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.

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about how the exclusive Joke content in Arkham Asylum actually became the deciding factor in which version of the game sold best and that Sony needed to take this new found decision to remove their heads from their asses and start offering up things that make a Multi-platform title look better on their console and also to make their television commercials less creepy and strange and more accessible, useful and entertaining.

Well, here we are a few weeks later and, I’m a bit surprised to see that Sony actually seems to be continuing this trend. To be honest, when I wrote those words a few weeks ago, I really didn’t believe that many more decisions similar to the Batman thing would be popping up again, especially this soon. I kinda thought it was a well timed fluke that Sony wouldn’t capitalize on.

It’s a good thing for Sony that I was incorrect.

First they offer up the Brutal Legend content for free, compared to a price tag that the 360 offers, commercials convincing you to lean towards the ps3 version of multiplatform games (Assassins Creed 2 and Rock Band), the God of War 3 demo coming bundled in on all the District 9 blu-rays, but I’ve also, oddly enough, found myself entertained by the commercials as of late. Rather then creepy dolls or a white room filled with birds and then the PS3 logo, they’re actually TELLING people what their system has to offer, and making you laugh while they do it. Hell, they’re marketing the games they have to buy in a decent manor as well, which they haven’t done the best job of in the past. I never saw a Motorstorm commercial on TV. I never saw a Resistance commercial on TV, and aside from Infamous, it was always just weird clipshow commercials of a few seconds flashing of random games without them telling you anything of substance. I’ve now seen several separate commercials for Uncharted 2 and a couple for Ratchet and Clank as well. All of these things are something Sony has reeaalllyyy needed to be doing this whole time and I think they’ll actually start seeing a return now that they FINALLY started telling people they have a console worth having, rather than trying to trick people into remembering how much they Liked the playstation 2 and that the 3 can be good as well.

-(MS)Mike out.

Jake and I were checking out the NPD numbers for Batman: Arkham Asylum because we were very curious about how strongly the Exclusive Joker stuff would actually impact the sales. We were also curious about whether or not the price drop would affect the games sales as well.

We were both hypothesizing that, most likely, the two would be near identical in sales, but that the x360 version would prolly be like, 10-20 thousand more. Still a tie in the whole scheme of things, but technically Microsoft would come out on top. So, by those estimations, we would be taking the normal 2/3 victory Microsoft tends to have over Sony with Multi-platform titles, and assigning the exclusive Joker stuff and price drop the role of evening things up, but not winning them anything.

We were close.

What ACTUALLY happened was, The Joker content was alone enough to close that 2/3 victory and tie them up with Microsoft, only beating them by a few thousand, but once that price drop kicked in, they’ve been able to keep that lead over the x360 version and actually build a lead over it week-to-week.

This is all some completely unheard of stuff when it comes to Multi-platform games on the PS3 and x360, and it’s also enough to show you that all someone needs to do is offer a little incentive and it can go a looooong way. There is a reason why Fallout 3 and GTA4 were such a drastic difference, because those little incentives that Microsoft had were the single regulating reason for the huge sales displacements between the two.

So, there you go Sony, you’ve got a hell of a second chance to redeem yourself this generation, just make sure you capitalize off of this, instead of making us all find out your clever Batman decision was all actually just a fluke. Get yourselves into that respectable third place, and we’ll all have a hell of alot more faith in you as time passes.

-(MS)Mike out.

I ask this question because I can’t quite seem to nail down the audience that Sony is expecting to find with the PSPgo.

At first, you would assume that they want to increase the portability of the object, thus it’s slimmed down size, and appeal to people that thought the original was too bulky. Or that it’s appeal should be towards the Hardcore audience because of the ability to download retail games straight to the thing. Possibly that it’s audience is current PSP owners that just want something to upgrade to.

But all of those reasons are immediately trumped by its egregious price tag of 249.99.

Any reason that anyone would want to try out the system from scratch, upgrade from an original psp, or just want a handheld system to begin with can be swiftly overshadowed by a deep down fear of spending 250 hard earned dollars on a trivial piece of technology.

I’m not terribly optimistic about the success of this little PSP “upgrade” they’re offering us, unless they have some crazy audience that will love this thing, that I’m unaware of.

-(MS)Mike out.

Jake’s take on the PSPgo:

I don’t get who this thing is for. Who wants this? No one. No one wants to buy this. If you want to buy this then you are stupid.

Seriously though I don’t see what audience Sony is trying to attract with this “new” PSP. Everyone who honestly wants a PSP owns one. The price tag is so high that they won’t get a ton of people looking to “upgrade” and even if they do want to “upgrade” they will not be able to play the games they already “own”. We will talk about this on the podcast I’m sure. I have no idea who they are trying to market this thing to.

-Jake

-(MS)Mike out.

Anyone whose had an email address within the last 15 years knows what “spam” is, and should most likely be very familiar with it at this point. Inboxs are filled with it’s evil, MSN conversations are interrupted with its filth, my mind will always secretly wonder if there really is someone out there that thinks I need a bigger penis or if its just coincidence.

Well spam reached a new last night and I’d like to transpire that new low to you in text form, but first… A little back story.

So, I had just gotten done played about and hour and a half of Fat Princess and I happened to see that I had a new message. I occasionally get messages and add’s from randoms I play games with or from you guys on the site, so I didn’t really feel like I was going into anything unexpected.

Here is the message exactally as I received it:

“Hey there VANSAVESLIVES ON PLAYSTATION NETWORK,

It was really a fun time I had when I was playing A Fat Princess for the PlayStation Network with you just now. Remember me? Probably not because I was SO FAR DOWN on the leaderboards and you did that much more of a great job. HAHA, good times. Anyways, Did you know you can get….

Never Pay Retail prices for your medications again
Our Online Pharmacy Offers Hundreds Of Meds At Wholesale Prices
Cut Out The Middle Man And Save between 30 and 70% On Your Medshttp://www.hetegir.ctn

Anyways, lets play another A Fat Princess sometime soon. Keep up the hard and good work sir, haha, you know its all in fun.”

Haha It was fun reading that message because, although I should be afraid that there’s a potential for all sorts of spamming to be going on, since its so easy to make accounts on PSN, I’ll save that worry for another day. If all spam was this wonderfully written and entertaining, I’d prolly consider switching to hetegir.ctn for all of my wholesale pharmacy needs.

But yes, this could be our grim future friends, let us laugh long and hard, until it’s late to prevent the Spam Renaissance’s arrival!

-(MS)Mike out.

Seriously, 10? 20? 100?!

I don’t know, but it’s a good thing they did, because they’ll prolly end up with a bunch more copies sold. Seriously, I think it will drastically change the spready between 360 copies sold and ps3 copies sold.

Hopefully, Sony will learn how sweet the taste is that Microsoft has been savoring this whole time, and start getting some damn exclusive content for their games.

-(MS)Mike out.

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.

 Standard Podcast [78:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

That’s right people, it’s that time of the week again! We’ve got a brand new podcast for your ears to hug and kiss and thank you for!

We talk up the xbox live update and the demo’s weve been playing and the like.

We bring up our time spent with Lost Planet 2, Batman: Arham Asylum, Real Heroes: Firefighter, Phantom Brave and plenty of others.

If you like having sex, then you’d prolly like this podcast as well! They’re like the same thing.

Make sure you don’t miss the part where Mike tries to start a war with a kingdom hearts podcast he’s never even heard or knows anything about!

-(MS)Mike out

But if you ARE, then there is a good chance you’ll want to see this trailer.

You’ve gotta give it to Kojima, that dude loves giving people 5 minutes or longer trailers to watch for his games, None of that 47 second long BS you get from Square Enix and the likes.

-(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.

I signed onto my PS3 today to download the new Fat Princess game to find  I had two new friend requests.

Now after quite a bit of pondering, I can only imagine that these people are listeners and Sooooo, I wanted to give a shout out to Groton and LinkMahBoy for taking up my PS3 based olive branch of friendship and HOPEFULLY we get to play us some damn games soon. If either of you picked up Fat princess, I’m all kinds of down!

Again, any listeners to the podcast or patrons to this site can feel free to add Jake or I on xboxlive or PSN, using the following methods of convenience.

PSN: Vansaveslives and Spragels

Xbox Live: VanSavesLives and Spragels

Super easy, right? Right!

-(MS)Mike out.

P.S. You see, I titled this post about shout outs, and I put a caption of a guy shouting….I’m so clever.

 Jake and Mike episode 6: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Everything is extended this week, Even the title of the podcast got an extended version!!!

Its our special extrended E3 show so youve got longer versions of everything you love The intro, the podcast, the title, the coke party! Its all there! and its all Loooooooong.

This week, Jake and Mike talk about InFamous and how much fun they’re having with it and then get down and dirty with all the giant E3 news!

Find out what we saw, what we thought of what we saw, and what we liked that we saw and thought things about!!!

This is a big show people, and it’ll make you bigger if you listen to it! So big, that your new headphones will be like giant versions of the ones you own now, what a ridiculous world we live in right?

-(MS)Mike out.

A note from Jake: Whats up?

Just like yesterday, I wanna run a few bullet points over what I thought of today. Again, well be going over these at more length on the podcast this Friday.

-I really didn’t think any one was going to be able to steal the thunder that Microsoft started with their keynote yesterday and I was half right. I personally think that Sony and Microsoft stole the show from Nintendo pretty hard this year. Any other year it would have been great for them with the type of game announcements they brought, but this year had too steep a competition from Sony and Microsoft.

-I can’t express how damn excited I am that Golden Sun DS is a real thing and not some fevered dream in my head. That just shot to the top of my must have list.

-Sorry Microsoft and Nintendo, but I think Sony may have trumped you guys on the motion control thing. From what I saw, I think it’s easily the most exciting and has the best gaming applications out of the three.

-I’m  not quite sure what the hell Nintendo is thinking with that goofy ass Wii Vitality Sensor, but I feel like that was a pretty poor thing to make such a big deal about during the keynote, especially without many details as to what exactly its really supposed to do for you.

-I was already interested in borderlands (gearbox goes hand in hand with valve so I like them) but the Idea of a loot based co-op first person fallout/diablo style game….I mean, who WOULDN’T be interested in that? All the details surrounding the emphasis on co-op only made me that much more excited!

-Who the hell does bungie think they are, charging full retail for Halo: ODST?! Especially after they made such a big deal about how it wouldn’t cost the same as a full game back when they announced it. Dirty business, my freinds, dirty business.

-(MS)Mike out.

So I recently gamefly’d (I’ve got a trademark on that term by the way so if you use it you owe me a nickel) the PSP game Resistance: Retribution and had a pretty interesting experience with it.

The game itself is a pretty standard 3rd person shooter with a cover mechanic. You move from area to area shooting enemies, taking cover, solving small environmental puzzles and mowing down enemies with AI controlled squads every once in a while. There were a bunch of weapons that all kept up Insomniacs design by having awesome secondary fire modes that were as unique as they were fun. Graphically the game was stunning for a PSP title and really showed that that little machine is capable of. From the lighting to the character models and environments, it was easily on par with graphic intensive PSP titles like Crisis Core and God of War.

So with all that good stuff to say, why would I send the game back after only 3 days and without beating it?  Well, the game suffered from its ambitiousness, sadly. Lemme give you the complaints list… (continue reading…)

I can’t say enough how odd it is to be as excited as I am for all the Sony goodness coming up in the next little while! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it right now, I’m tired of having to justify my PS3 to the point where I refuse to get sucked into conversations about it any more, but if there was ever going to be a time for me to jump back in and take part in the old song and dance, it would be now.

Within a month I’ll be playing inFAMOUS and (hopefully) loving every minute of it. This is a game that I have been wildly interested in ever since I saw the first 40 second trailer back in 2007 and  I have only become more interested in it as the footage and gameplay revelations make themselves known. I won’t go too into it(if you really care just google the name and you’ll see why I cant wait), but the game is essentially a free-roaming super hero game…Oh yeah, it feels good just saying it.

Secondly, we get the Sequel to the best the PS3 has to offer (assuming you aren’t a Metal Gear fan) since it came out, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. Again, I don’t wanna sit here and gush or give you a wikipedia entry about the game, but you owe it to yourself to go check out the few game play video’s that are out for it so far ( they are just gorgeous!) and look forward to a hell of alot more where that came from when the embargo on it is lifted in the near future.

Thirdly, and most surprisingly of all, it looks like those out there with the PS3 that are interested in the new Batman game, Batman: Arkham Asylum are going to get a bit of a surprise when the game drops, because if Home’s billboards can be believed, the PS3 version will feature exclusive challenges that let you play as the Joker. I can’t tell you how refreshing that is to see, in a world where the words “exclusive content” seem to be reserved for the xbox 360 these days.

Anyways, there just seems to be a lot of good reasons to be a PS3 owner in the near future and I am waiting with baited breath to get my hands on this stuff!

-(MS)Mike out.

I remember a world where video games based on movies, even animated children’s movies, were amazing. Game tie-ins to a TV show were a must play. Entertainment related licenses that were turned into games were something to look forward to. Fast forward to today and not a word of what i just wrote has remained even slightly similar to the truth.

So, who do we have to blame for the grim future that became of us? Well, over the next Three parts of this article I’m going to attempt to school you guy’s on the good and bad that’s come from licensed games and see if we cant find out where things went wrong.  Lets start by looking back at some of the great licensed games I’m using as examples and move forward, shall we?

A couple of great examples to start with would be a handfull of Disney games from the 90′s. Now everyone knows that now a day, about the only games that revolve around Disney animated movies that are getting any attention are the Kingdom Hearts games, but things weren’t always that way, so Disney will be the perfect example  for the good lisenced games of the past. (continue reading…)