The Select and Start News Report: 11.24.08

Posted by Vincent Chiucchi on 11.24.2008

PETA goes to war with Cooking Mama, teen collapses from WoW marathon, the Championship Gaming Series and Tabula Rasa go under, Sony movies not showing up on NetFlix, and Nickelback doesn't like Guitar Hero.



If any of you are going to fly for Thanksgiving weekend, do yourself a favor by NOT flying with JetBlue.

Big News

PETA VS COOKING MAMA [credit: Gamasutra, 1UP, GameDaily, Joystiq, GamePolitics, The Escapist]

It's almost like the video game industry has become a new enemy for PETA. A couple weeks ago they got Sega to take down the Samba de Amigo ads because they had actual monkeys in them, and last week they had a back and forth war of words with Majesco over the Cooking Mama series.

It all started early in the week when PETA put out a flash game called "Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals", which parodies the Cooking Mama series by having you cook a Thanksgiving turkey in a very bloody and torturous way, and completing each level gets you bonuses such as wallpapers, banner ads, and videos of turkeys getting slaughtered. I must say the game is a huge improvement over the very horrible Super Chick Sisters. After completing all the stages involved in making a turkey, you unlock a bonus level where Cooking Mama is suddenly nice again and she cooks a Tofu turkey, which is what PETA is hoping people around the country will do for Thanksgiving. They also bash the latest cooking mama game, Cooking Mama: World Kitchen, for having too many meat dishes.

Eventually hearing about what PETA was doing, Majesco sent out a press release regarding the situation. They pointed out how in the 51 recipes featured in the game, pver 25 of them are vegetarian-friendly, and says that Mama fully supports the humane treatment of animals, especially for her new dog Max. Mama also responded by saying "I would never put rat in my Ratatouille. Like any accomplished cook, I create my recipes to appeal to a broad range of tastes and preferences. My only goal is to ensure you leave the table well fed."

PETA responded back by thanking Majesco and Mama for their good natured responses to the flash parody, and ask Majesco to make a Cooking Mama game featuring only vegetarian recipes.

Usually I would hate PETA for all the ridiculous bullcrap they pull, but seeing the look on Psycho Cooking Mama's face just makes me laugh. Plus the flash game wasn't so broken down with problems like Super Chick Sisters was, and Majesco got a lot of free press for their latest Cooking Mama game. Way to go Mama!

SWEDISH TEEN SUFFERS SEIZURE AFTER WRATH OF LICH KING MARATHON [credit: The Escapist, Destructoid, Joystiq, 1UP, GamePolitics]

A 15-year-old boy from Sweden collapsed after having played WoW: Wrath of the Lich King for 24 hours straight with some friends. The boy's father says that the boy barely got any sleep and ate little food. When the kid started going into convulsions, the parents called rescue services. The boy is expected to make a complete recovery and the father plans to put limits on his game time.

The kid's lucky that the worst he suffered was a seizure. These days game addiction is becoming a hot topic, and it's because of gamers like him playing way too much WoW that cause "experts" to come in and share their unsolicited advice.

GAME OVER FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAMING SERIES [credit: 1UP, GameDaily, Joystiq, Gamasutra, GamePolitics, The Escapist]

This news has been personally disappointing to me considering that I covered some of the matches from my early news reports. DirecTV announced that it's Championship Gaming Series has folded, saying profitability was too far in the future, though heavily complemented the series by saying it was a concept way ahead of its time. The series lasted only two seasons in 2007 and 2008.

I think the biggest problem with this league was having it air exclusively on DirecTV, therefore limiting it's audience. It did air some matches on G4, but G4 isn't exactly liked by a lot of people. I'm saddened by the news, but I'm also not that surprised. I remember when I wrote a column about pro gaming a couple years back that with so many leagues it was going to lead to overkill, and sure enough, three leagues have now folded (CGS, WSVG, and CPL, though that might see a resurection). I think the solution to the problem is to establish one league dedicated to consoles and one league dedicated to PCs. Then there's the issue of prize money. I was sort of amazed how these teams and players were getting six-figure prizes, and I think giving away so much money may have caused some budget problems. So far it seems that the only league sustaining life is the MLG, and I hope that doesn't fold as well because I actually enjoy watching pro gaming.

Speaking of something that's now dead...

TABULA RASA TO DIE AND NEVER RESPAWN [credit: Destructoid, GameSpot, Joystiq, The Escapist]

What seemed like the inevitable ever since the game started retailing for $1 and series creator Richard Garriot deciding to leave after seriously trippin' (in space), NCSoft announced that on February 28th, Tabula Rasa is officially going to end. NCSoft said that the game was not performing up to expectations, and on January 10th, the game can be played for free. Current players will be gifted with three free months of NCSoft's other MMOs City of Heroes, Lineage II, and access to the beta version of Aion, a new MMO coming in 2009.

And another victim falls under the might of Blizzard and their Warcraft.

SONY MOVIES NOT ON XBOX 360 NETFLIX; CONSPIRACY? [credit: The Escapist, 1UP, The Escapist, Joystiq]

One of the biggest new features for the Xbox 360's "New Xbox Experience" is having NetFlix movies played through your console. However, it's been reported that lots of movies from NetFlix aren't able to be played on the Xbox 360, and suspiciously, a lot of those movies just happen to be anything by Columbia Pictures, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. On the surface it seems like Sony is taking a shot at Microsoft, but the problem might actually be that Microsoft and Sony have yet to work out the licensing for Sony's movies to appear on the Xbox 360 NetFlix, at least according to NetFlix and Sony. Microsoft has yet to say anything about this.

It does seem suspicious that Sony would pull their movies to spite Microsoft, but Sony and Microsoft have made plenty of deals together about Sony's stuff appearing on Microsoft's hardware, so this issue does not seem like Sony sabotaging Microsoft. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out Sony really is trying to screw Microsoft though.

NICKELBACK WANTS YOU TO STOP PLAYING GUITAR HERO [credit: CVG, Joystiq, Kotaku, Destructoid, mcvuk.com]

Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger is unhappy about the low of bands touring around these days, and he thinks the problem is Guitar Hero. Here's what he had to say in an interview with MTV:

"It's tough to find other bands out there, because either they're making a record, or they just got done touring. So kids: Start rock bands. Set down the Guitar Hero, learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band, because it's hard to find more bands to put a solid rock-and-roll package together, to get out there."

Tell you what Nickelback. I will convince everybody to stop playing Guitar Hero if you guys make a song that isn't the same old crap that you've recycled since the year 2001. Seriously, I'm getting sick of bands that diss Guitar Hero and Rock Band because it's not as realistic as playing in a real band. Kroeger here makes it sound like learning the guitar is the easiest thing to do and being talented at it will help you earn instant success as a band, when it obviously doesn't. Besides, the real reason these bands are saying crap like this is because they fear music games are going to hurt sales on their already shitty albums. If they really cared about the music rather then the money, they wouldn't bitch so much about file sharing.

Tidbit News

-Brash Entertainment, who announced last week that they were shutting down, is now being sued by two developers. Los Angeles-based 7 Studios is reportedly seeking $468,000 for its work on Tim Burton film game 9 and $113,000 for work on Six Flags Fun Park, while Slovenian developer Zootfly claims it's owed $748,000 for work on the video game version of Fox TV show Prison Break. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]

-You'd think that now you can install full games onto your Xbox 360 would mean that load times would be better right? Well according to Bungie, that isn't the case with Halo 3, because it has to read the maps from the DVD, and if you play the game from the hard drive, it makes the game run a lot more slower. [credit: GameSpot, CVG]

-EA has decided to pass up extending their exclusive licensing of AFL games. EA originally had the license in 2005 and has since only created two games based on the league. There was no AFL game last season due to expected poor sales. [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpot]

-While a lot of companies seem to be facing tough times from because of the economic "crisis", Infogrames is doing pretty well. For the April-September 2008 period, Infogrames reported sales of ˆ131.8 million ($166 million), an increase of 44.5% from a year ago thanks to now fully owning Atari. [credit: Gamasutra, GameSpot]

-Koei and Tecmo's merger into a new holding company will be official beginning in April 2009, in a stock deal valued at 20 billion yen ($207.7 million). The firm is seeking to have profits of 16 billion yen ($165 million) on sales of more than 70 billion yen ($723 million) by the year ending March 2012. Earlier Square Enix was wanting to buy out Tecmo, but Tecmo declined. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra]

-Ziff Davis announced that PC Magazine will no longer be printed, and will now become an online only magazine. Ziff Davis CEO Jason Young said that it's also likely that EGM will be discontinued in print and become online only as well. [credit: Gamasutra, GameDaily]

-After only being out for four and a half months, Google has announced that Google Lively, Google's version of a Second Life style virtual world, is going to be shut down at the end of the year. A lack of user growth and any real interest have been attributed to its death. [credit: Gamasutra, Joystiq, GameDaily, The Escapist]

-Midway is now facing a delisting threat from the New York Stock Exchange. In order to stay on the NYSE, your stock must be worth at least $1 a share for 30 consecutive days, and right now Midway's stock is only at 25 cents. Midway has six months to fix this problem or they can kiss their asses goodbye. The company is hoping for great success in Mortal Kombat vs. DC and Wheelman. [credit: GameDaily, Gamasutra, Joystiq]

-Sony has confirmed that support for its PlayStation 3 Trophy reward system will be mandatory for all PS3 games starting in 2009. [credit: Gamasutra, CVG]

Gaming Calendar

November 24th - Sonic Unleashed (X360)

November 25th:
-The King of Fighters Collection: The Orochi Saga (Wii)
-Chrono Trigger DS
-Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PSN; Nov.26 for XBLA)

December 1st - Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon (X360, PS3)

December 2nd:
-Prince of Persia: The Fallen King (PS3, PC, X360)
-Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (PS2)

December 9th:
-Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)
-Rock Band 2 ported to PS2

January 6th, 2009 - Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PSP)

January 13th, 2009 - Lord of the Rings: Conquest (X360, PS3, PC, DS)

February 17th, 2009:
-Street Fighter IV (X360, PS3)
-Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (DS)
-Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (X360)

February 28th, 2009 - Tabula Rasa to be shut down

March 3rd, 2009 - Star Ocean: The Last Hope (X360)

March 13th, 2009 - Resident Evil 5 (X360)

March 17th, 2009 - Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume (DS)

Survivor: Gabon Watch

The latest episode has officially become my favorite episode in the entire series for two big reasons: Ken won immunity and Randy got his ass voted out for being the cynical bastard he's been since nearly the beginning.

I was kind of intrigued with the auction part because I thought for sure the last item or so was instant immunity, so when I saw the contestants bidding high so early I thought they should have been saving their money. Anyway, things come to a boil when Randy buys the last item, cookies for the tribe, and makes a big deal about Sugar giving her cookie (the last cookie on the plate) to Matty, giving Matty 2 and 1/2 cookies. Randy bitches about it for days, and I'm wondering if he wanted the damn cookie so badly why not just ask Matty to give one back? On to the immunity challenge, things literally came down to the last second and Ken was able to pull off a victory, allowing him to stay in the game. I can't believe he really got this far into the game, and now I'm becoming more positive he's going to win. If Ken doesn't wind up winning, then I at least hope Bob wins, because that guy deserves it for all the skills he's shown off.

But that wasn't even the best part of the entire show. Bob, who had his fake immunity idol, tricked Randy into thinking it was real, so Randy thought he would be staying in the game. The others who really wanted him gone laughed at how Jeff said the idol was a fake, and I laughed along with them. So long Randy. I won't miss you.

Videos of the Day

Nickelback thinks you should start a real band. These guys say otherwise:


Guys who hopefully won't shut down either

News Reports:

Chris Vicari's PC Spotlight

Chris Evans PC Centric Extravaganza (Oh crap, it's his last one!)

Theo Fraser's Nintendophiles

Joe Roche's The Full Circle 360

Columns:

Drew Robbins talks about the DS and bids farewell (Not him too!)

New generation, same mistakes. Jordan Williams analyzes what mistakes developers are still making in games.

Derek Robbins lists the Ten Best Games of This Generation

Rod Oracheski checks out the zombie craze in achievements and trophies

Reviews:

Gears of War 2 Limited Edition (Xbox 360) by Joe Roche

Fable 2 (Xbox 360) by Ty Huston

Resistance 2 (PS3) by Mark Salmela

MechanicMaster (DS) by Jacob Lopez


Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3 (PC) by Armando Rodriguez

Spiderman: Web of Shadows (Xbox 360) by Natalie Shoemaker

Left 4 Dead (PC) by Chris Vicari

Features:

411 Interview - Little King's Story Producer Yoshiro Kimura

411 Interview - Muramasa: The Demon Blade Producer Yoshifumi Hashimoto

That's all for this week, and probably forever.