The Negative Edge News Report 4.25.07
Posted by Tommy Coloma on 04.25.2007
Eternal Sonata finding its way into everyone's dreams, BioShockingly bad news about store exclusives, shooting yourself in the head (in a video game), a ten-year tour, and More!
Welcome to another edition The Negative Edge. Last week I went into my local Walmart hoping that someone was stupid enough to shelve an Xbox 360 Elite early as had been the case at several locations around the US. Unfortunately, it seems that the Walmart employees in my town actually follow instructions. Disappointed at only seeing a shelf full of Premiums, I turned around to see if there were any good DS games that I might want to try out. Then something caught my eye. Something that I didn't expect to see out in the open at 1 PM on a Friday afternoon. Something that has escaped my grasp since November - a Nintendo Wii. Of course, I automatically assumed that it was just an empty box sitting there to tease prospective buyers. I mean, it was 1 PM in the afternoon! It should be in the hands of some scalper by now. So I casually walked up to the manager that just happened to be standing around and asked him if that was in fact a real Nintendo Wii. Of course he said yes after which I immediately told him that I wanted to buy it. While bringing the system over to the nearest cashier, the manager told me that that was the only system that they got in that day and that it had only been on the shelf for about 3 minutes. The lady at the cash register was surprised at seeing one and asked if there were any more. I'm pretty sure that if she had known about it, she would have snatched it up for herself. This leads me to believe that a majority of the consoles that make it to store shelves are probably grabbed by the employees themselves. It sucks but that's how things work I guess. So, out of sheer luck, I was able to score a Wii. The story doesn't end there though. I wasn't able to set my Wii up until Saturday night, so, after setting the system up, I headed over to Target at around 9:45 PM to pick up a copy of Zelda. When I got to the Wii section I looked down and saw that there were 4 Wiis just sitting there. Surprised, but not caring any more since I already got mine, I just got the nearest attendant to open up the case so that I could get my game. Since it was nearly closing time the attendant had to walk the game all the way to the checkout area. While heading over there I was able to strike up a conversation about the Wiis. It turned out that they had sold around 7 Wiis since 2 in the afternoon and they had several more in the back. So, are the days of not being able to find Wiis coming to an end? I checked around several forums and found that a lot of people were able to pick one up over the weekend fairly easily. There were still those who waited too long and were not able to pick one up, but if my experience is any indication, it would seem that it is getting easier to get Wii if you really want one.
The news as I see it
Exclusives are bad, no matter what system they're on
According to the ESRB (via Joystiq) Eternal Sonata (Chopin's Dream), one of the few Japanese RPGs to look forward to on the 360, will eventually be on the PS3. Good news? Of course! Exclusives force people to buy systems they don't want in order to play. I'm sure there are people that have a PS3 and have no intention of buying a 360. At least now they have something to celebrate, though I'm convinced that the loss of an exclusive is something everyone should be happy about.
But I want my new games to be factory sealed, not pulled from a shelf and packaged before my very eyes!
In the Cult of Rapture page at 2K GAMES' web site, it was announced that the Limited Edition version of BioShock will only be available at EBGames/GameStop -
The BioShock Limited Edition will be available to US and Canada exclusively at GameStop and EB for US$59.99 (PC LE) and US$69.99 (Xbox 360™ LE). The Limited Edition will also be available in Europe and details about ordering a copy will be coming soon.
Damn it! we're finally seeing the end of exclusives and now they're pulling this crap on us. People that get the game on release day won't have a problem, but how about those that want to purchase the LE a few months after? Here is the inevitable scenario -
buyer: Hi! Can I get a new copy of the Limited Edition of BioShock?
EB employee: Sure, let me pull the display box from the shelf.
buyer: But I wanted a new copy
EB employee: It's new.
buyer: Um...
EB employee: Despite the fact that I'm repackaging the game right in front of your eyes using a box that hundreds of hands have already touched, this game is still new. If you don't like it you can leave biatch!
Yeah. That's pretty much the experience late buyers will have. Maybe there are financial reasons for not having the LE at big places like Target or Walmart. If that's the case, they should at least have it available at other places like GameCrazy. At least there they don't try to sell opened games as if they were new.
But are limited editions worth it anyway? It really depends on the game and content. Maybe not for BioShock (at least not for me), but what if there was some ultra cool Street Fighter 4 limited edition package down the line? My head would explode if I was forced to buy it at EB!
Since it doesn't have Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest in its title, does it actually exist?
According to The Magic Box, the Famitsu Awards 2006 Outstanding Achievement in RPG winner is Persona 3
I've been looking forward to this for a little while. The gameplay is supposedly "similar to The Sims and especially Bully, or Japanese RPGs with dating sim elements, like Harvest Moon or Azure Dreams." I'm always down with trying something new. Oh, and placing a gun to your head and pulling the trigger to release spirits is... unique. Yeah... I'd love to see what the ESRB rating for this game will be. Maybe M - Suicide Mimicry / Fantasy Violence.
While we're on the subject of video game violence -
Video games don't make people violent. People do.
I'm taking a stand. I will no longer mention a certain person's name ever again, but I will use the initials JT. You should already know what they stand for. Anyway, it turns out that MSNBC called Jack Th- JT out on his insistence that video games were the root cause of the Virginia Tech massacre. It's about time that the media wised up to the whole video game blame game. I mean, I've been playing games since the early 80s and I've never felt the urge to kill anyone after playing a game. So what actually causes me to think of violent thoughts? Quota hogs, people that cut me off on the road, and doctors, but I'll get into those some other day...
10 years is nothing!
In a recent interview, Shinji Hashimoto, a producer at Square-Enix, mentioned that the Final Fantasy XIII "series" will be created "Under the idea of wanting everyone to be sucked into the world for 10 years." (credit: Nintendo Dream magazine via IGN) IE, the games in the FFXIII universe will span several systems over the next several years. I'm all for that as long as the characters and games are good. I mean, look at Mario, Zelda, and Metroid. They've been around for much longer. The only misgivings I have are the fact that the main game in the series is exclusive to a system that, as it stands, isn't really owned by a lot of people. How do you revolve a whole series of games around one game that is inaccessible to the majority of your prospective buyers? Things change. System prices drop. Exclusivity changes (hopefully). So it's really too early to read too much into this right now anyway.
This week's releases
These are inevitable purchases down the line but, since I just got a new system and will be picking up another one at the end of the week, I think that I'll sit them out for the time being.
Pokemon Diamond / Pokemon Pearl
I'll pick up Diamond because, frankly, Diamond sounds much cooler than Pearl.
SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS
How many times has this game been pushed back? I'll believe that this game exists when I see in on the shelf at Best Buy. Until then, we can look here to see what we can look forward to.
Battle Lode Runner on Wii VC
I used to love playing Lode Runner on my Apple ][. It's a great platformer puzzle game. It's a little hard to explain how to play it, so I dug up some footage of the old NES version of the game for your viewing pleasure -
What's on my desktop this week?
Since Udon is doing the art for that "new" Street Fighter game that's coming out in the fall (I'll have an overview of the recent announcement next week), I figured that this is a good week to feature some of the art that is done by them -
This seems to feature all of the characters from the Street Figther II series, the Alpha/Zero Series, and the Street Figther III series as well as all of the Capcom characters from the CVS series. Can you name them all? Sadly, I can...
Udon doesn't just do fighting games. This is another cool piece featuring characters from Halo, Metroid, and Killzone. I honestly don't think that Killzone is in the same league as Halo and Metroid, but I guess they had to include something from Sony's console.
That's it. It's over. I've already fortified my defenses. If I can survive the Zerg rush, I'll be back next week.
