The Digital Pulse 08.14.06
Posted by Joshua Richey on 08.14.2006
Is there a more enjoyable word to pronounce than Wii? No.
What is happening, peoples? What do you say we skip the foreplay, and get straight to the good stuff, eh?
Weekly News
CES Looking To Pick Up From Where E3 Left Off?
Last month, the ESA announced plans for a newly revamped Electronic Entertainment Expo. The plans called for a drastically scaled down, more intimate show, which didn't sit well with the gaming community. E3 had been ‘the event' for over a decade now. It was a place in which games were debuted, consoles were unveiled, and all developers, both big and small, could be heard on an equal platform. Those days are gone now. Gone are the booth babes, the wildness, and much of the media coverage. (As E3 is now an invite only event.) So, now that E3 is gone, or at least the E3 that we all knew and loved; the door has been propped open for other gaming based conventions to take it‘s place. The one name in particular that is being thrown around is the Consumer Electronics Association‘s, annual CES show.
Prior to the first E3 event in 1995, the CES event was considered 'the event'. The show was held twice a year, but unlike E3, CES didn't focus primarily on Gaming. Instead they covered everything from cell phones to televisions, in addition to gaming software. This is what led to the big money Publishers switching over to E3 in the first place. But with E3's suddenly announced subdued show; the CEA have announced that they are putting together a 'team' of 'experts' - to see if the CEA should hold an E3-esque show, next spring.
What the hell is the point of putting together a team, in order to see if this is a wise move? Read some effing message boards, read some of the feedback from the gaming community; hell, listen to Joshua Richey:
Dear CEA,
That is a great idea.
Sincerely
Joshua Richey
We as gamers need a mega show like E3. Even if we cannot attend it; we need to know that such a show exists. E3 was to gamers, what Comic-Con is to the comic book industry.
[Credit: Gamespot]
27 Games To Launch With Wii
Did I just write that? A gaming console is actually going to have a variety of games at launch? A Nintendo console at that! You have to understand that Nintendo's biggest downfall with the N64, and the Gamecube, was that it didn't receive enough Third Party support. Much of that blame gets placed squarely onto Nintendo's shoulders. With the Wii's unusual technology, many 'gaming experts' predicted that the Wii would suffer that same fate. But ever since E3, gamers are no longer laughing at the premise of Nintendo's newest console; rather they've been licking their chops, hoping to get their hands on it. Proving yet again that 'gaming experts' can't even predict consumer's impulse's when it comes to gaming.
As exciting as a new console launch can be, the lack of games can often time's serve as a buzz kill to gamers enthusiasm. I'm the owner of a X-Box 360, and up until recently - I hadn't played much of it. I had bought Call of Duty 2 for it at launch, but since then, I hadn't touched it. One of the many downfalls of the launch I reckoned. So you have to give a lot of credit to Nintendo and their developers for making the Wii an even more attractive purchase, with the variety of games that they are making available.
The games expected to launch with the Wii (as of now) are:
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Blitz: The League
Call of Duty 3
Cars
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors
Elebits
Excite Truck
Far Cry
GT Pro Series
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Madden NFL 2007
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Metal Slug Anthology
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Monster 4x4 World Circuit
Need for Speed: Carbon
Open Season
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Red Steel
SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Wii Sports
[Credit: nwizard]
People Are Buying Stuff
2006 has been a very good year, as far as sales are concerned. July was another good month for everyone within the industry, especially for Nintendo and EA.
1. PS2 - NCAA Football 07
2. 360 - NCAA Football 07
3. DS - New Super Mario Bros.
4. Xbox - NCAA Football '07
5. 360 - Chromehounds
6. 360 - The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2
7. 360 - Prey
8. PS2 - Guitar Hero
9. PS2 - Pixar's Cars
10. PS2 - Naruto: Ultimate Ninja
11. PS2 - Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
12. GBA - Pixar's Cars
13. PS2 - 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany
14. 360 - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
15. 360 - 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany
16. 360 - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
17. GCN - Pixar's Cars
18. DS - Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
19. PS2 - NFL Head Coach
20. 360 - Fight Night Round 3
21. DS - Big Brain Academy
22. PS2 - Kingdom Hearts 2
23. 360 - Over G Fighters
24. 360 - Call of Duty 2
25. PS2 - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
[Credit: 1UP]
Sega Genesis Collection Headed To PS2 - PSP
Microsoft isn't the only one's jumping on the retro train. Sony's PS2 and PSP are about to be the beneficiaries of potentially one of the most impressive game collections to be released in a long time. The Sega Genesis Collection will feature a assortment of 30 games that we all grew up with, and will be exclusive to Sony's consoles.
Among the games included within the package: Ecco the Dolphin, Eternal Champions, Golden Ax, Phantasy Star, Virtual Fighter, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Shinobi. The Collection will also feature two of my favorite games growing up: Altered Beast, and Comix Zone.
[Credit: 1UP]
EA Continues Their Evil Ways
Who reads Privacy Policy Agreements? Dubious Quality, that's who. The gaming bloggers took the time recently to read all of the fine print that gamers usually skip and agree to, when they play EA games on X-Box Live. Apparently by playing one of EA's games - you're agreeing to allow EA the following:
Information collected will vary depending upon the activity and may include your name, e-mail address, phone number, mobile number, home address, birth date and credit card information. In addition, we may collect demographic information such as gender, zip code, information about your computer, hardware, software, platform, media, Internet IP address and connection, information about online activity such as feature usage, game play statistics and scores, user rankings and click paths and other data that you may provide in surveys or online profiles, for instance. We may combine demographic information with personal information.
That's right, credit card information. Future requirements to play EA games online may include, but not be limited to: taking a drug test, submitting a blood sample, and sacrificing your first born child.
Halo Gets A Director
Halo fans have been anticipating this for a long time now. The Halo movie could be huge. We're talking Star Wars and Spiderman type huge. Fans were hoping for a well known and accomplished director, to head the project. They didn't get that. They didn't get Uwe Boll (thankfully) but what they got was Neill Blomkamp. Whose Neill Blomkamp, you ask? Upon the announcement of Blomkamp's involvement, Peter Jackson, himself, spoke of his desire that Neill would head the project. Neill is young, but is considered by many as one of the most talented up and comers in the business. Halo will be his first feature film, but don't worry, once you've sampled Blomkamp's work, you'll be even more excited for Halo: The Movie.
‘Alive in Joberg'
‘Tetra Vaal'
In an interview with Aint-It-Cool-News, Neill spoke about Halo with a passion. Speaking about possible changes to Master Chief, Neill said: "Master Chief is certainly something that I do not want to change too much at all, there are certain things inside the Halo universe that are sacred and he's the main one." Despite all of that, Blomkamp would not rule out revealing Master Chief's face, which is probably going to unsettle more than a few Halo fans. But Niell's plans for a more frightening Covenant, and a downright bloodcurdling version of the Flood, it's got this writer a bit excited.
"I'd Be Amazed If The PS4 Had A Physical Disk Drive"
How do you further persuade gamers into spending 'half of car payment' on the Playstation 3? Why you start talking about the Playstation 4, that's how. In a recent interview with Wired magazine, Sony's Phil Harrison, said that he would be "amazed if the PS4 had a Physical Disk Drive." Now hold on you Sony fanboys. I know that Harrison isn't speaking specifically about the PS4, but still it's a dumbass move by Harrison. If I'm on the verge of releasing a new Volvo, that is priced like a Space Shuttle, I'm not going to start hyping the car that I plan on releasing 5-6 years from now.
It sends the wrong message. When asked about the future of electronic distribution (as Harrison was) - I would have probably gone with the 'It's going to be tight, yo' route.
New Releases This Week
(X-Box 360)
Ninety-Nine Nights
(X-Box)
Xyanide
World Racing 2
(Playstation 2)
Backyard Baseball 2007
Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII
(Nintendo DS)
Freedom Wings
Deep Labyrinth
Konduckra
(PSP)
Super Monkey Ball Adventure
Payout Poker and Casino
(PC)
Victoria: Revolutions
F.E.A.R. Combat
Poker Superstars II
Ship Simulator 2006
Backyard Baseball 2006
Pacific Storm
Jaws Unleashed
DarkStar One
World Racing 2
The (O.T)
Rant of the Week: Attack of the Fiery Asshole
I figured this would be a good new feature to add my weekly column. Basically just a place to rant about something; which I promise would be offensive, vulgar, and risky. But I'm kind of running out of time. I'm writing this as I'm watching my Bengals play the Redskins, and my concentration is very distracted. So, I'll leave you with this bit of advice:
Stay away from White Castle's new Tabasco flavored Chicken Rings. Trust me, for your assholes sake.
Game of the Week: Dead Rising
I don't want to go into too much about this game, but I could. I'm not sure if I'm reviewing it for this site or not. If I am, then it'll probably be up sometime this week. But this game is (pardon my French) fucking amazing. Dawn of the Dead is one of my favorite movies, and this game allows you to play through a similar experience. You're trapped within a Mall, with a legion of Zombies to keep you company. The variety of weapons is what makes this game. I'll go into more detail in my review, but never before have shopping carts and shower heads - been so damn cool.
Album of the Week: Rise Against - "The Sufferer & The Witness"
One of the better albums that have been released this year. Really not much else to say. I didn't care much for it at first, but upon listening to it again, gave me a better appreciation of it.
Movie of the Week: Hotel Rwanda
I used to do this thing back in high school - where I would approach my friends, and ask ‘has a movie ever made you cry?' If they ever replied to me with a ‘yes', I would burst out in laughter and call them a ‘pussy'. Well friends, I, Joshua Richey, am now too a ‘pussy'. The lights were all off, which hid my man tears. But I cannot shy away from the fact that I cried during this movie. It's just so damn powerful.
Future Ex-Wife of the Week: Lucy Liu
Do not make me have to explain why Lucy Liu is this week's featured Ex-Wife. She fits all of the qualifications. She's sexy, she's Asian, and… umm…she's a hot Asian.
(If you'd like to recommend a Future Ex-Wife of the Week, just drop me a line by clicking the link at the bottom of the page.)
I figured this would be a good new feature to add my weekly column. Basically just a place to rant about something; which I promise would be offensive, vulgar, and risky. But I'm kind of running out of time. I'm writing this as I'm watching my Bengals play the Redskins, and my concentration is very distracted. So, I'll leave you with this bit of advice:
I used to do this thing back in high school - where I would approach my friends, and ask ‘has a movie ever made you cry?' If they ever replied to me with a ‘yes', I would burst out in laughter and call them a ‘pussy'. Well friends, I, Joshua Richey, am now too a ‘pussy'. The lights were all off, which hid my man tears. But I cannot shy away from the fact that I cried during this movie. It's just so damn powerful. 
