Just like clockwork, the annual installment of Electronic Arts’ hugely popular “Madden” football series was released today for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii with a slew of new features. At the top of the list is an online franchise mode that lets you play a ten-season NFL schedule with up to 31 other friends, and, for the first time in the history of the franchise, online co-op. EA has also jumped on the mobile bandwagon with a custom iPhone app that can be used to update rosters on the go.
The game’s biggest strengths this year, however, are the incredible attention to detail, from the addition of a more realistic injury system (play hurt and you could risk a longer recovery) to the lifelike reactions of the players on the field and the coaches and refs on the sideline. As usual, the game isn’t perfect, but much like last year’s 20th anniversary edition, it comes pretty darn close. Check out Bullz-Eye’s full review of the game and, after you’ve had a chance to play it yourself, come back to let us know what you think.
Nintendo is happily sharing sales figures for Wii Sports Resort and the bundled Wii MotionPlus, and for good reason. Since launch, the $50 bundle has sold more than 500,000 units.
From Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo’s executive VP of sales & marketing, the news sounds something like this: “Through Monday we sold one copy of Wii Sports Resort roughly every 1.5 seconds continuously since it launched in the United States.” That’s an impressive stat, especially considering the nature of the game. Nintendo continues to successfully defy the convention of going for the hardcore market. The Wii Sports Resort sales do more than just add to Nintendo’s fat coffers, it puts the Wii MotionPlus in the hands of the public, effectively reducing the cost of all future games designed to employ the Wii MotionPlus’ advanced sensors. You won’t need to drop the extra $20 next timeyou want to play a MotionPlus enabled game.
During a conference call, Sony corporate CEO Nobuyuki Oneda said the PS3 is now some 70% cheaper to make than it was at launch. Most estimates suggest the PS3 was around $800 to build in the beginning, which puts the console at just $240 now.
The obvious question – does this mean we’ll see price cuts some time soon? I’m inclined to say no, since Sony seems to be losing money everywhere, but that might be a great way to get a leg up on the Xbox 360. Sure, no one likes to be losing money on hardware this far into the product cycle, but imagine getting a PS3 for $250! I’d probably go buy one tomorrow out of pure disbelief, especially if it came with a decent hard drive. Microsoft’s cheapest console is so pared down I couldn’t really justify buying one.
Sony could keep prices where they are to try to recoup some of their recent losses, but why let the world know the price has gone down so far? So we know how much is headed straight to Nobuyuki Oneda’s bonus check?
That’s according to a TellTale Games developer by the forum name “Yare,” anyway. He said as much while addressing user concerns about the performance of Tales of Monkey Island on Nintendo’s Wii.
Here are a few of his more interesting thoughts on Wii development:
The voices and textures are the way they are because we’re limited to 40 megs for WiiWare titles. The PC versions of our games are usually 150+ megs, and most modern games range anywhere from one to ten gigabytes or more. Talk to Nintendo about this one.
Frame rate issues will probably get sorted out eventually, but keep in mind that the Wii is just not a powerful console. An iPhone is much more powerful than a Wii, even. The Wii and DS are extremely underpowered and their popularity doesn’t remove the hardware limitations.
He definitely makes a good point regarding the popularity of Nintendo’s devices. Just because they’re popular doesn’t mean they don’t have limitations.
I may have mentioned once or twice that I’m ridiculously excited to play Scribblenauts. The new trailer makes the game seem even more incredible, and it made me realize something I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of before:Scribblenauts has almost infinite replay value.
I know that sounds odd, because it’s clearly one of the main features of the game. So maybe it’s not that I didn’t think of it, but that the concept just didn’t seem very real. There aren’t many games I find truly engrossing enough to enjoy a lot of replay. Sure, there are all the games with great multiplayer features, but I don’t consider those “replay.” For real replay value, I consider the story mode of a game – the part of the game that follows some sort of narrative progression from beginning to end. Even with games like Mass Effect, where there are countless options available to the player on replay, I find it hard to jump back in and relive the same story, despite the various nuances that come from different decisions.
Scribblenauts is different, in part, because it’s more like a puzzle game. There’s not necessarily that same, narrative progression with bigger titles. But even puzzle games can get boring, and it takes a special kind of experience to make me come back for more. That’s exactly what I expect from 5th Cell’s little creation – a rare gaming experience.
My expectations exploded when I first heard the concept for the game, and from everything I’ve seen, it can’t really disappoint. The most shining example, though, is from the new trailer. Our intrepid hero is stuck staring at a centaur with no way around. How does he hope to make it past? Why, by summoning Medusa, chopping off her head and using it to turn the centaur to stone, of course! Okay, so that doesn’t solve the problem of getting around the centaur (and actually the trailer does seem to show this “solution” as no solution at all), but it does make good on the promise that anything is possible. There are obviously thousands of other ways to get your ‘Naut out of this little pickle, and that’s what makes the game so great. I’m already imagining spending hours just playing my favorite puzzles, the ones that offer the most modularity for solutions, just to see how many ways I can think up to solve them.
With opportunity for expansion packs, increased dictionary size, and more item interoperability, Scribblenauts could quickly become one of the greatest franchises ever. To see more of what I’m talking about, check out the trailer below.
