by:
John -
posted:
11/18/2009
6:34 AM
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We know that it's tough to owner a small store in today's business. There are a few tiny video game stores around me that rely on repeat customers as well as doing some specials to try and compete with the big boys such as Gamestop. Some stores break street dates in hopes of getting you into their small shops to purchase the game.
Case in point, we have
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. A few smaller shops sold the game a little early, which happens every once in a while. It's not something new. Gamestop, though,
thought a good idea would be send a couple of their people over to these stores, buy up the game, and take the picture of it along with the store receipt and send it to Activision.
Now, I actually got word from a friend who told me that yes, it happened with a mutual acquaintance of ours who works at a Gamestop. He was sent to go do this and rat out any shop that was selling MW2 early. I guess this isn't an isolated incident then since the guys who talk about this are from New York and we're in Ohio.
So, what do you guys think? Did Gamestop have the right to do this or should they have done this at all?
by:
Tina -
posted:
11/16/2009
9:47 PM
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This week’s Nintendo downloads throw some demos at your way on top of the usual montage of downloadable games for purchase.
The demos are strictly on WiiWare, but offer an interesting assortment of games.
BIT.TRIP BEAT is the musical selection for the lineup of demos. You bounce beats with the Wiimote in tandem with the rhythm in the 8-bit soundtrack. In time for the imminent release of the newest title in the
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles series,
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord is available to tide you over until
Crystal Bearers does release in December. If mythology is more your thing, you can play as Nyx in
NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits where the demo will show the experience of the winged protagonist who is able to utilize the power of the gods. Last on the demo list on WiiWare is
World of Goo. I have yet to play this myself, but the word has been passed around that the game is truly unique in the puzzle genre.
WiiWare’s only other title is
Pokémon Rumble for full download. Battle them, defeat them, befriend them, collect them – you know the deal. You control cute little Toy Pokémon in this Wii exclusive game.
Virtual Console brings you the traditional two downloads for the week. About
two weeks ago they offered
Fighting Street, and in keeping with the
Street Fighter theme they are now offering
Street Fighter II: Champion Edition. There’s the interesting handicap available on the versus mode, probably to the detriment of many a master player. The second of the two games on Virtual Console this week is
Indiana Jones’ Greatest Adventures: an aptly named adventure game where you play as Indiana Jones.
Finally, the DSi gets three downloads:
Art Style: DIGIDRIVE,
Arcade Bowling, and
Robot Rescue.
Art Style: DIGIDRIVE is a simple puzzler where you direct traffic and gather fuel. If you really feel up to it you can play on Endless mode to test your duration skills.
Arcade Bowling is pretty much how it sounds: a virtual bowling game played with your stylus. You get a futuristic sound track, 3D graphics and two modes: Classic and Progressive. If you’re liking the sound of the puzzle games mentioned so far,
Robot Rescue is yet another to add to your list. It’s a logic game based on the mission of rescuing the trapped robots all while avoiding traps strewn about the level. If it’s not already challenging enough for you, you get three difficulty levels to play around with.
[READ MORE]
by:
Tina -
posted:
11/10/2009
10:01 PM
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This hero video game based on the television series
Kamen Rider Series retains the idea borrowed from said series of utilizing advent cards in battle, as well as summoning beasts to your aid. The game releases on November 17th for the Wii, but we’ve got some news as to the playable characters to be featured on the Wii version for the time being.
The new characters cover ranged attackers, fast attackers, combo specialists and more. Each character has their own attack method, most of which are specific by the advent cards and respective attacks.
Check the screenshots below and read on for the full details on each new announced character, including some background information on them. You can also check
Chad's coverage from back in September for some gameplay screenshots of the game.
[READ MORE]
by:
Nathan -
posted:
11/10/2009
7:14 AM
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WWE fans will get a chance to face off against the band Adelitas Way in online multiplayer matches of
SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 tonight. Adelitas Way performs the entrance theme for "Legacy", the superstar group comprised of Randy Orton, Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes, and also the opening song for the
WWE Superstars television program. There's no indication of what match types and what artists from the band will be playing. No matter what match type, if their skills at virtual wrestling are half as good as their rocking songs, challengers should watch themselves. Instructions on the whens and hows are below.
"On Tuesday, November 10 at 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT, Adelitas Way band members will log in to the Xbox LIVE® online entertainment network for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft to compete against fans using the Gamertag “ADELITAS WAY.” The consumer gameplay session is expected to last for approximately two hours. "
[READ MORE]
by:
Chuck -
posted:
11/6/2009
1:12 PM
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Digital distribution is widely hailed as the future of gaming and while it's been relatively smooth sailing for a while the system hit a few major snags on the PC this week. We've seen bumps in the past with Steam's early days (the
Half Life 2 launch wasn't exactly painless for a lot of people) and Games For Windows has been one cluster after another but this is the first time we've seen problems that aren't specific to one service.
The first was
all of the hurdles users had to jump through to get
Dragon Age:Origins working correctly. Of course a lot of these issues were created because each entity along the way had their own pass mechanism which needed to be navigated to get the game working correctly. This is one of those nasty things that will eventually go away as companies figure out how to get their services working together better.
The second big bump was Impulse, Direct2Drive, and Gamersgate
refusing to sell Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2 on
their services because it includes a mandatory install of Steam for things like DRM and saved game management. This grants Steam a de facto monopoly on selling
Modern Warfare 2 digitally on the PC. This will be a bit trickier to navigate as Valve has so tightly woven their Steamworks tools set with their online service and there's no way anyone is going to help their competitor sell more of their product. I don't see this really hurting sales of the game that much but it has to be a bit scary for those who don't want Steam to have a monopoly on the digital distribution market and will further the calls for Valve to start decoupling their various components.
It's not unexpected to see these kind of problems as a technology matures but it is a somewhat painful reminder that we are still in the early days of this new distribution mechanism. These won't be the last bumps we have but they do represent a small inflection point in the system.
What do you think? Are these big issues for you or should we just got ahead and welcome our new Steam overlords? Let us know in the comments.
by:
John -
posted:
11/6/2009
8:01 AM
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Sean loves Reggie Fils-Aime and his ramblings. OK, maybe not but he does say some interesting things every now and then.
He recently predicted that
New Super Mario Bros will outsell
Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 on one system. So we have the Infinity Ward title coming out on the 360, PS3, and PC. I can definitely see it outselling the PC and/or the PS3 version. I already talked to a few folks that have canceled their PC order because of all the hoopla that Infinity Ward is doing to that title on the computer.
The two games really cater to two different sets of gamers though so whether it does outsell MW2 on another platform is irrelevant in my opinion. I think we should all aim for both games to do really, really well so that the industry remains healthy.
Sean, Chuck, and I recently played
New Super Mario Bros and it wasn't bad in my experience. You can check out
Sean's recap of the event.
by:
Sean Colleli -
posted:
11/5/2009
9:33 PM
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After cooperatively battling the Koopa horde in New Super Mario Bros Wii, John and Chuck took turns with Wii Fit Plus, while Janie handed me a DSi loaded up with The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. The demo they had on hand was the same one from PAX, but I had yet to play the game or even seriously research it. While little of the core gameplay has changed since Phantom Hourglass, there are a few significant additions that go a long way to making Spirit Tracks feel more like a real Zelda game.
I’ve never made it a secret that I was pretty disappointed in Phantom Hourglass, and a lot of it had to do with the control scheme. Scribbling on the touch screen to do everything, from using items to swordplay to just moving Link around, got tiring very quickly. It also trickled down into the dungeon design, taking the focus off of logical, sequential puzzle solving and putting it on pace-breaking and often arbitrary stylus use. Like most long-time Nintendo gamers I have a kind of instinct that guides me through Zelda dungeons and even Metroid games, but after spending hours with Phantom Hourglass, wandering in circles, particularly in the aggravatingly redundant phantom dungeon, my wrist cramped up and I went back to playing Link to the Past on my GBA.
It’s a real shame because I wanted to enjoy Phantom Hourglass but it clearly wasn’t designed for Zelda fans, it was designed for new Zelda fans, and I know a lot of those newcomers loved it. Well, if anything I’m persistent, so I wrung as much time out of the Spirit Tracks demo as I could.
First, the good. The dungeon I played around with flowed a lot smoother than the start-and-stop ones in Phantom Hourglass. I wasn’t lugging a giant key everywhere I went, or hiding Solid Snake-style from roving phantoms; in fact, I was controlling one. That’s right, possibly the most annoying enemy in Zelda history (currently tied with that bottle-stealing buzzard in Majora’s Mask) is actually an ally in this game, almost a pet for Link. You guide your phantom with, what else, paths drawn with the stylus, and he can go at least anywhere Link can get to. As in the previous game he’s nigh-indestructible, but that’s useful this time because he can block fire jets and wade through lava, with Link riding on his back.
All of the puzzles I encountered used this strange form of teamwork, and it was quite satisfying once I started thinking out of the traditional Zelda box. Swapping between Link and his phantom at will, moving them to different locations to flip switches or avoid hazards…this persistent coordination sucked my into the dungeon more than any Zelda game in quite some time. It’s this kind of innovating that I wish they’d done in Phantom Hourglass, stuff that sets me out of my comfort zone but puts a smile on my face once I puzzle it out.
Unfortunately the stylus still controls everything. I know Nintendo wanted to keep the controls bonehead simple for people who’ve never picked up a Zelda game, but why can’t I use the D-pad to move Link? We’ve had D-pads since at least the NES, I’m sure the majority of Nintendo’s new baby boomer audience played with an old NES controller back in the day and knows how to work a D-pad. They could at least include it as an option for more experienced players; the current control scheme has D-pad direction up open the map, with all the other directions and face buttons left unused, so it’s not like they couldn’t accommodate such a layout.
My main issue with the controls is congestion—with everything controlled by the stylus it’s easy to get confused. I always have a hard time moving Link in a direction and scribbling his little sword moves at the same time. Thankfully your pet phantom follows you around and will quite effectively wipe out any nearby enemies on his own, but I’d still like Link to be a more capable fighter.
Once the dungeon segment abruptly ended—Nintendo demos tend to time out right when things are getting interesting—I selected the boss battle from the main menu. This part was pure Zelda. The series is known for its creative and often humorous boss fights, and this time I was squaring off against a giant, well-rendered and cel shaded beetle. Its butt was pouring out noxious purple smoke and also happened to be its weak spot, and the only way for Link to deal damage was to remove the smoke first. In the dungeon, I’d acquired a pot that let me shoot air, similar to the Gust Jar in Minish Cap, except to use I had to blow into the DS mic.
After I cleared the smoke and landed a few good strikes the beetle took to the air, occasionally spitting out spiky, explosive worms. The worms curled up when slashed, and if I timed it right I could use the air pot to direct them into the beetle’s face via small whirlwinds. One it took a few blasts to the mandible the beetle fell, rewarding me with a staple Zelda treasure chest. The fight was fun, sufficiently challenging and original—the best kind of Zelda boss battle.
The final segment available was a train sequence, the gameplay the game derives its title from. Link’s adorable little train can be set to chug down the tracks at varying speeds, with a bomb-firing cannon for defense against raiding bokoblins riding their trademark pigs. Like Phantom Hourglass’s boat segments, you tap the touch screen to fire bombs while the top screen displays a map of the track. At key moments you’ll have to choose between branching paths to avoid colliding with other trains running at the same time, so it’s a good idea to glance at the map ahead of time.
I managed to direct Link’s choo-choo (seriously, I can’t talk about it in non-cute terms) for a few minutes and then entered a dark cave, where a large spider with an eyeball in its mouth started chasing me—I’m guessing it was a Ghoma. I landed a number of square hits with my cannon but once again the demo timed out and dumped me back on the title screen.
I’m having a hard time getting excited about the whole train thing. I’m sure it’s significant to the story but without any context, it’s just a different, slightly clunkier mode of transport than the boat. It still takes way too long to get where you’re going, there isn’t much to do along the way other than shoot at enemies, and you can’t alter your course as much as you could in the boat. I applaud Nintendo for doing something different but on-rails travel between dungeons isn’t very interesting. A big part of Zelda’s appeal is the aimless exploration of wandering through whatever land you find yourself in, stumbling across hidden items, caves full of treasure or quests off the beaten path.
I knew I’d have mixed feelings about Spirit Tracks and so far, I still do, though I’m a lot more optimistic. The dungeons and boss fights look promising but the train section falls flat. I’ve wanted a portable Zelda I could sink my teeth into ever since Minish Cap, but for now it looks like the real deal will remain on the Wii while the DS gets the casual stuff. At least Spirit Tracks isn’t what I initially predicted—a Zelda rail shooter. And it has more of what I love about the Zelda series and less of the unfocused, random and forced elements from Phantom Hourglass.
Most important though, is that Spirit Tracks has one gimmick this time that works—I’m intrigued by the pet phantom and the small taste I got makes me want a lot more. It looks like they got the DS experimenting out of the way last time, and now they can focus on a new idea for the series and really make it sparkle.