posted by Qais on December 3, 2007 1:53 PM in Games
Activision Blizzard chairman and CEO Robert Kotick, announced the company's plans to exploit the successful release model of EA Games and start cranking out the franchises. Predictably, those franchises will include Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk.
Koetick was quoted thusly:
"You can expect virtually every one of those properties (its 10 multi-million unit-selling franchises) will be exploited on an annual or close to annual basis."
It appears that Guitar Hero 4 and Call of Duty 5 are already in the pipe for release. Activision Blizzard taking on this strategy begs the question of content quality and whether we'll see a dive in quality taken over the desire to get franchise releases out on schedule.
via VideoGamer
Read More:
Activision
,
Call of Duty
,
franchises
,
Guitar Hero
comments (1) | permalink
posted by Grant on November 20, 2007 7:05 AM in Video Game Review
We seem to be kind of migrating away from the traditional format of reviews and so I think I'll just go with this one as it flows. Call of Duty 4 is the latest installment from Activision's popular war-based FPS series. Deciding that they've done enough of World War II, they have moved to a modern, current day setting. Rather than fighting around Europe, you'll be shooting people in Generic Middle Eastern Country.
Full review after the jump.
continue reading "Review: Call of Duty 4 (Xbox 360)"
Read More:
Activision
,
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
,
night vision goggles
,
shooting
,
Xbox 360
comments (0) | permalink
posted by Qais on September 11, 2007 12:05 PM in Games
When Guitar Hero first arrived on the scene like a squalling, guitar driven infant my first question was, "Are we going to be able to import our own songs?" The answer was inevitably no. Thankfully that didn't detract from game play at all because of the veritable cornucopia of songs available with the game and as downloadable content. A few enterprising eggheads even got together and made a piece of software called Freetar which allowed folks to create, edit, and playback button timings for any song on their computer, which, while lacking the visceral experience of shredding your way through a list of songs on a plastic guitar reminiscent of a Fischer Price toy and embarrassing yourself in the process, was a step in the right direction.
However today news has been spreading around the tubes of Aspyr Media doing what they do best and porting Guitar Hero 3 to the PC and Mac, a fantastic move on the part of those that enjoy bathing in money. Activision has finally spread their marketability net across the spectrum of gamers, ensuring their nefarious plans of sucking the world dry of it's riches will be fulfilled. I'm certain the top execs are wringing their hands evilly as I write this, possibly in an egg shaped chair.
continue reading "Activision execs to begin work on $100 bill suit jackets"
Read More:
Activision
,
Freetar
,
Guitar Hero III
,
hats made of money
comments (1) | permalink
posted by Grant on September 3, 2007 10:54 AM in Video Game Review
Overview: Guitar Hero has become the rockin'-est game franchise in pretty much all of video game history. (Though most likely about to be dethroned by Rock Band.) Its simple concept and good times are easily appreciated by all gamers. And now they have a special extra edition that focuses on a specific decade. Rocks the 80s brings a lot of cool hair band and new wave songs to the table, but does it do much else? And does it need to?
continue reading "Review - Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s for Playstation 2"
Read More:
Activision
,
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
,
hair bands
,
Harmonix
,
new wave
,
Play With Me
comments (1) | permalink
posted by Chris on May 16, 2007 11:53 AM in Video Game Review
This time I am going to break the normal Weekly Geek "shininess" "funness" etc review mold in order to accommodate a rant. Because Spiderman 3 is such a freaking awful game it warrants a good ripping into, and frankly I don't want to spend that much energy on this waste. That's right, the game is a waste. It's a horrible waste. It's a half-thought out waste of time. Let's start from the beginning. From the first time I popped in the game, I started a little internal dialog with the developers. I started to really wonder what the heck they were thinking when they made the game, and how much they were paying the game testers to shut up about all the glitches and horribleness that they were subjected to. I just imagine a room full of game testers moaning and complaining about the game, and the company just keeps giving them free Spiderman 3 baseball caps until they are happy.
You are thrown into a tutorial right off. There's no real intro, you're just in a burning building and all of a sudden Bruce Campbell is talking at you. Ok, fair enough. Then it gets absurd. Can't I just fight, guys? I know you think you have a really deep fighting system but you don't. Its a simple button mashing brawler and you keeping me here on this tutorial and forcing me to play with your horrible play controls is making me want to stab things. Your smart-ass voice over isn't helping either. Bruce Campbell, stop being a jerk to me. Stop it. Literally they go through the different "moves" that you have as Spiderman, which are just basic counterattacks and dodges. But they FORCE you to do them THREE times before you move on to the next horrible tutorial. That wouldn't be too bad if the play control was tolerable. You'll find yourself doing plenty you didn't want to do, or getting knocked down because it was unresponsive. Completely unacceptable. I wanted to throw the game out the window right then and there. NOT A GOOD SIGN.
During the counterattack tutorial a little message came up on screen after I completed the first successful counterattack: "COUNTERATTACK 2 MORE TIME" - you really didn't spend much time making this game, did you? You can't even get the grammar correct for the first tutorial? Why should I spend my time playing this thing you shat out at me?
Battle is boring and even the most generic of thugs take an insane amount of hits to down. The tutorial showed me the horrors of what was to come, and even once you get out of that shit-fest you get thrown into a city with even MORE tutorials. The graphics are horrible and choppy. Even worse are the camera controls, especially when you try to do something Spiderman-like; climbing on walls or the ceiling. Swinging around the city is glitchy at best. Controls are WAY too complicated. It should be easy and natural to play this game, but it's bogged down by a HUGE tutorial, varied control schemes and glitchy buggy play controls. It just feels rushed and unfinished. There are the makings for a good game tucked away here, it's just a matter of spending enough development time to make it worthwhile.
Now I know games have a reputation for having really bad voice acting, but come on. You have actual actors here from the actual movie, you'd think that the game would be passable. Unfortunately it sounds like everyone phoned it in. It's not like Tobey McGuire is exploding with personality as it is, but Jesus. The dialog didn't help, either. It's completely boring cliche tripe and it gave me no incentive to continue listening.
After I had beaten my head against my TV bloody slogging through the tutorials, I was able to explore the city and start some missions. There's a bit of free-form GTA style stuff here, but the novelty wears off once you start the first HORRIBLE mission that is pretty much impossible because the play controls suck and the thugs are too hard to kill and they keep coming after you. No. I was done.
I just turned it off. The game did everything in its power to make me not want to play it, so I won't. There weren't even any worthwhile achievements for me to nab to maybe MAYBE salvage the experience. All of them are for completing gang missions in their entirety, or splatting to the ground 25 times. No. NO.
Maybe this game is only for people who have seen the movie. That's fine. But I bet people who have seen the movie (which is also getting poor reviews) will just shrivel up and die when they play the game, hoping that maybe it was a little better than the cinema experience that left them sore. Do not buy this game. As a matter of fact, if you see anyone buying this game, slap it out of their hands, hold their shoulders, look into their eyes and tell them very firmly "no" as you would a bad dog. Then rub it on their nose and send them on their way.
Score: 0/5 Skip it and burn every copy you find
Read More:
Activision
,
horrible boring travesty
,
Spiderman 3
,
Tobey McGuire
,
wtf
comments (1) | permalink
posted by Grant on January 9, 2007 12:14 PM in Video Game Review
Overview: Call of Duty has become a good, solid franchise for Activision. It's a classic FPS, but set in the gritty reality of World War II. I've played through the first two in the series on two different platforms, first on the PC and second on the Xbox. With this third entry, I get to try it out with yet another different control scheme. I've been looking forward to see how an FPS works with the Wiimote, and now I have my chance.
With the Call of Duty series, you're basically plopped down right into the middle of the war as another generic soldier fighting the good fight. You're not some crazy action hero and you're not a lone renegade. You fight with your fellow soldiers and do your best to follow orders and not get shot in the process.
continue reading "Game Review: Call of Duty 3 (Wii)"
Read More:
Activision
,
banana pudding
,
Call of Duty
,
Call of Duty 3
,
FPS
,
gritty
,
Nazis
,
shooting
,
soldiers
,
Wii
,
World War II
comments (0) | permalink
posted by Chris on January 21, 2006 11:49 PM in Video Game Review
Overview: Call of Duty 2 is the successor to the original title from a couple years back. The original game definitely left a strong impression with me and I was looking forward to the sequel when I heard it was announced. Both the original and the new version have been released for every current, non-handheld gaming type system. I played the original on the PC, but this time around, I have the Xbox version.
The game takes you back into the gritty World War II setting. You and your team have to proceed through a varity of missions though various locations throughout the war. It's your job to stay alive throughout and accomplish your goals. It's pretty standard fare for an FPS, and Big Red One does it well.
There are, however, a couple of aspects that make me wish I was playing it on the PC again instead of on my TV in my living room.
continue reading "Review - Call of Duty 2: Big Red One for Xbox by Activision"
Read More:
Activision
,
Call of Duty
,
Nazis
,
reviews
,
Xbox
comments (0) | permalink
posted by Grant on January 9, 2006 11:12 AM in Geek Culture
Congratulations to Rob Rodriguez for winning the Michael Shanks to Tony Hawk challenge!
Here is the chain:
Michael Shanks was in “Suddenly Naked†with Terry David Mulligan
Terry David Mulligan was in “Mystery, Alaska†with Burt Reynolds
Burt Reynolds was in “Gumball 3000: The Movie†with Tony Hawk
Rob wins a totally free copy of Tony Hawk's American Wasteland for Xbox from our very good buddies over at Activision.
Thanks to everyone who entered. We'll try to get some more contests and giveaways in the future, so keep checking the website here and listening to the podcast. The contests may be announced on either.
--The Geek
Read More:
Activision
,
contests
,
Stargate SG-1
,
Tony Hawk
comments (1) | permalink
posted by Chris on January 8, 2006 11:47 PM in Podcast
This week, Frodo and The Geek discuss the Mega Man X collection, the Consumer Electronics show, Civilization 4, the return of Sci-Fi Friday, and the winner of the Tony Hawk game was announced.
Download the show here or add http://www.weeklygeekshow.com/weeklygeek.rss to your favorite podcasting software.
Here are some show notes:
Special thanks to 2K Games and Activision! Music by Charles Vestal.
--Frodo (frodo@weeklygeekshow.com)
Read More:
Activision
,
CES
,
Mega Man X
,
Netflix
,
podcast
,
Sci Fi Friday
,
Super Mario Super Show
comments (0) | permalink
