The console wars, where the scarring battlefield of two or more different factions of gaming zealots identify themselves under a unified corporate banner in the hopes that their choice of gaming machinery will somehow be the one saving grace of their identity. I am a veteran of many of the original console wars, the worst one in my memory was the one that occurred between Sega and Nintendo back in the early 1990s when it was Super NES vs. Genesis for the “king of 16-bit” crown. It is only through the wisdom that I have gained in my 25 years of gaming that I know now how wrong these idiotic battles are.
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Normally, I would pay The Daily Mail no attention, but this story needed to be commented on.

Nintendo, arguably the company responsible for the last two generations of fat children (it’s never the parents’ fault for not limiting their child’s game time) has now gone so far as to include a rating scale in their new game WiiFit that works off of the much hated Body Mass Index (BMI).

There have been reports of children being told that they are ‘obese’ according to the rating that the game gives you based on said BMI number. Many of these unsightly, low-self-esteemed, butterball-ed children, along with their equally chunky parents, have seen this message of obesity and have become offended and gone ‘Wii Wii Wii all the way home’.

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For those of you who recall, you may remember a post back in October we did that covered Kotaku’s take on game reviews. It is a very good read and I highly recommend you run through it, beings that it’s one of the few places that have taken on the notion that gaming reviews nowadays frankly suck. But most importantly, if you look in the comments of our post, you will see that I mentioned I would touch on this subject myself once I got around to writing. And here we are.

Game reviews and ratings have always been a funny thing. At the individual level? Well if you give any one person internet access he/she will instantly spew pretentious as though they’re an editor for Pitchfork, with a handy bookmark to Dictionary.com and Microsoft Word open to check for synonyms. When the ability to publish some sort of art, whether it be writing, music, imagery, video, etc., becomes cheap and accessible enough for the masses to get a hold of, you can expect some low quality material. A case of “yeah, it’s great they can do it, but they shouldn’t.”

However, at the professional level, there isn’t any source out there that I can say I can trust with one grain of salt any more than the everyday blogger. The review and evaluation process from these sources, which are supposedly reputable, are typically inconsistent from title to title, lacking in a fair review based on full completion of the game, biased towards their advertiser’s preference, focused too much on technical individualities such as graphics/sound/online, or ‘aided’ by large yet completely meaningless scores.

Hit the jump for my take on these problems, and if I feel like posting them, solutions.

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There has always been controversy around the video game ratings system (and movies too). Many people disagree with the ratings games are given, or games have to be censored to reach a desirable rating, or retailers get busted for not being strict enough when it comes to who they sell the games to. Whether it’s a senator, the ESRB themselves, or more likely the infamous Jack Thompson, there is always enough blame being sent around.

But it seems that among the many groups that can help prevent children from accessing content meant for older and more mature audiences, there is one that is continually left off the hook and forgotten: the parents.

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Since their inception, video games have been challenging people to be ‘better’ each game they play, whether it be score based or by only giving you so many chances to finish a level. Let’s face it; there is absolutely no point to a game where you have no chance of dying. But on the same token any game designer that makes a game that has no regard for this precious balancing act is an asshole (I’m looking at you, makers of Battletoads).

Come with me today on a journey on the morbid side of video gaming, a topic that allows you to conquer the one fear that all of us have, and the one thing in this life that’s inevitable, death. Some comical, some gruesome, all of them thought provoking and always entertaining. See you after the jump.
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Little Jimmy Smith is a good kid, he gets decent grades in school, does all of his chores when asked, eats all of his vegetables at dinner and is a generally a well likable 12 year old. This all changes the minute little Jimmy is allowed his nightly time on Xbox Live. For when little timid Jimmy becomes xXTeeBaggurXx all of that goes out the window. Little Jimmy is now a racist, sexist, deep throating mic abusing, singing, horrible human being that all of us hate to have on our teams. Most of these annoying attributes can be handled with a simple mute, but the one that I hate and wish I could kill people over the interweb for is…

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We have just received a press release promoting the teaser website for the impressive looking Section 8, which is slated for a 2009 release. It seems that the crew at Gamecock Media has been extremely busy this year, what with the announcements for Velvet Assassin and Hail to the Chimp. Today appears to be business as usual. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I think it might have something to do with the EIEIO event coming up this week.

Created by TimeGate Studios, the same guys behind one of my favorite ‘brown trouser’ (read that as scary) games F.E.A.R. and its sequels, this first-person shooter is set in the distant future and the protagonist(s) are members of a squad of orbital drop troops otherwise know as Section 8. I’m excited for this game, just for the fact that it looks almost like a mixture of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and Heinlein’s Starship Troopers (the book, never the movie!). The teaser video and the full press release after the jump.

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Yesterday, I told you guys I would be buying LOST: Via Domus no matter how horrible it turned out being.

After an annoying experience at Best Buy and sixty dollars emptied from my wallet, I’ve kept true to that promise and the game is sitting on the title screen as I type this.

Now, I won’t be reviewing it … so how will you know how bad (or good, but that is really less likely) it is? Well, in what I hope turns out to be a regular feature by our various editors, I am going to liveblog my journey (followed by a brief summary) through LOST: Via Domus right here and right now for you guys. As I play through the game, this post will be updated as frequently as humanly possible. Lets begin, shall we?

Updates will start flowing in a few minutes.

*WARNING: SPOILERS*
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It seems that the Australian government is finally considering having the equivalent of the US’s R rating for movies or the UK’s 18+ rating instituted to allow dozens upon dozens of ‘adult’ titles to be shipped to the blood famished country.

It looks to be a hard sell to members of the Australian Family Association who believe that the violence in video games is potentially more harmful than that in other forms of media due to its interactivity. The Association says that there is NO reason to allow an R rating for video games in Australia.

“We’re concerned about the level of violence and so on in R-rated material,” said Angela Conway an AFA spokeswoman. “But in terms of the games, it seems that there’s a lot more scope to actually change people’s brain structure and their attitudes with games.”

Currently, Australia’s highest rating is MA (mature audiences) and is for ages 15+, anything that doesn’t meet the criteria for MA is immediately deemed inappropriate and does not get granted its classification. Games can not be released in Australia without the age classification.

This seems like a step in the right direction for the extremely conservative country to take in order to help them play catch up with the other westernised democratic countries that have less strict guidelines for releasing games. Maybe we’ll see some Aussies playing Bonestorm one of these days. One can always hope.

[Quotes via ABC News]

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There is only one thing that can stop all of the rampant fanboy-ism that is devouring the industry that I love, and I pray that I never see the day where it happens. The minute that it happens I will officially be done with video games…and that is if the industry evolves into having only a single home console. Who am I kidding, I’ll still be into video games when I’m old and gray no matter what. If interested in seeing my opinons on this and how we would see the death of the fanboy, click the jump below.

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Today, football fans will either weep for continued loss of choice in what games they can play or are completely amped for the fact that the Madden series will continue to own the market for the next five years.

In a deal between the National Football League and Electronic Arts, the exclusive licensing for the NFL Rosters and Players has been extended to the year 2013. The licensing agreement is for all forms of console gaming including home, handheld, online, and even grants EA access to the NFL Network and NFL Films to “enrich its game experiences.”

This announcement comes on the heels of the 20th anniversary of the ungodly popular Madden franchise, which has grossed over 2 billion from retail sales…that’s $2,000,000,000! According to the tattoo-speckled Microsoft traitor Peter Moore, “For nearly two decades, EA Sports has been bringing sports fans closer to the great game of football through the breakthrough interactive experiences of our videogames.”

He then added, “Game quality is our top priority, and we’re committed to pushing our gameplay innovation, connecting football fans via rich online experiences and delivering the most visually stunning sports games on the market.” It seems to me that he forgot about the problems that the PS3 version had.

Regardless of this writer’s opinion of sports games, EA is going to sell millions upon millions of copies of each subsequent Madden games that will be coming out for the next 5 years. I’m going to go out on a limb here and list the titles of each of those games for you right now: Madden 2009, Madden 2010, Madden 2011, Madden 2012, Madden 2013. I only wish that it wasn’t an exclusive agreement, so that the NFL 2K series could make a comeback and offer some competition.

[Quotes Via GamesIndustry.biz]

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For the past year, Circuit City has been experimenting with selling used games within ten of their stores. The results were very positive, as there were increases in customer traffic. The retailer is now planning on expanding the used games service to several other locations across the U.S. in the hopes of improving the corporation’s image in the eyes of gamers, by having more competitive prices.

One only needs to look at the retailer’s recently initiated “Gamer Savings Club”.  This membership program allows customers to save an extra 10% on pre-orders and game purchases for $19.99 a year, and has already reached nearly 25,000 members. In addition to the Gamer Savings Club memberships, the chain is also planning to hold gaming tournaments in certain locations across the U.S., hoping to mimic the frightfully successful business model set up by the GameStop corporation.

In my opinion, this really shows me that the chain is trying to break its stale image with gamers, and I for one, welcome the change. 

[Via ArsTechnica]

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Good or bad, it seems that our beloved hobby has finally become mainstream. Michael Gallagher, President and CEO of the ESA, said in front of a packed audience at the D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit on the 8th of February in Las Vegas, “In little more than a generation since Pong, our industry has arrived.”

“Videogames are an integral part of the way Americans work, live and play. As such, our industry has become a powerhouse”, says Mr. Gallagher. What is really insane is that he is utterly correct. The gaming industry has grown to the point where it has begun to affect the United States’ GDP postively.

“It may be an exaggeration today to say that everyone is a gamer, but the way things are going, it’s not much of an exaggeration tomorrow,” he said, referring to the segment of the market that we have been conditioned to see as ‘casual gamers’. He continues, “We have maintained the loyalty and support of our base, but extended to new demographics to an extent hardly imaginable a few years ago,” alluding on the segment of the market that ranges from middle age parents jamming to Guitar Hero or the old fogies bowling a perfect 300 in Wii Sports Bowling.

He continues on and on for what feels like an eternity, touching on all aspects of gaming including fitness games and the ESRB, for those of you so inclined to read the whole post, I’ve included a link below.

[Via GamesIndustry]

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For the past two days I’ve attended the third annual Otronicon at the Orlando Science Center here in Florida. The convention is a four day long event that showcases several simulations, exhibits, and the latest and greatest video games that have come out in the past couple of decades. I’ve attended the event for the past two years, and without a doubt, this year was probably the biggest improvement and most fun I’ve had.

Read on for pictures, text, and even a video from my adventures at Otronicon.

Note: Oh, and please excuse my poor photography.
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This week, the editors and I bring you the return of one of our most beloved features, MEGATONik Presents. In this installment, a few of our most worthy writers pitched in with their opinion of some of the best arcade games ever made. These aren’t the types of games that you’d occasionally toss a quarter or so into every couple of weeks and try to beat the game on one life — oh, no. These are the arcade games that you poured quarters into; they’re the types of games that kept that radiator on your car unfixed, and perhaps cost you a girlfriend or two. Hit the jump below to check out our picks!

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