Mountain Dew Game Fuel: WoW Edition

On the heels of last year's summer Halo 3-themed Game Fuel line (and their election-style compeititon between 3 new berry fusion flavors two years ago), Mountain Dew is testing your faction loyalty with 2 types of World of Warcraft drinks. Alliance will have a wild fruit flavor, and Horde will be citrus cherry (think Baja Blast and Livewire/Code Red).

These drinks have been very elusive, but after recently moving to Chicago I found each of these stocked at a local CVS. Nobody else I know has their hands on these yet, so they might be releasing their new flavors in phases in key locations. Makes sense if they're ramping up production over the summer.

They're also doing something akin to their (now-ancient) 'Every 10 Minutes' campaign on their Game Fuel website, and you can win random WoW-related swag, PC peripherals, an Alienware laptop... or even a trip to Blizzcon. Sign up, click things for points, and enter for a chance to win every 5 minutes (if you place points in each item- not recommended). Down the road, no matter how many tokens you do or don't acquire, you'll be awarded a cute robot mini-pet, so make sure you don't get shafted by picking Horde if you'd really like a blue pet.

I won't even try to pick sides to say which one tastes better, or if the Halo variety outdid what's out now. What I will say is you should at least try it, since supporting new flavors will ensure at some point down the road they will have a whole line-up of good flavors.

And now, a picture of my loot.

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E3 Winds Down

So, the truncated E3 is down from 5 days to 4 since it shrunk in 2007, which means it's officially over and we have all the news updates to skim over and analyze from the previous week.  I saw a suprising amount of journalists lamenting over the short period since there were so many games to test, but too long of lines to get to them all.

Rather than try to be one of those blogging androids that covers all of E3 from all sides (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, independent hardware developers... and all the games being showcased), I will take the more humanistic approach and cover the highlights of the event.  Best thing is, since I'm not liveblogging the content, I can provide insight with the power of hindsight.

Not saying it wouldn't have been fun liveblogging the event, but that's what Twitter's for nowadays.  I'd also prefer to be at the presentations.  So we'll save those crazy antics for the day I get a press pass.

Now that you know my stance on the subject, keep your eyes peeled in the following weeks for updates on all the E3 announcements and their impact on how you'll be playing your consoles going forward.

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40GB, and NO PS2 GAMES FOR YOU.

Ah, Playstation 3 marketing- the crux of every marketer's "not to do" list. Recently, there were inklings of Sony making a "Big Bang" announcement regarding its PS3- which were promptly shot down by Sony Computer Entertainment of Europe (SCEE). Lest I remind you, they (SCEA/SCEE) consistently attempt to cover up announcements like this, so don't buy into their response too easily.

Next, people reported new SKU#'s popping up in retail store catalogs described as- you guessed it!- a $399 40GB PS3 models!

And now, presumably feeling that their surprise was out of the bag, Sony is saying the 40GB model will lack backwards compatibility. Wait, WHAT?!

If lacking backwards compatibility sounds trivial to you, consider these figures: There's 1,700+ Playstation 2 games out now with plenty still in development. Sony quotes a 90% backwards compatibility count. Playstation 3, however, offers a meager 65 games, a handful of which people actually consider "good."

Sony's saying: In buying our new 40GB console, you're being locked out of our previous hit games, but trust us... our great games are just around the corner!

But wait- here's the irony. Recalling back to 2006 in a GamePro interview, Sony's Phil Harrison said "Backwards compatibility, as you know from PlayStation One and PlayStation 2, is a core value of what we believe we should offer. And access to the library of content people have created, bought for themselves, and accumulated over the years is necessary to create a format. PlayStation is a format meaning that it transcends many devices -- PSOne, PS2, and now PS3."

Joystiq puts it best: "A little over a year and 'core values' go right out the window."

There has been confirmation that hardware in the Playstation 3 has been removed from the 40GB version to make production cheaper, so a firmware add-in is impossible. Bafflingly, there will still be continued backwards compatibility support for the 60/80GB PS3 models (I thought this was a huge cost?).

So, Big Bang announcement or no, there's an interesting month ahead of Playstation 3. Christmas is coming up, and this is the worst time of year to get bad publicity. Keep your ears open October 12th for that bang- hopefully for Sony, it won't be the sound of Playstation's sales (and/or reputation) crashing.

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Well Played, PS3. Well Played.

While this may be ancient history by now, Sony's announcement of Playstation Home at the Game Developer's Conference 2007 will surely throw a wrench in the Sony-hating wheel that's been spinning for... however long it was since they advised people to get 2 jobs to pay for their system.

Before the unveiling of Home, many were skeptical of the online strategy Sony had for the Playstation 3. After being kicked with the browser system, then repeatedly beaten with the content downloader, and finally spit on with some "me-too" announcements for PS3's online features (such as the online avatar [see: Wii's Miis] and trophies [see: Microsoft's Achievement Points]). It seemed that Sony was just riding the coattails of previous successes, not entirely keen on pioneering online features themselves.

Well, flash forward to GDC at the Sony conference, where Sony's Phil Harrison debuted this unexpectedly beautiful and potential-packed software addition every PS3 will be receiving for free. Right from the get-go it was apparent this was no tack-on project, with the impressive graphics and brevity, high levels of customization, and streamlined level layout.

In Home, you'll be maneuvering a character, not menus, to access content. You'll have your own personal living space, a social commons to talk with other online players, and even a trophy/arcade room where past game achievements (with what seemed like small videos of each achievement) could be seen in a bottomless-chasm type of building that waxes reminiscent of the Star Wars senate (you know, where Yoda and the Emperor Palpatine fought- it's also in the video below around the 18 minute mark).

As most gamers know, however, it's best to not laud content before it's released. Voice chat on Halo, which seemed like a godsend at the time, spawned a generation of smack-talkin', insensitive teenage boys that ruined the game for most casual players. Similarly, Nintendo's friend codes slaughtered any hopes of making online play easy, all in the name of security. Home could be the next "great concept gone sour" thanks to rich content but poor implementation/user base.

It's good to see Sony putting more than its foot in the door of online features. They're making their desire to go online apparent, and they're explaining to developers at GDC how Home can be used to increase their games' hype and sales. For this, I applaud you Sony.

It's definitely been a while, but you seem like you're getting your creative juices back and remembering that the future's more than just silicon chips and gigahertz. With any luck, Home will be a smashing success, and online gaming will benefit as a whole.

Boy, and I thought I'd never find a selling point in the Playstation 3...

Sony's GDC 2007 Playstation Home Segment:


Playstation Home Trailer:

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Silent Hill Arcade Game Announced

AOU 2007 is in full swing over in Chiba, Japan, and Konami's apparently trying to make a good impression with the arcade sector this year.

On top of announcing sequels for each of its prized BEMANI games (which is having its 10th anniversary this year!), we got our first look at a brand-spankin'-new action shooter for a franchise most would have never expected: Silent Hill.

Not many details are known about Silent Hill: The Arcade, but it boasts an interesting cabinet with eerie, tattered flaps encapsulating you in the Silent Hill universe. Expect some standard shooter fare- zombies, railed levels, tons of shooting, bosses, and nigh-impossible coin guzzling sections- with the trademark Silent Hill storyline of mystery, intrigue, and paranoia.

Of course, this game could end up being the next House of the Dead offshoot that woos only the simplest of minds. Plenty of folks have already jumped on this cynical bandwagon.

The most we can do at this point is hope whoever's making this spin-off doesn't abuse the license and produces a truly addictive, scare-inducing shooter to keep us entertained at our local arcades. With hopes high, all we can do now is await further details.

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