Reservoir Dogs Banned In Australia

Another game which will never see official release in Australia is the game adaptation of the film Reservoir Dogs by Atari. The Office of Film & Literature Classification website doesn't say much more about it or clarify why it has been banned. Speculation is that it is because of in game violence. If there was an AO rating for games in Australia this wouldn't be an issue.

Reservoir Dogs The Game
OFLC Listing

A Good Year for Gaming (Part One)

The next 12 months for PC games looks pretty sweet. I've finally had a little bit of spare time at work to catch up on some of the E3 ingame footage for releases over the next 12 months and I reckon we're in for a good year. While the number crunchers will judge a good year for games in the number of units sold or amount of turnover generated by a game, the gamers actually judge the year by the quality of releases. There were some good game releases last year, but just not a lot of them. Some games just hung there on the periphery and just didn't quite make legendary status, such as: Boiling Point, X3 and Gun. Ultimately, game developers tend to promise a lot more than they actually deliver (Driver 3 is a good example). Where game trailers tend not to be a true reflection of actually game play and the game, upon release, is well below the expectation created prior to its completion. As gamers we don't have much else to go on. A spattering of previews and reviews which can be found all over the internet and printed media.

All this aside there are a number of game releases that I am looking forward to in the next year and, for these titles I believe it is going to be a good year for gaming. Here are some of the titles I am looking forward to:

Crysis - If you haven't heard about this game then where have you been. This game really needs to be seen to be believed. If you haven't seen some of the ingame footage from this game then definitely download it. You will be blown away. Crysis is one of the games on the horizon which will utilise the new Aegia Physx processor. The environments and use of light in this game are revolutionary. This game is the game which will blow Half Life 2 out of the water. This game will feature the new engine by Crytek. Crytek, for my money, are a developer who are willing to push a systems limits without creating buggy software. Hopefully they can keep this up with Crysis and also give the big game developers a run for their money.
http://www.crysis-game.com/

Quake Wars - This will be the game to push the Doom 3 engine and add some spice to the boring "jump and gun" multiplayer scene. The second in the Enemy Territory series this game should be another one to look forward to. Offering objective based multiplayer, different character classes for each side (not just different skins) and massive maps this game will be the multiplayer game which sets to rock Battlefield 2 off its FPS Multiplayer mantle.
http://www.enemyterritory.com/

Dark Messiah: Might and Magic - I've just watched a long gameplay video of this and it looks unbelievable. Think of Oblivion on speed with destructable and usable environments. Facing an Ogre who you can't defeat, use the environment to kill it instead. The scope this game appears to have with environment interaction will be amazing. I haven't been a big fan of the Might and Magic franchise (just not my cup of tea), but this one looks like a game not to miss. This game is using the Source engine and it looks like Ubisoft are going to test its limits. It will be a single player RPG set in the fantasy world of Might and Magic.
http://www.mightandmagic.com/us/darkmessiah/teaser/

Alan Wake - I love a good horror game. I'm just playing Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines for the first time and the scene in the first part of the game where you go to the haunted hotel is one of the best pieces of horror gaming I have played for some time. This game looks excellent (although the story of the disturbed writer going to a small country town is a bit worn out). The lighting and environments look first class. As with any horror game it depends on how well they pace the story and how well the atmosphere works in game. I hope they can nail it with this game and produce a horror game worth playing this year.
http://www.alanwake.com/

Sam and Max - Sam and Max are finally back after their on again/off again/on again/off again development cycle for the sequel. To be honest I thought this game was dead in the water and Lucasarts have dropped it. The thing I'm not sure about with this one is the delivery system. The game will be delivered through Gametap. Have to see how this one pans out. Hopefully it will be filled with Sam and Max goodness which carries on the tradition of the first classic adventure in this series. I have only seen teaser trailers for this and they look like they are carrying on in the same vein.
http://www.samandmax.net/

There are quite a few more games on the horizon I am having a look at. I'll put together a look at the games I am looking out for this year over the next week.

to be continued...

Prey Demo Rocks

It's been a little while since I was excited by a First Person Shooter (FEAR would be the last one which came to mind), but after playing the demo for Prey I am really looking forward to this game's release.

Prey turns gaming space on its head. Prey uses the ingame space in a new way. It will have you playing on nearly every space. Where walls can quickly become floors and your enemy is above you rather than in front of you. While looking at the ingame videos prior to the demos release you could have thought that this was a novelty implemented to catch a gamer's attention. Rather it is a well designed gaming feature which adds another dimension to the gameplay.

The use of the Doom 3 engine for the game has given the game the Doom/Quake appearance. Even the weapons are very similar in feel to Quake 4. The graphics and finish to the demo are excellent. The use of the "spirit realm" within the game is well done and the couple of puzzles you have to solve which use this feature are well thought out.

If you get a chance download the demo and give the game a go. The demo is relatively large too for modern day demos and it will leave you wanting more.

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE OI OI OI

We are through. So much for the US team saying we were at the World Cup Finals just to make up the numbers.

Having played firsts soccor at school and played as a junior player for a local club it is fantastic to see Australia finally make some headway in the world game. No matter what happens from now Australia should feel proud about how well we have done on the world stage. We may be lowest ranked team in to the next round but we have got the most spirit. AFL will continue to take a backward step for a little while longer. Considering my team Essendon is not doing too well at the moment, at least I still have a team to support.

Looks like we face Italy early next week. This is going to be a tough match. Looks like I am not going to be able to catch up on sleep just yet with another early morning/late night planned to watch the next match.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi, Oi.

Starforce Boycotts the US

I am not going to enter in to the debate about whether Starforce allegedly does nefarious things to peoples systems. I'll let other people debate this. What I wanted to point out was that there is a strange disparity between the release of games with Starforce copy protection in the US and the rest of the world. You can find games releases around the rest of the world which has Starforce copy protection and the same game released in the US without it. This is an interesting point. Why is it that a distributor would include the game without Starforce copy protection in the US and not for the rest of the world? Is it because their is a law suit brewing in the states against Starforce? From what I understand Starforce is an integral part of the gaming software so the developers have to go through a process to remove it from the installer. One example of this is Toca Touring Cars (or V8 Supercars 3). The Australian version of this software ships with Starforce the US version doesn't.

The good thing about this is that some developers are dropping Starforce entirely. Ubisoft is rumoured to be getting rid of it from their future game line up and apparently so is 10tacle studios. The antiStarforce sentiment in the gaming community is growing. Unfortunately, Starforce labels most of those people who have issues with the software or are opposed to it for whatever reason to be pirates, which places anyone who has legitimate issues with the copy protection itself in to this bracket.

While there is a need for copy protection, surely it shouldn't be intrusive and it should definitely apply to the whole world and not just the part of it which might cost them the most legal dollars to fight.

EA become Mythic

EA have acquired Mythic Entertainment creating the revamped EA Mythic. It took the purchase of a software company for people to consider EA to take on Mythic proportions. Just take a look at some of the gaming forums to find out that there are some relatively unhappy gamers floating around after this purchase. Mythic entertainment were responsible for the successful Dark Age of Camelot MMO and are in the process of creating the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. This is definitely a time of reckoning as EA try to tap in to the lucrative MMO subscription market. This is not EA's first foray in to this area as they purchased one of the longest standing MMOs, Ultima Online.

Once again MMOs come in to the news as the power of this genre to print money (with a successful game) is too much of an enticement for software developers to resist. However, EA aren't held in the highest regard within the gaming community. There was a long standing online petition to boycott EA games from disgruntled gamers. EA, however, boasts to be the largest software developer in the world. Assisted by their need to release yearly franchises on games which really aren't changed much from the previous year.

Hopefully EA won't stick their fingers in to Mythic too much and provide them with the resources they need to create high quality software.

It seems that subscription based pay to play is the way the gaming developers want the industry to go. Episodic content is just another way of saying pay to play. Soon games won't be released on to the market without you having to subscribe to them in order to play them.

Does the Global Market Exist?

A certain, prominent Australian gaming site (run by a major Telco) has launched its online games store this week. For some this would be a cause for celebration because the development of online delivery of games has seen a price drop in game titles for direct download overseas. This is not so in Australia. You would think that without the overheads of carrying stock, opening stores as well staffing these stores and the money saved on delivery costs associated with receiving product in your store that online delivery would create the possibility of selling software at a greatly reduced price. This does not seem to hold true in Australia.

This new online shop which offers direct to your hard drive delivery of the software is, in fact, selling software at full retail price. If you are not a member of the Telco offering this online delivery service (of course, membership has its privileges and members get the software at a slight discount) then you would have to pay $89.95 for the new Tomb Raider Legend. Full price. At least if you go to the store to purchase it you would receive the box, instructions and not all of the hassles of updating a direct2drive game (the direct2drive downloaded games require special update patches released for them). The funny thing about this is that if you have a look around and consider some of the other options for online delivery, such as direct2drive, you could in fact purchase this same product for only $39.95US ($53.97AUS). This is a saving of over $30 for exactly the same product. I can tell you what I would prefer to be doing with my money and it does not include shelling out the difference to a major Telco which already has millions of its own. How do they possibly think that this system will work? If you are prepared to purchase software and download it online then you are more than capable of doing a google search for the same software to see where you can get it at a cheaper price.

It seems to me that the world marketplace is reluctant to accept the global nature of the internet in order to provide online delivery. Another example of this is in relation to Amercian television shows. Itunes in the US offers the second season of lost on a download basis of $1.99US per episode the day after it is shown in the states. However, you cannot purchase these television shows if you do not live in the US. I would certainly pay $1.99US to download every episode of Lost after it was shown in the states. Why should they complain about people illegally downloading television shows when they only offer a paid download service to a specific region? If they opened up this system to the world they would make a lot more money out of it and not have to worry so much about monitoring people's internet usage. Why is this same system not set up in Australia? Why is the world so backwards in coming forwards?

Steam, for all its faults, at least has managed to put its pricing point for new software at a more than competitive price. Titles like Red Orchestra are more than half what you would pay in a shop for the same title if released with a box and packaging.

Unfortunately, the market in Australia is run by vultures. The marketplace is completely out of balance and reletive technology prices are more than they should be when compared to overseas. You just have to go to the football and look at the price of a meatpie and a beer to know that Capitalism has taken a foul turn to complete opportunism in this country.

(This article is not written to promote Direct2Drive.)

Is Star Wars Finished?

I'm sure you've heard that there will be another Lego Star Wars game released. This one will follow the original trilogy. It is just another game milking the Star Wars franchise for all it can get. Don't get me wrong the first Lego Star Wars was an excellent game for kids. However, how much can George Lucas get out of the Star Wars name before people become sick of hearing it? Of course, the die hard Star Wars fans will never get sick of it. You know those people. The ones who dress up in the costumes to go to the movies. The forty year olds who still play with their star wars figurines. Those strange and lonely people who take the movie trilogy a little too seriously. Just like those very strange Star Trek fans who do the same thing (refer to Trekkies, a very funny documentary about Star Trek fans who go to the extreme). Maybe this fanaticism has something to do with movies who have the word Star in their name.

What more could they possibly do for this franchise which would give it some new life? There have been so many star wars games released (most of which are very average) and some which are extremely good. Tie Fighter was one of the best Star Wars games released a long time ago, ina galaxy far, far away. Knights of the Old Republic brought some respectibility to the franchise. However, Empire at War and the Ben Kenobi game on the Xbox were just not up there.

George Lucas was the man who invented modern merchandising as a means to increase revenue for a movie sale. Since the release of Star Wars there has been new merchandise released nearly every year to "celebrate" the movie trilogy. At what point in time are consumers going to become sick of all the junk that is released. Cause really, most of it is just junk (but if you have collected it from its original release and still have it in its original packaging it is very valuable junk). At what point in time does George Lucas think that his product has reached market saturation? I couldn't be bothered buying another Star Wars games and as far as I am concerned Episode I & II were just trash. The only movie which brought some credibility to the new trilogy was Episode III.

What "new" ideas can they attached to the Star Wars concept to create a "new" product? We've got Lego Star Wars. Why not try "Star Wars Smurfs". Or, a build your own Star Wars city game like Sim City, or Sim Canteena. What about Star Wars Vs Aliens Vs Predator. That way you could tie in three movie franchises in the one game. We have seen Star Wars movie tie in games, Sims, RPGs, Adventure, MMOs, RTSs. What new things could they bring to this franchise which would make people say, "Oh, I've really missed Star Wars. Let me go out and buy that game."

Five Second Freddy

"Hold on ... wait ... wait ... uhh ... I'm finished." A good time may be better than a long time, but there is a popular perception within western society that to go for longer is better. I don't know whether this holds true for other cultures, but I am sure that their thoughts must fall along the same lines. However, it seems the gaming industry wants to buck this trend and deliver shorter and shorter gaming experiences.

It was reported in Atomic Magazine (Issue 66, July 2006, p. 80) that the new game Alone in the Dark will be delivered in 30 to 40 minute episodes on the Xbox 360. What is 30 minutes, including the introduction of the game, in total game time terms? What 20 minutes of gameplay? This is absurd. Paying for 30 minutes of content.

If they are delivering 30 to 40 minutes of gameplay then I hope they deliver new content every day, cause I am not going to be happy with their enforced hiatus of a game that I enjoy. If Valve were delivering the content in 30 or 40 minutes it would take them 4 or 5 months to deliver the next episode. By that time I will have forgotten what I had played in the 30 minute segment I had previously.

What kind of replayability will this create in the game? especially for completely linear shooters. There won't be any replayability.

Eden Games (the Five Minute Freddies) of the gaming industry. Good luck to them. I hope they can break the myth that shorter is better than longer, but they also may go out of business trying. With the interuptions I've had at work it's taken me longer than 30 minutes to write this post.

Damn ... the game would have been over already.

Push The Game Out The Door - Don't Worry If It's Finished

If you thought that release dates are a problem with gaming, then you are not the only one. The president of LucasArts (Jim Ward) has commented that missing release dates in the gaming industry is inexcusable.

“There’s an attitude in this industry that says in order to make a great game, it takes whatever time it takes and it takes whatever money it takes, and that that’s okay,” he claimed. “Well it’s not okay – it’s wrong. It’s not okay in other entertainment businesses. In other businesses it’s big trouble.”

“When you have EA failing to bring Superman out with the movie, that’s inexcusable. Moving games like Medal of Honor and Godfather out of the fourth quarter -– that’s the old way of thinking and you can’t do that any more.”

Jim Ward claims that not getting the product out on time is damaging the industry. However, he doesn't recognise that companies pushing out unfinished products is damaging the industry as well. Too many games are being released unfinished and then being patched afterwards. Does he want this to be the trend that continues. I would prefer a finished product which is running late over an unfinished product which is released on time. Look at some of the current game releases which have been released early unfinished. X3 and Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines just to name 2. As an aside, how would it be if STALKER was released when originally suggested. It would have been completely unfinished.

What the problem is that game developers release the release dates too early. Why doesn't Jim just say that? He should have said, "The industry announces release dates too early. We should be more respectful of the consumer and endeavour to release finished products in to the marketplace." That wasn't too hard to say was it? However, I don't think this will solve the problem, because there is more of an issue with the contractual agreements that game developers make with their distributors which is the problem. Game Developers can get stung if they don't finish the game in time.

Quotes courtesy of:
http://www.mcvuk.com/newsitem.php?id=1110
LucasArts graphic couresy of LucasArts.

The Blizzard Bank

I reckon if you wanted a sure fire investment opportunity then blizzard would be well worth having a look at. Although you may have missed the band wagon a bit, however, the bubble hasn't quite burst for Blizzard. With World of Warcraft managing to collect over 5 million subscribers and still going strong it looks like Everquest is going to have to forgo the mantle of online crack and hand over the pedastal to Blizzard. World of Warcraft has been a never ending money tree for Blizzard. They have managed to create one of the most successful MMO franchises to date.

Obviously, people are talking about it. Even James Cameron wants to jump in on the MMO cash cow and create his own MMO, which I think is currently codenamed "Project 880" (Why does he need a code name for it if he is telling people about it? Isn't a codename used if you want to keep something a secret). It was only a matter of time before Hollywood jumped on the MMO printing press band wagon. However, Hollywood and the gaming industry don't necessarily go hand in hand. Movie tie in games are some of the worst ever made. With only a handfull being worthy of release (for my money Chronicles of Riddick is one of the best movie tie in games). What can hollywood possibly offer the gaming industry that it doesn't already have? Movie stars are starting to realise that their is money voicing games. You see big names in games more and more often. Oblivion had a heap of them from Patrick Stewart to Sean Bean. I must admit that the quality of movies coming at of Hollywood at the moment is nothing more than schlock. What will they create the Posiedon MMO? Where the objective is to be the first rescued from the ship? Or, an MMO based on Gymnasts?

When the gaming industry is already suffering from a severe lack of "original" releases and "original" concepts what is Hollywood possibly going to bring to the table and make gaming a better place? Are we going to have to put up with re-releases of re-releases? Hollywood remaking classic games just so they can cash in on the resale value. Look at what was done to Bard's Tale. The original Bard's Tale was a gaming classic and the remake was nothing more than regurgitated garbage.

Anyway. Look out for the James Cameron MMO. I am sure he is going to rock the industry the same way that he rocked Hollywood. I can't wait till he releases the Titanic MMO. A tragic love story. I hate to tell you but they all die in the end.

This is what James Cameron apperantly said about it (look out for his use of the word "cool". I always think when older people say the word "cool" it just doesn't sound right).

"In my next film, I can only tell you what we're planning on doing, which is simultaneously developing a major motion picture and, hopefully, a major game title that coexists in the same world that shares characters," said Cameron. He continued, "Going into that world will actually inform those watching the film and vice versa. I don't want to say anything more than that, because I don't want to give away some of the cool stuff that we're working on." (Doesn't it sound a little bit like the Matrix online?)

Sounds cool doesn't it. Look out for Project 880. If James Cameron wants to make some money from the gaming industry why doesn't he learn what it's about first? Serve his apprenticeship. Rather than walk in like he knows the place.

James Cameron will get my "Jump in on the Cash Cow Award" for this month.

Is Oblivion Perfection?

Oblivion is far from perfect. However, it has been one of the most positive step forwards in gaming all year. This is one of the few games that I have played and felt that they could have done a whole lot more with the game. The thing about this is that Oblivion is one of the best games that I played all year.

Morrowind has been one of my favourite games for some time and it was refreshing to see that Bethesda were not willing to continue the franchise without putting in some hard work first. Oblivion definitely does add a lot to the Elder Scrolls franchise. It continues the developing story and manages to add an entire new dimension to games. Oblivion would have to be one of the best games released. The depth in the game is only parralleled by the other Elder Scrolls titles. However, I played through the game thinking that Bethesda could do even more with the game and take it to a level not yet reached by any game released.

Firstly, the economy needs a lot of work. While this was touched on in game by allowing the player to invest in shops when their Mercantile skill reached a certain level it was badly implemented and not really relevant. By the time you get your mercantile skill to the level required you really don't have to worry about earning the extra 500 that you get from the investment, which makes it worthless. The game is definitely suited to having a fluctuating economy. How would the game be with an economy like that in X3. A completely dynamic economy which is based on NPC transactions and manufacturing. This would allow gamers to actually spend some time checking out the different merchants for different pricing. The batering system implemented within the game wasn't done very well, however, it was an improvement over Morrowind. With a dynamic economy the game could introduce banks as a means to keep your money and make investments.

With a dynamic economy it would also be nice to introduce a crafting based system which has been developed in Everquest & World of Warcraft. Rather than the player using specific items established by the game developers they could develop crafting skills and create their own items. A simple "crafting" type system is being used in Hellgate London. Where weapons can be modified with thousands of different combinations through different ammunition and add-ons to the weapons. This gives the player some control over their weapons and gives them the opportunity to create something relatively "unique".

The quest system in game was better developed than in Morrowind. However, the process of questing does become repetitive. The multifaceted quests were generally well thought out, however, I do think that this is only the start of Bethesda developing their quest system. I think players should have been given the option of having the quest markers placed on their map. If they could turn the quest markers off it would have made the game more difficult and created some more interesting adventuring in the mean time. The game setup was too simple for long term gamers. There needed to be more choice with some of the implemented game functions to give players more choice on how they played the game. Level scaling was actually something that I didn't mind, although it definitely needed some tweaking. I don't want to powerplay through the game and be an uber character. I would like to be able to fight and face the possibility of death. I also liked the fact that you could return back at any time and it would be a challenge. However, there needed to be some work done on the random encounters and the equipment these encounters used.

The game was definitely created for a console and ported to the PC. I think Bethesda have lost sight of their PC market and really need to consider the needs of the "traditional" gamer when creating their PC titles. The map and menu system needs a lot of work to make it more effective for a PC gamer. The keyboard controls needed some working over as well.

It would have been nice to make Oblivion my home for longer. However, after having finished the main story in 85 odd hours of gameplay I wasn't in a rush to go back. Where I played Morrowind on and off for months I finished the main story in Oblivion in 3-4 weeks and haven't really returned. Where I found the main story in Morrowind to be complicated and frustrating at times, Oblivion was like a walk in the park. It was too easy. It wasn't involved enough and seemingly hasn't managed to stem my interest to keep me coming back to the game. I have purchased one of the add ons for it. I installed the expansion but haven't played it. Unfortunately, my interest in Oblivion hasn't been as enthusiastic as it was for Morrowind. Oblivion has passed me by too quickly. I would have liked to spend more time in that place, but don't find enough reasons for me to go back.

Morrowind was like being in a troubled relationship that you never wanted to give up on. Oblivion was the short term good looking girlfriend who you were glad to have landed but realised that it was probably beyond your grasp.

(Graphics courtesy of www.elderscrolls.com)

A Slow 12 Months In Gaming

I feel that it has been a very slow 12 months in gaming. Prior to Oblivion being released I feel that it has been one of the slowest years for game releases in quite some time. The big game releases over the last 12 months prior to Oblivion had been FEAR, Battlefield 2, Quake 4, Dungeon Siege, Guild Wars, and several others. I must say that Battlefield 2 was completely unappealing to me. FEAR was an excellent shooter, however, the story was badly told and the multiplayer riddled with haxors. These were most of the main stream releases on the PC for that period. The previous year we had Half Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry. Three major title releases which all brought something of their own to the marketplace and offered a little something different in all respects for gamers.

While it wasn't a big year for big named game releases it was an excellent year for other releases. X3, while being extremely buggy and difficult to get in to was a very rewarding game (I have just reinstalled it to start playing it again) and GT Legends is awesome. However, a game which would not have popped up on many players radars would have been the second generation of Live For Speed. The gaming industry is dominated by the big publishing houses and this is not necessarily a good thing. But one game which is doing extremely well is Live For Speed. LFS is a racing sim made by gaming enthusiasts and which has a massive world wide cult following. It is of an extremely high standard and only available online. The fact that it, more than not, gets overlooked by magazines is a shame because this is the type of software which deserves blatant promotion. A game which is not made by some of the large publishing machines which predominantly churn out the same old crap.

Another game, which is worth having a look at, is Darwinia. Made by the guys who created Uplink, Darwinia is a relatively unique take on a mixture of gaming styles. Mixing strategy with some basic RTS elements and a objective based levels they have created a very simple but compelling game.

While the last 12 months has been slow for big game releases the next 12 months promises to be huge. Quake Wars, Alan Wake, Alone in the Dark, Huxley, Hellgate London, Crysis, Titan Quest, Armed Assault, are all games which are just around the corner from being released and promise to keep PC gamers busy for some time.

Hypocracy - A necessary Part of our Modern Society

Blatant hypocracy is just rife in the gaming industry, but not so much from the developers. More so from the media and and the ratings board.

My first example is related to Mark Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. This game was banned in Australia because it promoted tagging. As far as I knew, tagging, while unappealling to some people and an illegal act, does not hurt or harm others. Where as a game like San Andreas, taken in the same context, promotes killing people. While I don't believe there should be this form of censorship and there definitely should be an 'R' rated category for gaming in Australia, by their very own logic shouldn't they ban games that promote other forms of illegal acts such as killing people? Doesn't this just make the censorship system a joke.

The other thing that caught my attention this morning is not so much related to gaming, but to a the new Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift movie. People believe that this movie will encourage and promote youths to try drift racing. Well, if people are so influenced by the movies they see why aren't they more concerned about people killing other people in movies. Doesn't this then promote people to resort to violence as a means to solve their problems? Isn't this more of a concern to those people who make these censorship decisions? Another part of the story which bugged me was that the uninformed journalists were making out that drift racing was a new style of racing. They obviously didn't know what they were talking about. Drift racing has been huge in Japan for quite some time. Just because Hollywood picks up on the concept doesn't mean that Hollywood invented it. That really pisses me off. Just because it is made in to a Hollywood movie they take credit for it.

Anyway, it would be nice if the Review Board were, in some way, consistant. (Please note: I am also a big fan of San Andreas. Another note of hypocracy comes from the GTA series. Vice City was banned in Australia because you could have sex with a prostitute in the back of a car and then kill her. Rockstar had to release a version in Australia which would not allow you to do this. However, in San Andreas you can do exactly the same thing and the game was never banned for that reason. It was, of course, banned for other reasons.)

Stalker Has Another Release Date

It seems that all may not be lost for stalker. The developers have said that it has a release date (after much speculation at the gaming sites). The news was broken unnofficially through some game news sites when the examined the financial reports of Stalkers distributor and saw that it was set for release. This has prompted an official response from the developers and another showing of Stalker at E3. For my money and to my distress, I believe Stalker will become abandonware. It may rival Duke Nukem Forever as the greatest game never made.

Game Developers Have Found A New Way to Print Money

Episodic content. It seems that the video game industry has found a new way to print money. All of a sudden the MMO is old hat. World of Warcraft with its 2 million plus subscribers is not enough. Episodic content is going to be the next "revolution" in gaming. I find it amusing to think that revolution is just another way of revolving and not so much a way of evolving. So, what does episodic content actually mean for gamers and what yard sticks do we have by which to measure this awesome new money making concept?

In essence, episodic content is a means for developers to make games shorter and deliver gaming episodes more frequently. An example of which is Half Life 2. However, with the 18 months development time of Half Life 2 Episode One and the six or seven hours of gameplay involved is it worthwhile? Obviously, Half Life 2 fans are pretty impressed with having some more corridors to run around in, but is 18 months development time worthwhile for such a short stint at the screen? As far as I am concerned the content which was included in Episode 1 should have been included in the main game. If this had happened Half Life 2 would have been worth the money you had to shell out to play it.

The other game which is promoting this new form of content delivery is Sin Episodes. Sin Episodes is another game in the same vein, however, it will be released entirely based on episodic release. Flashy graphics aren't enough to do it for me in a game, the game needs to have a compelling story line and decent gameplay, unfortunately, Sin Episodes has none of these. This is not a game which will be getting my hard earned dollars. The novelty of episodic content is not enough for this game to compel me to play it any further.

Another game which has been taken with a form of episodic content is Battlefield 2. Electronic Arts, never a company to shy away from releasing a large number of expansions which offer little value for money has been doing this with the battlefield 2 expansion packs. They have offered a small amount of content for the gamer with regular paid for content.

What does this mean then for gamers? Playing games in smaller portions. It may be that games like Oblivion, Boiling Point and Grand Theft Auto will have to compete with titles which offer less content and make developers more money. As far as I am concerned video games are not TV shows. I say this after having read that the new Alone in the Dark will offer episodic content and will model itself after the television show "Lost". While I love Lost I don't believe that TV and Games are cross compatible. They are extremely different mediums. The level of immersion in a video game is much greater than that of a TV show. It takes time to become involved with the character you play. I don't believe that this will happen when you are only provided with 6 hours of content spread over the course of 18 months or so. How will you be able to become a part of the game if you are not given the time to absorb the environment and what is going on.

Games can offer so much more than television and motion picture. The possibility to create open ended environments and worlds to explore is something which is unique to gaming and should not be lost but should be embraced. The problem is that with development time of a major title stretching out over three to four years Game Developers have to invest a great deal of money in sustaining the title while it is in development. Development time a risk for the game developers and must be maintained at their own expense with the hope of generating the income from the game's release to cover the development time and earn them a profit to invest in future game releases. This is the catch 22 of the industry. While I would like to believe that the industry is pushed by the creative talent behind the games this is not always the case. Video games and PC games are big business. The game developers have to report to share holders and unfortunately share holders don't care about pushing the medium they want a return on their investment with minimal risk. Minimal risk means generating regular and guaranteed cashflow for the business. This is the world we live in. Gone are the days when a bunch of creative people made a game in their spare time and released it to the world. The modding community has become this creative space. However, modders have to work within the limitations of the development kits which are released for the games. As the modders have found out with the release of Oblivion, Bethesda have not been as forthcoming with their development kit as they were with Morrowind. There are limitations on the mod development so that content can be somewhat stifled. I am sure the creative minds behind the mods will find a way around this, but I don't believe there is any work around for the corpratization of the Gaming Industry.

At what point in time to gamers get a say in how the games are developed? The only way that we can speak up is through our wallets (and the forums). However, I can't imagine that we will see a shift away from the MMO subscription juggernauts and the new episodic gaming.