Dare to Play the Game

Rhythm Game Saturation, Arkham Asylum goes Platinum & Best Buy looking to buy Gamestop? – Welcome to the column that puts its pants on one bad news story at a time known as Dare to Play the Game.

This week, I can safely say I might be done with two games for the time being. My hands have been firmly removed from the Peggle bottle and the only thing I did in World of Warcraft was make a bank toon on my second account for the sole purpose of transferring gold. Though I guess if I ever want to play a warlock, I now have the chance.

So, as a result I’ve turned to my two current afflictions, Shadow Complex & Madden 08. In Madden, I took the time to create my version of the 2009-10 Eagles (rather sloppy honestly, but the interface isn’t as easy as I’d hoped) and gained 12 additional achievements for a total of 19 (of 48). The only achievements I think I will have any trouble with will be anything to do with fumbles and kicking. Fumbles for the simple fact, I couldn’t cause one if I tried and kicking is still a pain to master. 1000 points is a stretch, over 800 should be a cakewalk.

Shadow Complex is progressing, that’s honestly the only thing I can truthfully say week after week. I try to get past several check points each week and I almost always succeed. It’s not that the game is hard, it really isn’t. But you have to stick it out and continue to figure out the best way of getting past an obstacle. Unfortunately it isn’t always run and gun. Cause a lot of times run n gun gets you shot, dead. Then there are other times when that’s a perfectly acceptable option. I love to make them scream.

This is Rachel Reynolds, she’s a model from the Price is Right which gets a Wii/DS release this week. Not sure why we need a yearly release of the Price is Right but if the game has her anywhere near it, I’m all for it. I remember in the days of Barker’s Beauties with Janice and Dian. Course with girls like Rachel, those memories are fading fast. Wowsa.

Best Buy

Dow Jones cornered Best Buy’s CFO at an investor conference and asked if he’d comment on speculation the retailer might buy GameStop. Ryan Robinson declined to do so, but said some things that still keep the subject alive.

This is all in response to the site Bloggingstocks.com, which speculated on Tuesday that GameStop could be an acquisition target. Of course, it might also cost north of $4 billion to do that, which is dough Best Buy doesn’t have. Leveraging the deal or doing a stock swap then commits Best Buy to the bricks-and-mortar game retail business for the long term, and Robinson noted the industry’s shift toward digital distribution. He also pointed out the company’s test of in-store kiosks that buy back used games.

The obvious answer to this question would be no. There is no way in heck Best Buy should even want to touch something the size of a Gamestop. Money is the biggest factor here, 4 billion is a huge commitment. Best Buy overnight would go from electronics superstore to focusing primarily on used game sales. I honestly can’t see Best Buy wanting to make that a reality.

Okay, so let’s assume for a second that they had the money or it wasn’t an issue. It’s still a bad idea because even though Best Buy wants to have a considerable influence in the retail video game community, that’s not all it does. It still wants to sell you Tv’s, DVDs, Computers and Toasters even. The smarter approach would simply be to allow for used games as part of their lineup. This is something that they are already exploring and will continue to do so. Gamestop is a blip on the radar, but Best Buy has a bigger picture of what is going on.

Hey, maybe Best Buy wants to acquire Gamestop so they can learn the secret to making displays that totally alienate one entire sex. Apparently females only play games based on cooking (Cooking Mama) and being a slu…errr fashion model (Bratz).

Batman

2 million units sold is impressive, sure, but now that the PC version is out and about, Eidos celebrates passing along 2.5 million units to retail shelves since the launch of Batman: Arkham Asylum.

As for how many of those 2.5 million copies shipped have sold since we reported on the 2 million sales, it would take a master detective armed with figures I don’t have on hand to work out that figure. To the batcave!

Congrats Batman, you truly deserve it. Finally, we have a real Batman game (Lego Batman not included) that actually has great gameplay, a wonderful story and people actually want to play it. Furthermore, it isn’t based on a movie; therefore it can have a certain degree of liberty with how the story plays out. I’m still kinda irked about the exclusive Joker content that the PS3 got but I can’t help if that doesn’t inch me closer to buying a PS3 console. (Key word on inch…ever so slowly)

It also sets a standard for not only Batman games (no more Sin Tzus!) but superhero games in general. Games like the recent Iron Man game are simply not going to cut it and will force publishers to up the ante even when the game is based on a movie. Even games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 have been held under considerable scrutiny for things like repetitive gameplay and lack of depth. Good job Batman, now if we could just find a way to include Robin and there still be someway that the games would still be taken seriously, we really would accomplish something.

You would think after all of these years, they would just shut the thing down. But then that wouldn’t be fun, would it?

Guitar Hero

CNBC gives a big free ad to Activision for about a minute, then Daniel Rosensweig, the Guitar Hero CEO, gets down to bidness. He doesn’t think rhythm gaming’s a saturated market. Less than 20 percent of console-owning households have one.

He closes up with a pitch for the Guitar Hero 5 and Van Halen combo offer, saying the cost for its 135 songs “are cheaper than if you just bought the music alone.”

I thought long and hard about the combo offer. I’ve swayed from the “oh what the heck, let’s do it” camp to “you know what, to the heck with Guitar Hero and their crappy song list”. So I’m back in the middle now and with a week remaining, I probably won’t cash in. I really would like to play the Van Halen one, and I’m pretty convinced that there will be cheap copies to be had due to the free offer. So after Christmas, I’m pretty sure I will score a copy. That’s the plan anyway.

So, we have a CEO who doesn’t think the music game is a saturated business. Chuckles and sarcastic comments aside, it’s hard to believe such an assessment. Guitar Hero regularly chucks out sequels and standalone games while Rock Band makes a regular business of track packs. Furthermore, with the birth of the Rock Band network, we stand to see something on the scale of a small ITunes. Furthermore, you have to chuck in all of the other musical games like Singstar, Lips, Karaoke Revolution and even one-time farces like Rock Revolution. We are after all talking about musical games (not just rhythm gaming).

It can get deluded. This is especially true when you feel the need to chuck out games that have little or no difference from year to year (see most EA sports games). Whether you like to admit or not, the original Rock Band was about as far as we’ll see these games go. Sure there were slight improvements to be made, but logically that was the standard by which Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero 4 & 5 (and all of the band specific stuff) have been made by. More music needs to be made available and not more games.

Come out to playieeeeee! I so love this movie. It’s a shame I haven’t watched it since I met my Sarah. I think I she needs to see it, don’t you? Anyway, there was that older Xbox game that came out a few years back that wasn’t too bad. I guess a Final Fight style game only made sense to bring to Live Arcade. Powerups, Co-op, hopefully Cryus going “Can You Dig It?”, and much kick assery should make this a fun game. I hope.

I need brains, wait no I just need to kill more zombies! Well now you can in up to fifty five levels. If you lose, then unfortunately you become on of them. There are a ton of weapons to choose from including assault rifles, chainsaws and sweet little teddy bears filled with C4 explosives. How charming. There are also environmental hazards that can be used against or for you. Multiplayer capabilities are included with up to four people to join in on the action.

This can be best described as a particle physics shooter. You are in space, and you use free particles in space to shoot the alien creatures. Twenty different levels are available here and there is naturally a little bit of co-op to entice you to play with a friend. It’s hard to consider this with the other two powerhouses this week, but some of you might give it a try.

Odd puzzler. You use your Wiimote to virtually shake and create a pair of Fallos. Fallos resemble human like creatures and their objective is to sit on top of 3-d cubes. Again, use your Wiimote to throw it in the general direction of the the cube. Get enough and you clear the stage. However, if you throw too many on a specific cube or don’t place them well, then the cube tilts over and you lose your Fallos. Lots of single and multiplayer options in this one.

Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy are back. I swear this family is going to end up on Dr. Phil for a counseling session. This time they are playing tennis (as long as it isn’t nude hackey sack, I think we are okay). You can play against the computer or members of your family. Three modes are available and the fun is endless (well at least until the next Family game is released).

This is the sequel to possibly the best Commodore 64 game of all time. In this one, Armakuni finds that even though the evil Shogun Kunitoki was beaten, they were not vanquished. They have taken refuge in 1988 Manhattan and it is up to Armakuni to take on his arch nemesis Kunitoki. With more puzzles to solve, hopefully he can finally get rid of him for once and for all.

PS2
Scooby Doo! First Frights
Rock Band: Metal Track Pack

PSP
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
Mytran Wars

PS3
Katamari Forever
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
Rock Band: Metal Track Pack

Xbox 360
Halo 3: ODST
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
Black College Football Xperience: The Doug Williams Edition
Rock Band: Metal Track Pack

Wii
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up
Scooby Doo! First Frights
The Price is Right: 2010 Edition
Baseball Blast!
Where’s Waldo?
Family Party: 30 Great Games Outdoor Fun
Wacky World of Sports
Rock Band: Metal Track Pack
Chicken Blaster
Animal Planet: Vet Life
Our House: Party!
Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition
Spyborgs
Dodge Racing Charger vs Challenger
Aqua Panic

DS
Women’s Murder Club Games of Passion
Where’s Waldo?
Scooby Doo! First Frights
Animal Planet: Vet Life
Sudoku Ball: Detective
Fabulous Finds
Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force
Our House
Just in Time Translations
The Price is Right 2010 Edition
Phineas and Ferb: Thrill-O-Rama
Astrology

This release week while vast could more accurately be named Much Ado about Nothing. Two titles stand out, the first being Halo 3: ODST which wasn’t even supposed to be a full game in the beginning is getting great pre-sale numbers. I’m still not sold on the $59.99 price tag but with the amount of late praise it is getting, expect that price to be relatively solid as we head into the holidays. The other title that I’m actually interested in is the Pinball Hall of Fame title. If you think you remember this game for the PS2, you’re right. However, these new ports will include new tables, with the PS3 and 360 versions getting a total of 13 tables of goodness. The price is also hovering around $40 rather than $60 which is also excellent. Then there is another Rock Band track pack (won’t be picking this one up, I own everything I like from the track list) and a rather odd football game titled BCFX: The Doug Williams Edition. *raise hand*, not to sound racial but I would love for an African American to tell me why this game is necessary. In fact, if Aspyr Media wants to send me a copy of said game, I’ll be happy to give it an honest review.

Next week, I will be on vacation. With that said, I will probably not be posting a column. I would probably have time to write it but Internet is not exactly something to be counted on when you don’t have a reliable means of communication. Besides, I’m supposed to be taking it easy. I’m going to Ohio, it’s our yearly trip since one of Sarah’s best friends lives there. Thankfully, they do own a Xbox 360 and I will probably take one or two retail games to play. I’m not a fan of the whole recover Gamertag option (that and they don’t have Live), so I’ll probably just take some games I wouldn’t necessarily play at home. Or something that I’ve already beaten and want to try out some fancy new tricks on (Fable II or Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection come to mind). Heck, this might be a good time to finally play Oblivion, oh wait; I don’t have that much time.

I will be taking my copy of Watchmen: The End is Nigh Pt1 & 2. I scored a copy for about 15 bones and would like to give it a fair review. Furthermore, there might be enough people around who would help me out with the co-op portion. Heh, that actually sounds fun. Now there is a novel idea, a vacation where I have fun. Here is hoping that you enjoy your next week, regardless of whether you stay at home or go somewhere unexpected. Take care kiddoes.

As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)