Let’s start this week’s early edition with some numbers. This year’s Summer of Arcade on XBLA appears to be an outright disappointment – for fans, creators, and Microsoft. SoA is normally the high point of sales for the marketplace, with top shelf games inspiring lots of sales. Fans expressed some disappointment with the selection this year, and that’s translated into poor sales as well. Gamasutra has some statistics regarding the number of first week players making the leaderboards. That’s not as reliable as actual sales figures, but free review copies can be countered by those who played but didn’t log scores online, making it inaccurate but not terribly so. Most telling of the statistics are the numbers put up by Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and Wreckateer, this year’s Kinect title. THPSHD topped the list this season with 98,000 players in its first week. Good but not great, especially for a timed exclusive. Wreckateer, on the other hand, tanked with only 6,629 first week players. How bad are those numbers? Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which was not an exclusive, launched the week after SoA ended and it had 145,709 players.
Now that we have the disappointing sales figures out of the way, how about some news?
2K’s X-COM: Enemy Unknown is less than a month away from its October 9, 2012 release date. So it’s past time we hear about the pre-order bonus. Ordering yours now will net you the “Elite Soldier Edition,” which includes the Elite Soldier DLC for free. That content includes:
- Classic X-COM Soldier: New recruit inspired by the original X-COM: UFO Defense – soldier with the blonde, flattop hairstyle returns fully modernized.</li
- Soldier Deco packs: Customize your soldier with aesthetic upgrades to armor, including the new Hyperion and Reaper kits.
- Complete color customization: Colors and tints for all armor sets in the game let you customize your squad’s look.
A little good news, a little bad news for Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. Taking the stealth game into an open world for the first time opens up plenty of new possibilities but it’s coming with a drawback as well. While having a day/night cycle opens up new avenues for replayability, the loading screens are a definite negative. That’s right, both of those will be in the game. The day/night cycle will affect certain parts of the game, troop movement for example. I imagine certain targets will change position throughout a day as well. And hopefully this means it won’t be raining all the time like the screen shots indicate. That sounds awesome. Loading screens, though? That’s so 2002. It’s an odd choice on modern consoles, and one I don’t recall seeing on any other open world games in this generation (which doesn’t mean much, just that I don’t recall seeing it). Then again, did they choose loading screens in order to accomodate a higher level and detail and immersion in each area? And how often will it be loading? This may not be a big deal at all, it’s just an odd thing to hear for a modern game.
This might be slightly old news as the game is launching today, but six more characters have been revealed for Tekken Tag Tournament 2, making the total roster count 61! That’s a lot of potential beatdown. The six new reveals are Dr. B, Miharu, Sebastian, Slim Bob, Violet and Unkown. Yes, Unknown is the character’s actual name, not a placeholder because I don’t know it. She’s a creep girl with an outfit that looks like half a Venom symbiote.
If you’re like our very own Wrath.o.tron, you’ve ruined more than one perfectly good pair of pants in anticipation of Borderlands 2. As exciting as it is that the game will finally be in your hands in just one short week, Gearbox doesn’t want you to forget about the first add-on coming October 16th. The extra “Mechromancer” character has finally been given a name, Gaige. Personally, I think she’s going to be the most interesting part, so you really should pre-order now. That pre-order gets you access to the Borderlands 2 Premium Club and will get you Gaige and her robot companion, Deathtrap, for free. If you’re not part of the club they’ll charge you $10 (800 MSP) for a punk chick with a robotic arm.
Speaking of DLC, Microsoft has locked in three timed exclusives for Resident Evil 6. We don’t have much in the way of detail, but the Marketplace site for the game confirms “3 new modes exclusive to Xbox 360 coming soon. Microsoft will announce 3 timed exclusive modes for Capcom’s Resident Evil 6 available after the game’s release on 2nd October. Further details TBC.” Without details I can’t say how much it will matter, but if you’re a Resident Evil fan and you have your choice of console….
This week’s update for PlayStation Plus isn’t very extensive, but they are some good bonuses for the right people. As an old school gamer three of the updates speak to me. Double Dragon Neon has been on my radar since it was announced. Nice to see I’ll be getting it free on day one. If you don’t already own Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (what’s wrong with you) you’ll now be able to get it free. Actually, I’ve had this one since day one but never got much past the first level. It’s the kind of game I really want to play in co-op but my wife didn’t like it and there’s no online option. Still, for free, give it a whirl – especially if you like the old side scrolling beat ’em ups. Next, it’s not free, but you do get 10% off and early access to Jet Set Radio. This one doesn’t hit the way back machine quite as much, but this HD upgrade to the classic Dreamcast title does include the original soundtrack, which really was something special at the time and still should be now. Lastly, subscribers get a 33% discount on the digital edition of Max Payne 3. The discounts on that one actually get a little confusing. If you’re just buying the game it will be $59.99 or $40.49 for PS+. If you want to bundle it with the Rockstar Season Pass (valued at $89.98) it’s discounted for everyone, $67.49 for regular PSN users and $60.74 for PS+.
That’s it for this week’s early edition. Come back Friday for more on news on our favorite hobby, ship in a bottle.