Category: Games

According to xfire, in the last year I have played games for 33.791666666666666666666666666667 days. I did not double check it but I think I added it up all correctly. I don’t know, that kind of makes me feel meh knowing that I spend a months worth of time playing games. Then again, there were many times that I left xfire on for hours while I was not actually playing but there were times when I also forgot to turn it on while playing. Hmm, well I guess its not that bad. Its not like I do anything else (like watch tv). I am willing to bet that a lot of people spend way more then 33 days a year watching tv.

To check it out for yourself click on my profile below. I have been an xfire member since Jan 2, 2005.

So I found Conker: Live and Reloaded for sale over at Amazon ($10 when I bought it) and decided to grab it. I remember hearing about it back when it first came out on the N64. I was told something about it being for adults so I never picked it up. Too bad I didn’t, the game it pretty good. Its interesting that the platforming game play still hold up years later. The only way you could tell its age is from the jokes (it has a lot of old movie parodies). But yeah, this game is pretty good. I have only spent about an hour on live with it but I had a lot of fun even though I did not know what I was doing. I am glad I didn’t miss this one the second time around.
Video Review

Patches
Stop releasing buggy shit. Please see my post here.

Big Price Tags
Ok, ok, I know the next gen games cost more money to make. In fact, development costs have been rising for years now without a price increase of games. I expect the new games that come out for the xbox 360 to be $60. My issue is that multi-platform titles should have the same prices. There is no reason why an xbox 360 version of Gun should cost $60 when I can buy the xbox version for $30. And its not just Gun, there are a lot of xbox 360 games that are also available on xbox that cost at least $10 more. Most of these games don’t even offer much of a graphical improvement. It is completely bullshit.

Different Game, Same Title
The first game that comes to mind is Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. The first title is a xbox 360/pc game and the second title is a current gen xbox title. Both are developed by different companies and are entirely different games. I am willing to bet that most of the people who bought Big Red One thought they were getting the other title, which scored a lot higher in reviews. Then there is Battlefield 2 and Battlefield 2: Modern Combat–are those the same game? Is one an expansion for the other? No and no. Two totally different games

In-game advertising
The images speak for themselves:

Now you can be dynamically robbed of cohesive gameworlds…at no extra cost to you, the user! Because, let’s face it, the one thing every sci-fi-themed action game is missing is ads for some stupid real-life movie or soft drink.

Long and Stupid Titles
Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Never Ending Tomorrow
A testament to the sheer number of Gundam games that exist, the titles need to be excessively long if only to make at least one notable difference between them.
Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie
You’d think King Kong would be enough to drive the point home, but the marketing geniuses behind this title obviously thought something else about the game was more poignant.
Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie’s Revenge
As opposed to that other guy’s Nightmare Before Christmas. We understand that the movie came out a long time ago, but a longer title isn’t necessarily going to jog people’s memories any faster.
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose
Changing the subtitle to German is probably just a really clever cover-up for the fact that it’s the name of another video game (Beyond Good and Evil).
Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials to Glory: World Championship Tournament 2005
As with Gundam games, the length of this title can only be due to the number of Yu-Gi-Oh games in circulation, approximately as many as there are letters in the title.

It sucks having the money for one and not being able to buy one. Then again, I am good at waiting and there are a lot of good PC games out at the moment. Not to mention all of my xbox games that I have yet to finish. In some ways, I am not ready for a new console.

Schwarzenegger-signed age-restriction measure slapped with injunction; ESA and IEMA elated.

In November, a judge ruled a Michigan law banning the sale of mature-rated games to minors as unconstitutional, preventing it from going into effect. Three weeks ago, a similar fate befell an Illinois measure that would have placed similar restrictions on games.

Late yesterday, a California judge issued a ruling that prevented that state’s own game-restriction law from going into effect. In the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge Ronald Whyte slapped a preliminary injunction on a law signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, himself the star of several games, last month.

In his ruling, Judge Whyte wrote that “games are protected by the First Amendment”–worthy of the same protection of free expression as books, films, television, or the press. He granted the preliminary injunction on the grounds that the terms of the law, which would include mandatory labeling of games deemed unsuitable for minors, would “likely” be ruled unconstitutional. The law was slated to go into effect on January 1, 2006.

The motion for the injunction was requested by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) game-industry lobby and Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA), a game-retailer trade association.

“We are extremely pleased by today’s announcement,” said ESA President Doug Lowenstein. “For the sixth time in five years, federal courts have now blocked or struck down these state and local laws seeking to regulate the sale of games to minors based on their content, and none have upheld such statutes.”

Hal Halpin, president of the IEMA, was a bit sterner in his response. “Our position has been, and shall remain, that government should not be involving itself in the entertainment decisions that consumers make,” he said in his own statement. “It is unfortunate that politicians have chosen not to respect the will of the courts and of the people, and it is our continued hope that they will now, given the extraordinary amount of precedent, choose to instead work proactively with us.”

As of press time, neither Assemblyman Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), author of the California law, nor Governor Schwarzenegger had commented on the ruling.

By Tor Thorsen — GameSpot