The Swiss have apparently tightened their laws surrounding age restricted games so that youngsters need ID to buy them. It also means any game without a PEGI rating can’t be sold at all. Apparently there is now talk of an outright ban of all mature videogames. I would seriously hate to be Swiss. Even before this news I think I’d hate to be Swiss. It must be pretty scary for Swiss game developers.
It’s odd when you look at the countries that have strict and moronic policies towards games. In fact Switzerland kind of makes sense if you go with the alpine fresh, healthy skiing vision of neutrality. Germany and Australia less so. Australia seem to ban anything that is even vaguely controversial and Germans having an aversion to blood just doesn’t sound convincing. Anyway all this censorship talk has got me angry I’m going to strafe a room full of Germans and pepper them with lead but I’ll be imagining they are Swiss censors.
I knew Sony were bringing out a motion controller of some kind but Jesus it really does look like a bit too close to the Wiimote doesn’t it? It’s apparently lighter, perhaps slightly more ergonomic and it definitely looks better but still. Looks like the next big fight is a match up between the Sony Move and Microsoft’s Project Natal where “you are the controller”. A bit like the old Sony EyeToy but supposedly much better. There are plenty of developers onboard for both new peripherals so we’ll just have to see how they cope with lag and whether your movements actually translate properly into onscreen action.
I still think the PS3 is going to come charging through into the ascendancy, let’s face it everyone who wants a Wii has one and then there are another few million people who don’t want one but they already have one too. With these new motion controllers for the two big competitors there is quite simply no excuse left to want a Wii, it is inferior in every respect.
The Project Natal title Milo which is being developed by Lionhead still wins the creepiest game award. Who wants a young boy to talk to living in their television? I don’t even want to answer that question.
As the console war continues to escalate Sony are really sticking it to the competition….. better late than never. Since announcing the price cut and the new slim version of the PS3 they have shifted over 1 million units worldwide.
Microsoft were quick to announce their own price cut to keep the Xbox 360 in line with the PS3 at $299, although the Xbox 360 lacks Blu-ray. Now Nintendo have announced a price cut for the Wii amidst falling sales. They have knocked $50 off the lightweight console making it $199.99.
In a clear sign that the gloves are well and truly off just hours after the announcement from Nintendo, Sony revealed plans for a new motion controller for the PS3. It will have two motion sensors, a gyroscope and an accelerometer. This will bring Wii style functionality to the PS3 and it is due to be released in Spring 2010. They actually announced it back at E3 but now it has a release date and this was obviously intended to take the shine off the Wii price cut. Here’s the demo from E3 in case you missed it.
In the UK Nintendo have refused to pass along the price drop. They are offering the console for the same price of £199 but offering an extra game. Great! So it is actually now more expensive in the UK than it was on release and more expensive here than anywhere else in the world. Nintendo are not winning me over.
The use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5 has caused a fairly big uproar. His old band mates from Nirvana have condemned it and more recently Jon Bon Jovi weighed in agreeing with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic that it is distasteful. Cobain’s ex naturally came out and had a moan as well even though it was her that signed an agreement with Activision allowing the use of his likeness. In typical Courtney Love style she leeches yet more money from the memory of her husband while simultaneously moaning about it.
There is no doubt that he would not have approved and that’s reason enough to not do it. Have some respect you big business whores. Reviving corpses to make extra money is a filthy act. We were all screwed on this after the first big profile case when the family of Steve McQueen agreed to line their own pockets and let Ford use him in a car advert, splicing together footage from his films. It seems you no longer have any rights after you die and your greedy, graspy family can whore your likeness out to the highest bidder.
Sadly there isn’t too much we can do about Cobain in Guitar Hero 5 other than not buy it. This is the only way the game was going to get this level of publicity because it is a tired series which has pushed on past its sell by date. Just like the truly great bands you have to die or break up to leave a genuinely awesome legacy.
Talking about celebrity appearances in videogames it may be too late for Kurt but we can do something to prevent Ant and Dec appearing in videogame form. I’m referring to this story at MCV which reports that Nintendo have signed them up. Prepare for the ultimate awful Wii release. I’m not against them using a videogame likeness of Ant and Dec out of respect, more because they are a couple of overexposed no talent arseholes. For non UK readers who have never heard of them, I envy you.
The recent tweaks made by the PlayStation 3 Firmware 3.0 update may not have blown your socks off but there is one addition that is proving super popular here in the UK. Since they added the BBC iPlayer link to the XMB the PS3 now accounts for 10% of all iPlayer usage. Macs only account for 8.5%.
The presentation on the PS3 is very nice and iPlayer is awesome, offering many of the BBC’s programs from the last seven days as free streams. It works well but no one could have expected such a massive instant response.
Is there any escape from spammers? Well not if you’re online there isn’t. In fact spammers are even infiltrating games now. They are approaching gamers in MMO games like World of Warcraft and touting in game items and levelled up characters in exchange for cash.
Sony Online Entertainment have decided enough is enough and they’ve put together a team of spam busters who police games like Everquest and Free Realms stalking spammers and building up a picture of their evil organisation. Just like undercover cops they wait to find Mr Big before they call SWAT in and fill them all full of lead…or ban their accounts at least.
Most of these characters farms are based outside the reach of the US so there isn’t much the publishers and developers can do about the trade which is estimated to be worth several million dollars every year. You can read about this in more detail here.
I love the idea of that job working for Sony. What is their job title? Virtual Detective? MMOG Police? It must feel really rewarding to bust spammers, they should raid them in game and stick their characters in stocks for gamers to throw rotten veg at before they ban their accounts. Then hang, draw and quarter them and leave their heads on poles as a warning to other spammers.
So Microsoft have announced they are cutting the price of the Xbox 360 Elite by $100 which will make it $299. The same price as the new PS3. Both machines are 120 GB but I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would buy a 360 over a PS3. The PS3 is a far better console with support for Blu-ray and web browsing. The fact that Sony take a loss on each console sold shows you what a good deal it is for the consumer. Meanwhile Microsoft cut out the free HDMI cable they were bundling with the Xbox 360 Elite package and they still claim to be making a profit on the hardware.
I found their statement about how they had planned this price drop all along quite funny. It just happened to be something they were going to announce anyway even although they didn’t announce it at GamesCom, it has nothing to do with their major competitor dropping the price of their console, honest. Yes very convincing. Microsoft also plan to phase out the Xbox 360 Pro which is dropping in price to $249.
I’m finding it increasingly annoying that there is an obvious double standard applied when it comes to games. Films are allowed to be as sick or racy they like, even mainstream films can be packed with sex, violence and dodgy political statements but games are a different matter entirely.
Konami have just announced that they will be canning their forthcoming third-person shooter Six Days in Fallujah. This is after protests from families and men who fought in Iraq offended by the idea of people playing a game based on their experiences. It’s ok if you thinly veil it in fiction like Call of Duty 4 or if it is based on a conflict which happened long enough ago like the endless streams of WWII games. For some reason this title was judged as a step too far.
As I see it this is censorship plain and simple. Konami should not have backed down over this, just as Rockstar ignored the idiotic ramblings and ravings about GTA and counted their money as the controversy drove sales ever upwards.
Now don’t get me wrong I’m not keen on playing Six Days in Fallujah but to paraphrase a famous quote, I dissaprove of your game but will defend to the death your right to release it. Except I won’t but you get the idea, censorship sucks, it is flat out wrong in a Nazi way and if we let these self appointed moral crusaders decide what we can and can’t watch or play then the world is going to get very boring.
Actually that’s not true either it will just be driven underground. Like the many sex based videogames that are out there that never grace a shop shelf or reputable magazine. Yes it’s a weak lead in to an article I just wrote about sex in games and dirty MMO titles where you can indulge your filthy fantasies you pervert!
Anyway the whole idea that these games have some kind of negative impact on gamers is the same tired argument that banned so called video nasties. According to the censors you have to be 18 to watch naked women having sex or to guide a crudely modelled approximation of a man to shoot another crudely modelled approximation of a man in the face but you can do those things for real at the age of 16. Does it really make sense to anyone?
We have just heard about cloud computing and how we no longer need high end gaming machines because OnLive is going to let you play any game you want on your toaster. Coming hot on the heels of that statement there is now competition emerging in the shape of Gaikai and they’ve got a cooler name.
Dave Perry says they’ve already thought of the idea and they are going to do it better. It basically means no more buying consoles, no more buying physical copies of games and no more waiting for firmware updates or patch downloads. You just click on what you want and play, even on a rubbish machine because the hardware and software is elsewhere and they are just streaming it across the net to your screen.
All this talk is great and I can see the potential, the cost of hardware is high, the time wasted for PS3 firmware updates and patch downloads is always annoying and maybe the ISPs are capable of delivering the bandwidth required. Maybe. The big unknown is the price and ultimately it will decide the argument for me. We’ll have to wait and see but clearly the cloud gaming battle for our attention has begun.
Aha so the truth comes out at last gaming actually improves your eyesight. In your face moaning wives and parents everywhere I knew playing games for hours in darkened rooms was doing me some good.
This news is based on a US study conducted at the University of Rochester and reading more closely it actually states action gaming can improve your “contrast sensitivity”. This is one of the first areas of your eyesight to go as you grow older. The improvements can be measured in gamers who have been playing action games for months and even years so not only is there an improvement in this area but it also suggests that the long periods spent staring at the screen are not bad for your eyesight at all.
They are now hoping to use it to treat people with amblyopia or “lazy eye”. It has to be an action game though, Call of Duty 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 totally worked but Sims 2 made no improvement.
I knew Sony were bringing out a motion controller of some kind but Jesus it really does look like a bit too close to the Wiimote doesn’t it? It’s apparently lighter, perhaps slightly more ergonomic and it definitely looks better but still. Looks like the next big fight is a match up between the Sony Move and Microsoft’s Project Natal where “you are the controller”. A bit like the old Sony EyeToy but supposedly much better. There are plenty of developers onboard for both new peripherals so we’ll just have to see how they cope with lag and whether your movements actually translate properly into onscreen action.
The recent tweaks made by the 
So Microsoft have announced they are cutting the price of the Xbox 360 Elite by $100 which will make it $299. The same price as the new PS3. Both machines are 120 GB but I can’t for the life of me figure out why anyone would buy a 360 over a PS3. The PS3 is a far better console with support for Blu-ray and web browsing. The fact that Sony take a loss on each console sold shows you what a good deal it is for the consumer. Meanwhile Microsoft cut out the free HDMI cable they were bundling with the Xbox 360 Elite package and they still claim to be making a profit on the hardware.
I’m finding it increasingly annoying that there is an obvious double standard applied when it comes to games. Films are allowed to be as sick or racy they like, even mainstream films can be packed with sex, violence and dodgy political statements but games are a different matter entirely.
We have just heard about cloud computing and how we no longer need high end gaming machines because 
Aha so the truth comes out at last gaming actually improves your eyesight. In your face moaning wives and parents everywhere I knew playing games for hours in darkened rooms was doing me some good.