The Select and Start News Report: 12.17.07
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 12.17.2007
Activision and Harmonix arguing over Rock Band/Guitar Hero patch, Blizzard announces a next-gen MMO, kids gets in trouble for making threats over Xbox Live, BioShock is game of the year despite Call of Duty 4 being better, and more
Welcome to a very sardoodledom Select and Start News Report. So "w00t" is the word of the year. Between this and "Ginormous" officially being a word, I just might have lost all hope for the modern day dictionary.
Big News
We start off the news with the seemingly eternal struggle that is...
So with Guitar Hero and Rock Band trying to compete for top position in the whole "Guitar Game Wars" (which according to some should have already been won by Guitar Freaks), gamers have been questioning if they'd have to buy multiple guitars to play these games. The latest controversy right now is that Harmonix and MTV said they created a patch to let the Rock Band guitar be playable on Activision's Guitar Hero III for the PS3. The patch however has not been released, and the reason they claim is that Activision won't allow them to. The patch had been sent to Sony and was going to be released December 4th, but is currently on hold due to Activision's objection. Activision, however, that the claims made by Harmonix and MTV "paints a very misleading picture." Activision says they've been trying to reach an agreement with Harmonix and MTV that would allow Guitar Hero controllers to work with Rock Band, but they refuse to. The only thing Sony has stated right now is that they want both sides to quickly resolve this issue.
What exactly does Activision mean when it wants Harmonix to reach an agreement with them? From what I understand the Guitar Hero controllers will work with Rock Band (except for the PS3), but not the other way around, and Harmonix created a patch for the PS3, but they say Activision keeps objecting it. So either Harmonix is lying and never really created a patch or Activision are being assholes about this. As much as I want to be neutral about this, I'm leaning towards Harmonix on this one. But really, Sony should probably do something about this instead of trying to stay out of it.
In other Guitar Hero news, Activision is getting sued because the Wii version apparently doesn't play Stereo sound at all despite it being advertised on the back of the game. Okay seriously, I can understand getting pissed off about it, but SUING over it?! Fuck these people.
BLIZZARD ANNOUNCES NEW MMO...BUT WHAT? [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra, CVG]
After speculation about the job advertisements at the Blizzard website, a Blizzard community rep on the Blizzard forums had announced that Blizzard is currently working on a next-gen MMO that won't have anything to do with World of Warcraft. Earlier this year, Blizzard founding member and senior vice president of product development Frank Pearce created a group called "Team 3", comprised of about 40 members separate from the Starcraft and Warcraft teams, and said they were working on a new game that he only described as "something really awesome."
I've got two guesses as to what this MMO will be: "World of Starcraft", which is probably not going to happen with Starcraft 2 in the works, and "World of Diablo", which is way more likely. I will only be surprised if it's not either of those two.
In other news, Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime has been inducted into The Hall Of Fame Of The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Congrats to Morhaime.
TEENAGER MAKES SCHOOL SHOOTING THREAT ON XBOX LIVE; GETS ARRESTED [credit: GameSpot, Voodoo Extreme]
If you're going to kill people, don't announce it to the world. These days people seem to want to post about they'll be causing murder and such over MySpace, YouTube, and whatever mainstream-community site they come across. This week, the latest person to get arrested over such crap was a 19-year-old Frostburg State University student who was talking over Xbox Live in a Call of Duty 4 match about how he was going to shoot up his school. One person he was talking to didn't find it funny and called the police, putting schools around the area under "lock-in" as Microsoft and the teen's ISP helped the police track him down. The teenager however claims he was only joking about it and wasn't going to follow through with the threat. A search of the room turned up no weapons.
School shootings are not funny people, and shit like this becomes even more serious when recent shootings like the Omaha Mall Massacre have taken place. This kid was an idiot and hopefully he learns his lesson.
CALL OF DUTY 4 IS BETTER THEN BIOSHOCK. BIOSHOCK IS GAME OF THE YEAR. DOES NOT COMPUTE. [credit: GameSpot]
So the VGA's were on last Sunday and because of the abomination that was the 2006 event which convinced me to put this show into the Hall of Shame, I didn't bother to watch it and I refuse to watch a rerun of it. Either way, the Game of the Year award went to BioShock, beating out Halo 3, Mass Effect, and The Orange Box, so at least the winner was somewhat deserving. However, one thing that really irks me is that in the Best Shooter category, BioShock lost to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
In other words, the game announced as "BEST GAME OF THE YEAR" lost to another game for "BEST SHOOTING GAME". Does this make any sense to anybody out there? Why isn't Call of Duty 4 the Game of the Year when apparently it's considered a better shooting game then Bioshock? And I thought TNA was the only thing that made no fucking sense on SpikeTV.
Tidbit News
-A sequel to Final Fantasy IV was revealed in a Japanese magazine scan. The game is called "FF4: The After", with players taking the role of Theodore, a descendant of Final Fantasy IV protagonist, Cecil. Unfortunately, the game is going to be exclusive for mobile phones. Curse your superior cell phone technology Japan! [credit: 1UP]
-Atari has settled their dispute with FUNimation over the DBZ license for $3.5 million, meaning that the latest DBZ game, Budokai Tenkaichi 3, has now been released. [credit: Gamasutra]
-According to a report from consumer research firm Packaged Facts, 1.3 million new and used hardware units sold for a total of $330 million over eBay in 2006. This is due to huge amounts of money people were selling the newly released Wiis and PS3s for. [credit: GameDaily]
-Remember that whole Greenpeace giving Nintendo a 0.0 thing? Nintendo commented on it's weblog refuting the score, saying that they do "take great care to comply with all relevant regulations on avoiding the use of dangerous materials, recycling, etc." Maybe that's why there's a Wii shortage; Nintendo is working on making them environmentally safe. [credit: Gamasutra]
-Rockstar has won an appeal with the BBFC's rating of the now censored version of Manhunt 2. [credit: Gamasutra]
-SpikeTV and it's half-brother G4 are announcing new game-related programming. Geoff Keighley will be hosting a new show on Spike that will run in conjunction with GameTrailers.com, and G4 will be redoing X-Play to now include news, interviews, and an "MMO Report". As long as niether of these networks do another games award show, I'm fine with it. [credit: Gamasutra]
-In the new Turok game, players can earn the "Grab Bag" achievement, which rewards gamers with ten achievement points for killing at least one creature, one enemy, one team-mate and themselves in the same round of a public match. With many gamers complaining about calling this the 'Worst Achievement Ever', the developers are now working on a patch to fix this. [credit: Next Generation]
-When asked if Nintendo will make any of the Virtual Console games would have online gameplay, Reggie Fils-Aime said that they won't. As for online voice chat, he says Nintendo are looking into it. But given that people seem to do stupid shit over voice chat, they probably shouldn't. [credit: GameSpot]
-When asked about if the VT Massacre video would cause people to imitate Cho Seung Hui's actions to get their moments of fame, Tom Brokaw says it more about what people will read in blogs and see in video games, refering to both as "cancerous". Yeah, because when some people talk about how Seung Hoi, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are heroes, it's obviously because of the video games they play and not what they go through in school and at home. No wonder this guy retired from the news; he turned into an idiot. [credit: Gamasutra]
-No More Heroes was launched in Japan, and even with the creators of the game giving away free NMH toiler paper (what?!) and offering to sign the game, the only person that showed up to buy the game was a member of the press from Famitsu magazine. No More Heroes is said to be a great game for the Wii, and if winds up failing, all those people that keep calling the Wii a short lived novelty and a toy could possibly be right. [credit: Destructoid]
-The more Killzone 2 starts to look so great, the more we realize we're being had. Guerilla's Seb Downie recently admitted on the official PS3 forums that he does alter some of the screenshots shown of the game. He said he only made minor alterations to them, but still. [credit: Destructoid]
The Other Crap
PHOENIX WRIGHT MII
I made a Phoenix Wright Mii. Check it out if you want. Entry # 6165-6877-4015
THE CGS WORLD FINALS
Out of nowhere I found out the Championship Gaming World Finals was being aired on DirecTV, so I recorded it just in time. Instead of doing full recaps for the episodes, I'll just be doing basic summaries on what happens.
Also, there's no MLG recap this week. I don't know if G4 just didn't air it or my DVR screwed up. I should have the episode done for next week and possibly the other one as well.
MIKE TYSON'S BRUNCH OUT!!
Part of the Meth Minute 39 series (which you really need to check out), this one has 8-bit Mike Tyson being part of the whole hipster brunch scene. Hilarity ensues.
WEEKLY SMASH BROS. ROUNDUP
So as it turns out CoroCoro Comics didn't reveal anything new, so the full roster for the game has yet to be revealed. Looks like we'll really have to wait until February to find out. Anyways, here's what was new this week at the Dojo:
-Bonsly. The baby form of SudoWoodo, this Pokemon looks small but is very heavy to lift, and does major damage on contact.
-Rotation. Organize who gets to play next when playing with a group of people. Is anybody really going to use this though?
-Options. You get to look at what the options menus we be like.
-Ice Climber music. You can listen to the new theme for the Ice Climbers.
-Mario Circuit. Finally confirmed through the site, you battle at the center of the figure 8 track with an upper and lower level, where the racers will drive through at certain times. You can make some of the racers wipe out.
-Stafy. A star from a game in Japan, he spins around and attacks anyone nearby. Should you try to kick him away, you explode. Or get fire breathed on you, I couldn't really tell.
-Waluigi. He finds someone he doesn't like, stomps the crap out of them, then whacks them away with his tennis racket or gives them one final kick.
GAMING CALENDAR
January 14, 2008 - G4 to debut newly redone "X-Play"
January 22, 2008 - Turning Point: Fall of Liberty to be released
January 25, 2008 - SpikeTV's to debut new "GameTrailers" show
February 2008 - No More Heroes to be released
February 5, 2008 - Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition to be released
February 10th, 2008 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl to be released
2nd Quarter 2008 - Metal Gear Solid 4 to be released
March 8th, 2008 - God of war: Chains of Olympus to be released
April 2008 - Grand Theft Auto IV to be released
Spring 2008 - Heroes of Might and Magic Kingdoms to be released
When you have 15 people wanting to play, they better! Otherwise, they end up arguing worse than on online voice chat.
Posted By: DarkKinger (Guest) on December 17, 2007 at 03:41 AM
On the whole 'losing Best Shooter, winning Best Game' thing, Bioshock was probably marked down in the shooter category for having no multiplayer and therefore limited replay value. That would probably not be as big of a concern in terms of overall 'game of the year' voting though.
Or it's the VGA's and they just didn't think about it.
Posted By: Rod Oracheski (Registered) on December 17, 2007 at 06:04 AM
Also regarding Bioshock vs. Call of Duty. I think Call of Duty 4 is a superior game on every front, but some might disagree with me. Regardless, I suspect the argument for its loss in the shooter department had something to do with the idea that while Call of Duty 4 might be a superior shooter, Bioshock is the superior game (again, not that I agree with that). Computer Gaming World did something like this in 1997. They awarded Best Role-Playing game to Daggerfall, which they argued was the best example of a pure role-playing experience, but Diablo was the game of the year, as it was the best gaming experience overall.
In a lot of ways, this is also like the Oscars. How can best director and best picture ever be different? Performances, editing, sound design, execution of script, and camera work all fall under the director's sway, so awarding for the best direction is awarding for sheer excellence in filmmaking.
In other words, awards are a means of making people who worked hard or put money up feel better about themselves, but they don't actually mean a whole lot since the criteria used to supply them to the recipients are often rather flimsy.
Posted By: Thompson Plyler (Guest) on December 17, 2007 at 12:20 PM
The reason BioShock lost the Best Shooting Game category, but won Best Overall Game is because Call Of Duty 4 IS the better shooter, but BioShock is the better overall game. BioShock was all about the unique characters, interesting weapons and the submersive environment of Rapture. Call Of Duty 4 was all about killing terrorists and there was no other game this year that was more fun to shoot bad guys in than COD4. So I thought it made complete sense and was the right call because if anyone asked me what my favorite shooter of '07 was, I'd say COD4 but if they asked me what my favorite game was, I'd say BioShock. That's just my two cents, though.
Posted By: Julian (Guest) on December 17, 2007 at 04:32 PM
Can we not attack innocent parties for filing possibly frivolous lawsuits, please? Look, if GHIII is going to advertise on the BACK OF THE BOX that the game is in stereo, knowing full well that it is not, then how can you personally attack these people (ok, dipshits) who feel like they didn't get their money's worth? Especially if this is a class action suit, meaning it represents EVERYONE who bought GHIII for the Wii. Sorry, but I'm a law student and I had to point this out. It's blatant false advertisement.
Posted By: Mojo (Guest) on December 17, 2007 at 09:06 PM
"The more Killzone 2 starts to look so great, the more we realize we're being had. Guerilla's Seb Downie recently admitted on the official PS3 forums that he does alter some of the screenshots shown of the game. He said he only made minor alterations to them, but still. [credit: Destructoid]
"
You know, seriously, do some homework. For one, every company doctors their stills, every one. So, this is nothing new. Secondly, before ya'll start screaming conspiracy, take a look at the in-game video's, interesting that they admitted to doctoring 'slightly' a few shots, but have done 'NOTHING' to the in-game video footage. Sounds like you're playing yourselves and your readers, as opposed to delivering serious and objective journalism.
Posted By: Brian Murphy, VT (Guest) on December 19, 2007 at 11:36 AM
