Shhhhhhh! Don't make a noise!
I'm afraid it seems that my entire clan of Ewok helpers, the Statisticles, have been infected by the Pi-Virus. They seem to have become so overwhelmed by numbers that their minds have turned to jelly and now they're only interested in chowing down on Wookiee blood!
I don't think I've got much time. I've taken some of the blighters out with headshots, barricaded the doors and boarded up the windows, but they just keep coming.
Luckily, before they turned, they managed to finish up this week's numbers. I'm going to try and get through this article but, if I'm silenced early, tell Han I love him.
This report is for the period October 1st to October 7th 2012.
Games Started17,293 TrueAchievements gamers started a total of 25,214 games between them (1,567 different games).
The hordes of
Resident Evil fans out there, hungry to pick up the next title, no matter what the reviews say, means that
Resident Evil 6 claims the top spot this week. Some people are happy with part of the game's return to classic survival horror elements, others think it's a bit unfocused and relies too heavily on QTEs. Our reviewer felt it was a
little of both. Where do you sit? I'm sitting on the floor at the moment, shivering and crying in terror.
On a related note, this particular game's popularity has nothing to with my little Statisti-ghoul situation at the moment. It's just a timely coincidence.
Borderlands 2 continues to stand strong in second place, letting last week's number one,
FIFA 13, drop down below it, reminding the footie sim who rules the roost.
This week sees yet another sports release, in the shape of
NBA 2K13. Although I've been a little cynical of sport games developers' 'release often: change little' mindset in past articles, it would seem that developers Visual Concepts are more interested in a quality product and top sports sim. However, the numbers aren't anything to write home about and I don't see it maintaining its mid-table position next week.
I was kind of expecting booby-brawler
Dead or Alive 5 to do better in the charts this week, after a mediocre third place position last week. Turns out, I was wrong. Despite strong reviews, the title struggles to match the numbers of the other big titles from the past few weeks. After a surge in popularity over the last couple of years, is Fighting become a niche genre again?
Top Retail Games Started
Here I am, putting my foot in it again. I literally just said that Fighting was basically dying as a genre, and there sits
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown on the number two spot for Arcade Games Started, albeit thanks to a
Deal of the Week. I guess the constant groaning and occasional screams coming from the other side of the door are starting to get to me.
Virtua Fighter is the meat in a SEGA sandwich this week as popular Dreamcast reissues
Sonic Adventure 2 and
NiGHTS into dreams... claim the first and third spots respectively, with Sonic in particular being very popular with over 500 starters. Surprised? Our
NiGHTS review was particularly favourable. Look for our
Sonic review shortly.
Despite being free-to-play, gamers seem to be shying away from
Happy Wars slightly, although the numbers are still good. I have a similar issue: I often go around telling people that I'm free to play, but people rarely seem to take me up on it. Strange...
Hell Yeah! Wrath of the Dead Rabbit manages to hold on strong, actually improving on last week's numbers. I guess that's due to word of mouth and some decent
reviews. Although, for some, it's been a bit of a marmite title.
I'm going to go ahead and say that the only reason
Kinect PlayFit makes an appearance is because it's part of
Viral Month 2012 here on TA and you are all busy sharing your calorie loss with each other while I'm busy here dealing with my own type of virus and clutching my emergency hatchet.
Elsewhere, dungeon crawler
Dungeon Fighter LIVE: Fall of Hendon Myre also pops up thanks to the aforementioned DotW. Speaking of crawling, I think I can hear something crawling in the ceiling vents...
Top Arcade Games Started
True to form, the new release title and the deal of the week game claim the top two spots in Windows Games Started, with
Extraction: Project Outbreak (WP) being the new title and
geoDefense Swarm (WP) being the deal title. Outbreak?!? Swarm?!? Why are all the games this week teasing me about my dire situation and imminent demise?!?
Thanks to a hefty
price drop,
Tentacles (WP) also makes an appearance at third. Thankfully, the Zom-sticles haven't grown tentacles yet. But I guess it's only a matter of time before the Pi-Virus mutates into the deadlier Square Root-Virus. Damn my number-based genetic experimentation to create superior forms of Statisticle!
Top Windows Phone Games Started
Games Completed4,952 TrueAchievements gamers completed a total of 6,687 games between them (1,098 different games).
Unsurprisingly, the
Borderlands 2 completions rise dramatically this week. It retains its number one position and also increases the amount of completions by over three times. Thanks to these completions, the game's completion percentage has risen slightly (now nearly at 3%), but the reason it's up here is still simply due to the massive amount of people playing it (at a massive over 42,500 now).
For the third week running, the rest of the table reads very similarly, with no new titles proving easy completions. I wonder when - or if -
Resident Evil 6 will raise its head. At the moment it stands at a 1.22% completion, so it may take a couple of weeks.
Top Retail Games Completed
Yes! Finally, something knocks
The Walking Dead from its ever-present top spot on Arcade Games Completed. Last week, I begged for you to complete something else enough to topple the undead adventure and this week you have delivered.
Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown proves to be a ridiculously easy completion, with over 50% people who started it having completed it. No wonder you were all so eager to pick it up in the deal.
Unfortunately, the next Episode has now been released for
The Walking Dead so, despite some glitchy achievements on launch, don't expect this to last. It'll be back and biting at the top next week and for many more weeks to come.
Now that you've graciously dealt with that particular zombie horde, could you, you know, lend a hand with the little Ewalker problem I've got?
Top Arcade Games Completed
Monster Island (WP) and
Tiki Towers (WP) come very close to emulating
Virtua Fighter's success, almost toppling
Roll in the Hole (WP) for the first time since it took to the top a few weeks ago. However, the heavy-set panda rolls them all down.
A lot of these Windows Phone games seem to be really easy completions, with many of these ones sitting at around 30% of players having completed them. It's tempting me to pick up a phone just to boost my own numbers. Actually, a phone would also be really handy right now to call for help: the barriers on the windows are starting to look a little loose.
Top Windows Phone Games Completed
Achievements Won49,900 TrueAchievements gamers won a total of 553,108 achievements online between them (42,697 different achievements).
Borderlands 2 loses its clean sweep status in Retail Achievements Won this week as a bunch of
Resident Evil 6 achievements claim the top spots: the obvious number one being the achievement for completing the tutorial,
The Longest Night. Interestingly, Leon's campaign seems to be the most popular, with the only campaign related achievement,
Gone to Hell, being from his atmospheric story. I'm not even going to bother pointing out how closely the
The Longest Night and
Gone to Hell relate to my current predicament.
Last week, I wondered if the
Borderlands 2 achievements this week would follow the pattern of reflecting people's progression through the story. Well, it's kinda true, with
An Angel's Wish being from later in the campaign. Mostly, however, people have been reaching the lofty heights of level 25, with
Always Improving.
Top Retail Achievements Won
Sonic proves his popularity by clinching the lead on Arcade Achievements Won, with the
Hello World achievement. The percentages for the other achievements in that game drop off quite significantly after that first one (the next highest one,
Chao!, has only been picked up by 51% of players), which explains their absence from this table.
Instead, the easiest couple of achievements for the new "Origin of Pain" DLC for
Trials Evolution are mixed in with a bunch from that super easy beat-em-up,
Virtua Fighter 5. I wonder where the origin of pain will be for me when the first Statisticle tears through the increasingly large hole in the door.
Top Arcade Achievements Won
It's an even split on Windows Phone Achievements Won between the two top games started this week,
geoDefense and
Extraction. Looking at the mostly very militaristic achievement names makes me long for a friendly Chinook to bring me an elite squad of TAers to come to my rescue. Even a n00b squad would do...
Top Windows Phone Achievements Won
Oh gosh! I'm going to have to rush through Genre as my barricades are collapsing. I can see their red little eyes and their tiny claws getting really close now.
Role-Playing begins to lose its overwhelming lead this week as its numbers drop by almost half. Action-Adventure also receives a decent boost thanks to
Resident Evil 6. Sports sees a slide into third but retains its high place thanks to the continuing popularity of the large number of Sports titles out at the moment.
Here they come!!!
Total TrueAchievements won by Genre
-
Action-Adventure4,696,380
Oh...ok.
So, this is a little embarrassing. After eliminating most of the seemingly rampaging Statisticles with my hatchet and a handy assault rifle I found strapped under the table, it turned out that they were just trying to get in to let me know that Dishonored is out now, so next week's numbers should look quite interesting.
Hah, those scallywags.
Recruitment for new Statisticles is now open.