I’ve decided to move the VGPRs to Monday to give me a chance to digest the week’s news over the weekend and work on the post during that time as well. So here is week #2’s Video Game Power Rankings (number in parentheses is the previous week’s ranking)
1 (1) Halo Reach – Halo Reach Beta is in full swing. I’ve got it, I’ve played it, and for the most part I like it. It’s amazing to me the sheer numbers of idiotic Halo players that already permeate the Beta, but it’s only going to get worse, as the beta opens to Silver Xbox Live members this week. Great. At least we got the Invasion game mode, which is quite fun to play.
2 (9) Bungie/Activision – This story broke just as the first Power Rankings was being put together, so it was left off the list (but added later by Nat). This just barely loses to Halo Reach for hopefully obvious reasons. The ten year agreement will let Bungie “bring [their] next gaming universe and IP to the largest possible audience.” Not sure what Activision brings that Bungie couldn’t do on their own (besides possibly the PS3 audience) but it will be interesting to see if Bungie is serious about new IP or not. I, for one, will give them the benefit of the doubt. They’ve earned that much.
3 (-) Fallout New Vegas – For a game that isn’t coming out for a little while, Fallout New Vegas sure got a lot of press last week. Joystiq has a preview, highlighting such things as a new VATS that includes melee attacks which warms my cold, dead, post-apocalyptic heart.
4 (8) Infinity Ward/Activision – This was another item I left off the list last week but include now because the shock waves of this announcement are still being felt.
5 (-) Guild Wars 2 – I include Guild Wars 2 here at #5 out of respect for the original and for the brief burst of Guild Wars activity I saw on Twitter last week. I can’t believe how long and strong GW has survived. Even though it’s been years since I last played, I have a small place in my heart for the original non-MMO MMO.
6 (-) Alpha Protocol – Alpha Protocol is coming out soon and the marketing machine is starting to ramp up. Videos galore abound.
7 (2) Ebert and games as art – This one lost a little steam over the past week, but I had to keep it in the rankings just so I could link this post, which has the most definitive wrap-up of blogger response to the Ebert dust-up out there.
8 (-) Alan Wake – The game isn’t out yet, but that doesn’t mean the plans for “DLC” can’t be (rightly) criticized.
9 (-) Frozen Synapse – I don’t remember where I heard about Frozen Synapse first, it could have been a podcast (probably the GWJCC) but it seemed like all of a sudden a whole lot of people were talking about the game. I quickly realized this game is certainly not in my particular wheelhouse but it is going to be popular nonetheless.
10 (-) The New New Super Mario – The Power Rankings for the Week That Was wouldn’t be complete without the mention of FotB Zack’s “If Mario Was Designed in 2010” going viral.
Honorable Mention: The new Steam Client will be available for Mac this week and E3 is just around the corner.
My favorite news item was Sony’s response to Bungie/Activision: “We think this is A Good ThingTM.”
Of course you do.
I am avoiding Guild Wars 2 because the first game is the only thing that has come along in ten years that almost destroyed my marriage. I’ve still not played a game with as many hours since, and there was a period of four weeks where I played it more than I worked. I literally do not remember an entire month of one summer five years back.
I wish Ebert would just try Heavy Rain, Alan Wake, or even something like Arkham Asylum.
I’ve never even heard of Frozen Synapse until you mentioned it here (and I follow two big news sites.)
Yeah, I poured a lot of ours into GW as well. That game was devilishly addictive.
Viral indeed, I didn’t see it on kottke. That’s like up there with Slashdot. Damn.
Yeah, I saw it on on waxy.org and then kottke shortly thereafter.
I’d like to think I was ahead of the curve on that one 🙂