Welcome to the Select and Start News Report, the only news report where over half the crap isn't about the news at all! But don't start comparing me to MTV or G4 just yet. There's still plenty of stuff to talk about relating to GAMES, so let's get this bitch started.Big News
SHIFT IN SONY'S MANAGEMENT [credit: Gamespy, GameDaily, Gamepro.com]
Ken Kutaragi, the "father of the Playstation", is being moved up from President of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) to Chairman. Taking his spot as President is Kaz Hirai. Kutaragi will serve as head of the Playstation board, but Hirai will oversee day-to-day operations. Jack Tretton will also be replacing Hirai as President and CEO of SCEA.
I have no idea what any of this means, so here's how GameSpy put it: Basically, the younger guys are getting more power and it looks like Kutaragi is taking a step back to make way.
NINTENDO SELLS 600K WII; CAN'T THINK OF ANY WII PUNS [credit: Gamasutra]
Officials from Nintendo have confirmed that the Wii has sold over 600K units in its first 8 days of availability. Zelda: Twilight Princess also sold over 454K units in the Americas. Analyst Colin Sebastian says that the Wii is expected to see 150-200K per week, and Nintendo says the demand is still exceeding supply.
Glad to see the Wii launch didn't turn out to be a major letdown so far (unless you got screwed in trying to get one), and thanks to early manufacturing with no shortages of diodes, already completely outsold the PS3.
500K MINIMUM IN ORDER TO PROFIT [credit: Gamasutra, Gamepro.com]
Namco Bandai's President Takeo Takasu says that in order for their games to make profits on the PS3, they would have to sell at least 500K copies. This is due to increasing development costs.
Combine that with the fact that there were only around 500K PS3s at launch and the system was so expensive some didn't buy a game right away, this could pretty mean the loss of good third party support for Sony.
THE REGGINATOR KICKS ASS AND GIVES LOTS OF INFO [credit: Gamasutra, Gamedaily, IGN, Gamespy]
In interviews with MTV News and Reuters, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime had lots to say regarding games for the winter, the Miis, the Virtual Console, and more.
After the Wii's successful launch, can it keep up the pace come Winter? Reggie says that over the Winter, Wii Play, Wario Ware, and Mario Party 8 will be in stores before March. The next big game for hardcore fans will be Metroid Prime 3, followed by Super Mario Galaxy which will be released between the end of March to Christmas. "I wasn't here for the GameCube launch, but there was a time period when there were no titles. There wasn't even titles you could or could not sink your teeth into. Wii Play and WarioWare are going to be hugely fun titles."
So the first party line-up seems okay. But what about the third party line-up? Shouldn't that be the biggest concern?
Reggie also criticized some of the Wii game reviews, such as those bastards at Gamespot who gave Zelda an 8.8. Okay not really, but he did have something to say about Red Steel and IGN's review of Wii Sports: "I think a lot of the reviews have been overly critical. Does it take you a few minutes to get used to the control scheme? Yes. Once you get used to it does it play extremely well? Absolutely. I think a lot of those reviews are overly harsh. Just like the, what was it, the IGN review of Wii Sports. They're negative on the graphics of the game, but we always said what the graphics would be. I think that's people just being hypercritical."
Just because you admit that the graphics are average as well doesn't mean that critics are going to ignore that in their reviews. Also, from what I've heard, Red Steel has terrible control issues. Face it Reg: Red Steel isn't that good.
How about when Wii is finally going to get online? "For the consumer who is saying, 'Gosh, when is Nintendo going to get on board with online play?' The answer is very early in 2007."
Straight and to the point, but it's likely that the only game that will be online is Pokemon Battle Revolution. Don't screw this up Nintendo!
Of course, what would an interview be without some rival company bashing? Here's what he had to say about Sony and Microsoft being entitled to their success: "Are we feeling good about our success? Do we think we can have more success in the future? Absolutely. I do think that highlights a difference between us and our competitors: We're not arrogant. We don't view success as a right. We feel we need to earn success every day. And we're going to do that by being true to the gamer."
Take it from the guy who works in a company that was really arrogant until Sony came along and kicked their ass since 1997.
For the Virtual Console, Reggie confirms that they will be doing a regular schedule of releases just like Microsoft's "Xbox Live Wednesdays". Nintendo will be releasing titles every Monday. As for the possiblity of Goldeneye getting released? "Would I love to see it on Virtual Console? Absolutely. But there are a lot of issues there. Suffice it to say we would love to see it, so we're exploring all the rights issues."
I'm sure Rareware will eventually give them Goldeneye. It isn't like their making money on any of their other games.
Other tidbits from the MTV interview included the possibility of packaging the Wii remotes with the Nunchuk attachments if the attach ratio becomes one-to-one. He also says their will be no Wii 2.0 being released next year with DVD playback, wasn't sure if third-parties will take advantage of the Miis, and that WiiConnect24 would be delivering surprise bonus material to gamers much sooner than anyone had anticipated. An add-on that turns the Wii remote into a "zapper" is also coming.
After the MTV interview, Reggie did an interview with Reuters in the Second Life virtual world. Since they were talking with their avatars, the first question was about the Miis and if there are more things in the works for them, such as online profiles or create a social network. "We think the ability to customize your Mii if very fascinating, adding more personality, more information, so certainly that's something we're looking at." As for possibly crossing over with other social networks like MySpace and Second Life, "We have had so much interest from a variety of virtual networks out there. We have Miis showing up on MySpace, and other places, so I'd love to see it show up on Second Life."
I've already got the idea in my head: MiiSpace. All the fun of blogging without the suicides and pedophiles.
As for the possibility of having an MMO on the Wii? "The Wii certainly has enough power to drive an MMO and make it totally interactive. Are we as a first party looking at it? Not so far, but are we encouraging other developers to look into this? Absolutely. We believe with the nunchuck and the Wii remote it could be a fantastic MMO. There's nothing from a pure MMO standpoint in the pipeline but I have spoken with a handful of developers and it's something they're intrigued with."
As long as you plan it to make it free of monthly fees, then I'm all for it. Also, as long as it's nothing like Maple Story or World of Warcraft.
Finally, on Wii's upcoming Opera web-browser and if it can play flash games: "The Wii is a closed system. But if we worked with publishers to make Flash content, we could make it available. If you go to a Web site with a Flash game you should be able to play it, but not necessarily with the full 3D motion of the Wii remote."
I don't really have an interest in playing flash games for the Wii anyway.
Tidbit News
-Over in Japan, Sega apparently still makes profits, because it's DS card/arcade game hybrid "Love and Berry" sold 400,000 copies in the first week, beating out my beloved Jump Ultimate Stars. Don't worry Jump! I'll import you soon! [credit: credit: Gamasutra]
-KDWB-FM, 101.3's morning show ran a fake offer where parents to trade in their baby for 24 hours for a PS3. More then a dozen people actually called in to make the deal. And here I thought Acclaim were the only ones to make ridiculous offers. [credit: Evil Avatar]
-TVersity created a media server that features on the fly WMV transcoding for your Xbox 360. Check out the latest build here. [credit: Team Xbox]
-The popular webcomic PVP (Player vs. Player) is going to have it's own animated series. Scott Kurtz, the writer/artist/creator of the series has cut a deal with Blind Ferret Entertainment to produce monthly 4-6 minute episodes. The first episode will be up 2/1/2007, but you'll need to subscribe in order to see it. [credit: Gamespy]
-The game "Heroes", being developed by the guys behind Killer 7, has apparently changed it's name to "No More Heroes" for some reason. My guess: NBC would've sued their ass. [credit: IGN]
-The Video Game Report Card by NIMF has given an "A" to major retailers for enforcing the ESRB ratings. It however gave a failing grade to specialty gaming outlets. Console manufacturers got an "A" for including parental controls in their systems. [credit: GameDaily]
-U.S. District Judge James Brady has struck down Louisiana HB 1381 (law stating retailers who sold a title deemed inappropriate to minors would be fined and jailed) as unconstitutional. This makes it the 9th case of it's kind that the ESA has won. [credit: GameDaily]
-An analyst from the Financial Times says that in order for Sony to break even with the PS3, they would need to sell 30 games for every PS3 console sold assuming the company receives a $10 royalty on every PS3 game sold. Maybe they should've sold all their consoles on eBay instead. [credit: Gamepro.com]
-And just as quickly as Twilight Princess climbed the ranks, they fell off the Top Ten highest rankings list over at GameRankings. Where's Reggie to complain about this? [credit: GameRankings]
-Despite all the bitching for EA charging for cheats in Need for Speed Carbon, EA says all that complaining happened before any of that and says gamers are happy now. Couldn't be MORE WRONG! [credit: 1UP]
The Other Crap
JUST PLAIN WRONG [credit: Flickr.com]
Can you guess what's wrong in the following picture:
I'LL NEVER DO A PREVIEW AGAIN
So I preview WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 and all the hype had me thinking this was going to be on the same level as No Mercy. Unfortunely it's slightly worse then SvsR2K6. I preview Sonic the Hedgehog, thinking Sonic was going to get back on track, but the new Sonic game has been earning lots of bad ratings. Two previews I've done has let to disappointments. I've been cursed! Anything I preview will wind up being a big disappointment! Therefore, I will never do a preview again!
Or maybe I'll just be more pessimestic about it. Or maybe I'll just do previews of games I don't like to jinx them.
DAMN GAMEFAQS RUIN EVERYTHING
So as you may or may not have noticed, we haven't updated our cheats section in about...ever, and with lots of other sites (or just GameFAQs) giving out codes, it almost seems pointless to update. So some of our staff are coming up with ideas on what to replace the section with. Got any ideas? Give me an e-mail!
GENJI JOKE IN FINAL FANTASY V ADVANCE
Get the gladiator job and earn the ability "Finisher." According to the text, you use a strike that when it hits an enemy, it will attack it's weakpoint for massive damange. All this game needs now is some giant enemy crabs.
PROGESS GAMING
This week's title: Yu-Gi-Oh Dark Duel Stories
Feeling bored I decided to get a ROM of the first Yu-Gi-Oh game to hit American shores. It's amazing how this game is WAAAY different then the normal Yu-Gi-Oh games. I'll probably be playing this until my Wii arrives under the tree.
OTHERLY GAME REVIEWS
So we all know how awesome Guitar Hero is. Tenacious D knew as well, which is why they have a new flash game similar to Guitar Hero.
Tenacious D: Devil May Fry
Format: Flash
Genre: Music
Just like in Guitar Hero, you press one of the ASDF keys along with the spacebar when the sparks are about to reach the outline on the left. If you've ever played Guitar Hero or plan to you should check this game out.
OMG FEEDBACK?
So last week I talked about how fanboys need to stop complaining about Gamespot's review for Zelda. Gamespot was dumb enough to respond to them, but I couldn't think of much to say about that (translation: it was thanksgiving weekend and I got lazy). But fellow 411 Games Writer Sean McCabe had something to say:
Hey, it's Sean from The Retrospective, and I want to make a few observations about what was said in the Select and Start News Report. As big a Zelda fan as I am, this is not a fanboy rant, no, even worse, this is a rant on writing professionalism.
"It's the same damn game we've all been playing for the last 15-odd years. Hey, guess what? You get to go into dungeons...and find items...and put together pieces of heart to make new heart containers. I haven't gotten very far into it, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Triforce is in the mix at some point.
There's a difference between tradition and ossification, and Nintendo's been content to let this series stay the same for too damn long. What's more, in a lot of ways it's actually getting to be pretty annoying."
This response is hypocritical bullshit. Really that's all it is. I'm not going to moan about the actual score that Gamespot gave Twilight Princess, but their reasoning for it absolutely stinks. It's flawed, it's supremely obvious that all this has been down to two things. Either it was a low attempt for attention and hits, or they made a really poor choice in selecting the reviewer for the game (the reviewer is well documented for being, shall we say, more in favour of the Xbox than anything else).
I have noticed a pattern with professional game reviewers. So often they moan about wanting original game experiences, they want to play something like Katamari or Animal Crossing everyday. That's the impression they often give you, yet then you see games like, hm, Gears of War, Halo, maybe the latest Final Fantasy (for arguments sake, let's take X, as XII was quite different). All of those games got around 9.5 on Gamespot. But, now I ask you, what is so new about these games? Nothing, Halo plays pretty much the same as Quake did over 10 years ago, Gears of War was RE4 in a previous life and FFX... do I need to even go into that?
It is hypocritical to criticise a game for being unoriginal when you prize unoriginality in other games. The only legit criticisms I accept from that review were about the lack of orchestral music, and voice acting, but frankly I couldn't care about either, and I don't care if Twilight Princess follows the same basic structure as it's predecessors, because most people tell me that besides that, the game is actually quite different from its predecessors.
My stance on review scores is that, generally, I don't care about them. But I do care when I see blatant hypocracy, as well as attention grabbing like that, because frankly it shows a lack of profesionalism, people who do these things don't deserve to get paid for what they do.
I actually would like you to put this in the next report, but failing that I could simply put this rant in my column, either way, I feel this view of things ought to be known, because once you look past the games to the writing and the viewpoints, things can come to light, since behind all pieces of writing (including mine, including even this email) there's an agenda.
Links of pure awesomeness
This week I happened to have stumbled across many amusing links. Check them out.
STEPHEN COLBERT KNOCKS OUT NANCY PELOSI [credit: Joystiq]
In Wii Boxing, that is. You can't cut and run from this fight Nancy!
VG CATS ON X-PLAY
This is why I love this site: G-Foured
WEE GOLF [credit: Kotaku]
Check out this little girl playing Wii Golf. But wait until the end to hear the best/worst part.
"NEWS" FROM ACROSS THE SECTIONS
Because I secretly want to write for the other sections.
Wrestling: I've seen Russo take a lot of shit for his actions, and for the most part he probably deserves it. But while it looks like he's doing nothing but wrong, I think he's doing one thing RIGHT: He's giving wrestlers personalities. A big problem with some wrestlers in TNA is that they can wrestle a good match, but don't have much of a personality to go by.
Chris Sabin was struggling throughout the whole year and the Jackass stunts failed. But once Russo hotshots the X-Title and turns Sabin heel, he comes off as an arrogant, cocky jerk who had losing the title coming. I finally have a reason to care about Sabin!
Petey Williams hasn't had much to be remembered by besides his finishing move. But now he's defending the American flag from LAX, and while it isn't the best personality to give him, I'll know him for more then just one move.
"Maverick" Matt and Kazarian were basically going nowhere, but now they're doing this "new movement" that involves Raven (who also isn't doing much), they look more like a tag team instead of two guys doing nothing thrown together.
There's still plenty of wrestlers that need characters, but I'm sure Russo will come up with something for them. While he is making absurd decisions with booking, he's at least doing something right in the character department.
Movies/TV: Guy who died from having sex with a Horse is getting a movie about himself. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Music: When I'm in a comedic mood I'll listen to Mitch Hedberg. That guy was one of the funniest comedians of all time, and it's sad he's no longer with us.
Politics: Does anybody actually like that MLK jr. wannabe known as Jesse Jackson? Honestly, anyone?
Sports: Fuck the NY Giants and fuck the NFL for wussifying the sport.
Guys who...um...nope, can't think of anything witty this week.
The other news writers:
Tommy Coloma with The Negative Edge
Theo Fraser with Nintendophiles
Andrew Mellick with The SIXAXIS
Columns:
Damian Sarcuni continues to recruit members for the cult known as "Video Gaming".
Have video games truly reached their peak? Joshua Richey analyzes the possibility. And be sure to check out his exclusive X-Box news report coming soon.
How does Jordan Williams do a column about games needing sequels and NOT MENTION NIGHTS?! (then again, NiGHTS is sort of overated...but still!)
Greg Bruno and David Redkey for this week's Fact or Fiction.
Top 5 SNES Games
Reviews:
Gears of Wars [2] by Greg Bruno
Family Guy (PS2) by Andrew Mellick
Trauma Center: Second Opinion by Ramon Aranda
F.E.A.R (X360) by Steve McHugh
Capcom Classics Collection Vol.2 (PS2) by Damian Sarcuni
Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 by D.W.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PSP) by David Redkey
WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 [2] (X360) by Joshua Richey
Previews:
Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation 2 (GBA) by Tommy Coloma
I'm done with the news, so here's the MLG. See you next week.
The Boost Mobile MLG Pro Circuit 2006, Week 4Week 4's tournament is taking place in Chicaco, IL. Penn Holderness and Sundance DiGiovanni are your hosts. As Penn Holderness says, "any team can beat another team on any given day". Well, except Final Boss.
For the past three weeks it's been all about the top three teams: Carbon, Str8 Rippin, and Final Boss. While Carbon and Str8 Rippin are constantly at ends, no one has yet to overcome Final Boss. Why is Final Boss so damn good and how can you beat them? Foulacy has no idea. Strongside says they know each other too well. Gandhi says they know how to control the map. Others say it's because of Orge1 rather then captain Walshy. Taking out this team will be the greatest feeling for everybody.
Remember that quote Penn said ealier? That applies to how this week turns out, because Str8 Rippin was eliminated from the Winners Bracket early by the #7 team ShookOne Gaming in Round 3. Carbon was also eliminated early by the #6 team Storm Ventures, a team of 16 to 17-year-olds. After Storm Ventures beat ShookOne Gaming in Round 4, they of course lost to Final Boss in the finals. The Losers Finals would see Storm Ventures take on Carbon once again.
Before we get to that, we learn about the major girl gamers in the MLG. Some of the top girl gamers include Kaita "Bonzai Kitten" Danielian from X-Rated, Megan "Foxy" Eichmeier from Girls Got Game, and one of the first girls in MLG history, Bonnie "Xena" Burton. The girls are that good and one day will climb the ranks.
Storm Ventures entered the Losers Finals 3-2 over Carbon, but Carbon would start to gain their revenge. After an hour of intense matches it was 5-4 Storm Ventures. Game 5 would see Storm Ventures build a 41-28 lead in Team Slayer, but Carbon would come from behind and make it 5-5. It would all come down to the final game, where Carbon was making another come from behind win, but a Strongside would make the mistake of running out of ammo and getting knocked out by Ramby. Storm Ventures pulled off an amazing upset and this week, they are the ones who will be taking on Final Boss. The team that was originally ranked 18th, they rose all the way up to 6th, exceeding everyone's expectations. With two of the best individual players Naded and Legit, their leader Ramby, and supporter Poon, Storm Ventures' chemistry is growing. Can they pull off the biggest upset of all by beating Final Boss?
Final Boss leads the series 4-2, but the crowd was amazed when Storm Ventures actually beat Final Boss in Game 2 of the match, something no team has ever done up to this point. We now head into Game 3 of the finals.
Game 3 of the Championship Finals: Final Boss vs. Storm Ventures
Players on Final Boss: David "Walshy" Walsh, Dan "Orge 1" Ryan, Tom "Orge 2" Ryan, Ryan "Saiyan" Danford.
Players on Storm Ventures: Bryan "Legit" Rizzo, Ryan "Ramby" Mendez, Brett "Naded" Leonard, Raymond "Poon" Soto.
It's Team Slayer on Lockout, with the Sniper and Sword as the power weapons. The best place to be is the Sniper Tower.
We start with Orge1 who spawns at the Sniper Tower. FB takes the early lead as Orge1 is getting kills with just his battle rifle. We go to Orge2 as he tries to lockdown the tower. Orge2 is killed as the score is 9-8. Orge2 is talking smack to Ramby as he and Saiyan take over the tower. We go to Ramby who spawned from far away, and it helps as he takes out 3 of FB's players and makes them lose their lock. Ramby tries to run but jumped right into Final Boss and was killed. Over to Naded, he's got the Sniper and heads to the Library. Naded is assisting well with the Sniper and SV takes the lead 22-20. With Naded doing the sniping from the back of the tower and the rest of the team blocking the access points, SV has an advantage over FB. Naded does a headshot while sweeping away and runs out of ammo, so now he trades in the rifle for the Sword. He went aggressive however and only got one kill before falling. We go to Walshy who only has one kill so far as his team is losing 31-30. Walshy charges aggesively and gets fragged for it. Walshy respawns and takes on Ramby one on one, but gets fragged! What is happening to Walshy? Walshy is trying to assist with grenades but its not working and is killed as SV leads 40-36. We now go over to Naded. He heads to the tower with his shotgun and takes out Orge1 and takes the Sniper. He gets a headshot but decides to switch back to the shotgun. It's now 45-41 for SV. The teams do some grenade tossing at each other and Naded lands one on Walshy's shoulders! SV is guarding the tower, knowing that if FB takes it it could be all over. It's now 47-45 SV. We go now to Orge1. He heads to tower and beats down Poon and Naded. In the final moments, Orge1 is blindsided by Legit and Storm Ventures has beaten Final Boss again! Holy crap! This just wasn't Walshy's game as he only got 3 kills. The play of the game is Naded's sweeping sniper kills.
While Storm Ventures is amazing everyone with their rise through the ranks, The Orge Twins are always amazing people as being the most dominant duo in MLG. We get a video about the twins and their possible supernatural communication. Orge2 says Halo is like Speed Chess in that you have to think fast in what you need to do. Orge1 likes having his brother on his team since he can trust him so well. The Orge Twins are not only great at Halo, but they're also the champions of Foosball, as it's rumored that they've won 42 straight games of it in the MLG players lounge. Their extremely competitive players but don't like to face each other. But will they choke against Storm Ventures?
Orge1 gives us a tip on how to be a good sniper. Use the right joystick to lineup the crosshairs of where your opponents head would be, use the left joystick to strafe, and fire once you see the crosshair turns red. If you're really good you can get four kills with it.
In Game 4 The Orge Twins kicked ass again, but in Game 5 Walshy once again screwed up and Storm Ventures won. Storm Ventures has a lot of momentum going for them, but Final Boss is #1 for a reason.
Game 6 of the Championship Finals
It's Team Slayer on Sanctuary. The power weapons are the Sword and Plasma Pistols. The key to winning is taking over the middle structure.
We start with Orge1 as everyone goes for the middle ring. Orge1 is going around the base making sure SV doesn't take over the base. Orge1 goes down but FB has taken over the area they needed. Over to Naded, he's closing in on FB's lead. Naded is taken out as the game is tied at 10-10. We go to captain Ramby running the perimeter and gets the sword for a double kill. Ramby goes on his own and gets killed off, so now we switch to Orge1. Orge1 has a weak shield but escapes. FB double teams on Naded and Legit and take the lead 22-18. Over to Legit, the score is 28-23. Legit kills Orge2 and almost gets assisinated by Orge1 but quickly reacts and bashes him for the kill. Legit is using the plasma pistol to take out Orge1 but gets killed by Orge2. Back to Orge1, he takes out Poon and kills Legit during his respawn. Final Boss is now racking up kill after kill and now lead 45-36. Orge1 is finally taken out but FB is still in the lead. Over to Walshy, his head is back in the game but he just got his sword stolen. Once he respawns he takes out Poon with one shot and then is taken out by Naded. It's 48-44 Final Boss. Walshy takes out Ramby with a grenade for the final kill and once again, Final Boss are the champions.Even though Final Boss won, Storm Ventures put on an amazing performance by actually beating Final Boss in one of the championship games. A win like that definitely helps as we get the latest point standings:
1.Final Boss: 8000
2.Carbon: 5800
3.Str8 Rippin: 5600
4.Storm Ventures: 4260
5.Xit Woundz: 4200
6.eX: 4035
7.Shook One Gaming: 3820
8.Mob Powertripbev.com: 3370
The Free For All Champion this week is, once again, Ben "Karma" Jackson from Carbon. While Final Boss dominates in teams, this guy seems to dominate in one on one. I'd like to see a match between him and Walshy sometime.
The Scion Player of the Week is of course Ryan "Ramby" Mendez from Storm Ventures, for bringing his team to the championship finals for the first time and giving Final Boss a run for their money.
Will Final Boss continue winning championship after championship all the way to Las Vegas? Will Karma continue to become the Free For All champion? Find out next week for the final regular season tournament in Orlando.
