November 2006 Archives

Sony management chaos! Ken Kutaragi, the outspoken Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. president, has been benched. Actually, he's been "eased" out of his position, and Kaz Hirai of Sony's US branch will replace him. You may remember Hirai as the man you brought us the famed "Riiiidge Racer" sound bite. Plus, he's also recognized as the "face" of the PS3 North American launch, which was plagued by a lot of negative press.

Here's a story from Digital World Tokyo:

In a shock move, the PlayStation godfather, Ken Kutaragi, has been eased out of his position as president of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCEI) and will be replaced by Kaz Hirai, the head of SCEI's US division.

Kutaragi loses day-to-to control of the division responsible for the PlayStation lineup, instead becoming chairman and group CEO. The move is likely to be seen as connected to the PS3 launch delays and poor PlayStation Portable (PSP) sales.

So, Kutaragi gets moved to CEO and group chairman, and Kaz Hirai gets a promotion and a ride to Tokyo. Are they trying to get Hirai the hell out of the U.S. by promoting him? Who knows? It certainly looks like that.

Sony put out a pair of press releases mapping out a wave of simultaneous promotions. Here's one of them. Enjoy (cough).

Well, we saw the eye-straining mini-text in "Dead Rising," and now in the demos for "Lost Planet," where gamers with -10 vision spoke out about the microscopic text. The following is a release I got from Capcom, which essentially assures that the final product will be easier to follow text-wise and won't make you blind.

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We have noticed the recent concern about the text size in Lost Planet for SDTV users, in particular the “Elimination� mode of the multiplayer game where players’ scores are displayed on the top left of the screen. We want to assure gamers that we have already implemented a solution for text display in Elimination, which will be reflected in the final game (although it’s unfortunately not in the demo).

Additionally, steps have been taken within the single player game to make objectives more easily understood. New objectives are delivered to the player as both voice over and text. Once a new objective has been given, players can pause the game at any time to consult the in-game PDA.

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Here are some shots as examples:

Before: (note the text in the corner)

And now, after:

That's according to a story in the Wall Street Journal about the first recorded cases of so-called "Wii elbow." Essentially, the piece outlines what happens when gamers who've let their bodies coagulate from marathon sessions of stationary gaming suddenly find themselves vigorously slashing away with a fake sword. I, for one, have slight soreness in my shoulder from trying to bring the heat in Wii baseball. But I suck at baseball, so it's a wash.

Naturally, some log bumps are going to complain about Wii work, but I love the response of Nintendo marketing VP Perrin Kaplan in the story: "It was not meant to be a Jenny Craig supplement," she says. "If people are finding themselves sore, they may need to exercise more." I don't know her, but I get the sense she was tempted to say, "Get off your a--," but took the high road instead.

Somewhere, the DDR folks are shaking their heads.

I thought the whole hoo-hah about "Rule of Rose" was over and done with ... but not in Europe.

Eurogamer reports that 505 Games isn't going to publish the horror title in the UK, with the Mayor of Rome and the European Justice and Security Commissioner furrowing their brows and wagging their fingers (surely tired from all the gaming they do) at the game's content. If you're in America, you can find "Rule of Rose" (published by Atlus) in stores.

What is the problem? People who have never played it have concocted images of little children slaughtering each other with scissors or having scandalous lesbian trysts during recess. Wrong. Sure, they're twisted, "Children of the Corn"-like mongrels who are indeed evil, but it's nowhere near as scary (or as bloody) as "Siren" or "Silent Hill." I wish some of these critics would play these games -- and by play, I mean a few hours, not just feebly wiggling the stick and bumping into walls like someone hit with a stun grenade.

If you play something for a while and still think it's trouble, fine. No beef there. At least you'll have an idea of what you're talking about, and it makes it much easier to engage in meaningful discourse. Can't do that with someone who'll hold a 360 controller like its a chicken sandwich.

I'm glad I played "Superman Returns" before Thanksgiving, because football and food were the only ways i was going to forget about it. My goodness -- I filed the review today, and I can't remember the last time I was so completely and wholly disheartened by a game experience.

I'm sure other things happened to me, but the only thing that sticks in my head is the sheer monotony of the missions. I don't want to see any more robots -- robots in the air, robots on the ground, big robots, small robots -- I couldn't take it anymore. I felt like Malcolm McDowell in "A Clockwork Orange," when he was sitting in a room with his eyelids pryed open and forced to watch wicked images and listen to music. Except it was robots and repetitive gameplay. What kills me about the game is that it was DELAYED. What happened? Why can I get through half the game in two hours?

You know what? I don't care. What's done is done. And I'm done talking about this game. Where's the Wii?

What you see before you is my first visit to the "Superman Returns" save screen. According to this, I've gone through half the game in roughly the time it takes to watch "Kill Bill". As you would imagine, I'm a little confused by this. So confused that the following thoughts actually crossed my mind ... not all of them make sense. That's where I'm at.

- Perhaps the copy I got was garbled in some way, and I'm actually through 10 percent of the game.
- The game is finished when I reach 200 percent, since the math is different on Krypton (unlikely).
- The second half will go by very slowly, since it contains the meat of the game -- two more hours might only net me 3 percent from now on.
- In reality, this game -- which has already been delayed, mind you -- could be one of the shortest gaming experiences ever.

Really, I don't know what to think. The words are gone. Someone tell me I'm missing something.

I got Superman in the mail today, and I'm hoping -- no, praying -- that I end up liking the game more than I liked the demo. The demo, which I thought was too short, wasn't bad, but the deadpan dialogue and some early gameplay struggles watered down the experience for me a little bit (combat was a struggle) However, I enjoyed using Supe's full arsenal of powers with little or no limits. And of course, I could fly around and break the sound barrier all day -- though I need to stop hitting buildings and strafing the good people of Metropolis with errant heat vision blasts.

In the precious spare time I have, I'm also working though "Gears" on Insane difficulty. The biggest difference? The Locust can take more shots to the FACE, while a mere two to three good shots will lay you out. One Troika round chunks you instantly, and even the exploding Wretches now have fatal power. So another difference for me was ... I die a lot more.

I just saw on various news outlets that Taco Bell is offering a lifetime supply of food for anyone willing to donate a PlayStation 3. I also just realized that I wrote the word "lifetime" and "Taco Bell" in the same sentence.

The donated PS3 is going to the Boys & Girls Club, and the gift-giver gets more than 10,000 Taco Bell bucks. Who wins here? The Boys & Girls Club (thumbs up) perhaps, since steady ingestion of game system entertainment won't quite speed you to the grave the way a diet of fourthmeals would.

Check out the whole story here.

Times tech writer Seth Schiesel showed the PS3 his pimp hand in a piece where the first sentence tells Howard Stringer that the system "just isn't that great."

Schiesel spent more than 30 hours worth of time with the much-hyped monolith, and it sounds like he came away with the feeling that Sony spent more time juicing up the engine instead of actually focusing on the entertainment. Here's this nugget:

"Measured in megaflops, gigabytes and other technical benchmarks, the PlayStation 3 is certainly the world’s most powerful game console. It falls far short, however, of providing the world’s most engaging overall entertainment experience. There is a big difference, and Sony seems to have confused one for the other."

Schiesel then goes on to break down his odyssey of wading through the "clunky" nature of the system and comparing it to -- in his opinion -- much easier to use counterpart, the Xbox 360. He comes up with a gem of a line, saying it seems that the PS3 "can't walk and chew bubble gum at the same time." He (and others) also mentioned that the system, even after its delay, still feels unfinished.

Click here to see the rest of Schiesel's Hanzo sword of a review.

The Parent Teacher Association and the Entertainment Software Ratings Board are banding together to educate parents about the video games rating system and what it all means. The method? A nationwide campaign to hand out more than 1 million brochures to PTA chapters, with the brochures outlining what the ratings are and how you can interpret them.

Full press release awaits your clickage, if you want to know more.

Feel the power of the official Wii press release. Hopefully, this'll answer some of the questions you may have. Note the "experience" videos on the Web site. Also check out the very clothing-store like photos with people playing the system. I have yet to see any Wii players get into it THIS MUCH in person, but hey, who knows?

Anyway, the press release I got is on the jump.

They're both big, and they both run silent. At least that's what I gathered from a Joystiq posting comparing how the PS3 runs compared to the noise-creating 360, which actually started to frighten my wife and I when I first fired it up. "Wait, what the hell is it doing ... is that how it SOUNDS?" Yep.

The small posting explained how most of the heat generated in the PS3 leaves the machine via the large side vents, so it probably isn't going to overheat, as poorly aired-out 360s have a tendency to do. Good to know. But it's still the size of a small tombstone, so I have no idea where it would go in my home. Plus, I don't want it to start waking up my toys or hurling eggs at the wall.

... it's on Xbox Live. The demo for EA's "Superman Returns" is now available for 360 owners, which means fans can now get a feel for how the Man of Steel is going to handle his next-gen business.

It sounds like a decent-sized demo, with five missions spread out over two chapters. Players are supposed to get a well-rounded sample of all the stuff Superman has to do. Unlike previous hero titles, Superman doesn't have a life meter -- Metropolis does. That means if you keep screwing up in your defense of the city, the meter drops, and Superman "fails" rather than dies. (seriously, what's gonna hurt him other than Kryptonite? Bullets?)

The demo ends with a battle against Metallo and lots of robots. It's Superman -- he HAS to bash robots.

Microsoft announced that next spring, it's going to put on an open beta test for "Halo 3" multiplayer in spring of 2007, exclusively on the Xbox 360.

According to the story from GameSpot, Microsoft is planning to air an ad on Dec. 4 during "Monday Night Football" (what, no Super Bowl commercial? boo!).

Meanwhile, "Halo 2," the first-person crack of choice for current-gen Xbox owners, is getting some new multiplayer maps in the spring, but you'll only be able to get them if you have a 360.

As expected, there are a lot of people stacked outside of the Best Buys, Circuit Cities and Targets waiting to get their hands on a PS3 or a Wii. Also as expected, a lot of people are going to be putting their newly purchased next-gen systems on eBay -- and they're going for about $1,500 to $2,000.

I also got a next-gen system this week -- my freshly repaired 360 came back to me in the mail, so this means more "Gears of War" in the peace of my own home, and probably moving onto "Tony Hawk's Project 8." I'm hoping the Arena lounge picks up a PS3, or Wii, or both. No big rush, though. Since all I'd get to look at would be launch titles I've already seen, I can wait a little. Maybe.

I talked to some of the people lined up outside of Circuit City in Rancho Cucamonga. There's no midnight thing going on at that store, but they're opening up early to accommodate the masses. The most popular answer I got in terms of games for the PS3 was "Madden." Other than that, most of them wanted to put it up for sale online. One lady wanted to buy a PS3, sell it, and then donate half the money to a charity to help children in Romania. Massive damage to poverty! Riiidge Racer!!

(By the way, Bulletin photographer Walter Richard Weis ftw on the photo!)

Within gamer circles, "Gears of War" was approaching the kind of supernatural hype hoops fans had for LeBron James before he broke into the NBA. Like Bron, fans never really questioned whether "Gears" was going to be good -- it was just a matter of how good. Like King James, we had been hearing about the supposed greatness of "Gears" for a while -- in this case, about a year.

So, how good is it? After a full day and night of playing it at the Arena Lounge, I can sum up my first-day feeling in five words ...

Wow. This game's for real.

Rarely -- and I mean "struck-by-lightning rarely" -- does a game live up to massive amounts of pre-release hype. A good point was brought up on the Wednesday AGI about that. The hype for "Gears" didn't come from the designers, really. We didn't get any two-page magazine ads telling us how much a game was going to "kick our ass," nor did were we bombarded with self-promoting soundbites. At least I didn't witness anything like that -- I just got the vibe that Epic was making something they were proud of, and that we as gamers would really enjoy. And enjoying it I am.

All right, onto the game. Warning ... I mention a few creatures and weapons, so if those count as spoilers, then perhaps you should stop now, or at least tread VERY carefully.

Microsoft is celebrating Year 1 of the 360's existence by allowing gamers and other 360 users to download high-def movies and TV shows. Aw yeah.

Starting Nov. 22, stuff from CBS, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment will be available for purchase. Episodes of shows like "Numb3rs" and "CSI" will be there, as well as a group of 50 Ultimate Fighting bouts. I want to check those out -- and it has nothing to do with the fact that I play video games.

Here's a list of more items that'll be downloadable on Live, so say they:

-Robot Chicken and Aqua Teen Hunger Force from The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
-CSI, Survivor, and remastered episodes of classic Star Trek from CBS.
-Emmy and Peabody award-winning comedy South Park and Chappelle's Show from COMEDY CENTRAL.
-The Real World and Pimp My Ride from MTV.
-Avatar: The Last Airbender and SpongeBob SquarePants from Nickelodeon.
-Skyland and The Nicktoons Network Animation Festival from Nicktoons Network.
-Mission: Impossible III, Nacho Libre, and Jackass: The Movie from Paramount Pictures.
-Carpocalypse and Raising the Roofs from Spike TV.
-Race Rewind provided by NASCAR.COM.
-Select episodes of the original season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series and UFC: All Access from the UFC.
-Breaking Bonaduce and Hogan Knows Best from VH1.
-The Matrix, Superman Returns, and Batman Forever from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

It's times like this where I really want my 360 to get back from the shop. Soon. Now.

SEGA announced the shipping of "Sega Genesis Collection" for the PS2, which'll transport some of the slightly more aged gamers back to the SNES-Genesis battles of the '90s. There are 30 titles in the collection, including:

- Altered Beast
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Shinobi III
- Phantasy Star (but which one?)
- Golden Axe

The release mentioned how the games were "reproduced with the utmost detail and accuracy to the originals." I wonder if that means I can find the glitchy "sweet spot" in Golden Axe where I could slash barbarians with my sword forever -- and they'd NEVER die. I even remember the sound of the 5-hit combos, which always were: slash, SLASH (second slash brings 'em to their knees), two knocks on the dome, then a thudding kick to the chest. Then enemies would scream in a muffled "aaah" as they did the "death fade" into obilvion. I miss the death fade sometimes. It was clean and efficient -- I wish my leftovers did that. Though the screams would be a little creepy.

Yep. There's a sequel coming out.

Take-Two announced today that it's publishing "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer," which will be based on the comic and of course, the movie coming out in June. Visual Concepts and Seven Studios have been tagged with the ever-formidible task of making a superhero game that isn't going to be pilloried by gamers -- but probably loved by little kids, for the simple fact that stuff looks pretty and things blow up. The game is being made for next- and current-gen consoles, as well as handheld systems.

Oh my. The Entertainment Software Association told GameSpot that while the ESA itself handled E3 attendance in the past, this time it the ESA's members that will be making the call as to who gets to go to gaming's biggest ball come July '07.

The story asks how one gets on "the list," and ESA major domo Doug Lowenstein said, "I'd go to ESA members and make your case." The ESA list includes the Big Three and practically every major game company there is.

I'm guessing "I'm with the band" isn't going to cut it. The amount of sucking up by bloggers and small fansites will reach hurricane force.

That's what I'm calling this week. In addition to putting something together on the PS3/Wii launch weekend, I want to devote as much time as possible to one of the biggest releases of the year (unless you're already happy with "Guitar Hero II" -- which is NOT a shame).

In case you haven't seen it, here's the Gears trailer which has been playing on the TV. There's also been promos in the theaters and radio as well. I like the gritty, melancholy vibe -- it makes me want to take the game seriously, and it makes the game look like a real experience rather than something to just be played with. Also, take a peek at the Web site when you get the chance. Good stuff.

As my 360 is in the shop (which is crap), I found some extra time and finished "Bully." Wow. It ended up being more timely that I thought it would -- but you could also see the final missions coming. I won't spoil them, just in case you haven't played it yet. But c'mon -- you can figure it out.

I thought this already happened. I just get done filing my story on roller derby, and the first taste I get of Internet gaming news freedom is the announcement from Bungie that 'Halo 2' has vaulted into McDonald's territory with about 4 billion games played online. That's a lot of games, but is that number really that high -- especially once you consider how fast some online Halo games go?