The Stupid Gamer

A few people have asked me what the best order is for taking down the bosses in Mega Man 9. Well, here you go. Start at the top of the list and work your way down using the previous boss’ weapon. For the first one, just use the Mega Buster, obviously. Attempting to take the bosses down in any other order is something you shouldn’t probably try to do until you’re a certified expert of the game. I managed to beat Jewel Man first, but it was very, very, tough.

• Galaxy Man
• Jewel Man
• Plug Man
• Tornado Man
• Magma Man
• Hornet Man
• Splash Woman
• Concrete Man

Microsoft has announced that the sales of the Xbox 360 have doubled since the recent price drop. As always, we won’t have specific numbers until the NPD hits next month, but it seems that Microsoft is setting themselves up for a big holiday run with a lower priced console and some big hitter games.

If you don’t have an Xbox 360 yet, now is pretty much the best time to get one. You can enjoy quite a bit of the library for a pretty good price, and the holiday lineup is stellar. Just make sure that if you go out and get one that you steer clear of the Arcade pack, it’s a terrible waste of money and Microsoft should be ashamed of themselves for still offering it.

If you’re a long time Guitar Hero fan, you’re probably used to swapping discs around during play sessions to play songs on different versions of the game. With Rock Band 2, Harmonix is going to allow gamers to migrate their Rock Band track list over to Rock Band 2. It does come with a price, however, which will be at 400 Microsoft points ($4.99). I guess that’s not too bad for the added convenience. Harmonix’s official announcement says: 

CAMBRIDGE, MA – September 4, 2008 - In an industry first, Harmonix Music Systems, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games announced today the release of a title update for Rock Band on the Xbox™ 360™ videogame and entertainment system from Microsoft that will make it possible for owners of the original Rock Band to export 55 tracks from the original Rock Band disc for play in the soon-to-be released Rock Band 2.

Beginning today, September 4th, the title update will add an “export disc” tab under the extras option in the Rock Band menus, allowing owners of the original Rock Band to expand their Rock Band 2 library to include 55 tracks from the original Rock Band track list for the nominal fee of $4.99 (400 Microsoft Points)[1]. In addition, this patch is required for all future downloadable content releases for Rock Band. Previously purchased DLC will not be affected.

The selection of 55 exportable Rock Band tracks joins the weekly downloadable content list of over 200 songs to date and Rock Band 2’sforthcoming setlist of over 100 songs [2] adding to the ever expanding Rock Band Music Library. By the end of 2008, Harmonix has promised an unprecedented 500 songs will be available for the Rock Band platform. For a complete list of Rock Band songs available for purchase and download to date, please go to http://www.rockband.com/dlc.

I’m still not sure if the loophole exists that you could just rent Rock Band, export the songs, and then play them all on Rock Band 2 (if it’s your first Rock Band game). We’ll know once all those wily little gamers start trying to do so, I’m guessing.

So the 360 controller is pretty much awesome already, but just about everybody out there has severe issues with the d-pad. Using the d-pad is about as accurate as if you decided to use a normal d-pad, but only use your big toe. The thing is squishy, has no range of movement, and is constantly returning false diagonal inputs. At Games Convention, over in Leipzig, Germany, IGN has reported that a new Xbox 360 controller with a redesigned d-pad has been shown. This is definitely good news for fans of fighters, arcade titles, and old-school games that have been released on the 360. I guess it’s never too late, right?

Now, when the new Xbox 360 chip sets were starting to appear on store shelves, you had to check for a few things on the packaging to determine whether or not you were getting a new model or one of the older ones. I haven’t heard whether or not the new controllers will have any differentiating marks on their packaging, but hopefully they do. IGN stated that the controller looks identical to the old model, it’s just much more responsive and accurate when used. Should you need some sort of trick to identify the new models when they ship, I’ll post a guide for doing so here.

Denis has been a very outspoken defender of Too Human on mainstream news sites, enthusiast press sites, message boards, blogs, and anywhere else anybody will offer up a soapbox for him to stand on. Well, a while back Denis made a bet with the NeoGAF community over how Too Human would be received. Earlier this week reviews started rolling in, and it quickly became obvious that Denis was on the losing side of the wager. Today, in a post started by site admin EvilLore, Denis’ plate of crow was offered up. The thread can be found here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331932.

Now, Denis got himself into this, but really I think we as a gaming community are being just a bit harsh on him. Yes, it’s providing some nice comedy for anybody willing to watch things unfold, but I think amid all the mudslinging that people should at least be giving Denis some props for being so candid and accessible to the general gamer. Denis, you blew it, but I really hope this doesn’t prevent you from interacting and communicating with the gaming audience. It looks like your game didn’t turn out as well as we (and you) would have liked, but I guarantee if you come back strong with a new project after Too Human that a lot of this can be swept under the rug.

Besides an awesome fighting engine, Soulcalibur 4 has a deep and powerful create a character system. As you play the game, you’ll unlock not only new characters, but new clothing pieces that you can use to customize them or to create your own from scratch. Below are some of my favorites. Oh, and after the first 5, I’m going to put the rest behind a jump just to keep the main page from being a beast to load up.

Altair - Assassin’s Creed

Auron - Final Fantasy X

The Hulk

Ken Masters - Street Fighter series

Link - Legend of Zelda

(more…)

So awesome. So awesome is the correct answer to that question.

Back when the Xbox 360 launched, it was no secret that it took a while for a worthwhile library to build up. The Xbox Live Arcade hit, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, was one of the few games that kept me firing up the Xbox 360 between the times when I was bit by the red ring of death (three times, and counting…). The Robotron-inspired twin stick shooter proved to be a perfect fit with Live Arcade and its Leaderboard functionality as the game pleased skilled veteran gamers and humbled pretenders. When Geometry Wars 2 was announced, I couldn’t have been happier to hear it.

Compared to Retro Evolved, Geometry Wars 2 offers more modes (6 in all), more challenges, better graphics, new enemies, and even better Leaderboard integration into the game. As you chase down your own high scores in each mode, you can see how far you are off at catching up to your buddy with the closest score to your own. This simple hook is enough to keep you falling victim to the “just one more game” trap.

Unlike many arcade-style games, each mode in the game is vastly different in regards to what is offered to the gamer. I won’t detail them here, but also worth noting is that none of the six modes are cheap or simply tacked on. And again, getting to the top of the Leaderboards on your friend’s list is enough motivation to keep you playing each of the six modes.

Geometry Wars 2 is easily one of the best games available on the Live Arcade service. There’s no reason why anybody that enjoys a solid challenge should pass on the game. Be warned, however, neither one of the Geometry Wars games is for the casual competitor.

For those interested in running me down in the Leaderboards, my Live Gamertag is Gamblor 155.

Back when Soulcalibur (yes, the correct spelling is one word) released on the Dreamcast, I thought I was in absolute heaven. To that point, I hadn’t played such an enjoyable and amazing looking 3D fighter. I was never too big of a fan of Tekken, and Virtua Fighter never seemed to click just right with me, but Soulcalibur was a game that I enjoyed from the first time I sat down with it. When Soulcalibur II came out, I ended up going with the GameCube version (while also sinking a few bucks each week into the arcade version in my college’s arcade), and again, I found the game to be quite enjoyable. By this point, Soulcalibur was becoming one of my favorite fighting series, and when Soulcalibur III was announced I was pretty happy about it. Upon release, however, Soulcalibur III was a terrible disappointment for me and I didn’t play the game beyond the five days I had it for a rental.

Flash forward a bit and Soulcalibur IV is revealed for the 360 and PS3. I was skeptical about the game due to the lackluster SCIII, and the fact that the screens shown seemed to mostly exist to show off Ivy’s boobs (which were unnecessarily and embarrassingly large). The game neared and I kind of pushed it aside in my mind, and a week before release I threw it to the top of my Gamefly Q. I figured I needed to at least give it a chance. Well, a day before release I found out that I was getting a review copy, so I’d be stepping back into the realm once more for sure.

Is that really necessary? I mean, c’mon…

After playing the game for a few hours and messing around in its various modes, I must say that I’m impressed. The online worked very smoothly for me, and despite some extremely rusty skills, I had a great time online. The single player offerings were as good as we’ve seen in the past, and the character creation system is just plain amazing. Soulcalibur IV has easily the best fighter character creation ability that I’ve ever seen. The amount of depth and customization allowed in the creator is very cool.

The gameplay sits somewhere between what we saw in SCII and SCIII. Namco Bandai seems to have found a balance between what they needed to tone down in II and what they needed to scale back from III. Even this early in the experience, I can tell that we’re dealing with a much more balanced fighter than the last release, and this time around we’ll be able to get patches and tweaks via downloadable updates if needed. I’ve spent my time with the 360 version, but I hear that the PS3 version is practically identical from a gameplay standpoint. If you’re a fan of 3D fighters, then Soulcalibur IV is a guaranteed pleaser.

Now that looks like fun!

I’ll have my full review coming soon. I think I want to spend a bit more time online to see if when the numbers of people on Live pick up if the lag stays at a minimum. For a fighter these days, online play is very important.

Sorry for the sloppy format, but it’s the best we could do for you. Here are the notes from the conference, in case you missed it.

Don Mattrick
-Biggest sellers touted (Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, BioShock, etc.)
-New franchises driving market expansion (Rock Band, Scene It, etc)
-Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5, Fable 2, Gears of War 2

Fallout 3
-Retro black and white video intro showing “ad” for Valut-Tec
-Pans out to desolated city, man holding a gun
-Rest of trailer will debut online in hours, will show harshness and humor of Fallout 3
-Live demo of Fallout 3…started by controller issues ;)
-Looks incredibly detailed, smooth
-Post-apocalyptic Washington DC
-Can play in 3rd or 1st person
-Character’s wristwatch shows skills, stats, perks, etc.
-Can play stealthy, combat-driven, or use speech to influence
-Can cue up moves when attacking enemies
-For some reason, Yankee Doodle and other patriotic songs are playing in the background
-Pretty gory…body parts are flying about
-Game has over 100 hours of gameplay, can explore massive areas of Washington DC
-Can be good, bad, or somewhere in between
-Demo ends with character using “The Fatman”, a mini-nuke weapon
-Game will have “substantial” DLC for 360 and PC

Resident Evil 5
-First time RE series on a MS console
-Demo shown, played by RE5 director
-Resident Evil 5 takes place in Kijuju, Africa
-Hero of the game, Chris Redfield investigating bioterrorism incident
-New organization called BSAA sent Chris
-Online co-op mode shown
-Chris’ partner named Sheva Alomar
-Also an agent of BSAA
-Chris tosses Sheva over a gap that neither could cross alone perviously
-As expected, it looks a lot like RE4 done in HD
-Teamwork very important to getting past obstacles and enemies
-I see exploding barrels everywhere
-Chainsaw man variant from RE4 attacks as demo ends
-Out March 13, 2009 in North America

Fable 2
-Fable 2 is already finished
-Trailer shown, apparently a glimpse at the opening of the game
-Setting is in a snowy environment, Albion has a strong European vibe
-Bird poops on a kid’s head…kind of an odd way to introduce your character
-Orbs on the screen represent your friends playing the game, can invite your friends to co-op by heading up to orbs
-Your hero/world will be unique to your experience
-Marriage shown off
-Same goofy communication/interaction system using d-pad
-Game will be out in October, 2008

Gears of War 2
-Huge battle going on, Marcus Phoenix looking on as he’s using a an enemy as a body shield
-Voice has changed for Marcus (seemingly)
-Cliff Blezinsky (sp?) says that response has been very positive
-Co-op play shown with Dom and Marcus
-Buildings are burning, crumbling, story dialog happening as the game is being played
-Scale is much more open than we saw in Gears 1
-Cover system looks smoother
-Using downed enemies as body shields before cracking their neck
-Already new enemies shown, some huge
-Graphics definitely better
-Flamethrower looks nasty and mean
-Escape sequence from a burning building that leads right to a Brumak
-They saddle up a Brumak and prepare to ride it to close the demo
-New mode announced, called Horde. 5 players take on waves of Locusts
-Out November 7, 2008 exclusive to 360

Back to Don Mattrick
-People will spend estimated $48 billion this year in games
-Games leading driver in entertainment spending
-Over 5 million units ahead of PS3
-$2.7 billion in sales (software) last 12 months…leading industry
-Highest revenue of the big 3
-Saying 360 WILL SELL more consoles than PS3 this gen (pretty bold to say at this point)
-12 million Xbox Live members, a new member every 5 seconds
-Xbox Live sales over $1 billion since 360 launch (includes DLC and media)
-Over 10,000 movies and shows on Live larger than any satellite or cable operator
-Movies and shows 1/3 of paid downloads in the US on Live
-NBC and Universal joining TV and movie lineups, USA, Sci Fi channel as well
-Movie clips shown of what’s available
-Audience gives a pity applause (all we care about is the games, MS!)

New 360 interface
-Looks nice, but might slow navigation a bit
-3D avatars (I told you!)
-Avatars are very customizable, will show on Gamercard, ideas proposed by Rare
-Community channel added, integrated with Avatars
-Live Party supports up to 8 people chatting, interacting, or playing games
-Neat photo sharing ability with the party

-Xbox Live Primetime channel coming this fall
-Primetime full of game shows for Live Party players to play along
-Primetime demo shown with game show (1 vs. 100)

-Attempting to open up a new frontier in interactive entertainment
-Dynamic content and scheduled programming coming to Live

-New Games Channel coming
-Uno Rush announced
-Games can be launched for entire Live Party by party leader

Geometry Wars 2 coming to Xbox Live Arcade
-Multiplayer!
-Enemy attacks look more organized
-Seems like a beefed up Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Galaga Legions
-Looks like Galaga with the Pac-Man: CE upgrade
-Available next month, exclusive to Live Arcade

Portal: Still Alive
-GladOS voice fills the arena
-2008 timed exclusive to 360
-New levels, achievements

South Park
-Coming to Xbox Live Arcade
-No real details, just a 5 second teaser

Xbox Live Community Games
-Coming in Fall
-Tons of indie devs putting out content
-Looks like WiiWare

Netflix Partnering with Microsoft
-Only game system allowing to watch streamed videos
-NO ADDITIONAL COST
-Uses an “instant watch queue”
-Can share and watch Netflix videos with Live Party…pretty amazing stuff

Shane Kim on stage
-Mentioning already announced big games (Prince of Persia, Mirror’s Edge, Call of Duty)
-GTA IV DLC exclusive this year on Live
-Showing Rare’s newest efforts

Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts
-Trailer is a mix of gameplay and pre-rendered footage
-Banjo is taking supplies and parts into a building/workshop
-Banjo game will be on air, land, and sea
-Vehicles and customizing them are important to game progress
-Available for the holiday season

Viva Pinata: Party Animals
-Trailer looks all real-time
-New regions allow for over 100 different types of pinatas
-Xbox Vision camera allows gamers to scan pinatas in via cards
-Available for the holiday season

Scene It: Box Office Smash
-Very Wii-esque trailer showing different gamer types joining in to play
-Can play with Live Party
-First retail game to use avatars
-New questions via Live Marketplace

You’re In the Movies
-Will ship with Vision camera
-Make, uh, you’re own movies
-Share them and whatnot

Guitar Hero IV
-Metallica’s new album exclusive to GH III/GH IV
-Will be available same time as digital and disc download debut

Lips
-Microsoft’s karaoke game
-Comes with microphone
-You can use your own music
-Blonde girl on stage demos the game…terribly annoying song

Rock Band 2
-Debuts in September exclusively on 360
-Entire soundtrack for the RB2 disc announced…can’t see it because it’s SO FREAKING SMALL
-Noteworthy tracks/artists - Chinese Democracy track (Guns ‘n Roses), Bob Dylan, AC/DC exclusive to RB2, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Motorhead, Devo, Modest Mouse, Beck, Jane’s Addiction
-20 Bonus tracks available in the Fall
-Most tracks ever on one disc
-All DLC forward compatible
-Almost all tracks can be imported from RB1 disc to RB2
-Over 500 songs by end of the year

Yoichi Wada - President of Square-Enix
-The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean shown to be coming
-Last Remnant trailer shown
-Final Fantasy XIII shown for Xbox 360
-Sony fansboys just crapped themselves out of frustration
-MS fans suddenly will love Final Fantasy
-Honestly, it’s a true megaton score for MS, especially if launches at the same time
-Planned for release in both North America and Europe

End of show.

Great showing by Microsoft, overall. Lots to go over in the next few weeks.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was one of my favorite games from the past generation, but its two sequels were less than stellar. So when screens and details started showing up for the upcoming PoP game, I was quite pleased with what I saw. Some new screens have been released on the game, and they’re gorgeous. Geoff Keighly posted a message on NeoGAF earlier today to let everybody know that Monday night they’ll be doing a a video preview on G4. Of course, to see that, you’ll have to watch G4. It’s up to you guys if you want to take that risk. Check out some of the new screens below.

Looking good, huh? We’ll know a lot more about the game come Monday, so keep your eyes and ear open as E3 news is just around the corner.