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Ubisoft have today revised their financial targets for the year, in light of poor sales of casual games. The makers of Imagine: Babies say their sales in the casual market have fallen by around 50%, down to €160 million compared to last year.
A newly announced Assassin’s Creed game featuring online multiplayer is among a number of titles designed to boost the company’s earnings, which are expected to hit €860 million for 2009-10, a drop from the previously predicted €1,040 million.
Poor DS sales are the main culprit, as casual Wii sales remain strong. “Lower-than-expected” sales of Avatar also hit Ubisoft’s bottom line, with the film’s billion dollar success failing to rub off on the poorly-received game.
Destructoid’s Reviews Editor is in hiding today after his attempt to pass an opinion off as a valid review on the internet was met with anger.
A mob of critics were swift to descend on Jim Sterling, 16, after he flaunted his opinion in an on line review of the violent murder based Assasin’s Creed 2 videogame, giving it a below average score.
Heralding the 4.5/10 review of the game as “butthurt” and “wrong” the antagonized internet commenters have forced Sterling to retreat to his family home in Mississippi.
Videogame reviews are strictly controlled by Metacritic, a branch of CBS Interactive Inc., making Sterling’s far-below-average honest review such a shock.
Shamed Sterling announced on his Twitter that he was “Dismayed by [the commenter's] mental abnormality” and “amused by the free traffic”.
The first Assassin’s Creed game was given an only marginally higher score of 5.5/10 by Destructoid when it was released in 2007, causing many to question Sterling’s weight.
Talking to NG Sterling said that “next time, Ubisoft needs to make sure its checks arrive on time”.
It is assumed the review has not been altered or removed due to Destructoid’s Judaism.
The first properly open world game I played was GTA3. I remember spending hours on end with friends trying to get to that damned observatory with the Dodo plane. We all knew for a fact that there was nothing there but we tried bloody hard. The fact that it was difficult is what kept us going. We were doing it just to see if it could be done.
Nowadays open world games are too easy to explore. Arguably this is what makes them ‘open world games’. The player can go anywhere. But, it takes very little effort on the players behalf in modern games. Want to get to the top of the Chrysler building in GTAIV? Spawn a helicopter and fly directly up to it, it’ll take all of 45 seconds of effort.
At least Crackdown made the player work to satisfy his or her curiosity. As soon as they have the agility skill for it. One of the first things people do is to climb to the very top of the agency building (or if you were totally pro you’d use the 4×4 trick.) And even then it can be quite difficult. A missed ledge can send your muscle-bound agent hurtling to a messy end a bajillion metres below. It was this effort, along side the endless fun of roundhouse kicking your co-op buddy in the face, that made reaching the top so satisfying. There is nothing but some pointless collectables at the top of the building. No weapons or upgrades, just an orb or two, possibly an achievement, and a great view. Read more →
Story (or campaign) modes are the motivation that drives us to play through a game.
Like a good book, when you start you want to see what events will transpire, what will happen to various characters, and learn about the world in which our journey takes place. So when the ending to a game we play is a disappointment, I feel a little cheated at times. It feels like all the time I have invested in a game is a waste. Sure, the gameplay was fun and the character development was interesting, but to have an entire story canon voided with a melodramatic and rushed ending bugs me.
Before I embark on five of the most disappointing endings, I should set up some ground rules:
Let’s begin! Oh, and of course, there will be spoilers.
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