Kevin's Watch

The world of games tends to throw up some weird and wonderful news stories, so I thought I'd start off this sticky where we could post any interesting articles that maybe don't warrant a thread of their own. Kind of like the Random/General News thread in the 'Tank.

I'll go first:

Brazil Bans a Couple Old Games

The Brazilian government has seen fit to ban a two games which it believes encourages groups of teenage boys to congregate and commit violent acts. Which two games? Why Everquest I and Counterstrike of course! The ban comes awfully late in the day, but to be fair, these games did herald the dawn of a new level of social unacceptability for gaming: Everquest was probably the MMO that got people to start putting their virtual lives before their real ones and Counterstrike, well where do I start?

Microsoft free game giveaway 'this week'

Over the Christmas period the volume of new Xbox Live accounts created caused the normally solid service to have a fit and provide extremely patchy service for almost two weeks. Microsoft apologised and promised users a free game and here it is: Undertow

I'd actually downloaded the trial game of this after hearing a positive review on the OXM podcast. It's kind of like an underwater Geometry Wars but isn't as frantic, flashy, difficult or quite as much fun. It's not a bad game at all though and I'll be downloading my free full copy tonight. I was expecting them to give us some 400 point rehash or some kind of 'advergame' so I'm pleased MS haven't welched on this one.

Grand Theft Auto IV release date confirmed

Finally!

April 29th! That is months away. Oh well, got any dates for Haze, GT5 or MGS4?

April gives me a chance to save up some cash and purchase either a PS3 or a Xbox 360 so I can actually play GTA VI as I only have a PS2 and grand theft auto is about the only video game I play.
Thanks for the trailer clip Nav

EA: PS3 to outsell Xbox 360 this year

In their recent financial statement, Electronic Arts have estimated that the PS3 will sell 9.5 to 11.5 million units in 2008 whereas the 360 will only sell 6-8 million (with the Wii galloping off into the sunset with 12-14 million sales).

It's an interesting statement from a company not directly tied to any of the three players. I am expecting the PS3 to start making gains against the 360 as the one platform starts finding its feet while the other plateaus, but I can't imagine it overtaking the 360 so easily. That said, the Xbox's release calendar is looking rather empty until Q4 so the PS3 could really press home its advantage, assuming the top titles start showing up.

Gamers were treated to one of the signs of impending apocalypse yesterday when a release date was announced for Spore!

The project had been silent for so long I was convinced it would turn out to be vaporware, but here it is. Assuming they actually hit that date.

I must admit, my enthusiasm has waned a bit for Spore. Two years ago I thought it was the coolest thing ever, now it doesn't seem quite so special.

Nav wrote:Gamers were treated to one of the signs of impending apocalypse yesterday when a release date was announced for Spore!

The project had been silent for so long I was convinced it would turn out to be vaporware, but here it is. Assuming they actually hit that date.

I must admit, my enthusiasm has waned a bit for Spore. Two years ago I thought it was the coolest thing ever, now it doesn't seem quite so special.

Same. I was really looking forward to Spore. It's become too cartoonish for tastes, now.

Nevertheless, it will be nice to see something from Maxis other than another damn Sims expansion. Hopefully they don't do to this game what they did to the aforementioned.

PS3 outsells Xbox 360 for the first time

Ars Technica is reporting that the PS3 outsold the DS, the PSP and the 360 last month after a marked upturn in sales. This is likely due in no small part to BluRay's victory in the HD format war, the PS3 is still the cheapest BluRay player on the market, but Sony will surely take heart and we might see some aggressive marketing from them in the coming months as they seek to press home their advantage.

The 360 had a terrible month of sales, apparently because of supply issues, and finished rock-bottom of the charts. There were plenty of consoles on the shelves, but they were mostly the Xbox 360 Arcade, which doesn't come with the all-important hard drive. The industry chatter has it that Microsoft are preparing to jump on the BluRay bandwagon, with an add-on BluRay drive for the 360 available by the end of Q2.

I'm not sure how well the add-on drive will work to sell more systems. I'm sure many existing 360 owners will want one, but by the time a new customer has bought a 360 and upgraded it to a comparable equipment level to the PS3 (hard drive, wireless controller, wireless network adapter, BluRay drive) it won't any cheaper, plus the add-on drive and the 360's powerbrick will create a lot more clutter around the TV than the PS3 would. I think the 360 may have outsold the PS3 for the last time.

I thought as much... it was only a matter of time before the PS3 started to out sell the Xbox 360. With better games coming out for the PS3(and more such MSG4, GT% and Final Fantasy 13) the PS3 sales can only increase. I think The Red Ring of Death might set back teh 360's sales a bit as well.

I'm not sure about that, the RROD is largely a problem with the first run of 360s (the Falcon architecture appears to have rectified many of the overheating issues) and Microsoft do deal with repairs and replacement very well on the whole. The failure rate has been reported at around 16%, which is worryingly high when you consider that both the Wii and the PS3's are around the 3% mark. I'm not sure that would actually put me off buying the console though, knowing that Microsoft had extended the warranty to 3 years.

The PS3's library is still crying out for some blockbusting original IP though. I'm sure the surge in sales is being driven by BluRay right now and they're going to need games if they want it to continue. MSG4 and FFXIII are bound to shift systems but I think GT5 will need reinvention if it's going to make that kind of impact. It has to offer something that Forza, Project Gotham and the Burnout and Need for Speed games don't. I'm interested to see how Time Crisis 4 fares though, it's been a while since lightgun games got any love.

I think the platform needs more original games, more Mass Effects and Bioshocks and Lost Odysseys, games that will make the PS3 stand out from its competitors. At the moment the platform exclusives just aren't up to scratch and the problem with relying on franchises is that it can be hard to pull new people in and people will drift away if they don't like one of the games. I loved the first two Metal Gear Solid games, but I never really got to grips with Snake Eater and so I'm not overly fussed about MGS4.

Really? I thought Snake Eater was a hell of a lot better then Sons of Liberty, it just takes a little while to get used to the fairly dramatically different game play. (Sneaking isn't the same, but Snake is WAY more effective in combat.

The fact the the last third of Snake Eater didn't make me want to throw the disc out the window sharply enhanced it. (That and no Raiden)

The previews of MGS4 look really sexy. I was lukewarm too until I saw it being played. It looks to add a lot of tight, fps style controls to the game, in addition top the typical MGS novelties.

I actually raced through the second half of Sons of Liberty but I never liked the changes to the interface in Snake Eater. I battled on to I think the third mission and then I lost patience. I couldn't see where the enemies were, I missed the scanner and the way the game forced you into first person when crawling made me miss it even more.

My eyesight might be partly to blame though. It's uncanny sharp at a distance but I struggle to pick things out in games unless there's a high degree of contrast. It's the reason I naturally favour the brightly coloured Halo games to more realistic titles like Call of Duty.

also...this week in Gaming...

not four blocks from me this is going on!!

Game Developers Conference 08

cooool. wish i could ditch work and go over there!!! i love trade show schwag!! you know, stupid coffee cups and pencil erasers in the shape of gaming consoles, bags that say Blizzard Entertainment on them, vivendi coffee cups!!
last night they had a charity poker tournament!! texas hold-em!! dang. i wish i could go.

Nav wrote:I'm not sure about that, the RROD is largely a problem with the first run of 360s (the Falcon architecture appears to have rectified many of the overheating issues) and Microsoft do deal with repairs and replacement very well on the whole. The failure rate has been reported at around 16%, which is worryingly high when you consider that both the Wii and the PS3's are around the 3% mark. I'm not sure that would actually put me off buying the console though, knowing that Microsoft had extended the warranty to 3 years.

The PS3's library is still crying out for some blockbusting original IP though. I'm sure the surge in sales is being driven by BluRay right now and they're going to need games if they want it to continue. MSG4 and FFXIII are bound to shift systems but I think GT5 will need reinvention if it's going to make that kind of impact. It has to offer something that Forza, Project Gotham and the Burnout and Need for Speed games don't. I'm interested to see how Time Crisis 4 fares though, it's been a while since lightgun games got any love.

I think the platform needs more original games, more Mass Effects and Bioshocks and Lost Odysseys, games that will make the PS3 stand out from its competitors. At the moment the platform exclusives just aren't up to scratch and the problem with relying on franchises is that it can be hard to pull new people in and people will drift away if they don't like one of the games. I loved the first two Metal Gear Solid games, but I never really got to grips with Snake Eater and so I'm not overly fussed about MGS4.

I completely agree with Nav. Sony has a penchant for rehashing things into oblivion. I stopped caring about Final Fantasy after 8, 9 and 10 sucked. Honestly, any of the other IP's or franchises for the PS3 just don't interest me at all. The only real advantage the PS3 has is Blu-Ray, since Sony seems to be winning the HD war.

I have a second generation 360 and have had zero problems with it. It runs as smoothly now as it did the first day I bought it.

I have a second generation 360 and have had zero problems with it. It runs as smoothly now as it did the first day I bought it.

Yeah but for how long?

I thought it was funny when Peter Moore was interviewed recently he said Microsoft were looking to extend the 360's run beyond its planned five years (in response to Sony's 7-year plan for the PS3), the journalist pointed out that a lot of 360s don't last 5 months, let alone 5 years!

The finer architecture (I think it's 65nm now?) should have a big impact on cooling, I'd be interested to see how hot the Falcon Xboxes actually feel when they're running. I have a first gen and it gets really warm, depending on the game. I almost cooked it when I first got it by putting it in the top half of the TV stand, which has a closed back. To be fair, although I am on my second 360 it wasn't the RROD that did for the first one, it was a failure of the optical drive, probably due to me having the console standing upright on an uneven floor.

Still my beating heart: Portal sequel confirmed

Still haven't played the First Portal(though I have Half-Life; Orange Box I have yet to play it). I was going to get Half-Life: Orange Box from PS3 but I heard that Valve had problems moving the game from PC format to a PS3 Cell Unit... making he game slow and not as good as PC one.

Army of Two comes out next week. Can't wait.