E309: Joyride and Crackdown 2 announcement trailer thoughts

So all of my hopes and dreams of a first party baseball game from Microsoft were dashed yesterday when the Big Park Studios game that was announced was Joyride, a free to download and play avatar game. Woot! Le Sigh.

The game supports microtransactions in that you will be able to purchase new cars and new ways to customize your cars. The game looks like it will be fun for just a few seconds for me that is unless it is supported by Project Natal - because then it will be like Mario Kart Wii - but more on that later, I am getting ahead of myself.

Here is some exciting news about a game that was all but announced before the Microsoft press briefing: Crackdown 2! It is coming and it looks astoundingly awesome. I'll be playing the original again before this drops and maybe this time I can locate all 500 agility orbs.

The game, as suspected, is being developed by Ruffian Games, another developer other than Realtime Worlds. The reason I have no problem with this is because some of the devs from Ruffian previously worked for Realtime Worlds on the original Crackdown. Excited? You bet I am.

Microsoft Aquires Big Park Studios

Microsoft announced today in a press release that they had agreed to aquire Big Park Inc. or Big Park Studios. From the press release:

BigPark was founded in 2007 by a group of industry veterans who led the creation and growth of two hugely successful software companies, Distinctive Software Inc. and Electronic Arts Canada. BigPark's founding team is composed of business leaders with over 80 years of collective experience in the video game industry, having produced or overseen blockbuster franchises including "Need for Speed," "FIFA Soccer," "NBA Street" and "SSX."

The only reason that this looks interesting to me is I might see a first party Microsoft sports franchise in my lifetime Ala Sony's MLB: The Show series of games. I would perhaps kill someone (in Halo)... for a good baseball game on the 360. That is the only reason I am even posting this.

Please Microsoft, I love baseball more than most things and if you can bring me a good baseball game I would be forever indebted to you.