What Would Matt Do

If you read the post below this one, I put EA and Sony together and said they are too easy of target. Well, sometimes even if the target is easy, you have to take the shot. This is one of those times. Ready?

According to Uninnovate, Sony has decreed that CompUSA can only sell PS3s with a 40" HDTV. Can't buy the PS3 without it. I can't say anything but wow:

Sources close to CompUSA have notified Uninnovate that Sony is requiring CompUSA to package PlayStation 3 pre-order units with Sony televisions. Customers who wish to preorder a PlayStation 3 must also purchase a 40-inch or larger Sony television. If the customer returns the television, they must also return the PlayStation 3 and pay a 15% restocking fee.

Ok, I lied. I can say a lot more. I can say CompUSA is completely retarded. I can Sony is the ring leader of the biggest retard circus ever and I can say, you, the PS3 buying fool, are the biggest idiots of all. You know why Sony and CompUSA (and numerous other places) can get away with kind of bullshit? Because of you, my friend. You, the person who can't wait to buy a PS3, who must have it on launch day, who will pay thousands of dollars to get it, who thinks it's all worth it. You are the reason Walmart has a 1.4k deal up (or did, they sold out) for their PS3s, you are the reason Fry's can get away with requiring you buy eight games with the system, you are the reason Sony is feeling ballsy enough to dictate to CompUSA how they have to sell their allotment of PS3s. Ugh.

I'm disgusted by you, I'm ashamed we're fellow gamers, and I'm…not really caring. :P If you want to spend your money like a crazy person, more power to you. If Sony wants to make sillier and sillier deals that get you to spend more and more money, more power to both of you. But don't pretend it's not overly stupid. Please don't do that.

What Would Matt Do: Try not laugh too much at the consumer that MUST have the PS3 on launch day. That must stand in the heat, the cold, the snow and rain to get their geek grubbers on a PS3 on day one instead of just waiting until next year some time. Heck, most of the games have either been canceled or pushed back for the launch. And when was the last time anyone thought a launch day was a must have for the system a few month after the systems release? Not often. They hardly ever hold up. So my hat's off to you, Mr. I've Got The Cash To Burn, more power to you, the crack head consumer.

Oh, and maybe we can share some of the bucket of horse goo that EA is going to get with Sony. I can't really decide who deserves it more. 

There's been a LOT of talk about EA and how retarded are they. I hadn't really gotten involved in it because it's too easy. I mean, they defend keeping parts of the game back and nickel and diming users after they pay $60. That pretty impressive. And it doesn't count their exclusive contracts with places like the NFL and then making sub par games or BF2142 having ads in them after you've paid full price. Or any of the other stupid moves they've made recently…

But just like Sony, they've become an easy target for anger and hate, so I've been ignoring them. It's like shooting fish in a barrel and after awhile, that gets boring. But PA? They don't have my issue and they are quite good at it. Here's a EA if they told the truth when interviewed:

(click the image for a full size version on PA) 

What Would Matt Do: Dog poop on fire? No, we tried that one. Bucket of horse semen over the door? Yeah, that sounds about right. 

I like Brad Wardell. Not just because he makes cool games, but comes across as a guy who really cares about the games he makes. And likes to make games. I know, crazy, right? But it's true, from his posts on QT3 and interviews I read, he sounds like he actually has a good time making games. That's pretty rare in this industry of slave programmers and publishers who wouldn't know a good game if it bit them.

If you too think Brad Wardell is the bees knees, you'll like this interview on Gamasutra:

GS: That's one of the things I wanted to ask you about. I wanted to ask about the Master of Magic license. You guys looked into that didn't you?

BW: Yeah, we did. We pursued it. Actually, Atari came to us a while ago. I thought they had a pretty good idea. That is, over the years, Atari has collected a lot of good IP (Intellectual Property) like X-Com, Star Control, Master of Orion, Master of Magic and a lot of others that a lot of people didn't realize that they held. So they came to us and said "We're not really interested in publishing these things ourselves, but what we'd like to do is license out the trademarks to third parties like you guys and we'll make a royalty off of them." So, we sat down and decided that Master of Magic would be our first, since it's close to something we'd done and Master of Orion 3 had already come out. We were able to agree on the money, so we thought everything was set, then their legal guys got involved, and that's where it stalled. They wanted the right to approve any marketing we did with a mutli-day stipulation. Say, for instance, me talking to you right now would be considered marketing and I would have to have approval first. That sort of thing. Then there was the weird thing, like if the game was manufactured overseas, someone from the company would have to be onsite to make sure there was no child labor.

What, you don't want to stop child labor? :P

It's a good interview and it talks a bit about their next game that is in no way similar to Masters of Magic.

What Would Matt Do: Play more Galactic Civilizations 2, if I wasn't already playing so much Gears and NWN2 (though I'm about to give up on this one I think). 

But I'm really just apathetic. White Wolf is now a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP. I know what you're thinking… who gives a fuck. Really. It's not like White Wolf made a great product as it were, just mediocre to good, depending upon which system we are talking about. And I don't even really know if CCP will do a better or worse job. So it's an interesting tidbit, at this point. Oh, and in case you're wondering, CCP are the makers of Eve Online…a big seller, just like the WW stuff! 

From the press release:

"CCP brings industry-leading technical expertise and online game development experience to us," said Mike Tinney, White Wolf's President. "Together, we will create the industry's most innovative games leveraging both online and offline systems."

So one good thing that might come of this is we might get a MMORPG based on Werewolf. That would be pretty damn interesting, done right (of course, that done right theory applies to almost any MMORPG).

What Would Matt Do: Try not to show my apathy…? 

Yeah, I said it, Holy shit. Actually I think the words my wife uttered as she jumped when the skinned, half bodies hanging from the ceiling kinda jumped out at her were, "Fuck me!" Of course, I had a good laugh over that. But it speaks of a lot about Gears of War, at least so far. I'll give a full review once my wife and I get through the whole thing and I play some online games, but here's a quick look at it.

The Good:

• Graphics. Screen shots just don't do the game justice. I realize the first I'm telling you about the game is the graphics, but that's how damn impressive they are. They damn beautiful, not perfect, but pretty damn cool.
• Polish. I think Epic played a lot of Blizzard games and listened to Pardo. This game is HIGHLY polished. From the interface, to the cut scenes, to the gameplay.
• Immersion. Amazing. This game really pulls you in and drags you around. When my wife and I made it to a place where it asked you to split up, she could barely manage it because she got scared alone (admittedly it was late at night and we were playing in the dark with surround sound). You're dragged in and really get into feeling like you're going to be over powered, that around the next corner the guys will get you. It's great.
• Gameplay. This is great…now. As I'm not finished with Act I yet (I think there 7 Acts), the gameplay is still very new and a lot of fun. You're not Rambo in this game. If you try to be Rambo, you die. In a not so slow sort of way. The game requires you play different than all previous non-tactical FPS games.
• Controls. Pretty damn good. It's not very free form, but it sure is cool. You can do a lot of stuff without having to do a lot more than press the A button and direction.

The Bad:

• Gameplay. I can already see a point where this one type of combat will grow boring as time goes on. Now this may not turn out, it may not be an issue, but already I'm starting to think, I've got to do this over and over and over? Not jumping to conclusions here, just pointing out something that may be a problem in the future.

Go play it. Really. If you're worried about it, Rent it, but I'd definitely say it's a Direct Hit (stolen from Daily Radar) at this point and I don't think that'll be changing it.

On a side note, some people are pretty jealous *cough*EA*cough*:

 Gears of War brings nothing in terms of innovation to the shooter," said Tascan, sharpening his claws. "Like, zero. So why are people loving it so much? It's like added production value, incredible cutscenes and the best ever graphics ever. I'm sure it's going to be a great success, I can't wait to play it, but let's face that graphics are still number one." He even chucked in a metaphor that Kojima himself would have been proud of, by comparing the Xbox 360 shooter to an attractive girl in a bar. "If she's [also] smart enough, that's the gameplay," he quipped. Right.

So funny.

I'll bring you a full review when I finish the game or if, god forbid, I get bored of it. Whichever comes first.

What Would Matt Do: Buy GoW. It's going to be one of those games. Everyone will play it, everyone will talk about it. Well, everyone that owns a 360. Oh, and side note for Warren, the horizontal split screen ain't all bad. It does confuse my wife sometimes because she thinks she's at cover and she's trying to press A and get into cover and of course, since she's not right on the low cut wall, she can't. Other than that, it's love.