I know we had a discussion going earlier about the pricing of Star Craft II. So did you take the plunge?
Archives for 2010
Video Game Power Rankings #12
This week just snuck up on me. Here’s the week in video games.
1. (-) Limbo #2 on this list could easily be #1 here, but this game is actually out this week. Limbo came out this past week on Xbox Live Arcade and has received nothing but high praise. Justin at the Rumble Pack says, “If you let it, the game can be an intensely personal experience.” The review at Madison.com says, “Limbo harks back to the old black-and white horror movies, where your imagination was so much more effective in evoking the sense of something gone horribly wrong.” Have you played it?
2. (-) Starcraft 2 Yeah, I’m not going to say anything snarky or witty here. You’ve heard it all. But tomorrow a force of nature rips through the gaming community as Star Craft 2 is released to the wild. I read early this morning on Twitter that had over 800k preorders for this game. We’ll be hearing a lot about this game for the foreseeable future. If it’s been awhile (and it probably has for most of us) since you played the original, Kotaku has a great round-up of the story lines of the first game. Then go over to Joystiq to see the most recent trailer. Then compare and contrast ten plus years of cinematic progress. Blizzard is still the best at it.
3. (-) SF v. Tekken – There were a lot of news and announcements that came out of this year’s Comic Con but I think the Capcom v. Namco/Street Fighter v. Tekken announcement. This is huge.
4. (-) DarkSpore – I never played Spore, I was never really caught up in the hype (and subsequent disappointment) so I really don’t “get” DarkSpore of what it means for gamers, but it did generate quite a bit of buzz this past week. This is clearly in the “not for me” ballpark.
5. (-) Kinect – Did you know that the Walmart Kinect page is the first result when you Google “Kinect”? (Sure, it’s a sponsored link, but I would bet 99% of people searching for it will click on that link.) That’s all to say that Kinect was priced at 150$, to the surprise of no one.
6. (-) Inception – We went and saw Inception this past weekend and I LOVED it. I can’t recommend it enough, especially to my fellow Buttonmashers. At more than one point in the movie I thought, “this movie was made for gamers.” Referring to dream constructs as “levels” and watching the action take place with variable gravity were two specific situations that made me go “Hmmm”. It seems like I wasn’t the only one who thought that, as Totilo refers to many of the same things in his review of the movie.
7. (-) DeathSpank – Maybe this should be higher, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention DeathSpank, the highly regarded XBLA/PSN downloadable game from fabled game designer (and Patron Saint of the Carnival of Gamers) Ron Gilbert. Viking Funk says to “Auto-equip your Epic Chestpiece of Awesomeness and get busy!”
8. (-) Console Gamers Stink at Games – This post generated a certain amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth between PC purists and Console Gamers. I stink at anything involving skill or twitch, so I don’t have a dog in this fight. Maybe you do?
9. (-) Achievements – A fight I do have a dog in is the hunt for Achievements. If you like to get down and nerdy, this post on the Xbox Engineering Blog about the story behind the technology for Achievements is a great read.
10. (-) Plants vs. Zombies PvZ was announced for for Xbox Live Arcade. Even though I played it for hours and hours, I’ll probably pick this up for XBLA, too. Why? See #8 above.
Honorable mention: Mass Effect 2’s newest DLC, the Lair of the Shadow Broker.
StarCraft II? I Wish
I’m a big fan of RTS games. However, I think Blizzard might be a little full of themselves for charging $60 for StarCraft II–especially if you only play single player. It’s essentially two games anyway.
(I’m late to the pricing-pity-party.)
Dead Space Extraction
Dead Space Extraction is an underrated gem–an interactive movie for the Wii. I’ve jumped more than a few times. It’s amazing what some developers can squeeze out of the console. One of the best games I’ve played on the system. I had feelings of watching Aliens for the first time.
Video Game Power Rankings #11
1. (-) Zynga and Google – This news game early in the week, but for those who watch these types of things, this was big. Google is getting ready to launch Google Games. Of course this leads to everyone coming up with the original name of “Googleville” all at the same time. So original!
2. (-) 1v100 – I never partook in the 1 versus 100 games on Xbox Live, but I recognized it as a very cool idea, so I was really surprised to see it being shut down. Hopefully something good comes from it.
3 (-) Megaman Universe – Can gamers get enough Megaman? I would say, “yeah, probably.” Capcom would say NEVER!
4. (-) God of War Movie Trailer – Hot on the heels of the excellently produced Mortal Kombat teaser/trailer is the indie version of the God of War movie.
5. (-) Little Chun Li – Too cute not to post.
6. (-) New Xbox Live Dashboard – It’s no secret that the Xbox Live interface has gotten too big for its britches. Images of the new dashboard were leaked (and instantly squashed). Joystiq still has the image. Doesn’t the take-down notice more or less validate things like this?
7. (8) OnLive – I’m not giving up on this service, the more I see stuff written about it, the bigger of a believer I become (although I’m still not sold on the prices). Joystiq took it for a ride and had good things to say.
8. (5) Dragon Age II – Not a ton of new Dragon Age 2 news but Game Informer has posted the first screenshots of the game.
Did I miss anything?
Weekend Gaming
Having finished Mass Effect 2 and still awaiting the arrival of Crackdown 2, I’m a little in limbo as to what to play next. I picked up NCAA 11 and will probably get a few games in on that, but that is a snack game, something I can pick up whenever. I think I’ll go back to Resident Evil 5 for a little. I’ve got a hankering for some more Mercenaries and some more unlocking. I love being the master of unlocking!
Of course, if Crackdown 2 shows up I’ll drop everything and go orb hunting. I’m fairweather like that.
What are you playing this weekend?
In My Hands
It’s a sickness that never get’s better.
2 Minute Review:Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360)
DO: Smash mindless peons faces’ as just about any of the Marvel universe’s characters.
TYPE: Action RPG
PLATFORM: PS3, PS2, DS, Wii, PSP
PRICE: (was) $60, now…$27.99
MEAT: (Sorry, for the delay) I posted earlier about picking up this game and, I did. Most of the game is basically repeatedly hitting the same buttons over and over in order to get through a level and in that respect, it doesn’t diverge too much from the first in the series. This time around though there are fusion abilities between the characters which change depending on the character that you are using. The main story is that all of the superheroes are being forced to register their real identities with the government or be imprisoned. Most of the plot follows along those lines and the cutscenes are shown with that theme in mind. Something that I couldn’t decide if it was a plus or a minus to the game was that once I got the character I wanted to use (Thor) I basically was playing the game in easy mode and was able to destroy everybody/everything and wasn’t challenged at all. Now this was towards the end of the game but, I couldn’t help but feel like I should have at least gotten the character earlier in order to enjoy it more.
PERKS: The story starts off pretty good with you having to make a choice which side in the “war” you will join and that choice will impact the rest of the game(for example, you will not be able to play certain characters for most of the game). The cutscenes were just as good in this game as the first which is a big bonus for me because I enjoy a good cutscene. Graphics have leveled up!
SCREAMS: Something that wasn’t the greatest idea but, fit the story, was that you had limited options for which characters you could play because of the side you choose to be on. There were characters on both sides that I wanted to play and I had to play through the story until I could get those characters unlocked. More variety of choices in regards to the story line would have been nice and made the game more varied and not so linear after the initial choice.
VERDICT: Rent. I played through the game once and was working on going through it again but decided not to and just traded it in. The graphics definitely have been upgraded from the first and are done really well but, the long distance that the camera gets from the characters really diminishes the detail and doesn’t do the work justice. This game didn’t hold me as much as the first and I honestly can’t say why. Maybe it was because I didn’t have any friends that had a copy too, which, I feel would have made the game more fun.
His and Her Gaming
From the photo description:
Dual 46 inch tv set ups, all console systems behind and our two full tower rigs. Great Success.
Chris’s TV is above. 46 inch LCD and his tower is on the right hand side.
Bottom TV is mine, 46 inch LED and the tower on the left would obviously be mine.DVR box, xbox,ps3,wii hooked up with Sega, dreamcast, nes in the drawers when desired.
That. Is. Awesome.
Video Game Power Rankings #10
This week’s Power Rankings is a little mix of everything. This week we actually had two stories that could have taken the top spot, but I had to go with my orb-loving heart this week.
1. (-) Crackdown 2 – Crackdown was one of the most anticipated games of 2010 and had a lot to live up to. So after playing the demo and being underwhelmed, I wondered how it would be received by the gaming populous. With all the expectations, it was a bit disappointing to see reviews all over the place in terms of scores. Worthplaying said “A newly designed city and seamless co-op aren’t enough to overcome the game’s ho-hum missions or general lack of content.” But Co-optimus says “But it truly is everything you loved about the original game with plenty of more things to do and minor improvements all around,” giving it a higher score for it’s Co-Op action. I’m still looking forward to playing and collecting orbs no matter the score. We’ll see how long that lasts.
2. (-) Blizzard Forums – So Blizzard decided that maybe it would be a good idea to display players’ real names on their forums. You know, to put an end to forum trolls forever. At first blush, I thought it sounded like a pretty good idea. But it’s probably a pipe dream to think Blizzard can fix the troll problem with one silver bullet. And now Blizzard has called it off. That’s probably for the best. For now.
3. (-) Xbox Live – Speaking of hives of scum and villainy, it was reported last week that Xbox Live sales (a little of everything, I’m sure) surpassed $1B. That’s one billion dollars. That’s a lot of Avatar gear.
4. (-) Halo: Reach – Bungie celebrated Bungie day by releasing a teaser video with Red vs. blue announcing the return of the Blood Gulch map in the form of Big Blood Gulch for Halo: Reach. Feels just like home! Now just bring back Hang ‘Em High!
5. (-) Dragon Age 2 – In a surprise to pretty much no one, Bioware announced their upcoming sequel to Dragon Age (cleverly named Dragon Age 2). There was much rejoicing.
6. (-) Dragon Quest IX – Speaking of dragons (man I am the king of segues today!), the long awaited DQIX was released to the public. And it was good.
7. (9) NCAA 11 After watching this video review of NCAA 11, I was sold. All the new online dynasty goodies their releasing has me dreaming of doing my recruiting when I should be working. This game is going to be fun.
8. (1) OnLive – OnLive is going to live and die by how responsive the game capture and streaming community is becoming. A post at Eurogamer claims that OnLive’s performance is, “similar to playing Killzone 2 locally, and in line with Rare’s claims for lag when using the new Kinect camera controller.”
And that’s all I have to say about that.