B3yond the Report 8.11.09: Fat Princess, Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, More

Posted by Drew Robbins on 08.11.2009

B3yond the Report returns to its normal time-slot to discuss the Fat Princess patch, Little Big Planet getting a Game of the Year edition, Metal Gear Solid 4 still lacking trophies, and much more going on in the world of Sony.



It's my last B3yond, I swear this time! As I mentioned last week, Mark has left the column and it is now being picked up by a newbie, but I'll let him introduce himself next week since you really haven't heard from him before on 411. Anyhow, lets get this show on the road!

Fat Princess Fixed!

Hey look, now I can actually play that game I spent $15 on!



Yes, this is the biggest news of the week, and I'm not any happier than you are.

So it's a well established fact that if you bought Fat Princess when it launched, you probably didn't get to play it much. After only two days I had to put the game down because waiting times for a match were between 5 to 20 minutes. I love Fat Princess as much as the next guy, but I'll be darned if I'm going to pay $15 to wait, if I wanted to wait I'd play Home!

The waiting looks to be at an end though, because Titan Studios did what they should have done before the game launched by fixing things up. I touched on the subject last week, but I went a little too easy on it, to be honest. Releasing a game like this is not okay by any stretch of the imagination. In no other medium can you buy something that barely works and have a resounding amount of people be simply "okay" with it. The closest experience I've had to this was when I saw the first Transformers and the film messed up halfway through, but you know what, I got a refund. You can't get a refund on Fat Princess, once you've bought it, you can't do shit about it. Fifteen of my dollars went towards what was more or less a broken product, and I'm glad they finally fixed it, but I don't want other companies to get the message that its fine to release a broken product as long as you fix it eventually.

Missed it the first time – Get it Now, Little Big Planet Game of the Year Edition!

One of Sony's best gets a special edition



Little Big Planet? A bit over-hyped, Sony promised the moon and gave us something a bit underwhelming in comparison. Don't take that as scathing criticism, though, Little Big Planet would have needed to be like the second coming to match Sony's hype. It was still a pretty great platformer, and if you missed it the first go-around, you can make up for this mistake by picking up the Game of the Year edition.

Much in the same vain as Fallout 3's Game of the Year edition, Little Big Planet comes loaded down with plenty of DLC that people paid buckets of money to get. For the reasonable price of $50, you get what I once deemed the best PS3 game of last year, alongside $30 of DLC. What DLC are we talking here? Well…its DLC alright.

Media Molecule didn't go into specifics, but it would be hard to imagine that the game wouldn't come with the most substantial of the DLC, being the Metal Gear Solid map pack. Also expect plenty of Sony-based costumes; hopefully they don't load the $30 of DLC down with a bunch of the boring costumes that nobody cares about.

Konami Addresses the lack of trophies in Metal Gear Solid 4

And they are telling you to shut up about it already!



Hard to believe that Metal Gear Solid 4 is already a bit more than one year old, but it is, coming out early last June. At that time, trophies had done little to penetrate the conscience of PS3 gamers, with only smaller titles like PixelJunk Eden and Super Stardust HD actually utilizing the feature. A few key developers on the platform went back and jammed some trophies in classics such as Uncharted, but that was about it. Perhaps the biggest omission was the game that I mentioned at the beginning, Metal Gear Solid 4. Considering it was the first game to seemingly move PS3s off of shelves, it seems pretty weird that Konami never went back and patched in some trophies.

Naturally, as they often do, fans complained. For a while now these complaints looked to have fallen on deaf ears (or maybe they couldn't be heard over the sound of Kojima counting his cash?), but a response has been made. And it says…maybe. Talk about vague responses!

"I just wanna tell everybody out there right now that your voices are being heard and that we're not ignoring you. We hear everything that you are saying. It's just that we can't say anything just yet. But as soon as we have something to say, we will announce it. So, if we can just ask everyone to just be patient, we will give you an answer. But right now we can't say anything. So we just ask for everyone's understanding with that and just ask for everybody to remain patient and I'll let you know." - Sean Eyestone

I'm not sure it's possible to dance around a question any more than this. It reminds me of an old Penny Arcade comic where an IGN writer makes guesses such as "Sega might make another Sonic game…maybe." Konami might release a trophy patch, and they might not! We are back where we started, isn't that lovely?

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Playstation Store Update for the Week of August 6th



Fun galore, my favorite part of the column! Sarcasm, of course, but there is a bit of excitement surrounding some content found this week. Crystal Defenders has made its way off of the iPhone and onto the PSN, and I believe this is some sort of tower defense game. From what I understand, PixelJunk Monsters does it better, and also doesn't cling to an established brand (Final Fantasy) to make its money, and you can probably get Monsters for either the same price or a bit less. TV Show King is your other downloadable game option for the week, which I know almost nothing about, but it looks a little like Buzz based on the way I've seen it marketed. I can't very well give an opinion on this one because I honestly couldn't care any less regarding games like Buzz.

If you were wondering where all of the excitement I promised was, look no further than the demos this week, where Batman: Arkham Asylum has been made available. People are going crazy over this game and I'd just like to remind everyone that this is a demo. You can hardly trust demos for games such as this, it's just a small portion that Eidos likely polished quite a bit to make it presentable and attract more consumers. Who is to say that the rest of the game isn't a disaster? Early reviews are pretty good, but I'm still pretty skeptical of the game. Last time I saw it, the stealth looked awkward and the combat looked forgettable.

inFamous fans can purchase some Cole-based Little Big Planet costumes this week, which are pretty cool I'll admit, but then again Sackboy can't shoot lightning out of his hands, which is half of the appeal! World at War got its third map pack this week, and I'm sure if this is your thing you've already bought it and are once again hooked on one of the greatest multiplayer shooters of all time. The next little pack I'll cover (because I'm not talking about Cross Edge – seriously, screw that game for releasing new DLC every week, some of it for pay. It's a strategy game, come on!) is Call of Juarez, which is relevant to me because I'm getting ready to write up a review for the PC version of the game. Its good and most of you probably haven't heard of it, so I demand you rectify this catastrophe by at least renting the game. Ubisoft needs some recognition for putting out a shooter that is neither in space nor in the second World War

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Retail Releases for the week of August 11th

A whole lot of nothing, except for Madden, which I paid off today and can't wait to play for the rest of my summer vacation. My PSN is Kikind if you want to throw out a challenge.

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B3yond the Tabloids

Rumor time! Sony is going to be making some announcement at this month's Gamescon. Many stories have had the PS3 Slim announcement and a price cut for the PSP Go being featured at the show, but a newer rumor has my interest piqued. Reports have the PS3 getting a firmware update, 3.0, which one can only hope replaces the XMB with something less clunky and ugly. Another report addresses the PSN, which could very well be getting an update soon. I would endorse any of these rumors coming true. If there is one thing the PS brand needed, it is a makeover. The XMB is horribly intimidating to people who aren't familiar with the hardware, and I'd love to see them take a Microsoft route by making something a tad more inviting.

I am Alive is alive and kicking, but you might not see it until 2011. Oh well, gives me more time to find out exactly what it is!

Have $200 just lying around the house? Activision wants that money, as shown by DJ Hero: Renegade Edition. Just in case you didn't think $120 was enough, you can buy this monstrosity for more money, and in exchange, receive a table to put your turntable on. If you don't want to spend that kind of money, then screw you; guess you'll have to play your turntable on the floor!



50 Cent is going to be a voice actor in Modern Warfare 2. Seriously, I couldn't make up crap like this…

Continuing to show exactly how far behind Rock Band they are, Activision would like everyone to know that Guitar Hero 5 can use tracks imported from World Tour and Smash Hits. Lets see how they charge you extra money for this one!

The beloved webcomic Penny Arcade is doing a crossover to help promote Tekken 6. A smart idea on Namco's part, I was starting to forget that this game existed.

Double Fine's endless dispute with Activision looks to be ending, with the two companies settling outside of court. On a funny note, the judge said that he couldn't imagine Activision having a chance of winning. See, even the judge thought the case was insane!

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B3yond the Cinema

Video Games | Wolfenstein | Exclusive Zeppelin Bloodbath Gameplay

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Another game I had completely forgotten, Wolfenstein. I appreciate id's effort to bring back an old franchise, but there is no way on Earth this game breaks even the Top 20 in the NPDs. Nobody knows what this game is, and a lot of knowledgeable gamers had no idea that this game was coming out at all, let alone coming out this month.

Video Games | Madden NFL 10 | Exclusive Online Franchise Doc

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

An overview of one of Madden's most exciting new features, Online Franchise. I probably won't use this feature much, pretty much none of my friends own a PS3, and I can't imagine that something like this would be terribly fun with a load of strangers.

Video Games | Call of Duty: World at War | Map Pack III MP Gameplay

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Some footage of the Call of Duty map pack. Haven't touched the game beyond the beta so I have nothing to say about this.

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Turtles in Time Reviews

You know what came out this past week? Xbox Live Arcade saw the remake of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time this week. Out of all the big titles, this is the one I wanted to play because I love beat-em-ups and the Turtles games especially. What I wasn't expecting were the reviewers to shit all over this game. I can understand not liking the game, I even have some friends who aren't big fans, but most reviewers made some pretty contradictory statements regarding the game and I just can't take it anymore. Time for a rant!

- The most common complaint was that the game has not changed much at all in the transition to 3D. How the hell is this ever a valid complaint when it comes to remakes? So it was fine for Bionic Commando ReArmed to change almost nothing in its jump to current generation consoles, but not Turtles? How about Marvel vs. Capcom 2? That game is pretty much the exact same game, yet everyone is in love with it.

- Beat-em-ups are apparently terrible, according to every review I've read. Complaining about a beat-em-up relying on repeatedly mashing buttons is like complaining about a first-person shooter because you move around and shoot at things. It's easy to criticize a genre when you break it down to its most simple aspect, but it isn't fair. You shouldn't have somebody who hates a genre review a game in that genre; they will be inherently biased against the game! I don't review the latest RPG, it would piss people off because that just isn't my style of game, so why are these people reviewing a game genre they clearly disdain? Also, you can't say Turtles in Time plays horribly and in the same breath praise Castle Crashers. That would just be the definition of hypocrisy.

- This game is $10, and yet many have complained that its length isn't worth the price. Back in the 90's, people would have gone crazy for a game like this going to for that amount of money! People are looking at its length in the wrong light. You don't buy a Turtles game to play all weekend; it's a distraction, something to play if you don't have a lot of time, or something to play with friends. Not only that, 30 minutes can easily transform into several hours, I can't even tell you how many times I've played through Hyperstone Heist. If there was some sort of way to track my time through the years, I've probably thrown a good 20 hours into that game, and it isn't even as good as Turtles in Time!

- Off the top of my head, I can only think of two remakes that let you switch back to the original graphics. Apparently those two games have spoiled people because a lot of reviews demanded the SNES and Arcade graphics be added as a feature. Yeah, you didn't like paying $10 for the game as it is, so you‘d want to pay that same money to play the same game without the shiny new graphics.

- I won't touch the sound argument, that's pretty valid actually; the least they could have done was remix the old soundtrack.

- If you are really complaining about the Turtles saying "My toes! My toes!" several times, then you have absolutely no right to be reviewing this game, period, end of story.

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The 411 Mania Empire

The Full Circle by Joe Roche
Nintendophiles by Theo Fraser
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly by Armando Rodriguez
411 Games Top 5 by Todd Vote
411 Games Fact or Fiction by Drew Robbins

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Now I'm done…for real this time. Make way for the new host; he might take a bit of creative control with the format for this column. B3yond is almost two years old now, so a little makeover couldn't hurt. You can hit me up on PSN, the ID is Kikind. See you in 6 with my weekly dominion over Fact or Fiction!