World of Warcraft looks like the next game to join in the micro transaction craze, as Blizzard has just opened the Pet Store for business.  Through the pet store Blizzard plans to release all manner of cuddly creatures that you can take with you on your journeys.  Of course these won’t affect gameplay in any way, besides having a different pet available that you can’t find in game.  The part I can’t understand is why the price point is set at $10 per pet. 

Why would you pay $10 for something anyone can get, and that doesn’t affect gameplay at all?

The two pets currently available are the Pandaren Monk and a mini Lich pet version of Kel’Thuzad.  The Pandaren Monk will feature brand new crazy martial arts animations, guaranteed to entertain I guess.  While Kel’Thuzad apparently flexes his wrath against the various woodland critters that cross your path. 

I suppose both of those qualify as being entertaining, but are we talking $10 worth of entertainment?  I’d rather spend a portion of that on a game rental, so I could have better entertainment for my gaming bucks.  I just don’t think the price justifies what you’re getting in return.  You could buy any one of a zillion great Xbox Live Arcade games for that…way more fun than a pet you have no control over, and that doesn’t help you in combat. 

In the growing tradition of other stellar titles, BioWare has announced a special Collector’s Edition release for Mass Effect 2.  The Mass Effect CE will cost you an extra $10 on Xbox 360 and PC, with the Xbox version priced at $69.99 and PC $59.99.  The whole set comes in a premium steel case that will include the following special items:

-48 Page Hardcover art of Mass Effect book.

-Unique DLC content, including weapons and armor only available through the purchase of the Collector’s Edition.  

No word yet as to what weapons and armor will be included.  But knowing BioWare it will be something awesome.  I know in addition to those CE armor items, I’ll also have access to the Blood Dragon Armor for buying Dragon Age: Origins.  I just hope the DLC is worth an extra $10, because I’ll probably end up buying this, but I never care much for art book collections or behind the scenes features.

Here’s to hoping for more badass guns, bigger explosions, and much more effective armor.  

Doom is now available in all it’s original fantastic glory, on the iPhone.  Doom Classic has been released, and for $7 you can play through all the thrills of FPS’s original innovator with a whole new level of portability.  Doom Classic offers all 36 levels of hell, spanning the four chapters Knee Deep In The Dead, Shores of Hell, Inferno, and Thy Flesh Consumed.

Doom Classic will also be supported by online Wi-Fi multiplayer.  The game will have two modes, 4 player Deathmatch, and up to 4 players cooperative through Doom’s four campaigns.  The game will also have multiple control types, so you can adjust your iPhone to suit your fragging style.  

I’m always up for more shooters on the iPhone, because shooters are awesome.  As long as the conversions keep going as well as Doom and Wolfenstein, I’m willing to try anything.  The iPhone has the power to faithfully recreate plenty of shooters, we just need more big developers to step up to the plate.  

All the talk points towards the iPhone being the new mobile gaming device to compete with PSP and Nintendo DS.  But for that to happen, they need more big developers to be willing to try the iPhone’s capabilities on for size.  Instead of good ports, how about some great original games developed with the iPhone’s controls in mind.  

The collector’s edition package for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has finally been released, and dubbed the Ultimate Sith Edition.  This set includes the original game, as well as all of the DLC that has been released for Force Unleashed up to now.  That means here you get the Tatooine and Jedi Academy levels, as well as an exclusive to this edition Hoth level. 

 I remember being disappointed in both the Tatooine and Jedi Academy levels, especially considering how much they cost via Xbox Live, and how little gameplay they had to offer.  All in all I’m just not sold on The Force Unleashed.  I know the game sold horrendously well, but it still wasn’t a spectacular Star Wars game.  Rather, Force Unleashed was a glimpse into how great of a game we could have had if Lucasarts had put in a little bit more time and effort. 

Everything just felt overly simplified.  From the lightsaber combat, to the way your force powers function.  Everything could have used some polish.  Here you get that same unpolished experience, with three new levels.  This collection isn’t worth buying if you already have purchased the DLC levels.  But if you’re new to Force Unleashed, or haven’t sprung for the DLC, maybe the Ultimate Sith Edition is for you.

Just don’t expect a spectacularly different experience.  

 I finally played Brutal Legend over this weekend.  I have to say, what I got in the experience is exactly what I expected from having played Tim Schafer games previously.  I would liken Brutal Legend to playing Psychonauts.  Here you’ll find a fantastic, imaginative and vibrant world that you’ll see is endlessly interesting, but that just seems to disappoint from a gameplay perspective.

The combat, a big feature of the game, is pretty atrocious, simply because Brutal Legend tries much too hard to be a jack of all trades.  Here you find elements of many other games you’ve played before.  From the RPG upgrade system, to the incredibly simplistic and yet overly complicated RTS controls for the large scale battles.  Sure you have cool combat combos to pull off, and even better special ranged spells through shredding on your guitar, but the whole thing just isn’t polished enough. 

But the world, plotline, and sound are what completely makes up for any combat shortcomings.  A true metal soundtrack, coupled with fantastic guest voiceover appearances by legends the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, and a man character voiced by Jack Black are all awesomeness defined.  Brutal Legend still features a fantastic open world for you to explore that’s ridiculously fun, engaging, and at times incredible.  

What Tim Schafer does well, he does extraordinarily well.  That shows through in the imaginative portions of the game.  He just needs to brush up on the little things, like combat systems, upgrade systems, and RTS controls.  Other than that Brutal Legend is typical Schafer fare, and that’s never a bad thing.  

Grand Theft Auto IV’s next episode, The Ballad of Gay Tony was released today, and if you haven’t yet, I’d recommend downloading it immediately.  Ballad of Gay Tony represents everything right with Grand Theft Auto, rolled into one fantastic package.  From the start Ballad begins by doing everything with a bang, a much larger bang than you’ve seen in GTA up till now.  

 Here you enter the world of Liberty City’s drug junkies with money.  You’ll encounter socialites, and trust fund brats, all with ridiculously expensive sports cars, and just as expensive drug problems.  As Luis Lopez you’re a part of this world, but you definitely aren’t accepted just yet.  Basically Lopez is a thug, and the only good thing that’s happened in his life has been title character Tony Prince taking Lopez under his wing.

From there you’re tasked with helping your benefactor rebuild his crumbling nightclub empire.  Tony Prince is riddled with debt from trying to make ends meet.  The sort of debt owed to some of Liberty City’s shadiest sources, the kind you’d never want to owe money.  Luis Lopez is tasked with doing the necessary dirty work to keep Tony Prince in business. 

From there the game picks up into the most fantastic wild ride you’ll find in a Grand Theft Auto game.  Most of the missions are larger than life, as well as the great military weaponry you’ll be able to use.  All in all Ballad of Gay Tony makes many promises, and delivers on all counts.  Definitely worth a try if you’re looking to prolong your Grand Theft Auto experience.  

Borderlands isn’t without it’s share of problems.  Actually, Borderlands has many games share of problems.  Seems there are more than a few bugs that Gearbox Software hadn’t fully worked out before the game shipped, leaving many gamers to suffer their wrath.  These bugs range anywhere from minor glitches, like ammo clip shortages.  To much more devastating bugs that cause your save files to be corrupted, and your skill points to be reset.  

Of course most of these are tied to multiplayer.  Many players have reported disappearing loot, experience, and many other glitches upon entering and exiting a multiplayer session.  Considering one of Borderlands big selling points is the awesome drop in-drop out co-op, this is a pretty severe problem.

Gearbox maintains that they are hard at work on fixing all the bugs, and you can keep up on the details via their forums a:

http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=77748

For now Gearbox’s list of  known issues is as follows:

Both Consoles

Issue: (360, PS3) Save file is corrupted
Frequency: Very Low
Status: A fix is being investigated

360 only

Issue: (360) Aim-assist does not toggle on and off properly
Frequency: Very Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

PS3 only

Issue: (PS3) The console freezes during play
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

Issue: (PS3) Error codes displayed when attempting to sign into multiplayer
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

Issue: (PS3) Frame rate drops in a game with 3+ players
Frequency: Moderate
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

PC

Issue: PC users experience a “General protection fault” error
Frequency: Low
Status: This issue is being investigated

Issue: PC version locks up in server browser
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this issue has been identified and a solution is being investigated

All Platforms

Issue: Lilith’s Phase Strike not functioning as intended
Frequency: n/a, all users
Status: A fix is being investigated

Issue: Skill points or items disappear, or skill points are gained, usually after a multiplayer game
Frequency: Low
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

Issue: Weapon proficiency progress is lost upon leaving a multiplayer game
Frequency: Moderate
Status: The cause of this problem is being investigated

I’m fresh off playing the new demo for the upcoming PSP game Star Wars Battlefront: Elite Squadron.  What I’ve seen and done here really disappoints me, I have to say.  The concept seemed larger than life, and I just don’t think that the PSP was the place for such a concept.  In Elite Squadron the big hook is more massive battles, in which space and land skirmishes take place at the same time.  You’re able to travel to the ground, and into space to wage war.

Of course the PSP isn’t powerful enough to house a battle like this, so what you’ve really got is two different battles going on simultaneously.  Through a starship you can choose to enter a nice little pre-rendered cutscene that shows you either entering space, or entering the atmosphere to join the ground battle.  That’s a very cool concept, unfortunately I’m just not impressed with the end result.  

When you’re in space with your starship, the battles are nice and big, plenty of open flying space, and enemies to blast.  Then you transfer to ground, and the game’s “massive” scale battles are exposed for being nothing but small skirmishes.  It’s pathetic trying to fly a starship around the miniature ground battle environments.  The level I played might have been the smallest ground skirmish area I’ve ever seen in fact, in a Battlefront game.

From there you discover that the controls have become a right mess, if you’re trying to fight on the ground.  Space combat plays as well as ever, which has been a series shining accomplishment since Battlefront II.  But here the changes made to ground combat are just horrid, and mar the experience as almost unplayable.

Because you only have one analog nub on the PSP your aiming depends on auto targeting the enemies around you.  The problem with this principle is that in big firefights, you frequently target the wrong enemy, over and over again.  I died more than once trying to target a closer enemy, finding I could only target the same far away foe I had been shooting.  There really is no useful means of target switching on the fly, that could be considered effective. 

All in all this is a mess, and serves as a fine example why Lucasarts is slipping in the gaming world.  Starting with Force Unleashed, continuing with Fracture, and all the way into Battlefront: Elite Squadron, everything feels cheaply thrown together and rushed.  Elite Squadron has a fantastic premise, but portable systems just aren’t the place for such a massive idea.

Elite Squadron is screaming for a console release, where the game can take on the massive feel that it really deserves.  But here on PSP, the game rots in the inferior processing power, and small fight environments available.  Maybe Lucasarts will finally learn though, and give us the Battlefront game we’ve all been waiting to see.  Just make the 360/PS3 version everyone wants.  PSP is not the place to take this game online, or try to emulate shooter gameplay. 

If you’re a fan if Ikki Tousen, you already know of the common theme that the anime series carries, of school girls getting their clothes torn apart whilst fighting.  Well the new Ikkit Tousen game Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact picks up where the first PSP game left off, only now with clothes shredding fighting as a feature.  That’s right, now as you pummel your opponents, not only with they receive the wrath of your beating, but they’ll also lose their clothing.  

Of course, as with the show, there is no actual nudity beyond quite a bit of flesh between clothing shreds.  But still, I suppose that’s entertaining to Ikki Tousen fans.  The new game is in the same vein as the first, a side-scrolling beat-em up, in which you’ll face wave after wave of clothing tearing enemies.  As I’m on the outside, not really a fan of the series, this just sounds like a hilarious feature.  That destructible costumes is a big plug for Ikki Tousen: Xross Impact seems like there can’t be a whole lot of great gameplay otherwise. 

But I guess a game with violence and half naked girls that you can make more half naked, the better a fighter you are, is great motivation for someone out there.  

The next downloadable episode for Grand Theft Auto IV hits the market next week, and what’s a new Grand Theft Auto release without some controversy?  Apparently Rockstar feels that they must keep pushing the limits of what could offend anyone, concerning the content in their games.  The newest spark arises from the inclusion of sex scenes aplenty in the upcoming The Ballad of Gay Tony. 

Reportedly the sex scenes do not contain any nudity, and only featured fully clothed characters.  But considering a large portion of the storyline takes place at a night club, those sex scenes will most likely be peppered generously throughout.  Also, after having pushed the boundary in The Lost and Damned, there’s going to plenty of digital cutscene penis once more.  

I’m sure we all remember the shock of meeting Congressman Stubbs for the first time, during his massage, in which he chose to allow his flaccid penis to breathe throughout the cutscene. 

Expect more of the same I guess.  So if videogame sex and flaccid penises offend you, The Ballad of Gay Tony might be something you want to avoid.