Jake and Mike Videogame Show

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In a world, forgotten by man kind… 2 men are bold enough to leave the dark subterranean world that man has been stricken to, and brave the harsh forces of mother nature to bring you a podcast of which mankind has never seen!!

A podcast featuring Skate 3 talk…A podcast featuring Lost Planet 2 talk…A podcast featuring Rocket Knight talk!!!

BOLDNESS! ACTION! BEING HANDSOME! ADVENTUROUS THINGS! SUN BLEACHED SURVIVAL! ALL SORTS OF MORE DIFFERENT ACTION!

Will these two brave men succeed on their dangerous journey, or will they just be one of many names on a list of failed heroes? FIND OUT NEXT, ON THE JAKE AND MIKE VGS PODCAST EPISODE 30!!!!

-(MS)Mike out.

A few years ago EA was looked at the same way that a lot of us view Activision these days. A giant heartless corporation. A company that just shills out the same trash over and over. Development that doesn’t seem like its aimed to really show true quality in anything but a small handful of AAA titles.

Back in 2007, though, EA and its heads put themselves at the mercy of the public and pleaded for a second chance. They begged for the permission to re-invent themselves as something other then just another giant Activision, and improve the quality, mindset and development of their approach on the video game community.

Now here we are three years later and EA is definitely a completely different company than they were back when they asked for our approval. Is that for the better or the worse though, because it appears from where I’m standing, that they have made one hell of a turn around in my eyes.

Back in the day EA seemed content with putting their name on anything and everything. They had turned into a sequel assembly line that seemed over saturated with sports game after sports game. A parade of garbage based on licensed movies and childrens shows. A few long lasting series had been run into the ground, no longer holding the clout they used to.

Fast forward to the EA od 2009/2010 and you’d never know they were even the same people. They have a strong line up of new IP’s and well received sequels. They’ve distanced themselves from the type of garbage licensed things they put out in the past, instead focusing more on a few small and well known licenses.

Most importantly, they’ve dropped the assembly line style development style and surrounded themselves with quality game makers like Bioware, Criterion, Dice, and Visceral. Those three devs alone could speak miles about the types of games EA is putting out, but also give you a good example of how the companies take on DLC has made one of the biggest changes.

2 years ago when Mass Effect and Bad Company came out, EA was the a giant culprit of some of the worst DLC practices in the industry, but now they have created standards and practices that create games like Rock Band 2 and Burnout Paradise that have some of the most exceptional DLC in the industry.

I’m not really sure where I was going with this, but it’s just nice to see a huge video game giant like EA ask everyone if they can have a second chance to make themselves the type of company that doesn’t always seem like theyre up to something, or bleeding you dry. To be less like Activision, and be more like Valve, and if you ask me, they have succeeded and alot of the video game world could learn alot from the moves and changed EA has held themselves to over the last 3 years.

-(MS)Mike out.

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.

(Having trouble reading this? Click for a larger version)

So, anyone whose been listening to the podcasts knows that Jake and I have done very little to hide our undying and and unyielding affection for Battlefield 1943 and Fat Princess, and anyone else whose played them might notice those two games have something in common, or should I say… HAD something in common.

Nope, not that obvious downloable thing they’ve both got going on.

It’s the fact that both of them launched broken and, for some people, totally unplayable. Luckily the games also share another, less pessimistic, quality with each other… The fact that they were both fixed to the point of running near perfectly within a matter of days.

That is something I would oh-so-love to see more in developers these days. Big and Small. Retail or download only. It has become “Okay” to release your game with flaws or problems in our day and age because we have the networking ability to mess around with the game and then fix them for everyone later, but that is, arguably, also one of our generation of gaming’s biggest flaws, because it has lead to so many more mistakes in the releases of games and sometimes weeks or months at a time having to be drudged through until they fix them.

So mark this down on respective list’s of things that, at least two devs out there, are doing right and another two things on the list of things that every other dev out there needs to get their shit together on.

If you’re going to do things incorrectly, then at least do them incorrectly, correctly.

-(MS)Mike out.

So what the hell happened to licensed games? As I showed you in the last post, they weren’t always bad, they actually used to be REALLY good. Then again, to show you that contrast and really paint how good we used to have it, I have to show you how bad it has gotten (At least bad enough for this to be relevant).

Since I used Disney as a great example of very good Licensed games of days gone bye, I think there’s really one obvious stand out to what’s completely wrong with the sub-genre these days: Super Hero games. Very few Sub-genres have released so many modern generation train wrecks as the Super hero game and if you stick with me here, I’ll give you some examples: (continue reading…)

Anyone that knows me personally, can probably think of about one-hundred different directions a title like that could lead my post, but this is actually going to be giving a little Jake and Mike VGS game impression. Now I could talk for days about how a good majority of some of my favorites games are most likely one’s you have never heard of, and I wouldn’t hold that against you, because I’m just that type of gamer. Although I would hold it against you if you, having read my words of wisdom, continued to go on not playing a game you hadn’t heard of, after I schooled you on its existence.

In this case I’m talking about a new game called Henry Hatsworth in The puzzling adventure, a new DS game game from a team over at EA tiburon lead by the co-creator of World of Goo. The fact that someone involved in world of goo’s creation alone should be worth you hanging on my every word about this game, but in case it isn’t, let me paint you the picture this awesome game has left in my brain. (continue reading…)