Lets start with the basics. Duel of the Planeswalkers offers a few modes of play, including Campaign, Co-op Campaign and Challenge Mode. Campaign mode is a standard arcade style mode where you battle against progressively harder opponents. Unfortunately the developers seem to have decided that in the current age of Xbox Live, online co-op would seem too passe and have only included an offline option. On the other side of the scale, Challenge mode is an interesting concept that involves a pre-determined situation in which you are guaranteed to lose unless you defeat your opponent in the current turn. You are tasked with analyzing the situation and performing the necessary steps to win the game.

Challenge mode is an interesting addition indeed, but like any other puzzle based game, you’ll find it’s a one trick pony and you probably won’t be going back after you complete it the first time.
Online, there’s the usual player and ranked match, with up to 2-4 players, or the ‘two-headed’ giant, which is basically a 2v2 option.  This is where you’ll probably be spending most of your time.

You’re probably right that Challenge mode is a one trick pony. But I did have a lot of fun in that mode. While most of these challenges wouldn’t put up much resistance against a seasoned Magic player, some of them did offer very innovative and unique solutions outside what you’d normally encounter in the game (one in particular involving facing down a Goblin army). There is a lot of potential in this mode for expansion through DLC. The developers have already stated that they have multiple expansions planned and I can only hope they continue to support this mode. Its one of those things that give the game a unique flavour, beyond the standard checklist of campaign and versus modes.

Yeah, if Wizards actually manage to live up to the claim of the DLC they are promising, this game could have a decent lifespan.  New challenges could be added, and the cards from the latest expansions could be added in. The deck customization, is where I find the game falls short a bit. The game offers (x number) of pre-made starter decks, all of which except one has to be unlocked by completing the single player campaign. Additional cards for each deck can also be unlocked, allowing you to swap out only a few cards of your choosing.  It’s just more restrictive than what the average MtG player is used to, and feels like you’re being forced into playing the basic MtG styles like green creature rushdown or a red burn deck.

I would have to both agree and disagree with that. Part of the fun of MTG was to go through the whole deck customization. However, to be brutally honest, I was never really any good at it. This XBLA title seems to fill a very niche area of people who enjoy the game but don’t have the time or inclination to perfect their decks. I get the feeling this will limit their sales potential with true Magic players.

Okay, so this might turn off the most hardcore of Magic players out there. But think about it this way. Part of playing MtG in real life is also about how much you are willing to spend on your deck.  In DotP you don’t pay for any of the cards, which is great.  I would assume that this is how Wizards of the Coast stop players from loading up their deck with all of the best stuff from the get go.  At least there’s good variety in the cards they have provided in terms of the sets they came from.

Good point. I did notice while playing through this game that the types of decks they have included in here have a good variety for all kinds of play styles. They cover most of the standard archetypes from red burn, blue counter, black suicide/discard, green overrun and green elf as well as many multicoloured and artifact decks. Although some decks did offer cards which (in the real world) are more rare and expensive, there seemed to be a good balance so that (with the exception of the last 1-2 opponents in the campaign) you wouldn’t be hopelessly outmatched by using one of the earlier decks. Multiple playthroughs earn you more unlocked cards which you can use to supplement the existing cards and strengthen your deck. Unfortunately you can’t remove cards which form the primary deck. This was very limiting, but not a deal breaker for me.

The interface works pretty well too.  They’ve made the playing field kinda like a table, as if you’re playing MtG in real life.  You can also zoom into cards, and rotate the view to other player’s views (you can’t see their hand obviously).  There’s also a kind of a 5 second ‘buzzer’ you can press in the opponent’s turn whenever you want to play an interrupt or instant.  The only things that kinda bug me is how long the animations of the cards moving around can take sometimes, but thankfully you can speed it up with a button press.  I actually skipped my attack phase by accident once though.   The other is that it’s sometimes hard to select your opponents cards in order to zoom and read them.

You can also turn off all the card animations through the menu system but it does take some fiddling. On the whole, I like the interface. The only reason anyone would be playing this game is if they are a fan of the card game. In the past the series has experimented with trying to replace the cards with animated creatures and wizards with varying degrees of success. Going back to its roots just feels right for the series.

If you’re a fan of MtG and enjoy playing competitively, I think you’ll enjoy this game.  Just don’t expect an in depth single player experience like the original MtG PC game in 1997.  The set decks are more akin to picking characters in a fighting game, with a bit of customization of course.

That’s an interesting parallel with fighting games (and an accurate one). In both cases you get to choose a character (or deck) which has a relatively defined set of abilities. The challenge comes in maximizing those abilities by applying your own skill to the game. Overall I’d say I was happy with this purchase. The card game has gotten increasingly complicated with new expansions and releases and this game does a good job of bringing it back to its roots. Some of the highlights for me are the Challenge mode (which has huge potential for expansion), and the variety of decks and play styles being included. It would have been perfect if a full deck builder was part of the package, but given that this is an XBLA game, I’m going to cut the developers some slack. At the very least the included decks are varied and interesting. The negatives I would bring up are the already mentioned lack of a deck builder and lack of online co-op which is unforgivable in this day and age. If you’re still on the fence about this game, wait for the inevitable DLC and make your decision based on that. I’m giving it a 3.5/5.

I’m not sure how well Wizards are going to do with the whole kinda ‘casual’ approach to MtG they’re trying for this game.  I don’t really think there’s such a thing as a casual MtG player, and I think most MtG players will find it hard to get over the fact that there’s limited deck building options.  Still, at 800 MS points, it’s great for pick up and play without worrying too much about your deck.  Hopefully Wizards will deliver with the promised DLC for this game.  I’m also giving it 3.5/5.

I write here to raise awareness of a grave injustice befalling the gamers of an unfortunate society. Numbering in the thousands, these gamers are crying out for a saviour to rescue them from their oppressive government and sanctioned international trade laws.

I am of course, speaking of the good people from the People’s Republic of Australia

These gamers want nothing more than to join their brethren in the rest of the world in a game of Cod4 or Killzone2. Perhaps they might even care to dabble in some Silent Hill or Gears of War. But alas, it is not to be. The currently elected dictatorship has taken it upon themselves to hamper these gamers’ God given rights to frag, teabag and pwn their way into gaming legend.

The following is a list of injustices to befall the gamers of this country. A majority of these coming up in the last 18 months alone (i.e. since the last general election). Some are proposed, some are already in place and some are currently under debate.

• Mandatory ISP filtering of all internet content which the government “deems inappropriate”. This started off as a list of various R18+ sites (yes, the appalling Australian Dictatorship has taken it upon themselves to take away the basic human right of free pr0n). It has since expanded to anti-abortion sites and pro-anorexia sites.
• All games rated above an MA15+ rating (R18+ or higher) are illegal for sale in the country. Changing this law requires unanimous agreement between the attorney generals of every state, which will not happen until a certain one retires
• Making it illegal to sell any MMO in the country. The Classification board states it is unable to classify online content as it depends on the people you are playing with/against. As such, content which is not classified is illegal for sale in this country. Retailers potentially face an $11,000 fine unless they cease to sell copies of World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and all MMOs
• Throttling any public refferendum about introducing an R18+ rating for games. The attorney generals stated they will release a paper on their reasoning and findings behind the lack of R18+, and would hold a discussion at that time. This was over 12 months ago.
• Games are consistently released here late, and extremely overpriced. A new game typically retails about over $90. Rock band took over 12 months to arrive at our shores (released after Rock Band 2 did in the US) and was released for $250. A PS3 is $699 and an Xbox 360 Pro is $550.
• It is proposed to use the ISP filter mentioned above to block all sites/services selling content not suitable for persons under 15 years (read: yes, this would include banning Steam, Xbox Live and potentially even eBay as they contain MA15+ content)
• It is illegal to import any content not currently classified in this country. If a game is refused classification, it is then illegal to import it via other means (i.e. the internet)
• Exhorbitant costs for internet and restrictive bandwidth limits. The following is the ADSL pricing page from the country’s largest ISP http://www.bigpond.com/internet/plans/adsl/plans-and-offers/. The Australian Dollar is currently at 80c US. So all prices are 20% less in US dollar terms. Granted this ISP is one of the worst priced ones, but they are by far the largest and the story does not get much better from there

As you can all clearly see, this situation is dire. Without the games that provide these gamers their means of survival, it is unclear how much longer they can go on. Already, lack of gaming has left hundreds in a zombie-like state, unable to function in society, or even feed themselves. I beseech you, please send help. Redirect the planes that drop food shipments and pamphlets to the people in Afganistan and airdrop us copies of Manhunt and uncensored versions of GTA4.

I fear I cannot write much more, the ISP filter is watching. I must stop here, praying that my message has reached someone outside these shores. Send help!

We are not communists here at Game|Life. We want publishers to make financially prudent decisions so they can continue to deliver games that fuel our addictions. But some bone-headed business moves benefit everyone except us.

Here are the 10 worst offenders:

Originally from Wired.com

10. Xbox 360’s Expensive Memory

xboxmemWant a bigger PlayStation 3 hard drive? Buy an off-the-shelf laptop drive and slap that baby in. Need more room for all the WiiWare games you’ve downloaded? Hot-swap a generic SD card. Running out of space on your Xbox 360 hard drive? Bend over. The biggest hard disk you can buy for Xbox 360 is the 120-GB model, and it costs a whopping $140. For purposes of comparison, that’s the MSRP of Western Digital’s terabyte drive. Need 512 MB of portable memory for your Xbox? Only $40, which would buy an 8-GB SD card.

9. DRM and Piracy

Digital rights management schemes, which limit the ways we can play legitimate copies of games, are annoying. But piracy is worse. If you think it’s a victimless crime, consider the case of publisher Stardock. It releases its games without DRM, as a sign of courtesy and respect to its customers. But the ambitious online mode of its recent PC game Demigod has been plagued with problems, partly because even though only 18,000 people bought the game, 120,000 people have been logging in and playing. Stardock has spent a lot of extra time and money supporting these freeloaders, and that sucks. But what really sucks is that the pirates are mucking up the performance for those who bought the game legitimately. Dear 100,000 people who pirated Demigod: You are jackasses.

8. GameStop-Exclusive Powers

gigawattbladesIn Sony’s inFamous, Cole McGrath learns electric superpowers by frying enemies. Except for the Gigawatt Blades power, which he learns by you paying money to GameStop.

Giving out plastic tchotchkes in return for putting down a reservation fee on an upcoming game is a nice touch, but working out a sweetheart deal with a retailer to hold back in-game abilities unless a player hands over five bucks ahead of time is downright sketchy. Not to mention the fact that if you miss the preorder deal, it’s impossible to unlock the content at any time thereafter. GameStop gets more preorders, Sony gets advertising sponsorship and the rest of us get a gimped game.

7. Old Game, New Price

We can argue all day about whether paying $8 for a Super Nintendo game download is worth it, but at least that’s the highest any game publisher charges for 16-bit relics anymore. Except for Square Enix, which took the 1995 game Chrono Trigger, slapped it onto a Nintendo DS cartridge with only the barest of extra features, then charged $40 for it — 10 bucks more than a standard DS game. Icing on the cake: Complaining about the game’s sales, as if it’s consumers’ fault for having the audacity to spot a raw deal.

6. PSP Go

pspgo_handAren’t game machines supposed to get cheaper over time? Sony’s new PSP is microsized in every way except the price: $250, an $80 premium over the current model. The only advantage is the smaller form factor, and we doubt that the smaller screen counts as a gameplay plus. Otherwise, the Go’s features are downgraded over the original PSP’s — no disc drive, no swappable battery pack (and no upgrade to the expected battery life to counteract either of those).

So why is the price the same as when the unit launched in 2005? Sony says it’s because retailers are taking a bigger cut off the top, since they won’t be making money on sales of game discs. No matter who is to blame, consumers lose with PSP Go’s price. With any luck, the accompanying shift to downloadable sales will make the PSP’s software catalog cheaper than retail, but we’re not holding our breaths on that, considering …

Remainder of article Here

The iPhone is enjoying unrivaled success as a mobile gaming platform.  Even major development studios like EA, SEGA and Konami have taken notice and released for iPhone, such as Spore, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, and Metal Gear Solid.

What makes it so successful?

Quite some time ago, Nokia thought it would be a good idea to combine a mobile phone with a gaming handheld.  After all,  the Gameboy Advance was selling like hotcakes while millions of phone users worldwide were killing time playing snake on their phones waiting for the train to arrive.  Surely the idea would be a hit?

The final product was a confused mess and failed fusion that was neither phone nor gaming machine.  Phones back then weren’t exactly compact, and the NGage didn’t help by adding a D-pad and additional face buttons. The system was also plagued by several stupid design issues.  Like the Gameboy, the NGage used cartridges for games, except on the NGage, the cartridge slot was behind the battery, meaning users would have to switch off their phone and remove the battery just to change games.

Unconventionally, the NGage also had the speakers on the side of the phone.  This earned the NGage the nickname of “Taco Phone”  and as a result, it became impossible for anyone to take a call on the phone without looking like a total goof.  These factors, combined with it’s ridiculous price point and low quality of the games made the NGage unappealing to both gamers and the mobile phone market, and sealed it’s fate.

Much time has passed since then, and a new challenger has appeared to take on the challenge. But this time it’s different.  Enter the Apple iPhone.

Unlike the ill-fated NGage, the iPhone has several things working for it.  First and foremost, it is a phone, and a very good one at that.  The wide array of gimmicks makes it very appealing to the mass market,   not just gamers.  With such a widespread audience, major studios such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and even Konami have taken notice and porting some of their IPs such as SimCity, Need for Speed, Assassins Creed, and even Metal Gear Solid to the iPhone (though it’s quite clear they don’t put as much effort into these ports).

Next is the touch interface.  I believe the greatness of the Nintendo DS lies in the touchscreen feature.  The best games on the system are the ones that make full use of it, such as Ouendan/Elite Beat Agents, and Trauma Center.  The iPhone has a touchscreen as well,  but because the iPhone doesn’t actually have any buttons, developers are forced to actually use this feature to create new and interesting control schemes for games.  ATC for example, requires you to direct air traffic by drawing paths to help planes onscreen reach their destination without colliding into another.  Other games such as xPlane make use of the iPhone’s accelerometer to simulate a plane’s controls, requiring you to actually tilt the phone to fly around.

The touch screen also makes games that normally require a mouse, such as strategy games, possible.  Warfare Inc. on the iPhone is pretty much a rip-off the Command and Conquer series, and the touch screen can emulate mouse controls well enough to deliver the same kind of experience.  Just don’t expect that uber-micro that comes with the keyboard.

Users who have jailbroken their phones also have access to a wealth of classic games, with NES and Genesis emulators available, as well as ScummVM, which runs old LucasArts adventure games such as Monkey Island, Sam and Max and Full Throttle.

The phone can also make use of the 3G connection for online play on the go.  Aurora Feint for example, has implemented a online player vs player feature.  Okay, so in this day and age where 3G connectivity is shaky and mobile download quotas are small, bandwidth intensive games aren’t exactly feasible.  But how about turn based games?  It’d be great to see games like Civilization, Master of Orion with netplay on the iPhone.  Even shortplay games like UNO or Monopoly would be great if online play was implemented.

The best part about gaming on the iPhone for me is the convenience factor.  Unlike the DS or PSP,  I’ll always have my phone on me.  The DS and PSP are large by comparison, and most of the time I don’t see myself playing them enough to constantly carry them around with me.  The games on the iPhone are of a decent enough quality to keep me amused on the train ride home and there’s no UMDs or cartridges to worry about, making it truly “mobile”.

Because it’s rather easy and inexpensive to publish a game on the App Store, we’ve seen a large number of small and independent developers take advantage of this to break into the industry.  Sure the quality of games varies greatly, but there are some creative and interesting games out there.

With the rumours that the next iPhone model is to get a new graphics chip, and Apple are hiring in house game developers, we’re starting to see that Apple are really getting serious about the iPhone as a mobile gaming platform.  I’m hoping more major studios will follow suit by increasing their production values and making original games for the iPhone.  There are already clones of several popular games such as C&C and GTA on the App Store,  it would be great to see Rockstar step up and make an original GTA game as they did for the DS for example.

Here’s some of my picks for the best iPhone games available on the App Store at the moment.

• SimCity - almost a straight port of SimCity 3000.  If you were ever into SimCity, this game will steal your life away.
• Aurora Feint II - deceptively addictive game that’s like Bejewelled and Tetris combined…and you can play against other players too
• Bejewelled 2
• Fieldrunners - if you loved tower defence games from Warcraft 3, you’ll love this game.
• ATC 4.0 - great original game where you have to correctly guide all planes to their destination
• Orion - the closest thing you’ll get to Magic the Gathering on your phone.  If only it had netplay!

Special Mentions:

• 1112 - This game is reminiscent of old point and click adventure games.  The artwork is really beautiful, but at times I found it frustratingly hard to progress.
• Sonic - pretty much Sonic 1 straight off the Genesis/Mega Drive.  The controls feel a bit laggy at times, but hey, it’s Sonic!

YJ would kill to play Phoenix Wright and Ouendan on iPhone

Good Game recently held a contest for special gaming memories to be entered into the “The Good Game Gamers Guide to Good Gaming”.

“We’re looking for your special gaming memory…it might be the time you took out the high score on Pacman at the local milk bar, the first time you wielded that gravity gun or that time when you really called yourself a gamer. It can be anything as long as the story is good, relates to your gaming experience and is something that others would want to read.. .and that you can tell it all in 60 words or less.” - Good Game

Here are my responses:

Battle Chess (1988)

I was 7 and I didn’t even know what Chess was. Knights, pawns and morphing castles fighting each other in detailed animation on a 3D board was eye candy for a young kid. The only way for me to get more was to learn about Battle Chess. It turned something boring into something so awesome I couldn’t stop playing.

Quake 3 (1999)

It’s 3am, I have sweat patches under my arms, a sports drink bottle for hydration and I’m trying not to think about how bad I need to go. I bought eye drops because when I play this game, I stop blinking. The lightning fast Quake 3 was responsible for me failing a few subjects, but I don’t have any regrets.

Thief 2 (2000)

You know a games immersive when you hold your breath in real life from the suspense of being found by guards in a game. Thief 2 is such an atmospheric and immersive game that I’d be playing it in a dark room sitting a bit too close to the screen maybe believing a bit too much I was a thief.

Do you have any special moments worth sharing?

The eagerly anticipated Broken Steel DLC for Fallout 3,  raises the level cap to 30, adds new perks, new weapons and 3 main storyline quests.  Does it live up to expectations?

Firstly, the story.  The new quest line revolves around you and the Brotherhood of Steel trying to deal with the Enclave remnants after their defeat at the Project Purity at the end of Fallout 3.  Broken Steel retcons your character’s supposed death at the end of Fallout 3 and takes place 2 weeks after.  The game doesn’t waste any time throwing you back into the action with the first quest involving an assault on an Enclave outpost with the assistance of Liberty Prime.  Unlike Operation Anchorage and the Pitt which took place in totally different areas, most of Broken Steel takes place in the standard brown and gray Capital Wasteland we’ve all come to hate.  The only new environment you’ll see is Adam’s Air Force base which is where the final quest takes place.

You’ll be doing a lot of fighting in this DLC, mainly against Enclave soldiers, but there’ll be sections during the quests where you have to deal with a lot sentry bots, feral ghoul reavers, and deathclaws.  The difficulty will really depend on your character going in.   Personally, I had built a pretty tanked character by the end of Fallout 3, and I was able to breeze through most of the DLC quests, but I did have a few close moments where I had to spam stimpacks during a firefight with several robot sentries and a horde of ghouls at the same time.  Players who have level 20 characters (especially with Grim Reaper’s Sprint) may not exactly find this DLC challenging.

There are also two new major weapons for you to wreck havoc with in the game.  There’s the Heavy Incinerator, which is an upgraded flamethrower that is capable of shooting balls of flame that burns on impact.  You’ll run into plenty of Enclave soldiers carrying this weapon, so ammo and repairs are never a problem, and it’s quite good for dealing with large packs of enemies without needing V.A.T.S.

The other new weapon is the Tesla Cannon, which fires bolts of electricity that causes AoE damage on impact.  It’s also very damaging, but because every shot requires a reload, it’s better as a sniping weapon and not very useful in big firefights as you can only get 2 shots off in V.A.T.S with full AP.  I did find it really useful in taking out laser turrets at long range, and against sentry bots.

With the level cap now at 30, Bethesda have included some new perks to go along.  The problem is that most of these perks are very mediocre , compared to some of the ones already in Fallout 3. Grim Reaper’s Sprint actually made getting to level 20 worthwhile.  Some of the new perks in Broken Steel lets you convert 10 Nuka Colas into Quantums, build custom weapons without schematics, or change your karma to very good, very evil, or neutral.  It kinda feels like some were added just to make getting some of the achievements like Nuka Cola Challenge and Weaponsmith in Fallout 3 easier.  Most of the perks don’t really add any value to your character, so there’s no real incentive to level past 20.  Even the best perk, Almost Perfect, which sets all your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats to 9, is only available at level 30, and combined with the rather short length of the DLC, chances are you won’t be reaching level 30 for now anyway.

With the newly announced Point Look and Mothership Zeta DLC packs coming in a few months, there will probably be enough content by then to get to level 30 easily.  Having said that,  Todd Howard has confirmed in a interview with IGN that Point Look and Mothership Zeta do not affect the level cap in any way.  This means that getting Broken Steel currently is and will be the only way to continue playing the game without reloading a save game prior to the end of Fallout 3.

I suppose this DLC would give players who haven’t actually finished Fallout 3, or played Operation Anchorage/The Pitt the most value for money. If you have played Fallout 3 to death like I have, you may find this DLC just ‘more of the same’.  During the 6 or so hours that it took me to finish the main quest line, I never quite got to the levels of addiction that I had while I was playing the original game.   I was also kinda pissed off about the all the XP I lost by completing quests when I was already level 20 in the first game.  But for people who haven’t fully completed Fallout 3, reached level 20, or played Operation Anchorage/The Pitt, getting Broken Steel first will give you the best mileage out of the added features.  The raised level cap and being able to continue playing after the first game has finished gives players some incentive to go back and finish any quests they previously missed.  If you fall into any of the categories I mentioned, I highly recommend getting Broken Steel before the other DLC packs to give you the best possible experience.  Otherwise if you’re looking for something new and fresh, I’d spend my 800 points on Mothership Zeta when it comes out instead.

Liked

• Pretty much non-stop action and combat from beginning to end
• Increased level cap and being able to continue playing the game adds extra value to Fallout 3 as well as future DLC

Hated

• More of the same brown Wasteland.  Operation Anchorage was a nice change of scenery, maybe they could’ve greened up the Wasteland a bit since fresh water has been restored?
• Boring and unimaginative new perks that don’t really add any value to your character
• Short main quest line
• Wasted XP gains for people who finished Fallout 3 at level 20

YJ previosuly completed Fallout 3 with 1000/1000 achievement points at the start of Broken Steel.  Character was level 20 and had mostly max stats for important skills like repair, medicine, science, lockpick, speech, small guns, large guns, energy weapons.  Broken Steel was played on ‘Normal’ difficulty and completed in around 6 hours.  YJ was level 24 when the final quest ended.

Raw Sales Data

Once again, lets start with the basic. The graph above shows raw sales data for the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 alone. Not much to say here that hasn’t already been said, the Playstation 3 pulled back into the race at the start of 2008 but aggressive pricing and bundling by Microsoft ensured this didn’t last long.

Relative Sales

The graph above shows relative sales between the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Its just another way of representing the information displayed in the previous graph, except it highlights each manufacturer’s sales as compared to the other a little more clearly.

Revenue

A common argument made against the Xbox 360 sales figures is that it is so much cheaper. It’s pretty logical to assume that having a cheaper price than the Playstation 3 will lead to higher sales. However, what the above graph shows us is that despite this lower price, consumers spend more money on buying the Xbox 360 than the Playstation 3. It should be noted that the figures for revenue I have attempted to extrapolate are estimations at best. The estimation method used was to locate the dates each company implemented price drops and multiply the price of the middle skew with the number of consoles sold in that quarter. This assumes that on average, for Microsoft the extra revenue gained from selling elite units offsets the lower revenue from arcade units. This is in line with past statements from Microsoft which state that the average price paid for an Xbox 360 for all consumers is approximately $10-$20 less than the price of the Pro model.

Total Revenue

Another representation of revenue data, this graph shows us the total revenue gained from sales of consoles by each manufacturer since Q1 2007. It shows that both companies have made impressive revenues, but that Microsoft is (predictably) slightly ahead. Granted that ’slightly’ ahead constitutes approximately $500million, but that is small change for companies of this size over such a long period of time. It is noteworthy that these are revenues only, the cost of manufacturing for the Playstation 3 is likely significantly higher than that of the Xbox 360. It is very possible that Microsoft is much further ahead of Sony in terms of profits from console sales, not to mention Microsoft’s higher revenues from the online marketplace and Xbox Live subscription fees.

Total Console Sales

This is the data I find the most fascinating. I drew the conclusion based on the last article that growth in the industry was being driven by Wii sales alone. Based on the graph shown here, that statement was clearly false. We clearly see that even after taking Wii sales out of the equation, the total sales of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 combined are increasing. Hardcore gamers rejoice, your industry is not being throttled. It is definitely growing, you just have to dig a little deeper to find it among the overwhelming Wii sales figures.

Note 1: All data used to generate these graphs has been taken from official NPD sales data reports for the United States. The NPD group is currently the most accurate form of centralized sales reporting made available to the public. There are some limitations (i.e. Wall-mart figures are not included), but its the best we have.
Note 2: For graphs below (with the exception of monthly market share data), the dim lines represent actual sales figures while the dark lines represent a trend line applied to those sales numbers.

Let’s start with the most basic report.

Raw Sales Data

No surprises here. The Wii takes off with a steadily rising trendline. The remaining console sales are pretty pale in comparison and staying relatively level. Still, there has to be more to this than the total Wii dominance.

Quarter to Quarter Change

This graph shows the percentage change in quarterly sales figures per console when compared to the previous quarter. Here we see the first sign that the Wii does not have complete dominance. Looking at the trendlines of the Wii (blue) and Xbox360 (red), we see that although both consoles have a steadily increasing quarterly sales growth, the Xbox360 seems to be growing at a slightly greater rate. The margin is probably not enough that we can call it a clear winner though. Unfortunately for Sony, the PS3 and PS2 have had a steadily declining quarter to quarter growth rate, despite having lower raw sales figures (lower raw sales make it easier to have high percentage growth). Also noteworthy is the sharp decline in sales growth for all consoles in Q1 2008. This quarter was the first full quarter in which the global financial crisis took place, which explains the decline.

Year over Year Change

The year to year growth data is a comparison of each quarter to the same quarter in the previous year (i.e. Q1 sales in 2009 compared to Q1 sales in 2008). This graph allows us to look at the data after removing seasonal effects such as exceptionally high sales in the fourth quarter. Once again we see a similar story as the Quarter-Quarter data. The Sony consoles have been declining in sales in every quarter when compared to previous years. In recent months the Playstation 3 even entered negative growth for Q4 2008 and Q1 2009. By contrast, the Wii has had virtually unmoving year on year change, with an average of 50% growth across the board, impressive. The Xbox360 on the other hand has enjoyed increasing year over year growth in all quarters for the entire period, to the point where it enjoys almost the same level of growth as the Wii. Whether this trend will continue is another matter. The Playstation2 is in steady decline, but this is expected due to its age. No-one expected it to be a chart topper last year.

Market Share

So the Wii has had ridiculously high raw console sales numbers. However, when we looked at quarter to quarter and year to year growth the Xbox360 shows some signs of competition (granted, not much). Much talk has been made over whether or not the Wii will continue its dominance. This category is where we can really see the extent of their stranglehold of sales. The above graph is not a representation of the Wii’s total market share. The data tells us that every month the Wii sells a greater percentage of all consoles sold. The Wii is not only dominating raw sales, it’s extending its lead drastically. We can clearly see from the data above that the industry has been growing, total console sales are up. However, when you add in the data that the Wii’s monthly market share is increasing, and increasing at a relatively similar rate to the growth rate of the industry, we can reach the following conclusion. Virtually all growth in the industry is being driven by the Wii. Growth seen in the Xbox360 sales appears to have been market share taken directly away from the Playstation3 as growth in one has been met by a decline in the other.

Note: As a test of my last statement, I will put together another article along the same lines as the one above. Except this time, I will take the Wii out of the equation to see whether there is still overall growth in the industry, and to do a comparative analysis of the Xbox360 vs Playstation3. Stay tuned.

Note 2: The follow up referred to above can be found here: Console Sales - The Report Card Part 2

My local arcade has been able to get their hands on this highly anticipated fighter, and I’ve been lucky enough to play it a few times. How does it stack up with the rest of the King of Fighters series?

The first thing I noticed was the new sprites, and how detailed and well animated they were.  It’s like watching a Guilty Gear game on steroids.   There’s some really cool touches, like when Robert Garcia does his lightning kick move, he’ll stop, turn around to straighten out his jacket, then deliver the final kick.  I really salute SNK for sticking with 2D, because the end result is an extremely beautiful game that 3D graphics could never hope to match (I’m looking at you Capcom!).

What irks me though, is the excessive amount of shadows they have used for some of the characters.  For example, on Ryo, you can barely see his face, and his eyes are just two glowing blue dots over black, making him look very evil.   Certain stages also have dark areas at the edges, like stadium, and Chinatown market.  While this may be more ‘realistic’, I find the effect a bit distracting at times.

Evil Ryo wants your soul

Special effects such as projectiles and hit sparks are done in 3D, and some of this doesn’t sit well with the high resolution sprites and the art style.  For example, when Kyo does his Orochinagi super, you get a massive big rendered orange blob that rivals the pixellated mess that was Capcom vs SNK 2.  I kinda wish they had gone the Garou: Mark of the Wolves style with this, because the special effects in that game were beautiful, especially the super flash.

Your puny green fire can’t beat my badly cellshaded flames!

For such a 2D fighting game that’s this well animated, the game runs deceptively fast.  This is due to the large size of the characters compared to the playing field.   Because the characters are closer on screen, jumping is extremely fast.  The camera does pan out slightly when the two characters are far apart, but if you compare the starting locations in KOF2002 and KOFXII, you can see that there is much less room.

Some moves execute much slower, jumps are much faster, turbo short jump is gone and so on.  SNK have also followed Capcom’s lead with SF3 and SF4, and have made throwing a command (now A+C).  Characters such as Sie Kensou and Iori also has a brand new moveset (and outfit), with Iori after losing his powers to Ash Crimson in KOFXI.

Otherwise, characters such as Benimaru, Ryo, Robert (with moving fireball and dragon punch) and Kim are mostly the same as their older incarnations, and probably a good characters to start with as you’re getting used to the game.  Here are some of the changes for the characters that I used:

Benimaru has most of his moves from ‘98 back, with the exception of his command throw.

Kyo has lost his punch chains and R.E.D kick in favour of the ground fireball, but gets his rising kick move from 95′ back.  His df + D also trips the opponent now.

Clark has lost all of his moves except his backbreaker and flash elbow, but gets the ‘tap P rapidly’ vulcan punch from 95′ back.

Terry still has Burn Knuckle, Crack Shoot, and Power Wave.  Rising tackle is the charge motion version.  He no longer has the Buster Wolf super.

Ryo plays like his 98′ version.

Here is a screenshot of KOF2002.   Notice how small the characters are on the screen?

Because of all the new frames of animation, some moves and normals seem to take forever to come out, and once they do, seem to stay out for quite some time, making it feel a bit clunky when compared to the speed of movement and jumping.  I don’t think the  fluid animation suits the frantic style and pace of KOF games very well.

There’s also new features such as Critical Counter, which is a separate bar that fills up as you attack your opponent.  Once it’s full, you can activate it by hitting your opponent with a C or D attack, and if successful, you are able to follow it up with a custom combo ala SF Alpha 2 style.  There’s also something similar to SF4’s focus attacks, which can be executed using back + CD.

The game also has no story mode or final boss, as SNK have stated.  They will probably work in more characters and conclude the Ash saga in the next game.

When you do play this game, don’t go in expecting anything like the previous KOFs.   Throw away your expectations, because KOFXII is a totally new game, and new start for the series, and it will take some time to get used to.  I’m not sure how well the KOF community will adopt this game, because of how different it is to what we’ve come to know from KOF.  We’ve seen in the past where KOF XI or Neowave are played for a few months and are then replaced by more profitable KOF98 or KOF2002 machines, but KOF fans will eventually have to get used to the system, as future games will continue to use these new sprites and system.  It will be interesting to see how the system and characters evolve in the future games.

Capcom released the power pack update for SF4 last week, adding new features.  These include a replay viewer and a new ‘Championship mode’, which is supposed to be the replacement for the very broken Ranked match system.  Does it offer anything substantial or is it just another lazy update?

Championship mode is set up like a mock tournament, with three wins in a row required to take the title of champ.  By mock, you are not enrolled into tournament with set players per se, but rather you play other players who are in the same matchup as you, meaning semi-finalists will play any other semi-finalists, and finalists will play other finalists.  Winning a tournament nets you Championship Points (CP), which the game uses to match you up with other opponents of the same skill.   Championship mode is also blind picks, meaning you can’t see which character your opponent chooses, which stops counter picking.

Capcom have also included a disconnection % ratio for each player, so ragequitters will be publicly shamed from now on.  This feature seems to be a bit buggy, as occasionally players will get an extra % on their disconnect rating randomly, or when the other player quits first.  Ragequitters have less incentive to pull the plug this time, as you don’t lose CP for losing.  Boosting for CP is also more difficult, because you can’t keep matching up with the same people with the tournament setup.

There are some good points about this system.  Firstly, I have noticed a large decrease in the number of ‘flowchart’ Kens, although ironically, by first tournament win was two extremely tough fights followed by a scrubby Ken in the finals.

Secondly, a large increase in the number of skilled players on Championship mode, who probably avoided the broken ranked match system in favour of player match. The way Championship mode is set up means you will always face other winners, and my first few matches were brutal, probably some of the best players I’ve ever encountered, both on arcade and console.

Lastly, the replay system is what every good fighting game needs, a feature to let you watch the top players and learn from them.

There are a few problems with this update though.  Championship mode still suffers from the same problems that ranked match did.  Being able to choose who you fight and don’t is a stupid idea, and totally defeats the purpose of a ‘ranked’ match.

But you might say something like, ‘I only fight people with 3 bars connection or better’.  Which is fair enough if you live the States or Europe, but when you live in a country that has stone age internet like Australia, combined with a small player base, this becomes extremely annoying and very difficult to get any games in. Either way, you should not be able to see who you are playing until you are in the actual match, nor should you be able to kick them.

The problem with this new Championship mode, is that it’s really not any different from Ranked matches.  If anything ranked matches are now obsolete, because BP is too inflated due to the large number of boosters and ragequitters.  What championship mode should have been, is something like a tournament creator integrated into the game.  For example I could create a tournament for X number of players, private or open, with options such as double or single elimination. Wait times would be minimal because everyone would play their matches at once.  Capcom could even host official tournaments online for each region/continenent, and winners would have their win recorded on their profile with some kind of points awarded or something.

Even better, there could be some kind of ladder system built into the game, but players have to enrol in specific ladders, where matches are played out over several weeks like a season.

Replay mode also differs between console releases.  The 360 gets input displays while the PS3 gets a replay rating feature.  Why couldn’t we have both?  This is an extremely puzzling move and the only reason I can think of is some kind of exclusive deal with either MS or Sony.  It’s stupid!  PS3 owners really get the shaft, as input displays are far more insightful to players than a lame rating system.

What this update should have also included, is the lobby system from HD Remix.  While player match is good, playing the same person over and over can get really stale, especially if both of you don’t change characters.  With a lobby system, you can invite in a couple of friends, say 5, and the game would match everyone up instantaneously.  After each match, the game would put you up against a different player, instead of spectating, which is the way the multiple arcade cabinets are set up.  The setup I described earlier is essentially a lobby system anyway, except that it tracks the player’s progress through a real tournament with set players.

Capcom has taken a step in the right direction with this update, but I think there’s still a lot of improvement that can be had.  Here’s hoping for the next big update!