Gamer’s Roundup – Week Three, December 2009
EA CEO turning Pirates into business
From top: Massive EA logo, Riccitiello.
You gotta hand it to John Riccitiello, head of Electronic Arts: he gets pirating and how to work with it.
Rather than flat out shun those who pirate EA games, Riccitiello is acknowledging it happens and trying to incorporate that into his business plan, all via post-release downloadable content (DLC).
“They can steal the disc, but they can’t steal the DLC,” he said. “There’s a sizable pirate market…and we want to try to generate revenue in that marketplace.”
Games that include bonus retail purchase DLC include Sims 3, which offers a new town, or recent game The Saboteur, which gives you the chance to see CGI breasts.
EA has also highlighted post-release DLC purchases of Dragon Age: Origins hit over one million downloads its first week of availability.
“The consumer wants more, and when you give them more or sell them more it seems to be extremely well received,” Riccitiello said.
He continued by stating the music industry had made the mistake of “demonizing” its consumers rather than attempting to work them into their business models. He believes that EA can embrace pirates by making it enticing for people to play games legitimately, through services like EA Sports’ community hub or the BioWare social site that links into Dragon Age.
I’m interested in reader comments on this story: were you recently part of the Xbox 360 ban wave? Were or are you a game Pirate, but a big-spender when it came to DLC? Has Microsoft’s banhammer wave discouraged you from gaming, or turned you legit? What about PC users? Let us know!
Get your English Gran Turismo 5 fix soonish
Ah, localisation – I hate you! It’s your fault that the Japanese will get games like Final Fantasy XIII and Gran Turismo 5 so early, and we English folk so late.
If you’ve got a PS3 and you don’t speak Japanese, you can look (very far) forward to a North American (and I’d assume PAL as well) release around June 2010.
Star Trek geeks destined to buy 15 copies of Star Trek Online
See this pretty ship? It's not exclusive pre-order content. Yet.
Pre-orders bonuses. Would you like a liberated Borg (read: a blonde hottie in a catsuit, perhaps?) on your Star Trek MMO bridge? How about the Constitution class U.S.S. Enterprise? That’s two copies you’ll need to buy, right there.
In what is becoming common practice, major retailers are competing for your Star Trek Online purchase by using exclusive pre-order content; as a result, you ultimately lose out.
Pre-order bonuses (granted, mostly in North America) include:
- GameStop: Exclusive ship: The classic U.S.S. Enterprise
- Best Buy: Pet Tribble or Targ (based on faction)
- Amazon: “Liberated Borg” Bridge Officer with “unique nanotechnology augmentations”
- Direct2Drive: Multi-Spatial Personal Shield (regenerates itself and player health)
- Wal-mart: Bonus Skill Points (bestows additional skill points)
- Target: TR-116 ground weapon (micro-transporter beams projectiles to target, no line of sight required)
- Steam: Chromodynamic Armor, improves critical hits and damage of energy weapons
Kinda makes you reminiscent of the old days, when you actually got a FULL game when you bought it, eh?
More kinda-cool, kinda-lame Alien vs. Predator news
The kinda-cool bits? Lance Henriksen is reprising his role as Bishop in Rebellion’s Alien vs. Predator game. Says Henriksen about his inclusion, “I might score from this game!”
The kinda-lame bits? It’s not the awesome, milky-blood spewing android Bishop from Aliens (and, technically, Alien3), but the lame, quasi-canon co-founder of the Weland-Yutani corporation, Charles Bishop Weyland. Or his descendant. Or something. It was all in the AVP series of films.
Human Bishop, in all his...glory.
Australia doesn’t get the game anyway. Pardon me while I go pout some more.
Screen Actors’ Guild versus video game makers
This week saw SAG reject a voice acting contract with major video game publishers (over 70 of ‘em, in fact) largely due to what’s been classified as “atmospheric” work.
The new work classification, “atmospheric voices,” means that one voice actor could be responsible for up to 20 incidental characters – all for a fee of $800 for 4 hours.
The SAG, largely due to union vote, shot down the new contract over fears that actors would have far greater “vocal stress.” The potential stress is due actors being required to come up with so many different voices in such a short period of time.
The Los Angeles Times has a full story on this issue, which you can read here.
At the moment, members of SAG account for 25 percent of all video game voice acting.
Spike VGA winners…and losers
It’s hard to take the VGAs seriously; I mean, they made special categories, “Best Performance by a Human Male” and “Human Female” in some weird attempt to try to lure celebrities to their function. I wasn’t aware that those poor SAG voice actors weren’t considered human unless they had appeared in a feature film like Hugh Jackman or Megan Fox. Even then, Jack Black was still lumped with the common voice actors and not the big famous movie-makers…he must be crying into his big piles of cash right now.
Nonetheless, the big winners of the VGAs were as follows:
- Game of the Year: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Studio of the Year: Rocksteady Studios
- Best Independent Game: Flower
- Best Xbox 360 Game: Left 4 Dead 2
- Best PS3 Game: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Best Wii Game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- Best PC Game: Dragon Age: Origins
- Best Handheld Game: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
- Best Shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Best Fighting Game: Street Fighter IV
- Best Action Adventure Game: Assassin’s Creed II
- Best RPG: Dragon Age: Origins
- Best Multiplayer Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- Best Individual Sports Game: UFC 2009 Undisputed
- Best Team Sports Game: NHL 10
- Best Driving Game: Forza Motorsport 3
- Best Music Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
- Best Soundtrack: DJ Hero
- Best Original Score: Halo 3: ODST
- Best Graphics: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
- Best Game Based On A Movie/TV Show: South Park Let’s Go Tower Defense Play!
- Best Performance By A Human Female: Megan Fox (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)
- Best Performance By A Human Male: Hugh Jackman (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
- Best Cast: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
- Best Voice: Jack Black (Brütal Legend)
- Best Downloadable Game: Shadow Complex
- Best DLC: Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
- Most Anticipated Game of 2010: God of War III
Game reveals at the VGAs
We had some good ones, folks! Why talk about them when their trailers can do so much more?
Halo: Reach (Xbox 360)
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Xbox 360, PS3)
Transformers: War for Cybertron (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Tron: Evolution (Xbox 360, PS3)
True Crime: Hong Kong (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
This week’s notable new releases
- MX vs. ATV Reflex (PS3, PSP, Xbox 360)
- Tekken 6 (PSP)
The fine print
This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire week’s news. All stories are chosen for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important, chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.
Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! – (Cool) Shite game review
A video game series that focuses on movie trivia: it’s a (Cool) Shite reader’s wet dream.
Previously published by Microsoft on the Xbox 360 platform with titles Lights, Camera, Action and Box Office Smash, the Scene It? series has branched out to include the PS3 and Wii with Bright Lights! Big Screen! (like in most forms of media, we’re just plain ignoring the Twilight). With previous Xbox titles receiving rave reviews and being quite enjoyable, does this newest, multi-platform edition maintain the same level of quality?
Straight up? No. As to why, read on.
The good: The game’s core elements, essentially untouched, are perfect for movie buffs. Trivia questions — and lots of them – are presented in a variety of different puzzle blocks such as Movie Clips, Anagrams, Celebrity Ties, Pictograms, and Songs & Slogans. Boasting 3,000 unique questions, dealing with movies as recent as the schlockfest 2012, the title is pretty good at ensuring you won’t get bogged down with the same stale questions over and over again.
Bonus points for having up-to-the-minute content.
Fans of previous Scene It? titles know that the announcer gets very annoying, very fast. Bright Lights! Big Screen! is quite successful in reigning the host in. Additionally, previous titles are notoriously bad for loading screens and gaps between question blocks; these timings have also been greatly improved.
The meh: You know you’re dealing with a crap game when you single out a less-annoying host and improved load times as big wins. To be frank, all of the game’s attributes are executed lazily and all deserve to be in the ‘meh’ column. That wouldn’t make a very good (or size-appropriate) review, though, so on we go to…
The shite: The previous Scene It? title, Box Office Smash!, was a great Xbox 360 game. It was one of the first titles to support the new avatar system launched beside the console’s NXE program. A majority of the title’s fun came from the competition you could generate via its online multiplayer mode. The title, simply put, did what a trivia game AND a next-generation game should – made an enjoyable and varied game that used online features to keep it fresh.
This new title takes many backwards steps from what made the series great – in one fell swoop, avatar integration AND online multiplayer were removed. Choosing from one of the twelve pre-rendered avatars doesn’t draw you in like seeing your own crafted representation had in the past. Worse, you will get sick of the pre-rendered character’s sobs when you get a question wrong. Continually. Take my advice and turn the avatar sound off. Additionally, other absent aspects like online leaderboards would have served to at least maintain some sort of competitive aspect to the game.
The pre-rendered avatars. They suck.
The long and short of it? The game is okay, but not great – truly deserving of a “Meh” rating because of its multi-platform nature. If you have an Xbox 360, pick up Scene It? Box Office Smash! instead. If you’ve already played that previous game, just let this new one go – it’s shite. For those who haven’t experienced Scene It? on another platform, you might consider picking this up; it’s good only because you don’t have another choice.
Gamer’s Roundup – Week two, December 2009
For (Cool) Shite on the Tube
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Stevivor here with first edition of a new weekly column chronicling all the important news in the world of video games!
Another game bites the dust
First up: keeping it close to home, more news on the Australian lack of an R18+ rating for video games. The latest game to be banned in our fair country is none other than Aliens vs. Predator, the newest instalment in the popular series published by Sega.
Unlike Left 4 Dead 2, which was recently released to Aussies in a watered-down format, Sega has announced they “will not be releasing a sanitised or cut down version [of AVP] for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices.”
Previous Aliens vs. Predator games have received ratings of M or MA15+ in Australia.
Industry backlash against Michael Atkinson
This week has seen the industry lash out at South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson as he is solely responsible for the lack of an R18+ rating in the country.
The Interactive Gaming and Entertainment Association’s Ron Curry was quick to dispute Atkinson’s claim that the Attorney-General has “done nothing to impede [the] release” of an R18+ classification.
Curry has released a statement, which you can read in full here, saying “the debate [over the proposed rating] has been largely hijacked by Atkinson whose invective, in my view, is full of moral panic, misinformation, and factual inaccuracies.”
Paul Hunt, a former member of the Office of Film and Literature Classification Board, also fought back after the Attorney-General accused the Board of doing “everything [they could] to get games in under the radar.”
Whilst denying this vehemently, Hunt affirmed that “extremely violent, sexually depraved and drug use games are not permitted under the Refused Classification category in the guidelines. Creating an R18+ classification will not change this.”
God of War creator David Jaffe, attending the Asia Pacific conference in Melbourne, also expressed his frustrations with Australia’s lack of an R18+ classification. “There’s a government board and if they say it’s too offensive, in that case there’s no fight to fight — it is what it is,” he said. “There’s not much you can do if you’re making games aimed at a mature audience. We never like to cut it, but what are you going to do? You’re dealing with governments.”
A Dead Space sequel with 100% less on-rail shooter elements
While you may have enjoyed Dead Space: Extraction on the Nintendo Wii, let’s face it – you enjoyed Dead Space on PS3 and the Xbox 360 MUCH more. If you agree with that last statement, rejoice — a true sequel to Dead Space is on the way, appropriately titled Dead Space 2.
“We’re thrilled to jump back into the series, making the next chapter in Isaac’s journey,” says Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of the limb-dissecting survival horror sequel. “The infection continues to spread throughout space and our hero Isaac Clarke is the only person able to contain it. There are still loads of Necromorphs that need killing. In Dead Space 2, not everything is exactly as it seems. Expect plot twists that will surprise you and a huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters that are sure to scare the daylights out of you.”
For those who never want to set foot in an elevator again
Whilst Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 was a brilliant game, it was best known for one annoying feature: enormous loading times, represented by your characters sitting around in an elevator.
Waiting.
Endlessly.
BioWare, developers of Mass Effect 2 have heard you complaining, and have decided that the elevators are out. Says BioWare, “a completely new system” will be used that’s “part of the game experience.” The studio will be implementing “loading screens and movies” but will try to avoid “show[ing] boring loading screens.”
How they’ll feature loading screens without loading screens is beyond me. My best guess? Movies of escalators. That’ll teach you for whinging.
Loving Assassin’s Creed 2? Beware this game-breaking glitch
Without giving too much away spoiler-wise, gamers currently in the midst of Assassin’s Creed 2 should take note of a particularly nasty glitch on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms.
If gamers shut off their console directly after the autosave triggered after completing DNA Sequence 11 and regaining control of Desmond, they will find themselves unable to continue on in the game.
For some reason, the autosave at that point in the game will corrupt. Future attempts to load that autosave will fail to fully load the Animus, meaning Desmond will essentially be stuck in a room with nowhere to go and no way to delve into Ezio’s next memory.
Publisher Ubisoft has acknowledged the glitch and is working on a patch, but my advice to gamers? Save manually once you get to that point, and then keep playing on through until you regain control of Ezio.
Then save again. Twice.
Best. Banhammer. EVER.
For those PC gamers out there, I’m not technically saying you should try to get banned from Aion, but still, you might want to just to see how cool it is.
Not content on simply booting cheaters from their game, developers have created a giant flaming squirrel or bunny (no idea how they decide which spawns to get you) to utterly decimate unruly sorts from their game world.
See below for a video illustrating the squirrel in all his death-dealing glory.
Multiplayer Tomb Raider?
Crystal Dymanics, responsible for a whole ton of (crap) Tomb Raider games of late, have put up a job listing for developers who are “able to effectively create and lead the multiplayer vision and design effort” in an upcoming “AAA title”.
Joystiq’s put their money on this multiplayer developer role being in the Tomb Raider franchise, and I tend to agree. One is left to wonder if it will reinvigorate the franchise, or drive it further into the ground. Time will tell!
NHL 10’s third jersey code is out!
I’m a hockey fan. Sue me.
This will be short but sweet. Since all of the NHL teams have revealed their third jerseys for the year, EA Sports have released the corresponding third jersey code for their hit title NHL 10.
If you’ve got the game, fire it up and input rwyhafwh6ekyjcmr to make jerseys available for the Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, and the Minnesota Wild.
This week’s notable new releases
- Blood Bowl (Xbox 360)
- Buzz Quiz World (PSP)
- Colin McRae DiRT 2 (PC)
- Empire: Total War – Elite Units of America (PC – Steam)
- James Cameron’s Avatar (PSP)
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (Nintendo DS)
- Rayman (Nintendo DSiWare)
- The Saboteur (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
- Street Fighter Alpha 2 – (Nintendo WiiWare)
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (Nintendo Wii)
- Qiz++ (Xbox Live Arcade)
The fine print
This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.
End of November Xbox LIVE stats
Well, I did it! I managed to break 50,000 gamerscore on the very day that marked my one year anniversary on Xbox LIVE! Don’t believe me? Well, here’s a picture to prove it:
Good times.
Stevivor’s stats:
| Rep: | 5-Star |
| GamerScore: | 52,078 |
| Zone: | Pro |
| Completed XBLA: | 4 / 11 |
| Completed Retail: | 31 / 70 |
| GS Completion %: | 61% |
| Unique Achievements Unlocked: | 2,007 |
| Country Rank: | 543 |
| World Rank: | 30,806 |
| Completion Rank: | 15,172 |
100% completed games:
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Other goals:
- Reach 55,000 gamerscore by the end of December.
Mid-November Xbox stats
What a fortnight for completions! Goodbye Halo 3 ODST, Fuzion Frenzy 2, and FIFA 06! Hopefully CSI: Hard Evidence, Fantastic Four, and/or GUN will be added to that list — thanks, EB Games, for some cheap pre-owned games (in terms of price AND gamerscore!) 
If I can hit 50,000 gamerscore by 23 November 2009, I’ll be a happy man — that’s my one year Xbox LIVE anniversary. Not so much my one year Xbox anniversary, but the date that I first connected to the LIVE system to share my gamerscore with the world. It’s totally symbolic, eh?
Stevivor’s stats:
| Rep: | 5-Star |
| GamerScore: | 47458 |
| Zone: | Pro |
| Completed XBLA: | 4 / 11 |
| Completed Retail: | 29 / 66 |
| GS Completion %: | 60% |
| Unique Achievements Unlocked: | 1,832 |
| Country Rank: | 653 |
| World Rank: | 36,867 |
| Completion Rank: | 18,620 |
100% completed games:
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Other goals:
- Reach 55,000 gamerscore by the end of December.
Finn’s new shirt
Here’s Finn, modelling the latest in cool nephew fashion. What an amazing gift from the COOOOLEST Uncle in the world!
Finn’s new shirt reads:
Finn*
*Here’s the fine print. I’m Finn. I’m a cheeky monkey, my Mum’s a babe, and my Dad is totally rad.
Finn is getting SO big, and is always smiling! I can’t wait to meet the little guy!
October Xbox stats
Only one more achievement to go in Halo 3 ODST!
Stevivor’s stats:
| Rep: | 5-Star |
| GamerScore: | 45263 |
| Zone: | Pro |
| Completed XBLA: | 4 / 11 |
| Completed Retail: | 26/ 63 |
| GS Completion %: | 60% |
| Unique Achievements Unlocked: | 1,754 |
| Country Rank: | 725 |
| World Rank: | 40,950 |
| Completion Rank: | 20,660 |
100% completed games:
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Other goals:
- Reach 55,000 gamerscore by December.
Hockey Night in Melbourne!
Hey, Australians!
Anyone feel like coming along to Docklands tonight to watch some REAL hockey? Not this ‘field’ nonsense you’re all so keen on.
Details below; I’m particularly interested in the game in which the Detroit Red Wings will be SURE to pummel Vancouver:
Reminder that Hockey Night in Melbourne is returning tonight, Friday Oct 30 – Remember the change of venue!
One last minute notice is that due to unforeseen technical difficulties, we *may* not have the Leafs/Stars game as originally planned. If we can’t show it, we’ll show a different game from yesterday instead, probably either the Flames/Avs or the Habs/Pens game. If you know you are coming tonight and only wanted to see Leafs/Stars, I apologise if it can’t be done for you this time, but we’ll be sure to show more Leafs later to compensate.
Date: Friday, October 30th, 2009
Time: 7:00pm
Place: The James Squire Brewhouse, G16-17, 439 Docklands Drive, Docklands
Games: Planning to show Detroit vs Vancouver (from Oct 27) then Toronto vs Dallas (or possibly a substitute) (from Oct 28)
Note the change of venue, which has very easy parking and public transport. Directions can be found by going to http://tinyurl.com/jsbhmelb
Please spread the word far and wide! Send any interested parties to:
Web – http://hockey.suburbia.org.au
Facebook – http://tinyurl.com/hnmelb
Twitter – http://twitter.com/hnim
