The Gaming News Thread

[Martok]

Huh it seems that headlines blaming violence on video games sells more papers.

And in other news, it was discovered that water is wet.

[Monk]

After endless baiting and switching, Capcom finally let the cat out of the bag. A brand new, stand-alone SF4 game is confirmed, named humorously "Super Street fighter 4".

The game promises 8 new characters as well as a rebalancing patch to the original roster based on community suggestions. Capcom promises they won't be pushing this at full price, but that remains to be seen. It's on Schedule for a Spring 2010 release.


Bad news for any of us who were hoping to catch some frags in demo-land before the Modern Warfare 2 release in a month and a half. Infinity Ward has revealed they have no plans for a demo, despite CoD4 having one (one that was quite good i might add). IF claims this is so they can devote more time to polish, and their track record is good in that regard. We'll see.


Finally: the PSPgo has been getting a lot of headlines as I'm sure you've seen. What has me most intrigued is the complete lack of physical media, it seems to be all digital. Of course, that has the potential for huge drawbacks. It is entirely dependent on the an internet connection (WiFi specifically) for purchases and playing. But it also seems to boast a plug + play ability with your PC, so you can hook up and download directly from the PSN that way. If it works it could be a very interesting step in portables.

The main downside of the PSPgo currently... it looks to retail at $250 USD, which is a full hundred more than its rival the DS( according to prices at Amazon, for a brand new DSi) Heck, for that price i could almost get a PS3 slim! As kotaku points out, Sony is looking to completely cut out the retailer with an all digital games library, you'd think they could cut us a break with that in mind!

[Husar]

If it works it could be a very interesting step in portables.

iPhone AppStore?!

The difference being that iPhone users didn't already have hundreds of now-useless physical discs lying around that they paid for.

[Monk]

The difference being that iPhone users didn't already have hundreds of now-useless physical discs lying around that they paid for.

That's what made the news significant, at least to me. Sony is going to completely change gears and go for full digital media - personally I think it's a bad move for the very reason you point out. It could work, and it'll be really interesting to see in action, but backwards compatibility is about to take another for the team.

[frogbeastegg]

The physical design of the PSP Go sums the entire concept up for me nicely. It looks pretty and shiny - until you notice that the shiny, vulnerable screen slides down to protect the buttons, and that the analogue nub is placed in the centre so you will kill your hands if you try to use it. My PSP 1000 already hurts my hands and the screen has picked up some minor scuff marks despite my taking the utmost loving care of it at all times.

PSP Go is not there to be played. It's there to be seen and act as a brand name "look what I got" toy. Problem: the Playstation brand has taken a sharp nosedive in recent years and the PSP never achieved superstar or must have status.

As for the price, it's nearly as much as a PS3 slim. £229.99 here in the UK. Insanity!

[Meneldil]

There's a growing uproar about CitiesXL.

First, to fully play the game, people has to pay a monthly fee (about 8$/month). This will allow them to receive additional content, to play online, but also to buy expensive DLC (or GEM, as they call them).

For example, the game won't be shipped with any mass/public transport system: no subway, no buses, no train. That by itself is quite retard for a city builder.
Then, buses will supposedly be made available around christmas, through a 'free' update. The free update will require you to pay the monthly fee. So, the 'free update' is actually not free at all. Thus, people who don't pay monthly won't be able to get buses, trains or any new content for that matter.
Then, a bit later (release date is set to mid-january as of now), people will be able to get one of the DLC/GEM, namely the ski GEM (which allows you to build ski stations).

If you thought MMO's were bad, I introduce you to the new generation of ripoff.

Furthermore, the beta has been quite a failure apparently. Beta testers said the game was bland, uninteresting, and that the 'MMO' part of it (people were supposed to build towns on a planet, trade and interact with eachothers) is inexistant.
To me, it looks like Monte Christo tried to make a cash-cow city builder aimed at casual gamers. Unfortunately, CityBuilder games mostly cater to a specific kind of gamers who have little interest in shiny graphics and DLC.

More infos here

[TinCow]

World of Goo is on sale this week for... whatever you want to pay for it. I think that qualifies it as a 'budget' release. Haven't played it before, but given the reviews and the fact you can get it for $1, or even less if that's your inclination, it's probably worth looking into.