By Plagiarize , 7th May 5:18 am
Hot coffee, ah yes, I remember hot coffee. Who doesn’t? I actually wanted to see the ESRB chewing out Take Two on that one, because, you know, it was less of a hit to the industry if the ratings board came away as victims. Take Two and Rockstar HAD violated certain guidelines, and the ESRB can’t be expected to go through every single animation in the game to check there’s nothing hidden in there.
It didn’t take long for politicians, and the mainstream media to convince everyone that somebody needed to take the blame for Hot Coffee. I don’t think most people really cared, but when the press and politicians get together it’s easy to get the impression that America is united in its anger, whether or not it actually is.
So, the ESRB covered its ass, Take Two lost a lot of money, and that was the end of that.
At least it should have been.
While many are quick to defend the ESRB in the ‘Elvish titties’ debacle, as the naked skins are apparently sat right there on the disk, just inaccessible, I’m not cutting them any slack this time, and while I’ll be sad if the rating system is destroyed as a result of this, it’ll be the ESRB’s own stupid fault.
» Read all of “ESRB: What the Hell Were You Thinking?“…
By Plagiarize , 21st April 6:50 am
I don’t buy LucasArts games anymore. I forget which one I bought last… probably Jedi Knight 2. I do though remember quite clearly when I decided not to buy their games no matter how promising they might look.
It was the day they cancelled Sam and Max 2, and that day I wrote a big editorial detailing how LucasArts went from being one of the most creative developers and publishers to churning out Star Wars game after Star Wars game. I detailed how they went from delivering interesting and unique Star Wars games, to making clones of other titles with the Star Wars license slapped onto them.
And yes, I know Knights of the Old Republic is a great game, but let’s be fair, that’s entirely down to Bioware.
I was pissed. I know. Maybe a little irrational. It’s still an incredible statistic to tell people that Lucasfilm Games (as they were initially called when they were founded in 1982) went nearly a decade without producing a single Star Wars game. The first Star Wars title they made came out in 1991. In the last decade they’ve made over forty Star Wars titles, if you include expansion packs and I’m glad to say that might be about to change.
» Read all of “Welcome Back LucasArts?“…
By Plagiarize , 13th April 6:02 am
In the debate on violent video games, there’s one company who’s name doesn’t generally come up.
Nintendo, with their family friendly image, a small percentage of M rated games on their system and an online set up with the DS that’s entirely based around protecting kids, are understandably not in people like Jack Thompson’s targets. Nintendo are probably one of the only major game companies not to have been sued or threatened with a law suit by the SLAPP happy lawyer from Florida.
But all that my friends, is about to change.
The fuse is already lit, and the flame is winding its way across the floor towards the barrel of gunpowder labeled ‘Revolution’.
» Read all of “Powder Keg“…
By Plagiarize , 31st March 2:13 am
So, lucky me, my DS lite arrived yesterday, and as such I thought I’d share with you my early hands on impressions. First however, I’m going to do something a little uncharacteristic of me and plug an online retailer. Play Asia have won me over with their handling of the DS lite shortage and can count me a customer for life.
» Read all of “You lite up my life“…
By Plagiarize , 5th March 3:35 am
Sirlin.net have for a few years hosted a series of articles on how to approach competitive games. For a good while now, people have used these well thought out articles as an excuse for ‘playing to win’ while at the same time missing the most fundamental point: Sirlin.net have a separate section where they talk about ‘multiplayer games’.
Sirlin.net is a website about game design. They cite the reason for hosting the ‘playing to win’ articles existing, as to help game designers build a game suitable for tournament play.
‘Playing to Win’ therefore is aimed at gaming at the highest level. Gaming when there are stakes, when there are prizes and glory to be had, and not gaming for fun. Playing to win is not how you approach a game to enjoy it.
The series of articles start off by defining a ‘scrub’. A scrub, essentially, is a player who believes given tactics are cheap, doesn’t use them and basically has no counter to them. ‘the scrub is only willing to play to win within his own made-up mental set of rules’ it says, and indeed it’s true. But as you can see, scrubs are playing to win, because they’ve entered a competition. What a scrub isn’t, is the average person playing online.
» Read all of “‘Playing to Win’ - The Ultimate Excuse?“…
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