Mass Effect 2: Not that bad. For an Xbox 360 game.
Hell, frozen
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Monthly Archives: February 2010
Deja vu
Don’t look now, but Nintendo is having issues keeping Wii’s on the shelves again. Probably just a passing fad. Or sneaky Nintendo is manufacturing a shortage. Or something. Just read the comments on articles like this one to get the delusional picture. Hint: Adam Coate.
Clothes shopping
When I read review roundups for interactive quick time event pseudo-movie Heavy Rain, I like to picture the reviewers naked. No, not because I’m a perv or anything, but because their strained reviews and peculiar over-justification and defense of this “title” remind of the way the main character acted in a certain classic tale.
“It’s going to be the biggest year in the history of Xbox”
So says spinster Aaron Greenberg at Microsoft’s X10 conference today. After which, he proceeded to rattle off a list of sequels to games that game out in 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Halo: Reach, Fable III, Splinter Cell Conviction, Dead Rising 2, Lost Planet 2, Crackdown 2 and DLC for Left 4 Dead 2.
Lots of 2′s in there, which leads me to believe this year will actually weaker than years prior. That’s also about $360+ worth of software right there, PLUS DLC. Who can afford all this in a single year!? But hey, he’s a bullshit artist. Doing the job well.
Lipstick on a pig
A rare non-cynical post from yours truly: The Xbox 360 “Game Room” looks pretty fun, and the games are, like a certain pad-shaped thing from Apple, aggressively priced. It’s just too bad Nintendo thought of the whole thing first with Virtual Console. Does Microsoft ever innovate anymore?
And, yeah, there it is. The cynicism snuck in there at the very end. Back to our regular scheduled programming.
No thanks
When I hear there’s new Fallout 3 DLC coming down the pipeline, I get excited. Buggy as it is, these updates are entire experiences, built around new cities and locations. They are, literally, new games.
When I hear EA talk about DLC, and how it’s going to be in every game going forward, beginning this year, I hear nothing about the customer. Just a bunch of stuff about fighting non-existent piracy and screwing people who buy used copies because they can’t afford EA’s $60 collection of average games.
Anyway, today GameIndustry.biz talked about DLC being the future. That may be for some, but it will never be the case if DLC is used to screw the customer–new market, used market, or otherwise.
Thank you
A quick thanks to Insight analyst Dale Maunu, who just saved me some time by identifying 10-15 games I will not be buying in 2010.
Answer: Yes
Question: If you write a column about how violent video games are worse for kids than ones with sexual content, will angst-ridden male teens on a video game blog attack you violently with words, thereby proving your point?
Pack an umbrella
Because EA’s going to rain all sorts of useless shit on you throughout the entire 2010 calendar year. Is 2010 going to be the year they finally try and pull the “buy this DLC for the final boss battle” trick? They’re still losing millions–the answer is probably yes!
Prediction
EA is in the shitter/hurting by this time in 2011 and Riccitello is canned or resigns. In hindsight, I guess that’s two.