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…
Dark Sector and God of War: Chains Of Olympus News February 15, 2008
Posted by Lyle in News.Tags: God Of War, Preview, PS3, PSP
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Looking around the nets today these stories caught my eye. These games are both due in March…
God of War: Chains of Olympus for PSP is going to feature a sex mini-game much like its predecessors on PS2 did. While optional in the older games, they gave you some gameplay bonuses like increasing your health. The game’s camera pans away (no sex is shown – only strongly suggested and heard) from a scene of shirtless women while the main character Kratos has sex with them. The player uses timed button press sequences (think Guitar Hero) to control it all. Weird. I would strongly encourage parents to keep their kids away from any of the God of War games. They are popular and the gameplay is admittedly amazing but the content is not cool. You can read more about it at Gamespy.
Dark Sector for Xbox 360 and PS3 is reportedly now banned from Australia; a country which apparently has no real Mature rating to give games. The ratings board said it was too violent to give the highest rating on offer of MA15. You can read more here. Sounds like the game is going to be toned down a bit so they won’t be banned. I was kinda looking forward to this one after I saw some movies of very fun-looking monster-bashing; but it looks like it will not be so good for the kids.
