Ben’s Week In Review: September 23

Just the first of many busy weeks in a row…

When is early too early?

Sony says they probably announced The Last Guardian much too early and the difficulties of that game's development aside, it got me thinking: When is the appropriate time? When is early too early? You want to build hype and excitement and anticipation, but you don't want to get people all psyched for something that may change significantly. Nor do you want to excite gamers for a title that's simply too far off. That's just irritating, no matter how promising the project might be. Then you've got to consider the power of big game announcements and how they can impact other aspects of your business, like hardware. I can almost guarantee the announcement of Guardian had at least a few people more seriously considering a PS3 purchase.

I wouldn't want to be in charge of picking an announcement time, I can tell you that. There seem to be pros and cons for all possibilities, and you're always dealing with the unknown as well. If you hold off and development goes smoothly, you may not be able to build up the appropriate hype before it comes out. If you announce it as soon as bare details are established, just to get everyone excited, and the project hits a few snags…disappointment and disillusionment will reign. In short- Not easy. I'm no marketer and I don't want to be. I'd be terrible.

That Date a Gamer thing actually pissed me off

I'm usually too laid-back to care about such things, and I know old-fashioned gamer stereotypes still prevail. That may never change and I've accepted that. But those videos of the Date a Gamer girls giving advice was beyond painful; they were downright insulting. I'm all for a bit of satire and poking fun at ourselves, and I'm not one of those people who freak out every time there's a half-naked chick in front of a camera. That being said, the scam of a website that is Date a Gamer (and the spin-off, Shag a Gamer) better die. Based on what I've heard whispered through the grapevine, they deserve to die and gamers everywhere should applaud it when that happens. We're not only incapable of talking to girls, we also have seriously below-average IQs, is that it? Or we're just so immature that any pretty girl who says anything about video games is automatically a goddess?

And you know, they're not even that pretty. So just shut up, stop setting gamers back several decades, and just go away . I'm hoping that sh** doesn't get any bigger because if it hits the mainstream media in any way, that'll be enough ammunition for the anti-gaming dopes to go, "Yeah, I knew all gamers were like that."

Personal gaming update

It's certainly true that Borderlands 2 got me. I just love the idea of collecting loot like a madman and exploring to my heart's content. I also had a lot of fun with Double Dragon: Neon , but it's not a lasting, enduring fun; I'm quite sure I'm done with it. However, oddly enough, Rock Band Blitz is taking up a lot of my time now, even though Borderlands 2 continues to beckon. RBB is just so much like Amplitude , which I loved forever , and despite my problems with it being so focused on social stuff, it's just wicked fun to play. Bad time to have two mini-addictions.

This week, you can expect a Dead or Alive 5 review ASAP, as well as that Blitz review. Also, thanks to everyone for bearing with us while we made a speedy server transition earlier in the week. But that downtime also resulted in the PSX Extreme Facebook page , which just had to happen. Like us if you haven't already, and be automatically eligible to win a free game ! I've got Tekken Tag Tournament 2 now, so add that to the available prize list.

By the way, I'll give that away some time this week. So contributing on Facebook and on our Twitter page gives you a better shot at winning. More giveaways will come this fall, too…gotta get rid of all this stuff somehow. 🙂