The Good, The Bad and The Ugly News Report 07.04.09 UFC and EA MMA, Release Dates for Alpha Protocol and Battlefield 1943, Warner Bros. Buys Midway and More!

Posted by Armando Rodriguez on 07.04.2009

Plus, Square Enix's new announcement spoiled, Namco Bandai gets DBZ and a lot more!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am back! After an unintended one week hiatus The Good, The Bad and The Ugly News Report is back! I am sorry for my absence last week and I cannot give you many details about why the column wasn't posted last week (HINT: It involves Mark Salmela, Shaqy, a homework-eating dog and a drunken Smurf who might or might not have been Drew Robbins) but it was clear that this report needed a few modifications. Gone are the copy+paste news from Gamespot and instead I will write a small summary of them followed by my thoughts. This will make the column shorter and more reader friendly and will also please The King. Because we all need to please The King! Otherwise, no Whoppers for me….and I am starving!

As for what I did during the week, well, I started a new summer class in college. Yes, I am sacrificing a full month of my summer for the sake of getting my bachelor's degree in Management and Human Resource Management by December. It doesn't help that my professor is from Haiti and we cannot understand one word he speaks in either, English or Spanish. Or that the class is part of an intensive program, which means six hours a day, five days a week, with only a 30 minute break. Or that I suck at math and the entire class is full of math problems that take 3 pages to solve. What this means is that my gaming time has been cut back considerably. I still picked up Bomberman Ultra, Trash Panic and Astro Tripper from the PSN and will be reviewing the first two by the end of the week. But enough about me, let's go straight into the news!

Biggest News of the Week: UFC Will Ban Fighters That Appear on EA's MMA Game

This is a rumor that has been posted in several reliable MMA forums. Apparently the UFC made it clear that any unsigned fighter (that means someone who is not currently in the UFC) that agrees to appear in EA's upcoming MMA game will be banned for life from competing in the UFC. The news, as posted on MMA forum MMA Scraps by a user named Golden Boy stated the following:

"I hear that all [MMA] managers were informed that if any of their clients not currently under contract with the UFC sign to be a part of the EA game, the[y] will forever be banned for fighting in the UFC".

Later on another poster going by the user name KenP, who is apparently notable MMA agent Ken Pavia stated the following:

""It's true. And they told me [they] want the word out."
Credit: MMA Scraps, Gamespot.com


UGLY: I can't believe this. If this is true, the law should get involved. With this threat UFC is trying to hurt the fighter's opportunities at making a living for themselves and their families. These fighters are told to reject EA's money if they want to have a chance at the UFC. But what if that chance never comes? Is the UFC so deathly afraid of competition? I really hope this is not true because it will be a black eye for the UFC, a real step back. It will prove that MMA and especially the UFC are still as shady as it was during the "dark days", before Dana White and Zuffa came along. The thing is that the young, not well known fighters are the ones at risk here and it is those same fighters that more than likely need EA's money the most. Come on, do you think UFC will ban Fedor if he takes EA's money? Of course not! If Fedor one day decides he wants to come to the UFC, Dana will bend over backwards to make sure it happens, because Fedor = money. But Joe Potential out there, the young kid that could one day be a superstar, will think it twice to sign EA's deal and take the money in the hopes that one day he has a chance at the UFC. But what if that chance never comes? See where am going? This is as low a blow as I have ever seen. EA might have done things to infuriate us in the past and some people will see this as payback by the Video Game Gods, but I really believe this goes beyond what EA did with the NFL and NASCAR licenses. At least the football players still made a living in the sport and their jobs where not threatened or affected by the move.

Alpha Protocol Infiltrates on October 6

This week Sega announced that their spy-RPG Alpha Protocol will arrive on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and PC on October 6, 2009. The game, which borrows heavily from such characters as Jason Bourne, James Bond and Jack Bauer (what is it with spies and names starting with J?) will follow secret agent Michael Thornton who has turned rogue after being disavowed by his government. The game follows a branching storyline similar to games like Mass Effect and will allow players to assume a variety of personas.
Credit: Gamespot.com

Alpha Protocol Sneaks Into Stores October 6th

GOOD: I am very excited for this game, so much so that I plan on buying it on launch date. I know that I have been very critical of Sega in the past, but if this game really turns out to be a cross between Mass Effect and 24 I can't see how could they possibly screw this one up, not when you have one of my favorite developers (Obsidian Entertainment) handling the game. Of course, like I said about Batman: Arkham Asylum, excitement can lead to being letdown and I hope this is not one of those cases.

Namco Bandai Gets Exclusive Dragon Ball Z Rights

Namco Bandai issued an announcement this week in which they officially announced their acquisition of the Dragon Ball license from FUNimation and Toei Animation. The license will allow them to publish all Dragon Ball games on all consoles in North America starting January 2010. The license will last until 2015. Namco Bandai already had publishing rights in Japan.

This means that Dragon Ball Z Raging Blast, Dragon Ball: The Return of King Piccolo and Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans will be the last 3 Dragon Ball games published by Atari.
Credit: Gamespot.com


GOOD: To be honest I don't know what Namco could do with the Dragon Ball license to make it interesting again. Maybe more RPG's and Action games and less fighting games, since Atari pretty much ran those into the ground by releasing the same game every year. But every license needs to be refreshed and maybe with a change of hands we will see better games. Namco's Naruto games are not half bad (even for someone who doesn't care about Naruto like me) and I am excited to see what else can be milked out of DBZ.

The Saga is Over: Warner Bros. Buys Midway

It is official: Midway has been sold to Warner Bros. for $33 million. With the sale Warner Bros. acquires the rights to several Midway franchises, including Mortal Kombat and The Wheelman, but not the license to TNA Impact! The San Diego and Newcastle Studios where not a part of the sale either.
Credit: Gamespot.com


GOOD: People, it's time to party! Finally the soap opera is over and we can move on to games. I am sorry for Midway, but I was getting tired of them hogging the news every day. Also this means that the development of the next Mortal Kombat game can resume without uncertainty, which makes me very happy indeed.

Shonen Jump Spoils Square Enix's Big Announcement

For those that have been constantly going to Square Enix's newest teaser site in hopes of finding out what it is, well, I have you covered. Leaked scans of Japan's popular Weekly Shonen Jump have revealed exactly what that announcement is. The magazine showed a new Nintendo DS RPG, Four Warriors of Light: Final Fantasy Gaiden. The game will follow a 14-year old boy sent by a King to rescue a Princess from a wicked witch. Players will manage a party of four warriors whose appearances will change over time as they acquire new gear. There has been no confirmation if this new entry in the Final Fantasy series will make it to the US.
Credit: Weekly Shonen Jump, Gamespot.com

GOOD: Wow, someone made an RPG of the daily adventures of 411mania's Games section! We have the King (Larry Csonka) sending a 14-year old boy (Drew Robbins) to rescue a princess (The missing Derek Robbins) from the clutches of a wicked witch (Mark Salmela). There has been no confirmation about the other 3 warriors, but rumors state that Sam Pow, Todd Vote and me (of course, I am going to be the bad-ass tank character) are gearing up to help him. Probably I am going to be the one doing a heel turn midway through our adventures and siding with Mark after some persuasion from Shaqy, who I guess will fit the role of Mark's enforcer/sub-boss. Seriously folks, this game sounds like another entry in the Crystal Chronicles series and I would not be surprised if that's specified in the game's title for the eventual American release. The Nintendo DS is getting plenty of kick-ass RPG's lately and this is just another one of them.

Battlefield 1943 Drops Next Week!

Battlefield 1943 will be hitting Xbox Live Arcade and the Playstation Network next week for $15. The game takes place in World War II, but uses the Frostbite Engine (last seen in Battlefield Bad Company) that allows for massive destruction of buildings and debris. The game features 3 maps and 24-player online gameplay.
Credit: Gamespot.com


GOOD: I have been patiently awaiting the release of this game and I am excited it is finally here. I love the Battlefield series and I have had a lot of fun with them and I bet this is no exception. Wake Island is still one of my favorite maps and I am glad it made the cut here. I expect future DLC map packs as well, which would extend replay value.

No Useless News this week, so let's go straight to The Random Rant!

The Random Rant

I have become a huge fan of Valkyria Chronicles. The gameplay is fantastic, with hard, strategic battles at center stage. The game also took JRPG's outside of the swords and sorcery mold and into a fantasy World War scenario complete with guns, rifles and tanks. Although the story retains fantasy elements that seem magical, it is pretty different from anything else on the market. The story itself is fantastic and features a heart-wrenching moment that can be compared with Aerith dying in Final Fantasy VII. The new anime series is also really good and even when I am relying on fan-subs to understand what is going on I am still in love with it and I hope we get it translated (even if it's only in DVD form) here in America. It is unusual for me lately to give so much love and attention to something Sega made, but Valkyria Chronicles deserves it. But the greatness of this fantastic Strategy/RPG got me thinking about another Sega strategy RPG series that I used to love: Shining Force.

Both 16-bit titles are fantastic. I know the Genesis had a lot fewer good RPG's than the SNES, but I can tell you right now that to me Shining Force is on par, if not better, than anything the SNES had. It is probably the only RPG I have beaten dozens of times and I still don't get tired. Heck, I owned the GBA port and even purchased Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection for those games, even when I also own the original Genesis cartridges and have them on emulators on my PC and laptop. However, the series would never be the same. Outside of the third entry for the Saturn (which I never had the chance to play) Sega moved the series in another direction entirely and left us fans in the dust. The Shining Soul games for Game Boy Advance where passable, but neither touches the greatness of Shining Force. I fully believed that making another great Shining Force title would be impossible. That is, until I played Valkyria Chronicles.

Is it too much to ask that Sega assigns a new Shining Force title to the Valkyria Chronicles team? The engine and art style would be perfect for such a game and I am sure the hardcore Shining Force fan base would be thrilled. I want to know what happened to Dark Dragon, Darksol and Zeon. I want to control more fantastic units, from knights and Warriors to Golems and Cyborgs. I want a REAL Shining Force game!

The Reader's Voice:

Last week we asked:Which video game/movie/comic book character would you like to see make an appearance in the next Mortal Kombat?

Nic said: theres so many people that would be awesome in MK, the possibilities are nearly endless, but ill just go with a couple favorite random characters

SF-Bison, Vega, Gill(though Akuma would probably be the best in an MK environment)

Tekken-Heihachi, Kazuya, King(Grapple fatalities would be siiiiiiick)

Marvel-Magneto, Phoenix, Storm, Omega Red, Venom, Sabertooth(I like Wolverine, but Sabertooth is much wilder, i would expect more acrobatic/powerful fatalities)

I do think KRATOS would be a great PS3 exclusive so...

I think my pick for 360 exclusive would be...YOU from Fable 1 or 2 you could pretty much have any move as a fatality as he is pretty much badass in every way if you want him to be.

Great choices! I personally love the idea of YOU from Fable, although that gives me another idea….why don't they make a Create-a-Fighter mode similar to the CAW from Smackdown? I guess that they would need to make hundreds of fatality options, but it would be cool.

dogpound7382 said:Link and Gambit would be my choices. Link was already in Soul Caliber 2 so he's halfway there. Gambit is my favorite comic book character by far.

I wonder where Gambit would impale his opponents with his stick. I don't think we will ever see Link, but it would be cool. I always wanted to see Link look and behave like a total bad-ass instead of behaving like every good-willed Nintendo character in existence.

Todd Vote said: You sure know how to get me to read your column, what with all the MK love. That is awesome news that a new MK game is coming. he did say mo-cap, right? Could MK be going back to the graphical stylings of old? Or at least a 3-D updated version of the old look?

Love your reader question, too:
Neo from the Matrix would be a good fit.

Yeah, I guess I threw that question out there for you Todd. Maybe I need to ask one about Target Terror and see who shows up? *Hint:* He hangs out with a 7'1", 300-pound Kobe's Championship Golden Ass-tasting basketball player. Anyway, I can't believe I forgot about Neo. He would be God-like. Slow-mo fatalities? I am so there!


This Week's Question:

If Sony dropped the PS3's price, would you buy one?

Yes, I am doing Sony's work for them and doing market research. I would like you to tell me if you would buy a PS3 for a cheaper price and for how much. Try to be realistic (don't say something like $50) and if you still won't buy it, tell us why. Top answers will be a part of next week's column.

Goodbye:

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