The Beginning of the End is Beginning

Burnout Paradise was released last week on the Playstation Network store for $30 dollars, half of what the game retailed for when it came out a few months ago as a disc based game for 360/PS3. This is surely a sign of things to come. Used game sales are killing any money a publisher hopes to make down the road after the game has been out for awhile. Not to mention money gained from not having to pay for packaging and not having to compete for shelf space. Of course at the recent Gamestop conference (the store that happens to be the #1 promoter of used games) a Gamestop VP said that Digital Distribution will not be a threat until 2020. At first sight that might look at ridiculous considering it’s working fine right now but maybe in 2020 we will see the extinction of game stores. Think back to 8 years ago, hardly anyone had a cable modem now look at us. The internet and its technologies are growing fast and with all the advantages Digital Distribution offers to publishers they would be stupid not to jump on this train.

What does this mean for us consumers? Mostly good things unless you happen to be really attached to those boxes and discs. Since the publisher is avoiding a lot of costs by skipping the Game stores we will most likely see a price cut on the standard video game price. However this generation of consoles may be ill equipped for this transition which is one of the main reasons why we most likely won’t see the jump from physical to digital until next gen. The average 360 has a 20 gb hard drive which means if you download a lot of Rock Band songs and demos you’re already most likely close to filling that drive up. The PS3 is probably in the best position with easily swappable hard drives and the average disk size being somewhere between 40 and 60 gigs. Nintendo’s Wii isn’t equipped to handle its virtual console ports or small selection of Wiiware titles with its extremely tiny drive, let alone full sized games. Next Generation we maybe be seeing systems with mega sized hard drives to be future proof for the digital distribution revolution.

While technology may be limiting us to disc games for the rest of this generation who’s to say how much more will actually be done on the digital front. Xbox Arcade had a resurgence of digital games this summer and Burnout Paradise might only be the beginning for the Playstation Network. Everyone should be excited for this new turn of how games are purchased because in the long run it will be better for everyone. Publishers will be making more money allowing for more games and consumers will be paying less allowing for more games to be purchased. The only one who should be upset is Joe Schmo trying to get you to preorder Mario Party 10 while trying to make you trade in Mario Party 9.

Tomorrow is Blood Sugar Sex Magik full Album DLC for Rock Band, Buy it!

It’s Fall.

It definitely fall in the media world because in these last two weeks I’ve been playing/watching more new stuff then was released as a whole in the first half of summer. Quick Rundown:

Spore – More like bore amirite? No but seriously, the spore development team (or maybe Will Wright himself) is like a morbidly obese person trying to cook. They take all their favorite games throw them in a pot and hope for the end product to be the sum of all the goodness that was thrown in. In actuality the end result doesn’t taste good at all; in fact it tastes like shit. Although it introduces some new technology through its invisible background game sharing Spore still was a disappointment. Hopefully they use the technology introduced here and put it in a good game.

Man I really Should install Photoshop.

Crysis: Warhead – It’s Crysis that runs and plays better than the original. Haven’t really played it that much but it’s good to see PC gaming is alive (and well?).

Rock Band 2 – It’s RB1 with a much improved interface and a lot of awesome songs on the disc. Guitar Hero: World Snore (Ho-Ho another twist of the title into referencing my state of boredom) has its work cut out for it.

 

Star Wars: Force Unleashed – For some reason this game really reminds me of Shadows of the Empire even though they don’t share much in common besides the fact that they’re both third person Star Wars action games. Really great story, in fact they should’ve taken the few important scenes from episode 2, merge them into episode 1, make episode 3 episode 2 and made this game episode 3. Would’ve been great I tell ya. As far as gameplay goes, way too repetitive with almost every trick getting old by the end of the first hour or so. Atleast the repetitiveness isn’t that big of an issue considering the game is around five hours in length. Whoops. Definitely rent it if you like Star Wars at all.

 

Armored Core: For Answer – While AC4 was plagued by long loading times and missions shorter than said loading times I still found it to be an enjoyable experience. Unfortunately no one else did and this game will forever remain overlooked. This is a real shame because it’s really improved from AC4 and is shaping up to be basically shadow of colossus + Giant Robots, which is a winning combination. Not to mention the Soundtrack and Visuals are superb, haven’t checked out online coop yet but I hope people are still online when I get to it. Zone of the Enders might just be dethroned for me.

 

 

Megaman 9 – Shamefully I never really played any of the older Megamans that much (played one on gameboy, way too hard at the time) so won’t make any direct comparisons but…game is ridiculously fun and challenging! Capcom was brilliant for making a game in this retro style and they did it perfectly as well, it really feels like a NES game with a hint of modern gameplay twists. Can’t wait to dig deeper into this one and defeat the last 4 robot masters!

 

All those games in the last two weeks and I just got into the Little Big Planet beta today along with Kirby Superstar DS and Sonic: The Dark Brotherhood. Also been playing WoW feverishly in attempt to get my rogue alt to 70 before Wrathapocalypse brings destruction to the world.

Also been reading the second book in the Hitchhiker’s series The Restaurant at the End of the Universe…..if I could write half as well as Douglas Adams most of my time would be spent writing. And being a billionaire. One of the funniest books ever, was literally “LOL”ing every other page.

In TV after 30 Rock destroyed the Emmy’s, decided it would be a good idea to start watching it. One episode in and I’m loving it. Heroes continues to jump the shark with retarded plot twists, terrible script, and poor acting performances by almost everyone involved. Oh what could’ve been.

 

Crazy! Oh yeah I also got Metal Gear Solid 5.