Mario Cart 8 Sells 1.2 Million First Weekend

 

 In a huge weekend much needed by Nintendo and its (ex)failing console  the Wii-U, Mario Cart 8 has exploded over the weekend selling over 1.2 million copies over the first weekend alone. Additionally, the game has shot the sales of Nintendo's Wii-U console to over 666% , a huge increase is sales. Mario Cart 8 has been giving stellar reviews with some of the biggest names calling the game the highly coveted "Masterpiece".

 The Wii-U started out with less than ideal sales numbers and hasn't recovered very much since its launch. Now, with big game sites and reviewers calling the game "the first true next gen Wii-U game, the Wii-U is set up for a great E3 where Nintendo has recently stated is going to be where they announce more next-gen titles for the Wii-U. With 14 Nintendo Wii-U games rated above 85+ on Metacritic , there is no doubt that Nintendo is publishing great, polished games for the Wii-U and with the announcements at E3 plus the huge sales of Mario Cart 8 ...... looks like the Nintendo Wii-U can actually climb out of the slump its been in and start competing with the other next-gen consoles as it should.

Where Is A Solid New Metroid For Wii-U ?

 I remember when the Nintendo Game Cube wasn't doing so well back in the day but as soon as Metroid Prime was released on the Cube on November 17, 2002 I picked one up. Game developers Retro Studios really created something special with Metroid Prime on the Nintendo Game Cube. To this day Metroid Prime is still on of favorite games of all times. Back in 2002 this game was cutting edge with great graphics, masterful gameplay, deep and surprising story and on and on I could go.
 It boggles the mind really how Nintendo with their struggling Wii-U console has yet to release a new Metroid Prime game to the system. Don't get me wrong, I love Nintendo and own their consoles handheld and otherwise, yet, it just always feels like a long wait with them to release something. I understand this is mostly because of how much effort and time Nintendo (and their developers) puts in to their games which is why they are always so polished, but, come on Nintendo a new Metroid Prime can save Wii-U or at least pick sales way up.
 Imagine a new Metroid Prime in HD at 60 frames per second on the Wii-U ..... then imagine the possibilities of the touch screen controller on such a game. Now, if Nintendo were to release a new Metroid Prime on the Wii-U I would run right out and buy one today and while I'm there I might as well pick up Zelda Wind Waker HD, 3D Mario Land and Mario Cart 8. See, do you see Nintendo how much money you could make by releasing a game such as Metroid Prime? Hell, even make it a full HD remake with some extras and I'll still buy it and all the games above. Wow, really Nintendo you should call me because I can sell your Wii-U for you since you sure cannot do it.

Are Call Of Duty Players Real Gamers?

                                        

 In my experience of playing with and/or alongside other Call Of Duty players since the first online COD was released I found that almost all gamers who play COD almost never play anything else. Most hardcore Call Of Duty players only own COD games and spend all their time playing this single franchise. This leads us, of course, to the question of the day....... Are Call Of Duty players really gamers? The answer to that is a profound "NO". Now, I understand that this will make many a COD player mad at me and I can already see the disgust on their faces while they read this article, however, before you get high blood pressure allow me to explain in detail and defend my case.
 I'm a popular guy on PSN and have quite a few friends most of which play COD religiously. I have tried in vein to get some of my closest COD friends to buy or check out a great new game many times to no avail. Simply put, they will not purchase another game and even if they do after only 2 hours of playing it will put it away and get right back on Call Of Duty again. The only exception to this rule was GTA5 and even after its release everyone was right back on Call Of Duty soon thereafter. Mind blowing I know.
 Now, in my defense I will bring up Infinity Ward's Mark Rubin who in an interview with OXM LINK  said that

"The majority of people who play Call Of Duty games aren't really hardcore gamers or even gamers for that matter."    Mark Rubin Of Infinity Ward

 Wow, now that's some harsh words coming from somebody who actually brought you Call Of Duty. They even go farther with this buy saying in the same article as the link above :

"They aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call Of Duty every night. And those guys are going to continue to play regardless of the platform. So I think not only will we continue to engage with that existing player base, but we'll take next gen and see how far we can go with it."

 What this guy who actually makes COD games is saying here is that no matter what they create or do these COD fans will buy the game regardless and mindlessly. I don't think most people understand  the depth of this here. For example..... there are a lot of COD fans who buy game consoles and expensive audio headsets just to play one game. In other words a Call Of Duty fan will buy a $420 PS4 along with the $60 copy of COD, $50 in Playstation plus( which is needed to play online) for a year and maybe even a $150 pair of gaming headsets all to ever only play a single game and nothing more. That's a grand total of around (on average) $680 just to play COD. That's a lot of money to drop to play a single game or even three really.
 In order to be called a true gamer or a so called hardcore gamer ..... one must be fluent in regards to most games and genres and spend equal time with different games including understanding the video game market and keeping up with video game news..... then you are a true hardcore gamer, otherwise, your just a another person who just spent $680.00 dollars to play a single game.

The Watch Dogs Independent Review

 For this review I'm not going to waste my time writing about how the story unfolds and everything else you can find in other reviews that have been out for days now. What I will write about however is the gameplay .... very simple. After reading other online reviews from the mainstream video game sites I became concerned that just maybe I had wasted $60 on a GTA5 clone with 20 hours of gameplay. Well I'm here to tell you that non of this is true whatsoever.
 Watch Dogs had around 2 years, since first being announced, for feelings to build up about what the game would be like and what was possible in game by those who have been anticipating the games release. There was (and still is) a lot of talk about Watch Dogs being a GTA5 clone. Watch Dogs should not be compared with GTA5, or any other GTA for that matter, simply because Watch Dogs is in most ways its own game with its own defined personality. Comparing all open world games with GTA5 all because, well, there open world games, is not fair for the genre as a whole.
 When I first jumped in the game I wasn't very exited at all for awhile until I started to get about 2 hours into the game. That is when I began to realize the huge scope and grand scheme of the game in its entirety. Admittedly, some aspects of the game such as phone hacking peoples bank accounts and checking into their past was somewhat stale after awhile, but, with so much other stuff to do these are very small gripes which only effect the gameplay in a very minute way if at all. The possibilities of hacking street lights, cameras and a plethora of other devises across the huge world map becomes infinite.
 While just walking around enjoying the view and maybe looking for some hidden objects random crimes would happen that would pop up on your handy smart phone. These were always different and can go in any of thousands possible ways all depending upon your own imagination and how you use your hacking skills and environment. Sick of chasing the bad guy? No problem .... hack the transformer and blow it up as the bad guy runs by sending his body flying like a rag doll in a horrible yet realistic way. Working on the campaign is equally as fun as free roaming and you can always take a break from the main story to finish side missions, find hidden object, collect cars, ect.
 It seams to me that those who complain about this game lack a certain amount of imagination the is seriously required to play and enjoy this game to its full potential. I suggest to those who had worked out in their minds what Watch Dogs "was going to be" for two years replay the game again with an open mind and how the "game is going to be" according to how Ubisoft had made it. A game that at first seems like a let down had turned out being a great game with huge potential all depending upon the player and I respect Ubisoft  for putting the ultimate power in the hands of those who play the game not create it. In the end, Watch Dogs is a huge game with tons to do and an almost endless amount of replay value. With a few updates in which Ubisoft is going to release over the course of the next few months Watch Dogs will even grow better. For those who have decided to purchase this game..... just remember, Watch Dogs treats you just like you treat it. If you approach the game with little imagination you will not enjoy the game or find it "good". If you go in with an open mind with the understanding that this game can go any way you want it to .... then you'll love it like I do.

Verdict :  9/10

Watch Dogs Released / Review's

 Reminder : Today is the long anticipated 27th of May 2014 ..... the launch date for Watch Dogs.

  I'm going to pick up my pre-order copy right now so my review of the game itself will not be up until Thursday. Until then however, I can say that other reviewers are giving this game a average of 8 out of 10. Polygon has scored the game an 8 as well as gamespot and destructoid. Also important to note is that Forbes had some very harsh things to say about Watch Dogs which makes me wonder if I didn't just waste two years waiting for this game to release. I will quote from the Forbes review here "Like GTA5 before it, sometimes it's not enough to simply be big and well made. Watch Dogs feels like a collection of promising concepts with nothing solid holding them together" and also quoted from Forbes " The characters are so uninteresting they're almost unsalvageable, and though gameplay is polished to a mirror shine, it just doesn't do enough to stand out in the genre" end quote.
 So in other words basically everyone is giving this game a score of 8 out of 10 the only reason being for the 8 instead of the 6 is because its "polished". Sounds like they keep making excuses for a bad game because the people who invested in this game via stock bond holders don't want to loose any money. While we are just being brutally honest here ..... they even had an extra 6 months when they delayed the game as to make it better. With a delay of 6 months to make the game better and still end up with a bland story and characters is a huge let down and the 8 out of 10 "I feel sorry for you but its polished" reviews says it all.

Is Far Cry Every Year A Good Idea?

 I'm a huge fan of the Far Cry series and have spent countless hours playing FC2/3 and had lots of fun doing so. With the surprise hit and performance of Far Cry 3 the powers that be have now decided that its in their best interest to release a new FC game every single year. This would be great news for fans of the series, however, for those in the know its a really bad idea. You see, the time taken to develop FC1, FC2 and Far Cry 3 was paced in the spans of years which polished and truly great games need to succeed. In other words, any great game requires more than one year to develop. Now that Far Cry has been sold out as a yearly release the quality will be seen to drastically drop until the series ends in shame with islands filled with pirates and bad guys in Robocop uniforms shooting space weapons at your character.
 We have seen this happen time and time again in many series which end up being rushed to meet release dates with the end results of 6 hour campaigns that are not only short but bland and broken. How Ubisoft figures it can produce a huge open world with tons of non linear gameplay in a year is totally beyond me. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Far Cry 4 will be bad..... I'm just saying that it will start getting bad and fast with yearly, rushed releases.
 One of the few problems I found while playing and verily beating Far Cry 3 was the complete lack of re-playability once the game was finished. The game was fun while it lasted but after I finished the game I never popped the game in my PS3 ever again which is a shame considering I still play FC2 every once in awhile. Now Ubisoft is openly stating that they are focusing more on the multiplayer aspects of far Cry 4 as to expand its re-playability. This is the wrong strategic move to make on their part as the Far Cry experience has always been its huge open world and single player campaign.
 So just as most video game series who release yearly are doomed to failure in the end so is Far Cry unless they stick to the proven formula which has made the series the huge hit it has been and fans have come to love. Without these things that have defined Far Cry over the years the franchise shall simply get lost and mixed up with the countless other yearly franchises which only make money on the fact they bank on the true fans high hopes that this time it will be different.

Why You Should Keep Your Ps3 Console

 Even in the wake of a great and well deserved (after 8 years) launch of next generation consoles you will not find me at Gamestop trading in my Playstation 3 any time soon. Sure, its wonderful having the new shiny consoles to play on and experiment with, however, there are a few things in which these next generation gaming machines cannot offer us (me) at this time. What can that possibly be you ask? The answer to that question is rather simple....... All my games in which I have acquired over the many long years of the generation past. Not just games really but really good games. Games that are hard to come by and still expensive like all my top tier Playstation one classics like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, resident evil and Harvest Moon just to name a few. Then there are the Ps2 classics like Persona and countless others. Thousands of hours invested into some of the best games ever created some of which to this day remain unfinished. Countless newer games of all different kinds of genres still begging to be played or some elusive trophy earned.
 Bottom line is .... even though I shall enjoy next gen as much as the next person , I will keep intact my vast collection of digital and/or hard copies of timeless masterpieces (and some crap of course) all massed together on one working console. No matter how many next gen pixels pound upon my retina's or advanced AI destroyes my avatar ....... I will always find myself crawling back to those great games that I and many others love. The moral of the story then is the one important question ...... Is it really true next gen hardware if its not backward compatible? I mean come on Sony and Microsoft its 2014 make your consoles to fit the needs of us gamers instead of your pockets.

Watch Dogs Is A GTA5 Clone

  Watch Dogs was supposed to be released around the same time as the mega hit Grand Theft Auto 5 (GTA5 went on to sell over 33 million copies world wide since) , however, the long anticipated game was delayed from an original November 19, 2013 (U.S) release date to May 27, 2014 date. So, why was Watch Dogs delayed by Ubisoft for such a long period of time? I know the answer to this question and I will now set about to let you in on the secret also.
  When GTA5 was released I remember Ubisoft talking about how great the game was. I mean, these people at Ubisoft really were blown away by the quality of the huge world and the details therein. There was also talk about how GTA5 was putting pressure on Ubisoft to live up to current expectations when it comes to triple A video game production especially open world games such as Watch Dogs. What happened was that Ubisoft watched GTA5 turn into a mega hit breaking all the records right in front of their eyes and they knew at that time that Watch Dogs would be overlooked during the GTA5 hype which took the world by storm. After all 33 million copies sold at $60 a pop is no small feat in the least.
 So basically, after seeing what RockStar games had done with GTA5 Ubisoft became, shall we say, a little worried that their game Watch Dogs would seem like childs play compared to GTA5 and would never be able to compete alongside RockStar for the open world city theme. In face of all of this, Ubisoft decided at some round table with all the big heads that it was in the companies best interest to delay the release of Watch Dogs and use that time to refine and add to the game as much as possible as to try to live up to the quality and verily the success of GTA5. It would not surprise me a bit if Ubisoft had to redo most of the game and add very large amounts of material to make it on par (or as close as possible) with GTA5.
 So the question now remains ....... Was all of this good for Watch Dogs as a game? Yes, of course it was. We can thank the people at Rockstar Games for putting the pressure on other developers to push the limits of gaming. Its good to know that there are those developers who are so good at what they do that they motivate others to push themselves even harder and in the end.... deliver the gamers something they deserve for their hard earned money.