Gah, keeping up with all this breaking news is nuts (NUTS, I say!), so I’ll just do what comes naturally in these cases: make fun of the more important stories right from the inbox, but also post coolness where it counts. Hey, it’s tough love time around here all the time (as in I love the industry, but sometimes you guys make me wonder what’s in the water every so often)…

Ubisoft is releasing the 25-minute film Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Alpha on Blu-Ray and DVD on May 22, day and date with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. The entire package (including extras) runs, according to the press release, 50 minutes. At $7.95 for the DVD and $14.95 for the Blu-Ray, that’s an OK price, but still a bit steep for those cheapskates out there who (paradoxically) probably wouldn’t mind paying ten bucks more (which coincidentally, falls in the center of that MSRP) for the game packed together with the movie in a retail package. Then again, given that the film and extras would probably have fit comfortably on a PS3 Blu-Ray (360 owners would have to get a separate DVD inside the case), maybe it should have been part of the game package after all?

Update: having just seen the film on tonight’s X-Play (it’s definitely well made, excellently paced and will absolutely drive interest in the game), I still think it should have been part of the package – maybe as something to watch while the game is installing, ha ha)

I’m just sayin’… there’s still a recession on among some of us, you know. Yes, I’m SO hard to market to, aren’t I? But I do pass on stuff I feel is important, so that’s the balance here.

Bethesda is INDEED making a The Elder Scrolls Online game, set for a 2013 launch. This obviously means they’ve been working on it for a few years in secret, as just shoving a game this huge out the door (even with a year’s notice) isn’t something one can do casually.  This news arrived much to the bouncy glee of many MMO fans who somehow have mastered the ability to play multiple time-killing group-based grind-fests and still be able to work for a living (and maybe have actual relationships). Of course, the TES universe does indeed make for a wonderful place to venture around, as Bethesda has been the sole owner of the lands of Tamriel since day one and hell, who better to get the game out than these guys, right?

But of course, there’s going to be some out there not happy with the move. Naturally, some fans of The Elder Scrolls Series since the Arena days who prefer solo offline play at their own pace with no live jerks mucking about in their game are outraged by the company diving headfirst into a super-saturated market. Well, unfortunately for that crowd, you can’t stop progress.I actually prefer traditional TES gameplay myself, but I’ll keep an eyeball on this one while hoping Bethsoft continues to also craft single player experiences in the series going forward.

Still, I think Bethsoft can make that crowd happy by hiring a few as bug testers, setting them up in an office somewhere and having them go through the game world (which they won’t see again once the game goes live) looking for problems. It may not make them buy the final product, but then again, it just might help convince them the series might make a decent MMO after all. Me, I’m praying that it’s not the curse of Final Fantasy here, where the quality of all the new games went upwards visually, but sideways in terms of gameplay after it went online. Yes, FFXI did OK overall, but it still alienated a chunk of the base that the numbering system was used for a game they never got to play. That said, the second big online FF (XIV) was a step backward off the dance floor and into the abyss, with even the publisher acknowledging the game wasn’t as good as it should have been.

Speaking of MMO’s, Funcom’s upcoming The Secret World, set for a June 19 launch worldwide looks fantastic, but I still think it should have been a single player offline action/RPG  experience first for a few reasons, but this one is the most important. If you think about the two Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games and were one of the people who played them as a non-Star Wars fan who became wrapped up in the franchise afterward, you know where I’m going with this. All that hard work and PR will be for naught if the MMO they’ve worked so hard on has an audience that won’t be interested because they’ve never heard of the game until now. That said, there IS a really cool browser-based game called The Secret War, which will put you into the game world and see what’s what. They’ve already got 200,000 users and 1.2 million views, so that’s a nice start for things to come. I’ll keep my fingers cross that it all pays off, as getting an original game like this to have wide appeal is a huge risk.

Max Payne 3 TV ads are all over the place, I live in NYC and buses roll by at regular intervals with Max’s face on the side and I think there are a few billboards in the city proper I’ve yet to see (hey, I’m up in the Bronx and don’t get into the city as much as I’d like to). Rockstar always seems to make the best use of advertising for its products than just about any publisher. Using actual in-game graphics, building a sense of tension and urgency through clever editing and yes, selling the fact that this is going to be a pretty violent game geared to adults makes me respect these guys with every new release.

Mortal Kombat is out NOW on the Vita. Buy it, just because it’s excellently done, the  Vita-exclusive content is fun and often intentionally funny and hell, NetherRealm busted their collective butts on this translation, so it’s a portable game that’s worth full price even if you already own the console versions. What, you’re not interested? So, you take your PS3 or 360 around and play on the subway or bus? No s#!t? Send me a photo of that working out for you and I’ll post it here.

IO Interactive’s Hitman: Absolution looks spectacular and from what I’ve seen, the gameplay is coming along quite nicely as well. Some gripers disagree because they think the game will be too easy/linear/casual/whatever. But I say to these folks: if your psychic powers are so grand, why not go make a mint playing Lotto or poker in Vegas, open up your own game studio and make a far better game that has all the stuff you want in it that makes IO and publisher Square Enix (who deserve a ton of credit for publishing some stellar NON-Final Fantasy/non-JRPG games these past few years) jealous to the point of tears?  I’ll be waiting by my mailbox for a review copy, thank you…

Oh yeah – The less said about Microsoft selling “$99” Xbox 360/Kinect bundles the better, but here goes.  Sure, treat your console like a cell phone, lower the price point to one where a new user going in blind will JUMP out the nearest window and run to their favorite game shop to snap one up. That’s the good part for both parties… at first.  But it’s when you stop and think for a minute that this idea is lousy and worth shooting down fast.

Tack on the stupidly small 4GB hard drive, add a contract that penalizes you if you hate Xbox Live, don’t have broadband or do and want to back out of the “deal” you made (not using Live? you STILL have to pay out a mandatory $360 – ha ha – before you can be set free) and well, that $99 could turn into the worst purchase for budget-minded gamers. It’s actually BETTER to spend money on the more sensible 320GB console/Kinect bundle, sign up to Live IF you want to (or if you CAN, as not EVERY gamer has broadband access) and buy games you like to play when you want.

Look, I get it, I really do. However, for a console that has a ton of online content for sale forcing gamers into a Live Gold sub with a TOO small hard drive is also forcing them to upgrade that HDD within a week or less to a bigger (and overpriced) 360 drive. Not every gamer out there is going to seek out a non-OEM solution and yes, Microsoft knows this. It’s the same “deal” they had when they came out with the Arcade model 360 a few years back that gave new users the smallest memory card storage possible and NO hard drive all the while touting the benefits of Xbox Live membership (meaning you were sucked into a “low” price point that escalated the minute you connect your console and start downloading demos or other free stuff).

As a cheap bastard for ages and someone who can speak for budget-minded gamers who don’t like being scammed, I say avoid this deal unless it’s changed to reflect the ACTUAL reality of what you’ll need to get onto and enjoy Xbox Live without the post-purchase sticker shock and a disclaimer-packed contract.

Alright, enough for now. There’s more to come, but I want to get this posted and go back to Prototype 2 for a spell (which is a lot of fun so far – not “innovative” if you’re looking for that in a game, but it makes me smile in nearly all the right spots)…