To quit, or not to quit? Black Ops II online match - played via Wii U GamePad Off-TV Play

Coffee Beans
Call of Duty: Black Ops II is currently my most played Wii U game, and has been for much of the past year. It will probably be my most played Wii U game for much of the entire time the console is out.

The majority of my time in Black Ops II has been playing online multiplayer, mainly Team Deathmatch battles. I never quit matches in Black Ops II (or other online games that I play) just because I'm losing. While I may occasionally have to ditch a game I'm in the middle of because I lose track of the time, it's never because I'm losing (or my team may be losing).

So, in a recent online match when my Kill/Death ratio was 1/11 at one point. Did I choose to quit, or not to quit? The video below is of that recent Black Ops II match I played on the Wii U, and despite getting off to a HORRIBLE start for my team (as you will see), I stuck with it and turned things around a bit:

If you're wondering about the title of the video, and this post, I played the match using the Wii U's GamePad Off-TV Play. And it's how I have spent the majority of my time playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Questions
If you play online multiplayer games, like Black Ops II, do you find yourself sticking matches out (like Nick said he does as well earlier this year)? Or do you quit matches if it seems there is no hope?

Also as a side question, if you have picked up Call of Duty: Ghosts on the Wii U and were playing Black Ops II first, what do you think of Ghosts? Good? Bad? Better?

I get emails and questions about what I use to record and upload my videos, and you can see both the capture device and software I used for this video below:

FPS Friday! CoffeeWithGames Game Night - Black Ops II Wii U match footage

Coffee Beans
Well, it has been an interesting week. Sunday started off with the first official CoffeeWithGames Game Night playing some matches in Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the Wii U. Then Monday night I started working on putting together a video of one of the matches from the Game Night.

Before I digress into the video rendering issues I have experienced though, the video above is from the very first match of the CoffeeWithGames Game Night on Sunday. I believe it's also the very first video I have uploaded in 1080p, though I'm not very good at telling the difference between 1080p and 720p myself.

I have been using the Elgato Game Capture HD device since January of this year, and while I initially had some issues with rendering files out back in January in my video editing software, I quickly solved that problem. Then Monday happened. I tried rendering out one of the Black Ops II matches from the previous night, as I had done many times before with videos and trailer, but upon rendering the video out from the match, it became EXTREMELY blurry.

So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and yesterday (Thursday), I randomly spent time trying to fix the rendering issues. Again, I now capture my gameplay videos using the Elgato Game Capture HD, but I edit them together using Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 edition, which is the video editing software I have used for pretty much the last 3 years.

No matter what I tried, how many times I re-recorded the match, re-rendered the video, it was always turning out extremely blurry after rendering the video. So, while my solution for what I HOPE is a permanent fix using Elgato video files with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD, I think that's for another post altogether.

If you watched the video above, you can see the match went pretty well for the team I was on. I was able to play for just over an hour, and got in several more matches in the game, all playing just regular Team Deathmatch battles. The first match was actually my best match in terms of my kill/death ratio for the night, but I enjoyed all of the matches.

So, while the first CoffeeWithGames Game Night was a success in terms of getting some matches in, being that a new Call of Duty will be releasing in just over a month now for the Wii U, I'm not sure how many more Black Ops II Game Nights there will be!

If you own a Wii U and are interested in Black Ops II, it is STILL currently on sale for just $19.99 on Amazon.com. You can click the image above to be taken directly to the game's Amazon.com page if you would like. If you own a Wii U and Black Ops II, my NNID is Coffees and feel free to send me an invite.

Questions
Have any of you been playing Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the Wii U and enjoying it, but perhaps are now looking forward to when Call of Duty: Ghosts releases in November for the Wii U?

You can see new and used prices for Black Ops II on Amazon.com below, as well as the pre-order page for Call of Duty: Ghosts Wii U:


*Disclaimer: My copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops II Wii U was provided by Activision for coverage purposes.

CONNECT WITH COFFEE

Call of Duty: Ghosts Trailer - Updated Wii U GamePad Version

Coffee Beans
Earlier this week, Activision released an "Official Call of Duty: Ghosts Single Player Campaign Trailer".

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with Call of Duty: Black Ops II on the Wii U, as you can see here, here, and here, and I'm looking forward to seeing how some of the changes, like sliding, in Ghosts might change up gameplay and strategy in online multiplayer.

While Call of Duty: Ghosts will be releasing for the PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 5th, I am most interested in the Wii U version of the game. Why?

Well, there are multiple reasons, but the biggest reasons are Call of Duty: Ghosts' Wii U GamePad Off-TV Play feature, free online multiplayer, and the optional Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls for when my GamePad battery gets low.

I have updated the "Official Call of Duty: Ghosts Single Player Campaign Trailer", to show how I will most likely spend the majority of my time playing the game, showing the trailer on just the Wii U GamePad.

Brew yourself some coffee, and watch my updated Wii U version below!

The Amazing Spider-Man data report. How many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported web-slinging?

Coffee Beans
The Amazing Spider-Man was released on June 26, 2012 for the Nintendo Wii, and was based around the Spider-Man movie of the same name. The game was developed by Beenox and published by Activision, and it received an ESRB rating of "TEEN" with "Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.

A description for the game on the Wii's Nintendo Channel says, "Spidey is back with the return of wall crawling, web-slinging action! Perform acrobatic attacks and stealth maneuvers with the brand new web rush combat system. Uncover the rest of Peter Parker's untold story in the original epilogue to the film."

While we have looked at another Spider-Man Wii game before, how many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported web-slinging in The Amazing Spider-Man since it released last year? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

Call of Duty? Conduit? GoldenEye? Metroid? What is the most played FPS Wii game in the U.S.?

The Roast
The Wii has had a variety of first-person shooter (FPS) games released during the last 6 years, some of the more popular Wii FPS titles you can see in the image above. With more than 20 FPS games released for the Wii, at least 10 have had online multiplayer, while some have been more single player focused like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Red Steel 2.

What is the most played FPS game on the Wii in the United States, according to the overall total hours reported and the average hours reported "Per person" on the Nintendo Channel? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

"Black Ops II will just be on the Wii U", Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 not releasing for the 3DS, DS, or Wii.

Coffee Beans
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be releasing on November 13th, and until now Activision has been quiet about the game releasing for the Nintendo Wii, DS, or 3DS.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has already been confirmed as a Wii U launch title, even pre-launch of sorts, and it will be available to purchase on November 13th. Will Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 release for the Wii, DS, or 3DS this year? Brew yourself some coffee, and hit the jump for a quick Call of Duty games history on the Nintendo DS and Wii, as well as the answers!

"Zombies. Groovy." Black Ops 2 Live Action Trailer

Coffee Beans
Call of Duty: Black Ops II will soon land at retailers nation-wide and be available to purchase on November 13th. Treyarch and Activision are busy getting Black Ops II ready for launch, and like last year's release of a live-action trailer for Modern Warfare 3, that has now been followed up with today's release of a live-action trailer for Black Ops II. Brew yourself some coffee, and enjoy the trailer (a few times)!

*NOTE! Apparently the beans spilled out of the bag too soon, and someone released the trailer earlier than it was supposed to be release! Coming from a follow up email, "The explosive :60 second high-octane piece, titled 'Surprise,' will be unveiled on network television in the U.S. tonight on Monday Night Football and will rollout worldwide across high-profile telecasts including elite European football matches."

How many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported playing GoldenEye? GoldenEye 007 Data Report

Coffee Beans
If you are looking for information on the contest/giveaway you will find the link for it in the "Caffeinated Thoughts" section below.

GoldenEye 007 was released on November 2, 2010 for the Wii, and the game was originally announced as a Wii "exclusive" at its E3 2010 reveal. I wrote a post titled, "Can GoldenEye 007 (Wii) Legally be Ported to the Xbox 360 and PS3?" on November 9, 2010, in which I listed the reasons why I thought the game not only could be ported, but would be ported to the other consoles. It was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with the subtitle "Reloaded" added to it, the following year on November 1, 2011.

GoldenEye 007 received an ESRB rating of "Teen" with "Blood, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of. The game was developed by Eurocom, and published by Activision for the U.S. release.

How many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported playing GoldenEye 007 since the game released? If you're a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 owner interested in GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, how many hours can you expect from the game according to the Wii's reported data? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

President Obama, Space Camp, & Six Flags Fun Park? How they are oddly connected.

Coffee Beans
Bankruptcy, Six Flags Fun Park, President Obama, and Space Camp?

Just about 2 weeks ago, I put together the story, "Curiosity Inspired - Space Camp Hours Report". After I posted the story, a former developer who worked on the game saw the story and sent me an email. While the developer will remain anonymous, they were glad to see coverage on the game and wanted to share information on the "...background on the development process, and also why the game dropped with zero marketing...".

How are Space Camp, Six Flags Fun Park, and President Obama connected? What decision by President Obama is given as a reason to have possibly "killed all the synergy" around the Wii game Space Camp? What about bankruptcy? Brew yourself a fresh pot of coffee, and read the email below to find out!

The Brew
The former 7 Studios developer said, "OK, so back in mid to late 2008, 7 Studios was finishing work on Six Flags Fun Park for DS and Wii, published by Brash Entertainment. Brash had a lot of problems and ended up going out of business right when SFFP was supposed to release. The DS version made it to store shelves -- with zero marketing -- but the Wii title didn't. It had been approved by Nintendo for North American release and the discs, manuals and boxes were all printed and ready to go, but Brash went under before they could actually ship the game to distributors.

So we were all pretty bummed that this Wii game that we'd worked on for a year and half or so, and were pretty happy with, would never see the light of day. At the time our main LA office had only one other project, Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, published by Genius, so we were looking for other games.

We ended up signing the deal with Activision to make Space Camp. It was a very short development cycle, something like 4-5 months, with a small DS team and a small Wii team. How were we able to get a console title done that quickly? We re-used as much of Six Flags Fun Park as we could.

If you check videos on YouTube of Space Camp and SFFP you can see that the interface, engine, even many (maybe even a majority) of the minigames are identical. At the time we weren't too concerned as the DS version of SFFP got no marketing, and the Wii version was never released, so we were still shipping what was effectively a brand-new game for consumers.

When the Space Camp game was signed, if I remember correctly there was an expectation that President Obama was going to work with NASA and announce a new push for another US moon landing. The plan was that Space Camp would ride the wave of publicity around that and we'd be part of the marketing push for both NASA and the real Space Camp -- Activision had licensed their logo and possible new mascot.

Unfortunately due to the economy the President backed off on these plans, which killed all the synergy around the project. My understanding was that Activision had never planned to spend a ton of marketing money on the game, mostly seeking a cheap tie-in to the existing hype which never panned out. So it shipped and disappeared. The office responsible for publishing the game was Activision Minneapolis, which at the time was tasked with publishing the company's low-budget 'value' titles.

The really funny thing is that as we were working on Space Camp, Ubisoft bought the Six Flags Fun Park project from Brash as part of Brash's bankruptcy proceedings. They shipped the existing boxes, which were released to stores in March 2009, just two months before Space Camp! Ubisoft also had us make a version of SFFP for Europe, Fun Park Party. Apparently SFFP did well enough to justify another print run, but 7 Studios wasn't able to work on that directly as we were purchased by Activision.

So that's the story of Space Camp, and the related story of Six Flags Fun Park. Overall the team was proud of what we were able to accomplish on both games, in terms of what we could do with the time and resources we had, and it's always been disappointing that factors out of our control (Brash's bankruptcy, the backtracking of the new moon project) led to both titles underperforming.

Unfortunately 7 Studios didn't ship another title. The Scratch lawsuit happened shortly after we were purchased by Activision. After that we did prototyping and development work on console and iPhone, and we helped out with some tools and the downloadable demo for DJ Hero 2. Then in Spring 2010 Activision shut down their music/rhythm game division and that was the end of the studio."

Caffeinated Thoughts
I was glad a developer was willing to share feedback and an inside story on the development for Space Camp, and Six Flags Fun Park, giving us a small inside look of why certain decisions were made. They did say that, "...there may be a few minor errors..." in the story, but that they had fact checked dates to backup things from memory, and I did look at release dates and other information as well to make sure we were providing accurate information.

I personally found it interesting that Activision gambled on a new Moon mission being promoted by President Obama, even going as far as possibly getting licenses from NASA and the real Space Camp, but then not being able to move forward with their use because of President Obama's decision to not move forward with a new Moon mission; funding instead went to the Mars mission I believe. I can already see a political attack ad being formed, "Obama destroyed the video game industry, and your children's entertainment by cutting NASA's Moon funding!".

As for Brash Entertainment, the original publisher of Six Flags Fun Park, and how it came and went so quickly in the video game industry, here is a great piece on the company and its failure: "Brash fallout a cautionary tale".

Now, let's say you are in a store and you stumble upon Six Flags Fun Park and Space Camp, both at a great bargain price. How do you decide which one to try? Well, I asked the developer and this is what they said, "I can't recommend one over the other, it really depends on the player. If someone is really into NASA, they should go for Space Camp. If they like carnival games, they should go for SFFP. I think SFFP has more content overall than Space Camp does. In terms of the single-player story, Space Camp starts better but gets grindy near the end, while SFFP starts slow but has some really cool moments near the end."

Questions
Have any of you played Six Flags Fun Park and/or Space Camp? If so, what did you think about the games?
Also, what did you think of the story behind the games, and how they both came about? Did you find any details perhaps odd, hilarious, or just outrageous?

You can see links to Six Flags Fun Park and Space Camp below:

Played more than Mario? Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Hours Report

Coffee Beans
Skylanders Spyro's Adventure now has a higher average play-time "Per person" on the Wii, than either Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Galaxy 2. You read that right. Players of Skylanders Spyro's Adventure are averaging a higher reported play-time with the game, than players are with Super Mario Galaxy or Super Mario Galaxy 2.

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure was released on October 16, 2011 with a "Starter Pack" MSRP of $69.99. The game was developed by Toys For Bob and published by Activision, and it received an ESRB rating of "Everyone 10+" with "Cartoon Violence" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of.

How many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported playing Skylanders Spyro's Adventure since its "Hours Debut" last year, and what is the average time played for the game? If you're a 3DS, PC, PlayStation 3, or Xbox 360 owner interested in the game, how many hours can you expect from it according to the reported data of the Wii version? Brew yourself a fresh pot of coffee, and let's take a look!

Curiosity Inspired - Space Camp Hours Report

Coffee Beans
     Sunday night as I was working on the computer, I was debating on whether or not to open an extra tab to NASA's site for coverage on their latest rover mission to Mars. I ended up opening an extra tab and switching back and forth on the coverage of the Curiosity's landing on the Red Planet. After watching the Curiosity coverage, it made me wonder how many "space" type games there might be on the Wii that I had missed. So, that's how this post was inspired.

     Space Camp was released for the Wii on May 26, 2009 and I believe it released with a MSRP of just $29.99. The game was developed by 7 Studios (now closed) and published by Activision, and it received an ESRB rating of "Everyone" with "Mild Fantasy Violence" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of.

     The Curiosity Mars rover took 253 days (about 6,072 hours) to reach Mars. How many hours have U.S. Wii owners reported training for lunar journeys with Space Camp? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

Pachter: "Sometimes, I add two and two and get seven..."

Original photo credit - Hot Grill

Coffee Beans

Michael Pachter continues to make news in the video game world. On July 16th, Edge-Online.com published an article where they quoted Mr. Pachter as saying, "Activision never said anything to me, but I know that [for] big games like Call of Duty they said, 'No, we're not putting it on there [the Wii U*] if you don't give us a conventional controller'. So they [Nintendo*] gave in." *bracket text added for clarification

Was Michael Pachter's opinion on this topic of Activision, or even another third party developer, basically demanding Nintendo make the Wii U Pro Controller or they would not support the Wii U console a well informed opinion? Was it an opinion based around the known facts of the Wii U's controllers and the history of Activision's support of the Wii, as people should expect coming from a "Managing Director" at an "Equity Research" firm?

Well, when I saw the quote I decided to contact Mr. Pachter for clarification because I thought it might have been out of context, and wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. After a few email exchanges with him, and pointing out what I thought was one obvious flaw in his opinion on this subject, Mr. Pachter replied, "Sometimes, I add two and two and get seven, but I still add two and two."

What was the context of this quote, and what flaw did I see in Michael Pachter's original statement? More importantly, did Mr. Pachter explain his statement after I mentioned why his original opinion made no sense, in a way that made sense? Brew yourself some coffee, and take a look at one partial email exchange with Michael Pachter below, as well as a visual aid I hope can help with Mr. Pachter's bad math!

Hours spent web-slinging? Spider-Man: Edge of Time Hours Report

Coffee Beans
Is Spider-Man amazing? According to his latest movie's title, The Amazing Spider-Man, he is. I personally find it amazing how much money each movie has made, but that's a topic for another day, maybe on another site.

From my count, the Wii has had six video games with "Spider-Man" in their titles. At least two of the games have been based directly around Spider-Man movies; those being Spider-Man 3 and the recently released The Amazing Spider-Man.

Today, we're taking a look at one of the Spider-Man Wii games not directly based on a movie though, Spider-Man: Edge of Time.

Spider-Man: Edge of Time was released on October 4, 2011 for the Wii with with a MSRP of $49.99. The game was developed by Beenox and published by Activision, and received an ESRB rating of "Teen" with "Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Violence" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of.

How many hours have Wii owners spent web-slinging in Spider-Man: Edge of Time since the game released? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

FPS Friday! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's Hours Report

Coffee Beans
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released on November 8, 2011 for all the current generation home consoles. The Wii version released at a MSRP of $49.99, and it was developed by Infinity Ward/Sledgehammer Games and ported to the Wii by Treyarch, and it was published by Activision.

The Wii version received an ESRB rating of "Mature" with "Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.

How many hours have Wii owners put into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and does it appear they are playing the game online any? Let's take a look!

Black Friday Black Ops! Becoming the Wii's most played FPS in only a year

Coffee Beans
     Earlier this week we looked at the Wii's most played FPS game according to the "Total Hours" played, as reported through the Nintendo Channel; you can read that report HERE.
     This FPS Black Friday report though, takes a look at the reported game-play data for Call of Duty: Black Ops over the last year.

     Call of Duty: Black Ops was released on November 9, 2010. It was developed by Treyarch, as was World at War, and published by Activision.
     The game received a "Mature" rating from the ESRB with "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language" listed as content for parents and gamers to be aware of.

     While Black Ops does not have the most "Total Hours" reported, it has become the Wii's most played FPS game "Per person" according to reported data.
     How many hours have Wii owners spent playing Call of Duty: Black Ops over the last year, with 377 days possibly reported? Let's take a look!

The Wii's Most Played FPS by "Total Hours" Is?

The Roast
     According to one "professional" reviewer for Modern Warfare 3 on the Wii, "The words 'Wii' and 'online multiplayer' aren't used in the same sentence very often...".
     Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 released 2 weeks ago, and I have been playing it a good bit since I received it.
     The Wii has single-player focused FPS games like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption which lack multiplayer of any sort, and the more online multiplayer focused FPS games like the Call of Duty games. While the Wii may not have as many FPS games as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, it has had at least one FPS released every year with online multiplayer since 2007.

     What is the most played Wii FPS according to "Total Hours" played, as reported through the Nintendo Channel, and does it have online multiplayer? Can you guess it before seeing the answer? Let's take a look!

FPS Monday? "I feel like Jack Bauer!", Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Wii Impressions

Coffee Beans
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was released this past Tuesday, November 8, for all the current generation home consoles.

The game was developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, and published by Activision.  The Wii version of MW3 was ported to the Wii console by Treyarch, and it is the first Modern Warfare title to be released day one on the Wii along with the other console versions.

The game received a "Mature" rating from the ESRB with "Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Strong Language" listed as content for gamers and parents to be aware of.

I played some of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on the Wii a few days last week, so what are my initial impressions of it?  Let's take a look!

Guitar Hero 5 versus The Bealtes: Rock Band - Hours Played

Coffee Beans
     Guitar Hero 5 released on September 1, 2009 for the Wii.  It had at least two versions for sale, one was the software version only and one was a "Guitar Bundle".  The Wii version of Guitar Hero 5 was developed by Vicarious Visions, and published/distributed by RedOctane and Activision.  The game received a "Teen" rating from the ESRB with "Mild Lyrics, Mild Suggestive Themes" listed as content for gamers/parents to be aware of.
     The Beatles: Rock Band was released on September 9, 2009 for the Wii, and it had at least three versions selling on Amazon.com at the time.  The Wii version was developed by Pi Studios, and published/distributed by MTV Games and EA Distribution.  The game received a "Teen" rating from the ESRB with "Mild Lyrics, Tobacco Reference" listed as content for gamers/parents to be aware of.

     Both games released a little over 2 years ago, and we last looked at the data from May 3, 2010.  Let's take a look and see if The Beatles: Rock Band still has more Wii owners reporting data, or if perhaps Guitar Hero 5 has been strumming its way along, and has now passed The Beatles: Rock Band.

FPS Friday! What Is the Wii's Most Played FPS?

The Roast
     I have enjoyed the FPS genre since GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64, and I have spent thousands of hours playing FPS games over the years.  When the Nintendo Wii was released back in 2006, I was excited about the console because of the new control methods made possible in FPS games.
     I have played many Wii FPS games starting with Red Steel, and I have enjoyed all of them to certain extents.  Now, nearly 5 years into the Wii's life-cycle the system has seen a decent number of FPS games released for it, some with local multi-player, some with online multi-player, and some just single-player.

     The Wii has more than twenty games I would classify in the FPS genre, but which FPS game is the Wii's most played per player?  Let's take a look!

How to Fix GoldenEye 007's Default Controls

Coffee Beans:
     While GoldenEye 007 on the Wii is a very solid FPS game, I think one area that was overlooked by Eurocom was the default control setting.  A default control setting should work well without players having to go into control options to adjust anything unless they want to adjust something, but I found GoldenEye 007's default Wii Remote and Nunchuk control setting to have an issue that needed to be fixed.
     When I noticed the control issue, it was very apparent, and that this issue somehow slipped by the play-testers is baffling to me, unless perhaps Eurocom didn't play-test the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls, and other control settings, past the first level in the game(or perhaps I'm the only one to experience this?).

     What was the control issue I had with GoldenEye 007's default control setting?  Watch the video below to see the issue, and how I resolved it:

     Also, to see GoldenEye's default controls, and my current customized control settings, take the jump past the break below to view an image of them both!