LANCOZA Blog

But as it turns out, a really cool toy . Not worth the price that they charge for it, so if you are keen on the Modern Warfare 2 Night Vision Edition, you should wait until it gets a nice fat discount - which I think will happen soon.

The only limited edition accessories that I am interested in are figurines or something practical , like a steel lunchbox .

As we head towards the holiday release season, the price cuts are coming thick and fast. PlayStation started with the Slim and Fat, next Microsoft responded with their 360 price cut combined with increased disk space. And finally Nintendo announced a price cut for the Wii. In these tough economic times it's good to know that you can still afford your favourite gaming platform or add another one to your collection. You may have to live on baked beans for a while but it may be worth it.

Sony is still trying to figure out how to get UMD games onto the PSP GO, the latest news is that they are still working on a conversion program but no update as to what this will be if/when it launches. I was never a fan of the UMD format and digital download games are definitely the way to go for gaming in general but it looks like Sony has the wrong end again.

I am not a fan of the comic style, the illustrations are not really to my taste. But if you are a Star Wars fan and like Dark Horse comics, then this two for one special is for you.

As a dyed in the wool , world war fan, I like to find new and interesting ways to kill Nazis. Saboteur looks like an interesting concept in the works, it is coming from EA's Pandemic Studios so we should hope for good things...

Unchartered 2 is looking very pretty, hopefully this time they can stick to a consistent story line and turn down the monster hunting a bit.

I had a look at the full Modern Warfare 2 trailer and it looks great. I know that I am breaking my own rules here but the teaser trailers have got me hooked. I even took a sneak peak at a few screenshots...for shame. To make matters worse I am downloading the E3 game play video while I type this - I really need help...

I am still very curious to see how well DJ Hero is received, from the looks of things the controller has been well implemented. My thinking is that it may turn out to be an also-ran rhythmn game trying to capitalise on the success of Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

DJ Hero has been confirmed by Activision. So for all wannabe DJs, this may be your chance to wreck the decks in the safety of your own home.

The controller in the pic has not been confirmed. Although it looks pretty authentic it may just be a concept or artist/fanboy rendering. Nothing beats the Intertubes for rumour and innuendo.

 I will post information about the  local release dates as soon I receive an update from the distributor.

Guitar Hero World Tour has finally been unbundled. The drum kit and guitar will be available in our store soon. Keep an eye on this space for more information as regards pricing and the release date.

The local launch date for Street Fighter 4 has finally been released. Nu Metro secured the Capcom license and announced that it will reach our shores on 27 February. This date is subject to change and for the sake of our local gaming market I hope that the change means an earlier release date.

The Capcom license debacle is yet another example of our local distributors not  getting their act together. It also acts as additional incentive for gamers to import their games so that they receive the game on release day. In the end it's the small, independant, retailers that suffer but as we well know by now, the distributors only care about volume of sales not small retailers.

 

I really thought that 2008 was the year of the PlayStation 3. Finally the hardware would be matched to a significant and exclusive games catalog. But as the year wore on nothing materialised that could really justify the PS3 price tag. Post the Tokyo Game Show the signs seemed to indicate that the tide had turned against title exclusivity further diminishing any justification for buying a PS3. When Final Fantasy was announced for the Xbox 360, I was pretty sure we had entered the End of Days.

Some now believe that 2009 will be the year of the PS3, but I really doubt it. With it's high price and shortage of exclusive titles, the PS3 has very little going for it. Now we have the sales figures to add a few more nails to the coffin. The Wall Street Journal has reported that November 2008 sales are 19% lower than last year and they also predict that December will be the same. Nintendo has doubled on their sales from last year and Xbox 360 has increased by 8%.

I think that Sony has lost this round of the console war and that only a major price cut can save it. Speaking of which, with the Global financial crisis, Sony is in no position to increase the competiveness of the PS3 with a price cut. What's that sound...sounded like the last nail to me ...

I had a meeting with a senior manager from Ster Kinekor. One part of the discussion was about piracy in SA and why more is not done to combat it.

The bottom line appears to be that we do have a piracy problem is SA but no where on the scale of other regions like Russia, Egypt and Greece which essentially have industrial scale operations. Piracy is therefore not such a high priority concern for Ster Kinekor.

Reading between the lines, I also got the sense that anti-piracy operations are mostly conducted against people who have links to organised crime, where piracy is conducted in concert with other crimes like drug smuggling etc.

This provides some much needed perspective but still does not change the fact that piracy hurts small independent retailers more than major retailers because of the scale of their operations.

It also does not change the fact that better pricing from the distributors will go a long way to combating piracy and growing the local games market.

I am a huge fan of World War 2 history which is why I played all the Call of Duty games, even CoD 3.

World at War in single player is not a good game.

All the CoD games are heavily scripted, CoD WW is less scripted than previous versions but the game play still feels very mechanical.

Added to this is the fact that the AI of your squad is bad as well. They don't attack enemies that are right next to them, they run single file into an ambush and show no tactical awareness.

This would be fine if you did not depend on your squad mates to get through the levels. But the game is designed to be squad based.

I am past the first tank based mission and the game has not gotten any better.

The level of realism and the graphic violence is intense. The use of archive film footage in the intro sequences emphasises the 'reality' of the game's context. But if you're trying so hard to emphasise a games real historic context then you also have an obligation to ensure that the war is portrayed in a more nuanced way, which the game fails at doing.

I must still check out the co-op mode, but the single player campaign is terrible.