On one front you have Sony’s PlayStation Division actually improving their situation from previous years with smaller losses than before thanks to the PS3 hardware selling more and being cheaper to produce now.

Capcom managed to post a profit for Q1, but income came at a massive dive of 90.4% due to the massive underperformances of Lost Planet 2 and Monster Hunter Tri. If I remember correctly Capcom had expected Lost Planet 2 to sell in the millions in the long run which doesn’t look like it’ll be happening now.

Lastly Nintendo who had Wii hardware sales actually increase 3 million in one quarter compared to last year’s 2 million posted a rare quarterly loss of $288 million for Q1. They had a positive operating, but the slowing sales of a system in it’s sixth year on the market, smaller software sales on both platforms and the gamble they took with a hedge fund that they lost due to the exchange rates not being favorable to them hurt them.

Luckily, this drop may in fact push them to release the 3DS by the end of this year instead of “Around March 2011″ now. It took more than half a decade, but seeing that the handheld is now at 132 million units sold and DS HW are slowing down yes, finally everyone now does have a DS. – The Ben

PlayStation 3 304.8K
PSP 121.0K
Xbox 360 451.7K
Wii 422.5K
Nintendo DS 510.7K

Top 10 VG Console/Portable SKU’s June 2010
Title Platform Publisher Release Date Units
RED DEAD REDEMPTION 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 582.9K
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WII NINTENDO May-10 548.4K
RED DEAD REDEMPTION PS3 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 380.3K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO Nov-09 200.9K
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 174.8K
WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO Oct-09
TOY STORY 3 NDS DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS Jun-10
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED 360 THQ May-10
LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 WII WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE Jun-10
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED PS3 THQ May-10

The thread the numbers were posted in from the above link was originally about Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg’s afternoon tweet in which he let this little sales tidbit out:

@aarongreenberg
Look out hare, here comes the tortoise…post E3 bump & new console drives Xbox 360 sales up 88% as top selling console in June

It sure was the top selling console for June, although from the way he was describing things you’d think the 360 would be more than just slightly ahead thanks to the 360 Slim but everybody seems to have had a good month.

Except the PSP, hell even the PS3 had a pretty outstanding June all things considered. The NPD doesn’t count PS2 sales anymore remember so that’s probably comforting to Sony. Comforting because can you imagine how things would look if the PS2 outsold the PSP at this point?

Like last month it’s not that there’s no new games for the PSP because hell, there are new games for it! And that just brings up an even more depressing fact looking at the sales numbers again; Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker didn’t even manage to crack the top ten. It didn’t even sell more than 150,000 from the looks of things going by the software numbers. Now that’s a damn shame. – The Ben

Editor’s Note: This podcast was recorded prior to Blizzards decision to discontinue their plans to implement RealId.

One particular part of the WSJ article seems to boil the situation down nicely:

Meanwhile, Sony is developing a portable device that shares characteristics of hand-held game machines, e-book readers and netbook computers, according to people familiar with the matter. Some Sony e-book readers already come with 3G connections but it isn’t clear if a new wireless gadget will use carrier networks.

So if this is to be believed, Sony is tired of not being the champion in the portable game space as it envisioned itself to be by this time back in 2005 and now is setting their sights on taking on another portable market already in a heated battle. At least they aren’t trying to go all the way and make it a phone as well. Just declaring war in all markets to have their bases covered now that’d be crazy – The Ben

PlayStation 3 154.5K
PSP 59.4K
Xbox 360 194.6K
Wii 334.8K
Nintendo DS 383.7K

RED DEAD REDEMPTION 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 945.9K 1
RED DEAD REDEMPTION PS3 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE May-10 567.1K 2
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-10 563.9K 3
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED 360 THQ May-10 221.1K 4
UFC 2010: UNDISPUTED PS3 THQ May-10 192.3K 5
WII FIT PLUS W/BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 6
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 7
ALAN WAKE * 360 MICROSOFT May-10 8
POKEMON SOULSILVER VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 9
SKATE 3 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS May-10 10

Now as these are the new and improved NPD reports take note that we only get the exact numbers for the top five games for the month instead of the usual Top Ten/Twenty figures.

Also note that when a game is launched on more than one platform and both SKUs make it into the top they each count as a seperate figure to report on so in truth we only really get numbers for the top three titles this month. Meaning that we don’t know exactly how much Alan Wake ended up selling in the first month of sales, only that it was below two hundred-thousand units. But at least it made the Top 10!

Hardware sales are same as they always are with Wii/DS looking a bit healthier than before while 360/PS3 sell at their usual paces and PSP…

Well at least PSP has Marcus. – The Ben

Check in thursday morning for they day two recap.

I mean granted it is hard to top one half of The Beatles, Steven Spielberg and the bottom of an Avatar’s shoe but this year was light on everything that wasn’t on-stage Kinect demonstrations.

The odd thing about Microsoft’s conference was that while they got their biggest hardcore guns out first with Call of Duty: Black Ops, Gears 3 and Halo Reach so that the rest of the time could be spent on their bigger focus, both Nintendo and Sony seemed to do that as well to a smaller extent and managed to come out okay.

What I mean in this case is that Nintendo got the new Zelda demo out of the way (the thing, the ONLY thing really that most gaming journalists talked about at all when talking about what they were looking forward to from Nintendo in the weeks leading up to this E3) so that the rest of the conference could be spent not only on what you didn’t come to see, but to not get anxious and write “Yeah yeah this is cool but WHERE’S ZELDA?!?!” on your twitter feed during the announcements of a new Kirby and Donkey Kong Country game and then feel let down once it turned out Zelda was the same game it’s always been.

Sony did something similar with Killzone 3 (even though I was wondering throughout their presser where The Last Guardian was at and that never really came up at all during the event, guess they’re saving that for TGS this fall) and spent dividing the rest of their conference into designated chunks. Like, this chunk is about 3D, this chunk is about Move, this chunk is about how much we love EA oh please EA we love you MAKE LOVE TO ME EA GIVE ME EXCLUSIVE CONTENT.

Microsoft though once it started on showing off Kinect games, never really got much interest back from most of the audience from looking at the reactions. More than that, when people talk about Kinect now it seems they talk more about the spectacle surrounding Kinect than the games themselves. Nobody’s talking about Kinect Sports but everyone is still talking about the seperate Kinect events that required what the internet now refers to as “Space Ponchos” to wear as Cirque du Soleil took control of most of the event.

The Kinect event seemed similar to earlier Microsoft events like the first 360 unveiling on MTV back in 2005 where more hype was made about the 360 as a brand rather than a machine that played cool games. More time was spent in that special on J Allard talking about how important it was that the 360 looked like an anorexic model inhailing than how Rare’s games were coming along.

Speaking of Rare’s games, the fact that many watching the conference were doing so if only to see what Rare was going to show off in relation to it’s game making prowess after not really making any games since 2008′s Nuts and Bolts, only to find out that all Rare was showing off was Kinect Sports, was a bit of a downer as well.

Sony generally seemed excited about the games they were showing off and using Move to springboard the games onto the audience. Microsoft on the other hand seemed to want people to understand KINECT like it was a revolutionary concept. And unlike last E3 where most of the audience was on board with that line of thinking, it seems that this year many aren’t interested in embracing Kinect and “donning the space poncho” as the term would seem to be. – The Ben

Nintendo seems to be listening to thier fans this year and have brought a list of goodies for the hardcore gamers that have been watching closely for thier day. And it appears to have been this morning in the Nokia theater.

With New game announcments including Zelda Skyward Sword, Mario Sports Mix, GoldenEye 007 for the wii, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, a New Donkey Kong Country, and a Kid Icurus 3DS game, Nintendo touted it’s fall lineup in defense of thier competetors assualts on the motion control gameply that has been it’s hallmark.

For updates from the show floor as they happen be sure to watch the Life Inside the Box twitter feed

Just in from research team (NPD): Halo 3 has outsold Resistance 1 + 2, Uncharted 1+2, Killzone 2 and God of War III COMBINED….wow

Not really E3 related but it has gotten many of the Sony faithful to reply back in disdain. Still he…wait he got that from NPD. That’s right NPD numbers for May should have been in today. What’s going on he-awww shit.

The NPD Group will miss its traditional release day for monthly U.S. video game industry sales results next week, as it delays its May report to accommodate “a significant upgrade to the IT architecture,” the company said today.

NPD traditionally releases sales and revenue data covering the retail U.S. console game industry on the second Thursday of each month, but NPD told Gamasutra it will be “delayed by up to three weeks.”

Dang it, and the numbers were going to come right at the start of the E3 news parade. Well at least they’ll make for some nice news a few weeks from now when all the news from E3 is exhausted. – The Ben

According to Kotaku, Insomniac Games will have the rights to whatever IP they develop under this new venture, as well as the reassurance to current PS3 owners that the “Ratchet and Clank” and “Resistance” will still continue to be developed by the studio for the time being.

The biggest thing I get out of this is what that one analyst has been talking about for a while about how many second-party developers will most likely be drifting towards multi-platform. First Bungie signing on with Activision and now Insomniac Games with EA, he may actually be onto something about this subject.

Of course while some second-party developers may start moving onto multi-platform development that doesn’t mean all of them are going to do the same now.

On another note still keeping in theme with the whole second-parties become independent studios for hire deal; it’s too bad that Rare wanted to be bought and owned rather than become a freelance developer like Bungie and Insomniac seem to be doing. I know they’re fine financially with Microsoft as their eternal sugar daddy, but many don’t seem to hold them with the same respect they used to garner in the last decade.

Meanwhile while Insomniac was acclaimed last generation with a constant stream of R&C games on the PS2, PS3 exclusivity and their new next IP’s have had trouble connecting with the mass market so far. Being open to any platform may help them out now in that regard. – The Ben

PlayStation 3 180.8K
PSP 65.5K
Xbox 360 185.4K
Wii 277.2K
Nintendo DS 440.8K

1. TOM CLANCY’S SPLINTER CELL: CONVICTION* 360 UBISOFT Apr-10 486.1K
2. POKEMON SOULSILVER VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 242.9K
3. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 200.3K
4. POKEMON HEARTGOLD VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 192.6K
5. GOD OF WAR III* PS3 SONY Mar-10 180.3K
6. WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09
7. BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Mar-10 166K
8. WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09
9. JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09
10. SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV PS3 CAPCOM USA Apr-10 143K

*. SUPER STREET FIGHTER IV 360 CAPCOM USA Apr-10 108K

Wow, those are some low numbers all around.

Also starting this month NPD is only giving out the exact numbers for the top five games instead of all ten, meaning gamers who really want to know how well a game at number 8 or 10 on the chart will have to beg people in the know for numbers at 6 and beyond; which is how the numbers for Street Fighter IV and Bad Company 2 came to light. Thanks to Microsoft for those tidbits.

The PS2 also is not being reported by the NPD anymore as well, though they’re still tracking it’s sales. If Sony wanted they could let gamers know every month how well the thing’s still doing. However the fact that the PS2 may very well have outsold the PSP this month in it’s ninth year on the U.S. market may not be something they’re that desperate to proclaim in their Press Release.

Those low PSP hardware numbers give the rumblings of a PSP2 being announced at Sony’s E3 presser next more strength, at least to me.

I just hope the PSP2 will have the ability to read UMDs, even if the games made for the device won’t come on them. The saddest part about the PSP situation is that there are actually some pretty high profile games coming out for the thing here in the U.S. this year. Peace Walker, that Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep game, heck even Ready at Dawn Studios is giving the system another gem with a second portable God of War title. There’s still life in the system, but what good is that if nobody is playing the last few hits for the thing? – The Ben

As if to make up for the past few years Microsoft has already gone ahead and made plans for not one but two seperate pre-E3 conferences. One will be the usual standard fare of showing off new hardcore games and most likely have Bill Gates appear near the end to hype up something but more interestingly this year is their Natal specific conference.

Excuse me, Natal EXPERIENCE. And just like the now five year old Xbox 360 special MTV did half a decade ago, the two are teaming up again to show off Natal to the world. Exclusively.

According to this Yahoo! Finance news tidbit they’ve gotten a heads up from Microsoft about how MTV Networks will be exclusively broadcasting every spectacle that Microsoft shows off at their briefings.

Via Geoff Keighley’s Twitter he states that “The Xbox E3 Media Briefing has a new home: It will air exclusively on Spike TV. Live to both coasts, HD, and commercial free.”

This is pretty interesting as the last few years gamers interested in watching most company’s E3 Briefings would have a nice selection of venues to choose from. You could simply just find a good stream from both the large and small game news outlets or you could even watch them live from your couch via G4. But, at least for the Xbox Media Briefing you’ll have to catch it on either GameTrailers.Com or Spike Tv.

The one thing I’m not fully sure about here is if any old blog with a webcam will still be able to stream or if this deal means that only his grace Lord Geoff of Keighley and his Spike TV Kingdom have control over all outgoing media while the briefings are going on. He says on his Twitter page “Correct the press conference won’t air on G4. It will also be online on GameTrailers” so I know they have full TV rights, but if GameTrailers is really going to be the only place to get a decent feed of the conference (and it’s not going to be decent if it’s the only feed available online) then this is something new to me. Exclusive press conference rights.

On a similar note Leo Laporte’s just mentioned today that, “We want to do live coverage of E3. We’ve got Brian Brushwood flying out. We’ve got a sponsor. But E3 says no – G4 has an exclusive. What what?”

I don’t know if E3 means floor coverage or what but I’m just as confused as Leo is at the moment.

Oh and one more thing going back to Microsoft’s Natal Experience. One thing they made sure to mention in their invitations to the event is that Cirque Du Soleil will be performing at the EXPERIENCE event. That’s going to be…very interesting at least. – The Ben

But anyway yeah via Edge today Nintendo announced that it’s annual profits for the financial year ending March 31, 2010 were down 18% from last year, with sales down 22 percent to $15.3 billion, operating income down 36% at $3.8 billion, and net profit down 18% coming to a total $2 billion dollars left to add to the war chest.

Nintendo expects Wii sales (now at 70 million sold worldwide) to fall to 18 million units sold in the coming year as opposed to the 20 million sold last year and 30 million DS sales (now at 128 million units sold when you combine the entire DS family) as opposed to 27 million DS units last year.

The increase in DS sales is most likely including the 3DS into the equation. Anyway a few final notes taken from Nintendo’s own PDF of the Report; Wii Sports Resort sold 16 million units, NSMBW sold 14 million units last year and Wii Fit Plus managed around 12 million units. – The Ben

Of the 38 employees involved in the suit the story says that 21 are former employees of Infinity Ward and that the remaining 17 are current IW employees.

Activision responded to the suit the story updated later in the day with this:

“Activision believes the action is without merit,” a company spokesman said in response to the suit. “Activision retains the discretion to determine the amount and the schedule of bonus payments for [Modern Warfare 2] and has acted consistent with its rights and the law at all times. We look forward to getting judicial confirmation that our position is right.”

What a bizarre saga this is becoming. The turmoil has gotten to the point where nobody knows at this point exactly what’s going to remain of Infinity Ward as a brand after all this settles. – The Ben

Of note is the tidbit of info that the 360 has finally passed the 40 million mark in terms of sold consoles. It’s hard to believe that the 360 will be nearing it’s fifth birthday this fall but there it is. Going by previous generations the 360′s passed not only it’s older sibling but legacy systems like the Genesis and the N64.

If this were any previous generation we’d be well into that time when the rumblings of what the “NEXT-GEN” will bring and every magazine and site’s E3 predictions would go wild as speculation over dubious news goes on for months until the show itself hits. But this generation of console gaming has changed the rules in more ways than one and this matter is no different. While different SKU’s and internal chips are announced and revisions to consoles will keep coming, the next-gen is nothing but a dream for most of the industry at this point it seems. – The Ben

PlayStation 2 118.3K
PlayStation 3 313.9K
PSP 119.9K
Xbox 360 338.4K
Wii 557.5K
Nintendo DS 700.8K

GOD OF WAR III* PS3 SONY Mar-10 1.10M
POKEMON SOULSILVER VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 1.02M
FINAL FANTASY XIII PS3 SQUARE ENIX Mar-10 828.2K
BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Mar-10 825.5K
POKEMON HEARTGOLD VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Mar-10 761.2K
FINAL FANTASY XIII 360 SQUARE ENIX Mar-10 493.9K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 457.4K
BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2 PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS Mar-10 451.2K
WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 429.6K
MLB 10: THE SHOW PS3 SONY Mar-10 349.2K

DS and Wii back on top after a shortage last month while the 360 stays ahead of the PS3 even with God of War 3 taking the Top Spot in software sales. Also of note is the fact that the 360 version of FF XIII didn’t quite reach the same level of sales as the PS3 one did, and that the Soul Silver version of the latest Pokemon game performed better than the Hear Gold version.

Oh and the PSP just barely outsold the PS2 for the month. There’s nothing more really you can say about that situation. But hey perhaps Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will give the system one more big push in sales before the PSP 2 shows up sometime in the near future? – The Ben

Six years have passed since Painkiller was released, and “People Can Fly”‘s first game, which came out in April of 2004, was purchased for this reviewer on Good Old Games for less than the cost of a Taco Bell Grande Meal. At the time of its release, it received nowhere near the fanfare or attention that Doom 3 or Halo 2 received; both games in the same vein as Painkiller. This baffles me, since, at its core, this game does what neither Doom 3 or Halo 2 managed to accomplish. Both of those games were, to some extent, bogged down under the weight of their own pretensions.

Halo 2 was a placeholder. Meant to fill in the space in the storyline between Halo 1 and Halo 3, there was little feeling of accomplishment, and little added to the gameplay of the series beyond an energy sword and the necessity of the “Mute” button on the X-Box live headset. Doom 3 decided it felt like trying to play with the big boys of immerse gameplay like Silent Hill, F.E.A.R., and System Shock, and ended up making a bit of an embarrassment of itself.

Painkiller does neither of these things. Painkiller sits down, hands you a gun that fires sharpened baseball bats, a fist-mounted turbo-charged Garden Weasel, and seventeen million demons between you and your wife at the pearly gates of heaven. No part of that previous sentence is made up in any way.

You, Daniel Garner, are sent to Purgatory for unspecified reasons following the auto accident that kills both you and your wife. You are then contacted, some unspecified length of time later by an albino named Samael. Either this is a staggering coincidence, or this half of the Matrix Revolutions Twins is meant to be the Archangel Samael, Archangel of Death, and a fallen angel on par with Satan for bragging rights in the supernatural spiritual power department. Why then, he needs you, a man who looks like the angriest potato to ever stand upright, to slay the generals of Satan’s Armies rather than engaging in the conflict himself, is a bit of a puzzlement. The game decides to gloss over this, as well as the introduction of both Eve, of the garden variety, and Asmodeus, Prince of Hell, Chief Demon of Lust, Lord of the Second Pit, King of Shades, and Husband of Lillith. The game pays pretty much no interest in these characters motivations, backstories, or established identities, and instead, focuses on you butchering the unmerciful shit out of everything between you and reunification with your wife.

Painkiller performs that focused intent masterfully. In the same vein as Serious Sam, and the first two Dooms, Painkiller stands up a slew of varied, delightfully detailed enemies between you and the glowing pentagram marking the level end, and waits patiently for you to unleash a world of ruination upon all and sundry between these two points. The Painkiller itself, a whirling bladed contraption on the end of your arm, seems like a cross between a Power Juicer, a folding metal colander, and Link’s Hookshot. I really can’t do it justice with that previous sentence, but, leave it as read that it is a visceral joy to use, as are all the weapons in this straight-up genocide-a-thon.

There is a phrase I have been struggling this entire review not to use, used by a much more polished and experienced reviewer than myself, regarding one of the weapons in this game, but there is a gun that shoots Shurikens and Lightning and Shurikens charged with Lightning that arcs between nearby enemies. There is no part of this that is not blisteringly awesome. There is a gun that shoots re-bar and pinball grenades. There is a gun that is both a rocket-launcher AND a mini-gun. There is a Mini-gun that is also a Flame-thrower that fires flaming barrels of propane. The entire arsenal of this game reads like they grouped a number of seven year olds from 1987 into a room, fed them as much caffeine as they could hold, and then let them describe what would be the single most awesome way to kill an angry skeleton.

The game shines. Stellarly. Both when it was released, and today. Modern first person shooters, such as Rogue Warrior, Shellshocked 2, or C.O.R.E. Simply lack the spirit, focus, and tight to the frame gameplay that Painkiller still offers. With a multiplayer mode that is a bunnyhopping blast-to-the-past reminiscent of the finest moments in Quake and Unreal, Painkiller sits firmly in a niche of titles that have stood the test of time, in their designed oeuvre.

The map pack was priced at $15 dollars and only available on Xbox Live in comparison to the first World at War map pack that was available on both the PS3 and 360 last year which sold 1 million digital copies in the first week as well at $10 dollars according to IGN.

Everyone seems to have mixed feelings about this news. While it’s good that gamers are enjoying themselves with new content for a game that’s almost half a year old (showing that a franchise like Call of Duty is immune to that “DLC must happen in the first six weeks of a game’s launch or else the public won’t bite” rule) the fact that Infinity Ward’s achievements are currently still in the public eye for all the wrong reasons makes this victory bittersweet for some. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Hacker Evolution – Untold $12.48
X-Com Complete $9.99
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut $9.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Torchlight $5.00 Our Review
Star Trek Online $33.49
Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Edition $40.19

Good Old Games –
Commandos 2+3 $6.99
Commandos Ammo Pack $4.19
Imperial Glory $4.19
Patrician 1+2 $4.19
Port Royale $4.19
Praetorians $4.19
Tropico Reloaded $6.99

Direct2Drive
The Path $4.95
Iron Man $4.95
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction w/ Free Splinter cell $54.95 Use Code 5OFFCONVICTION at checkout

Gamers Gate
Colony Defense $7.96
Torchlight $4.95
Planet Alcatraz $4.98
Iron Man $4.95
Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight $41.95
Tropico 3 $14.97

XBLA
Fallout 3
Including:
Mothership Zeta 0400 msp
Point Lookout 0400 msp
Broken Steel 0400 msp
The Pitt 0400 msp
Operation: Anchorage 0400 msp

Amazon (Friday only)
Academy of Champions: Soccer $14.99
Supreme Commander 2 $34.99

March 23, 2010

To Whom It May Concern:
Re: Launch of New Portable Game Machine

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Minami-ward of Kyoto-city, President Satoru Iwata) will launch “Nintendo 3DS”(temp) during the fiscal year ending March 2011, on which games can be enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.

“Nintendo 3DS”(temp) is going to be the new portable game machine to succeed “Nintendo DS series”, whose cumulative consolidated sales from Nintendo amounted to 125million units as of the end of December 2009, and will include backward compatibility so that the software for Nintendo DS series, including the ones for Nintendo DSi, can also be enjoyed.

We are planning to announce additional details at E3 show, which is scheduled to be held from June 15, 2010 at Los Angeles in the U.S.

I got nothing. – The Ben

According to Pachter the General Manager of Visceral Games stated the PLDC would be “essentially a very long demo, along the lines of 2009′s Battlefield 1943″ and that “A full-blown packaged game would follow shortly after the release of the PDLC, bearing a full retail price. Mr. Earl believes that the release of the PDLC first limits the risk of completing and marketing the full packaged version, and serves as a low-cost marketing tool.”

The article goes on to say that Pachter later told them that, “I think that the plan is to release PDLC at $15 that has 3-4 hours of gameplay, so [it has] a very high perceived value, then [EA will] take the feedback from the community (press and players) to tweak the follow-on full game that will be released at a normal packaged price point.” also adding that he believes Battlefield 1943 would have been a bigger success had they released a full-blown version of the game a few months after release.

Interestingly, the article ends with these investor specific nuggets of info from Pachter:

“We’ve been wrong about this stock for almost five years. Either we’re stupid, stubborn, or unlucky, but we’ve been wrong. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, each time hoping for a different result,” Pachter wrote.

“This time, while we are again hoping for a different result, we see evidence that the company is not doing the same things over and over again: lower headcount, fewer facilities, fewer games, a greater use of outsourcing, innovative combinations of digital and packaged goods content, a better greenlight process and a growing digital business,” the analyst said. “This time, we think that EA is on the right path.”

He’s been wrong on EA for almost five years now but he’s got a good feeling this time around! – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Mass Effect 2 $29.95
Mass Effect 2 Digital Deluxe Edition $39.95
World of Goo $9.97

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Aliens vs Predator™ $33.49
EverQuest® Starter Pack $2.50
Sniper Elite $2.00

Good Old Games –
Sanitarium $4.99
The Longest Journey $4.99

Direct2Drive
Star Trek Online $29.95
Fallen Earth $19.95
Braid $9.95

Gamers Gate
Neverwinter Nights 2 Gold $14.97
Neverwinter Nights 2 Mask of the Betrayer $9.97
Mass Effect 2 $29.95
Chronicles of Riddick Assault on Dark Athena $9.97

XBLA
Game
Including:
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas™ 0800 msp
Max Payne® 2: The Fall of Max Payne 0800 msp
Fable 0800 msp

Here it is, the long-awaited Resident Evil 5 review. No jokes allowed.

If you’re like me (in that you’re charming, witty, attractive, and have great taste in games), Resident Evil 4 is most likely one of your favorite games of all time. It’s the action game perfected, and one of the very few games I would give a ten out of ten. Don’t expect that review anytime soon, though. . Chances are, if you’re like me, you bought RE5 on launch day and you don’t really need to read this review. Let’s review it anyway.

For Resident Evil 5, we return to the series’ favorite meat head, Chris Redfield. Chris has been keeping busy since his last appearance, working with the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), hunting down bio-engineered monsters left over from Umbrella’s evil experiments. His latest assignment brings him to Africa, where for the most part, the actual gameplay is just Resident Evil 4 on steroids. There are some minor changes here and there.

Let’s stick with the major changes, as I’m sure that’s what most of you care about anyway.Weapons no longer have an exclusive power. While some weapons do have different attributes from others (increased head shot chance, piercing, etc) these are all upgraded right alongside damage, capacity, and so on. Treasures have also been simplified, with very few “hidden” treasures and none that can be combined. That’s about it regarding most of the major changes.

Well, of course, besides coop. Yes, now you can a friend can be racist together. Now, even though this is a game designed to be played with a friend as Sheva (Or Chris), there are of course going to be times when that simply isn’t an option. Sheva’s AI is schizophrenic, to say the least She’ll do an excellent job of keeping up with you, and there was only one time in my +30 hours of gameplay that she got stuck behind something. Sheva’s AI also does a great job with her inventory, giving you the ammunition she finds for a weapon that only you have (unless you give it to her for storage purposes, in which case she won’t just turn around and give it to you). The AI tends to be a little loose with healing items, but then again, I’d rather her be more using of those then never.

There are some serious faults, however. She will never use grenades, and the two tactical settings you are given simply aren’t enough to control her during certain parts of the game. She’ll either use her most powerful weapon or her weakest weapon, and will never switch to a better weapon for a certain situation (she won’t take out a rifle to shoot at a distant enemy, for example). She also wastes ammo like there’s no tomorrow, putting rounds into downed enemies instead of just finishing them off with a melee attack. In fact, she almost never goes out of her way to use melee, only using it when she’s right next to an enemy. She will never run forward more then a foot or so to melee a stunned or downed enemy. Needless to say, this frequently leads to you rationing her ammo as if she was a child. I really wish that there was some sort of more in-depth combat settings for her, a la Fallout 2, being able to set her weapon priority, distance from you, use of medical items, and so on. While this certainly would have led to slowdown of the gameplay, I would rather that then having her getting killed during a frantic boss fight.

The graphics are astounding, and honestly even a year later very little has surpassed this game. All of the character models are amazing and have great expressions during the cut scenes, which are all rendered using the in-game engine. It’s said that this was Capcom’s most expensive game to date, and it shows.

Level design is pretty stellar throughout, with the settings and locales changing often enough that you won’t get bored. You’ll go from African shanty towns (honestly, I do wish the game hadn’t had gone by this setting so fast, as it’s the best part of the game) to tribal villages to oil rigs and about six other different settings. I can’t give away everything in the review, can I?

While the game is polished to a sheen, there are some minor quirks throughout. Unlike Resident Evil 4, quick-time events aren’t exactly integrated into the story as much. It’s kind of strange. In RE4, every level had at least one quick-time event, and whenever a enemy had an instant-kill attack, you were either given a lot of warning in advance or you were given a QTE to get out of it. In RE5, there are nowhere near as many QTE situations in cut scenes. This led to quite a few deaths on my part, since by the time a QTE showed up, I had completely forgotten about them and had laid my controller down to watch the cut-scene. Whoops. Also, one enemy in particular doesn’t give you a QTE that really should have, and has thus won my award for lamest enemy (Hint: It’s in level 3-1 and the star of many SyFy original channel movies).

I suppose I must talk about this in my review, even though I may come off as a jackass. I hope I don’t. Is the game racist? Yes, it is. There is a sequence in the game where you shoot tribal Africans dressed in warpaint and armed with spears and then steal their tribal gold. The game is racist, there’s no doubt. However, I doubt that Capcom is made up of Japanese Klu Klux Klan members. The Japanese are known for taking stereotypes to the extreme, it’s what they do. Chris himself is basically what you’d imagine Americans to be like if you only watched 80’s action movies. It just so happens that the elements of culture that the Japanese played up for RE5 happen to be considered offensive in our culture. You can’t really blame for that, can you? It wasn’t done with any sort of intentional commentary.

So, in the end, is the game just perfection with more things added? Sadly, no. There are a few too many quirks for me to rate it as highly as Resident Evil 4. Regardless, the game is an absolute must-own for any action gamer.

Final Rating: 9 out of 10

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:

Dragon Age: Origins $37.46
Tropico 3 $19.99
King’s Bounty Gold Edition $22.49
Time of Shadows $14.99
Star Assault $7.49

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Batman: Arkham Asylum + Just Cause Bundle $22.09
including:
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Just Cause

Good Old Games –
UFO: Aftermath $4.19
UFO: Aftershock $6.99>

Direct2Drive
Football Manager 2010 $19.95
Fallen Earth $19.95

Gamers Gate
Deus Ex & Deus Ex 2 $14.95
Amnesia: The Dark Descent $15.98
Mount and Blade $5.00

XBLA (Gold Members)
Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack Bundle 1200 msp

Data care of NPD Group
Reporting Period: 1/31/2010 through 2/27/2010

PlayStation 2 101.9K
PlayStation 3 360.1K
PSP 133.4K
Xbox 360 422.0K
Wii 397.9K
Nintendo DS 613.2K

BIOSHOCK 2* 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE Feb-10 562.9K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 555.6K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 314.3K
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 275.4K
SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 272.5K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 252.8K
MASS EFFECT 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jan-10 246.5K
DANTE’S INFERNO: DIVINE EDITION PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS Feb-10 242.5K
DANTE’S INFERNO 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Feb-10 224.7K
HEAVY RAIN PS3 SONY Feb-10 219.3K

Analysis from NPD’s Anita Frazier:

Overall

“The industry realized another month of decreased sales as compared to last year. In fact, for most categories, unit sales declines were greater than dollar sales. Higher average retail prices on all categories except console hardware boosted dollar sales performance somewhat.”

“Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month. Nonetheless, strong new releases, and Easter gift-buying bodes well for industry performance in March.”

Hardware

“Overall hardware unit sales were down, but certain platforms enjoyed an increase over last year. Xbox 360 nabbed the top-spot among the three console systems for the first time since September 2007 when Halo 3 as released. PS3 enjoyed a 30% increase over last year, even while retail supply is reported to remain constrained.”

“DS sales continue to remain quite strong, even leading up to the launch of the Dsi XL later this month on March 28th, which will have 7 days of sales during our March reporting month.”

Software

“The top 10 list this month is quite balanced between the three console platforms with three each for the PS3 and Wii platforms, and four for the 360.”

“Bioshock 2 was the best-selling game in February, selling over 750K units at retail across platforms. The 360 version was the top-selling SKU for the month.”

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the third-best-selling game of all-time, now at just under 10 million units life-to-date.”

Accessories

“Year-to-date, accessories is the only category to have eeked out a modest increase versus last year. Unit sales, however, are down so the increase is solely due to an increase in pricing, which is up 13%.”

Guess Sony and Nintendo weren’t kidding when they said that hardware supply would be constrained after the holidays. – The Ben

Edit: Wait I guess that title doesn’t really make sense if the DS still sold more than the 360….still was the highest selling console of the month though.

Anyone who has listened to the Life Inside the Box podcast knows my reluctance for reliance in the cloud for gaming. Cloud Computing is the concept of converting our points of interaction, be it computers or consoles,from isolated units to terminal access locations. Over the last few years we have seen a steady move to this system. Some beneficial to users, like external backups of save files and game configurations ala SteamCloud. Some dubious, such as OnLive’s proposed gaming service. Lastly, some draconian like Ubisofts recent DRM scheme requiring gamers to be online and connected to authentication servers the ENTIRE time they are playing.

More and more we trust our data, our games, and our rights as consumers to third parties. Services such as Xbox live Arcade, PSN, Steam, and Impulse are all digital distributors of our games, they provide us with service to access the games we want without having to obtain and keep physical media. by doing so we are losing our rights as consumers to exercise our privilege to resell these games through the first sale doctrine as established by the American supreme court in the 1908 Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus case (apologies to our foreign readers as this may not apply to you.) We are trading security for convenience. The quick and easy access to the games we want without leaving the home, or not having to look for that CD/DVD case for hope that the service we use will remain to work in the future.

This is the side of digital distribution and cloud computing people seem to forget. These are services offered by corporations. Services that cost them money to maintain. in the between February and March of 2010, Electronic Arts will shut down 30 multi-player servers for online games purchased between 2007 and 2008. Why? Because, it is no longer profitable to maintain support for games that are not actively being played by a large audience. These closures by the way are steadily becoming an annual event with Electronic Arts.

Electronic Arts states the reason for these closings as prioritizing to the majority of their customers:

Despite some people’s perception, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping these older games up and running. We would rather our hard-working engineering and IT staff focus on keeping a positive experience for the other 99.7% of customers playing our more popular games.

As time goes on however we should ask ourselves do we really want our purchases to be at the mercy of someone who, by law through their fiduciary responsibilities, is not looking out for our best interest, but instead looking out for their shareholders pocketbooks?

Even Valve a development house known for it’s loyalty to customers and fans has not definitively stated how they would handle such as situation as evidenced in this quote credited to Gabe Newell:

“If you right click on a game in Steam, you’ll see that you can back up the files yourself. Unless there was some situation I don’t understand, we would presumably disable authentication before any event that would preclude the authentication servers from being available.

We’ve tested disabling authentication and it works.”

But most recent events are even more troubling. Over the last weekend the Ubisoft Authentication Servers suffered a denial of service attack preventing users from authenticating their games. For over 7 hours people who purchased legitimate copies of an Ubisoft product, and adhered to the DRM scheme were denied access to the ability to enjoy their game because Ubisoft was unable to authenticate their product license.

Sometimes when you look up into a thundercloud you can see the lightning inside. This weekends outage is that self same thunderbolt. The Cloud Computing can have its benefits, but there is danger for consumers as well. Caveat Emptor.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Street Fighter® IV $19.99
Total Annihilation $9.99
SPORE $29.95
Hearts of Iron III $11.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising $7.49

Good Old Games –
Real Myst $4.49
Uru: Complete Chronicles $7.49

Direct2Drive
The Sims 3 Triple Bundle $54.95
The Sims 2 Mega Bundle $39.95
Best of Indie Bundle Vol. 3 $29.95
Including:
World of Good
Puzzlegeddon
The Maw
Braid
Osmos
Machinarium

Gamers Gate
XIII $4.95
Civilization III $4.95
Ascension to the Throne $4.95
You Are Empty $2.95
Condemned – Criminal Origins $3.73

XBLA
Gears of War Avatar COG Armor (Male) 0240 msp
Gears of War Avatar COG Armor (Female) 0240 msp
Gears of War Avatar COG Helmet (Male) 0080 msp
Gears of War Avatar COG Helmet (Female) 080 msp

GFW Live
Street Fighter® IV $19.99

Amazon.com (DEAL AVAILABLE FRIDAY 3/5/10 ONLY)
SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny $19.99

The key notes of interest:

– New Treyarch developed COD this fall that everyone already knew about.

– New “action-adventure”-esque Call of Duty game by newly formed developer Sledgehammer Games to be released in 2011.

– This corporate speak, straight from the PR:

Activision announced it will form a “dedicated [Call of Duty] business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world.” It plans to expand the Call of Duty brand “with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business unit” placing a focus on “high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.”

New digital business models doesn’t quite mean “We wanna charge you all monthly now” but, there aren’t many other things it could mean.

Oh and they also officially confirmed the departure of former Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. – The Ben

The team is being described as “on edge” and according to G4′s source the relationship between Infinity Ward and Activision has been “tense” as of late.

While it seems like half of the internet currently reading this story as it breaks on sites everywhere are writing this off as a PR stunt, Forumopolis poster popemobile reminds us that, “Call of Duty is literally the last franchise in the world that needs a PR stunt”. – The Ben

Update: Two major updates from G4 on the story.

UPDATE 10:07 PM: More developments on the situation at Infinity Ward have come to light.

A screen shot surfaced from Infinity Ward CTO Jason West’s Facebook page at Kotaku with the status update “Jason West is drinking. Also, unemployed.” I can confirm from a source that’s friends with West that update did actually come from West’s account.

West also updated his Linkedin profile to appears to reflect a change in employment.

“President/Game Director/CCO/CTO Infinity Ward
January 2001 – March 2010 (9 years 3 months)”

While this doesn’t yet provide much insight into what actually happened at Infinity Ward, it confirms there are changes afoot at the Call of Duty developer. As soon as I know more, you’ll know more.

Read more: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702911/UPDATE-Security-Appears-At-Infinity-Ward-Studio-Heads-Missing-Activision-Investigating-Insubordination.html#ixzz0h1Eqp1dY

And the second major one:

UPDATE 11:20 PM: It turns out Activision may have showed their hand in this matter earlier today.

In an SEC filing made this morning, Activision cited a human resources investigation into “breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward.”

Based on the information we currently have, at least one of those employees may have included Infinity Ward CTO Jason West. It’s possible Vince Zampella is the other unmentioned employee.

“This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation,” read the filing. “At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company.”

Read more: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702911/UPDATE-Security-Appears-At-Infinity-Ward-Studio-Heads-Missing-Activision-Investigating-Insubordination.html#ixzz0h1FB39Rx

This ain’t no ARG fellas, this is real.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Mount and Blade $5.00
Battlefield 2 Complete $22.49
Tropico Reloaded $4.99
Evochron Legends $18.70
Project Aftermath $4.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Serious Sam HD $7.49
Spellforce 2: Gold Edition $7.50
Spellforce – Platinum Edition $3.74
Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars $4.99
Spellforce 2: Dragon Storm $4.99
Hammerfight $4.99

Good Old Games –
Advent Rising $4.19
BloodRayne $4.19
BloodRayne 2 $6.99
Psychonauts $6.99

Direct2Drive
Supreme Commander Gold $14.95
Theatre of War $14.95
Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim Gold Edition $2.50
Tropico 3 $19.95
Bionic Commando Rearmed $7.50
LucasArts Adventure Bundle $9.95

Gamers Gate
Batman Arkham Asylum $19.95

PSN
Warhawk for PS3 $14.99

GWFL
Batman Arkham Asylum $12.49

XBLA
Duke Nukem 3D 0400 msp

Most games when you sit down to play them are either good games, that you enjoy, or bad games that you can turn off and be comfortable knowing you didn’t miss anything. Rogue Warrior strangely manages to sneak into that androgynous zone that is technically solid, and yet makes you wonder why you bothered to play it.

First, notice the developer’s love of repetitive profanity. You will hear a constant stream of each four letter word, which can be used, in the proper context, to add a level of gravitas or maturity to an otherwise bland title. Rogue Warrior, however, seems to have sunk into that 10 year old mentality of “if I said it once I was cool, If I say it 100 times I’ll be 100 times as cool”. It isn’t 100 times as cool, it just makes me 100 times less likely to play it around children, the elderly or just about anyone.

Sadly it would seem the dialog writers had some pull in the story department, because the plot manages to be just as deeply flawed. Taking place in the 1980′s, the stories main character, Richard Marcinko finds himself dropped into North Korea. Conveniently, his entire team dies in a horrible crash/ambush. Marcinko, stuck alone behind enemy lines, travels from cliché to cliché culminating in an absurd climax that makes you wonder which bad translation of “Delta Force” they screened in the writing room.

Despite it’s many flaws, the game manages to be a solid game on a technical level. With minor tweaking in the menus the game handled smoothly, the shooting felt solid, and the “stealth Kills”, while sometimes funnily absurd, were a pleasant break from the average rendition of Gears of War’s stop and pop game play.

When I started Rogue Warrior I felt like I was pushing myself through the game, wanting to finish the game only so that I could write this review and be rid of it. As the game progressed it managed to hit that mysterious Zone where it’s not fun, and yet you want to finish it because it’s so bad it’s actually kind of fun. So, I can say “Congratulations!” to Rebellion Developments for entering the realm of Bad Cult gaming. It’s rare that I get to compare a game to such movie classics as Zardoz and Dark Star, and today, I can.

Score: 4/10

Of course there’s nothing anybody can do to change this if it is indeed the final price for the game, 60 dollars a new game is as normal as anything else you’d find in a gamestore these days. The only good thing about the 60 dollar price tag is that while every next-gen game is priced at that level these days, a few months to half a year after release the game will almost always go down in price to around the 40 dollar level. Hell you could get “Legendary Editions” of old AAA next-gen releases for 50 dollars at most places that still couln’t get rid of those last few Halo 3 Helmets a few years back well after the release. – The Ben

As publishers look for new ways to add profitability to their games, DLC has become the new battlefront for deterring used game sales. In recent weeks both Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment America have begun using Free DLC for new purchasers to provide gamers with incentives to buy new and used game retailers are finally starting to speak out.

While Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz (Registration Required) retail representatives stated that consumers would bear the brunt of these changes. One such retailer Marc Day of SwapGame told GamesIndustry.biz:

“The move to DLC exclusive content is an interesting step, and this obviously provides the publisher with another revenue stream. This move will definitely make the game less valuable on the pre-owned market, so it will be sold cheaper, meaning customers will get less value when trading in.”

Others see this move as a compromise between Retailers, Gamers and Publishers on the hot button issue of used game sales, as stated Christopher Bowen Associate Editor of Diehard GameFAN in the comments:

“I don’t think Project Ten Dollar – which balances risk and reward – is going to alienate consumers. They see the tangible benefits of buying new before the game is sold. In the case of Mass Effect and other EA games, before it’s released. EA has been very upfront about what they’re doing, and while I don’t *LIKE* it – we got more complete packages in the last console generation than we do now, in terms of bang for our buck – I think it’s a nice compromise against the secondhand market and Gamestop.”

With this newest push to digital distribution, and incentives however it will seem only time will tell who is right.

PlayStation 2 41.6K
PlayStation 3 276.9K
PSP 100.1K
Xbox 360 332.8K
Wii 465.8K
Nintendo DS 422.2K

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 656.7K
MASS EFFECT 2* 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jan-10 572.1K
WII FIT PLUS W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 555.7K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 326.7K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 310.9K
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 297.6K
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 259.0K
ARMY OF TWO: THE 40TH DAY 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Jan-10 246.5K
JUST DANCE WII UBISOFT Nov-09 191.9K
DARKSIDERS 360 THQ Jan-10 171.2k

A pretty normal post-holiday sales result all around.

Of note is Mass Effect making a great debut at number 2 while Mario continues his reign on the charts via NSMBW and Mario Kart Wii which I believe may very well outsell every pre-Mario Kart DS Mario Kart entry combined before the last copy of it is sold years from now.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is still on the charts as are Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit Plus. The only really shocking inclusions and omissions are that Just Dance for Wii from Ubisoft made the Top Ten while Bayonetta didn’t manage to make the cut.

I didn’t expect much in the way of sales for Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom or No More Heroes 2 so seeing them bein outsold by Just Dance isn’t a shock to me, but I felt Bayonetta was one of those titles the entire hardcore set was pushing for. I know SEGA shipped a million copies of the game out to stores. – The Ben

Due to some technical difficulties, this week’s show is suffering from poor audio quality. Our best technicians are working on tracking down the sabotage and fixing it, but for now, you’ll just have to bear with us.

Firstly their Quarter Three profits were down 41% as the DS entered it’s fifth year and the Wii with it’s third. The profits were estimated at 296.7 billion yen in contrast to 501.3 billion yen. So they’re still making profit, just a few hundred-billion yen less in profit.

So that’s the bad news, the good news lie mostly in the symbolic victories. Thanks to JoshuaJSlone on NeoGaf, by using the numbers given from Nintendo’s own numbers from the conference call PDF, give us a graphic look at where the Wii and DS stand in grand scheme of things chart-wise. The Wii has dashed past the NES in terms of worldwide hardware sales. The DS has managed to overcome the GameBoy and the GameBoy Colour’s sales combined worldwide. Finally, the three titles released this year that Iwata had hoped would sell 10 million copies each worldwide, have done just that with Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and NSMBW accomplishing that mission.

In fact, the reason the profit numbers aren’t any worse are probably due to those three titles saving the game for the company in the last few months of the year and re-igniting the casual gamer passion during the Holiday Sales rush. – The Ben

City building fans should feel a little saddened today. The Monte Cristo team announced today the ending of Cities XL’s online plans. Stating a low subscription base, making the model unsustainable, Monte Cristo will shut the servers down March 8, 2010.

Monte Cristo has however pledged to continue to support the single player content for the game and will be offering “the Bus” for free to solo players as early as this march.

This is an unfortunate event because while the game as a whole was not a “SimCity Killer” it was a decent game made for the genre fans that it served. By losing this component, one could argue the major differentiation, and innovation point for the game, Monte Cristo may have put a nail in the coffin of City building Sims in the future.

Official Release

Dear Mayors,

First of all we want to thank you for your support since Cities XL was released in October of last year, and as far back as October 2007 for some of you.

In early 2007 we decided to be those who would make a new offer to City Builder games fans. Right from the start Cities XL has always been an innovative project regarding its online dimension. Of course, trying something new always comes with a risk.

Three months after the launch we have to admit that the subscription rate is lower than what we expected and therefore the Planet Offer is no longer sustainable. Not enough players decided to subscribe.

Therefore, it is with deep regret that we decided to put an end to the Planet Offer on March 8th 2010. It will no longer be possible to subscribe to the game starting Monday February 1st 2010.

Nevertheless the Cities XL adventure goes on! Cities XL will evolve into a fully single player game. As soon as march the Bus will be added for free in the solo game. At the same time we also keep on working on new content and new features to keep on improving Cities XL.

We do realize that some of you were real fans of the Planet Offer, and loved to be able to visit other player’s cities and trade tokens between each other. There are simply not enough of us.

Thank you again for your understanding and support.

For more detailed information, you can read the FAQ here.

This is the double-edged sword of trophies/achievements for me at least. I’ve completed the campaign, found every collectable and solved every puzzle yet I haven’t mastered the last fourth of the game in it’s extra content of challenge modes. These are actually okay by me, the developer has a set of challenges and obstacles that push the player to get a mastery for the game after they beat the campaign and they reward that mastery with the corresponding trophy/achievements.

While I’m fine with that, there’s also the fact that most games offer trophy/achievements for completing a game on the higher/highest difficulty settings. Completing the game on normal earned me both the trophy for beating the game on normal mode and the trophy for beating it on easy mode, but the trophy concerning HARD mode will always be tempting me, the reason many will never get that coveted platinum trophy. Should gamers have to beat a game multiple times just to fill up a progress bar to 100% ?

At least in the case of good games like Arkham Asylum it’ll be a pleasure to go through the journey again someday in the future. And at least certain games like Half-Life 2 and it’s corresponding Episodes have a chapter selection option so I could go back and squish every Antlion Grub.

Achievements have come a long way since 2005 and the layout surrounding them has been settled mostly. I just wish that sometimes, the games didn’t always try to goad me into another playthrough right after the credits finish. But at least if I do make another journey through many of the current games with multiple difficulties, there will be a reward waiting for me at the end, making the journey’s worth a bit more sweet than it already is for a good/great game. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Alganon $19.95
King’s Bounty Gold Edition $33.74
Tropico 3 $29.99
Grand Ages: Rome $22.49
Star Assault $7.49

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Company of Heroes $4.99
Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts $4.99
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor $7.49

Good Old Games –
Myst: Masterpiece Edition $4.49
Riven: The Sequel to Myst $4.49
The Manhole: Masterpiece Edition $4.49

Direct2Drive
Torchlight $14.99 Use code 5OFFTORCH2

Gamers Gate
Civilization IV Colonization $14.95
Civilization IV $9.99

XBLA
Mass Effect’s Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station 0240 msp

Here’s a game to keep your eye on:

Here’s the official press release:

“UBER REVEALS MONDAY NIGHT COMBAT

Kirkland, WA, January 15th, 2010 – Uber Entertainment, Inc. today
announced Monday Night Combat, their forthcoming game for Xbox Live
Arcade. Monday Night Combat is a class-based, third-person shooter…
and the most popular lethal sport of the future! It blends intense
combat, finishing moves, and gameshow-like challenges and rewards to
produce an action experience unlike any other. Why fight for “honor”
or “duty” when you can fight for the real American dream: cash, fame
and endorsements?!

Big Money! Big Prizes!
Players who drive the fans wild and catch the eye of corporate
sponsors will win cash and prizes that can be used to upgrade their
weapons and their defenses.

Blitz
Blitz allow players to defend their Money Ball against armies of
robots by themselves or with up to three of their closest friends over
XBOX Live

Crossfire
Crossfire pits teams of players against each other over Xbox Live.
Each team is supported by an endless stream of robots fighting on
their behalf; overwhelming your opponent’s stream will be the key to
your success!

Six Unique Character Classes
Each Pro caters to their unique style of play and comes with their own
set of upgradeable skills. Customize those skills and abilities even
further with a variety of unlockable products and “My Pro”
create-a-class feature.

Career
Extensive career meta-game gives players lots of room to enhance their
Pro and show off their gaming prowess.

Uber Entertainment, Inc. is a privately held video game development
company headquartered in beautiful downtown Kirkland, WA. Founded in
March of 2008 by veteran developers, Uber Entertainment is working on
an amazing blend of awesome technology and innovative gameplay. Team
members have worked on many platforms including PC, PS1, PS2, GCN,
Xbox, 360, PSP, Wii, and iPhone. Additional information about Uber can
be obtained through the Uber Entertainment Web site at
www.uberent.com. “

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Company of Heroes Gold $14.99
AI War: Fleet Command $9.99
Mr. Robot $9.95

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Zero Gear $14.99
AI War: Fleet Command $9.99
DiRT 2 $19.99

Good Old Games –
Tex Murphy 1+2 $2.99
Tex Murphy: OverSeer $4.99
Tex Murphy: The Pandora Directive $4.99
Tex Murphy: Under a Killing Moon $4.99

Direct2Drive
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II $19.95

Gamers Gate
Napoleon’s Campaigns $19.95
Birth of America $7.49
Birth of America II – Wars in America $24.95
American Civil War $24.95
World War One $24.95

XBLA
Magic: The Gathering 0400 msp

Data care of NPD Group

PlayStation 2 333.2K
PlayStation 3 1.36M
PSP 654.7K
Xbox 360 1.31M
Wii 3.81M
Nintendo DS 3.31M

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 2.82M
WII FIT PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 2.41M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 1.79M
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 1.63M
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 1.12M
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Feb-07 1.01M
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 936.1K
ASSASSIN’S CREED II 360 UBISOFT Nov-09 783.1K
LEFT 4 DEAD 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Nov-09 728.5K
MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Sep-09 656.7K

Thems some numbers alright. What can you say except that this is has been one crazy generation in terms of sales. Quality wise we’re still going to be debating that for years to come, but this generation has just exploded in terms of units purchased, both hardware-wise and software-wise.

More detailed info to come as they come to light.

Upate: Here’s the analysis from NPD’s Anita Frazier:

Overall

“The video game industry experienced its biggest sales month ever, besting last December by 4%. It wasn’t enough, though, to compensate for the sales decline throughout the year, and so full-year sales came in 8% below last year’s record-setting revenues.”

“The only category to see an increase over last year was portable hardware, which was up due to a 7% increase in the average retail price. The DS platform, across all categories, contributed 17% of total industry dollars in 2009, up three points from 2008.”

“Unit sales were down only 6% from last year. Average retail prices were down in all categories except for portable hardware and accessories, which led to the greater dollar sales decline.”

“December marks just the fourth month of the year where the industry saw an increase over last year. January and February were both up, and since the decline that began in March, only September experienced growth. The big sales this month, particularly on the hardware front, is a positive move for the industry headed into what will hopefully be a recovery year in 2010.”

Hardware

“There are a lot of hardware records this month. The PS3 realized it’s biggest month of sales ever, and the first time sales have exceeded 1 million units. The Wii and the DS also had their biggest sales months ever, and in fact the two platforms hold the top two spots in sales of any hardware device in a single month. Overall, it was the biggest month of sales for hardware on both a dollar and unit basis.”

“This current generation of console hardware has outsold the last by more than 9 million units during the first 50 months in the market.”

“Hopefully, the big increase in the overall install base of hardware systems will bring good things for software sales in 2010, especially with the incredible line-up of content coming out early in the year.”

Software

“The best-selling game of the month was New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which also captures the third spot on the annual top 10 list for 2009.”

“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the fourth best-selling game of all time. In fact, 3 of the top 10 games of all time are Call of Duty games.”

“The music/dance genre was the best-selling genre for the month and second best for the year behind first-person shooters.”

“Madden NFL 10 had a big month selling 1.5 million units across all platforms, besting last December’s performance of the ’09 game. December’s sales made up some of the lost ground realized out the gate when the title came to market in August.”

“Software sales in December were more concentrated among the top games this year than last. This year, 20% of sales came from the top SKU’s, whereas last December it was just 12%.”

“6 of the top 10 games totaling 20.8 million units for the year were on the Wii platform as compared to 4 last year at 19 million units.”

Accessories

“7 of the top 10 accessories items in December were for the Wii platform, along with the Xbox Live Points card and wireless controllers for the Xbox 360 and PS3.”

Quite a month.

- The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Sins of a Solar Empire $16.99
Majesty 2 – The Fantasy Kingdom Sim $14.99
Supreme Commander Gold $14.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Serious Sam HD $6.79

Direct2Drive
The Saboteur $44.95
AI War: Fleet Command $9.95

Gamers Gate
Crusaders: Thy Kingdom Come $17.95

XBLA
A Kingdom for Keflings 0400 msp

After replaying Fallout 2 and Tactics, I’ve found myself interested in the strategy genre again, especially turn-based and grid-based games. I started to replay X-Com and Jagged Alliance, but I soon realized that I wanted to try something else. Not just anything else though. Something… old-school in design, yet it would still take the best parts of the modern era and fuse them seamlessly into gameplay. Enter Darkwind.

Darkwind is a persistent turn-based car combat MMO with elements of EVE (the good parts, anyway) and the old board game Dark Future. Yes, you read that right. How does it work? It’s rather simple, actually.

First, you sign up on the official site. You then get to create your own gang, complete with two starting punks. Each member (you can recruit one member a week for free, if you want to recruit anymore within the same week you must pay an in-game fee) has randomly generated stats determining his courage, driving ability, marksmanship with hand-and-mounted weapons, and so on. You then take your gang and sign up for different events, whether they be racing events (as the name implies), death races (races except with guns), and Combat (all-out car combat, last man/team standing wins). There’s an event usually every ten minutes, so you’re never waiting too long for the type of game you want to play.

Once you have your gang in a car, the turn-based part of the game begins. It’s a lot like Combat Mission, actually; you have an orders turn, where you and everyone else (at the same time) plan your actions for the next five seconds or so of gameplay. IE, how fast you’re going, what direction you’re turning the steering wheel in, who you’re targeting, etc. Once everyone has selected “done”, the events that you planned take place before your very eyes. Sound easy? It’s not. The physics are pretty realistic, so don’t expect to turn on a dime if you’re going at 90 miles per hour. You can even tip over if you have one of the top-heavy vehicles (or if you put too many heavy weapons on one side of the vehicle). You can’t just floor it and drive around the whole arena, you have to think about your current turn and what you may want to do in the future.

Combat, as mentioned, is pretty deep. Different weapons have all different types of attributes, including weight, magazine size and weight (this is important, as you keep extra mags in your trunk). All projectiles are handled like real-world ones, and they can ricochet off of armor or even the inside of your car. By the way, did I mention that your gang members can die? Don’t be surprised if someone gets a lucky shot through your car door, killing your favorite gang member. Of course, most of the time the injuries are pretty minor, and anything really serious can be patched up with a visit to the hospital, which all happens in real-time. So far, the longest I’ve had anyone out for was my best heavy gunner for about two weeks.

One thing I really enjoyed about Darkwind is how the game works in regards to subscribers. You can create an account for free, and take part in all of the open competitions and earn money and experience for your gang. There’s no time limit, so you can feel free to see how you feel about the game after a week or two. You can rent cars and customize them to use in the open events and league events (when you‘re just starting out or if you‘re short on cash, you can enter events where cars are supplied if you can‘t even rent one). If you subscribe to Darkwind ($20 for 3 months, $34 for 6 months, $58 for 12 months), you get a whole slew of features, such as the ability to own your own car, lockups, participating in in-game missions, and so on.

I really love Darkwind, and I’m really upset that I haven’t been able to get into it as much as I’d like to due to time issues. You can hop on for a few minutes for one event, or you could just spend the whole afternoon racing and shooting, with a backlog of registered events. The non-in-game stuff (customizing cars, recruiting gang members, etc) could keep you busy for hours when you’re at work or otherwise can’t boot up the game itself.

Score 8/10

This review is based on a review copy provided to Life Inside the Box by the game’s publisher.

Darkwind: War on Wheels can be found at http://www.dark-wind.com/

On the other hand you have both Capcom and SEGA saying how they’re probably going to be focusing more of their efforts on the HD twins due to the slow sales of their Mature-themed titles on the system. The fact that their recent Wii titles with actual effort put into them haven’t been met with the same success as Nintendo’s own titles have caused both companies to give a “Not really” line to the press when asked if they’re going to continue testing the Wii waters with Mature titles.

According to the link above from Industry Gamers, Sega of America studio director Constantine Hantzopoulos said that many used the Dead Space title made for Wii as a “litmus test” that EA put actual effort into and not just skimping on the details because it was a Wii title. The end result like most of these “tests” was less than flattering sales in the end, a “slow burner” that doesn’t give the team much satisfaction and hope for future prospects on the system.

So while we have the Wii breaking every monthly record the PS2 set during it’s prime we also have third party companies giving the Wii the same reaction they gave previous Nintendo consoles during the past decade. One of apathy and a general feeling of “Meh” with their tests with the Wii consumer market just not living up to their hopes. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Time of Shadows / Dawn of Magic 2 $14.99
Cities XL $19.99 Our review
Odd Combo Pack $4.99
Dawn of Discovery $34.99
Divinity II Ego Daraconis $44.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Counter-Strike: Source $5.00
Dreamkiller $22.49

Good Old Games –
Realms of Arkania 1+2 $4.49
Realms of Arkania 3 $4.49
Warlords Battlecry 3 $7.99

Direct2Drive
Empire Earth $4.95
Empire Earth II Platinum $4.95
Empire Earth III $4.95
Manhunt 2 $14.95
Rise of Flight $34.99 Use code 5OFFRISEOFFLIGHT

Gamers Gate
Hearts of Iron 3 $11.98
Elven Legacy $14.95
Multiwinia $4.95
Tropico Reloaded $4.95
East India Company $11.98
Majesty 2 $7.48

XBLA
Rockband No doubt the singles 1992-2003 1200 msp

Data care of NPD Group
Reporting Period: 11/1 – 11/28/09

PlayStation 2 203.1K
PlayStation 3 710.4K
PSP 293.9K
Xbox 360 819.5K
Wii 1.26M
Nintendo DS 1.70M

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 4.20M (Ed. Note: Oh Infiinity Ward)
CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Nov-09 1.87M
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Nov-09 1.39M
ASSASSIN’S CREED II 360 UBISOFT Nov-09 794.7K
LEFT 4 DEAD 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Nov-09 744.0K
WII SPORTS RESORT* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 720.2K
WII FIT PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Oct-09 679.0K
ASSASSIN’S CREED II PS3 UBISOFT Nov-09 448.4K
DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS* 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Nov-09 362.1K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 315.0K

There’s really no way around those Call of Duty numbers, it’s the biggest franchise this gen, Activision’s already announced another COD for next fall, the games don’t even have to be good at this point, the franchise is gonna be sticking around for a long, long while.

On the Hardware front the usual unit sales flow of DS > Wii > 360 > PS3 > PSP has proven itself again, even though some were expecting the PS3 to have overtaken the 360 in the past month. The PS3′s been almost entirely relaunched and it still couldn’t beat the 360. Hell if you count LFD2 due to it being exclusive for the consoles on the 360, the PS3 is the only console without an exclusive title in the Top Ten. Uncharted 2 may get a shit-ton of GOTY awards in the next few weeks but like I said last month, it’s almost a Metroid Prime Situation with the series. The hardcore love for the title is hard like a rock, but the sales just haven’t resonated with most of the audience for the console it’s on.

And the PSP.

Oh the PSP.

Y’know most Gamestops still have fresh unopened UMD movies they try and get people to buy every year. They’re an interesting relic from a media that seemed so promising six…has it been over six years now since UMD was first revealed along with the PSP? At least the PSP outsold the PS2 last month. That counts for something right? – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Tropico Reloaded $4.99
Starscape $9.95

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Tomb Raider: Underworld $7.49

Good Old Games –
Expendable $4.49
Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising $4.49
Incoming + Incoming Forces $4.49
Mobile Forces $4.49

Direct2Drive
Altitude $9.95
Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition $45.95 Use code 5OFFFALL3GOTY

Gamers Gate
Dead Space $23.95
Crysis Warhead $23.95
Red Faction Guerrilla + Red Faction 1 & 2 $29.92

XBLA
Sonic The Hedgehog 2 240 msp

As its rather cumbersome title might indicate, For the Glory: A Europa Universalis Game is quite proud of its ancestry, one which traces all the way back to the 1993 release of the Europa Universalis board game, and which hit its peak with 2001′s Europa Universalis II , a solid PC title which artfully combined the strategic nation management aspects of Civilization with the real-time energy of the Command and Conquer series. Unfortunately for the wider gaming public, For the Glory is so proud of its accomplished big brother that it’s determined to improve almost nothing from the latter game, and consequently ends up offering up an experience that has all the freshness (but little of the fun) of an MC Hammer joke.

Now, I’ll bet you didn’t believe me when I said that almost nothing has been changed, right?  “Surely,” you might be thinking, “a company existing in 2009 can’t just re-release a game from 2001 and charge $20 for it, right?” Well, to be fair, a few new things have been added. The already mind-boggling array of playable countries from EU II has been expanded even further; you now have an international smörgåsbord of over 180 choices. Ever wanted to take the helm of the Iroquois Confederacy? The African Empire of Mali? The Candar Sultanate? Finally, your lifelong dream can come true. Sure, most of the selectable countries (especially those outside of Europe) are too small and economically useless to ever accomplish anything, but what could be more fun than watching helplessly as your country gets swallowed up by rampaging imperialists? Nothing, I dare say, and I’m relatively confident that your average Navajo, Korean, or Frenchman would be quick to agree.

For the Glory also adds a plethora of real historical events for every country to deal with, which I’ll admit offer up some pretty interesting choices. Playing as the German State of Hesse, do I join the Catholic League and risk a war with France and Britain, or stay neutral and give the Austrians reason to invade? Not only do these events add variety and replay value to the gameplay, they’re also genuinely educational, which you certainly can’t say about your average real-time strategy game, Red Alert 3′s valuable insights into Cold War politics excluded.

However, the more things change, the more they stay the same, and adding a few little flourishes is a poor distraction from the fact this game is really nothing more than Europa Universalis II with a different title. The graphics, for example, are unchanged, and since they looked pretty grainy even in 2001 it should come as no surprise that they’re positively hideous by today’s standards. The absurd difficulty curve is also pretty much the same; new players are still bound to be scared away by the quick pace, cumbersome layers of interface, and incomplete tutorials, and it’ll probably take them a few failed playthroughs before they start to grasp any kind of formula for success. Worst of all, the gameplay itself is exactly the same, and all of the little irritations that plagued EU II are carried over wholesale to annoy a new generation of gamers.

But perhaps I’m getting a little ahead of myself. For those unfamiliar with the series, here’s how the aforementioned gameplay works: once you’ve chosen your nation and start date (by default, the game comes to an end in 1819) you’ll be plopped down onto a map of the world. Once you’ve figured out which armies and provinces belong to you (a task made unnecessarily difficult by the default map setting, which doesn’t differentiate national borders,) you’ll begin overseeing your country’s day-to-day domestic operations. This consists mostly of balancing your budget, upgrading your infrastructure and tax collection network, and recruiting soldiers (or hiring mercenaries) to defend your territories. You can also adjust slider bars to make subtle changes to your country’s political, economic, religious and systems, making your nation more or less autocratic, mercantilist, or tolerant of opposing beliefs. These changes, in turn, will effect gameplay elements like recruitment costs, tax revenues, and your diplomatic reputation, allowing you to tweak your country’s production capabilities to suit your current needs. If you’ve got extra gold to spend, you can also send out missionaries to indoctrinate your people with the state religion, or merchants to establish trading posts and bring in some long-term revenue.. Unfortunately, you can’t just send these specialists out wily-nilly: you only have a finite number at any given time, and they regenerate slowly over the course of a year. Not only is this an unnecessarily abstract way of handling things (how does a country with 100,000 people produce two merchants per year?), but in certain situations it can be absolutely infuriating, especially when you see a small groundswell of unhappiness because of religious differences turn into a full-scale revolt because you had to sit and wait patiently for your nation to produce a missionary. Overall, though, once you figure out that most of the basic elements of domestic policy can be handled by simply right-clicking your province (something the game’s woefully inadequate tutorials mention only peripherally) managing your country becomes pretty nicely streamlined, especially if you automate merchant placement and other tedious micromanagement tasks. If you do choose to delegate, however, you might well find that, at least during peacetime, you’ve got absolutely nothing to do except watch history play itself out, which kind of defeats the purpose of playing a game rather than, say, watching a Ken Burns documentary.

Of course, not all of a ruler’s duties lie in the domestic field; you’ll also occasionally need to interact with the smelly foreigners that live along your borders. Fortunately, in the grand tradition of  aristocracy, you don’t have to do any of the legwork yourself. Instead, you’ll send settlers to help you establish control over neutral territories, and diplomats to dictate your foreign policy by forging treaties, delivering insults, or handing out gifts. While the diplomacy in For the Glory is overly simplistic, I’ll give it credit for being reliable: neutral and allied nations will rarely break faith and attack you, while nations that have historical reasons for hating you will try to bully you every chance they get. If things get heated enough, they might even launch into that most profoundly human sector of diplomacy, a good old-fashioned war.

And war, unfortunately, is where the flaws in the Europa engine really start to show themselves. First of all, you can’t start a conflict with somebody by just firing their ambassador’s head out of a catapult and burning a swath through their territory: you have to observe basic formalities and declare it through one of your diplomats. And if you don’t have any diplomats, well… tough cookies, peace will continue its dreadful reign until you do. Even if you’ve got a diplomat lying around, though, it’s important to have a legitimate beef with the person you’re attack, lest your country’s National Stability rating (which effects everything from army morale to trade incomes) come crashing down like a meteorite. Fortunately, it’s not too difficult to produce a casus belli with somebody you want to attack . The easiest way is to just have your diplomats fire off a few insults, since (presumably for stupid reasons like  “honor” and “national dignity,”) your target will eventually return the favor,  giving you carte blanche to stomp all over them. Another good choice, if you’re feeling particularly self-righteous and have lots of money to burn, is to claim the ostentatious title “Sole Defender of the Faith,” which grants you license to attack any non-believers that mess with those who share your theories on postmortal destination. Whichever way you get the war started, though, waging it is bound to be something of a letdown. Land warfare, which makes up most of the action, takes place between only three types of units. Infantry are basically meat shields:  cheap, expendable, and necessary to implement a siege. Cavalry crush infantry in open spaces, but cost a great deal more and are useless in siege situations. Artillery are the most expensive (and most effective,) but require cover from the other two types of units to avoid instant capture. It’s a decent rock-paper-scissors sort of relationship, I guess, but it’s awfully simplistic, and doesn’t really match up with the actual conduct of pre-Napoleonic warfare, where well-positioned infantry with pikes, crossbows, or gunpowder weapons could massacre even the most well-armored cavalry. Anyway, like it or not, you won’t have to bother with any of that complicated “strategy” nonsense, and for the most part all you’ll need to do is build up a big ball of cavalry, drag along a few infantry and cannon for support, and try to make sure your economy doesn’t collapse before you can force the enemy to surrender and cough up the rights to the territories you’ve captured. Oh, and kudos to the developers for having the battles still consist of watching two goofy little animated soldiers poke at each other in a 200 x 50 pixel dirt square. Without a doubt, this kind of epic action captures the chaotic thrill of medieval combat far better than the massive real-time battles of the Total War Series.

Bottom line: For the Glory is a game for Europa Universalis II fanatics only. While its gameplay mechanics are relatively solid, its historical depth is impressive, and its mod-ability will no doubt delight the series’ dedicated online community (which developed much of the new content in the first place,) none of that changes the fact this is a game that’s 8 years old… and definitely shows it. While Europa Universalis II was a decent game, it’s been eclipsed many times over in the years since it’s release, and having a development studio try to charge two sawbucks for it in 2009 is right on the border between embarrassing and insulting. Most gamers would be well advised to give it a miss.

Score: 4/10

Thanks to this post by NeoGaffer grandjedi 6 you can see the actual journey Ubisoft took from an interesting start with the system during it’s launch, and see the gradual downward spiral as more and more of those quality titles were coming out. Right around the time it seems when Ubisoft declared that they take the money from the Wii titles they were making money off of and use the money to fund games for the HD consoles. But they still came out with a lot of Wii titles since then! A….a lot of them. A lot of, crap.

Thanks to IGN, you can actually see the entire catalog of Ubisoft’s Wii efforts here.

Their efforts.

Wii
1701 A.D.
Academy of Champions Soccer
American Popstar: Road to Celebrity
Arthur and the Revenge of Maltazard
Arthur and the Two Worlds War
Avatar: The Game
Avatar: The Game (Limited Edition)
Babysitting Party
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars — The Director’s Cut
Brothers in Arms: Double Time
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Deadly Intent
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hard Evidence
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cook Wars
Cosmic Family
Cranium Kabookii
Dawn of Discovery
Dogz 2008
Driver: Parallel Lines
Eden
Emergency Heroes
Family Fest Presents Circus Games — 20 Big Top Classics!
Family Fest Presents Movie Games
Family Feud: 2010 Edition
Far Cry Vengeance
GT Pro Series
GT Pro Series (with Racing Wheel)
Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout
Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game
Hell’s Kitchen
Heroes
Imagine: Fashion Party
Imagine: Party Babyz
Just Dance
Killing Day
Monster 4X4 World Circuit (standard edition)
Monster 4X4 World Circuit (with Racing Wheel)
Monster 4×4: Stunt Racer
Monster 4×4: Stunt Racer (with Racing Wheel)
My Fitness Coach
My French Coach
My Spanish Coach
My Word Coach
Nitrobike
No More Heroes
No More Heroes / Red Steel — 2 Games, One Low Price
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Open Season
Petz Rescue: Endangered Island
Petz Rescue: Wildlife Vet
Petz Sports
Petz: Catz 2
Petz: Crazy Monkeyz
Petz: Dogz 2
Petz: Horse Club
Petz: Horsez 2
Press Your Luck: 2010 Edition
Prince of Persia: Rival Swords
Protöthea
Rabbids Go Home
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party
Red Steel
Red Steel 2
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip (Target Edition)
Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage
Spelling Spree!
Sports Party
Surf’s Up
TMNT
Team Elimination Games
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
The Adventures of TinTin
The Dog Island
The Price Is Right (2008)
The Price is Right: 2010 Edition
Tom Clancy’s HAWX
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas / Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter — 2 Games, One Low Price
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent
Vacation Sports
Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey
Wordfish
Your Shape

EFFORTS

Note that some of those titles were actually canceled and haven’t been removed from the above list.

However, yes Petz: Crazy Monkeyz is an actual title they released to market.

– The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Prince of Persia $22.49
Supreme Commander Gold $22.49
Scrapland $9.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Star Wars Galaxies $9.99
Frontlines: Fuel of War $7.49

Luxor Complete Pack $14.99
Including:
Luxor $2.99
Luxor 2 $2.99
Luxor 3 $2.99
Luxor: Mah Jong $2.99
Luxor Amun Rising $2.99
Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife $2.99

Good Old Games –
In COld Blood $4.99

Settlers Pack $9.98
Including:
Heritage of Kings: The Settlers $6.99
The Settlers 2: Gold Edition $6.99

Direct2Drive
Torchlight $14.99 Use code 5OFFTORCH (Our Review)
Star Wars Galaxies: The Complete Online Adventures Premium Plus Pack $9.95
Star Wars(TM) Classics Pack $24.95
Including but not limited to:
Star Wars Republic Commando(TM)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy
Star Wars Jedi Knight II : Jedi Outcast

Gamers Gate
Tropico Reloaded $7.49

XBLA
3 on 3 NHL Arcade 400 msp

After the fantastic Grand Theft Auto IV, the announcement of downloadable expansions from Rock Star were immediately heralded as a great thing. Now, after both downloadable episodes are completed, they have been compiled together into a single stand alone expansion disk for those who may not have internet access or no longer have access to an original GTA IV disk.

The most important thing to know about Episodes from Liberty City is that if you enjoyed GTA IV, you will definitely enjoy these episodes. Both stories circle around the original GTA IV story, as you take on the roles of characters who cross Niko’s path and shine light on some of the rest of the story.

The first of the episodes, The Lost & Damned, is probably the better of the two if you are coming for the metaphor-laced look at the American dream that the original GTA IV brought to the table. You follow the story of Johnny “The Jew” Klebitz, a hardened biker, criminal, and vice president of the “The Lost” motor club. The episode draws Klebitz through a war with rival bikers, has him participate in a jewel heist, and culminates in a explosive finale that, while slightly unbelievable, will enthuse Rockstar’s fans.

The second episode, The Ballad of Gay Tony, falls shorter, however. It’s story is of Louis Lopez, bodyguard, criminal, and business partner for the titular troubled night club owner Tony Prince. Louis’s story again intersects with both Johnny’s and Niko’s, and his actions will directly effect some of the original game’s plot, filling in the occasional plot hole. However, the story is a more direct tale, dealing less on the satirical overtones that GTA IV thrives on, and instead plays the straight man for the series following Louis’s efforts to dig Tony out of debt to mobsters and maniacs alike. Gay Tony’s one major highlight comes from the over the top character Yusif, a Middle Eastern tycoon man-child with a penchant for military hardware.

My major disappointment with these expansions was the lack of storytelling magic that Rockstar managed to bring to the original. Grand Theft Auto IV was a story about the American dream and an immigrant’s failed attempt at making his way in America. It was a statement about how what we take with us can hold us back from achieving our dreams, and about the cost of revenge on the soul. This was done all the while shining a satirical light on the American culture and how the melting pot society isn’t necessarily mixing as well as we like to think. While The Lost & Damned comes close, neither story manages grab the storytelling threads and weave them into the epic tale that preceded them.

Being a compilation of downloadable content, it’s no surprise that all of the faults of GTA return in Episodes from Liberty City. The vehicles will still control awkwardly and in an exaggerated fashion, and the combat controls feel sluggish and rough. The graphics, while impressive for the scope, will still seem dated with fuzzy textures. The Lost and Damned does stand out for it’s improvements to bike control, however, making the motorcycle driving actually enjoyable.

If you are a diehard GTA IV fan, or merely just an enthusiast for the series, Episodes from Liberty City will be an enjoyable adventure, if somewhat lacking from the larger-scoped original. At it’s discounted price of $40, it definitely is worth the investment. However, if you weren’t happy with the original’s experience, these episodes don’t deviate far enough from that to change your mind.

Score: 7/10

While not exactly an exciting piece of news, it is an interesting development in the growing development of the industry through the IGDA. While it’ll be a long time before the industry can officially state they have unions or have any sort of solidified industry that isn’t just trying to mimic the larger and more mainstream entertainment brethren, it is a positive step forward in the growth of at least this particular section of the gaming industry. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Demigod $14.99
Tropico Reloaded $7.49

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Dreamkiller $19.99
Crysis $14.99
Crysis Warhead $14.99
QuantZ $4.99

Overlord Complete Pack $8.75
Including:
Overlord $1.50
Overlord II $7.50
Overlord: Raising Hell $2.50

Good Old Games –
Elixer Games Pack $9.98 50% Off both games
Including:
Evil Genius $6.99 30% off
Republic: The Revolution $6.99 30% off

Direct2Drive
Borderlands $44.95 Use code 5OFFBORDER

Gamers Gate
Fairy Tales: Three Heroes $14.95
Darkstar One $4.95
Company of Heroes Complete Pack $29.95

XBLA
Saints Row 2: Ultor Exposed 560 msp

PlayStation 2 117.8K
PlayStation 3 320.6K
PSP 174.6K
Xbox 360 249.7K
Wii 506.9K
Nintendo DS 457.6K

UNCHARTED 2: AMONG THIEVES (PS3; Oct-09) 537,000
WII FIT PLUS* (WII; Oct-09) 441,000
BORDERLANDS (360; Oct-09) 418,000
WII SPORTS RESORT* (WII; Jul-09) 314,000
NBA 2K10* (360; Oct-09) 311,000
HALO 3: ODST (360; Sep-09) 271,000
NBA 2K10* (PS3; Oct-09) 213,000
FORZA MOTORSPORT 3 (360; Oct-09) 175,000
KINGDOM HEARTS 358/2 DAYS (NDS; Sep-09) 169,000
FIFA SOCCER 10 (360; Oct-09) 156,000

The PSP Go launched this month didn’t-…yeah it did didn’t it? Yeah October 1st. That’s….that’s some low PSP hardware numbers for a new hardware SKU launch. I think even the GBA Micro helped the GBA Brand more than the Go’s helping the PSP the month it came out, and by then the GBA was already being put to pasture. The Micro was like the “NES Top Loader” of the GBA Line.

Well looking at software for October we’ve got Uncharted 2 making a respectable debut. Almost seems like it’s this generation’s Metroid Prime as a slow burner of a series that doesn’t quite match the sales with the gigantic critical acclaim they garner. Hmmm Forza 3 numbers look okay nothing special. Kingdom Hearts from last month surprisingly showing up near the bottom an-…wait where’s Brutal Legend? Oh God it’s happening again! It’s happening again it’s the Schaferfuede we always think Tim’s next great title is going to make his studio and himself recognized finally after all these years and the games turn out to be slow sellers.

It’s Schaferfuede I tells ya.

Well as interesting as these numbers are, they won’t compare in the slightest to November’s Large Marge-Sized Numbers on all fronts. Sure we already know MW2 will lead the software pack, will the HD Console Numbers reflect the release of the newest “Biggest Entertainment Launch in History” ?- The Ben

Update: From Geoff Keighly:

FYI, Brutal Legend sold 215.4K across PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

Ah, well that’s more respectable then. Schaferfuede confirmation delayed for now folks.

Now, we all knew this was going to happen. Activision knew it was going to happen. Grand Poobah Bobby Kotick knew the game was going to do this well. The question is, did they know skimping on the PC Version would have as much backlash at it did and if so, do they really care? They’ve got all the money in the world right now to make peace to the PC gamers, are they even going to bother fixing the bridges they burnt within the last two or three weeks with the disgruntled members of that community, or is it not even necessary at this point? – The Ben

It’s been ten years, but there’s finally a Diablo clone that’s better then the original Diablo. That’s right, you heard me. It’s Torchlight, and it should come as no surprise. After all, two of the lead designers, Max Schaefer and Erich Schaefer worked on both Diablo I and II. The rest of the team is rounded out by many people who made Mythos, another action-RPG made by former Blizzard employees.

It’s hard for me to talk about the gameplay in much detail, as it’s literally a copy of the greatest action RPG. You make your way through randomly generated dungeons finding randomly generated items as one of three player classes: The Destroyer (the very fun but typical melee-oriented bruiser), the Vanquisher (a cross between the Amazon and Rogue, using both ranged weapons and magical traps to defeat enemies), and the Alchemist (Basically the wizard with more DOT abilities). You get points to put into your attributes like strength and mana, and one skill point each level to put into a special power, like a charge that knocks back all enemies for the Destroyer, or a ricocheting shot for the Vanquisher. There’s three skill trees for each character, each tree with it’s own purpose. You don’t have to have points in a previous skill on the same tree to get to the next skill, you only need to meet the level requirement. You could put all of your points into one tree, or have a nice sampling throughout each of them, with a point or two in each of the high-level skills.

Not everything is the same, however. In Torchlight, you choose between one of two pets, a cat or a dog, to accompany you on your quests. There’s no actual gameplay difference between the two, but cool people will take the dog. They help you during combat, and they can even be powered up for a short time by feeding them certain fish (yes, there‘s a fishing minigame). One may turn them into a giant spider for two minutes, for example. Every form that your pet can take is radically different, from giant ice-beasts that slow your enemy to the aforementioned spider that poisons them. Your pet even has it’s own inventory, and can make runs back to the town merchant for you so you don’t have to waste a Scroll of Town Portal.

Anything that was annoying in Diablo 2 has since been fixed or taken out. You automatically pick up piles of gold that you come across on the ground, saving you from that annoying two minutes you’d have to take out of your life from just randomly clicking on objects on the ground (items that take up inventory slots still need to be manually picked up, and for good reason). When you hover over an item, your current equipped item’s stats show, taking a page from World of Warcraft.

The graphics are another thing inspired by that other Blizzard game. They’re cartoon-like, with enough detail and art design that the game looks amazing even if you play on a top-of-the-line gaming rig oir a netbook. Yes, there’s even a netbook option in the settings that automatically sets nearly everything to low-res and windowed. I love it so, and I wish more games would do this. I want more in-depth games for my netbook then just reinstalling Fallout and other games I nabbed from GOG.com. But I digress.

I have to say, the one major flaw with Torchlight is the story. The story is a pretty generic “corruption has affected this town/person and you must stop it”, and it’s not told in any sort of convincing way, with poor voice acting to boot. Even the most unoriginal plotline can become engaging if it’s told well or if there’s a real sense of urgency, but it seems like even the developers had trouble caring. You’ll go for long periods of time without being updated on any sort of story to tell you what to do. Not that you’ll ever be confused, but it can feel like you’re just going from talking head to talking head.

In the end, however, Torchlight is a very good game. It’s fun, the graphics are crisp and stylish, there are a ton of different enemies to hack and blow through, and there’s enough variety in the three different player classes to keep you playing a long time. It also doesn’t have anything like Act 3 from Diablo II, which by itself earns the game about a million brownie points. Torchlight may be the best thing you get in exchange for a single Jackson in a long time.

Final Rating: 9 out of 10

This review is based on a review copy provided to Life Inside the Box by the game’s publisher.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl $9.99
Flock $7.49
Shattered Suns $14.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Nation Red $6.99
Mass Effect $9.99

Good Old Games –
Lords of Magic: Special Edition $4.19
Lords of the Realm 3 $4.19
Lords of the Realm: Royal Edition $4.19

Direct2Drive
Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising $0.00 Use code 5OFFOPFLASH

Gamers Gate
Death Track: Resurrection $9.95
Painkiller $6.96
Painkiller Overdose $3.46

XBLA
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Including:
Variety Map Pack 400 msp

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
The Witcher Enhanced Edition $19.99 50% off
Hinterland Orc Lords $12.99
Aaaaa! A Reckless Disregard for Gravity $9.99
Dawn of War Collection $37.49 25% off

Steam - Weekend Deals:
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl $5.00 75% off
East India Company $11.99 60% off
Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare $23.99 40% off

Good Old Games –
ObsCure $6.99
Personal Nightmare $4.19
Waxworks $4.19

Direct2Drive
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines $4.95
Ghostbusters: the Video Game
SAW: The Video Game Use code 5OFFSAW

XBLA
Fable 2: Pub Games 400 msp

Call of Duty: WaW
Including:
Call of Duty: WaW: Map Pack 1 400 msp
Call of Duty: WaW: Map Pack 2 400 msp
Call of Duty: WaW: Map Pack 3 400 msp

Operating profit was 104.4 billion yen ($1.2 billion dollars) falling from last year’s 252.2 billion yen profit of H1 08.

The Wii has now outsold the SNES with lifetime sales of 56.14 million units while the DS is up to 113.48 million units. This is horrible as the SNES was a true gamer’s machine.

Last month’s price cut which took effect late in September, was still counted in the quarterly one report and eligible to be commented on by internet denizens as “Not good enough lol. Make some HARDCORE GAMES.”

So today all hardcore gaming journalists can rest easy knowing that they’re finally winning the battle between the plebeian casuals and their casual games. TRUE HARDCORE GAMERZ knew that the Wii’s success and failure hinged only on smoke and mirrors, and this news in no way, shape or form represents the Iwata-acknowledged fact that there was shit all to buy in the first quarter first-party-wise aside from Wii Sports Resort and Metroid Prime Trilogy.

Oh and I love how almost everyone reporting on this story includes a mention of Apple’s success with the iPod and iPhone. I mean yeah they’re successes but I don’t reeeeeaaaally think parents hold a game console (these articles are the same ones that rightfully mention sluggish Wii sales in their title as the reason for the drop in profit) in one hand and an iPhone in the other and it’s this big battle and OH MY GOD APPLE PLEASE MAKE A CONSOLE IN FACT I’M GONNA WRITE AN ARTICLE BASED ON CONJECTURE AND SPECULATION ABOUT THAT RIGHT NOW.

I mean, if they were talking about the iPhone being a competitor to the DS then yeah that’s a valid comparison they’re both portables. But just randomly inserting phrases like “Low Wii sales may also be related to the rise of the of the PSPGO and the iPhone” in these professional news stories (and these are professional online news outlets I’m seeing this at, not hobbyist gaming blogs) is…..GAH. -The Ben

Update: You think I was JOKING ABOUT THAT LAST PARAGRAPH? Goddamn FORBES just did it:

HONG KONG — Super Mario Brothers, Cooking Mama, Donkey Kong and all the other game characters Nintendo has conjured up weren’t powerful enough to fend off the challenges of a stronger yen and a new competitor called the iPhone.

Ha ha, I love a cheeky opening to a news story.

Demand for Wii, the bestselling videogame console produced by Nintendo, has been cooling down in the past few months as Apple’s iPhone has been growing in popularity as the platform of choice for handheld game players.

But…they’re two different…GAH.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
AI War: Fleet Command $14.99>
Red Faction Guerrila $19.99>
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare $28.89>

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Arma II $24.99 50% off
Killing Floor $14.99 AND FREE WEEKEND

Good Old Games –

Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator $4.99
JoWooD’s catalogue 30% off
Including:
Alien Nations
Painkiller Black Edition
Spellforce Platinum
The Guild Gold Edition

Direct2Drive
Aion $44.95 Use code 5OFFAION
Light of Altair $5.00

Gamers Gate
East India Company $14.49
Elven Legacy $14.49
THQ Pack 50% off
Including:
Red Faction Guerrilla
Company of Heroes Gold
Titan Quest Gold Edition

XBLA
RESIDENT EVIL 5
Including:
RESIDENT EVIL 5 Versus Mode 240 msp

Having covered cities, planets, farms, ant colonies, theme parks, helicopters, and more, Wil Wright’s massive Sim empire has long been the king of the genre. Yes, yes, there are imitators, and some might point to the expansive Tycoon franchise, but anyone who has played simulation games extensively will tell you that there is simply no contest. This year, however, French developer Monte Cristo is trying their hand at dethroning the long-time king with their city-building sim, Cities XL. However, unlike other clones that simply remade Sim City and hoped that people would bite, Cities XL takes the genre into relatively foreign territory by including massively multiplayer online play.

In some cases, pushing a genre into the world of massively multiplayer gaming can be good for it, resulting in new horizons opening up for the industry. City building, however, doesn’t seem to take to the transition well, and struggles a bit in the online world.

From the onset, Cities XL is a bit of an exercise in frustration. Between a slow-as-molasses registration website and a slavish data entry system, it probably took me a half an hour after install to get the game to launch. I can forgive this, however, as many MMO games force you to sit through a lengthy registration process before unlocking the game’s content. Most, however, have a sizable amount of fresh content to offer once that registration is done. Cities, however, was somewhat lacking in that regard.

The game starts by dropping you into the avatar creator, an incredibly bloated and horribly designed character customization screen. My first thoughts involved me wondering what exactly I would need an avatar for in a city building sim, but I went with it. Changing a value on the various sliders caused my machine to hang for a second or two before the changes were reflected on my avatar. After several minutes of tinkering with the controls, I realized that there was nothing I could do to make my horribly ugly avatar look attractive at all, and I began to simply click “random”. Let me tell you, the characters in this game are just hideous. The avatar art direction is horrid; these are the things of nightmares.

After choosing a ridiculous character with a purple mohawk, a business suit top and athletic shorts, I chose to play in “planet mode,” the online version of the game. I was taken to a gigantic planet with thousands of plots, where I was told to choose a spot for my city. Although the vague descriptions of each available plot were wholly unhelpful, I was able to choose one in short order and begin building my city.

Any seasoned simulation gamer will notice immediately that the game is much, much more forgiving than Sim City. When you mess something up, say, place too many retail plots and too few residential plots, the citizens don’t simply up and leave; they become dissatisfied with you and a small notification informs you that you need to try harder. In my time playing the game, I spent about 5% of the time with negative revenue, and even in those times, solving the problem was as easy as placing some new housing plots to create tax income. As your city grows, the economy becomes a little more volatile, but overall, the game feels like a free ticket to the end of the tech tree. This gives the game a sort of ‘sandbox’ feel, which, while unattractive to seasoned city-building sim players, makes the game very approachable for people new to the scene. This also, however, means that the online portion of the game is more or less pointless.

The online functionality includes a global chat window, the ability to view other players’ cities, and the ability to send your avatar to ground level to walk around in said cities. This, however, seems to be almost an afterthought. The avatars move around in response to mouse clicks. That is, sometimes they walk, sometimes they simply teleport. It seems to be arbitrary as to which. The game also chugs to a crawl in this mode, even on a high-end rig.

You can also trade resources online with other players, while in the single player mode, you can only trade with the computer, who makes a point to rip you off. However, the resources that players demand and the resources that players have a surplus of are almost uniform across the board. This means that the things you are trying to buy are sold out, and the market is saturated with the things you’re trying to sell. So, even online, you’re reduced to trading with the computer.

Playing the online mode also removes the fast-forward ability that is present in the single-player mode, meaning you have to sit through every last day of your city’s life. Don’t think you can leave your computer to simply idle as your city grows, either. If the game receives no input for a certain amount of time, the game pauses, so you more or less have to be playing the whole time. An option to disable this might have been nice.

There are also a number of frustrations. The grid-based plot laying only allows you to use the absolute smallest paved road, meaning that traffic ties up far too easily. If you choose to lay your own roads and fill it in with plots, the game’s very precise angles for laying roads ensures that you will, nine times out of ten, run out of room for the buildings you want to place. The citizens also seem to be unable to drive more than a mile away from home to get to work. If your citizens demand new industry when you’re sitting with a field of empty industrial plots, it may be because no one wants to work more than walking distance away from home. The game is vague on this, and it took some trial and error to realize. It all adds up to a very annoying and tedious system of city planning.

Graphically, the game is solid. You can zoom all the way in to street level and move around as though you were driving (or flying, as it were) about the landscape. Everything is fairly crisp, and the engine scales way down for older machines. The sound, however, is very lackluster. Weak music and almost no sound effects leave a lot to be desired.

For all the bad with the game, however, there is still a fair amount of good. The economy is visibly dynamic, reacting to changes and quickly reflecting the merit of your decisions. The tech tree is large and ever-expanding, and the mechanics all seem to work in spite of the odd hang ups. You can build a very large city without resorting to cheat codes, and when you mess up, the game understands and grants you some leeway. Don’t come in to this game expecting a new beginning for the genre, but if you’re looking for a fun and good-looking time sink, you could do worse.

Cities XL is a solid city building sim that could be a decent introduction to the genre for new players. Veterans, however, would do well to stick to the Sim City series, and there is almost no reason to fork up the 9 dollars a month they ask for online access. Try the free week, get bored of it, and move on. The game definitely needs a few more wipes with the polishing rag, but for a first stab into the world of MMO city builders, it’s not bad. Not revolutionary, not great. But, not bad.

6/10

This review is based on a review copy provided to Life Inside the Box by the game’s publisher.

Nintendo could announce its first drop in profits for six years, according to market watchers.

Income for the Japanese giant is likely to fall 11 per cent to JPY 249.3 billion, the first drop since the 12 months ended March 2004, according to Bloomberg.

“Nintendo may cut its profit projection about 30 per cent because of sluggish sales in the first half, the price cut for the Wii and currency-related impact,” said Satoru Kikuchi, of Deutsche Bank AG in Tokyo. “Investors are expecting the company to fully reflect its business environment in its forecast.”

The company will announce its results on October 29, and had originally forecast JPY 300 billion net income this year.

Sales of the Wii console have been falling, with the hardware outsold by Sony’s PlayStation 3 last month in the US.

Nintendo was the last of the big three hardware manufacturers to cut the price of its console in the US, Japan and Europe, although the street price remains the same in the UK.

Oh no, a foreseen drop in momentum could lead to a decrease in profit that will still be higher than most of the industry’s profits for the first half? Oh God NO! Only a total company overhaul in preparation for the Wii HD could possibly save them now. The mythical Wii HD as foretold by Michael Pachter that doesn’t actually exist so don’t get your hopes up and stop trying to get people to believe that one’s coming.

And people writing this month’s news that the PS3 outsold everything like it was a shock, a SHOCK. No it wasn’t a shock. It was expected by everyone. Everyone. EVERYONE. – The Ben

PlayStation 2 146.0K
PlayStation 3 491.8K
PSP 190.4K
Xbox 360 352.6K
Wii 462.8K
Nintendo DS 524.2K

HALO 3: ODST (360; Sep-09) 1.52M
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS (WII; Jul-09) 442.9K
MADDEN NFL 10 (360; Aug-09) 289.6K
MARIO & LUIGI:BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY (NDS; Sep-09) 258.1K
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND* (360; Sep-09) 254.0K
MADDEN NFL 10 (PS3; Aug-09) 246.5K
MARVEL:ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2 (360; Sep-09) 236.0K
BATMAN:ARKHAM ASYLUM* (PS3; Aug-09) 212.5K
GUITAR HERO 5* (360; Sep-09) 210.8K
THE BEATLES:ROCK BAND* (WII; Sep-09) 208.6K

Right away we can see how effective the PS3 Slim has been in terms of giving the PS3 a new lease on life in terms of Hardware popularity. Expected by just about everybody out there, this is a performance we might not see again for a while from the PS3 until the Holiday Season, but maybe Uncharted 2 will keep the PS3 numbers from free falling as quickly as they rose up.

Other than that it’s a pretty standard September month, the usual bunch of gamers who waited until Madden drops in price one month after it’s release keep it on the charts. Halo 3: ODST did really well, but didn’t help the 360 to overtake a Wii that managed a last minute price drop in the latter half of September to try and get back to previous highs that the system experienced last year. PS3 SKU of Batman:AA is seeing continued success, the Joker helping the SKU staying in the Top 10.

And just for old times sake Mario pops in to say hi, the reign over the Top 10 Sales chart for almost this entire year all but gone now.

Hope the rest of the NPD reports for 2009 are this exciting. – The Ben

Look, nobody’s blaming Bobby Kotick for everything negative action that Activision has put forth for the last few years. Certainly one man can’t be the direct cause for dropping games that can’t be “exploited”, trying to make the removal of features for games such as LAN for StarCraft 2 look like a good idea, and now this business with no dedicated servers for the PC version of a highly-anticipated multiplayer-focused FPS title that they know is going to sell more copies of itself than a few game consoles have sold more hardware in their entire lifespan. Money’s not the problem here.

But I can see how one might think the entire company is influenced by the face of Activision.

Actually, most of these descisions this year have seemingly been targeted towards PC gamers more than anything else. No, I’m not saying Bobby Kotick is trying to systematically dismantle PC Gaming or anything of that sort. I mean even if he’s the guy who “joked” about creating a work environment that purposefully depresses it’s employees he’s….he’s….

Alright yeah it looks like he’s somehow single-handily taken Activision from it’s “Plucky Tony Hawk and Spider-Man developing underdog development company” of the early years of this decade to “The New EA” and all the spoils that that title comes with. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Street Fighter IV [/blippr] PC $29.99
[blippr]Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Gratuitous Space Battles[/blippr] Pre-Order $19.95

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Gold Edition[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Warhammer 40,000™: Dawn of War II[/blippr] $19.99

[blippr]THQ Collector Pack [/blippr] $89.99
Including:
[blippr]Titan Quest [/blippr]
[blippr]S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl[/blippr]
[blippr]Full Spectrum Warrior[/blippr]
[blippr]Company of Heroes[/blippr]
[blippr]Warhammer 40,000™: Dawn of War II[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
EARTH 2150 TRILOGY $4.99

Ground Control Pack $8.38
Including:
[blippr] Ground Control + Expansion[/blippr]
[blippr]Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus SE[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
Drakensang: The Dark Eye $24.99 Use code 5OFFDRAKENSANG
East India Company $5.00

Gamers Gate
X-Com Complete Pack $7.49
Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection $9.95

XBLA
[blippr]Hasbro Family Game Night[/blippr]
Including:
Sorry! 400 msp
Boggle 400 msp
Battleship 400 msp
Scrabble 400 msp
Connect Four 400 msp
Yatze 400 msp

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Sins of a Solar Empire[/blippr] $19.99
[blippr]Gratuitous Space Battles[/blippr] $19.95
[blippr]THQ Classic FPS Bundle[/blippr] $29.99
Including:
[blippr]Red Faction[/blippr]
[blippr]Red Faction 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Full Spectrum Warrior[/blippr]
[blippr]Full Spectrum Warrior – Ten Hammers[/blippr]

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Empire: Total War[/blippr] $24.99
The Hitman Collection $9.99
Including:
[blippr]Hitman: Codename 47[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Hitman 2: Silent Assassin[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Hitman: Blood Money[/blippr] $4.99

Good Old Games –
Arx Fatalis $4.99
DotEmu Sale $5.98
Including:
[blippr]Ishar Compilation[/blippr]
[blippr]Robinson’s Requiem Collection[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
Battlefield 2 Complete Collection $24.99 Use code 5OFFBF2CC

Direct 2 Drive Turns 5: Week 5
Including:
[blippr]Company of Heroes Gold[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Supreme Commander Gold[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]World in Conflict Gold Edition[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena[/blippr] $5.00

XBLA
[blippr]Prince of Persia[/blippr]
Including:
Epilogue 560 msp

The statement isn’t so strange in it’s meaning, both the 32X and Natal were/are supposed to prolong the life cycle of their respective consoles with new and unique ways of gaming you couldn’t previously get on those systems. It’s strange in the fact that the 32X, along with SEGA’s other notable console add-on the SEGA-CD, weren’t all that successful in keeping the Genesis alive in the long run.

Matt ends the update with his own opinion of believing Natal to end up costing around $150 at launch. Everyone knew this add-on wouldn’t be cheap, but that does seem reasonable when you consider it as a full fledged add-on instead of looking at it as a mere accessory like an Eye Toy or Motion Plus. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Company of Heros $22.49 25% off
Warlords Battlecry III $6.99
Europa Universalis III Rome Gold $9.98 50% off

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]All Aspect Warfare[/blippr] $29.99 25% off
[blippr]Angle of Attack[/blippr] $18.74 25% off
[blippr]CrimeCraft[/blippr] $29.99 25% off
[blippr]Officers[/blippr] $14.99 50% off
[blippr]Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Grand Ages: Rome[/blippr] $19.99
[blippr]AudioSurf[/blippr] $4.99 50% off
[blippr]Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee[/blippr] $3.39
[blippr]Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus[/blippr] $3.39

Good Old Games –
Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror $4.99

Tex Murphy Games 30% off
Including:
Mean Streets + Martian Memorandum bundle $4.19
Under a Killing Moon $6.99
The Pandora Directive $6.99
Tex Murphy: Overseer $6.99

Direct2Drive
Deals Page $34.99 Use Code 5OFFREDFACTION

Direct 2 Drive Turns 5: Week 4
Including:
Mount and Blade $5.00
World of Goo $5.00
Defense Grid: The Awakening $5.00
Sword of the Stars $5.00
Saints Row 2 $5.00

XBLA
[blippr]Guitar Hero World Tour[/blippr] 25 % off select tracks
Including:
The Killers – Mr. Brightside 120 msp
Travis Barker – Low 120 msp
Blink 182 – What’s My Age Again 120 msp
Rick Springfield – Jessie’s Girl 120 msp
Queen – We Are The Champions 120 msp
Ram Jam – Black Betty 120 msp
Nickelback – Because of You 120 msp
Smashing Pumpkins – 1979 120 msp
Foreigner – Hot Blooded 120 msp
Blind Melon – No Rain 120 msp

He brings up the fact that every major entertainment industry has guilds of their own, and that having a GDG would bring stabilization and opportunities to the free agent game development world.

It would seem that a Guild for the Gaming Developers would be a worthwhile venture, maybe not for the Cliffy B’s of the world who already have it made but for the up and coming new talent that, by the time they’ve climbed the corporate ladder high enough and are in a position to see their dream project come to fruition, the passion just isn’t there anymore. That or the project was green-lighted yet twisted so out of shape during development that it hardly resembles the project first visualized by the fresh up-and-coming game developer.

Maybe Double Fine wouldn’t have had to take so long with their games if there was a sturdy Developer’s Guild already there to back their projects so that Schafer wouldn’t have had to keep shopping his game around to publishers he hoped would see his point of view?

Hell, maybe the saga of Too Human wouldn’t have ended the way it did if the title had been backed by this hypothetical GDG, helping the project get out on time and in a state that didn’t seem like the title was constantly falling apart after being worked on for over a decade. Guild funded time and money could have turned that project into something more than decent, maybe even up to a standard resembling that of greatness? Maybe? No? Not even a guild would have been able to-? Well, the industry has been young for decades now, and the onset of game developer guilds may be the next big step in it’s evolution as a unique entertainment medium. – The Ben

There are a few roadblocks this technology has that the site acknowledges on. One is that with this technology, usually you can’t capture the emotions of the player as quick as it would like, simply because of how fast the person might change their stance during gameplay, which is why the latest revision in this genre of facial recognition technology relies on having the person input specific facial commands ahead of time before putting the technology to work so that it has the previously mentioned library of expressions to recognize and employ.

Second, as noted in the comments of the story is that any sort of generated facial avatar would still look pretty damn cartoony and uncanny. Technology is still trying to find a way to eliminate that uncanny valley look that the faces generated would mostly be finding themselves in. One such solution put forth by Daniel Floyd is to stay on the stylization side of the uncanny valley for all it’s worth and the benefits that not taking the jump into photo-realism entails. Because seriously when I first looked at the photos of sample faces on the site I was like “GAH!” Either that one on the far right is trying to be stylized and succeeding, or trying to be photo-realistic and ending up looking like the love child of a Shrek Character and a wrestler. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Project Aftermath [/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Scrapland[/blippr] $6.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]F.E.A.R.2: Project Origin[/blippr] $24.99
[blippr]F.E.A.R.2: Reborn (DLC)[/blippr] $4.99

Good Old Games –
Spellforce Platinum $7.99 discount appears in cart.
20-50% off Strategy First Games
Including:
[blippr]Darkstar One[/blippr]
[blippr]Jagged Alliance[/blippr]
[blippr]Jagged Alliance 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Disciples Sacred Lands gold[/blippr]
[blippr]Flatout[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
Empire: Total War $44.95 Use code 5OFFEMPIRE

5 Year Anniversary Week 3
Including:
[blippr]Neverwinter Nights 2[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Assassin’s Creed Director’s Cut[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Titan Quest Bundle[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]GTA: Vice City[/blippr] $5.00

XBLA
Pinball FX 0000 msp

One such idea stemming from blog Law of the Game’s Editor in Chief Mark Methenitis is that of conscious parallelism, wherein he describes a scenario where one developer believes it’s game is so good that it should rightly charge more for it, considering the hefty development costs the game entailed. Other developers, believing their product is just as good as the first developer’s game, see no reason not to charge more for their titles as well, bringing the industry standard to that sixty dollars we know today.

One thing I hate is when people bring up the “Well the N64 and SNES had 70 dollar games last decade!” during these kinds of arguments. Yes, 70 dollar games weren’t uncommon back then, but even though many gamers remember the N64 and SNES as these great systems of old, they weren’t exactly as mainstream as many gamers might remember. The Playstation got a lot of traction for a variety of reasons, one of them being cheaper formats for both the developers and the consumers to work with. Developers didn’t have to charge seventy dollars for a PSX game to recoup the cost of ordering cartridges to put their games on.

This argument will probably get brought up again over the fall period as many of the new releases, while a lot of effort is put into them, might not resonate with the consumer concerning their sixty dollar price tags. Most notably gamers who aren’t that into Halo multiplayer for whatever reasons they have are taking issue with Halo 3: ODST at the moment. The game that was originally supposed to be a reasonably priced side story to the main Halo games ended up becoming a package of things that the majority of potential ODST customers weren’t exactly looking for. So when the credits roll for the first time after completing the single player portion of the game, some gamers might feel slighted by having this experience set them back more than half a Ben Franklin. – The Ben

So yeah that’s, really all there is for this news story. Wii’s fifty dollars cheaper, the NPD’s getting another Mario entry in it’s Top Ten on November 15th the PR also states.

Oh, and while it’s not related to the story in the least, today is the 120th birthday of Nintendo. Nice to see the whole video game venture worked out for them, after successful ventures like card games and toys could only bring them so far into the modern commerce mindset while other ventures like Taxi Businesses and…Love Hotels…weren’t as successful for them in the long run.

Of course the Wii now, for better and worse defines the company now a days, and it’s a wee bit cheaper as well, just in time for that all important Holiday Shopping Season. – The Ben

Of the interesting bits of into (note that none of these are confirmed to be in development in anyway) is that Sony is still quietly working on a solution to PS2 backwards compatibility with the PS3 of the downloadable variety, with the notes stating that Sony is trying to figure out ways to sell all (and the note does state all) PS2 games on the Playstation Network.

Other SEGA related info suggests that SEGA does in fact believe that money can be made off of old Dreamcast titles and would be interested in selling them digitally on the PSN if an agreement could be reached. A little late on capitalizing on the DC’s 10th Anniversary celebration but later is better than never right?

Speaking of downloadable titles, the leaked notes also suggest that SEGA is also interested in putting import-only titles onto the PSN such as Yakuza 3 directly. That means no need to spend money on having to come up with a good English Dub. Though the notes do state that the menus at least will have to be translated in order for the title to not be completely lost on us who do not speak the native tongue of the Yakuza.

Most of the notes aside from those are simply ones concerning game releases and development notes about hypothetical games. One such game being a collection of every Sonic the Hedgehog game for 99 US dollars. Now they state every Sonic game on the Blu-Ray disc would be on the collection but does that include the ones from the last decade? Do those have to be on a compilation disc? They do? Or else it isn’t a full complete compilation? Dang. – The Ben.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Aztaka[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]droplitz[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]scavenger[/blippr] $4.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Gary’s Mod[/blippr] $4.99 50% off
[blippr]Madballs in Babo: Invasion[/blippr] $7.99 20% off
[blippr]The Secret of Monkey Island™: Special Edition[/blippr] $4.99 50% off
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3 Black[/blippr] $8.0060% off
[blippr]Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition[/blippr] $1.9960% off
[blippr]Unreal Deal Pack [/blippr] $16.00 60% off

Good Old Games –
[blippr]Painkiller Black Edition[/blippr] $7.99 Discount applied in the cart.
Strategy Pack 25% off
Including:
Celtic Kings: Rage of war $4.49
Haegemonia: Gold Edition $7.49
Original War $4.49

Direct2Drive
Call of Duty 4 $34.95 use code 5OFFCOD4

Direct 2 Drive Turns 5: Week 2
Including:
[blippr]Bioshock[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Saints Row 2[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Sid Meier’s Pirates[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Front Lines: Fuels of War[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Thief: Deadly Shadows[/blippr] $5.00
[blippr]Max Payne 2[/blippr] $5.00

Gamers Gate
Takeda 3 $14.95 50% off
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3 Black[/blippr] $7.9860% off
[blippr]Unreal Tournament: Game of the Year Edition[/blippr] $1.9560% off
[blippr]Unreal Complete Pack [/blippr] $16.95 60% off

XBLA
[blippr]Lode Runner[/blippr] 800 msp

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Cities XL Limited Edition[/blippr] $39.99
[blippr]Darkside: Arklight 2[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Arklight[/blippr] $4.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Braid[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Strategy First Complete Pack[/blippr] $49.99
Highlights:
[blippr]Darkstar One[/blippr]
[blippr]Exodus from the Earth[/blippr]
[blippr]Ghost Master[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
Postal Pack $11.98
Including:
[blippr]Postal 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Postal[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
Section 8 $44.95 Use code 5OFFSECTION8
5 Years, 5$ Anniversary Sale
Highlights:
[blippr]Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory[/blippr]
[blippr]Civilization 4[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com Complete Pack[/blippr]
[blippr]Far Cry[/blippr]

Gamers Gate
50% off All Sega Games $0.00
Highlights:
[blippr]Space Siege[/blippr]
[blippr]Universe at War[/blippr]

XBLA
[blippr]Puzzle Quest[/blippr] 400 msp

Data care of NPD Group

PlayStation 2 105.9K
PlayStation 3 210.0K
PSP 140.3K
Xbox 360 215.4K
Wii 277.4K
Nintendo DS 552.9K

MADDEN NFL 10 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-09 928,000
WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Jul-09 754,000
MADDEN NFL 10 PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-09 665,000
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM* 360 SQUARE ENIX INC Aug-09 303,000
BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM* PS3 SQUARE ENIX INC Aug-09 290,000
MADDEN NFL 10 PS2 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-09 160,000
DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY PSP SQUARE ENIX INC Aug-09 130,000
WII FIT* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-08 128,000
MARIO KART W/WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 120,000 9
FOSSIL FIGHTERS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA Aug-09 92,000

And…everything’s doing okay. Not great, not horrible, not bad or anything just, okay. Like all three are on the level it’s a pretty okay month all things considered. Madden’s still a big selling franchise, Sports Resort is still up near the top, almost everything in the Top Ten is above 100K.

I mean the numbers are nothing compared to what we’ll get this fall starting with the Sept NPD and the PS3 Slim, but for August the numbers are…fine really. – The Ben

On the subject of how many games are available and the buying experience via Phil Schiller:

“Games are expensive — $25-35 per title. Worse isn’t the price, it’s the buying experience, going to a store is just not a lot of fun. Built into every iPod touch is the App Store… you’ll see a big difference.” Chart time. PSP: 607 titles. DS: 3680. iPhone OS: 21,178 titles.

Okay, the buying experience isn’t exactly perfect, but that’s no reason to stop buying games that come on physical media. Having a store on your device is great and will eventually be the standard for all devices but again, that’s not going to put the brick and mortar stores or the physical media out of existence.

Phil again, on the iPod Touch in general:

“It’s a great portable game player as well. … when the PSP and DS came out, they seemed so cool. But once you play on the iPod touch, they don’t stack up anymore!”

I don’t know, they’re both still cool to me. I know most of what he’s saying is just standard press conference chest beating that every company does when they’re on stage, but while I’ve seen the Apple App store become successful, at the same time I haven’t seen the PSP and DS suffer as a result. I know there have been people who only play portable games exclusively on their iPod Touches and iPhones but I haven’t seen the other platforms drop in notoriety. Both are still coming out with games all year round and have both been successes in their own right. It’s been pretty balanced in terms of success for all the portable platforms this gen, each with their ups and downs and revivals again.

And regarding what Phil said about the tribulations and horrors of shopping for games at stores;about the stores, fuck it I’m just going to go ahead and say it I like shopping for used games (both portable and console) at places like Gamestop. It’s fun. It’s cheap and it’s fun. I like digging through the used games, seeing the crap and the gems that span almost an entire decade now. Stores might get smaller, hobbyist shops might get put on the chopping block, but just like how music and books have managed to survive for the last decade or so as physical media, so will video games as long as there’s a market that still wants to buy their products that way. – The Ben

The Dreamcast was an interesting connector of a console, bridging the first true 3D generation and the generation of maxing out those models with depth, complexity and emotion (according to the developers of the time at least). While most ten year anniversaries for games are generally met with an “Eh, it hasn’t aged that well” type of response, the games that the Dreamcast offered while not very impressive technically now a days, seem to remembered more for their value of fun in the memories of those retrospecting those days when SEGA was still in the hardware business.

While the Dreamcast’s time may have been short, that might work in it’s favor when you’re talking about retrospecting. Unlike other systems where you have pauses in between great releases and the universal lull of titles following a system’s release, most of the best memories surrounding the Dreamcast were at that time of release, all in one condensed package of launch title greatness. While it had it’s own dry period that ended up never recovering, the system’s life was so short that the lull doesn’t seem as bad compared to it’s elder brother the Saturn, which was still “Alive” up to the Dreamcast’s release, but nobody really thought of it as such in America. The Dreamcast came and went just as fast, and the industry’s memories of it seem to be all the more better for that reason. I think the industry may have soured on Sonic Adventure after it’s initial launch game hype wore off though. – The Ben

The most obvious answer to this very important question is that Quality Assurance is often seen as an austere entry-level position into the video game industry, thus making entry-level QA a binate entry-level position. It’s a double negative that does not resolve to a positive. Imagine you are in a D&D campaign and your character is trying to haggle with the leader of an adventurer guild on the price of services rendered, but you fumble your diplomacy check then critically fail when you roll to confirm. This is what being paid as a novice game tester is like.

Practically all entry-level positions on the market have basic prerequisites and Quality Assurance is no exception. Looking at the Blizzard Entertainment Employment Opportunities page, every qualification for their Night Shift Game Tester gig is simple and rudimentary. For example, some of the requirements listed include having a passion for games, willingness to work long and odd hours, and possessing good communication skills. Companies can get away with paying QA minor duckets for a thankless job because almost everyone who becomes a game tester has no prior experience with the profession or the industry. Starting salary is very low, with reports showing the average income sitting solidly in the range of 20k-30k for less than three years of experience in the industry.

Being underpaid isn’t just a stigma of the entry-level game tester either. No no, for even lead QA positions earn less than their counterparts from other game development disciplines. According to Game Developer magazine’s 7th annual salary survey (April 2008), the average income for QA Leads with 3-6 years of experience was barely under 42k while an equivalent position with comparable experience in Production made nearly 56k on average. That is quite an alarming difference in compensation for two similar occupations that are so closely connected to one another; especially considering how often QA will move into associate producer roles. This leads me to my final point…

It all boils down to the amount of time spent in Quality Assurance and the video game industry itself. It’s no secret that QA is frequently seen and used as a stepping stone to bigger and better positions. This proclivity to alternative advancement facilitates an existing “revolving door” syndrome: Fledgling QA join specifically to learn the ropes of the industry and then generally transfer out to other branches in game development. The same survey from Game Developer magazine also disclosed that only 38% of all QA total had between 3-6 years of experience in the industry. Sadly, this means there are not enough experienced game testers that stay in QA long enough to substantiate higher salaries.

Each of the game development disciplines is indispensable. While Quality Assurance is paid far less than their counterparts, this does not mean the job is any less important, relevant, or fun. It is awesome to do something you love for a living, even if the stipend is meager at best. Wade Tinney, CEO & Co-Founder of Large Animal Games, once said to me that, “Good QA are worth their weight in gold.” It’s just too bad that they aren’t traditionally paid their worth as well.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Sins of a Solar Empire[/blippr] Bundle $20.00
[blippr]Demigod[/blippr] $20.00
[blippr]Dawn of Discovery[/blippr] $24.99
[blippr]Cities XL[/blippr] $39.99
[blippr]World of Goo[/blippr] $9.95

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Darkstar One[/blippr] $4.99 (50% off)
[blippr]Perimeter 2[/blippr] $14.99 (50% off)
[blippr]Jagged Alliance 2[/blippr] $9.99 (50% off)

Good Old Games –
Buy One get One Free 1 year promo
Including:
[blippr]Fallout[/blippr]
[blippr]Fallout 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Freespace 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Giants: Citizen Kabuto[/blippr]
[blippr]Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising[/blippr]
[blippr]Shattered Steel[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
Aaaaa! $11.25
F.E.A.R. 2 Project Origin $24.95
Crysis Maximum Edition $34.99 Use code CRYSISMAX5

Gamers Gate
Civilization IV Complete $15.98 (60% off)
Victoria Complete $12.49 (50% off)
Trine $26.96 (25% off)

XBLA
Penny Arcade Episode 2 800 msp

In a PR statement today Flirement’s CEO Robert Murray announced that their iPhone game Flight Control has reached over 1.5 million in sales on the Apple App store. The Press Release goes on to note the growing popularity in the “Control” genre, one that’s not exactly new if you’ve been playing games for a while now, but has been given new life thanks to the renaissance of portable gaming that we’ve seen in the later half of this decade.

Interesting how as simulation games become more complex and advanced both technically and graphically the interest in them from the gaming public dropped, but when a new type of simulation game that didn’t rely on being top of the line, just intuitive and fun was released, that interest in that brand of simulation game has grown so much in such a short time period.

Most of the buyers of Flight Control probably didn’t even know there was a flight sim genre, but they’re most certainly aware of the flight control sim genre now. – The Ben

Bloomberg states that the FCC will perform an inquiry to decide whether or not devices should be able to accommodate more than one rating system, and hopes to give parents more control “to pick and choose” what their child sees and hears according to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski in the article.

This of course is being picked up by gaming sites due to the fact that, well for the past two decades or so the gaming industry has been trying to construct it’s own rating system to the best of their abilities. We’ve gone from self imposed ratings from Sega to forced censorship by Nintendo before the ESRB was formed and all games released in the U.S. could have a standardized rating system to let parents know how appropriate the game they were buying for their child was.

The ESRB rating system though hasn’t been perfect. An M-rated game can easily be bought by a kid clever enough to goad their parents through sheer force of will. It’s not like an R-rated movie where the ushers can deny a kid entry because their parents don’t accompany them to the movies. Games are more often than not played at home without anybody to enforce any standards once the game’s out of the disk and in the machine. And the industry has taken steps to help confront that in recent years as well with parental controls on almost all consoles this generation and companies like Microsoft enthusiastically promoting the parental control features of the 360 in order to make the online component of the 360 seem less intimidating to parents who feel hesitant to let their child play along with the rest of the 360-owning world.

This issue will never have an easy answer, but at least the industry hasn’t simply forgone doing anything about parental controls or the ratings system as the industry itself changes and matured. – The Ben

I’ll be covering all of these points over the coming posts, but first, let’s take a quick look at the biggest myths behind being a fabled game tester.

Big Myth Number One is that game testers just sort of sit around and play games all day long, not doing any actual “work” whatsoever, at least by the dictionary.com definition of the word, anyways. There will be plenty more articles about the methods behind game testing later on, but for now I will say that the only time QA actually get the chance to truly play the games they are working on is when they aren’t actively searching for/attempting to recreate bugs, which is practically never. Playing games for fun’s sake is called Exploratory (or Ad-Hoc) testing and is a very small, but satisfying part of the QA process.

Big Myth Number Two is that it’s a fun and exciting job. Yeah, I’m totally having a lot of fun doing the same mundane, repetitive tasks for 8 hours straight and spending another 4 hours on the same freaking day staring at scores of excel spreadsheets and test plans until I start crying blood. I JUST WANT TO STRETCH MY LEGS AND TAKE A SHOWER! ;_;

Going off on a quick tangent, Big Myth Number Two actually leads into a somewhat known fact about QA that many game testers themselves frequently forget about, probably because they have stricken the memories from their minds in order to keep some semblance of sanity: incredibly long, nightmarish hours. Good luck having a social life or even a private life during crunch time. Your body and soul now belong to publishing company XYZ.

Big Myth Number Three is that QA, like the rest of development, get paid to make games. This is splitting hairs but can be just as crucial as the others if you don’t happen to be a secret lovechild of Bill Gates. While QA essentially do get paid to play video games, the “grunts” typically scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of employee payroll. They actually tie with Customer Support for being the lowest paid positions within video game companies. Entry Level QA positions start out paying around 10 dollars on the low end and 12 dollars on the high end, or roughly 20k to 25k. Better start brown bagging it, buddy!

So, why even want be a game tester? It’s a thankless job that frequently gets little respect within its own industry. And for that matter, why do some QA, having experienced all of the negative aspects of the profession, not go running and screaming into the hills? Is it shell shock or maybe willful ignorance? Could it be that they are all just crazy? (I am, admittedly, quite crazy myself.) The primary and most important answer is the simplest to explain: Yes, they are crazy! Ha ha! Didn’t see that one coming, did ya? People want to become game testers because they love games and some are even willing to walk over the proverbial coals barefoot to achieve their dreams.

It is completely understandable that people who dream of doing something that they love professionally will often overlook all of the negative aspects in order to accomplish the positive, as this happens very frequently in other fields of work. Athletes will train extensively, to the point of exhaustion, for chances to compete and fulfill their dreams. Social workers shoulder the burdens of others while receiving very little pay because they strive to help others.

A dream job doesn’t suddenly lose it’s potential to become a reality just because reality itself sets in. Let’s face it: Quality Assurance testers actually do get paid to play games all day long and at times, it can be fun and exciting. But they will also acquiesce to being over worked, underpaid, and even under-appreciated just to do what they love. The biggest myths behind being a game tester do have glimmers of truth to them and it is these shiny, shimmery glimmers that steady the QA as they trudge through the fiery pits of hell itself.

Most companies have learned from these early experiments as a result of those unlawful early days of the current gen. DLC now are usually regulated to have their achievements available as separate achievements for a game, rather than the game not letting you get to 100% because you didn’t pay for that DLC.

The article praises DLC as the next big thing that’s already here, and while I agree DLC can give old games (old being nary a few months to a year) new life, there’s no reason every game needs DLC. DLC is nice, it’s nice to revisit old worlds and see what’s changed thanks to whatever new thing the DLC installed and built into those worlds. Sometimes a piece of DLC might seem unneeded and more of an afterthought, but the ratio of well planned and executed DLC in comparison to those early days of Horse Armour and 384kb unlock keys for content already pressed onto the game disk. They still exist, and for any game with constantly changing features with a heavy online component (Little Big Planet for example) are in fact necessary whenever a new patch for the game rolls around and the next batch of content that you can hold with your system, but not see on your screen. – The Ben

What I mean is that, well while E3 had returned to the larger, more big production sort of ordeal that it was known for back at the turn of the century this past June, most of the “fluff” that the gaming media loved the most about the show while reported on, just wasn’t that much interesting to the actual gamers reading their show reports and podcasts. I’m mostly talking about the fluff of the booth-babe variety. The giant set pieces that companies refer to as booths. Sure many sites had a “LOOK AT DEM BOOTH BABES!” feature and I’m sure those articles got a lot of hits, but gamers just didn’t seem to care anymore about the actual booth babes.

Most of the fluff that would be remembered from this past E3 would be those moments where the people advertising the game actually meant something. Would you rather have a booth babe, busty and voluptuous she may be stand at your side while you demo Shadow Complex or the next Epic Games….epic. Or would you rather be able to have the developers, the Cliffy B’s or the Will Wrights walk you through the game.

Even when celebrities hock games these days, more often than not they’re at least involved with games on a level beyond that of “Just gimme that paycheck”. Most journalists and gamers who read the articles about Spore during development probably remember Robin Williams actually having fun creating creatures for the audience rather than being paid to simply come up with jokes about gamers that fall flat on their face. He was paid to have fun, it was win-win for him!

PAX seems to be the kid of place that both the gamers and the presenters look forward to. Panels ranging from charities within the gaming industry to showcasing the newest and best independent games; there’s a multitude of different panels beyond developers simply showing off their latest games.

PAX has already sold out this year and stands to keep getting bigger every year. Not because it’ll have the latest and greatest new games to show off and demo (although it’s a good incentive to go), but because it’s a celebration of gaming as a whole, for anyone who has a love of gaming. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Gobliiins 4[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Trine[/blippr] $22.49
[blippr]Gish[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Supreme Ruler 2010[/blippr] $9.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
THQ Collector Pack $74.99 (25% off)
Includes but is not limited to:
[blippr]Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II[/blippr]
[blippr]S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl[/blippr]
[blippr]Company of Heroes[/blippr]
[blippr]Titan Quest Gold[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
Unreal Week 15% off
Including:
[blippr]Unreal Gold[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Unreal Tournament GOTY[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Unreal 2 The Awakening Special Edition[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 2004 Editor’s Choice Edition[/blippr] $9.99

Direct2Drive
Defense Grid: The Awakening $9.95
CrimeCraft $44.95 Use Code CRIMECRAFT5

Gamers Gate
Grand Age: Rome US $17.49 (50% off)
AI War: Fleet Command $13.95 (30% off)
All Buka Games 50% off
Including:
Echelon Wind Warriors $9.95
Dusk-12 $9.95
Pacific Storm $7.49

Amazon.com
Sims 3 $29.98

XBLA
Lost and Damned game add-on 1200 msp

There’s speculation over the exact reason of the layoffs. While Spore and the third Sims game were million sellers in their own right, much like how Iwata viewed the success of a few potential long-term sellers that ended up floundering (though million sellers as well) because they were intended to be the hits, rather than just hits.

I wrote about this a while back, but now we’re seeing exactly how wide the spectrum of long-term games not performing as well as hoped are factoring into the rest of the industry. All titles, not just the casual titles not just the hardcore titles, are expected to perform to the best of their abilities now. Even though Spore’s inability to set the world on fire hasn’t been confirmed as the main reason for cutbacks at Maxis, has Spore become the hit you and the rest of gamers everywhere thought it would be roughly one year ago from now? – The Ben

One such expo of the gone by generations is the Retro Gaming Expo in Portland, Oregon. While not the only retro gaming expo out there, it’s design and events are what you’d expect from this genre of convention, with each expo having it’s own unique events and twists that make them worth checking out.

The Retro Gaming Expo for instance may not have a tournament featuring the first person shooters you see at most game-related conventions, but instead offers a ten-man Saturn Bomberman tournament and a Nintendo World Championship competition as well. The competition may not have the same glitz as Video Game Armageddon had in The Wizard, but the same concept of competing through three different NES games for points against other gamers is still intact.

These expos are always interesting to see just how far gaming has come in the last half century, not just to see how technology has progressed, but how things can still keep their “fun value” years, even decades after release. The next modern gaming convention may have Gears of War 2 or the next Call of Duty competition going on. But there’s a chance that ten years from now the only game you’ll constantly see appearing in retro gaming tournaments won’t be titles such as those, but Saturn Bomberman getting the most attention from attendees when it’s a ten-man bomb-fest. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Cities XL Limited Edition[/blippr] $39.99
[blippr]Time of Shadows[/blippr] $35.99
[blippr]Hero’s Tale Enhanced Edition[/blippr] $5.99
[blippr]AI War: Fleet Command [/blippr] $14.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]1701 A.D. Gold Edition[/blippr] $14.99 (50% off)

Good Old Games –
Ubisoft Action Pack $9.99 (50% off for both)
Including:
[blippr]Beyond Good and Evil[/blippr] $6.99 (30% off)
[blippr]Game[/blippr] $6.99 (30% off)

Direct2Drive
Zeno Clash $7.50 (50% off)
Meridian 4 Ultimate Collection $59.99 (70% off)
Hearts of Iron III with Sprite Packs Bundle $38.95 (5$ off) use code E730608A1D9701CB09D4C583CDFA3D0

XBLA
Halo 3 Splatter Spree Theme 160 msp

The debate is mainly due to the fact that through buying the game, the gamer is not only giving money to the developers, but Card as well, which doesn’t sit well with some people who boycott any of his works due to conflicting views on matters such as marriage for any and all genders.

Gay Gamer.net has an article about this ordeal as well, and while the game itself is getting rave reviews from gamers all around the world at the moment, if this debate starts getting traction and picked up by more than just a few hobbyist gaming news sites, then the controversy could end up garnering more fame for the game than the merits of the game itself. – The Ben

Kaz Hirai: “Today is the day we introduce the PS3 Slim, available in stores from the first week of September.”

32% smaller, 36% lighter, 34% less power consumption, it will be available for 299 euros, 299 dollars and 29,980 yen.

120GB HDD

That’s the basic info that Kaz gave out about the machine, but it should be enough to define it.

Going by the history of Sony’s Console life cycles, it would be only natural that a revised PS3 would be announced for this time frame. The Slim PS2 was released in 2004 right? That was only around four years after the release of the system. Of course, by that point in the PS2′s life cycle it had already handily beat the competition and was THE console to develop for, make exclusives for, and generally for most of the mainstream audience at the time gaming WAS the PS2, just as gaming was the NES and the Atari in their respective reigning times.

It’ll be interesting to see how this sells, not only because Sony’s not in first place this generation, but that it’s not even the lead platform in comparison to the 360. The Slim PS2 was a success because the mass market was already accepting of the platform and made the console even more accessible. The next step on our journey through this gaming generation be an interesting ride at least. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Mr. Robot[/blippr] 50% off $9.95
[blippr]Starscape[/blippr] 50% off $9.95
[blippr]Morning’s Wrath[/blippr] 50% off $4.95
[blippr]Hacker Evolution – Untold[/blippr] 50% off $12.49

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]EVE Online: Apocrypha[/blippr] 66% off $4.99
[blippr]Imperium Romanum Gold Edition[/blippr] 50% off $9.99
[blippr]Trine[/blippr] 25% off $22.49
[blippr]66% off all Halflife Games, or 10% off Valve Complete Pack[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
Flight Sim Promo
Including:
[blippr]Apache Vs Havoc[/blippr] $4.19
[blippr]Comanche Vs Hokum[/blippr] $4.19
[blippr]F/A -18A Super Hornet[/blippr] $4.19
[blippr]IL-2 Sturmovik™: 1946[/blippr] $6.99

Direct2Drive
World of Goo $9.95
East India Company $34.99 use code 8B077716EF854EED7DA523442CA715A
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut $27.95
Death to Spies: Moment of Truth $23.95
Trine $22.95

Gamers Gate
50% off all meridian 4 Games!
Including:
Alpha Prime $4.95
Dark Matter $7.95
Echelon Wind Warriors $9.95

XBLA
[blippr]FIFA 09[/blippr]
Including:
Ultimate Team game add-on 400 msp

Data care of NPD Group

PlayStation 2 108K
PlayStation 3 121.8K
PSP 122.8K
Xbox 360 202.9K
Wii 252.5K
Nintendo DS 538.9K

Wii SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA July-09 508.2K
NCAA FOOTBALL 10 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS July-09 376.5K
NCAA FOOTBALL 10 PS3 ELECTRONIC ARTS July-09 237.4K
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-08 164.3K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA April-08 156.6K
MARIO KART DS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA November-05 132.2K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA March-09 116.4K
FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS June-09 116.4K
NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-06 101.8K
EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE WII ELECTRONIC ARTS May-09 96.8K

Now of course everyone’s going to start off their take on the news with “PRICE CUT ALREADY NINTENDO GAWD!” and at this point a price could would do wonders. But in all honesty what the Wii needs from the past few years of results would appear to be nothing more than a hefty helping of MORE MARIO.

I’m not even saying that sarcastically, look at the legs on those Mario titles mutha LOOK AT DEM LEGS ON DAT MUSTACHED DAME. Ever since New Super Mario Bros. first came out and proved to be a success gaming journalists started a “Give us Super Mario Bros. 2″ rallying cry. As the years went by and the game managed to outsell it’s console brethren such as Galaxy the journalists still wondered why there was no sequel. When the sequel (yes, it is a new entry, not an enhanced remake some thought it would be) was announced for the Wii the rallying cry became a rallying whine. Even though the game probably won’t be critically acclaimed by any means, if it does everything those three on the chart are doing right, chances are it’ll stay there right along with them for a while. Which is more than you can say about Super Mario Galaxy 2, much as it pains me to admit that.

So yeah those NPD sales results, drops for everyone in certain areas. Oh and before I end this I’ll just post this little quote from NPD’s Anita Frazier concerning one specific genre:

Of all genres, the music/dance genre has suffered the greatest declines this year, with nearly $390 million less revenues than the same time period last year.

What do you think, is that statement destined to become more accurate than not as we enter the upcoming Big Spending Months, or will The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 soften that decline for the music genre? – The Ben

The cause of the development studio’s closure is of course monetary related, as they say that at more than one publisher has been delaying their payments to the team, causing a financial situation fatal to the company’s vitality. None of those publishers have been identified, but considering that Capcom had expected sales of Bionic Commando to be around one million by the time it’s hype died down (the real number of units in the hands of gamers was well under that pipe-dream number), they would probably be one of the few at the top of the list responsible for withholding payments more likely than not. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood[/blippr] $34.99
[blippr]Spectromancer[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Time of Shadows[/blippr] $35.99
[blippr]GEOM[/blippr] $9.95

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr] Foreign Legion: Buckets of Blood[/blippr] 25% off $5.24
[blippr]The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut[/blippr] 30% off $27.99
[blippr]Prototype[/blippr] 20% off $39.99
[blippr]TrackMania Forever[/blippr] 50% off $19.99
The absolute, autonomous, freewheeling, grassroots, nonaligned, nonpartisan, sovereign, unconstrained, uncontrolled, unregimented games pack 29.99
Including (but not limited to):
[blippr]World of Goo[/blippr]
[blippr]Crayon Physics Deluxe[/blippr]
[blippr]Braid[/blippr]
[blippr]AudioSurf[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
Enlight Software Catalog ~30% off Bundle $25.00
Including:
[blippr]Capitalism Plus[/blippr]
[blippr]Capitalism 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries[/blippr]
[blippr]Seven Kingdoms 2: The Fryhtan Wars[/blippr]
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry 3[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood 30% off $34.95
Prototype 10$ off $39.95
Tales of Monkey Island $29.95 Use Code: 09AC621D2C125556483138B1A6834B06

Gamers Gate
Tibor Tales of Kind Vampire 50% off. $9.95
Imperium Romanum 50% off. $9.95
The Club 50% off. $9.95

XBLA
R-Type Dimensions 800 msp

The thing about “Best Year in Gaming EVER!” to me is that a lot of the time, I won’t get to play every game or even most of the games on these lists until the next year or even a few years later. One of the best things about the used games business is that while some titles may still be costly considering their age, they can end up being more satisfying than the latest sixty dollar big budget release the store has posters littering their doors and walls with have. As a lot of those new sixty dollar games age and are relegated to the same “Used Games” bins as the last generation games are, those last gen games will inevitably disappear from the mainstream game stores all together.

So this holiday, if you finished your backlog and the big name titles that do make it out this year, check out a bunch of Golden Oldies that made those “Best year in gaming ever?!” lists from years past. They may not have achievements, but they’ll most likely cost less than the newest version of Madden does.- The Ben

But this is something the whole industry is dealing with this generation, the phenomenon of gaming being at it’s peak for so many, that the games that do surprisingly well at retail seem worse now by comparison.

Lemme move away from Nintendo and focus on some third party examples on other consoles just to show that this isn’t unique to any specific area. Call of Duty: World at War sold eleven million copies by this past June. That’s eleven million copies of what some would call just a “yearly sequel” in the grand scheme of things, gamers bought the last iteration, they’ll buy the next iteration, just another entry for the books. Look back to just a a generation or two ago and see how different things were when it came to defining a title’s success through sales. A lot of the games we remember these days as classics everybody had to have played seem like mere “semi-successes” if you don’t take into account that the market was smaller back in the early 90′s.

But then even when the Playstation came to bring genres like RPGs to the masses it was a phenomenon when Final Fantasy VII sold as much as it did. FF7 just broke the 10 million mark in copies of the original game sold thanks to the PSN release and the constant 10th year anniversary marketing Square keeps up with. Just 10 million copies. It was finally able to reach a milestone that certain games these days, the ones that find themselves in the right place, at the right time, with all the right qualifications, can pass in just under a year.

So I guess where I’m getting with this is, in the end, what’s going to happen to those games currently in development that we’re all waiting for if they only sell two or three million copies? Psychonauts is remembered for being a slow cooker on the sales spectrum, never even getting to the one million mark. Here Tim Schafer says as of 2007 Psychonauts managed to sell 700,000 units. Even last generation you could make a good case for the title not being a total flop sales wise, 700,000 is a hella lotta people when you think about it.

But this gen, where games are expected to sell in the millions like parents expect their kids to at least get higher than a “C” on their report cards, what’s gonna happen to the games that can’t even cross that milestone, let alone being able to sit at the big kid’s table with Call of Duty 5, Guitar Hero 4, Mario Kart 5, and all the other big fish? – The Ben

Originating out of a discussion on neogaf about game graphics and rising prices Eat Sleep Play Founder Dave Jaffe took the discussion to his twitter feed and put words to a fear of publishers and gamers alike. Can the video game industry back down from the 59.99 price point?

[...]Be nice to be able to make our version of mid range movies now that we can make our indies. But at the moment, there is no room for games like THE PROPOSAL, THE HANGOVER, or TAKEN. That’s not 100% true (L4D) but if new game@39.99@retail was a real deal, that would rock! But most gamers see new game@$39.99 and question the quality and stay away

As it stands now the industry standard is for AAA games to be at the premium price point, and games that may be of questionable quality either start at a discount, or quickly fall there as retailers clear shelf space for newer titles. There is one example of a franchise dropping it’s price point to good effect, ESPN NFL Football. Unfortunately that attempt was preempted by EA sports acquisition of an exclusivity contract with the NFL, canceling the series.

On the other side of the argument should publishers lower the price point, or instead raise it; as Activision has done with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in the European market?

While many gamers would love to see their hobby become cheaper, and it’s possible that sales would increase, it is unlikely that we will see it happen this gaming generation.

“Personally, I’m one of those guys who, even if I have all the songs from iTunes, I want the CD as well. I feel more reassured with that physical media. Entertainment is something that will not just become digital. If I look at Wii MotionPlus, this is something that you’re not doing via digital distribution. The thing for us is we really don’t see the future of video games being merely confined to digital distribution or moving solely or even to a majority of our products being distributed that way.”

So what are some of the news sites doing with this fact? giving their own interpretations of course. What was that word in the title in the news story I just posted? Denounces digital distribution? No he didn’t denounce digital distribution damn it. Denouncing it would be him totally poo-pooing the concept and saying “The only kind of people who embrace digital downloading are basement dwelling Role Playing Gamers” but that’s not what he said. He gave his opinion, and chose the more neutral answer to the question. I understand the title of the news article is more eye catching to the gamer searching for a good bit of news to read on the weekend but it’s a gross exaggeration of his answer! – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]The Wonderful End of the World[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Grand Ages: Rome[/blippr] $29.99

Steam - Weekend Deals: All Relic Games 50% off!
Including:
[blippr]Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II[/blippr] $24.99
[blippr]Company of Heroes[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Relic Super Pack[/blippr] $24.99
[blippr]Company of Heroes: Gold[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Dawn of War – Platinum Edition[/blippr] $14.99

Good Old Games –
20$ off Chess Games. $0.00
Including:

Battle Chess Special Edition $5.99
Chessmaster® 9000 $5.99
Combat Chess $5.99

Direct2Drive
[blippr]Braid[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Sims 3[/blippr] $44.95 Use Code D404CE3A2B1017A9C8675CCDE4A4DE5A
[blippr]Warhammer® 40,000™: Dawn of War® II[/blippr] $24.95 (Steam Required)
Price Drop
[blippr]Dark Horizen[/blippr] $9.95

Gamers Gate
Juiced 2 $9.99
Atlantis Bundle $10.74
Bioshock $11.98
40% off all Guild Titles
Including:
Guild Gold $5.97
Guild II $8.97

XBLA
[blippr]Farcry 2[/blippr]
Including:
Fortunes Pack Game Add On 240 msp

Hell it’s not even the HARDCORE GAMING JOURNALISTS and their disdain of the Wii’s success that’s the biggest interest to me today but the Apple Fans rejoicing over the dip in DS hardware sales and attributing that to their glorious iPhone.

I mean sure the iPhone’s been great for small developers getting their games to a wider audience since it’s launch, but I haven’t exactly seen it catch on with the younger audience that portable gaming sustains itself on. Young adults and older have latched onto the iPhone gravy boat yeah but not so much with the kids. – The Ben

Well no that previous statement’s wrong. In a twist of irony concerning Sony still celebrating the PS2′s longevity, the PS2 managed the one increase in today’s report, from 1.5 million to 1.6 million. I’m sure Sony is still happy to have the longest and best selling console in history still going, but if the PS3 is supposed to follow the ten year life cycle of it’s forefathers, shouldn’t it have started to gain the crazy traction the PS2 did once the BIG games started coming out?

In any case it’s not good news for anybody, but at least things aren’t dire all around the industry. The barrage of third party studio closings the industry saw over the past year has seemingly slowed, and hopefully everyone’s taken precautions so that this generation doesn’t become the one known for the death of the plucky and independent third part studio. – The Ben

The press seems more worried about this prospect than the gamers but why? Aren’t these the same gaming journalists that complain that the holiday season is too packed with games and there’s “Too much to play!” every Christmas? Weren’t they also the ones delighted that this past spring was chock full of meaty and polished hardcore titles like Street Fighter IV, Resident Evil 5 and a load of other titles with merit?

Why such a panic over this? Many gaming podcasts seem to have “Whatchu been playing?” segments in which the hosts go on about playing games in their backlog and going back to old favorites longer than they discuss the current new hot game of the month. So what’s the problem if not every year can be “BEST YEAR FOR GAMES EVER AAA” in your end of the year writeup? – The Ben

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 is delayed again but will return for real next week (Lets just be hopeful.) when all the hosts can get together everyone should play through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Steam - Weekend Deals:
Men of War $7.50 (75% off)
Velvet Assassin $24.99 (50% off)
X3: Terran Conflict $19.99 (50% off)
Paradox Interactive Games 50% off
Including:
[blippr]Europa Universalis III: Complete[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Mount & Blade[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection[/blippr] $14.99

Good Old Games –
Racing Week $11.00
Including:
Colin McRae Rally 2005 $4.99 (not available for new purchase after 7/26)
Screamer $2.99
MegaRace 3 $2.99

Direct2Drive
Dawn of Discovery 5$ off with code BCF639760F96332475601097FE835DF8
[blippr]Dawn of War II[/blippr] $24.95
And Yet it Moves $4.95

THQ 50% off select games
Including:
[blippr]Supreme Commander Gold[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]Saints Row 2[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]Frontlines: Fuel of War[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl[/blippr] $9.95

Paradox Interactive Games 50% off
Including:
[blippr]Mount & Blade[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection[/blippr] $14.99

Gamers Gate
Paradox Interactive Games 50% off
Including:
[blippr]Mount & Blade[/blippr] $14.95
[blippr]Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection[/blippr] $14.99

XBLA
[blippr]Star Wars: The Force Unleashed[/blippr]
Including:
Jedi Temple Mission Pack 400 msp

This isn’t the first time a company has tried out something like this, 2K games has something similar with NBA2K10. It seems the next big experiment in microtransactions is going to be this new “Pay for pro-servers” feature. But at only five dollars, how many of these players are really going to “pro” players? – The Ben

While the developers of Take Two produced series such as Bioshock and most importantly Grand Theft Auto have always been outspoken, they’ve always had their work in the product to back it up. More notably however are Take Two’s business department, almost just as notorious in their ways with words and actions within the industry. Strauss Zelnick from reading this report, appears to be one of the main causes of Take Two’s recent appearance in the industry towards potential suitors such as EA when it comes to buyouts.

The report goes into detail about how Zelnick benefited from resisting EA’s offer by claiming there were other potential parties that never emerged. The article claims that, “…in a two year period, Mr Zelnick managed to, on three occasions, make vital statements that were within a matter of weeks proven to be either fabricated or just incredibly incompetent (or worse). Mr. Zelnick managed to resist and reject a buyout offer that was triple the company’s current share price while claiming other interested parties who never emerged. And Mr. Zelnick, meanwhile, tripled his management company’s compensation for these efforts because, after all, he does not engage in regrets and does not “take responsibility for the market.”

The Market Rap article gives the impression that Zelnick is more interested in his own profitable future than that of the company he’s head of, and ends the article with this note:

These statements and others strongly suggest that investors should proceed with extreme caution with any investment that involves Strauss Zelnick. His performance so far as an executive manager of a publicly traded company is one of the worst I have ever seen in my professional investment experience.

Take Two’s always been a maverick in the games industry both in development and marketing, and with Zelnick at the helm it seems like that reputation isn’t likely to soften any time soon. – The Ben

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 is delayed again but will return for real next week (honest we really, really, really, swear really this time) when all the hosts can get together everyone should play through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

It’s not often I get two things I love mixed together. It’s like mixing peanut butter and chocolate, or steak and shrimp. Now Final Fantasy IV’s soundtrack has gloriously been redone by the folks at OC remix. The forty-six track remixing of Nobuo Uematsu’s work spans three disks taking us back through the tale the dark knight’s journey to learn his past, and save the world.

If you are a fan of OC Remix, or even the Final Fantasy IV score take a moment to grab a copy

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Puzzle Quest: Galactrix $9.99
Droplitz $4.99
Braid $9.95
World of Goo $9.99
Red Faction Guerrilla PreOrder $39.99 Get Red Faction 1 and 2 for free.

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Brothers in Arms[/blippr] Pack $19.99
Including
[blippr]Brothers in Arms Earned in Blood[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30[/blippr] $4.99

Good Old Games –
Tom Clancy’s Pack $9.99
Including:
[blippr]Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six[/blippr]
[blippr]Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon[/blippr]
AND
Nations Pack $8.98
Including:
[blippr]Alien Nations[/blippr]
[blippr]The Nations Gold Edition[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
This Weeks Deal:
[blippr]Cogs[/blippr] $4.95
The Price Drops this week:
[blippr]Tomb Raider Anniversary[/blippr] $19.95
[blippr]Infernal[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Kane and Lynch[/blippr] $19.95

XBLA
Ikaruga 400 msp

PSN
[blippr]Wipeout HD[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Savage Moon[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Crash Commando[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Pixel Junk: Eden[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Brain Challenge[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]3on3 NHL Arcade[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Flock[/blippr] $7.49

Amazon.com
[blippr]Red Faction Guerilla[/blippr] 39.99 (Xbox 360)
Grand Theft Auto IV 29.98 (Xbox 360 and PS3)

Having been absent from HOME since, well since I first checked it out months ago, I went to check out Namco’s new digital hangout and see what it was like. I have to give it to them, it’s an arcade. A bit too pristine to recall the authentic arcades of decades past but it sets the mood right with dim lighting, game posters adorning the walls and….anime girl soda machines? Yes, in bringing the entire arcade space over to the states Namco even kept these bizarre Idol M@ster soda machines that let you play a chance mini-game to win various Idol M@aster related things to adorn your own personal Home space and/or avatar.

So I chose one of these soda machines to see what it was all about, why so many Helghast Helmet adorned persons were crowded about it, and played the little mini-game for kicks. My first try, I won a mask of a girl’s face from the game for my HOME Avatar. I’m talking creepy, unsettling mask of anime big-eyed horror.

Actually in the expressionless avatar world of HOME, it’s not as creepy as it would be in real life. In fact it fits right in with the Street Fighter IV costumed people running around the HOME Mall dancing in synchronicity. i’ll give the HOME service one thing, it’s definitely unique in that sense. – The Ben.

PlayStation 2 152.7K
PlayStation 3 164.7K
PSP 163.5K
Xbox 360 240.6K
Wii 361.7K
Nintendo DS 766.5K

PROTOTYPE (360) 419.9K
UFC 2009:UNDISPUTED (360) 338.3K
EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE (Wii) 289.1K
TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10* (Wii) 272.4K
WII FIT (Wii) 271.6K
FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 (360) 260.8K
FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 (PS3) 210.3K
MARIO KART W/WHEEL (WII) 202.1K
RED FACTION:GUERRILLA (360) 199.4K
INFAMOUS (PS3) 192.7K

Nothing really shocking, the biggest thing last year had over this year was the PS3 doing it’s best since launch with MGS4 releasing worldwide. Since then it’s pretty much hovered around the 200K mark. Seeing it sell on par with the PS2, PSP and 360 shows that people are slowly migrating to the “Next-Generation”, but at a pace slower than we saw last generation.

Hell, if most industry analysts from 2004 saw the industry as it is today they’d wonder why whisperings of the “NEXT-Generation” haven’t started yet. After all it was what, 2003 or so when Sony first started talking about the cell-processor? 2004 was our first look at Next-Generation Console Graphics with Oblivion running on a 360 engine? Times have certainly changed when every console maker is looking to make their current system new and interesting to potential consumers than starting the hype machine for a new console cycle. – The Ben

Anyway, in the Article among a few “safe” bets such as Wii Sports Resort and Modern Warfare 2 being the top sellers of 2009, Pachter again sheds light on a prediction he’s been increasingly certain about lately in interviews. That which is according to him, a gaming console by Apple is inevitable. He states that Apple would enter the console gaming industry mostly due to the fact that Microsoft is already there, much like how one of the biggest reasons Microsoft entered the gaming industry was simply because Sony was there taking control of the living room.

It’s a good theory, but like any theory there’s always a few holes to spot. There’s the fact that even if Apple could bleed as much money as Microsoft did to simply “get their foot in the living room door”, would they want to bleed that much money? The console gaming industry and it’s audience is vastly different from the PC industry as Microsoft learned. Console Gamers aren’t as willing to take the company line when something breaks or there’s a new “Gotta Have it! SKU” when consoles are concerned. note that I said consoles it works more successfully with handhelds than with consoles.

In the article Pachter states that, “What Apple cares about is getting into the living room, and an Apple TV with games has a higher likelihood of succeeding than an Apple TV without.” So going by his logic, Apple just wants to follow what Microsoft did a decade ago. It took Microsoft almost ten years to effectively “beat” Sony and at the end of the day is the ideal living room entirely owned by Microsoft? No, because a lot of people like to have a little bit of something from different brands. The entire “All in one box” dream is tempting for some, but if that box breaks (and as we’ve learned this generation ALL TYPES OF BOXES, no matter how advanced or how many functions they perform can and will break) you’re stuck unless you get it repaired or buy a new one.

Owning the living room isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Owning a small section of the living room can be profitable enough and in Apple’s case, owning the pockets of the people in the living room has been more successful to them than any other living room takeover.

Besides, they already tried with the Pippin, no do-overs Apple.

Okay well, Microsoft did try it with the MSX before the Xbox. That’s right, Metal Gear was a Microsoft franchise first! – The Ben.

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 is delayed again but will return for real next week (honest we swear really this time) when all the hosts can get together everyone should play through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

While it is interesting to see these games get a release on a system that can actually emulate many of their original dual screen designs perfectly, it is pretty lame that seven years ago you could buy one Game Boy Advance game for thirty dollars (or four dollars used these days, that’s what I got my copy last month for) that had twenty G&W titles included. These days it seems like the entire Game and Watch Gallery series was a part of a dying breed of Nintendo Compilation titles. To those who stuck with the original Gamecube release of Animal Crossing building a library of NES titles, seeing the Virtual Console offer each of those NES games for five bucks a title seems outrageous.

But then again, aside from the titles that you may have missed the first time around, the Virtual Console is meant more for the types of gamers that don’t scour every inch of a game and know the ins and outs of every compilation. Buying Super Mario Bros. and just Super Mario Bros. for the GBA for twenty dollars in 2004 seemed like a scam to hardcore gamers who had both Super Mario All Stars on the SNES and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe Remake for the Game Boy Color, but the quick GBA port didn’t need hardcore gamers. Sales for it were monstrously higher than most new titles that came out during that time period.

So while the G&W releases for the DSi are lame to gamers such as I who already have most of the G&W series via the GBA and GBC iterations, potential consumers who don’t know and care about the fact that there’s been better deals for the titles, they don’t give a damn. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
Impluse is having a huge sale this week, here are some highlights:
[blippr]Nikopol – Secrets of the Immortals/[blippr] $12.49
[blippr]Chains/[blippr] $3.99
[blippr]The Entente – World War I Battlefields/[blippr] $7.49
[blippr]Operation Matriarchy/[blippr] $7.49
[blippr]Battle Mages Bundle/[blippr] $12.49
[blippr]Pacific Storm Bundle/[blippr] $12.49
[blippr]Vigil Blood Bitterness/[blippr] $2.49
[blippr]Dark Matter/[blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Shadowgrounds Survivor/[blippr] $7.49
[blippr]Shadowgrounds/[blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Space Hack/[blippr] $7.49

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]GRID[/blippr] $14.99

Good Old Games –
[blippr]Earth 2140 Trilogy[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Earth 2150 Trilogy[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Earth 2160[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Gorky 17[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Septerra Core[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Knights and Merchants[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Jagged Alliance 2: Wildfire[/blippr] $4.79
[blippr]Jack Orlando: A Cinematic Adventure[/blippr] $4.79

Direct2Drive
ArmA: Armed Assault – Combat Operations $14.95
Overlord 2 $34.95 (Use Code: 01C044CC90F242286C56FA604A71221D)
Warhammer Online $29.95
Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box $29.95
The Godfather Bundle (Includes Godfather 1 and Godfather 2) $44.95 10% off

XBLA
N+ 400 msp

There’s nothing redone in the game as it’s being released “as is” according to the developers on the developers’ blog. That means everything people loved and hated about Daggerfall back when it was released more than ten years ago is still intact. There’s installation instructions available on the site and if you feel lost, there’s always the bevy of handy Elder Scrolls related wikis for all your questions and needs.

Also of note, Arena is still available to download for free if you want to go all the way back to where the series started. Of course, Arena was considered primitive back when Daggerfall was out. Try either or and see how they hold up today. – The Ben

When a childhood game remake is being announced it’s a lot like remakes of TV and movies, nine times out of ten you expect the worse. Gameloft’s Mobile remake of The Oregon Trail however bucks the trend. Many people often remember The Oregon Trail as the pinnacle of Edutainment. The treat at the end of computer lab during elementary school with it’s boxy graphics and epic journey along across the nation in hopes of reaching Oregon before the period ended and you were shuffled back to English or Math. Thankfully Gameloft’s rendition was ported to the iPhone, and iPod Touch portable devices allowing you to take the adventure with you from meeting to meeting or class to class.

To add to the original games charm the new mini games update the older hunting portion of the trail, utilizing the iPhone’s touch functions to aim and shoot in the classic hunting, and to cast and reel in the new fishing modes. Each mode adds variety to the food gathering portions of the game keeping the trek fresh, and the wagon well supplied. Additional games for repairing the wagon, with a DDR style timing game, or a Simon Says telegraph game for money, spice up the Trails stops as well as provide the player with opportunities to make and save money on the Trail.

The game does however suffer from one fatal flaw, it’s nostalgia wears off when you can play it any time you want rather than just once a week at the end of computer lab. A full trail run can last around 1-2 hours however the trail just in real life doesn’t change between sessions, making the game fun in small does but not something to fill the endless hours of commuters or regular “quick session” gamers.

The Oregon Trail received quite a bit of a face lift since its first inclination in 1974 including a surprisingly good soundtrack, new graphics, new mini games, and the ability to save between sessions, The Oregon Trail has actually been able to stand out as a decent game on its own right, instead of just a rehash of childish dreams.

Score 7/10

You win some, you lose some, and sometimes its just a push. For fans of Bioware’s Mass Effect franchise, their new iPhone game Mass Effect: Galaxies definitely falls in the latter category. Unfortunately those not steeped in the lore wont get much out their latest adventure.

Galaxies is a game made of two parts, interactive story telling via animated comic book style drawings and dialog selection, and an odd mix of a contra style shooter mixed with one of the old labyrinth marble puzzles, each with their own ups and downs.

Where Galaxies excels is in the story telling, a hallmark of Bioware’s games. Working as a bridge story between Mass Effect, and it’s upcoming sequel Mass Effect 2, the game follows the story of Jacob Taylor, who will show up in Mass Effect 2 as a companion character, as he attempts to thwart a Batarian attack on the galactic capital “The Citadel”. The story is decently crafted in the Bioware style and is rich with the lore of the universe, letting experienced players slip right in and enjoy the extension. However for those not familiar with the series, allusions to races and locations can be easily missed as the 2 hour adventure doesn’t have time to enlighten the player on the intricacies.

For a game, Galaxies can easily be found lacking. The combat mode is uninspired and repetitive and seems more of an excuse to call it a game than an interactive storybook. utilizing an overhead view, the player tilts the iPhone from side to side to navigate Jacob around the map much like a Labyrinth Marbel puzzle. As you navigate him around the map, Jacob will automaticly fire at his designated target, automaticly picked by the computer but can be over ridden by tapping on a new target on the screen, whenever he has line of site. Keeping with the setting the player can also utilize one of 3 power attacks based on the biotic abilities from the original game. The combat is also where Bioware’s unfamiliarity with the iPhone hardware begins to show, watching a mobile app significantly lag on the newest model iPod Touch is disheartening to say the least.

In the end Mass Effect: Galaxies fares poorly as a stand alone product. Despite the beautiful animation, the decent if limited voice acting, and well crafted story it, it fails to be something any random gamer could realistically pick up and enjoy to the degree the developers were hoping. But for the franchise enthusiasts the cheap price tag is well worth the purchase if only to get a peek at what’s next in the Mass Effect universe.

Score: 6/10

Media Molecule’s own support of LBP post launch can be looked at two ways. On one hand they have been creating new DLC month after month, but the problem lies with what the DLC actually consists of. Most of the time all the DLC is are costume parts for your Sackboy, various stickers relating to the theme of the DLC pack, and if you’re lucky actual objects or sounds to use when creating your own personal levels. The first DLC pack consisting of Metal Gear Solid-themed bits and bobbles may have seemed a bit lacking when it was first released, but only now do I realize how much was in that one pack compared to what MM has been cranking out recently. Not only did the pack come with stickers and the like, but they even put in an actual level pack with a little story for you and your friends to play through, along with an entirely new gun object (The Paintinator) that brought totally new level ideas into play for users to kick around with.

The worst part about this though, is how MM not only seems content with continuing their trend of anemic DLC, but that they hype these DLC announcements. That’s where the news section of this article comes into play. This morning the official Playstation Blog posted a little teaser for the next DLC pack for Little Big Planet, a Ghostbusters themed one by the looks of it. Now it’s well within their rights to keep producing these DLC packs, but hyping them up like they’re a substantial piece of DLC like the MGS pack was is kind of lame at this point. But, the game is still fun after nine months personally, just wish there was more to do in the Little Big Planet World. You can only play a roller-coaster level so many times. – The Ben.

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 is delayed again but will return for real next week when all the hosts can get together everyone should play through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
All Epic titles on sale! 25% off
Plus:
[blippr]Kings Bounty The Legend[/blippr] $19.99
[blippr]Majesty Gold[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Flock![/blippr] $7.50
[blippr]Sins of a Solar Empire Bundle[/blippr] $29.99
[blippr]Call of Duty 4[/blippr] $34.99
[blippr]Street Fighter IV[/blippr] $35.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Fallout 3[/blippr] $24.99
[blippr]2K HUGE GAMES PACK [/blippr] $53.99
Including:
[blippr]BioShock[/blippr]
[blippr]Freedom Force[/blippr]
[blippr]Prey[/blippr]
[blippr]Sid Meiers Railroads![/blippr]
[blippr]X-COM: UFO Defense[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
[blippr]20% off all Pinball Games![/blippr]
Including:
Pure Pinball Big Race USA $5.99
Pure Pinball 2.0 Redux $5.99
Pure Pinball Timeshock $5.99
Pure Pinball Fantastic Journey $5.99

Direct2Drive
Dark Sector $9.95
Call of Duty 4 $27.95 (ends July 5th)
Call of Duty 5 $34.95 (ends July 5th)
Company of Heroes Complete Bundle $33.95 (ends July 5th)
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition $14.95
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Deluxe Game of the Year Edition $17.95
ArmA: Armed Assault – Combat Operations $14.95

Gamers Gate
X-Com Complete Pack $14.95
Happy Tree Friends False Alarm™ $4.95

XBLA
[blippr]Fable II[/blippr]
Including:
Knothole Island 560 msp

When asked what Pandemic Studios does best most people would cite open world action games. So it is good to see them playing to their strengths with their new game “The Saboteur”. You take the role of Sean Devlin, based on real life resistance fighter William Grover-Williams, who is an almost over the top race car driver, womanizer and as the name implies saboteur in 1940’s Paris during the German occupation.

The Saboteur’s major twist on the genre is as much artistic as practical. The new system called “The will to fight” reflects the Nazi and resistance influence on Paris using a Schindler’s List style black and white in occupied areas punctuated with iconic reds on Nazi paraphernalia. But those areas liberated by the resistance are revived to full colors ala Pleasantville, restoring their vibrant life and exemplifying the populations “will to fight” the Nazi regime. This will hopefully give the players a much needed refresher by allowing them to escape from the oppressive color scheme of occupied zones, and indicates to players where to focus their efforts as a quick jaunt to a rooftop will reveal where occupied zones remain as the effect palls over the cityscape.

If you’ve enjoyed games like pandemics previous mercenaries games, or the GTA series, The Saboteur is a game to keep your eye on as it is showing incredible promise. The Saboteur is due in fall 2009.

Atari’s foray into the realm of survival horror, Alone in the Dark, broke no boundaries whatsoever with it’s lackluster approach to innovation. From the menu screen to the control scheme the game smacks of gimmicky “ain’t it cool” hooks that are little more than aesthetic in approach, and pure frustration in application. The creators, Eden games, really seemed to have tried to make a compelling game, maybe they just got lost in the details.

As the game begins, Edward, the protagonist has been beaten into a stupor. His vision is blurry and so the game is our of focus. The game asks you to “blink” repeatedly in order to clear your vision. This entails clicking the right analog stick for each blink. At first you might think, “Neat! How original.” This is probably what the developers were aiming for. What they failed to consider was that after 5 minutes, this gets bloody annoying. Granted that’s about how long you have to keep it up but you’re left with the feeling of wanting to ask the developers “honestly?” Later on, blinking, or rather keeping your eyes closed becomes an essential technique, and this is a well themed way to introduce a game mechanic, as inexcusable as its abuse on the player may be. Another attempt to invigorate the genre was the revision of the inventory system. When accessing the inventory you’re essentially looking into your coat. Seems neat, even inventive. However the fact that this is done it real time is purely infuriating. While trying to battle the denizens of horror, it’s perhaps not the best time to be standing about in the classic flasher pose examining the contents of your coat in search of an appropriate item. The combat is what you’d expect from a survival horror game, though Alone in the Dark suffers often from poor camera AI, which is no help in either melee or shooting. One thing that makers of survival horror games rarely seem to grasp… sure there’s panic when the camera goes screwy as a zombie is just about to tear open your throat. On the heels of that panic, however, is not the “fun” of being scared, rather the rage at being cheated by a poorly placed or disorienting camera.

The story is a thin vehicle to string along events, and by no means integral. There’s a secret to Central park, and it feels like that secret is an intrigue that needn’t be. The plot seems aimless and almost apologetic. There are few shocking moments, as one would expect, though the moments would be more poignant if the you could bring yourself to like the two dimensional characters. There is a point in the end where you must make a difficult choice, unfortunately the personality of the afflicted makes me care as much as I would if they were a cardboard cut-out. Maybe the frustration of slogging through the rest of the game muted the impact, but I’d say the writing was just uninspired.

The atmosphere is typical of your average survival horror, albeit a bit ham-handed. The one point this game does excel is with it’s use of sound. Very often ambient sound is overlooked in favor of visuals. In this much Alone in the dark has it right on. The sounds of the night are almost enough to make up for the pallored skin and mechanical movement that prevent immersion. The music was well done, and generally seemed appropriate to the tone of gameplay. Graphics are average for the genre. Fire is nicely done, and textures have at least a little thought. The lighting was frustrating throughout the game, I hate to have to lean forward and strain to see what I’m after. I understand that the dark is scary and part of the title, but at the point of retarding game progress, it’s poor design.

Alone in the Dark is just not fun. It’s novel in idea, but that needs to be in concert with fluidity and well executed game mechanics. An intelligent or interesting story might have excused trial and error gameplay, and frustrating mechanics. Honestly, I felt it was just boring. Alone in the Dark would appeal to only the most die hard Survival horror fans. At least you’ll perhaps have a chuckle the first time you whip open that trench coat in central park, wink wink.

Decent ideas, poor execution.

Score 4/10

Complaining about in-game ads was already getting tiresome at the beginning of this generation, but at least you didn’t notice them if you weren’t playing that specific game. Ads on the 360 Dashboard however, have been increasingly…lame. It’s bad enough that the new Dashboard takes a long time to load everything (though in it’s defense it’s faster than the first era 360 dashboard was) and now the ‘board loads up ads every time you navigate your 360 trying to see what’s new. I understand why there are ads on the dashboard…wait I’m a LIVE Gold Member why AM I still seeing intrusive ads on my dashboard that’s pretty stingy Microsoft.

But yeah I understand why advertising on the dashboard alone is a enticing to potential partners, but for the gamer just trying to navigate their dashboard, it’s still just…lame to have to make it such a big part of the NXE rather than a small diversion of the 360 dashboard experience. – The Ben

Gamestop’s reluctance might have something to do with all the UMD Movies most stores across the country are still stuck with years after the last UMD Movie made a profit for anybody involved. Next time you go to a Gamestop, particularly during any advertised sales period, look around and most likely you’ll find a small section where they have UMD Movies still shrink wrapped on sale for a few dollars each, a far cry from the twenty to thirty dollars they were going for back in 2005 during UMD’s glory days.

I know there’s an article from back then somewhere on the net…lemme see if I can find…AHA! Found it! A vintage N’Gai Croal Sony article from 2005 on how the UMD Format would give the movie industry a helping hand. And here, here’s a quote that helps what I’ve been talking about for two paragraphs come together. N’Gai states in that vintage article that, “Studio heads love the fact that the PSP reaches a younger, mostly male audience that spends more on games than it does on movies; since even specialty retailers like GameStop carry UMD movies, their titles are on an equal footing.”

Look what happened in just over two years or so. Gamestop can’t even give their stock of UMD Movies away. The only UMD movie I can recall never dropping in price was Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and the reason that one kept getting purchased is right there in the title of the damn thing! It’s easy to see why Gamestop would be hesitant to keep offering movies along with games if the vast, vast majority of their patrons only see the store as a place to get one specific kind of product. Not only that, but a good number of Gamestop customers probably have some form of Netflix in their home entertainment ensemble somewhere. They don’t want to have to deal with yet another movie format when they can legally view “good-enough” quality movies without ever having to leave the house. – The Ben

What do you get when you mix a Nintendo DS card, an adventure game, and dictionary? Apparently Scribblenaughts, This inventive new game by 5th cell was the buzz of e3 this year and for good reason. The premise of the game is fairly simple, you need to you’re your character Maxwell collect starite in each of the 220 levels. But to get each piece of starite you must summon tools to help you grab or cajole from where ever it is in the challenge. Sometimes it can be as simple as summoning a ladder and climbing up to claim your starite. In others it may involve achieving a separate goal to unlock the starite, as demonstrated in a demo level requiring you to “refresh” a man lost in the desert. But each challenge offers endless opportunities to claim your prize.

This is where the game shines. Scribblenaughts charm is in the inventiveness and breadth of choices you have in obtaining the stars. That simple ladder challenge could be solved with a ladder, or with a jet pack, or a helicopter, or a giraffe wearing a top hat. Where the man can be refreshed with a drink, or a rainstorm, or any number of other items.

All of this summoning is achieved by typing common, non trademarked nouns of a pg nature with your stylus into the digital keyboard. To make things even easier 5th cell predicted that many of you like myself are spelling impaired and also included a built in spell checker to boot, a godsend to say the least.

Overall the demonstration has me looking forward to Scribblenaughts release later this year so I can fulfill my dreams of a zombie Darwin vs. God death match set in 12,000 BC.

Well, Industry Gamers reports that Wedbush Morgan Securities has recently released a gargantuan 210-page report on the video game industry headlined by none other than Wedbush Morgan’s own Michael Pachter. The major talking points that most of the news outlets are reporting on center around Pachter still holding onto that dream that the PS3 will become the HIGH-DEFINITION console of choice due to the fact that Blu-Ray (and Sony by being the driving force behind Blu-Ray) won the High Definition War that seems so long ago now. Honestly it would seem that people would care more about trying to find the best deals on watching movies rather than finding the HIGHEST QUALITY OF DEFINITION for their movie of choice.

Even after faced with the fact that while it’s not a dead format like the VHS or the UMD are in today’s market Blu-Ray and High-Definition Disk Formats in general just weren’t the REVOLUTION that analysts were making them out to be, Pachter still believes that because of Sony “Winning” the high-def war, that it’s reward are the hypothetical spoils of people’s living rooms.

But even Pachter himself admits that the biggest underrated announcements at E3 were the Facebook/Twitter Apps that Microsoft announced for the 360. And look at the PSP, where the biggest advantage it had was software applications, rather than what most analysts believed to be the main selling point of the PSP, high definition movies on UMD.

Pachter also makes note of how he believes Japan is still a major territory in the “Console War” and how he still expects a Wii HD to be released by 2010. This hasn’t been the first time he’s talked about an HD Wii and it won’t be the last, but he’ll keep talking. – The Ben

Information Weekly (via 1up) is reporting on the Chinese Government’s most recent crack down on the digital world. This time Virtual Currency exchanges.

“The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services,”

Many media outlets are calling this the end of Gold Farming, if this is the case it paints an interesting new landscape for MMO’s as the article quotes and estimated 80-85% of gold farmers are located in China.

However the wording of the the release doesn’t necessarily ban the trade of virtual currency into real money, only Real Goods and Services an example of which would be EVE online’s game time cards program.

While a sign for the better a wait and see approach is in order for this new announcement. Not just for what China means, but also how strict they will really be for a multi-billion Yuan a year industry.

Of those without a movie to give them a boost are Ghostbusters and Godfather II, banking more on the nostalgia of the fans and their love for the movies that came out decades ago by now instead of banking on the hype only available when a movie release is still fresh in the public’s mindset.

However for some franchises it’s not enough just to have a cult following of fans or have a new movie released at the same time as the game. For a franchise like…oh let’s say Harry Potter, that franchise gets to have the best of both sides, hardcore fans and people buying the game because it’s come out alongside the hot new movie of the same name. Whether or not the games are good is another thing, but for some franchises, that doesn’t even matter at this point, more so if it’s a long running movie franchise. Even the crappy James Bond games sell as well as the good ones most of the time. – The Ben

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 is delayed again but will return for real next week when all the hosts can get together everyone should play through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

It all started in a way looking forward to Sonic’s 18th Birthday. While the news was nothing more than fluff PR for SEGA, it was an interesting milestone none the less. Along with another entertainment icon I’ll get to in a bit, Sonic personified the 90′s in a big way. While the games started out with just being thrilled by the title the game’s biggest factor, eventually “Story” and “Features” became the selling points for future Sonic titles. Sonic seemingly never grew out of the 90′s, as the era changed and gamers began wanting things like FMV-sequences and free roaming environments. Sonic was caught between two different identities as we entered the 21st century and the next generations of gaming. He was best known for his 90′s attitude and devil may care game style. Now the later games were suddenly stress-inducers where one wrong move would send Sonic into an enemy that while prevalent in his early titles, gained notoriety as he got older. The bottomless pits.

The other icon of the early 90′s of course is Michael Jackson, who’s passing seems to have hit gamers harder than any other hobby aficionados. Sure there’s music sites posting remembrance articles by the hour, but that’s to be expected. What I hadn’t expected was the similar outlook of articles by gaming enthusiasts. At first glance Michael Jackson may not have seemed to have been a major player in the video game industry. Sure he had his own Genesis game Moonwalker and appeared in various titles over the years but at some point he seemed to have joined the cavalcade of entertainment industry icons who wanted to get involved with gaming just to boost their own image with a new generation.

What strikes me most about all these developer memory and rememberance articles is that while there was a part of his involvement that was for publicity purposes, Jackson was just as much a gamer as any of his fans at the time. It was because of his love for gaming that helped him become an icon of the 90′s. Moonwalker may have been a cash-in for some, but for Michael it was that and the ability to make his own fantasy into a game. Look how many entertainment personalities star in games but are really only there for monetary or obligatory reasons. The latest Ghostbusters title may be an awesome game but Murray didn’t have any real emotion attached to his contribution at that point.

Some of the only other personalities I can recall off the top of my head who wanted to get involved in gaming because they loved games were 50 Cent and Vin Diesel. And hell, both of their first attempts were either not well received critically (Fiddy) or commercially (Riddick) but they liked the concepts so much they had next-gen installments made. Just as you’d ask why 50 would be interested in a title where he goes to the Middle East to find a Crystal Skull you’d ask why Michael why his fantasy movie/game involves him turning into a giant robot. You don’t see ideas like that in the gorge of “Celebrity Pet Projects” come to fruition that often.

While Sonic may not be able to “Pass Away” anytime soon, the era of “Sonic Mania” is all but silent now, and it took Jackson’s untimely death to bring back one last “Michael Mania” explosion. The early 90′s didn’t leave us it seems, everyone left it, but interestingly enough it didn’t just automatically stop living, it keeps going for as long as it can, as long as there are still a few fans left to want it to stick around. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]AI War: Fleet Command[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Heroes of Might and Magic V – Tribes of the East[/blippr] $4.99
[blippr]Aztaka[/blippr] $18.49
[blippr]Space Rangers 2[/blippr] Complete $29.95
[blippr]Restaurant Empire[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Nemesis of the Roman Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Galciv II – Ultimate Edition[/blippr] $39.95
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry III[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Capitalism II[/blippr] $9.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Football Manager™ Live[/blippr] $21.99
[blippr]Dark Sector[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Zeno Clash[/blippr] $9.99

Good Old Games –
[blippr]Spellforce[/blippr] Platinum + [blippr]The Guild[/blippr] Gold bundle $13.98
Including:
[blippr]Spellforce[/blippr]
[blippr]The Guild[/blippr]

Gamers Gate
15% off Epic Unreal Titles
Including:
[blippr]Unreal[/blippr] Gold $8.45
[blippr]Unreal II: The Awakening[/blippr] $12.70
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3 [/blippr] $16.95
Also
[blippr]Sid Meier’s Railroads![/blippr] $9.95

Direct2Drive
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures $9.95

XBLA
[blippr]Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix[/blippr] 800 msp

You know how conspiracy theories always have this cabal of old men trying to keep their traditional ways the ones that rule the world? That’s how Sony’s been run for a long time. It was their kind of mindset didn’t even want Kutaragi to go ahead with developing the Playstation more than fifteen years ago because that wasn’t what Sony was about. Sony wasn’t about games.

Among the reforms Stringer’s been trying to get going is the whole conglomeration thing going on. The Fortune Article asks the usual questions concerning this topic. Ones such as “Why hasn’t Sony made a PSP that’s a games machine and a phone?” and “Why didn’t Sony lead the music game genre revolution with Sony Music Entertainment?”. These questions have been asked for years and the answers given have always been “Yeah they’re all part of the Sony family, but each of them is like an adult sibling who doesn’t care about how well the other is doing.” So it looks like it’s going to take the parent company to get sick before the siblings all come together and work with one another. That’s the type of change Stringer’s been trying to put into place for years, and it may just come together soon.

I only wonder how things would have gone in a parallel universe where Ken Kutaragi was given the CEO seat and full reign over the Sony Empire. – The Ben

Going to the stylized approach has done wonders for the visual appeal of the game, allowing the lower polygons to be cleverly hidden in artistic strokes the game instantly feels less visually dated than some of it’s competitors, however despite their efforts the limitations still manage to shine through in the settings and repetitive character types shown in the playable floor demo.

When speaking with Jason Vanderbourghe on the show floor he indicated that he felt the game was more of a brawler than a FPS, and it shows simple actions such as opening doors are shifted into sword swiping actions, and regular armored opponents requiring sword combat over gun combat show the emphasis to the developers dream of “remembering what it was like hitting things in the back yard with sticks”.

While a great dream it is, the Ubisoft team still hasn’t mastered the Wii controls well enough to make the swords feel right during the hands on demo. I often felt like I was flailing ineffectually as my broad strokes were ignored even with the Wii Motion Plus enabled controllers.

While not a bad game, without a lot of work on the controls Red Steel 2 will probably not excel to the great game they want it to be when released in the holiday season 2009.

If I told you one of the most anticipated titles of 2009 was a virtual dollhouse, you would give me some strange looks, however if I told you it was The Sims 3 you would instantly understand. The Sims franchise to the love and hate of many has captured the hearts and minds of hardcore, and casual gamers alike. The Sims simplicity, building a home and populating it with virtual people then guiding them through their lives hides the depths the game holds.

Gone are Sims 2’s astrology and 1-10 traits system, instead each sim gets 5 “perk” like traits selecte3d at creation, or randomized at birth. Each trait carries game altering plus’ or minuses like the bookworm trait that makes learning skills by reading faster, or the hydrophobic trait making the sim afraid of water, awkward at pool parties, and shower time to say the least.

With these new traits the life time goals and rewards system returns as well, but with equal lateral shifts to a perk based system instead of the absurdist contraptions (with a few notable high end exceptions). By completing promised goals, or achieving your sims lifetime wish, ranging from being the ultimate artist, or mastering a profession, your sim can earn additional reward traits to aid them in their lives, but like all bonuses some are more useful than others. Iron bladder for instance, removing the sims need to ever use the restroom can be seen as far more useful than Midlife crisis that lets you repack your original 5 character traits.

Speaking of your sims’ bladders, thankfully the shepherding of your sims through the ultra mundane tasks is greatly reduced as new AI kicks in, as well as rebalanced needs gauges easing the absurdity and allowing you to focus on the important parts of your sims lives, like their social interactions.

One of the previous Sims games’ faults was the social interaction system was overly simple, and easily gamed. I’m afraid to say not much has changed here. Playing Sims 3 even without the “social” traits available my fellow sims were like putty to be molded into a bizarre death cult without much thought. While you can’t spam the same action over and over again, simply mixing in 1 to 2 other similar actions will get you quick results and best friends all around.

The Sims 3’s major change is the integration of the entire town into the game. In previous editions if you wanted to visit a community lot, or visit a friend’s home you were forced to take some form of transportation there, and a 2-3 minute waiting screen ensued for travel each way. With the new system the entire town is seamlessly loaded into your game on the first load up making your sims significantly more mobile, while sparing your sanity along the way.

Despite this advancement, The Sims 3 has two glaring flaws. The most prevalent one is your sims’s life cycle. While you can completely turn off sims aging, or extend the lifespan of your towns sims to epic proportions (something in the range of 1000 sims days,) it can makes it difficult to stay attached to the sims you have become attached to, but grow your family further. Unless your sim starts breeding from the moment they reach young adult hood you’ll find them into old age before their children reach their teens. Sims 2 alleviated this problem with an “Elixir of Life” reward that would extend a sims life, this item however did not make the transition to the newer title leaving an annoying gap it Sims 3’s game play.

The second glaring flaw is the game’s diversity, or the lack there of. While newer players to the Sims probably wont notice, franchise veterans will immediately notice the lack of content, compared to what the “full expanded” sims and sims 2 games offer. Limited options for hobby items, such as only one guitar for musicians instead of the full band kit available previously, and limited hair styles for sims are oft seen complaints.

While the sims 3 offers an online store to purchase additional items, the prices are steep, and give you the impression that EA’s goal relies more on nickel and dimeing you than providing a comparable product to the last entry to the franchise.

Despite these complaints, the sims still manages to hold on to the charm that captivated the audience that has faithfully purchase game after game and expansion after expansion. Perhaps it is something about playing god to the simulated residents of your town, or perhaps its because in the end the game is still more fun than not, but in the end what is important is that the game is still fun, and lots of it. And if the last two entries into the franchise are any example, it will only get better with the expansion packs destined to come.

Score: 7/10

The PR quotes Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software as saying that, “This was a unique opportunity to team with a smart, sophisticated publisher like Bethesda Softworks where the interests of the studio and the publisher will be fully aligned in the development and marketing of our titles. In addition, we will now have financial and business resources to support the future growth of id Software, a huge advantage which will result in more and even better games for our fans.”

Is this the start of another “Merger Mania” the games industry finds itself doing every few years? – The Ben

First Person Shooters on the Wii are like the Philosophers Stone to alchemy. Everyone wants one but no one seems to have gotten it right, possibly, until now. High Voltage software’s “The Conduit” has been a back burner game in our mind space here at Life Inside the Box, but that is going to have to change. After hands on time with the game in both single and multiplayer modes, High Voltage Software has built a solid Wii FPS that manages to control well and look impressive on the Wii’s limited hardware.

The first attempt at a Wii FPS Red Steel’s downfall was it’s lack of responsiveness and the horrible turning via scrolling along the screen edges, the folks at High Voltage appear to have taken this to heart amplifying the turn speeds and more importantly allowing the players to adjust the sensitivity themselves.

While the game shows it’s excellence in spades, the limitations of the Wii’s hardware in graphics and the perceived casual domination of the Wii market are working against it being the mass market hit it could potentially be otherwise.

If you are looking to put your Wii through a whole new set of paces and possibly have a lot of fun along the way, The Conduit is releasing today in North America.

Most interestingly is that the game is supposedly “Specifically built for the PSP platform with upscaled widescreen graphics, enhanced lighting and animation; and including all-new story missions; this version of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will take full advantage of the power of the PSP system.” according to CVG.Com. So does this entail that this version of Chinatown Wars was being worked on before Chinatown’s “Meh” retail performance? Or are Rockstar just that fast when it comes to developing titles? I mean they got Vice City Stories out in just under a year after Liberty City Stories came out.

Now if Chinatown Wars takes place in Liberty City, but there already was a Liberty Stories. So this is the second of the portable trips to LC, with no venture to San Andreas planned yet. Why haven’t they announced a San Andreas Stories yet anyway? – The Ben

Also this week as a special treat we interviewed Matthew Badalucco from Pixel Equity, a new charity to help underprivileged children play games.

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 will be delayed this week so the hosts will be playing through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” still for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]FarCry 2[/blippr] $17.99
[blippr]Assassin’s Creed[/blippr] $17.99
[blippr]Heroes of Might and Magic V[/blippr] – Tribes of the East $17.99
[blippr]Restaurant Empire[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Nemesis of the Roman Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Galciv II – Ultimate Edition[/blippr] $39.95
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry III[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Capitalism II[/blippr] $9.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Empire: Total War[/blippr] $24.99
Empire Total War Special Forces Pack $34.99
Including:
[blippr]Empire: Total War[/blippr]
[blippr]Empire: Total War Elite Units[/blippr]

Good Old Games –
Ghosts Promo
Including:
[blippr]Ghost Master[/blippr] $4.49
[blippr]Pain Killer[/blippr] $7.49

Gamers Gate
[blippr]Flock![/blippr] $7.49
[blippr]Dawn of War 40k: Soulstorm[/blippr] $14.99
[blippr]Dark Sector[/blippr] $9.99

XBLA
[blippr]Fallout 3[/blippr] DLC:
Operation Anchorage 560 msp

We saw this type of douchery in a non-harmful form when he was just yanking peoples’ chains about how the next Guitar hero game will be the first to have whatever feature was already clearly in Rock Band or whatever. We saw the Douche Level rise to a harmful degree when Activision didn’t like it that Brutal Legend actually looked like it could be a hit after they dropped the publishing rights to it.

And now because Activision is riding high on the success of the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises, Bobby thinks he can make these statements like he’s giving a king’s decree here. Yes, Activision has managed to become widely successful in the last few years, but don’t let it go to your head Bobby. You know what happens when you do that you know that the inevitable always happens to companies that do that. – The Ben

The report reveals that Steve Ballmer of Microsoft has announced a new Xbox 360 for release sometime next year that will be “‘really, really, close’ to an actuality” and described as having a “natural interface.” Along with a built in camera, this new 360 seems to be at least one way Microsoft plans on getting Natal out there to market next year. Hopefully it’ll be priced favorably to the consumers. – The Ben

When looking at Home Front my first impression was, “Gee this looks like that canceled Jaffe project homeland“. After being assured otherwise and sitting down for the tour, you can tell that Home Front is looking to be a beast unto itself. The game takes place around twenty years in the future in an occupied United States, and is supposed to give the players flashbacks to Red Dawn. That shouldn’t be surprising since the team at Kaos studios have been coordinating with John Milius, of Red Dawn and Apocalypse Now fame, on the story.

The hands-off demo shown on the floor was definitely impressive, the graphics looked clean, the sound was impressive, and the engine features they were touting showed a lot of potential.

One of those features was the “Drama” engine, a background system that would attempt to give the player that edge of the seat feeling the entire time they are playing. The example from the demo involved shooting a missile at a moving Jeep. When the Jeep exploded the drama engine applied a slight magnetism to the player character drawing the Jeep slightly towards him as it flew through the air; as to provide a near miss on screen.

While immediately impressive Home Front will need to overcome some obstacles before its estimated release sometime in 2010. This includes a cartoony characters facial design and the industry’s endemic shooter fatigue. Despite those obstacles, Home Front appears to be a game to keep your eye on.

One of the nice things about license games is that if you play enough of them you don’t have very high expectations. The reason that its a good thing is that when every now and then you find a decent one you can really enjoy it. Quantum of Solace for the XBox 360 falls soundly into this category. Developed by Treyarch – the folks behind Call of Duty 3, and Call of Duty World at War – Quantum of Solace is a first- and third-person action game that follows the events of the newest James Bond through the plot lines of both films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. This does have the effect of making the game’s title rather disingenuous, as the majority of the game consists of reimagined versions of the events of Casino Royale.

What makes Quantum of Solace shine is not the story line by any means, as the reimagining occasionally borders on the absurd. Starting where Casino Royale, left off Quantum of Solace has Bond chasing his enemies through a mansion, across an empty opera venue, and into a sinkhole, then segues into a flashback to Casino Royale, revisiting the construction yard chase, a romp through the science museum (sans the living corpses display), a battle through a moving train, and Casino Royale itself, eventually jumping back to current events for the anticlimactic finale in the Bolivian hotel featured in the film.

The gameplay, however, is both entertaining and exhibits few flaws. While the game is played in a first person perspective, like Rainbow 6: Vegas, when entering cover, as you will do for most of the game, you switch to a third person perspective. While in both modes the handling is well refined and easy to maneuver with little exception. It isn’t without its flaws, though, as the game is rather selective in regards to the areas where you can jump over objects or down ledges (though it would seem obviously easy to do); a symptom of trying to funnel the player through the designed areas.

While the gameplay shines, the graphics are average for this generation of games. The settings provide a decent color palette avoiding the common “brown” feel, thanks to the varied environments the game inhabits. The character models are often sub-par, though this effect is very likely due to the problem of trying to model real life actors characters you recognize – they will often feel “wrong” because they don’t quite match their real life inspiration.

Additionally Quantum of Solace’s reliance on “quick time events” does take some of the thrill of the game away, as bosses are generally the extended hand to hand encounters Bond faced in the movies played out as these QTE’s. While it resolves the feeling that some enemies are superhuman, it leaves you feeling robbed of a level’s climax.

Those complaints aside, Quantum of Solace was both fun to play and entertaining from start to finish and in the end that is worth the price of admission.

Score 7/10

It’s no surprise at the top with Nintendo, Blizzard, Rockstar North and Valve showing off. Of interest though is that since the ranks went by development houses and not publishing ones, many of the second and third parties that are cited with making the top publisher’s big games also make the list. So while you won’t see Activision’s name on this list, houses like Treyarch For instance you’ve got both HAL Labs (Smash Bros) and Intelligent Systems (Advance Wars, Fire Emblem) on the list, meaning that Nintendo got the top spot by basically Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii alone. You have three distinct EA dev houses (including Digital Illusions) on the list, and the various studious that make up the majority of Sony and Microsoft’s first and second party offerings.

If you’re wondering where Infinity Ward is, remember that this is the list of developers that were active in 2008. IW didn’t release anything last year, giving Treyarch a go at Call of Duty series again in their stead. The opposite of course, will probably show up on next year’s list. – The Ben

Dragon’s Age: Origins is a game that is sure to disappoint many of Bioware’s newer fans. Those looking for a KOTOR or Mass Effect should look elsewhere. Instead, Bioware is hearkening back to its older roots with Baulder’s Gate series as inspiration for its latest adventure.

Graphically, Dragon’s Age continues to excel, and is an excellent show of their art team’s skill; however other technical aspects seem to have suffered in favor of the dazzle. During the closed-door demo, the most jarring aspect had to have been the voice acting. Each line uttered appeared to be read in a void with no regard to the scene at hand, making “romance” lines fall flat, and a jilted lover seem indifferent to betrayal. To add to this deficiency was a total lack of expressiveness from the character models themselves. After the efforts put into their other games, it is disappointing to see emotionless mannequins on screen instead of the dynamic characters we’ve grown to expect from the folks at Bioware.

While we discuss missing innovations, gone are Mass Effect’s dynamic conversation options, instead the “pick a sentence” system returns with the mute protagonist, who doesn’t even bother to read his lines.

With more time I’m sure Dragon’s Age: Origins would be a triple A title, however based on the E3 showing, I can’t imagine it meeting the expectations of the fans.

One of the best qualities about gamers is their capacity for kindness and giving. Some of the nicest and most caring people I’ve known are also some the most hard core gamers around.

So it doesn’t surprise me to see life long gamer Matthew Badalucco stepping up and spreading the joy with a new charity Pixel Equity.

Pixel Equity is a non profit group designed to put your used games into the hands of under privileged children who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford them.

In their own words:

We’re a not-for-profit organization that is working with youth centers that serve children from households that can’t afford video games. We’ve talked with the administrators, who in turn have talked with the children, to determine the games and consoles that these kids want. But how do we get the games to them?

for more information about how you can help spread the gaming love visit the Pixel Equity site.

There’s really nothing to comment on here except for the fact that…well eleven million is a hell of a lot of units of the game.

The only downside to how many record breaking games we’re seeing this gen is that the ones that don’t do anywhere nearly as well as the Call of Duty and Wii _____ titles are looked at with disdain from the publisher. This is most likely the main reason Bobby dropped Brutal Legend from his warm embrace. The game could be a critical hit and a good seller, but even selling a million copies doesn’t mean success for a NEXT-GEN GAME HURRRRR anymore. Dead Rising was lucky to sell as many copies as it did. If it had only broken the 500,000 mark that might have been acceptable back in 2000 and still warrant a sequel, but not these days. The whole definition of “success” when concerning video games can be taken in so many different directions.

For instance, for all the hype Final Fantasy XII had, it only sold just over five million copies world wide. Again, five million is a grand number, but small potatoes when compared to what was merely yearly sequel done by the series’ off-year team. [blippr]Metal Gear Solid 4[/blippr], only sold just under five million disks since it’s launch. Hell let’s go back a few gens and look at some legacy titles. [blippr]Final Fantasy VII[/blippr] at last count was just under ten million copies sold in the ten years it’s been available. And one game, one yearly iteration just flew by it like it wasn’t no thang. – The Ben

One new example is a World of Warcraft art exhibit hosted by Laguna Art Museum. According to the news story in the link the exhibit will be a showcase of both official art, fan art, and art done by professional artists all over the world. The exhibit seems to be an interesting showcase for the brand’s mythos. Maybe if this exhibit takes off more of it’s kind will start showing up at art museums everywhere. – The Ben

Gamasutra (via Joystiq) is reporting the Bionic Commando next generation sequel performed poorly during it’s first two weeks. Garnering only 27k sales and not even scratching the surface of the top 10.

What makes this news sad is that it will serve as an indictment of classic franchise remakes, instead of a sign that the game (which only garners an average review score at time of writing of 7 out of 10) was mediocre at best. While it is disingenuous to compare it’s sales numbers to that of the sister Grin studios release last month “Terminator Salvation” due to it’s movie tie ins, a more apt comparison is that of the Downloadable remake Bionic Commando: Rearmed that sold remarkably well because it was a good game that stayed true to the franchise.

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 continues this week, as the guys talk about the first levels of [blippr]Dark Forces[/blippr], and it’s impact as a Star Wars first person shooter. The hosts will be playing through level 7 “Deadly Cargo” for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

Along with the standard “Whatchu think bout dat competition?” questions, there was an interesting section dealing with Mario games and story:

Wired.com: Super Mario Galaxy was also the first time where we saw a story in a Mario game that was more than just window dressing, that was a really interesting narrative. Are we going to see more of that?

Miyamoto: I’ve talked to (Galaxy director Yoshiaki) Koizumi about that a lot, but this time I’d like to go with as little story as possible. I’ve always felt that the Mario games themselves aren’t particularly suited to having a very heavy story, whereas the Zelda series is something that lends itself more naturally to that idea. We’ve differentiated a little bit between those two, because the Zelda games have had an in-depth story whereas the Mario games have not. Mr. Koizumi is the type of person who, whenever we’re working on a new Mario game, he always wants to bring more story elements into it, as he did with Super Mario Galaxy. But in talking with him this time, he agrees and feels that with Galaxy 2, there won’t be a need for as deep of a story.

I think you did see a person carved out of a tree stump in the trailer. That person has a bit of a story.

Wired.com: When I talked to Mr. Koizumi, he said that he would try to sneak in story elements without you knowing.

Miyamoto: Well, I put a stop to that at the beginning, this time (laughs).

Wired.com: Why do you think that Mario games aren’t served by having a story?

Miyamoto: I just feel that the Mario games are something that should be a much more bright and active experience. The games are much more of a physical action type of game. My feeling is that with the Mario games, you don’t need to have such a complicated setting where you have these particular characters with complicated backstories that can weigh down the bright and fun feel of the game. So in that sense, I feel that even if all that you have is that the villain is just simply a villain and you fight them, and you throw them down, and you find out, well, that wasn’t such a bad villain after all, that’s enough story for ultimately what is just about a very fun experience.

I think what’s really the most ideal thing is for the player themselves, within their own imagination, to carve out what they view as being the essence of the character. With New Super Mario Bros. Wii as well, we’ve had some battles over the story elements. They always want to have these dramatic scenes where Princess Peach gets kidnapped, but I always tell them, no, it’s fine — Princess Peach likes cake, so you can just have them use cake as bait to kidnap Princess Peach, and that’s enough. I was thinking they could have these big ships come in, and they’ve got these big chains all over them, and they drop a plate down with cake on it (laughs).

While this will only give more fodder to the “Mario’s the same thing every time”, it’s assuring to know that Mario games won’t have memorable moments like this one any time soon. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Democracy 2[/blippr] $11.49
[blippr]Restaurant Empire[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Kudos[/blippr] $4.95
[blippr]Kudos:Rock Legend[/blippr] $4.95
[blippr]Kudos 2[/blippr] $9.95
[blippr]Nemesis of the Roman Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Galciv II – Ultimate Edition[/blippr] $39.95
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry III[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Capitalism II[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Sword of the Stars[/blippr] Ultimate Collection $7.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Light of Altair[/blippr] $11.99
[blippr]Football Manager Live[/blippr] $21.99
[blippr]Red Orchestra[/blippr] $4.99

Good Old Games –
25% off Strategy Sale
Including:
[blippr]Castles[/blippr] & [blippr]Castles 2[/blippr] $4.49
[blippr]Conquest of the New World[/blippr] $4.49
[blippr]Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising[/blippr] $4.49
[blippr]Jagged Alliance 2[/blippr] $4.49
[blippr]Soldiers: Heroes of World War 2[/blippr] $7.49
[blippr]Sacrifice[/blippr] $4.49
[blippr]Perimeter[/blippr] $7.49
[blippr]M.A.X.[/blippr] & [blippr]M.A.X. 2[/blippr] $4.49

Gamers Gate
[blippr]Sword of the Stars[/blippr] Ultimate Collection $7.99

Direct to Drive
Sword of the Stars: Ultimate Collection + Argos Shipyard $16.95

XBLA
[blippr]Gears of War 2[/blippr] Combustible Map Pack 560 msp

iTunes
Peggle for the Iphone/Ipod Touch 0.99

PlayStation 2 117K
PlayStation 3 131K
PSP 100.4K
Xbox 360 175K
Wii 289.5K
Nintendo DS 633.5K

UFC 2009 UNDISPUTED THQ Xbox 360 679.6K
Wii FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 352.8K
EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE ELECTRONIC ARTS Wii 345.8K
UFC 2009 UNDISPUTED THQ PS3 334.4K
INFAMOUS SONY PS3 175.9K
POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA NDS 168.9K
MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 158.3K
PUNCH OUT!! NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 156.9K
X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE UNCAGED ED ACTIVISION BLIZZARD Xbox 360 120.7K
Wii PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA Wii 109.8K

This must be the only generation where all three consoles are selling “well” yet all three are selling “poorly” at the same time through various reasons given by analysts. Whatever, it’s May, a month in which the Gamecube sold around some fifty thousand units in 2005 and was generally assumed that that was as good it was going to get for a Nintendo console.

Well, without any heavy hitting software I assume the Wii is only going to continue it’s decli-oh…wait. Wii Sports Resort is out next month.

Eh.

– The Ben

Reggie. Reggie Reggie Reggie. Why did you give everyone more bait? Bait, as in more message board fodder for those laughing smilies. Bait for those “BEST AND WORST QUOTES OF 2009″ fluff articles sites always put up at the end of the year. That kind of bait.

Honestly though, he shouldn’t have said anything if he couldn’t say it any different. And also honestly, at least he didn’t let loose something even worse like “We already have the hardcore audience” or “We don’t need third parties to make hardcore games”. The gaming tabloids would be all over those gaffes if he did. – The Ben

Backwards Compatible Volume 5 kicks off this week, introducing the classic Dark Forces to the mix. The hosts will be playing through the first level for the show next week, so if you’re keeping up, make sure to check Google Checkout or Amazon for your copy, and get right in to the action.

The point I’m making is that you could call this franchise fatigue, if the franchise was indeed suffering from fatigue. The two most recent Mario Kart games still make it onto the NPD charts while many high-profile games released this year have already fallen out of the Top 20, never to be seen again. NSMB DS was released three years ago, and Mario Kart DS almost four damn years ago.

Some people like to lump this milking into the same category of SEGA’s manhandling of Sonic, but the difference there is that with the exception of Europe where Sonic is still treated like Royalty, he’s not that popular in the rest of the world. What SEGA does with Sonic is in response to his falling stardom. Sales are down? Well then the answer is simple, the games need MORE INTENSE STORY LINES with love interests and death and loss. That didn’t work either? Well then we should try getting Sonic back to his roots….but still through in an unavoidable gimmick section that makes up almost more than half of the game play time as you keep dying and trudging through the Werehog sections.

Mario meanwhile just does whatever. He doesn’t appear in Role Playing Games because of some unfounded theory that it’ll make him more hip with the kids. They just make those Mario RPGs because they get to work with the Mario Universe. Like with my thoughts on the Zelda series, I believe that each Mario genre appeals to certain gamers. Mario Kart Wii may have turned off many hardcore gamers with it’s emphasis on randomized items and social gaming, but obviously more than enough people liked the title enough to make it one of the best selling games of this gen period. Some call it a way to squeeze some money out of Mario’s popularity after Mario Galaxy came out, but what do you call it when the spin-off becomes far more successful than the supposed “Epic 3D Adventure” title in the franchise did. When more new gamers will remember karting around with Mario years from now instead of going on some epic-story driven crusade?

And then there’s Mario Galaxy 2, which people are already pointing to as just a quick cash grab that while fun will only dilute the Mario brand further than it already has.

Well they’re right. I mean before Galaxy 2 no other Mario game had reused the same engine only a few years after release in order to have a shorter development time and implement new ideas that didn’t get used the first time aroundoh wait a minute. We’ve been squeezing a dead cow for twenty years.

The SHAME OF IT ALL! – The Ben

The staff here at Life Inside the Box want to thank everyone who watched our E3 coverage, and welcome everyone who is new to the site. Stay tuned as we start to digest our coverage and start to post our impressions from the E3 floor.

Lastly we are giving away 6 codes for the Uncharted 2 Multiplayer Beta, listen to tonights podcast for the details and we’ll announce the winners monday!

And look at Trico/ The Last Guardian. It has so much hype and potential because of the developer’s previous titles. So much so in fact that most of the gaming public already thinks they know how the game is going to end. It’s not going to be a surprise if the main draw of the game dies in the final act trying to save the young boy, or any combination of that sort. It would be a bigger twist to not kill off the main characters and let them live their lives in peace after the credits role. Hell, that was my favorite part of Metal Gear Solid 4 to be honest. Now that it’s been a year I think I can at least say that at the end of MGS4, Snake doesn’t die. Nope, he doesn’t die. He’s aging, he’s dying as much as he was at the start of MGS4, but he still ends the game with his ticker beating.

If you don’t wanna play sequels because you feel that you’ve already gotten the most out of that particular Universe, then fine. But the best thing games have going for them are how fast you can develop new entries into particular Universes and how much Lore can be added each generation, as opposed to movies and TV which are always on strict schedules, with each season potentially being the last look for us into these Universes. – The Ben

Day 3 has come and gone, we got alot of time to talk about games with the developers stay tuned for the next couple of weeks to hear their 2 minute elevator pitches for their games. Tonight I invited Zach Ellsbury from Gathering of Gamers to talk about the games he’d seen and what his thoughts on E3 have been.

Stay tuned for the rest of the week to our twitter feed and feel free to send a message to @lfeinsidethebox to request us take a peek at something because we are more than happy to. In the mean time stay tuned here for more news and podcasts through out E3

You’re treating them like they’re some all mighty deity that you expect to do no wrong and act so shocked when they slip up or conduct business like a normal company. You’re so shocked that this company could be so bland and ruthless, not the Willy Wonka-esque dream factory you were expecting. If you just treated them like a normal developer and manufacturer you wouldn’t keep getting let down when you realize the company is less than god like.

Here’s one example of this phenom to prove that I’m not talking about some hypothetical person that doesn’t exist.

“I don’t know what it is. Is it my skewed view? Is it that we have loved Big N for so long that we expect nothing short of perfect from him?-”

Yes, that’s what it is. It’s that you’re loving a company who has the prime directive over all else to make money. Now that doesn’t mean they’re totally heartless. You can be a philanthropist of good feelings to your consumers and still make money. But stop treating them like they’re above Willy Wanka and Uncle Walt in perception. It’s that perception that makes it harder when you realize that they, nor any other company that has so much of a burden on them, aren’t your friends.

Now, some might point to Valve as the ultimate example of a company that always meets the needs of the fans. And you’re right, but Valve doesn’t have to carry so much weight in comparison to hardware manufacturers like Nintendo. They don’t have to support an entire production facility to make the hardware to play their games on. They can focus purely on the software they want to make.

And then of course you’ll get the inevitable, “Well, in that case…maybe Nintendo shouldn’t have been so successful with the Wii and gone Third Party.”

To that I say, “Well, there’s just no pleasing some people. Fuck all y’all I got the Koopa Kids.” – The Ben

But they’ve always done shit like this at every E3, not just in the recent Casual Era of success. One of these “Pet Projects” that was shown off at E3 years ago that might be unknown is Stage Debut. For years Nintendo was trying to get the Mii concept working, ever since the Famicom days. Whenever Stage Debut and it’s ilk was shown at E3, it was mostly puzzling to every passerby in the Expo. And even more puzzling to those who did remember it after the convention was over, was that it was never even released. It just showed up one E3, stuck around for a bit, and then left.

Of course while Stage Debut in the form journalists played around with never came out, the concept was integrated into the Wii’s Mii system. I guess what I’m trying to get at is, the Vitality Meter that Iwata showed off wasn’t a big deal to them even. It was just Iwata coming up on stage to shoot the shit about gaming philosophy, and even though that probably wasn’t the best thing to do a press conference, it wasn’t the company’s main focus like Wii Music ceremoniously was at last year’s E3. It was just a small application Iwata thought would be neat, that’s all. – The Ben

Day two is wrapping up here in LA at E3 2009, and both Nintendo and Sony brought out their lineups for the media events some more disappointing than others.

Today however was all about the games, the floor was cramped with people talking games, and all that goes around them, Thankfully this year, the games are looking and playing better than ever, there were few instant duds to be seen on the floor.

Stay tuned for the rest of the week to our twitter feed and feel free to send a message to @lfeinsidethebox to request us take a peek at something because we are more than happy to. In the mean time stay tuned here for more news and podcasts through out E3

Of course since no photography is allowed at this round table we can’t actually see it, but according to IGN Link looks “More NOT GHEY CELDA than ever” in their words. I imagine this piece of artwork is in fact the same one Nintendo gave us at E3 2004 of the TP-style Link, but with a beard drawn on it. – The Ben

And it also had Final Fantasy Eleven-Two. No that’s not Fourteen that’s Eleven-Two I don’t care if numbers don’t work that way it’s got Taru-Taru and those giant guys with neck beards.

Honestly, I thought all the conferences were good, but now we have to suffer through gaming nerds arguing over who won E3, why Nintendo’s conference totally sucked and Nintendo is stupid and should have gone third party and they smell because they’re stupid butts and everything else along those lines.

Oh and BIG BOSS OUTER HEAVEN METAL GEAR!!!! – The Ben

At least one of my dream predictions came true.

That being a Metroid Prequel that features a younger Samus during her service in the Galactic Federation and the rising tension between her and Commander Adam Malkovich, who’s consciousness eventually gets transplanted into her new ship by Metroid Fusion.

Having it 2D was a bonus, I was worried Metroid would never go back to a 2D plane.

– The Ben

E3 Expo 2009 is getting well underway with the first of the weeks festivities Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, and others holding early press conferences before the show starts.

Microsoft started strong out of the gate with several large announcements including sequels, exclusives and even some new hardware.

In contrast Ubisoft soft spent most of it’s press event trying to show that they were not second fiddle to EA, thier longtime rival any more, and that they were blurring the lines between movies and games.

All in all the mood is set with excitement across the show floor as the games convention begins to ramp up for it’s first official day tomorrow.

Make sure to visit our friends at Console Tech, Pixelatedgeek, Game And Tech, My Gamer

Stay tuned for the rest of the week to our twitter feed and here for more news and podcasts through out E3

The main theme I got from Ubisoft was that games are not only bigger than movies, but should be as important as movies themselves. Well…okay that’s an interesting position but how are you going to go about putting this idea into motio-oh God James Cameron is talking. Ubisoft partnered up with James Cameron with his pet project of fourteen years AVATAR, and boy was Cameron excited to talk about this partnership. He was so excited that he talked about it for TWENTY GOD DAMN MINUTES. He ended up going over the whole plotline and why the world of Pandora is so spectacular with it’s 100ft tall trees, yet there wasn’t one ounce of gameplay shown (by the way, here’s the first screens of the AVATAR game if you’re curious) off during this magnum opus of a talk.

You can say that Kojima and Wada’s games go on forever in the cutscene department, but at least when they’re at E3 they let the game do the talking even if it’s just a pre-recorded trailer. There was NOTHING on the projection behind Cameron during his talk about how the natives of Pandora have tails and dislike human expansion and all that jazz. I can tell the guy is passionate about the project, you can tell they didn’t have to pay him one cent to come on stage, the guy could have probably talked longer about how the natives conduct politics with the animals of the planet. But really, Ubi should have given him his own little event during E3 where he just talks AVATAR for an hour and a half.

Other things of note were the new Splinter Cell shown off for a second time, a new trailer for Assassin’s Creed 2, more fitness games from Ubisoft, and Red Steel 2 being demoed by a MAD MAN.

Jason Vandenbergh certainly has a passion. What that passion is exactly I cannot say, but I’d have to position it somewhere around MADNESS. I mean, the man’s website is www.darklord.Com. He’s like an Allen Moore from a parallel universe where he got into Video Game Design instead of comics. He’s already got the beard and in lieu of finger armor he was carrying around a pointing stick while on stage. Brian if you are reading this you MUST try and get an interview with this man. He is the kind of developer the industry is lacking these days.

So yeah that was Ubisoft’s Pre-E3 press conference. There were Rabbids and Pele and the usual Ubisoft staples. We had some laughs, not from the guy they got to host it certainly and I think we all learned something from the presser.

Don’t make your press conference last two hours, especially if one fifth of that time is taken up by James Cameron talking about the 100ft tall tree universes he created. – The Ben

LOS ANGELES — Microsoft revealed a motion-sensing gadget for the Xbox 360 that it said will change the future of entertainment — and not just play catch-up with Nintendo’s Wii.

If it works as promised, the device could dramatically raise the ante in the competition between the Xbox, Wii and PlayStation and usher in a new era of immersive entertainment.

Code-named Project Natal, the device is a horizontal bar about nine inches wide and stuffed with cameras, depth sensors and array microphones.

It can detect the voices and motions of people nearby, so they can interact with an Xbox and games just by talking and moving their bodies.

Prices and timing weren’t available, but it won’t be available until 2010 at the earliest and will probably cost around $200. Microsoft has already given game developers tools to start building games that uses the device.

At first it sounds like a challenger to Nintendo’s Wii, which uses motion-sensitive controllers. but Natal recognizes gestures and motions made by the entire body without any sort of controller in the hand, Microsoft Vice President Shane Kim said.

“This goes way beyond the Wii,” he said.

Natal will also add voice control, so users could walk up to an Xbox and use their voice to start a movie or check messages.

Kim said the device is intended to remove “barriers,” making the Xbox more accessible to people who are intimidated by all the buttons and controls on a traditional game controller.

There’s the short and quick of the Project. Hopefully it’ll be on the show floor and be available to a variety of different people to try out this week. – The Ben

– Cliffy B. showed off a new game from Epic from XBLA called Shadow Complex that according to them draws upon the Metroidvania/Castletroid genre but with a touch of Epic Games flavor.

– Then Bungie showed off Halo: ODST which drops this September, followed by the first look at Halo: Reach, which drops in Spring of next year but will have a multiplayer beta available in the fall if you buy ODST. Along with the last of the new Halo 3 maps, that’s like three different Halo games connected to one package.

Once most of the hardcore games were shown off, the next part of the conference started. The “Social” part. The biggest announcements from this section included the fact that Last.FM will be available to Xbox Live Gold members for free, and that you can now watch movies on your 360 with your friends online at the same time in a new Avatar Movie Theater all MST3k style.

And then, Facebook and Twitter apps. It’s no secret that the Xbox wasn’t created to be simply a game delivery platform but the eventual “All-In-One” box that Microsoft wanted to use to fight off Sony’s gambit on controlling the living room space. Another shot in that war was fired as Microsoft announced that both Facebook and Twitter will be available to use on the 360, each with their own special 360 Dashboard Flavor.

After the social segment began the final third which I like to ca-METAL GEAR to 360?!?!____RAIDEN?!?!?!-ll the “Creepy Unholy Matrimony of the Wii Remote and Eye Toy” segment. It was during this segment that the gaming world was publicly introduced to Project Natal, the secret motion control-experiment that everyone knew by now was being developed by Microsoft. To show off Natal Microsoft first demoed some Eye Toy style games. They were…interesting.

And then OH SHIT PETER MOLYNEUX IS ON STAGE AND HE’S GOING TO SAY SOMETHING EVERYBODY RUN!

Peter Molyneux was invited on stage to show off his new game using Project Natal called…well I don’t think he actually named the game. But what he did name was the boy you interact with in the game. Milo. Milo is the young boy who recognizes your face, speech, everything about you as one of the touted features of Project Natal. (Auto-Sign In to your 360 using your body is pretty cool) But this demo seemed to me more of something that Molyneux is fascinated by instead of everybody else. But hey, he did the same thing with the dog in Fable 2 and I liked that scamp. So I’ll give it a go.

These are just my first thoughts after the press conference concluded. If you want a structured break down of some sort with time marks and everything, Wired’s Chris Kohler kept a blog handy if you wanna check it out.

– The Ben

…

Did I really just write that hokey line? Oh Lord I really am turning into a gaming journalist. Well whatever, last night Activision had their big “We’re not attending E3 this year but we’ll still have a call conference for the press to show off how much money we’re going to make this year” event near the Los Angeles Convention Center. Gamespot was there live blogging the whole thing, which was good for most of us as I’m sure most gamers didn’t even know Activision was even having a press conference last night.

Some of the highlights from the event?

– Starcraft 2 is set to be released by the end of 2009, however Diablo 3 isn’t looking likely to be coming out this year.

– Tony Hawk is over 40 and as a result the new peripheral-based Tony Hawk game is actually the best way for him to skate now as he’s getting up there in years. Yet the new Tony Hawk game was hyped with lines like “Now you can skate just like Tony Hawk!”, are they saying you’ll be feeling like Hawk was in his prime, or that the only way he can skate without looking like an “old” man is with this new game?

– Call of Duty is the new Mario. It’s not the new Hoth, not the new Halo, the franchise is the new Mario. The conference was lauding the franchise with each new entry being able to outsell the previous one regardless of quality, and that they’re looking forward to expanding the franchise into new genres. Now every gaming site that thinks they’re so smart immediately thought of “Lol Call of Duty Kart Racing” but I’d rather much see of all possible genres, a take on the dating sim. Crazy? You think that’s crazy? C’mon! You’re an American soldier with your buddies fighting in Europe, your sweet hart is all the way back in the states helping on the home front in anyway she can. And in-between the combat sections the franchise is known for, you’ve got NPC interaction once the firefights die down and have to choose between staying true to your girl, or letting war work it’s own strange magic on you as you see just how much of the world there is out there.

– ….Okay, there was also a lot of Guitar Hero talk. With all the self-back patting on how the Guitar Hero series is clearly the leader in the Music Game Genre, there was talk about how Band Hero and DJ Hero would be just as innovative and mesmerizing to all audiences. Now Activision can congratulate yourself on a lot of things. They’ve managed to become a powerhouse rivaling the biggest third-party companies. They’ve been able to keep most of their franchises from becoming stale. But don’t outright lie, don’t pretend that Band Hero is the first game of it’s kind don’t say that DJ Hero is the first game that “truly lets you mix like a master” because those are lies. You know they’re lies, the audience knows they’re lies. Even if someone on the Band Hero team had the idea for it years before the Guitar Hero team did, don’t try and rewrite history.

That was Activision’s big presser. Next up we have Microsoft, who is actually starting their conference five minutes earlier today due to an “Unforeseen Last Minute Announcement Addition” of some sort. – The Ben

You voted and we listened, Backwards Compatible Volume 5 will be Dark Forces by Lucas Arts, we will be announcing segments and ways to get it next during next week’s show. As always email us at (podcast) at (lifeinsidethebox.com) or post your thoughts on the Backwards Compatible 5 thread on Forumopolis.

And to everyone else out there stung by the E3 bug, try not to let the hype swallow you whole. – The Ben

By now the Qore Issue is probably down but luckily the internet keeps a record of everything and there’s already a Youtube Video of the Qore Interview. Among the interesting facts given in the interview is that there’s going to be new Jak and Daxter and Metal Gear entries for the system, along with the long awaited Gran Turismo Mobile and some footage of the Portable version of Little Big Planet.

The PSP Go! is intended to work much like the GBA SP did with the GBA so many years back. Although the GBA SP all but replaced the GBA in the mindset of both the consumers and developers, there weren’t any SP only games that you couldn’t also play on your GBA. That’s probably one of the reasons Nintendo didn’t add extra Y and X buttons the SP, one of the major complaints surrounding the GBA line and it’s SNES ports.

That’s also why the PSP Go! doesn’t have a second analog nub. Sony wants their two handhelds to sell well together and won’t give the developers an incentive to make their games Go! only.

The most interesting thing about the PSP Go! announcement though, is that it’s almost confirmed that PS3 Slim rumor by showing off the packaging of the Go! in the leaked pictures. The style of the packaging for the PSP Go! is parallel to the leaked packaging pics of the PS3 Slim. The Go! box has a Blue style while the previously leaked Slim box had a Red style.

Leaks are a way of life, and the E3 dam is just getting started to break. – The Ben

The weekend has come around and it’s time to play, so here’s your weekly guide to what’s on sale at your favorite downloadable services.

Impulse - This week’s Impulse buys:
[blippr]Sword of the Stars[/blippr] Ultimate Edition $20.00
[blippr]Europa Universalis Rome[/blippr] Gold Edition $9.99
[blippr]Nemesis of the Roman Empire[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Galciv II – Ultimate Edition[/blippr] $39.95
[blippr]Warlords Battlecry III[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Capitalism II[/blippr] $9.99
[blippr]Lightweight Ninja[/blippr] $0.99

Steam - Weekend Deals:
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3[/blippr] Black Edition $9.99
Or
The Unreal Deal Pack $19.99 Including
[blippr]Unreal[/blippr] Gold
[blippr]Unreal 2[/blippr]
[blippr]Unreal Tournament[/blippr]
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 2004[/blippr] Editor’s Choice Edition
[blippr]Unreal Tournament 3[/blippr] Black Edition

Good Old Games –
Duke Nukem Promo $8.98
Including:
[blippr]Duke Nukem 3d Atomic Edition[/blippr]
[blippr]Duke Nukem The Manhatten Project[/blippr]

Direct2Drive
X-Com Complete Bundle $7.50
Including:
[blippr]X-Com: Enforcer[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: Interceptor[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: Apocalypse[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: Terror From the Deep[/blippr]
[blippr]X-Com: UFO Defense[/blippr]

XBLA
[blippr]Bionic Commando: Rearmed[/blippr] 0400 msp

The Top Ten “Games we wanna see at E3 YEAH E3 FUCK YEAH WOOOOOO!” Lists have returned in full force. A good number of entries on that list haven’t even been announced yet and there’s a good chance some of them might not even be announced at the show. Everyone’s so hyped on seeing a new Zelda unveiled that if one isn’t shown off then it’ll be Nintendo’s fault for not telling them before hand that there won’t be a new Zelda announcement. And it’s Square’s fault of course for attendees not getting to spend as much time as they want with the new Final Fantasy XIII demo.

One need look no further for what appears to be the source of this influx of hype then the Game Critics Awards. The ironic thing about the awards is that the critics don’t even have to play the games at the show, they get their own “Game Critics Awards Judges Day” before hand a few weeks before the show when many of the big companies invite them to play their games and take ‘em into consideration for the coveted awards. Of course if you didn’t have a “Game Critics Awards Judges Day” for your game then you’ve just gotta hope they honor you with their presence at your booth.

Looking back at the winners of the Game Critics Awards from years past, there seem to be two categories of winners. One category is made up of the winners who not only perform well at E3, but end up doing well on release as well, so much so that when people recall the product, it’s about the product itself, not the hype from E3. These include Half-Life (1 and 2), the Wii, Rock Band, Halo 2, products that had substance to back up the hype (even if the substance wasn’t quite to your tastes, as was the case with the Wii and it’s evergreen titles to a number of gamers)

Then there are the other winners. The ones who seemingly had the most potential and promise than when they were finally released. These are comprised of Black and White, Doom 3, the PSP, and Ssssssspore. I want to talk about Spore for a minute as it almost seemed to be a game designed to win E3 awards. The gaming judges had their minds made up long before that E3 in 2005, back at GDC when Spore promised so much. It didn’t matter if they got to play the game, they just needed to see Will Wright do his stuff and they were sold. And I admit, Spore more than any other game that E3 probably deserved the Best of Show award. It brought the gaming community together with promises of the game not only delivering the gaming industry’s “Citizen Kane” but “…its Torah, its “Origin of Species” and its “2001: A Space Odyssey” all rolled into one.” as N’Gai proclaimed so long ago.

For a lot of the gaming press, this was going to be the one. The game that would not only be known as “THE GAME” to everyone in the world, gamers and non-gamers alike, but the one that would actually be fun to them to play as a game. The “Hardcore Gaming Press” didn’t catch onto The Sims as much as mainstream media did because it wasn’t much of a game to them. There were no grandiose stories with real-time cut scenes in both first person and third. They couldn’t see any sort of saga in the game and moments they would be able to recall at parties among friends years from then with a tear in their eye. Even though many a Sims player could probably come up with at least one moment that occurred in the game that stuck with them, it wasn’t one the GAMING JUDGES could put on their “TOP TEN MOMENTS IN GAMES THAT MADE US CRY. ;______;” lists, unless it was for hilarity purposes.

But Spore, Spore would different. It would be the one. The one that would make the stories and events on the fly. The one that would be accessible and complex and adjustable to likings of every gamer. It would be Citizen Kane AND the Torah. It would be the Godfather AND the Ten Commandments. They built the game up to be something it inevitably couldn’t. It could still be fun, still be awesome, but it couldn’t be that game. The one they could not only show their friends and family and say “SEE, SEE THIS IS AWESOME!” and Grandma would be like “OH SHIIIIT IT IS AWESOME HOLY SHIT!” and everyone would enjoy the awesome.

But, journalists, gamers, GAME CRITICS AWARD JUDGES, that’s already happened. It’s not one game that’s going to do it. It’s been happening for decades. Just because everybody can’t agree on one single game that both hardcore and non-gamers champion doesn’t mean you can’t just say “Video Games can be that connecting bridge between people of different backgrounds, creeds, and lifestyles.” And I’m sure that at this E3, they’ll be games that do that. – The Ben

So what the heck does this have to do with a Neon Genesis Evangelion application for the PS3 wherein a digital Misato reads you real life news in a digitized voice? Well according to Kotaku that app in question is being developed by Cellius, a joint venture by Sony and Namco-Bandai with the sole intent of bringing Sony back to it’s glory days with Ken Kutaragi as the CEO himself. It seems Sony found the best possible solution to the Kutaragi problem in their eyes, rather than force him away from the company entirely they found a nice little company of his own to oversee where he can toil away on things that wouldn’t be the norm for another five to ten years.

This app seems to draw upon the same sense of zeitgeist that surrounds Kutaragi’s dreams. Ones of having your Playstation not only play games, movies, and the like. In addition Kutaragi’s Ideal Playstation would control everything you interact with. Everything in your living room, everything in your bed room, everything in your pants… Kutaragi was able to get Sony to see the threat of Microsoft attempting the living room takeover, but surprisingly enough wasn’t able to get them to counter Apple ushering in the new era in portable music. The PSP as advanced as it was at the time of it’s release was already too late in stopping Apple from becoming the Sony of the late 80′s.

Is this PS3 App only the beginning of more “Jack into the Matrix” style pipe-dreams of Kutaragi to finally see the light of day and commercial release? Will Crazy Ken have the last laugh after all? – The Ben

This week, Backwards Compatible Volume 4 concludes and Kyle and Stephen close off Mechwarrior 4 Vengeance. The new contenders for Volume 5 are announced, but if you still want to talk about Mechwarrior 4, don’t hesitate to email us at (podcast) at (lifeinsidethebox.com) or post your thoughts on the Backwards Compatible 4 thread on Forumopolis.

I’m sure at first the world record was “Biggest Game of All Time” when suddenly a PC Gaming Ninja immediately broke into their offices and relayed to them all of the PC games that have easily beaten that record. So they just added in “Console” and that was that.

OR WAS IT?

Because honestly are you really telling me that in the almost thirty years console gaming as we’ve known it has never produced a game that large? How did the measure the in-game distance compared to other games? Hell let’s take Wind Waker, how big was that damn Great Sea? There’s 49 ‘cells’ that make up the Great Sea in Wind Waker that you sail too. If there’s sixty-five unique islands and we use Toon Link as a unit of measurement and every five Toon Link’s is one King of Red Lions….shit, can we use cubits here? And we haven’t even started to take Hammerfall’s generated world but oh that’s on the PC so it doesn’t count.

Anyway the point is is that everything in games is subjective when talking about measurement and this is just another one of the PR stunts that Guinness does to hype up their Gamer Edition Guinness Records Book.

To end this, I’ll just quickly post one of my personal favorite Guinness Gamer Edition PR Events. A while back they hosted an event in which the largest number of video game-related cosplayers would gather together. The record was the…well it was the largest gathering of video game-related cosplayers. You can see video footage of the results here in which they boastfully claim that “There’s probably over 80 people here dressed up as video game characters alone!” to the world.

Oh wow there have been more video game character cosplayers gathered together in an anime convention hall bathroom. But the real ironic thing about this record is how many of the cosplayers there aren’t even cosplayers, they’re corporate mascots showing up for a PR event! Because Boogie became such a big hit that some hardcore fan of the game just had to make it out there to the event to show off his painstakingly recreated Boogie Costume. Then you have the Crash and Spyro suits there as well…wait is that the same Crash outfit that’s been worn for the past nine years? I’m not saying it’s the first one, the one where Crash called Mario out. The one they’ve been using ever since Crash stopped becoming a mainstream game mascot. That one.

And the best thing about it, the best thing? Mario’s not even there. I guess whichever branch had the Mario Suit that day didn’t care about the potential exposure the PR WORLD RECORD EVENT would bring. And they didn’t need to, there were a SHIT-TON of Mario there. That’s the plural for Mario right? Just, Mario? Marios, Marii? Anyway, these events are such desperate grabs for attention that when the guy who’s appeared in more games than God did in the Bible doesn’t bother to make an official appearance that you’re not doing this to show off how far man has come and his achievements….through….cosplay….

– The Ben.

Well it’s been a quiet week in Lake Hylia recently it’s been this way for the past few months. You can tell when there hasn’t been a new release in the Zelda series in a long while when the fan mutter surrounding the series becomes as quiet as you can imagine. And it’s ironic that things are quiet during this season of mum words as you’d think the period where the fans would be most quiet would be right after the release of a new Zelda game. But of course there’s always a vocal minority that just has to get their opinion out concerning the new game as soon as the disk is popped into the system.

Contrast that to the articles and impressions of the game around four or five years after it’s initial release, almost all the time they’re articles about how the gaming community may have underrated the game. Yes underrated. The Zelda series is one of the few video game series that seems to be in a constant cycle between whether or not the titles are overrated or underrated. A few weeks, few months and then a year or so after the release of a title you get the obligatory “______ Overrated?” articles and many of the articles bring up good points about the game’s design and how the flaws were overlooked at the time of release. However the main point of these articles stems from the fact that there was too much hype surrounding the game, and then particular people were let down.

The opposite on the other hand concerns the other Zelda titles. No not the CDi ones the ones that weren’t what longtime fans of the series would call traditional entries. These ones are noted by detractors as being too much of a departure while supporters of the titles herald them for “turning everything you know about Zelda on the head”. A few years after these entries are released they finally get mentioned as being “unjustly looked down upon at the time” for being too different from tradition. This happened first of course with Zelda II.

Without the internet at the time it wasn’t as easy to find these admissions of love for the black sheep of the family and the common assumption by the early to mid-nineties was that Zelda II was for all purposes the worst of the Zelda titles. Every magazine you’d find Zelda 1 and Link to the Past topping the Favorites Lists and any mention of Zelda II wasn’t about the experience the writer had with the game but a small blurb simply acknowledging the fact that it was “the black sheep” of the series.

You see this happen with almost every entry in the series but more often than not it happens with the off-season entries. Zelda II, Link’s Awakening, Majora’s Mask and Wind Waker are most common examples of articles consisting of sympathetic affection towards the outcast titles. This was most noticeable to me during the Virtual Console releases of both Ocarina of Time and more recently, Majora’s mask. With Ocarina of Time the general consensus seemed to be that while it was great that the Virtual Console was getting more games, most wouldn’t buy it because they’ve already played it multiple times before, and only really recommended buying it on the VC for those that never experienced it before. Not only that, but accusations of “It hasn’t aged that well graphically” and the like were thrown around, as if they were trying to say “Eh, you don’t really have to get it” but almost felt like they were unjustly mistreating the game by doing that.

With the release of Majora’s Mask on the US Virtual Console in the last week the sentiment seems to have been one of a vastly different attitude. Cries of “If you’re going to download one game on the Virtual Console this year, make it this one.” are being heard and fellow gaming journalists are coaxing their peers who were too cool for Zelda by 2000 into giving the game another go.

I used to think that the Legend of Zelda series was one that was built on a foundation of agreement among fans. That the mindset of every single one was in compliance with the rest of the group. As the series got bigger and older fans got older while new younger fans were brought in, I noticed my original assumption couldn’t have been further off the mark. Every Zelda fan has one game in particular it seems that they’ll point to and go, “There. That one. That was the best one.” But they won’t always agree and they’ll fight and try and use irrefutable evidence that the other person’s opinion is wrong. “That game’s so overrated no THAT one’s so overrated how can you be so stupid” the process never seems to end and continues with each new release. It’s because of this controversy in the end though that I think the Zelda series is better off because of it. Each title has at least one super fan who will defend it’s importance through and through, from the NES to the portable entries. Hell, in the future some kid who got a Wii for Christmas as a child and a copy of “Link’s Crossbow Training” because his mom saw that came with an extra piece of plastic will probably defend that entry as their favorite as well.

There’s no one universal hatred for any specific title in the series and yes, after years of searching without any luck, there’s at least one person who fancies the CDi adventures as well.

I’ve been a tower defense buff for many years. Before [blippr]Defense Grid: The Awakening[/blippr], tower defense games were all free, and restricted to being either online flash games or user-created maps for popular RTS games such as Warcraft III. When I noticed Defense Grid on Steam, I was instantly skeptical. Any commercial tower defense grid game would either be a shameless money grab with no inspiration, or ridiculously unintelligent. While it is by no means perfect, this game is not the horrid mess I was expecting.

For the uninitiated, a tower defense grid places the player overlooking an empty map in which they can create a network of “towers,” or buildings that automatically fire on nearby enemies. Once the player has built their towers, wave after wave of enemy monsters attempt to make their way through the tower maze to reach some objective, usually an exit portal or a critical structure. In Defense Grid, you command a series of towers meant to protect a collection of power cores from being stolen by the enemy alien hordes. If an enemy grabs a core, he then makes for the exit, but he can still be killed while he’s carrying the core, and the core slowly drifts back to its storage location.

The game comes with a fairly decent number of towers to choose from, ranging from the standard machine gun and high-caliber cannon towers to the more exotic time-slowing temporal tower and the explosive concussion tower. There are ten types total to choose from, leaving a little to be desired; the best tower defense games have many more options to choose from. However, each tower fills a specific role and has its own strengths and weaknesses, and none really feel unbalanced. The low number of towers means the player quickly falls into a specific pattern and strategy that allows little variation, and as the game goes on, it slowly runs out of steam. The game is also very easy to complete fully, especially for a seasoned tower defense veteran like myself.

Graphically, the game is quite attractive – each tower is well-designed with multiple moving parts and great lighting effects. There are beautiful backdrops to each level and the scenery is all fairly good looking for a tower defense. The sound is a bit lacking, however. Explosions and gunshots overpower almost everything and make the weak music hard to hear. A narrator walks you through what little story there is when he’s not giving vague descriptions of new towers or offering a depressing look into the history of the world, which is flat, bland, and impossible to get in to. The narrative adds nothing to the game.

The gameplay itself, however, is solid, even with the low number of towers. The towers all have their uses and each map is different, forcing the player to develop a new maze on the fly. It’s obvious the developers had some experience with tower defense games because they included a welcome pair of features. The first is a fast forward button that allows you to bypass the duller times, and the second is an option that lets you fall back to the most recent save, which is helpful, as the game autosaves very regularly. The types of enemies keep you on your toes and you have to be able to adapt quickly or die trying. There are a good number of levels and the challenge and casual modes let you play around even after beating the game.

I picked Defense Grid up on a weekend deal for five dollars, which it was well worth, but it isn’t worth the MSRP 19.99. Hold off until it goes on sale again if you can, but definitely give it a look, especially if you enjoy a good tower defense.

7/10

Speaking of not making to the show, thanks to the Swine Flu outbreak, the Japanese branches of Capcom, Square-Enix and Koei are going to be staying home according to Kombo. While the companies themselves will still be represented at the show via their US branch counterparts, the people at the companies who make the big decisions will be sitting this one out for health reasons.

Satoru Iwata hasn’t mentioned anything about missing the expo on his twitter, so hopefully he’s still on for next month. – The Ben

But what’s most interesting of course is the “Special Edition” moniker attached to the title. Will it simply get a new coat of HD paint like so many XBLA Ports have gotten, or will it be something more grandiose, an entire reworking of the game with voice acting and the like?

To top this off, it seems like the XBLA now has representatives from every PC gaming genre from the 90′s. You have Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Wolfenstein on the way representing the FPS stable. Now we’ll have on the defining PC Adventure games on the Arcade as well. What 90′s PC gaming genres can the XBLA look towards representing next? – The Ben

It’s not all bad news for Killzone 2, the game has become a pretty sizable hit in European territories and had sold a million worldwide by the end of March according to Sony. But it’s still short of the lofty dreams Sony had for it back in 2005 when every single press outlet was citing Killzone 2 as the game that defined Next-Generation, much like they did back in 2000 when the first MGS2 trailer was shown to the world and became the Killzone 2 of it’s era. It became the top talking point in favor of the PS2′s potential against other systems.

Of course MGS2 managed to sell over seven million copies worldwide since it’s release. Killzone 2 has a bit of a journey ahead of itself if it wants to reach that goal. – The Ben