World of Warcraft is now five years old. That’s a long time to go without a shower, guys. Or sex. Or beating a game. Try GameFAQs.
It’s a pretty big achievement in gaming. EA can’t keep a Madden server running for more than a few years. Of course Counter Striker has been going long but the percentages of CS players who even paid for their copy of HL has been pretty slim. WoW has made more money for Activision Blizzard than Chinese workers buried under a dam.
The figures are staggering. Since November 2004 the following has happened:
- Valve- who released Half Life 2 around the same time have moved to episodic content. At the time of writing, HL2: Episodes 1 and 2 have been released. Episode 3 will be out eventually.
- A black man rules the world and he’s not the final boss in a Capcom videogame.
- MS released Windows Vista, Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the Xbox 360
- Nintendo regained market leadership in home consoles and Sony’s console is in third place worldwide (at least for now)
- Digital Delivery went from being a joke in a proctologist’s examination room to a reality in videogames.
- Wil Wright released Spore.
- Lair, Too Human, Dragon Age were released
- Warhammer Online, Hellgate London, Age of Conan have all been and gone.
- Battlefield games went from 1942 to Vietnam, to the present, then the future, the free to play and then back to 1943
- Call of Duty went from being a more casual gamer oriented PC only title to one of the biggest selling console game series
- You can download Beatles songs to play in a videogame.
- Star Wars is now a real cartoon without any actors involved
- Activision is the most hated company in videogames and the largest.
- Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon went from being realistic hardcore PC franchises into big selling console action title
Congrats to Blizzard and to all the millions of gold farmers who have prospered as a result.
The PC master race is up in arms with Infinity Ward over certain specs of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. These basically bring the PC in-line with the console versions in terms of networking much to the consternation of the tweak everything crowd.
So if you run the PC version you now have:
a maximum multiplayer game of 9 on 9 (same as 360 and PS3)
no ability to lean in MP (same as 360 and PS3)
having to connect to a master server to authenticate (same as 360 and PS3)
no dedicated servers, but peer to peer networking (same as 360 and PS3)
matchmaking rather than server browser (same as 360 and PS3)
I am not rabidly going to rant about these changes, but by the same token I am not particularly pleased. The thing that made me buy the PC versions of WaW and CoD4 was the fact the P2P networking of the 360 versions was just not up to scratch compared to Halo 3. There was almost always a very noticeable lag between firing a weapon and the hit being registered on the 360 version of both CoD games. Yes, Valve’s p2p code is far worse but there was one reason why I was looking forward to the PC version. Also, where I live, we have pretty low internet quotas from ISP’s mitigated by the fact that if I play on servers hosted by my ISP- that is ‘free’ bandwidth. So, poo.
On the other hand, there seem to be many issues with CoD games of people ‘hacking’ the game. Though most calls of hacking are against people using ordinary in-game perk combos that the 1337 players are apparently above using (unless they’re losing). Oh dear. So you will connect to IWnet and then the matchmaking will begin. This is what I dread most as the thing that made WaW particularly bad in this regard was the fact that I would end up playing in games with a host who was in another country, leading to a frustrating time playing a game I knew could be good with good pings.
Some developers will see the reaction and make concessions. IW seem loathe to do this based on the time it has taken them to patch their games in the past. Do I think there’s a chance there will be something in the future? Yes and no. After all, PC players made such a small proportion of the overall CoD4 and WaW population that I think IW may just ignore them. Thing is, the thing that I used to love about CoD1 and CoD2 was that the ‘hardcore’ PC players stayed away from the game in favour of CS, Unreal and Battlefield, meaning it was pretty easy to get into. CoD4 becoming a hardcore as well as mainstream hit kinda killed the fun for anyone not in a clan.
John Carmack has also hinted at Rage not supported dedicated servers as well. DICE, however are using this as a wedge to drive PC players to Bad Company 2, which is not a bad thing since for everyone since BC was a really great game and would be great on PC.
So do you listen to your player base or do you use your extraordinary power to enforce your will? Let’s see how this plays out this week when the game is released
So 9/9/09 has rolled around- the 10th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast launch in the US. Today, as many Sega fans have been insisting would happen on this date, Sega quietly has released the Sega Dreamcast 2.
The big launch title of course is a Sonic game. Sega have listened to what the fans wanted and so in this game, Sonic runs very slowly in a 3D environment. In this new HD game Sonic has a dark secret- when he drinks a special elixir, he turns into Mr Hyde and goes on a rampage killing Cream in the prologue. The rest of the game features Sonic hunting for Mr Hyde in order to bring him to justice. Other levels feature Sonic wielding weapons such as swords and guns, just like the fans have been clamoring for all these years.
Sega’s Hype Machine kicked into full swing with hundreds of dollars of advertising spending for the big launch. Here you can see the crowds lining up underneath Sega’s subtle advertising billboards in the heart of Tokyo’s entertainment district.
Elsewhere in Tokyo, crowds outside electronics stores not clutching PS3 Slims under their arms were hard to come by. We spoke to a Sega Spokesperson who reassured us: “We have much experience of launching consoles. After recent blockbuster titles such as Dragon Quest IX and Monster Hunter on the Wii, Japan’s gamers are sated and have good games for many hours. When they tire of those good experiences, Sega is ready with titles to fill the gaps in the marketplace with Altered Beast and Virtua Mahjong.”
Sega fans rolling across the street to purchase a Dreamcast 2 with back in title “Chris Thorndyke’s Mansion.”
Sega plans a brilliant marketing strategy for its US and European launches of the Dreamcast 2. Sega will launch the system in one country per month, starting with Trinidad and Tobago, New Zealand, Finland, North Korea, Tonga, The Falkland Islands, Zaire, etc, until they get around to the United States launch and EU coming around January 2014. Price will be $699 with Sega explaining “our GD Rom2 is just that much better than BluRay.” The Dreamcast 2 will not however play Blu Ray movies, DVD movies or music CD’s but it will come with a built-in infra red internet requiring line-of-sight reception from Sega’s headquarters in Japan.
Dreamcast 2 has already been cancelled.
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.”
Ever since people started buying expensive tsotske’s with free games like GTA bundled with it, publishers have been putting out limited editions of their big games. From Stranglehold being bundled with Hard Boiled to Halo 3 bringing feline cranial protection to the masses, it’s a trend that continues unabated. Infinity Ward have just announced their Modern Warfare 2 Super Platinum Elite Exclusive bundle that comes complete with night vision goggles, an art book and some other items of a collectible nature.
Of course, MW2 is expected to be the big hit this year, but what of the other Special Editions coming out? How do they top IW’s offering?
Splinter Cell Conviction is a another highly anticipated game coming out later this year. Sam Fisher our erstwhile hero, goes to prison. Ubisoft have put together a fantastic package for this game.
For $89.99, you get:
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game slick
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction 8-page instruction manual
A piece of white paper with the words “Tom Clancy’s” printed on one side
Tom Clancy’s Soap
Not to be outdone, EA and Harmonix’s big game this year is Beatles Rock Band. Now while the instrument bundle is priced higher than the equivalent Rock Band bundle, the special edition take this to a whole new level.
Rock Band Beatles: Too Soon Edition features:
Rock Band Beatles Game
Rock Band Beatles memorial photo of the late John Lennon
Rock Band Beatles urn with “filling.” (May contain traces of Genius. We can therefore guarantee no McCartney)
And lastly, Activision, these days the most altruistic of publishers, are releasing a new Tony Hawk game alongwith a unique skateboard controller.
The Ride package includes:
Tony Hawk Ride game
Tony Hawk Ride controller
A letter from Activision
A roll of bills to cover purchase, storage and disposal costs.
The recent E3 show revealed the existence of several games to be released later in 2009. One of these was the sequel to 2008’s smash hit PC/ Xbox 360 shooter, Left 4 Dead.
Rather than fans of the original jumping for joy at the prospect of a full-blown sequel (these are Valve fans- they’re used to a more deliberate timeline for releases), the many fans of L4D are in fact running a petition to focus their anger on what they see is Valve’s ditching of L4D1 so soon after release.
There are two ways you can look at this…
The first way is how the fans are seeing this. LFD is not even cold in its undead grave, with only a few minor DLC releases and here’s Valve trotting a full (priced) sequel in a year. It means they’re either pulling an EA/Activision and moving to yearly updates to franchises- which rarely has an upside to quality whilst at the same time inducing gamer fatigue faster- and going from the altruistic company that many PC gamers imagine Valve to be into another money hungry company.
It took 10 years to go from Team Fortress to TF2. In 2009, we are still waiting for HL2: Episode 3 (more than 18 months after episode 2). TF2 is still getting updates (free ones) two years after release). Hell, even Day of Defeat is still getting updates alongside TF2. So people feel Valve will abandon the free stuff and long term support of their titles.
The other beef is the splitting of the community between those playing L4D and LFD2. One thing online games need in order to thrive is a lot of people. Its what makes TF2 memes more recognisable than Quake Wars: Enemy Territory. Well, if you split the L4D community between those playing the sequel and those playing the original- they will have less people to play with. The problem with that argument is L4D is not a game that requires a lot of people to play, and in a smaller, more dedicated gaming community, you’re more likely to find people more serious gamers, better games, etc. Did TF2 players start a petition of the original L4D pilfering their player base?
The other way you can look at this is : COOL! More LFD! Yippee!
If it were an Activision title, I would be worried about the quality. I still have enough trust in Valve that L4D2 will be worth the price.
Read C1.com’s review of Left 4 Dead
Focus Test for L4D
To continue: the Sony and Nintendo conferences were held today, the first day of the show, proper.
So let’s get into it….
Sony
God of War III is coming in March 2010. It looks like a painting come to life according to David Jaffe and I’m not going to argue with him, merely ask him not to visit goth art galleries anymore whilst inebriated. the fourth game in the trilogy 9(!) will close out the series (!).
PSP Go! was announced. People were shocked. People who woke up from coma’s were shocked anyway. Its a slimmer, UMD less PSP that will go on sale in a few months for US$250 alongside the current PSP-3000. PSP will finally see Gran Turismo portable, which seems to have taken a leaf out of Pokemon and Monster Hunter’s huge popularity in Japan by allowing trades over wifi. There’s a new Metal Gear portable game, Peacewalker or Pisstaker or something and this looks to be set a few years after Metal Gear 3. There’s the previously mentioned Little Big Planet PSP, Motorstorm and Assassin’s Creed PSP; as well as a newly announce PSP Resident Evi, PSP Infamous and PSP Soul Calibur.
On the PS3 front there’s the duel wand motion controller, currently unnamed and listed for release sometime in 2010. You can now get your waggle in three different flavours, depending on which system you own. As far as games go there weren’t many surprises, as most had been either announced, teased or leaked before the show. What games were shown mostly look pretty cool. Uncharted 2 looks to be fantastic, but we new that. MAG looks to be big and expansive but we knew that. The demo was nice in showing the strengths and weakness of the concept. Another quick look at the new Ratchet game in one of Sony’s many montages and a new Final Fantasy online game, FFXIV for release in 2010 on PS3 only.
But the exclusive that looks most intriguing is Agent, from Rock Star. Its set in the 70’s so I’m sure we’ll get that period completely inaccurate (you know early 70’s hippie fashions and giant afros with disco music). You’re an assassin. Its a Rock Star game so you’re never going to be handing out leaflets in a mall.
Assassin’s Creed 2, not shown on the Ubi conference, was demoed but as Jade Raymond was no where to be seen we’ll skip that. Just kidding. Can this game redeem the flaws of the original? Time will tell. PS3 is getting some exclusive DLC. Its called the PSP version and if you buy that, you get some extra weapons to use. Also shown is a cartoon racer where you can make and share tracks. Moving right along, there’s The Last Guardian, from the makers of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Even though the trailer showed up on the web a few days ago, its still nice to see.
Overall, better than last year but we knew 95% of the content previously so the surprise factor was lower. Personally, GoW III, Ratchet and Uncharted 2 are my must haves on PS3 out of what was shown here.
Nintendo
Well, if they could put the word Mario into any more products they would. They started by talking about mario’s evolution and how they want to take Mario into 4D. By this they mean a 4-player coop version of All New Super Mario Brothers for Wii. A 2D renaissance has taken place with this and Epic’s XBLA game announced yesterday, but hopefully this won’t merely be the DS game upscaled for Wii (though bets on that’s exactly what this is).
Of course there would be WiiFit 2. Nintendo may not be making the kewl games like they used to but your grandma needs something to do in between lawn bowls and writing angry letters to the newspaper. Motion Plus was pimped yet again, with what seemed to be a familiar montage of what you could do with it (deja vu circa the Wii’s2006 launch).
Wii Sports resort seems to be less of a tech demo and more of a “this is what we should have done all along” game.
Along the same vein, Red Steel 2 (Motion plus only, it seems) is going to try and fulfill the promises Ubi made in 2006 with the big selling but reviled original.
We have a Final Fantasy game for Wii, Crystal something. Open world gayness from SE. Weeeeee. A DS Kingdom HeartZzzzzzzzz. Mario and Luigi told from Bowser’s side. oh dear. Golden Sun. Oh well, some fanboys should be happy. But Women’s Murder Club? Cops: A recruit ?. I think my DS will be getting dustier and dustier.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong Mini’s March Again, is more puzzling action, this time with a level editor- buts its a DSi Ware game only. As is a Wario Ware title where you make your own games. I sometimes thing games where the idea is to make your own games is rather lazy on the part of developers.
There was a long build up to an announcement by Satoru Iwata (Nintendo Japan Head dude). The build up was to one of those cheap things you clip on your finger to monitor your heart-rate. The internet goes “huh?” The next announcement lead to believe its a joke at the expense of fanboys. Its Super Mario Galaxy 2 for Wii!
Also, making sense of the recent bundling of the three Metroid prime games on one disc is a new Metroid Game from Team Ninja. Its called Other M. And its semi side scrolling.
Controller1.com is not a news site, its a blog so rather than being your one stop shop for E3 news, we’ll just have some opinion. The show hasn’t opened yet but half the big publishers have already had conferences and briefings so I’m going to change my pants, recap my reactions to the news from MS, Activision, EA Ubisoft and others.
EA
Lego Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band shows that EA and Harmonix can do the exact thing as Activision/ Neversoft- that is make a game once and then reskin 15 times. Brutal Legend was demoed and I still don’t know what the hell the game is about- apart from Jack Black being involved somehow. Is it a driving game? An action game? Saboteur from Pandemic has been on my radar for a while and hopefully its not just Mercenaries 2.5. Mass Effect 2 looks to have more awesome than an awesome star going supernova. Crysis 2 is coming and its on consoles as well. APB (from the makers of Crackdown) coming early in 2010 should be fun. I might need to get a gaming PC this year.
Dante’s Inferno seems to be another hellish God of War game but Bioware made a splash with the Old Republic trailer that made people who want Ewok porn care for Star Wars again.
Left 4 Dead 2!!! A Valve game where there’s been a yearly update. And it looks like it does everything Dead Rising didn’t do. I am looking forward to this in a way most Valve MP-focused games don’t ‘click’ for me.
Ubisoft
Red Steel 2 looks like Motion plus might actually be a worthwhile pickup for the Wii. But while Assassin’s Creed 2, if it fixes the flaws of the first game might be a great game, its Splinter Cell Conviction that looks to be THE Ubisoft game you buy at full price. The rest, you just wait for a few months to get it for a third of the launch price.
Activision
Wow, another Guitar Hero game. I could pass this year and just stick with Beatles Rock Band. Tony Hawk Ride, with its fancy controller, doesn’t appeal at all. But Modern Warfare 2 looks just as good as anything Infinity Ward have done to date. It will be a HUUUUGE game in 2009. Wolfenstein looks great, despite the fact the trailer tries to hide the fact its a WWII game.
Microsoft
Halo 3: ODST came and went which should be fun, but then Bungie and MS are doing Halo: Reach.
Buy ODST and you get a MP beta invite for Halo: Reach so things look interesting. Forza 3 for you hardcore racing fans will make the 360-owning revheads reaching for the tissues. Considering its likelihood to go up against GT5, it has better be impressive.
MS also showed off their new camera based controller. The thing is, it doesn’t use an actual controller. Natal looks to be goofy, Eyetoy-esque and fun for all the family. There needs to be more info. Peter Molyneux was there to talk about his new project with a boy called Milo. Its a virtual prisoner in a pit so the sadists should be satisfied. I’m still wondering why you would want to with Twitter and Facebook with your 360 but if it lets you do screenshots for sites like this, I’ll be interested. Alan Wake is coming early next year, and I continue to be intrigued but there’s Crackdown 2 from Ruffian games. Not only am I interested, but Cameron won’t be shutting the fuck up about this for the next year.
Oh and there’s a Metal Gear game on 360 featuring Raiden. To me, it sounds like a Ninja Gaiden style game but that’s just pure speculation.
And the show hasn’t even started yet.
E3 is almost on top of us. We previewed some of what we think will be there last week. Today, we’d like to look at some of the bat shit loco insane rumours that are doing the rounds. Wait a few days and we’ll see if its wrong or not. Hardware tweaks and updates, fanboy expectations rising and hype machines running amok destroying entire communities.
Rumour 1: PSP Go. A PSP with no UMD drive with a sliding screen like an LG cel phone (so that the gaming controls are hidden when watching a movie, for instance). Sony aren’t giving up on their handheld designs. It could be a very interesting device (I’d like one). Various spy shots are around the web so we think this one if fairly certain.
Rumour 2: Microsoft Zune that plays games. The Zune HD was just announced so take this one with a grain of salt.
Rumour 3: New colours for the Wii. Well, the hardware numbers for Wii have finally started to slow down so here come the alternate hues. This one is a goer
Rumour 4: PS3 Slim. Maybe. The spyshots are pretty dodgy but its the sort of thing Sony needs.
Rumour 5: Hideo Kojima’s new game. Probably Metal Gear related. Probably a PS3 only title. Almost certainly pretentious as a Frenchman at a Philosophers’ convention.
Rumour 6: Metal Gear 360. maybe.
Rumour 7: Cheaper MS peripherals for 360 (HDD and controllers). Would be interesting.
Rumour 8: Epic making a PS3 Exclusive title. Sure, why not?
Rumour 9: A new Wiifit. Sure Nintendo loves money and hates gamers.
Rumour 10: Valve showing off something. Current Rumour is Left 4 Dead 2 but it could be anything- Half Life 2 Episode Three (making a mockery of the episodic release concept), TF2 expansions, Portal 2. Anything.
What we aren’t likely to see at E3:
An Xbox 360 slim
Free Xbox Live Gold
A Wii game worth playing
A console port of a Valve multiplayer game that’s any good.
PS3 with 4 USB ports and Backwards compatibility
Apple home console
Ngage press conference that doesn’t get big laughs
E3 will be on us very shortly and Controller1.com would like to prognosticate one what you WON’T be reading about come the first week of June. This is not the result of rumor, heresay or the result of a dodgy phone camera shot of a Best Buy POS terminal. This is pure 100% bullshit. You do know how to spot bullshit, don’t you? It’s easy. Read on…
1- Nintendo will announce the Wii 2 HD console without Motion controllers, merely a redesigned N64 controller with more spikes. The Big N has listened to the whining whims of hard care gamers and is ditching the mass market with millions of easy sales of Wii fit and WiiPlay. Instead, they will focus on the shrinking marketshare that ‘core’ games that are currently divvied up between Sony and MS.
2- A Japanese game without hypersexualised pedo-bait female characters will be released. RE5 will offer new unlockable raincoat costumes for Shiva. DLC for X-Blades will include a petticoats and hoop-skirts. I do declare!Dead or Alive Extreme 3 will feature the ladies in a new environment- Open Cut Coke Mining.
3. EA will be bought by Midway
Take one company that’s big but losing a bit of money. Take another company that’s on its last knees. Midway buying EA would be like Quebec buying France. But that won’t stop Midway’s bat-shit loco insane management from giving it a go.
4. Microsoft announces a new model Xbox 360- The Bulletproof. This new model is guaranteed by Microsoft nit to break down in any way. It will never RROD or display an E74. It also has no DVD Drive, power supply, CPU, GPU or wireless receiver. It is not backwards compatible with Xbox 1 games, but its also not present-compatible with Xbox 360 games. But its not breakable.
5. Ubisoft announces a game produced by Jade Raymond that will not be demoed on stage by Ms Raymond, but by the games’ designer. Jade’s a talented lady but we’ve seen enough. Show us the dirty smelly bearded nerd.
6. Boothbabes who can stand up without developing lower back pain within 10 minutes.
7. A new Super Mario Bros game for the DS will be announced. Yes, Nintendo will actually make a second Mario platforming game on the DS. All New Super Mario Brothers will be more of the same. No Baby Mario, Wario or Yoshi. Just Mario and Luigi jumping on things.
8. a PlayStation 3 killer application. Yes, a reason for you fence sitters will be announced at E3. Unlike Heavenly Sword, Lair, Haze, MGS4, Little Big Planet or Killzone2, this will actually excite no PS3-owning gamers with two jobs to take the plunge.
9. A Twitter feed of a press conference without LOL, OMFG or Woot being used when sequel x91 is announced for mega-successful franchise y39 is announced.
10. Controller1.com’s game of show will be an MMO.
wat?
