Even though the title of this sounds like I will be making fun of the Xbox One Snap feature I will, in fact, be praising Microsoft for it. It is another example of how they are truly trying to make the Xbox One the focal point of your entertainment.
Watch Yusuf Mehdi show off as he plays Forza and checks his friend feed, searches the internet and even watches TV while playing the game. It is a good feature for the console and another step in the right direction for the Xbox One.
This is a good news week for DLC involving two of the year’s biggest releases. Today sees the first single player piece for Bioshock Infinite, Burial at Sea, available for download and now Naughty Dog will reveal the first single player DLC for The Last of Us on November 14th.
The reveal will take place at the Playstation 4 All-Access event which will air on Spike TV at 11PM EST.
With a big PS4 game being revealed on Thursday and news that The Last of Us will be featured could that mean the PS4 game will be a Naughty Dog game as well? Say it is so Mr. Drake.
When you pick up your Xbox One on November 22nd it will come with a 500 GB hard drive (why it is not 1TB I don’t know) and now you can see how much storage will be required for all the games at launch. Some will be small (Killer Instinct) and some will be ummm not small (NBA 2K14).
Check out the list:
-Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag – 20GB
-Battlefield 4 – 33GB
-Call of Duty: Ghosts – 39GB
-Dead Rising 3 – 19GB
-FIFA 14 – 8GB
-Fighter Within – 9.2GB
-Forza Motorsport 5 – 31GB
-Just Dance 2014 – 22GB
-Killer Instinct – 3.4GB
-Lococyle – 13GB
-Madden NFL 25 – 12GB
-NBA 2K14 – 43GB
-NBA Live 14 – 9GB
-Powerstar Golf – 3.9GB
-Ryse: Son of Rome – 34GB
-Skylanders: Swap Force – 15GB
-Xbox Fitness – 246MB
-Zoo Tycoon – 2.6GB
-Zumba World Party – 24GB
When you open up your Playstation 4 next week you will find that Sony has included a present for you. You will get three vouchers which include one free month of Playstation Plus, one free month of Music Unlimited and a $10 credit for the Playstation Store.
Playstation Plus will be required with the Playstation 4 to play games online so it is a good thing people will be getting the first month free to be able to check out all of the perks you get with the service including great sales on games and Instant Games Collection. It is ridiculous how much Sony gives you for $50 a year.
There was no information given on how long the systems will come with the vouchers but I would assume through the holiday season.
First the Xbox One commercial that managed to do a great job of showing off what is great about the system and now a useful demo using the Xbox One dashboard? Who is in charge of the marketing department now Microsoft? They deserve a raise.
If you are getting an [amazon_link id=”B00CMQTVMI” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Xbox One[/amazon_link] on November 22nd this is a great video to get ready for the new Xbox Dashboard. I am actually grateful for having a Windows Phone for the past year because it is basically Windows 8 on the Xbox One so I already will feel right at home.
And as far as being able to upload commentary videos with our captured game footage? I hope some of my Xbox Live friends are prepared for some videos with less than appealing clothing…or lack thereof.
It is only a little over a week until the [amazon_link id=”B00DE2W5XG” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Playstation 4[/amazon_link] is released and we are counting down the days. Sony has released four new videos showing off the various things the console features including remote play and the redesigned Dualshock 4 controller.
Keep checking back between now and November 15th for a lot of PS4 news as the next generation begins.
http://youtu.be/zywlk2t7_LY
OK, I think I have this Rambo game down. The makers are wanting to invoke the same feelings you feel when you watch the movies. You constantly tell yourself it is killing your brain cells to watch Stallone for this long but then you can not deny the awesomeness of watching men blowing up from 50 calibers and knowing that they drew first blood.
The new trailer for the game reveals that you will be going through the first three Rambo movies from the awesome First Blood and even helping the Afghans in Rambo III which shows you how much can change over the years.
Watch the trailer and see guys explode from gunfire. Splat.
Why do I want this game?
It is finally here FPS fans. Your yearly crack has arrived. Today sees the release of Call of Duty: Ghosts that is handled by the team at Infinity Ward this year. Now I know this may surprise a lot of you but there is actually a story mode to this game. Who knows if it is good or not? Let’s find out what the reviews are saying about this year’s version.
Will we be reviewing it? Gladly. When someone sends us a copy of it to be reviewed otherwise enjoy these reviews!
IGN– 8.8/10
Single Player- “But like previous CoDs, the story of Ghosts struggles to remain in focus amidst the fray of explosive cinematic moments and relentless firefights. Narrated loading sequences with stylized story animations push the campaign forward, but only last for one or two minutes before launching back into the action. It’s there, on the front lines, that much of the plot progression is presented and oftentimes lost.”
Multiplayer- “Ghosts presents an array of alternative routes, making team play far more effective than traditional run-and-gun strategy – in fact, running around these large maps gets lonely and boring. Traditional lone wolf-style play also throws a wrench in the spawn system, making enemies often appear nearby without warning. Playing in a well-coordinated group is more gratifying than ever, but more casual solo games can be frustrating.”
Kotaku– Not Yet
Single Player- “It’s funny—playing through the initial section of scripted events where you run through your under-attack town, all I could think was, wow. This isn’t nearly as well-paced, or as deliberate as say, the start of The Last of Us—where everything seems so tight and considered that you forget the game is just mostly making you walk forward while stuff (like explosions, crashes, deaths) happen around you.”
Multiplayer- “Playing still feels tense, and this tension is sometimes punctuated by the sudden high of kills. You’ll still live or die by your reflexes. The customization options are still robust (moreso than before, actually), and the number of things you can level and earn experience points for is dizzying.”
Gamespot– 8/10
Single Player- “The whole thing feels like a geopolitical Mad Lib, but a functional and rather harmless one. Ghosts delivers just enough narrative to serve as a catalyst for its whirlwind tour through global warzones, while resisting the urge to club you over the head with plot twists and gratuitous shock-and-awe moments.”
Multiplayer- “A more familiar experience can be found in Ghosts’ competitive multiplayer. The frantic pacing and close-quarters encounters are every bit as enjoyable as they’ve ever been, augmented by contextual lean and running slide abilities that make for more fluid transitions in and out of cover. Infinity Ward has taken a delicate approach to the existing multiplayer progression, though a new perk weighting system promotes better player balance while still giving you plenty of ways to micromanage your loadouts.”
Polygon– 6.5/10
Single Player- “With the end of the Modern Warfare series in 2011 and the dawn of a new console generation on the horizon, Ghosts could start from scratch, with no backstory to hold it back. A new storyline and new characters in a new setting seemed like a great opportunity. That freedom nonetheless results in one of the sloppiest storylines in Call of Duty history.”
Multiplayer- “Call of Duty: Ghosts too often feels like a me-too product, never breaking entirely new ground. Meanwhile, Infinity Ward has stripped out some much-loved features from Black Ops 2, including League Play, replay recording and player-created emblems.”
Destructoid– 5/10
Single Player- “The campaign isn’t exactly bad, but it is a banal shooting gallery without the remarkable setpieces or memorable moments to carry it. Very much a COD-by-numbers affair, players quickly blitz through the usual tasks with dutiful obligation.”
Multiplayer- “While there are some new toys to play with, and you can even customize the look of your character (as well as play as a woman, finally), the core experience feels like business as usual, moreso since we’ve lost the near-future gadgets found in 2012’s installment.”
Game Informer– 8/10
Single Player- “As stupid as the story is, I found myself enjoying it for exactly that reason. This is a big, dumb action game, and it makes no attempt to be more than that. Instead of the convoluted techno-babble of the Modern Warfare series, Ghosts’ campaign is simply about blowing up everything you see in progressively bigger ways. It’s short and wastes no time with character development, opting instead to shuttle you along to the next exploding satellite station or chaotic chase scene.”
Multiplayer- “Grind mixes Halo’s Headhunter mode with Call of Duty’s own Kill Confirmed match type, and it results in some tense moments as you struggle to return dog tags before you’re killed. Blitz is fast-paced and fun, tasking players with sprinting into a designated scoring zone before enemies stop them with a hail of gunfire. Search and Rescue is a smart variant of a series favorite, and gives players hope to return after being eliminated. These new match types can be a lot of fun, but the only thing that feels different is the method of scoring.”
By the look of it some people are hitting the wall when it comes to Call of Duty. It will still sell millions of copies but the reviews are showing a downward trend and will sales be next in the next few years?
EA Sports has revealed that current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones will be on the cover of their first UFC game due sometime next year.
Now that they have gotten one half of the cover right it is up to us, the fans, to make the other half just as good. EA is letting fans vote on the other fighter that will share the cover with Jones through a tournament of 16 gladiators of the Octagon.
The 16 fighters are: Demetrious Johnson, Dominick Cruz, Urijah Faber, Jose Aldo, Benson Henderson, Georges St-Pierre, Johny Hendricks, Chris Weidman, Junior dos Santos, Chael Sonnen, Michael Bisping, Anthony Pettis, Daniel Cormier, Ronda Rousey, Miesha Tate and Alexander Gustafsson.
All you have to do is go and vote for your favorite fighter. Voting on Round 1 ends November 10th.
As of last week, the original Wii is no longer in production. The absolute madness of the system’s launch – and the holiday seasons for five years afterward – has become part of gaming history, even amongst waves of criticism that the system was a “gimmick,” its overall dismissal by “hardcore” gamers, and Nintendo’s famous inability to attract third-party development. Now Nintendo’s entire home gaming hope rests on the Wii U, a system that has failed to deliver sales within its first year, due to a combination of the same issues as before, and a price point that many see as grossly inflated. At this juncture, I thought it might be worthwhile to briefly examine the difficulties facing “The Company Mario Built” and discuss possible solutions.
Nintendo has a first-party line up that would make any other company envious. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Pokémon are franchises embedded not just in gaming consciousness, but in global popular culture. I personally know people who have purchased Nintendo consoles – and handhelds – specifically because an exclusive was coming out. Nintendo isn’t clueless on this front, either. When I worked at GameStop, our Nintendo rep was great, but Miyamoto save you if the Wii demo unit wasn’t playing the most recent first-party title. The company also has a habit of keeping the prices on those titles high, new and used, months and years after their launch.
As lucrative as that cap-wearing plumber and his pals are, though, they can only fill so much space on a calendar. That would be fine, except that Nintendo has a notoriously awful history with third-party titles. This creates massive gaps in the line-up for any customers looking to make a Nintendo console their primary system. I rarely played my PlayStation 3 outside of exclusives; Resistance, Uncharted, Infamous, and Ratchet & Clank populate my shelf. That was a personal choice, however, made because I prefer my 360. There were other games, great and small, available during regular release windows.
That’s simply wasn’t the case with the Wii, and things actually appear to be worse for the Wii U, if such a thing is possible. When Nintendo’s “HD” console launched last year, there were a plethora of third-party titles that jumped on board, some with exclusive content: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, etc. Yet only a year down the road on the system, Arkham Origins won’t support multiplayer, Assassin’s Creed IV won’t get any new content, and EA has been back and forth on whether they even have any current titles in development for the Wii U. Battlefield 4 didn’t see a Wii U release, for example.
I can’t really blame any of those companies, because those initial launch games didn’t see a huge return on investment, and supporting a console so far removed in hardware from its contemporaries can’t be easy. Probably the biggest third-party success so far has been Zombie U, which I would love to play, but only on my 360 or PC. Probably my PC. Zombie U is a great example of another of Nintendo’s tactics, which is to almost force developers to utilize whatever their latest gimmick is.
Now, let me quickly differentiate a “mechanic” from a “gimmick.” In Zombie U, you check your inventory by looking into you backpack via the Gamepad while the game continues to run on the main screen. It creates a sense of urgency, as you can easily be ambushed while rifling through you belongings. The system of keeping the game running while the inventory is open is a mechanic, and one that games have utilized to effect before. The gimmick is having the inventory appear on the Gamepad screen, something which only the Wii U currently has, although Microsoft is apparently looking to marry the Surface tablets to the Xbox One in a similar way.
While I have heard that this gimmick adds a bit of style to the game, the truth is most developers do not seek out this functionality. Nintendo certainly isn’t alone in this field; Sony and Microsoft have both been known to require inclusion of functionality for the Move, Sixaxis, Kinect, or what-have-you. The Wii is certainly the worst offender in recent years, though, and companies like EA were quite vocal about discontinuing support for that system based on Nintendo’s insistence that every game include some amount of arm-waving.
Nintendo also loves to shove their own creations in everyone’s face, at the expense of other titles that they supposedly wanted on their console. Going back to my ‘Stop days and our Nintendo rep, the closest I’ve ever seen him to upset was when we had Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars in the demo system instead of a first-party title. According to him, the whole reason Nintendo provided demo units was to showcase their own games, and failure to do so could result in us losing our Wii. The game at that time was supposed to be New Super Mario Bros. Wii, which had been out for months, and had already come down from its holiday sales.
Our Wii had a tendency to freak out and lock on the title screen of a game if it had been in too long, and our copy of Mario literally wouldn’t boot without freezing. We tried to explain that showcasing the fighting game – a Wii exclusive, to this day – had led to increased sales of the game, accessories, and even a few systems. Most people didn’t seem to have any idea the title existed, and watching others play it seemed to draw customers to that corner of the store. Apparently that didn’t matter, though, and our rep was all smiles as he bought a new copy of Mario with his company card, opened it, and popped it back into the system.
In the months since launch, the flagging Wii U has not been able to rake in the sales of its predecessor, let alone keep up with the competition. Many have pointed to the system’s retail price as the issue; the Wii U can run anywhere from $300-$400 dollars, depending on what bundles are on offer. There has also been confusion about what exactly constitutes a “Wii U.” My friends still in retail report almost daily instances of customers thinking all they need is the Gamepad accessory, and that linking it to their existing Wii will do the trick. People also seem to be having a harder time than usual differentiating between titles for the new console and the old one, leading to lots of frustrated returns.
The end result this year is a console with limited promise, selling at a high price point, up against two brand-new systems, in a market where the potential buyers aren’t even sure what they are buying. I feel like the executives at Nintendo got together and said “Ok, folks, the Wii was a bit too successful and accessible; we need to get back to being the scrappy under-dogs with controllers designed by modern art majors.” That may sound a bit harsh, and to a point, it’s almost the exact opposite of what I think is really going on.
Here’s my two cents: Nintendo is currently struggling precisely because of the success of the Wii and their focus on first-party titles.
Everyone bought a Wii. Seriously. I bet you’d be hard-pressed to find many people within the available markets who haven’t spent at least a few hours waving their arms about in front of that little sensor bar. Nintendo seized upon this, and ran very successful ad campaigns featuring grandparents and toddlers alike. Careful management of production led to a feeding frenzy on the console every holiday for five years running. People with no real interest in gaming as a whole were seized with the need for this little box and its wavy-arm sticks.
The inclusion of Wii Sports was a gold mine, as were Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort; anecdotal evidence suggests that many households purchased a system, four Wii remotes and nunchuks, a Wii Fit kit, and almost nothing else. When I say “nothing else,” I am genuinely talking about Wii owners who didn’t even purchase a Mario title, because they were not gamers in any true sense. The Wii provided them with entertainment in a raw form generally only found in arcades.
These were Nintendo’s prime targets for the Wii, and while they kept the company in the black for years, this strategy began to alienate the core fans. People who wanted to play more expansive games – first-party and third-party alike – had to either deal with motion controls, or shell out more money for traditional controllers. In the case of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, the GameCube version was actually considered the better choice because of these issues. In addition, the third-party situation wasn’t any better than before; the titles consisted of either older games re-worked with motion controls, or newer ones forced to deal with the motion controls and limited processor capabilities.
Over the course of this generation, the industry also became hooked on the idea of “HD” re-launches of classic titles, and just releasing older games as downloads at a reduced price point. Nintendo didn’t miss their chance, with quite a few HD remakes and the creation of the Wii Virtual Console and Nintendo Store. Hell, people had been accusing them of just releasing the same five games on a cycle for years anyway. This allowed them to enjoy the success of every Mario and Zelda game ad-infinitum.
Now, fast-forward to late 2012. Nintendo has been trying since E3 to get people interested in the Wii U. It’s got everything the Wii had, but now it also has the Gamepad, which has a touch screen, and lets you play games on it instead of you TV. It can still play Wii games, still has the Virtual Console, and uses other controllers and accessories that are essentially identical to the ones for the Wii.
That was confusing to get through, and I’m the one writing this shit.
The bottom line is that millions of consumers who already own a Wii – or, to be more precise, owned a Wii at some point – looked at the Wii U and collectively shrugged. Nintendo then turned to their fans, but for once in two decades looked at the promise of new adventures with Samus and Link didn’t do the trick. The first-party titles had been rarer than usual as the Wii wound down, and it didn’t look like that trend was changing anytime soon. Even an HD remake of LoZ: Windwaker couldn’t hide the fact that the Wii U’s schedule was a barren place, with only hints of promise months, even years down the line. With the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launching alongside existing franchises and big exclusives within the next six months, things certainly look grim.
Oddly enough, none of these issues seems to affect the company’s handheld market, which has seen one massive success after another. The most recent hiccough was the 3DS launch, but Nintendo fixed that quickly: They dropped the price. Quite a bit. I’m not going to lie, I may pick up a 2DS; stupid name aside, the price point is appealing, and I care not a lick for the 3D function. I’m interested in buying one because – gasp! – the system offers titles I’m interested in, both from Nintendo and third-parties. Even more than that, titles like Resident Evil: Revelations have proven so lucrative that they have been ported to home consoles with positive results.
And therein, for my money, lies the best shot Nintendo has outside of the handheld market. Brace yourselves, because this will sound a little crazy: For the living room crowd, Nintendo needs to consider opening up their exclusives to the other companies. Especially with regards to some of their “classic” titles, this could mean massive sales via Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Store.
I want you to close your eyes and imagine that you have sixty dollars. Now, imagine that you log into you system of choice to see that Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 64, and LoZ: Ocarina of Time are available for $20. As you open your eyes, can you honestly say that you would still have all $60? Because I’d be down to $20 and triple-jumping Mario’s happy ass all over my 360 while I stuffed my face with pizza and pretended Star Wars: Episode I could still turn out to be good. The N64 is hardly the limit, either, as the current consoles could handle everything Nintendo has ever released or currently has in development.
The Wii U isn’t a failure yet, but without a price drop and some genuinely compelling titles – or even the ok titles that fill out other systems – Nintendo will be shutting down production of the console by the end of 2016 at the latest. By that point, I cannot honestly say whether or not mobile gaming will have finally eliminated the desire for a dedicated handheld, as has been the prediction for several years running now. That could have Nintendo going the way of Sega, only without the rapport that Sega had built up within the industry over the years. They can either come to grips with that now, and try and shift their focus, or it will hit them in the face within the next five years.
I love Nintendo. My grandparents on one side had a NES with Mario and Duck Hunt for all of us to play; my first consoles, ever, were a Game Boy and then a Super NES; I experienced the renaissance of the N64 in full joy; I even defended the GameCube, though my love for it was born of mature, third-party titles like Eternal Darkness, MGS: The Twin Snakes, and Resident Evil 4. My family owned a Wii like everyone else, though I can honestly say we never had more than five games for it, and I have never beaten a game to completion by waving my arms around.
Beth and I have talked more than once about splitting the cost of a Wii U, but the end result is always that the total cost of the system could easily pay for six or more titles on consoles we already own. We’ve both got Xbox Ones pre-ordered, and then announcement of a potentially solid release date for Metal Gear Solid V means I’ll own a PlayStation 4 by my birthday in July at the latest. I finally created a next-gen list on Amazon, and it hit a dozen games through 2014 without me even trying.
I’m sorry, Mario, but my interest is in another castle.