This week’s episode is a little late due to a power outage. However, despite the lack of really interesting news, the crew still finds plenty to chat about.
This week’s news includes:
The Question of the Week is, “What popular game did you play long after its initial release?”
This weeks podcast covers some news, as the usual, a gaming flashback about Mach Rider on the NES and the cassette loader from the old NES days (in Japan). Aside from community comments, we’ve also got this news lineup:
This weeks question of the week, are storylines important in video games (more so than graphics) and, what game do you believe will go down as the best storyline based game in your opinion.
If you purchased Rock Band 2 you’ll find you can download 20 free songs if you register at rockband.com. Unfortunately, for now, you can only register to get an e-mail when the offer goes “live.” This is one step more than we could do last week if we purchased Rock Band 2 and went to their website to register.
How do you know if you can register? It’s on the back of the instruction book… what, you didn’t know to look there? Well, it’s okay because you still can’t get your 20 free downloads. In the future, if you register, you’ll get an e-mail (someday) with the codes you’ll need to be able to get 20 free song downloads.
We’re still not finished the song tracks that exist in the game, plus our old DLC and we still haven’t exported (or purchased the “patch) the Rock Band 1 song tracks. So, for a few of us, knowing we’ll get 20 downloadable songs in the future is great news.
For those that didn’t know about this – check the back of the booklet and then go and register your e-mail address!
(Thanks, GameStooge)
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.
Hi guys.
Thanks for the episode. It was intersting and funny as always 🙂 To your question of the week: I Played Portal the first time last year. Of course i completed it very fast, but this was a PC game i played about 10 years after its release 🙂
For Console games, it must be some of the first 6 Mega Man Games … i don´t remember which ones i played as a kid, but of course not all of them. So i decided to play through the first 6 Mega Man games last year 🙂
I like to play all the old games, i missed in my youth, but as you know: now (as an adult) you got the money to buy games, but you dont have the time anymore to play all of them 🙂
Jonah: Archon is a really great game! I loved it as a kid, even i did not understood it at all 🙂 (I am born in 1980, so i was 4 years old, when Archon was released, and i got my first C-64 when i was 8).
So thanks again guys and keep gaming 🙂