Banjo-Kazooie 3 confirmed for Xmas News

Awesome

If it's anything like the first game count me in.

Anywhere near the first one is good for me! :)

Gears 2 and Banjo Kazooie 3 - and they say the 360 has already peaked??? just a couple more AAA titles and this year could be as good as last.

Yay Banjo

Yes! Never played "Tooie" but the first one was one of my favourite games, not ony on the N64,but overall

Sounds wank

for fear of sounding petty....

You sound wank.

This looks like an insta-purchase for me! Still play BK on my old 64.

Please, please, let them keep the use of guns in it to a minimum.

Filling a platform game with guns ruined Donkey Kong 64, and changed Jak 2 into something very different to its sublime pure-platforming predecessor.

AND release the N64's Banjo-Kazooie for Xbox Live Arcade!

Rare keep your Banjo........

I want my KI3!!!!

Or even KI2 on live arcade, I can only take so many teasers!!!

Ahum.

What was the last AAA game rare made?

Perfect Dark (in N64)
And even that was less than the stuff they made before.
Even Xbots have to admit that Perfect Dark Zero was complete bollocks.

Yay for Gears 2, and Alan Wake, and (hopefully) fable 2. But if it's up to Rare to fix us 360 owners (yes, I'm one of them) with ammo to kill PS3 this year, then it'll be a short and painfull battle.

This really will be Rare's final attempt to redeem themselves.

Good.

Very good.

@Prodigy: you forgot Ninja Gaiden 2, Splinter cell Conviction and hopefully Too Human and Halo Wars. This should be enough since GT5 and FF13 won't ship in 2008. I wouldn't count on alan Wake being released this year, though...

Prodigy_BE: If you weren't talking so much out of your arse, I might be inclined to point out your errors.

hooray! another 'releases in the future' battle!

@ Paranoid Zombie

As much as I liked the first Ninja Gaiden, it's really a hardcore game. Perfect for you and me, but it won't shift consoles.

Splinter Cell does shift consoles. And the name Halo does too (but the RTS genre doesn't, so we'll have to wait that one out)
And Too Human. Xbox user who are exited about that one can join the PS3 "Lair will be great" group for all I care.

Frankly, I don't care which console wins. I have them all, and just want good games.
But this year, PS3 has got the best exclusives lined up. And Nobody's got anything that big up their sleeve to change that.
MotorStorm 2, Resistance 2, MGS4, Killzone 2, Wipeout HD, MGS online, Little Big Planet, Haze, Play TV, A Buzz for PS3, New Singstar Stuff, Echochrome, Tekken 6, GT5 (in Japan)

All that, together with blu-ray, more reliable hardware, free online and more and more PSX classix that'll be downloadable this year (MGS1 being my favorite)...

PS3 will bring me the most gaming fun in 2008
Wii will sell the most consoles.
And Xbox will just have good year. Nothing wrong with that, right?

EDIT: Forgot one major seller: SOCOM Confrontation. 1, 2 and 3 on PS2 sold millions.

Very good news, providing the "not just for kids" model is Mario Galaxy style not Warrior Within style.

I don't want to have a gruff voiced Banjo running around a desolate landscape shooting evil robots to avenge some kind of death while Kazooie spouts sarcastic comments at you.

Prodigy_BE: If you believe so.

"But this year, PS3 has got the best exclusives lined up. And Nobody's got anything that big up their sleeve to change that."

Currently it sure looks like that.. but I'm also sure MS has a "few surprises" up their sleeve which haven't been annonced yet. Last year MS focued on 2007 titles only while Sony "sold the future" because of the few exclusive AAA titles in 2007 ;)

@Prodigy_BE
What was the last AAA game rare made?

Perfect Dark (in N64)
And even that was less than the stuff they made before.
Even Xbots have to admit that Perfect Dark Zero was complete bollocks.

I'll second that. GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, Banjo Kazooie were some of the high points of TWO generations ago. I think it is fair to say that Rare completely skipped the last generation. And have nothing but disappointed me this generation. Perfect Dark Zero? Viva Pinata? It's a strange world when you can count on Rare games being crap and THQ making decent games. Anybody here been playing long enough to remember when it used to be the other way around?

Lovely jubbly. My love for platformers has been recently rekindled thanks to Psychonauts so this is perfect timing for me. In other news, am I the only one who enjoyed DK64?? (No one-word answers please!)

I don't want to have a gruff voiced Banjo running around a desolate landscape shooting evil robots to avenge some kind of death while Kazooie spouts sarcastic comments at you.

Change Kazooie into a barely-clothed over-ample female, and you've got yourself a game!

As long as Rare haven't turned the new Banjo-Kazooie into a third-person shooter, I don't care what age group the game is aimed at although I didn't think there was anything wrong with the first two games personally. In fact, Banjo-Kazooie on the N64 is one of my favourite games of all-time so I'm hoping the Xbox 360 version at least adheres to the same kind of game structure and doesn't change things too much, except to bring the series 21st century standards of excellence.

After finishing Super Mario Galaxy, I recently re-played the original Jak & Daxter and was surprised how great it still is. I really hope the platforming genre will be revived.. hopefully Banjo-Kazooie 3 will help do that :)

Banjo is back with a proper team

The only team you can put PURE trust into is the Banjo team. COME ON LADS :)

Totally true, Vice Destroyer.

As en ex-journalist, I've met David Doak (ex-Rare, now Free Radical Head Honcho) quite a few times.
He told me some talent left Rare because they didn't share their wealth enough with their top employees. That was during the final N64 years (and that's why Perfect Dark took so long to make). But when the company was sold to Microsoft, most of the remaining skillfull people ran for the hills. Lots of them work at FRD now. The rest went to the Codies, Ninja Theory en some other independents in UK.

Rare is a hollow shell, doing mediocre software, imho.

Rare haven't been the same company since leaving Nintendo... ;-)

/ Grabs coat.

Prodigy_BE: "But this year, PS3 has got the best exclusives lined up."

QFT

I wonder how much microsoft paid them to do their site in silverlight and not flash?

as for the game I would expect something completely different from the first 2 ie not a platformer as we know it

it will most likely be awesome

still doesnt change the fact nobody will buy it

Microsoft in "we want to ride on the back of previous Nintendo cornerstone's success but are afraid of the kiddy image so we'll try and meet half way I'm sure it will work THIS TIME" shocker!

Prodigy_BE "All that, together with blu-ray, more reliable hardware, free online and more"

Yawn, is it EG policy to have this stated at least once per every comments section? What about a break down of the cost of a PS3 against all the 360's various components as well? Couldn't they be made 'stickys' at the top of every comments section to save the knuckle draggers posting it every time?

F*ck, you're right, I sound like phil harrisson :)

My point is, devs don't like working for MS. With Bioware now at EA, and Bungie and Bizzare Creations going multiplatform, that wil be their biggest hurdle. Sony has tons of fantastic inhouse studios, Ninti's got Shigsy and a whole buckedload of system selling franshises...

Like I said in my first post. If Banjo 3 is supposed to be one of the weapons in MS' end of the year clash, they are going D-O-W-N.

@ProfessorLesser - It's Rare who are saying Banjo-Kazooie 360 won't just be for kids but even so, it does sound like Rare are a bit worried that this new game won't sell because people will assume it's a game for kids, like they did Viva Pinata in fact. If Microsoft are serious about wanting the Xbox 360 to appeal to the mainstream then they need to advertise Banjo-Kazooie as much if not more than Gears of War 2 but I bet they don't. I can almost guarantee that this game will get overlooked by most Xbox 360 owners even if it's an absolute gem. It won't matter how good the games are that Rare make, the cartoony ones won't ever sell well on the Xbox 360 because its target audience of 20 something year old males don't want to be playing cute "kiddie" games.

Personally, I'm looking forward to Banjo-Kazooie on the 360 far more than any other game on the 360 or any other platform for that matter and I'm 42! I do think I'm the exception though... :(

F*ck, you're right, I sound like phil harrisson :)

Funny that because he was a complete tool that spouted bullshite as well :)

"This really will be Rare's final attempt to redeem themselves."

Agreed. If this falls short then they are officially an average development team masquerading as a great one.

He's gone a bit quiet since he "left" to go to Atari though. Prolly in charge of the shredders ahead of the Nasdaq delisting.

@paulf:"I wonder how much microsoft paid them to do their site in silverlight and not flash? "
er..., nothing? As Rare is in fact a Microsoft Game studio company now...


As seen in rareware.com:
"This is the official web location of veteran UK game developer Rare Ltd, nowadays an
MGS studio"

"devs don't like working for MS"

I did, MGS were the nicest, most professional publisher I've ever known.

Why this crazy stuff that PS-lovers to type lists of games "to be" ?, then quitely "forget" about them, or drasticaly decrease the level of "oh my god! it will be so much fun!" ?, huh ? prodigy_be?

But this year is the year, right ? Let's go man, let's go!

And..., how can these two posts go together, as in, from the same person ?

"Frankly, I don't care which console wins. I have them all, and just want good games"

"Like I said in my first post. If Banjo 3 is supposed to be one of the weapons in MS' end of the year clash, they are going D-O-W-N."

Microsoft better advertise the hell out of this but you can almost guarantee that Gears of War 2 will get every marketing dollar.

That actually sounds like deja-vu, Rare complained about how Gears stole all the press from (great!, I don't know why some ppl are saying Rare sux? Piņata is great, just imagine 360 isn't MS/American/rich/owns_windows and it should help) Piņatas, now they going head-to-head again with Gears 2...

Yea, funny that. I think this is almost make or break for Rare. They need a big hit.

@ Miiiguel.
Maybe we should word these things a little better. Rare obviously do not suck in terms of their ability to produce games. I am sure that even their cleaning lady knows a lot more about SQL, Maya, C++ or whatever else you need to know inside out now to make games. What Rare suck at now though is at producing games which stand out from the crowd in terms of gameplay, graphics, ideas and originality. What I find hard to believe with Rare and I am sure quite a lot of other long-term players will agree is that Rare used to have this ability to produce original ideas and concepts which you hadn't played before. They were innovators.

Little things like the sniper rifle in GoldenEye. The infamous introduction of Donkey Kong on the Super Nintendo, where people assumed they were seeing a video of a game running on Project Reality, when it really was for the SNES. Or the multiple functions of weapons on Perfect Dark. It's things like this that I have come to expect when playing a Rare game. Fun and innovation. What I now get from Rare are games where, I grant you, production values are very high, but the fun is mysteriously missing. With all due respect with Viva Pinata fans, I think that you will agree that it is not exactly a game for the majority of Rare fans, in the sense that it is so radically different than anything Rare has ever produced. Shooters, platformers, even driving games have had the Rare touch. But a game meant to be enjoyed by Charlie Dimmock fans? I don't see the appeal in trimming bushes.

And don't get me started on the travesties that were Banjo-Tooie and DK64. It seems like the rot started long ago (thanks for the explanation, Prodigy). Nintendo were obviously a lot smarter than I gave them credit for when they sold their stake in Rare. It just goes to show that their previously decent games from two generations ago are held in such high esteem by me, that I am going to give them the benefit of my cold hard cash again this december, even though grabbed by the ghoulies, Perfect Dark Zero, Kameo and Viva Pinata made me swear to avoid that spinning R logo forever.

Last chance, Rare. Brand loyalty will only get you so far. Just ask Sony.

Viva Patna was a really good game, also Kameo was very decent adventure/action game esp the air fight towards the end...In reality only Perfect Dark was a let down, as this game was rushed for release to debut on 360. Kameo in fact alot of people enjoyed this game. I hope they make a sequel to this...I think Rare get slagged as people expect way to much from them. Vina Patna was great and different game, got many good reviews. Kameo got a mixed response - though alot of gamers enjoyed this little gem.

With: Alan Wake, Banjo Kazooie 3, Halo Wars, Fable 2, Gears f Wars 2, Splinter Cell Convection, Ninja Gadien 2, Too Human (this is really looking good), Cry-On ...360 08 will be another great year for gaming.

Prodigy talks crap... Sony dont know how to offer support to their devs as well as they should by now(hardware company), they also make shitty tools and overcomplicate things with their design choices too... in short he's talking out of his ass. Devs prefer working with MS over Sony anyday common sense would tell you that... let alone the many good things devs have said from working with them, many dev houses have only benifited from working with MS. The original Banjo members are apparently all in tact so alot of bitter fanboys are obviously trying to convince themselves its not going to be any good, Viva Piniata was seen as a return to form by many Rare fans(real Rare fans not console fanboys) already so this FUD is rather pointless, their slump started with the end of the N64's life cycle long before MS bought them.

Microsoft Game Studios is now a well respected mark of quality, Id say more so than anything to do with Sony now.

That list Ive seen in this thread for PS3's "best linup of 2008" leaves me pretty underwhealmed, I hope all 3 platforms manage to put out a more interesting lineup than that before the end of this year.

Just because George has stated that Banjo wasn't created with 4 year olds in mind, does not mean they are taking a mature, grown-up approach to the game. I mean, please, we're talking about a bird and bear who converse entirely in gibberish. George was simply implying, or at least how I interpreted his words, that Banjo is a game to excite and interest gamers of all ages. Judging by previous rare titles, I'm sure it will satisfy six-year olds looking for a colorful adventure, and entice thirty-year olds who are looking for a deep and engaging gaming experience. The Banjo Kazooie series is a rare (no pun intended) gem, so why lose faith in something so brilliant?

Am I one of the only ones that enjoyed Kameo then? I thought that was a great little title, with some rather sexy graphics here and there, playing that for the first time on my HDTV was one of the first ''wow'' moments for me in this generation of consoles.
I have faith that they're going to make this new Banjo game a corker, but as stated above, I still believe it could get all the 10/10 ratings in the world and it'll still sell like shit, unless of course MS spend mega bucks marketing it.