The things you buy
November 19, 2008
UK Chart
PC gaming is dead? Not so - two PC games have entered in the top ten this week. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at #2 and Sega’s Football Manager 2009 at #3. Of course Call of Duty: World at War takes the top spot, and has become the third fastest selling game in the UK, behind GTA IV and GTA: San Andreas. Wii Music fails to make the top ten, having to make to do with trumpeting in at #16.
Gears of War 2 - last week’s #1 - drops to #4 while Guitar Hero: On Tour has risen from #17 to #6. Sony’s big hope LittleBigPlanet has had a bad second week going from #4 to #19, while Quantum of Solace has also fallen, from #8 to #18. Tom Clancy’s EndWar is making an usually sharp exit from the chart, currently at #39.
Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones are both back in the chart, at #24 and #21 respectively. I’m not sure if this is on the back of the DVD releases or because they’re being bundled with Xbox 360 consoles. There’s a double pack doing the rounds, see, a bit like last year’s Forza 2 and Viva Pinata bundle.
The Daily Hotness: You’re the best around
November 18, 2008
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I love Capcom so much for using this music in their latest SF II HD Remix trailers. Now, who will win? Ryu or Bison?
Jim has dibs on Louis, DMV reviews Valkyria Chronicles, part three of the Destructoid Tournament is underway, Blizzard won’t be making WoW expansions forever, and plenty more happened on 11/18/08.
Tuesday Regulars:
Podtoid 76: More like ten sh*tloads
RetRose Tinted: Total Carnage
Game Debate to the Death! Shadow of the Colossus VS God of War
Originals:
RetroforceGO! records episode 68 tonight: Sonic the Hedgehog with Jim Sterling
Attention, everyone who is buying Left 4 Dead: I have dibs on Louis
Not a review: Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2
Review:
Valkyria Chronicles
Contest:
Destructoid Tournament Game 3 begins! Get scribbling
EA Sports/Gillette contest, Day 2: NBA Live courtside! Win the game!
News:
Blizzard won’t be making WoW expansions forever, also annual content
B**tch betta’ have my money: Brash being sued by devs over unpaid dues
Call of Duty: World at War becomes third fastest selling game in the UK
Spore gets third patch, free limbs get you 24 parts closer to making your ex
Microsoft compares NXE to the birth of color television
Multiple Diablo III expansions expected, water is wet, and other obvious facts
Mobile game sales have ‘flatlined’
Confirmed: Dead Rising Wii box art features fewer zombies than 360 box art
New study shows that Wii motions won’t make you violent
Square Enix is hiring for action game at new Los Angeles office
Is Sony ripping off costume entries for LittleBigPlanet?
Vietnam gets its first haven for addicted gamers
Valkyria Chronicles‘ composer Hitoshi Sakimoto’s private liner notes
Namco Bandai’s games division profits fall 92 percent
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed gets new costume DLC. You are all excited
You already knew this, but The King of Fighters XII is coming to NA and EU ‘09
Street Fighter II HD comes to XBL Nov. 26, ‘branded experience’ tomorrow
If you heard The Agency was canceled, you heard wrong
Epic sorry for Gears 2 matchmaking problems, tries to help
Gears of War 2 multiplayer facts: Shotgun still powerful, quit yer bitchin’
Play Neopets Puzzle Adventure DS now and recognize
Halo Wars is the result of what not to do in a console RTS
Sony has 14 million ‘active accounts’ on PSN
Netflix streaming takes a serious hit, Columbia Pictures not watchable on 360
Good Old Games fist bumps Epic, adds Unreal series to its catalog
Weekly LBP DLC: Get your LocoRoco on my Sackboy, also T.V.
Rumortoid:
A new OutRun game coming from Sega and THQ?
Offbeat:
Daily irrelevance: Game piracy lawyers protecting the rights of Army F*ckers
Stop kids getting stabbed by not playing videogames every third Sunday
Videos:
Even more Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe videos
Lips commercial will either crack you up or give you nightmares
You’re still the best … around: New Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix vid
Weekly LBP DLC: Get your LocoRoco on my Sackboy, also T.V.
November 18, 2008
Until today, I thought it would be a significant challenge to make the Kratos costume seem obsolete in LittleBigPlanet. The latest content update for LBP will feature six costumes in total. Five of them (packaged together) will be themed after my personal favorite PSP title, LocoRoco. As you can see from the above image, these are all adorable and worth every penny of the $2.99 price tag.
In addition to the LocoRoco stuff, there will also be a free costume. You may remember Media Molecule’s contest where winners would have their images represented in the game. Designer “neu1ou5” just got this great honor with his clever TV-themed Sackboy. I’m not sure if there is a metaphor here, but I can’t help but to wonder the inspiration. If you’re interested, MM’s interpretation of his drawing can be seen here and can be downloaded along with the LocoRoco stuff this Thursday.
What do you guys think about the LocoRoco costumes? I’m wicked hyped, actually. Now if I could only get confirmation that Sackboy will inherit the power to bite stuff. Not only would that be an awesome new skill, but it is also the only proper way to celebrate LocoRoco 2’s eventual arrival.
[via PlayStation.Blog]
Netflix streaming takes a serious hit, Columbia Pictures not watchable on 360
November 18, 2008
I fired up my 360 and installed the New Xbox Experience last night.. After making my avatar and fiddling with the menus, I sunk my teeth into the feature I was most looking forward to, Netflix streaming, and watched a couple episodes of a short-lived, Jay Mohr TV show.
This afternoon, I went back to watch some more, only to discover that the show was no longer listed in my Instant Watch Queue on the 360. A quick trip to the Netflix website revealed that, yes, it was still in my queue but, no, it was not available for Xbox.
Apparently, a lot of movies and TV shows have dropped off the face of the service over the last twenty-four hours. Joystiq did a little bit of matlocking and found the thing that they all have in common: Columbia Pictures, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment. What an amazing coincidence!
There is, at present, no way of knowing if a movie you want to watch is on the 360 blacklist until it’s in your queue, where Netflix lists what videos cannot be watched on the console. So, if you were planning on curling up on the couch to watch The Freshman (as I had wanted to do later this evening), you’re out of luck.
Review of Left 4 Dead
November 18, 2008
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4 out of 5
In most first-person shooters, there’s a fine distinction between the single- and multiplayer games, a distinction that Valve’s Left 4 Dead does its best to obliterate. This is a case where the campaign, online co-op, and online multiplayer modes all bleed together into a delightfully putrid miasma of first-person zombie panic. For all the games that have used zombies as foils, Left 4 Dead is probably the closest a video game has gotten to recreating the oscillating senses of dread and terror that are fundamental to a good zombie movie. It makes for one of the most thrilling and unique shooter experiences you’ll have this year, as well as one of the most authentic, kinetic zombie games ever made.
The beauty of Left 4 Dead is that it taps into a vision of the zombie apocalypse that is so familiar from films that it allows for a frightening economy in the way the game establishes its characters and setting. The game opens up “two weeks after first infection” with a brief cinematic of the four survivors amidst a horde of attacking zombies, and it’s the closest the game comes to providing out-and-out exposition. The lack of further explanation of how the zombie pandemic started actually works to the game’s advantage, as confusion and the fear of the unknown are two of the greatest strengths of a good zombie scenario. On a practical level, you’ll be so concerned with simply surviving that any other concerns quickly fall by the wayside.
There are some blurbs in the game’s manual that provide a little more back story for the four survivors, but they’re all so archetypal in appearance and behavior–though without feeling generic–that you get a great sense of who these people are simply by interacting with them. The game also uses the state of the world itself to drive home just how bad things have gotten. Alternating between city streets, open wilderness, and other hallmarks of modern civilization such as hospitals and airports, this is a world that you know, albeit one scattered with the debris of previous carnage where civil services have broken down all but completely, and anyone still alive has boarded themselves up inside buildings and armed themselves to the teeth.
One of my favorite parts of Left 4 Dead is the safe rooms, where previous survivors have scrawled messages to loved ones, contradicting details about other safe locations, tallies of zombies killed, and darkly comic boastings like “no zombie is safe from Chicago Ted.” Even though you never see another non-zombie over the course of the game, the world seems familiar and lived-in. In a way, Left 4 Dead is a kindred spirit with Portal, another Valve-produced game that relies on inference and non-intrusive means to establish the bigger picture.
The campaign mode consists of four independent scenarios, the objectives for which are consistent throughout: survival. You’ll start out stranded in one location, surrounded by the undead, and you’ll fight from one safe house to the next, working your way towards a destination where you’ll presumably find rescue. Between points A and B, you’ll find yourself in a world undulating with mobs of shuffling, “common” zombies who, if left to their own devices, will usually just ignore you. If you shoot a zombie, or disturb them by operating machinery or accidentally set off a car alarm, they’ll snap to attention and start sprinting towards you with the singular focus of tearing you to shreds. In small groups, these brown-label zombies don’t pose much of a threat, though the game will regularly try to overwhelm you with hordes of them, which is a simply terrifying sight.
Of greater concern are the breeds of special zombies, who are tougher than the regular horde, and who come with some unique and deadly abilities. Boomers are corpulent, dyspeptic blobs who can hit survivors with a blast of vomit that both blinds them and causes them to attract a horde of zombies. The smoker tends to hang out further away from the main path, using its long tongue to drag survivors towards it. The hunter is a quick and nimble zombie who, when close enough, will pounce on a survivor and maul them. The tank is a hulking, thick-skinned beast that will tear up hunks of concrete and hurl them from afar, and it only takes one or two punches from one of these to incapacitate a survivor. Each of these special zombies require the use of specific tactics, though none are as dangerous or unique as the witch, who appears to be a thin wisp of a girl who, if left undisturbed, will simply sit on the ground and whimper plaintively. But if you get too close, shine your flashlight on her, or, God forbid, shoot her, she turns into a screaming whirlwind of deadly claws that can be quite difficult to put down. The game constantly encourages you to avoid the witch at all costs, and with good reason.
Forward momentum is critical to survival, though there are several points in each scenario where you’ll find yourself trapped, with no recourse but to try and outlast the swarms of the undead before you can progress. Similarly, the scenarios culminate in a dramatic last stand, where you’re forced to fend off wave after wave of zombies from a specific location as you await the arrival of your rescuers. Regardless of where you are, survivors need to stick together. A straggler makes a fine target for a hunter or a smoker, and once they’ve snared you, the only way you’re getting out is with the help of another survivor. Other survivors can also heal you with their own first-aid kits, give you pain pills, and lift you up off the ground when you’re incapacitated. The co-op nature of Left 4 Dead is a blade that cuts both ways, in that your explicit reliance on other players can make the experience both more satisfying and frustrating. The alternative is to play with some surprisingly competent computer controlled survivors. While the AI features a few quirks, such as their tendency to not pick up pipe bombs and molotovs, as well as the occasional problem negotiating doorways, they’re not nearly as prone to accidentally shoot their teammates, and they’re extremely attentive when you get pinned down or incapacitated. The lack of flesh-and-blood teammates evens out the experience, tamping down both the highs and the lows.
There’s also a versus mode which pits two teams of four against each other–one as the survivors, and one as the zombies–with the roles alternating between rounds. Save for the increased difficulty of playing against live opponents, playing as the survivors isn’t much different from the campaign mode, though playing as the zombies is an entirely different experience. Zombies aren’t anywhere near as resilient as the survivors, but while the survivors have only one life per round, zombies can spawn repeatedly. With each life, you’re randomly assigned to a different type of special zombie–either boomer, smoker, hunter, or tank–before you’re allowed to choose your spawn point, preferably near the survivors, though the game puts a limit on how close you can spawn. Stalking your prey and coordinating with your zombie teammates makes this the antithesis of the survivor experience, and the presence of plenty of common zombies keeps the versus mode feeling true to the campaign. It’s a shame that, for some inexplicable reason, only two of the four maps that Left 4 Dead ships with can be played in the versus mode, simply because it’s so much fun.
The basic movement speed in Left 4 Dead is pretty fast, and while this isn’t a game that demands pinpoint accuracy with your weapons, you never feel like the game is taking it easy on you. A big part of this is thanks to the game’s AI director. Depending on both the set difficulty level and how well you’ve been playing the game so far, it will change up when, where, and how many zombies get spawned, as well as the placement of random items like first-aid kits, pain pills, molotov cocktails, and pipe bombs. Prior to the game’s release, Valve has put a lot of focus on how radically the AI director can affect the play experience from one session to the next, and while each scenario features a few alternate paths, the consistency of your objectives restrain its influence to specific beats rather than the overall rhythm. This would be a complete non-issue, except that with just four scenarios, each taking roughly an hour to complete, it doesn’t take long to see everything Left 4 Dead has to offer. The reactive nature of the AI director and the variables inherent to the game’s multiplayer focus give these scenarios longer legs than they might have otherwise, but you’ll still wish there was more to it. In a way, it’s a credit to how well-crafted the scenarios are that you come away hungry for more.
As with The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead features a developer commentary mode which places brief bits of audio commentary throughout the game. The delivery can be a little dry at times, and it might be a little too nuts-and-bolts for some, though the insight provided into the process behind the game, as well as how the choices made have an impact on the final product, are consistently fascinating.
Left 4 Dead runs on the Source engine, the same engine that powered Half-Life 2 some four years ago. It’s definitely getting a little long in the tooth, but it still puts on a pretty good show here. The game’s smart use of lighting, film-grain effects, and various, subtle contrast and color effects give much of the world a desolate, washed-out feeling. The character models feature some of the most realistic, emotive faces I’ve seen in a game, and the stride of their animations will change depending on their current condition, to the point that you don’t even have to look a a survivor’s health bar to know how they’re doing. There are some quirks, with interactions between characters being pretty consistently awkward, but the game’s art direction is so thoroughly engrossing that the problems are easy to ignore.
The sound in Left 4 Dead plays a deceptively subtle role in both the mood and the gameplay. The feral screeches of the zombies are unsettlingly animalistic, and the ways in which the survivors will shout out to each other conveys their varying levels of desperation. The music is also damned effective, employing eerie synthesized tones straight out of a John Carpenter movie to create a dangerous level of tension, and building up to some ominous horns whenever the action is about to get serious. It’s not all window-dressing, though, and with a keen ear you’ll be able to identify the presence of a special zombie before you’ll actually see them. This is of particular importance when dealing with the witch.
The PC and Xbox 360 versions are pretty comparable across the board, though there are a few predictable deviations, such as the higher resolutions afforded by the PC hardware and the sharper controls of a mouse and keyboard. Communication with your team is key in Left 4 Dead, and while the PC version supports voice chat, it’s not as standardized as it is on the 360, and you can’t expect every player to have a headset. While the PC version features a quick dialogue tree that lets you call out a few specific phrases, it’s no substitute for direct communication.
Due to the mere four scenarios included in Left 4 Dead, the biggest factor in deciding between the two versions will be post-release support. The standalone nature of the scenarios would make it easy for Valve and/or the community to cook up some new and exciting levels, which could extend the life of the game considerably. The Xbox 360 version is still terrific fun, though the limited post-release support that Valve has provided for the contents of The Orange Box on the 360, compounded by the inability of players to distribute their own custom maps, potentially gives the PC version a distinct advantage.
Beyond its categorical success in establishing a vivid picture of the zombie apocalypse, Left 4 Dead’s biggest breakthrough is the way it blurs the lines between the often compartmentalized pieces of a modern first-person shooter. It makes for a game that’s unlike any other, and while the limited amount of content is admittedly unfortunate, that shouldn’t keep you from experiencing this fast-paced, nerve-wracking game.
Release Date:
Halo Wars is the result of what not to do in a console RTS
November 18, 2008
Poking fun at the console RTS is like kicking a sick puppy. We’re all aware that controls, camera and gameplay are significantly weaker on a console than it is on the PC. Despite popular knowledge, it’s still entertaining to observe what each console RTS developer will be trying to do differently with their game. In an interview with CVG, Halo Wars lead designer Gaeme Devine said he observed the aforementioned issues with console RTSs and purposefully designed a game to avoid them.
From the interview:
What we’ve seen before on console is that people try to take a PC game and port it to a console. You end up with a half-way hybrid. There are a lot of things that we saw that were wrong - that we noted NOT to do.
He then went on to say that he didn’t think, “anyone’s done good console strategy games before” other than Pikmin and some crazy German Megadrive game called Hertzog Zwei. I haven’t had the pleasure of exploring the marvel that is Hertzog, but I’m sure it’s amazing.
Personally, I’m in the camp that thinks console RTSs could work if the context was actually considered. I think a game like Halo Wars (where the console was in mind the entire time) has the ability to break the “PC is better” wall we’ve been dealing with. What do you guys think? Will the RTS always be a PC thing?
Go to Source
Wii Fit more memorable than new lubricant
November 18, 2008
The Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey is definitely as interesting as it sounds. It tells us today that Americans can remember fewer new things this year because of the economic shit storm and the presidential election.
Moreover, it tells us that Wii Fit is the most memorable new product launch of 2008. It beat the iPod Touch into second place, but it’s the other top products that I’m interested in, providing as they do a fascinating insight into the American market.
Third is fruity low calorie Bud Light Lime, which sums up the very alien to me North American attitude to beer.
At four: McDonald’s Southern Style Chicken Biscuit & Sandwich, which I just don’t understand. Other threatening foodstuffs among the top rankers were Kraft Mac & Cheese Crackers, Burger King Apple Fries and Kraft Bagel-fuls.
Sixth on the list was KY Yours + Mine Couples Lubricant - not something I would have expected to see. It’s encouraging, at least, that Wii Fit was more memorable. Rock Band, however, was joint eighth, and thus less memorable than the new lubricant.
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