Positive News
Sales figures are in for CoD MW3 in the US, UK. It breaks the record number of CoD Black Ops day-one sales.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has, unsurprisingly, achieved record-breaking sales figures for its first day on the market in the United States and United Kingdom, according to Activision. With an estimated sell-through of more than $400 million and 6.5 million units in 24 hours, CoD MW3 is now the biggest entertainment launch ever. Which sales king is it replacing in the number one slot? None other than last year’s Call of Duty release, CoD Black Ops. Which game did Black Ops replace last year? The previous year’s Call of Duty release, CoD MW2. I think you’re beginning to see the trend.
"We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories," said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. "Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time."
The consecutively higher sales totals make this the third year in a row that Call of Duty has set day one launch records across all forms of entertainment. Activision boasts that “this is something no other entertainment franchise in any medium has ever accomplished.” That proud statement comes from the same company that claimed for the game that this was “the biggest video game in history” in its MW launch trailer. I guess there’s some merit to that ridiculed claim now.
Positive Preview
None of the 7 reasons contain VII as a reason.
The number 13 is almost universally considered unlucky, but for Square Enix and its flagship franchise, Final Fantasy XIII is bound to be another million-plus seller on March 9. That’s day one for the U.S. version of the game. Gaming Target was given the afternoon to play test it in English at Square Enix’s Los Angeles offices, so we can tell you first hand why you don’t want to avoid this superstition-free title and why it’ll be next month’s most popular videogame.
Reason 1: PS3, Xbox 360 (superior systems, fresh audience)
Generally, FFVII and FFX are considered the highlights of this successful JRPG series, and, in both cases, they were the debut FF games for their respective systems, PlayStation and PS2. Likewise, Final Fantasy XIII marks the debut of the franchise on Sony’s third console, PS3. By premiering on such a high-end system, FFXIII is open to similar benefits of new gamers and more advanced technology. At the same time, it’s also the first story-based Final Fantasy game to appear on the Xbox 360. While 360 owners did receive FFXI, it was an MMORPG and one that released two years after the PS2 version. Again, a fresh set of players and hardware that’s leaps and bounds better than the previous generation.
Reason 2: HD Graphics from the ground up
Continuing with the game’s sequence of firsts, FFXIII is the first FF to be developed from the ground up for high-definition consoles. From our time with the nearly complete English version, we got to experience a portion of the Pulse underworld, an open field ripe for battle. It was full of detailed enemies, including large-sized Behemoth Kings and massively-sized Adamantoise. But as rich as these animated beasts looked while roaming through the vast grass environment, it pales in comparison to what we didn’t see in the demo. That’s what has us excited the most. Besides Gran Pulse, the game boasts another world, Cocoon. It contrasts with Pulse in that it’s a high-tech, man-made city built above the forest underworld. Because a majority of the countless hours you’ll put into FFXIII take place in Cocoon, there’s a lot we have yet to discover.
Negative News
Far from a game, U.S. troops neutralize a weapons stockpile.
You’ve pressed the X button countless times to detonate virtual bombs, but the Taliban is using thrown-out video game technology, like a PlayStation controller, to ignite real incendiaries 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan.
Veteran war correspondent for Fox News Channel Steve Harrigan discovered that militants got their hands on a familiar game controller-turned-detonator while he was embedded with U.S. and Afghan troops last year in Jaji, Afghanistan. There, troops raided a suspected bomb-making house thanks to an Afghan informant who was paid $2,000.
“A farmer’s house, in a locked shed: jackpot,” he exclaims before almost poetically listing what troops found inside. “Rockets, grenades, artillery and tank shells, plastic explosives, timers and wiring devices. It is an enemy they can build weapons even out of garbage."
The garbage Harrigan refers to includes a clear-blue original PlayStation controller, one that’s so old it pre-dates the dual analog sticks.
“Something as simple [that] a solider may’ve thrown out, because their Sony PlayStation was broken, can be used as an initiator device,” explains an unidentified U.S. Army Ranger who was holding the controller and involved in the operation.
Positive Review
Problem-solvers will love getting to the bottom or, often times, the top of these elaborate puzzle designs.
If the French film pioneer Georges Méliès had an Xbox Live Arcade game, it would be The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom. Like his 1902 movie “A Trip to the Moon,” this downloadable game illustrates the silent film era with black-and-white graphics riddled with film grain and an energetic theatre organ soundtrack to back them up. The gameplay is comparable to a handful of flash and downloadable titles of the same genre, so developer The Odd Gentlemen may not go down in history as being as groundbreaking as Méliès. Nevertheless, the team’s artfully crafted presentation makes for a puzzle platformer that’s timeless in every sense.
P.B. Winterbottom is a pie-obsessed thief who wears a top hat that’s as long as his nose and carries an umbrella that allows his short, stocky body to glide to normally out-of-reach treats. Each of the game’s 75 levels is short, sometimes to the point of showing the entire stage in a single frame. Levers, switches, springs and seesaws assist Winterbottom in his quest to collect every pie in sight. Fire, water and heights get in his way.
However, it’s Winterbottom himself whose the biggest aid and obstacle. The crux of the gameplay is recording his actions so that clones can help him climb and cross the levels, just as long as clones don’t cross each other with a whack of the umbrella. Sometimes it’s as simple as holding down the Right Trigger to record, then pressing A to leap, which results in a continually jumping clone who’s top hat you can climb on to in order to acquire a pie in the sky.
