LOL: Penny Arcade on Bioshock PS3

There’s so much truth to this strip that it’s unbelievable.

The Comeback

I apologize for ignoring my precious little blog for the past couple weeks. I’m a mess. School’s been kicking Ultra Combo-ing my dumbass on a regular basis for the past three weeks but it should all end by 10am tomorrow when I finish my last final exam. There’s so much to write about, too: GTA4, Mario Kart, The World Ends with You, my unhealthy addiction to Call of Duty 4…I’ve missed out on a lot.

Things will change this weekend. Promise.

Oh, what’s that? You’ve heard enough of CoD4? Too bad.

GTA IV Launch: Rochester, NY

There’s nothing like waiting in line for an hour and half with your fellow dorks! </sarcasm> My entire campus decided to show up at midnight to pick up GTA IV as they did with Halo 3 and Brawl. One entrance to the mall was left open and there were probably five or so security guards to make sure no one got shanked over a copy of GTA. Gamestop ran the event decently; you had to go through one line to pre-pay for your Niko Bellic and then get in another to pick it up. There was this one kid who threw fit for having to make his way through two lines. I don’t know what happened to him, though. I’m sure they threw some manga his way to keep him calm.

These are the pictures I took before my damn battery ran out.

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March Hardware Sales Madness: Xbox Strikes Back, Nintendo Towers Over the Rest

The 360 managed to outsell the PS3 by a mere 5,000 units, proving the few months that MS was beaten by Sony might have just been a fad. We’ll see if that holds up. The Xbox Rainbow Six Vegas faithful probably had something to do with this with R6V2 selling strong on the software side of things. The PSP had two solid releases in Crisis Core and God of War: COO and it performed considerably well.

And then there’s Nintendo. They’re still printing money. That’s about it, really. Oh, and some game called Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out in March, too. Maybe that has something to do with the Wii performing incredibly well. Maybe, I dunno. Just a wild guess.

Nintendo Wii – 721,000
Nintendo DS – 698,000
PlayStation Portable – 297,000
Xbox 360 – 262,000
PlayStation 3 – 257,000
PlayStation 2 – 216,000

[Kotaku]

March Software Sales Madness: Consider the Competition “Final Smashed”

Ah, memories. About two years ago I remember a friend of mine bursting into my room at 1 AM to show me the megaton of all trailers. Yes, it was the E3 2006 trailer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The same trailer that wet your pants when you found out Solid (effin‘) Snake would be breaking necks in the Nintendo beat ‘em up. Now that its way in the past, I can safely say I watched that trailer about a hundred times (yes, really) within the next couple of days. The next two years would test my patience unlike any other two years of my life.

Today, I’m almost as happy as I when the game was finally released. Why? Because Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in the month of March. That’s Halo 3 statues people, without the $10 million marketing budget. I’m happy because I can safely that my favorite franchise is now a franchise that can not be ignored. The numbers, please.

COD4 Variety Map Pack Impressions

Just when I was getting tired of grenade spamming the crap out of Vacant, Infinity Ward decides to release a new map pack for Call of Duty 4. It’s about time. I’m sure the COD faithful have been jealously eyeing the Halo camp and the community love Bungie has been giving them. For 800 MS Points ($10 for those of you who think points are point-less) we get four maps: Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown, and Killhouse.

Wait? Another 50 Cent Game? Ughhh.

I introduce to you 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, the sequel to the abysmal 50 Cent: Bulletproof. It will soon be gracing your x360’s and PS3’s in the not-so-distant future. What? You think this game is going to suck? How dare you prejudge! You haven’t even heard its synopsis yet:

About Time: New COD4 Maps, Baby!

If you thought Call of Duty 4 couldn’t suck up any more of your time, think again. On April 3rd you get four new maps: Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown and Killhouse for 800 MS Points ($10). The maps coincide with the release of the Call of Duty 4 Game of the Year Edition, which is pretty much the same game but with a lot more “This game won a lot of awards. Yeah, it’s that good.” on the cover. Oh, and the new edition contains a token that lets download the map pack for the great price of free.

Four new places to stab newbs in the chest? Sold!

Cheap Thrills: Great Xbox 360 Themes for Free

I’m still in college I’m not necessarily cheap for a gamer. I do buy used games whenever possible (who doesn’t?) but I’m willing to shell out for a Rock Band bundle and an extra guitar without having to split it with friends (because they’re a-holes. Yeah, that’s right, I’m calling you out Kevin and Taf). Although I love spending money on games but cannot stand microtransactions. I loathe them. Therefore, I despise Xbox Live Marketplace with a passion. Okay, no, wait, that was kinda harsh. I just give XBLM dirty looks every now and then, you know, out of distrust. Especially when it makes me spend money just to customize my dashboard. I do have a (very) slight tolerance for legit downloadable content; the only DLC to take my marketplace virginity was the Oasis Song Pack for Rock Band.

So what happens when you’re a customization whore but too stubborn to hand your money over to Billy G? You start looking for free themes on XBLM. Here are some that are awesome but won’t cost you a damn cent.

January NPD: Wii and CoD4 Stay Top, PS3 Beats 360 & DS, Makes Everyone Go “Huh?”

 

Here we go again.

Nintendo Wii – 274K
Playstation 3 – 269K
Playstation 2 - 264K
Nintendo DS – 251K
PSP – 230K
Xbox 360 – 230K

Woah. Something looks different. Well, not too different.  As always, the Wii appears at the top of the list, but take a look at second place. Yes, the PS3 managed to defeat both the DS and Xbox 360 in sales numbers for the month of January. Now wait, before some of you get all excited and proclaim “Teh end of M$ has come!” and “Sony FTW!!1!” you have to take a lot of things into perspective. Yesterday morning Microsoft released a statement claiming to have had a hardware shortage after the recent money-makin’ holiday season. Hmmm, believable although somewhat skeptical; upon browsing my local electronic stores I did notice a number of Halo Edition 360’s (they’re not very pretty, are they) but not Premium or Elite models. Either way their statement saved them much embarrassment when the numbers hit the net. In December the Wii and DS went Incredible Hulk sales beasts on us and were definitely supply constrained, so as expected they had Bruce a more Bruce Banner like appearance in January. So with Nintendo and Microsoft having only leftovers (table scraps, even) from the holidays to sell in stores is this a huge victory for Sony? It depends on how you look at it.

It’s like pitting two teams against each other yet one team is without their starting line-up. You could defeat the Lakers by 15 to 20 points, but was it a significant win if Kobe was out injured? No. But the fact that you won in the first place is pretty impressive if the Lakers are considered better than you. Supply constraints or not, it’s a solid effort by Sony to top Microsoft especially with only one game in the top 10. Will they win next month? I doubt it. If the hardware shortages the MS claim are in fact true, Kobe (and a fresh new shipment) will return next and change it all. With the Wii staying undefeated in probably it’s most depleted state means the demand is not going anywhere for a while.

On the software side of things Call of Duty 4 is still tearing sh*t up. Rock Band narrowly eclipsed Guitar Hero III for the 360. No More Heroes apparently sold just over 100K units, which is OK for a new mature IP for a child-friendly console. Burnout Paradise debuts in the Top 10, which is a good thing. Look at that GH3 for Wii…

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 330,900
2. Wii Play (Wii) – 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III (Wii) – 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360) – 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) – 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) – 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (DS) – 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – 133,000