All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

It's sad to admit it, but we never expect any third-party "core" Wii game to sell well -- regardless of its quality or the hype behind it. Lowered expectations mean that when such a title doesn't absolutely tank, it's great news! And the sales of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, as reported by EEDAR in its NPD review analysis, fall somewhere in that "didn't absolutely tank" area, especially since the game was on sale for less than a week in January. (There's certainly room for a few more people to go out and pick it up, though.)

"No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has scored top reviews averaging a 90 (out of 100) since its release," EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich said in the EEDAR report. "However, sales came less than 30,000 units for its first week (January 26, 2010 release)." Divinich compared the lowish sales to Dead Space Extraction and MadWorld, both of which also had "low marketing budgets, which is likely the wrong strategy to use when attempting to target the Wii consumer, even if you are targeting the 'core' market." When is that ever the right strategy?

Nippon Ichi plans fiscal recovery through additional PS3 support next year.

There will be blood.

There will be blood.

It's sad to admit it, but we never expect any third-party "core" Wii game to sell well -- regardless of its quality or the hype behind it. Lowered expectations mean that when such a title doesn't absolutely tank, it's great news! And the sales of No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, as reported by EEDAR in its NPD review analysis, fall somewhere in that "didn't absolutely tank" area, especially since the game was on sale for less than a week in January. (There's certainly room for a few more people to go out and pick it up, though.)

"No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle has scored top reviews averaging a 90 (out of 100) since its release," EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich said in the EEDAR report. "However, sales came less than 30,000 units for its first week (January 26, 2010 release)." Divinich compared the lowish sales to Dead Space Extraction and MadWorld, both of which also had "low marketing budgets, which is likely the wrong strategy to use when attempting to target the Wii consumer, even if you are targeting the 'core' market." When is that ever the right strategy?

Filed under: Features, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action There you are, old Sam Fisher, minding your own business at some unknown cafe when the waiter brings you a cell phone and Bluetooth earpiece, compliments of the caller. It's Grim, it's Third Echelon, and it's the end of his vacation. Some thugs have managed to upset his vacation -- now we know why he's always carrying 12 rounds and a pistol.

Just to prove we're willing to go the extra mile for you here at Joystiq, we taught ourselves Norwegian just to bring you the latest from David Cage's interview with Norwegian publication Dagbladet. Sadly, Mr. Cage's answers were not in Norwegian, meaning we wasted $8,000 and what our instructor Jokkum Frantzberg called "a very good ear for Norwegian." The entire project was not in vain, though, as we managed to find this quote from Cage regarding his upcoming Heavy Rain.

"If you are talking about Motion Control, this is something we initially considered for Heavy Rain. The very first version of the game design was based on motion control, but it was not feasible at the time," he said. Dagbladet later helped us confirm via one of Cage's reps that he had hoped to design the game for the PlayStation Motion Controller originally, but felt the tech simply wasn't far enough along.

Cage went on to add, "I have a lot of interest in Sony's motion device and there is a good chance that we announce something about it in the coming weeks." We don't know what he'll announce, but we certainly hope that it'll be in Norwegian.

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Bungie's "community guy " Brian Jarrard and Halo: Reach creative director Marcus Lehto were on-hand at X10 to provide a much deeper look into the workings of Reach, what they are calling "the best Halo yet" and "the most ambitious title Bungie has ever produced." The duo talked us through many of the changes being made to the established Halo formula, and new elements they believe make this "the definitive Halo experience."

Lehto talked about the team's desire to "throw new things at the player," building on the hallmark underpinnings of previous Halos and even changing some things to suit the new game's more serious tone, but said Bungie wouldn't "be pushing it." Another key goal with Reach, according to Lehto, is to "reintroduce the Covenant," by both making them look different -- more alien, more savage -- and giving established enemies new behaviors. It was also mentioned that, to keep with the more realistic tone of Reach, players won't be able to understand what the Covenant are saying.

Filed under: Features, Microsoft Xbox 360, Action
"I came, I chainsaw, I conquered" -- killer weapons in Dead Rising 2
Friends, I have seen the future and it is not so bleak after all. It is a world that Max Brooks and Sam Raimi have prepared me for, but neither could anticipate the sheer awesome power of the paddle saw: two chainsaws tied to both ends of a paddle. The goal of our Dead Rising 2 demo at X10 was simple: 20,000 pp in 10 minutes. My friends, I've failed you, but it was not for lack of trying and it certainly was not without its grandiose moments.

During last night's Microsoft's X10 press event, Bungie revealed the final box art for Halo: Reach. (Spoiler: It's real pretty.) And just as we were about to tile images of the cover to dress up our desktop backgrounds, Bungie released perfectly sized wallpaper images on its official site. Nab the wallpaper for widescreen setups, CRT screens, and even your iPhone right now! It's the closest you're getting to the Spartan-heavy adventure until the beta launches on May 3.

First look at the next Wii's controller In an interview in July, Suda 51 told Edge that the next No More Heroes game wouldn't be on Wii. Speaking to Game Informer, the Grasshopper Manufacture head clarified the statement. It won't be on Wii, but it could end up on the Nintendo system that comes after the Wii.

"If there is a chance to continue No More Heroes, I am interested in making NMH3," Suda said. "I personally think that NMH is a game for Wii, so I would be very happy if I could make a game for the Wii's successor, whenever that might be." We're already delighted about using futuristic space waggle for the next generation of beheadings.

Because hitting a three-pointer from the arc is kinda like casting a Bahamut summon spell, Final Fantasy XIII will be an official sponsor of the NBA All-Star Celebrity game -- which takes place Friday, Feb. 12 at 7PM EST. In addition, there will be a special section where attendees can sample the game during NBA Jam Session, a weekend-long event at the Dallas Convention Center from February 11 - 13.

It's a bold move, to say the least. You're marketing your niche genre game with a huge emphasis on story and character development to a bunch of sports fans. Seriously, it's a good idea, Square Enix. No, we're not being sarcastic. Sarcasm is impossible on the internet.

[Update: Specified sponsorship of the NBA celebrity game, not the entire session.]

Because hitting a three-pointer from the arc is kinda like casting a Bahamut summon spell, Final Fantasy XIII will be an official sponsor of this year's NBA All-Star game -- which takes place Friday, Feb. 12. Not only will there be plenty of commercials for FFXIII during the All-Star game on ESPN, but there will also be a special section where attendees can sample the game at NBA Jam Session, a weekend-long event at the Dallas Convention Center from February 11 - 13.

It's a bold move, to say the least. You're marketing your niche genre game with a huge emphasis on story and character development to a bunch of sports fans. Seriously, it's a good idea, Square Enix. No, we're not being sarcastic. Sarcasm is impossible on the internet.

A press release from Microsoft has revealed the pricing of all games offered in the upcoming March XBLA Block Party promotion. Think of the Block Party as Microsoft's first-quarter crack at the Summer of Arcade, combining a month of releases under one convenient promotional banner. According to the press release the pricing for each title will be:

• Perfect Dark -- 800 ($10)
• Toy Soldiers -- 1200 ($15)
• Scrap Metal -- 1200 ($15)
• Xbox Game Room -- Free to download (Each title costs 240 [$3] per single license, 400 [$5] for use on PC and Xbox 360, or 40 [50 cents] per play)

Not since The Bushwhackers have we seen such an excellent pairing of two entities. EA and Hasbro's partnership has paid off in dividends, as a recent press release boasts that eight million copies of Hasbro titles have been sold in the US alone at retail last year. The eight million figure applies only to retail releases, not digitally distributed titles across consoles and mobile -- which admittedly have also been successful.

The release has some other interesting tidbits, like how the combined efforts of the two have seen 20 different Hasbro brands released on 18 major digital platforms. EA attributes the success of these games to three things: the rise in popularity of family-friendly video games; a demand for games targeting girls; and the popularity of Hasbro's well-known toys and games.

Any way you slice it, we're glad it's been such a fruitful venture for both companies, because we'll soon get to play Risk on our Xbox 360. It's only about a billion years too late, but, hey, we'll take it! And we'll also take Asia - you'll never stop us now!

You didn't think the X10 news was over, did you? Alan Wake, as you know, is always fashionably late to the party, and these latest screens are just another example of that fact. In them we get another quick glimpse at the havoc occurring in the small town of Bright Falls. Alan Wake is scheduled to hit Stateside on May 18, in multiple flavors.

The Olympics kick off tomorrow night. Are you guys as excited as I am?! I sure hope some of you are. It’s one of the few times when television puts on some truly great content! You know, other than when you’re playing games on it. Speaking of games, why not spread the [...]

Thanks to a hush-hush covert op, we've extracted a handful of new Splinter Cell: Conviction screenshots to whet your appetite. Oh, okay. They were just given to us during the X10 event in San Fransisco -- but we can dream, can't we?

With Splinter Cell: Conviction (finally) hitting stores this April, these images only serve to anger us at the game's numerous delays. Also, these images are so crisp, we're not even sure they are real. If they are, someone needs to do something about that that horrific green couch (above). That is so last year.

Want to hear a reason why you shouldn’t watch Alone in the Dark 2, a movie just added to Netflix’s ‘Watch it now’ service? How about the movie’s synopsis? When a 100-year-old witch (Allison Lange) hatches a horrid plot to sacrifice a young girl with a mystical dagger, a team of witch hunters led by [...]

Are all those Xbox 360 megatons getting a bit monotonous? Here, try something in PS3 flavor. Specifically, a brand new God of War 3 trailer from GameTrailers TV (after the break). In it, Kratos proves that, for him, carrying around a big boulder is no Sisyphean task. In fact, it becomes somewhat of an improbable method of propulsion. The game also puts a giant monster on an even bigger giant so Kratos can fight while he fights.

It's a festival of excess, tied loosely into Greek myth. Total God of War stuff, essentially.

Microsoft has just sent off a handful of screens for the upcoming Lionhead adventure, Fable III. Featured in the images is a gruff-looking anti-hero, who has clearly lost more than a few followers from a slew of evil decisions. The pirate-hat wearing character isn't all bad, though; one image shows the gun-toting maniac playing with his son. We presume, that is. Unless of course kidnapping is a brand new Fable III feature.

Do you live in the UK and dream every night about the possibility of one day voting on a people's choice game of the year award? Right, us neither, but if you're into that kinda thing, UK retailer GAME is holding the second annual GAME British Academy Video Games Awards at the London Hilton on March 19 and you can vote for the awards show's top "honour." Sure, you can't actually buy tickets and attend or anything crazy like that (the event is live-streamed online, in fairness), but you still have just over a month to put in your vote for one of the 10 games in the running -- games that were chosen from a list comprising "the top selling games of the year sold in GAME stores."

At the very least, voters will automatically be entered into a contest to win a "Sony Home Entertainment Package," so, if nothing else, there's always the possibility of winning a Sony ... something (or somethings). Click through or glance a few inches up for the people's choice award contestant list.

Kratos starts a war that will bring the World to its knees in the third installment of the epic God of War series.

Live the biggest and most intense moments in baseball in Sony's 2010 edition of The Show.

When asked if Bungie was sticking to the tried-and-true multiplayer formula in the upcoming prequel Halo: Reach, creative director Marcus Lehto told Joystiq the developer would be taking some "pretty big risks" for its final Halo title. "While we'll still have all of the good stuff that players have come to know and love about Halo, we've made that better and given them new features on top of that," Lehto said.

Lehto wouldn't detail the new risky features, but he would confirm players would see the "new multiplayer features" during the Reach multiplayer beta; beginning May 3. Lehto also reiterated that "currently" the multiplayer beta would only be accessible through a Halo 3: ODST disc.

Brainstorm with us, folks: What new features do you hope for in Halo: Reach multiplayer?

You know how you always wonder for that split second what it would be like to murder the paperboy when he rides by on his bike? What? His undeveloped, childish arm can never get the damn paper on your porch! Well, according to figures from the Left 4 Dead Blog, you've killed him. A whole bunch.

Or how about the in-laws? Oh man, you murdered them cold-blooded in Left 4 Dead 2. Basically, if every person on the planet was a zombie in the game, you've killed them -- 4.26 times. That would mean you've killed them, resurrected them, killed them again -- ah, you get it.

Another interesting figure: if the average height of a zombie is six feet tall, you stacked enough undead corpses end-to-end to circle the globe 1,322 times. You know how that's in italics? That's because it's crazy. In short: you are really good at killing zombies. Hey, don't feel bad for so much genocide! That's how it goes in the zombie apocalypse.

More maps are coming for you zombie lovers, check out the new gameplay.

It's a pretty sad comment on our unabashed love of Mass Effect 2 that we can happily while away 15 minutes, just poring over a four-page-long story on Game Informer about the creation of reptilian assassin Thane. We learned important stuff too ... like how his look was partly inspired by Hellboy's Abe Sapien! That's interesting!

You know, we call Thane a "character," but he's really more than that, isn't he? He's more like a friend. More like a lifelong friend. Or, in the case of Alexander Sliwinski's own Oprah Shepard, a lover. So if you think about it that way, reading four pages about him isn't all that weird. ... Right?