The Select and Start News Report: 06.30.08
Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 06.30.2008
Diablo III is finally announced, only 2676 gamers cared about Hot Coffee, new Soul Calibur IV details, Nintendo announces new Wario and Kirby games, Nintendo getting sued over Paper Mario, and one senators journey to find a rape scene that doesn't exist. All that and more.
Why is there no blue food? I can't find blue food - I can't find the flavor of blue! I mean, green is lime; yellow is lemon; orange is orange; red is cherry; what's blue? There's no blue! Oh, they say, "Blueberries!" Uh-uh; blue on the vine, purple on the plate. There's no blue food! Where is the blue food? We want the blue food! Probably instores immortality! They're keeping it from us! ~George Carlin. If only we had some blue food.
Big News
AFTER A WEEK LONG TEASER, BLIZZARD MAKES IT OFFICIAL [credit: 1UP, The Escapist, Joystiq]
At the beginning of the week Blizzard put up a teaser image on their website that consisted of just a block of ice. Eventually that ice began to separate as a pair of eyes starting looking at us. What could all of this mean? A majority of gamers thought it was going to be the official announcing of Diablo III. Others thought the new World of Warcraft expansion. Or perhaps the first unveiling of their secret MMO project. Well, this weekend it was finally confirmed that it was indeed Diablo III. Here's a quick rundown of the game:
The Story: It's been 20 years since the events of Diablo II, and a comet has struck the world of Sanctuary, carrying a dark omen that calls for the heroes of Sanctuary to defend the mortal world against the rising powers of the Burning Hells.
The Classes: Five classes will be in the game. The Barbarian returns with new skills and introduced is The Witch Doctor. The Witch Doctor's ablilties include spells to help him in battle, include a standard fireball attack called, spells that cause enemies to run away and attack each other, summon creatures to help you out, or absorb the enemies souls. The Barbarian's abilities focuses on him using physical attacks to kill as many enemies as possible.
The Characters: Deckard Cain returns and Blizzard says other will be returning as well.
The Gameplay: Gameplay pretty much stays the same, but now you can use the environment to your advantage, like knocking down a wall to take out an entire horde of enemies. Co-op gameplay will be a primary focus for the game.
As for when Diablo III will actually be on store shelves, that hasn't been determined. I'm guessing we won't see this game until early 2010, or at least not until Starcraft II comes out, which won't be coming out until 2009.
SOUL CALIBUR IV: TAG TEAM FIGHTING, POSSIBLE KRATOS APPEARANCE [credit: Joystiq, Kotaku, Destructoid]
With Soul Calibur IV coming out in a few weeks, new information and rumors have started to pop up. First would be the franchises's introduction of tag team fighting. But unlike in Dead Or Alive or Marvel vs Capcom where you can tag out in mid-match, this one apparently only uses teams for combos based on some kind of friendship meter, and apparently it only applies to the single player mode. So I'm guessing this is more like some kind of striker system like in King of Fighters. I wonder who would want to team up with the Star Wars guys. Perhaps the god killing badass of the God of War games Kratos?
That could very well happen if the rumors are true. According to EGM's rumor master Quartermann, Kratos will be a playable character for the PS3 version of the game. Kratos appearing in Soul Calibur would make a lot more sense then Yoda and Darth Vader, but since those two are already in the game it would be overkill if Kratos made an appearance. I really don't see this happening though, but then again I kept saying to myself Sonic would not be in Smash Bros and well you know the rest. But then would the Xbox 360 version has another exclusive character to make up for it? Perhaps the Arbiter from Halo using his energy sword as a weapon?
2,676 GAMERS FILE CLAIMS FROM HOT COFFEE; LAWYERS INFLATE LEGAL FEES [credit: Gamasutra, 1UP, GamePolitics, GameSpot, Overlawyered]
Take-Two settled the GTA:SA class action lawsuit by giving each gamer who was offended by Hot Coffee up to $35 in compensation depending on documentation and when you bought the game. Out of the millions that bought the game, here are the number of people that signed up for the settlement:
Tier 1 (up to $35.00) (no exchange required): 416
Tier 2 (up to $17.50) (exchange required): 22
Tier 3 ($10.00) (exchange required): 131
Tier 4 ($5.00) (no exchange required): 2,050
Disc Exchange w/o cash: 57
So in the end, Take-Two will be paying about $30,000 in this settlement and donating $870,000 to charity, which shouldn't be much considering the hundreds of millions they've made with the help of this game and Grand Theft Auto IV. The lawyers representing the plantiffs (13 lawyers from 12 different law firms) were disappointed with the low turn out, but are now demanding that Take-Two pay one million dollars in legal fees, which is down from what they claim their time on the case as $1.3 million. Why such a high payout to these lawyers? Lawyer and gamer Theodore Frank at Overlawyered had his own theory:
"Possibility one is they have a meritorious lawsuit and they're selling out the class for attorneys' fees. The other possibility is that, and frankly I think this is the more likely possibility, they brought a meritless lawsuit that had no business being brought to court at all."
These people want a million dollars because of legal fees for a case that ended up with way less then 1% of people who bought the game asking for their money back? What a bunch of crooks. No wonder lawyers are hated so much. But at least these lawyers aren't sending threatening letters and are calling themselves heroes.
TEENAGERS THESE DAYS... [credit: GamePolitics, GameSpot, Next Generation]
Police in Nassau County, New York arrested six teenagers going on a crime spree because, according to the police, they were imitating characters and scenes from GTA4. Through Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning, the kids mugged and severely beat a man, attempted a carjacking, and vandalized a vehicle before being arrested by Garden City police. The teens spanned ages between 14 and 17. Two of them had prior records, one for burglary and larceny, the other for drug possession. When asked about how the police knew they were imitating GTA, it was because the kids said so themselves.
On the one hand I can see this as the teenagers fault considering they're stupidity and criminal record, but then on the other hand I can see the cops being liars because lying is what cops do best. Either way it's just one big ball of stupidity.
RAPE SCENE? WHAT RAPE SCENE? [credit: GamePolitics, Destructoid]
Connecticut State Senator Gayle Slossberg (D) wants confirmation that there is a rape scene in Grand Theft Auto 4, but she can't reach that level. Only problem is, there isn't any actual rape scene in the game. She also is calling for legislation on better warning labels for game, but she doesn't know exactly what they should say:
"I mean what would it say? 'This game will make you a sociopath'?"
After it was reported by the New Haven Advocate about what she said about the rape scene, she claims they misrepresented her off-the-record-comments and she is not making any legislative proposal.
Free tip Slossberg: Nothing you ever say in life will ever be considered "off the record". I've learned this lesson many, many times. Oh, and even if you did put warning labels like that, it wouldn't help. That's why millions of people still smoke and drink alcohol.
WARIO AND KIRBY GET NEW GAMES [credit: GameDaily, Destructoid, Gamasutra, Joystiq]
Nintendo recently announced a new Wario platformer for the Wii. The game plays like an old-school platformer by having you hold the Wii Remote on it's side, and players can also shake it to take out enemies, loot treasures, and cause earthquakes. As for Kirby, he'll be coming to the DS with a remake of his SNES game Kirby Super Star, entitled Kirby Super Star Ultra. The game features new graphics and adds new cutscenes while retaining all the game modes plus an additional two, "Revenge of the King" and "Meta Knight Ultra." Both games will be shipping on September 29th.
The Wario game will likely be just like all the other ones, so unless you like easy platform games, you'll probably avoid it. As for Kirby SSU, many people think the original was one of the best platforming games of all time, so seeing a remake on the DS is definitely nice. I'll certainly be looking forward to that one.
[credit: The Esapist, GamePolitics, GameSpot]
This week we learned that Nintendo was going to get sued by Morgan Creek Productions for illegally using the song "You're So Cool" composed by Hans Zimmer during a 2004 commercial for Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door...but then the suit was drop just six days after it was brought up. Why? Because as it turned out, Nintendo DID have the license for the song in the first place. Wah wah waaaaaah.
This actually isn't the first time Nintendo had a licensing issue. Back in 1982 Universal sued them over Donkey Kong because it infringed on their rights for King Kong. It turned out the King Kong license was public domain, and so Universal had to pay Nintendo in legal damages. Oh the hilarity!
Tidbit News
-Britain's Daily Telegraph ran a story with the headline "Schoolboy hangs himself after row over Nintendo Wii," even though evidence had shown that the 13 year-old boy killed himself by accident after he was throwing a temper tantrum. Teenagers these days... [credit: Kotaku]
-Ubisoft has announced a new Prince of Persia game exclusively for the DS, Prince of Persia: The Fallen King. Prince of Persia: The Fallen King sees the Prince fleeing a deserted kingdom in his quest to destroy the spreading Corruption. During his journey, he meets Magus, a creature particularly affected by the "spreading Corruption destroying the land." The game will come out in late 2008. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]
-A 38-year-old ex-convict was arrested in February after he allegedly abducted a mentally-challenged 16-year-old girl. According to FBI documents, suspect David Faboo and his intended victim met while playing World of Warcraft. Faboo was apprehended by Oregon State Police five hours after picking the girl up near her home in California. I always knew that game was trouble! [credit: GamePolitics, Destructoid]
-Yet another company has left the ESA, though they weren't that big of a company anyway. Crave Entertainment, who mostly make low-budget games like World Championship Poker featuring Howard Lederer and Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection, have decided to leave the company due to focusing on the impending sale of the company. [credit: GamePolitics, GameDaily]
-Capcom has announced that finally, FINALLY, there will be a Mega Man 9! Only this one will be an 8-bit style game that will only be available for download via WiiWare and doesn't look to finally wrap up the series storyline wise to Mega Man X. Besides that disappointment, the bosses announced so far are Magma Man, Galaxy Man, Jewel Man, Concrete Man, Hornet Man, Plug Man, Tornado Man, and Splash Woman. Yes, one of the bosses is finally a woman. [credit: 1UP]
-Good News: The Castlevania series is coming to the Wii with Castlevania Judgment! Possibly Bad News: It's a 3D fighting game featuring charaters from throughout the series. I think this game is going to be nothing more then a miserable pile of secrets. [credit: Kotaku]
-The New York State Senate has approved a bill proposed by Sen. Andrew Lanza (R) that would require new console systems to be equipped with parental controls and would mandate that ESRB ratings be displayed on game packaging. Even though consoles and the ESRB do that NOW! How about a bill lowering the freaking gas prices?! [credit: GameDaily]
- BioShock lead programmer Chris Kline has said at a GDC session in Paris that BioShock should have been a failure. Kline detailed a number of the mistakes, starting from the initial idea of remaking commercial failure System Shock 2, right through to focusing on making it more exciting inside of working on the 'small' things like balancing, plasmid use and the script. [credit: CVG]
-Harmonix has announced that it will allow customers who've purchased Rock Band, presumably for any platform, to take advantage of its EA warranty program without providing a receipt showing proof of purchase within 60 days, effective June 30th. The loosened restrictions will last until October 1, 2008, when the company will again require customers to report the defects with a receipt within 60-days of purchasing the game. [credit: Gamasutra]
-Blizzard SVP Rob Pardo said that Blizzard originally planned to make World of Warcraft a subscription-free game, but market research showed that it wouldn't be enough to support them. That and they probably realized how charing monthly fees would make them zillions of dollars. [credit: Gamasutra]
-Speaking of World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero III players can download the track "I am Murloc" by Blizzard's house band Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain for free. [credit: GameDaily]
-A purportedly leaked flyer from K-Mart indicates that Microsoft will drop the price on its 20GB Xbox 360 SKU by $50, bringing it down to $299 starting July 13th. [credit: GameDaily]
Gaming Calendar
July 1st - Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 (DS)
July 8th:
-Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (Wii)
-Activision and Vivendi to have merger vote
-Devil May Cry 4 ported to the PC
-Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution (X360, PS3, DS)
July 13th:
-NCAA Football 09 (Multi)
-Deadliest Catch: Alaskan Storm (PC)
July 15-17 - E3 Media & Business Summit to be held
July 22nd:
-Final Fantasy IV DS
-Izuna 2: The Unemployed Ninja Returns (DS)
July 29th - Soulcalibur IV (PS3, X360)
July 2008 - Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (WII, PC)
August 1st - EA Land (PC, formerly The Sims Online) will close down
August 25th - Mario Super Sluggers (Wii)
August 2008 - Tales of Vesperia (Xbox 360)
Summer 2008 - Air Traffic Chaos (DS)
September 2nd - Infinite Undiscovery (Xbox 360)
September 5th - FaceBreaker (X360, PS3)
September 7th - Spore (PC)
September 16th - Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
September 22nd - Sim City Creator (Wii, DS)
September 29th:
-Kirby Super Star Ultra (DS)
-Wario Land: Shake It! (Wii)
September 2008 - TNA iMPACT (Multi)
October 2008:
-LittleBigPlanet (PS3)
-Bioshock ported to the PS3
-Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Xbox 360, PC)
October 3-5 - E for All 2008 to be held
October 9-13 - The Tokyo Game Show 2008 to be held
November 4th - Left 4 Dead (PC, X360)
November 2008 - Gears of War 2 (X360)
Fall 2008:
-Resistance: Fall of Man 2 (PS3)
-MySims Kingdom (DS, Wii)
Videos of the Day
Samba de Amigo Trailer:
Remember a while ago that someone was casting for a Mega Man movie? Well, the man behind the non-profit fan movie recently released this preview clip:
Jon Stewart plays McCain's Facebook game:
The new unofficial mascot/Trying out Spore
I checked out the trial edition of the Spore creature creator that while limited to what you can do (only 25% of the parts are available), it's still pretty cool. After messing around for about an hour, I created this thing as my new unofficial mascot of the Select and Start News. Meet Vodge Codge:
Wrestling Conspiracy
Has anyone else noticed that John Cena was once again responsible for getting Triple H on Smackdown? Back in 2004 he drew the ball that got him there before the immediate switch back, and then because he elimiated Triple H, the RAW Team lost the battle royal causing Triple H to be drafted to Smackdown. Coincedence?
Because it's too damn hot to go outside, read these guys
LMAO the 360 version of SC4 is gonna be the worst version ever. Darth Vader + Kratos = PS3 version FTW!
And Diablo 3? Is that like the pinnacle of western gaming development? Another boring clickfest, no wonder Japanese devs are light years ahead.
Posted By: Snake211 (Guest) on June 30, 2008 at 12:26 AM
I'd make a B3yond the Report creature, but it'd be too awesome for one screen shot to handle.
Posted By: Mark Salmela (Guest) on June 30, 2008 at 01:06 AM
Kirby Super Star...oh wow how that brings back memories. That is a game I will definitely be buying when it comes out.
And Kratos? What an overrated character, bah, get out of mah Soul Calibur.
Posted By: Drew Robbins (Guest) on June 30, 2008 at 09:15 AM
Do you suppose if everyone ignored that snake211 fella, he would go away?
Posted By: Toddo (Guest) on June 30, 2008 at 01:05 PM
"On the one hand I can see this as the teenagers fault considering they're stupidity and criminal record, but then on the other hand I can see the cops being liars because lying is what cops do best."
I'm a different kind of cop.
Posted By: Vic Mackey (Guest) on June 30, 2008 at 03:07 PM
Hahaha, I loved the line about the cops. It's so true. Cops lie to cover their asses just like eveyone else. They're only humans, but they have a gun and a God complex.
Posted By: Servus (Guest) on June 30, 2008 at 08:15 PM
