The Official "Console War" and Video Game Thread

[markatisu]

]Picked up Smackdown Vs. Raw 2k9 for Wii today. A ZILLION TIMES IMPROVED OVER 2k8! All of the match types that were AWOL last year are now in, the CAW is vastly improved (About as good as DOR2 there are pros and cons there)
Graphically a bit better than 2k8 was. The play control is improved too. I've had one or two sporadic times where a swing wasn't detected, but it's nowhere near the mess 2k8 was.
Oh and it also works over the Nintendo Wi Fi connection too!

I'm still really having a lot of fun with SvR2k9 on the Wii.

I decided to buy this tonight, based in part to your recommendations, plus after playing the PS3 version the Wii version is not that far behind on graphics (which shocked me actually given last years massive disparity). I ordered it from wweshop and got 20% off (it was already on sale for $44) and free shipping for their christmas deal

How hard is it to pull of finishers on the Wii? I know in SvR2k8 the wiimote recognition was very good and I had little trouble

[wolf-manj]

Didn't buy L4D yet. Waiting in case I get it for xmas or something.

Can't be played cross platform because Valve also owns, and runs STEAM on the PC. Steam doesn't work with the Live service as they are two seperate services.

Now Games that are marketed as supporting Microsoft LIVE and have an Xbox Live Counterpart will be cross platform

Shadowrun, Halo 2, Supreme Commander, Red Alert, Universe At War, Lost Planet (ONLY THE COLONIES EDITION. The ORIGINAL Release worked with Steam), are some of the ones you can cross platform play

Also L4D PC will run on a P4 3Ghz w 1GB RAM, and a 256mb video card that supports DX9.0c
Basically a four year old machine can play it although they may need to get an inexpensive card to hobble along until their next computer if they didn't buy a decent card at the time.
Still You could get a 256mb Video card on newegg for $25. Will it look that great? No but it'll tide one over.

Thanks I'll let him know.

and thanks marka for the other part

[Skullface]

Iwata claims both the Wii and DS sold 800,000 units each in the post-thanksgiving week.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/936/936381p1.html

[markatisu]

Iwata claims both the Wii and DS sold 800,000 units each in the post-thanksgiving week.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/936/936381p1.html

Most analysts are predicting this Thurs when NPD sales for Nov are released the Wii will have broken the November sales record with between 1.2-1.5m sold (which crushes last years Wii record and the PS2 record)

[bcbsdrg]

I just got prince of persia for ps3. Funny thing I noticed while playing though. I was like,he sounds like drake form uncharted,especially when making wisecracks. I looked it up,and it is,and intentional. If you like the prince of persia games u will like it. If not,then maybe not worth a purchase.

[Skullface]

Sony cuts 8000 jobs:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/.../as_japan_sony

Doubt any of them will be from their video game departments, but you never know - Their aggressive push to win the hi-def format war is coming back to bite them!

Rygar for Wii delayed 2 months:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/936/936853p1.html

Kinda crappy that they waited until the DAY IT WAS SUPPOSED TO SHIP to announce the delay. Doesn't affect me, as I played the game 5 years ago on PS2, but I'm sure there was at least 1 person who was looking forward to getting this for X-Mas......

[markatisu]

Rygar for Wii delayed 2 months:

http://wii.ign.com/articles/936/936853p1.html

Kinda crappy that they waited until the DAY IT WAS SUPPOSED TO SHIP to announce the delay. Doesn't affect me, as I played the game 5 years ago on PS2, but I'm sure there was at least 1 person who was looking forward to getting this for X-Mas......

Well they added in some new enemies and weapons, but pretty much its the same 5 year old game.

The kicker to the delay is some people already received their copies, even IGN reviewed it and 1up was about to post their review before the delay.

[TheDeviot]

I decided to buy this tonight, based in part to your recommendations, plus after playing the PS3 version the Wii version is not that far behind on graphics (which shocked me actually given last years massive disparity). I ordered it from wweshop and got 20% off (it was already on sale for $44) and free shipping for their christmas deal

How hard is it to pull of finishers on the Wii? I know in SvR2k8 the wiimote recognition was very good and I had little trouble

Finishers are super easy. Hold B+A and swing.
If the opponent isn't in danger you do your Wrestler's "Mid Match" move called "Signature" Like Ric Flair would do the Chop Block for example.
But if the opponent IS in danger it does the finishing move. In this instance Flair would do the Figure Four.

You can do so much crowd interaction too! You can throw your opponent into the retaining wall, Grapple him, and if a fan has a guitar you'll use the opponent's face like a pic! Even better the guitar strings strum through the Wiimote speaker! There are other things like spitting a fans soda on the opponent, throwing them over the retaining wall... etc.
During Hell in the Cell if you're on the top of the cell using the special (Finishers) throws the opponent off of the cell.

The cage matches are a million times more fun now because you don't have to button mash to escape. Instead you actually have to motion the nunchuck, and wiimote as if you are climbing out of the cell. You can also (Finally) escape by trying to bash the door open. Plus if your opponent tries to get out through the door you can pull them back in before their feet hit the floor.

In backstage brawls you can throw your opponent into the cameraman, and you'll see the screen get all static distorted as if your cable service went out, an you had snow.

These are just some of the cool things you can do, outside of the actual wresting which in of itself is really well done imho.

Best of all you can unlock Hornswoggle who comes out from under the ring and tosses you a shelaliegh when the ref's back is turned.

pm me your friend code, and I can play against you sometime.

[markatisu]

The cage matches are a million times more fun now because you don't have to button mash to escape. Instead you actually have to motion the nunchuck, and wiimote as if you are climbing out of the cell. You can also (Finally) escape by trying to bash the door open. Plus if your opponent tries to get out through the door you can pull them back in before their feet hit the floor.

Really?!? Thank god, Cage matches is something I have loathed since No Mercy/Wrestlemania 2000 because you had to already button mash like your life depended on it

pm me your friend code, and I can play against you sometime.

I will have to do that, I think when you and I played SSBB there was little to no lag (in just 2-3 player, when 4 player came on it went straight to hell)

And for those RPG fans, Square held a surprise press event tonight to give the release date for Dragonquest 9 (3/28/09) and to announce the Dragonquest X will now be on the Wii!

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssT...00313920081210

The Wii finally gets its BIG Role Playing Game

[Skullface]

PS Home open to everybody with tomorrow's PSN store update:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/937/937172p1.html

[krosfyah]

Well they added in some new enemies and weapons, but pretty much its the same 5 year old game.

The kicker to the delay is some people already received their copies, even IGN reviewed it and 1up was about to post their review before the delay.

Rygar is headed for the wii? I never knew! you know I played it when I borrowed my friend's ps2 and thought it was GREAT I really thought it would have made a great engine for MOTU (esp near the end when you come upon that lion structure I just imagined the central tower of eternia!_) and I maintain to this day that without Rygar there'd be no God of War series. anyway I'd get Rygar for 3 reasons I really liked it, I didn't finished it before I had to return it and Rygar is an anagram for my name!

[ehenyo]

PS Home open to everybody with tomorrow's PSN store update:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/937/937172p1.html

It's ABOUT time!

[Skullface]

It's ABOUT time!

Hey, it's only a year and a half late!

We'll see how it is now. The Beta was extremely slow loading, boring and limited, functionality-wise. But then again, it was a Beta. Here's hoping with the full feature set available it'll hold my attention longer.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

So, Home is going to be a free download, correct? Or is there a cost for using it?


And speaking of costs, I wonder if anyone can answer a question about purchasing PS3 downloads.

Recently I just went ahead and set up my credit card on my PS3 account so it gets charged for the things I download, and I have since downloaded a few things like game add-ons (including Yoda for SC4 and the character pack add-on for Force Unleashed).

What I noticed is that when I buy these downloads, I get charged tax. I assume that this is because I am 'purchasing' these from Sony, and since Sony has physical stores in the state that I live in, I get charged the tax.


But, my question is this. If I go to a store, buy one of these cards (which rather than using a 'points' system like Microsoft or Nintendo, it's just a straight value of $20 or $50), I know I will get charged tax for purchasing the card. Once I upload the value from these cards to my PS3 account and use that value to download stuff, will I still get charged tax on the actual downloads?

I'm thinking the answer is yes, but I'm not sure. If it is yes, then that kind of stinks since I'm basically getting charged tax twice on what (in a round and about way) is one purchase.

If anyone knows anything more about this, please let me know.

[Skullface]

So, Home is going to be a free download, correct? Or is there a cost for using it?


And speaking of costs, I wonder if anyone can answer a question about purchasing PS3 downloads.

Recently I just went ahead and set up my credit card on my PS3 account so it gets charged for the things I download, and I have since downloaded a few things like game add-ons (including Yoda for SC4 and the character pack add-on for Force Unleashed).

What I noticed is that when I buy these downloads, I get charged tax. I assume that this is because I am 'purchasing' these from Sony, and since Sony has physical stores in the state that I live in, I get charged the tax.


But, my question is this. If I go to a store, buy one of these cards (which rather than using a 'points' system like Microsoft or Nintendo, it's just a straight value of $20 or $50), I know I will get charged tax for purchasing the card. Once I upload the value from these cards to my PS3 account and use that value to download stuff, will I still get charged tax on the actual downloads?

I'm thinking the answer is yes, but I'm not sure. If it is yes, then that kind of stinks since I'm basically getting charged tax twice on what (in a round and about way) is one purchase.

If anyone knows anything more about this, please let me know.

Not quite sure on that. I have purchased M$ points cards at Gamestop and not been charged tax, nor have I been charged extra points for tax on LIVE for DLC. I've bought M$ points through the LIVE Marketplace as well, and not been charged tax. I HAVE been charged tax for M$ cards at Best Buy though.

The only things I've purchased from the PSN store are MK2, Beats, and Bionic Commando: Rearmed. On the first 2, I added funds from my credit card. ($10) For these, I was not charged any tax for the actual purchase at $4.99 each. (I'd have to dig out the credit card statement to see if there was tax involved on that charge.)

I was charged tax for Bionic Commando: Rearmed though. Maybe the Playstation Store or the Playstation website has an FAQ somewhere. That would be a little off to get charged tax twice, but I'm not sure how things like that work.

One would think that the both the PSN cards and M$ cards were tax free, similar to purchasing gift cards at say Target, Best Buy, etc. where you don't pay tax on the card purchase, but on the merchandise. Sorry I'm not much help.

Oh, and Home should be a free download.

[markatisu]

Here is a detailed breakdown of the new 360 model "Jasper"

Looks like RROD may be gone for good

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3472

Which brings us to Jasper today, a noticeably smaller GPU die thanks to the move to 65nm and a potentially complete fix to the dreaded RRoD. There are a lot of assumptions being made here and it's just as likely that none of this is correct, but given that Falcon and its glue-supported substrates didn't solve RRoD I'm wondering if part of the problem was actually not correctable without a significant redesign of the GPU, something I'm guessing had to happen with the move to 65nm anyways.

It took about a year for RRoD to really hit a critical mass with Xenon and it's only now been about a year for Falcon, so only time will tell if Jasper owners suffer the same fate. One thing is for sure, if it's a GPU design flaw, then Jasper was Microsoft's chance to correct it. And if it's a heat issue, Jasper should reduce the likelihood as well.

And how to tell if you are buying a Jasper

http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/sho...spx?i=3472&p=2

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Skullface, thanks for the info.

Home being free is sweet.


I can sort of understand being charged tax at the stores for the cards, since they are really a round-and-about way of buying games and game-add-ons. IMO they aren't exactly the same thing as buying a Best Buy gift card, etc (not that I would complain if the same tax-free rules applied, but it's just not something that I would expect).

I wasn't aware that Gamestop doesn't tax them (at least the Xbox ones). I'll have to keep that in mind, and hopefully the same rule applies to the PSN cards. I think most of the Xbox points cards I've bought have been from Best Buy, so I've always been charged tax on those as far as I can remember.


And I think the reason why there is no tax on the actual downloading of DLC on Xbox is because you are using up 'points' rather than paying $4.99 or $5.00 (even though in the grand scheme of things that it what you are paying). But since the PSN downloads aren't point based and instead are a based around a straight-up cash value, it probably works a little differently.

[ChemicalChemical]

Anyone else get Persona 4?

The series is so exciting and I think it's the great j-pop hope for Japanese RPGs. I had gotten out of JRPGs a few years ago but Persona 3 and FFXII really got to me.

I still enjoy Western RPGs more. Someone really needs to make one that combines the best elements of both.


Speaking of Western RPGs, if you like awesomeness you should check out The Witcher. It's coming to consoles in Fall 2009 and I'll be buying it again for a third time. (I have the original and the Extended Edition on PC).

[markatisu]

November 2008 US NPD Sales, Wii makes video game history

1. Wii 2.04M
2. DS 1.57M
3. Xbox 360 836k
4. PSP 421k
5. Playstation 3 378k
6. Playstation 2 206k

The previous record holder was the Sony PS2 in Nov 2002 with 1.3m, the Wii has shattered that record

Software US Sales-November 2008

1. GEARS OF WAR 2* (360) 1.56 million
2. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* (360) 1.41 million
3. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE (WII) 796K
4. WII FIT (WII) 697K
5. MARIO KART (WII) 637K
6. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR (PS3) 597K
7. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* (WII) 475K
8. LEFT 4 DEAD (360) 410K
9. RESISTANCE 2* (PS3) 385K
10. WII MUSIC (WII) 297K

• Wii Music back from the dead
• Little Big Planet gone from Top 10, PS3 getting demolished in market
• Gears of War 2 almost at 4mil! 1 in 5 360 owners bought a copy
• Sony family only amounts to around 1mil, barely beat the 360 with sales of 3 systems

[ehenyo]

Anybody know if Guitar Hero World Tour will come out for PC? I can't find any information, but before I give up hope, wanted to check in here.

[TheDeviot]

Anybody know if Guitar Hero World Tour will come out for PC? I can't find any information, but before I give up hope, wanted to check in here.

I'm sure it will eventually. They did port GHIII.
But I'm certain it will get delayed for a few months after the 360 version.

[Flor2099]

Downloaded Home last night, my girlfriend and I made a character of her, and within five seconds of entering the plaza, I had "sup", "where u from" and something that was censored. It continued this way the entire time we were logged in, being followed and harassed, and I could see the same thing was happening to every other female character.

I mean, I knew to expect some crap, but I can't believe the extent of it.

[krosfyah]

Downloaded Home last night, my girlfriend and I made a character of her, and within five seconds of entering the plaza, I had "sup", "where u from" and something that was censored. It continued this way the entire time we were logged in, being followed and harassed, and I could see the same thing was happening to every other female character.

I mean, I knew to expect some crap, but I can't believe the extent of it.

i can imagine. i hate these social networking things because they are so full of immature morons that can't talk to girls or people in real life. ugh sickening.

[wolf-manj]

Is there something wrong with home right now? I downloaded the 77 MB file and then clicked on home after it installed. It then goes to a screen that says Warning This game accesses the HDD at certain points. Do not switch off the system while the HDD access icon is displayed. X Continue. I pressed X and it isnt doing anything.

[markatisu]

I loaded up WWE Raw vs Smackdown 2009 for Wii and wow what a difference

They fixed almost everything I had problems with in 2008, the game moves fast and the moves are much easier to pull off. I was doing Cena's finshers almost instantly and I love how you can hype the crowd during your interactive intro and after the match you can lift up your opponent and shake their hand

My friend code is 3910-1372-9426 if anyone wants to play me online

I played a few online matches, there was some lag but it worked out very nice. I of course got devastated but after each match my opponents shook my hand and raised it alongside theirs so that was nice to see

If they can just actually animate a crowd (the crowd seriously looks like they are from early demo N64 unfinished) I will be completely amazed with it

I love the Wii controls though, I rented the PS3 one and shockingly the graphics are not that much better (they are cleaner and shinier but thats about it) but the moves and gameplay is so robotic and difficult to get into