This Week’s Lame Games

It’s a very poor week for new releases. How poor? Well, the most interesting thing out isn’t even a new game – it’s the cheapy cheap Grand Theft Auto Trilogy for the PlayStation 2.

On all formats there’s the movie tie-in G-Force, which has nothing to do with the infamous anime cartoon from the 80s. Sadly. On Wii and DS there’s Big Foot: Collision Course while the PlayStation 3 gets Fritz Chess. Do PlayStation 3 owners really want to play chess? I doubt it very much. Unless it’s something like 99p on the PlayStation Store. But this isn’t – it’s £20 ruddy quid.

Next week: Ashes Cricket 2009, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and Aliens in the Attic.

I don’t keep up with hardware sales figures a great deal, but some Sony-related facts caught my eye today.

It’s all about the continuing success of the PlayStation 2. Or, if you prefer, the under-performance of the PlayStation 3 and PSP.

Two salient PS2 facts: it was the only one to increase annual unit sales in the year to 30th June 2009; and more significantly, it outsold the other two. Obviously it’s cheaper, but it’s pretty surprising nonetheless.

A couple of weeks ago, Activision announced an RRP of £54.99 for the snappily titled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Seems high.

This week the BBC caught up, and asked some people whether they like that price. Clearly they don’t. But at least we now know that Gary from Islington will “still buy it”, even though it’s “a bit too much”; and Chris from Bromley will “get it pre-owned”.

Unfortunately, we don’t yet know what they think of Chris Deering – formerly Sony’s big man in Europe – opining this week that £70 would be the right price for a triple-A title. But I know what I think: it’s hilarious.

His argument is that development costs more than ever before. But of course that’s because developers are ludicrously chasing ever more realistic graphics, rather than something that’s, you know, fun to play.

UK Charts

Just one new entry in the top 40 and a predictable one at that – Wii Sports Resort at a resounding #1. It’s the fourth fastest selling Wii game so far behind Wii Fit, Mario Kart Wii and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. Interestingly, Grand Slam Tennis – the only other Wii game that currently uses MotionPlus – has actually dropped this week, down from #17 to #25.

In the single formats, Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward goes in at #33 in the DS chart and Watchmen: The End is Nigh goes in at a lowly #38 in the Xbox 360 chart. I thought it would do a bit better seeing it’s only £20 and that the DVD is out this week.

Into all things retro? Then you might like this – footage of the infamously canned Sega 32X game Virtual Hamster has made its way onto YouTube. Prior to this all that existed were a few screenshots from magazine scans.

It looks a whole lot more exciting than some of the games that did manage to get released on the mushroom-shaped add on. Golf Magazine: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples, anybody?

In related news, a prototype cartridge of Psynosis’ Bill’s Tomato Game on Mega Drive was found at a carboot and swifty put onto eBay. The current price? A whopping £436.

This Week’s Games

Wii Sports has become the best selling game ever, if only because it’s bundled with the Wii itself. Will Wii Sports Resort repeat its success? I doubt it, but it’s bound to do great things in the chart next week.

Major Minors Majestic March is also out now on Wii. It’s from the creator of Parappa the Rapper but unfortunately review scores haven’t been too pleasant. If you’re stupid enough to buy Calvin Tucker’s Redneck Jamboree (again, on Wii) then you deserve a good hard slap. It’s bound to be awful – admit it.

Just one game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 – the budget priced Watchmen The End is Nigh, which features the download-only game from earlier this year and it’s sequel. If you’re a fan of scrolling beat’em ups then it’s worth a look.

There’s only one game out on DS this week too – City Life, which, according to the box-art, let’s you build the city of the 21st century. I have no idea where they got their inspiration for this one.

Next week: G Force, Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy, Music Maker Rockstar, Octomania, Puzzle Kingdoms, Big Foot: Collision Course and Cake Mania in the Mix.

Now that Warner Bros. have gobbled up Midway, a few company secrets have emerged. By “few” I actually mean just one – back in the 90s there were plans for a NBA Jam / Mortal Kombat crossover. As in, there was going to be a Mortal Kombat themed court in NBA Jam, featuring a basketball net made of spines and a hell-ish looking backdrop.

NBA put a stop to it though, which is a little odd seeing that the NBA Jam games were always a bit nonsensical. You could even play as Prince Charles in one of them.

With the film now out, Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince takes the top of the chart. I saw it last night and was mildly disappointed. Daniel Radcliffe and co. give their best performances yet, but there’s very few new characters or locations – just the same old backdrops and now over familiar faces – and it’s also the least action-packed Potter film so far. No doubt the next one will make up for that though.

Back to the chart: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is up from #3 to #2 due to being cut to under £30 at most high street stores. Rhythm Paradise is back in the chart at #21 because of the new TV advert featuring Beyonce while the duly titled Fallout 3: Game Add-On Pack is this week’s biggest faller going from #22 to #39.

After just one week, The Conduit is out of the top 40. I can’t see it coming back, unless Game, GameStation and the like drop it to £20 pretty sharpish.

This Week’s Games

There isn’t a great deal out this week, folks.

Oxygen’s Hysteria Hospital: Emergency Ward is available on both DS and Wii and looks almost identical to Theme Hospital, which isn’t a bad thing. Oxygen don’t exactly have a good track record though, so maybe approach with caution.

Only one for Xbox 360 this week – baseball sim The Bigs 2 which you can find for under £20 online. GamesRadar really enjoyed it, dishing out 9/10.

On DS there’s Line Rider: Freestyle, which is based on the popular online game while Wii owning fatties can get sweaty with My Fitness Coach Cardio Workout.

All five Harry Potter movies are also being re-released on PSP UMD this week at a not too shabby £19.99. If you’re going away on holiday this summer then it might not be a bad purchase to make a long flight go quicker.

Next Week: Wii Sports Resort with Wii MotionPlus, Major Minors Majestic March and the budget priced Watchmen The End is Nigh.

Modern Warfare 2 will have an RRP of £54.99. It’s like the Nintendo 64 all over again.

Earlier this week UK inflation dropped to 1.8%, but it was noted that computer games in particular are very much bucking that trend, costing more now than a year ago.

Development costs, slower next-gen take up, and a weakened pound have been blamed. All valid points, but what it adds up to is publishers pushing up the price on the big titles, because they can.

Remember 2002’s Fair Play campaign? It tried to convince everyone that if you put prices down, you’ll sell more games, and thus make more money. Turns out it’s still going, sort of, but it’s got even more to do now if it’s going to get games priced at under £20 as standard.

Retailers will probably end up cutting prices in the run up to Christmas again this year, unless there’s some miraculous upturn in the economy. But would such cuts be enough to counter the higher RRPs we’ll see? Based on this week’s inflation news, it seems unlikely.

Special edition versions of games usually come with something along the lines of a bonus DVD, music CD or figurine. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition will go down in history for being the first game to come with a pair of working night vision goggles. That’s in addition to an art book, steelbook case and a voucher to download the first Call of Duty from Xbox Live. A US price of $149 has been quoted, about £75 in real money.

There will also be a Hardened version (as in hardened veterans) which comes minus the goggles at a cheaper $79.

UK Charts

The top 10 chart has had a shuffle. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is now #1, pushing Fight Night Round 4optical amplifier to #2. Harry Potter and the Overblown Special Effects Budget (or whatever it’s called) is up from #10 to #4 while Call of Duty 4 is back in the top 10 at #9 up from #12. It’s selling better than Call of Duty: World at War, currently at #15, oddly enough.

The Conduit has managed to do what Boom Blox 2 and Punch Out couldn’t – get into the top 40. It’s in at #29, above new entries Ice Age 3 – which goes in at #31 – and Transfomers: Autobots on DS at #34.

Buzz! Master Quiz on PSP buzzes in at #27, presumably because it’s £2.99 at Argos. That makes two PSP games in the chart, with the other being Monster Hunter: Freedom Unite at #38.