Links, the Universe, and Everything

Bayonetta

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Mass Effect

God of War 3 confirmed for 3/16

1st party Wii titles make up 47% of their software sales for 2009

Bioshock 2 multiplayer has no LAN support nor dedicated servers

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood confirmed for Wii VC, but not in English

Warner Bros possibly to do a reboot of the Mortal Kombat film series

Tetsuya Nomura says there will be no FFVII remake; get over it

FFXIII limited edition announced for Europe; it better be US too…

Heavy Rain demo coming 2/11

US Navy says gamers are smarter than “normal people”

FFXIII may be getting DLC, but maybe not

Bayonetta to be patched on the PS3 to allow hard drive install

Upcoming Borderlands DLC to raise level cap

Darksiders patch will fix screen tearing issues

Dragon Age DLC, previously delayed, will be up next week

Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone delayed until mid-February

Mass Effect 2 delayed DLC is now up

We likey the listener mailz.  Send more!  Plz?  podcast@someothercastle.com!  kthx.

Freshly picked links!

Persona 3

Crimson Gem Saga

Halo 2

King of Fighters XII

Marvel vs. Capcom 2

Wii Sports Resort

DSi update 1.4 brings Facebook to the system in Japan

Red Steel 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, and Dark Void all delayed to 2010

Trine for PSN delayed again due to bug

Microsoft says Facebook and Twitter will be on the Dashboard before Christmas

Buy all Summer of Arcade XBLA titles and get 800 MS points back

Dead Space, Infamous, and WoW all getting movies

Castle Crashers coming to PS3

GTA IV “Ballad of Gay Tony” dated for October 29

Twilight MMO in development?

Nintendo releases ridiculous lifetime sales numbers for DS and Wii

Plants vs. Zombies coming to XBLA

World of Workout

Send us things!  Hugs are appreciated at podcast@someothercastle.com.

Linkatudeination:

Persona 3

Docomodake BOING!

Gardening Mama

Persona 4

inFAMOUS

Sims 3

Rather than try to figure out how many individual links each of the conferences should get, I’m just going to link out to the videos of each…. there are several places with archives, but I’ve found IGN’s to be the most reliable:

Microsoft

Nintendo

Sony

Break music is “Heart Error” by Sabastian Boaz.  Check out http://8bitpeoples.com for his stuff.

No listener mail this week because we’re storing it, like squirrels burying their little acorns for the cold winter months…. so send more to podcast@someothercastle.com!  Next week will be a grand extrrrrrravaganza of mail!  Also, make sure to visit our awesome affiliates over at msxbox world for even more information on E3 and other related news.

New Super Mario Brothers Wii
Nintendo debuted a new 2D Mario Brothers game at their press conference, with the notable addition of an interesting multiplayer mechanic.  It’s the classic 2D platforming everyone, hardcore gamers included, can love, with up to three other players simultaneously.  The live gameplay demo looked like a lot of fun, and I get the feeling the game also works as a single player experience.  It’s Mario, it’s 2D, and it’s part multiplayer or coop.  Nothing in there not to love as far as I’m concerned.  I have no qualms with the holiday 2009 release date either.  ‘A-’

Cammie
I won’t lie, Cammie has a history of not being my favorite E3 press conference participant.  This year didn’t help her cause much.  While she did drop the ultra peppy persona she had last year, she certainly isn’t a person I want to associate with Nintendo.  Also, she dressed like a giant marshmallow for the press conference today.  If she had accessorized properly, she could have resembled a wiimote.  Either that, or she borrowed some of MC Hammer’s pants.  Good thing they cut out the parachuting portion of her enterance.  Finally, she managed to come in last out of the four players during the New Super Mario Brothers live demo, so I wasn’t wowed by her gaming prowess either.  Sorry Cammie, but it’s a ‘D’ for you.

Wii Fit Plus
We were also introduced to Wii Fit Plus at the Nintendo event, because apparently last year’s game apallingly failed to stem the American obesity crisis.  If you saw Wii Fit, add a few more mini games, and you’ve basically got Wii Fit Plus.  I’ve docked points for lack of originality, but I will award points for making both a bundle and the software only available.  At least Nintendo is attempting a considerate cash grab when they release it this fall.  Still, I was generally unimpressed, so I award it a ‘C-’.

Wii Motion Plus
Well, it’s been a while since this controller add on was announced for the Wii.  And to show off the technology we saw … another Wii Sports Resort demo.  Apparently the game starts with a ski diving introduction to help teach people how to use the new control scheme.  Cammy’s wardrobe suddenly made more sense, apparently no one told her only the Miis wre participating.  Bill and Reggie demonstrated the archery and 3 point contest minigames.  It looks a lot like the original Wii Sports, except with new minigames.  I’m sure it will sell by the truckloads when it is released on July 26, but my excitement will really depend on the still unannounced pricepoint.  Some third party titles were also discussed as Wii Motion Plus titles; such as Tiger Woods 10, Grand Slam Tennis, Virtua Tennis, and Red Steel 2.  Red Steel 2 can only be played with Wii Motion Plus, and will come bundled with the add on in order to give it any chance of selling.  Overall, we didn’t really see anything too new or revolutionary from Wii Motion Plus, so I’ll give it a ‘C’.

Ad-libbing
Bill and Reggie seemed to go off script for a bit during their Wii Sports Resort demo.  Let’s just say they should stick with their day jobs.  If their attempted “banter” wasn’t ad-libbed, they need to fire their writers, ASAP.  Show me the games gentlemen, leave the comedy to professionals, or you’ll end up with an ‘F’.

RPGs
After his demo and brief stand-up career, Reggie spoke about some upcoming RPG titles on Nintendo platfroms.  He talked briefly about the Wii exclusive Final Fantasy Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, and showed a brief trailer.  We were then treated to a trailer for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on DS, which will be releasing on 29/9 in a battle of improper fractions (that’s 9/29 for our North American readers).  Neither of these games were new announcements.  Reggie then announced two new DS RPGs, Mario and Luigi, Bowser’s Inside Story, and Golden Sun DS.  The spiritual successor to the Mario RPG series will release this fall, while no date was listed for Golden Sun DS.  This segment gets and up and down grade.  On one hand, we heard about two games we already knew about, but on the other hand we learned about two new titles, including one that revitalises an old Nintendo franchise.  After considering everything, I give this segment a ‘C+’.

DS Game Soup
Cammie snuck back out onstage during the montage transition, apparently having escaped the backstage s’more cookout unscathed.  She returned to announce three new DS games for a variety of audiences.  Revealed were Womens Murder Club, Games of Passion, which appears to be an Ace Attorney type game based on the prose styling of James Patterson; COP: The Recruit, a driving action game; and Style Savvy, a game for 12 year old girls featuring shopping and runway walkoffs that would but Hansel to shame.  While these were all new games, I was bored to tears by this point, and only sort of half paying attention.  As a result, Nintendo’s grade will drop here a bit, I’ll give them a ‘C’.

DSi
After yet another montage and the obligatory sales stats, we arrived at the segment for Nintendo’s newest forced upgrade attempt in the handheld space, DSi.  Some new software was announced for the DSiware downloadable service; Flip Note Studio is a simple movie editor, Mario vs Donky Kong: Minis March Again is a puzzler, and Wario Ware DIY is a microgame creator.  The ability to upload pictures from the DSi cameras to facebook was also announced, making the DSi less useful for social networking than the average cell phone.  The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was shown again, but there was no new information available for consumption.  All in all, a few interesting DSiware utilities were revelaed, but that’s not enough to push the grade past a ‘C+’.

Wii Vitality Sensor
I’ll keep this brief.  Iwata made an appearance on stage to reveal yet another Wii acessory, the Wii Vitality Sensor.  Iwata offered no demonstration or potential applications of this yawn inspiring peripheral beyond the fact it might help people to relax.  He accomplished exactly the opposite in his presentation, by causing me to bang my head repeatedly on my desk.  If this were 2002, and it were an accessory for Eternal Darkness, maybe I’d bite.  For actually raising my stress level, I’m giving this silly piece of plastic an ‘F’.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
After the ringing in my ears from the previous revelation stopped, I noticed Cammie “Too legit to quit” Dunaway returned to the stage.  This time, I ended up being a-ok with that fact, because she came out to announce a new 3D Mario game.  A trailer ran, featuring scenes that included Yoshi.  The screen revealed this new title to be Super Mario Galaxy 2, which woke up even the hardcore gamers in the room.  The trailer looked great, although no release date was hinted at.  For revealing a game people actually wanted, I’ll give out an ‘A-’.

3rd Party Titles
Reggie then returned to the stage to jump up and down and scream, “Look guys, 3rd parties actually develop games for Wii!  Really we swear!  Look, we brought some!”  Unfortunately, none of the games he was talking about were new reveals.  The Conduit, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, and Dead Space: Extraction are all previously announced games.  They all seemed to look graphically solid for Wii titles, but there was really no news here.  For showing us nothing new, I’ll give a ‘D’.

Metroid: Other M
And then, just for fun, Reggie dropped a bomb on the audience, announcing Metroid: Operation M.  This new title is a collaboration between the big ‘N’ and Tecmo’s Team Ninja, of Ninja Gaiden fame.  The trailer that played looked fantastic, and featured what appeared to be a voiced Samus Aran.  It was revealed that the game would release sometime in 2010.  That one moment captured the attention of everyone, and showed that Nintendo might actually care slightly about it’s hardcore fans out there that grew up on franchises like Metroid.  This seems to hold a lot of promise, and was a complete surprise as an announcement.  For being a genuinely surprising and exciting moment, I’ll give it an ‘A’.

Overall
Nintendo offered a very up and down press conference this year, which I suppose is an improvement from it’s mostly flat “Look at how great we are” event of last year.  While there were some obvious duds such as the Wii Vitality Sensor and long stretches where the audience appeared to be asleep, there were also several instances of genuine excitement and surprise.  Still, Nintendo was definitely found wanting in comparison to the Microsoft event from the day before, which featured games, games, and more games until they announcement of Natal, which essentially out Wiis the Wii.  The two new Mario titles and Metriod: Other M were clearly the highlites for the gamers of my ilk, and they saved this event from being a repeat of last year’s disaster.  I’m grading this one out just above average, because despite the lack of continually great news, several titles were announced for the hardcore gamer audience, which is much better than last year’s showing.  Overall, I’m giving Nintendo a ‘C+’, but there is certainly still room for improvement.

Maybe Nintendo will raise it’s game next year, if they can scramble out their money pool long enough to do a press conference.

Sigh.

Student 1: Microsoft

Microsoft was the last platform holder to make a part of its back catalog available for download on the Xbox360.  Xbox Originals titles are available for download via Xbox Live Marketplace.  Let’s start from ‘C’, and see how it grades out.

Pricing: Xbox Originals conform to a flat rate pricing model of $15 US, or 1200 Microsoft spacebucks.  For last generation Xbox titles, that’s not an awful price point.  For some of those games, $15 might be a stretch, but for others it doesn’t seem too bad.  On the annoyance factor, you can’t buy a block of 1200 spacebucks, you have to buy 1000 or 2000.  This means you can’t just buy an Xbox Originals game, you either have to buy extra points, or have some laying around.  To sum up, flat rate pricing is worth raising the grade up to a ‘B’.  The price point is a bit higher than it could be, and the annoyance of not being able to buy 1200 spacebucks combine to drop the grade to a ‘B-’.

Selection: There are currently 31 games available for Microsoft’s back catalog service; however, two of them are exclusive to Japan.  While this is a fairly low number compared to the other two platforms, the service didn’t debut until December of 2007.  There is a nice variety of titles both in terms of genres and publishers as well.  Surprisingly, less than a quarter of the titles available are from Microsoft Game Studios.  Also, some games that weren’t necessarily huge sellers at retail are available.  The solid variety raises the cumulative grade to a ‘B+’, but the relatively low number of titles available drop it back to a ‘B’.

Quality of Titles: While there are some forgettable titles on Xbox Originals, there are some real gems, both Xbox exclusive and multiplatform.  Fable, Halo: Combat Evolved, and and Ninja Gaiden Black are great titles, but non-exclusive classics such as GTA: San Andreas, and the Max Payne games are also available.  Also, lesser known games such as Indigo Prophecy, Jade Empire, and the chronically under-appreciated Psychonauts are available.  For having some all around great titles, Xbox Originals gets bumped up to a ‘B’.  Then, for including the Tim Schafer gem Psychonauts, they get a ‘B+’.  The world needs more Tim Schafer.

Extra Credit: Microsoft has a pretty solid back catalog service.  More titles could certainly be released (they’re releasing between one and two per month, on average) Also, the price point could possibly drop a bit, maybe to 1000 spacebucks or $12.50, which happens to be an amount you can purchase exactly on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Student 2: Sony

Sony started it’s PSOne Classics back catalog service on December 4, 2007 in the US, just after the release of the PS3.  The PSOne classics are part of the broader PlayStation Network.  Once again, Sony starts out with a grade of ‘C’.

Pricing: PSOne Classics have a general price point of $5.99.  However, certain “premium” titles may be priced at $9.99.  The $5.99 price point is good, especially as these games are now from two console generations ago.  The “premium” pricing is a smart business proposition, but very annoying to consumers.  Sony gains half a letter grade for a quality price point, but loses it again for their “premium” pricing scheme.  At this point, their grade remains a ‘C’.

Selection: This is where a major division exists between what is available for North American and Japanese gamers.  There are 36 titles available on this service to North American gamers, a bit pitiful when you consider Microsoft has essentially the same number of titles available, with games a generation newer, in one less year.  The Japanese service, however, boasts 246 PSOne games.  Even considering that many of these titles are Japanese only, that’s a difference of over 200 titles.  Sorry Sony, but these grades are made in America.  They’re down to a ‘D+’.

Quality of Titles: This may sound a bit redundant after the last aspect.  There are solid titles available in North America, including; Castlevania:Symphony of the Night, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, Twisted Metal 2, and Wipeout.  However, the Japanese store offers all of these titles, and adds to it with classics such as Resident Evil 1-3, Dead or Alive, Metal Gear Solid, and Final Fantasy VII.  Now Sony, I know these games came out in the US as well, so it’s not as though they would need to be localized.  Rumor has it that Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil are on their way, but they’re not out yet, so no dice.  Down goes Sony, all the way to a ‘D’.

Extra Credit: Sony desperately needs to improve their back catalog distribution.  They have two previous generations of home consoles to draw from, and are barely drawing from one in North America.  They do better in Japan, but other regions suffer.  Also, their entire PS2 library has been ignored.  I understand they still sell these consoles, but since most of the PS3 units sold don’t include backwards compatibility, that would seem to be a logical next step.  If Microsoft can manage to have “last generation” games available, so can Sony.  Like most of Sony’s offerings since the PS3, this one is substandard.

Student 3: Nintendo

Nintendo provides offerings for a variety on consoles, some not Nintendo products, on its Virtual Console service.  The current consoles offerings are the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo, the Nintendo 64, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Turbografx-16, Neo Geo, Commodore 64 (North America), and the MSX (Japan).  For the final time, it’s time to reset to ‘C’.

Pricing: Nintendo provides standard pricing for each individual console available on its service, with a few exceptions for certain titles.  The prices are listed in Wii points, where 100 Wii points = $1.  There does not appear to be an obvious pattern to why some titles are more than the standard pricing.  However, the pricing tiers seem generally reasonable, from 500 points for NES, Sega Master System, and Commodore 64 titles, to 1000 points for Nintendo 64 titles.  Nintendo’s grade rises to a ‘B’ for generally reasonable pricing tiers and the ability to spend exactly the cost of individual games, but falls to a ‘B-’ for the strange pricing exceptions.

Selection: Nintendo has the most impressive selection of titles available due to the large number of consoles it draws upon (including consoles not made by Nintendo).  There are also a fair number of titles available for most of the individual systems, although with these impressive back catalogs, more are certainly possible if Nintendo chooses to release them.  While there are a larger number of titles available in Japan than in North America, this is mostly due to a large number of Japanese-only games developed for Nintendo and Sega platforms.  The vast and varied selection earns Nintendo a jump to a ‘B+’.

Quality of Titles: There are some absolute gaming classics available on the virtual console.  From the Zelda games to Mario, Sonic, and some pretty strong third party offerings, the amount of gaming history represented on this service is impressive.  This service has games that defined the youth of a few generations of gamers available for download.  There are a few exceptions that would be great to see, but more games are forthcoming, and hopefully the gaps will be filled in.  For the amazing breadth of titles and historical significance, Nintendo’s grade jumps up to an ‘A’.

Extra Credit: There’s not much for Nintendo to do, besides continue to release more games.  Some more of the classic RPGs would be welcome (Final Fantasy, Earthbound, etc), and some are rumored to be on the way.  Oh, and please, Nintendo, please ditch the strange pricing exceptions.  Other than that, the Virtual Console is great, provided you have a classic controller around to work with.

Grades are in, class dismissed.