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May 2010 NPD’s
Well as I say every month, it’s my favorite time of the month as it’s NPD time. Time to see what software customers where buying and what hardware those games were moving.
Twitter and all the video game podcast’s were all over Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption so it’s no surprise to see it have the top spot. I bought the game but after 3 hours of game play I’ve yet to get hooked into it. I know I’m still early on in the game but I don’t get it yet.
1. Red Dead Redemption Xbox 360 – 945.9K
2. Red Dead Redemption PS3 – 567.1K
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2 Wii – 563.9K
4. UFC 2010: Undisputed Xbox 360 – 221.1K
5 UFC 2010: Undisputed PS3 – 192.3K
6. Wii Fit Plus w/Balance board Wii -
7. New Super Mario Bros Wii -
8. Alan Wake Xbox 360 -
9. Pokemon SoulSilver NDS -
10. Skate 3 Xbox 360 -
Hardware Sales:
Nothing out of the ordinary here as the Nintendo Wii continues secure the top spot in sales. June should be an interesting month to see if the new Xbox 360 slim can overtake the Wii.
PlayStation 3 154.5K
PSP 59.4K
Xbox 360 194.6K
Wii 334.8K
Nintendo DS 383.7K
ModNation Racer’s Review
Ever since the launch of the PlayStation 3 and the inevitable delay of Gran Turismo 5 there has been a huge gaping hole in Sony’s first party line up for racing games. Now that’s all changed with the release this week of ModNation Racer’s which was developed in Vancouver, Canada by United Front Games.
We all remember Sackboy and Little Big Planet the flagship game that brought the whole family together to “Create” levels together, “Play” levels together and finally to “Share” where they tackled puzzles in one of the best platformers of all time. United Front games has updated kart racing to the 21st century as their motto is also Create, Play and Share while keeping with some of the traditions that we all grew up loving in the Mario Kart franchise. Don’t freak out fan boys I’m not saying this is here to replace Mario Kart, this is just a new take on kart racing and I’m absolutely loving it so far.
The game’s lobby is something we don’t see very often, long gone are the menus and say hello to the Mod Spot. The Mod Spot is little track you race around in to get from one place to the next. Want to check out the top karts, top tracks, hot laps drive on over to it. Another little feature is that or Mod’s can enter your track and race around. I’ve had plenty of good laughs playing king of the hill on this little jump in the middle of the spot where all the racers would pile on top. Who knew you could have so much fun before the game has even really started.
How much you want to customize your character is totally up to you, you get a factory pre-set character but you can spend hours tricking him out. You can essentially start with a blank character and design him or her however you want. From the colour of skin, the type of eyes or mouths and then there’s clothing options like shirts, pants, hats, horns and so much more. Then there are basic shape stickers along with layering them allows you create one of your kick ass logos or you know the logo from your favorite movie or game.
Don’t like the way your kart looks? No problem there is a zillion different options to customize it. The first day I looked at the top karts available for download it was a Ferrari F1 car. Honestly, how freaking cool is that? That I can pretend to be Michael Schumacher driving around the tracks like a mad man while dropping power ups on my fellow drivers
When you feel like you’re ready to make your track so you have everyone on Playstation network test out your design skills you’ll have 4 preset themes to choose from – alpine, desert, seaside and jungle. Pick one and get to work by using the right analog stick to control any elevation changes you want. Make it is as high as the sky or dip low into the ground and maybe a figure 8 to boot. When you’re done designing the track it’s time to lay down the asphalt and if you want throw some chickens on the track for good laughs or have the game auto-populate everything for you.
Once your done creating it’s time to move on to single player career which is essentially training for the online XP races or XP series. ModNation Racer’s is a kart racer racer that allows players to race there way around tracks collecting power ups to blow other racers to kingdom come, while hitting boost pads, with drifting and drafting. You need to place in the top 3 to move on and you do unlock items to be used in creation mode. There are a ton of different power ups that feature 3 levels and didn’t features across each level. Drifting and drafting are important as they allow the player to fill up their boost meter to provide them with a shot of turbo or allow them to use that power to block enemy attacks. Getting point’s is easy, blow up a fellow racer or drift. The drift mechanic is really well done and it makes the game a ton of fun. The only disappointment about the drifting mechanic is that if your drifting in to a left hand turn you cant switch that into a right hand drift for the next turn. You need to stop and restart your drifting. So once your power meter is filled up the big question is do you use it for boost or do you save and try to block attacks from fellow racers. The attacks are the typical rockets, lightning, etc and these attacks can be quiet devastating however they can be also be annoying. On many occasions I’ve found my self getting blown to pieces only to respawn and get blown up as soon as I respawn. I’ll talk more about that in the multi-player portion of this review. I also feel like I need to mention that during the progress of your career that AI get’s stupid difficult and can make it very tough for you to progress to the next race.
I need to mention that this game as some of the worse load times I’ve ever seen in a video game. I’m not sure how these got through certification. I’ve gotten so frustrated with the load times I’ve almost quit playing the game. I’ve literally had time to do the dishes in between races that maybe a bit of execration but you get the point.
The multi-player portion of this game consists of playing with friends or for XP. There are only 2 races types in the XP mode which are XP races or XP series. The XP races are fun if you don’t have much time to play but the real meat is the 5 race XP series. I haven’t experienced any issues with lag so that’s gotta mean United Front Games has developed some really solid net code for this game. I’ve had an absolute blast playing against a solid group of players for 5 racers. If you have the chance I highly recommend to hop online and play the game. Like I mentioned earlier you can get spammed by enemy weapons and it’s one of the most annoying parts about playing online.
ModNation Racer’s is a solid game with very easy but deep creation tools. The game mechanic’s are fairly solid and it’s just a ton of freaking fun. This game isn’t perfect it has it’s faults but definitely worth spending your money on. Oh yes I forgot to mention it does feature 4 player split-screen for you family gamers.
read moreModNation Racers Launch Event
On Thursday May 20th the Canadian media was invited out the ModNation Racer’s launch event for a day of hands on time with the game and of course some Go Karting at the 401 Mini Indy in Toronto.
ModNation Racer’s is developed by United Front Games who is located in Vancouver. The motto behind MNR is “Play, Create, and Share”, you may remember a similar motto from another Sony title Little Big Planet.
The game looks great and the controls work really well. The typical premise of a racing game is to drift around corners, collect boost, collect power up’s to blow your enemies out of the track and you also have the ability to block enemy attacks as well.
I had the most fan sitting down making my character and I think the real legs of this game are going to come from the user generated content. I wish I had more time to sit down and design a track for everyone to play but don’t worry as soon as the game is released on May 25th I’ll be working hard to get a level out. I’m also excited to see what their downloadable content plan will be for this game. What kind of crazy cool stickers, objects, animals and potential tie in’s with other Sony franchises.
Photo’s from the Event:
Follow up – Astro A40′s
Well it’s been about 4 months since my loving girlfriend bought me a set of the Astro A40′s and Mix up for Christmas or whatever holiday you call it. I think it’s time for a follow up since my review. These beauties sound amazing, it’s as simple as that. With my girlfriend in her final year of university there was a lot of studying going on, a lot of papers being written and not wanting to sacrifice all the amazing titles that have come out in the last 4 months the A40′s have earned every penny of the $249.99 price tag however there are a few complaints for home use I have that I would like to see fixed for a future enhancement.
My sofa is about 5 feet away from my home entertainment console so I have 2-3 cables spanning across my living room floor onto my sofa so I can control the mix amp. So I could spend an extra 20 bucks and buy the re-chargeable battery for the mixamp to eliminate 1 wire. Great I still have 2 wires for sound from my Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Great, super annoying. I don’t really need to control the sound of every game every minute.
Another issue I’m having is trying to figure out how to get all my audio sources into a receiver and than have the output into the mixamp. So Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 sound into a receiver via optical in using optical out into the mixamp. Great it sounds easy on paper but I just can’t seem to figure what components to buy. If you have ideas, send them my way.
Other than my small personal annoyances, I love them.
read moreReview :Heavy Rain Chronicles: The Taxidermist
The first piece of downloadable content for Heavy Rain has arrived for $4.99 USD. This puts back into the game as Madison Paige as she cruises on her motorcycle on her way to continue investigating the Origami Killer story. You arrive at the Taxidermist and low and behold he is not home and Madison needs to find a way in to the house so she can begin to investigate the situation and create an article for her paper. Madison ravages through the house and stumbles upon a room covered in blood, guts in a sink and a dead body in a bathtub. She stumbles out of the room. I won’t reveal what happens next as its pacing, background noises and following game play are some of the best in Heavy Rain. It’s unfortunate that this chapter was potentially cut from the game.
The issue I have is it’s only 15 minutes in length, very short piece of game play for $4.99 however if your like me and loved Heavy Rain this is something you should play.
read moreMarch NPD’s
It’s one of my favorite times of the month, NPD sales are released. Just a reminder that these are NOT the Canadian numbers.
The DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL take the top spot this month. The 360 and PS3 both very respectable numbers and the PSP was almost outsold by the PS2. Seriously? why are people STILL buying that console?
1.Nintendo DS 700.8K
2.Wii 557.5K
3.Xbox 360 338.4K
4.PlayStation 3 313.9K
5.PSP 119.9K
6.PlayStation 2 118.3K
Dear Kratos, thanks for the awesome combos you allowed me to pull while slaying Greek gods. Check out my review here. I’m playing a Final Fantasy game for the first time in my life and I’m very much enjoying it so far and god damn does it look stunning on the Playstation 3,No wonder it outsold the 360 version!. Battlefield Bad Company 2 is still my go to multiplayer game and props goes out to Dice for making a great game.
01. God of War III (PS3) – 1,100,000
02. Pokemon SoulSilver (DS) – 1,020,000
03. Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) – 828,200
04. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360) – 825,500
05. Pokemon HeartGold (DS) – 761,200
06. Final Fantasy XIII (Xbox 360) – 493,900
07. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) – 457,400
08. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3) – 451,200
09. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 429,600
10. MLB 10: The Show (PS3) – 349,200
A Day in the Life of Sam Fisher
It was Saturday March 27th, 2010, the temperature was 5 degrees and the sun was shining bright. 40 teams, each consisting of 2 people, arrived on the Canadian National Exhibition grounds, in Toronto, to report for the Inside Splinter Cell Conviction Challenge.
After we registered for the event, we were provided with a sling backpack which was full of supplies. Inside the bag we were given a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) day pass, a $50 dollar pre-paid visa card, a mirror, a fake ID, snacks, water, TTC map, and a pen and paper. We were told to report back at 3:30pm for debriefing. Once the debriefing started, we were greeted by members of the Xbox team who explained the rules of the competition. Christophe Grand-Jean came on stage to tell us about the grand prize which was a trip to Montreal, where you would get the chance to hang out with the Splinter Cell development team and the opportunity to play the game with the team.
That was it, all the teams raced out to the lobby to get the first clue and there official Xbox 360 Splinter Cell jackets. Johnny Rotten73 and I formed an alliance with Mister Switch and his partner IvIxANTHMANxIvI . We dashed quickly up Bathurst Street to King to catch the King streetcar eastbound to a local Russian Vodka Bar, Pravda. Our challenge was to get information from Ivan, a local Russian Mafia member. It wasn’t easy, we had to head back out on to the street to find Vlad and ruffle a few feathers to get some information from him. We met back up with Ivan where he gave us our final challenge in the form of an image. We had to locate, using the image, a bottle of liquor and record the size of the bottle, percentage of alcohol and the country of origin. We gave this information to Ivan and he stamped our passport, Challenge 1 in Soviet Russia completed.
We only needed to complete 3 of the 4 challenges so we skipped the Mark and Execute challenge and because challenge number 4, Isabella, was geographically closest we decided to head there. We checked in using our new identities, mine being Edward Flaspoehler. We waited in our room for a few minutes and got a phone call with the information we were waiting for. We cautiously made it to the Employee’s only basement, where we met someone who was tortured and tied up and needed serious medical attention. We gave him the little rations we had and he told us that reception was holding a package for room 304; we had what we needed to know! We got our package and got our passport stamped.
Then, we dashed west across town to Bathurst and Queen and snuck into the Burroughes Furniture store. Once inside, we had to carefully maneuver through the security office making sure not to wake the security guard in order to obtain a visitors pass. Once acquired, we ran up flights of stairs to the rooftop where we needed to locate vital information that was located on the side of a building. We than made it down to the 4th floor, where we needed to dodge security, hop on the elevator and dash around the back of the building to get our passport stamped.
That was it; it was time to get to the final destination, EB games at Bathurst and Bloor. We checked in and since we did not complete the Mark and Execute challenge we needed to locate a game that had the following UPC 6178962, which happened to be Avatar. We got our final clue, ran to the subway station and headed to Downsview station. Our new mission, locate the Splinter Cell Bus line. It was a long and agonizing 25 minute subway ride. Our minds ran through questions like, how many teams had made it the final destination? Where there any other teams on the subway with us? We made it! We were team 4 of 6 to qualify for the final challenge. We had to sit and wait on the TTC bus for the final 2 teams to show up and qualify. We waited for approximately 45 minutes and then took a quick 8 minute bus ride to our final destination. The only information we were told was that we were going to be locked up in a jail cell and tortured while the other 34 teams watched on.
So we waited for over an hour in our cell, then finally a riot occurred and we managed to escape our cells for a brief minute. We headed across the hall to the other cells, where we saw a bunch of numbers written on the wall. We quickly jotted these down and returned to our cells before the prison warden caught us and put us in the hole. A package was slipped into our cell and we had to decipher the numbers along with all the information we collected throughout our challenges to solve the puzzle.
Sadly, we couldn’t crack the code in time another team won. Congratulations to the winners, who took off in style… in a helicopter!
It was a long, physically and mentally exhausting day. As I sit here and write this piece, my body aches all over. I can barely walk around my apartment. I now know what Sam Fisher goes through on any mission and I’m really looking forward to playing Splinter Cell Conviction on April 13th 2010.
Thanks to all that organized the event it was a true blast to participate in.
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