Peoww News

Seasoned gamers will be no strangers to the effective high-street monopoly of Game and the like, those not living in a large town being subject to their extortionate prices for both new and pre-owned games. Case in point, Winchester where I work has an HMV, Game & Lacklustre Video.

Madden NFL 12 was released today, so it wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to expect maybe a slight reduction in the cost of the 2011 edition. Definitely not the case. They had no new copies (natch), so pre-owned it was. £17.99. Given they probably paid the poor sap that traded it in about £7, that’s £11 clear profit into their coffers. The same £17.99 was the price last week, prior to the release of the sequel.

It’s currently no better when it comes to the FIFA series, FIFA 10 pre-owned is a fiver. Fair enough, but FIFA 11 is still £25 new in their stores, with pre-owned a only a little less. I’ll bet even money that it drops a lot when FIFA 12 comes out later this month.

The sales droid said “FIFA pre-owned drops quickly ’cause loads of people trade it in! We don’t get that many copies of Madden traded in, that’s why the price is high”. No, the price is high ’cause you’re money grabbing profiteering bastards.

Shopto are doing Madden 11 brand new for £14.86 so if a canny ebay bid doesn’t pan out, they have my business.

I’ll stick to Game for the (very) occasional pre-owned bargain, ta.  Ian

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Oh dear. After such lofty expectations, Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s spiritual Rez sequel tanked horribly at retail, garnering only 34,000 US sales in the first month.

Ubisoft have clearly cut their losses as from hereon in, CoE will be a bundled downloadable game packed in with Kinect in addition to Kinect Adventures. Except if you live in Japan, as somewhat oddly the game hasn’t been released there yet. Que?  Ian

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As mentioned in our previous news story, Hogrocket’s first release is out today for iThings. It’s called Tiny Invaders and is available now on the App Store.

£2.49 ($3.99) may seem a little steep but that’s less than a pint or your sandwich at lunchtime (hold the onions!). 

Don’t procrastinate and hold off buying it until it shows up for free on Free App Hero or somesuch, small devs like Hogrocket need our support!  Ian

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Satoru Iwata has openly admitted that Wii didn’t reach the hardcore gamers that previously made up the core of Nintendo’s audience.

I quote Nintendo’s Iwata Asks news trumpet:

“…shortly after the Wii console was released, people in the gaming media and game enthusiasts started recognising the Wii console as a casual machine aimed toward families, and placed game consoles by Microsoft and Sony in a very similar light with each other, saying these are machines aimed towards those who passionately play games.

It was a categorisation between games that were aimed towards core, and casual. I’ve been having a sense of disagreement as I personally think the definition of a core gamer is much wider, namely, someone who has a much wider range of interests, someone who enthusiastically plays many types of games that challenge different creative directions.

On the other hand, I certainly do not think that Wii was able to cater to every gamer’s needs, so that’s also something I wanted to resolve.“

Speaking as a lapsed Nintendo enthusiast (NES, Gameboy, SNES, GB Pocket, N64, GB Color, GBA, Gamecube, DS, DS lite, Wii, DSi [gotta catch ’em all!]), I can certainly attest to Wii not really doing it for me. 

Flawed launch title Zelda: Twilight Princess didn’t help matters. The non-HD output and (officially at least) inability to connect to a VGA monitor didn’t either.  Maybe it was the lack of achievements. The Wii-mote and proliferation of controllers (balance board, classic controller, motionplus etc.) were contributory factors. It certainly wasn’t later games as I was back on Mario Galaxy at the weekend.  

Either way, if Wii-U can capture some of the delights that the Gamecube gave us, wanky controller or not, it’s to be applauded. Ian

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In welcome news, the All Formats UK Games Chart has a new game at the top. Not entirely unexpectedly, the first big game of the silly season, Deus Ex (3): Human Revolution is now top of the charts toppling the casual gaming leviathan that is Zumba Fitness. Thank the maker.

Hopefully this is the last we’ll see of this accursed game as we head into triple-A release territory. Although whether FIFA & Call of Duty really deserve that tag is a matter of debate. Expect our review of Deus Ex: HR in the not too distant future.  Ian

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In what is already probably old news, Microsoft announced last week that the first two Skyrim DLC packs will be 360 exclusives for 30 days after release. Quite how this’ll have any bearing on multi-format owning gamers buying decision remains unclear.

30 days is hardly the year’s delay that PS3 owners were subjected to waiting for Mass Effect 2 now is it?

As long as it’s not bloody horse armour and has no gamerscore associated with it, great!  Ian

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In an entry on their developer blog, the ex-Bizarre staffers that comprise micro-dev Hogrocket have announced that their first, as yet un-named, release is due to hit iThings on September 1st.

Rather than reflect the negative view held by one commenter on their blog, we hope that it’s good. By that we mean as addictive as honey roasted crack nuggets. If it’s even half as good as the Geometry Wars games were, it’ll be bloody amazing. 

Expect a  day one purchase and subsequent review. Ian

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Yesterday and with little fanfare, the demos for the forthcoming PES installment, inevitably suffixed 2012, were released for PC download and on PSN. However the 360 demo has been delayed until next month due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’.

This is all rather beside the point especially since PES ceased to be relevant to the mass market around the time of PES5 on the original Xbox & PS2 (that’s being kind – Ed).

It doesn’t help that long-time producer Shingo “Seabass” Takatsuka seems to be even more deluded than Suda51 when it comes to what actually makes a good game these days.

Still, it’d be nice to be proved wrong as FIFA has been the benchmark since they revamped the game engine from Euro 2008 onwards. EA have been very much resting on their laurels, the only real innovation in their football games being of the American sort in the Madden series.

Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 is currently pencilled in for a mid-October release. Ian

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Our spies have spotted the worst kind of gaming accessory, one that serves no usual function whatsover. I give you these. Yes, that’s right, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 glasses. And you thought seeing neds in Gears Of War branded t-shirts was bad.

I quote the website:  “CALL OF DUTY MW3 Gaming Eyewear:
Fully loaded. GUNNAR’s Call of Duty MW3 Gaming Eyewear packs every advanced feature of our eSport eyewear into a future-warrior inspired design. Spring hinges, precision engineered into a magnesium / aluminum body, provide a custom fit…”

You what? Future-warrior? Future-wanker mair like.   Let’s go through those bullet pointed features:

• increases CONTRAST for greater visual accuracy and efficiency

There’s a setting on your TV for contrast oddly enough.

• enhances DETAIL for sharper, clearer vision

Try connecting to a higher resolution source than the scabby 14″ standard definition portable in your parents spare room, a discarded CRT monitor out of a nearby skip would be an improvement.

• helps REDUCE GLARE and improves focus

If you can’t see ’cause of the sunshine coming in from outside, draw the curtains. Or put down your controller for a minute and enjoy the day.

• Improves visual ENDURANCE for extended gaming sessions

Rather than put strain on your relationship with your parents/spouse/housemate by playing every given hour, try talking to them for a change. Your life won’t end if you don’t get to Prestige level within a week of the cursed game coming out.

• DECREASES eye FATIGUE and dry eyes

Hmm. Try a normal sleep pattern rather than waking up at noon and playing until 4am.

These are set to retail in the US for $99. That’s SIXTY BLOODY POUNDS (see, Gunnar don’t have the monopoly on overused capital letters). If I was going to drop £60 on a gaming accessory I’d rather it actually served a useful purpose. Rather than making me look like a bigger cvnt than usual. Ian

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Various sites are reporting that Nintendo’s venerable Super NES is twenty years old today. How charmingly insular of them. August 23rd is in fact the twentieth anniversary of the US release, so you won’t see us trumpeting that from our  drooling maws. 

That’ll happen on April 11th 2012, the anniversary of when we finally got it here in Europe. Expect a feature then, but not a top 100 like these guys. 

Of course, the US SNES had that awful purple breezeblock thing going on rather than the slender lines of the Super Famicom & PAL Super Nintendo. Didn’t stop me from buying one of those too, curse you Final Fantasy III! Ian