Game Ranter Banter: Battleship, Double Fine's Kickstarter Success, UMD Passport & GTA V

Next week, the PlayStation Vita First Edition bundle will grace the hands of consumers all across North America. Gamers will turn on the system, and be entranced by its beautiful HD touchscreen. Some will not go to their jobs, the streets will be filled with wrecked cars as drivers crash while playing WipEout 2048. The world will be in shambles, and then aliens will come and enslave us. Because that was Sony's plan all along. But until that happens, you've got the Game Ranter Banter discussion to look forward to. This week, five of our lovely writers talk about the new Battleship game, based off the movie... based off of the game. In addition, we discuss Double Fine's unprecedented success with Kickstarter, why terrible games can sometimes be the most enjoyable, the UMD Passport's absence outside of Japan, and the release date for Grand Theft Auto V. Without further ado, let's get this started. A-Great-Week-for-Double-Fine

What a week for Double Fine! First, Mojang's Marcus "Notch" Persson offered to personally fund Psychonauts 2, then the Double Fine Adventure Kickstarter shattered records and racked up over a million dollars in less than 24 hours. As I write this, the total funds pledged stand at over $1.5 million -- a fairly staggering figure that is, by Tim Schafer's own admission (via his ever entertaining @TimOfLegend twitter feed), greater than the budget for either Day of the Tentacle (which Schafer estimates was "like 600k") or the just-released Double Fine Happy Action Theater. Needless to say, this is fantastic news for everyone at Double Fine -- but it's more than that. The success of the Kickstarter demonstrates with extreme clarity that, as a group, gamers can be effectively mobilized and are willing to support the work they cherish. Where this will go next is anyone's guess, but for the moment I am extraordinarily proud of our community. Now, Double Fine, please go make with the Psychonauts 2! UMD Passport Banter

When Sony unveiled they would not be bringing the UMDPassport Program, which would allow Vita owners to turn their physical PSP games into digital versions for a nominal fee, to the U.S. it was a chance to let out a collective sigh of relief, but also left gamers extremely disappointed. The inconsistencies between prices for UMD transference were so huge that this was a PR nightmare waiting to happen; yet the program's cancellation doesn't instill any faith in fans. If Sony is willing to, when the next handheld comes around, leave their antiquated technology in the dust what is to stop that from becoming a pattern? Nintendo has always been good about backwards compatibility, sometimes even to a fault, but that inevitably keeps the fans happy and more importantly rolling with the changes. Sony, instead, just wants gamers to forget. Battleship Game Activision Hasbro

A lot of film enthusiasts are pummeling the upcoming Battleship movie for being an unabashed rip-off of Transformers. Honestly, I don’t mind. The movie seems purely designed to make money and never would have happened had it stuck to the actual board game roots. (You’d be hard pressed to make a Monopoly movie too these days without a sequoia in Marvin Gardens breeding a zombie infection.) Rather, it’s Activision and Hasbro’s announcement of an FPS/strategy hybrid based off the film that has me running for the lifeboats. As a video game (not a movie), Hasbro has an extraordinary opportunity to recreate a faithful strategy adaptation of the board game that occupied many of our childhoods. Instead, they seem to think that the FPS market needs more saturating, and that a compartmentalized (read: gimmicky) ship component will tide fans over. Hopefully they just gave off the wrong first impression, but I can see Battleship chalking up a lot of white pegs when it releases in May. Terrible Games Banter

Dark Void and Nier. What do these two games have in common? Aside from a Metacritic average below 70, they're also two of my favorite games this generation. Now, why is that? When we have so many great games this gen, why do I choose to love these "mediocre" pieces? Simple, they have the most heart. There's something about these games that just makes them stand out to me. Sure the gameplay isn't perfect, but in the case of Nier, it has one of the most beautiful stories ever told in a video game. Dark Void also has this great world, that I just want to learn more about. I can put aside the gameplay issues because I geniuenly love the world I'm playing in. Spark Unlimited's Legendary is the same way - it's gameplay was terrible, but there's so much potential in there that I can't help but enjoy it. I recently put up my review for NeverDead, another game that fits this mould. The gameplay needs work, but there's just this irrefutiable charm in there that I can't deny. When the dust of this generation settles, no one is going to remember Nier, Dark Void, NeverDead or Legendary. But I will continue to think of them as the games that put a smile on my face more so than the majority of last year's heavy hitters. Grand Theft Auto 5 Release Date - Banter

Grand Theft Auto 5 Release Date - Banter

At the end of October 2011, just a few months ago and right in the middle of one of the busiest video game release schedules the industry has ever seen, Rockstar Games unveiled the official Grand Theft Auto V logo alongside a countdown leading to the release of the first GTA V trailer. Why did they unveil the trailer at that time and when would the game come out? Comparing the announcement to previous Rockstar Games unveilings and corresponding release dates led most media outlets to believe the game would be coming this fall, but with Rockstar pushing back the release date of Max Payne 3 to avoid competing against Mass Effect 3 (a la Ghost Recon: Future Soldier), we're now second-guessing ourselves for placing it in our list of most anticipated games of 2012. Seeing Paramount announce a 2013 release date for Star Trek a few days ago, another one of our most anticipated games of the year, we now wonder if we have another game on our most anticipated list not actually releasing this year. Then again, it could be at E3 2012 where we see some major announcement of GTA V potentially being a launch title for the Wii U, something that was heavily rumored last summer... wouldn't that be epic?

And that concludes this week's Game Ranter Banter As always, let us know what you think of this week's news in the comments, or on Twitter @GameRant and Facebook.com/GameRant and if you have specific topics you'd like any of the team to cover, don't hesitate to ask.

20 Comments

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Gehrich 1 year ago

Nice to know that there are others that adore Nier out there. This Anthony Molé guy should probably check out the prequels titled Drakengard on the PS2. I love Cavia’s storytelling even if the gameplay is always subpar. Sucks that they were dissolved just as they were getting the hang of making good gameplay mechanics, Nier was so close to being a masterpiece.

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- Anthony Mole 1 year ago
  
  Yes, I’ve heard about Drakengrad! I’m actively looking for them, hopefully they’ll be put up on Steam or GOG someday.
  
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  - Gehrich 1 year ago
    
    I’d honestly recommend pirating it and then paying for it if there’s a port. Normally I don’t condone piracy, but when it comes to cult gems that have extremely low odds of rerelease (especially this game since the gameplay is like a poor man’s Dynasty Warriors) there’s not much else you can do. It’s playable on the PS2 emulator if you’ve got a decent computer.
    And if you truly don’t want to resort to piracy I’ve got a copy of each I’m somewhat willing to part with. The first one has occasional hang-ups and 5-10 minute load times due to scratches; and this is on a brand new PS2. My old one can’t even recognize the disc. I lent the second one to a friend half a year ago so I’d have to check on it’s condition. I can assure you that you’d be better off without my copy of the first Drakengard, though, and you shouldn’t play the second one first.
    
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    - Anthony Mole 1 year ago
      
      I appreciate the offer, but it’s fine, you hang onto them; never know how much they’ll be worth someday .
      
      I don’t condone piracy either, but I’m afraid I might have to resort to it. Not like there are any new copies floating around anyway. I’m still gonna check my local used game store first.
      
      Thanks!
      
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      - EastOfTheAnduin 1 year ago
        
        eBay. You can get it right now used for under 10 or new for around 20.
Joe 1 year ago

heck, inconsistancies with psp games available for download on the abandoned PsP Go systems sucks bad enough. My store sold kingdom hearts bbs for $19.96 and when PSN had it available at all, it was $39.99. Now it’s not even offered for download. Choosing between paying $40 or getting a free ISO of it, I chose the free one. Mostly because I finally decided to shell out 2 times as much, and it was no longer available. good going Sony.

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jwalka 1 year ago

i think it would be pretty cool for them to go forward with a battleship RTS, i imagine it would be similar to something like anno 2070, but with more focus on naval combat etc.

imo gta5 looks to similar to #4 in terms of visuals, it really doesn’t deserve to be called 5 b/c the title hints that its a massive step up from the one before (just like gta 4 was compared to 3). i see it more as a final expansion to gta4 then a whole new game/engine, just like liberty city stories was.

at this rate i don’t really have a ‘most anticipated’ game(s), i anticipate them all with the same level of precaution b/c i’ve learnt that if you get super hyped up for something and it turns out to be half decent (deus ex: HR, dead island, crysis 2, BRINK etc) then you get really pissed off/disappointed and in turn loose faith in the other games you’re keeping an eye out for.

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- Graverobber 1 year ago
  
  you forgot about rage
  
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  - ATG 1 year ago
    
    Oh yes! Rage! Very disappointing. Boring as hell. Others were just rentals, here’s my top 3 of 2011
    
    1. The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
    2. Battlefield 3
    3. Batman: Arkham City
    
    Dead Island was great but I’ve barely touched it after beating it, Gears of War 3 I returned after selling my Xbox. Uncharted 3 was great but doesn’t have much replay value (excluding multiplayer but I haven’t touched that). COD MW3, campaign was “meh”, online is “meh”. Assassins Creed Revelations, haven’t played too much, same as the last one but those tower defense portions are annoying. Plenty of good releases last year, this year looks promising so far, but 2013 is already looking better with Metro: Last Light, GTA V, and Rainbow Six. We’ll see though.
    
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- Matt 1 year ago
  
  But GTA 5 isn’t just an expansion of GTA 4. It’s going to have a whole new story, all new characters, new cars, and it’s set in Los Santos (a city which hasn’t been seen since San Andreas). It’s gonna be awesome!
  
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  - jwalka 1 year ago
    
    so where the gta4 expansions ballad of gay tony and lost and damned minus the ‘whole new city’ stuff. i will truly applaud rockstar when they bring back everything san andreas had (stats, weapon ranks, property purchasing, fighting styles etc).
    
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    - Matt 1 year ago
      
      But you can’t compare TLaD and TBoGT to GTA 5 because they were set in the same city with pretty much the same cars, and at parts the stories intertwined with each other and with GTA 4. Also, they were shorter campaigns than a full GTA campaign. GTA 5 will bring new everything, including mechanics, to the table.
      
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- ATG 1 year ago
  
  @jwalka I agree with your GTA comments. PS2 era saw GTA3, Vice City, San Andreas. I expected the same with this era like GTA 4, a new Vice City and San Andreas (guess Ballad of Gay Tony and Lost and the Damned took place of those). I was expecting GTA 5 for next gen (PS4 and Xbox 720) but I’m still excited to travel back to Rockstars gem.
  
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doc 1 year ago

wii u sucks. ps all the way!!!

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- Alex 1 year ago
  
  PSV!!!!!
  
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- ATG 1 year ago
  
  I don’t think you realize how much potential Wii U has. I could almost guarantee that Sony and Microsoft will do a tablet controller, at least optional.
  
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Joe 1 year ago

Am I the only one who thinks that Morrowind and Oblivion are superior to Skyrim? Even though I enjoyed playing some of Skyrim, I still feel that it felt me largely underwhelmed by Oblivion’s beautiful forests and grass to Morrowind’s challenging gameplay. Even though Skyrim had beautiful weather effects, I kind of thought the art direction and weather were sort of repetitive and bland, compared to Oblivion’s BEAUTIFUL graphics and art directions and music.

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Fenix 1 year ago

@jwalka

dude do you think rockstar is just gonna put a new coat of paint on GTA 4?? I’m gonna go ahead and say thats the complete opposite of what they are going to do. Rockstar is all about inovation.. gta3, la noire, max payne games. Aside from looking much prettier and “cleaner” than GTA4, GTA 5 will include all the stats and RPG like elements from San andreas. Think about it, what game these days doesn’t have a least a light rpg element to it. Rockstar would be shooting themselves in the foot if they didn’t include this bc it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that these RPG elements in action/open world games gives the game more REPLAY VALUE. Its just the natural evolution of video games. This GTA will have it all mark my words. The only thing that is still up in the air is the story. I personally enjoyed the story in GTA 4 the most, bc they went with a more realistic and gritty feel as opposed to the over the top and zainy look of its predecessor. They look to retain this “feel” in GTA 5 and I’m sure there will be a much improved cover and shooting system to please all the shooter enthusiasts (including myself). With that and more mini game like activities to around the city, it might be hard to put down the controller come this fall. This will be the game of the year without a doubt, nothing can compete with GTA and what it has become, the only title that could give it a run is possibly HAlo 4 depending on what they decide to do with that.

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JACK 1 year ago

Looking into both GTA V(anything by Rockstar especially GTA and Red Dead) and whatever COD 9 is going to be.

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- JACK 1 year ago
  
  Kind of getting tired of Saints Row The Third. Rockstar is far better with open world games.
  
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