Try getting a podcast where the three of us like something and I’ll show you an internet forums where people can discuss opposing views rationally. Today sparks fly as usual as we look at Wolfenstein and Battlefield 1943.
Where’s the love you ask?
Before this year, my purchase of Digital Download content was rather restrained with only some CoD multiplayer maps and a few cheap XBLA games and a Guitar hero song or two. Somehow this year, I’ve gone nuts for DLC and download titles. It never really hit me that the revolution has overtaken me and I’m hip-deep in this shit.
There’ve been Singstar tracks, Guitar Hero Tracks, one Fallout DLC pack, two Call of Duty World at War map packs, Halo 3 maps, Burnout Paradise add-ons, Grand Theft Auto TLAD. But then there’s also Battlefield 1943, Shadow Complex and Trials HD and Peggle and World of Goo. Suddenly, that purchase of the 120 GB Hard Drive doesn’t seem so extravagant. Expensive, yes. but worth it. No more juggling and deleting crap to make room.
Gears of War 12 reportedly cost $12 million dollars to make. Shadow Complex, however) would have been a fraction of that, even with the costs of licensing the Unreal 3 engine. Shadow Complex may be a small game from a small developer (recently acquired by Epic) but its managed to make a big stink with people complaining about author Orson Scott Card’s involvement with the game. Battlefield 1943 managed 600 000 downloads in its first few weeks, an amazing feat for a DD-only title. And Trials HD has every dick on my friends list beating my measly scores. DD on consoles has come of age. By come of age, I mean draining my wallet of space bucks.
DD on PC has fewer barriers to entry but a different type of dynamic. Paid DLC- such as map packs is not as prevalent. You tend to have more of the expansion pack mentality- where you still need the original game in order to play, plus the expectation of free maps and updates for some titles. The microtransaction element, that was introduced to consoles this generation is standard practice in Asia. Many games are free to play with either ads or microtransactions paying the developers and publishers for their efforts. EA has tried this with Battlefield Heroes (micro payments) and id with Quake Live (ads). You can buy a silly hat for your in-game character or a gun that shoots chocolate death. EA tried small paid map pack expansions for Battlefield 2, but theses merely fragmented the player-base between the haves and have-nots. Lousy Have-nots ruining my BF buzz.
Nowadays, you don’t even need a game in order to buy stuff that has no bearing on the game. Sony Home is the ultimate in this regard. You pay for shit to decorate a virtual apartment that does nothing. Buy designer costumes for your avatars. Now we have 360 Avatars with lightsabers- lightsabers that cost more than many XBLA titles did when the 360 was launched in 2005. AND I’M SERIOUSLY THINKING OF GETTING A LIGHTSABER SO I CAN BE COOL. So we’ve come a long way from the days when Oblivion’s Horse Armour and EA Sports pay-for-cheats where the hot topics for gamers.
Of course, PC gamers have had it pretty good with free updates over the years. Of course that means Valve these days since Activision have more or less ignored the huge player base of Call of Duty 4 in regards to DLC and expansions, a mistake they’ve readily admitted while Treyarch’s been breaking records with WaW’s three map packs. PC gamers have been so spoiled that when Valve attempted to release a sequel to Left 4 Dead a year after the original, some vocal fans feared it would mean the end of DLC for their beloved game. They even started petitions to have Valve make L4D2 DLC for the original game. Top tip- don’t buy it if you don’t like it.
Here’s the catch. There’s been a fair bit of my DLC Odyssey that I regret buyuing. And of course, I can’t sell it on. I wish I had resisted the temptation to pick up Penny Arcade Ep 1, The Burnout DLC (thanks PS3 region coding on DLC), the Halo maps (since they’ll be part of ODST) and Grand Theft Auto Lost and Damned. I’d probably have enjoyed that more if I had played it before Infamous and Red Faction but them’s the breaks. I’m sure many people bought hyped up games and then thought “hmmmm.” Thank Christ i didn’t lay down money (Real or Microsoft points) for any game that picks an animal out of a zoo directory and sticks the word ‘space’ on the front.
So while EA might be looking at the numbers for BF1943, how many of those customers will return for more maps that are almost guaranteed to trickle out of EA over the coming months? Bethesda have said their five expansions for Fallout 3 are the last they will release (never mind how much it costs to but the game and then all of the DLC). Mass Effect 2 is coming out early in 2010 yet EA and Bioware are just now releasing the second DLC campaign for Mass Effect the original. DLC is all over the place and its still unpredictable. Apart from Ubisoft trying to sell you the end of Price of Persia. Dicks!
Another recording mishap, this time we had time to try and run through our topic again. Anyhow, it’s 12 minutes of pure gold. Maybe not that store-bought gold I’ve been hearing so much about, but some cheap mail order gold from Russia. What’s played out these days?
Although Activision doesn’t want you to know this but Wolfenstein is out on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. I am playing Wolfenstein and enjoying it despite the deafening silence from the Activision publicity department. The same people who want you to buy five different versions of Guitar Hero each year, a Call of Duty each year and dozens of previous id games, including Return to Castle Wolfenstein; don’t really care if you buy this game or not.
Even games that publishers know are crap get more marketing than Wolfenstein has had. Is it really that bad? No. It’s more to do with id being bought out by Zenimax, owners of Bethesda along with rights to any Wolfenstein sequels. Competition for Modern Warfare 2 may have some bearing but as the Quantum of Solace game was released almost simultaneously with CoD: WaW in 2008, it’s safe to assume Activision weren’t interested in spending money on advertising a game that only benefits Zenimax in the long run. It’s a pretty douchey thing to do and even EA is not going to dump Rage simple because they won’t be able to publish Rage 2.
So, Wolfenstein is a first person shooter set during WWII. But rather than the realistic and gritty approach of Call of Duty, Wolfenstein is set in a more fantastical WWII where Nazi’s are in possession of occult and supernatural weaponry. It’s almost like the spy adventures alluded to in the most recent Indiana Jones movie. Single player has proven to be fun but Multiplayer is like stepping back in time. Back to when Cher was young.
It’s a fun enough diversion but god it looks like an Xbox 1 game. A laggy Xbox 1 game. Go back to single player and the graphics are good to very good. It’s quite polished for the most part, apart from lacklustre voice work.
Also on the ‘box has been Shadow Complex, from Epic and Chair. A side-scrolling 2D Metroid/Castlevania style game. Yes, people have been peeing in their pants with anticipation of this, but I had mainly ascribed this to being grumpy fuckers who can’t play any game made after the year 2000 without complaining how things aren’t as good as they used to be. I’ve only had a quick squizzy but it’s a game that I can see many people (the explorer types) getting a huge kick out of. It’s 1200 points but it is worth it.
Trials HD is as good as it was in the Focus Test.
Some choice news stories from around the gaming world digested and spat out.
-Future, publishers of Edge and other assorted gaming magazines, have decided to run a subscription based WoW only magazine. Finally, WoW players will be able to put away the chamber pot underneath their chair and be able to experience WoW from the comfort of their toilet. The magazine won’t be available at traditional news retail outlets but will instead be sent directly to WoW player’s homes. This is not down to the death of print gaming mags, but to the reluctance of WoW players to leave the game behind for longer than it takes to make a sandwich and get a soda.
The magazine will be delivered first to the home of the subscriber, and then delivered to the player by the spouse or mother of the WoW player. We’re guessing it’s more likely to be the latter.
-Sony have announced the PS3 Slim and a $299 US price (or $360 Australian Dollars). In local news, the PS3 will be AU$499. The PSP Go will be $450. Oddly enough, sodomy is also around $450.
-Activision’s CEO, Mr Robert Kotick took a break from rape, pillage and looting to say that consumers would rather have sequels than new games. In between breathing fire on orphan cats, Mr Kotick also stated how women like diamonds and men love blow-jobs. Activision are rumoured to working on a game that combines both. It will require expensive hardware and have a long line of QA applicants.
-Rock Band Beatles is coming very soon and has apparently had input from Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. So now people under the age of 40 can be confused by the “Paul is Dead’ meme. “Dude, I though John and George were, er, nevermind.”
So the PS3 is now cheaper (or will be in the next week or so). Yes Sony have been a bunch of dicks this generation and behind the ball on pricing and PSN. But a great library of games. Maybe not killer but still great. If you don’t already have a PS3 think about this:
Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
Metal Gear Solid 4
Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.
Little Big Planet
Free PSN
Excellent Blu Ray player
easy to upgrade standard laptop hard drives
as well as the upcoming: R&C:A Crack in Time, Uncharted 2, God of War III and Heavy Rain (oh and FFXIII and GT5 for those that care)
Don’t think about:
Haze
Lair
Killzone 2
Resistance 2
Motorstorm
Heavenly Sword
multi hour patch and firmware downloads
still expensive
ugly matte finish
Sixaxis
no goddamn Backwards compatibility with PS2 apart from Singstar.
In short you should buy a PS3 if you don’t have already one. If you do have one, FFS- don’t sell it to buy the slim.
So on my list of games to purchase over the next few months are sequels. In fact, they are all sequels.
We have Katamari Forever, Uncharted 2 and Ratchet and Clank on the PS3. Halo 3 ODST on the 360, Mario on the Wii and Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 for the mutliplatform crowd. Oh and there’s Assassin’s Creed 2 for people who didn’t play the first one. And early next year, Mass Effect 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Army of Two Two, Bioshock 2, et al.
So what the hell is wrong with me (and the game buying public) when I can’t look at new IP (this year)? Oh wait, that’s right. There are no new IP’s this year. Apart from Borderlands. So, effectively, no new IP’s. Hey, Rage looks nice but only Carmack and Jesus (in that order) know when that’s coming out. Dante’s Inferno does not count. It’s God of War with
So in the meantime, should you replay the previous game while you’re waiting for the new title? I mean, I’ve never really stopped playing CoD4 for more than a few months.
I choose to break the cycle by playing my newly acquired Wolfenstein. Oh fuck, its a sequel. Does this constant playing of sequels make me a whore? The answer is yes. In the last year, the only games I’ve played that weren’t sequels were Mirror’s Edge, Force Unleashed, Infamous and Left 4 Dead. The previous year was better since there was Mass Effect, Bioshock, Crackdown, Stranglehold, Call of Juarez, Uncharted, Army of Two.
Maybe next year…
I’ve never been a huge Tomb Raider fan but I did get through most of Tomb Raider Legend and enjoy it for the most part. Underworld was cheap so I picked it up and have been going through it rather languidly. That is to say. I’m playing it because I have nothing else to play and I’m not really compelled by it.
Don’t get me wrong, its very well made and I’ve found it quite polished but I’m not champing at the bit to play it like some other games I’ve been playing this year (Fallout 3, Infamous and Red Faction). I think I’m over exploration and constantly falling, not to my doom, but down to a lower level that requires a lengthy hike to get back to where I was. So I’m done with it already (it was a cheapie).
Here are some pics in lieu of me wasting any more time on Tomb Raider (click on the segment to see the full pic)
I’m waiting for Call of Juarez to show up and to see whether Wolfenstein is worth getting so I’m in a gaming-lite mode. I was ging through CoD4 SP again, this time on PC, but then the PC decided to lose my save game and I thought “fuck that.” I had a day off work this week so I popped in CoD2 (360) for a play of the SP campaign. Wasn’t feeling it but then I had played the single player manay times and the first half of the game has had a lot more playtime than the end of the game. Oh well.
So really Battlefield 1943 has been getting the most playtime though I’m starting to get a little frustrated. It seems 360 players locally are meant to be on local servers but this is not the case just yet and I find the one thing that dents my enthusiasm for online games is lag induced by a Host in another country. Last night the Japanese team were based in Japan. Awkward much? I must have been playing all seven 360 owners in Japan. And they were quite good.
Trials HD is likely to be purchased over the weekend. I’m working on a video ATM and Trials seems perfect to pop in and out of while I need to Render files.
We’re securing some more people to interview in our “The Developer” series in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
We have a little fireside chat going over the gold old days of the arcade. No notes, no points and in every direction
