GamingConviction.com

Apparently there is a new rumor spreading around that Sony themselves gave up the exclusive rights to Grand Theft Auto IV so that they could get Rockstar’s new zombie series, Agent, to be a new exclusive to the PS3. Sony did tell Rockstar that if they were going to go through with the GTA exclusive and side with Microsoft, then they wanted a completely new game from them to be an exclusive. So in other words, Sony is trying to play it as if the reports of the $75 million payout were confirmed.

Michael Pachter said, “Sony…’ said to Take-Two, ‘You’ve got to give us something else,’ and the ‘something else’ was a zombie game that Rockstar wanted to work on. But while Rockstar was in the planning phase, Dead Rising came out and Left 4 Dead was announced. Rockstar realized they were up against a saturated market and said, ‘What can we possibly do that will be any better than what Valve’s done?’ They started again, and that’s when they came up with the idea of Agent, [but] nobody actually knows what it is.”

While many of us know that we will never be able to throw a perfect game in baseball; at least one person can say that he did it on a video game, and say that he became a millionaire doing it. Wade McGilberry, a records keeper in Mobile Alabama, is the most recent person to become a millionaire by playing video games. Wade is the first person to record himself throwing the perfect game on MLB 2K10. Take Two watched the video and after confirming that was wasn’t edited at all, they awarded him a check signed out to him for $1 Million. “We are trying to be responsible with it. We are simple people,” said his wife Katy. When asked what they were going to do with all the money, they simply replied that they were going to pay off the mortgage and start a family. Wade’s wife even suggested that he should take the day off work so he could start right away. “I thought about it (and) the responsible thing to do was to go to work,” he said. When he came home, he set up a video recording, started playing and achieved the perfect game after “five or six attempts.” For those who want to know how this competition came about, let me answer that question as well. Take Two’s Vice President of Marketing, Jason Argent, claimed that the company wanted to know how many times this feat had been accomplished. According to Take Two, none of the developers of the game were ever able to throw a perfect game while the game was being developed.”We knew it would be difficult but not impossible,” Argent said. Argent also stated that with this contest, sales of the game are expected to increase compared to last year. On behalf of everyone here at GamingConviction.com, we would like to congratulate Wade for his beyond impressive win.

[xrr rating="4/5" label="Our Rating"]

The Passing DLC for Left 4 Dead 2 has been out for while now, but us here at GamingConviction like to put in some good play time with each game we talk about.

This new DLS has a lot of goodies to offer and here is a quick rundown. Two new weapons: the M60 Machine gun and the golf club melee weapon; 10 new achievements, a couple of avatar awards, new common infected models, new survival and scavenge maps, and a weekly game mode called “mutation”.

The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival. One of the main focuses in the campaign is the meet up between the L4D2 survivors and the first L4D survivors. This does not mean the old characters are not playable. This new campaign does not go much more beyond than what we have already played in L4D2. To me it’s just adding in a good map for multiplayer and a little bit of a story that, as we all know, Left 4 Dead doesn’t go into to much detail with. Should you buy it? Yes. Any fan of the game will love the DLC and it will give them many more hours of play, and with a 560 Microsoft Points price tag, it’s well worth it.

In addition, Valve has added a “mutation” mode. Mutations are essentially new game types that will be delivered to the game’s servers on a weekly basis. Each one will offer players a variation on the standard modes – the idea of which is to keep the game fresh and fun for players.

Over all, I have to say this DLC is one of the best values for your money. I recommend any fan of the series to pick this up.

Michael Patchter, a research analyst for Wedbush Morgan Securities, was interviewed by Eurogamer last week and claimed that Microsoft paid an estimated $75 million dollars to Take-Two Interactive to make the 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV available the same day as the PS3 version. GTA IV was going to be a PS3 exclusive, but Microsoft paid Rockstar and Take-Two to make it a non-exclusive, and they paid them a lot. Pachter told Eurogamer, “The number I’ve heard, and I’m sure this is right, is $75 million, and that probably includes the funding for the first DLC packs too.” For those who are unfamiliar with the GTA series, all previous versions of the game dating back to GTA3, was released on the PS2 at launch and later released for the original Xbox and PC. GTA4 Sold over 15 million copies on opening day. While some critics are saying that he is just trying to get publicity, Take Two executives in June 2007 claimed that Microsoft paid them $25 million for each episode to be a 360 exclusive, however those statements were shot down when Rockstar announced that both DLC would be available for the PS3 and PC. Keep in mind that none of this information has yet to be confirmed by Microsoft, or Take Two, and Patchter is a well respected analyst in the video game world and is often quoted by some of the biggest names in the industry.

That’s right everyone, you can now play this somewhat timeless classic of a series on your Xbox 360 today. Andrew and I grew up playing the original Backyard Football, and we played it a lot. Heck, Andrew beta tested the original, and I had a 300-0 record in the campaign mode. Sadly, this game is a lot different compared to the one we played, and not in a good way. You basically make a football team filled with a bunch of kids from the Backyard Football league, and some professional players and, well, only the pros are kids. You get to pick the name of your team, which compared to past games, aren’t as nearly customizable. Sure you can still pick your colors, but that’s really about it for customization. Once you play through the entire season, you get to play in the playoffs and play for the Backyard Championship.
Now I realize that I do sound like I am doing nothing but bashing this game from every side. I must say that this review is going to be a little different then those in the past. This game is intended to be played by little kids. The controls are beyond easy to figure out. You only use 4 buttons max in the entire game. You don’t get to pick who you throw the ball to, instead you just press the A button and it automatically picks a receiver to pass it to. Plus, the achievements are really easy to get. At the end of the first game, I got 8 of the 10 achievements in the entire game. Each achievement is worth 100 points. The commentary is also pretty funny, but it gets old really fast for older players. The graphics are pretty good and you can somewhat tell where they put in some of the detail. On top of that, who doesn’t want to see a virtual kid version of Tom Brady tackling a scrawny little kid for a 8 yard loss?
Overall, this game is targeted for little kids. For those who want to teach your little ones how to play video games, this game is perfect. As for those who grew up playing this game when they were little… well that’s a completely different story. None of the players can talk anymore, no women players, and no more Super Colossal Cereal Bowl. On a personal note, I haven’t been so disappointed in playing a game that I grew up with since I played Blood Bowl.

Activision has confirmed that a new DLC will be available for Modern Warfare 2this fall.  While no specific details have been released, Activision Chief Financial Officer Thomas Tippl has said that the new content is “in development at Infinity Ward.”  We can only guess, but considering how they have defended the pricing of the Stimulus Map Pack (which has sold over 17 million copies), we can only guess the new DLC will have the same price point.

After several weeks, Activision has finally told their side of the story, sort of.  Activision didn’t really release any new details on why Vince Zampella and Jason West were fired, continuing to say they were fired for ”breach of fiducial duty and breach of contract.

Activision did say, however, that they made the “hard” decision after “a great deal of deliberation,” and they “didn’t do it to deprive them of their bonuses.”  For an explination on why they fired the two former IW studio heads, they refered the press back to the counter-complaint they filed in response to the lawsuit Zampella and West filed last month.

Activision also has confirmed that now over 35 other developers have left to join other agencies after the firing of Zampella and West.

Activision and Treyarch are continuing to develop Call of Duty: Black Ops which is expected this fall, disregarding pending litigation that could possibly give Zampella and West exclusive rights to the title, as well as to any title that even partly takes place from the Vietnam era to present day.

Yesterday, Bungie opened up the Invasion playlist for the Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta.  Invasion breaks down in to 2 teams, of 3 pairs of players.  The Spartan team must prevent Covenant Elites from taking down security measures and stealing a “data core with critical information.” 

There is also a variation of Invasion, called Invasion Slayer.  This is all out 6v6 team slayer, but with a twist.  In order to gain weapons, vehicles, or new loadouts, your team must control select zones.

Both variants are played on the map Boneyard, which was built specifically for invasion game types.  Bungie still has one more map to be released, but we are unclear whether it will support Invasion.

Ubisoft has continued to skate around the major save-game issue, which has been present since the release of Splinter Cell: Conviction 23 days ago.  Many members of the Splinter Cell community are outraged by this, and have gone as far as to return the game.

The issue causes players to loose all progress in some, or all of the game modes, including Cooperative Campaign, Deniable Ops, and the Story mode.  GamingConviction.com estimates that this issue is affecting over 25% of SC:C owners.  Ubisoft representatives have responded saying “this is not a wide spread issue, please open a support ticket.”  They have not responded to an inquiry providing several references showing how wide-spread this issue is.

We will continue to follow this as it develops.

As many of you already know, Bungie has opened the Halo: Reach beta.  While Bungie still has many surprises in store for those who are participating in the Beta, so far, it is an amazing experience.

Multiplayer in Reach will bring a whole new class of awesomeness to the Halo series.  The first, and possibly the most important, thing you will notice, is that several controls have changed.  The changes include relocating several button assignments, including melee, reload, action, jump.  Second, is the addition of “Armor Abilities.”  Spartans now have 4 abilities their armors can perform. These include a jet pack, armor lock (makes your character invincible for a few seconds if the battle gets too heavy), sprint, and active camouflage.  When you play a “Covy” game mode, such as “Covy/Elite Slayer,” Covenant forces get the ability to dodge around as they do in the campaign.

Bungie has made massive improvements to the Matchmaking™ system as well.  Before Reach, the system only searched based on your skill.  Now, it is able to search based on what type of experience you will have.  It matches you up based on your voice type (chatty, or quiet, as well as polite, or diry), your play style (lone wolf, or team player), and the basics such as connection, language, and region.  There is also a new season-based Slayer Arena.  The Arena is broken up in to several divisions.  We’ll know more about this when pre-season ends, and regular season begins in just a few days.  Also, Bungie has decided to replace the “veto” system with a newer “voting” system, which allows players to choose from 3-6 different game types and maps.  As usual, majority rule.

Seeing is this is a true beta test, and not just a demo, there are several minor issues with the game.  Some weapons (especially grenades) are somewhat over powered, and some armor abilities don’t last long enough.  But in all honesty, there are far fewer problems with this beta than I expected.

Over all, this beta has provided an amazing insight to what we can expect from Multiplayer in Reach, and I’m sure I’ve left some things out.  On top of what we have already seen, Bungie still has several tricks up their sleeves.  Today, Bungie is supposed to roll out the Invasion playlist, with an entirely new map, designed specifically for this game mode.  Expect to hear more about this once I finally get off my console long enough to tell you about it.  See you on the battlefield Spartan.

BETA ACCESS NOTE: To access the beta, use the “Download the Beta” or “Play the Beta” option from your specially marked Halo 3: ODST disc.  Download times are expected to be rather lengthy, and the file is over 1GB.  Please allow pleanty of time.  In addition, Bungie is constantly working on the servers, which means you may not be able to immediately access the Matchmaking™ servers.