Infamous did well
Playstation is getting good
Oh shit. There’s DS.

Numbers via NeoGAF

Wii rocked the top three
So I guess we’ll all be “Fit”
If “Wii” can find it

Numbers via: MTV Multiplayer

Oh snap kids! One of  my favorite games of all time is finally getting a sequel (I mean other than Space Invaders Extreme 2). Yep, Red Dead Revolver 2. Or rather, Red Dead Redemption.

I think it’s interesting that Rockstar decided not to go with the main character from the first game, Red Hallow, considering the game is named after him. Rockstar usually does a great job when it comes to the characters in their games, so I’m not too worried.

Expect to see me gushing more about this game when more details finally come out.

Next time: Resident Evil 5 demo

I was going to post this as an update to the “1up.com is dead” entry, but I figured it deserved it’s own post.

The new podcast from the old 1upFM crew is here! Viva Rebel.FM! Support these guys and check out this show!

Here’s something I didn’t expect: Microsoft talking about a PS3 price drop. Especially when there hasn’t been a peep out of Sony themselves. In fact they went out of their way to tell people not to expect a price drop, at least during the holiday season.

When speaking with Edge Online, Xbox 360 product manager Aaron Greenberg said, “We [Microsoft] absolutely expect the PS3 price drop to happen in the next couple of months,” adding, “We’re frankly surprised it’s taken this long.”

I am as well. Even being the PS3 fanboy that I am, I have to note that Sony is getting slaughtered by Microsoft (and by Nintendo, but at this point Nintendo is in a whole other space with their numbers). When Microsoft is selling an Xbox for $250, Sony needs to pay attention. Sure the Arcade Xbox doesn’t have a hard drive, but it comes with two games and Joe Consumer is going to see that as a far better deal then the cheapest PS3 at $400.

I know that Kaz is dying to see the PS3 turn a profit now that it’s finally getting cheaper to produce, but he may have to hold off on that to start selling the PS3 at a reasonable rate. After all, it’s hard to make money if the console gathers dust on store shelves.

Well that’s not true. The name is staying but the site that I loved is dead.

And EGM…my god! I remember reading EGM as a kid to find out all the news on the latest Super Nintendo games. Then about Playstation games. Then Playstation 2. Then Xbox 360 and PS3. I loved me some Sushi-X! Hell, I even read EGM²! And now it’s gone. A toast to you, oh symbol of my childhood now lost.

I’m not normally the type to get whiny about things like this, but many of the game journalists that I have the most respect for and look to for inspiration as regards to writing style are now jobless.

To Shane Bettenhausen, Phillip Kollar, Greg Ford, Ryan Scott, James Mielke, and everyone else that got canned: You guys are fantastic writers and I know that you all will find someplace to go.

To Ryan O’Donnell and Matt Chandronait, and everyone else (formerly) at GameVideos: You guys made the best gaming video show out there. I wish you all the best of luck.

So here’s a toast to both 1up and EGM. You guys (and gals) were the best out there. I pray that all of you land on your collective feet.

Addition: And to play it all out: 1up Show Orchestral

Addition pt 2: Joystiq has posted a list of who was let go in this travesty (Simox Cox? Wow.) I’m glad they didn’t get rid of everyone good though. I notice a lack of Ray Barnholt, Jeremy Parish, David Ellis, Garnett Lee, and Thierry Ngyuen. At least they’ve kept some people who know what they are doing…I wonder how long those people will stick around.

Looks like I’ll be taking some time off for now. Since it is the holidays and all, I’ll be out of town doing the family thing for a bit. I’ll be back before the new year with new gaming fun for you guys.

Have a happy whatever holiday you celebrate!

Yes, that’s right. Another one. Perhaps I should explain.

When I first started World of Warcraft about two years ago I toyed around with a few different classes, but couldn’t really decide an Alliance class I liked. I would have played Horde, but all of my friends were Alliance at the time. Then Burning Crusade launched and I found the class I simply had to play: Shaman. So, I rolled a shaman.

I raced that character to 70 and got into raiding right away. I was healing up a storm and finally starting to collect gear, but getting more and more annoyed with the steep climb in raiding difficulty. So I figured I’d start an alt and wait for my guild to get ready for 25 man dungeons. So I tried out priest.

I was instantly in love with the class. It could heal, it could DPS, and Shadowform looked totally awesome. This was the perfect class for me. It had everything and there was no way anything could make me switch.

Well, almost anything.

Yep, I’ve been swept up in the wave of newbie Death Knights. What can I say? The class is fun. So right now I’m dividing my time between my new Death Knight and my still awesome priest. I haven’t made it as far into Northrend as some (I’ve just finished Howling Fjord and I’m moving on to Borean Tundra) and I doubt I will zoom to 80. The new content is just too fun to skip through. I’ve already flown a plane to take out attacking gargolyes, worn a robot suit to take out Dark Iron Dwarves, and had a few run ins with Arthas already.

Blizzard really learned a lot from Burning Crusade and they’ve put it to good use. The vehicle quests are amazing, and fun way to change up the “Collect X number of Y” quests that are so common in MMOs. Granted, there are still a large number of those quests, but the chains are usually capped off with some grand event or vehicle that makes you feel like you’ve accomplished something.

Speaking of grand, the graphics and art design for the expansion are really impressive. They are still the stylized and slightly cartoony style that WoW is known for, but Blizzard has stepped up their game. The dungeons really show off a sense of scale and give an epic feel to the world.

Blizzard has outdone themselves with Wrath of the Lich King. Most MMO expansions just drop in 10-20 levels, a few dungeons and call it done. Blizzard actually has tossed in some real story into Warcraft and made the trek from 70-80 more than just the same old grind. I just can’t wait to keep questing and see what else Blizzard has in store.

Nintendo:  Goddamn.
Gears of War: I’m not surprised
Sony: that must suck.

Source:  ChartGet!

Over the weekend I checked out 1up’s preview of Flower. While the writeup is good, I think that this is a game that really requires you to see it being played to get a good idea of what it’s trying to do.

Well what do you know?

Seriously though, this is a game I’m really looking forward to playing. Now I hold no illusions of this being some sort of grand epic, or of it being a super hit on PSN. Honestly what interests me most about it is how unassuming it is. It’s not trying to be anything more than a stress relief that you can play just for fun. Not to get the best score, not to show everyone up…but just to enjoy yourself.

It’s looking like the game is going to turn out to be what I’d hoped PixelJunk Eden would be. Not that PixelJunk isn’t fun on it’s own, but it still requires that time limit. I’d prefer to just have a game world I can explore when I just want to think about nothing.

Flower is looking like it’ll be the go to game on PSN for when I just want to “get away from it all”. I know I’ll be keeping a closer eye on it.