BACK TO THE NOUGHTIES
SEPTEMBER 2007 – Microsoft breaks out the chequebook, RPG fans have plenty to choose from, Link is back in action and one first-person shooter receives a rapturous reception. Nick Thorpe has the DeLorean, and there are plenty of seats for all of you
After mounting pressure from customers and the press over Xbox 360 hardware failure rates, Microsoft finally announced that warranty cover for all machines would be extended to three years from the date of purchase, effectively covering every console since the 2005 launch.
According to Edge, Microsoft’s estimate of the cost of this scheme was “between $1.05bn and $1.15bn”. Edge also reported that a new chipset codenamed Falcon “should increase airflow and reduce heat within future machines, also halving the cost of the manufacturing process”.
Those fortunate enough to have a working Xbox 360 console, or a sufficiently beefy PC, could enjoy a stone-cold classic – the first-person shooter Bioshock. This spiritual successor to the System Shock games saw players explore Rapture, an underwater city gone catastrophically wrong. Official Xbox 360 Magazine felt it “manages to be both a tricky, exciting action game, a fascinating creation of an enclosed world and a deep inquiry about what it means to be human”, and scored it 10/10. “It might not be as flawless as Half-Life 2, but it bites off so much more and accomplishes it all magnificently,” said PC Gamer, giving it 95%. X360 also gave it 10/10, saying, “We can still hear the groans of the Big Daddy, the pitiful cries of the Litt
