Comparing Call of Duty to Guitar Hero makes a sort of sense. Both franchises reward players with useless unlocks for carefully timed button presses.
News Blips:
An internal Activision memo discusses Call of Duty's superior "staying power" over Guitar Hero. Giant Bomb received two memos distributed to Activision employees back in February after the company closed its Guitar Hero business arm. One of the memos, written by CEO Eric Hirschberg, assumes the form of a Q&A brief, with one of the first questions asking, "Isn't Call of Duty today just like Guitar Hero was a few years back?" Hirschberg's response: "Guitar Hero was a new genre which had incredible appeal, but which had not stood the test of time. Call of Duty exists in a genre — first-person shooters — that has shown remarkable staying power and wide appeal over a period of decades. Plus, Call of Duty has inspired a massive, persistent, online community of players, making it perhaps the 'stickiest' game of all time." Hirschberg concluded by claiming that Activision "doesn't always seem to get the credit it deserves in terms of innovation," but the potential for future versions of COD "has never been greater." I think the secret to COD's success hinges on how many superfluous doodads can be attached to every character's armor in the game.
Portal 2 receives some backlash on Metacritic. As an impromptu soap box for slighted gamers to flex their power of reverting to wailing manchildren, Metacritic's user-rated sections of each version of Portal 2 saw a slew of negative reviews faulting the game's length and the inclusion of day-one DLC. PC users also complained that the game apparently exhibits signs of a console port, citing a "please don't turn off your console" message when saving as an example. Of course, it's possible that all of those "0" ratings appeared because it reminded everyone of portals.
The PlayStation Network is down for "maintenance," hinting at a fresh attack by hacking group Anonymous. Neatly coinciding with Portal 2 and Mortal Kombat's release, the outage was reported by the European Official PlayStation Blog as being "under investigation," with the U.S. blog saying, "We’re aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down. We will report back here as soon as we can with more information." Anonymous called off its attacks earlier this month but vowed to continue its assault via other methods, leading to many stomped-on paper bags and phantom doorbells at Sony HQ.
The PSP Go will still see production in North America. Following Sony's mysterious message regarding the removal of the handheld in Europe and Asia, the company told Joystiq that it's "continuing production of PSP Go for North America," presumably to capitalize on America's penchant for purchasing anything with a lacy enough bow. I mean, it better come with a bow at this point.
Got any hot news tips? Send 'em over to tips@bitmob.com.