The real question we are left with is… What do we, as fans, think will happen?

– Could this just be lip service? Are they going to box up all of this play testing feedback and do whatever they want?

– Is it possible that the dedicated efforts of a serious play group could have a significant impact on the rules?

I think its too tell to make an educated guess, but we are free to have wild and baseless speculation!

Personally, I think this is going to go well. When all is said done Wizards of the Coast knows how to reinvigorate failing brands and set them up for future success. (Look at Magic: The Gathering. It is enjoying records sales and is bringing in new players consistently.)

Wizards must recognize that the way they handled the 4th edition release fragmented the community in an unacceptable way. The only way to really recover from that would be for this effort to be legitimate.

What do you think? Are you doubtful? Hopeful? Excited beyond words?

There were articles breaking the trailer down frame by frame.
There were articles attacking it for being all “Gears of War.”
At the same time, there were articles defending it for being a glimpse at something awesome.

I don’t know folks. I watched the trailer. I saw what looked like a pretty promising action game. But, it came at a price. I saw zombies. Flesh eating… moaning… groaning… zombies.

I know. I know. It’s a Resident Evil game. I shouldn’t expect anything else, and I really don’t. But, everyone has that thing that scares them that makes no real sense. Zombies are that thing for me. I’ve tried to play Resident Evil games in the past. I always start off strong, but I always chicken out half way through and never finish.

It’s a difficult situation too. Resident Evil 5 looked like an awesome game. I was excited to play it. I even had it in my hand at my local GameStop. But, then I put it back because I didn’t want to face those zombies again.

I can’t be the only one with this issue. Is there anyone else out there with an irrational fear that prevents them from enjoying a popular game?

Some of the buzz on Twitter today revolved around an open letter to Penny Arcade from a writer on a website called GameRanx. The letter was directed to Penny Arcade’s new video game news editor Ben Kuchera (formerly of ARS Technica). It sounded as if the letter was saying that all successful video game journalism ends up being swift reports of information with branded spin and any attempts to deviate from that norm could not hope to be successful.

Ben’s response was… well… rather pointed. He told them where they could shove it. He even went so far as to claim that Penny Arcade’s first day of coverage would beat GameRanx’s month. (I wouldn’t doubt it either. I know I’m very excited to see what they have coming!)

I read responses back and forth from the editors of different websites and magazines until I felt like I was swimming. It took a tweet by Jim Sterling to set me straight.

His tweet read, “95% of Games Journalists would be happier if they admitted they weren’t journalists and just did their F***ing thing.”

I have to say. The man has a point. The vast majority of websites and blogs out there are staffed by people who are claiming to be more than they are. True journalists have contacts in the industry and report news directly from the source. Some people… not so much. Think about it. How many copies of the same story are posted as soon as a piece of news breaks?

I have to say. I fall into the “not so much” category. I don’t write news. I don’t really know anyone in the industry. But, you know what? I’m ok with that. It’s what I want to do, but I have to be patient. In the meantime, I just need to accept that I’m not writing news about games. I’m just writing about games… and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

Thanks Jim. You’re right. I am happier now.

Stay casual everyone!

On the surface, it looks like Skylanders is just a devious marketing ploy. The game only comes stock with three of the thirty two playable characters and each level contains a “soul gem” which is little more than a trailer for another character (that is sold separately for about eight bucks). It has a very “Pokemon” feeling to it all.

It turns out that all that “shifty marketing” doesn’t really hurt the game at all. Sure. I know that every character costs money. I know that it would cost me a couple hundred dollars to build the entire collection. But, none of that takes away from the game play.

I’ve been telling everyone that will listen to me that the game plays like Gauntlet with Pokemon and I’ll repeat it until I die. Skylanders has proven itself to be simple enough to pick up that my five year old can pick it up and enjoy himself, but there is enough depth in the game play to keep me interested.

The bottom line here folks: This thing is the truth. Don’t let everyone barking about it being a “devious marketing scheme” stop you from experiencing this game (especially if you have younger kids). Period.

     I recently listed Darksiders and one of the reasons I am excited for 2010. I was clearly not disappointed (and neither were a lot of people). The game has sold 1.2 meeeeeeeellion (/Dr Evil pinky) copies in the first four weeks after release. Things have been so successful that THQ has announced plans to release a sequel in the fiscal year 2012.

  So if you haven’t gotten into the God of War meets The Legend of Zelda meets Portal mash up of awesome, then you have until 2012 to crack into it before the sequel.

Stay Casual!

Stephen

Source

     On January 12, 2010 a 7.0 earthquake sent shockwaves of devastation through some of the most heavily populated areas in Haiti. Millions were effected. Thousands were left dead and countless numbers were injured. Within an instant the standard building blocks of life were stripped from millions who were left without food, clean water, basic medical care and shelter.

     Within 24 hours the usual suspects had already responded or were in the process of responding. The American Red Cross, Church World Service and other organizations were leveraging their resources to lend aid to those in need. Since then we have even seen Celebrities and Athletes taking up the cause and helping where they can (which, in some cases, can be very significant). None of this would come as a shock to anyone. These organizations were formed to react to their problems and to lend aid, and some celebrities are naturally philanthropists.

     This time they are not acting alone. Despite all the controversy surrounding their industry and its impact on society we are seeing several players in the Video Game industry coming and and raising funds to help with Haiti’s Earthquake relief efforts. Here are some of the notable contributions:

     Bungie, the company behind the HALO franchise, have started the "Be A Hero" campaign. They have dedicated 100% of the proceeds generated until 02/28 from the apparel on their website to the American Red Cross. As an integral part of the promotion they have designed a special edition of their Superintendant t-shirt in red and blue (representing the Haitian flag) and have dedicated 100% of the proceeds to go to the American Red Cross even after 02/28. One would think that this was a very good gesture in and of itself, but they went even further. On 01/20 and 01/21 they offered to donate up to $100 for every 1000 players who played in an online rated match in HALO 3 or HALO: ODST with a special HERO emblem visible. So far their efforts have raised more than $100,000.

     Zynga, the company responsible for Farmville, Mafia Wars and several other popular social networking games, offered a small in game token to its Farmville players in exchange for a $5 donation. Each player received a 1 week license to grow White Corn (which was overpowered) and in the end Zynga was able to raise $1,000,000 for their Zynga Haiti Relief Fund. Seriously, That is a LOT of White Corn.

     Pop Cap Games is well known for their online sales of games like Plants vs. Zombies and Zuma’s Revenge. They offered to donate all of the proceeds from their online sales from January 16th to Partners in Health. This was definitely the best reason to buy Plants vs. Zombies EVER.

     Behemoth, who we all know and love as the developer for Castle Crashers, has offered to donate 100% of the revenue for any of the XBLA titles to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development fund. They take this even FURTHER when their employees offer to 100% match that amount out of their own pockets. (Wow!)

     This tragedy is showing us that we are definitely all one people. We are witnessing evidence that in the face of tragedy their really is no corner of our society where we will not see some sort of support. Personally, I think this sort of thing is pretty uplifting.

     Has anyone else heard of any unexpected outpourings of support for this tragedy? I would love to hear about it.

Stay Casual!

Stephen

www.casualbychoice.wordpress.com

     Better late than never. That’s what I always say.

     Lets get to business shall we? This weeks browser based game of the week is another highly rated game from Armor Games: Upgrade Complete.

     Unlike some of my previous installments, I’m not choosing this game for its surprising depth or it’s complex game play. I am choosing it because it is a bite sized game experience that is easy to enjoy and pretty sarcastic. Any game that will tell you it is disappointed in you is worth looking into right?

    The game itself is pretty simple. It is built around earning money playing a bottom to top shooter game. Killing enemy ships drops coins that you must catch in order to purchase upgrades. This is where things start to get interesting. Everyone is used to spending points to upgrade ships/guns/swords/farms, but here you need to upgrade everything. The graphics, the music and the menu are only a few of the many things the can be upgraded.

     Go ahead. Get upgraded. Start to finish you are looking at 20 to 30 minutes and I highly doubt you’ll be disappointed.

     Feel free to leave comments with any other bite sized suggestions you might have. I’d love to give them a try!

Stay Casual!

Stephen

www.casualbychoice.wordpress.com

     This weeks browser based game is: Whiteboard Tower Defense by Armor Games!

     I actually had this game recommended to me by a friend when I started doing this feature. At the time, I was really trying to avoid focusing solely on Tower Defense games so I didn’t put a lot of time into it. Today, as I write this, I am debating whether that was a BAD move because I missed out on a really amazing game for the past month or a GOOD move because I had all that time where I was able to see the light of day.

     (Just a Quick Shout Out) Armor Games is definitely one my favorite game sites right now. I haven’t touched a game there that hasn’t been entertaining. Whiteboard Tower Defense is no exception. Its simple design and minimalist art style (it is animated as though it is quite literally drawn on a white dry erase board) might fool you into thinking it has no depth or value beyond a game you touch once or twice and never look back. Don’t make that mistake. I have found myself spending more time on this game recently than I would consider a responsible use of my time (and considering I was an officer in a WoW raiding guild for three years or so that says something) tweaking my map layouts and trying to sneak extra points in wherever I could.

     The game play itself is actually pretty straightforward. You “draw” your towers on a whiteboard and try to create a maze through which “critters” will run. If the critter gets all the way through the maze before you kill it you lose respect. They give you several well balanced towers to choose from and I have seen a lot of variation from different players so there isn’t any clear and present “right way to do things” which is refreshing in a game like this.

     Whiteboard Tower Defense is also available as a social game through Facebook. It tracks my scores as compared to my friends and shows me weekly and all time leader boards so I know what scores I need to shoot for if I want that next rank. You can even CHALLENGE your friends to see who can get the highest score. (I’m accepting challenges BTW.)

    Give it a try! I’d love to hear what you folks think.

    Also, if you have suggestions about other games I should play let me know. I’m always looking to try new things.

Stay Casual!

Stephen

www.casualbychoice.wordpress.com

      My father is a minister. He spends a large chunk of his week devoted to writing his sermon. There are occasions where he will be moved by the choir or a prayer to the point where he basically has to start over and present something less polished, but more passionate. It is less technically perfect than what he crafted, but they are often some of his best work.

     I had that moment today.

     I had prepared an entire article about Nintendo not being financially viable. I put some sweat into writing how they couldn’t compete in the market place as it stands today with a system built around motion controls and gimmick game play. Then I looked at the NPD data for December and mashed the delete key about a bajillion times.

     Nintendo walked into December and walked out of it FIRMLY declaring, “Everyone chill out… I Got This.” Without further ado lets take a look at the stats:

Hardware

Wii 3.81M

Nintendo DS 3.31M

PlayStation 3 1.36M

Xbox 360 1.31M

PSP 654.7K

PlayStation 2 333.2K

      On the Hardware side the math is pretty simple. Both The Nintendo Wii and the Nintendo DS outsold the PS3 and Xbox360 combined. The Nintendo DS outsold the PSP almost six times over. The hardware performance for Nintendo’s products is promising. They have a very impressive market share. And considering the strength of the Wii’s market share I would not expect to see third party companies giving up on it yet (if ever). I foresee a lot of experimentation coming out of the industry soon. Companies simply can’t ignore the chance to light a fire and make some HUGE sales numbers with their games.

      And speaking of HUGE sales figures for games. Lets take a look at the software data:

Software

NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA  2.82M

WII FIT PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 2.41M

WII SPORTS RESORT W/ WII MOTION PLUS* WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 1.79M

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 1.63M

CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2* PS3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 1.12M

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 1.01M

MARIO KART W/ WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA 936.1K

ASSASSIN’S CREED II 360 UBISOFT 783.1K

LEFT 4 DEAD 2 360 ELECTRONIC ARTS 728.5K

MARIO & LUIGI: BOWSER’S INSIDE STORY NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA 656.7K

     The trends aren’t hiding anywhere here. 6 of the top 10 sellers are Nintendo products. New Super Mario Bros. Wii outsold Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 combined on both PS3 and Xbox 360. (Admittedly, I think there should be a combined figure to determine ranking for true multiplatform games.) Nintendo’s staying power is also in evidence with Mario Kart which was released in April, 2008.

     With all that said. Even with all the third party issues that are being talked about and the piles of shovelware clogging bargain bins across the country it is impossible to stand here and count Nintendo out. Well played Nintendo. Well Played. Keep it up.

Stay Casual,

Stephen

www.casualbychoice.wordpress.com