First, I'd like to say that I feel somewhat distraught by making quite a few negative posts lately, especially one aimed at Daytona USA 2001. I don't know if anyone's interested in this stuff--I get very little feedback. For one thing, it's more "fun" to write negative material than positive, hence why you have people like Angry Video Game Nerd and Maddox the Pirate who constantly rip things a new a-hole.
But the main reason I brought up Daytona USA is because I genuinely care about the franchise...I could treat it like Blur or Split/Second and just gash it and go away, but I really want it to be good so I tell whoever what can be done to make it better. Like if you ever have children, you want to correct and discipline them because you care and want them to be good. I guess I criticize the state of racing games for that very reason. I just hate how so much energy is put into so much junk and whatnot...
That concludes this message.
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I talked about Motorstorm: Apocalypse a while back in my violent/depressing video game rant and well, it rears its ugly head again. You want me to come on here and criticize it--well, let's take a look at this six minute video:
Found the video from this Joystiq article.
Ok, so you can drive monster trucks, dune buggies, muscle cars, sports cars, ATVs, chopper bikes, whatever. You and your gang has fun driving around an abandoned city as you dodge falling buildings, derailed trains, and pits of boiling lava (I made up that last one). So it's like the last Motorstorm--just drive around, don't die, take multiple paths to the exit. Oh yeah, and there's a few military contractors in the city trying to mow you down. So not only do you get to crash and burn but you also get to run over people. Sounds great!
I can't help but think I'm watching Michael Bay: The Racing Game. It's Split/Second's bastard child. Yes, it's obvious that these people put a lot of time and effort into making sure the game's good, but I think they missed the point...
See, most every racing game is on some extreme. You got games that are "boring old sim racers," like Gran Turismo, Forza, Test Drive Unlimited, iRacing, etc. Then on the other spectrum, you've got "OCD-blow-up stuff-in-your-face-crap" like Burnout, Split/Second, Motorstorm... It's like there's very few games in that medium. That's where the good Sega racers are--not too over the top, but not boring. They're professionally-made games. I think Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit may fit in this category too, but since that was made by Criterion, I'm not too certain it what's I'm looking for.
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When in doubt, sue someone:
Harmonix (Rock Band dev) sues Viacom (ex-Rock Band publisher).
Infinity Ward sues Activision who sues Electronic Arts over Medal of Honor/Call of Duty.
I don't know about you, but I sure as hell wouldn't touch a big company like Activision or Viacom and expect to come out alive. Hey, check this out. New Call of Duty for 2011 announced. This one's not by Infinity Ward (they're dead, remember?), it's by this new studio called Sledgehammer Games. Who the hell is that? Anyway, I really like Call of Duty, but it's going to get run into the ground eventually (if it hasn't already). I'm really worried. That and between Activision's habit of gashing game studios like that, I'd be afraid to work at Treyarch. BTW, Black Ops just made $1 billion, so no, I don't think Activision will cut back in the slightest. At leat the $15 DLC map packs will have four MP maps as opposed to three (including the obligatory zombie map).
Speaking of Activision, look at Guitar Hero (I'm jumping around a lot here). Guess what--Guitar Hero is officially dead. So while Rock Band gets gobs of DLC on a weekly basis, Guitar Hero gets like two or three songs a month. And this month, Guitar Hero gets three Kiss songs, two that are playable in Rock Band (Detroit Rock City and Calling Dr. Love) and one in GH: Smash Hits (Rock and Roll All Nite). So what's the point? Combine that this year's GH: Warriors of Rock abysmal first month sales of 86,000 and there, it's dead. Once again, Guitar Hero fanboys should thank Activision very much.
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I want to end this now, so I'm going to throw in three more quick links:
Gran Tursimo 5 Gets a 600mb Patch - Adds some new features for online play such as stat tracking among others. Hey, sounds great...waited all that time and they still need to fix it...doesn't sound good for Polyphony Digital.
Gears of War 3 Maps Will Be "Brighter" - Article goes on to say that the most popular GoW2 maps were the brightest and most colorful. Hmm? So people are getting tired of the grey, brown, and crimson red? Now there is no 100% way to confirm that the color is the sole reason those maps are the most popular (it could be because those maps have better layouts, etc.) but still...cut the crap people. We don't want to play this depressing garbage anymore.
Some Guy Talking About Sega Racing Classic - Old and nothing really new, but if you know little about this, read it. Old Daytona USA cabinets needed to be repaired, some needing parts that aren't made anymore. Daytona license costs too much.
The end.
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