Gaming Joint Pain, The Dawg sues EA & PS3 at the top of sales? – Welcome to the column who guesses Hell did freeze over and it had nothing to do with the Eagles reuniting known as Dare to Play the Game.
Finally, this case of bronchitis has left my body. At least that is what the doctor told me when I went on Friday. By Monday, low and behold it was gone. Only one problem. It left me with a pulled muscle. Yes, I was coughing so hard, I actually pulled something on my left side and I can’t sleep on that side at all. It’s getting better slowly. It’s really odd, I never thought could actually happen. But it did and I’m paying for it.
So, as I try to recover with that, I think I can safely say I’m getting old. Sure, my sweet Sarah keeps me young at heart but my body feels absolutely wrecked following the aftermath of this bronchitis. I just want to feel normal and I don’t know what the time table for that is actually going to be. It certainly isn’t this, I am at least sleeping good now. I guess one thing at a time. Ugh. Have I mentioned I hate this?
Rather than bring you a picture, I figured I would do a little more this week. Hey you deserve it….whoever the heck you are. I can’t believe I didn’t find this sooner but this is a music video by Parry Grip called Video Game Girl. It’s pretty hilarious and features Kevin & Olivia from Attack of the Show. This is the first full length video that Parry has done from what I can tell, he usually likes doing silly songs to adorable furry animals. Nice change of pace.
PS3
The newer, slimmer, cheaper PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 and Wii during the month of September, according to new data from the NPD Group, the first time the console has bested both of its console rivals in the U.S.
Sony’s recent price drop was in effect for the full month of September, more than doubling month-to-month PS3 sales to the tune of 491,800. That’s easily better than its nearest competitor, the Wii, which managed 462,800 units sold in the United States last month and well beyond what the Xbox 360 sold.
None of those consoles, however, managed to outsell Nintendo’s DS platform, which continues its six month streak atop the NPD Group’s hardware chart with another half-million plus sold.
Nintendo DS – 524,200
PlayStation 3 – 491,800
Wii – 462,800
Xbox 360 – 352,600
PSP – 190,400
PlayStation 2 – 146,000
Total hardware sales in the U.S. amounted to $472.28 million during the month of September, which runs from 8/30 to 10/03, according to the NPD Group’s window. Speaking of NPD, here’s what analyst Anita Frazier had to say.
“All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realized an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August).”
“Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year’s sales,” Frazier notes, pointing to last September’s less than impressive fifth place finish for the PlayStation 3. “This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month.”
Am I living in a dreamworld? I mean who the heck are the nearly 200,000 people buying a PSP? Seriously…absolutely awesome numbers for the PS3. They finally figured out how to market their console and the price drop was the right dose of medicine at the right time. All systems did well actually, and heck I’m even thinking of buying a PS3. I really would like to play Uncharted 2, Infamous and Batman: Arkham Asylum, the I can play as the Joker edition. That’s three games more than I wanted from the PS3 last year. Xbox 360 would logically still be my console of choice but specials and one offs like I mentioned, interested.
Like many, for the last few years I was truly dogging the system and rightfully so. But PS3 proved that they can still be a player in the market. It also proved something else, we have three legit systems. All of them bring something to the table. Wii can sell systems still like nobody’s business and Xbox 360 can still sell plenty of copies of the marquee games because of its high attach rate. Could PS3 be the best of both worlds or at least a good gravy in-between? I’m actually curious to find out.
I would file this under no issue as well except how did this noob get a hot chick like that? I’m calling total BS!
Madden
By the end of this month, Cleveland supafan John “Big Dawg” Thompson should resolve his civil suit against Electronic Arts, alleging the unauthorized use of his likeness in the publisher’s Madden NFL series.
Two weeks ago The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported that Thompson’s lawyers had canceled a procedural conference because the case is in the process of being dismissed. Thompson, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s “Hall of Fans,” who wears a bug-eyed dog mask, hard hat and waves a bone, had sued EA for a similar character appearing in Madden NFL 2005.
The Plain Dealer’s Oct. 5 report said the suit was expected to be resolved in three weeks. His suit sought at least $25,000 and a promise from EA to no longer use his image.
*laugh*, I had no idea that the Big Dawg actually held a trademark to his own ridiculous likeness? I need to go find a ridiculous costume and act like a huge Phillies fan and maybe I’ll get in the MLB game (oh wait, I think the Phanatic beat me to that). Actually if that happened, I would be showing it off to everybody that would watch for 10 seconds. But then again, I’m not interested in getting mine especially when it’s a minor appearance in a yearly sports game. Now if I was the head character in a fantasy rpg, it be a different matter.
Seriously, it’s probably for the best that this settled out of court and EA probably gave him a small amount of cash and a free copy of the game every year for the rest of his life. Maybe. This guy is bad news anyway as he has had a DUI and he is apparently not a very good representation of the average Cleveland football fan. Don’t they all like the Bengals or the Steelers anyway?
I think if I was a Browns fan, I’d probably start wearing a dog mask, construction helmet and overeat way more than I should too. Oh yeah, I went there.
Joint Pain
A St. Louis fifth-grader, with help from his father (a rheumatologist) and researchers from New York University, led a study showing kids were more likely to complain of joint pain the more they played video games.
Deniz Ince, 11, is the lead author on the study, to be presented Monday in Philadelphia at the annual meeting of the American College of Rheumatology. Ince, who enjoys playing the Wii, found his fingers ached when he squeezed oranges. He set about researching the matter to determine if video games were linked to it.
The study surveyed 171 of Ince’s schoolmates, aged 7 to 12 years old. Eighty percent said they played consoles or handhelds, and half of those said they played less than an hour a day. A third said they played one to two hours daily, and 7 and 6 percent said they played 2 to 3 or 3 or more hours a day, respectively.
The study found that each additional hour of use increased the likelihood of experiencing pain by 50 percent. It also found a higher pain incidence in younger children than older.
The study’s senior author, Dr. Yasuf Yazici of New York University, said “the younger the kids, the more significant the pain.” Why exactly couldn’t be proven by the research, although the researchers believe it might be because muscles and tendons in younger kids are still developing.
The survey respondents said the pain they felt was “generally mild,” although some 22 percent found it enough to limit how much they played. Interestingly, playing a Wii exclusively resulted in more self-reported pain, regardless of the player’s age or how much he or she played per day.
Interesting study. I pretty much came to the realization a long time ago that my hands were walking time-bombs unless I took care of them. I mean think of all the crappy controllers I had to endure on the way to decent ones like the Playstation Dual Shocks or the current Xbox 360 one? I still get nightmares over the 3do, Jaguar or the N64. I don’t care what people say, that thing was horrid.
This study is correct, if you play way too much or don’t properly condition your hands, you can certainly suffer a lot of pain. I’ve been playing video games for almost 30 years and my job involves a lot of typing and I do pretty well. *knock on wood*, but that’s cause I don’t rarely overdo things. I might play a game for a couple of hours but then I go and watch tv or stare aimlessly at something. See…being lazy does have its advantages.
I think the problem is that a lot of people don’t understand moderation. If something hurts them after prolonged use, they would probably consider just stopping it all together. Instead, they could learn to moderate themselves and they could have a much better time enjoying something they really love. I do wonder one thing about the study and that is if they included the Guitar Hero/RockBand guitars. Those suckers I did have the worst trouble with hand pain but then I learned how to hold it better as well as not play as long.
Panzer General: Allied Assault is a strategic wargame. It’s turn based and you make all of your movements on a hex map by use of player cards. The graphics aren’t amazing or anything but the gameplay should be pretty stellar if you are into this sort of thing. In conjunction with the XBLA release, there will also be a board game released around the same time.
A mobile phone game has finally come to Xbox Live Arcade. Don’t sound so thrilled. The game is about building cities but with 4 types of towers: Blue, Red, Green and Yellow. Yellow is the best but they require a Blue, Red and Green to be built first. It’s about controlling your population and getting the opportunity to build more towers.
The original Lost Winds was one of the WiiWare’s launch titles. So it is only natural that it gets a sequel. In this one, Enril the Wind Spirit returns to protect and guide Toku by increasing his jumping and aiding against all of the enemies. Toku must save his mother, Magdi and to do so, he must go through new enemies, recruit friends and harness new powers. The game did very well the first time around and we’ll see if it has similar success.
Battle for humanity in the jungle! OOOOO….in this game you are moving through the various parts of the jungle becoming stronger and gaining better weapons. First you might start out with a little hatchet but then you move up to weapons that can be shot and thrown. Okay, there isn’t much information on it, but if you have 500 points to burn, go buy a NES game or something.
The arcade version of Rygar first appeared in 1986. It had twenty-seven stages and was praised for beautiful graphics and some good gameplay. Take your Diskarmor because you will need that and some good platform skills to make it through. This is a much better version than the NES one and kinda glad that it showed up on Virtual Console, it’s a fun ride.
PS2
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
FIFA Soccer 10
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Marvel Super Hero Squad
MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
Astro Boy: The Video Game
Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun
Backyard Football 2010
PSP
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
FIFA Soccer 10
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Ford Racing Off Road
Marvel Super Hero Squad
Mytran Wars
Astro Boy: The Video Game
Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun
PS3
FIFA Soccer 10
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Borderlands
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Xbox 360
FIFA Soccer 10
Borderlands
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Lips Number One Hits Bundle
Backyard Football 2010
Wii
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
FIFA Soccer 10
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Marvel Super Hero Squad
Littlest Pet Shop Friends
Dance Dance Revolution Disney Grooves
Dragon Ball: Revenge of King Piccolo
Deer Drive
Backyard Football 2010
Horse Life Adventures
Cook Wars
Ultimate Duck Hunting
Island of Dr. Frankenstein
Geon Cube
Shimano Xtreme Fishing
Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun
Chicken Shoot
Astro Boy: The Video Game
Charm Girls Club: Pajama Party
Rock Blast
Doctor Fizzwhizzle’s Animal Rescue
Army Rescue
Safari Adventures: Africa
DS
Bakugan Battle Brawlers
Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop
Littlest Pet Shop Friends: Beach
Littlest Pet Shop Friends: City
Balloon Pop
FIFA Soccer 10
Space Invaders Extreme 2
Margot’s Bepuzzled
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2010
Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2010
Littlest Pet Shop Friends: Country
Reversal Challenge
Marvel Super Hero Squad
Imagine: Fashion Designer World Tour
Petz Dolphinz Encounter
Astro Boy: The Video game
Charm Girls Club: My Fashion Mall
Charm Girls Club: My Perfect Prom
Sideswiped
Secret Saturdays: Beasts of the 5th Sun
Charm Girls Club: My Fashion Show
Safari Adventures: Africa
Goodness gracious! I never saw much crap for the Wii and DS in my life. Mind you there are some good titles this week for both, but you have to get through a lot of muck to get there. Heck, even the PS2 and the PSP get 8 titles a piece. WWE gets its usual yearly installment here but I am actually excited for this one as it includes quite a lot of new features. Borderlands also gets an interesting release and this is something I might also pick up but further down the road. The reviews sound solid and it looks like something I would want to invest time into. So maybe later. Bakugan Battle Brawlers will surely sell a few copies for fans of the card game. Oh, one minor shoutout for a game that will probably be missed: Marvel Superhero Squad for the Wii and PS2 (among others). I know, I know…but the show is charming as long as you take it tongue and cheek and the gameplay features over 20 characters both heroes and villains. So maybe it’s not so bad?
So, I actually went all impulse in Best Buy yesterday. It was release day. I went in there just telling myself, hey I will look at Smackdown vs Raw but probably not get it. *laugh* It wasn’t there first of all, so an employee went into the back for me to find a copy. He found it, gave it to me and impulse took over. I also picked up a copy of Marvel SuperHero Squad for the PS2 the same way. They had Wii copies on the floor but had forgot to stock PS2.
Then I had a wedding to plan for, and we needed a printer. Bam, HP Wireless Printer. *sigh*. Oh wait, I forgot I get any WWE DVD for $5 since I got Smackdown vs Raw. *rummages through* I picked up the The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment. I’m such a sucker for his promos. Came out of there spending a little over $200. Lordie. Well, I believe I will be driving down Know Your Role Boulevard and checking into the Smackdown Hotel later this week. I should have reviews of Smackdown and Marvel Superhero Squad soon. I got some prior commitments on the site first but I want to make sure I get to those. Take care kiddoes.
As Always,
Kedrix of Aldrianian
(*The Forgotten One*)
