The reasonably hyped Bionic Commando has been out for one week, and according to NPD data, the game only managed to sell 27,000 copies, despite somewhat positive reviews. To put things in perspective, Terminator Salvation, which received far worse reviews, managed to sell 43,000 units in its first week.

The reason for the low selling Bionic Commando might be the audiences unfamiliarity with the franchise, as “Terminator” is widely popular, and will sell, regardless of how bade the game (or the movie) is. The bad economy might have a stake in it too.

It seems that Activision just can’t stop raping the Call of Duty franchise. If it wasn’t enough that there are countless Call of Duty games out there, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently said at a analyst meeting;

“[What] would be the natural evolution of a property like Call of Duty into a massively multiplayer environment — how do you monetize that?”

Activision then went and created a detailed survey for Call of Duty players, according to Destructoid, asking users various questions regarding a possible “enhanced service”, where players would pay a monthly fee for content such as “map packs” and “team management services”. You know, things that are usually free in all other games.

Yes, I know that kind of punnage in a headline should probably get me shot by the pun police (whom as we all know are only permitted to carry chocolate guns for irony’s sake), but I do it because I CAN.  Now, that having been thoroughly exhausted, let’s wade into just WHY this game disappointed me so deeply.

But first, the incredibly confusion Square-Enix brand plotline.  A long, long time ago, before Cid got old and showed up with his airship in every Final Fantasy game EVER, Cid was just a young treasure hunter looking for a power source so he could build that airship.  And he, along with his partner, the titular little yellow bird, thinks he’s found it in the form of Timeless Power, a fist-sized jewel that seems to have a small galaxy inside it.  Anyway, just as he’s about to collect his airship battery, it’s stolen from him by a rival treasure hunter and he, his rival, and their pets are transported to an alternate dimension in which the ringing of a clock tower bell causes a vortex to open up behind a person’s head and steals their memories.

Still with me?  Good.  Because this hasn’t even gone off the rails yet.

That’s going to happen when the star baby named Raffaello falls out of the sky and lands in front of the clock tower.  He’s contained inside a rather large egg, and when it hatches, he emerges.  Raffaello has the power to open the memory-stealing vortexes, enter them, and start sobbing uncontrollably while clinging to a rainbow-colored floating puzzle piece (representing lost memory), thus forcing you (playing as the Chocobo) to follow him into the abyss and rescue him from what looks like nothing at all.  Repeatedly.

I’m only slightly kidding on that last part–you’re going to have to fight your way through a series of enemies to reach Raffaello on each level, but somehow floating star baby just wandered right through the horde of monsters you’ll have to fight.  Ah well, it wouldn’t be much of a game without the fighting, now would it?

I admit, that when I started playing this, I was pretty enthusiastic about it.  An action-driven RPG for the Wii? Sign me up!  And indeed, the gameplay was pretty solid and fun, and there was plenty of humor to be had in the dialogue, and the stories were pretty solid and compelling (except for the overarching one featuring green-haired star babies that hatch from eggs that are capable of surviving planetary entry but can be broken from the inside by a baby), but I rapidly found a flaw in the game.

Specifically, the sheer repetition.  I found myself dragging my Chocobo through dungeon after vaguely similar dungeon with only new monster types and new items to break up the monotony.  And sadly, the story wasn’t THAT compelling to keep me that interested.  I’m still trying to get my head around Raffaello.

I admit, this particular review is going to be highly subjective.  I was basically disappointed in how much of the game seemed similar to the rest of it.  I tired of doing the same thing over and over again.  And I’ll admit, the rest of the game was solidly done enough to make it a really good game.  So if you can stomach repetition, and don’t mind when things repeat themselves, and have a fair tolerance for redundancy (not to mention repetition and repetition), then you and Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon should get along together nicely.

We all remember that point in a game that made us want to scream with frustration, hurling our controllers across the room and dancing upon their shattered remains. Whether it was a difficult boss battle or simply a couple jumps you could never quite get right, everyone’s had to ask a buddy to take over or pull in some cheat codes to get past it.

This is precisely the sort of thing that frustrates casual gamers to the point where they lose interest in a game. Since Nintendo has been trying to create titles like Mario Galaxy that appeal to both the hardcore and casual crowds they’ve been forced to choose between frustrating casual gamers by making things difficult or frustrating hardcore gamers by watering down the difficulty. Their fix to this is what they call ‘demo play’ where if you’re having difficulty you can simply sit back and let the computer take care of business for you.

Miyamoto discussed this feature with USA today and it was discussed in some hazy concepts that were revealed months ago regarding the next Zelda game where players had the option of viewing the game in a cinematic fashion, only playing parts where they wished to. New Super Mario Bros Wii will be the first title to feature this, but they’re reportedly considering it for future titles as well.

With Wii sales beginning to drop off it’s no surprise that Nintendo revealed new games were on the way for their big three: Mario, Zelda and Metroid. The only thing we’ve seen so far was Mario Galaxy 2 and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but it’s been a foregone conclusion that the Wii would be getting another Zelda game sometime soon.

In an interview with Wired, Shigeru Miyamoto said that in developing the next Zelda game they’re considering whether or not to go with a Wii MotionPlus control scheme. While the extra peripheral would enable even more intuitive control schemes and more realistic inputs, Miyamoto and co are worried about forcing people to use the peripheral since it has only recently launched and its popularity is still unknown. While they hope that the new Zelda game will be exciting and appealing enough to get people to buy the peripheral on its own, their concern is that things will go the other way, with some gamers not playing the title because they’d have to get the accessory.

Ultimately though I’d guess that the Zelda game will include the peripheral since the MotionPlus would allow for a more robust combat system and Zelda fans are rabid enough to pick up a peripheral, especially if there’s a bundle available.

Ever since Apple launched the App store for the iPhone and iPod touch, every phone maker has been working on app stores for games and applications, even Nintendo launched the DSi Shop alongside the new DSi handheld console.

Since Sony’s upcoming PSP Go has 16 GB of built in memory, the possibility is certainly there of downloading smaller games that are made by indie developers and not published the regular way.

According to recent rumors, Sony is readying such a store, where indie developer will be able to publish their games (up to 100 MB), and either selling them or publishing them for free. It will also be possible to publish non-game applications.

Game analyst Michael Pachter is predicting that Nintendo will drop the price of the Wii before the holiday season, noting that supply has finally exceeded demand for the console.

However, even if supply exceeds demands, it doesn’t mean a price cut is needed — surely, if you want get as many system over the counter, but Nintendo is also concerned about making a profit on each console. Alternately, it could bundle a new game with the Wii this holiday season (or a extra Wiimote) to drive sales.

1UP brings the news, no, the rumor, that Microsoft’s Natal motion control system will not only be sold as a new accessory to the Xbox 360, but also as a part of a brand new Xbox console, rumored to be released in Fall 2010.

The new console will reportedly be a bit more powerful than the current 360, while it will be fully backwards compatible with existing games. New games will be playable on both systems, but will be able to take advantage of the added horsepower of the new console.

Microsoft has said that it expects the Natal launch to be as big as the Xbox 360 launch, however, Microsoft also said that they expect a 10 year lifespan on the 360, meaning the new “console”, could simply be an updated Xbox — Xbox Slim, if you want — that includes the Natal motion sensor.

Noted game industry analyst Michael Pachter says that if Sony is to cut the price of the PS3 by $50, the company would slice $350 million from its profits (based on sales of 6 million units after a such price cut has taken place).

There is no doubt that the PS3 is in dire need of a price cut, the console currently retails at $400 and $500 — a lot more than the competitors. Although a $100 price cut has been rumored for a while, Pachter thinks that Sony will most likely only cut $50 off the price, and possibly bundle one of the first party titles, like Killzone 2.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey expect Infinity Ward’s shooter Modern Warfare 2 to sell a massive 11.1 million copies during its fist two months (!), that’s right 11.1 million.

A few months ago, Activision announced that the original Modern Warfare sold over 12 million copies in 17 months on the market. The analyst thinks the the sequel can beat that in a mere 2 months, because of Activision’s ramped up pre-order and marketing campaigns, plus the fact that Xbox 360 and PS3 install bases have doubled since the release of the original game.

No doubt Modern Warfare 2 will be a popular game, but we still find it highly optimistic for it to sell over 11 million copies in 2 months. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is slated for release on November 10 on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.