We get it, you still hate video games

The Times, continuing their assault on video games, has invited guest columnist Giles Whittell to post a rant listing his reasons on why he hates video games. This after The Times lied about video games box receiving health warning labels and whose two other hacks have no will to be responsible for their children's actions. His main reason: that video gaming is a waste of time.

I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them.

This was written by a book author. What do authors do? Suck real people into fake worlds. I see no difference from people who take comfort in immersing themselves in films, books, music, musicals or indeed video gaming. To single out a medium specifically for his attack says a lot of this hypocritical old man, whose books are no where near as influential as those by authors like J.R.R. Tolkein, Terry Pratchet and J.K. Rowling.

This is not because of anything wrong or bad about video games or heroin or teenage parents. It's not even because of game-induced homicide or web-grooming of little girls by perverts - serious problems, but statistically low-risk. It's because, compared with everything else on offer in a kid's life, video games and heroin and teenage pregnancy are a colossal waste of time.

Silly argument. What do we do in this world that isn't a waste of time? Sudoku? Fishing? Hiking? Reading travel books written by the same hack who posted the above diatribe? All these are equally a waste of time. Writing the article itself for all intent and purpose was ultimately a waste of time, as was writing this reply. I know what isn't a waste of time. Giving birth to a beautiful baby, even if it was the result of teen pregnancy.

Dr Byron says a third of ten-year-olds in England spend more than three hours per school day playing video games. In England, maybe. In my house, only when I'm dead. Meanwhile, I want my kids to overdose on wind, rain, mud, gravy, tents, mountains and overcooked bacon. (Oh, and do their homework.) Why is that suddenly so weird?

I see you also enjoy time wasting. What is the difference of wasting time standing under the rain to wasting time playing video games or reading proper books? Is it because you are a bitter technophobic? Whose inability to connect with young people makes you angry? At the end of the day eating overcooked bacon or playing video games still results in the same thing - wasting time. But at least I had fun playing games. Overcooked bacons are not that great.

You could do worse than wasting your time with video gaming fun. You could be a Times reader.

Anne Diamond reviews some sick twisted games, assigns responsibility to everyone but herself

The knowledgeable Anne Diamond, writing via the Daily Mail - the trash passing off as a legitimate 'newspaper' that only sensible people like you and me uses to wipe their arse with, today gave her highly 'informed opinion' on video gaming in response to the Byron review. In it piece she trashed most, if not all major mainstream video games released in the past year. She did get a couple of things right, that Halo 3 is 'in' and that as a parent she should guard constantly on what kind of content she allows into her own home. But then she completely lost the plot, saying that war games like Call of Duty 4 is okay (in small doses!) but a fantasy game like Resident Evil 4 (which received a 15 rating from the BBFC) should not be sold to adults. Just like her puppet masters at the Daily Mail, the only thing she and her evil cohorts want is to regulate what we can or can not consume.

Anne Diamond, these games are rated. It is your problem as a parent to stop your 12 year old son from buying the games you listed. You even admitted that you allowed a 15 rated game into your home! Stop acting like a hypocritical ding bag, as it only make yourself look more idiotic than TV presenters normally are. To be honest your reviews were entertainingly amusing, very comedic, that you may even make it to the staff of Official Nintendo Magazine, though that doesn't make it right.

Excuse my bad language. I have been reading what these idiots pretending to be experts have been writing, and it makes me sick.

The Byron review review

The Department of Children, Schools and Families is hosting the Byron review (PDF). Do make sure you download and read them carefully. There has been plenty of misinterpretation by the mainstream mass media (The Sun's sister paper The Times, erroneously suggested that video games will carry ciggies style health warning is completely made up - though not surprising considering their past opinions) on what the Byron review actually says and what they (the media) wants it to say.

One of the key summary from Tanya Byron that made an impression is how she thinks that society needs to move from a debate about whether or not new media (Internet and video gaming) cause harm to young people. She also points out ultimately that parental responsibility is a key factor in preventing violent video games from falling into minors. Concerned parents are said to hardly restrict access to the games their children are playing and are oblivious to the content due to misinterpreting PEGI ratings. She recommends that a parental awareness campaign be put into place (something I agree with) and to be funded by the games industry.

Further the BBFC rating will appear on all games requiring 12, 15 and 18 certificate with the PEGI rating at the back (previously only 15 and 18 games that has 'film'-like content requires them). PEGI will continue rating 3+ and 7+ games. This is because many parents are unaware of how the PEGI system works, preferring to trust their purchasing decisions on the more well known and established BBFC rating system. Personally I think it is a waste of time and good money. PEGI is fine as it is (apart from some questionable back icons). The BBFC age logo does not tell a parent anything more than a PEGI age rating already does. Last I heard, 18 means 18. Mind you, I quite like the BBFC logo, but again it is such a waste of time and money. It would be better to spend the money on educating the public on the merits of the PEGI rating system, rather than hemorrhaging them (something the British government does best).

A more detailed commentary is provided by the good people at British Gaming Blog and Eurogamer.

Mass Effect smeared by anti-gaming media

Surprise surprise, FOX News who shares the same parent company as The Times, recently aired a segment attacking Mass Effect for its alleged inclusion of full nudity (which it doesn't, not that it matters to me if it does! - we are not a bunch of old prudes here). Proving equally as ignorant as their British counterparts, the news anchor, Martha MacCallum acknowledge that the game receives an 'M' rating. But she insists that it is available to kids, forgetting to blame parents and stores for enforcements. The news anchor also ignores the fact of the parental control system available on the 360 and claims that kids can get around that if parents aren't strict enough.

As with The Times articles, this is just another excuse for some people to attempt to relinquish their parental responsibility on their own kids and just blame the industry. The anchor even admits that she saw nothing of graphic nature of the game, but continued to blame it. The segment also features an attack by giggling psychologists Cooper Lawrence, who admitted to never playing the game - yet claims that the game features full graphical nudity as fact. I could go on and on, but you just have to watch the segment to understand how frustrating it is to find a news channel that always claims to be unbiased (yeah right, like we ever bought into that!) reports lies as factual. It is sad.

A rebuttal by EA is available here. I am not normally a fan of EA, the company, but this time they really came off as passionate enough to defend their work and the industry after a series of smear attacks by the media. Cooper Lawrence, the psychologist who slandered the game but never played it has since saw her Amazon books rating gone downhill. Juvenile actions by juvenile gamers maybe, but so was her initial action.

Right wing hack prefers Hollyoaks to ICO

A hack writing for The Times, accused video games as highly addictive - the equivalent to Satan's Sudoku, and that she would never ever purchase a Xbox, PS2, GameCube and portable gaming consoles for her kids. Because apparently kids spend 5 hours a day staring at their DS and PSP, playing games that has no character development or plotlines, and it is the fault of the evil creators brains. While I agree that some games lack a decent storyline (e.g. Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy), to say that she actually prefer her kids to watch hours of hours of repressive and downright trashy British soaps like Eastenders and Hollyoaks is downright amusing, or a desperation in her part to prove an invalid point. Like any other entertainment industry, video game are available with a wide variety of subjects - much like books and films, and not the black and white situation she accuses the industry of being in.


According to Ms. Turner, Hollyoaks is good for children...

Much like her other anti-video gaming Times buddy Emma Mahony, Janice Turner has taken a line that if her children ends up spending too much time playing video games, it is the fault of the industry. Never did she once, like her colleague, own up and admit that if their children play too much video games, or play the wrong video game - it is their own fault to supervise them as parents should. But then again, like many people nowadays, it is far easier to blame society for any ills their children could theoretically suffer from - rather than looking in the mirror. Yes too much gaming is not good, but to say that video gaming is the root of all evil isn't proper journalism - it is typical scaremongering. Why not sit down with your children and play with them or are you one of them technophobes who just can't accept change. Or is Hideo Kojima's intricate plots in Metal Gear Solid series too much to take in for such close-mindedness?


... but games like ICO, which features a storyline that encourages the player to think outside the box are like 'crack'

As a Eurogamer commentator perfectly summarised - this is yet another right wing hack one again proclaiming his or her preference for the 'good old days'.

Video games rating explained

One of my pet peeves are ignorant parents who buy their children the wrong game then blame someone else for their mistakes. For example if they buy a game rated for adults and later find out that these games contains violence, nudity and what-not - who do you think they blame? Video games and the industry. So dear parents, here is a small guide on video games ratings that took me 10 minutes to research. You can even print it for Christmas shopping.

Europe uses a voluntary rating system called PEGI (Pan European Game Information). Though not legally enforceable in the majority of the countries, the ratings are pretty useful for people who wants to avoid buying games with certain content as they are well described and often accurate. Many game stores follow the PEGI rating system though not all the staff members do.


The ratings are printed on the front of games cases while the back contain additional content descriptor icons (up to six though most of my games only come with one descriptor icons). These icons are self-explanatory but just to clear any confusion, from top left to top right: Bad language, discrimination, drugs, fear, gambling, sex & nudity and violence.


Trauma Center: suitable for age 7+, contains killer spiders

In the UK certain games with film-like scenes such as sexual activity or extreme violence, will also be rated by the BBFC. These are enforceable and games banned by the BBFC makes it illegal to sell it (but it will be legal to own if for example you purchased it overseas). So far the only game banned by the BBFC is Manhunt 2, a truly naughty game probably worth banning because of how bad the game is. There is a difference on how the BBFC rate games too, for example the BBFC gave Resident Evil 4 a 15 rating where as PEGI rated it for 18+.


Resident Evil 4 is rated 15 in the UK by BBFC. The rest of Europe has to be 18.

In censor happy Germany, games are required to be rated by this organisation called the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle or USK for short. The coloured based icons meant to represent the ratings are hideously ugly (second only to Australia). Unlike PEGI there are no secondary ratings to describe content as the age rating takes into account the content.


Konami destroys Castlevania box art with two ratings and endorsements

America's voluntary ESRB system is similar to Europe's PEGI. The icons used are prettier though not as informative. The most common icon to look out for if you are buying your kids video games is E which means the game is suitable for everyone. Games rated mature are generally a no-go area for kids. There is an adults only rating that is rarely used, and even then games that receive an AO rating are not allowed to be published by major console manufacturers (Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft). The Kids to Adult rating is no longer used.


Like PEGI content descriptions are printed on the back of the case, though not in the form of icons. Instead to the credit (gasps!) of Americans they actually use something far more useful - actual words. Words such as 'Comic Mischief' or 'Crude Humor' and 'Animated Blood' are such examples and goes straight to the point. These content descriptors can be preceded by the term 'Mild'.


The ESRB content descriptor for Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

I won't cover their CERO rating system here as there are hardly any Japanese visiting this site, and they are probably far more responsible than the rest of us. Australia's classification is very similar to the ESRB system and is colour coded. It is also very ugly and ruins box arts with its huge icons (just import). Australia is a censorship happy country is all I have to say. Hopefully it will change with a more liberal government in stow now.


Australia has a reputation for defiling box arts with its rating icon. Here Team ICO's beautiful Shadow of the Colossus cover is butchered.

The problems with these ratings however is it doesn't tell you which games are suitable for kids. For example Animal Crossing might be rated E for everyone but the gameplay really would not interest anyone above the age of seven especially if you do not want to subject your kids to the concept of paying off mortgages. It is similar with New Super Mario Bros. where the game would probably be too difficult to anyone younger than eight despite receiving a PEGI rating of 3+. In America games that are identified to be suitable for children and therefore educational are rated Early Childhood.

Perhaps the safest way to find out what is suitable for their kids is for parents to finally buck up and start playing games with their children. And stop buying crap licensed games.

Some gaming news

Variety has details up regarding a new Ghostbusters video game to be published by Vivendi. Just look at the screenshot of Marshmallow Man (well, a target renfder, but whatever) above and tell me it isn't brilliant. The four principal cast from the films - Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Ernie Hudson and Harold Ramis will be lending their voice and image likeness for the game as will other supporting casts like Annie Potts and William Atherton. Aykroyd and Ramis will also be writing parts of the scripts. Game of the decade surely.

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BioWare's next major game Mass Effect, will be banned in grumpy ol' Singapore due to "homosexuals" scenes within the game. Surprise? Well you shouldn't. Apparently their PM's logic was that "the city-state should keep its conservative values and not allow special rights for homosexuals". You mean does not allow any equal rights for homosexuals right while maintaining special rights for cronies? You can watch a video here to see what the fuss is all about. Frankly I have seen much worse when I last visited Singapore so I really have no idea why the country is back peddling.

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Early estimates for last week's Japanese hardware sales has put the PS3 ahead of the Nintendo Wii for the first time since like forever. This includes one week of normal (60GB) PS3 sales and one day of the new cheaper (especially with the crazy exchange rate) 40GB PS3. Sales are encouraging and any Nintendo fanboys who thinks this is a bad thing are idiots. Competition is good. Nintendo has been arrogant for far too long taking the easy route of appealing to non-gamers. I think many gamers are getting irritated, including yours truly. I have never felt more regret in getting a Wii than anything else.

Continuing with the Wii, the BBC's lead technology article on the supposed low supplies of the console this Christmas has been consistently in the top 5 most e-mail and read articles on BBC News yesterday according to their little widget. This can only be a good thing as Nintendo's marketing ploy would mean high demand/low supply = high profitability for used Wii.

KEER-CHIIING!

I normally frown on such practices, but hei when there are no games worth playing then it is better to let go for now and re buy it after Christmas when the price drops back down to below £160. Maybe after renting Super Mario Galaxy.

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Not understanding the logic by Nintendo in not bringing over an official translated version of MOTHER 3, but then again they started hating video games when they saw the amount of non-games money they can make (see above). For the non-Japanese speaking gaming fans waiting patiently to play the game, the MOTHER 3 fan translation team has released a video marking the first anniversary when the unofficial translation began at Starman.net:



Great trailer. I tried to play the game in Japanese once and it gave me a headache so I will be waiting for the time when the wonderful team finally release the full patch.

Resistance nomination rubs salt into CoE's wound, probably hurts like hell

Nice to see that the BAFTA isn't relenting to the Church of England's propaganda effort. Already managing to get two apologies from Sony who did nothing wrong by including a polygonised version of Manchester Cathedral (which design is in the public domain) in Insomniac's console FPS Resistance: Fall of Man, an upset Church yesterday demanded that Sony sign up to some sort of weird digital something, attempting to police a self regulating industry. The church is also demanding a substantial 'donation' for their silence troubles.

Meanwhile the UK government has launched a new study of the effect of video games with violent content on children who should never have played them in the first place. The ELSPA said that it would co-operate, but echoing other gamers views, it has also stated that our hobbies has too often been blamed for society's ills.

Take the Beeb's The One Show for example, which was recently aired here. The programme highlights the easiness in which young children were able to obtained 18 certificate video games from entertainment stores. But rather than blaming the stores for lack of enforcement, the programme went on to chastise video games and how easily it can corrupt the young minds and even lead to murder (the Manhunt case was cited, with wrong facts).

Why are video games made scapegoats then when stores are also floating the law by selling 18 rated DVDs to minors? It is simple. As a media format, like the web, it is still new and young. Remember when books, genre music, even films, were made scapegoats by morally oppressive regimes? As genre music and films become more acceptable in mainstream media, something has to take the fall whenever a sensationalist headline needs to be crafted for middle England. New media has often been made scapegoats, and video games is facing a similar situation first with violent content, pretty soon in general.

Let's hope not. On the other hand I can't wait for 23 October. Maybe, just maybe (however unlikely), Resistance will win an award.

Video games blamed for the killing of Rhys Jones?

The suspects has not been identified yet and the motif has not been established by the police, but the unfortunate killing of 11 year old Everton fan Rhys Jones has resulted in certain quarters coming out to blame video games yet again.

In today's The Times' "Letters to the Editor" in which the headline was 'A nation brutalised by drugs and computers', a commentator from West Sussex wrote in reply to the clearly uninformed piece by Emma Majony that chastised the "violence depicted in PlayStation games freely available to children of all ages" claiming that with even reputable mainstream dailies reviewing video games, the battle against video games has been lost.

Video games are available to children of all ages only if their parents allow them to obtain it. It is the same case as television, films, music, books and magazines. And even then there is no clear evidence that video games (or indeed any forms of media, whether print of electronic) can act as a stimuli for violence.

And to Ms. Majony, your son kicked the shoe stand not because he was influenced by a crap Simpsons game, but because you did not teach him that it was wrong to kick a shoe stand.

GayGamer target of vile homophobic attack

Things like this is why I sometimes dislike the video gaming community.

For those in the know, the majority of gaming sites has a main target readership of 15-25 year old male heterosexuals. Don't believe me. Visit any one of the mainstream video gaming sites and tell me it isn't so. Every time a discussion involving characters like Raiden (who is actually straight) or games like Singstar pop ups you will no doubt be treated with vile homophobic related comments. It truly sickens me.

Fact is our hobby isn't dominated by us straight men any longer. Females like my girlfriend and her girlie mates are into it. Our gay friends love playing their PS2 consoles and World of Warcraft as much as they do with each other. It is about time we abandon an out of date prejudice, based on a thousand year old book written by relic old dead people, and accept people for who they are. LGBT are normal people, and many of them like to play video games as well.

I am glad that the people at GayGamer.net are working hard to fix the problem. It is one of the better gaming blogs out there, even for straight gamers.

Church of England "Digital Code of Conduct" aims to demolish creative freedom

Manchester Cathedral today issued a "digital code of conduct" for videogame developers:

1. Respect our sacred spaces as places of prayer, worship, peace, learning and heritage.
2. Do not assume that sacred space interiors are copyright free.
3. Get permission from the faith leaders who are responsible for the building interiors you want to clone.
4. Support the work of those engaged in resisting the culture of gun crime and those involved in promoting the work of conflict resolution.

This was after Sony issued another apology to Manchester Cathedral and the Church of England over the some death that they (Sony) had no involvements. And like the greedy nutjobs they are the CoE isn't accepting the (second) apology, probably still scheming on extorting a pot of money from Sony and, indirectly, from us videogaming fans.

A couple of things is obviously wrong with this so called 'code of conduct', which I hope the videogaming industry as well as the whole entertainment and media industry will ignore, which I will attempt to explain here. An old building architectural design can not be copyrighted (at least extended beyond the original expiration date) much like books by H.G. Wells is no longer copyrighted. They will pass into the public domain, as I am sure if the design of the 600 year old Manchester Cathedral probably has (if it ever was copyrighted in the first place). Even then building a replica of a building, no matter how closely it resembles, isn't 'copying'.

It is how Las Vegas (the most 'sinful' place on earth) was able to rebuild replicas of famous buildings. It was also how the aliens in Independence Day were able to blow up a replica of the White House. It is how 99% of all homes in the UK isn't unique. Do they really think that Alfred Hitchhock's North by Northwest's climatic battle at Mount Rushmore was shot at the real location? If they do then they are in for a rude awakening. What about previous videogames when we could lob grenades into mosques? I never heard them complaining before. Oh wait, they are muslims, so it doesn't matter...

Gun crimes are a local issue. How they expect a multinational company like Sony, which is primarily based in Japan, to take issue on local Manchester gun crimes is beyond me. If Manchester Cathedral and the CoE wanted to tackle the issue head on then they have to do it through their local community - and the parents. At most they can take it on a national level by lobbying the government to tighten gun control and what not. But to blame Sony and the gaming community for the deaths of people they have zero responsibility for?

Last of all let us not forget the content of the game in question itself. The game, Resistance: Fall of Man, involves mankind battling some kind of alien humanoids to save the planet earth. Now, I have never played the game (nor has the church I believe, but at least they can afford a PS3 with all the begging for money stuff they do), but from what I garnered from my more trustful gaming buddies, the Manchester Cathedral was being used as a field hospital (a very noble gesture by Insomniacs, the game's developers) and actually involved alien humanoids attacking the Cathedral and killing sickly patients. Quite how protecting a hospital is bad I can't imagine. Maybe it is because the old farts do not believe in fictional aliens, but then again their bible made up of mythical content.

Or maybe they just want us to shoot gays. They are after all responsible for the miserable weather.

Eagerly awaiting a map mod of Manchester Cathedral for Unreal Tournament 2007 when it is released.

UK floods are god's judgement on society, says religious nutter

The recent floodings in this little island are caused by god's wrath due to increased homosexual acceptance in this country, says a senior Church of England bishop.

Never mind blaming a six month old videogame over a couple of murders that happened years ago, Rt Rev Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle decided to go further, beating his fellow CoE colleagues for insanity drivel, by arguing that part of the reason that people here are drowning is because god is pretty pissed off with us.

God, you see, is one moody bloke, granting us much summer warmth back in Springy April but has now decided that maybe it would be better to punish us folks because the sensible parliament here has giving greater rights to gays. Pro-gay rights are the cause of the Atlantic's high-pressure and Britain's low-pressure, thus causing me to cancel my Wimbledon plans (and pissing me off stupid evening hailstorm) - that was what loony Dow meant. Really.

I can already picture the headline for tomorrow's Daily Mail:

Muslims, homos and socialists: responsible for flooding!

The only way to escape death (at least for now) is easy folks. Read that bible of yours and repent. Then you do not have to worry about any natural disasters, like ever.

Oh, wait.

Via Richard and Anorax

Manhunt 2: BAN THIS SICK FILTH!

The year is 2007, but somehow it feels like 1973. Why? Because the BBFC has rejected to classify Manhunt 2, effectively making it illegal to sell the PS2 and Wii ported game in this country. This would be the first video game to be banned since Carmageddon (Later overturned. Remember that game? It was awesome). I did not like the first Manhunt, so this isn't a huge loss to me. Though it scares me to think that Suda 51's No More Heroes might get banned because apparently it contain more violent content than Manhunt 2.

The reason I didn't like the first game was the gameplay, and not the violent content (although the sadistic content is pretty nauseating) itself, so I think for a game like Manhunt 2 to be banned based on the content is irrational thinking - something akin to book burning days of yore. Which is shocking because I tend to respect the BBFC's more liberal approach (I still do, the BBFC are one of the few organisations who actually play the games rather than view a video of it) when it comes to classifying games compared to other countries, like Germany's USK - where knee jerk reaction by idiot politicians can have affect the process.

This wouldn't be the first time that video games are to be used as scapegoats. "Ban this sick filth" is already a common hysterical theme among right wing tabloids like the Daily Mail. The first Manhunt game didn't escape criticism either when some shops removed it from the shelves due to tabloid hysteria. Then there was the Rule of Rose scandal, a game that none of the MPs played, but still wanting to create a teacup storm over nothing. This and the mad demands by the Church of England over Resistance: Fall of Man is making me sick.

If you want to ban something, ban something which is rubbish, like Dan Brown's new book or the new Fantastic Four. Oh well, the game is probably rubbish anyway, like most of Rockstar's post GTA III games. But still...

via Eurogamer

More Church of England rant

I see that the Church of Henry VIII is seeking its old habit again of attempting to extend its influence over places it does not belong. The Anglican church today pleaded with the Japanese people to join with them in their fight against Sony. They argued that any religious building such as a mosque should not be included in games of violent content, which I find amusing as many US war games contains maps of mosques where we can blow people up inside. I never heard the church coming to their defence before.

The media as usual has been up to its usual sleeve, reporting the church's propaganda by referring to the game where 'hundreds of people' are killed in the church, which as far as I know (speaking to other gamers online, is bull). As much as I dislike Sony's PlayStation department nowadays (SCEI), as a gamer I have to side with Sony (and other games developers who seek artistic freedom). Did Westminster Abbey sue Dan Brown when he wrote that superbly average blockbuster known as Da Vinci Code? No. BTW, You can read my original opinion here which has not change.

If they are so concern about gun crime, perhaps it is time for the dying institution to look at themselves as community and what they can do to fix it, rather than shifting blame to a company thousands of miles away.

via Yahoo! News

Mythical fairytale god hates games...

But Londoners definitely loves portable video games.

On National Express coach:
- One adult male with black DS Lite
- One adult male with black PSP (SEGA Mega Drive Collection)

On Tube (in my 45 minutes worth of journey today)
- One adult male with black DS Lite
- One adult male with white DS Lite
- One adult female with white DS Lite
- One adult male with enamel navy DS Lite
- One adult male with white PSP
- Zero Blackberries!

It was great to finally see more adults willing to whip out their DS Lite consoles to play in public. Yay London!

In other news an old insignificant relic known as the Church of England is threatening legal action against Sony Computer Entertainment over Insomniac's PS3 game Resistance: Fall of Man. This was because of the inclusion of a Manchester cathedral in the game where men had to battle aliens (sounds pretty cool, maybe I will get a PS3 after all - make that 50% price drop happen SCEE!).

The Beeb has even created four separate articles on this subject (that is an average of TWO a day, for a none-news! Must be a slow news day yesterday), even giving it top bill BBC News website for much of Saturday. I guess they are not interested in 'Maddy' now (thank you German reporter).


Spiffy. Too bad you can't WASD+mouse'd the game.

Now I don't know about you (and my law knowledge is at best consigned to consumer law) but last I heard you can't 'renew' the copyright of old buildings, especially old relics like cathedrals and such (which at 800 years old, probably/should be in the public domain anyway). Now, any lawsuit based on copyrights would likely be thrown out by a sensible judge, so me thinks the CoE is doing this as part of their 'morale crusade' on video games (you don't see churches complaining when films or books use them in fiction) or probably for some kind of money related intent.

I mean they are asking Sony to 'donate' a 'substantial' amount of profit from the game to their coffers (What? Weekly church driven donations isn't enough?). That and a bunch of old irrelevant codgers trying to pin the blame someone else other than themselves because no one here goes to church any more, apart from coffin dodgers. I really can't understand the CoE's logic on how is it Sony's fault that Manchester is riddled with gun crimes. Damn, it really is about money and shifting blames...

Awesome God of War II stunt

Today's repugnant headline on the Mail on Sunday was 'Slaughter' with the subtitle 'Horror at Sony's depraved stunt to promote PlayStation with decapitated goat' caught headlines among the gaming world when two mainstream video gaming blogs decided to link to the Daily Mail's online 'news'. They even managed to get an opinion from New Labour MP Keith Vaz, known anti-video gaming activist. Among the complaints the Mail on Sunday had were a dead goat was decapitated in a promo event to the release of God of War II, the sequel to the amazingly awesome God of War; as well as the abundance of topless females (what is wrong with that Middle Englanders?).

The Mail group has always been known for their anti-gaming stance and they took the chance to 'review' God of War II on page 9 (yeah, I have the picked up from the Tube paper left over by disgusted readers), and a poor one at that (they complained mainly about the violence and gore and violence). Unfortunately for many 'video gaming' fanboys, the chance to release more anti-Sony diatribe was too good that they decided to align themselves with a Littlejohn's favourite anti-gaming rag.

Killerspiele

Ah those pesky Germans. Love to blame video games for all their misbehaving criminals. German tabloid Bild-Zeitung (equals to Murdoch's The Sun) is putting the blame squarely (no pun intended) on Square's horrid Final Fantasy VII, dubbing it a killer game, after police arrested two teenagers who killed a mother and father.

Video gaming persecution seems to be on the rise, isn't it? Quite a nice coincidence too. EU lawmakers in Brussels has recently agreed on a set of rules limiting the sale of 'violent' video games to minors, which is all fine and dandy, except that they are also planning for more stringent banning orders.

Do take comfort in knowing that while Germany is keen on imposing bans, they realised that each member state will be able to decide which games are violent and so on. Or so insists Franco Frattini, the EU Justice and Security Commissioner. If I remember correctly this guy (whom I dubbed EU twit) insisted on a blanket ban on Rule of Rose.

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I wrote a nice article that some how relates Final Fantasy last night before I had the chance to read about the EU debacle. I will probably post it later. I am not a FF freak, but with the release of Final Fantasy XII next month, you can forgive me if I appear to be. Ta.

Technorati tags: Final Fantasy Final Fantasy VII Killerspiele Germany Video Games

Tabloid victory over Rule of Rose

Just had the misfortune to watch a couple of minutes of the gross Madonna Confessions Tour on Channel 4. Ugh. Didn't even bother to wait for the hypocritical religious critique.

Am getting my arse pwned in Final Fantasy III by entering the Forbidden Land Eureka before I was ready. It is a great place to level up and earn some gils though.

Sticking with gaming, thanks to several right wing tabloids, a Japanese game titled Rule of Rose has been shelved for any UK release. Although not banned by the government (it received a PEGI rating of '16' after all), publisher 505 Games (the same publisher of that bible 'game') has decided to pander to media pressure and canned the UK release, which means until some other brave publisher picks it up, the UK gamers has to import to play it.

Reviews of the game has been mixed but when I showed the clips to Jenni a couple of weeks ago, we found that we were interested in a game that allows us to play as an underage British school girl, hacking away at her peers. The game must be good then, and the macabre style reminds me a lot of American McGee's Alice - a game that I enjoyed.

For some time we gamers this side of the Atlantic, has been pretty lucky to be spared the moralistic crusade by politicians attempting to blame violence on video games, much like what has been happening in the US for a number of years. I think the BBFC and PEGI has been doing an outstanding job in rating games effectivel. Obviously some EU twit down in Brussels thought otherwise, calling for changes in the way PEGI issues rating, evoking a sense of deja-vu to those who follows the US gaming scene, where Hillary Clinton et al. is attempting to pursue changes to the ESRB rating system.

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