Games and Christmas November 5, 2009
Posted by Lyle in Must Read, News.Tags: Content, Game Ratings, Gaming Industry, Preview
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Many parents are probably checking out the “Holiday Buying Guides” trying to decide what games to get for the kiddos this year. Here is a quick rundown of the four most anticipated (according to Gamestop’s current best selling list) that are out or coming out this season and what ratings apply: (Note that all four of the top-selling games are rated M)
#4 
Assassin’s Creed 2. M for mature. Well, a decent game about killing people who usually deserve it (but don’t we all?) deserves a sequel, right? It does when it sells ridiculously well! I think this is going to be a big seller this season due to the hype surrounding it and much like the first game, there’ll be lots of killin’…
Most of what parent’s need to know is pretty obvious from the title alone. You play as an assassin. You kill people in fairly brutal, highly efficient ways. It’s pretty much looking like the same game as the first with new features and a different protagonist/storyline. I hear that some non-gratuitous sexual content will make it into the game, as it seems the new assassin Ezio is a “ladies man” of sorts. Lots of kids will be wanting this game this year.
#3 
Dragon Age: Origins. M for Mature. I was actually surprised to see this in the list. Bioware is known for making seriously epic RPG’s but even though it’s my favorite genre, I felt this game was coming in under the radar with all of the other big games being released this season. THis is the one game on the list that I have played, and man; it’s amazing! I love it for it’s setting, story, and RPG tactical combat and gameplay… But I have to caution parents about the game. It’s certainly geared towards adults. There are some very “mature” themes, and although on the surface, it looks like a Lord of the Rings clone, it is much, much darker and bloodier. Also present are seemingly complex relationship building that may or may not result in sex scenes/nudity. It’s a bit overblown and non-gratuitous, but it seems like they are making it a selling-point-feature of the game, “buy our game and you’ll see breasts, kids!” Needless to say, it’s needless; and tacky. Other than that the game is compelling, smart, well-written, well-voiced and epic.
#2 
Left 4 Dead 2. M for Mature. In Left 4 Dead there was little to no story – it was you and three other “survivors” against (countable, actually) hordes of zombies that wanted to kill you. You had to work together, think fast, and aim true. The kids loved this one and aside from the arcadey feel I liked it too. It was mindless fun, but it was cooperative and I love co-op games…
That said, it was gruesome. It was every bit as gory and scary as your average horror movie and was more intense because YOU are the potential victim. What made it so fun was what made it so scary. So scary in fact, that I know of old dudes like me that actually can’t play it, because zombies creep them out! The sequel looks like it will be more of the same, although from early previews (I have yet to check out the demo, which is available) it looks more gooey than the first. Parents, I don’t think the young ones will like it, nor is it appropriate for them. Proceed with caution: Zombies and blood and gore ahead…
#1. 
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Gamestop already reports that there are more pre-orders for this game than any other. Gamestops will be open at midnight next week all around the country in order to make massive amounts of customers happy – and subsequently calling in sick on Tuesday morning 
The content for the 1st game wasn’t too over the top, but it was an intense experience and not recommended for the younger kids. From what I’ve seen so far Infinity Ward is rethinking it’s content levels fairly drastically with more blood and gore, swearing, and apparently; lots more intensity in the killing dept. Parents are strongly cautioned about this one. SPOILER ALERT (highlight text): A recently leaked video depicted a player-controlled terrorist versus unarmed civilians killing spree at an airport – I don’t know the context in which this takes place, but I have seen the video and it’s pretty hard to watch – I have HEARD that you can opt out of it or not participate in some way. SPOILER OVER.
Make no mistake, this will probably be the one game your kids want more than any other this season – but I don’t believe it will be appropriate for your younger ones… I’ll be playing it next Tuesday and will post an impressions article.
Game Avalanche October 31, 2008
Posted by Lyle in Must Read, News, Now Playing.Tags: Gaming Industry, Preview
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It can be a beautiful, beautiful time in a gamer’s life – this deluge of highly anticipated games all coming out at around the same time. But I tell you it’s downright sad for my wallet! Here is a list of the some of the most interesting games coming out this season (pre-Christmas):
Fable II – I’m playing this one now and it’s great! If you liked the previous Fable on the original Xbox then this is a game you will love. It’s rated M for mature though kids, and it earns it for being dark (you can be a very bad guy, or a very good one), cartoon-like violence, and some potty-humored and grown-up interactions with in-game characters. There’s nothing pornographic in the game – but it has some high-school-health-class material…
Fallout 3 – Interestingly enough, this very grim role-playing game starts out in a very hopeful way, using inspiration from the Bible to get you started. I hope the hope that the scripture offers is meaningful to all who play through it. I don’t know how the game ends yet; but I have a feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better. This post-holocaust rpg is rated M mostly for some very graphic violence and some foul language. You can also opt to be a dastardly villain in the game; which kind of negates the issue of hope altogether doesn’t it? You can for instance, choose to detonate a bomb that the town of Megaton was unwisely built around or you can disarm it and save all of those silly townspeople. It’s a huge and high-quality RPG from the folks at Bethesda that gave us Morrowind and Oblivion.
Little Big Planet – So I have some people come over to my house 2-3 times a week to play games. Since this game was released it’s pretty much been all we play. It reminds me a little of Castle Crashers with it’s four-player “co-opetition”. Except this is a huge game that just may save the PS3 from it’s dust-collecting habit. LBP is absolutely the cutest, craziest, family-friendliest fun that you can have playing video games right now and will bring non-stop insanity to your next game night. Easy enough that grandma can play it – difficult enough that core gamers will enjoy it – and it’s essentially a never-ending game since you can make your own levels and download other’s levels from the internet. It’s rated E and the only thing I would caution parents about is that other people’s levels could have whatever content they want to put in them. I haven’t seen anything gross or hugely inappropriate yet – but there are some levels with some Nightmare Before Christmas style artwork in them.
These are currently taking up all of my game time; but there are more releases out there that I will be grabbing such as:
Gears Of War 2 – The follow up to 2006 blockbuster Gears of War will be gooier than the first, but Epic Games has put a gore and swearing filter in the game so that those who like the game – hate the goo can have their gears. It’s very rated M minus the filters though. Why can’t more developers do this?
Left 4 Dead – I don’t usually get into zombie games; but zombie games where you play with three of your friends and have to work together to survive sound great. All of the press on this game leads me to believe that this will be a big hit on November 18th. I don’t know a lot about the game yet. I know it’s M rated and I would “venture a guess” that it’s gonna be violent.
Parents should be cautioned about Dead Space. It’s apparently a very, very gory and scary survival game that has you “strategically dismembering” alien infested humans with sci-fi space tools for weapons. The videos I’ve seen of the main character getting killed are some of the gruesomest, yuckiest visuals I’ve seen since the Manhunt 2 research I did. I will try and rent it at some point to get a first hand idea – but I’ve heard something about alien-infested babies coming after you and I think that might be a tad disturbing…
Call Of Duty: World At War looks OK but I am a little skeptical. I doubt that they can surpass the awesomeness that is Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare without resorting to simply getting more wordy and violent (both of which they apparently did increase). I’m a big fan of Jack Bauer, but I’m not necessarily stoked about hearing him throw around f-bombs in my military games (Kiefer Sutherland is a voice actor in the game and in a preview video I watched he did say a variant of that there dirty word). It looks intense, but so far, eh…
That by no means wraps things up. There’s still Mirror’s Edge; Tom Clancy’s EndWar (the demo is cool), Banjo-Kazooie, Prince of Persia, The Last Remnant, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Clone Wars Lightsaber Duels (please be good), Mines of Moria for Lord of the Rings Online and more… all before 2009!
Also notice, parents, that MOST of the big games coming out for the Holiday season are rated M. Be careful out there. I will try to keep the content reviews coming… until then a friendly warning: BEWARE THE GAMES AVALANCHE ELSE YOU BE COVERED IN NO MONEY FOR CHRISTMAS!!!!
Man I didn’t even list any DS or PSP games… or World of Warcraft expansions…
E3 2008 Highlights July 16, 2008
Posted by Lyle in Must Read, News.Tags: E3, Gaming Industry
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OK, so I’m not actually there or anything – hey I’m just one dude with no budget, trying to make a stand for justice and peace in the galaxy… umm, nevermind. So here’s a quick rundown of some of the most newsworthy news coming from this years Electronic Entertainment Expo (oops, it’s called E for All now):
- Co-op gameplay seems to be the in thing this year (great news if you ask me); Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Resident Evil 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Too Human (check out the demo on Xbox LIVE), all the various music games, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Fable 2 (online and offline coop confirmed), Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion all have cooperative modes. There are sure to be more that I’ve missed or forgotten.
- Lame-brain decision of the year: Nintendo DS gets a Grand Theft Auto game? Yes folks, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is coming to your child’s favorite portable system. Now you can take murder, theft, and prostitution with you on the go! yay. (sarcasm)
- Surprise of the show so far: Final Fantasy XIII is no longer a PS3 exclusive; it’s coming to PS3 AND Xbox 360 simultaneously to english-speaking countries. It’s a Japanese release on PS3 only first, and will then be ported and localized for us sometime after that.
- Could be great/could be a parental issue: Wii gets voice chat via Wii Speak accessory. It was announced alongside an online multiplayer Animal Crossing game for the Wii – Animal Crossing: City Folk.
- Wii Sports: Resort, a sequel to the great Wii Sports is coming. They demoed a frisbee/dog catching game, a Jet-ski game, and a sword-fighting game. Also in the same line is Wii Music, which will feature 50 playable instruments including full drums and an orchestra. It’s looking very casual (like grandma can play with grandson with minimal effort) and light-hearted: a big difference with the more hardcore Guitar Hero series.
- Alongside the Wii games will be another accessory, which brings hope for more precise motion detection (and from the videos I’ve seen it looks like it works); Wii Motion Plus is an accessory that attaches to the bottom of the Wiimote and looks to greatly enhance gameplay in titles like Wii Sports: Resort and the Star Wars games Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels and The Force: Unleashed.
- Big games announced were: God of War 3 (PS3), DC Universe Online (MMORPG for PS3), MAG (“Massive Action Game” for PS3 featuring 256 player online battles), I Am Alive (multi-platform disaster/adventure game), and there was confirmation that (this deserves its own bullet)
- Bungie is working on some sort of new Halo game. This announcement was apparently set to be held for the future, but a Microsoft dude let it slip – as such there are no real details except that it’s a true Halo game that is not Halo Wars or the Peter Jackson project. Rumors abound from Halo 4 to a Halo prequel to a squad-based, tactical Halo (Ghost Recon style). I vote for the latter! I’d love some Ghost Recon in sci-fi.
So there’s lots of news as you can see, and yet this seems like a lot of stuff that was already known or assumed. I think Microsoft had a great press-conference simply because they showed gameplay and had the biggest surprise with the Final Fantasy announcement. Sony’s conference was pretty good with a great showcase for Little Big Planet and the God of War announcement. Nintendo’s conference was good for casual gamers that probably weren’t watching a video game press conference… but left us mid-to-hardcore gamers wanting more.
All in all, I can say without a doubt that this will be another big holiday season for gaming. My must-have game wishlist has just gotten bigger (and therefore more ’spensive). It’s a great time to be a gamer.
I’ll be bringing some more news towards the end of the conference this week and whip up a “best of show” thingy – y’know cause I’m a professional enthuisiast and all…
-Lyle
Grand Theft Auto IV Makes 500 Million May 7, 2008
Posted by Lyle in Must Read, News.Tags: Gaming Industry, Grand Theft Auto IV, PS3, Xbox 360
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In it’s first week. It’s not really a surprise that it sold a lot; but that’s a lot of money…
The previous record holder, Halo 3, made around 300 million in its first week. To keep things in perspective, remember that Halo 3 was only developed for the Xbox 360 and GTA IV is on both the 360 and the PS3. GTA IV made more money in it’s first week than “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” made at the box office. Again, for perspective’s sake, remember that movie tickets are much cheaper than 60 dollar video games – so the movies still sell better than games; they just don’t make as much money in their first week…
And now I’m officially sick of hearing news about the game. But I’m sure more will come… And it is relevant because it shows just how big video gaming is getting. If you have kids, you know that it’s a big deal. So the hype for this game will lessen a bit – but it’s already achieved/exceeded the money-making and high ratings it was expected to get.
Not only is the game the biggest gaming debut of all-time; but it’s still the most highly rated [recent] game ever [Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time is 99]. The metacritic scores are 99 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game as of this writing. It’s getting more hype and praise than any other game in history.
Those pages are here: GTA IV Xbox 360 and GTA IV PlayStation 3
It’s a little off-topic but I’ve picked up some kid-friendlier games that I should be able to get impressions/reviews up soon for. I’m working on a scoring system for this site that scores on technical merit and a separate scoring system for advising parents on content issues. Is it a quality game? Maybe. Is it a quality game for your kids? Maybe not.
