Here is what EA needs to do. Release Dead Space 3, try not to screw it up. Immediately spend 9 months pumping up the series, and put it out on new hardware as Dead Space Trilogy (include Extraction). Between it being Dead Space 3 and an incredible value next gen game you will get your 5 million and grounds for a next gen reboot/new story.
yourgoodfriendCharles's forum posts
This comes from my blog: http://expeditedemotions.blogspot.com/2010/10/50-cent-blood-on-sand-was-ahead-of-its.html
When historians look back at the young medium of electronic videogames, they will no doubt mention a few titles as breakthroughs in innovation for the artform. Super Mario Brothers, Final Fantasy, Bubsy 3D, World of Warcraft and Peggle will be mentioned as titles that pushed the boundaries of what society thought a videogame could be.
I believe 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand for Xbox 360/PS3 should be added to that list.
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand has a button dedicated to swearing or questioning your enemies sexual preferences.
This seems like a frivolous and mean spirited thing for a videogame to have, but think back to other games and how this feature would change the dynamics of the gameplay system. Imagine if the taunt button was available in earlier games.
In the game you only start with a limited amount of taunts, things that aren't any worse than something you would call your neighbor or mother such as the b-word or the b-word with an O sound thrown in the middle of it. As you progress through the game (it takes place in Iraq... more on that later) you find a lot of United States dollars which can be used to purchase language classes for 50 Cent and the rest of G-Unit and that gives them a more diverse pallet of words to choose from. Instead of being locked down to comparing your opponent to a shril or weak woman, you can compare them to a homosexual or use various racial slurs to degrade them.
The increasingly vulgar taunts give the player something to work towards, and this is on top of the
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is epic in both story and setting.
I will now paste the game summary from Wikipedia. Beware: after reading this you will not be able to rest until you play and beat the game on all 3 difficulties.
The game is set in an urban warzone in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, where 50 Cent and G-Unit have been hired to play a rap concert. After the concert the promoter refuses to pay them the US $10-million in cash he promised, but relents after being threatened. However, instead of the cash they were promised, he gives them a diamond-and-pearl encrusted human skull as collateral. This is promptly stolen by a paramilitary group. 50 Cent (with the help of a selected G-Unit partner) decides to get it back at any cost.
So who in an urban warzone is taking time off from defending/attacking to go to a 50 Cent concert? Apparently enough people to be worth 50's 10 million dollar fee. Let's do some math:
10,000,000 (50's fee, not including G-Unit's fee, stage, lighting, security, or promotional costs) / 150 (a generous average cost per ticket)= 66,666.7. So to break even on 50 Cent's promised payment 66,667 people need to attend one concert in an URBAN WARZONE.
The story goes on from there, your mission is to go from point A to point B killing anyone who isn't a member of G-Unit. You will fight multiple helicopters. You will be betrayed in every single level by the person who sent you on the mission in the first place.
It's thrilling and ripped form the headlines.
Soundtrack is 100% 50 Cent and G-Unit songs.
Only a videogame executive producer like 50 Cent could secure the highly sought after rapper 50 Cent to provide background music for 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand. Your main character (50 Cent) can use the United States currency that he finds in 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand (currency that is not already spent on additional taunts) to buy additional tracks such as:
In Da Club
That less notable song that sounds like In Da Club
AND MORE
If only the creators of The Legend of Zelda would have had the foresight to include generic club rap in their game maybe 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand would only be the greatest game of 2009 instead of the greatest game of all time.
Other amazing features:
Unreal Engine! (so it looks like every other game that looks like Gears of War)
Plays like Gears of War! (so it plays like every other game using the Unreal Engine)
Co-Operative Online Multiplayer! (hope you are ready for some great discussions about world events and human rights because these gamers LOVE to debate)
THE HIT SONG "IN DA CLUB"
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand did not meet the sales expectations that were set by its publisher, and that is a shame because I believe the videogame industry needs to have a spot for subtle games that make the gamer as questions like, "Why are we sending our young people to die for a cause they don't believe in?" and "Who let these hoe's in my room?" Despite Roger Ebert's claims otherwise, I feel that videogames are an art form and there is no better example of that art form than 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand.
This comes from my blog: http://expeditedemotions.blogspot.com/2010/11/youre-in-movies-was-ahead-of-its-time.html
YOU'RE IN THE MOVIES was ahead of its time
Older post: 50 Cent Blood in the Sand was ahead of its time
I think I am the only person who knows the following 2 secrets about videogames:
1. Call of Duty sucks
2. You're in the Movies is the most innovative game of the past 10 years
I could make a seperate blog dedicated to secret #1, but I think my time would be better served talking about fact #2.
This is You're in the Movies
You can get it right now using our Amazon banner ad for under 20 dollars WITH camera. Some would say the included camera is a piece of junk, but I think the camera knows what it is: A TOY. It is a toy camera used to make YOU'RE IN THE MOVIES the best group game of this console generation. Better than Rock Band, better than Halo X, better than 50 Cent Blood in the Sand.
This is You're in the Movies
THERE WAS A VIDEO HERE BUT IT DIDN'T WORK. I GIVE UP.
Now imagine if I had friends and wasn't too lazy to get my fat circa 2007 butt off the couch. You do a bunch of awful wii like activities and it takes those movements out of context and makes them into a crummy little movie trailer. Theres like 30 trailers in the game AND if you feel like risking your xbox freezing you can even make your own trailer. Imagine the joy on your friends faces when the wii like games they have been playing for a half hour is turned into a video that you can blackmail them with. I haven't done it yet but I plan on committing a significant portion of my Christmas vacation to making it happen.
You're in the Movies is a buggy and kind of bad game, but it is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons.
1. It knows what it is- When you boot up You're in the Movies you are greeted with awful cinematic. This isn't winking at the audience awful, it is ZARDOZ awful. Fully commited to just going for it from the opening menu to the insanely long load times, to the terrible implementation of the game mechanics. I believe the great poet Popeye once said "I am what I am" and You're in the Movies gameonifies that statement.
2. It will put a smile on your face- No matter whether you are playing or watching, old or young, C-Minus or not C-Minus; You're in the Movies will put you in a better mood. That's what games are supposed to be about.
3. The price was reduced to 20 dollars within a month of it being released- As a video nerd I was interested in You're in the Movies as soon as I heard it was coming out. I then looked at the MSRP of 80 dollars and said gave them the ol' Will Smith but then I went to the store a week later and everyone had come to their senses and sold the game/camera at a loss for 20 dollars. And 20 dollars is what the price stayed at for 3 years.
4. Girls will enjoy it- This is more of an assumption because it does not require any skill. I haven't had a chance to test out this theory because women are either afraid of me or I have successfully made them believe that I am too mature and nonmolestery for videogames.
5. By playing it you will realize that motion gaming is a gimmick and not waste 150 dollars on the Kinnect- except for SLEEPY CRICKET because he is totally going to purchase one so I can play it. KINNECT PRO TIP: you need 6-8" of clear space in front of your TV to properly use the Kinnect, so unless you live in a warehouse or are batman it will not work in your game room.
This comes from my blog, thought I would share it: http://expeditedemotions.blogspot.com/2010/12/sega-dreamcast-was-ahead-of-its-time.html
The SEGA DREAMCAST was ahead of its time
This post is very nerdy. Not in a Big Bang Theory "Aspergers are so cute" kind of way. But a "who the f cares about some stupid videogame system Charlie? It's posts like this that remind me why you are 27 years old and still living in your mother's basement. Another unrelated perception is that you seem to prowl for women at church events which makes me uncomfortable. I'm going to ignore you from now on and focus my attention on escapist entertainment like awful sitcoms where nerds ignore basic human functions for seasons at a time just to keep the forced star wars and physics jokes coming."-kind of way. Feel free to not read, this blog post will not be on the test.
Many believe that theSega Dreamcast was the final hardware failure from Sega before they came to their senses and became a software publisher for all game platforms. I think that is more accurate to say that the video game industry failed Sega and now they get this mutated half-beast joke of a video game publisher as a resort. Almost anything you enjoy about modern video game consoles and software was pioneered by Sega and mostly ignored by you. Since only 1 person is going to read beyond the title of this blog post I will get onto my reasons whywe as a human race failed the good people at Sega and are doomed to see everything we once loved be destroyed, Sega produced or otherwise.
1. We were too attached to the Electronic Arts of 1999.
I am completely with you that in 1999 Electronic Arts ran this industry on the strength of Madden alone. And the fact that they decided not to make their games for the Dreamcast was probably the killing strike towards
the system in terms of mainstream audiences. I am not a sports guy, but the SPORTS! 2K series was produced to fill the void and it did so fantastically. Most sports people rated them at least comparably to EA's stuff and many said they were a hell of a lot better. I'm sure telling a sports person to change games is like trying to get a junkie to service some other part of the body for drug money, but the switch was worth it. Especially worth it in the first year of the Dreamcast where the other options were on PS1/N64 and looked like ColecoVision by comparison.
If you are still reading, Mom, please take a moment to find your Playstation 1 and play a game... any game in it. How's that 320x240 resolution look? Unwatchable. Now come to my room and play the Dreamcast for a moment. Still looks pretty good right? Bringing me to my next point.
2. We had learned to love the terrible graphics on PS1/N64 games
I don't know if we were still thrilled to be playing 3D games, but the frame rate, resolution and blurriness of 99% of PS1/N64 games was inexcusable. If I were a game designer I would think that if I couldn't do something on a specific piece of hardware I wouldn't try... but that is sadly not the case. So when the Dreamcast came out and had the same types of games, only this time pretty to look at with decent frame rates, Joe America would say that he already had a pixelly version of that game and dismiss the system entirely.
I will concede that a lot of Dreamcast games were merely uprezed ports of PS1 games, but they were always the absolute best versions. Today every game that sells more than a dozen units has an ULTIMATE COLLECTORS EDITION. Well I consider every Dreamcast game to be the ONLY PLAYABLE VERSION, because it is actually a better version of the game most of my friends were playing.
3. Playstation 2 might come out sometime in the near future
I watch TV, and if you were to turn it on from the years of 1998 to pre9/11 the news would probably be talking about how awesome the PS2 is going to be/is. On top of that you had the DVD factor which I didn't even think would be as much of a thing as it was. But its annoying how every single conversation about the Dreamcast had to begin and end with PS2.
"Well it won't be out for a year or one store shelves for 2 years but the PS2 is going to totally blow the Dreamcast out of the water. Anyway I heard Crazy Taxi was pretty fun. PS2 is definitely going to be the thing that gets me a girlfriend, good grades and a free ride through life. Alright man see you on the bus, how many people have called you gay today? Only 7? That's an improvement."
-Paraphrasing every conversation my friends and I would have in high school
4. No one cares about arcade games
Ok here is one where Sega legitimately was on the wrong. They are an arcade company, so they have a lot of product that is based on people putting quarters in a machine. About this time arcades became irrelevant and the software for them didn't sell the Dreamcast like it sold the Genesis and that dozen Saturn systems that sold from the Grand Rapids KB Toys. Crazy Taxi is awesome but it was a tough value proposition of that game being 15 minutes of fun at a time compared with the 70 hours of depressing Final Fantasy for the same price.
That being said, if Sega gets their head out of their butt, they could use the casual game trend to make every dollar but making their arcade stuff easily available on iPhones and the like.
5. The Internet was a mythical beast in 1999
In 1999 no one knew what the Internet was. AOL was a legitimate thing to pay 21.99 a month for dial up access and people would sign multiple year commitments to an ISP for a cheap computer... actually that trend has just moved on to cellphones. The Sega Dreamcast could browse the Internet and a year in, play games over the included 56K modem. Yes 56K sucks but it was playable, Sega actually had decent networking in the games I tried and I didn't encounter too much lag despite using WebTV for dialup access. By the time online play/SegaNet kicked off the PS2 was out and the Dreamcast pretty much admitted defeat, but it is rarely acknowledged as the thing that really kicked off the whole console online gaming thing.
But back in 1999 I assume the general public were mainly using the Internet to keep their GeoCities updated while looking for nude codes for Tomb Raider (another game that looked much better on Dreamcast [although the ones that came out for it were terrible]).
So those are the 5 reasons I believe that we as a people failed the Dreamcast. I think in a couple years from now this will be clearly stated as humanity's greatest mistake. The destruction of the environment and various genocides that have taken place over the years will pale into comparison to the fact that we did not throw enough money at a mismanaged company's video game device.
Our grandchildren will be paying the cost of our video game purchasing transgressions.
Just beat Alpha Protocol for Xbox 360 and it is a great game. I think the reviewing community really dropped the ball on how quickly they dismissed this game. I blogged about it:
http://expeditedemotions.blogspot.com/2011/01/alpha-protocol.html
Dear Sega (and to a lesser note reviewers and America as a whole),
Do you hate yourself? Do you like failing? This is like the fourth time you have f-Ed up a sure thing this console generations. People like you! They want you to succeed, but if you keep sabotaging yourself then not even the next sonic rehash will save you. By the way I'm not mad about sonic, even though he was my favorite at a child I now realize that the character has always been terrible. I'm also not mad at the marvel movie games you have been putting out, I'm sure the cost of the movie license cut into the development budget and I don't care because super hero games are terrible and movie games are terrible so I'm pleasantly surprised that a movie licensed super hero gamecase even had a game inside it.
No what I am mad about is "Alpha Protocol: the espionage rpg " I was very interested in this game when it was announced, but the interest waned when it was delayed a week before scheduled release and I saw that Sega was publishing it.
The reviews were mostly "forget this broken POS " which actually made me more interested because videogame reviewers are very different from people who enjoy videogames .
Through a combination of discounts I finally got it at a price worth the risk and I must say: Alpha Protocol is the most delightful game I have played this console generation. I'm not gonna say i think it's better, but 5 hours in I am enjoying it more than Mass Effect 1/2 or Fallout which are games of similar style and much greater critical/commercial success. The game has a lot of jank in it but every game has jank, especially the ones that are trying something new. I read a lot of reviewers complaining about the combat, well A.) it's not splinter cell and B.) Spec your character right.
A. It's not Splinter Cell. They came up with an idea, then they came up with a story and then they fit a game around it. I am a discerning videogame player and I made my peace with that an hour into the game. "The combat doesn't feel responsive" well it's not supposed to be Quake, I assume crud goes wrong in Spy movies and the occasional jank in the combat actually kind of fits. Is it all intentional? No, but there is still enjoyment to be had from a gameplay perspective. Here's something fun, go play a Metal Gear Solid game.... how'd that play? Like it's half broken? Well you gotta put up with it if you want to play the game.
B. Spec your character right. I am not the most hardcore videogame player, especially in RPG's. I've actually never finished a non-American made one (including Zelda or any Final Fantasy). But even I know that trying to make a balenced character is a fools errand, at least the first time around. Gameplay doesn't take in to account an entire character's soul before determining the outcome of a situation, it gives you a couple paths and you need to max out what you need to succeed. In most games that means I max out Speech and Intelligence as soon as possible so I can get the best options, in this game it means I maximise the assualt rifle stats as soon as possible to better work with the weak combat system. If you are lopsided enough in one area a game usually isn't smart enough to exploit your weaknesses. Kind of like with women if you are good enough at one thing they will easily look past your faults (there were links in that sentence but they were deemed too gross to exist upon a second read through)
So I'm not sure who to blame the overall failure of Alpha Protocol on; Sega, who wouldn't know what to do with a hit game if it had one. Reviewers, for just jumping on the bandwagon. Or you, for not seeing this diamond in the rough and buying enough copies so I would get a sequel.
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