Newlevelgaming has come to an End

The day has come for me to shut down my gaming blog, Newlevelgaming. I want to thank all of my readers and followers that encouraged me and helped me to write about games and the videogame industry. All is not lost though as I will be moving my efforts to my other, more personal, blog Common Sense. I will still talk about games and the industry, but it won't be the focus like it was here. I need to expand my scope and It didn't feel proper talking about more than games on a games blog. With Common Sense I can talk about whatever I want and not feel like I'm off topic.

I hope the readers of Newlevelgaming will follow me over and expand with me, but in any case I still thank all of you for visiting my blog. From now on you can find me at Common Sense. Thanks.

Bayonetta 2 Wii U Exclusive

During their conference today Nintendo announced that not only would the Wii U be getting Bayonetta 2 but that it would be exclusive to the console (published by Nintendo themselves). You'd think that since the first game only sold about a million copies across multiple platforms that nobody would care, but then you would have underestimated the utter stupidity of the "hardcore" gamer.

As I understand it this game wouldn't even exist if Nintendo hadn't stepped in and funded it. So not only did they bring the franchise back from the dead, but they are offering it in up-to-date HD glory. Yet the overwhelming response to this is hatred and outrage by idiotic fanboys who would rather the game not exist than it be on a Nintendo console.

After what I've revealed about the "hardcore" gamer and the industry that foments their behavior here over the years it's not surprising, but it's still sad. It's no wonder I have grown tired of covering games and the morons who play them.

HD tax for Wii U games

In case there was any doubt, or hope, Nintendo has confirmed that their new Wii U console will feature the ridiculous HD tax that raises game prices by $10. So instead of paying $50 you will be paying $60 for Mario, Zelda and most other games on the console. Unlike 3rd party games, however, Nintendo games tend to maintain their full price for years after release so gamers looking for price drops are out of luck.

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Wii U American Pricing

Wii U will launch in America on November 18 and cost you no less than $300. That right folks, Nintendo has done it again. Apparently they didn't learn shit from their 3DS fiasco and have repeated the exact same mistake with the Wii U.

Wii U Basic Package - $300
Wii U Deluxe Package - $350

I was watching the conference and as soon as they said the price turned it off. It's a joke at this point how incredibly stupid Nintendo has become. Not many people are going to pay $300 to play ports of games they already played on their PS3 or 360 months ago, and not many people are going to invest that kind of money in a console that is about to get surpassed in a year or two by the other guys with much better 3rd party support. It's just so stupid.

source - Nintendo Wii U conference

Wii U Japanese Pricing

Nintendo has announced the Wii U's Japanese pricing and launch date and it's not the bargain price some people were expecting given their late arrival to the HD console era.

Wii U Basic - ¥26,250

-White

-8 GB SSD

-Wii U Console

 -Wii U Gamepad -  ¥13,500 

-Wii U AC Adapter

-Wii U Gamepad AC Adapter

-HDMI Cable

Wii U Premium - ¥31,500

-Black

-32 GB SSD

-includes Nintendo Premium

-Wii U Console

-Wii U Gamepad

-Wii U AC Adapter

-Wii U Gamepad AC Adapter

-HDMI Cable

-Wii U Console Stand

-Wii U Gamepad Charging Dock

-Wii U Gamepad Stand

New Super Mario Bros. U - ¥5,985

Nintendo Land - ¥4,935

Wii U Pro Controller - ¥5,040

Wii MotionPlus - ¥3,800

Wii Nunchuk - ¥1,800

Wii U Console Stand - ¥315

Wii U Gamepad Stand/Dock Set - ¥1,890

Wii U Gamepad - ¥13,440

Ubisoft: "Only 7% of PC Gamers Pay for Our Games

QUOTE OF THE DAY

[Free-to-play is] a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it's only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content. - Yves Guillemot, CEO, Ubisoft

The number one rule of the anti-piracy movement is to pull insane, imaginary numbers out of your ass. Angry CEO's have been - Wrongly - calculating piracy rates and lost revenue (things that can't really be calculated), for a while now and this is no different .

Instead of blaming their horrid DRM policy and Uplay service, which forces PC gamers to be connected online just to play their game, they naturally blame someone else. Mr. CEO can't risk losing his million dollar job now can he, and he most certainly can't think of the customer first. After all, the videogame business today is proudly built on screwing the customer not pleasing them.

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Minecraft Trading is Horribly Broken

Taking a look at these villager trade charts will help you realize how incredibly broken and useless the new trading system is. Nobody in their right mind would trade 5 diamonds for 1 emerald. Just another of the many, many things that need to be fixed in 1.3.

Minecraft 1.3 Pre-Release

Minecraft 1.3 has been pre-released to the public, and after playing for a while I can say that it's better than expected, but nowhere near where it should be. Performance isn't as bad as I expected and the game runs fairly well, but it's still nowhere near what single player used to be. There is lag and those who struggled to run the game in the past might not be able to at all now.

The biggest problem is how buggy it is. Animals falling through floors, not being able to hit enemy mobs, wasting food whenever you eat something, and not being able to pick up items are just a few of the problems. Problems that Mojang have been "fixing" for a while now.

They may get a few more of these bugs under control in the final release, but the fact is that Minecraft single player just isn't the same anymore. Thankfully, it's not as bad as I anticipated, but it's still disappointing.

Update: Went to the nether yesterday and it was literally unplayable. Chunks wouldn't load which left mobs floating in mid air and walking around impossible. Went back today and chunks started loading but it was so laggy that it was practically unplayable. Every few seconds the game would freeze and I would then find myself in a different spot.

So far this update has completely ruined single player and is a disaster.

Hideo Kojima is Crazy... No Really

QUOTE OF THE DAY

It’s very difficult to implement a storyline into an interactive game. I actually think we shouldn’t do that. I am not trying to tell a story. - Hideo Kojma

Kojima has single handedly created the most convoluted, nonsensical story lines in the history of videogames, focusing so heavily on the story in his games that cutscenes last as long as 30 minutes, and now he is telling us that he isn't trying to do what he's obviously done.

Either he hit his head recently or he's just insane. Considering his body of work for the last 10 years I'll go with the latter.

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Fog Fall 4

FREE GAME OF THE DAY

One of the best post apocalyptic series I've played.