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Evening Reading
by Jeff Mattas, Feb 09, 2011 5:00pm PSTWell, ladies and gents, it would seem as though the heyday of plastic instruments (and their associated games) might finally be appearing in our rear-view mirror. It was bound to happen, eventually.
The beginning of the end, so to speak, seemed to be when Harmonix -- the developer that founded both Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises -- was put up on the chopping block by Viacom late last year. Harmonix elected to, in effect, purchase itself, and remains an independent entity that continues to churn out Rock Band DLC at a regular clip.
Couple that with today's news that Activision is not only canceling the 2011 installment of the Guitar Hero franchise (which it's owned since 2006), but is pursuing the "discontinuation of the development of all music-based games," due to "anticipation of a continuing weak environment for casual and music-based games," and the trend couldn't be more obvious.
Don't get me wrong. I still fire up Rock Band on a semi-regular basis, and it still does an exceptional job of making someone who can't play any real instruments (like myself) feel like a rock star. Granted, it's been three years since I've purchased a plastic guitar. If peripheral sales are built into your expected profit margin, factors like a plateauing or declining user-base and making an increasingly iterative product make it harder to meet those numbers each year.
And, in case you missed it:
What the fuck were they thinking. Lifehacker is practically useless now. What a fucking stupid design decision.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
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I had a dream about mwasher
In my dream I was delivering for Fed-Ex with this other older guy. We had unloaded an entire truck at a loading dock and were sorting through the boxes, and mwasher walks up with his girlfriend and says "HEY THATS MY XBOX RIGHT THERE!!!" and I say "O'Rly?! are you sure?" He says hes sure, and I don't see my boss around so he takes the package and walks off with it. About that time the other Fed-Ex guy (I am assuming he is my boss) rolls out from around a corner and yells "HEY STOP IT RIGHT THERE"
This is where it gets cool, because the Fed-Ex guy pulls out his package gun they use for scanning and shoots it at mwasher and he freezes, and then levitates, and then the Fed-Ex guy spins him around to where he can easily see the package, scans it, makes an "HMPTTT!" Noise and then puts mwasher back down. He releases him and mwasher continues walking like he had never noticed a thing.
LOL
is mwasher really black?
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http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1897
Superman is racist??? O_O
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""Sales of mid-tier titles are being squeezed out," according to the publisher"
http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1148889p1.html
While I can see it from the bottom line on Activision's side, at the same time, they're at fault for these mid-tear games have little to no sales. They rush the work product to market, do little promotion of them once there, and then penalize developers on low sales.
I know EA has backed off from mid-tier titles, but at the same time they're open to a lot more risks, like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space (which has proven very successful).
It may simply be more that the "retail" market for these titles is waning - such mid-tier titles can't compete against CODs and Maddens and the like on the same shelf. But certainly plenty of room for titles when the publishing costs are kicked out.
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Only issues were the occasional framerate hiccups that made it hard to fight more than 3 dudes at a time. Also didn't like the fact that there was only really 1 character model you fought constantly with a couple of mid-level bosses thrown in. When you're running around the world, you're trained early on to look for glowing handholds that tell you where to go next. I thought this took me away from the gameplay a bit. I don't remember other climbing centric games like Ass creed, uncharted or even the recent prince of persia games doing this.
Other than the abovementioned minor gripes, I found this game to be charming, fun to play and deeply memorable. Think I'm going to wait a bit and buy the pigsy DLC. That dude was seriously lecherous.
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They got rid of Jack Wall and replaced him with :
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1148798p1.html
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http://zeboyd.com/2011/02/09/mini-reviews-galore-vorpal-aban-hawkins-astroman-a-r-e-s-and-atom-zombie-smasher/
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Since then there's been nothing, I wonder if it was shelved.
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This might be NWS, assuming your work disapproves of dubstep and pole dancing.
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http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-test-drive-unlimited-2/17-3776/
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twitter now be valued at up to $10B.
This makes no sense, it's the 2011 version of pets.com
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Up till yesterday this worked. Damn the fucking networks, if they locked this down too, I will... WHHARGH
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http://www.thefutoncritic.com/interviews/2011/02/09/interview-justified-star-timothy-olyphant-and-executive-producer-graham-yost-911301/20110209_justified/
Get excited people!!
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Video games leviathan Activision has laid off around two hundred staff, resulting in the closure of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen developer Luxoflux and heavy losses for Prototype creator Radical Entertainment and frequent Guitar Hero contributor Neversoft, with GH: Van Halen dev Underground rumoured to shut, Gamasutra reports...
"As we discussed on our earnings conference call yesterday, we are directing our resources against the largest and most profitable business segments, and as part of this initiative, we are realigning our resources to better reflect our slate and the market opportunities. At the same time, we are increasing our digital/online capabilities as we expect that digital/online will continue to become a more meaningful part of our business model in the years ahead."
And today, pretty much the same theme, except the company lost $233 million in Q4 2010. They're apparently concentrating on Call of Duty, Blizzard titles, and... Tony Hawk? ( http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/66756 )
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Roger Ebert blogs about MaxiVision, which is something I've heard him talk about before. I think I understand what it is based on the description, but maybe I don't. Has anyone had first-hand experience with it? Is it good? Bad? The future? A gimmick of its own? Is Ebert championing a lame pet cause or a potential game-changer?
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2011/01/more_than_ever_the_future_of_f.html
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New Screens:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=110620089008491
Submitting to Apple tonight!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpjdkzDc5mw&feature=player_embedded
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http://cl.ly/2d2Q1v1X0f3K1N3s1t0b
God that feels better then last year when I was late doing them.
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Seriously fuck people.
Also, if anyone on here has ever stolen anything from someone else ever, let me give you a big "fuck you." You're a shitty person. I don't give a shit how you justify it.
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"Hi there,
I think we should put Mexican music on the site when a user visits
Thanks"
I'm so glad I'm not customer facing - I don't think I could find a polite way of telling them NO.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q77YBmtd2Rw&feature=related
within only a couple of clicks.
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Kidding, I've seen all the hype for this game and finally got around to it in anticipation for Retribution. You guys can calm down now.
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Since my woman does Mary Kay we don't have to pay the activation fees and we get a 13% discount. That means we will basically be paying $20 more than we are with our SERO plans on Sprint and we get 4 new phones free.
I'm trying to decide between the HTC HD7 and the myTouch4G. I was really really excited for Windows Phone 7 but feature for feature, the myTouch4g wins. It can do video calling, it can use TMo's 4G network, and it can be a mobile hot spot (200mb is included for free in the plan for tethering). Android is just so well developed for too.
2mo ago I wasn't worried Windows Phone 7 but it is mid February and they still haven't pushed out the copy and paste update. I kind of feel like WP7 could use 2 years of development and the myTouch4G worked a lot better than I thought. I also like the idea of having the Google Voice app on the myTouch4G.
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http://www.teefury.com/
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I responded to your thread right as the chatty rolled over, but the upshot of what I said was that Keep on the Shadowfell is said to be a pretty crummy place to start, and you'd probably be better off getting the recently released Essentials DM Kit, which comes with a small adventure of some sort. Also, GET THE RULES COMPENDIUM.
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