The Stupid Gamer

Pretty nifty deal, huh? Right now, until February 3rd, if you pick up BioShock at Gamestop, you’ll receive a free copy of The Darkness. If you don’t have BioShock yet, somehow 2K games has managed to give you another reason to do so immediately. While I personally felt that the The Darkness was a bit of a disappointment, it’s definitely worth playing through for the interesting mechanics and setting.

BioShock finished second in my personal top 10 games of 2007, and it’s won many, many, game of the year awards from other publications and media outlets. I know that many of us are dealing with some crazy post-holiday backlogs, but you really should promote BioShock to the top of you list. Don’t be silly, buy this game!

Again, you only have until February 3rd to take advantage of the deal.

Here are the songs that will be available later this week. I’ll be grabbing the Smashing Pumpkins and Rush offerings, but I’ve never been big on the Coheed and Cambria stuff. Still 2 out of 3 isn’t too bad. Remember, songs with an asterisk are cover tracks.

Siva - Smashing Pumpkins (160 points)
*Working Man - Rush (160 points)
*Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial) - Coheed and Cambria (160 Points)

Unless you have enough faith in Turok, the release is pretty weak overall. I guess Bomberman could provide some good fun, but is it different enough to warrant a purchase right now? I know that I’ll be grabbing 1080 Snowboarding for sure, however. I still think that’s the best snowboarding game ever made.

Xbox 360:

• Turok

PlayStation 3:

• Turok

Nintendo Wii:

• Bomberman Land

PSP:

• Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice
• Bomberman Land

Nintendo DS:

• Bomberman Land Touch! 2

Virtual Console:

• 1080 Snowboarding (N64)

Starting in February, Sega and Nintendo will start releasing Master System/Mark III, and Game Gear games to the Wii’s Virtual Console service. The first titles that are scheduled to be released are Fist of the North Star and Fantasy Zone. While there isn’t a huge number of great games to be had here, there are enough that the announcement is exciting.

 

This might be the first time ever that I’ll be able to complete a Game Gear game without having to scramble for an AC adapter to get plugged in before my batteries die. I actually still have my Game Gear and pull it out once in a while, but I haven’t touched a Master System in at least ten years. Enduro Racer, anyone?

News source: Link

Best Buy sent a notice to employees that the 80GB PS3 is being discontinued and that the only model offered from here on out will be the more economical 40GB version. This is kind of a bummer because it’s points to a total discontinuation of backwards compatibility support for PS2 and PSOne titles on the PlayStation 3 unless you’re willing to wait for and purchase the titles over PSN. This image was yanked from a Best Buy bulletin (click to enlarge):

Remember that it was Best Buy that first mentioned the discontinuation of the 20GB and 60GB models, so this is pretty conclusive evidence. As a 60GB owner, I’m really hoping that my console never has an issue because I love the BC aspect of the console. If you were holding off on getting a PS3, maybe it’s time to take the plunge if you value PS2/PSOne game support (via discs). In my opinion this is a terrible move, but whatever. Sony is trying to push the PS3 as a good value, but the hardcore Sony fans can’t be too happy.

IGN’s newest podcast, GameSages, is now up and running with its first episode. The podcast brings together industry veterans from IGN, 1up, OXM, GameSpy, and former editorial director of Gamespot, Jeff Gerstmann. That’s right, Jeff is back on the mic and ready to discuss games again. While it’s not clear whether or not this will be the regular cast or if IGN will be rotating hosts, the show seems like an excellent idea. You can check the podcast out by subscribing to the IGN feed, or you can download it through our link below the picture.

GameSages, Episode 1: Download

And yes, the Stupid Gamer podcast is coming back. Scheduling and health issues continue to hinder us, but we will be back!

This week we get the Oasis pack, and the videos I’ve seen look pretty good. Wonderwall is sure to be a bit for the sing a long crowd. All three songs are pretty good songs, but where’s Champagne Supernova? Still, I’ll be picking the pack up when it’s available tomorrow on Xbox Live Marketplace. All three songs are master tracks, by the way.

Oasis Pack (440 MS points)

• Don’t Look Back in Anger (160 MS points)
• Live Forever (160 MS points)
• Wonderwall (160 MS Points)

Burnout Paradise is going to get the most attention this week, but it remains to be seen how well the open world is accepted for the franchise. I’m a bit skeptical after the demo, but I’m willing to give the game a fair shot. Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is my must-have pick of the week. No More Heroes looks pretty interesting as well. Here are the releases:

Xbox 360:

• Burnout: Paradise

PS3:

• Burnout: Paradise

Nintendo Wii:

• No More Heroes
• Endless Ocean
• Kawasaki Jet Ski
• One Piece Limited Adventure

Virtual Console:

• Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers (SNES)
• Adventures of Lolo 2 (NES)

PSP:

• Rainbow Island: Revolution

Nintendo DS:

• Advance Wars: Days of Ruin
• Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games
• Mega Brain Boost

I was at a Rock Band event last night at Sundance and they had the wireless guitars there. They played pretty much like the ones now, but, well, wireless. They still use the leaf switches (no clicky), but they felt a lot more responsive. To tell the truth, I usually use my GHII guitar when playing, but I did fine with the new guitar. I’ve got a full writeup of the event coming in the next day or two. I spotted Paris Hilton outside (blech), 50 Cent inside, and Scott Weiland inside as well. I can’t remember the name of the band that played, I think it was Incident Zero or something like that, but I’ll get the name for the writeup. And man…the things that go on in a VIP room back stage…

Here are a couple of pics:

Me looking like a dork on stage with the new guitar.

Ladies getting in on the action. That’s Jeff Castaneda, from MTV Games, kneeling down with the big grin.

Mallika, one of Harmonix’s concept artists (I got some good info on some neat upcoming RB stuff):

Sorry, but cool details about what I learned about PS2’s future with Rock Band, a possible Wii version, DLC content, and more will come in an official writeup. Just know that it was a great event and the Harmonix and MTV Games guys are some of the happiest people I’ve ever met in the industry.

Here are the hardware sales for December 2007. Sony’s PR overstated their numbers by more than a quarter million. Remember folks, when Sony gives numbers, they pass their shipped units off as sales. Also, it looks like Nintendo pretty much sold their full production capacity with the Wii, so again we have no idea what it could have sold if supply hadn’t been so tight. The DS continues to just steamroll the competition, however.

Hardware Sales

PlayStation 2 - 1,100,000
PlayStation 3 - 797,600
Sony PSP - 1,060,000
Xbox 360 - 1,260,000
Nintendo Wii - 1,350,000
Nintendo DS - 2,470,000

Software Sales Top Ten

360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE - 1.47 million
WII SUPER MARIO GALAXY - 1.40 million
PS2 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK - 1.25 million
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE - 1.08 million
360 ASSASSIN’S CREED - 893,000
360 HALO 3 - 742,700
NDS BRAIN AGE 2 - 659,500
PS2 MADDEN NFL 08 - 655,200
360 GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK - 624,600
WII MARIO AND SONIC: OLYMPIC GAMES - 613,000

The PS3 is still struggling mightily with software sales, but it’s surprising to only see one DS game in the top ten. As usual, the 360 is the software champion.

For more breakdown of the NPD, listen to the upcoming Stupid Gamer Podcast.