Let’s face it people, love it or hate it DLC is around for good.  Companies make too much money not to plan for it and offer it up for its games.  Now for those that listen to the podcast, you will know that we don’t love the DLC model here at NGN but I am willing to go over some of the DLC out there that is actually worth your money.  So on that note, let’s begin.

5. Mass Effect 2 DLC – Mass Effect 2 was one of the best RPG’s to come out last year but what made this DLC special was how well it integrated into the game.  Many times new players would not know when they were playing DLC or disc missions.  Most times DLC has to be engaged separately from the main campaign and sometimes that is a plus but I much prefer the DLC to be a seamless integration into the game it is expanding upon and I think the ME2 DLC did exactly that.

4.  Battlefield Bad Company 2: Vietnam – Few can deny that BFBC2 is one of the top games of last year and it still has a very healthy online community that continues strong today.  Then EA came along and added an excellent expansion of the Bad Company 2 landscape which brought players back into the Vietnam War era.  Brand new, 70′s era guns, tanks and maps were all part of this very large expansion that made a great game even better.  Unfortunately it didn’t add enough variety to make you forget you were playing Bad Company 2 but for the money it was a worthy addition.

3. L.A. Noire Case Files – LA Noire was a great game and it really set itself up for DLC the way the game way laid out.  It was especially nice that the DLC fit well into the story and extended your experience with the game which is always a good thing when you have a great game to start with.  Every desk got a piece of DLC and I think it worked well overall no matter which partner you liked the best.  Thumbs up.

2. Fallout 3 / Fallout: New Vegas DLC – It is hard to narrow down exactly which DLC pack is worth playing over the others since the Fallout DLC in general is usually excellent.  For those unfamiliar, every DLC pack is a smaller version of the game in an entirely new setting.  Whether you are running around a spaceship killing aliens in Mothership Zeta or running around the Alaskan mountains taking on Chinese soldiers in Operation Anchorage each piece of DLC is an experience in and of itself.  I would definitely suggest any Fallout fan to get that DLC and give it a shot.  Chances are good that you’ll agree, its excellent.

1. Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmares – It’s only fitting that one of the biggest games to come out in the past few years have some of the best DLC out there.  Also when you consider that Rockstar is excellent when it comes to releasing games that people want to play and including DLC that makes an already great game even better.  Undead Nightmares was not meant to be part of the RDR canon but it brought your favorite hero from the RDR game and put him against zombies, combine that with an excellent and fun story line and solid game play and you have some DLC you shouldn’t miss.

Video game retail giant Gamestop has never been an honest or fair company to its patrons and the latest news on GameStop should not surprise anyone.  It is amazing that GameStop is even still in business with all the scams they were caught executing and yet people still purchase video games from them.  I say it is time that some light is shed on GameStop’s business practices and hopefully those that read this will understand why it is a bad idea to shop at GameStop.

As most people reading this are aware that GameStop makes a significant portion of its money off of used games.  They take advantage of gamers out there who don’t have a lot of disposable income.  Most would say that they are doing them a service because they are offering games to people that couldn’t afford them and making those games fit their budget.  The part that they don’t tell you is that GameStop traditionally offers some of the worst trade in values available on the market.  They also mark the used games up more than anyone else will.  Anyone buying a used game from GameStop is getting ripped off every time they buy a game used.  The most ridiculous example of this is getting a new game and trading it in a week or two later.  Most people could expect about a $35 to $40 trade in value.  Soon after GameStop will sell that game for $55 or in some cases $60 in “New Condition” which is anything but new.  Now I will admit that this is more an issue for those allowing their games to be traded in for such poor value and those buying the games at an incredibly high markup.  I just mention this as an appetizer for what is to come.

A few years ago GameStop was taking people’s phone numbers to complete game purchases.  Soon after they would be added to a telemarketing phone list where patrons would be called several times to complete surveys, asked to participate in upcoming promotions and using their previous purchase history to try and convince gamers to trade that game back to them for much less than what they paid for it.  There is a time and place for everything and if they did all this in the store I would say that is their prerogative.  However, if you take information and then add people to a calling list without prior authorization, that is bad business and incredibly annoying for anyone making a purchase at GameStop.  I know I especially didn’t appreciate the speech they would give me when I would go up to make a purchase.  They would kindly offer to pre-order a couple of games for me and then proceeded to read me the list of games coming out that year.  This just doesn’t work for me and how anyone could put up with that would drive me crazy.  I could forgive parents falling for this pre-order trap because there was a time where if you wanted game you would have to wait in line to get it and most stores sold out of those items extremely quickly leaving disappointed children at home during the holidays.  Fortunately this phenomena doesn’t occur that often anymore especially with video games and thus there is no need to pre-order anything.  Trust me, every retailer will have the game you want pretty much whenever you want it so don’t fall for that.

GameStop’s worst offenses come when the company defines whether a game is new or used.  Every game that is sold is sealed in plastic by the distributor and that is how you know that a game is new.  GameStop, however, does not see things that way and they prefer to say that a game is new as long as you believe it is new.  There is documented proof that GameStop “guts” their video games or rather the act of breaking the sealed game open, removing the disc and leaving the boxes on the shelf.  They claimed that this was meant to deter theft and I can understand why you don’t want to leave a complete copy of the game on a shelf that is only occasionally watched, but by breaking that seal the game becomes used.  I wouldn’t even have a problem is GameStop only sold opened games but when you charge new prices for those games, that is where the problems begin.

We just learned of the worst offense so far which just occurred recently with the release of Deus Ex: The Human Revolution.  The game was released on the PS3, Xbox360 and the PC.  All of the PC copies of the game included a code for the PC users where they could get the game on OnLive for free.  GameStop recently acquired a video game streaming company that directly competes with OnLive and made the decision to open all the copies of the PC version of the game, remove the OnLive coupons and sell the games as new in stores.  This is, of course, outrageous and since this leaked GameStop removed the game from their stores and sent it back to the distributors.  This has gone far enough people.  If you or I went into a store, opened the box and took a code from the box we would go to jail.  Product tampering is a serious offense and is defined by altering a product meant for consumers or selling an incomplete product with the knowledge that the product was tampered with.  This is a second degree felony and in Texas, where GameStop headquarters is located, the penalty is up to 20 years in prison with a $10,000 fine.  These are obviously standards for an individual and I’d imagine they’d be much worse for a corporation.

If we can’t trust retailers to sell us a complete copy of a game then who can we trust?  It isn’t right that GameStop is getting away with this.  We gamers deserve better treatment and I encourage anyone out there to forge new relationships with other retailers.  Best Buy and Amazon have excellent used game markets and give much better trade in value with free shipping.  GameStop never has sales or rebates on games but retailers such as Kmart and Amazon give out $10 to $20 dollar coupons on select games for future purchases.  If you play it right you’ll never have to pay full retail price for a game again.  Either way GameStop has shamed themselves with poor business practices and blatant disregard for consumers rights and privileges.  It is up to you, the consumer, to send a message to GameStop that their behavior is not acceptable and you want your games how they were intended for you and until then this industry giant continues to make victims out of all of us.

In this episode we talk about what we are playing, our favorite video game heroes and villains and we talk about the rumor that Nintendo will port its games to the iOS.

Show notes

Intro Music: Suburban Tram by Anamanguchi (from the Scott Pilgrim saves the world soundtrack)
Break Music: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Soundtrack, Track 1

Guests this week: The Obnoxious Gamer and Trevor

For The Obnoxious Gamer
Visit The Obnoxious Gamer at http://obnoxiousgamer.wordpress.com
Follow her @obnoxiousgamer

For Trevor
Visit Trevor at http://www.bagogames.com
Follow Trevor @bagogames

Please rate us on iTunes and leave a review!

If you’d like to email the show, send us an email at Pilot@www.newgamernation.com

As soon as the call goes through press 1 and ask a question or leave a comment and it will be played during the next episode.

Warm weather, the beach, town festivals, concerts, and the fact that it’s not snowing all give me a reason to love the summer as a person. However, as a gamer there’s something to be desired. Movies have their “summer blockbusters” and Video Games have…the X-Box Live Arcade’s Summer of Arcade. I’m not one to complain about smaller, independent companies making games, especially cheaper ones compared to their Triple A counterparts, but as a gamer there’s a lot to be desired over the Summer.

Usually sometime around the Electronic Entertainment Expo in the beginning of June to about the end of August, when the new edition of Madden is released, is what’s known to gamers as the “Summer Drought”. It’s typically around this time when that lack of a major title leaves a lot of gamers with almost nothing to play. There is a bright side though, especially if you’re reading this article. We at New Gamer Nation have got your back. This is the official unofficial list to help you get by your Summer Drought of Video Games.

XBLA/PSN: Look around the X-Box Live Arcade, or Playstation Network have some real gems out there if you’re willing to take the gamble. Not all of them will be in your taste, but spending $10-$20 on a bad game than spending $60. If you find a great game, you get the satisfaction of finding a great deal too. The best trick is to look for something that fits what you like playing, and do a little research, whether it comes from our site, the little “customer reviewers” that have played the game. Then when you played the game, if it’s any good tell people about it. Usually these games are made by independent developers that have a passion for the product they created. If you help them make more sales, developer will make more product…I mean games.

Watch the movie, skip the game: Can we all agree that games based off the movie are (usually) pretty bad? Okay so rather than spending x amount of time playing a terrible game, why not just spend 2 mindless hours watching the source materiel? At least you’ll be outside, and if you plan it out accordingly you might actually see the sun, or avoid it altogether.

Play online: I think one of the biggest reasons a lot of companies develop more open world games is to extend the playing life outside of the game’s story. They add an online capability much for that same reason. I’m sure your First Person Shooter game has a lot of people online playing. As a bonus just listen to the laughable, ignorant, profanity laden, hate speech and take solace that you might not be one of these people. If you are one of these people seek a dictionary and use different words to call people like, oh I don’t know, “foul mouthed troglodyte”. See now you sound smart AND classy.

Play Classics: Okay so you don’t have anything to play on your current generation system (and can we stop calling it “next gen system”? We’re almost near a new generation of systems…allegedly), why not dust off your older system you have and play those games that really reminded you why you LOVE gaming so much.

Shameless Plug: In between your countless hours of gaming, how about reading our reviews, features, editorials, and previews that New Gamer Nation has to offer. Look at the previews of games that have been released…Did they live up to what we showed? Did NGN give review a game you may have been on the fence about? Which side of the editorial are you on? Do our features inform and/or entertain you? If they do, thank you. If they don’t…We’re still trying…???

Shameless Plug 2: Did I mention we have a Podcast that goes up about every week on the site? Pilot and Slacker host on a wide array of topics in the world of gaming, with special guests every week, who are not only well informed, but passionate about gaming. Rate them on iTunes to help us spread the word of your glorious NGN masters. Stand up and applause for them at the end of the show.

Finally, take a chance: There was once a game that you may have missed out on. Maybe that game has been marked down to a very considerable price. Maybe said game has a “special” edition with some DLC included. Maybe said game was rented a lot and you figure, you’d might as well buy it. Maybe, just maybe, this will help you get through your “summer drought”.

Many remember this classic title as one of the best games for the Sega Dreamcast and we can all experience this gem redone in HD and available for iOS devices.  This is a great thing because this was a Sega only title and until now you could only play this if you owned a Dreamcast and had it hooked up to your entertainment system.  Now you can experience Chu Chu Rocket on a modern platform at an economic price.  As it turns out this title was a perfect choice to port to the iPhone and iPad just for the fact that touch controls make this game even better.

For those unfamiliar with the series the premise is very simple.  Space mice are stuck on a planet full of space cats and it is up to you to guide the space mice to rocket ships so you can leave the planet.  You control the path that the space mice take by placing directional arrows in their path which make them turn when and where you want them to turn.  Once you get all the space mice to the ships without being eaten by the space cats, you get to move on to the next section.  The game play is simple and addictive and has been a staple of the Dreamcast since it came out and who could forget those crazy commercials on TV.

This game really lends itself well to the iOS and this is easily one of the better iPad games available now.  The touch mechanic is simple and quick and is much easier to use than the old Dreamcast controller.  The graphics have been updated to HD and they look great.  I still think the Dreamcast version is a little more colorful than this version but it doesn’t take anything away from the game itself.  In the iPad version of the game you can play up to four player co-op on one iPad or local wifi only and though it works, it is hard to see what you are doing if you choose to play four players on a single iPad.  Putting that aside, the multiplayer mode is lots of fun and a welcomed edition to an already solid game.  The multiplayer mode is similar to the single-player version but now you can collect power ups that will do anything from give you more mice to send to the space ships for lots of bonus points or extra cats to give your competitors headaches.

All in all, Chu Chu Rocket still maintains the charm and addictive nature as it did when it was exclusively on the Dreamcast.  Unfortunately there have been games that took Chu Chu Rocket to a different level since its original release but that shouldn’t deter you from reintroducing yourself to one of the games that made the Dreamcast the system that it was.  Also when you consider the upgraded graphics, multiplayer work and new touch mechanics this game is hard to pass up especially for the discounted price.  I highly recommend this title for any iPhone or iPad users out there looking for a fun game that can be taken in one puzzle at a time.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 

Skyrim is easily one of the most anticipated games of the year and knowing that Bethesda has released a set of screen shots just in time for Gamescom 2011.  This set of shots shows a picture of all the character choices you will have in the game and they look great.  Enjoy!

[Show as slideshow]

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Unless you have been living under a rock the past few months, you have undoubtedly heard rumors about the upcoming next generation consoles.  Whether the rumors included the card based games of the “PS4″ or the ability to play “Xbox 720″ games on the PC through windows 8, people are starting to dream big about the next generation.  However there are a number of factors that we have to keep in mind that may make you think differently about pushing the next generation along.

5. A new console could kill Nintendo for good - We just learned about Nintendo’s brand new console, the WiiU.  Unfortunately people just aren’t excited about it and we also know that the hardware only catches Nintendo up to where Sony and Microsoft are now.  If Sony and Microsoft make the jump now it will push Nintendo back into the last gen making the system instantly obsolete.  This will ensure that no one will buy a Nintendo console to play the latest AAA titles and put a lot of pressure on Nintendo to innovate which they already have problems doing under the current circumstances.  This could lead to greater debt loads and even the bankruptcy for the corporation.  If Nintendo has a chance to get the WiiU on level ground for a year or two, its chances are far better to ensure the viability of Nintendo in the future.

4. Consoles are cheap and just got cheaper - Why would anyone give up more money than they should?  The Playstation 3 just dropped to $250 and you can find an Xbox 360 for $200 so why is everyone in a rush to go out and spend a ton of cash on a system that won’t have even half the library of the current gen systems?  Take your time and enjoy the golden age of the current gen consoles.  Every week you enjoy new triple A titles and people are still having meaningful online experiences.  To me this seems like everything is great so why ruin a good thing?

3. Technology has advanced but it’s not advanced enough – No matter what you dream about the next gen consoles the fact remains that the current gen systems have been stretched to meet the times quite nicely.  Both Sony and Microsoft have kept their consoles fresh despite being on the market for longer than average hardware development cycles.  No matter what they change about the systems, the games and the hardware wouldn’t work that dramatically differently to justify a new console.  Graphics are super advanced and you even have the option to play in 3D so I don’t think there is much out there now that would compel someone to drop more money on a marginally better machine.

2. The software library is only starting to hit its stride - The single most important factor to a console is the games that are available for it.  Consoles have dominated and died on that very concept and when you look at it the current consoles are hitting their stride right now.  I would say that the developers have only mastered the consoles potential in 2010 with titles like God of War 3 and Red Dead Redemption.  These titles pushed the consoles to the limit and that is where you see the best software for the console.  If we were to move forward now we would miss several years of potentially awesome games.  To me I’d rather wait and see what people can do with the expertise now available.

1. The Development Cycle is still very costly – So you think games are expensive now?  Just wait till we push a brand new generation.  Developers are status quo right now but if a new console comes out they have to buy the dev kit and start re-training or realigning the staff they have.  This is going to come with new costs and slower development times to start with.  We now enjoy regular increments of games but with a new gen game cycle it will be slower and more costly thereby increasing the price of games and that isn’t good for anyone.

New details keep popping up about FF XIII-2. For starters, we know that random encounters are back . We also know that Lightning and Serah will return to the cast of characters for FF XIII-2. With this in mind, here are the Top 5 things we’d like to see in FF XIII-2.

5. Achievements that are, well, achievable – One thing that disappointed me about FF XIII was how unachievable the achievements are. Eighty hours through the game, and I only got 50% of them. With four of the six available roles mastered, I had enough trouble completing all the Cie’th stone challenges let alone getting a five star rating on them (both of which are trophies). Some have reported taking as long as 100 hours to get all of them. That’s just too much, plain and simple.

4. Better weapon upgrade system – Even though the idea of upgrading weapons is nothing new for an RPG, I found FF XIII’s system overly time consuming. In particular, the rarity of gil made weapon upgrading painful at times. I spent a lot of time farming gil in order to upgrade my weapons. After eighty hours, I still don’t have all the weapons fully leveled up. Additionally, it took me a while to get the hang of the weapon upgrade multiplier system. When I get a new game I prefer something I can pick up and play to something I have to sit down and read about.

3. Better Battle/Role System - It looks as if the same battle system used in FF XIII will be used in FF XIII-2. Even though the battle system in FF XIII was widely criticized, it did speed up the gameplay quite a bit. Quicktime events, a la God of War, are just one new addition this time around. We’d also like to see all the roles unlocked from the start. Now that we are familiar with the battle system, give us some more freedom. Although part of me wonders that if Square is looking to make Final Fantasy more interactive why they don’t try a format similar to Secret of Mana . Secret of Mana, is truly a classic action/rpg from Square. I sunk a lot of hours into it and played through multiple times. It at least needs a modern remake! Come on Square! (steps of soapbox) I digress. Let’s move on to number 2

2. Less Linearity – In addition to the linear development system, FF XIII’s environments are also very linear. In many instances I felt like I was on a rail or track and could only go forward or backward. One characteristic that makes Final Fantasy games so enjoyable is exploring environments. In addition to exploring the environments and admiring the detail; rare items are found by exploring environments. Environmental exploration makes the game more personal. I can play the game the way I want to.

1. Mini-Games – The hallmark of any great FF XIII game is the mini games. Forty to Sixty hours of straight battling and cut scenes gets old for even the most avid RPG fan, and the best way to break that up is with Mini-Games. FFVII had chocobo racing, and FFX had blitz ball. What FF XIII-2 will have (if anything) remains to be seen.

Love the column, hate the column, got a better idea? Email Slacker at slacker@www.newgamernation.com

If you are into point and click adventures or pirate lore in general than Paradox Interactive has you covered with their latest release Pirates of the Black Cove.  In this title you play as a sailor on a British vessel that just mutinied from its previous captain.  It is now up to you to lead your crew to riches and glory while avoiding the British who want their ship and crew back.  You can accomplish this goal by going on quests, battling rival vessels and establishing a pirate strong hold, all in a days work for a pirate captain.

In Pirates of the Black Cove there are two sections of the game, sailing and land exploring.  The sailing has a similar look and feel to Sid Meier’s Pirates but for those not familiar with that title, you control a ship and you view it in a 3rd person perspective.  You control the ships navigation and weapons and you manually steer the ship to wherever you want to go.  There is no interface map pointer or GPS function so you will be switching between the map and sailing quite a bit though this was addressed in the patches released just after launch.  While you are sailing you will encounter a number of items and collectibles which have little weight in the story.  The only important collectible you’ll come across are the blueprints which give you access to new weapons and ships.

Let’s start out with the sailing mechanics in general.  In the game it really doesn’t matter what kind of ship you have.  All ships look different but when you break it down you can find success no matter what size your ship is.   The reason for that is because the battle system is extremely easy and larger ships go down rather easily by just circling them and firing.  There is no lock on mechanic in the game so you nor your enemies are accurate so you will find yourself shooting a lot just to get your bearings.  I really did not like the combat system and it made sea battles not much fun.  It was also difficult to tell which ships belonged to which faction.  Ships in the game are identified by a thin banner on the top of the mast.  It gets difficult to see who the ship belongs to unless you get right next to the ship.  At that point you may or may not have wasted a fair amount of time getting to the ship just to identify it.  It would have been nice to have a better identification system so you know who you are attacking or chasing.

Unfortunately land exploring isn’t much better.  There is a lot of time wasted walking around and doing nothing.  Enemies are far and few between and even when you do encounter them, they are dispatched rather quickly.  Especially when you mix ranged fighters in your crew, you won’t find anyone particularly challenging.  Again most of the issues in this game include combat deficiencies.  Combat aside, travelling takes a very long time and even though there are items that will bring you back to port, once you are inside the port you have to spend a lot of time walking to your destination.  Even quests themselves involves large amounts of travel time because you will have to sail to wherever the game wants you to go, dock and move your crew to the quest, accomplish the goals and walk all the way back to your boat and use the item to get back to the port you want to get to.  I would have much prefered to see a system where you can either fast travel or warp between way points.  It wouldn’t be uncommon to spend 5 minutes in walking and during that time there is no action at all.  This mechanic alone almost made the game unplayable for me.

It is a real shame that this game has so much character underneath the surface yet it has such a difficult time of showing everyone the game that it had the potential to be.  The whimsical pirate motif is seen throughout the game and is done in a way that isn’t annoying yet it manages to pull you in and makes you think you are in a pirate cartoon so to speak.  The characters themselves have a nice flair to them and the game itself looks great.  The textures look nicely rendered and you get the feel like you are sailing on an old pirate map with whales and dolphins swimming alongside your ship.  Unfortunately the game mechanics get in the way of the atmosphere that the game was trying to create with its sense of style.  These mechanics are bad enough that until the game is patched some more I can not recommend this game for anyone.

Rating: ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 

In this episode we talk about what we are playing, Sony purchasing Sucker Punch, violence in video games and some of our favorite game play elements as well as some of our most hated.

Show notes

Intro Music: Suburban Tram by Anamanguchi (from the Scott Pilgrim saves the world soundtrack)
Break Music: Grand Theft Auto 4 Theme Song

Guests this week:  Minnie and Trevor

For Minnie
Visit Minnie at http://www.gamingsymmetry.com
Follow Minnie @minnieliddell

For Trevor
Visit Trevor at http://www.bagogames.com
Follow Trevor @bagogames

Please rate us on iTunes and leave a review!

If you’d like to email the show, send us an email at Pilot@www.newgamernation.com

As soon as the call goes through press 1 and ask a question or leave a comment and it will be played during the next episode.