Hey all. Hope everyone that celebrated one enjoyed their holiday yesterday. Just a quick note first-due to the continued lull of news from the gaming industry (Commonly referred to as PrE3 in years past), the Button Mashers blog will shift from tri-weekly to bi-weekly for the foreseeable future. We'll return to tri-weekly when things heat up again. For now, back to our collection of random thoughts.
First off, many of you should know about Jack Thompson's recent legal 'setback' with the 27 out of 31 counts. The truth of the matter is, nothing short of out and out incarceration will ever REALLY stop Thompson. He's too stubborn and resourceful, even if he is nuttier than an pile of elephant droppings. So they'll take away his Bar License, he'll find other ways to file his claims. And the other point that I'm always reminded of is this; there were always those of us who feared removing him from his post of 'official gaming nutjob' would mean the institution of someone who was actually competent enough to get something done. "Devil you know" and all that jazz.
Some have stated that Rock Band 2 will have an advantage over Guitar Hero 4 and Konami's offering. I'm not so sure. Look at it this way; the people who were willing to gamble on Rock Band will have controller compatibility for their next offering (unless for some reason they decide to switch platforms) in addition to having their DLC most likely be safe. But the Guitar Hero loyalists will have to choose between staying with just the guitar or buying ONE of the instrument sets. By then it won't matter as much. Actually, GHIII will have the advantage since it once again means the DLC is more likely to still be available. Thus, when you break it down, all this does is put GH and RB on an even keel. You know about what you're getting in terms of quality of the game, how the instruments play and feel, etc. Konami have the most working against them, but drum purists may lean towards them anyway. They're still going to have the most uphill battle, but I seriously doubt they entered this fray lightly.
Incidentally, this is a cute story about how Rock Band helped save a marriage. I can see why it does just that and the expansion of games to the spouses, parents etc. of gamers is a large part of why the 'casual' market is the big, hot thing.
If the sales trends hold up for this month (and all evidence points to them doing just that) then by the time June rolls around, the Wii will have surpassed the Xbox 360 in US unit sales. When this happens (given the Wii's track record and the fact that Wii Fit just hit shelves, its a question of WHEN, not IF) Nintendo will be the undisputed console sales leader worldwide for this generation in both home console and handheld hardware. That isn't to say that there isn't still quite a console war to go, and that things couldn't change (I fully expect them to), and that even winning one generation's console war guarantees any future success. All it really means is that Microsoft's efforts to rush the 360 out the door, all the design flaws, the launch supply problems, all of if will have been wasted. Even if Microsoft ends up winning this console war, I don't think any of us will ever look at the 360 and not remember the RRoD issues that plagued early sales of the system. That and it shows us that which most of us figured out already: Sony shouldn't have rested on their laurels and just assumed the Playstation Brand and Blu-ray would sell the PS3. They still have a ways to go and losing a few of their exclusives (GTA, Devil May Cry) didn't help them any.
I've always felt that the best way to show you worked hard on a game is through details. Little things, extra touches that showed someone really thought about the game and thought through what it should really be all about. To that end, I have a question. Can anyone name for me a game that was a tremendous title (either in terms of story, gameplay, what have you) but that had bad music? And not just bad, we're talking horrendous music if possible. I'm racking my brains, but I can't think of a game where the review said "Solid classic masterpiece. Would have been rated higher if the music didn't sound like elephants trampling cats." And nothing pre-Playstation era guys; no cheating. We all know "beep boop" was some craptastic music, but it was all we had back then.
I think I'm going to Kojima's signing of copies of MGS4 at midnight launch. Even if I do, there's no way I'll be able to play the game until the next night at the earliest, and going here may make me too tired to even try...who am I kidding, I'd be smart to call in sick to work the rest of that week. It should be a good time, and I'll be taking pictures and HOPEFULLY coming away with an autographed copy of MGS4. Which may or may not promptly go up on ebay with the others.
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