360 Dashboard Speed, Moore vs Obama & Digital Downloads or Bust? – Welcome to the column that dares to cross the line but quietly goes back behind it afterwards known as Dare to Play the Game.
Cellfactor off Xbox Live was my main addiction this weekend. I have gained 115 achievement points and only three achievements stand in my way. Two of those achievements are All Rewards Unlocked and Marathon. All Rewards are Unlocked when you achieve 600k points, I am just a smidgen under 500k. Marathon is 1 million. Those can be done in time with a lot of grinding. However, there is one achievement that I can’t seem to get. Arena Master. As the name implies, I have to score 5 kills in a row without tasting death. I’ve gotten 3 a few times, and I think I did get 4 once. But 5? No such luck. (again, if somebody out there is willing to trade this achievement, I am more than willing)
The rest of the achievements seemed to just fly by this past weekend. Slayer (100 kills on Ranked Live matches) came fairly quickly. The campaign achievements did as well. The first one to go was Black Op. That was the easiest one. Next came Guardian which wasn’t too bad. Then I went to work on Bishop. Challenge nine involved me yelling at my AI teammates about how they couldn’t stay alive long enough to hold their own jock strap nevermind infiltrate the hacker. Finally, I got them under control (which basically amounted to me doing 90% of the killing). Challenge ten was a different story. Kill 5 bots and stay above 50 health. Haha, haha. Finally, after 10-15 tries I found myself in a good corner with the Bishop’s version of the Rocket Launcher and the bots slowly came one after another and were decimated. The achievement was mine. All three solo campaigns completed. Go me.
If you hadn’t heard, Olivia Munn of G4 is in Playboy this month. She got a nice cover and one whole pic in the magazine (there are several more on Playboy’s website). It’s a hot picture, however she’s not nude or even topless. Isn’t that what Maxim, Stuff, FHM and all of those other mags are for? I really don’t understand why a girl wouldn’t at least pose topless in an adult mag. It really defies the imagination. That’s like going to a chinese buffet and eating only the spare ribs and macaroni and cheese. Oh crap, that’s what I did last time (I had some chicken too!). *sigh*
Xbox Live
According to Major Nelson’s latest podcast, the Xbox Live Team is working towards making a harder, better, faster, and indeed stronger Xbox Live Dashboard for the next update later this year.
Some of you have taken issue with the slow speed of the New Xbox Experience, and Major Nelson and the rest of the Xbox Live team have taken notice. In his latest podcast, the Major promises that the next major dash update will see a much faster guide. Just don’t call it a performance enhancement, whatever you do.
“The team has done some really good stuff around making performance enhancements. ‘Performance enhancements’ doesn’t sound right because it sounds like we’re going to give the guide a little blue pill, and we’re not doing that. Whatever we call it (and it’s not going to be called the NNXE), but whatever the next version of the dashboard is called, its better with a lot of very cool new features. That update will be out later this year”
Thank goodness, because if the Xbox Live team had released a dashboard update that was worse in every way, they’d be Vista team, and they keep the two separate for a reason.
I’ve had a slow dashboard for a while now. I really just assumed it was the speed of my internet connection, or the lack thereof. It’s almost refreshing to know that it’s Xbox Live and not me. I still miss the old dashboard actually where I could actually see the old themes and not just the top half. It’s actually really crappy that you have to pay for wallpaper or “themes”. I give you people enough in point cards for Rock Band and XBLA, isn’t that enough? *sigh*
Anyhow, I’m not even sure about this NXE thing, I haven’t been since I got it. Things are still difficult to find (unless it is a deal of the week), things are still slow and I hardly mess with my avatar ever. I spend more time playing with my virtual pet on my computer than “customizing my avatar”. He had a top hat for several months (and nobody noticed or cared). NXE has been Vista for the most part, but hopefully the next one will be closer to Windows 7 (or where they should have been all along).
See that fourth guy from the left with the picture of the big cat above his head? He’s thinking about how much he would like to see that feline tear off his three loser friends’ heads so that he can go score with the chick to his right. I’m pretty sure.
Fitness Challenges
President Obama again referred to video games as a family-life negative in his Father’s Day message. But Peter Moore – grabbing for publicity – challenges him to drop the rhetoric and see what they offer.
Moore, the EA Sports honcho, was motivated to pose a 30-day EA Sports Active Challenge by Obama’s recent comments to the American Medical Association. And a need to sell more EA Sports Active.
Much of Moore’s post reads like a press release, but he’s probably right about this: “I’d be willing to bet there are more consoles getting far more use in American homes than there is exercise equipment, so it’s up to us to continue to use the platform for good.”
As for Obama, he and his speechwriters need to cut it already with the tendentious mentions of video games as something fundamentally slothful. Like anyone in that audience hasn’t heard it before. In fact, that’s three mentions in the past 10 days. If he, a law professor and lecturer, can’t make the point that things like family togetherness, parental involvement, and physical fitness are positives on their merits alone, then how is shaming and cliché going to do much better?
There goes Obama again. He wants to refer to video games as a negative but yet he still clings to smoking and the Blackberry. So, this got Peter Moore, EA sports guru in a huffy and in good faith, he issued an open challenge, the 30 day EA Sports Active Challenge. Of course Obama won’t accept such a thing, he is the president after all and doesn’t respond to such things. Actually, he was going to respond to it and then he had to text his daughters about dinner for the 37th time. Anywho, I don’t know if Peter really wants to throw around challenges when Obama has been photographed with this guy:
“Let Moore keep running and running until he tuckers himself out, then move in. Move like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
Gamestop
The future of games distribution is digital. Whether that’s in 5 or 15 years’ time, that’s what’s going to happen. Your grandkids won’t be buying games in boxes. But don’t tell GameStop that!
The retailer has said that an “addressable market” for the digital download of games – as in, one that needs addressing by the company – “will not exist until 2014.”
And even when we do get to 2014, GameStop reckons only 25% of its customers will “have access to the technology required to download full games” by then.
Right. Let’s break that down.
– Almost everybody with a PC already has “access to the technology required to download full games”, via digital delivery services such as Steam and Direct2Drive. These services are already seeing big take-ups, with more and more publishers distributing their titles on them. Steam, for example, now carries almost every game from all of the big publishers, including Activision, EA, Take-Two & Ubisoft. Those publishers, unlike GameStop, can see which way the wind is blowing.
– Soon, anybody with an Xbox 360 and an internet connection will be able to download the full version of retail games. Not demos, not limited online-only games, but full, complete games, just like the ones you used to buy at GameStop.
– The PS3 already has this ability, with the full retail version of Burnout Paradise having been available for download for months now, along with other titles like Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. It’ll only be a matter of time before, like the 360, Sony begins to offer more titles.
– Especially when you consider it’s Sony who will soon be launching the world’s first major download-only games console, the PSPgo. While the PSP was never really GameStop’s #1 earner, the writing is clearly on the wall when a company doesn’t just stop at offering games for sale at retail and via download, but cuts out retail altogether.
Ask yourself this: in 2006, how many games did you download? And that question is open to anyone, PC owners or console gamers. Now, in 2009, how many games do you download, with all the major publishers on Steam and digital downloads on all three home consoles starting to hit their stride?
Exactly.
GameStop can twiddle their fingers and cover their ears all they like, but saying only 25% of gamers will be downloading games by 2014 just sounds crazy. They’ll be lucky if it’s not at that number in half the time.
Most of you who follow my column know how I feel about Digital Downloads. Truth is, I do like them. Heck, Cellfactor is getting the most playing time now. Why? Because it is a fantastic & fun game. But it is in truth, a diversion. Every “digital downloaded” (with a few exceptions) game can be put in that context. I like a ton of them but I don’t want to get to a console where that’s the only way I can get a game. I like my discs, I like my neat packages. I don’t want to own a license and have no way to keep the software. I fully recognize there will come a point in time where I can’t play Cellfactor or Rocketbowl anymore. I have been able to accept that, but I will no way accept that I won’t be able to play “X” console at all because the only software that exists are these digital downloads. It’s a terrible thing that companies are forcing this on us. What is worse is that certain people aren’t helping the matter either like this Kotaku employee. In fact, I think he’s a bot (sent by console developers), and I am going to set up an interview with him right now to prove this. Luckily he accepted.
Kedrix: So how are you today?
Jerk of Digital Downloads: I’m doing fine. Do I have to be called Jerk of Digital Downloads?
Kedrix: Actually no, you can just be called JODD, it’s like Todd but with a J?
JODD: I’ll take Jodd, it has a nice ring to it.
Kedrix: Alright Jodd, so I assume you are an independent employee of Kotaku?
JODD: Yes I am, I freelance write for the site and also write news stories for several other publications and websites.
Kedrix: What other publications and websites?
JODD: Ign.com, Electronic Gaming Monthly (when it was still a magazine) and JodieSweetinBlog.com.
Kedrix: Jodie Sweetin eh? She’s quite the hottie now, much different that her Full House counterpart.
JODD: Actually it’s a blog about when she was on Full House.
Kedrix: Creepy. Anyhow, you wrote this article about how Digital downloads and whether it is 5 years or 15 years time, it’s going to happen. You then go on that our grandkids will probably not be buying games in boxes. Don’t you really think that’s pushing it, I mean the public has to accept that and those soccer moms who buy games for their kid’s Wii will have to go online to purchase and download games. Heck, most of them don’t even know that Macy’s has a website.
JODD: It will become the norm. Picking up a game will be like ordering tickets for a movie on Fandango. Gamestop needs to realize that their business will dry up and sooner than they think.
Kedrix: That’s why Gamestop did record sales last year. And for the record, most people are still afraid to use the atm-esque teller outside of movie theaters, nevermind going on Fandango. I do admit that digital downloads are going to see increased sales year after year. But I still firmly believe there is a place for disc based games. Don’t you?
JODD: But why would you buy a disc-based game when there are already systems in place like the PS3 which allow for you to download full retail games like Burnout Paradise?
Kedrix: However, Game sizes are not getting any smaller and the internet companies simply can’t handle the bandwidth on a regular basis for the full games. Even if they caught up to what would be acceptable by today’s standards for downloading full games, that would be eclipsed by tomorrow’s size of games. Do you really want to download a blu-ray worth of data?
JODD: In the future, a blu-ray of data will seem like a swimsuit jpeg of Jodie Sweetin.
Kedrix: In the future, you might be in charge of a blog of the adult version of Jodie Sweetin. Dance off, Pants Off was quite awesome that season.
JODD: So I hear. But seriously, Steam and Direct 2 Drive already handle this practice and do so quite well.
Kedrix: But those are PC games. Aren’t the only PC Games that are relevant are MMO’s? I agree that Digital Downloads have a place but it should be alongside Disc-based game not instead of.
JODD: The PSP-go will be download only. It’s the start of the trend away from disc-based games.
Kedrix: It’s also the trend away from common sense. Seriously, the worst portable ever (not named NGage) wants to charge double a DS and kill its retail market? It’ll last six months.
JODD: It will make millions…
Kedrix: Of nice paperweights. Don’t you think this attitude of forcing digital download only down our throats is looking out only for #1 (the console makers and software companies)? What about the consumer?
JODD: The consumer will learn to like it. They take what we give them.
Kedrix: We? Wait, I thought you were freelance.
JODD: When I said we, I merely meant that the software companies and console makers wish to eliminate the middleman and give back to the consumer.
Kedrix: So does that mean we can expect lower prices?
JODD: No. It means we will see more diverse games and a better selection.
Kedrix: Oh more shovelware and things that have no business on virtual or retail shelves. Brilliant.
JODD: Why do you keep fighting it Kedrix, digital downloads are the future. Your little world of disc based games and good times spent at the local used video game store will soon be a thing of the past.
Kedrix: I hear that once they install internet cameras in your home, online dates for you will be a thing of the past. The fact is, consumers want something tangible. As Ross Perot used to say, we want to touch it, smell it, taste it, and be able to put barbeque sauce on it if we so desire.
JODD: You’re a fossil.
Kedrix: You’re a tool.
JODD: I merely understand where my bread gets buttered.
Kedrix: Jodie Sweetin circa 1992? Wait…you’re being paid off by the execs. Or maybe.
*stands up*
JODD: What do you think you are doing? I am an independent game writer. Get away from me!
At this point, I grabbed his face and tore it off, it was a robot that look strangely like the Terminator. However, he knew the gig was up and ran away. I tell you, these game companies will stop at nothing to get their point across.
I have to admit, this was kinda a surprise to me. This game is the ninth game in the Fatal Fury series, set about ten years after the death of Geese Howard in Real Bout Fatal Fury. It pushed the NeoGeo to the max and was later ported over to the Sega Dreamcast as well. It had 12 characters and two bosses, one of which would not show up unless you did extremely well against your combatants. It also introduced the “Tatical Offense Position” (TOP), or a special part of the life gauge. Once you got there, you could open up your fighter to special attack, life recovery or increased attack damage. Pretty decent game, worth a look at 800 points.
This is an interesting game, it’s developed by Blitz Arcade and published by Atlus (famous for a lot of their JRPGs) and it is a puzzle game. *moans and groans*. The goal for this game is get your Droplitz to the end of the pipeline by turning pipes and twisting dials. This generates combos which you must master and bring those Droplitz home, the more the better. It’s certainly one of those demo before you buy it games but it just might be different enough for some people to go off and try it.
You are a bunch of boot camp trainees you wasted piece of video game puss. Your mission is to train under Drill Sergeant Mindstrong and go through mind-boggling, mind-training games. You must use concentration and quick thinking. You can earn promotions but you will get the most out of the program if you bring along friends and family. Now give me 800. Points, and 1 and 2 and 3. (WiiWare really comes out with some strange stuff)
Another puzzle craze from Japan. For those not familiar with the DS version, this game gives you an image where you must take seven types of pieces (same seven each time) and fit them in there for the perfect shape. This time around, there are multiplayer modes and an Egyptian theme. The multiplayer modes include Versus, Speed, Lucky Number and Party Mode. Not sure what Lucky Number is, but Party mode allows for multiple people to solve the puzzle. Over 500 puzzles are included. This would be certainly one game I would suck at.
Oh crap, it’s everybody’s favorite family of Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy. This time, they are playing mini-golf with a ton of obstacles including bumpers, speed ramps, fans and more. The game will have support for up to 8 people. New courses will also become available over time. If this keeps up, we’ll either see this family get their own reality series or on an episode of Montel Williams about dysfunctional families. I’m guessing the latter.
I think I might have this game in my Turbo collection, but I can’t quite remember it. Naturally Sim Earth is from the makers of Sim City (and the Sims and anything else involving the word Sim) and involves you taking control of a planet and trying to evolve the civilization you are given. Everything is at your disposal including regulating atmospheric gases, continental drift and even reproduction and mutation of life forms. There are natural disasters in your way to keep you at bay in this very deep simulation game. There are even scenarios where a nuclear explosion can take place and the machines can come to life. A lot of people will pass this off as boring but if you got the time, it looks like a good time-waster.
PS2
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
PSP
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite
Pangya: Fantasy Golf
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
PS3
Fight Night: Round 4
Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Overlord 2
Xbox 360
Fight Night: Round 4
Overlord 2
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires
Fallout 3: Point Lookout
Wii
The Conduit
Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil
Little League World Series 2009
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Overlord: Dark Legend
Dawn of Discovery
DS
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Classic Word Games
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Autobots
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Decepticons
Wedding Dash
Little League World Series 2009
My Heathly Cooking Coach
Overlord: Minions
Dawn of Discovery
50 Classic Games DS
There are several major releases this week. Fight Night Round 4 is first and soon Ali vs Tyson will be every boxing fan boy’s wet dream come true. There is a new Legacy mode as well nestled in the game. I wonder if there is a scenario where you can grow up to be a fighter, gain the world heavyweight belt at 40+ years of age, have five sons all named George and sell a Lean Mean Fat Reducing Grilling machine. Also on the card are all of the Transformer games. This was actually a movie game I meant to get the first time around but never quite got to it. It is interesting that they are going with the same marketing technique and producing two DS games, one for Autobots and one for Decepticons. As far as DS games go, expect it to do rather well.
The second Overlord is also out this week. The first one was an awesomely evil game that employed strategy and humor in one wonderful minion bite. The second game will add more personality to the minions including the ability for them to ride mounts, use war machines and sail warships. You can even give them names and resurrect them if one of them dies. Hopefully it does well. Outside of that, the only other title to mention is the Conduit, a first person shooter for the Wii. It looks pretty good, however I would have liked to hear that board meeting. “We want to make a first person shooter that looks as good as an Xbox 360 or PS3 game but put it on the Wii.” Laughter erupts. The scary part? They might just have done it. See you next week.
Outside of Cellfactor, I didn’t do much this weekend. I did play a little bit of World of Warcraft. Just enough to get me really close to level 68 and really close to being honored with Cenarion Expedition. The next target is Lower City rep (Opportunist level 70 set) Blue rep pieces FTW. Let’s see. I played another NHL 2k9 game and it ended again with the score 6-0 (against the Blackhawks). What are the odds? I also found quite the deal at Target where they are clearancing out copies of Prince of Persia for the 360 for $14.98. As to when I will start playing it? Your guess is as good as mine. I would like to get the Arena Master and All Rewards Unlocked achievement for Cellfactor this weekend (Marathon will literally be a side project as long as the community holds up). At the very least, Arena Master (come on, there has to be somebody out there who sucks at Live multiplayer as much as I do and wants to trade). Then the last two achievements can go the way of the Rocketbowl $100,000 achievement or the Fable II Pub Games achievement where you unlock all of the games (which only requires time and money), all of these I’ve labeled a matter of time achievements. As long as my Xbox continues to operate, someday I’ll snag those puppies. We’ll see by next week. Have fun kiddoes.
As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)
06/24/2009 @ 1:54 pm
Sometimes, you are a fossil. LOL 😀
06/26/2009 @ 4:51 pm
Great post this week, Ked! Loved the digital download interview.
When I saw the video footage for The Conduit it was jaw-dropping. Can’t wait to get some hands-on experience with the game.