Man, I get hit with a simple plague, and look what happens when I’m on my back having fevered dreams about punching Psychobilly Freakout in the face?
For starters, when I last hit the pillow, Manhunt 2 had just been denied a rating by the British Film Council, and been stuck with a death knell AO by the ESRB. I wake up, as though in a fugue, and find that Take Two has put the game aside for now, mutter though they do that the game still counts as a "work of art." Meanwhile, the educated masses in the gaming journalism scene have weighed in with a number of their very own opinions. Evil Avatar rounds up a couple of its favorites right here and they picked some doozies. Particularly, GamesIndustry.biz’s Rob Fahey has an editorial that I never expected to read, crying for social responsibility ahead of preserving the artistic integrity (whatever that means in this case) of the game.
In other news of depravity, those sick and filthy people who like to deploy custom software to their PSPs have yet another avenue — thanks to an exploit recently uncovered in launch title Lumines. The exploit doesn’t allow for much more than a Hello World, yet, but you can bet those insanely clever folks will at least be saying Hello Galaxy before too long. Who knows what happens after that? On news of this exploit, sales for Lumines on Amazon.com have spiked 5,900%. Of course, that could mean that last week it sold only one copy, and this week 5,900. Still… Go Q?!
(Why didn’t the world accept the interrobang?)
In other PSP news, it seems the latest PSP firmware update did more than was advertised to the public; it also made the system’s full 333MHz CPU available to developers, where before only 222MHz had been traditionally accessible to conserve battery power. I’m thinking that a game like the upcoming God of War: Chains of Olympus could gladly take advantage of the additional cycles.
Telltale Games’ success in the realm of the episodic game — where many others have failed — has fascinated me for the past few months, as I’ve greedibly played through the Sam and Max episodes. GamesIndustry.biz has a nice interview with Telltale’s Kevin Bruner on the subject of why his is the only high-profile company to have succeeded in the production of episodic content.
For the last couple of weeks, the American Medical Association and groups of experts associated with the medical field have been considering whether to classify gaming addiction as a mental disorder. Nothing particularly controversial about that, since it’s arbitrary, like moving the poverty line. It’s not going to happen this time around, though; the AMA has issued a statement that the proponents of the gaming-addiction-as-disease stance withdrew from their position and recommended further psychiatric study before committing to the definition. Fair enough. Here’s the justification for continued study: "While occasional use of video games is harmless and may even help with some disorders like autism, doctors said in extreme cases it can interfere with day-to-day necessities like working, showering or even eating." Oh, damn. Showering is a day-to-day necessity? Uh… hang on a minute.
Want a little of the weird and surreal to cap off your Monday? Try this on for size. It’ll be way better if you go into it blind.
My wife’s at the store buying videogames. What will she bring home?
PC:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Driver: Parallel Lines
Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
Overlord
Ratatouille
Seven Kingdoms: Conquest (severely underrated series. Check it out)
PS3: (have some games, guys)
The Bigs
The Darkness
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Ratatouille
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
Transformers: The Game
PS2:
The Bigs
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
GrimGrimoire
Ratatouille
Transformers: The Game
PSP:
The Bigs
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition
Ratatouille
Steel Horizon
XBOX 360:
The Bigs
The Darkness
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Hour of Victory
Overlord
Ratatouille
Transformers: The Game
XBOX:
Ratatouille
WII:
The Bigs
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Pokemon Battle Revolution
Driver: Parallel Lines
Ratatouille
Transformers: The Game
DS:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Touchmaster
Hoshigami Remix: Ruining Blue Earth
Nervous Brickdown
Ratatouille
GBA:
Ratatouille
GAMECUBE:
Ratatouille
RATATOUILLE:
Ratatouille