No Blue Dragon For You!

So DS owners such as myself were going to get to enjoy AQ popular xbox360 real time RPG "Blue dragon", which was to be dubbed "Blue dragon: plus". Last year AQ said that Blue dragon plus for the DS would be released this march, now there product page dashes our hopes with *undetermined release date*. Truthfully I haven't played blue dragon (will play and review later this month), because I lean toward Bioware type MMO's but I am curious about a 360 title going DS. We are all familiar with the crappy console ports that plagued the Playstation Portable (PSP), so naturally the DS game would either pull off a *looks like final fantasy 3*, look or else be somewhat clumsy with a frustrating control scheme and reduced graphical appeal.




Looking at the game (360 version), I can't help but wonder if this is what spyro would look like on steroids.



Sources: AQ "original", release schedule


Still possibly just delayed and not dead


What is blue dragon ?

DS domination

   With almost half a million nintendo DS's sold in the last two weeks of december nintendo continues to pwn rivals Sony and Microsoft.

   While half a million is a large number we can easily turn the tables when considering that microsft, who we knew was never going to do well in japan has managed to sell half a million xbox360's...just now. After two years they've finally managed to reach the .5 million mark. I'll recheck my sources on this but it seems more then believable given the poor sales at launch and japans continued loyalty to the homegrown heavy wieghts nintendo and Sony. The month of december saw notable numbers with the wii selling 385,000 units while the DS's Sony rival, the PSP saw a resurgent 332,000 in sales. Still well below DS numbers though.

The hardware sales for the week ending december 30th are as follows:

1st. Nintendo DS - 218,894
2nd. Sony PSP - 161,370
3rd. Nintendo wii - 152,209
4th. Sony PS3 - 52,706
5th. Sony PS2 - 25,569
6th. Xbox360 - 8304

The real story here is that the Playstation 3 FINALLY outsold the Playstation 2.

Wii Sells One million in Japan

 



As of January 8th, Nintendo's Wii fit has sold one million units. Impressive considering its only been out since Dec 1st. The little piece of nintendo hardware that at first glance resembles some sort of weight scale, has joined the ranks of the "zapper" and "nunchuck" to expand the ways in which Wii owners can enjoy there console. Shifting your feet on the Wii fit could affect gameplay in an FPS ("if nintendo made one of high quality beyond metroid). 

Since Shigeru Miyamoto unvieled Wii fit on July 11th at E3 I've been wondering about just how many ways I could potentially get excercise from the little piece of hardware. Appearently there are up to 40 ways in which you can excercise via the wii, doing everything from push ups and jogging to yoga poses and tight rope walking. I'm definitly thrilled with the variety.

Nintendo is rolling in cash, no question but when this overweight diet crazed country gets hold of wiifit, nintendo will benjamin laden tp in there restrooms. Here's why. While listening to a jostiq podcast, the point was made that wii is top in hardware but not software. Why aren't Wii or DS games owning in the charts alongside Halo 3 and assasins creed ? The answer it seems is becuase most wii owners which nintendo has labeled "casual gamers", are buying into an experience and not a game console with a library of software to be bought later on. You still have your hard core nintendo fans who buy the top games and spend a few hundred on the good nintendo games and accessories each year but they are a seperate market and by no means the majority. Grandpa bought himself a ds to play brain age and nothing else, is nintendo's problem.

The same people who bought wii for wii sports will jump head over heels for the wiifit when its released here in the states because they want an interactive experience with the wii. Nintendo needs the Wiifit to keep the wii from going in the closet of many a casual gamers home, being labeled last years fad.  The wiifit ensures that the majority of overweight americans who want to lose weight can do so in a interactive way that fun and away from the public shaming that is the local gym.

The only question is "will it hold us ?"

- Al3x

Sources: Wikipedia

Gameindustry.biz

Wii won't be your sugar mama for DS games

  

    After holding out the promise of downloadable DS content via the wii, in a new york times interview, Reggie Fils-Aime (president of nintendo america), has now been hastily corrected by his bosses back in japan.

Nintendo issuing the following response: "An article about the Nintendo DS video game system in the December 31 Business Day section of the New York Times incorrectly referred to future capabilities of the device,".

Although I don't own a wii (thanks to nintendo's lack of factories for the damn thing), I do however own a nintendo ds. Downloadable content for me makes sense on the nintendo wii
since nintendo's two main rivals have been supporting mobile devices through the console for awhile now. The best example of what nintendo appearently has refused or been unable to do, is Sony making downloadable content available for the PSP over the PS3 network. The second example is microsoft's going all out for its ipod killer, the zune and giving us the ability to download music, video's, etc over xbox live.

By limiting to the wii's usefulness to a so-so online gaming experience with our only true promise of using it being when super smash bro's 2 comes out. This being a sad reminder that most 3rd party games are made of failure and  utter garbage. Nintendo seems to be shooting itself in the foot by not providing what the big boys have been providing consumers with for sometime now.

One has to wonder what will happen when gamers in 2008 come to view all these limitations (poor games, lack of HD, lack of use with DS), and are then joined in by the elderly not buying anything beyond wii sport for the rest of there days.

Xbox360 reache's 17.7 million in sales

Microsoft has something positive to report about its hardware...finally. Ok so while some of us may be scratching our heads or complaining about our lack of eliteness (reference to the latest xbox360 sku), it seems that the people at Redmond finally have something to smile about. Besides having the best online console experience through xboxlive and arguably the best games library of both exclusive and multi-platform games, there are finally a significant number of consoles on which to play said games.

It won't surprise anyone that Halo 3, sold 8.1 million. For all its hype Mass effect would be damned if it couldn't match Assassins Creed in sales and to its done just that by shooting past the one million mark with 1.6 million games sold so far.

While we look at the numbers game, the 17.7 million strong xbox360 owners family seems set to continue growing especially as we approach the release of grand theft auto IV which will be a system seller no questions asked.

While Gates and Co do love there Benjamin's, it seems that if market share is what they are after (more consoles = more games sold = more $$), then a price drop around the release on March 3rd could definitely help push the 360 toward the 20 million mark.

Because since when has Microsoft ever milked we consumers with over priced goods that could be great if only they weren't so damn expensive ?

*cough* Zune *cough*

THQ + Pixar = Wall*E Games

THQ + PIXAR = WALL*E GAMES

  

When I look at WALL*E, I think short circuit. When you look at WALL*E, you see a cute little robot with too much time on his hands. When THQ looks at WALL*E, it sees dollar signs. Still flush with cash from game adaptations of Pixar's cars and  Ratatouille,  THQ plans to make a game adaptation of WALL*E  (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), and his journey across the galaxy. 

This is is the second game since Ratatouille last year, in Pixar and THQ's four game deal. 
Expect to see Pixar's next two creations also to receive game adaptations.  Weather the voice acting in WALL*E or its future pixar siblings will be of any quality remains to be seen.



 

Jade Empire 2

JADE EMPIRE 2?




After an intense session of lurking around the internets, I stumbled across a rumor that Bioware will be releasing jade empire 2 exclusively on the 360. Dean Takahashi of MercuryNews.com claims to have recieved word of jade empire 2 through an undisclosed who claimed to have seen the source code labeled "Jade empire 2".

IS THIS TRUE ?

Maybe or Maybe not. No one has said anything official and EA's got a tendency to go for money rather then quality and thus whore itself and its products out to every plateform available.

WHY DO I CARE ?

If you love RPG's, then you're either aware of or should get around to playing jade empire. It's set in an asian atmosphere with martial arts in place of swords, lightsabers (KOTOR), or elves (oblivion & morrowind). What made the game appealing to me is that rather then go for turn based fighting, jade empire allowed you to attack and upgrade said attack with your regular D pad (A,X,B,Y), controls.

Bioware has a rich history pre-EA of shipping innovative and immersive role playing games. Its latest blockbuster Mass effect generated high reviews and high sales for the canadian developer. The key behind many of bioware's games at least to me has been that you can connect emotionally with the characters you interact with. You don't get mindless NPC's that are just there to distract the bad guys from shooting at you. They have history's, relationships can often be formed with them on a romantic level even. The last major sticking point for bioware games has been that they always give you two or more choices on how to play the game. You face moral questions throughout bioware games and what actions you take define you in the game and your party's reactions to you.

Recent Bioware Games	IGN	GameSpot	GameInformer	Amazon.com
Jade Empire	9.9	8.4	9.5	4.5/5
Mass Effect	9.4	8.5	9.75	4.5/5
Knights of the old Republic	9.0	9.1	9.5	4.5/5