Daily Musings: Launch Day

September 23rd, 2009 Wayne | 

Fall is in the air, the leaves are going from summer green to the browns, yellow’s and red’s that inspire painters to paint (or something)  This also means it’s that time of year.  Yep, where mortals become raving lunatics bent on getting the object of their desire.   While you do have this to some degree throughout the year, the slight chill in the night air brings about the feeling that yes,  It is fall, and yes, it is time for the fall/winter Videogame Launch season to begin!

Already I feel the pains of this radical season.  With Halo 3: ODST coming out yesterday, with no associates in the store to help, I had to handle this launch ALONE!  Am I bitter?  would I prefer to see all copies of ODST put into a pit and burned then piss on the ashes?  Probably not.   I can say that while I am weary after yesterday, I do know this isn’t even scratching the perverbial surface.  Who knew three years ago that the release of a new Halo game would not be the biggest launch this year?  Well thanks to Infinity Ward our plate on November 10th will be very full.  Some internal estimates are showing that Modern Warfare 2 may exceed Three Million in Pre-order’s alone, and thats not even counting the walk ins.  If these numbers hold true, we’re looking at the single biggest launch in video game history.  Goodbye Halo, Grand Theft Auto, etc.  I know it’s exciting this time of year, hell I’ll be in the middle of it myself, both on the customer and retail side.  However I would like to stress an important thing here:  please be patient with the people who sell you your games, unless they are real jerks.  Most of the time they’re having to do midnight launches, get off around 2 or 3 A.M., then have to be back at work at 9 A.M. to open and start the process all over again.  I’ll put it this way, a simple thank you can go a long way.

-Wayne Gay

Daily Musings: Standees

September 17th, 2009 Wayne | 

Some may not think working for a game retailer would be all that rewarding. I mean hell, we’ve all heard the horror stories about working/shopping in said stores. However, there can be a lot of fun to be had if you are willing to look. Which brings me to the subject of today’s musings: Standee’s.

You have NO idea how much these taped together corugated masterpieces are sought after. From Halo to Call of Duty, to even lesser known games upcoming, we get countless people who will PAY cash money…and even there first born in some cases…to get ahold of these cardboard works of art. I will readily admit, some of these standee’s are cool, but it gets funny to see people actually willing to fight over these things.

I suggest this to gaming manufacturers: want to sell more games? Include a  small, shelf-putting standee with each pre-ordered copy. Not only would you get more games sold, you’d get a lot more customer loyalty in the process. And mostly, you’ll stop looking like a bunch of dicks. (I’m looking at YOU Activision CEO)

-Wayne Gay

Will 2007 releases carry 2009?

May 7th, 2009 Wayne | 

I know what you’re thinking. “Holy crap a new post on the front page!  End Times! Korea has nukes! Armageddon!!” I know, its been quite awhile since anything has been published here, however I think its time to begin talking about what brought most of us to the table in the first place, gaming.   At this time, I will not be going into changes to the site and such, that’ll come soon enough.  What I want to talk about now is what may be the gaming industry’s only hope in this shrinking economy, sequels.  More Specifically, sequels to games released in 2007.

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Hockey season 2008-2009 begins!

October 10th, 2008 45 ACP | 

This past offseason was an exciting one for a lot of teams in the NHL, but now it’s team to put those rookies, veterans and traded players alike on the ice again!

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Phantasy Star Zero

September 14th, 2008 Kevin | 

Sega has announced Phantasy Star Zero, a new installment in the Phantasy Star franchise for the Nintendo DS.  Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

  • It’s a new game in the Phantasy Star series which borrows heavily from PSO (judging from screenshots, there’s a PSU influence as well).
  • Will have a single player story mode.
  • Will support four player online play through WFC and four player local play.
  • Symbol Chat is taken to the next level with the use of the DS stylus.  It’s basicly DS Pictochat, Phantasy Star style.
  • The battle system will have some sort of chain type combos.
  • HP/PP, map, action pallet, etc. will all appear on the bottom screen.
  • Three races, fourteen classes.
  • You can create your own character.
  • Game will take place on Earth and it’s moon (so say translation people).
  • Scheduled late winter release in Japan.

Screenshots can be found on the official Phantasy Star Zero website.

Fox suing Warner Bros., wants to give Watchmen the axe

August 19th, 2008 Russdogg | 

So I was watching Attack of the Show on G4 and saw this reported. Fox is suing WB, claiming that they own the film rights to Watchmen. And that today the judge denied WB’s request to dismiss the lawsuit. Furthermore, and if the company isn’t already looking enough like douchebags, Fox has stated that they are uninterested in settling. Rather they want Watchmen killed. Simply a scare tactic? Let’s hope so.

Spore Should Be Banned! (According To Hardline Atheists)

August 12th, 2008 Mark Lucherini | 

Now, before I begin, let me make this clear. I am an atheist. Personal belief, and all that. Don’t give a damn if you believe in God, Allah, Buddah, or the Staypuft Marshmallow Man, it’s all good. But I generally don’t like other Atheists, specifically, those that like to make statements to be included in the “stupidest complaint of the century” awards.

Will Wright has come out as saying, according to Kotaku, militant atheists are complaining about Spore. Why? Because the… wait, what kind of game is Spore? Er… creature building/civilization building/war game/space exploration sim thingy… well, it contains religion for you to have your little dudes worship.

Yes, let’s all get up and complain about something so completely moronic. Because, of course, in order to have an accurate civilization creation game, includiing religion would be innacurate. We never had religion in our older civilizations!

Oh, wait…

In other news, some crazy old homeless guy yelled at a park bench for an hour for “stealin his wimmen,” some whiskey soaked redneck (sorry, Wayne) claimed he was abducted by aliens, and anyone you can descibe as militant is still kind of a moron.

Most Innovative Game of The Year?

August 12th, 2008 Mark Lucherini | 

Via Kotaku comes this little piece of… terribly depressing news. Seems the good folks plebians at Edge, the online magazine, have bestowed their “Edge Award For Interactive Innovation” this year, and not to, let’s say, actual innovative games such as Portal or Rock Band, which were in the running, but to Halo f’ing 3. That’s right, the multiplayer game with a single player stappled on as more of an afterthought wins for “innovation.”

Edge’s reason? The online portion of the game. Apparently, all you have to do to be truly innovative in the games industry is to expand on what you’ve already done.

As a proponent of the “games as art school” of thought, this is a slap to the face to every single game company who felt like trying something new, something different with the tools they were provided with, instead the award for innovation goes to the company who plastered what’d they’d done before - admittedly, rather well, but still - over a shiny new face.

Halo 3 and its ilk have a place in the game world, of course - but they’re the summer blockbusters. They’re the ones that don’t get a look in at the award shows because, while everyone enjoys them, they’re not fare worthy of awards beyond “best explosion.”

The longer we do this, give awards such as this to games which monkey what has come before with slightly more successful results, the less movement forward we’ll have, the less likely we’ll see games like “Braid” and “Pixel Junk Eden” being made. You know, games with actual artistic merit.

Wrath of The Lich King Beta Video

August 11th, 2008 Wayne | 

Over the weekend I was able to get into the Wrath of the Lich King Beta, and since there is no longer an NDA in place, I have decided to do a series of reports on what I find interesting in my adventures. So first, I will show you what is by far the best feature of the game, read more to see the good stuff!

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G4, when will you get back to games?

August 1st, 2008 Wayne | 

G4 has screwed up.   There are many ways I can go with this after that statement, but here is one you probably weren’t expecting.  G4 has screwed up because in the mornings they are now showing what they USED to be, a channel about videogames.  Some of the fair isn’t all that great.  (old X-play, I’m looking at you)  However you can see a commitment to gaming in those old telecasts.  Now what do we get?  Cops, Japanese game shows, and a show about people upchucking (No, I’m not kidding).  I don’t know who the monkey’s are that run this channel, but frankly, I think its time to get rid of the utter bullcrap and get back to what I even wanted the damn channel for.

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UPDATE: A Reply From Jack Thompson

July 14th, 2008 Mark Lucherini | 

And one I’m terribly dissapointed in. Rather than call me an idiot gamer, or someone incapable of rational thought in reply to my email to him, Mr. Thompson… sent me a court filling? One that doesn’t seem to address any of the points I made to him in my email.

Seriously, this guy has not only lost his mind, but he’s losing his touch! Sticking the document after the read more for those as want to read through his ever so fun “legal” rantings.

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Jack Thompson - The Worst Kind Of Bully

July 13th, 2008 Mark Lucherini | 

One thinks that one has seen all the sorts of tactics that Jack Thompson could come out with, but the latest piece of the puzzle (found here, on Gamepolitics) defies anything we had seen of him before.

Before, you could look at Jack Thompson, and consider him a clown. An annoying clown, one who’s antics tended towards general insults and ad hominem attacks, with a well known penchant for harassing people he didn’t like. But the lengths he went to regarding two lawyers - Al Cardenas and Larry Kellog, themselves the type of lawyers in good standing that Thompson likes to portray himself as - is incomprehensible.

He resorts to publicly, professionally, and emotionally attacking the lawyers in question from every single angle that he can think of, with some of the lowest and most insulting messages that one could ever think of listed in the above linked testimony.

An email I sent to John Bruce. It’s the first - and the last - of it’s kind that I ever intend to send to the man.

Mr. Thompson,

it is no wonder that Judge Tunis decided that the bars recommendation of a 10 year disbarment couldn’t be considered good enough, and that only permanent disbarment would possibly do, along with having to pay out the legal fees - all of them - for your bar trial.

It’s no wonder that your behaviour merited a 169 page document from Judge Tunis, in a sector where a 100 page document is rare indeed. Every last person you injured emotionally came back to haunt you, and every last hurtful sentence uttered or typed by you over the past few years has been immortalized forever in a document which will haunt you until the very day you die.

Mr. Thompson, I’m a gamer. I never hated you for going after gaming. You annoyed the hell out of me sometimes, especially when you would get some poor sap to take you seriously. You were an annoyance, a liar, and one who liked to paint himself as being in any way credible, as being famous. But, more often than not, I pitied you. You were a clown, as I said. A sad man attempting to jump around, yelling that you, yes you, were important to the world.

But now? Now I despise you Mr. Thompson. You attempted to destroy peoples lives. You conspired - ironically, the charge you like to aim at others - to destroy the lives of those who disagreed with you, who stood in your way, who dared to even think that you, John Bruce Thompson, might be wrong. You aimed volleys at them from every angle, every single one underhanded and unjustified.

You decided that you were not only above the law as it is written, in the strictest and most legal sense, but that you were above the moral law that all good and decent people live by. Not a religious law, not a philosophical law, but a moral law that people obey simply to live with their fellow man.

I now hope, Mr. Thompson, after reading all of your bile, all of your hatred, all of your venom and underhanded tactics, that you get disbarred, and that you are ridiculed and ousted from your community as the scum that you are, and that all of your friends, all of your allies, may see you as what you are.

What you are, Mr. Thompson, doesn’t have a comparison in even the animal kingdom. Nothing that walks on four legs, or two, or crawls on its belly or swims in the sea, even comes close to acting in the same way, comparatively, that you have.

I do not wish you harm Mr. Thompson, nor do I wish harm to any who rally around you, few as they may be. However, nor do I wish you well.

In closing, reply with your rantings, as I know you will. I won’t communicate with you further, as I have no desire to sully myself by even having contact with you beyond this email.

Regards,

Mark G. Lucherini - Gamer, Successfully living a happy life despite playing “murder simulators” for years.

P.S. Before you scream harassment, an email publicly posted on a site such as JAABlog makes it just that - publicly available.

Update: Forgot to add, Thompsons email on JAABlog? Found it in a post where he wanted to announce his intent to run for president of the Florida Bar, which he claims is corrupt. He even compares his running for this office to Ronald Regans attempts to clean up the SAG back in the day.

Going to be kind of hard to run for president of a body you’re thrown out of, isn’t it?

Ubisoft purchases Hybride Technologies

July 10th, 2008 45 ACP | 

In a smart move to expand their territory and bolster their already high-profile production team, Ubisoft, maker of video gaming classics such as the Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Prince of Persia series and newer games like highly-acclaimed Assassin’s Creed, has purchased the well-renowned special effects company Hybride Technologies. Yes, this is the same company that made 300 and Sin City. Yes, this is good news.

But how good? They work in two different domains, which means these two developers don’t use the same production technology at all. Sure, it would be nice to have some sweet cinematics instead of the poorly-animated garbage that Ubisoft has stained so many of it’s games with, but beyond that, this big business move seems like nothing more than that, just business. Good for them, but here’s hoping it will also be good for us gamers.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - First Trailer

July 9th, 2008 Russdogg | 

New Rock Band Deatails From Kotaku

July 9th, 2008 Mark Lucherini | 

Ok, so I may now actually want to pick up the game. Maybe not the instruments (although the new guitar looks awesome), but the new features makes this game what it should have been the first time around…

Best bits to me, from the list Kotaku has up?

“Rock Band 2 offers backwards compatibility with Rock Band downloadable content”

Which we all kinda knew… but it’s nice to have it confirmed.

“Your customized characters can now play on any instrument”

Huzzah! Finally, I can be the musical genius I always knew I was!

“World Tour is now online”

As rumoured before, no confirmed.

“No more band leaders! If you need to fire your guitarist but keep the band going, fire away!”

Even bloody better! That was kinda of an odd choice anyway in the first one. And, finally, the one I know Vash and Shan are going to be looking forward to most:

“Rock Band 2 delivers new clothing, accessories, tattoos, hairstyles, instruments and more to keep your unique rock avatar playing the full rock part.”

Hit up Kotaku for the full list, and leave your own favourite parts in the comments!