Leveled Up News Report: 01.22.10
Posted by Joshua Richey on 01.22.2010
EA is sticking with Tiger, Peter Jackson wants to make games, the Apple Tablet may have a large impact on gaming, and I got Red-Ringed for third time!
Not a lot of columns make it to their second week here at 411Mania. After that initial first-article excitement, lots of people begin to realize how much work it involves and quickly abandon it. Unfortunately for you, that's not the case with me. The Leveled Up News Report returns for a second straight week. I'm pretty exhausted, but just know that I'm going to go take a 5-Hour Energy shot and snort some cocaine just to deliver you another tasty morsel of Internet drivel.
EA is on Team Tiger
Electronic Arts says its Tiger Woods game franchise grew over the past year, and holiday sales didn't suffer even as the golfer's personal life did. Woods' self-described extramarital "transgressions" and subsequent media fallout led other companies to drop him. EA, however, has stood by him. EA Sports President Peter Moore said Thursday it would be "unimaginable" not to have Woods at the masthead of the company's "Tiger Woods PGA Tour" games. (via AP)
At a time when all of Tiger's sponsors are jumping ship, for some reason EA has chosen not to. I must say that I'm pretty surprised by that. It's not like there's a lot of competition out there for golf games. There's Hot Shots and Golden Tee; that's about it. I don't think that EA would have loss any sales if they would have decided to simply call the game PGA Tour 11. Hell, it would have been a good move for PR reasons alone.
But it is good to know that if John Madden were to ever have an affair on the lovely Mrs. Madden and have unprotected sex with say...14 women (or one Brett Favre) that his job at Electronic Arts would remain secure.
Massive Layoffs at Crispy Gamer
Just one month after purchasing GamerDNA, the promising stat-driven video game community site, Crispy Gamer has laid off its entire editorial staff, on the authority of the company's board of directors. We're told Chris Heldman, the CEO, former head of media entertainment at Google and co-founder of Crispy Gamer, has resigned in protest. (via Joystiq)
Despite things being quiet for the last few months, news like this comes along and reminds us all that this recession still isn't over. It's a real shame for the editorial staff over at CG, but I give a massive amount of kudos to Chris Heldman for sticking up for them. Hopefully they can all land on their feet fairly quickly.
It's so disappointing to see how gaming journalism is just dying before our very eyes. I've wanted to be a video game writer since I was about 10 years old. At the time, nothing seemed cooler than playing video games and then writing about them. I would go to the grocery store with my mom, and as she shopped, I would go look through the video game magazines. Back then there were half a dozen to choose from. Last night I was walking aimlessly through Meijer and I stopped and browsed the magazine rack. There was one video game magazine on that entire rack. Six Twilight-themed magazines, one video game magazine.
It's just sad.
Apple Tablet to Debut Next Week
With the new tablet device that is debuting next week, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs is betting he can reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television much the way his iPod revamped the music industry—and expand Apple's influence and revenue as a content middleman. Apple is also negotiating with television networks such as CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co., which owns ABC, for a monthly TV subscription service, the Journal has reported. Apple is also working with videogame publisher Electronic Arts Inc. to show off the tablet's game capabilities, according to one person familiar with the matter. (via Wall Street Journal)
I'm real anxious to see how Apple presents this thing as far as gaming goes. Rumors are swirling that EA will be on hand Wednesday to show off the tablet's gaming capabilities, which seems to suggest that it's not just a oversized iPhone - as people have speculated.
Peter Jackson wants to Make Games
The director, who has just released his latest movie, called The Lovely Bones, has told Ain't It Cool News that video games are "using a lot of the film techniques now, especially the cinematic areas" and that he is "enjoying these games more than I am enjoying films at the moment."
The movie director has also mentioned that "I am kind of involved with a Tintin game and obviously the beginning of The Hobbit game" and that other projects based on his movies might be in development. He has confessed to being interested in creating videogames that have no links to movie projects, because some of his current ideas are not well suited to the movie format. (via Softpedia)
This is the type of news that I would like to get excited for, but then I keep remembering how awful King Kong and most of the Lord of the Rings games were and it keeps me in check. The man likely had nothing to do with those game, but still, they were pretty bad. It is cool though to see that so many directors are getting involved in game development. Speilberg has had a large impact on gaming, 300 director, Zack Snyder, has some projects in the works, and now you've got Peter Jackson.
Weekly Review
Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 (iPhone)
I can't dwell into this as much as I would like to. I've got an official review due to 411 sometime this weekend where I'll go into more detail and be a bit more "professional". But I will give you all a little bit of a teaser.
This game blows. Hard.
Everything from the graphics to the controls are one big clusterfuck. I know that it's an iPhone game and that the developers have limitations, but this is easily the worst mobile game that I've ever played. I have no idea how THQ puts the Smackdown Vs. Raw name on a product like this.
In simpler terms, it's not worth buying. Hell, even if it was a free download, I'd still advise that you not waste your hard-drive space on it.
Just an awful game with no redeeming qualities at all. I give it one Snitsky out of five.
Weekly Rant
Red-Ringed...AGAIN!
Just one week until the release of my most highly anticipated release of 2010 and look at what happens...
...Red-Ringed AGAIN!
This is the third time this has happened since I got my 360 back in 2006. The warranty has expired, which means that Microsoft is going to expect me to pay $100 to fix it - like I did last time. I wish there were more options here. I've tried the towel trick already; that didn't work. I'm not going to pay money to have it repaired, because there's no way to ensure it won't happen again. Actually, based off my history with this console, it would.
That leaves me with just two options. I can say "FUCK MICROSOFT!" and just start playing games on my Playstation 3, but since Mass Effect doesn't come out for the Playstation, I'm still fucked. My only other option is to buy another 360 since their newer hardware seems to have fixed the RRoD problem. This option sucks the most as basically involves me voluntarily bending over so that Micosoft can rape me. It's kind of like paying the Fire Department to put out your blazing house that they started.
I need a less expensive hobby.
What I've Been Playing
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Last week I mentioned that I was playing MGS4 and that I was really hoping that the game got better. It wasn't that I thought that the game was bad, it's just that, through the first two acts, it didn't feel like a Metal Gear game.
Thankfully all of that has changed. I'm at the beginning of Act 5, and I'm now totally hooked on this game. As mediocre as Act 1 and Act 2 were, the third and fourth were incredible. I absolutely love how they're tying up all of the loose ends with the games story. They're doing it with some very long cut scenes, but they're so good that I don't mind sitting through them. It's amazing to just watch everything fall into place. OMG! And when you go back to Shadow Moses...WOW! I loved everything about that. That has got to be one of the coolest moments in the history of gaming.
I'm about to go have my final confrontation with Liquid. Sadly that also means that the game is nearly over. It's a shame, but it's a great way to close out this part of the franchise.
Before I Go...
- With the highly anticipated release of Mass Effect 2 just days away, let's take a look back at Fox News' coverage of "the porn" in the original Mass Effect.
- Has anyone played Rogue Warrior? No? I didn't think so. I've not played it myself, but, from what I hear, it's really bad. The only reason I was even slightly interested in the game was because it stars Mickey Rourke. The following video contains a collection of his one-liners from the game. They're pretty much epic.
Well that will do it for another edition of the Leveled Up News Report. If you'll excuse me I'm going to go beat the shit out of my 360, see if that helps fix it.
Posted By: Guest#2613 (Guest) on January 22, 2010 at 02:55 AM
I love Josh Richey more than I love my own mother.
Posted By: TJ (Guest) on January 22, 2010 at 08:27 AM
You have to love when women talk about video games and how they change perceptions of women (enacting her own self-hate at being less than hot). "Teaching boys to see women as objects of desire"
Men wanting to fuck women has been going on since we evolved into a two sex species-- pretty sure it's hardwired into our DNA. But you know, let's keep teaching kids that their biological imperatives are BAD BAD things right?
That way when they're older and actually try to approach a girl they get approach anxiety and start having panic attacks-- that's a great way to train the next generation of men, rather than teaching them to know what they want and not feel the need to apologize for it.
Ugly ho
Posted By: Guest#0182 (Guest) on January 22, 2010 at 01:04 PM
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