State of the Gaming Nation for Sony

Ah well. Where should I begin? Sony had a fantastic year. Hardwarewise, the PS3 sales are still trailing the 360 and Wii, but the quality titles are there. There is the PS3 slim out now, so now anyone can join in on the fun. On the PSN side, there were some great titles. Flower, Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars and Burnout Paradise were great (the latter two for online play especially). Popcap released Peggle on PSN recently as well. Rag Doll Kung Fu was a great game even though there was no online play. This was also the year for PS3 exclusives. Uncharted 2 (which had over 20 perfect scores), Infamous and Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, Killzone 2 are examples of such exclusives. I tried the Infamous demo and I must say that I enjoyed the game. We even got a glimpse of Gran Turismo 5 with the release of a Time Trial of the Indy racetrack. As crowded as the game scene was for Sony this past year, next year will be big as well with exclusives like Bayonetta, God of War III, and hopefully the final version of GT5. There were a few updates this year. We have a facebook app (even though we can get to it via the PS3 browser) as well as modifying the friends list to look nicer. The Playstation brand was rebranded and thus the xmb looks better (look at the firmware updates for more). The psp continues to be revitalized with original titles. There is also a new section called psp minis. Check those out. Playstation Home has expanded. More spaces are available and Home now has a free MMO called Sodium. There are new games to play in Home and I personally love it. So much to do. So where does Sony land in 2010? Well we will see, but it will be great regardless. I do predict that the PS2 will finally have no new games coming out for it as the ten year cycle ends in 2010. If I had to pick a timeframe, I would pick around summertime that PS2's will stop being produced.

State of the Gaming Nation for Microsoft

The Xbox 360 again did well this year. Even though there weren't that many exclusives (Halo 3: ODST is the only one that sticks out to me at the moment on consoles), sales on multiplatform games did well. Batman Arkham Asylum and Modern Warfare 2 are some examples of this. Xbox Live did really well this year. Some great games like Splosion Man and Shadow Complex recieved positive reviews. Updatewise, there was one major one. Earlier this fall, there was the update that included Twitter and Facebook integration. 1 vs 100 is currently proving to be very successful. The beta came out earlier this year and now they divide into seasons, kind of like how regular tv is divide into seasons. Hardwarewise, a new problem arose called the E74 error. This didn't really amount to anything or amount to anything as crucial as the RROD. There were a couple of new Skus for the system: a bright red Resident Evil 5 unit and a Modern Warfare 2 unit. Overall though new skus couldn't help Microsoft surpass the Wii but still a respectable amount of consoles were sold. Where does Microsoft go from here? Who knows. We'll see what awaits us in 2010.

State of the Gaming nation for Nintendo.

Well, another year has passed and all three big consoles are going strong. The Wii/DS combination took the lead in sales in terms of hardware (A new DS unit that released in Japan helped sales as well). The Wii had games that experimented into something considered hardcore by gamer standards. They tried their hand in the first person shooter genre. The Conduit, Muramasa and Dead Space: Extraction are examples that dabbed into this; the sales for each game were horrible thus telling everyone that the Wii audience does not want these games. I admire the companies for trying, but it seems that unless a certain plumber or a short sword-wielding guy wearing green is involved in the game and/or is not made or published by Nintendo, the game will not sell. Fitness was also the name of the game for the Wii console this year. Wii Fit plus, and Jillian Michaels is only a couple games that came out in 09. Most of those games aren't that good. But then again, people will buy almost anything. There was a good game that came out towards the end of the year. That game was Super Mario Bros Wii. In totality there was only a few good games this year amongst a ton of shovelware. The console is not even in HD which hampers it a little bit because that means that in some cases, the Wii version of a game must be developed by a different developer even the same company publishes the game. Where will Nintendo be in 2010? Probably in the same spot as this year: dominating in hardware sales but lagging behind in terms of games for hardcore gamers.

Firmware update 3.15

This latest update is an optional one. For those who bought a PS3 slim, you will now be able to seamlessly transfer your game saves to the new system. You must have your system connected to the internet to accomplish this. This also helps move the locked game saves as well. In addition you can also play most PSP minis via PS3. Go here for more information.


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A great amount of sodium

It was announced that Home would get a new thing called Sodium. Look here for more info. From what I've seen, this looks like just the thing to possibly get more into Home. I know when it releases, I would be willing to give a shot when it comes out.

Mega Man 10 to all consoles

This was inevitable but Mega Man 10 is coming to all consoles. The plot has been revealed all well. Robots have been infected with Roboenza, a flu type thing. Roll has been affected and it is up to Mega Man to save the day. This game is due out sometime this Spring.

New Super Mario Bros Wii Review

Last night, I had the chance to try out the New Super Mario Bros Wii game. Well I'll say this. I like the game. Basically, to me at least, it is Super Mario Bros III and Super Mario World rolled into one. I say that because I'm old enough to remember sinking hours upon hours into both of those games and because there are elements taken from both those games. The story is what you'd expect. I don't need to explain that. I do like how you play the game. You must turn the Wiimote sideways to play ala classic style (except unlike the NES controller, the A button is on the left side). There are the standard eight worlds each with eight levels, and like SMBIII, there are toadhouses that have games. In fact the panels game is similar to the card matching game in SMBIII. On each of the worlds, there is a cannon. I have yet to figure out how to use it. There is a minifortress as well as a full fortress in each world also. Also after you complete a number of levels in each world, a toad icon may appear. In that case, you need to find a toad in that level and carry him to the goal line. I found that objective to be quite cumbersome because when you carry him he causes you to move slowly. So I usually do not do those missions. Yoshi returns but there aren't that many levels that feature him. There are difficult suits as well. The propeller suit lets Mario fly while the penguin suit lets Mario slide.
The presentation is what you'd expect from a Wii game. Not superior graphics but not bad either. The voice acting is ok because there really isn't that much. I like the music which has helped me like the game even more. If are a completionist like me, then there are tons of replay value in this game. You can purchase different movies with coins, attempt to get every Yoshi coin (another SM World holdover) and attempt to save every toad possible. There is multiplayer, up to 4 four players. There is an upside to that and a downside. The upside is that you can drop in and out at any time and it's helpful to have another player or two to help get that hard to reach item. Conversely, four players on the same screen can be problematic if the playing area is really small. That leads me to another point. For veteran Mario players, they may feel that the game is too generous. Coins are plentiful and unless you are really bad, you can amass lives really quickly. Again a small gripe though. If you are a Mario fan, this is a must buy. Same goes for anyone that wants a Wii game that isn't shovelware and is actually something worth your money. So without further ado, lets-a-go.

You glitch, you pay (somewhat)

In Modern Warfare 2, a new glitch was found. It is called the "javelin glitch". Rather than have me explain it, see for yourself.



In summary, you can get cheap kills by kamikazing yourself. Now Infinity Ward will ban any Xbox user who does this glitch for at least 24 hours and, for now, up to two weeks (kinda weak in my opinion). No word if they will ban any PSN user or PC user. Which means that I expect to see more on the aforementioned platforms to try this. We'll see what happens.