Jake and Mike Videogame Show

Some interesting news from the latest US game sales charts, Bioshock 2 and Dante’s Inferno came out for both the PS3 and 360 and the numbers are in. I bet most of you are saying “Jake, who cares about game sales numbers? I own all the systems and play the games that are best for each platform.” Well you are a great person, I think more people need to be like you and in being more like you they will be more like me, which is fantastic. I know that game sales numbers are really only for fanboys to jerk off too but I think there is some interesting things happening out there in the gaming world and you should be informed. Don’t fall asleep on the job here people.

Alright, anyway, lets start with Bioshock 2, a first person shooter that had it’s predecessor come out exclusively for the 360, then about a year later saw a release on the PS3. I think it’s pretty logical how the sales for this game look, the 360 version has sold more then double the copies of the PS3 version, and why wouldn’t it? It is a game that we loved here in the US (where the 360 has almost double the consoles sold compared to the PS3), it is a first person shooter, and it had a long exclusive run on the 360. Almost all first person shooters do better on the 360, I don’t have the info in front of me but I would be willing to guess that a 360 FPS sells more then it’s PS3 version almost every time. So no big surprise there, but the Dante’s Inferno sales are a little more interesting.

So assuming that there are a little under 2x as many 360s as opposed to PS3s in the US you would think Dante’s Inferno would have a similar ratio of sales, but that is not the case. We have seen a trend recently of games that are not FPS’s selling very comparable on both consoles, not only that but in the case of games that have some sort of exclusive content (Batman Arkum Asylum anyone?) they are selling better on the PS3. Dante’s Inferno has some sort of exclusive content on the PS3, I don’t know what it is because I don’t really care about the game, but I can assure you there is something. I’m guessing a scythe, no that’s too easy… a big claw weapon. I bet people are clamoring over this big claw weapon as we speak, “Oh what do you think of the big claw?” they will say, “I got the 360 version, I didn’t get the big claw” their friend will reply, then everyone will laugh at them. Kids can be cruel. So back to the numbers, Dante’s Inferno is selling better on the PS3. That’s right, BETTER. Now I need to point out that I don’t really care which version sells better, I don’t own any stock in either company, but I think Sony is starting to compete with the 360 due to its price drop and exclusive content and that is something gamers need to realize. The PS3 is selling video games now, and some of them are better.

How long will this trend last? Is Sony finally taking some business from Microsoft? What’s up with the stuff? These are all great questions that I can’t answer but I hope I have given you something to think about and for you 360 fanboys, maybe it is time to buy a PS3. Oh, and for you PS3 fanboys, calm down.

jake

ps – haters wanna hate, get your shine on, I’m Gutta Gutta. Good night.

We just got done watching this new Mass Effect 2 video and wanted to share it with you all.

Love

jake and mike

Hooray for Taiwanese website leaks.

-(MS)Mike out.

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Here is the second part! Uhmm……What else is there to really say?

……….Jake digs blondes and I like Mexican chicks. Not everything has to be about Video Games.

-(MS)Mike out.

I got my 360 back today, and it is still Canadian.

That had me worried sick, I’m glad I had nothing to be afraid of.

-(MS)Mike out.

Normally, I try and update each weekday, but I’m a bit on games overload right now, so I’m having a tough time narrowing down one thing to talk about. I actually had to sit down with Jake, and we essentially had to make a diagram and timeline about when and how and what order we’ll need to play the games that are coming in the next 3 weeks because it’s soooooo freakin jam packed with goodness.

Hell, I’m actually PURCHASING 3 games within the next two days, on top of the 3 games I’m gameflying. So that’s the type of shit I’m talking about right now.

JAM PACKED!!!!!!

But yeah, I have no way to narrow down my thought process right now, so you can suck it.

I mean…Suck it, Friends <3

-(MS)Mike out.

Does that mean I also shouldn’t play any wii games, since they’re all so uniformly white?? No…you should not play any Wii games, because their aren’t any decent one’s coming out this month! BUT, don’t let that deter you, because black never goes out of style (in the metaphor, black will mean the ps3 and Elite 360) and there is plenty of stuff coming out in the near future for those two glorious beast’s. We’re knocking on the door of the big end of the year releases, and we’ve got some nice pre-meal appetizers to cleanse your pallet before you start (I guess is a food metaphor now too?)

I would say that this month, the big boys are gonna be Ultimate Alliance 2, Wet, Halo: ODST, GH5 and Beatles Rock band going head-to-head, and the new Need for Speed rounding things out for good measure. NOW, this isn’t to say that their aren’t some other titles out there that are at least medium profile things, but I think those are gonna be the ones to be watching out for. Soooooo, you’re gonna be wanting to expect quite a bit of news from us about the games were playing and the podcast being a bit more chunky over the coming week’s since we’ll be paying so much more!

Also, It’s important that all of you remember how addicted to drugs the two makers of The Cast that Never Was Kingdom hearts podcast are. Like, Its’ getting pretty bad that they’d rather sell their tv for a new fix, then to sit down and record another one of their quality podcasts. Its sad is what it is.

-(MS)Mike out.

So the final character in Ultimate Alliance 2 is supposed to be revealing today, but according to the buzz and rumor’s floating around the net, and the fact that this buzz was created by the same people that pointed towards who would be revealed for the wii version, it appears as if the announcement is going to be lame.

Jake and I have been pontificating back and forth like crazy trying to come up with a character that is the right fit, had to do with civil war, and worth bringing up very last like two maniacs, and then they have to go and ruin all of that fun and speculation by making it freakin’ Iceman?

Ugh, boring much?

Oh well, it still isn’t official and I’d really like to see that small glimmer of hope that somehow people were right about the wii exclusives, but wrong about the 360/ps3 characters. Fingers crossed!

-(MS)Mike out.

Is pretty kick ass. Figured I would put this up on the site.

Yeah, you are welcome.

-jake

I sent back Phantom Brave: We Meet Again and Real Heroes: Firefighter yesterday. I was not hooked by Phantom Brave for the few hours I played it and I didn’t even put Real Heroes into my Wii. I used to feel bad about doing this and by this I mean not giving games a fair chance. This has been something I used to think was pretty important, giving every game a fair shot and a good amount of time to really see if it is something I enjoy. I don’t really think that anymore. If a game can’t hook me in the first 3 hours or so I don’t want to keep playing. I don’t see a reason anymore, every week there is the next “big” game that comes out, not that Phantom Brave or Real Heroes were considered “big” games, but I think you get the point. There are so many games that come out now that I don’t really care if a mediocre game slips through the cracks. If a game does not hook me, forget it.

So I won’t have anything more to say about Real Heroes or Phantom Brave then what I said on the podcast this week. I just started playing a little Wolfestein… we will see how that works out. I will talk about it on the next podcast.

-jake

Now I downloaded the demo for Shadow Complex, obviously, because the buzz on the game was insane.

I wasn’t really blown away, and although it seemed decent, it wasn’t really as great as the buzz had led me to believe it may be. Some less then stellar control issues and an overly basic feel kept me from feeling as amazed as the greater video game media seems to be. It’s a shame this game didn’t come out a month ago, when nothing else was out, BUT that isn’t what this post is about.

The production values that Shadow Complex has brought to the table for a downloadable game are near unprecedented. I am flat-out astonished with them. The cut scenes, level of detail, voice work, story fleshing and narrative are all completely above the level I’ve ever seen in a game on PSN or XBLA. It’s almost hard to believe you’re even playing an XBLA title when the gameplay cuts away and the story related stuff kicks in.

I never really thought about it this way, even though I’m always bringing up the greater significance of DLC titles these days, but If you saw more dev’s taking the initiative like this in their downloadable titles, not so much a gameplay thing but a level of polish like this, something truly amazing could be ushered into the gaming world and really rock the boat, in a good way.

I would just like to see this become a trend in titles that come from the downloadable realm of gaming and see the envelope truly pushed into the atmosphere of what can be done with the narrative and cinematic viewing of a downloadable game when the right hands are involved, because to me, that is what truly sets Shadow Complex apart from the crowd.

-(MS)Mike out.

So the thing is, I planned on writing about Microsoft’s Gamescom keynote today since I had talked about Sony’s yesterday, but when it was all done and stuff, like…what is there to really say?

Yeah, They announced Fable III, because that really needed to be announced.  I for one, had no idea they planned on continuing the franchise, so thank god they let me know otherwise. Really though, Fable has reached that pinnacle in games where you know the game is going to get sequels, so why announce just that? In the same way that I wouldn’t be wowed by the announcement of a new Halo or Grand Theft Auto, I think that when you announce a Sequel like Fable, you need to provide us with a little more than the fact that you kind of know what you’re doing with the next one and that it is indeed going to be released sometime in the future. For games on that scale, you need videos or screenshots, straight up.

On the positive side though, Although the Fable 2 episodic re-release didn’t thrill me at all, I thoroughly enjoy the way Microsoft is executing it. You take a game that has fan appeal, still has some selling power, and can easily be broken down in to pieces and let people download it. That part of it is all obvious, but the thing I really liked was that Microsoft plans on releasing the first episode for free.

I’m a firm believer that, in its fledgling days, getting people to buy full digital-download versions of normally retail only games is gonna a take a bit of convincing. You’re gonna need to show someone why its better or easier or whatever, compared to going and buying a copy at Best Buy or a used copy at Gamestop. One of the best ways these companies are going to be able to do this, is by providing free stuff that someone would actually want to download. Hook them with the free content, show them what they’re missing, and then give them a catalog of things they can compare to what they just got and you’ll land that audience pretty easily.

On an unrelated subject, Microsoft has done a good job of having some type of Marketing countermeasure to throw in Sony’s face every time they attempt to do something new, so I was a bit surprised to see them empty handed with some quick response to remind people they want a 360 more than a ps3, regardless of it’s competitive new price. Just an interesting thing I thought I’d see and didn’t.

And one last thing before I go, I’m pretty surprised to see that Microsoft wasn’t trying to whore out that new Call of Duty a bit more. They like to jump onto multiplatform titles and really make them their own, and I would have expected more of that from them with this titles so far.

Anyways, not a TON of real information came out of the keynote, but a few bits of interest and we’ll see where they go from here.

-(MS)Mike out.

Ever since Capcom first showed the original gameplay video for Lost Planet two and its full 4-player co-op campaign, people have been asking them if its going to be multiplatform. Why have they been asking this? Well, because 2 years ago Capcom announced to the world that they would no longer be releasing any platform specific titles and preceded to release Lost Planet on the ps3 and Devil May Cry 4 on the 360, all of which seemed to back up their earlier claim, but then they released the first video for Lost Planet 2 exclusively through xboxlive, had only the Microsoft and xbox live related logo’s on all press material, and had a noticeable lapse of information regarding any details about its ps3 release.

So, all of this was about 4 video game trade shows ago, and Capcom has STILL avoided revealing any more information about the multiplatform release future of this game, even managing to avoid showing up at E3, allowing them to claim ignorance about how much they really knew about the video game, and NOW the 360 is getting the co-op demo soon and we are continuing the Xbox-centric information trend.

Bravo Capcom, Bravo! (If this was real life, I would have said that slowly and with a hint of braggart, while I slowly turned in my large velvet chair to face Capcom, slowly stroking my white, long-haired cat). I see one of three things happening at this point:

• 1) The game is a timed exclusive  and comes out for the 360 like 4 or 5 months ahead of the ps3 release. So they get it enough ahead of time to make a deal, but much shorter a turn around time than your normal timed exclusive so that Capcom can claim that they haven’t broken their original promise.
• 2) Capcom continues to not answer anyone’s question until about a week before the game comes out, if even that, and we find out that Capcom had some type of advertising deal made with Microsoft so that all Lost Planet 2 press was made using the 360 as it’s outspoken platform. Both platforms receive the game and all the unanswered questions suddenly make sense.
• 3)Capcom straight goes back on what they said, and we don’t see ANY type of Lost Planet release on the ps3 until a good year or more from now and they claim that since the game eventually came out, that it was never considered an “Exclusive” and there is a bit of controversy which eventually blows over like most Capcom stuff. Or we see no release at all.

So that is about all I have to say. I’m prolly more irritated about the situation because I have had a bit of a falling out with the way Capcom has treated it’s audience as of late, but I still feel like the lack of any type of clarification, hell, not even a denial to clarify, is an obvious insult to the people asking the questions. I don’t like when game companies act oblivious to the obvious, and ignore the questions everyone’s asking.

It wouldn’t hurt to pull a Nintendo and, although we’ve been largely ignored so far, to finally address concerns, and at least let us know you’re listening, whether we get a real answer or not.

-(MS)Mike out.

Every time Jake and I get into a discussion about games eventually being more downloaded and less bought at a store, at some point in time, I usually bring up the fact that the games should probably cost less but that I’m afraid they won’t. There is a reason why PC games cost 10 bucks cheaper for the exact same game then its console counter part. Theres a reason that 5-20$ is the sweet spot for downloadable titles.

Alot of people just think its because the games are from smaller studios or because that’s just how a dlc title works, but also, a large factor is because they don’t need to spend a ton of money on printing disc’s, paying to get box art done, paying to print manuals and manufacture or purchase cases and all that junk, so they can afford to give you a game for cheaper and still see a return.

Now you could use some of the few full retail games that Sony has released on PSN and attempt to say that, since the games were fully downlodable, that they were indeed cheaper, but I’m not quite sure if that can be 100% yet, because as of today, all the full retail games released on PSN have been online only games that normally have a smaller price tag to begin with, so that skews things a big. Not to mention that they both came with headsets in retail and but didn’t in the download only versions, which also throws off our ability to see if there was a standard as far as the games being cheaper. Then was the digital only release of the PSP exclusive Tekken, which released lower then some PSP titles, but higher than others, so again, no solid comparison in price can be made. Unfortunately, it seems like those are the only examples that I know of as far as any of the consoles offering up a full retail title in a new school way that had any type of price variance you could use to see where their head is at.

Sadly, as much as we all know that cost’s would be down with a digital release, I can’t really picture the titles costing one price digital and another retail. Knowing Microsoft, who I assume will be the first to make a major digital push for their normally retail only games (Aside from Sony testing the waters with the pspGO), I doubt you’ll see any price drop between the two. More likely we’ll either see something similar to Sony so far, where the price is less digital, and more retail, but the retail version comes with something extra, or  we’ll see a bigger push from them next generation rather than this one, and they’ll keep the 59.99 price tag for digital stuff and well see an increase in the price for retail purchases.

Either way, this is really all just musings and hearsay, but it will be interested to see how this road winds up and how successful each of the big three are with their respective takes on the idea of pricing for legitimate game releases in a digital environment.

-(MS)Mike out.

So here’s the thing, Yesterday Jake and I were talking about how uninterested we were in dressing up our avatars on the 360. We mentioned that, since they FORCE you to make one, we at least tried to make ours resemble us to the best of our ability, but without really sitting there and doing enough work to take pride in it. I also mentioned that it is ridiculous that Microsoft and Sony both think that people are honestly going to pay money for stupid little items or brand new clothes just to make the avatar look that much more like them, or a little bit cooler.

Now here is a direct Quote I used yesterday when talking about the subject, “It’s pretty ridiculous that people are gonna actually buy this shit, especially for like 4 bucks. It would have to be something decently cool for me to download it for free, but it would have to be amazing for me to spend any money on it, but for 5 bucks, I cant picture me spending more then 1, MAYBE 2 dollars tops on anything, and it would have to be something amazing…Like a Lightsaber or a Spider-Man mask.”

Well….Here I am, not even 24 hours later, and I have officially spent 6 dollars to buy my avatar a Lightsaber and an Obi-Wan Clone Wars outfit. I couldn’t help myself. At first I pretended like I was thinking about it, weighing it out in my head, considering whether or not it was going to be worth the money but I knew, deep down, it was all forced rationalization. I was just delaying the inevitable, and so about 30 seconds after downloading the new Xbox 360 update, Microsoft already had 6 of my hard earned dollars, and I became a giant tool.

In my defense, I feel like I was hit with a bit of a sucker punch. I mean, come on! They actually had one of the exceptions I mentioned in that quote. And I also doubt I’ll ever need to buy anything else ever again because my Avatar is now a Jedi…But I still cant help but feel dirty. The kind of dirty that no amount of water and Axe body wash could ever remove from me.

-(MS)Mike out.

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Welcome back to turkey town you crazy chickens, We’ve got a heck of a podcast for you this week.

We talk a hell of alot of Battlefield 1943 and our love for going commando. We each bring up a few of the games we managed to play in a month that had no games to play in it and Mike touches on his VERY furst experience with an MMORPG.

Its touching, its thought provoking, its tear jerking, its laugh inducing, its fat burning, its a burst if flavor in each bite! Enjoy!!

Also, watch for Mike and Jake to Name drop CheapyD several times, they’re very tricky like that!

-(MS)Mike out.

A whole lot of gaming stuff in the world these days really seems like it should be judged by some type of standard or something. Back in the day when Nintendo had the Seal of approval, you knew that they meant business but we dont have anything like that anymore….Or do we? What if you could walk into a store and be like, “oh, this doesn’t have the Mike Steele Stamp of approval….I better move along”.

Well you’re in luck.

I have invented the Mike Steele Stamp of Approval screening process so that people can finally use me as the medium for whether or not things are worthy of liking or hating because I’m the only one that matters and you know it. Here’s some of the Stuff that currently has the Mike Steele Stamp Of Approval, and some other things that totally didn’t pass the screening process.

Things that are Mike Approved:

Steam

Starcraft, even after 8 years

Retro Adventure titles making a big comeback

The Nintendo DS

Pokemon videogames

PC gaming, oddly enough

Games with Co-op

The way you buy and download titles on the Wii and PSN

The amount of fighting games that have been coming out recently

Things that failed the quality assurance screenings:

Microsoft points

Microsoft XBLA pricing

Games developers confusing “annoying” with “challenging”

People not wearing a headset in Left 4 Dead

The Nintendo DSi store constantly releasing clocks and calculators

The amount of time I have to wait until I can play Borderlands

LucasArts trying to make new IP’s when they could just bring back Tie-Fighter and we’d all forgive them

-(MS)Mike out

I have an article I am writing on glitching or cheating or whatever you call it that I will have part 1 of up soon. I had to make this post to say that some really good looking games are almost out. Punch Out, Bionic Commando, Infamous, Red Faction, Prototype, Fight Night… the list goes on. This will be a good few months for sure.

I also wanted to say that I saw Star Trek yesterday. I can not explain in words how much I enjoyed that movie. It was amazing. I have never been a huge Star Trek fan, I was always about Star Wars. I can tell you though that this movie was so good that it made me feel bad about not loving Star Trek more. If the Star Wars prequels would have been this good I would have left the theater crying after I watched them. GO SEE STAR TREK!

Jake