Leveled Up News Report: 03.12.10: Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Playstation Move, More

Posted by Joshua Richey on 03.12.2010

GDC week is here. With it comes the unveiling of the Playstation Move, a launch date for OnLive, and a sequel to Portal.



You know what's awesome? Writing a 3,000+ word article and then having your browser crash and take said article with it. Man, this sucks. You were supposed to stop things like this from happening, Windows 7. Ugh! I was at the tail end of the article too. Part of me wants to just e-mail Chris or Ramon and tell them that I'm not going to have an article up this week, but the other part feels that I should at least try to re-type what I can. Today's lesson: Always back your shit up, kids.

Welcome to what will be an awkward edition of the Leveled Up News Report. As always, I'm Joshua Richey, and despite what Mr. Spell Check says, that really is how you spell my last name. Now I say this edition will be awkward for a couple of reasons: 1.) Its GDC week, which means there's not really any news stories to cover, just mainly announcements. 2.) I've already wrote this article once tonight, but thanks to Firefox, it's all gone and I'm having to re-write every single piece of it. 3.) I'm swamped and drowning in a sea of other projects. I've got to (re)write this article, I've got an Alien vs. Predator review to finish, I've got to submit next week's Fact or Fiction responses, and I've got to prepare questions for an interview that I'm doing with Zombieland director, Ruben Fleisher. I'm way too busy.

But enough whining. Let's talk about some games.

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(Playstation) Move ® Bitch, Get Out da Way
The first Move package, due this fall for less than $100, consists of a Move controller, the PlayStation Eye, and a game (to be announced). Additional packages are in development from a single Move controller to an "uber package" that bundles in the Move, the PlayStation Eye, and the PlayStation 3. An additional device, temporarily called the PlayStation Sub-Controller, which was used to demo SOCOM 4, will be sold separately. (via Venture Beat)

Can I get a hand for that awful headline? That might be the worst thing I've ever wrote.



This is the video that Sony showed during their Playstation Move presentation this week. I've got mixed feelings on it.

On the bright side - I'm glad that Sony went ahead and unveiled this at GDC rather than debuting it at E3. I really didn't want to sit there and listen to Jack and the Gang talk about motion controls for two hours. This unveiling doesn't exactly ensure that I won't still have to sit through that, but hopefully it's a good sign that they won't spend too much time on it in June.

On the negative side - I really hate motion controls. I'm pretty sure that my feelings on it have been well documented by this point. I hate that Sony and Microsoft are spending so much time and money trying to get a piece of Nintendo's pie, and that trailer isn't helping matters. All of the demos they show off in the video look retarded. I wouldn't pick up and play a single one of those games. That family can keep pretending to be excited all they want, I still couldn't care less about it.

On the "I've got ADD" side - The Jamiroquai song that they play in that video makes me really miss Jet Grind Radio. Whose D does a guy gotta S to get another Jet Grind Radio game?

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OMG U GUISE! OnLive Is Launching June 17th!!!!1 *crickets*
OnLive has announced that its cloud-based game streaming service will launch in the 48 contiguous US states on June 17, 2010. The service will initially be available to PC and Mac owners for a monthly service fee of $14.95. Each game purchase and rental will carry a charge on top of the base subscription.

Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive, confirmed that the final version of the OnLive "experience" will be demoed at E3 2010, which kicks off just two days before the service goes live. As for the whereabouts of its "micro-console," Perlman could only say that it will launch at a later date to be announced in the coming months. (via Joystiq)

Well I've got to give credit to OnLive for still existing at this point. I seriously expected it to be like the Phantom and disappear a few months after it was announced. I still don't see it making much of an impact. A lot of gamers already own more than one console, and PC gamers are entrenched with Steam.

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Valve Updates Portal Ending; Teases Portal 2
Categorized as "Added valuable asset retrieval" on the new update, the new ending fades away at the end with a robo-voice mentioning something about assuming a position. Feel free to take a stab at discerning what that means.

Theories flying around right now include the possibility that Valve may expand the scope of "Portal 2," perhaps even overlapping it with a new "Half-Life 2" chapter or sequel. (via MTV Multiplayer)

**SPOILER WARNING: UPDATED PORTAL ENDING**


Seriously, is there a cooler company in this business than Valve? These guys gave us Steam, they make great games like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead, they've got a fantastic relationship with the gaming community, and they do little things like this that no other developer/publisher would ever think to do.

As for Portal 2, I couldn't be more excited. It's going to be a stand alone, full-length game this time around and it should be in stores by the end of the year.

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Ubisoft's DRM Attacked By Pirates
Those playing Assassin's Creed 2 on the PC got a rude reminder of DRM's pitfalls when the servers that authenticate the game went down. Many complained on the company's official forum, and tempers ran hot. Remember: the game has to be in contact with Ubisoft's servers to work; if the connection is lost, the game shuts down.

Ars Technica contacted Ubisoft to ask about the issue, and we were told that the issue wasn't simply a server malfunction. "This 'failure' was due to a massive DDoS attack on our servers," an Ubisoft spokesperson told Ars. "Our servers didn't go down but 5 percent of the overall people attempting to connect received denial of service errors. This is, of course, unacceptable and our teams are working around the clock to ensure it doesn't happen again." (via Ars Technica)

It's not easy to feel sorry for Ubisoft here. The DRM that they're including in games like Assassin's Creed 2 is ridiculous. Ubi, if you're that concerned with people pirating your game on the PC, maybe don't put it out on the PC in the first place. You can take all the steps in the world to stop this from happening again, but you know that it's not going to solve anything. I cannot imagine there being a meeting at Ubisoft where someone suggested this DRM and for everyone else at the table to be like "BRILLIANT!" Epic failure, Ubisoft.

There's a guy that I follow on Tumblr named Wardrox who writes for Negative Gamer. He made this awesome video this last week that perfectly showcases the ridiculousness of this new DRM.

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Richey Rants on: Fanboys

You know, ever since Yoichi Wada walked out on stage during 2008's E3 and announced that Final Fantasy XIII would be coming to the Xbox 360, the fanboys have been going at it more than ever. The Sony fans felt scorned that their big time exclusive was going to be playable by people that opted to buy "the other console," while the 360 fans believed that it was Square-Enix jumping off of a sinking ship.

I know I'm wasting my finger strength here, but I wish these fanboys knew how stupid that sounded. Maybe Square just wanted as many people to play their game as they could get.

Look, I'm no fanboy. Never have been, never will be. I've always purchased all of the consoles. I may not have them on day one, but I eventually get them. If you were to hold both my 360 and my PS3 over a volcano and make me choose one to save, I'd probably go with the 360, but that's just because I tend to play it more. It doesn't make me a fanboy. If it were announced tomorrow that 360's big time exclusives like Halo, Gears of War and Mass Effect were being ported to the PS3, I'd be stoked. Not because I would want to play them on my Playstation 3, but because they're terrific games that should be played by all gamers; regardless of the console they own. I'd be equally as stoked if games like Uncharted and God of War were announced for the 360. Again, it's not because I'd re-buy them on my 360, but because there are people out there that haven't gotten to experience the greatness of those games.

Final Fantasy XIII is out for both consoles. Deal with it. Let's stop making fun that the 360 version has 5 discs and appreciate the fact that more gamers are getting to play this great franchise; many for the first time.

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What I've been playing


Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (360)
I bought Bad Company 2 last Saturday and have had mixed experiences with it. I was pulling my hair out from it throughout the weekend thanks to EA's servers kicking me out of every multiplayer game. After that, I tried playing some single-player, and, you know what, it's pretty tough. I'm playing on normal and have already died more times than I'd care to admit. It's tough, but pretty fun; except for all the cutscenes. My God! The first hour of the game has a freaking cutscene every 5 minutes, it feels like.

I've since been playing a lot of multiplayer, now that the servers are fixed. I'm enjoying the hell out of that. I love ambushing Recon Players. They're sitting up there with their sniper rifles, and have no idea what to do when you get in close.


Madden 10 (360)
NFL Free Agency has forced my hand and made me go back to Madden. My Cincinnati Bengals were flirting with adding Terrell Owens, so I took him off the Bills and traded him to the Bengals for Jerome Simpson. The results were pretty awesome. I broke the all-time single game passing record mid-way through the 3rd quarter with Carson Palmer. Chad Ochocinco, Terrell Owens and Chase Coffman all had over 100 yards receiving. Hey, I'm a lifelong Bengals fan; don't give me no shit.

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FUCK YEAH! I cannot believe I retyped all of that. I didn't go into as much detail on some things, but, for the most part, I was able to rewrite most of what was in my original column. Hey, lesson learned, I guess. From now on I'll type my articles in Word and copy and paste it to the 411Mania site as I go. Thanks to a Monster Energy Drink and a bag of Hershey's Easter Eggs, I only needed 90 minutes to retype everything. Now if you'll excuse me, I have about a million other things to go write.
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