For those of you who haven't collapsed from the Black Friday madness (or bought most of your discounted items online) we thank you for joining us again this week for the Game Ranter Banter.
While Black Friday is one of the topics this week, we'll also be discussing the Call of Juarez reboot, possible Wii U launch titles, the review bombing of Jurassic Park: The Game and. Keep reading and feel free to share your thoughts!
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Anthony Taormina
Hang Up and Try Again
Just the other day, Ubisoft sent out a survey that suggested they would be giving the Call of Juarez series another go, but this time, Techland would be sticking to the series’ Western roots. Highlighting many elements that make up a good Western story, this survey was essentially a wish list fans had before Call of Juarez: The Cartel released and ruined all those plans.
While, in my heart, I would like to give Call of Juarez another chance, I feel so burned by The Cartel that it’s hard to want to return to the cult series. Sure, a do-over is certainly permitted, but to me The Cartel showed a clear misunderstanding of the franchise’s appeal.
There were claims that the drug cartels of the US/Mexico border are like the “new Wild West,” but that just sounded like justification for a bold move that they knew wasn’t going to pay off. What I would rather see happen, instead of this re-do, is Ubisoft secede the Western genre to Rockstar, because they squandered a good thing.
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Riley Little
Wii U Please Give Us Some Solid Launch Titles Nintendo?
As we edge ever closer to the final month of 2011, and attempt to finish off the pile of games that robbed us of our hard-earned money this November, it's easy to start becoming excited for what the new year will bring. Besides another "end of the world" theory, games like Mass Effect 3, Bioshock: Infinite, and Halo 4 are all scheduled to knock the socks off of gamers. The launch of a new video game console however, is a special event — and the Wii U's launch in particular will be an extremely interesting one.
Nintendo has a lot invested in their new system, but all the bells and whistles in the world won't do anything if there aren't some must-have games that launch alongside it. The Nintendo 3DS is proof of this philosophy, and Nintendo knows they simply cannot afford to have another horrendous launch like their currently recovering portable.
So what will we see? A new Legend of Zelda? Mario Kart 8? Super Mario Bros. U? Super Smash Bros. Universe?
Gamers should expect at least one of these with the new console, but it'd be nice to get more.
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Anthony Mole
Metacriticasaurus Rex
Review bombing has become a common practice these days. Say something to anger people on the internet and expect to see Metacritic or Amazon user reviews become flooded with zeroes. But recently, one has to ask, is this really warranted?
It was ousted late last week that two employees of TellTale Games were boosting Jurassic Park: The Game's Metacritic user score by giving it perfect 10s. Naturally, this ignited the flames of the internet and a few people flocked to the site in order to "balance out the score." The problem? There were two tens from the TellTale employees and an innumerable amount of zeroes from Metacritic users to the point where the game now has 68 negative user scores (versus 22 positive) with a user average of 2.8/10.
As detailed in our review of Jurassic Park: The Game, it isn't that bad. It has two major flaws but it's something Jurassic Park fans will be able to overlook, and to review bomb the game because two employees may or may not have been told to inflate the score is actually worse than TellTale's alleged actions.
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Ben Kendrick
All I Want for Christmas is a Black Eye and Pepper Spray
While many video game fans were nestled snug in their beds, recovering from swollen bellies and a Tryptophan overdose, hordes of Black Friday shoppers were lined up, ready to snag the hottest holiday items at bargin prices. One such item? A discounted Xbox 360 system package at a Wal-Mart (Xbox 360 4Gb Console with Gears of War 3 & 3 month Xbox Live for $199 + $50 Gift Card) - which, apparently, was such a steal that one would-be customer pepper-sprayed 20 other people in line just to get an edge and increase her chances of securing one of the consoles.
We've all heard these horror stories before of customers who are trampled as the crowd surged forward when the store doors opened. However, unlike mob-mentality accidents - the pepper spray attack was essentially premeditated. What is wrong with our culture that someone could choose a video game system over the safety of their fellow man (or woman)? No doubt, we all love a great deal - that's why we put together our Black Friday 2011 Deal Guide - but holiday shopping really is getting hazardous to our health.
As a result, do your part and, should you find yourself on the front-lines next Black Friday, show some restraint and, well, bring your riot gear... just in case.
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Rob Keyes
The Elder Scrolls VI: Bug-Free
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim may be a game of the year contender, but players can't ignore its issues. Programming an vast, open-world with so many characters, so many game mechanics and so many quests is no easy task, but this is the fourth RPG in a row to come out of Bethesda with a large amount of bugs.
In the case of Skyrim, common problems still exist. Players can accidentally steal a $1 fork and have a best friend NPC who's letting them stay at their house attack until the player is dead. Players can stand on a pile of skeleton bones and get hurt as bones explode all over the room. NPCs can kill other NPCs who are part of a quest that need to be rescued... when said NPC is the one who gave the quest to rescue the other. Players can be a part of a conversation with multiple NPCs and not be able to hear one of them, no matter what the volume settings are at.
You'd be hard-pressed to play for an hour or two without coming across some glitching and that really ruins the immersiveness from what otherwise would have been the best game of the year, hands-down. There must be a way to have more time to test and then polish because I cannot forgive games that require me to reload a save and re-do stuff because of a problem created by the game itself and not something I did.
Oh and on the PC, why does my left-click control my right hand and the right click control my left hand with no option to switch?
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