News Round-Up, January 19 - 25 -- OMG, TITANFALL

Written By: Tyler Selig

Every Saturday I will be doing a News Round-Up, where I talk about some of the game related news that made the rounds over the past week. Though I link to every article and I make comments about everything, some of it is tongue-in-cheek and I'm not entirely serious, but maybe just a little serious. They also won't be a comprehensive list of news, just some of the more memorable stuff to me, or just the stuff I either have an opinion on, care about or can make fun of.

These will probably end up being more gif/image heavy than any other article I write because the only way for a person to accurately express their emotions is through gifs.

Booth Babes Are Useless
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/test-finds-booth-babes-ineffective/1100-6417222/

In a shocking turn of events this week, there was an article about booth babes that said perhaps, just perhaps, sex doesn't sell like the industry wants you to believe. It also questions the morality of having scantily clad women helping sell your products to begin with. I for one am deeply offended and I will not stand for this:

Maybe now my blog will get a reader.

 And neither will this guy:

A world where babes aren't included in everything just isn't okay.

 
TITANFALL!!    

Titanfall, the incredible looking new competitive shooter from some of the developers of Call of Duty, is in alpha and some glorious people uploaded footage that they weren't supposed to. No it wasn't me. But I will spread it. Keep in mind that by the time I post this -- I add to this article every day that news hits that I want to include -- the footage may be taken down.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x19x97d_titanfall-direct-feed-alpha-gameplay-video_videogames?start=3

Gosh.

I have a few things to say about this:

• It looks like Titanfall really is going to be a Call of Duty killer like one of the people said. It actually won't because Call of Duty can't even be killed by Dark Souls, but I appreciate the thought.
• They are much better at this game then I will ever be.
• I'm not a fan of how light Call of Duty feels but it makes sense in Titanfall, since you jump and double-jump around, climb into Titans and eject from said Titans. With that said, part of me wishes the health was more like Halo, where you could take a few shots. Oh well.
• PUT THIS GAME RIGHT IN MY BUTT (did I say that in a blog?)

So I was sitting here all hyped for Titanfall and then I was reminded of who was publishing it.

Eater of Worlds.

Well I look forward to playing it a year after it's released. Titanfall -- Game of 2015!


Microsoft Just Wants You To Like It
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-paying-youtubers-for-positive-xbox-one-coverage/1100-6417235/

In news that isn't really shocking at all, Microsoft apparently paid consumers to upload videos that promoted their product. I don't really have anything to say about this because you, the Internet, will take from this what you will. All I will say is XB1M13.


OG Nintendo Has No Plans For Mario On Smartphones And Isn't Going Away From Making Consoles
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/20/nintendo-has-no-plans-for-mario-on-smartphones

 There are very few things that are worthy of me breaking out a Training Day gif, but this is one of them because quite frankly I'm tired of the talk about Nintendo needing to leave the hardware biz or release games for phones.  Listen, the Wii U is under performing and it's clear that Nintendo has to do something but the Wii U is original and unlike the other systems. In fact, that's the story of Nintendo... come out, do something cool, and a lot of the time watch as your competitors take your ideas and admittedly sometimes make them better. Nintendo is innovation within console gaming in a lot of ways.

EA Also Caught With Their Hands in Their Pants

http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/21/ea-also-reportedly-paying-youtube-channels-for-coverage

So not only did Microsoft get called out for paying for positive coverage of their systems, but EA felt like they didn't have enough bad publicity so they jumped onto that ship too. I almost feel bad for EA at this point, with how much myself and others have shit all over them, it feels like we're bullying them but you know what?

Listen, whether you believe this is normal partnership business or it's some bullsheeeet isn't important... what's important is that we can laugh at both Microsoft and EA in one week. There must be a god somewhere.


PS4 Apparently Has Problems With Corrupting Save Files
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/21/ps4-error-corrupting-save-files

An error has appeared to some unlucky PS4 owners where their save files get corrupted and in some cases they're unable to open apps, but in that article there is also a proposed solution by Sony. One thing is for sure... this is awful news because I hate it when my non-existent save files for my non-existent games get corrupted.

Candy Crush Saga Developer Doesn't Want You To Use The Word Saga
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/22/candy-crush-saga-dev-king-trademarks-the-word-candy

There was a perfect example of Corporate pettiness this week, and it came from King, developers of the Facebook disaster game Candy Crush. They recently went after Stoic Studios for their usage of the word "saga" in The Banner Saga. They stated that "saga" has played an important part in their brand, and I agree because a stupid little Facebook game is definitely more deserving of the Old Nordic word than the game that's about Vikings.

Killzone: Shadow Fall To Add Clans -- Great, I Still Don't Have Friends
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/22/killzone-shadow-fall-expansion-dlc-and-clans-coming-soon

It was announced before that we're getting DLC, but Guerrilla Games announced that now we are going to have clans. I already made the "no friends" joke up above in the headline so, like, guys, I got nothin'. Hope you're all happy.

YOU READY TO KILL GIANT ANTS? BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT I WAS BORN FOR!
http://www.destructoid.com/earth-defense-force-2025-lands-february-18-269328.phtml

I thought that a release date for the US was announced before but maybe I just knew it was coming in February. Regardless, this article on Destructoid says that there is also a bunch of DLC coming as well. Earth Defense Force in less than a month, with more missions to completely slaughter giant ants, spiders and robots?

Okay EA, I'm Getting A Little Tired Of Mentioning You
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ea-nintendo-is-not-dead-to-us/1100-6417302/

Here's some positive news, sort-of, coming out of the EA camp. A while back an employee said the Wii U was crap, and now EA is saying that Nintendo is not dead to them. They proved this by having absolutely no Wii U games in development. Thanks guys, not that it'd matter anyway because they won't work. Sorry I'm milking this joke.


Kingdom Come: Deliverance Reaches Kickstarter Goal
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/24/kingdom-come-deliverance-hits-kickstarter-goal

At first I thought the game looked solid, and some may not like this but I thought it looked like a less-magical Skyrim. That's not really a criticism even though I've famously -- meaning to the three people that talk to me on a regular basis -- stated that the love is there for Elder Scrolls, but not the over-the-top fandom that it receives from other people.

So as I watched the trailer on that link above, I was excited but then things like LARGE SCALE BATTLES, CASTLE SIEGES, AUTHENTIC INNOVATIVE FIRST-PERSON COMBAT, MILLIONS OF MEDIEVAL WHORES TO LAY WASTE TO (oh wait this isn't HBO) started bludgeoning me in the face and I went like this:

Kingdom Come isn't expected until 2016, mind you, so brb, getting in my time machine.


MORE TITANFALL!!!
http://ca.ign.com/articles/2014/01/24/titanfall-no-microtransactions-season-pass-unconfirmed

It was also revealed this week that not only is Titanfall looking legitimately awesome, but there are no microtransactions which means I'm still going to suck but I won't be paying to... still suck.


That appears to be it for this week. So until next time, go talk about the Wii U and how it's failing because that's what everybody else is doing anyway.