Archive for November, 2008
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008
So imagine this: You’re a huge gamer who bought the Xbox 360 on day one. You stood in line for over 20 hours in the pouring rain, just for Microsoft’s newest console. Pretty hardcore, right? It gets better. Imagine now, with me, that over the course of the past several years, you’ve played games on your 360 nearly every chance you got. You’ve racked up a huge gamerscore, only to have it all taken away one day without ANY warning.
This is story of SlapStic reader “JackTheWhack.” Jack, whose real name is Jack Barbosa, not only had a huge gamerscore; he had more than any other person in the entire state of New Jersey: 121,250, in fact. He achieved this impressive score through renting via Gamefly for games that he was only mildly interested in, while he purchased many games that he thought could give him more lasting enjoyment. Obviously, with a score that high, he WAS a MASSIVE 360 fan.
So last night, while playing Mirror’s Edge, Jack received an achievement that he had already gotten earlier in the day. Confused, Jack went and checked out his Gamercard, where he discovered with considerable horror that he now had a Gamerscore of 25, and that his Gamer Zone had been changed to “Cheater.” He was also unable to change his Gamer Zone to anything else. This all went down with no warning from Microsoft, and not so much as a letter explaining things once they had done it. JackTheWhack had just gotten over three years of his gaming record wiped clean. There was no trial, and there was no jury. Microsoft simply assumed that he was a cheater, and took all of his Gamerpoints away from him.
This all seems very strange, especially given the fact that Jack was interviewed last Thursday to be featured as a “Spotlight Gamer.” He was told that his interview would be up on the 360 dashboard in around two weeks. So at what point did Microsoft decide that instead of being worthy of attention, Jack was a dirty cheater that deserved punishment?
Jack Barbosa is no cheater, and he called Microsoft themselves to see if he could get things straightened out. They essentially informed Jack that he was just out of luck, saying that it was “abnormal for a person to achieve an undisclosed amount of achievements in such a short period of time.” Jack even tried to find out what games or achievements on his gamercard were in question, but they refused to comment.
There are things working for Jack to make it seem obvious that he did not cheat. For one, he didn’t get the full 1,000 points on many of his games. Like many gamers, he simply gets as many achievements as he can before moving on to the next game if things start taking too long. So with a lot of games he DOES have the full 1,000 points, but more often he has closer to 500, or even as low as 5 for games that he really didn’t take a liking to.
I came upon all this information about the situation through an interview that I did with Jack. In it, he mentioned that he was selling all of his 360 products on his Amazon.com storefront. I asked him if he would consider going back to his 360 if he somehow managed to get all of his gamerpoints back, to which he responded, “I will never return to the 360, even if a new system were to be released. I would be gone.” He also went on to inform me that he will be purchasing a Playstation 3 as soon as possible and that all he wants from Microsoft is a change in their policies that will keep such a thing from ever happening to anyone else.
I find the entire thing utterly infuriating.
UPDATE
Microsoft has responded to this story, in the form of a letter that I received from Major Nelson himself. It reads:
Hey guys, I saw your story on ‘JackTheWhack’ earlier today. I wanted to let you know that we have investigated this situation and the evidence overwhelmingly supported an achievement reset. Our commitment to supporting safe, secure and satisfactory gameplay for the more than 14 million members of the Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. Microsoft will continue to employ and bolster anti-cheating policies to counter such activity.
All the best,
Link
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Monday, November 17th, 2008
Microsoft Xbox360
- Halo 3, Microsoft — 8.4
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision — 6.6
- Grand Theft Auto IV, Take-Two Interactive — 6.2
- Gears Of War, Microsoft — 5.3
- Forza Motorsport 2, Microsoft — 4.1
- Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft — 4.0
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane — 3.5
- Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, 2K Games — 2.6
- Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Activision — 2.5
- Madden NFL 08, Electronic Arts — 2.4
- Guitar Hero II, RedOctane — 2.3
- Call of Duty 2, Activision — 2.2
- Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, Ubisoft — 2.2
- Tom Clancy Rainbow Six: Vegas, Ubisoft — 2.2
- Call of Duty 3, Activision — 2.1
- Gears of War 2, Microsoft — 2.1
- Mass Effect, Microsoft — 2.1
- BioShock, 2K Games — 2.0
- Saints Row, THQ — 1.9
- Rock Band, MTV Games — 1.9
- Madden NFL 07, Electronic Arts — 1.8
- Fight Night Round 3, Electronic Arts — 1.8
- Dead Rising, Capcom — 1.8
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Ubisoft — 1.7
- Lost Planet, Capcom — 1.7
- Viva Pinata, Microsoft — 1.6
- Need for Speed ProStreet, Electronic Arts — 1.5
- Crackdown, Microsoft — 1.5
- Fable II, Microsoft — 1.5
- Project Gotham Racing 3, Microsoft — 1.5
- Need for Speed Most Wanted, Electronic Arts — 1.5
- FIFA 08, Electronic Arts — 1.4
- Perfect Dark Zero, Microsoft — 1.4
- Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, Ubisoft — 1.4
- Need for Speed Carbon, Electronic Arts — 1.4
- Army of Two, Electronic Arts — 1.4
- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, THQ — 1.3
- Madden NFL 09, Electronic Arts — 1.3
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, LucasArts — 1.2
- Tom Clancy Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Ubisoft — 1.2
- Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Eidos Interactive — 1.1
- Devil May Cry 4, Capcom — 1.1
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Konami — 1.1
- Project Gotham Racing 4, Microsoft — 1.1
- Pro Evolution Soccer 6, Konami — 1.1
- Dead or Alive 4, Tecmo — 1.0
- The Simpsons Game, Electronic Arts — 1.0
Sony PS3
Games listed in order of sales (in millions):
- Grand Theft Auto IV, Take-Two Interactive — 4.8
- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Activision — 3.7
- Motorstorm, Sony Computer Entertainment — 3.6
- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Konami — 3.4
- Resistance: Fall of Man, Sony Computer Entertainment — 3.2
- Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft — 2.9
- Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, Sony Computer Entertainment — 2.2
- Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Sony Computer Entertainment– 1.9
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2008, Konami — 1.6
- Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, RedOctane — 1.6
- FIFA 08, Electronic Arts — 1.6
- Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, Sony Computer Entertainment — 1.4
- Need for Speed: ProStreet, Electronic Arts — 1.4
- Devil May Cry 4, Capcom — 1.3
- Heavenly Sword, Sony Computer Entertainment — 1.2
- FIFA 09, Electronic Arts — 1.1
- WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008, THQ — 1.0
Posted in Gaming, Miscellanous, Site News | 2 Comments »
Monday, November 10th, 2008
I recently played Big Planet for the Playstation 3. I played a good solid taste of it, and it’s likely that had I played it to the fullest, as a reviewer of games I would have ended up giving it a score above 9.5 on the traditional scale.
Little Big Planet is a Platforming game with a cute, lovable, and quite realistic looking sock doll/hackey sack style humanoid critter, and his friends.
Gameplay consists of creative platforming levels along with tons of collectible add on elements for the user intertwined, as well as a full level creation feature that is really the centerpiece of the entire experience.
The truth about this game is that while it has some flaws, it is remarkably well put together. It is the type of effort that you would expect from Nintendo. While it’s not exactly revolutionary, it is very solid and intriguing. Not to mention that the characters are as cute and lovable as can be. The graphics on the game finally truly hit that “Pixar quality” that we were promised from the PS2 as well.
Sounds like the makings of a game changer for Sony doesn’t it? In fact, Sony fanboys have long hailed Little Big Planet as a “System Seller” for the PS3, the Youtube of console gaming, and crowned lovable little Sackboy as the Successor of Mario. But yeah, it’s just as you’re probably thinking. It’s not happening, nor will it.
When we look at recently released games such as Saints Row 2, PES: 2009, Fallout 3, and on the Microsoft side: Fable 2, Gears of War 2, and all of the above, Little Big Planet is getting creamed.
Don’t get the wrong idea, the title is selling well. But the truth is (all system specs aside) that if this had been a Nintendo title, it would have sold well over a million by now (probably 2), while LBP has yet to break 500k after 3 weeks. Meanwhile, the many games where you shoot each other (hey, nothing wrong with that), or compete directly such as sports continue to take the Lion’s share when it comes to sales.
PS3 gamers (as a whole) prefer titles that are more of the In your face competition type than of the cute, lovable, or even user-creative platforming type. They’d rather put together a team to go take out someone else’s team rather than put together a team to take on someone else’s level.
Mind you, this game will sell well. It may even sell 2 million by the end of the year if it’s very lucky, and eventually sell 5 or 6 million copies over the course of its long lifetime. But rest assured, by next January, the GTA4’s, Resistance 2’s and Guitar Hero’s will overtake it in monthly sales again since they have the base for the long haul. The as of yet unreleased Killzone 2 types, and the games listed earlier will continue to run circles around Little Big Planet. That’s just what the install base entails.
If Sony was truly serious about creating a successor to Mario they’d have done what Nintendo did to make Mario as popular as he’s become. They’d pack LBP in with every new console for free. However, Sony is still in the position of losing money on each console sold, and LBP cost a pretty penny to develop. So that is out of the question (taking into account the huge risk that would be considering the typical type of gamer that buys a PS3).
That Core HD gamer is for the most part appreciative of LBP, but not so much that they will buy it before the other games on the list, and that is a long list when you consider the cost of these games and the many others that will surely cut in line as they appear over the next year.
Little Big Planet is a brilliant game, that I will most surely buy at some point relatively soon now that I have a PS3. But successor to Mario it is not. Having played it, I’d rather wait 6 months or so myself until true quality user content reaches catalog levels. There are just too many games to buy, Sackboy frankly is no Mario; and as much fun as it is, LBP just doesn’t possess the must have magic that exudes from the games of Nintendo and Shigeru Miyamoto’s legendary plumber.
Link
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Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Looks like all is right with the world again, according to the latest numbers from Media Create. This week on Sony’s home turf, the PS3 moved 39,587 units — outselling the combined figures of the Wii and Xbox 360. Also worth noting is that PS3 sales jumped a whopping 907% from last week, when the PS3 sold only 3,931 units.
As we reported yesterday, Grand Theft Auto IV for the PS3 took first place on the Japanese charts — now we know it has sold 132,676 copies, while LittleBigPlanet and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: Spec III sold 51,705 and 34,965 copies, respectively. You’ll notice that Media Create has released slightly different numbers — for example, the 360 version of GTA IV is in eighth place now instead of fourth place. Hardware sales are below, software sales are after the jump:
Hardware and software sales for the week of October 27th - November 2nd:
- DSi — 171,925
- PSP — 50,358
- PS3 — 39,587
- Wii — 23,123
- DS Lite — 16,369
- PS2 — 6,714
- Xbox 360 — 6,119
- Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3) — 132,676
- Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One (DS) — 79,760
- LittleBigPlanet (PS3) — 51,705
- Pokemon Platinum (DS) — 47,243
- Wagamama Fassion Girls Mode (DS) — 40,380
- Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) — 38,558
- Gran Turismo 5 Prologue: Spec III (PS3) — 34,965
- Grand Theft Auto IV (360) — 33,648
- Your Life’s Rhythm DS (DS) — 26,191
- Chocobo’s Dungeon DS+ (DS) — 26,190
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