Gaming Addict

Nintendo apparently really loves their faithful Wii customers.  So much so that they have offered Wii update 4.2, to patch some game issues, making for a smoother experience.  Unfortunately a security side effect of this update is causing many gamers’ Wii systems to lock up, effectively becoming an expensive paper weight.  The security bug is intended to only affect Wii consoles that have been modified in any way.  An unfortunate side effect is many customers having their Wii consoles completely bricked out, even when no modding has taken place.  

Nintendo offered this statement in response:

“Please call our Customer Service Department at your earliest convenience, 1-800-255-3700. We are open 6 AM to 7 PM, Pacific Time, 7 days a week.”

How nice of Nintendo.  They’re basically saying, “Hey, because we screwed up and didn’t do the proper testing before releasing this Wii update, some perfectly legit consoles are being locked out.  To resolve this issue, we’ll fix your console for free.  Meaning, because we don’t really care about the consumer, you now have to go through a huge hassle to fix a console that wasn’t broken. “

Thanks Nintendo!

I actually never thought this day would come, and I’m as surprised as anybody else should be, that it in fact has.  I’m actually excited for a gimmicky family-friendly goofy Wii game.  But that’s because this is no ordinary gimmicky family-friendly goofy Wii game, this is SEGA’s Wacky World Of Sports.  Wacky World Of Sports isn’t your typical wacky sports game, as all the crazy events you’ll compete in are based upon actual ‘sports’ played around the globe.

This sounds like the coolest thing I’ve ever heard of, despite the Wii’s gimmicky motion controls and horrifically bad ‘next-gen’ graphics.  I legitimately cannot wait to play this, while I’m not expecting brilliance from SEGA, Wacky World Of Sports may actually be enough for me to dust off my unused Wii and hook that sucker back up.  I’m all in for some competitive cheese wheel rolling!

Also announced today, and I only thought it was interesting considering I can’t believe the game finally has a release date, was Ubisoft’s Splinter Cell Conviction to be released by Christmas.  That’s right, the long awaited new Splinter Cell game that’s been pumped up for years now is finally going to see the light of day, and given the that the definition of stealth gameplay has been changing within the series, I can’t wait to play this one.

Is Nintendo finally ready to jump into year 2009 with their console design yet, and finally manufacture a hard drive for the Wii?  I call attention to this because already now that Nintendo has offered SD card support for the Wii, offering basically unlimited storage space as you can use as many SD cards as your wallet can handle, WiiWare sales have practically doubled. 

Nintendo is also expected to see a boost in developer interest in supporting WiiWare now that the possibility exists for interested parties to actually spend money on the Wii’s Xbox Live wannabe service.  Dev teams are of course interested in developing unique content taking advantage of the Wii’s motion ability, and companies like Behemoth which produces old school graphical wonders would flourish on the Wii.  As the system’s lack of graphical ability has hampered Nintendo’s ability to compete with the hardcore gamer crowd, but 2D flash animation games like the ones Behemoth produced would look just as good on Wii as they do on Xbox 360, and motion support for fantastic titles like Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid would be freaking awesome.

So go that extra step further Nintendo and just manufacture a Wii with a damn hard drive, clearly the data shows that gamers are still screaming for one, so it’s just good consumer strategy to provide what the customer wants to pay for.  

Alright, it’s January 5^th 2009, which means the news engine for the videogame world can begin turning once more. And I’m excited, considering the slow period that the weeks during and around Christmas are a ridiculously slow period for videogame news, as the titles we’ve all been waiting for are released, and practically everyone is on vacation. But now we can look forward to 2009, and the titles it will bring.

My most anticipated so far? Well the console version of The Witcher of course, but other than that? Sacred 2 for Xbox 360. If you’re a fan of this style of RPG then chances are you’ve played the original on PC, and it was awesome, if not a complete Diablo clone like many PC action RPG’s. The console version of Sacred 2 is going to be real time action, which means you will control the combat through button presses, instead of pointing and clicking. And that’s why I’m excited.

I love hack n slash, but I really love quality hack n slash games, which are few and far between. The last one of real quality I remember in fact is Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I would say Fable II but the combat is horrible unpolished, and I hate contextual button mapping, ie the fact that you have to hold ‘X’ to block/execute a powerful attack, because it never works as well as planned.

But Sacred 2 so far looks like it will be awesome. The graphics are good, and Sacred will bring an experience for the RPG dungeon crawling world that hasn’t really been touched on a console yet. Not to mention the awesomeness of drop-in-drop-out play over Xbox Live. Meaning if your buddy is also playing Sacred 2 they can transport their character into your game for some co-op questing. And that’s the major reason I can’t wait for Sacred 2. Fable II promised great co-op and didn’t even come close to delivering. . . at all. I’m hoping not to be burned again.

Oh and Wii Sports, though I admit I still don’t get the gimmicky appeal of the Wii, is now the best selling game of all time with well over 40 million units sold. Blowing up previous bestseller Super Mario Bros.

Well, Activison/Blizzard put Ghostbusters the game into temporary doubt as to it’s release, but who really believed a game penned by the same geniuses as the original. Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, would never see the light of day. Not to mention the actual actors providing the voice work for all characters, yes Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson all returning, meaning this could be the best game ever for Ghostbusters fans. And essentially the Ghostbusters 3 movie that never was.

Atari hasn’t specified a release date for Ghostbusters, but undoubtedly the game will be coming out in June to coincide with the Ghostbusters 25^th anniversary blu-ray releases of both films. As the series is owned by Sony that seems like the smartest day to maximize your money intake from hungry Ghostbusters fans.

If one thing is to be absolutely certain though, it’s that the Ghostbusters game does look awesome and we should all be glad Atari has taken it upon themselves to release a game that was essentially done. Well the platforms in which Ghostbusters will be released have also not been announced, Activision had previously been preparing the game for release on Playstation 2 & 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS, and PC. However if the same is planned, Atari hasn’t announced anything for certain yet.

This game is an incredibly original take on the survival horror genre that could either be absolutely fantastic, or fall flat on it’s face. Cursed Mountain tells the story of Eric Simmons, set in the 1980’s Eric goes on a journey to find his lost brother. Said journey takes him to a Buddhist temple, where developer Deep Silver’s massive amount of research into the subject of Buddhism came in handy. As your main foes with be souls awaiting reincarnation in Buddhism’s in between life and death area called Bardo.

The Wii’s motion controls come in for the way you combat said foes, using actual Buddhist prayer. So basically you’ll have to make the prayer yourself tracing the movements onto the screen to stop the souls from tearing you apart I guess. Sounds cool to me though. And the concept of praying to stop your foes, something that gives the Wii motion controls more of an importance to the ‘combat’ instead of feeling tacked on, certainly sounds like a welcome addition.

The setting of the game is a 20,000 foot mountain you will have to scale to find the truth about your brother. The entirety of Cursed Mountain is of course built around the mountain so all puzzles and travelling will have an emphasis on vertical movement.

If Deep Silver does this well, I will be completely up for spending my money on a Wii game, something I haven’t done in a long time. Did I mention it’s likely to be M rated? Another rarity in the world of the Wii, and just one more thing that makes Cursed Mountain intriguing.

Well you would think that a new House of The Dead game optimized for the Wii’s sometimes inventive motion controls would be an interesting game.  But I just find myself having been burned too many times in the past by Nintendo and their Wii console to find the energy to really care.  Sure the graphics look fairly great for the usual quality of a Wii game. But what kind of load times or screen jitters/cuts will be accompanied by those much better than normal looking Wii zombies?

Not to mention Sega’s lack of polish on their titles lately, (really another ‘next gen’ Sonic game?).

But my biggest question is how will the game optimize the motion sensing of the Wii, because the shooting probably won’t be enough. Nintendo must be set to require some stupid motion you have to do with the controller, like a zombie bite escape shake, or a dance you have to do to try and distract them while you shoot.

I’m not impressed by this attempt at converting the ‘hardcore’ gamers to actually dust off their Wii consoles and give Nintendo another shot. If we’re talking zombie innovation, I’ll be sticking with my Xbox and Left 4 Dead. Now that’s a zombie game to look forward to:

Sure the name makes you want to play the game, just because it sounds interesting.  Well, downright entertaining actually.  You have to love the seemingly wacky approach to some things that the Japanese have, and Bikini Zombie Slayers for the Wii sounds like it will fill that curiosity completely.  

 The game will feature two sisters Aya and Saki who are in the midst of a zombie invasion of Japan, both take it upon themselves to combat the foes using a Katana of course.  But despite the fact that this sounds like a recipe  for mindless Japanese button mashing, the game will feature a unique take on the zombie combat genre.  That being the amount of blood and grit on your blade affects combat.  You have to wipe down your blade before it gets too coated with blood or else it will be more likely to stick into your opponent, making you waste valuable time prying the blade back out, all whilst being under attack.

So scantily clad ladies, Katana swinging action, and hordes of zombies to brutally dismember, sounds like a whole lot of fun right, only downside is that it will be with awful Wii graphics huh?

But wait, there’s also going to be a 360 version in all it’s beautiful bikini clad bloody glory.  Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad, which will be a prequel to Bikini Zombie Slayers.  Fun fun.

Oh yes, there’s also a movie coming out based on the videogame, so get ready for a lot of bikini clad zombie mayhem hitting the rest of the world very soon.

Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I miss the mayhem of SSX racing and trick busting and speeding down the mountains on crazy impossible terrain.  So where’s the draw in a realistic, stripped down snowboarding sim being developed in large by Shaun White’s professional input?  There really isn’t, at least for me.  

Sure the game boasts an intuitive character creation system, with a plethora of options to make your avatar your own.   Sure the game has the lofty hope of revolutionizing snowboarding gameplay the way Skate did for skateboarding.  Who ever wants to play Tony Hawk again?  

Sure the game boasts an incredible freeroaming style that allows you to go from mountain to mountain participating in whichever events you so choose.  Or giving yout he ability to just board on your own down some slopes.  Sure the game features four different distinct mountain locations, five if you purchase the game at Target which will give you the cleverly named Target Mountain location in the game.  

But where’s the character and fun that comes from something like SSX?  I already miss the spectacle, from a series that hasn’t advanced to the next-gen format, and instead only publishes new titles for the Wii.  That just makes SSX into a joke, because Wii games lately, essentially have been jokes.  

But, if Shaun White offers one thing at least, it will be the first real experience of truly next-gen free roaming snowboarding action.  And I guess that’s something after all.

First off, let me preface by pointing out that the NIntendo Wii was not at all designed to house a fighting game, especially not a good one.  The motion controls combined with the lack of anything resembling classic joypad design is a formula for fighting game failure.  Especially when you’re branching out from a beloved franchise like Castlevania, and turning the action/adventure classic, into a 3D fighting game.

This sounds like a bad idea to me on so many levels, and I’ll never understand Nintendo’s obsession with creating games like said upcoming Castlevania Judgement disaster.  I don’t understand ‘reinventing’ a game to be something it’s not, and wasn’t designed to be.

So, let’s do the rundown.  First off the graphics are your standard less than impressive Wii fare, although they do look remarkable good for Wii, but again that’s not saying much.  The game will feature unique plot points for each character, giving you the option to battle through each individual’s storylines.  And the fighting is promised to be more about fun? I guess.  Because already the game’s controls are being announced as not quite as complicated as your normal fighter, but more along the lines of a Smash Bros/Power Stone/Bushido Blade control scheme. 

Meaning a big 3D environment and a lot of extra carnage is going to try to distract you from the horrible fighting mechanics.

Anyone remember how awful the Star Wars: Masters Of Teras Kasi was?  Some things really shouldn’t be fighting games.

The reported list of playable characters included in the game so far is as follows:

• Simon Belmont
• Alucard
• Death
• Eric Lecarde
• Shanoa
• Maria
  
• Aeon
• and of course, Dracula

There’s no way this can be good.  But as a Castlevania fan from back in the day, and a Wii owner desperate for software that’s actually competitive with the likes of Xbox 360, in terms of gameplay depth.  I’ll likely still be renting Castlevania Judgement, but I won’t be altogether happy about it.