Have Crappy/No Internet Connection? “Get A 360”

Leave a reply

In an interview with GTTV’s Geoff Keighly, Microsoft’s Don Mattrick was asked about how exactly they’ll court people into getting an Xbox One should they have no stable internet connection (or any for that matter). He replied with, “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of content. It’s called Xbox 360.” In other words, if you’re not ready to sign in every day at the parole offices of Xbox One, well then you’re not ready for Xbox One. Stay on the Xbox 360.

Mattrick probably won’t get any flak for this from his staff, but this is just a boneheaded thing to say. Right now, while Microsoft is still poised to sell Xbox 360 consoles, they’re primary focus is to sell as many Xbox One consoles as possible at launch. His comments also smack of his whole “Backwards” comment he made. I mean, it’s okay to tell your consumers to get an older console if they’re more comfortable getting that one, like Nintendo and Sony have done. But the delivery of his message is just arrogant.

They say that for each console manufacturer, the third consoles are the ones that see the company falter due to an overabundance of arrogance. It happened with the Gamecube (though it’s not the third). It happened with Sony and the early life of the PS3. And now it’s happening to Microsoft. I guess companies never learn.

Thanks to David for the heads-up.

[via Youtube]

[E3 2013] Nintendo Direct Live Reaction

Leave a reply

Well things are certainly going a differently at the house of Mario. Instead of having a press conference, Nintendo is holding a Direct broadcast showcasing what’s to come for the Wii U. The Wii U so far has had a very sluggish year with barely any games released for the console. However, will this be the Direct that turns things around for Nintendo? They did confirm that the next Super Smash Bros. will be shown. What about that mysterious “X” game from earlier this year? And what about Retro Studios’ newest game? All will be known today.

The Nintendo Direct Broadcast will begin at 10:00AM. The above embed is a live reaction of us watching the broadcast.

[E3 2013] Sony Press Conference Live Reaction

Leave a reply

Some would say Sony had a rather lackluster reveal of their PS4. Some say they had a better one due to Xbox One’s reveal and post-show PR being a travesty. We’ve seen the games, we’ve seen the controller, and we’ve seen some of the plans that Sony has with the PS4. However, in light of the things Xbox One is doing (namely limiting used games and required internet connection), there’s still some unanswered questions. Will Sony answer them? Will we see some cool games? Will they finally announce something regarding The Last Guardian!?

The Sony Conference begins at 9:00PM EST. The above embed is a live reaction of us watching the conference.

Rare Is Not Developing Killer Instinct 3

Leave a reply

Not sure whether to call this a good thing or a bad thing. While the hype took over our senses, we missed another logo at the end of the trailer that accompanied Rare Ltd. and Microsoft Studios, Double Helix. Who’s Double Helix? Well, they’re the the culmination of Foundation 9, The Collective, and Shiny Entertainment, the latter of which are known for their work on Earthworm Jim. While being involved with Shiny Entertainment might be a good thing, their track record lacks fighting games and is less than stellar.

Continue reading →

Let’s Watch That Crimson Dragon Trailer Again, This Time With SOUND!

Leave a reply

If there was one massive embarrassment at the Xbox conference, it had to be the muted audio that occurred not once, but twice! While Battlefield 4 got a second wind, Crimson Dragon didn’t get the chance. So here we are, watch the trailer like it was intended. Gotta say, shame on Microsoft for botching a trailer with some beautiful music.

Crimson Dragon – Xbox One Announce Trailer [Youtube]

[E3 2013] Microsoft Press Conference Live Reaction

Leave a reply

Today is the day that’ll shape the future of Microsoft’s newest console, the Xbox One. Reaction so far has been less than enthusiastic, with news of used games being limited somehow, required internet connections, privacy and Kinect, and a complete and total lack backwards compatibility, even with XBLA games. Microsoft said that this conference is all about software. What will they show that will sway the public opinion of the Xbox One in the right direction?

The press conference will begin at 12:30PM EST. The above embed is a live reaction of us watching the conference.

Announcing: First Step Week (FSW), Celebrating Hajime no Ippo

1 Reply

So much MANLINESS…and eyebrows. Also eyebrows.

Well, that about says it, doesn’t it? Yes, to celebrate the…well, no occasion really, just to celebrate, we will be taking a week to look at the long running manga and anime classic, Hajime no Ippo.

“But Hachi, you divine morsel you, what exactly is Hajime no Ippo?” Good question! Hajime no Ippo is a boxing manga created by Joji Morikawa back in 1989, and is still running today. And…that’s it. No bells, no whistles. It’s a boxing story, about boxers and the boxing they do. There is naught a magical girl or a energy beam to be found, and no one will be killing anyone’s family member in revenge for a past slight, or seeking to save the world. It simply chronicles the adventures of one Makunouchi Ippo, as he endeavors to improve himself through the path of boxing, and to find out for himself what true strength is.

Well, of course, there are the occasional techniques and training montages that strain credulity, at best. And the characters are as broad and eccentric as any manga you’ll ever find. But that is all the surface dressing to what is easily one of the best stories, and particularly one of the best anime, you will ever find.

As previously stated, they reaaaaallllyyyy strain credulity some times…

Hajime no Ippo is a triumph of great storytelling, great character development, amazing humor and heart, and of course, amazing fights. However, it is…well, not terribly well-known here in the states. Oh, it has a fanbase, of course. A small, fiercely dedicated one at that, and I and several of my friends count ourselves in said circle. But ask any ten anime fans about it, and you’ll be lucky to find one or two who know what the hell you are talking about.

Which is a shame. Almost without exception, this is anime at its finest. Not its most bombastic, or its most over-the-top. But just…finest. Doing what anime should do; tell a story in a compelling, fun and occasionally gonzo way.

So, to wit, this week will be to educate you. There will be articles galore! Lists! General discussion! And reviews of both the anime series’ that have come out based on the show! It’ll be a good time, and if I do my job, you’ll be poised to get into one of the best stories in the art form.

We begin tomorrow! Bring your gloves…

DuckTales Remastered Footage Shows Cutscenes, Updated Music, And The Old King’s Back Scratcher

Leave a reply

The guys over at IGN posted two videos on WayForward’s upcoming DuckTales Remastered. Scrooge still played like he always did in the original, fighting back using the Pogo cane and swinging it like a golf club. The stage shown above is Transylvania. WayForward’s interpretation of the game puts some context as to why Scrooge’s nephews are scattered all over the castle. We also see a little bit of the boss fight against Magica. If you want to see the boss fight in full (and played horribly by the people attending PAX East), refer to our previous article.

Amazon stage after the break.

Continue reading →

A Weekend With Pushmo (NSFW)

1 Reply

What have I done? What… have I… done? I’ve taken the most vibrant, colorful, innocent puzzler in recent memory, and turned it into the raunchiest, pervy, most “problematic” game in my collection… and I like it! Reminding me a bit of Catherine, Pushmo is a puzzle game where you push and pull blocks of varying shapes to get to the top of the puzzle (or wherever else the goal is). One of the modes this game offers is a puzzle creator, with creation assets reminiscent of Mario Kart DS and F-ZERO GX, Animal Crossing, and Mario Paint. And so I took to the mode to try and make something. I had no idea what to make, until I remembered back to an old emblem I made in F-ZERO GX. The emblem in question was a red-headed character I once drew way back when, but with her breasts exposed. Sadly, I don’t have the means to extract that emblem out of the Gamecube memory card (nor do I know if that card went missing).

And so off I went to recreate this red-headed, big-boobed lady. I opted to not do the obligatory penis level since, well, I don’t do penis levels. Also, it’s kind of a given when you give players the option to create something in videogames. So I made boobs, the one human organ that’s been somewhat ignored in the creation scene. One share with James later, and this became a weekend that filled my time with pixels, puzzles, and lots and lots of boobs.

It goes without saying that the following article is Not Safe For Work. So if you’re there, wait ’til you get home (or for your boss/supervisor/Computer Overlord to not look). If you’re under the the age of 18, look elsewhere. The Wired Fish Network is not responsible for the ass beating you’ll probably get should you choose to scan these QR Codes.

Continue reading →

Mighty Switch Force 2 Ready To Switch It Up Next Week

Leave a reply

Now isn’t this a big surprise. Last we heard about Mighty Switch Force 2, developer WayForward said in early May that development was a wrap and what was left was “testing, testing, and more testing.” While also alluding to finals season for colleges, actual game testing varies from game to game. But now it looks like that phase has finished and the game is set for release.

Mighty Switch Force! 2 Trailer

Dragon’s Crown Voicepack DLC Free For the First Month

1 Reply

Want a reason to have the Sorceress narrate your journey like it’s sponsored by Vodafone? Well you might be in luck. Atlus has confirmed that for the first month of Dragon’s Crown’s release, the Character Narration voice pack will be free. With this voice pack, the character you pick for your journey will narrate the story instead of the regular narrator. Not quite sure which parts have narration, but a good guess would be when you enter a dungeon and the narrator tells the stories pertaining to that dungeon.

This will apply for all six playable characters. It’s unknown what language the voice pack will be.

After the month is over, the DLC will cost $1.99

Dragon’s Crown DLC Replaces Game’s Narrator With The Six Characters [Siliconera]

Director of El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Takes Back His Game From UTV Ignition

Leave a reply

Living up to the memetic mutation of the game’s hero, Enoch, El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron may have some life left in it. Sawaki Takerasu, the game’s director, stated that he wanted to “develop a potential El Shaddai business moving forward.” A sequel perhaps? Well, given the game’s influence and biblical story of a certain… “snappy” character, an El Shaddai sequel was bound to happen. However, the game’s publisher, UTV Ignition, faced an uncertain future.

The story of UTV Ignition is one that’s involved many parties, including Atlus, Vanillaware, and Disney. Back in early 2012, Disney had acquired the Mumbai based UTV, the parent company of Ignition Entertainment. Afterwards, the fate of many of UTV Ignition’s games were up in the air. UTV briefly showed life when it published Magical Drop V, but Dragon’s Crown was in danger. Atlus stepped in to help Vanillaware finish Dragon’s Crown and is now slated to release the game on August 6th.

That leaves El Shaddai, one of the only games Ignition both developed and published. While Disney owning UTV could’ve meant more funding Ignition, we have yet to see that happen. With Ignition’s increasing irrelevance, El Shaddai could’ve very well gone down with the ship. There’s also the fact that Disney has a sort image that some would call rather conservative, unfitting for a game like El Shaddai. But now there’s no problem since the director has his game back, so everything’s fine.

El Shaddai director acquires IP rights from previous publisher [Eurogamer]

Top 50 Most Wacky Bootleg Boxarts: PS1 Edition

4 Replies

After about three months of waiting for the SyrianGames website come back, I’ve now returned with even more wacky bootleg boxart, this time from their PS1 catalog. Now, an odd thing occurred after that last article was published. After some gaming outlets posted articles about how crazy their boxarts were, SyrianGames went into a sort of Admin mode where only the site runners could access it. Afterwards, the syriangames.com URL redirected visitors to their Facebook page. This probably meant that 1) they wanted to hide their shame, and 2) they took the site offline.

So how do I have more boxarts to show? Well, for some odd reason several weeks back, their old site was back online. I found this out I checked out my old article (for kicks) and wondered if the site came back. I took the opportunity to look at their PS1 catalog and pick out the funniest ones from the bunch. Good thing I did it too since their URL is once again redirecting to their Facebook page.

Anyway, let’s end this little tangent. Hit the jump and check out the PS1 Edition of the Top 50 Wacky Bootleg Boxarts.

Continue reading →

EA Senior Engineer Takes To Twitter, Calls Wii U “Crap”

Leave a reply

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Once again the micro-blogging platform rears its ugly head, potentially putting someone’s career on the line. EA Senior Engineer Bob Summerwill took to Twitter today to start a little mini rant against the Wii U. Speaking to Scott Hanselman, who simply asked a question, Summerwill took this opportunity to vent about some of the Wii U’s shortcomings, namely the lack of games on the console since the beginning of this year (though that could change). He kicked off his tirade with “The Wii U is crap. Less powerful than an Xbox 360, poor online/store. Weird tablet. Nintendo are walking dead at this point.” The tweets have since been deleted. But IGN has screencaps of them for the public to see.

Continue reading →

Nintendo Direct 5.17.2013 Recap: Info On New Sonic Game, New Pikmin Characters, And “E3 For The People”

1 Reply

Another Nintendo Direct has gone by this morning. It wasn’t long, but it offered some new info on games we already knew about, namely some release dates on long awaited games. There were a couple of reveals too involving Sonic The Hedgehog. Before we jump, let’s talk about the teaser image up there. It’s from the next game in the Sonic series, titled Sonic: Lost World. So what exactly are we seeing there? Well there’s Sonic on top of the Tornado (most likely piloted by Tails). But then there’s this fractured globe, connected by hexagon-shaped landmasses. There’s some aquatic areas, some plains, a forest, an ice cap, and volcanic areas. There’s also two desert-like areas, probably one resembling a standard desert and the other a more rugged, American-styled desert.

Iwata states that Nintendo is partnering with Sega for this venture. It’s not certain how deep this venture goes, but we do know that Sonic: Lost World will be exclusive to the Wii U and 3DS.

More on Nintendo Direct after the break.

Continue reading →