My buzzer rang at 4 am. I had to stand up early to get to Europe’s biggest fair about computer and video games. The fair is located in Cologne which is about 300 kilometers away from my home. However, travelling with German railways was quite fast. A few hours and three train switches later I arrived at the fairground where the general mood already was great. I waited with tons of other people in front of hall nine for the official opening of the fair at 10 am.
After the opening of the fair I quickly went to Nintendo’s booth in hall eight to get my hands on The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword which will be released in 2011 worldwide. I waited exactly one hour to play the game for about five minutes. However, my waiting time was quite short compared to the one of the people who wanted to play the game five minutes later on one of the four consoles that were provided by Nintendo. They had to wait up to three hours. Yep, the waiting queue was that long. Link’s latest adventure feeled exactly as expected. The motion control worked fine, but in my opinion, the look is horrible. I was not hyped before playing the demo and I am not hyped after playing the demo. After playing Zelda I looked around at Nintendo’s booth. There were tons of people everywhere. I decided not to wait another hour to play Metroid: Other M since the game will be released in a couple of days in Germany and I already preordered it. However, my brother played it instead of Zelda early in the morning and said it feels very good. I waited to play Disney Epic Mickey but the guy in front of me did not stop to play the game which pissed me off a little bit if I’m honest. Since the demo seemed to be exactly the one from E3 which I already knew from several walkthrough videos I walked away. The game itself looked not spectacular but cool. Since it is from Warren Spector (the dude behind the legendary Deus Ex) nothing can go wrong with it – hopefully. My clock told me that it was 11.30 am and I was very thirsty and hungry. So I looked around for something to drink and eat and finally got half a pizza, apple cake and 0,4 liters of cola and fanta for a little bit too much money. The catering was really disappointing.
However, after the short break I went into hall six where I found the two biggest publishers of the biz, Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts. Take Two and Bethesda also were there. Diablo III, Mafia II, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Medal of Honor, Crysis 2, Dragon Age 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and a lot more – everything was playable if you were willed to wait at least one hour. I was not willed to wait that long to play games that most likely feel like their predecessors. However, my brother thought that he has to check out Crysis 2 and waited more than one hour for 15 minutes gameplay. Meanwhile, I went into hall seven to check out Sony’s PlayStation Move.
I played several Move games. One was something like a fun racer with an office chair. The game itself is fun for three minutes and does not allow a real opinion about the quality of motion recognition of Move. After that, I played the Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest which feeled like a big meltdown. The controls were absolutely horrible. A little bit later I tested the pointer function of Move in The Shoot and basically nothing worked. The pointer was extremely sluggish and far away from the quality of the Wiimote pointer function. However, a game named Tumble surprised me in a positve sense. In this game you have to build a tower which worked pretty well and was a lot of fun. However, the gameplay is slow and not fast like in the other games I played. After getting my hands onPlayStation Move I’m very, very sceptical.
Hall seven had some other highlights like Def Jam Rapstar (don’t know if the game is any good, but the show was very nice). However, later in the day I went to Microsoft’s booth and got my hands on Windows Phone 7 (which nobody needs when iOS and Android are available) and Kinect. I waited one hour to play Kinect. While waiting, I hoped to be able to play Kinect Adventures but the Microsoft dude led me into the Sonic: Free Riders booth. In this moment I thought: Great, now I don’t know if Kinect or Sonic is shit, probably both. But my Kinect session was hilarious and fun. The cam seemed to have some problems, especially with recognition of movements into the depth of the room but who cares? It was fun as hell to control one of Sonic’s generic friends on some kind of a flying skateboard. Watching others playing games like Kinect Adventures I discovered some major lag. However, even if Kinect does not seem suitable for ‘real’ games it is a new and fun thing for more minigame / partygame-like things. And this is why it could be a commercial success. But do not expect too much, otherwise you will be disappointed.
After playing Kinect I walked again through every hall and played some games here and there. Super Scribblenauts impressed me, Wii Party was more fun than expected, Donkey Kong Returns will be a very cool jump’n'run game and Kirby’s Epic Yarn is my most favourite game of the fair. Great look, great ideas, day 1. Last but not least, I got a signature from Charles Martinet who seems to be a very nice guy. I have nothing more to say. Check out my pics and my video from an amazing day!
Through the last couple of weeks, I have worked together with Kenny on a German translation of Frustrating Tic Tac Toe. Now, the game is available on the App Store for iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. I am quite satisfied with the result since it was my first translation of a game, though there is a slight error which will be removed with the next update.
Find below a screenshot of the German iPad version of Frustrating Tic Tac Toe:
I hope you like my translation of Frustrating Tic Tac Toe. Talking about Kenny’s Apps… I hope you all played the latest games / updates from Kenny! I think the last update ofZombie Puncher made the game better than it ever was before.
This year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo is finally over. But who is the winner of the most important gaming event? Nintendo won E3 – in my opinion. Why? That is, what I am going to write about now. But first of all, sorry for the lack of posts in the last weeks. I was too busy with life, gaming and other things ;-)
Microsoft started this year’s E3 with two events. The one was a presentation of Kinect (former known as Project Natal) and the other the official press conference. I was not able to see the Kinect event so I am only discussing the press conference now. Revelations of new, big titles? No. Microsoft focused on already known titles like Gears of War 3 and Halo: Reach. Don’t expect something new here, both look gameplay-wise like their predecessors. However, this is not a bad thing since the predecessors are triple A games. Big new games from third party developers? No. 360 owners get some time-exclusive downloadable content for Call of Duty: Black Ops. Not quite a reason to buy a console for, right? But maybe the already mentioned Kinect is one? I am sceptical! Microsoft spent a lot of time to present Kinect at their press conference – and they made a lot of things wrong. Microsoft has neither announced a price nor a release date and they nearly only showed casual games. Rare, the legendary developer of games like Golden Eye, is making a Wii Sports clone? What a sad story… Besides that, Microsoft also announced a new model of the Xbox 360 – the long rumoured slim edition.
One day later, Nintendo followed with an own press conference. Last year’s Nintendo conference was not bad. But the two years before were catastrophical. However, this year’s conference was awesome – even if the beginning was shocking. Nintendo showed Zelda: Skyward Sword right at the beginning. My first reaction to the graphics of the game: “Oh no, please do not let it be true!” I cannot say why, but I dislike the style of the game, really. I love the look of Twilight Princess, I loved the look of The Wind Waker, but I do not love the look of Skyward Sword. But that was not the only thing which scared me. Miyamoto played the game live and nearly nothing worked. The reason for that were some interferences and according to first impressions everything works really well. That was the good news. The bad one: I am not excited about the game. However, since the official release is 2011, there is still a lot of time to get hyped. But even with this debacle, Nintendo’s conference was awesome. They showed some new games like Kirby’s Epic Yarn which has a lovely style and Donkey Kong Country Returns which comes from Retro Studio and looks amazing. And Nintendo presented with Epic Mickey from Warren Spector and Activision’s Wii-exclusive remake of Golden Eye (with online and split screen multiplayer!) two very interesting games from third party developers. Other Wii games Nintendo showed: Wii Party, Mario Sports Mix and Metroid: Other M.
Despite from the strong Wii department, Nintendo also showed the next handheld System, the Nintendo 3DS. This brand-new system in the DS family offers 3D without glasses. And according to first impressions it works great! The graphics of this new machine look okay, if not necessarily outstanding. The lineup, however, is outstanding. Not only famous Nintendo games like Mario Kart were announced. Also Metal Gear and Resident Evil will come to 3DS. Additionally, Nintendo announced a completely new Kid Icarus and there will be 3D remakes of famous N64 titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
The Nintendo 3DS in action – cannot wait to see it by myself!
Now, let us come to the last conference, the one from Sony. In several aspects, this conference was similar to the one of Microsoft. No big new exclusive titles, no surprises. But compared to Microsoft’s conference, Sony’s was a lot more boring. Far too much talk, far too less games. They showed games like Medal of Honor, Dead Space 2 and Crysis 2. Besides that they talked a lot about 3D support. Who needs 3D games on home consoles within the next few years? I think nobody. 3D TVs are currently still quite expensive and the glasses for them can add to considerable extra costs. Regarding the PSP, Sony announced a new ridiculous publicity campaign but no new games. The system seems to be more or less dead. At least the presentation of Move was better than Microsoft’s presentation of Kinect (I do not like that name btw). Sony showed not just very casual oriented games, they also showed some stuff which is only suitable for experienced gamers. However, I do not see a major improvement compared to a Wiimote with MotionPlus. Since a PlayStation 3 with the whole Move setup is pretty expensive, will consumers who already own a Wii be convinced by the benefits of the system? I am not so sure regarding that.
You now know my opinion. What’s yours? Which games presented on E3 are you looking forward to? What do you think of Zelda, Move, Kinect and the 3DS? Let me know your opinion!
from now on I refuse to write anything about your upcoming games. I won’t even name a single game, nor I will buy it. Why I am doing that?
At least in Germany, Square Enix prohibits probably all gaming media to create and publish self-made screenshots or videos of their games. Probably to guarantee that only sugar-coated material gets online.
I think the job of all gaming media is to inform potential customers about the quality of games. And such a prohibition limits gaming media in reviewing a game from all points of view.
Remember Red Steel? I bought the game together with my Wii on launch day in Europe – and I loved it. There are many people out there who say: “That game was a huge meltdown, especially the sword fighting scenes were extremely disappointing!”. Even if I love the game, I cannot deny that criticism. The game was buggy, the controls were somehow disappointing. But since I enjoyed it, I have been always looking for a successor. And a few weeks ago, Ubisoft released that game. But to be honest: Even if the name of the game is still Red Steel, the game itself is something completely different. I want to give you some impressions now…
At a first glance, the most remarkable difference seems to be the graphics. Red Steel 2 is presented in a comic-like look. Even though I would prefer a more realistic look like in the predecessor. But I have to admit that the game looks pretty good – especially the explosions look really nice. You see, Ubisoft did a good job regarding the technical department of the game. And Ubisoft did a even better job regarding the art style. The game’s story is set in Caldera, a town in the Nevada desert. Nevada desert? That reeks of the wild west. And it looks like the good old wild west – mixed with some modern asian elements. That sounds a bit strange, but looks fantastic! The sound department is – like already in the predecessor – top-notch.
Red Steel 2 is only playable with Wii MotionPlus and that is a good thing. The strongest part of the game is the combat. There are a lot of enemies in the game and you can beat them with your gun or with your sword. However, the game is clearly no first person shooter, it’s a fighting game. MotionPlus recognizes every stroke precisely – including the strength. If you want to break an enemies’s armor you need to hit him heavily. There are different combos and finishers which you learn throughout the game. And those combos and finishers look ueber-cool. But Red Steel 2 is not only about offensive, you also have to block your opposite’s strokes. It is fun as hell to fight against those dudes. Unfortunetly, Red Steel 2 is pretty far away from being perfect. There are far too less enemie types – and you can beat them all with the same tactic. You won’t need all the combos at all. Additionally, the mission structure is always the same, especially in the side-missions.
Conclusion: I’m sure that Ubisoft spent a lot of time working on the combat and the technical department. Those parts of the game are absolutely first class. Too bad, that the game design – including enemie types and mission structure – is pretty undistinguished. However, the game is, thanks to the combat, fun as hell. And your Wii MotionPlus gathers dust. If you do not expect a AAA game, you cannot do something wrong.
Art of Balance has been available for exactly a week now on the Wii Shop Channel in Europe (in the U.S. for a few weeks). Now, you may know that I have a predilection for games which are more or less under the radar for most of the other gamers. And I think Art of Balance is one of those games. Although it may not have been on your radar so far, you may be interested. The game was actually developed by a small German team, Shin’en. You may know them from Fun! Fun! Minigolf (WiiWare) or the Nanostray series (DS). There are a few people out there who say: “Yeah, Shin’en is awesome regarding graphics, but the gameplay is often more or less average.” Now, I don’t want to agree or disagree with this statement regarding the old games of them – but I can say that Art of Balance is a very good game regarding both, graphics and gameplay.
But what is Art of Balance about? The idea behind the gameplay is not quite uncommon and very simple. You have to pile up different kinds of blocks. Your goal is to use all blocks in each level. If you don’t use your brain for that, at least one of the blocks will drop into the water. Just watch the following trailer to understand it completely:
There are 100 levels in total and the game is definitely challenging. There is also a coop and a versus mode for two players. Both are fun but when you know the solution for every level it gets a little bit boring. But you can’t complain about that since the price-performance ratio is pretty good in my opinion. What about the graphics? I mean, do I really have to say something about them? If you watch the trailer, you know the answer. My only real complain about the game is the sound which lacks a bit of variety.
Conclusion: When you like physic-based gameplay you can’t do something wrong with buying Art of Balance. Shin’en managed to develop a game with high values in nearly every department. The game is available on the Wii Shop Channel for 800 Wii Points in Europe and NA.
A few hours ago a new game began to see the light of the world – Frustrating Air Hockey by Kenny’s Apps LLC. The game itself is pretty simple. When you start it, you can start a game or click on a button to get to the options. The latter menu looks like a mix between Frustrating Air Hockey and Number Guesser Deluxe. There are three AI types:
Frustrating: Kenny thinks that this AI is impossible to beat. So far, I can’t proof the opposite.
Random: My most favorite option since it’s a challenge but not impossible.
Cheating: Hey, the opponent breaks the rules!
Additionally there are two control options. You can play with a classic air hockey “device” which you move with your finger in any direction – or with a Pong-like dash which you can move by one of your fingers or tilt controls. Last but not least you can change the look of the game just like in Number Guesser.
I already had a lot of fun with the game and since it’s free you can’t make any mistake by downloading it. It’s really cool that you can play it like classic air hockey or like Pong. Though, there is still room for improvement. It’s cool that you can change the look of the game, but overall it looks a little bit too colorless. Furthermore a mutliplayer mode would have been awesome. Playing on one device may be a little chaotic, but playing on two devices (via WLAN or Bluetooth) could be amazing. However, I can imagine that this is really hard to implement.
The game is available on the app store for iPhone and iPod Touch. Check it our here.
A while ago Spencer commented on my first “Tools & Technology” post about Dropbox. He recommended a software named Syncables 360. Since the software isn’t free (though, $29,99 isn’t really expensive) and I currently do not have a real use for it, I have not tried it, yet. But the software looks really cool and it might be helpful for you. So, if you are interested, just watch the official videotour below:
I got Endless Ocean: Blue World (in Germany: “Endless Ocean 2: Der Ruf des Meeres”) as a birthday present yesertday. So far, the game is pretty nice. Find below some screenshots I took in the game:
A few days ago Silent Hill: Shattered Memories has been released in Europe for Wii, PS2 and PSP. I have always been interested in the game, hoped to get in 2009. Unfortunately Konami postponed the European release until the end of Februrary 2010. There were several dates and I saw completely no advertising, so I was a little bit surprised to get a message from Amazon that they sent out my copy last week. I basically expected a rock-solid horror game. A few days later I saw the credits. And what I got was far more than just a “rock-solid horror game”. Now, I will tell you more in my review.
In Silent Hill: Shattered Memories the player takes over the control of Harry Mason, a more or less famous author. His little daughter Cheryl is missing after a car crash. And from now on, his only task is to find her. Unfortunately, Silent Hill is covered by a lot of snow from a blizzard. This is also why the small city seems to be empty. There are no people on the streets and nearly all buildings are closed. Additionaly, it is night when Harry starts his search after Cheryl. So his flashlight is a very important utensil. You will recognize the great graphics of the game in the first minutes. Everything is throwing shadows when you point on it with your flashlight. And nearly all textures are sharp. You can read every poster in the whole city. For a Wii game, this is pretty impressive!
However, let’s come back to Harry Mason who is looking for his daughter in Silent Hill. Most of the time you will just walk around in different areas or buildings. Sometimes you will have to solve some puzzles. They are easy, but the idea behind them is often pretty nice. Especially for that parts of the game, your mobile phone is very important. With that, you can call dozens of numbers which you can find for example on posters all over in Silent Hill (I recommend the 220-8330). You can also receive text and speech messages. Those messages will tell you more about the city itself, about the different places in the city or about different persons. Some will even help you to solve puzzles. You’ll read and hear a lot of those messages and normally you will think: “Uh, okay, but what is the context? What has it do do with me and with my daughter?”. But you will always have a myterious feeling that it actually has to do something with you and your daughter. And this is another strong part of the total experience. Maybe it is even the strongest. The story is thrilling and unpredictable. To put it in a nutshell, the story of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is one of the most amazing stories I have ever seen. And this not only in games. I’m also talking of movies and books. I would love to share my thoughts about it but it would not be possible without revealing very important things of the story. So… find it out on yourself!
Another great part of the game is the psychological profile. Several times in the game you will find yourself in the office of a psychologist. He will ask you different questions about alcohol, sex or family (e.g. “Does alcohol help you to relax?”). There are also a few tasks. Additionaly the game will monitor yourself while walking around in Silent Hill. Do you love to have an eye on bottles full with whiskey etc.? Are you often looking at posters with more or less revealing girls on them? How do you interact with the world, with other characters? Based on that information the game will generate a psychological profile of you and in consequence the different characters in the game will show a different behaviour. They will also look different. And the most important thing: There are several endings!
Unfortunately the game is only about six hours long. But as I said: There are several endings and the character’s behaviour and look will probably be different in a second run. So that’s not a huge minus. A bigger problem is that not everybody will like the game. Why? There is completely no danger for the player during the exploration parts. There are no monsters. Some will find this boring. For myself I can say: I like it. I can take all the time I want to explore the surroundings, to solve puzzles. In those parts the horror is more “psychological”. Many players will ask about the “why”. And sometimes: When will the world transform again? At certain points in the game the world transforms and becomes icy. And there are monsters during those parts of the game. However, you cannot fight them. Your only goal is to find the exit of the “ice world”. This is far more easy to say than to do because you have very often more than one door to go through. And the monsters will hunt you. So without a strategic approach the player will be dead pretty soon. And this might be frustrating for some people.
Last but not least to the Wii controls. The most important thing: You control the flashlight with the Wiimote which is damn cool, especially if it looks that great. But there are many other scenes where the game takes a great advantage of the abilities of the Wiimote. Those controls add pretty much to the whole atmosphere. Good job, Climax.
Conclusion: Due to some bold decisions of the developer (no enemys during exploration, no fighting) not everybody will like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. But that doesn’t make the game worse in any way. The graphics are very good and the same could be said about the sound. Additionally to that there are great controls and a fantatsic designed city named Silent Hill. Last but not least there is the psychological profile that takes massive influence on the game itself and the ending and a Oscar-worthy story. All what I can say is: Give it a try and play through it multiple times.
################################################################# Information: I wrote also a German review which you can find it here.
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I don’t watch winter sports usually. But currently, I really enjoy the Olympic Games in Vancouver. My most favourite sport? Curling! Unfortunately the sport is very unpopular here in Germany. Our team isn’t a “real” national team, it’s just one team from “Füssen”, a town in the south of Germany. And at least on Wii, there isn’t any Curling game. That’s the reason for this new category: game concepts. Now, I want to show you my concept for a curling game. I think that the game would be best on Wii (as WiiWare with WM+) or iPhone / iPod Touch.
I think the most important part of a curling game is the kickoff. On Wii, you point on the part of the stone you want to hit. Additionaly you set the spin of the stone by twisting the Wiimote. To make the game not too frustrating for beginners I would show the stones’s approximate direction by a line. You save those settings by pushing the “A” button. In a second step you swing the Wiimote to determine the speed.
On iPhone / iPod Touch I would let the player draw in the direction the stone has to take. In a second step the player would have to push a button to determine speed. There is a range besides the button like you see above. In this range the speed will go up and down, so you have to hit the button at the right moment.
Last but not least there is also the part of the sweepers. On iPhone / iPod Touch you could do this with a finger, on Wii by shaking the Wiimote. When you play in singleplayer mode you have to take over both tasks. However, of course you could play this game with up to four persons per team in multiplayer (maybe with online tournaments?).
Then you may also like DOTNUKE - the latest game from Kenny. It’s not a classic game, it’s an “art game”. I don’t know what I could write about it. You may or may not like art games, but art is general something that everbody has to expierence for oneself. If you need some additional information about the game, check out what Kenny has to say in the following video:
Today I want to start a new series of posts called Tools & Technology. To be honest, I don’t know what I’m going to discuss in the upcoming posts of the series, but now I want to share my opinion about Dropbox.
A colleague recommended Dropbox to menearly one year ago and since then I couldn’t live without it. Let’s say you start to work on your laptop on some kind of a paper. When you’re at home, you want to continue the work on this paper on your personal computer. Now you have to start the laptop, send the paper via mail to your computer or transfer it on a USB stick. This takes a lot of time and is pretty incommodious. But problems like this belong to the past with Dropbox!
Basicly the software is a folder on your computer. Every file you place in this folder will be uploaded on a server. So when you install Dropbox on two computers the two folders will always be synchronised. The great thing: You can also access your files on the offical website! So you don’t have to transfer the files between different systems manually – and they are all backed-up.
Another huge advantage: You can share different folders with friends! When I work with a friend on something, we can just share a folder. So I can access his work, and he can access my work – and even when my or his system gets broken, the files are secure.
Dropbox is available for free with a 2GB data limit on Windows, Mac and iPhone. Get it now.
All players of Zombie Puncher may already have found it out: I’m a playable character ;-) You have to punch 70 Zombies to unlock my avatar which is quite easy! Several months ago, Kenny told me about the game and asked me if I could send him a picture for the game. And I thought: Why not?! And I’m glad I did it. There is nothing better than to be part of a great game ;-)
However, I always discuss with Kenny about his games – and he thinks that I would be a good game designer! Now, it’s a real honour to be encourage to such things, especially when it comes from a person who works in the industry. During the last ten years, I have played a lot of games. Fantastic ones like Perfect Dark and incredibly bad ones like Alone in the Dark (Wii). And especially since the point where I started to write for some websites I not only play games, I also think about them. I ask myself the questions: What differs this game from others? What is good / bad about the game? What would I do in a possible successor?
I wonder if ‘normal’ gamers think similar about games. Or do they just play them to have fun and that’s it?
However, it would be fantastic to work together with Kenny on a game – and hopefully the result would be amazing, too ;-)
When a multiplattform game is coming to Wii the developer / publisher mostly chooses one of this two possibilites:
If there is no PS2/PSP version the Wii will get a downgrade from the PS360 version.
If there is a PS2/PSP version the Wii version will be ported from that.
From a Wii gamer’s point of view both possibilties are… eh… disappointing. Independent from the developer’s / publisher’s choice, in most cases the game won’t use the Wii’s capabilities. So, how to do it right? Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is the correct answer:
Obviously, Nintendo’s Wii was the lead plattform during the development and the Sony consoles got a downgrade. Watching the video I can see the following differences:
Bolder colors in the Wii version.
There are more polygons on Nintendo’s flagship.
On Wii, the effects can take more computing power.
The drawing distance is much better on Wii.
You can recognize the similar differences when comparing the PS2 and the GameCube / Wii version of Resident Evil 4. Anyway, the game still looks good on PS2 and if we’re honest, the worse graphics don’t have a big influence on the fun while playing. But is there anything nicer than controlling a flashlight through the Wiimote? ;-)
Zombie Puncher, available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch, got an update – and I think it is great. Take a look at the followng list of the new features according to the official description:
2 New Zombies
3 New Unlockable Survivors
Highest Round Survived is now displayed
Updated menu graphics
Performance updates
I already spent some time with Zombie Puncher 1.1 and I’m again very addicted to the game. I like especially the two news Zombies because they add some more variety to the gameplay. You want to know more about Zombie Puncher? Then read my review or go straight to the App Store and download it (>> click <<).
What are your games of the year 2009? Here are mine for Wii / WiiWare and DS.
.:: Best Wii Games ::.
1) Little King’s Story
2) New Super Mario Bros. Wii
3) Mini Ninjas
4) Cursed Mountain
5) Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles Others: House of the Dead: Overkill, DeaD Space: Extraction, Wii Sports Resort, MadWorld, DJ Hero, Grand Slam Tennis
.:: Best DS Games ::.
1) Mario & Luigi: Abenteuer Bowser
2) GTA Chinatown Wars
Note: I only bought this two DS titles this year.
.:: Best WiiWare Games ::. 1) Lost Winds: Winter of the Melodias
2) Driift Mania
3) NyxQuest: Kindered Spirirts
4) Bonsai Barber
5) Fun! Fun! Minigolf Others: Bit.Trip Beat, Swords & Soldiers, LIT, TV Show King 2
I’ve no list for iPhone / iPod Touch but here some recommendations: All three games from Kenny are awesome, especially “Zombie Puncher”. In terms of paid apps I think “FlightControl” and “Spikey” are amazing.
I told you in my last post that I love numbers and statistics. And that’s why I’m always looking forward to the next sales figures. Currently, I really can’t wait for the NPD figures for December. I think some of those numbers will be really impressive! Yesterday I saw some other impressive numbers on Kotaku. But those numbers make me sad. Take a look at the following:
Modern Warfare 2 on PC, for example, may have disappointed at the register, but according to TorrentFreak’s figures it’s been downloaded 4.1 million times.
Now, that’s not to say there are 4.1 million illegal copies out there. There’s bound to be duplicates and errors in the tracking. Nor is it suggesting that Activision have somehow missed out on 4.1 million sales of the game, because as common sense dictates, a copy pirated does not equate to a lost sale. [...]“
You see… there are even on consoles a lot of pirates. Whenever you’re discussing with them this topic you hear the same arguments:
DRM: Yeah, DRM sucks. For me as a real customer it’s just annoying. And for pirates it’s something annoying, too. But normally it’s no big issue to “avoid” it. So publishers, DRM is just a waste of time and money, stop it. But the DRM argument is only valid for PC games.
Price: The prices of video games are pretty high. But the price tag of a single game isn’t high forever. Personally, I’ld love to play CoD: Modern Warfare 2 – but only in the campaign mode. That mode is pretty short and for me not worth its price of – let’s say – 60€/$. That’s no problem since the game will be cheaper in a couple of weeks. But take a look at the Wii list. Most Wii games are 10-20€ cheaper than PC/360 games and pirates seem still to feel like a New Super Mario Bros. Wii isn’t worth Nintendo’s asked price.
Quality: “I don’t know if the game is any good…” This argument was maybe valid some years ago, but not today. There are tons of gaming websites and magazines with reviews. There are tons of gaming communities with a lot of user impressions. And don’t forget the demo versions of many games. And in some (videogame-only) stores you can even play a game before you buy it. Or you could still rent it.
But pirates don’t use those points as arguments, they use it as excuses. Let’s take a look at the PC version of World of Goo. The game had no DRM. There were a lot of great reviews. And there was a demo. What do you think was the piracy rate? 82% is the right answer.
When I take a look back to the gaming news of this year I see a lot of “Developer X laid off Y people”-like news. And then I’m asking myself if pirates have enough efficient brain cells to know that games don’t grow on trees.
Nintendo released an update for the Nintendo Channel here in Europe a few days ago. Now, you’re able to take a look at your playtime per game. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I love numbers and statistics. That’s why I created the following data table:
Note #1: I’m not the only person which plays with this Wii system. My younger brother spent a lot of time with the games above, too. Additionally there are other family members and friends ;-) Note #2: The table shows only games. According to the Nintendo Channel I used the Internet Channel about 40 hours…
What do you think about this data? I’ld say:
The Wii needs more high quality 3rd person action games (and not so much rail-shooters…).
NoE should better release Excitebots over here!
Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Zelda Wii can’t come soon enough.
The playtime of Mario Kart Wii and Mario Strikers Charged Football got a major boost from the online ability of the games. More games like this two need a great online mode.
Metroid Prime 3 is a hell of a game. Where is the next game by Retro?
Guitar Hero III was a great game, but I don’t want to play Guitar Hero anymore. Activision milked the cow far too hard. I’m now in a personal music game cirsis.
I played Link’s Crossbow Training nearly 36 hours? Uhh… should I go to a doctor?!
How does your Top 10 look like? How long is your average session per game?
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