beer Tapper, Paperboy, and UMK3.. that was like 18 months ago. I check the XBLA releases every week to see if it was coming. I was so excited when I saw yesterday it was coming next week. Only to be punched in the gut when I realized it only had co-op play.

It's pointless without head to head in my opinion. UGH. HATE.

[Bob Cherub]

Jim do you see what the achievements are for Cyberball?

[forgeforsaken]

If this is really co-op only this is one of the biggest dropped balls in live arcade history.

[Bob Cherub]

Anyone know people at Digital Eclipse? Probably pointless but I'd still love to hear an explanation :(

[Tyjenks]

Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why would they bother, then? My mind boggles.

[Libra]

If this is really co-op only this is one of the biggest dropped balls in live arcade history.

Agreed.

[Bob Cherub]

I encourage everyone to bitch profusely if it is.

And journalists reviewing the game need to damn it for being so.

Express my hate for me.

[Kadath]

Sold.

And for the record, no you CAN'T expect a 4 player cyberball upright to REMAIN upright while travelling unsecured in the back of a pickup truck.

EVEN IF you are just going two miles.
EVEN IF you keep it under 10 miles per hour.

The sound that cyberball CRTs make when pierced by concrete? It sounds like.... failure.

[Jim Preston]

Jim do you see what the achievements are for Cyberball? 15G - Win a game without being scored against in Easy Mode
10G - Successfully throw 8 consecutive passes during an Xbox Live Co-op game
10G - Complete 2 pages in the Game Breakers mode
15G - In Regulation Mode complete one sack, one kill and one interception
25G - Complete all 10 pages in Game Breakers
15G - Run for a touchdown on a kickoff play during an Xbox Live co-op game
20G - Win an Xbox Live Co-op game without being scored against in Regulation mode
10G - Win a match in Regulation mode whilst playing an Xbox Live Co-op game
20G - Accumulate more than $100,000 in one regulation mode game
25G - Score more than 30 points in one game
20G - Score 2 touchdowns in one period

[Dave Long]

That list seems to indicate it's co-op only.

I'm sure I can play this with friends and kids so it's not a huge loss, but it does seem sort of silly that they can support co-op online but not support competitive play if that's truly how it works.

[Bob Cherub]

Yeah.. looks co-op only. Geezus, if it wasn't probably my favorite competitive game of all time this wouldn't hurt as much.

But it hurts. It hurts bad.

For those who have never played it before, you'll never know what you're missing out on. Co-op will barely give you a TASTE of the depth of this game.

A sad, sad day.

[Tyjenks]

I would kick your ass Bob. You should be glad your good memories of the game will not be sullied.

[Bob Cherub]

Heh! I would have loved to play you :(

(and beat your ass with the Moscow Machine and my titanium tight end)

[Tyjenks]

Hehe, I would not have let that little fucker get his head of steam. Man that's a great game.

Idiots.

[Bob Cherub]

I regret to inform you that the Xbox Live Arcade version of Cyberball 2072 will not have a Versus Mode. This includes offline play as well. Single Player and Co-Op are the only modes available for both offline and online. In online play, you can only play Co-op with another online user. You can not play online with two controllers on the same system. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Regards,
Midway Tech/Customer Support



HATE. Not that there was much doubt but still.

HATE.

[McBain]

God damn.

[Bob Cherub]

Can some gaming journalist contact Midway and find out why this stupid decision was made? :(

[Bob Cherub]

I tried this today (had to introduce it to friends even though I'm supporting this bullshit). It's a real shame. Live play is really smooth but of course it's not the same when it's only against the computer.

The ball is really dropped on this. It's one of the best versus games ever and will remain in seclusion.

[delirium]

I'm so fucking sick of lazy Xbox Live Arcade ports that would have been awesome if there was just a little extra effort put into them.

[Igor Muravyev]

Wtf? No 2v2 players? Dumbasses.

[Ben Sones]

Lame city. -1 sale.

[Tyjenks]

So, I do not have a 360, so I am not privy to its awsomenessosity, but my impression was that XBLA's whole purpose was to push out throw-away $5 ports. Nostalgia + low price = instant cash with little effort. People are more than happy to throw away $5 on 10 games before $50 on one.

I am sure there are exceptions and I have not seen a recent, comprehensive release list, but am I wrong?

[Coca Cola Zero]

XBLA games run the gamut from complete shovelware to killer apps (I know a couple of people buying 360s now just for SPF II Turbo).

[sventest]

Bomberman, Catan, Carcasonne, Pac-Man CE and Super Puzzle Fighter (shameless plug) are all absolutely superb and worth many times their actual prices in gaming value.

All of them are about as far from shovelware as you could get.

[Tyjenks]

OK, just wanted clarification. :) Ya know, for when a 360 is given to me by Jesus as that is about the time I will be able to afford a new system.

[jfletch]

There was a lot of lame shit like this earlier in the year, but since the head of XBLA stepped down and MS put some other dude in there it's been much better. This is the first really stupid and worthless XBLA week I have seen in a while, usually there's at least 1 interesting game worth demo'ing up. They still got my money, though, because of half-price Zuma.


Bomberman, Catan, Carcasonne, Pac-Man CE and Super Puzzle Fighter (shameless plug) are all absolutely superb and worth many times their actual prices in gaming value.

Those are the hits, but there's also many others depending on your tastes. SOTN, Band of Bugs, Space Giraffe, PoP Classic, Eets, Worms, Alien Hominid, Jetpac... XBLA is not even close to a shovelware dumping ground.

[Ryan Markel]

(I know a couple of people buying 360s now just for SPF II Turbo).

This quote gives me hope for humanity.

[Lorini]

The good news is that at least they got punished for no player vs player

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/sports/cyberball/review.html?sid=6178335

2.0 on Gamespot. I think that makes it the lowest XBLA rated game on Gamespot.

[VegasRobb]

Hopefully they can put together some funding for player versus player coding. 2 v 2 with 4 people on 4 different systems would be pretty dang nice.