Linkstache!

Portal 2

Okamiden

Skies of Arcadia: Legends

Mortal Kombat

The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile

Pokemon Black

PSN is having problems; perhaps you have heard

Wii’s successor confirmed to be playable at E3

3DS undersells according to Nintendo’s projections

DS Lite no longer in production

Hulu Plus now available for Live members; free trial

Alice: Madness returns will come with download of original Alice

Portal 2 on sale this weekend at GameStop and KMart

The Last Guardian and Ico/Shadow of the Colossus Collection both delayed indefinitely

PSP Go no longer in production in Japan

Portal 2 DLC available this summer

We want to do an all-listener mail episode next time, so please please please help us by sending it to podcast@someothercastle.com.  Please?

Where was I?  Oh, right, podcast!  Awkward moments abound as we plunge back into our new…. season?  Would you call it a season?  I’m full of linguistic quandaries today!  Anyway, listen up as we squee over new controllers (well, *I* do, anyway), discuss why Microsoft is more immature than a twelve-year-old boy, and of course, answer oodles of listener mail.  You guys are the best!

Links R’ Us!

Arc Rise Fantasia

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

Plants vs. Zombies

Metroid: Other M

Dissidia getting a sequel: “Duodecim”

Pink DualShock 3 controllers coming this fall

Playstation celebrates 15th anniversary

PS Move “not a preorder product”

Buy Knights in the Nightmare for PSP, get Yggdra Union for free

MS bans user for living in Fort Gay, WV, because it says “gay” and they are idiots

250 gig Kinect bundle announced to no one’s surprise; will cost $400

The Last Guardian confirmed for TGS

Carmine shirts raise $150k for Child’s Play

Bioware mines data from Mass Effect 2; interesting statistics

Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue coming 9/21; is a full sequel

Relic designer Brian Wood saves wife and unborn child by sacrificing himself in a tragic car accident; you can go directly to the trust fund donation site for them by clicking here

As always, we love and cherish and read listener mail, so keep sending it to podcast@someothercastle.com!

Also, I’m posting a link to the trailer for Catherine that we talk about, because I don’t know what to make of it… maybe you do.

Linkz!

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Scribblenauts

Halo 3: ODST

Borderlands

Katamari Forever

FFXIII will not have a forced installation on the PS3

Microsoft CEO confirms a blu-ray addon for the 360

Gearbox admits to Borderlands shortages

Bruce Willis signed to star in Kane & Lynch movie

PS3 outsells Wii in September

Queen Lego figures to be in Lego Rock Band

PS3 launches a LocoRoco space

Zelda: Spirit Tracks getting limited edition with metal case and figurines in Europe (hopefully US also!)

Michael Pachter says he expects a price hike for XBox Live

Nintendo says that downloadable services help retail

LocoRoco Midnight Carnival on PSN 10/29

Lou Albano, Mario from Super Mario Bros. cartoon, dies 10/14 at age 76

Nintendo says Peach’s dress is the reason she won’t be playable in New SMB Wii

Psylocke to be downloadable for MUA 2

Do you see how happy listener mail makes us?  Of course you do!  So send more!  podcast@someothercastle.com

Return of the links!

Rock Band: Beatles

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

Scribblenauts

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Persona 3

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Halo 3

Batman: Arkham Asylum sells 2 million units, is getting 2 free DLC packs on 9/17 and 9/24

Toys R’ Us will be taking ALL video game trade-ins; get your Atari 2600 games ready

Music games down 46% in sales from last year

US PS3 sales up 300% now that it’s actually at a non-absurd price

Forza 3 goes gold; demo hits 9/24

EA sends out $200 checks to game media to promote Dante’s Inferno

New Katamari demo up on US PSN

Call of Duty 360 announced, $399 with 2 controllers, game, and 250 gig hard drive

Microsoft’s Shane Kim is retiring

Scribblenauts getting full UK localization to avoid pants confusion

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks dated for 12/7

PS3 browser now offers the ability to order Papa John’s pizza

Questions?  Comments?  Hugs?  podcast@someothercastle.com!

Linkmas!

Dissidia Final Fantasy

Halo 3

World of Warcraft

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

PS3 slim (120 gig)

Disney buys Marvel for four billion dollars; yes, billion, with a B

GTA “Hot Coffee” class-action lawsuit settles for 20 million dollars

Special Edition SFIV Fightstick at PAX; Elaine’s wallet cries out in pain

360 price drop causes a 43% sales increase in the UK

Pink and white DSi models releasing in the US on 9/13; Leah curses being an early adopter

Nintendo releasing black remote/motion plus combo for the holidays; black system is Japan-only

Shadow Complex breaks XBLA sales records by selling 200,000 copies

Lego Rock Band possibly to be exportable

Katamari Forever receives date of 9/22, now known as Some Other Castle Goes Broke Day

God of War Collection for PS3 scheduled for the holiday season

Like hugs?  How about asking questions?  I think we can do business.  Send things to podcast@someothercastle.com, and we will answer them.  Promise!

Links get!

Shatter

World of Warcraft

Animal Crossing: City Folk

Street Fighter IV

Shadow Complex

Fat Princess

Halo 3

Pokemon Platinum

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Final Fantasy XIII (demo)

Trials HD

Earthbound

July NPDs

Slim PS3 confirmed, and soon!

Fable 3 announced for 2010

Interplay classics coming to Steam

360 Elite console now shipping with new packaging and without HD cables

Persona 3 PSP coming to Japan November 1

Little Big Planet GOTY edition dated Sept 8

Brutal Legend demo coming in September

Loco Roco Carnival coming to Japan, will be download only

Little Big Planet PSP has no multiplayer

Gran Turismo 5 finally incorporates car damage

Chromehounds servers shutting down

Want to send us stuff?  Well, that’s great!  Here’s where you do it: podcast@someothercastle.com.

Return of the Link:

Lego Batman

Peggle Dual Shot

Crimson Gem Saga

Persona 3

Persona 4

Sims 3

Prototype

PSP Go “taking advantage of early adopter premium…” yep, Sony actually admitted it

Fewer than 1 in 3 PS3 systems are connecting to Home

Sony working on a patent that will allow PS2 emulation via the Cell Chip (updated post-’cast)

Hulu blocked from PS3 browser, presumably because someone is being a dick

100 million used games traded annually in the US

Fight Night may release button controls as DLC

Harold Ryan of Bungie says Halo Reach could possibly use Natal

WoW working on a way to allow faction-switching

Mass Effect 2 will not allow the option for a New Game +

Mythic and Bioware merge

Zenimax (Bethesda’s parent company) buys id Software

Break music is “Space Party Anthem” by Starscream.

I know you love listener mail as much as I do!  I can SMELL it!  Send us more at podcast@someothercastle.com!  plzkthx?

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.

Admin note:  This will close out Dan’s E3 2009 grading.  He has been a champ this week grading these conferences in text form.

Welcome to the home stretch of these week’s output at Grading the Games.  After this, I promise to take the rest of the week off, and spare you my ranting for a while.  But before that, I must address the Sony E3 press conference.  In order to give you an authentic feel, go do something else for 10 or 15 minutes, then come back to see if this column has started.

Opening Montage
I know I eviscerated Nintendo for it’s use of montages in my previous piece, but I liked Sony’s opening montage.  I have one simple reason for this, it was comprised entirely of game footage.  Games are the reason people watch and attend these press events.  Take notes Nintendo, there will be a quiz at Tokyo Game Show.  The montage featured tons of great looking game footage, and didn’t linger too long on anyone one game.  It was a solid way to get everyone primed for the start of the event.  ‘B’.

Stage Presence
Jack Tretton came out to start the press conference for Sony, and was immediately more comfortable on stage than any of his counterparts from the Nintendo event just hours ago.  He walked out and immediately made a couple of legitimately funny jokes about the PSP Go leaks.  Then he told us Playstation platforms were getting 364 games this year and 35 exclusives for PS3.  Congratulation, you know have my attention Jack.  This was a vast improvement over a couple hours ago, ‘B’.

Uncharted 2
Holy crap, this game is beautiful.  The live game play demo looked fantastically fun.  There was lots of platforming and some Gears of War-esque cover combat.  In addition to the demo, a multiplayer beta was set for release at midnight following the press conference, so people can get their feet wet in that aspect of it already.  This was a great selection as a lead in game, and really captured the audience’s attention.  I give it an ‘A’.

MAG
After Uncharted, Sony brought out developers to show game play of the generically titled Massive Action Game.  We were shown a live game play demo of a 256 player battle, focused around a particular squad of 8 players.  The game appears to be generally squad based, with every possible character, including support characters, being controlled by a human player.  The demo also gave the impression that this game is highly focused on finite objectives, in this case destroying a bunker and anti-aircraft weapon.  It looks potentially interesting, but I think I would need some hands-on time with it to really get a feel for how it would work.  Hopefully we’ll see a beta at some point in the future, but the game is releasing this fall, so I’m not sure there is time.  On the strength of an interesting concept and logistically challenging demo, I’ll award a ‘B’.

PSP Go
Kaz Hurai was invited out on stage to reveal the worst kept secret in the industry, the PSP Go.  The new device has a tiny form factor when closed, appearing slightly larger than an iPhone.  It will feature 16 GB of internal flash memory, and no UMD drive.  Kaz talked about a few new features in the Sense Me technology for dynamic music selection and additional video partners for the PSN store.  He also revealed that the cost of PSP development tools will be dropping, which is encouraging in terms of the software we may see in the future.  Kaz revealed that PSP Go will release on October 1 of this year, for $249.  And this is where he lost me.  I was ready to march out and buy one of these things right until the price point was revealed.  This handheld is now more expensive than a PS2 or an Xbox360, and as expensive as a Wii.  When you also consider that the PSP Go puts more potential revenue in Sony’s hands due to the money they won’t lose to retail markups (after all, the games won’t get any cheaper just because you download them), it really is a bit offensive that they want to charge consumers significantly more to increase Sony’s cut.I was ready to grade this fairly well, but the price point killed the momentum.  I give it a ‘C’.

Gran Turismo: PSP
Sony then had the head of Gran Turismo out on stage to reveal Gran Turismo: PSP.  A brief trailer was shown, and you would never have guessed this was a portable title.  Apparently this game is running at 60 frames per second on a PSP.  That’s a pretty intensive portable game.  This title will also be released alongside the PSP Go on October 1.  This looks pretty impressive, I’ll go with a ‘B+’.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
After his turn on stage at the Microsoft conference yesterday, Hideo Kojima was right back on stage at Sony’s press event to discuss another new game, Peace Walker.  This is a PSP title that represents a true sequel to the story of MGS 3, set 10 years later.  Apparently it will be a true canon story, rather than a spin off story.  A very entertaining trailer ran, featuring some of the trademark MGS trappings that we all expect to see.  Another good looking software title for PSP, I grade this out as a ‘B’.

PSP Software Montage
Apparently there are a ton of games forthcoming for the PSP.  It looks like Sony has finally decided to support their portable platform in the way they always seem to be talking about.  We also heard about a new Resident Evil title for PSP, to be released next year.  The future looks bright for PSP software, ‘B+’.

PSN
There was a brief discussion of the games available on the PSN following the PSP segment.  50 additional PSOne classics are coming to the PSN, which is well overdue.  In fact, they announced the release of Final Fantasy VII for PSN that very evening, which drew applause.  There was also a video of Home, which would be exciting if I had logged into Home more than once.  But I like the increased PSOne classics presence, so I’ll give out a ‘C+’.

Agent
After the PSP segment of the show, Jack brought us back to PS3 content.  He announced a new PS3 exclusive title, Agent from Rockstar North, the developers of the GTA games.  We didn’t get a trailer or demo of any sort, but we did learn that it is an espionage type game set in the 1970s.  It should be interesting to keep an eye on the news regarding this title, but there was precious little info, so I’ll give it a ‘B-’.

Assassin’s Creed 2
Sony used their press conference as an opportunity to debut a game play demonstration of the multiplatform title Assassin’s Creed 2 from Ubisoft.  This holiday 2009 titles looked stunning during the game play demo showed on stage.  The demo included a Davinci inspired glider for navigation through the city, and the use of smoke bombs as an escape mechanic.  It looks like an entertaining title, and Sony managed to have a major 3rd party game appear in their press event as opposed to Microsoft’s.  ‘B+’.

Final Fantasy
The Final Fantasy segment of the presentation did not quite go as I had anticipated.  A new localized trailer for FFXIII played, and looked as stunning as usual.  The real surprise was afterwards, when FFXIV was revealed immediately after with a trailer of it’s on.  At the end of the trailer it was revealed that XIV will be an online MMO in the vein of FFXI.  This game is scheduled to arrive in 2010.  Given the surprise announcement of a new Final Fantasy exclusive, I’ll grade this portion a ‘B+’.

Playstation Motion Controller
Not to be out waggled by the other two platform holders, Sony also introduced it’s own motion controller.  Interestingly, it seems to be a blend of the Nintendo and Microsoft systems, using a camera to track the motion of a wand like device.  The mapping shown was one-to-one motion tracking, and a variety of tech demo type applications were demonstrated.  As I said about Microsoft’s Natal, the effectiveness of this control scheme will depend entirely on the software support made for it.  Unlike Natal, it does have a release window of spring 2010.  Overall, I was a less impressed that I was with the Natal demos, so I’ll give it a ‘B-’.

Play, Create, Share
Sony has started to push games of the Little Big Planet ilk as the “Play, Create, Share” genre.  They did discuss continuing support for Little Big Planet here, with the upcoming PSP title and additional licensed content coming to the PS3 version.  Also revealed in this segment was the upcoming PS3 exclusive Mod Nation Racers, which essentially looks to be the love child of Little Big Planet and Mario Kart.  It looks as thought it could be an interesting downloadable title, but no information about it’s release was offered, save for a 2010 release date.  The live demo looked quite fun, and the track editor looked pretty intuitive.  I’ll be curious to see how the release is handled for this title, but I’ll give this press conference segment a ‘B’.

The Last Guardian
The latest game from the creators of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, The Last Guardian had a trailer debut during the press conference.  The trailer featured a giant cat/bird type animal companion for a small boy, and seemed to feature cooperative platforming.  Very little information was revealed, but we were treated to a first official view of a gorgeous looking platformer from a team that has already delivered two fantastic PS2 titles.  A dearth on information costs them a bit, ‘B’.

Gran Turismo 5
Despite discussing Gran Turismo PSP earlier in the press conference, Sony saved the Gran Turismo 5 trailer until close to the end.  Unsurprisingly, the trailer is a graphical powerhouse, but other than that, we didn’t see anything really new.  We also didn’t get any release information, which is a bit disappointing, as we haven’t had a proper GT game in five years.  For teasing me but not delivering anything concrete, I’m giving it a ‘C’.  It is still a new Gran Turismo, after all.

God of War 3
And finally, Sony finished up it’s press conference with the megaton, God of War 3.  We were treated to a game play demonstration, and in a familiar theme, this game is gorgeous.  The combat looks as satisfying as previous entries in the franchise, and it looks to be fantastically brutal.  Unfortunately, we will not be playing this game until March of 2010, but the other God of War titles have also released in March, so it isn’t all that shocking.  This is the crown jewel of the PS3 lineup, and may very well be a system seller in March.  I would have liked to see more of a titan than just one in the background, but that’s a nitpick.  I can’t give this anything but an ‘A’.

Overall
There was definitely both good and bad in Sony’s press event.  On one hand, we saw a lot of games, many of which look great, but we didn’t get a much information about several of them.  The motion controller component seems a bit unnecessary for what is generally a “hardcore” console, but everyone seems to want one these days, so I was hardly surprised.  The PSP Go segment took my excitement and beat it to death on the floor with that price point, but the PSP software lineup looks fantastic.  In general, it was more up than down, but the disappointments were definitely there.  Where was Heavy Rain?  One would think a big PS3 exclusive title like that would be prime press conference fodder.  And there was no talk of a price drop, which doesn’t particularly bother me as a PS3 owner, but will bother those who would like one and software developers alike.  All in all, it comes to down to games, and Sony showed off some big ones.  The final tally comes out to a ‘B+’ in my book.

That’s all for this week, try to keep yourselves out of detention.

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.