Tag Archives | Gaming

Where You Buy Mortal Kombat Matters

Posted by Jared Newman on December 13, 2010 at 4:54 pm

Video game retailers are raising the stakes of their pre-order bonuses for next year’s reboot of Mortal Kombat.

Pre-order through Gamestop, and you’ll get Scorpion’s costume and Fatality from the original (1992) Mortal Kombat. Best Buy offers the same bonus for Sub-Zero, and Target has Reptile’s original Fatality and costume from Mortal Kombat 2.

Mortal Kombat won’t be the first game to tie different pre-order bonuses to different stores. Fallout: New Vegas spread four bonus packages among five retailers, Mass Effect 2 gave a special weapon and armor to Gamestop while giving other retailers a different kind of armor. Batman: Arkham Asylum’s pre-order bonus was either a discount, a gift card, a free map, a T-shirt or in-game armor, depending on where you bought it.

But in this case — and maybe this is just my inner old-school gamer talking — the perks really matter. A Mortal Kombat Fatality isn’t just some stat-boosting piece of virtual gear. It’s an integral part of the game. Without those graphically violent finishing moves, Mortal Kombat is just another fighting game. Asking the series’ biggest fans to bestow special treatment on one character by granting it an extra Fatality seems like a high form of cruelty.

I don’t even see the point, unless each retailer thinks their exclusive Fatality is the best, and can be used to their advantage in marketing. Being quite familiar with the gruesomeness of each finishing move, I doubt it.

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Is Infinity Blade the Ultimate iOS Gamer’s Game? Not Quite

Posted by Jared Newman on December 10, 2010 at 10:47 am

The general consensus on Infinity Blade is that it’s the iPhone and iPad game serious gamers have been waiting for. That would include me, so I forfeited $6 to the App Store last night and gave Infinity Blade a shot.

It’s a great game. I stayed up an hour later than I should have, dueling against knights twice my avatar’s size and obsessing over weapons and armor. I only pulled myself away when game’s final boss wiped me out. (In a unique plot device, after each death you play as the next generation in your character’s bloodline, avenging the death of his father at the hands of a mighty dictator.)

But let’s not kid ourselves. Essentially, Infinity Blade is Fruit Ninja in hardcore clothing. It’s not the ultimate iPad game for gamers.

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The Alleged Playstation Phone Looks … Good!

Posted by Jared Newman on December 5, 2010 at 4:07 pm

The folks at Engadget continue to get the scoop on Sony Ericsson’s rumored Playstation Phone. This time, they found a pair of YouTube videos showing a little bit of the device in action.

And so far, it’s promising in its simplicity. Rather than gum up the works with Sony’s Xperia operating system, the phone is running stock Android, supposedly version 2.3. Playstation games are accessed through a Playstation app.

Hopefully, it stays this way. I don’t think Sony needs to heavily modify Android to make a good gaming phone, as long as the games are easily accessible and on par with Sony’s PSP handheld. Like the Xbox Live app on Windows Phone 7, a standalone app could help act as a unifying hub for the Playstation Network.

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Angry Birds vs. Pac-Man: Is it as Big of a Hit?

Posted by Jared Newman on December 3, 2010 at 9:05 am

John Gruber, in his Talk Show podcast, says Angry Birds is the new Pac-Man.

Given how popular Angry Birds has become, and how it’s now part of popular culture, my first reaction is to agree. But Pac-Man is an icon that has endured for three decades, so we can’t take the comparison at face value. Let’s have some fun with the analogy and dig a little deeper.

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Wow, OnLive’s Subscription Plan Costs $10 Per Month

Posted by Jared Newman on December 2, 2010 at 10:25 am

OnLive still has a lot of kinks to work out with its cloud gaming service and MicroConsole set-top box, but they’re easier to overlook when you can have unlimited gaming for $10 per month.

The so-called PlayPack plan, announced alongside today’s MicroConsole launch, will have more than 40 back-catalog games when it becomes available on January 15. Subscribers can still purchase or rent newer games a la carte, and they can suspend subscriptions for up to a year without losing their saved game data.

For now, folks who buy the MicroConsole can try the plan for free in beta, which includes 15 games to start. John Spinale, OnLive’s vice president of games and media, says new games will land on the subscription package, and on the service in general, on a weekly basis.

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OnLive MicroConsole Review: Future Imperfect

Posted by Jared Newman on December 1, 2010 at 8:17 am

OnLive is instant gratification tempered with disappointment, a glimpse at the future of video games that constantly reminds you that we’re not there yet.

The value proposition: Subscribe to OnLive, and you’ll never have to buy another game console or graphics card. The service streams video games as compressed audio and video from remote servers with minimal effort from your own hardware. Although OnLive launched for Windows PCs and Macs in June, the service takes a major step this week with the MicroConsole, a tiny $99 television set-top box and game controller that starts shipping on Thursday.

I’ve been playing around with a loaned MicroConsole from OnLive, and while I wouldn’t dare abandon my Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 for it right now, I won’t rule out the future that OnLive keeps promising.

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Yep, Kinect is the New Wii, Pitfalls and All

Posted by Jared Newman on November 30, 2010 at 8:24 am

If there was any doubt that Kinect is a smash-hit, Microsoft erased it with official sales figures: In 25 days, the company sold 2.5 million units. As ReadWriteWeb notes, Kinect is being adopted faster than the iPad.

In essence, Kinect has become the new Wii, the hot gaming toy on top of many holiday wishlists. If Microsoft can keep it up, Kinect could keep the Xbox 360 alive for at least another couple of years.

But following the arc of the Wii is as dangerous as it is lucrative. Indeed, the news of Kinect’s soaring sales pairs nicely with Ben Fritz’s look at the declining Wii in the Los Angeles Times. He notes that stereotypical non-gamers — the same folks Microsoft is targeting — eventually lost interest in the Wii and didn’t buy enough software, and now monthly hardware sales are behind the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Major publishers eventually soured on the console as well. Now that Microsoft has proven that people want Kinect, its challenge is to keep those customers around.

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5 Ways to Fix iOS Game Center

Posted by Jared Newman on November 22, 2010 at 6:51 pm

Game Center, Apple’s gaming hub for iOS, was a disappointment when it launched for iPhone and iPod Touch in September, but I always assumed it would get better with age

Today’s release of iOS 4.2 for iPad seems like a good excuse to revisit Game Center. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much as lifeless as it was a couple months ago, and it looks even worse next to Xbox Live for Windows Phone 7, which despite its faults, has a pretty good social layer as a base. Because I know Apple loves hearing unsolicited advice — har har — I’ve brainstormed several ways to make Game Center better.

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Facebook Tries “Pay Later” for Virtual Goods

Posted by Jared Newman on November 18, 2010 at 12:48 pm

Here’s a wild semi-rumor from Inside Facebook’s Josh Constine: Facebook is quietly testing a “Pay Later” feature for virtual goods in games like Farmville.

In other words, when you want to buy a bunch of Farm Coins, but don’t feel like fishing out your credit card, Facebook will let you build up real-life debt and then send you a bill.  I say “semi-rumor” because Constine cites unnamed sources, but has plenty of screenshots and details to back up the story.

A pay later system would help Facebook get around the mental barrier of buying virtual goods. Giving away the product and sending a bill might ease more people into microtransactions, and once they’ve settled the debt, their credit card or Paypal information is on file to allow for easier payments in the future. Make paying for stuff really easy, the logic goes, and more people will be willing to buy.

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OnLive MicroConsole Costs $99, Subscription Option Coming

Posted by Jared Newman on November 17, 2010 at 10:36 pm

Although OnLive’s cloud gaming service is able to run on almost any computer, the key to success could lie in its MicroConsole, a tiny TV set-top box that’s still unreleased.

That’ll change on December 2, when the OnLive MicroConsole launches for $99 with a controller. One free game will also be included as a holiday promotion, and pre-orders are starting now. Games on the service cost between $4 and $9 to rent and $5 to $50 to “own” (access to the games, which stream from remote servers, is guaranteed for at least three years).

The cost of the MicroConsole is less than I was expecting, but just as interesting, I think, is this line at the bottom of OnLive’s press release:

“In addition to its rental and Full PlayPass plans, later this year OnLive will add a monthly flat-rate plan, providing unlimited access to a broad library of quality games and indie titles.”

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