The Stupid Gamer

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 23, 2007 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ — After warming their amps in the basement garage to rocking sold out shows at Stonehenge, fans of Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) wildly popular Guitar Hero(TM) franchise will now be able to shred like never before with the next iteration of the game that will be available this fall. The new game will be released on the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system and PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Wii(TM) video game system from Nintendo.

The next iteration of Guitar Hero, published by RedOctane(R) and developed by Neversoft, is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information about Guitar Hero, please visit the dedicated community site www.guitarherogame.com.

New guitars? Master tracks on the songs? Wireless guitars? Online Multiplayer? This Fall? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And yes.

It all sounds great, except for one thing has me worried. Why does the press release mention that they are adding new colors to the guitars? Will this make our old guitars obsolete? If so, will the new guitars be backwards compatible with older Guitar Hero games? I for one don’t want to buy another new guitar. I already have guitars for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360. I feel that I’v already bought enough of them. Hopefully the new guitars are optional. Even with the promise of wireless, I’d much prefer to just buy the disc this time around.

Also, if a full-blown game is coming this Fall, what does that say about Guitar Hero II DLC on the 360? Will it be limited to filling in the GH I tracklist? I guess we’ll have to wait for more details.

From a recent Rockstar Press Release:

New York, NY - May 21, 2007 - Rockstar Games is proud to announce that Grand Theft Auto IV will be available as a special edition on October 16 in North America and October 19 in Europe, the same day as the regular edition of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition will be presented in a customized Grand Theft Auto metal safety deposit box. The box will contain:

–Grand Theft Auto IV on the Xbox 360â„¢ video game and entertainment system or the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system, both with special packaging

–The Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book, featuring never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV

–Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV, featuring new material from top artists, only available on this release

–An exclusive Rockstar keychain for the safety deposit box keys

–Completing the collection is a limited edition Rockstar duffel bag

All of the items have been created with the utmost attention to detail to create a unique Grand Theft Auto IV experience for any fan of the series. The Grand Theft Auto IV Special Edition is available for pre-orders today and will retail for $89.99 in North America.

$89.99?!!?!? Are you kidding me? There is no way that this package is worth an extra $30. Most people that get suckered into this package will end up stuffing it into a box and either letting it rot under their bed or hide away in a closet. People, don’t pay $30 for $3 worth of promotional crap. I still think games are overpriced at $59.99, but I can deal with it. There was a time when this sort of stuff used to be given away for free just for preordering a game. It looks like those days are pretty much gone. Unless that safety deposit box is so nice that you feel like you should get a real safety deposit box for it…don’t bother. Methinks it’s just going to be thin tin.

$89.99? Hahahahahahahardly worth it. Actually, not worth it at all.

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, for the Nintendo Wii has finally been given a release date in the US. The game is scheduled to release on August 20th; making it the perfect holdover until Halo 3 hits the following month.

Other titles from Nintendo to receive release dates include:

• Super Mario Strikers - July 30
• Batallion Wars 2 - September
• Sim City DS - July
• Brain Age 2 - August 20

Several 3rd parties have also released their schedules, including EA’s Madden coming in August, Heroes of Mana from Square Enix coming in August 14, and EA’s Boogie this Fall.

Hardware (Numbers rounded to the nearest thousand)

Nintendo DS 471,000
Wii 360,000
PlayStation 2 194,000
PlayStation Portable 183,000
Xbox 360 174,000
Game Boy Advance 84,000
PlayStation 3 82,000 (seriously)
GameCube 13,000

The DS and Wii dominated things on the hardware side this month, thanks to strong sales generated by Pokemon and Super Paper Mario. Basically, the PlayStation 3 is just getting steamrolled by the 360 and Wii. Hopefully this will bring the rumored PS3 price drop upon us much sooner.

Software Top Ten

NDS POKEMON DIAMOND VERSION
NDS POKEMON PEARL VERSION
WII SUPER PAPER MARIO
WII WII PLAY W/ REMOTE
360 GUITAR HERO 2 W/ GUITAR
PS2 GUITAR HERO 2 W/GUITAR
360 SPIDER-MAN 3
PS2 SPIDER-MAN 3
PS2 GOD OF WAR II
PS2 MLB ‘07: THE SHOW

Pokemon Diamond sold over 1 million copies while Pearl was over 700,000; which easily put the two titles on the top of the chart. Super Paper Mario rounded out the top three, selling over 325,000 during the month.

As being reported by the Daily Mail, the unfortunate owner of a life-sized Lara Croft statue had his house raided by police who mistook the mannequin for a gunman. The man was planning on selling the statue on eBay.

According to the report, the Lara Croft statue remains in police possession as evidence.

Uh oh. That’s sure to get the feathers ruffled. In an article at Next Generation, Peter Moore was quoted as saying:

“I’ve walked a mile in those shoes,” he says. “I’m digging up my tortured past here, but remember Dreamcast?” And there it is. PlayStation 3 is Dreamcast. How delicious is that?“

I don’t think it’s safe to say that the PS3 is anywhere near what the Dreamcast was. While the Dreamcast was a great system, it was ultimately the final failure for Sega in the hardware market. The PlayStation 3 will eventually rebound and do just fine. This WILL NOT be Sony’s last console. Even though the start has been turbulent and highly criticized by the press and gaming community, Sony’s brand strength is way too powerful for the slide to continue forever.

Sony will get it turned around…Peter is being a bit too giddy here about recent sales trends.

While the date has been rumored for quite some time now within the gaming press community, Bungie finally made it official. Halo 3 will be launching on September 25th in North America. The game will (obviously) be accompanied with huge marketing campaigns, including tie-in products with Mountain Dew, the Microsoft Zune, many retail outlets, and more.

Microsoft is touting the upcoming release as the most anticipated game release of all time, and they may be right. However, I think with the smaller install base of the 360 as compared to the original Xbox when Halo 2 released, it would be pretty shocking if the game sold as much (or more) as Halo 2 did on its launch date.

Halo 3 releases one day later in Europe.

Reminiscent of what is happening with FASA and Microsoft, it appears that Sony is preparing to cut ties with Incog Inc. once Warhawk is completed. Internal sources from Sony, as well as some external sources close to the team, have confirmed that Sony’s displeasure with Incog is causing them to part ways.

Sony is reportedly looking to form a new studio with those that choose to continue their relationship with the Japanese-based hardware maker. As for Incog, hopefully they’ll find financial backing of some form soon so that they can continue to make quality software. Since these reports are in no way official, no word was given on what would happen with the IPs that Incognito has handled for Sony in the past.

Incog is famous for their work on the Warhawk, Twisted Metal, and other notable series in the past decade.

Praise be. Yes, it seems as if tomorrow will be the day that us owners of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD add-on drive will finally see an update to the peripheral’s firmware. Included in the update is the elimination of the permaweak sound output.

So, at 2:00am PST, the following will be fixed on your HD-DVD drive:

-Lip sync issues
-Dolby Digital+ soundtracks being stuck in night mode (horribly unbalanced, muddy, or quiet sound)
-Playback issues on certain individual titles

I for one love cranking my sound to 90% of maximum when watching an HD-DVD just to hear anything spoken and then turning it back down to 20% to play a game. Maybe I’ll have to hold off downloading the update so I can keep this practice up. The best is when I forget to dial down the sound when switching from a movie to a game and my cousin (who lives two states away) is reminded that “It’s in the game” if I’m playing an EA Sports title.

Gamerscore Blog is reporting that Aegis Wing, an intern project for XBLA, will be available for free this week for North American audiences. The game is a 2D shmup that looks gorgeous with support for 4 players over Live.

Make sure to pick up the game this week, as its free status is for a limited time only.

Source: Gamerscore Blog