Persona 5 and More Confirmed For North America

Persona 5, Persona 4 Arena Ultimax, Persona 4 Dancing All Night and Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth have all been confirmed for North America. Persona 5 and Persona 4 Dancing all Night will come out in 2015 and the rest are coming this year.

Not much is known about Persona 5 but if its anywhere near as good as Persona 4 it will be a must have. Its coming to PS3 in 2015.

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax is Persona 4 Arena 2 in all but the name. It will continue the storyline of its predecessor, which was a sequel to Persona 4. Its coming to PS3 in 2015.

Persona 4 Dancing all night is a rhythm game set in the world of Persona 4. I'm not too big on rhythm games but I may like it more than others since its Persona 4 themed. Persona 4 Dancing all Night is coming to PS Vita in 2015.

Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth looks like its pretty much Etrian Odyssey with Persona 4 and 3 characters. That certainly isn't a bad thing however. I don't care for the whole chibi thing though. I mean both Etrian Odyssey and Persona are obviously targeted towards an adult audience so why chibi? Anyway Persona Q Shadow of the Labyrinth comes out this year for the 3DS.

It is definitely a good time to be a Persona fan.

Microsoft Rejects Indie Game Rime, Now A PS4 Exclusive

Rime, (originally known as Echoes of Siren) by the independent company Tequila Works based in Spain, is now going to be a PS4 exclusive because Microsoft didn't want it. The game was going to be a Xbox exclusive but Microsoft doesn't care about single player games, indie games or anything that has a bit of creativity. They hate games like Journey, Flower, Sound Shapes etc. I'm not making this up. The CEO of Tequila Works explained why it's not coming to Xbox:

"Then the Xbox One plans were announced and everything changed. The people at Microsoft say the game doesn't fit in the strategy of the new console, that they are looking for "connected experiences"
and the social factor. Rime didn't fit because it was a single player game, a very traditional game experience."

I'm sure if it was online only, had a bunch of guns, shooting and blood everywhere Microsoft would have snatched it up in heartbeat.

Here is a trailer for Rime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V-JunUax8xg

PS4 Hits 5.3 Million Sales, Xbox One at Around 3.6 Million

Earlier I wrote about the PS4's very successful month in January. Now we know exactly how well it has done. The PS4 has now sold over 5.3 million units worldwide as of February 8th. So that's about a million or so in January. And January is always a slow month for video games. The console hasn't been out very long and it hasn't even launched in its home market yet.

The Xbox One is sitting at around 3.6 million sales. There are many reasons why it isn't selling as well as its competitor but the huge backlash the Xbox One got at E3 last year and the higher price point (who would pay more for a less powerful console?!) are likely contributing factors.

Google and Apple App Stores Filtering Out "Flappy" Apps

Apparently the Google Play Store and the iTunes App store are now filtering out apps with the name "flappy" in it. This was probably due to the very large of number of Flappy Bird clones. Flappy Plane, Flappy Bee, Flappy Wings, flappy this flappy that.

Well there goes my plan to make my own "Flappy" game. I mean really how hard could it possibly be? I'd probably make a bunch of $ too.

PS4 Top Selling Console In January, Doubles Sales of Xbox One

NPD sales numbers are in for January. The PS4 continues to sell very well. In January it was the top selling console in the US and the top selling console overall and even sold more than the 3DS. According to Sony VP of marketing, John Koller, the PS4 "nearly doubled" Xbox One sales in January. The Xbox One also sold more than the 3DS in January.

The PS4 is literally the most powerful game console ever and had the most successful launch ever for a game console. It has not even came out in Japan yet. The Xbox One is also selling very well just not quite as well as the PS4. Its impressive both consoles are doing this well considering neither really have any great games right now.

MLB The Show 2014 Coming April 1st, PS4 Version in May

MLB The Show 2014 has been confirmed for a April 1st release date for the PS3 and PS Vita versions (no this is not a early April fools joke). The PS4 version will be coming in May. 

Here is some PS3 gameplay of the game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phn9g06_bRA

Wii U Continues to Struggle, 3DS Still Selling Like Crazy

This weeks Japanese sales charts are in. As usual the 3DS is doing very well and the Wii U is doing terrible. The 3DS sold 48K and the Wii U only managed 7K. The PS Vita sales dropped by around 4K selling 16K.

Farewell Flappy Bird, Popular Game Has Been Taken off the Android and Apple App Stores

Dong Nguyen, developer of the very popular mobile game Flappy Bird, announced yesterday that he would take the game off the Apple and Android Stores in about a day. Sure enough the game is now gone from the app stores. He said the game "ruined his life" which is why he took it down from the app stores.                                        

Flappy Bird Review: Worst 5 Minutes I Have Ever Spent

Flappy Bird is insanely popular. Its at the top of the charts for mobile games right now. It has around 500,000 reviews on The App Store. It was released about a year ago but just recently reached this high level of popularity. Why is it so popular? Its addicting, or so people say it is.

Normally I don't review or write anything at all about mobile games (I never have until now actually), but I think I need to write something about this poorly made, pointless game.

Why am I writing this? I thought I might as well try it out because its extremely popular and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Also its free, doesn't take up much space and is supposedly extremely addicting. What was there to lose? 5 minutes of my life down the drain spent playing this stupid piece of junk.

Flappy Bird is an incredibly hard and extremely simple endless platformer. Simple to the point where its not even really a game. Imagine something like Jetpack Joyride that's 100 times harder, with no powerups, no collectibles, no variety in the level, no difficulty curve, no objectives or anything but mindless, boring extremely difficult platforming. All you do is press start and tap the screen to make this thing that's supposed to resemble a bird fly between pipes without hitting them. When you pass by a pipe and you get a point. That's about it. No powerups, no variety in the level, no different game modes, no anything really.

Flappy Bird is probably the most frustrating game I have ever played. I think my high score is only 4 or 5. Other endless games like Jetpack Joyride and Temple Run start off easy and get harder the longer you survive. Those games have something important called a "difficulty curve". Flappy Bird does not. The game starts of extremely difficult from the start. It doesn't get easier or harder, its always the same frustrating difficulty level. Its not the least bit fun or addicting. I really don't see what the appeal is.

Forbes review is right. It's concerning that tons of people are obsessed with something so pointless.

"But it’s worrisome that we live in a world that would rocket an almost entirely mindless game like this to insane levels of popularity. Forget video games, what does that say about society as a whole? Have we reached a level of boredom bordering on dangerous if we’re spending our time en masse on something so pointless?"

Flappy Bird is an extremely simple, pointless, poorly made, frustrating game that I can't recommend to anyone. Flappy Bird is pure rubbish. Please don't download it. You can thank me later.

Score: 0/10

Pros:

None (yes it really is that bad)

Cons:
- Extremely frustrating
- So simple to the point where its difficult to consider it a game
- No difficulty curve
- No power ups or anything to spice things up
- Not at all addicting like it claims to be

I could add a bunch more things to the already long list of cons but I would end up writing a book. Once again avoid this game at all costs.

Defense Still Wins Championships: 'Hawks Demolish Broncos

Super Bowl XLVIII featured the best offense in the league and the best defense. The Denver Broncos set records for most points scored and TDs in a season. Even though the Seattle Seahawks had the top defense they wouldn't be able slow down this record setting offense would they? Well the 'Hawks showed the old saying can still apply to this crazy pass happy NFL league: "defense wins championships". Maybe it wasn't about whether Seattle could slow down Denver, but whether the Broncos could get past the 'Hawks defense.

Denver was never in the game. On the very first play of the game Denver snapped the ball too early. I don't know what happened here but the ball went flying over Peyton Mannings head resulting in a safety. Denver turned the ball over like there was no tomorrow and was never able to compete in the game.

Seattle didn't do anything spectacular on offense. QB Russell Wilson threw for 206 yards and 2 TDs. As usual it wasn't anything spectacular but the young QB was very efficient and didn't make any mistakes. Marshawn Lynch didn't have a great game only getting 39 yards on 15 carries but he did score a TD.

The Seahawks defense is what won the game for them. They picked off Manning twice and held him to 280 yards (and most of those yards were when the game was out of hand). Denver was unable to run the ball against Seattle's tough run D. The Hawk's also recovered 2 Broncos fumbles.

Seattle won the game 43-8. It wasn't even close. Denver just couldn't get through the impenetrable Seattle defense.