Why hello there, future purchase

What a week it’s been. The inaugural Gamescom in Cologne, Germany opened on Wednesday and guess what: Sony kindly unveiled the new PlayStation 3 Slim. Media outlets weren’t exactly surprised by the announcement, but I think we’re all glad the rumor mill has finally ceased its incessant turning about the damn console. Looks like I finally need to go get a PS3.

Oh, and a little event in Anaheim, California called BlizzCon flung its +10 Doors of Nerd Barricading open to the (literally) unwashed masses of Blizzard fanatics today, and so far we’ve already been made privy to the next World of Warcraft expansion, a new Diablo III class and StarCraft II being confirmed for release in 2010.

You know, as a gamer I like it when these big gaming-related events run back-to-back with one another. The ESA might as well wedge E3 2010 between next year’s Gamescom and BlizzCon to mentally and physically destroy every games journalist in existence. That could be Silicon Sasquatch‘s in!

An image so good it makes the prequels look half-decent

Aaron:

For some odd reason I’ve devoted a large amount of my gaming time this week to Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. I’m under the deluded notion that I can reach 100% completion in the game without going insane. It’s not a particularly hard title, it’s just tedious…incredibly tedious. Still, I have to hand it to Traveller’s Tales for making what’s overall a fun and goofy title. Just don’t ruin the experience by trying to do what I’m doing.

Other non-block-themed bytes I consumed this week were Fallout 3′s Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta — mostly for review purposes. Go ahead and check out each write-up for my impressions of Bethesda’s final two post-nuclear roleplaying simulator DLCs. Now, to be completely honest, I’m glad to wash my hands of the game. Hundreds of hours sunk into one title (that’s not an MMO) makes you feel way too involved. Strange, I know. I’m ready for Fallout: New Vegas, though. Get to it, Obsidian Entertainment!

Next on my gaming queue: Halo Wars, Shadow Complex, Batman: Arkham Asylum (which is getting many glowing reviews) and…more Lego Star Wars.

Doug's local sports pride is fantastic. But why are they called the Vikings anyway? Vikings usually burned and pillaged, I recall.

Doug:

This week has been busy — class Monday, finishing homework, quizzes and team projects for accounting on Wednesday, then a test in Finance on Tuesday, more class Wednesday, being social (bars, basketball and more bars) and finalizing some back-end paperwork stuff for grad school. I haven’t fired my 360 up since…maybe Monday. All I’ve done gaming-wise is play with the NCAA 10 TeamBuilder — it’s super powerful and, being the kind of person to toil over minor details regarding team jerseys, it’s right up my alley.

Above is a photo for the work-in-progress team I’ve created; the fun part will be editing the roster from head to toe. Thankfully, you can now do that through a web browser instead of on a console.

Nathan Drake/The Prince takes flight in Shadow Complex for Xbox Live Arcade

Nick:

With this scorched-earth Oregon summer winding to a pleasantly breezy conclusion, my gaming backlog is finally getting the attention it deserves. Having made my way through the wonderfully crass House of the Dead: Overkill and Namco’s doting recreation of PlayStation platforming classic Klonoa, I’ve almost finished clearing out my GameFly queue. I hope to finish Killzone 2 and Punch-Out!! this weekend.

Of course, that all depends on whether I can release my vice grip on Shadow Complex. Chair Entertainment created a game that went right for my Achilles’ Heel: side-scrolling, Metroid-style adventures. While I’m not convinced it’s the greatest game of its kind, it’s a pleasant surprise and a nice homage to some of the finest games ever made.

And hey, it’s always nice to hear Nolan North playing another character who looks an awful lot like Nathan Drake; maybe it’ll hold me over until Uncharted 2 struts in and dictates how I live my life for the next few months.

Also, the two-hour season finale of Lost didn’t help much.

Hurley certainly isn't happy with the lateness of this post

Thankfully, it seems, Wednesday was relatively calm as far as news goes: DICE learned from its console prejudices, Blizzard reaffirmed its next MMO is not World of Warcraft: Part Deux and Microsoft bolstered its Platinum Hits collection.

Expect these explosions to somehow be more "hardcore" in the next console Battlefield title

Veteran Battlefield franchise creative director Lars Gustavsson admits that with Battlefield: Bad Company the team treated console gamers “a bit more gently” in crafting content due to DICE‘s PC background. In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Gustavsson talks about the company’s natural progression with its Battlefield games, moving from basic multiplayer functions in Battlefield 1942 to more advanced matchmaking in Bad Company. Still, Gustavsson emphasizes that although the team created a strong console Battlefield game in Bad Company, they now understand future console versions have to be as complex and tailored to hardcore online players as the PC versions have always been.

It’s certainly an appropriate admission for the studio, as Bad Company–though a superb single-player experience that foreshadowed the quality and attention DICE would put into Mirror’s Edge–just didn’t feel like Battlefield. The online portion was very similar in spirit to Battlefield 2 with class load-outs and various vehicles to utilize, but it was more of the same, albeit less grandiose than the PC games. Admittedly, it’s not that easy to shove 64 players into an Xbox Live multiplayer match.

The question now is if DICE will extend these retrospective revelations to their upcoming sequel to Bad Company–otherwise, it’s all talk.  Furthermore, what do Gustavsson’s comments mean for the anticipated (though only rumored) Battlefield 3? Would a hypothetical BF3 become a multi-platform release, a series first for a direct sequel, or will the next core title follow the past trend of PC release first and a stripped-down console counterpart later?

Sorry classic Blizzard franchises–no MMO for you. Besides, Warcraft, you already had your turn.

Though rumored in the past and even partially confirmed by the company itself, Blizzard Entertainment has officially expressed that their next massively multiplayer online title currently in-development will not be based on any of their established StarCraft, Diablo or Warcraft franchises.

World of Warcraft is popular. We all know that. And despite the wide variance in personal feelings about the game, it would be wise to give the Blizzard crew credit where credit’s due–they honed their franchises to be the blockbusters they are today through their own capability and craftsmanship. The company completely deserves its praise and sales.

Still, it’s not always a guaranteed good move to release a brand new MMO under a fresh intellectual property, even if you’re Blizzard. If this next game won’t be based on neither their space, mythical nor fantasy efforts, then what could it possibly be about? Maybe a modern-day MMO where players level up through working menial labor tasks at minimum wage.

We’ll call it: World of Wagecraft.

Army of Two: This much battle-buddy man-love can now be had for less!

Here’s quite the PSA for budget-conscious gamers: Microsoft has added eight new titles to their Platinum Hits line, including popular titles like Gears of War and Mass Effect. It’s good to see Microsoft is bolstering its $20 to $30 hits line (which, admittedly, is an extremely baffling price difference), but let’s be honest here: Gears of War is a nearly three-year-old title and Mass Effect has been selling at the $20 range for awhile now at Best Buy and other retailers.

However, the Mass Effect repackaging does come with the $5 Bring Down the Sky DLC as a bonus–quite the addition for gamers who’ve yet to add BioWare’s fantastic RPG to their collections.

The full list of the new Platinum Hits games, complete with Metacritic links for the curious,  are as follows:

• Gears of War
• Forza Motorsport 2
• Mass Effect
• Viva Piñata
• Army of Two
• Battlefield: Bad Company
• Burnout Paradise
• Fight Night Round 3

Note: Nick pointed out that GameStop stores are offering used copies of Forza Motorsport 2 in a bundle with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for under $20. That offer is a bit more cost-effective if you don’t mind pre-played games.

Gunnin' for that #1 spot: Sales of Call of Duty: World at War helped Activision post earnings of nearly $1 billion this past year, the company announced today. Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft were also named as leading Activision-Blizzard franchises.

Just a couple of days ago, Electronic Arts announced its quarterly and yearly financial statement; today,  Activision followed that up with its own release, and the returns are very impressive. Activision-Blizzard posted a $981 million net revenue in the first quarter of this year — no, that’s not a yearly figure. That beats the publishing giant’s own projections for the quarter by more than $100 million, and has caused the company to raise its revenue expectations for the 2009 calendar year to $4.3 billion.

“Our better-than-expected first quarter results were driven by strong global consumer response to the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero franchises and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, despite challenging economic times,” Activision CEO Robert Kotick said.

Of course, as happens from time to time, some games that were rumored to exist were confirmed in the financial release. Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and DJ Hero were all confirmed in the report, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen was made official later in the day. GH5 is a follow up to 2008′s Guitar Hero: World Tour and 2009′s Guitar Hero: Metallica (our review of which is here.) Band Hero is going to be family friendly, and DJ Hero will feature hip-hop, R&B, electronic, techno, and dance music and a turntable peripheral.

In non-music-game-related Activision news, during the earnings conference call, word leaked out (repoted by Kotaku) that details on the next entry in the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise may be coming at next month’s E3 convention. One of Activision’s older cash cows, THPS went underground (as opposed to Underground) last year as developer Neversoft focused on Guitar Hero games. Looks like EA’s Skate series may have some competition once again.

Nintendo's Wii Fit helped the company sell 26 million Wii systems worldwide last year, rocketing the little white waggle-tastic console to the 50 million units sold mark.

Meanwhile, Nintendo continues to print money. They also released financial numbers today, and they are ludicrous – GameSpot reports $2.8 billion in net revenue and $6 billion in operating profit in the last year, more than $18 billion in total sales worldwide, and a total rise of 8.5 percent over the numbers Nintendo turned over last year.

Even crazier is the amount of consoles sold to fuel those numbers: 26 million Wii consoles sold worldwide, which puts the system above 50 million sold in its lifetime, and 31 million DS units sold, lifting the handheld above the 100-million mark. Even though Nintendo gets the short end of the stick from many jilted hardcore gamers, it’s clear their bottom line is hardly hurting because of that.

We mentioned earlier in the week the anticipation for the newest piece of Fallout 3 DLC, Broken Steel, but it seems that Bethesda’s add-on fell on its face upon launch – Xbox 360 gamers were having problems with the achievements, and PC gamers couldn’t even install the DLC whatsoever. Apparently that has been fixed, with threads in the Fallout 3 forums saying that both issues have been resolved. Hopefully no problems will beset our brave editor Aaron Thayer as he tackles the Fallout 3 DLC suite this weekend.

Despite the title, Daniel Benmergui's Flash game "Today I Die" really isn't all that sad of a game.

Lastly, a little indie gaming to lighten the mood after all that financial talk. “Today I Die,” a simple yet very moving poetic flash game, has been released by creator Daniel Benmurgi, who previously made “I Wish I Were The Moon” and “Storyteller.” We found this game via Kotaku, and will share the same hint that they suggested: Try the jellyfish.

Mr. Bubbles would be proud

Considering today’s wealth of BioShock 2 information pouring out from every single videogame-related webpage on the internet, The Silicon Sasquatch is officially renaming April 23 “BioShock Press Day.”

I think we can all expect that future sequels of the franchise will continue to be unveiled on April 23, from now until the end of time — or until BioShock: Big Daddy’s Beach Volleyball Blast 3 comes out and we give up gaming forever.

More news after the break.

Holding a gun that way doesn't seem comfortable, at all

For once, PS3 owners don’t get the short end of the exclusivity stick, as Eidos has announced that the Joker is a PS3-exclusive playable character in the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum title. Shacknews reports that a PlayStation Home advertisement accidentally broke the surprise a little earlier than expected, and as such Eidos and Warner Bros. had to scramble and confirm the story. Though the Clown Prince of Crime is only usable in the challenge room segment of the game, judging from preview videos released last month, those challenges look quite fun.

I, for one, welcome more PS3-only content, and I don’t even own the system. While I’m glad Microsoft’s hogging of developers’ content provides some excellent gaming opportunities, there’s no reason why Sony can’t extend the same courtesy for its loyal fans. It’s anyone’s guess whether Sony paid Eidos and/or Warner Bros. for the Joker content, or maybe Eidos simply did it because they wanted to. Either way, it’s the Xbots’ turns to be jealous, no?

World of Pegglecaft

Eventually, every game will be playable inside of World of Warcraft. Today PopCap Games released a version of their addictive game Peggle, for free, to play inside the World of Warcraft client. They did this with Bejeweled last September, which was during an age when I still had an active account and played, a lot. I love how PopCap admits to their collective corporate WoW addiction, and instead of just claiming their fandom they do something about it and put effort into neat add-ons like these. Any WoW player can tell you that Bejeweled, and now Peggle, helps to pass the tedium during flight path waits, battleground waits and, well, any period of  downtime where you’re not yelling at the enemy faction for “pwning” you.

By the way, Nick has an active WoW account right now. Bug him!

And for the pièce de résistance: Becoming Spider-Man is, and I’m totally jumping to conclusions, scientifically possible–or at least his webbing is. This has nothing to do with gaming, of course, but it’s nerdy enough to count, right? Though, assuredly, the result of the average Joe/Jane trying to replicate Spidey’s acrobatics would end up with this result.

My apologies to your sensibilities.

At this point in the game’s lifespan, a betting man would be wise to wager that you the gamer have played, or at least trialed, World of Warcraft. It’s also safe to assume that even if you’ve avoided the cyberscapes of Azeroth, you know at least one person suckling the Warcraft teat. Blizzard’s flagship title with its 11.5 million players is a testament to the staying power of this particular MMO, and the new expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is an all-out effort on Blizzard’s part to keep it at the top.

“But Aaron,” some may inevitably ask, “why would I play the same game after it’s already been stomping on its competitors for the past four years? It’s not going to change that much.” That’s a reasonable question, for sure. They may also assume World of Warcraft is like any other MMO, with a never-ending series of expansion packs aimed primarily at the hardcore, top-tier players with enough time on their hands to complete the numerous, escalating challenges presented. This was what happened with the previous expansion, The Burning Crusade. Fortunately, Wrath is more new than it is old, and while being true to the golden formula of  [1 engaging quest system + rapid combat * (mountains of loot)²] that Blizzard created with vanilla WoW and BC before it, the bottom line is, simply, Wrath is the most fun I’ve had playing an MMO in many, many years.

Current subscribers to the world of Azeroth fall into two separate categories outside of the typical labels of hardcore, roleplayer or casual (the mileage of each definition varies with the individual, of course). Specifically, if you’re a hardcore player, you still either care a lot about the Warcraft mythology and how the MMO advances the storyline from the original RTSes, or you would rather ditch the writing and focus on what loot can be obtained through the massively multiplayer experience. Both mindsets have room to coexist within the game, but consider which team you’d want to bat for before going into the new content, as your outlook truly matters and can maximize or minimize the integrity of the entire expansion. When I say Wrath is fun, I’m saying that it hits upon what I feel is missing from most MMOs: a well-written storyline finely chiseled through a series of enjoyable quests.

The Discovery Channel-esque views of Grizzly Hills

Wrath of the Lich King rewards Warcraft story devotees while simultaneously providing a more solid, tuned and enjoyable MMO experience. What isn’t there to like about the new system in place? Leveling to the new cap of 80 is, first and foremost, easy. Yes, it is, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. While the short skip and hop to the new level cap takes away a certain feeling of accomplishment that was obtained when you first hit level 60 and later 70, Wrath isn’t trying to keep its player base tied-up in leveling woes for three months. Sure, it was easy for some day-one douches to literally hit 80 at launch, but the overall effect of letting the less-devoted players see new content so soon was a great idea on Blizzard’s part.

You’ll level up a main character, which can be done almost entirely solo even if you aren’t an independent class like a hunter, hybrid-healer or caster, and then immediately get to work preparing for heroic difficulty dungeons, epic raids, new player versus player battlegrounds or leveling your poor, neglected alternate characters. At times this expansion can be overwhelming because of the amount of freedom you have, whereas before you would almost feel chained to one character for the next 10 levels of content. The additions to talents and spellbooks are, as always, debatable and constantly changing. Class balance is a dynamic beast, and one that I won’t go into. At the very least, I enjoyed my Shaman’s new skills on the speedy road to 80.

Unfortunately, "Penguin Party" isn't an achievement

But just because leveling from 70 to 80 (and even levels 1 to 70 due to lowered experience requirements) is fast doesn’t automatically mean it’s wonderful. No, the true joy of leveling in Wrath comes from the highly entertaining quests and the perfectly executed cinematic elements Blizzard found a way to implement into a cartoony, four-year-old game. This is where your interest in Warcraft’s history becomes very important.

As the title might suggest, Wrath of the Lich King ratchets up the presence of one Arthas Menethil, otherwise known as the Lich King to the unaware (I sincerely hope that wasn’t a spolier for someone), who was once a noble human paladin as well as a prince. Anyone who played through Warcraft III and its expansion, The Frozen Throne, saw the downfall of Arthas at the hands of both his insatiable rage and the sword called Frostmourne. For the last five years (when Frozen Throne was released), those eager to learn what really happened after Arthas assumed the title and throne of the Lich King have waited for Blizzard to throw out some scraps. Bits and pieces of his existence were sprinkled around in the original WoW and BC, but until this expansion nothing has come close to the surprisingly intimate and frequent encounters with Wrath’s titular character. Outside of Death Knights, being the former BFFs of Arthas, the familiar classes of WoW see a lot of the Lich King. Hopefully you like the guy, or as much as you can like a mass-murdering, patricidal, undead maniac.

Truly though, the storylines and quests involving Arthas are some of the best ever crafted for the WoW universe. The writing has been much more focused, clear and logical. Players are taken to events that correlate back to the Warcraft strategy games, which is a treat for longtime fans. You get to see Arthas and his dwarven pal Muradin find Frostmourne and witness the prince’s downfall, in-game, and not with a limited viewpoint like in Warcraft III. For non-lore nerds this will mean little, but like I said before if you care about the stories and the mythology, you begin to realize that Wrath is more of a fan service expansion than anything else the company has done in recent years. So far, Arthas has shown up in most of the eight quest zones (Wintergrasp, the outdoor PvP section, doesn’t count). The in-game cutscenes with Arthas are fully voice-acted and incredibly cinematic. His raspy, deathly cold voice adds a lot to the experience. For the first time I felt like I was participating in a piece of the Warcraft universe, witnessing some integral event unfolding before my character. For example: You get to touch the Lich King’s former heart, his last aspect of humanity, which is floating hundreds of feet beneath his Icecrown Citadel. Classic.

Frostmourne hungers…

Obviously I’ve gushed the most over Wrath’s superb execution of the typically weak story development seen in older World of Warcraft efforts. Outside of story, it has to be mentioned that the art and audio direction in this game almost make me wish I had purchased the Collector’s Edition. Blizzard’s portfolio has, for me, been a source of many childhood drawings, tracings and other artistic musings. I remember when I brought the Diablo instruction booklet to school with me multiple times, reading the background of the world and characters over and over whenever I had the chance. So it means a lot to me when I say that the art in this game is the best they’ve ever done. The soundtrack is equally fantastic, and I have not once turned the music off while playing the game, even months after release.

A random dancing pirate!

It’s actually humorous to think of doing a review, especially this far into the post-release period, of an MMO’s expansion. Regardless of the game, committed players are going to purchase the new content because it’s practically required to do anything of merit. But this review isn’t to persuade those who haven’t made the plunge. Instead, it’s written to highlight what has been an evolution in the MMO spectrum. Say what you will about WoW addictions, time wasting and so on, but I’m hard-pressed to find any true flaws in Wrath. A gaming experience, when done correctly as it is here, is important regardless of genre. Yet, you either like MMOs or you don’t — that’s really what it boils down to. But for me, playing through a new chapter in the Warcraft story has been worth the time and monetary investment, and I’m sure some of those 11.5 million players feel the same way.

Recommended for

• MMO players feeling dismayed by thinly sliced storylines seen in other games and previous World of Warcraft titles; a redemption of immersive storylines.
• Tastes that lean toward the appreciation of the Warcraft lore and its continuation.
• Gamers interested in seeing what an MMO can do “right.”

Read our policy on reviews here.