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Saying Goodbye

Posted by Brad vanVugt on January 19, 2013
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This post is probably a few months late (sorry!), but we are officially closing the door on VG Confab.

I started VG Confab to give myself and like-minded individuals a platform to talk about video games. What we got was a small group of talented folks offering their views on various news and topics around the industry. It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work, and that’s where we got tripped up a bit. Myself and Carrie work in retail, and Jack and Cheetimus also happened to have a lot of crazy life stuff going on around that time. We quite frankly didn’t have the proper amount of time to dedicate to the blog, and had to stop. I decided to use the couple of months to evaluate if I truly had the time to write and edit here, and I sadly did not.

Along the same lines, a bit of serendipity came when our friends at The Nerdpocalypse approached me with the desire to expand their site and network. Their site-runner Jay and I got to talking and came up with the idea to do a video game podcast under the new Nerdpocalypse network. This ended up being perfect for me. It’s what we planned on working toward anyway, and I feel is the best way to get the best information and discussion to our followers with the evolving age of the internet.

And so, Dense Pixels has been born. I will be bringing you the Dense Pixels pocast every other week, and my panel will have some voices you recognize. In addition to being joined by Micah of The Nerdpocalypse, Jack and Cheetimus will also be regulars! I would also expect Carrie to join in occasionally as well. It’s going to be awesome, quite frankly. In addition, if there’s some huge gaming news or a topic that needs discussion, we will still be writing on The Nerdpocalypse.

So with this comes some changes. Those of you who follow us on twitter and/or Facebook (and if you didn’t, shame on you!) probably have already noticed we switched those accounts to Dense Pixels. You can also find the podcast on at our new website where you will want to go to check out the newest episodes of the podcast. Finally, leading up to the first episode on February 6, you’ll be able to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or your favorite podcatcher of choice so new episodes will be delivered to you in your sleep!

So as we say not goodbye, but see you in a few, I have to give some thank yous. Thanks to Jack, Carrie, and Rob who were awesome enough to join me on this journey, who worked their asses off for nothing but the love of writing, and who this whole venture would not have been possible without. Thanks to Jay, Micah, and Matthew of The Nerdpocalypse for their help in getting us off the ground and for this new opportunity. But thanks mostly to anyone reading this, because you are the reason we did this in the first place and we hope you all join us in our new venture as well. Believe me when I tell you it’s going to be a lot of fun.

VG Confab is dead. Long live Dense Pixels.

-Brad

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Assassin’s Creed III Getting Season Pass for DLC

Posted by Brad vanVugt on October 8, 2012
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As is the style of the time for the biggest releases, Assassin’s Creed III will have a Season Pass to save their most ardent fans a little coin on the game’s DLC.

Assassin’s Creed III will get five DLC packs in all.  All five packs will have been released within six months of AC3′s October 30 release date.  The season pass will run you about $29.99 (or 2400 Microsoft Arbitrary Currency System Units Points), which according to Ubisoft will be a 25% savings over the $40 combined cost for the DLC bought separately.  You’ll also receive extra maps and characters for multiplayer.  Season Pass buyers will also get a week of early access to this content over non-subscribers.  And yes, the Wii U will also have this deal available for them when Assassin’s Creed III releases on the console.

The first DLC add-on was previewed as well, and it sounds wild.  Rather than your arbitrary filler material, which is what I felt like the Assassin’s Creed II DLC was, this will be an alternate-timeline piece titled “The Tyranny of King Washington.”  As you can ascertain from the title, the expansion will take Connor, this games Assassin main character, through a storyline that shows what might have happened if old Georgie had decided to rule America as a king rather than as the nation’s first president (which I know didn’t happen until well after the end of the war, but whatever).

I am a huge supporter of the Season Pass model, and am glad to see it continually see a wider adoption rate.  I’m also hoping Assassin’s Creed III’s DLC is more in line with what we’re seeing with the “Tyranny” expansion, and not so much what it’s been in the past.  Now if only we could get some Cross Buy action for Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, I’d really be excited.  Still, Assassin’s Creed III is continually shaping up to be more of a must-buy than any other game in the series before it.

PlayStation Vita Price Cut Coming in 2013

Posted by Brad vanVugt on October 8, 2012
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Thanks to an interview with Sony UK headman Fergai Gara by Eurogamer and via DigitalSpy, we now know Sony will be issuing a Vita price drop in 2013.

Said Gara: “We always aim to establish price cuts. So the question is not so much if, but when. We won’t have an across the board pricedown this Christmas. But what you will see us doing is work very hard with our retail partners to add value to the product to make it more compelling.”

A date or how much of a price drop we’ll see was not specified, but I’ll be damned it that’s going to keep me from speculating!

I figure you’ll see that price drop happening around February (i.e. the one year anniversary of the launch) next year.  As far as price point goes, a $50 drop down to $199.99 seems to make the most sense.  I also wouldn’t be shocked to see a standard bundle with a 4 gigabyte memory card as well as a 30-day PlayStation Plus trial, especially since we’ll be seeing Plus make its way to the Vita shortly.

The timing of this announcement is curious though.  Why announce before the holidays this drop is imminent, but that it specifically will come next year?  If I didn’t already own a Vita, what reason would I now have to get one now over waiting until next Spring?  While I agree a price drop is necessary sooner rather than later for the Vita just to move units, I fear Sony might have slightly undermined what could have been a strong holiday for the Vita, especially considering the arrival of Plus, as well as the Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty bundles that will be in stores in the coming weeks.

Sony Suing Bridgestone, Kevin Butler Over Commercial

Posted by Brad vanVugt on October 7, 2012
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Let me tell you all something: as an unabashed Sony supporter, I of course love Kevin Butler.  I thought that character and ad campaign were brilliant from the very first time I saw it.  I love the KB character so much, this picture currently resides next to my PS3:

Look at it!  With a stick!

Of course Kevin Butler is just a character, and he is portrayed with awesomeness by an actor named Jerry Lambert.  Lately, I had seen Lambert in the background of a few Bridgestone Tire ads as one of the techs experimenting with new Bridgestone technology.  Imagine my shock and surprise though when in one of their latest ads, Bridgestone had Lambert thoroughly enjoying a playing a video game.  Problem was the game was Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii.

My first thought was disbelief.  Butler is arguably the greatest Sony “mascot” since Crash Bandicoot was trespassing at Nintendo’s offices.  But there he was, shilling a 5-year old kart racing game on a competing console.  My second thought: someone’s getting sued over this.  Turns out I was right.

As first reported on NeoGaf, Sony has filed suit against both Bridgestone and Wildcat Creek Inc, a marketing agency which Lambert is president of.  To sum the suit up in short, Sony is alleging Lambert and the Butler character are so integrally tied to the PlayStation brand that seeing him in this commercial causes marketplace confusion and damages their brand, especially considering they will be releasing their own kart racer in just a few weeks, Little Big Karting, which has a pre-order bonus of a certain fictional Sony Vice President.  Bridgestone has replaced the ad with a new version without Lambert, but I’m sure the damage has already been done in Sony’s eyes.

I also learned from this that apparently Lambert’s contract with Sony is done, which if true totally sucks.  Like I said, the KB character is the most genius marketing the PlayStation brand has ever done, and those Sony commercials simply won’t be the same without him.  That said, Sony is totally in the right to do this.  The fact that my first reaction to seeing the commercial was “WTF!”, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one, shows their stance here has some merit, and they owe it to themselves to protect their brand.  Both Bridgestone and Lambert should’ve used their heads a little more before filming the Wii ad and erred on the side of caution, even if they might not have technically have done anything wrong, as the commercial didn’t air until after the expiration of Lambert’s Soy contract.

If this is the end of the Kevin Butler, let’s pour one out by watching some of the best commercials starring the VP of everything.

Mass Effect Trilogy Bundle Coming November 6 to PC and 360, PS3 later

Posted by Brad vanVugt on September 28, 2012
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I gave the Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco a lot of crap, and justifiably so in my opinion, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the game.  To the contrary, Mass Effect 2 and 3 were among the best games I’ve ever played.  I, like many PlayStation owners, only played a bit of the first game, and since I played Mass Effect primarily on PS3, I didn’t have the benefit of the decisions made in the first game to shape my Shepard that much more.

To the surprise of no one, there will be a Mass Effect Trilogy set on 360 and PC.  It will cost $59.99, it releases in time for the holiday season on November 6.  The big story here is this set will also be released on PS3, albeit “at a later date,” according to Bioware.  The standalone version of Mass Effect will also be available on the PlayStation Store for $14.99 when the set releases (Mass Effect 2 and 3 are already available digitally on PSN).

For those of you with shorter memories, the first Mass Effect, while developed by Bioware, was published by Microsoft Game Studios.  It wasn’t until EA picked up the rights to publish Bioware’s titles that the Mass Effect series was seen on PS3 beginning with Mass Effect 2, though even that was released a year after the 360 and PC versions.  The thought was always that PS3 owners would never get to play the first Mass Effect on their console, as Microsoft proudly touted their 360 as the only console where you could experience the whole Mass Effect saga.

One of two things had to happen: either Microsoft’s publishing rights expired (or are going to expire soon), or EA bought the rights from Microsoft.  Which it is doesn’t matter too much, what’s important is PS3 owners will finally get to play the Mass Effect series proper on their console of choice.  As flawed as the first Mass Effect, and it certainly is especially when held up to the other two, it’s still important to experience the game considering how important narrative is to the Mass Effect franchise.

So PS3 owner, are you going to buy this set and play through the whole saga?  i just might.  It would be nice to relive one of my favorite gaming experiences, this time the way the developer intended me to, though I’ll probably get ticked off if I have to experience that crap extended ending at the end of Mass Effect 3!

Source: Bioware

Assassin’s Creed Ezio Trilogy Coming Exclusively to PS3 in November

Posted by Brad vanVugt on September 28, 2012
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Hey PlayStation gamer!  Have you been living under a rock for the past three years?  Yes?  Cool, well there’s this series called Assassin’s Creed which is pretty fun to play.  You play as an Assassin in various time periods in history who does parkour and kills people with a hidden stabby blade in his wrist.  There’s also an extremely convoluted sci-fi story that starts skewing toward crazy Metal Gear territory with every new release.

Anyhow, the first game in the series totally sucked and you shouldn’t play it, but the second game and it’s two sequels (which aren’t Assassin’s Creed III; that releases this year!) were really good and totally worth playing.  Oh, you don’t feel like buying all of them separately?  What if I told you they all came on one Blu-ray disc?  I know, impossible to say no, right?  RIGHT?!

So yeah, Ezio is getting his very own trilogy release, and it’s only happening on PS3.  Why only on PS3?  Probably because it’s stupid easy to squeeze all of those games on one disc than having to put them on three separate ones if they were to put it on Xbox 360.  Ah, the pitfalls of old media formats.  But I digress.

The Assassin’s Creed Ezio Trilogy released November 13, and of course contains Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations.  Assassin’s Creed II will also include the two downloadable chapters that were cut of out the main game released later to provide players with even more Assassin action.  The best part about this set is probably its price: $39.99.  That means each game essentially costs less than $14 a pop which is a heck of a deal.  Even with the expansion pack-ish feel of Brotherhood and Revelations, all three of these games were terrific, and are well worth playing, even though Assassin’s Creed III will likely be even awesomer and releases 2 weeks prior.

If you somehow have never checked out this series, first of all shame on you, and secondly, do yourself a favor and pick this set up when it releases.

Injustice: Gods Among Us Releases April 2013, Collector’s Edition Details

Posted by Brad vanVugt on September 28, 2012
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Last week at the Tokyo Game Show, Warner Brothers Interactive announced an April 2013 release date for the upcoming DC fighter Injustice: Gods Among Us.  Also revealed recently is the contents of the game’s Collector’s Edition.

The special set will retail for $99.99 and includes some good stuff for DC fans.  The big draw is a Batman/Wonder Woman statue that has the Dark Knight getting pwn’ed by one of his fellow Holy Trinity members.  Also included is a copy of the Justice League: Doom animated feature (which was pretty good for my money), in-game skins for Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman based of their appearances in the New 52 storylines, and a Collector’s version of a new DC comic series.

We’ve seen a little bit of Injustice (and our pals at The Nerdpocalypse have played it), and it looks like a Netherrealm fighting game, which is to say it looks like non-M rated Mortal Kombat.  It looks like a fun game, but I can’t see playing it the amount that I play Street Fighter.  The new Mortal Kombat was in my console for about two weeks before I got bored with it.  I definitely will be playing it at some point though, but $100 might be a little steep for a Collector’s Edition for me, even more so considering I already own one of the included components.  If you are a DC mega-fan though, I can certainly see the appeal; if the statue itself is of high-quality, that alone might be worth $60-70 by itself.

Sony Getting Serious About Day 1 Digital Distribution, Offering Discounts to Plus Members

Posted by Brad vanVugt on September 28, 2012
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When you are serious to drive digital sales on your platform, you don’t include a 32 GB hard drive with your largest console offering.  You do what Sony is doing during the month of October.

Sony has released a couple of titles on the PlayStation Store day and date with their retail counterparts, most notably Mass Effect 3, FIFA Soccer 13, and the recently released Borderlands 2.  In October, they are getting much more aggressive.

Resident Evil 6, NBA 2K13, Dishonored, Doom 3: BFG Edition, 007: Legends, Medal Of Honor: Warfighter, Need For Speed: Most Wanted, and Assassin’s Creed III will all be available on their retail release dates in the PlayStation Store.  Even wilder, NBA 2K13, Dishonored, Doom 3, and Need for Speed Most Wanted will be available to PlayStation Plus members for a 10 percent discount if they pre-order any of those games.

Good for Sony to go about this the right way instead of half-assed like another company I know, but I do wonder how much traction will be seen from this.  One of the reasons I’ve kept digital at arm’s length is that the consumer loses value.  When you’re done with that digital copy, you can only delete it from your hard drive; it has no resale value like a retail copy would.  You also lose out on options like Collector Editions or retailer pre-order bonuses (superfluous as they sometimes can be).

What do our readers think of this?  Are you going to be picking up any of these games digitally?

EA Surprises No One, Cancels NBA Live 13

Posted by Brad vanVugt on September 28, 2012
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Oh, NBA Live.  Will we ever see you again?  I can imagine the guys at 2K Sports reacting like the 72′ Dolphins popping champagne when the last undefeated NFL team falls every season (yeah, I threw an NFL reference in an NBA game article. Sue me), but they’re probably too busy making a quality basketball game to give a damn.

To recap this long, sad saga:  after getting their lunch handed to them on the virtual basketball court by 2K Sports’ NBA 2K series for several years, EA rebrands their NBA franchise changing the title to “NBA Elite”, of which NBA Elite 11 was scheduled to be the first game of that series.  Two weeks before launch, the demo EA releases on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network is busted and broken.  EA cancels shipments of the already printed game, delaying the title indefinitely before finally cancelling it a few weeks afterward.  NBA Elite 12 was never even announced, as EA didn’t feel they were far enough along to even consider publishing it.

This year, EA threw everything out the window again, starting from scratch to bring the now re-re-branded NBA Live 13 to the marketplace this season.  Despite news for the title trickling out incredibly slowly over the months, EA stood by the belief the game was coming, even (finally) releasing the first trailer for NBA Live 13 just two weeks ago.

That was then, but now, EA has pulled the plug yet again.

Said EA Sports Executive Vice President Andrew Wilson: “”But making great games is not easy, and we’re just not there yet on NBA LIVE 13. Having continued to look at the game over the past few days, it’s clear that we won’t be ready in October. And rather than launch midway through the season, we’re going to sit out the full year and stay focused on making next year’s game great.”

Part of this can’t be laid on solely on EA’s doorstep.  Part of EA’s (and 2K’s) agreement with the NBA requires any officially licensed game to be published before the start of the NBA regular season, which usually begins at the end of October.  When you start any console title from scratch less than a year from your target date, it’s going to make it tough to see a quality product come from that.

My question is this: why is EA even going to bother at this point?  For years before this period of no NBA Live, the NBA 2K series was the critical darling of the basketball sim options.  In 2008, the commercial sales finally started swaying to match that critical opinion.  Making things even tougher for EA, 2K Sports has not used this period of no competition to rest on their laurels.  You could argue the NBA 2K series has seen more year-to-year improvement with each of their last three (including this year’s NBA 2K13) editions than at any other point in their series, and this is without the Live series also out there to push them harder.

So if NBA Live 14 does end up seeing the light of day as EA attests it will, who is going to buy it?  Yeah, I know there is a small subset of fans who still swear by the Live franchise and don’t buy 2K.  Ironically, these are probably the same idiots who don’t buy Madden and keep beating the drum that NFL 2K5 is a better football game than any version of Madden that releases today.  I would think that most of their core Live consumers have shifted to 2K at this point; after all, it’s been 3 years!  Would EA sell enough copies to recoup the development cost for Live, much less the cost sunk into the unreleased Elite 11?

I would much rather EA refocus that money toward something people actually want, like another NCAA Basketball game or the return of the MVP baseball series if/when 2K decides not to renew their MLB exclusivity license.  Regardless, we will sit here waiting for the unicorn that is the NBA Live series which will likely see release next season to lots of hype and unable to live up to the unrealistic expectations heaped on it for being a sports title people will have been waiting 4 years for.  In the meantime, check out the only living evidence that NBA Live 13 indeed was supposed to be something.

Borderlands 2 Hit With Some Rank Reset Bugs Early On

Posted by Brad vanVugt on September 27, 2012
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Borderlands 2 is finally here, and quite frankly, it’s awesome.  That said, it’s not surprising this day and age to see big games with some bugs upon release, and Borderlands 2 is no different.

According to many on the official Gearbox forums, a small percentage of players are seeing their Badass ranks being reset.  We talked about the Badass rank system a few months ago, but to summarize quickly: Badass ranks are a leveling system in Borderlands 2 separate from your normal character level that provide small stat boosts for completing in-game challenges.  These boosts are awesome though because they apply to every character on your profile.

The big downer being reported about this bug is not only are these ranks being reset, but the challenge progress remains making it that much harder to re-earn those points.  Some workarounds have been discovered by players to fix the issue.  The problem is being seen on 360 and PS3, and Gearbox’s engineers are looking into a fix, but they say the issue is a fairly rare one.

I guess we’re all used to this by now, especially if you play RPG’s.  This isn’t anything to the level of the catastrophe that is Skyrim on the PS3, but it’s still incredibly annoying for afflicted players.  It’s always a bummer for the excitement of a long-anticipated release to be tempered by in-game issues.  Here’s hoping Gearbox nips the issue in the bud quickly, and that it remains a very rare problem.

If you’ve experienced the Badass reset glitch, let us know!