According to GamePolitics.com, illegal streaming may soon be a felony carrying a penalty of up to five years in jail. The bill, S. 978, a.k.a. “Commercial Felony Streaming Act,” has made its way through the Senate Judiciary Committee, and brings illegal streaming to the same level as illegal downloading, where it is a felony.

All of this law is based on the supposition that an illegal download is the same as a lost sale, which I think has some big holes. The largest hole in this fuzzy logic is that nobody has bothered to quantify how many people would have purchased the media had the illegal download not been available, and that is a hole large enough to drive a Warthog through.

Another hole in this thinking is that neither the business people nor the legislators involved have gone through the trouble of trying to understand what they’re seeking to limit. Want proof? Currently it is illegal to download content, and it’s a felony if done commercially. This bill would bring streaming into line with downloading. What’s ignorant here is that streaming and downloading are the same thing. Streaming is downloading. Were they to have bothered to understand the technologies they were regulating, they would have figured this out and gotten this together years ago.

At this site we do not endorse any form of illegal copying, sharing, or streaming. We love our friends who make games, we love them as much as we love Mr. Toots. We wish them the very best, and we hope that they return it all back to us in the form of lovely video games which make us smile and waste our time.

We, however, don’t believe that companies should get to call all the shots within government, and that’s really what this is. Violating copyright is already illegal, it has been for a very long time. The game corporations are looking to find more ways to criminalize something that’s already a crime, and I’m not sure why. This bill doesn’t really change any of that, except now, if your blog gets hacked and you get 11 illegal streaming links on your blog in a 180 day period, you will now face the possibility of felony charges.

Maybe they have paranoid shareholders who are demanding they do something about this unquantified problem. Who knows? We remain unconvinced that illegal downloading is as much of a problem as what the industry says it is, and we would be delighted to be proven wrong if anybody has the real numbers to back up their claims. The music industry said they would lose their shirts over piracy if iTunes ever stopped putting DRM into their downloads, and they’ve since been proven wrong.

Source: GamePolitics.com

Jaffe, the director of such gaming hits as the God of War series and the upcoming Twisted Metal (the originator of which he was also a part), took to twitter today to remind members of the media that if you’re going to report it, it might as well be accurate.

The gaming icon had strong words for LazyGamer.net following a piece released by them titled “David Jaffe Doesn’t Think Sony Likes His Game“, which refers to a recent interview with Eurogamer that discussed how some of the folks at Sony just don’t “get it” when it comes to the new Twisted Metal, an icon in its own right on the Playstation platform.

In response, Jaffe indicated the context of his comment was lost, which is why many developers are tight-lipped with the media (Editor’s note: The following comments have been edited for profane content):

“Note to certain friends in the gaming press: the REASON more folks don’t open up and tell you more than the PR folks suggest is becausesome of you twist and take [expletive] SO out of context that we in the game making biz are just better off not giving you ANY [expletive] opportunity to twist what we say,” he said via his twitter on Wednesday evening.

He continued by defending Sony’s role in presenting and supporting Twisted Metal at the recent E3 convention in Los Angeles.

“We got PRIME booth space, tons of time and support and love from all divisions of Sony. Try reading the [expletive] article from which you are ‘reporting’ on next time before you go and start putting your own, totally unfounded spin on the things I say.”

From a media standpoint, Jaffe makes a valid point. This is a prime example of why checking your sources is vital to not just your own outlet’s ability to get scoops, but the rest of the gaming media’s ability as well. Many times, what hurts one of us, hurts all of us. If developers become wary of news outlets, it hurts all our abilities to get gamers the information they need about the entertainment they (and we) love.

So, to all the journalists out there in the gaming industry: Lets make sure we don’t bite the proverbial hands that feed. There’s a difference between keeping them honest and interpreting their honesty to fit our stories.

To developers like Jaffe? Keep keeping us honest and doing it in front of the readers who depend on us. Otherwise, what would we learn?

I love echochrome. This franchise has single-handedly killed many weekends (and it’s not going to stop any time soon). Recently they’ve been honored in a way which is somewhat unusual – though not unheard of – in the gaming community: They have won a world record for having the longest song in a video game – more than 75 minutes in length.

The team has given us some insight into how they did the music:

“With the previous echochrome, we employed a string quartet for the soundtrack, a rare genre for video games,” said echochrome producer Tatsuya Suzuki from Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ). “The music did not change depending on the in-game situation, instead taking its own random path as it played along. We wanted to make echochrome’s music as unique and innovative as the game itself in hopes of making the play experience even more memorable for gamers. The quest to outdo ourselves for the sequel was what led us to create the world’s longest piece of game music. It’s 75 minutes long because we wanted it to take up an entire CD by itself. We were lucky to have a title with gameplay like echochrome’s to serve as the proving ground for this effort. If this was an RPG or some other genre, I imagine it would’ve been a lot tougher. It just goes to show how tight the relationship is between gameplay and game music.”

We congratulate the echochrome ii team on this remarkable achievement, and we can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Despite the open Beta for the recently-announced Call of Duty: Elite service not officially beginning until July 14, millions of players – 2 million, to be exact – have already thrown their names in the hat to test the service.

According Dan Amrich, the social media manager for Activision, the mark of 2 million registrants in under two weeks “blew his mind.” He went on to say that players still interested in participating should not be dissuaded from registering for the beta due to the large amount of people already registered.

“[D]on’t be discouraged by the big number, thinking you shouldn’t bother because they already have enough people — two million volunteers among 30 million Call of Duty players is a small amount. More would be even better,” Amrich stated on his blog, where he announced the numbers.

The service, which is going to include stat-tracking, custom leaderboards, clan organization, competition ladders and more, is expected to have free aspects, as well as paid aspects that will be accessible via a subscription. Details on the subscription price have yet to be released.

That said, it should be interesting to see how this plays out. Check back here at anyconsole.com for the latest info on the CoD: Elite service and more.

(source: Game Informer)

Game Informer has awarded its E3 winners, and it looks like the PlayStation Vita took the Best Tech award. I couldn’t agree with this choice more. It has been a long time since I was as excited about a handheld platform as I am about the Playstation Vita.

Other categories that I thought were interesting and agreeable are:

Best of Show: BioShock Infinite

Best of PS3: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Best of Xbox 360: Gears of War 3

Best of Wii: The Ledgend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Best Adventure: Batman: Arkham City

Best RPG: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Best Shooter: Battlefield 3

Best Racer: Forza Motorsport 4

Best Sports: FIFA 12 (I personally love FIFA games)

I strongly recommend you check out Game Informer’s E3 awards piece here.

Check out 1UP.com‘s interview with David Jaffe, co-founder of Eat Sleep Play, and the creator of Twisted Metal and God of War.

According to Gematsu.com, an analyst for Sterne Agee is reporting that Nintendo’s new Wii U console will be 50 percent more powerful than Sony’s PlayStation 3.

“Some of the developers we spoke to indicated to us that the console will have 50 percent more processing power compared to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360,” said Arvind Bhatia. However, Bhatia continued that “This is yet to be confirmed by Nintendo.”

I’m more than a little skeptical, to say the least. In fact, I don’t think Nintendo has even finalized the load-out for this console, which is why I think they haven’t disclosed specifications yet. Were Nintendo’s device in line to take the PS3′s place as the most technically powerful platform available, they would have said so by now. At the very least, they would have told us the system specs to whet our appetites for more news on the still-secretive Wii U.

This is nothing more than a marketing firm trying to make some noise and attract some business. Nothing more, nothing less.

See our first impressions of the Wii U here.

(Source: Gematsu)

It’s sad to see how large publishers punish studios for not performing as well as they had hoped. A relatively young (just six years old) Kaos studios is the developer of Homefront. Homefront evidently didn’t perform as well as THQ had hoped, and it appears that Kaos is going to be shut down. I suppose we can’t read into the business decisions of this, but we do wish Kaos staff luck.

From the report via Game Informer:

Kaos Studios, the developer behind THQ’s Homefront, is being shuttered by the publisher. That doesn’t mean Homefront is dead, however; work on the next entry in the series will continue at THQ’s Montreal studio.

Word of the studio closure first leaked when a Kaos employee, Zach Wilson, tweeted: “That’s what i’m hearing, that Kaos is shutting down, details to come. Most of the devs already have jobs with new studios anyways.” Wilson followed up with: “It’ll be interesting to see how THQ corporate spins this one.”

Click here for the complete GI story

Among the many anticipated titles coming out at this year’s E3 was the latest entry in one of my favorite series:  The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Anyone familiar with this series knows the level of detail typically paid to the games by RPG kings (in my mind, anyway) Bethesda Softworks.  In an exclusive gameplay segment on G4, nearly half the content was pulled from what was to be a 30-minute private viewing at this year’s convention and discussed with Bethesda Game Director Todd Howard.

Attention to Detail

Right out of the box this game impresses.  The amount of detail you see around you in the world is more than enough to impress even the most skeptical gamers.  And when you consider there are approximately 16 miles of land inside the game to explore, all with the same level of detail, it becomes very hard not to be excited.

According to Howard, the goal of this game was to utilize the new Creation Engine – an internally-built game engine – as much as possible.

“We have a brand new engine we’ve written for the game, all-new graphics, all-new gameplay; we just tried to make a big, crazy role playing game with as much stuff as possible in it – just overwhelm you with detail.”

Hearing Howard talk about how they wanted to approach the details with the mindset that they shouldn’t be hidden really speaks to the pride he and the rest of the designers and artists take in their job and in this game.  He said he wants you to believe you’re really in that world and when you look down at a flower, he wants you to be able to see every detail it has.

With the new game engine comes the addition of a new animation system.  Character movement and features move with great fluidity and realism.  Even the third-person perspective looks fantastic compared to Oblivion and past Elder Scrolls entries.  This aspect is very appealing to me as someone who traditionally plays RPGs from the first-person perspective.

A new area of interest to many players will be the improved menu interface, which has begged for reinvention since Morrowind.  The menus of past Elder Scrolls entries always seemed to be a boon on the gameplay, what with the fumbling around with multiple menu levels for this item or that item.  That, however, is a bygone time.

In its place comes a four-section menu with categorical separation and the ability to inspect every single item with a 3D view.

“Our artists just went to town,” said Howard.  ”Literally thousands of objects.”

Joining the items menu overhaul is the skills menu, which faced challenges of its own in past games.  However, it now takes a path-oriented “perk” direction.  And, in true Elder Scrolls fashion, this new menu has you look to the sky in a star map perspective, with constellations representing different skill sets.

“It’s like you have this custom constellation for how you’ve been playing the game,” said Howard.  ”And what’s really cool is when you level up you get to choose a perk, so each [constellation] is actually a perk tree as well.”  As you continue playing, the constellations will follow with your progress and essentially evolve throughout the game.

The screenshots of Skyrim that we have seen magazines and online are but a taste of the amazing views the game has to offer.

Two Hands are Better Than One

This new functionality goes hand in hand (quite literally, actually) with many character ability changes that are present in the game. One feature you’ll notice right off the bat is the ability to dual-wield things like weapons (dual swords, anyone?) or – my personal favorite – magic. As you’ll see in the demo below, dual-wielding the same spell allows you to create a more powerful iteration of said spell than what you would get without combining them.

Basically, you can select what items/spells/weapons you want to use in either hand and hot-key them to where you want them. A feature I cannot wait to try out and one that Howard says puts you in control of who your character becomes.

“You are who you play. You want to play like a Battle Mage? You do it. You don’t have to pick some character in the beginning,” he said.

I really like the sound of this option. While I appreciate character customization, not being confined to selecting specific classes and restricted to what that class offers is incredibly appealing. Still, I will be interested to see what the character customization actually DOES include – that is, if they will retain many of the options that have made it so much fun in past Elder Scrolls games as well as in the likes of Fallout.

Here are just a few of the other features that were not only highlighted in the video, but stood out to me as well:

• The openness of the world – Howard gave the impression that nearly every single location you can see in the world is a location you can visit.  That means the mountains you see in the distance are a place you should add to your list of “things to climb.”
• The ‘Radiant Story’ feature – Though he didn’t detail this much, Howard implied that there is a radiant story system that will create a dynamic experience specific to each gamer.
• Character functionality – the ability to change your settings on the fly and adjust your character during battle is going to be awesome and I can’t wait to try it out.  Mix in the ability to complete “finishing moves” against enemies and you have an entirely new battle experience.
• Map changes – feeling lost?  Now, instead of having to scroll through a bland, medieval map on an item menu, you need only select the map function button and watch as the camera pans out to the sky for a bird’s-eye view of the area.  This comes complete with location-specific markers and user-set waypoints.
• Over 150 dungeons means plenty of time (reportedly 300+ hours of possible gameplay) and locations go loot for items.
• Dragons in this game were created to be unscripted to the rest of the action.  That means, they are randomized throughout the game and in how they will act.  No one encounter will be the same.
• Dragon-shout abilities – This is not confined to just a “shout,” which references the dragon language, but actual abilities you can gain and build (each ability has three tiers) by capturing the souls of dragons you have killed.
• Economics – The game has a working economy that you, the player, can participate in and build skills. So if you want stronger armor and better swords, get a job as a blacksmith!
• The game compass looks much more user-friendly and enjoyable to use.

Overall, this game looks absolutely fantastic. From the detail in things like foliage and water flow to the lighting in nearly every situation, if there is one word that I had to apply to this visual spectacle, it is “beautiful.”

Advances in player control, menu options, battle options and even physics show a committment to improving this entry over the others to keep the franchise from growing stagnant with repetitive gameplay.

If you’ve enjoyed the Elder Scrolls games at all, or even the Fallout series, this game should be a day-one purchase for you when it hits shelves on November 11 of this year.  I know it will be for me.

Don’t believe me? Watch the gameplay video for yourself below:

This afternoon marked my first opportunity to play Red Faction: Armageddon, and I must say,  so far I’m impressed.  Still,  I have barely even scratched the surface of this game.  So, here is just a taste of what I’ve seen to this point.

First up is Ruin Mode.  I’d like to start out by saying that I’m disappointed in THQ for deciding to have a core feature of the game require a disposable keycode. Games that have diminished features because the they were not purchased new – effectively holding the gamer hostage for the sake of a few dollars more, DOES harm gaming culture.  But that is for another day.

That said, Ruin Mode is a whole lot of really repetitive fun. The key thing about the modern Red Faction franchise that I love is the destructive engine they use. Volition, Inc. is very proud of the fact that they develop the engines for their games in-house – and they should be. Red Faction: Armageddon’s Ruin Mode is nothing short of a fully-functional demonstration of their destructive engine. You are presented with a world wherein your only task is to blow stuff up, and boy is it going to be fun!

The levels are unevenly difficult, so they don’t appear to be more difficult in a linear fashion – as one may expect. I think the lighting may be off a little bit, too, as sometimes it is hard to see exactly what is supporting that road up on the top of the hill that you’re trying to take down.  Other than that, I can’t really complain.

The tools of destruction at your disposal (fancy way of saying “guns”):

• Plasma ray – This gun shoots a basic, yet powerful plasma ray, but overheats quickly
• Plasma cannon – This gun fires a large plasma burst with a large blast/damage radius
• Nano gun – Shoots out nano bots, which eat whatever you shoot
• Remote Charges – Explosives triggered by a remote control
• Singularity Gun – Fires a temporary gravitational singularity which sucks in all surrounding matter for a brief period of time
• Magnet gun – Fire one shot at what you want to move, and the next shot at what you want it to move towards
• Rocket Launcher – Fires rockets, blows stuff upI have found that a combination is necessary in some maps: first fire a rocket to expose the under-belly of the bridge, then fire the singularity cannon at the supports, taking the whole thing down.

While this game mode does repeat itself quite a bit, and though it can be a little frustrating, it is a lot of fun and provides a perfect way to unwind when all you want to do is blow something up.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 showcases the events that immediately follow 2008's Modern Warfare 2

Ever since the first Modern Warfare hit shelves in November of 2007, Activision has seen its most popular franchise set record after record, releasing games annually with imaginative story lines and of course, the online multiplayer that set the series apart from its competition in the first place.

This year, Activision looks to continue riding the wave created by its first Modern Warfare title with the release of its third (and last?) installment under the name.  If E3 popularity is any indication of future success, then Modern Warfare 3 (MW3) is looking to be another hit, with it being the most watched game trailer of the convention.

However, the gameplay demo conducted at this year’s E3 left me with several questions about the direction the series has taken and what it means for possible future installments of the Call of Duty franchise.

Before I continue, please take a moment to view the gameplay for yourself below:

Robert Bowling plays Modern Warfare 3 Demo at E3

The first thoughts I had after the first 4 minutes of this gameplay were “what’s new about this?” and “why does this feel the same?”

Since it has been two years since the release of the last Modern Warfare entry, my expectations for this game – which I hope is the concluding entry – were set pretty high.  Despite the fallout at Infinity Ward following the Zampella/West debacle, one would think two years is enough time to inject something new into the Modern Warfare series.  However, that does not seem to be the case here.

There is no new engine powering this game, which is something frustrated fans on message boards everywhere have been asking for since Modern Warfare 2.  There are no graphical improvements over any other entry save for last year’s Black Ops, which wasn’t even done by Infinity Ward.  Even in the entire eight minutes or so of gameplay, I didn’t see a single new feature in the progression that suggests “we’re making this the biggest game so far.”  Amphibious assault?  Seen it.  Commandeering a vessel?  Been there, done that.  Speeding across the water while avoiding obstacles?  A regular feature by now.

While the setting may be different and the mood has slightly more urgency/intensity, the overall tone and theme remains the same:  Follow this path, shoot those guys, repeat.  To be completely honest, it looked as though they put the same flow from the past two games into this one and set it in New York (or wherever around the world this game is going to take you).

I understand it though.  When you’ve got a winning formula, you don’t want to change the ingredients, right?  From that perspective, it’s hard to fault Activision.  There’s no reason to mess with success.  But from a gamer’s perspective, there are only so many times you can change the cover of the same book and get me to believe it’s different.  And that’s exactly what this looks like:  The same book with a different title.

The only thing that has me wanting to play it currently (since no multiplayer details have been released) is my interest in continuing the storyline from the previous entries.  If there is one thing that Modern Warfare 1 and 2 had going for them, it was an interesting – albeit a tiny bit predictible – plot.  I only hope this game is a stopping point, otherwise I fear even the story will be viewed as “been there, done that.”

Speaking of the multiplayer aspect, I’m sure even now, fans – and even extreme critics – of the franchise are concocting message board entries and blog posts about what they believe the new multiplayer should have.  Well, we too will have a piece on this facet of the game.  However, due to the overwhelming amount of information there is to discuss about the multiplayer – especially now that the new Call of Duty: ELITE service has been announced – I am going to share that as a separate piece, so be sure to check back over the weekend for the online side of this discussion.

Overall, the game looks clean.  But it looks like it has looked since 2007.  Some people will appreciate this fact.  They will take comfort in knowing that the product they are buying is the product they have played and enjoyed.  However, I think more players – myself included – will be reluctant buyers (at least until otherwise swayed).  We see a product that has a great deal of potential that is being wasted for the sake of making a safe profit.  And while we will still play the game (because I know I will, however reluctant), there will be that nagging voice in the back of our heads continuously saying “I wish this,” and “I wish that,” about our gameplay experience.

I can only hope that Activision hears our collective desires long before Call of Duty becomes a “used to be” franchise.  As in, “Call of Duty used to be good… until they started giving gamers the same game experience every year.”

Microsoft unveiled multiple Kinect-compatible games at this year's E3, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Fable: The Journey.

Every time I see a Microsoft Kinect commercial or a plug for the Playstation Move, I really want to be able to buy what each company is selling.  I want to be able to have interest in the peripherals and the interactivity they tout with things like dance games, shooters and even interactive menus.

But I can’t.

I will be the first to admit that this may be due to my hesitation with motion-gaming in the first place.  The idea of flailing awkwardly in front of a motion camera or pointing a motion-sensing remote at my TV like a mouse seems far less appealing than simply sitting down and using the controller that came with my system.  Still, despite my apparent pre-disposition to be a traditional-control kind of guy, I decided I should have an open mind about this year’s E3 and what it would mean for the motion-gaming market.  So, with guarded optimism, I sat down and watched Microsoft and Sony unleash demo after demo of Kinect /Move gaming during the Opening-Day E3 presser.

Gaming Dis-Kinect
I do have to hand it to Microsoft; they push their products harder than I have ever seen Nintendo or Sony push their own and that kind of pride and belief in a product goes a long way.  However, the press conference itself left me feeling very underwhelmed and disappointed.  But not for the reasons you might think.

I was actually looking forward to many of the demonstrations that were going to take place with the Kinect.  I was hopeful that many of them would show the advances that two years of open-market testing would result in.  My expectations (perhaps too high?) were to see a step forward with the Kinect in a way that would make it THE model for motion gaming.  After all, many people consider the Xbox family to be the benchmark against which the other consoles are judged, right?

Unfortunately, what I was instead greeted with looked to be the same old song and dance with a new pair of shoes.  That is to say, instead of new functionality or innovation with their product, Microsoft simply added content to the list of “Kinect capable” games.

Now, this isn’t an incredibly bad thing.  After all, the list of compatible games has been otherwise plain for the last couple of years, meaning a release of several compatible games opens the door for more of a demographic, better sales, more interest, and so on. It also shows a move towards a more motion-gaming centered focus, which may be the goal.

But when you’re in my position and looking to be wowed into drinking the Kinect Kool-Aid, displaying Fable: The Journey as a game on tracks (guided/linear) with a guy holding up his arms and steering a horse, I’ve gotta say I’m a little unimpressed.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure Kinect-enabled games will have their moments, but from what I saw out of the Microsoft demos, those moments may be few and far between.

I suppose the only consolation I have as someone who needs convincing is that they are trying.  They are making the effort to continue developing for this product and that has to be a sign that at the very least, they’re waiting to unleash something that I – and I’m sure many others – believe the Kinect should be capable of:  An experience that makes even the hardcore controller users say “I NEED to play that game and I NEED to play it with Kinect.”

Lightly Budged by ‘Move’
Later on in the day, it was Sony’s turn to display their motion capture control system, the Move.  The Move intrigues me a little more than the Kinect does, primarily because it gives me something I can have in my hands while I’m moving around (even if, as I mentioned, I would feel awkward using it).  Whether it is the motion controller or the sharpshooter gun controller for games such as the recent Socom 4, tangibility is something that I can grasp and enjoy.

That said, while not overly impressive, the Move demonstrations did show me that Playstation is finally getting behind its own product.  I mean, lets face it, if Playstation had approached marketing the way Microsoft did, the Move would be much more popular than it currently is.  But I digress.

One of the better demonstrations of the Move exhibition was during a demo of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean.  Whereas Microsoft’s demo of a guy holding a sword seemed about as lively as plank of wood, the Move’s controls gave it an appearance of comfort and something you would want to play with.  It made me want to actually take the controls and have a sword fight with whoever the player was fighting with.

But that’s about as much as I saw and enjoyed of the Move.  At one point in the press conference, NBA 2K12 was demoed with what looked to be a forced/half-done iteration of Move capabilities.  As the player points the controller at the screen to control the ball handler – as well as move the action – there is a red circle with an “x” in it indicating the tracking of the controller.  Really?  Because that doesn’t make it look like a mouse and keyboard would be comparable controls at all (and by the way, 2k Sports, Kobe Bryant on stage trying your demo and failing miserably doesn’t make me feel good about your controls with the Move).  The whole demo just made it look like Move for the game was an afterthought that was acted on a week before E3, which was incredibly disappointing.

I was left wondering, however, what the future of the Move has in store (unlike the Kinect), when I saw Ken Levine, of BioShock fame, eating crow on his statements about motion gaming and how none of his games would ever have it, only to reveal that BioShock Infinite will be Move compatible.  This excites me to no end.  Not just because it’s Bioshock – which is one of the best games I’ve ever played – but because Levine, like myself, was (still is?) incredibly skeptical about the Move and motion capture in general.  If he can be moved enough to put it in his game after saying he wouldn’t, I have to believe there is hope.  And that is what I cling to.

I’m not going to flat out say motion gaming is something I’ll never get into, because I think we’re only scratching the surface of something profoundly bigger than any of us realize.  I only wish the current technology and titles – and even the titles that have just been announced – could reflect even just a little bit, the direction that only our minds can currently take us in.  In other words, Microsoft and Sony:  We’ve seen what you can do, now impress us.

I think by now, Nintendo has made it apparent that they think differently than many of us in terms of gaming and in terms of home entertainment. The Wii U drives that idea home.

What is the Wii U? Complete with High-Definition capabilities that many Nintendo fans have been clamoring for, the Wii U appears to be the next generation of Wii consoles. While details are still pretty hard to come by, it appears as though Nintendo is going to go more “Next-Gen” than they did previously with improved graphics capabilities (or at least the video outputs lead me to believe the graphics capabilities have improved) and more features that will likely be released. The possible game line-up looks impressive, bringing many next-gen franchises – such as Assassin’s Creed, Darksiders, Dirt, Ghost Recon, and even Ninja Gaiden – to the world of Nintendo. It will be interesting to see how these titles translate on the Wii U as I will be sorely disappointed if they screw up Assassin’s Creed.

As interesting as it is to see Nintendo trying to “woo” the core gaming crowd again, I’m not sure if it’s going to work. For family and casual gamers, however, this system may be successful due to its backwards compatibility with Wii – also a family-friendly (and family favorite) console – and its fancy new controller which seems designed more as a handheld than as an interface for a console. According to Nintendo’s E3 website, the Wii U will be compatible with all Wii accessories and games, though there is still no word on GameCube compatibility.

The most intriguing aspect of Wii U so far is its new controller, which is a far cry from the current Wii-mote.  Think Nintendo DS meets Xbox 360 controller, meets SEGA GameGear. This thing is huge.  It’s got two analog sticks, a D-pad, a 6.2 inch touchscreen, a camera (unknown resolution), traditional A, B, X, Y buttons, and then R and L buttons with ZR and ZL buttons. I believe it also has motion control sensors as well. Nintendo also claims that you can take your game off your TV and put it onto the controller touchscreen while you’re playing it.

While I don’t know whether or not I’m going to be super-excited with this new “console” – which seems more like a Wii laid on its side with a fancy new controller so far – it appears that Nintendo really IS out to control your living room. Since this thing doesn’t play movies other than Netflix yet, I don’t know how they plan on succeeding in bringing forth a complete entertainment system, but with video calling, etc, it seems pretty clear to me that they trying very hard to do so.

In this fast-paced action game, we start again as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, as in the previous iteration of the franchise. You begin in your villa, Monteriggioni, victorious after your last battle (if you haven’t played Assassin’s Creed 2, I won’t spoil it for you… but you totally should play Assassin’s Creed 2). You’ve come back to find all things beautiful and in order. Then, as you’re checking out your defenses, that’s just when the Templars attack! They manage to snag the Piece of Eden in your possession and take it with them back to Roma.

Enter Desmond Miles – your character and the modern day decedent of Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad from the first Assassin’s Creed.  You find yourself back in the van in modern times once again; back with your real-world companions.  Only now, you’re trying to find a place to set up a base of operations below ground where Abstergo Industries - the modern day Templars - won’t find you. You and Lucy make your way through catacombs and tunnels trying to find your way inside a what looks to be a fortified location of significance when it finally hits you: You’re in 21st century Monteriggioni!

From here, the vast majority of the game (like all Assassin’s Creed games) is played within the Animus, the virtual-reality machine used to channel the ancestors of Desmond Miles for their “genetic memories.”  Other than a few clever quips from Desmond, you don’t really experience much in the real world until nearly the end of the game. There are a few useful cut-scenes that help you learn more about how the modern-day Assassin’s Order is fighting the modern day Templar’s Order by reading everybody else’s email, but short of that, I really think Ubisoft could have integrated a lot more modern day gameplay into the overall experience.  Having you in modern day Monteriggioni without the ability to really do little more than explore in the dark is a wasted opportunity to connect the past with the present.

Inside the Animus, the game is played – with the few side-mission exceptions – entirely in Roma. Within Roma there are jaw-dropping, gorgeous graphics that highlight a great attention to detail, even with the pace of the game. The cut-scenes are stunning and even the the non-player-characters (NPCs) are well designed and animated. You even get to drive the vehicles (gondolas)!

As with all Assassin’s Creed versions thus far, you have a pretty wide-open world. There are areas to explore, there are guards to utterly destroy, and there are relevant memories which push the story along. One of my favorite facets of this franchise is that I don’t have to move the story along any faster than I want it to go. If I want to explore ancient Roma, I can explore. If I want to move the story along, I can move the story along.  Though the primary gameplay moves quickly, the player is ultimately in control of throttle.

Making its return in “Brotherhood” is the money side of the game, though it’s nowhere near as integral as it was in Assassin’s Creed 2. You can buy businesses, you can buy armor, you can buy paintings, and all of these things increase your armor. Unlike the previous installations, however, not all armor is for sale. Some of the armor and weapons are for “sale.” Some of them you have to complete “shop quests” for, which essentially boil down to finding materials for the shop keeper before they can get you the items you want. I found this a tedious aspect, and an annoying barrier to getting the armor that I wanted. It really didn’t add to the game, but it did force me to engage in some repetitive tasks I would have preferred not to do.

A new ability in “Brotherhood” makes it so you can recruit assassins, which is a very useful strategic feature of the game. You can recruit assassins by busting up fights and saving townspeople, winning them to your cause. As time goes on, you meet up with carrier pigeon stations to send your assassins on missions in different territories, which is the component that helps them level up.  While you have some minor control over them – you have a handful of wardrobe choices and weapons choices – the ultimate goal is to direct them, so to speak, and get them to level 10 Assassin. Once they’re up to the level of a true Assassin, they have already gained all skill points and weapons, hence your only control being over their wardrobe. That said, you don’t recruit assassins for their ability to accessorize – you recruit them to kick ass.

There are three distinct ways in which your recruited assassins can help you in the game. First, you can call on them in a fight, giving you strength in numbers. Second, you can use them to collect items while they’re on your missions, which will all you to use those items in shop quests. Finally, there is a special attack that your assassins – who are presumably following you around at all times – can do: Arrow Storm. When you call on your assassin brothers to perform the Arrow Storm attack, they will fire arrows into any group of baddies in your targeted area. All surrounding enemies die simultaneously and without raising your notoriety or causing you to be discovered. It’s quite useful to learn this attack and use it whenever you need, but be careful because it is timing-based.

Now the time has come for me to discuss my least favorite feature: Multi-player. I love multi-player games. I play them all the time.  Multi-player in Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is very repetitive, very boring and very frustrating. Imagine you’re in a city full of competing assassins. Your job is to find and kill your target without being detected. The thing is, it’s far too easy to put yourself in a position to detect your enemy. Sitting on a chimney on a rooftop somewhere will almost instantly expose anyone coming to get you. I don’t know what a good multi-player experience for Assassin’s Creed would be, but this wasn’t it. Perhaps some co-op missions would be more suitable, similar to what you see in the Crackdown franchise. I know I’d love to play Assassin’s Creed with some friends online. There are some games you play for the gorgeous scenery and the storyline, and there are other games that you play for the multi-player experience. This game is the former. Any multi-player – or other game mode – that does not include the storyline, leaves me struggling to see how I would enjoy it.

Finally, there is the training mode. In this version there is a mode where you’re in the “white room,” sneaking around and training with virtual guards as targets. Training mode is very hard and I found it unnecessary when considering that most of the skills in Assassin’s Creed are fairly simple to understand.The scenarios cooked up for training  mode were much harder than most of the situations I encountered in the actual game.

One big criticism I do have of this, and previous games in this franchise, is that the controls are sometimes clunky. For example, sometimes it’s not obvious which way you want to hold the stick to get the character to jump. This is especially noticeable during the timed bits of the game – of which there seem to be fewer in this version than last.  The lack of confidence in controls can be frustrating to the point of cursing and throwing the controller. Some serious refinement is necessary, though for the most part, this doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of the game overall, just during brief times wherein you’re struggling with inaccurate and counter-intuitive controls.

The long and short of this game is that it’s a blast. Despite a few minor annoyances, this game is gorgeous, it’s got a deep, rich storyline, and I found the characters to be easy to relate to for the most part. I truly cannot wait for the Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.

I highly recommend this game, though I don’t recommend starting the series with this entry.  Instead, I strongly suggest you play Assassin’s Creed 2 prior to Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, as you will miss out on most of the story that is continued in this iteration.

L.A. Noire takes players on a new - though sometimes repetitive - gaming experience.

When I first heard about Rockstar Games‘ and Team Bondi’s newest IP, L.A. Noire, all I could think was that it would be another iteration of Rockstar’s popular Grand Theft Auto series with a different skin (a la Red Dead Redemption).  However, the more I read about the game – a crime drama set in late 1947 Los Angeles – the more intrigued I became, especially with the idea that gunplay was not a primary aspect of the game.  So, I took the bait.

The opening scene begins as you would want any noir-style film to begin – dark and somewhat brooding with an intangible but ever-present tension.  You assume the role of Cole Phelps, a WWII hero and up-and-comer in the Los Angeles police force.  Though the first mission is no indication, you quickly learn that Phelps is a by-the-book type of cop with a nose for details but a man with demons he can’t seem to outrun.  Each conversation between Phelps and other Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) paint him as a man out to prove nothing to anyone but himself as he ascends through the detective ranks and desks of the LAPD.

The progression of Phelps’ career and cases works well in showing the rise to stardom – and fall from grace – that shape the overall narrative tone of the game.  Among the stops you’ll make after you put in your time during the Patrol desk (which is mostly arbitrary to the actual story, save for a few tidbits revealed in cutscenes, walkthrough sequences and necessary character development) is the traffic desk, where you’ll get a taste of the seedy underworld that is Los Angeles, complete with jilted lovers and the darker side of the film industry.  From there, you’ll make your way through the Homicide desk with a multi-part jaunt through the real-life Black Dahlia murders, onto the Vice squad where the line between justice and corruption becomes questionable at best, before finishing at the Arson desk – a progression move that becomes apparent with time.  The story stays compelling up until the final scene that will likely leave you – as it did me – feeling conflicted but satisfied.

As far as gameplay is concerned, I enjoy the “words-not-bullets” approach taken in the game, headlined by interrogation and interviewing that rests how much – or how little – evidence you collect for a case or against a witness, squarely on your shoulders.  Aiding you in this venture is an intuitive “notebook” feature that catalogs all the details of each case – from a blood stained stocking or known-address, to the dying – but implicit – words of a shooter in a robbery-gone-wrong.   Unfortunately, the investigation process – though thrilling at first – seems to become formulaic as the game marches on.  By the end of your time on the Traffic desk, you know the drill of “Arrive at scene, collect clues, initiate small-talk, conduct interviews, case closed, repeat.”  Scouring scenes for clues becomes very tiresome very quickly.  Were it not for the fact that I didn’t want to miss out on any dialog, I could have just as easily skipped entire rooms during searches and still completed my cases. While there are foot and car chase sequences to break up the procedural feel of the game, even these aspects become predictable by game’s end.  Once you’ve experienced one car chase, you may as well have experienced them all.  This doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoyable, but you won’t find many varying details from one chase to the next (as is true with the foot chases).

The real substance of the game comes through in the interrogations themselves, which pit you against the potential suspect in a game of playing on emotions.  All accusations must be backed up by proof and the difference between that next lead and empty hands may be the difference between believing someone or doubting them.  This can be frustrating at times due to the very fine lines between suspecting doubt and the truth and the ability to incorrectly utilize evidence that otherwise seems to fit perfectly. Still, despite the ability to lose leads and information, how you decide to conduct interviews and interrogations has no actual impact on the main storyline, which I found to be a bit of a letdown.

Mechanically, the game moves well.  The facial features – which are most evident in the interviews and interrogations – blow away anything I’ve ever seen in a video game and give you the feel of watching an interactive movie.  Character movement is very fluid, highlighted by great details such as changing shadows and clothing that moves when your character does.    My only real complaint is the driving ability in this game.  Driving to and from locations can be very frustrating at first due to the car control setup.  This is amplified by the inability to select any other control methods or even an adequate alternate camera view.  Fortunately, you can forgo driving yourself to locations by having  your partner do so, a feature I love, since driving became very stale after only a few cases.  If it weren’t for how amazingly put together the city of Los Angeles is, I would say have your partner drive to every crime scene.

Despite the lack of impactful decision making and some control gaffs (looking at you, cover system), compelling plot-lines help drive an overall enjoyable experience.  Being as this is a new venture by Rockstar and Team Bondi, I feel inclined to overlook the flaws for the sake of an experience that you would be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.

However, if this is indeed the next great franchise, a lot of changes – both minor and major – need to be made before greatness is truly realized.  If Rockstar and Bondi can learn from their mistakes in L.A. Noire and prove it, I would have no problem throwing down money on a Chicago or New York Noire.

It’s June 7th, you know what that means. We get to learn about Ezio Auditore da Firenze‘s latest exploits in Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. I got the latest Game Informer with Ezio’s mug all over it, and boy did I flip! Since having kids I haven’t had so much time for gaming, so I only finished Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood twoweeks ago. Things I’m looking forward to:

1. Multiplayer that isn’t super frustrating, and has more of an appeal to more people. The only thing worse than a not-well-done multiplayer is a not-well-done multiplayer without anybody to play with.
2. Hookblade! Game Informer put this out in issue 218, it looks sick.
3. Constantinople anybody? The artwork and screen shots in Game Informer look sick, I can’t wait to see how the game will look.

In addition to all of the new stuff, I think that the end of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood has me wondering, what just happened? Not to throw out any spoilers for those of you who haven’t finished, but it’s not entirely clear–at least not to me–what happens at the end.

If you have any hopes for this afternoon, I’d be happy to hear them.

You should be able to view the press conference live at 10AM Pacific time at the E3 Expo website.

So I’ve been playing Fallout 3 on the Playstation 3 a whole lot lately, and I must say that I’m digging this game.  I’ve created a good character–which is unusual for me, I tend to prefer evil characters in these sorts of games–and I’ve been doing a whole lot of the quests.

One of the biggest things that’s helped me in the game is the Galaxy News Radio station which encourages me to continue in the story.  It’s a lot of fun to hear Three-Dog talk about your progress on GNR, and it makes you curious about what he’d have to say next.  The music is limited and very repetitive, and unfortunately so are the news clips if you don’t keep the story moving along.

Fallout 3 has no lacking for places to explore or things to discover.  For the more casual gamers among us, it’s also not too difficult to keep going as the story progresses.  It’s pretty easy to keep up and it’s also pretty easy to understand how the story is progressing.

As with most Bethesda games, however, this game is simply littered with bugs, glitches, and often illogical problems (such as finding the body of one thing you killed among the parts of others that you have also just killed).  Bethesda could and should prevent so many of these issues with simple interface changes, perhaps  an interface that shows you that there are multiple possible bodies or containers (or both) to search, and having you select which one you wish to search without having to exactly point at it.  Also, behind the Washington Monument there’s a giant pile of rubble that you can glitch into.  This game is also devoid of meaningful internationalization.  For those of us who speak English, this is not a problem, but the US’s neighbors to the north (at least some of them) and many Europeans might not appreciate this game as much since almost everything is English… interface, dialog, subtitles, etc.

My biggest problem with this game, however, is the completely lacking after-market support for the Playstation 3.  Bethesda needs to, at some point, decide whether it wants my Playstation 3 play or not.  Having played this game on both the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3, it’s my opinion that the load times are considerably shorter, and the game is more responsive on the Playstation 3 than it is on the Xbox 360.  Unfortunately, Bethesda has decided to not provide downloadable content for this game through Playstation Network, so all of those cool add-ons that Xbox 360 players get to enjoy I miss out on because of a stupid business decision.

Pros:

• Excellent story with many fun and interesting quests and sub-quests.
• Immersive environment in many ways: radio, billboards, buildings, recognizable sites and buildings to see.
• Interesting weapons.
• Not too difficult for the more casual gamer.
• Performs quite well on Playstation 3
• Great trophies support.

Here’s a tutorial for Little Big Planet that I came up with.

I’ve been an Apple user for only a short period of time now, but I’ve recently found that I dig the Super Monkey Ball on iPhone.  Take a look at the video below.

I’ve played Monkey Ball on Nintendo machines before, and I’ve loved it.  I think that the iPhone edition is nice, but I’ll stick to my GameCube and Wii versions.

Pros

• This game has amazing graphics for an iPhone, and even for a small display in general.
• Controls make a lot of sense for the type of game that Monkey Ball is.
• It’s a lot of fun, and it’s a franchise that many already know.

Cons

• Even with intuitive controls it’s tricky to control because the physics seem a bit off.
• It’s hard to pick up and put down quickly if you get a phone call.
• This game may be a bit over-priced at $10.
• There are no small mini-games like most of us know and love in Monkey Ball.
• There is no story line like what many of us are used to in previous Monkey Ball games.

The bottom line here is that for me, Monkey Ball’s story line was always just a way to get more points to unlock more mini-games.  I always loved the mini-games, and those are sadly missing from this iPhone version of the game.  The story line also doesn’t have much story to it.  I think SEGA could have done so much more to make this game better.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the SOCOM franchise. I’ve never been a fan of shooters on hand-held systems either. This game breaks both molds in two ways: first, the missions are compelling, intuitive, and exciting. Second, the controls make sense and work well for the PSP. Finally, the online play really adds an unexpected element to this game that makes it more re-playable for me.

I really got hooked on this game with the PSN demo download for PSP, and I kinda never looked back.  I found that the missions of fireteam bravo were increasingly exciting, and they told me why each objective was where it was.  My favorite part of playing this game is still the first mission where you learn to snipe for the first time.  I remember scaring the pants off my wife shouting for joy when I got to put a slug in someone’s head for the first time.

As with all things, there are down-sides.  The first down-side is an unforgivable one as far as I’m concerned: it is too easy to go out of bounds, and if you do it too much you lose the mission.  I think this was a consistent problem throughout the game for me, whenever you’re in a field that looks open, it’s easy to get lost and getting lost often times means you lose and have to retry the mission.  There are also some serious stability problems with this game, as online play regularly locks up my PSP resulting in much shouting and cursing.

Pros:

• Online play for a PSP game is rarely done, and even more rarely done well.
• The story is beautiful, and from what my ex-marine buddies tell me it is a believable military story.
• The game keeps you up to speed on what your objectives are and why your objectives are what they are, it also shows you how your actions benefit or harm the overall story.
• The controls are well done and seem to be well thought out.

Cons:

• There are serious online multiplayer stability issues resulting in lockups.
• The graphics aren’t that great, even for a hand-held.
• There are no in-mission checkpoints, so if you fail a mission you have to start over.
• Even with controls that make sense, it’s difficult to always maneuver well in the game.

The bottom line is that this game is a great play for those who like shooters, but don’t normally consider them on the hand-held.  I think many have counted this game out because it’s an in-depth shooter on a hand-held, but it really does earn its place in the SOCOM franchise it seems.

This is one of the few “must-have” games of the year as far as I’m concerned.  I anticipated this game to the point of pre-ordering it, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that I did pre-order it.  This game is fantastic, I don’t even know where to begin.

When I pre-ordered this game, I got it on Playstation3 since I wanted to get the most out of the graphics, and I think I made the right decision.  On the PS3 this game looks incredible: the animation is smooth, the environments are believable, and the images are crisp.  But as we all know, game play is what makes or breaks a game, so let’s go look there.

In recent times, many sports games have “practice” or “training” modes where you can go in and try to improve your skills.  For me, this is crucial, because I am terrible at sports games.  I’m so terrible that it is often difficult for me to win a game with 5-minute quarters playing on easy.  My rushing is great, my rush defense is acceptable, but when the ball is in the air all bets are off.  I can’t pass to save my life, and it’s hard for me to read a quarterback on defense, so training mode is quite helpful for me.  Madden’09 has a much more in-depth and intensive, and with the My Skill tests I find that the game challenges me more than I’m used to being challenged, without being overwhelmed.

It’s not all a bed of roses though.  Unfortunately many bugs and a handful of bad ideas made their way into the game.  Bugs are a big drag on this game, especially profile loading and management.  I’m constantly frustrated when instead of displaying my profile name “USER1″ is displayed all over the interface.  Bad ideas are present as well, even in features I loved like the My Skill.  When testing one’s skill, I didn’t think it was wise for the test to give me the answers and show me which buttons to press to get past defenders.  I also didn’t think it was great for the end-game interface to very confusingly try to get me to step into the trainer.  The last thing I want when I’ve just had my butt handed to me by the Miami Dolphins is for the game to rub it in by coercing me into the trainer.

Pros:

• The graphics in this game are outstanding, and great in high-definition.
• The play calling is a little easier here, and ask Madden makes a little more sense than in previous versions of the franchise.
• My Skill helps keep you from being overwhelmed, and it updates at the end of each game.
• Rewind is a neat idea that lets those of us who have a harder time keep from getting too discouraged.
• Online play allows league and season play, and with the EA Fantasy Football integration (collectors edition only I believe) you can import your Fantasy Football teams.

Cons:

• There are noticeable bugs that should have been taken care of.
• My Skill tests aren’t as accurate since they give you the answer.
• The end of a game is a bit confusing asking you to go into the trainer.
• The announcing is just horrible, I’ve found it best just to turn the volume off for the announcers.
• Online doesn’t let you play a full regulation season.

The bottom line on this game is that it is great for football.  My brother and I enjoy playing it together, and I think many others will as well.  This is Madden, it’s been around for twenty years, and I’ve played it for as long as it has been out.  I think they could still do better, but this is certainly a great addition to the franchise.

So, Mass Effect came out for the Xbox 360, and wow. I must confess that I haven’t been able to put this game down. This game touches on everything that I, as a sci-fi gamer, really like. I get an elite soldier status where I can choose to be good or bad, I can control what I look like, I can control who I bring with me on which missions, and I can explore several planets throughout the milky way galaxy.

The premise of this game is that you are a human member of the System Alliance military, and you kinda get to choose your past a little bit, too. You eventually get promoted to an elite soldier in a multi-species group called “specters.” You get to be the “right hand” of a council that governs galactic affairs for a large number of systems in the galaxy. You get to fly around space and take care of problems using any amount of force you deem necessary. This game is just a whole lot of fun, and I recommend it to sci-fi enthusiasts and RPG enthusiasts looking for an interesting new take on the RPG.

Parents, please note that this game is rated “M” by the ESRB, and it does have some rather suggestive themes, a little nudity, some foul language, and some minor gore.

Pros:

• You’re an elite soldier who gets to choose how to handle the criminals.
• This game is pretty open to what order you want to complete missions in. It’s very nice.
• The leveling system is robust and offers you several different ways to configure your character.
• You get your own spaceship, how is that not cool?
• While there is significant load time in this game, it is very tastefully disguised in the form of decontamination sweeps or elevator rides.
• You can save your game ANYWHERE and pick it up right where you left off. This is great for those of us who don’t have a whole lot of time to game in a single sitting.
• Lots of fantastic voice acting with several well-respected voice actors like Seth Green.

Cons:

• This game locks up and crashes infrequently.
• Lots of freezes while saving.
• This game is still pretty linear, and I was a bit disappointed.
• The conversation driving engine is a little limited.
• It’s sometimes difficult to know what your character will say when you choose an option in the dialog.
• You don’t get to explore as many planets as I’d like to.
• No analog control of your spacecraft.
• Your character can only be a human.
• For some reason, the game developers won’t let me explore Earth. I don’t know about you all, but that was something I’d really like to see.

The bottom line on this game is that it is a lot of fun for those of us who’ve been waiting a while to do something different with our gaming. It’s not a traditional shooter, it’s not a traditional RPG, and it’s not a traditional Sci-Fi Thriller. It’s all three of them wrapped in a beautiful little package. The graphics are outstanding and the voice acting is wonderful. I highly recommend this game.

So, some of you may be surprised to learn that while the United States has been getting all of the goodies first lately, Europe got a break and will be the first region to see the new Silver Nintendo DS Lite. Congratulations to the Europeans, and I look forward to seeing one here in the United States.

Joystiq’s Article on the Silver DS Lite

I recently read this telling article on joystiq.com about a guy who sent his 15-year-old kid into Best Buy to purchase a copy of the recently released M-rated game, BioShock. The parent in question is an Attorney named Jack Thompson, and Thompson has declared the ESRB game rating system “a fraud perpetrated upon American families from sea to shining sea.” Well I have a question for Thompson and other like-minded parents…

Since when did it become the responsibility of Best Buy, Circuit City, GameStop, Game Crazy, and Wal-Mart to supervise your kids? You do know that if you are with your kid when they buy a game, that the clerk won’t sell your kid a game if you tell them not to… don’t you?

The problem with Thompson’s ever-so-clever “sting” operation is that he’s putting the responsibility on the retailer. Little Billy is not the ward or responsibility of Best Buy, Take-Two Interactive, RockStar Games, Microsoft, or anybody else other than his parents and/or guardians. As someone who is about to be a parent, I am growing more and more confused about why someone would expect Best Buy to parent their children. Afterall, the money is just as green (or whatever the color of your local currency is) if a kid hands it to the cashier as when an adult hands it to the cashier.

For those of you who are confused as to why I would say that the game retailers and developers have no responsibility, let me pose a question to you: when was the last time you sat down and played or watched your kid game? Do you know what’s in their collection? Do you know what the content of their favorite games are? In my time as a youth minister, I’ve found that most kids are eager to discuss their gaming with anybody who will sit still long enough to hear it. It’s something they enjoy discussing and they’re tickled to death that somebody will listen to what they have to say.

Participating in your kids gaming also gives you two very important parenting opportunities. First, it allows you to grow in relationship with your kid(s). I remember and cherish the times when my dad sat and gamed with me. One of my most vivid childhood memories was when my dad brought home my first console, the 16-bit Sega Genesis, with a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. My dad and all five of us kids sat around the tube all night with that game and we laughed and joked and had a fantastic time. I was about 8 years old at that time, and it’s something that continues in my family even as my wife and I are about to have a child. My dad still plays games with myself and my siblings. He recently came over and played Burnout Revenge on the Xbox 360 with me and my brother. This is something that we all enjoyed and I know my dad has fond memories of these times just as much as my siblings and I do.

The second parenting opportunity that participating in your kids’ gaming offers is one of control. You can’t control what content your kids see if you don’t know what content your kids see. If you know your kids’ game collection, and you spot a new addition that you do not approve of, you can confiscate and discipline. This is no different than if you found a movie you didn’t approve of or a magazine you didn’t approve of. You may even be able to get your kids money refunded if you take it back to the store.

As an adult who games and as a man who is about to become a father I am increasingly concerned that irresponsible parents are going to damage both my hobby and my children. I do not want any government regulation dictating what games I can and cannot play, and I do not want irresponsible parents holding retailers responsible for their shortcomings as parents.

To all parents who want to try and argue that it isn’t their fault and that they don’t have the time to supervise or participate with their kids, or that it’s the industry’s responsibility to keep “moral standards,” don’t bother. Make time for your kids, make time for your kids’ gaming, make time to supervise your kids. The influences that this world can have on your children that you won’t approve of are infinite, and most of them don’t really care whether or not you approve. Only with your positive influences and constant reinforcement of things you do approve of will your kids get the message.

If you are a parent who wants to learn how to better control your kids’ gaming experience, I have a suggested reading list for you:

1. ESRB’s Resources for Parents
2. Parental Controls for the Nintendo Wii
3. Xbox 360 Family Controls

Unfortunately, Sony doesn’t seem to have a useful parental control manual for any of their systems on their website, so you’ll have to refer to your user’s manual for more information there.

So yesterday I walked into my local GameCrazy and snagged my pre-ordered copy of Stranglehold, and I also got a copy of the latest Harvest Moon for the wife and one of those nifty Xbox 360 keyboards for myself. My Stranglehold came with a super-nifty shot-glass, too, as the pre-order goody.

So, back to Stranglehold… I don’t know if any of you have tried the demo, but the demo is the reason I pre-ordered Stranglehold. The first five minutes of Stranglehold has you killing more than 22 baddies (I lost count around 22, sorry). That’s an insane action game. Not only that but your character is a middle-aged smarty-pants detective who doesn’t know how to take “no” for an answer. It’s like a Bruce Willis movie without the male-pattern-baldness and cheesy come-backs.

Then there’s the accuracy shot… so to the developers of Stranglehold, how did you know I was gonna pop a cap in that guy’s junk? Was the nut-shot that easy to anticipate? Either way it’s beautiful. There is nothing like shooting a baddie in the family jewels and seeing him grab himself in pain as he goes down. In addition to shooting folks in the junk–which is not always possible because of how the baddie is standing–you can shoot him in pretty much any part of his face or neck to get a very satisfying response.

So I haven’t gotten very far in this game, and I hope it’s saving at every checkpoint because I just don’t have the time to get to savepoints if checkpoints are them, but I’ll let you all know what I think as I progress through the game.

I’ve also got BioShock, but I’m thinking I’ll wait until my brother gets back from Arkansas to play any more of that. That game is just too beautiful to play by yourself.

So, many of you may have heard of the Katamari series before, but never before have I been so enamored with it. The Xbox 360 demo for Beautiful Katamari really seems to have done me in, and so starts my love of the game. While in my local GameCrazy, my friendly neighborhood GC-buddy, Dusten, showed me “Me & My Katamari” on the PSP. Wow, can we say gorgeous? The cartoon-like graphics just look so crisp and clear on that high-resolution PSP display, and the music is kookie and strange… how wonderful.

If you’re not familiar with Katamari, while the story lines seem to be strange, I mostly ignore them. Instead, I just focus on the gameplay… which is awesome. You roll this little ball around–a Katamari ball–and stuff sticks to it… and then stuff sticks to the stuff that stuck to the ball, and then stuff sticks to that stuff, and so on. Eventually you’re sticking people and houses, and who knows what else to your ball which is now becoming quite large (measured in meters). When you’re done, the King of All Cosmos tells you what your ball comprises of, and scores your ball.

After I’ve put some more play time into Me & My Katamari I’ll give you all a full review. Until then, I strongly recommend that you give it a look-see.

Some of you are aware of my fascination with family and cartoon-link games. Viva Piñata is a game that I completely got distracted from before it got really good. Well that problem is gone. The distraction was Crackdown, and since I finished that game I’ve been spending a lot more time playing Viva Piñata. Since getting back into Viva Piñata, I’ve discovered a whole new depth to the game. There seems to be a lot of event-driven activity in there, and there are certainly a lot of achievements to be unlocked.

Since picking the game back up, I’ve unlocked another 19 achievements for a total of 380 gamer points. I’ve also built a mine, unlocked several variants of several piñata, and had an awful lot of fun in the process. This game is doing a fantastic game of recapturing my attention and helping bridge the gap until the next great game.

My previous review of this game can be found here.

If you are playing this game and would like some tips, I encourage you to check out http://www.pinataisland.info for some tips and information about the game.

Okay, so I know I’m gonna catch flack for this one, but I must declare Bioshock a suspense thriller instead of a shooter. Yeah, so you’re in first person, and yeah, you shoot things, but this is so much more than a shooter. So much more indeed. Here’s the rundown of the demo.

SPOILER ALERT: Contrary to my normal position on not posting spoilers, in order to make my point with this game I must post some degree of a spoiler. If you don’t want to read the spoiler, PLEASE STOP NOW.

Right in the beginning of this game, you’re a victim in a plane crash–though I suspect your character may have had something to do with the crash–and you’re in a large body of water, presumably the ocean, near a lighthouse. Once you enter the lighthouse you enter a strange sort of elevator that takes you under water quite a ways. Then you get shown a video telling you about this underwater city of “Rapture”. The moment the elevator stops, you see a man being killed by a very strange looking creature, and it’s kinda scary. Then the creature comes after you, clawing at your elevator roof. You’re told to get out of the elevator and then you go and find a weapon yadda yadda yadda. Then you find a syringe, and like any good game player assume that it is a good idea to inject the contents of the syringe into your character. Your character’s body kinda freaks out you you get the creepiest cut-scene ever.

A very pale-looking little girl–you don’t get to see all of her–talks to a gigantic monster in a dive suit with a drill on its arm like its her little pet. She says that she thinks you’re an angel, but then reconsiders when she sees you breathing. But she assures her “pet” that you will be an angel soon.

Conclusion: This game is not a shooter. As I said, this game does have shooting, and that’s all find and dandy, but this is so much more than a shooter. In shooters you don’t have story lines this disturbingly creepy or suspenseful. I actually got a kick of adrenaline playing the demo, similar to when you watch films like Silence of the Lambs or Halloween. This game is really pioneering a new type of game, which actually seems to be just as much about the story–which seems incredible–as well as the graphics and gameplay–which also seem quite nice.

I seriously recommend that folks try the demo for themselves and see what they think. It just blew me away.

any console is now open for others to come and review. Since I–manchicken–only have so much time to game, there is no way that I could possibly try out all of the possible games there are two try. My individual pwnage is therefore limited to the games that I’m interested in, and the games that I can get around to playing. For this reason I have decided that our collective pwnage can be greater than my individual pwnage, and I’ve opened things up.

Please see the “pwn with us” page for more details.

So please don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to pick on Nintendo here. I’m a big Nintendo fan actually, I’m just tired of the disappointment. That said…

Today Nintendo released the Metriod Prime 3: Corruption preview on WiiShop. When I saw this I was ecstatic because I thought that Nintendo had finally wised up and decided to start putting playable demos in the WiiShop. Imagine my surprise when I fired that bad boy up and all I get is a video.

This video is fantastic, and the game looks great to be sure… which is why I wanted a freakin’ playable demo. PS3 fans and Xbox 360 fans have been enjoying playable demos for a while. PS2 and Xbox fans have even been able to obtain playable demos via the official magazines for a long time, too. This is the sort of thing that Nintendo fans have really missed out on, and it’s the kind of marketing that Nintendo has ignored at their own peril.

Nintendo, just in case you missed my point, your fans want playable demos via WiiShop or some other Nintendo WiFi Connection application. We are tired of seeing every other system give us fantastic game previews when all you give us are web sites–pretty as though they may be–and videos.