Hooray for cordial invitations.

By now, everyone knows that this year’s E3 will be an invite-only function open to working members of the press. Several outlets including heavy hitters IGN, Gamestop, Gamespy and several widely respected blogs (see: Kotaku, Destructoid) were among to receive their invites.

The ESA has started distributing a second round of invites to editorial destinations (like ours) to enjoy this year’s highly anticipated media summit. For those of you keeping score, this year’s press function will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center scheduled to run July 15 - 17. Downsizing the event was a welcome change, but Santa Monica’s Barker Hanger just didn’t seem to cut it for a lot of the attendees. I am intrigued to see how things will turn out at the LACC without the massive numbers that used to storm the place in previous years. Oh, and although Kentia Hall might may an unexpected return, the Center won’t have the pitter-patter of cute booth babes.

The ESA’s hand in restructuring the media expo we’ve all come to know and love remains a work in progress, but the long term effort will be better for everyone involved. Publishers. Editors. Everyone. I won’t miss the days where I felt like each appointment was just a rushed tour to take on the next group waiting to see the featured lineup. I won’t miss the days of people that really had no business there and hogged up every playable station. (Thank god for E4All). I won’t miss the long lines getting registered. I will miss seeing some of my fellow colleagues though. Socializing during the day makes these events all the more enjoyable!

I don't really care about all these hoops you seem intent on making me jump through.

Yay, the R-Type Command demo is up on the Sony store!  This makes me happy, because I've been looking forward to playing it for a while now.  So off I go to power up the PS3 and get downloading.

First off, though, it's time for a required update before I can access the Sony store.  Rolling my eyes at yet another one of these endless time-wasters, I start it up and do something else for ten minutes.  Once that's out of the way it's theoretically time for some R-Type Command.  A quick download and it's on the PS3's hard drive, and a bit of transferring over to the PSP and I'm almost good to go.

The last game I got for the PSP was Patapon, back in early March the week after it came out.  Apparently in the intervening three weeks a new update hit the PSP and now I need to take care of that.  So I set up my PSP with my home network (should have done it earlier, that one's my fault for being lazy) and get to downloading firmware upgrade 3.93.  Once that's done I plug my PSP into my PC's USB cable for a shot of power to make the update run smooth and am promptly told that's just not good enough.  The battery is "low" at 2/3 power and the juice from the USB AC hookup just isn't cutting it.  I drag my PSP into the other room where I've got the AC adaptor plugged into the wall and, finally, decide I've had enough of this.  The PSP goes back into its case and I go do something else.

This is how this story should have gone-  The R-Type Command demo was up on the Sony store and I downloaded it.  One quick transfer to the PSP later and I was playing the game.   That didn't happen, and now I just don't feel like dealing with this silly crap. 

Seriously, Sony, all I wanted to do was play a game. 

Gratuitous profanity included for your reading pleasure.

The infamously opinionated (and potty-mouthed) David Jaffe, of Twisted Metal and God of War fame, has managed to once again ignite an Internet brouhaha, this time due to his comments in a recent interview with Wired.  The discussion began as follows:

Wired:  Apparently when Miyamoto first went to Retro Studios, they were making a car combat game, he said, "Why would you make that? Why would you put a gun on a car?" And they stopped development on the game. So maybe you should answer that question. Why would you put a gun on a car?

Jaffe:  You know, honestly, I've been too busy recently trying to figure out why the fuck go-karts shoot banana peels.

Well, well, well.  He might be slamming one of the most celebrated and accomplished figures in gaming, and he might be flame-baiting the legions of overzealous Nintendo fanboys, but the man does have a point…

As could be expected, this little snippet made the rounds on gaming sites, including the ever-reliable Kotaku.  Comments ranged from utter indignation to hearty chuckles to reverent admiration for a man who has no problem calling things as he sees them.

Fast-forward a couple days, and Jaffe is now attempting to quell the tempest.  In a video posting on his personal page, he decisively puts the throngs of humorless, online-enabled crybabies in their place.  The best line of the video sums it up perfectly:

"The fact that anybody out there actually thinks that I put my design skills in the same league as Miyamoto's, or I'm insulting the father of video game design, it's like, 'Go fuck yourself, man.'  And to the people that think I use bad language because I think it's cool, I think that's your fucking problem."

Well, I'm glad that little clusterfuck is all sorted out.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext's official opinion on the subject.

Those figures are just movin' on up.

That's right… double-platinum status. I remember years ago, that type of jargon only got tossed around with records; shows you how old-school I am. Anyways, Harmonix's music rhythm sensation is progressively growing by the week it seems. The latest news reports that the Rock Band downlodable content has been a huge success, as gamers purchased more than 2.5 million game levels based on songs since its launch on November 27.

One of the recent DLC releases includes a trifecta of Metallica classic tracks: Ride the Lightning, Blackened and "And Justice for All", currently the game's top selling music downlaod to date. Close behind are the respective three-packs from the Police, Queens of the Stong Age, David Bowie and a swath of Black Sabbath covers (I'll pass on the latter).

"Our goal with Rock Band was to create an entirely new way for people to interact with the music they love," stated Van Toffler, president, MTVN Music Group/Logo/Films.  "The incredible response to the downloadable content we've released to date motivates us even more to establish this platform as a way for people to discover new, up and coming artists through the game - in addition to delivering great game play experiences set to the music of mega-artists."

Rock Band's DLC success sends a clear message that people WANT as much as Harmonix/EA can deliver. It's the perfect platform to introduce existing and developing artists. Fans can look forward to selections from artists like 30 Seconds to Mars, All-American Rejects and The Sounds. Plus, MORE music (yes… more) is on the way every week through 2008 featuring a robust variety of song packs, albums, and individual tracks which will vary in price from 80 to 240 MS points (which is the equivalent of .99 to $2.99). The average song sells for 160 points ($1.99).

Hm… I wonder if I can somehow convince Aaron to give up the review copy so that I can appreciate all Rock Band's heavenly glory. (Yeah, he's probably reading this right now saying: Dude, get your own!) :p

This time, he's naming names.

Electronic Gaming Monthly Editor-in-Chief Dan Hsu is quite the controversial character, it seems.  We're not talking "controversial" in a negative, "tries to get mouth-love in an airport restroom" sort of way.  Rather, this is the positive, "tells the truth regardless of who he pisses off" variety.

Most of you probably remember the infamous editorial he previously posted in EGM (Issue 199), wherein he openly attacked certain gaming publications for engaging in the practice of trading favorable coverage for advertising dollars.  The problem?  He never specifically named the publications in question.  As can be expected, responses to his allegations were mixed.  Some praised his willingness to even broach such a touchy (and potentially career-wrecking) matter.  Others saw his unwillingness to be specific as part of a ploy to artificially boost the credibility of his own magazine.

Whatever the case may be, a lot has happened in the past two years.  The biggest bombshell dropped not too long ago in the highly-publicized firing of Jeff Gertsmann from Gamespot in late November of last year.  While no evidence of a wrongful termination has officially surfaced, it was difficult to follow the story without being reminded of Hsu's editorial.

Now, Video Game Media Watch reports that Hsu is back on the warpath, and he is specifically calling out the offending companies.  In his most recent editorial, he names the Mortal Kombat developers at Midway, sports game developers at Sony, and Ubisoft as inhibiting EGM from covering their products.  This move is apparently in response to the companies receiving what they perceived to be negative coverage in the past.  In other words, if the EGM editors smelled a turd, they didn't pretty up their impressions of the experience for their readers.

It should be noted that, as in the Gertsmann situation, nothing has been technically proven one way or the other.  Nonetheless, Hsu is a well-respected professional charged with overseeing the creation of a premier print gaming publication.  That he would gamble with his reputation, and that of his magazine, without good cause seems downright silly.  That being said, it seems a safe bet that no amount of salt need be ingested with this story.

This blog article should be recognized as the sole opinion of the editor and does not necessarily reflect GotNext’s official opinion on the subject.