Articles by Wootini
Dear Diary,
This week, Narnia had a celebration! Well, not an actual celebration, but there was an occasion marked, even if it was only quietly. On the flip side, it was also another sad week of loss. I'm beginning to wonder if I smell or something. There has to be some reason why nobody sticks around anymore! I mean, I've got townies who seem to be relatively permanent, like the regular cast of a TV show. But then I get these new castmembers who somehow turn into special guest stars and disappear. Did they get a better offer? Who am I talking about this time? Well, you'll see after the break. And obviously it's not Pippy, because I'm still able to string sentences together!
EA announced today that the first downloadable content for Need For Speed SHIFT will be available worldwide on December 1 for the Xbox 360 and then later for the PlayStation 3 on December 3 in Europe and December 10 in North America. The Team Racing Pack offers up an all-new gameplay mode called Team Racing where two teams of up to six racers battle against each other online, and teamwork will be required to make it to the finish line first. In addition, you'll also get five new legendary race cars: The 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 427, the 1967 Shelby GT-500, the 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, the 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T and the 1998 Toyota Supra Mark IV. Oh yeah, and best of all? Like I said in the headline, the Team Racing Pack is totally free. Gratis. Enjoy!
Today Atlus released some new content for the upcoming Wii RPG Shiren The Wanderer. At the top of this article, you'll see the final North American box art, and below, the first batch of English screenshots. There's also a blog that they've started that will offer up a look into the game, its storyline and whatnot. Unfortunately, Atlus has also confessed that three online features from the Japanese version of the game will not be making it Stateside.
"Despite our best efforts, the North American version of Shiren will not include the Rescue, Versus, or Item Transfer online features," stated Aram Jabbari, Manager of PR and Sales at Atlus. "However, the downloadable dungeon content from the Japanese version will be included on the disc. Without these subfeatures, Shiren is still a fantastic RPG, one we hope all gamers can experience and enjoy. Still, we understand that the absence of these features may influence some fans' decision to purchase the game, which is why we are bringing this to their attention as soon as possible."
If you're looking forward to playing as the wandering samurai Shiren and exploring a vision of historic Japan as you unravel the story of a mysterious sleeping princess and an ancient evil, you'll only have to wait until Shiren The Wanderer hits stores on February 9, 2010. (And on the plus side, Atlus has also added an "easy mode" so everyone can enjoy their RPG goodness, not just the hardcore Atlus Faithful!)
Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B Entertainment, has struck a deal with Capcom for the film rights for Dark Void, the new action adventure game heading for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on January 22, 2010. The storyline centers on Will, a pilot who crash lands in the Bermuda Triangle following a routine mission. He awakens in "The Void," an alternate world resembling a primitive Earth where aliens with superior technology are plotting to take over civilization. Together with other humans who have fallen into the Void, Will takes on the alien overlords using their own technology against them including an awesome jet pack.
"As a game, Dark Void was developed with a wide-screen mentality - a world full of adventure presented in cinematic scope and scale," said Germaine Gioia, senior vice president, licensing, Capcom Entertainment. "Plan B recognized the potential of our newest property and are as excited about bringing Dark Void to life in cinemas as Capcom is to bring the interactive experience to home theaters."
The movie is currently being developed as a sci-fi action franchise that could potentially star Brad Pitt himself. I don't know. He's still hot (minus that hideous beard he's growing, I pray for a role), but I wonder if he's getting a little long in the tooth for the action hero role. I mean, I chose an older picture of him to go with the article for obvious reasons — have you seen him lately? Of course, I can't think of anybody better right now...
Recently, I had to resist the urge to simply turn around and walk out of GameStop empty handed because the salesgirl (under orders, I know, but still) kept trying to push me to pre-order a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. I told her I didn't like war games. She insisted that it was going to be huge and everybody else was going to be playing it. I am not a lemming. I also don't like war games, as I mentioned. It was when she started talking about pre-order bonuses that I simply tuned her out. Well, it turns out she wasn't half wrong. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has done some rather impressive business in its first week. It racked up a record $550 million in sales in just five days.
To put that in some perspective, the largest five-day worldwide opening box office gross is Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which raked in $394 million. The largest five-day domestic box office gross is The Dark Knight's $203.8 million. The previous videogame record holder before this was Grand Theft Auto IV, which earned $500 million selling 6 million units.
"In just five days of sell through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon," said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. "The title's success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather than engage in other forms of media."
Oh, and on Xbox LIVE, Microsoft is reporting that more than 5.2 million hours of multiplayer were logged on the first day alone, and more than 2.2 million unique gamers played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in one day on November 10, which is a record for Xbox LIVE. And more than 11 million Achievements were unlocked by overachievers in the very first day.
I've gotta say, those are some pretty spectacular numbers, and for a game that I wouldn't have thought to be as widely popular as Grand Theft Auto, given its slightly more specific genre. As I said, I did not purchase a copy, so I'm not one of those millions playing on Xbox LIVE, but apparently lots of other people did, and are. Perhaps even you!
Nintendo has always known who its audience is and where to find them, so with the holiday season approaching, the videogame giant is hitting the malls of America! Starting on November 23, the Nintendo Holiday Mall Experience will travel to 35 shopping malls from coast to coast offering up hands-on demos of their biggest games like Wii Sports Resort, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Fit Plus, and DS titles like Style Savvy, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. They'll also be promoting other Nintendo products like the Wii Shop Channel and the DSi Shop as well as touting the Wii MotionPlus accessory and the extra features of the DSi. The Nintendo Holiday Mall Experience runs from November 23 through December 20, and I've got a whole list of malls after the jump.
UPDATE: Because the press release didn't give dates for each mall appearance, I assumed they hadn't finalized them yet. But I just heard from Nintendo that it is not a moving exhibit, and will in fact be at each one of these malls from November 23 to December 20. Awesome!
Namco Bandai's We Cheer was a unique game for the Nintendo Wii that turned your Wiimotes into cherleading pom-poms, but suffered from a condition that afflicts many Wii games, inaccurate controls that threaten to make the game feel broken. Luckily, the sequel, We Cheer 2, manages to do what all good sequels should do, which is improve upon the original in every way. And that includes the controls! Make the jump for the full review!
2K Games has just released to us the box art for BioShock 2, the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year. Other than reminding you that it launches on February 9, 2010, there's not a whole lot else to say about it besides the fact that it's sure purty. I threw the PS3 and PC boxes down below in case you're curious. No big difference except the PS3 one is a little wider view...
Okay, I'm starting to wonder if I Am 8-Bit is deliberately making the photo ops at the Nintendo launches as potentially embarrassing as possible in order to see how far I will go to humiliate myself in front of a camera. But when the Nintendo World Store hosted the launch for the New Super Mario Bros. Wii game, I had to give it a shot! To be fair, I tried to balance the block on my fist so it would look like I was hitting it, but it was too wobbly, and I had to hold it like a freakin' waiter. Sigh.
Anyway, the launch was typically insane, as is expected with a property like Mario. Only the Pokémon ones get wilder. And even the cold, wet weather couldn't calm things down... not even when it started to pour! There was a long line that stretched halfway down the block that was just to buy a copy of the game the day before it launched everywhere else. Then there was another line outside to enter the tent where the New Super Mario Bros. Wii tournament was being held. Next to that was a DJ booth, but while I was there, he was taking a break, since although the equipment was covered, the area around it wasn't, and nobody wanted to listen to music or play trivia games in the pouring rain. Then again, maybe they would! Heck, some people even came in costume as their favorite Mario characters, rain be damned!
Inside, they had a Mario available for photo ops, as well as Wii demo stations playing New Super Mario Bros. Wii so you could get your hands on it. Upstairs, they also had three stations set aside playing classic Mario games available on the Virtual Console. There was also the aforementioned photo op where stuffed Mario props were available to pose with (and I don't like to think about how many other people wore that Mario hat... so glad I was at the front of the line!).
But the best part was the other tent outside which housed a Mario memorabilia museum. I feel very strongly about mementos... Memorabilia, I think you call them. It was pretty cool. I loved seeing the old branded products like shampoo and sheets, as well as the old cartridges and games. The Mario and Luigi Halloween costumes were a little off-putting though, seeing as how they put them on slender female mannequins and the stuffed bellies made them look pregnant. Creepy! After the jump, I've included a gallery of shots below so you can see all the nuttiness, plus a second gallery of shots just from the museum. I photographed everything, just so none of you would have to miss out! Who loves ya?
It's always fun to kill zombies, and now you have another way to blow away the undead even while on the go! Treyarch has just announced that Call of Duty: World at War: ZOMBIES is now available for the iPod Touch and iPhone! It's a mobile version of the zombie map "Nacht der Untoten" from the full-on game, with full 3D graphics and up to four-player co-op via WiFi (sorry iPhoners, no network connections at this time) and two players via Bluetooth.
"This is a great opportunity for fans of Call of Duty: World at War to take the fight against the Zombie masses wherever they are," said Mark Lamia, Studio Head of Treyarch. "Zombies is a single player and co-op gameplay mode that people from all over the world have enjoyed playing and have spent countless hours conquering limitless waves of Zombies."
Call of Duty: World at War: ZOMBIES is available now for $9.99 at the App Store. It will also fully support future DLC, so that new maps can be made available in the future to keep the zombie slaying coming!
Dear Diary,
It was a pretty good week in Narnia this time around, even if it was a relatively slow one. I mean, any week when you make 93 bells profit on each of the 400 turnips you bought is a good one! I got worried when it took until Thursday for the price to go above the 104 I paid for them, but I still wasn't sure 130 was good enough. Luckily on Friday it went up instead of down and I sold all of 'em at 197! Oh, and I made a new friend this week, too. Make the jump to see who!
On November 19, you'll be able to add a little variety to each of the four playable characters in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 when the costume pack hits the PlayStation Network for $3.99. It will be available in North America and Japan on that date, with a European release to follow. Ryu's white duds are kind of cool, but Rachel's "New York Working Woman's Cstoume" is all kinds of awesome!
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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