teh phunny at PAX
I found this guy to be rather hilarious.
Video Game Power Rankings #17
Pinch hitting in for Tony this week–and it was a BIG week.
1. (-) Duke Nukem Forever – The devil woke up Friday and asked, “Who turned the air on in here?”
2. (-) PAX – This would have been at #1, but, well, DNF. It’s amazing what this show has become. Major releases are announced there now. It’s become the gaming mecca.
3. (5) Halo: Reach – moving back up the ranking because it is the Next Big ThingTM. The ads are getting prettier every day.
4. (8) Dead Rising: Case 0 – Prequel, paid demo, payquel, or whatever you want to call it. For $5, it’s one of the best things you’ll play on XBLA. I would imagine that it has convinced a lot of people to get Dead Rising 2. We’ll be yacking about it soon.
5. (-) Metroid: Other M – The game came out with very little fanfare and reviews were all over the place. That’s probably not good, or people’s perceptions of the game and franchise did not gel with Team Ninja.
6. (-) PlayStation Move – Review embargoes have been lifted and reviews are slightly above favorable. Will you be getting the wand…and the eye toy…and the accessory…and some games?
September Releases
It’s that time again, the long list of monthly releases. September is stacked with triple-A releases, plain and simple. We’re heading into the time of the year when releases come fast and easy and we’re starting things off right.
Week of September 7th
NHL 11
R.U.S.E.
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Week of September 14th
Halo Reach
Cabela’s North American Adventures 2011
Truth or Lies
Week of September 21st
F1: 2010
Week of September 28th
Dead Rising 2
Battle VS Chess
Quantum Theory
Front Mission Evolved
Plants Vs. Zombies
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Fifa Soccer 11
Week of September 7th
NHL Slapshot Bundle
The Bachelor: The Videogame
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Week of September 14th
Cabela’s North American Adventures 2011
Swords
Brunswick Zone Cosmic Bowling
Scooby Doo and the Spooky Swamp
Week of September 21st
Canada Hunt
Remington Super Slam Hunting: North America
New Carnival Games
Club Penguin: Game Day!
Week of September 28th
Wii Party
Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Duel Transer
Samurai Warriors 3
Haunted House
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Week of September 7th
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
Dawn of Heroes
Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Week of September 14th
Phineas and Ferb Ride Again
Gormiti: The Lords of Nature!
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest
Scooby Doo and the Spooky Swamp
Week of September 21st
Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Jewels of the Tropical Lost Island
Logic Machines
Week of September 28th
Jewel Master: Cradle of Athena
Fifa Soccer 11
Treasures of Montezuma
Week of September 7th
Ultimate Mystery Collection
R.U.S.E.
Aion: Assault on Balaurea
The Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff
Week of September 14th
Hunting Unlimited 5
Painkiller Pandemonium
Patrician IV
Week of September 21st
Final Fantasy XIV
Sid Meier’s Civilization V
Victoria II
Week of September 28th
Final Fantasy XIV
Front Mission Evolved
Black Mirror 2
Week of September 7th
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions
R.U.S.E.
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2
NHL 11
Week of September 14th
Sports Champions
Kung Fu Rider
EyePet
Week of September 21st
F1: 2010
Week of September 28th
Fifa Soccer 11
Battle VS Chess
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Quantum Theory
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Front Mission Evolved
Atelier Rorona: The Alchemists of Arland
Dead Rising 2
Week of September 7th
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
UFC Undisputed 2010
Week of September 14th
Cabela’s North American Adventures 2011
Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest
Gladiator Begins
Phantasy Star Portable 2
Week of September 28th
Fifa Soccer 11
The Warriors
What are you picking up?
(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)
Batman: Arkham City Screenies
Kotaku has 20 new screenshots from Rocksteady. Re: Batman Arkham City. Fall of 2011 cannot come soon enough. I’m thinking of playing through the first game again just for kicks.
Image above is in higher-res if you save it.
Back to the Future
One of this blogger’s top five movies of all time is a little known indie art-piece called Back to the Future. I love it. I love all of it.
Telltale Games (a developer I’m coming to love as well) has released a tease of information about the BttF game they are creating:
- it’ll be episodic
- it’ll use the likenesses of Christopher Lloyd and Michael J Fox
- Christopher Lloyd has been confirmed for the voice of Doc Brown
- it’s being penned by the original writer Bob Gale
- it’s set in 1985 Hill Valley, will include the DeLorean, and will include characters from the movies
Count me in.
This is what it feels like to submissively pee a little?
Source: USA Today
Video Game Power Rankings #16
After couple weeks of slow news and other conversation, this week is chock-a-block full of topics. Let’s get right into it.
1. (-) Used Video Game Sales – We can take this in two chunks. The first part is the flurry of internet chatter that Tycho of Penny-Arcade set off with, among other words, the following: “I honestly can’t figure out how buying a used game was any better than piracy.”
If a blogger or random video game website had such thing, it would be branded as “link-bait.” Since I’m pretty sure Penny-Arcade is doing okay in the traffic department, we’ll take this as pretty much indicative of how he feels. It’s good to have convictions, but when you express them in an open forum like Penny-Arcade, the sides are going to be drawn and opinions are going to be given. Syp at Bio Break falls on the “used car” argument (which I mostly agree with) Gus at Joystick Division takes the, “If game makers weren’t so stingy for so long with the price of games we wouldn’t be having this discussion,” angle.
Where do you stand?
2. (-) Used Video Game Sales, Part Two – On the heels of the more philosophical discussion of whether it’s right or not comes news that Target is going to get in the used games business – “Target has started rolling out a new electronics trade-in program designed for mobile devices and video games.” Oh, and best Buy is going to revive their trade in program, as well. Things, as they say, just got interesting.
3. (-) Elemental – I’ll just point you to Tap-Repeatedly for the recap. That isn’t pretty.
4. (-) Portal 101 – Where were these classes when I was in college?
5. (1) Halo: Reach Halo: Reach and Bungie just can’t catch a break. First, the digital version of the game was pirated. Then, they (allegedly!) had game discs stolen and being sold on the streets in Puerto Rico. Again, this is just a rumor, but if it’s true, Halo: Reach is going to sell 4 copies, because everyone is already going to have played it.
6. (-) Dead State – The question is: “Can there ever be too many zombie games?” The answer is no.
7. (-) Mafia II – No links here, just a general observation that a lot of people seemed mostly disappointed by the mostly loved original game. Have you played it?
8. (-) Dead Rising 2 – A deluge is coming, and Dead Rising 2 is part of it. Joystiq has a (spoilerish) look at a few of the weapons you’ll be able to “craft” in Dead Rising 2.
9. (7) Starcraft 2 – Because it can fall off the list yet!
Weekend Gaming
It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, but now would be a great time to break your “lurker” status and come out of the wirework and let us know what you’ll be playing this weekend.
I like to refer to this weekend as my “most productive weekend ever” because it’s the last weekend before college football starts, which basically means my Saturdays are booked until December. I have to cross off a bunch of my to-do items so I’ll be ready when the madness starts next week. It also means my blogging slows here a little during this time. I’m hoping this will give me some time to work on some of the reviews I’ve wanted to write.
In the meantime, though, I still plan on gaming some this weekend. I’ve been working through Dragon Quest IX on the DS and enjoying my first foray into Dragon Quest since Dragon Warrior on the NES. Along with DQIX, I’ve been playing through Metro 2033. This game is maddeningly frustrating. I am really enjoying some of the unique things they’re doing with this game while I’m struggling through their sadistic checkpoints and unhelpful feedback. I’m this close to switching to “Easy” so I can make it through a particularly rough section. But overall Metro 2033 is really close to being a great game. Right now, I’d consider it a flawed game.
If I have time, I want to fool around with Steam on my Macbook, but we’ll see. What will you be playing?
Video Game Power Rankings #15
After a week mostly off (thanks, Nat for picking up the slack) I’m back with another week of Power Rankings.
1. (7) Halo Reach – In a move that makes little sense to me, Microsoft made Halo: Reach available to reviewers through a download from Xbox Live. Hackers found it and figured out how to download the game for themselves. Hilarity did not ensue. Spoilers did. I’m doing my best to ignore them.
2. (-) Monday Night Combat – No specific link on this one, I’ve just heard from multiple trusted sources that this game is FUN.
3. (-) Dragon Age 2 – I petered out earlier this year playing Dragon Age but I still recognize that BioWare crafted a pretty great game and the trailer for Dragon Age 2 has me thoroughly impressed.
4. (-) Final Fantasy XIV – I really want to see an MMO on the 360. I think it’s the future for the genre, on consoles. So when I heard FF XIV was not coming to the 360, I was bummed. Turns out that may not be entirely the case — It appears that development of the 360 version is only “on pause.”
5. (-) Age of Empires Online – No sooner had the announcement of Age of Empires Online hit the wire then more details started coming out concerning their freemium model. I just signed up for the beta and I’m really looking forward to this one.
6. (-) Torchlight – There was the announcement of Torchlight 2 and now the word that it will “hopefully” be available on XBLA/PSN by the holidays. Which got me thinking — if this Diablo-esque hack-and-slasher is successful, how awesome would Diablo 3 on the console be? Awesomer than most PC gamers would like to admit.
7. (3) Starcraft 2 – I can safely say that this would hover at the top a lot longer if I was actually playing it but the other sites I read and the podcasts I listen to can’t stop talking about it.