Episode 332: Blue Light Unspecial

November 20, 2013| Jonah Falcon| 0 Comment| 9:59 pm

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Gaming Podcast is back after a week off, as Jordan talks about playing games on his brand-new PlayStation 4, while Jonah is anxious and worried about the Xbox One launch this week.

There’s also a ton of news this week, including:

Unlucky PlayStation 4 owners face ‘blue light of death’
Report: Apple in “talks” to purchase co-creators of original Kinect tech
Ubisoft explains why launch games underwhelm
Xbox One launch official broadcast available through Spike, GameTrailers
Survey: only 1 percent of gamers want a Wii U this Holiday season
Ken Levine defends BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea Episode 1‘s length
World of Warcraft not going free-to-play, stop asking
More Fallout 4 evidence pops up with trademark registration

And the Question of the Week: “What was the best budget game you ever bought?”

0 thoughts on “Episode 332: Blue Light Unspecial”

Alphashard says:

November 21, 2013 at 9:20 pm

I’m so glad I finished Jade Empire before this episode. I have to say I did see it coming in the cut scene just after you defeat the emperor. He got the gem and was just walking down the steps and I thought “Oh man he’s evil! Dammit!”

If PS3 programming isn’t so different from PS4 then why can’t we have backwards compatibility?

I’m thinking of getting a Wii U mostly as a family console for us all to play on. I don’t know what Nintendo’s strategy is anymore if they are giving up on main console and just going to go 3DS.

QOTW: I think it was getting Roberta William’s Ultimate collection of the entire KQ games, both Luara bow games, and a few others on four discs with a soundtrack included for about $20.

I also got a Neo Geo with about 10 games for 20$ from a pawn shop but that system and games we got sucked. We used it as a cd player after that.

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GameSpy, UGO, 1UP Say FarewellGameSpy, UGO, 1UP Say Farewell

The videogame world has been stunned by the news that GameSpy, 1UP and UGO are all being shuttered. GameSpy had been around since 1999 (back when it was a mere online match service – game-spy, geddit?) UGO was a site that I wrote for both indirectly as an editor of GamePen and directly when I wrote DVD and game reviews for UGO.

UGO’s Chris Radtke bid farewell stating:

I’ve spent many years of my life trying to turn UGO.com into something entertaining for you guys. Hopefully you stopped by recently to watch one our funny videos. Or you found yourself debating one of our nerd culture lists, read a movie review or pondered the age old question “Who would win in a fight, a minotaur armed with a trident or a centaur armed with a crossbow.” Could be you tried to win something off our homepage or you Googled “Hot Girls” and found a couple of pics you liked. I don’t really care how you got here, just as long as you were entertained when you did.

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Episode 335: Double XEpisode 335: Double X

This week, Jordan reveals that he actually won an Xbox One from work, making him the second owner of the console in the podcast, and the only one with both a One and a PS4. Unfortunately, Paul’s not available for the podcast, making it a podcast of two.

The news this week:

Square Enix confirms Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for next-gen
EA donates $1.65 million to American Cancer Society following Humble campaign
Report: MMOs targeted by intelligence agencies
Ubisoft polling on Assassin’s Creed 5, non-Assassin pirate game
Report: Disney taking over Indiana Jones from Paramount

Also, listener Pawel Predki wrote his own review of Tearaway. Read it here.

MGS4 Pushes PS3 Up 300%MGS4 Pushes PS3 Up 300%

Metal Gear Solid 4 was a solid release for the PlayStation 3, the exclusive title that gives Sony an edge over the competition. This was Sony’s Halo 3 title and it needed to be a big success in order to keep gamers confident in the Sony brand.

Sony is reporting a 300% increase in PlayStation 3 sales over last month, mainly due to the desire for people to own Metal Gear Solid 4. Remember, this isn’t an increase in game sales, this is an increase in console unit sales, providing evidence that MGS4 sold consoles.

While Grand Theft Auto 4 seemed to sell a few consoles but, overall, didn’t impact console statistics during its release, this exclusive PS3 title has done just the opposite. Perhaps because of its exclusivity? Xbox 360 consoles have been in the hands of the consumer for a few years now, most of those consumers actually purchased GTA IV (as expected and reflected in sales) but not a lot went out to purchase the console. They already had it or didn’t care to own it for a game like GTA IV.

While many people purchased Metal Gear Solid 4 because it’s “Metal Gear,” you can see from the trailers that the game looked impressive, felt complete and contained a lot of great action. You’ll get a great sales pop the first few days on a title with a huge fan base but to sustain the growth and sell consoles you’ve got to provide a well known title that doesn’t suck.

MGS4 doesn’t suck by any reviewers score; it’s not perfect, but what game is? MGS4 delivered what it was said to deliver with very few bad experiences and that’s all you can ask for a console moving title.

So, what next? Sony has promised us that MGS4 is just the first of many titles to blow our minds. Resistance 2, Little Big Planet and what of that MAG game they showed off at E3? 256 players? We won’t hold our breath for that title, but Resistance 2 and Little Big Planet, combined, may move a few more units.

It may not be about the games today that move the next round of PlayStation 3 consoles, it’s about the promise of the games tomorrow with titles like MGS4 to hold us over until then.