Gamespot Editor fired over stating the obvious.
I don't know where to really begin on this. First of all I guess it should be taken with a grain of salt, since Kotaku did tag it as a rumor and it as of yet unconfirmed. But let's imagine for a moment that it's true.
Basically what you have here is nothing new. I'm sure this sort of thing has been going on since the invention of print, money, and printed money.
But what bugs me about it is that the guy was right. The game is horrible. What good are reviews if they're not allowed to be accurate? Eidos got mad because someone called them on the fact that THEY put out a subpar product and in retaliation, they cost the man his job. It absolutely disgusts me.
This reminds me of a story a few months back Ain't It Cool News posted about a guy who was projectionist at a movie theater. He had been writing advance reviews for the site for a while, but when he posted a (rightfully) scathing review of Fantastic Four 2, Fox contacted the theater management and got him fired.
You know movie studios, game publishers, bands, record labels, etc., if you guys didn't put out crap you wouldn't have to worry about this sort of thing. But why bother with that when you can use your wallets and barbaric strongarm technique to force people to lie about you garbage as hard as you do yourselves.
This reminds me also of something that happens at my job. EA paid Gamestop a TON of money to have a display of all EA sports games all the time, year round. Nevermind the fact that most sports are seasonal, and only have real interest a few times a year. Also, remember that Madden, Live, FIFA, NHL, and whatever else they crap out only releases one day a year. So let's say there are 20 EA Sports franchises, each with their own release date. That's 345 days a year that this display serves no purpose whatsoever. But it's always there, taking up space that I could think up 25 other uses for right now. But we're not allowed to change it at all ever.
So let's try this:
"Hey, EA. All of your games suck. Every single one of them. Every single game that you guys develop in house, not the studios you guys bought up to avoid you know, TRYING TO DO SOMETHING ON YOUR OWN, are complete crap. REPEAT: ALL EA DEVELOPED GAMES SUCK TO HIGH HEAVEN. I would rather get punched in the nuts than play any of them, and I will tell everyone who will listen, this exact same thing, ESPECIALLY 100% of my customers. Go straight to hell and let Hitler and Satan take turns assraping you."
So logic would dictate that since EA paid GS a ton of money for their display, and if they see this, they will pitch a hissy fit and pull their advertisement out of Gamestop, thereby freeing up an entire display for us to use how we see fit. Unless of course, Activision, or Ubisoft, or one of those companies that's almost as bad as EA swoops in and grabs the prime real estate. Here's hoping.
The fact that everyone of any sort of power lets the depth of their pockets dictate the depth of their integrity makes my stomach turn. If this comes comes out to be the truth, not only will I stop caring what Gamespot says about anything, I will never purchase another game published by Eidos again, and I beg anyone who reads this to do the same.
This topic has gotten my superhero fantasy all stirred up, but the only thing I can do towards the end of having justice served in this matter is post this blog, and draw attention to this repugnant story. Obviously, sneaking into the Eidos/Gamespot brass's homes Batman style and putting the fear of God/Allah/whatever into them is out of the question.
The gaming journalism community should not fear the publishers. If anything it should be the other way around. Maybe then they'd stop putting out so much rubbish.
Oh yeah, and Eidos?
Kane & Lynch is broken and horrid.
I know it, you know it, and now everyone who shops my store will know it. Thanks.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
The rest of my thoughts
In my last entry, I said at the beginning that it was a two-parter. Here's the second part, which i promise will be shorter than the first.
II. The Nintendo Double Standard
For the last year, we've seen a return to form for Nintendo. They're at the top of their game again, after the lackluster Gamecube and, in my opinion, complete abortion that was the Nintendo 64. We all know the story of how the NES generation grew up and Nintendo didn't, and how now instead of playing catch up with the newer kids on block they're bringing everyone to their own ballgame, etc. I'm not going to bore you with recounting that whole thing, but I've noticed something interesting in all this. Now that Nintendo can once again do no wrong, is this a good thing?
Many people have already explored the fact that the Wii is revolutionary. It's prerelease codename was Revolution after all. There have also been great articles exploring the fact that the Wii is also a dumping ground for completely terrible games, like in the October issue of EGM.
One thing I'm finding more and more of though is a double standard that Nintendo can do no wrong, while Microsoft and Sony can do no right. There's a story over at Kotaku right now (www.kotaku.com, great gaming website) about Microsoft still struggling with this new fangled causal market (I've already stated my opinion on that, and it remains intact as "who cares?"), but what really got me thinking was the user comments below the posting.
Microsoft takes a lot of heat from the hardcore gaming crowd for the 360 having way too many variations on the tried and true shooter genre. Even their RPG's have lots of gunplay (Mass Effect). Some of them call it the Halo Box. OK, fine but a side from a waggle wand controller that's quite honestly wearing out it's welcome as far as I'm concerned, Nintendo is doing the same thing. The majority of the games on the Wii are minigame collections that have you flailing around like a mental patient. It's like they innovated up to a point and then got comfortable, and it's not just the third parties. I've found that most of the Nintendo published software is seriously lacking in the depth department, but for some reason no one seems to care. Twilight Princess was great, but I found it to be incredibly simplistic. I felt like I was playing a kid's game.
I don't get that feeling from Halo, or now Assassin's Creed, or Bioshock.
Crucify me if you will gaming community, but I don't think Super Mario Galaxy is all it's cracked up to be either. It's the same Mario gameplay you've had since Mario 64, with new waggle controls. The other thing is that whenever I see people play it, all they seem to talk about is how music, sound effects, enemies and abilities from the classic Mario games are back. It's like going to a concert and the crowd only knowing the band's singles. But the fact that I think Nintendo's aware or this makes it more like going to a concert and everything the band plays is off their first album because they know that'll the crowd likes. And that's innovative?
Microsoft could make Halo 4 exactly like Halo 3 and that would be a tragedy. Sony could make God of War 3 identical to God of War 2 and that would be a catastrophe. Nintendo makes the same game over and over and over again and it's a masterpiece.
I'll use two quotes from actual reviews to close this. It should be noted though that these are user reviews, not actual editors, but that proves my point though doesn't it? This is indicative of the reviews as a whole on IGN:
"While playing Halo 3 I felt like I was playing Halo 2 with HD graphics"-Score: 8.5
"Mario Galaxy is more of the good old Mario gameplay you know and love!"-Score: 10
Kisses
II. The Nintendo Double Standard
For the last year, we've seen a return to form for Nintendo. They're at the top of their game again, after the lackluster Gamecube and, in my opinion, complete abortion that was the Nintendo 64. We all know the story of how the NES generation grew up and Nintendo didn't, and how now instead of playing catch up with the newer kids on block they're bringing everyone to their own ballgame, etc. I'm not going to bore you with recounting that whole thing, but I've noticed something interesting in all this. Now that Nintendo can once again do no wrong, is this a good thing?
Many people have already explored the fact that the Wii is revolutionary. It's prerelease codename was Revolution after all. There have also been great articles exploring the fact that the Wii is also a dumping ground for completely terrible games, like in the October issue of EGM.
One thing I'm finding more and more of though is a double standard that Nintendo can do no wrong, while Microsoft and Sony can do no right. There's a story over at Kotaku right now (www.kotaku.com, great gaming website) about Microsoft still struggling with this new fangled causal market (I've already stated my opinion on that, and it remains intact as "who cares?"), but what really got me thinking was the user comments below the posting.
Microsoft takes a lot of heat from the hardcore gaming crowd for the 360 having way too many variations on the tried and true shooter genre. Even their RPG's have lots of gunplay (Mass Effect). Some of them call it the Halo Box. OK, fine but a side from a waggle wand controller that's quite honestly wearing out it's welcome as far as I'm concerned, Nintendo is doing the same thing. The majority of the games on the Wii are minigame collections that have you flailing around like a mental patient. It's like they innovated up to a point and then got comfortable, and it's not just the third parties. I've found that most of the Nintendo published software is seriously lacking in the depth department, but for some reason no one seems to care. Twilight Princess was great, but I found it to be incredibly simplistic. I felt like I was playing a kid's game.
I don't get that feeling from Halo, or now Assassin's Creed, or Bioshock.
Crucify me if you will gaming community, but I don't think Super Mario Galaxy is all it's cracked up to be either. It's the same Mario gameplay you've had since Mario 64, with new waggle controls. The other thing is that whenever I see people play it, all they seem to talk about is how music, sound effects, enemies and abilities from the classic Mario games are back. It's like going to a concert and the crowd only knowing the band's singles. But the fact that I think Nintendo's aware or this makes it more like going to a concert and everything the band plays is off their first album because they know that'll the crowd likes. And that's innovative?
Microsoft could make Halo 4 exactly like Halo 3 and that would be a tragedy. Sony could make God of War 3 identical to God of War 2 and that would be a catastrophe. Nintendo makes the same game over and over and over again and it's a masterpiece.
I'll use two quotes from actual reviews to close this. It should be noted though that these are user reviews, not actual editors, but that proves my point though doesn't it? This is indicative of the reviews as a whole on IGN:
"While playing Halo 3 I felt like I was playing Halo 2 with HD graphics"-Score: 8.5
"Mario Galaxy is more of the good old Mario gameplay you know and love!"-Score: 10
Kisses
Just a few things.
So I'm going to take a moment to address a few gaming related things that have been bugging me for a while now.
I. Hating Gamestop is the new black.
A growing trend I've noticed for a considerable amount of time is the fact that a lot of seriously "hardcore gamers" hate on Gamestop with the same fervor that I hate on Wal-Mart, so I'm going to commiserate and address a few misconceptions.
1. The Trade-In Scandal. The reason your trade in credit is so low on something that is more than a month old most of the time is simply that you are giving them something that, chances are, they will never sell again. It will sit in the store until it's either shipped out to another store that for some reason is light on that item, or is shipped off with junk to be destroyed. Gamers typically have a short attention span and anything that's not the hottest new thing will not sell. Now having said that, the reason your credit is so low on something that is older than a few weeks is that there is no markup whatsoever on new games. Gamestop, Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, and yes Wal-Mart only make like 5 bucks on a new game. The difference is with the rest of those places sell other items that are completely non-gaming related to keep them afloat. So in order for Gamestop to make profit, they rely on used games. Yes it does seem kind of lame that they brand new shiny copy of Halo 3 is 60 bucks and the beat up used one is 55. That doesn't seem like much of a bargain, but a lot of people don't realize that you can return a used game within 7 days for a full refund. So when you buy that used copy of Halo 3, realize that you can't double shot, noob combo, or super jump, and determine that the game is "teh gayzorz", you can get your 55 back, not the 35 you'd get for trade in. Truth be told though, you can only really do this once per game, as most Gamestops that follow policy will not allow you to return a used game that was purchased AS a return. Then you're just treating them like a rental shop.
2, The Reservation Scandal. There's a lot of hate towards GS's reservation system as well. It's quite simple. If you reserve a game, regardless of what the salesperson tells you chances are it will not be sold out unless it's REALLY big, really offbeat, or it comes with an accessory. Huge games (Halo 3, COD4, Mario Galaxy) sell out because they're huge. Weird, offbeat games Zack & Wiki, Beautiful Katamari) sell out because they don't ship many copies. Accessory games (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR) sell out because they can't make as many. Example:
A lot of Halo 3=200 copies.
A lot of Guitar Hero 3 = 22 copies.
So, feel free to reserve those. If nothing else, you have piece of mind knowing that you don't have to run/call around looking for it. Also, usually games come in 1 day later than their release date, since Sony, MS, and Nintendo won't pay for same day shipping most of the time. The only time a game is in on the day advertised is if it's street dated, and chances are they've had it in the back room for the last week and can't sell it until the advertised date. What you DON'T need to reserve is just about everything else. Trust me if you just have to have a copy of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, you will find one. It can be incredibly annoying to be offered to reserve every game in the world when you get up to the counter. But don't take it out on the employee who's just doing his job. He probably has a bad manager who's on his back all day about it. I will say though that sometimes their tactics are a little rediculous. They should never say that you won't be able to get it at all anywhere if you don't reserve it. Gamestops are small stores. They can't fit a ton of product into them. By reserving games, the store knows how many to order roughly so that they aren't overstocked. So look at it in the simplest terms. By reserving a game that you are going to buy anyway, you're doing a few things:
A) You're guaranteeing you don't have to hunt for it day 1.
B) You're spreading that 65 dollar price tag out instead of doing it all at once, since you can come in and periodically throw money towards you reservation.
C) You're helping someone who's just as passionate about games as you are enjoy his job, thereby giving you someone to BS with about games whenever you're around.
When the salespeople get pushy and condecending about it, just find another store to shop at. There are Gamestops everywhere
3. The Check out Scandal. This is a big one. Gamestop has a policy that allows employees to "rent" games for four days. The problem with this is, They can take home a game, play it for a while, bring it back to the store and sell it as new. If you BUY the game, bring it home, decide it sucks, and try to return it YOU CAN'T. They say it's because they can't sell it as new. But for some reason, they can sell the ones they check out as new. It's maddening, I know. Again though, it comes down to bad management. A good GS store manager will only let his employees check out used games. Also, in the case of a brand new release, a good manager will allow either himself or one trustworthy employee to check one out, so when a customer asks about the game you'll have experience with it. This copy is usually sold as an absolute last resort, and a good manager will also make you aware of this fact and ask you if it's ok to sell you the open copy.
4. The Elitist Employee Scandal. We've all gone into a GS and had this experience. You get that one employee that has a crappy attitude and knows everything, ESPECIALLY that you are an idiot. Tell the manager. If that employee is the manager, take your business and your money elsewhere.
Gamestop, like most retail corporations is evil. But they are staffed by average joes who like video games and like everyone else, need a job. There are some bad apples out there who mess it up for everyone, though, so rather than boycott the entire company, find one that will treat you with respect. That said, customers can bring some of this stuff on themselves. Here's a handy list of stuff to not do to a Gamestop employee, or any other retail employee for that matter.
1. If someone looks very busy, don't ask them a question that you could figure out the answer to yourself if you tried. Nothing is more annoying than having someone say "where's the PS3 section" while standing five feet from the big PS3 sign while you're knee deep in some other jerk's 95 piece trade in. "When's X game coming out?" when they NEW RELEASE list is right in front of you on the counter is another bad one.
2. Speaking of trade ins, they are time consuming and quite obnoxious to do. So if you're going to a gamestop, and you think it might be busy, don't bring trades. Also, a lot of gamestop store stop taking trades an hour or so before they close, since taking them in will effectively undo the preclosing they've been doing for the last hour. So don't get mad if they won't take your trade at 8:50 when they close at 9.
3. Bitching to an hourly employee about ANYTHING corporate policy related will get you nothing but the knowledge that you will be the butt of a joke until the next difficult yokel comes in. A retail employee's desire to help you (management ESPECIALLY) is DIRECTLY related to how piss-poor your attitude is.
4. There are no Wii's, nor do we know when we're getting them. No, we cannot hold you one, nor will we call you when they come in. STOP CALLING.
5. NO ONE at GS plays Madden, so we don't know if it's good. All signs point to no if it helps.
6. Don't call and ask us how much a game is worth, it's annoying, and if we tell you then we have to tell everyone that calls, and then our day is filled up.
7. Contrary to what a new ad campaign says, we don't give hints. DO NOT call and ask where the skulls in Halo 3 are. I'm usually too busy counting things, selling things, fixing things, or having a battle of wits with someone over return policy to worry about you and the fact that you're stuck on Tomb Raider. Use the internet.
8. If you can't remember then name of the game, or what it's about, I cannot help you.
9. IF YOU CAN'T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH I REFUSE TO HELP YOU. (No, this is not some immigration related statement, I simply do not have time to decipher languages I do not speak, ahthankyou.)
10. No matter how DESPERATELY you need it, we cannot hold things for you. We've been telling you for months to reserve it, and you didn't so now you're having trouble finding it. How is this our problem? Besides if I hold it for you, I'll have to tell the person who asks before you that we're out. Then what happens when you come to get it and that person is still there? It's happened before.
I could probaby type out a long list of things employees shouldn't do to customers, also, but i think most of those can be summed up in know what you're talking about before you speak, and be nice. Plus I haven't even gotten to part 2, which will be a new blog listing now, since this ran so long.
Cheers.
I. Hating Gamestop is the new black.
A growing trend I've noticed for a considerable amount of time is the fact that a lot of seriously "hardcore gamers" hate on Gamestop with the same fervor that I hate on Wal-Mart, so I'm going to commiserate and address a few misconceptions.
1. The Trade-In Scandal. The reason your trade in credit is so low on something that is more than a month old most of the time is simply that you are giving them something that, chances are, they will never sell again. It will sit in the store until it's either shipped out to another store that for some reason is light on that item, or is shipped off with junk to be destroyed. Gamers typically have a short attention span and anything that's not the hottest new thing will not sell. Now having said that, the reason your credit is so low on something that is older than a few weeks is that there is no markup whatsoever on new games. Gamestop, Best Buy, Fry's, Circuit City, and yes Wal-Mart only make like 5 bucks on a new game. The difference is with the rest of those places sell other items that are completely non-gaming related to keep them afloat. So in order for Gamestop to make profit, they rely on used games. Yes it does seem kind of lame that they brand new shiny copy of Halo 3 is 60 bucks and the beat up used one is 55. That doesn't seem like much of a bargain, but a lot of people don't realize that you can return a used game within 7 days for a full refund. So when you buy that used copy of Halo 3, realize that you can't double shot, noob combo, or super jump, and determine that the game is "teh gayzorz", you can get your 55 back, not the 35 you'd get for trade in. Truth be told though, you can only really do this once per game, as most Gamestops that follow policy will not allow you to return a used game that was purchased AS a return. Then you're just treating them like a rental shop.
2, The Reservation Scandal. There's a lot of hate towards GS's reservation system as well. It's quite simple. If you reserve a game, regardless of what the salesperson tells you chances are it will not be sold out unless it's REALLY big, really offbeat, or it comes with an accessory. Huge games (Halo 3, COD4, Mario Galaxy) sell out because they're huge. Weird, offbeat games Zack & Wiki, Beautiful Katamari) sell out because they don't ship many copies. Accessory games (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR) sell out because they can't make as many. Example:
A lot of Halo 3=200 copies.
A lot of Guitar Hero 3 = 22 copies.
So, feel free to reserve those. If nothing else, you have piece of mind knowing that you don't have to run/call around looking for it. Also, usually games come in 1 day later than their release date, since Sony, MS, and Nintendo won't pay for same day shipping most of the time. The only time a game is in on the day advertised is if it's street dated, and chances are they've had it in the back room for the last week and can't sell it until the advertised date. What you DON'T need to reserve is just about everything else. Trust me if you just have to have a copy of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, you will find one. It can be incredibly annoying to be offered to reserve every game in the world when you get up to the counter. But don't take it out on the employee who's just doing his job. He probably has a bad manager who's on his back all day about it. I will say though that sometimes their tactics are a little rediculous. They should never say that you won't be able to get it at all anywhere if you don't reserve it. Gamestops are small stores. They can't fit a ton of product into them. By reserving games, the store knows how many to order roughly so that they aren't overstocked. So look at it in the simplest terms. By reserving a game that you are going to buy anyway, you're doing a few things:
A) You're guaranteeing you don't have to hunt for it day 1.
B) You're spreading that 65 dollar price tag out instead of doing it all at once, since you can come in and periodically throw money towards you reservation.
C) You're helping someone who's just as passionate about games as you are enjoy his job, thereby giving you someone to BS with about games whenever you're around.
When the salespeople get pushy and condecending about it, just find another store to shop at. There are Gamestops everywhere
3. The Check out Scandal. This is a big one. Gamestop has a policy that allows employees to "rent" games for four days. The problem with this is, They can take home a game, play it for a while, bring it back to the store and sell it as new. If you BUY the game, bring it home, decide it sucks, and try to return it YOU CAN'T. They say it's because they can't sell it as new. But for some reason, they can sell the ones they check out as new. It's maddening, I know. Again though, it comes down to bad management. A good GS store manager will only let his employees check out used games. Also, in the case of a brand new release, a good manager will allow either himself or one trustworthy employee to check one out, so when a customer asks about the game you'll have experience with it. This copy is usually sold as an absolute last resort, and a good manager will also make you aware of this fact and ask you if it's ok to sell you the open copy.
4. The Elitist Employee Scandal. We've all gone into a GS and had this experience. You get that one employee that has a crappy attitude and knows everything, ESPECIALLY that you are an idiot. Tell the manager. If that employee is the manager, take your business and your money elsewhere.
Gamestop, like most retail corporations is evil. But they are staffed by average joes who like video games and like everyone else, need a job. There are some bad apples out there who mess it up for everyone, though, so rather than boycott the entire company, find one that will treat you with respect. That said, customers can bring some of this stuff on themselves. Here's a handy list of stuff to not do to a Gamestop employee, or any other retail employee for that matter.
1. If someone looks very busy, don't ask them a question that you could figure out the answer to yourself if you tried. Nothing is more annoying than having someone say "where's the PS3 section" while standing five feet from the big PS3 sign while you're knee deep in some other jerk's 95 piece trade in. "When's X game coming out?" when they NEW RELEASE list is right in front of you on the counter is another bad one.
2. Speaking of trade ins, they are time consuming and quite obnoxious to do. So if you're going to a gamestop, and you think it might be busy, don't bring trades. Also, a lot of gamestop store stop taking trades an hour or so before they close, since taking them in will effectively undo the preclosing they've been doing for the last hour. So don't get mad if they won't take your trade at 8:50 when they close at 9.
3. Bitching to an hourly employee about ANYTHING corporate policy related will get you nothing but the knowledge that you will be the butt of a joke until the next difficult yokel comes in. A retail employee's desire to help you (management ESPECIALLY) is DIRECTLY related to how piss-poor your attitude is.
4. There are no Wii's, nor do we know when we're getting them. No, we cannot hold you one, nor will we call you when they come in. STOP CALLING.
5. NO ONE at GS plays Madden, so we don't know if it's good. All signs point to no if it helps.
6. Don't call and ask us how much a game is worth, it's annoying, and if we tell you then we have to tell everyone that calls, and then our day is filled up.
7. Contrary to what a new ad campaign says, we don't give hints. DO NOT call and ask where the skulls in Halo 3 are. I'm usually too busy counting things, selling things, fixing things, or having a battle of wits with someone over return policy to worry about you and the fact that you're stuck on Tomb Raider. Use the internet.
8. If you can't remember then name of the game, or what it's about, I cannot help you.
9. IF YOU CAN'T SPEAK A WORD OF ENGLISH I REFUSE TO HELP YOU. (No, this is not some immigration related statement, I simply do not have time to decipher languages I do not speak, ahthankyou.)
10. No matter how DESPERATELY you need it, we cannot hold things for you. We've been telling you for months to reserve it, and you didn't so now you're having trouble finding it. How is this our problem? Besides if I hold it for you, I'll have to tell the person who asks before you that we're out. Then what happens when you come to get it and that person is still there? It's happened before.
I could probaby type out a long list of things employees shouldn't do to customers, also, but i think most of those can be summed up in know what you're talking about before you speak, and be nice. Plus I haven't even gotten to part 2, which will be a new blog listing now, since this ran so long.
Cheers.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Yes and No
Here are six things the that were good in gaming recently and five that were not so good:
1. Halo 3's mulitplayer vastly improved over Halo 2's. No noob combo, sniping's not cheesy, the quick mute is amazing. Aside from those annoyance fixes, overall weapon balance is improved, and the new feature set (forge, theater) are amazing.
2. PSP redesign. Faster load times on a handheld are a great. The unit is also smaller and lighter. Now if they could just get the games to be better.
3. More original artist recordings in Guitar Hero 3. Cover bands suck.
4. The Xbox 360s with the 65nm chips released. Hopefully this is the end of the Red Ring of Death.
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl moved to February. This may look bad at first, but now Super Mario Galaxy will get the attention it deserves. Being overshadowed is bad.
6. Bungie splits from Microsoft. They are now free to spread their goodness to PS3 and Wii owners (just not Halo goodness, MS still owns that). Those guys are too talented to just be MS's Halo factory. Before anyone cries doom though, Microsoft has agreed to not farm the Halo series out to anyone else. Bungie will continue to do those exclusively on Xbox systems. They can just do other stuff now too.
And now the not so awesome:
1. The Xbox 360 Arcade. All it is is a rebranded Core. No one bought them before, what makes Microsoft think people will now? Their insistance of having a hard driveless package is mind boggling.
2. The PS3 bait and switch. They release the 60 gig (599) and the 20 (499) gig. Discontinue the 20-->drop price of 60 to 499-->Introduce 80 gig-->discontinue 60, effectively making the only available version 599 again after making a big to do about a "price drop". That doesn't really seem like a price drop. Then to make matters worse, they are bringing out the 40 gig version in november for 399 and dropping the price of the 80 gig to 499. Yes, now we have a price drop, but we also have FOUR versions of the same system floating around out there to confuse people., Come to think of it, multiple console versions are just bad. Sony: 20 gig, 40 gig, 60 gig, 80 gig. Only half of these have backwards compatibility, one of them doesn't have built in wifi or memeory slots. Microsoft: Arcade, Pro, Halo Edition, Elite. With these you have to worry about hard drive inclusion, hard drive size, wired vs. wireless, HD cables or not, headset yes or no, hdmi or not, and color scheme. JUST MAKE ONE DAMN SYSTEM. While you guys were having trouble deciding what kind of system to release, your competion (Nintendo, remember them?) put out ONE machine, with almost NO amazing games, and ABSOLUTELY no bells and whistles, and they're killing you two. Nice job.
3. Wii shovelware. See previous blog
4.Manhunt 2 controversy. We want to shut Joe Lieberman, Hilary Clinton, and Leland Yee up, not give them more to talk about. Rockstar made another lackluster game that they have to use shock value to sell, and it bit them in the ass. Nice one guys, now we all have to pay for your lack of commitment to real quality.
5. EA bought Bioware. Now instead of Mass Effect being some awesome sci-fi epic RPG trilogy, we'll get yearly installments with minimal updates and additions, all brought to you courtesy of Axe Body Spray and Burger King. Plus, this kills any chance of Bioware doing another KOTOR (remember, they did the good one), since Lucasarts will probably not be cool with EA, a competitor publishing their game. Now that I think about it, EA also bought Pandemic, effectively killing Star Wars Battlefront as well. Thanks EA, for taking out BOTH good Star Wars franchises, and killing the soul of nerds with Darth Vader tattoos and replica lightsabers everywhere.
If anyone has anything to add, feel free to comment. And by anyone, I mean Adam. since he's the only one that reads this.
1. Halo 3's mulitplayer vastly improved over Halo 2's. No noob combo, sniping's not cheesy, the quick mute is amazing. Aside from those annoyance fixes, overall weapon balance is improved, and the new feature set (forge, theater) are amazing.
2. PSP redesign. Faster load times on a handheld are a great. The unit is also smaller and lighter. Now if they could just get the games to be better.
3. More original artist recordings in Guitar Hero 3. Cover bands suck.
4. The Xbox 360s with the 65nm chips released. Hopefully this is the end of the Red Ring of Death.
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl moved to February. This may look bad at first, but now Super Mario Galaxy will get the attention it deserves. Being overshadowed is bad.
6. Bungie splits from Microsoft. They are now free to spread their goodness to PS3 and Wii owners (just not Halo goodness, MS still owns that). Those guys are too talented to just be MS's Halo factory. Before anyone cries doom though, Microsoft has agreed to not farm the Halo series out to anyone else. Bungie will continue to do those exclusively on Xbox systems. They can just do other stuff now too.
And now the not so awesome:
1. The Xbox 360 Arcade. All it is is a rebranded Core. No one bought them before, what makes Microsoft think people will now? Their insistance of having a hard driveless package is mind boggling.
2. The PS3 bait and switch. They release the 60 gig (599) and the 20 (499) gig. Discontinue the 20-->drop price of 60 to 499-->Introduce 80 gig-->discontinue 60, effectively making the only available version 599 again after making a big to do about a "price drop". That doesn't really seem like a price drop. Then to make matters worse, they are bringing out the 40 gig version in november for 399 and dropping the price of the 80 gig to 499. Yes, now we have a price drop, but we also have FOUR versions of the same system floating around out there to confuse people., Come to think of it, multiple console versions are just bad. Sony: 20 gig, 40 gig, 60 gig, 80 gig. Only half of these have backwards compatibility, one of them doesn't have built in wifi or memeory slots. Microsoft: Arcade, Pro, Halo Edition, Elite. With these you have to worry about hard drive inclusion, hard drive size, wired vs. wireless, HD cables or not, headset yes or no, hdmi or not, and color scheme. JUST MAKE ONE DAMN SYSTEM. While you guys were having trouble deciding what kind of system to release, your competion (Nintendo, remember them?) put out ONE machine, with almost NO amazing games, and ABSOLUTELY no bells and whistles, and they're killing you two. Nice job.
3. Wii shovelware. See previous blog
4.Manhunt 2 controversy. We want to shut Joe Lieberman, Hilary Clinton, and Leland Yee up, not give them more to talk about. Rockstar made another lackluster game that they have to use shock value to sell, and it bit them in the ass. Nice one guys, now we all have to pay for your lack of commitment to real quality.
5. EA bought Bioware. Now instead of Mass Effect being some awesome sci-fi epic RPG trilogy, we'll get yearly installments with minimal updates and additions, all brought to you courtesy of Axe Body Spray and Burger King. Plus, this kills any chance of Bioware doing another KOTOR (remember, they did the good one), since Lucasarts will probably not be cool with EA, a competitor publishing their game. Now that I think about it, EA also bought Pandemic, effectively killing Star Wars Battlefront as well. Thanks EA, for taking out BOTH good Star Wars franchises, and killing the soul of nerds with Darth Vader tattoos and replica lightsabers everywhere.
If anyone has anything to add, feel free to comment. And by anyone, I mean Adam. since he's the only one that reads this.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Inaugural Posting!
My wife told me that this would be a good idea so I here goes. I'm very into video games, and in addition to what most nerds do (read previews, bitch, etc.) i also follow the industry closely and I care greatly about it. So I decided to start this gaming blog. My first topic: The Wii and its ilk.
I recently read an article about the videogame industry (non gamers may even now, no longer care about this blog) and it's trends. Everyone talks about "exclusives" For those not in the know an exclusive is a game appearing one company's machine and that machine alone. It went on to state that the Nintendo Wii has 23 exclusives games for the holiday season (Q4) Microsoft's Xbox360 has 8 and Sony's much maligned Playstation 3 has a measly 5.
But I think the article missed one big point and that's that the Wii's "exclusives" would tank if released on the PS3 and 360. "exclusives" don't count if the competetion doesn't need/want them. Name one completely awesome "oh I've got to get me one of those" exclusives for the Wii out for Q4 that isn't mario Galaxy or Smash Brothers Brawl. There aren't any. So I guess that puts the Wii at only 2 "exclusives" for holiday season. Looks like Eight and Five is looking pretty good. And for the most part I'd take that "familiar" lineup for the 360 and ps3 over all that kindergarten crap on the Wii anyday. One more thing before the Nintendo fanboys flip out: Galaxy and Brawl are not kindergarten crap. But almost everything else on that system is.
I say all of this out of sheer objectivity, so please don't brand me a Nintendo Hater. I don't have my Wii connected at the moment for the obvious stantments above. In fact, the only reason I haven't sold it off is because it was a wedding present from my closest friends. The PS3's lineup isn't tickling my pickle.
So all I play at the moment is 360, because honestly with the Wii targeting an obviously different demographic, I have no reason to play it. And with the PS3 not getting anything different from the 360 as far as my tastes are concerned, why buy one? Also, Xbox Live is the greatest thing since boobs.
I guess the only reason I could be a little embittered towards Nintendo is because I'm one of the people that thinks this "Casual Gaming" push will inevitably hurt the industry. There's the obvious "developers will shovel out more family crap for the Wii, and not publish totally B.A. Baracus games for the PS360" mindset (which I FIRMLY believe), but there's more to it than that that.
I'm a manager for Gamestop (go head and laugh. I don't push preoders when it's not necessary, nor do I sell unsealed games as new, unless it's last resort. But I will say that I do ask them if the unsealed copy is O.K., ahthankyouverymuch.) So now that've proved my game street cred to the Kotaku reading hardcore gamer crowd, peep this, devils: Casual gaming is ruining my job. Now more than ever, clueless Soccer Moms, Less-than-awesome Dads, braindead girlfriends, and straight out OLD PEOPLE are finding their way into my store, and not on accident. And with this comes the larger sales yes, but it also brings the stupid. Now as someone who as of now does not own Gamestop outright i view it this way:
less stupid>more money.
Also the corporate masters have coined, sang from the hills, and ran into the ground, the phrase "MOM FRIENDLY". So my completely visible all the time and totally awesome tattoos, that are still ok by handbook standards, are now to be covered. I'd hate to alienate these new all important customers, oh no, we mustn't do that. Let's make sure they're comfortable, and feel oh so loved. Nevermind the core gamers who got you Suit Monkeys where you are today.
"Let's create a whole new section for casual/music games." Well fine, but are you going to start carrying import RPG's and make a special little land for them too? (Just for the record I HATE Japanese rpg's so this is not a selfish motive.)
We are also now "encouraged" to give out hints on how to pass parts in games when stumped customers call in. Like I don't have enough to worry about with customers buying stuff, and stealing stuff, putting away new product, and saying "No we don't have Wiis. No, I don't know when we're getting them. I don't know who would have them." to every person that calls, now I have to tell you people how to save your game in Midnight club PSP. Yes that actually happened.
So while developers, publishers, and retailers are busy blowing this new holy grail of the gaming populice, they forget that in a years time or so, Half of these people may actually graduate to more complex and advanced games, but tragically, and more realistically, the other half may just hop on whatever then next new fad is after Wii. I've prepared a handy (but crude) chart to illustrate:
Pet Rock-->Cabbage Patch Kids-->Slap Bracelets-->Tickle Me Elmo--> Beanie babies--Wii-->Handlebar Mustaches
And when that happens, you guys in the gaming industry may wish you hadn't spent so much time cozying up to Johnny's mom, sister, and grandma (well maybe sister) by making "Barbie Hairbrushing Sim and Brain Game Sudoku", or whatever the hell Wii or DS game EA/Ubisoft/Activision crapped out this weekend, and worried more about making "Super Badass Machinegun Toting Guys with Butch Names 4" or "Incredibly Amazing Quest To Save the Universe In 120 Hours or More If You Must Find Everything XIV", or hell even "Any Sports Game But Madden 2057" for JOHNNY himself, you might not feel like such and Idiot. And yes some hardcore gamers DO play sports games. Just not this one.
Just like anything else, games have been dragged into the Mainstream, like for realz. And just like anything else, with mainstream comes what i have deemed THE PUSSIFICATION:
Comic Books:
Every awesome superhero ever has their own monthly series.
Comic Books movies make comic books "cool" again:
Every awesome superhero's GIRLFRIEND has their own monthly series about how they feel about their awesome boyfriend and their hair.
Evidence:
Spider-Man: Mary Jane <--actually exists
Movies<--mainly of the action variety:
John McClane says Yippie-Ki-Yay-Mother%(er
After the pussification of, uh, EVERYONE:
John McClane says Yippy-Ki-Yay-motherBLAM!
Music<--this could be the big one:
Punk rock gives us The Misfits, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and Black Flag:
Punk rock is then deemed marketable buy the Dreaded Suit Monkeys sometime in the 1990's (which did still manage to crank some AWESOME):
EMO gives us: Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Panic At The Disco, Good Charlottle and Hawthorne Heights. All of which NOT awesome.
And now gaming's gone mainstream and, I don't know if the combined might of Kratos, Dante, Hayabusa, Snake and Master Chief will be enough to save it.
I recently read an article about the videogame industry (non gamers may even now, no longer care about this blog) and it's trends. Everyone talks about "exclusives" For those not in the know an exclusive is a game appearing one company's machine and that machine alone. It went on to state that the Nintendo Wii has 23 exclusives games for the holiday season (Q4) Microsoft's Xbox360 has 8 and Sony's much maligned Playstation 3 has a measly 5.
But I think the article missed one big point and that's that the Wii's "exclusives" would tank if released on the PS3 and 360. "exclusives" don't count if the competetion doesn't need/want them. Name one completely awesome "oh I've got to get me one of those" exclusives for the Wii out for Q4 that isn't mario Galaxy or Smash Brothers Brawl. There aren't any. So I guess that puts the Wii at only 2 "exclusives" for holiday season. Looks like Eight and Five is looking pretty good. And for the most part I'd take that "familiar" lineup for the 360 and ps3 over all that kindergarten crap on the Wii anyday. One more thing before the Nintendo fanboys flip out: Galaxy and Brawl are not kindergarten crap. But almost everything else on that system is.
I say all of this out of sheer objectivity, so please don't brand me a Nintendo Hater. I don't have my Wii connected at the moment for the obvious stantments above. In fact, the only reason I haven't sold it off is because it was a wedding present from my closest friends. The PS3's lineup isn't tickling my pickle.
So all I play at the moment is 360, because honestly with the Wii targeting an obviously different demographic, I have no reason to play it. And with the PS3 not getting anything different from the 360 as far as my tastes are concerned, why buy one? Also, Xbox Live is the greatest thing since boobs.
I guess the only reason I could be a little embittered towards Nintendo is because I'm one of the people that thinks this "Casual Gaming" push will inevitably hurt the industry. There's the obvious "developers will shovel out more family crap for the Wii, and not publish totally B.A. Baracus games for the PS360" mindset (which I FIRMLY believe), but there's more to it than that that.
I'm a manager for Gamestop (go head and laugh. I don't push preoders when it's not necessary, nor do I sell unsealed games as new, unless it's last resort. But I will say that I do ask them if the unsealed copy is O.K., ahthankyouverymuch.) So now that've proved my game street cred to the Kotaku reading hardcore gamer crowd, peep this, devils: Casual gaming is ruining my job. Now more than ever, clueless Soccer Moms, Less-than-awesome Dads, braindead girlfriends, and straight out OLD PEOPLE are finding their way into my store, and not on accident. And with this comes the larger sales yes, but it also brings the stupid. Now as someone who as of now does not own Gamestop outright i view it this way:
less stupid>more money.
Also the corporate masters have coined, sang from the hills, and ran into the ground, the phrase "MOM FRIENDLY". So my completely visible all the time and totally awesome tattoos, that are still ok by handbook standards, are now to be covered. I'd hate to alienate these new all important customers, oh no, we mustn't do that. Let's make sure they're comfortable, and feel oh so loved. Nevermind the core gamers who got you Suit Monkeys where you are today.
"Let's create a whole new section for casual/music games." Well fine, but are you going to start carrying import RPG's and make a special little land for them too? (Just for the record I HATE Japanese rpg's so this is not a selfish motive.)
We are also now "encouraged" to give out hints on how to pass parts in games when stumped customers call in. Like I don't have enough to worry about with customers buying stuff, and stealing stuff, putting away new product, and saying "No we don't have Wiis. No, I don't know when we're getting them. I don't know who would have them." to every person that calls, now I have to tell you people how to save your game in Midnight club PSP. Yes that actually happened.
So while developers, publishers, and retailers are busy blowing this new holy grail of the gaming populice, they forget that in a years time or so, Half of these people may actually graduate to more complex and advanced games, but tragically, and more realistically, the other half may just hop on whatever then next new fad is after Wii. I've prepared a handy (but crude) chart to illustrate:
Pet Rock-->Cabbage Patch Kids-->Slap Bracelets-->Tickle Me Elmo--> Beanie babies--Wii-->Handlebar Mustaches
And when that happens, you guys in the gaming industry may wish you hadn't spent so much time cozying up to Johnny's mom, sister, and grandma (well maybe sister) by making "Barbie Hairbrushing Sim and Brain Game Sudoku", or whatever the hell Wii or DS game EA/Ubisoft/Activision crapped out this weekend, and worried more about making "Super Badass Machinegun Toting Guys with Butch Names 4" or "Incredibly Amazing Quest To Save the Universe In 120 Hours or More If You Must Find Everything XIV", or hell even "Any Sports Game But Madden 2057" for JOHNNY himself, you might not feel like such and Idiot. And yes some hardcore gamers DO play sports games. Just not this one.
Just like anything else, games have been dragged into the Mainstream, like for realz. And just like anything else, with mainstream comes what i have deemed THE PUSSIFICATION:
Comic Books:
Every awesome superhero ever has their own monthly series.
Comic Books movies make comic books "cool" again:
Every awesome superhero's GIRLFRIEND has their own monthly series about how they feel about their awesome boyfriend and their hair.
Evidence:
Spider-Man: Mary Jane <--actually exists
Movies<--mainly of the action variety:
John McClane says Yippie-Ki-Yay-Mother%(er
After the pussification of, uh, EVERYONE:
John McClane says Yippy-Ki-Yay-motherBLAM!
Music<--this could be the big one:
Punk rock gives us The Misfits, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, and Black Flag:
Punk rock is then deemed marketable buy the Dreaded Suit Monkeys sometime in the 1990's (which did still manage to crank some AWESOME):
EMO gives us: Avril Lavigne, Fall Out Boy, Panic At The Disco, Good Charlottle and Hawthorne Heights. All of which NOT awesome.
And now gaming's gone mainstream and, I don't know if the combined might of Kratos, Dante, Hayabusa, Snake and Master Chief will be enough to save it.
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