Is it time for yet another one of these things already? My goodness, how the time flies. Sure, it’s only been like two days, but it seems SHORTER STILL.
Still trying to get the sleep schedule back on… uh… schedule. Not working out well so far. I blame Mike Babasick.
I know none of you know who that is, I just wanted to say his last name because it’s a source of eternal amusement to me.
Ahem. We must move on.
It IS pretty...
PS3 Slim Sells a Shit Ton
I know I had a similar story in my last HLL, but this time Sony has actually commented on the spike in PS3 sales since the release of the Slim. In a statement from Sony:
“Our top retailers have reported a 300% lift in PS3 hardware sales and an increase of 140% in total hardware revenue across the PlayStation portfolio when comparing the first week of September to the week before the $299 price adjustment”
Who knows what the actual figures are, but a 300% increase can only be a good thing. We attempted to comment PS3FTW for comment, but uh… we were unsuccessful. (Kotaku.)
Batman: Arkham Asylum Sells a Shit Ton
This honestly came as a surprise to me. According to the publisher DC, Eidos’ Batman: Arkham Asylum has sold almost two million units. (Kotaku again.)
Good news, because it’s well-deserved. Hopefully, Arkham Asylum’s success will set an example for future publishers of licensed titles; it’s literally a bar-setting title.
We'll catch those damn piraters, Gordon
Batman Hates Piracy
It’s true. The PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum proves it. Evidently, a glitch has been deliberately placed into the game’s code to ensnare those who download the game illegally before its release on September 15. Cheshirec_the_cat, resident of the Eidos forums, wrote:
“I’ve got a problem when it’s time to use Batman’s glide in the game. When I hold “,” like it’s said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there.”
Instead of some helpful advice, Mr. Cheshirec_the_cat instead received a verbal bitchslap from forum administrator Keir:
“The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free. It’s not a bug in the game’s code, it’s a bug in your moral code.”
Shyit. I can feel the burn from here. Still, it’s difficult not to chuckle at Mr. Keir’s “holier-than-thou” stance on piracy. In fact, it’s often difficult not to chuckle at the industry in general for the exact same thing. 1UP
omg this is so offensive
Courtney Love Apparently Still Does a Lot of Drugs
My apologies, I couldn’t resist. Anyway. Um. By now I’m sure you’ve heard that Kurt Cobain of Nirvana will be appearing in Activision’s upcoming Guitar Hero 5. Apparently there’s been some slight controversy as to the “appropriateness” of such a thing, seeing as how the dude’s dead. I never quite bought into that personally, but Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, has… and she’s PISSED. Just read what she wrote on her Twitter:
“For the record this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.”
Later, she added:
“WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.”
Bitch obviously means business. However, her story doesn’t quite line up with what Activision told Kotaku:
“Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5.”
Who to believe? Who to believe? Personally I’m hoping this turns into a huge, hairy, newsworthy ordeal. Sadly, I think this entire ordeal can likely be attributed to what I titled this post. (Kotaku. Again.)
This is a screen of the game, not the boycotters.
Left 4 Dead 2 Boycotters Sell Out
Familiar with the (rather large, loud, and annoyingly prominent) Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Community? You know, all the people who somehow think Valve is stabbing them in the back by releasing a sequel so soon? (As they place their reservations at GameStop for Modern Warfare 2?) Well, apparently they were such a pain in Valve’s ass that they actually INVITED two of these fuckers to their offices to try the game out for themselves. No joke. Users Walking_target and Agent of Chaos got to play L4D2 for an entire day, and report back to their community about it. And guess what? They actually liked it.
That’s not the interesting part, actually. The interesting part is that, upon reporting to their community, they were instantaneously branded as sellouts, traitors, faggots, and the like. I’ll just let Steam community user “N1MM duz it” do the talking:
“valve has turn the leaders of this group into there puppets .. they got them to change their minds and trying to influence us. open your eyes !!!”
Yes. Indeed. Open your eyes, N1MM duz it. Perhaps you’ll realize what a moron you actually are.
Oh Hey, Little FFXIII Tidbits from Kotaku
Sheesh, I’d love to know how many references Kotaku gets from us these days. That aside, if you’re the type just dying to whet your appetite for Final Fantasy XIII even further, these two articles might interest you. First, PS3 controls for the game have been revealed, so if you wanna know exactly how you’ll control the game, check out this article. And if you’re REALLY desperate, check out these little snippets from the new trailer that premiered at TGS.
Yikes. That one got long. Hope it kept you entertained throughout. But if it didn’t, I don’t really care. I had a blast writing it all.
Oh, and my count is still at zero, and I’d be surprised if it got any higher.
Tags: Batman: Arkham Asylum, Final Fantasy XIII, Guitar Hero 5, Hey! Look! Listen!, Left 4 Dead 2, PS3 Slim
-VGCharts has the PS3 at 550,000. It has outsold every system (including handhelds) in every territory, with almost half the total sales coming from Europe. It might actually do better next week as more people are made aware of the Slim and the price drop. It seems that within a week Sony has been able to nullify the extra lead the 360 was able to achieve over the last 12 months with last years 360 price cut.
-Despite not giving a shit about LfD, I do have a certain ammount of sympathy for the position of the boycotters, and think it’s fairly safe to say that WT and AoC did sell out their buddies. A far more eloquent response to their about face was put by AM_Doctor Kevorkian thusly:
“Alright, so basically, you two got a chance to play L4D2 a few months earlier than everyone else and in return for that opportunity, you pretty much screw over the boycott.
You’re basing all of this off what you see as a high quality game. Nobody was ever doubting that – Valve makes good games. Nobody was saying this game is going to suck – thats not the issue.
You say that Valve promised that they were NOT dropping support for L4D when they talked to you. Yeah, what the hell did you EXPECT them to tell you? That they were dropping support and that the game is dead as far as they’re concerned? Come on, be realistic.
You seem blinded by your chance to play the game. Valve set out to shut you up when they sent you this invitation and they’ve accomplished that goal – just like someone would give their little child a sucker to stop them from crying or whining. This started as an honest effort to hold Valve accountable for promises they made and has turned into a joke.”
-Also, Activision and Courtney Love are two of my least favourite things, so let’s hope this turns really ugly.
As eloquent as that guy’s post is, I still think the entire boycott is based on the rantings of ridiculous, melodramatic fanboys with no lives and Modern Warfare 2 pre-orders.
I share your hatred of Courtney Love. And to an extent, Activision as well.
Wait, actually I hate Activision with a passion. Hopefully they’ll both manage to bring eachother to financial ruin.
-I think they have a perfectly reasonable complaint. Modern Warfare 2 has both single player and multiplayer, LfD is essentially a multiplayer only game. At the bare minimum they should have waited 12 months before announceing LfD2, and a further six months to release it, instead Valve announced LfD2 about six months after LfD, so as far as I’m concerned these people are perfectly entitled to be furious.
-If not in financial ruin, than in an undignified war of debasing vitriol.
@SN – I’m with Riddles on this one. These users have no reason to believe that Valve will stop support for the original L4D especially because it sounds like the two games will be compatible. I truly think they’re just spoiled by Valve’s record of giving them so much for free that they’re all having a tantrum for finally having to give their favourite developer more money. God forbid they SUPPORT the developer that they so love FINANCIALLY! Shock and horror!
But I AM with you both on Courtney Love.
…and Kurt Kobain actually. Nirvana stunk.
-I am digging these HLLs. Like a more edgy, more hiliarious throwback to the Currents days.
- For the record, I’m with Ethos and Riddles in the “Valve can release whatever they want whenever they want” camp, but I think SN’s point isn’t that Valve won’t be supporting the game (which I’m sure they will be), but rather that the community on a multiplayer-only game is essentially being halved or worse (depending on how successful L4D2 is), which could lead to a less enjoyable experience playing the original, even with Valve’s full support. I think this actually brings up the larger issue of long-term community support for multiplayer only games. TF2, for example, still has an excellent community coming up on 3 years after launch, and probably still will for a while to come yet. However, if for whatever reason the community dried up, there would be no reason to play any more, and your game’s worthless. It’s just another thing to be weary of when buying a game that relies heavily on multiplayer modes. I tend to not buy multiplayer only games unless people I know are picking it up or I get a really good deal, so I don’t mind if it turns out to be a bust. I know not everybody feels that way, though.
Personally, one L4D is all I need, so I won’t be getting the second. Not out of any kind of boycott, just because it’s not a game I’m excited for and I still have fun playing the first one on occasion.
- I think the HLL columns (and maybe other regular segments) need poorly-photoshoped mascots.
- I have nothing against any of the parties involved (directly or indirectly) with the GH5 issue, but I love a good spectacle as much as the next person. Bring on the fireworks!
Yeah of course Valve can release what they want, and I frankly don’t give a shit about LfD, I’m just saying the boycotters are justified in feeling the way they do. Single player games are always going to be of use so long as you have two hands and a working console, multiplayer games on the other hand are only of use so long as they have a community around them, and by releasing a sequel so soon Valve are effectively slashing the game’s usefull life in half. The nearest analogy I could draw is of a small towns largest employer packing up shop and moving on, noone’s going to stop residents from living there, but it’s going to become desolate pretty damn soon. Anyway, this is a non-issue for me, but I can deffinitely see where they are coming from, as their behaviour is a perfectly predictable human response to the matter.
Nah, I get that.
I suppose I’m really far removed from multi-player only games so I couldn’t relate. But that makes sense to me explained like that.
Yeah I’m not into multi-player either, but can you imagine what Lusipurr would be like if they decided to mess with TF2?
I think convincing Lusipurr that they’re cutting off TF2 support would be an excellent April Fools joke next year. Would probably be really difficult to pull off in the age of the internet, though :f.
I think we might all get banned from Lusipurr.com as well …