Hey Got Gamers,

This week there is a little homework before we get to the podcast, but trust me you’ll like this homework. There were a number of funny videos that we talked about on this week’s show. If you wish, you can watch them before listening to the show. In no particular order, here is:

1. Conan O’Brien’s take on the emotional plot in Gears of War 3

2. A Compilation of FIFA 12 Impact Engine Glitches


3. That Nik Antropov Video

However, that’s enough homework for now; let’s get to the show. We call it the post-broadcast podcast of our September 24th show, and as always you can find it in the audio file below this paragraph.

Download

This week on Got Game the crew discusses:

• The new NBA 2K12 demo
• The recently released NASCAR Unleashed Trailer
• Calhoun’s investigative journalism regarding Supremacy MMA by 505 Games
• The confusion surrounding Konami’s Transfarring technology coming to North America

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Plus we talk to Andy McCarthy, from EA Sports, about next week’s big release: FIFA 12.

Also, don’t forget that you can check out our PES 2012 coverage here. That game will also be out next week.

AND IN OUR REVIEW SECTION, WE TAKE A LOOK AT GEARS OF WAR 3…


…AS WELL AS F1 2011.

Hey Got Gamers,

I’m not sure that anyone (not even the Got Game crew) can fully appreciate this while we’re in the moment, but this holiday season will have a truly insane release schedule. You may have thought 2007 was a great year for releases (Bioshock, HALO 3, Mass Effect were all released that year), but next week alone we will have FIFA 12, the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus HD collection, X-Men Destiny (Canadian Made), and Pro Evolution 2012.

Sadly, during a 1 hour show we don’t have enough time to cover everything, but games like Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 could be worth your time; and are at least worth a closer look.

PES 2012 Cover Art

So please join Konami’s Jay Boor and I, as we discuss the new features in this year’s PES 2012. Oddly enough, we started off talking about some interesting news that came out of this year’s GamesCom; it’s the new that Konami is still committed to making PS2 versions of Pro Evolution Soccer.

Download PES 2012 Discussion.

Hey Got Gamers,

Supremacy MMA is the next game trying to knock THQ’s UFC Undisputed franchise out of the virtual octagon. I haven’t played Supremacy MMA yet, so I am going to stay away from comparing these games, but I can at least say that Supremacy MMA does have some MMA star power in its corner. Highlighting the game’s roster is former UFC champion Jens Pulver, K1 kickboxing legend Jerome Le Banner, and the first women to appear in any MMA game: Felice Herrig and Michele Gutierrez.

So if you’re like me, and you’re curious about the rest of the roster, you should be able to pop a copy of Supremacy MMA into your PS3 or 360. After all, the game did hit store shelves TODAY!

OR DID IT?

After checking retailer webpages, I’ve found that no one can agree on that fact. However, I am getting ahead of myself. This all started this afternoon when the group that does PR for Supremacy MMA sent me a press release that says, “(g)lobal videogame publisher 505 Games and developer Kung Fu Factory today announced that their brutal, no-holds barred approach to the mixed martial arts genre, Supremacy MMA™, is now available in North America for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system” from Sony.

Press releases like these come in all the time. Despite a massive marketing campaign, I got a release on Tuesday telling me that Gears of War 3 was in stores on Tuesday. PR companies will often send them just in case someone missed something.

Therefore, I was all set to write a blog post that would describe what appeared to be the subdued launch of Supremacy MMA; but while fact checking the first version of this post, I discovered that Amazon has been selling this game since September 13th. You can even buy a used copy of the game from them if you want. Here’s a screen capture from that very page on Amazon.com to show you what I mean regarding the date.

Screen Capture from Amazon.com Supremacy MMA page.

Screen Capture from Bestbuy.ca

I am still not 100% sure about what’s going on in this situation, but it appears that Gamestop Canada won’t even be selling Supremacy MMA this week. I looked it up on their website to discover that they’ve set the game’s release date for next Tuesday. I thought that could be a clerical error, so I called up one of their stores around the Yonge-Dundas square area to ask if I could buy a copy today. The polite customer service representative on the other end of the line told me that their store would not be selling any copies of Supremacy MMA until next Tuesday.

Walmart is also a big retailer in terms of videogame sales in Canada, and they’re not even listing the game on their website.

Anyhow, I know this blog has been based on a pretty small sample rate, but I’m not trying to prove anything with this post. Got Game is a show by games, for gamers; and as a gamer I am just trying to give you a heads up that you could be wasting a trip to the store this week for a game that may or may not be out yet.

At this point in the blog I was also hoping to quote the Supremacy MMA PR company in regards to what’s going on or when you pick up the game. However, they haven’t gotten back to me yet, so check back in a day or two because I will update this post if they do reply to me.

In the meantime, here’s the game’s trailer if you haven’t seen it.

WARNING! The following blog post contains the ravings of a mad man, and a bunch of NASCAR talk.

You may remember a conversation that I had with the rest of the crew on our September 3rd 2011 edition of Got Game. Based on a press release, and a few screen shots that I saw before the show, we were debating Activision’s decision to make a NASCAR game that appears to be catering to the Mario Kart audience (at least that’s my personal interpretation of the situation).

Download The discussion in question happened at the 23:30 mark of this audio file.

So now that we’ve seen some game play footage, or at least a trailer that is meant to represent game play footage, where does that conversation restart? Is it at the part of the conversation where I wonder why every car in NASCAR Unleashed looks like someone was sent the wrong reference images; and as a result, every car now looks like it came out of the Australian V8 Supercars series?

Cars racing in the Australian V8 Supercars series.

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Or is it that part during the game’s trailer where the electro-boogie music started? I don’t know about you, but nothing screams NASCAR to me like electro-boogie music.

Putting all of my sarcastic jabs aside for one second, I think that it’s obvious to everyone reading this that I can’t review NASCAR Unleashed. In my opinion, it goes against everything that makes NASCAR a sport worthy of your time, and on top of that I think it’s obvious that I am currently unable to give this game a fair shake. However, I keep coming back to one question I can’t answer. If this game is not for me, than who is this game made for? Who’s the person sitting there thinking that they could really get into NASCAR if it had a little less camber, and a few more left turns with 90 degree banking?

I’m not sure that person exists, and to be honest, this whole thing smells of decision makers not totally understanding the customer base who’s buying their products. It could also just be blind belief in the idea that any internationally recognized license can sell a product 100% of the time.

I know that there is a Venn diagram segmentation of people who both own a console, and didn’t care for NASCAR the Game 2011; but that doesn’t mean this same segment is itching to get their hands on anything else NASCAR related. Especially when Activision wants to charge between $40 and $60 dollars (according to the GameStop Canada website) for each copy of NASCAR Unleashed.

That price point is the part of this whole situation that I laughed at; and more importantly, it’s a pretty steep price for a market segment that may only process a passing interest, or no interest at all.

What about you guys and girls? What do you think of NASCAR Unleashed?

Hey Got Gamers,

Normally I use the opening paragraph of our weekly show blog to make some snarky remarks, but this week I would just like to use this space to wish Got Game host, Christine Chubb, a happy birthday.

I also want to use it to point out the fact that the weekly post-broadcast podcast can be found in the audio file below this sentence.

Download Here

This week on Got Game the crew discusses:

• Female avatars in EA’s NHL 12
• The NBA commissioner adding his voice over and acting talents to NBA 2K12
• The Honey Badger trailer for NBA JAM: On Fire Edition and the viral video that inspired it
• A new co-op mode for next week’s release of F1 2011
• Some rumors regarding the possible release of Daytona USA to consoles
• The release date and other news regarding the PlayStation Vita that came out of the Tokyo Game Show
• TIFF Nexus

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Plus, we take a good long look at next week’s biggest title, Gears of War 3, with the game’s Director of Production: Rod Fergusson.

And we cram as many reviews as we can into this week’s show with Dead Island…

…The GunStringer…

…and Space Marine.

Hey Got Gamers,

Thanks to everyone who participated in the special live NHL 12 show we did this past weekend. We were surprised at how many of your participated through twitter. Don’t forget you can reach us through twitter at anytime throughout the week by tweeting to @GotGame590, or by emailing us at gotgame@fan590.com.

You can also listen to us at any time that you find convenient by listening to the weekly post-broadcast-podcast. As luck would have it, the latest of those podcasts can be found in the audio file below this sentence. However, we just call it the podcasted version of our September 10th, 2011 show.

DOWNLOAD HERE

This week on Got Game the crew discussed:

• Our thoughts on NHL 12, which hits store shelves on September 13th
• Your thoughts on NHL 12
• The newly announced thumb stick peripheral for the 3DS

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Plus, we also looked at both Driver San Fransisco….

… and Resistance 3 in our review section.

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One thing that we didn’t mention on the show (because we ran out of time) was that Konami announced the cover athletes for their 2012 edition of Pro Evolution Soccer. It turns out that Brazilian star Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior will join Cristiano Ronaldo for the America cover. Here is what it will look like.

Hey Got Gamers,

As you may already know, we’re doing what we can to help the Sick Kids Foundation by joining in with a bunch of other gamers to take part in Extra Life.

Extra Life is a 24-hour video game marathon that happens each year and that helps to raise money for hospitalized children around the world. This year Extra Life is happening on October 15, 2011, and that day each of us on Got Game will attempt to play video games for 24 hours straight in the hopes that you’ll support us by giving just $1 per hour ($24 total), or whatever you can donate.

Don’t forget that very donation, regardless of how big or small it is, will contribute to helping the Sick Kids Foundation; and 100% of your donation will go to the foundation. Plus, your donation is tax-deductible. You can support my fundraising here.

NOW THIS ISN’T PART OF THE EXTRA LIFE PROGRAM, because you can normally play whatever games you want during Extra Life, but I’m hoping to encourage your donations with an extra incentive: griefing me.

I’ll post the worst games from my collection (according to their Meta Critic scores) to the bottom of this post, and anyone who donates at least $24 can choose one game from that list. I will then force myself, regardless of how bad it is, to play that game for an hour during Extra Life.

PLEASE NOTE that when you make a donation you can add a comment to my profile page on Extra Life, SO PLEASE USE THAT COMMENT SPACE ON MY EXTRA LIFE PAGE AND ONLY THAT COMMENT SPACE to tell me what game you want me to play. Here are worst games that I can play that day:

• Jumper Griffin’s Story – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 29
• Quantum Theory – PlayStation 3 – Meta Critic Score: 43
• BackBreaker – PlayStation 3 – Meta Critic Score: 58
• Tron Evolution – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 58
• Darkvoid – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 59
• Transformers Revenge of the Fallen – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 61
• Harvey Birdman The Game – PlayStation Portable – Meta Critic Score:  62
• Auto Modellista – Game Cube – Meta Critic Score: 62
• Mario Party 7 – Game Cube – Meta Critic Score:  64
• Deadly Premonition – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 68
• Mario Party 5 – Game Cube – Meta Critic Score:  69
• Guitar Hero Aerosmith – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 70
• Resident Evil Outbreak – PlayStation 2 – Meta Critic Score:  71
• Wolfenstien (2009) – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 72
• LEGO Batman – PlayStation Portable – Meta Critic Score:  73
• Ace Combat X – PlayStation Portable – Meta Critic Score: 75
• NBA JAM (2010) – Xbox360 – Meta Critic Score: 75

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Also, don’t forget that you can also donate money to the fund raising campaigns of Zack, Christine, and Momin via our main donation page.

Hey Got Gamers,

Earlier this week I had a chance to check out X-Men Destiny, and like the Matrix films, the focus of this superhero game is choice.

The Mutants of X-Men Destiny

The game starts with your first choice: your character. This time around, you can pick from one of three pre-made mutant characters; and so far these mutants are my favorite part of the game. Their back stories and motivations are extremely interesting. On the far right of the above image is Aimi, a Japanese national who was smuggled into North America by her parents. At a young age she is forced to struggle with abandonment issues that have haunted her ever since her parents smuggled her out of Japan. However, she does everything without understanding that her parents sent her off alone to keep her out of the mutant interment camps that are being run by her government.

Grant is the guy on the right, and honestly I don’t find him interesting at all. He’s your average jock that has to grow up.  However, in the center is my favorite character: Adrian. Adrian is a mentally unstable anti-mutant thug. In his head he hears the voice of his dead father telling him to exterminate mutants in order to save the human race. As you can imagine that causes a few issues when this anti-mutant thug suddenly develops his own mutant powers.

Once you select your character, you’ll be asked to pick one of three powers. I went with the density control during my first play through. That’s the power that is shown in the image above this paragraph, and basically that power forms rocks around different parts of your body (which you could find useful in a brawl). However, if you’re not into rock-knuckle brawling, you can choose the dark matter power that gives you Green Lantern like abilities. However, the word you should focus on is “like” because it doesn’t look like you’ll have as much range as a Green Lantern (but that may be an unrealistic expectation given current technology). Instead, the primary example I was given is an indestructible dark energy blade that could be useful if you found yourself in a brawl with some non-playable characters. The final power is actually a range of energy attacks that can be used offensively in the same way you can use a laser gun offensively, or defensively by turning the energy into a shield (which would be handy if you found yourself in a brawl… hint, hint).

At various parts throughout the game, you’ll also be given the choice to mix and match the powers of iconic X-Men characters with those of your chosen avatar. These powers are called X-Genes in the game, and come in offensive, defensive, and utility types. However, you won’t be given the choice to mix and match those iconic powers at will. You’ll have to collect them throughout the game by completing various missions for either faction.

I am sure this is expected, but those factions I mentioned are the X-men (the good guys) and the Brotherhood (the bad guys). Throughout the game you’ll be given the choice to complete missions for both sides, which is actually the part of the game that I found the most confusing. Neither side of the mutant civil war seemed to show any true interest in me. This could be something that is fixed later by a plot point, but during my hands on time, both sides treated me like I was a convenient tool that could be used and then ignored. Every conversation with the X-men or Brotherhood members ended with me doing some job that they were unwilling or unable to do themselves.  All of this left me feeling unappreciated.

Now, this could be a problem that may be easily solved by having detailed knowledge of the X-men universe, but I have none that is worth mentioning. The only saving grace in this situation is that you can play the game without that knowledge. It’s explained early on that the good guys are good, and the bad guys are bad; and every time you’re told what faction each mission giver works for.  The game is very intuitive in this area, but I still have to ask myself why should I pay all that money to buy a game based on relationships and loyalties that I don’t understand?

Although that may become a non-issue because the game has the potential to create a bigger problem for itself. I want to remind everyone that this is just a preview, but the vast majority of the game play I saw came in the form of brawling. Yes there were dialogue trees and RPG elements, but 90% of what I played involved beating up 10 guys, moving on, beating up 10 guys, moving on, and beating up 10 guys. Now to be fair, I only played the first level of the game, so there is plenty of time for the game to introduce players to new and exciting game play concepts. However, I can only report on what I saw, and by far the majority of what I saw was third person brawling.

As of now, X-Men Destiny leaves me with a lot of questions that I find myself needing answers to. Will the interesting character stories play a central role in the game? Will the game end up being a true action RPG, or will it be a brawler in disguise? Do I have to be knowledgeable on all things X-Men before starting this game? Will all the choices in this game mean anything when you find yourself on the last level?

If X-Men Destiny can come back with good answers to those questions, then we could have a good game on our hands. X-men Origins: Wolverine provided that some X-Men have a place in quality gaming. However, if those answers are not good enough, then this could be a waste of time. For you, and myself, I wish I had those answers right now, but at the moment all I can say is that time will tell. Therefore, at this point I would highly suggest waiting for reviews to be posted before buying this game. It’s currently scheduled to be released on September 27th and we’ll review it on Got Game as soon as we can.

In the mean time, and if you still have a craving for more X-Men related stuff, you have another choice to make. Do you, or don’t you watch X-Men First Class on DVD or Blu-Ray.

X-Men First Class Box Art

I’ll be honest, I can’t answer that question. I’m not even sure if  I have an opinion on any film that’s worth your time. Simply put I’m not a film critic, and this is Got Game after all.

However, when I went to check out X-Men Destiny, they were also demoing X-Men First Class next door; and while I’m not prepared to offer an opinion on it, I did hear them say that the movie will be hitting store shelves on September 9th 2011.

Hey Got Gamers,

I’m just going to get the obvious thing out of the way. IT’S MADDEN TIME!!!!

Now over the past week, everyone on the show has been constantly asked the same question: “should I pick up Madden this year?” We’re going to tell you the same thing we told everyone else, listen to our show this week for our review.

However, the difference between you and everyone else is that you won’t have to wait. You can find our super sized Madden 12 review in the audio file below this paragraph. However, we just call it the post-broadcast-podcast of our September 3rd 2011 show.

Download

This week on Got Game we also talked about:

• Our thoughts on this year’s FAN EXPO
• EA’s new fellowship with the NCAA
• More amazing features coming to NBA 2K12
• Activision’s plan to make NASCAR more accessible with NASCAR Unleashed

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Plus, we talk to Ubisoft‘s Phil Brannelly, about Driver San Fransisco.

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In our review section, Calhoun takes a look back at his childhood with the Mortal Kombat Arcade Kollection.


But only after Zack gives us a super sized Madden 12 review in our first segment.

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Finally, during the show we mentioned a bunch of content that we had to put on our blog. We were hoping to air it all on our show, but we didn’t have the time this week. However, it’s already up in different posts, so click on the links to check out our:

1. Resistance 3 interview with the game’s Creative Director, Marcus Smith.
2. BloodRayne Betrayal interview with the Lead Level Designer, Mike Herbster.
3. Sony Tablet S interview with Karol Warminiec, the Tablet S Product Training Supervisor.

Hey Got Gamers,

Another big release this week is that we could not fit into our show is Resistance 3 for the PlayStation 3.

Resistance 3 is one of the many games out this holiday season that will have to deal with being the 3rd or 4th game in a franchise, and as you can imagine it’s not easy to keep something like a first person shooter fresh without destroying the very things that appealed to its audience in the first place.

That’s why we talked to Marcus Smith,  the Creative Director for Resistance 3, to find out what Resistance 3 is all about, what departures this installment might take, and how to keep a franchise fresh without destroying it.

HERE

The game will be available Tuesday, September 6th.

Here’s a link to the official Resistance 3 website.