Vivendi, Activision-Blizzard Snub ESA, E3

In their first big move since they became the biggest publisher in gamerdom, Activision-Blizzard have officially left the ESA and will not be attending this year's E3.

From the ESA's senior VP of communication and research, Rich Taylor:

"While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership. The ESA remains dedicated to advancing our industry's objectives such as protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights, and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire industry. Our high level of service and value to members and the larger industry remains unchanged."

What does this mean for gamers? Well, for starters, none of Vivendi's developers will be "in" E3 (most will have a presence "around" E3, separated from the official show) including Activision-Blizzard, Sierra, Atlus, Majesco, NCsoft, and WBIE. Vivendi will also have to start defending themselves in cases of government interference and copyright infringement, both areas the ESA helped game companies when defending these interests.

The ESA, like many industry organizations, probably had some rules and perhaps fees that Vivendi just didn't agree with but it's unclear the reason for the departure at this time. Whatever the reason this is something which will probably have significant long term repercussions for the industry in general.

Grand Theft Auto IV Quick Observations

So I'm about five hours into GTAIV and I have the following quick observations:

• I am actually watching TV ... inside a video game ... on my TV. Trippy.
• The most impressive animation I've seen so far? Characters walking down the stairs. Finally someone has mastered this animation (I'm actually serious.).
• A single hot dog on the street costs $5 and a new leather coat only costs $34? Living in the "real" New York City I have to tell you that that is surprising close to accurate.
• "Date" a woman and earn some warm coffee? It's great that Rockstar can poke fun of everyone including themselves.
• Damn there is a lot of cursing in this game, even for a GTA game it's a bit shocking. Everyone is dropping f-bombs ... pedestrians, DJs on the radio, TV hosts, everyone is cursing all the time. M for Mature indeed.
• Gas in the GTAIV world costs less than in the real world ($3.59 a gallon in GTAIV). It would have been cool if Rockstar dynamically changed the price of gas in the game in accordance to real world prices ... and just freaking sad.
• Multiplayer is scary fun ... worth the price of the game alone.
• Once again I can never find anything good to listen to on the radio....
• And finally GTAIV is much better than any of the past GTA games. Rockstar has taken the best parts of GTAIII, Bully, and The Warriors and made a deeper more cohesive game.

What do you guys think of the game so far?

How to Sell a Grand Theft Auto Clone: Gary Busey

So what if Grand Theft Auto 4 come from a long history of games that provide hours of entertainment and a deep story full of foul, slimy, but so fun to watch characters? All Saints Row 2 needs is Gary Busey.

In one of the strangest advertisements I've ever seen for a video game, Uncle Gary hands out some educational Street Lessons for those anticipating Saints Row 2. Topics range from heavy weapons to the law enforcement of Stilwater. And yes, Busey is as totally freaking nuts as ever.

Ubisoft Announces a New Prince of Persia Game

In an unprecedented move, Ubisoft has announced another sequel in the Prince of Persia series, currently titled ... Prince of Persia. The rebellious move is expected to net Ubisoft lots of money and huge profits.

In another move by maverick Ubisoft, the game will be launch for not one, not two, but four platforms: the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, and DS. Ubisoft believes the game will do what no game has done before and "rejuvenate the action-adventure genre." In perhaps their most unexpected move, the game will be on sale during the Holidays of 2008.

In all seriousness, a new Prince of Persia game isn't a bad thing. All three in the recent trilogy were fantastic games, despite some missteps in character and attitude. Ubisoft also announced that the game will have an "illustrative art style" that intrigues me. The upcoming movie also piques my interest: Bruckheimer may not be an artistic savant, be he made a theme park ride into a competent, enjoyable movie series, so Prince of Persia shouldn't be much trouble.

So Who Isn't Buying GTA IV? And Why?

With all the insane hype, the near perfect scores, and the simple fact that it's a new Grand Theft Auto I have to wonder, is anyone out there not buying this game? I even know several people who are buying a new system just to play GTA IV. Everyone and anyone who plays games seems to be buying this game.

But yet something surprising happened to me today while I was trying to arrange some multiplayer mayhem with my Xbox 360 friends ... only few of them were planning on picking up the game. Even with all the hype and amazing reviews they weren't planning on picking it up any time soon. When I asked them they give me a very simple reason ... they don't like the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

And to tell you the truth ... neither do I. (Whew, that felt good to finally get off my chest.)

Yeah, I understand the appeal of GTA III and Vice City, but I just found them ... boring. The cities seemed dead to me with robotic pedestrians, the side-quests seemed more like work than fun, and the endless "collection quests" drove me insane. Those games seemed like a rough collection of mini-games, none of which I found particularly fun or exciting. (However I will say that San Andreas was much better and I actually enjoyed that entry in the series, but still I found it above average at best).

But yet I'm still super excited to play GTA IV, even though I don't really enjoy the GTA franchise. Why you ask?

Ironically it's because of Rockstar's non-GTA games. The Warriors, Bully and even Manhunt were some of the most enjoyable gaming experiences of my life. I found all of those games rich experiences with fascinating characters, complex stories, and engrossing worlds. I enjoyed these games as much as people seem to enjoy the GTA games, and for the same reasons it seems.

Hence, that is why I can't wait to play GTA IV. GTA IV seems to combine the best aspects of Rockstar's non-GTA games along with the "tried and true" GTA gameplay aspects. And if Rockstar managed to combine their two worlds of GTA and non-GTA gameplay, then I fully expect GTA IV to be right up there with the legends.

I guess I'll find out, along with several million other people, in just a few hours.

Anyone else out there own an Xbox 360 or PS3 and is not planning on getting GTA IV? What's up with that?

U.S. Government Using Games to Train Spies

In the increasingly complicated world of International Intelligence, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was looking for a new way to train recruits in the fine art of "critical thinking" three guesses where they decided to turn (and the first two don't count). Yep, the world of video games (of course)!

Three PC games were developed by Visual Purple (a simulation studio) for the DIA with the explicit goal of training young agents to analyze complex issues. "It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach," says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA's Joint Military Intelligence Training Center.

Wired got the chance to play these three games, all of which sound very interesting. The games are a "surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge" that range from "Zen Buddhism meets the National Intelligence Estimate" to "a whodunit that begins with scenes of a tanker under attack in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war in 1988". Maybe the government could make up some of the $2.6 million spent on these games by making a consumer copy (I'd sure like to give them a try). And what happens when these games become common in military training? Maybe in the next Call of Duty players will have to train in a video game in order to pass basic training.

Gaming Steve Members Featured in Latest Spore Update

It appears that the Spore development team keeps tabs on the Gaming Steve Spore forums as in their latest update on the Spore web site they featured four creatures created by GS forum members.

LadyM (Mallen), Hydromancerx (Naucean), Petreak (Mentripod), and Oviraptor (Vvukkrauur) were lucky enough to have sketches of their creatures not only turned into official Spore creatures, but each of their creatures were evaluated by the NASA Astrobiology Institute as well as the Spore design team. A sample:

Vvukkrauur, by Oviraptor

NASA Evaluation: Lots of bilateral symmetry on this one. Perhaps the two light green discs below the eyes are heat sensing organs to help detect prey in murky water when the eyes become less useful.

Recreated by Spore Engineer Jeff Gates
Jeff says, "Its low profile is useful when it hunts its prey (not Earth prey). I can't tell if it’s cute or mean, but I know I want one!"

Congratulations you four! I only wish I created a creature as well ... doh!

Update: Mason11987 (Swiftick) and Wydraz (Flaaarg) were also mentioned on the site and are active forum members (sorry I missed you two). So six of the eight creatures featured were from the GS Spore forum ... not bad at all.

Gaming Steve Review: Mario Kart Wii

Mario Kart Wii
Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Price: $49.99
Platform: Wii
Category: Racing Action
Rating: E for Everyone
Release Date: April 27, 2008 (US), April 10, 2008 (Japan), April 11, 2008 (Europe), April 24, 2008 (Australia)

Out in Europe for a fair few weeks now – and uncharacteristically late reaching US shores – I thought it only fair to spill a few beans on Mario Kart Wii, thus letting our American siblings know just what they're in for regarding the mustached one's latest at the end of the month.

There's both good and bad to report, so buckle in and take note.

First, let's talk single player. 32 courses – 16 of which are new – 25 characters, and a good gazillion vehicles round-off the features list, most of which require unlocking as you progress through its four different classes of increasingly (and surprisingly) punishing difficulty. Sure, the setup's undeniably familiar to vets of the series, but make no mistake, Mario Kart Wii boasts some neat new additions to this now-aging formula well worth bearing in mind.

Bikes would be the biggest of which, and it's all done a bit of a PGR4 in that regard. A little nippier, easier to knock around, and capable of some fab tricks, they're a blast to wield I'm pleased to say, and prove my personal weapon of choice 90% of the time.

Then there's the wheel; the freebie add-on contraption that Nintendo throw into the box as a bonus. While you play with the standard "hands out in front" Wii-mote pose seen in previous racing games on this system, clipping on this optional plastic shell gives it a far more tactile feel, not to mention one immeasurably more fun to boot. It certainly works in that regard, yet I couldn't help but notice that in terms of raw performance, my lap times shrunk the second I ditched the waggle controls entirely and opted for something more traditional.

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First Videos of Burnout: Paradise's New (Free) Islands

Looking for a reason to head back to Paradise? Criterion may have the great answer in the first content pack for Burnout: Paradise: an entire Island. And best of all, it's all free.

The new videos show a very modern, sky scraper laden, downtown, with large curving roads that look great for high speed racing all connected to the main land by a huge, under construction bridge. The first piece of this downloadable content is also going to include the car seen in the video (and perhaps others) as well as "unique game" that Criterion will be revealing soon.

While I really enjoyed Burnout: Paradise, I haven't been as drawn back to it as I was to Burnout 3: Takedown (which is one of my favorite racing games of all time). A new island, cars, and gameplay sound like an excellent reason to return to Paradise City.

Is This Really Even News Anymore?

I am pretty much contradicting myself by writing about this, but yet another "main stream" journalist thinks video games are super terrible for society and that something must be done to stop them.

The source in question comes from an editorial written by Giles Whittell, writer and parent from the Times of London, where said Journalist has come to the conclusion that video games are as bad as heroin and teenage pregnancy. Sigh.

The writer believes that one shouldn't have to try games to know their bad just like they shouldn't have to try heroin or teenage pregnancy to know they're bad. An obvious indication of how little this person knows about games is their repeated use of the phrase "I will never buy my children a Nintendo" (because apparently someone at the Times believed it crucial that Giles actually try a game before criticizing it).

At this point I'm just going through the motions. Turns out crime has gone down as video game popularity has risen. The largest market isn't kids, it's 18 - 35 year olds. Heroin kills people and teenage pregnancy often leads to broken families. Video gamers almost always grow up to be skilled, intelligent, and productive members in a increasingly technology dependent society. Video games shouldn't be a babysitter, they are a form of entertainment, as much as reading a child a book or taking them to the park. Video games can teach children valuable skills including teamwork, the villainy of cheating, accomplishment and working with loss. I can keep this up all day...

Anyone care to guess when the next one of these type of stories get written?

Madden on the PC – RIP (And Why You Should Care)

I wish I could say I’m shocked, but I’m not.

Yesterday on his blog, EA’s Peter Moore confirmed that Madden 09 will not be released on the PC, because … well, because making games solely for the console is a more efficient way to back the old Brinks truck up to EA’s corporate headquarters, I guess. Officially, it’s being called “serious business challenges in the sports category”.

On one hand, there’s a certain inevitable logic to the numbers. Sales from the console versions of Madden 08 (NPD, August 07) clocked in around 2 million units, almost 900,000 of that on the 360 alone.

Madden on the PC … well, I couldn’t even find firm figures, but Bioshock was the top-selling PC game at around 77,000, so Madden’s PC sales had to be fewer than that. When you’re talking about a platform that doesn’t break 5% of your sales ... if I’m running a business, I’m probably making that same call.

That said, if you look at the history of the franchise, it’s hard not to feel like EA’s got the blinders on a little, and are missing a bigger problem that could bite them in the ass down the road. The fact is, they’ve been charging full-game prices for expansion-pack content for years now – open a new Madden each year, and you get new rosters, some cosmetic upgrades, and one or two minor gameplay tweaks.

Even as they’re doing that, other aspects of the game remain unfixed, enshrined forever in EA’s Canton of Half-Assed Coding. And buying up the exclusive NFL license and effectively driving competition out of the market hasn’t been the best thing for public relations, even if it was the NFL who approached them.

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Gaming Steve Review: Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Rainbow Six Vegas 2
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Price: $59.99
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Category: Third-Person Shooter
Rating: M for Mature
Release Date: March 18 2008 (US), March 20 2008 (Europe); PC Version: April 15, 2008

These days, everyone loves a good tactical shooting, taking down tangos in an overly planned manner. Games in the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon series' have advanced from being completely hardcore titles to become somewhat more accessible, letting players ease in with slicker controls and cover points, as well as giving them a bit more health and power. The introduction of cinematic cutscenes that take full advantage of the new generation of hardware has also helped the helped the genre, as well as the fact that the Tom Clancy brand has been thrusted upon gamers everywhere.

If you haven't played a recent Rainbow Six game, they are basically tactical FPS with a story. Rainbow Six "mixes it up" by giving you indirect control of two equally skilled NPCs fighting at your side. You can order them to move to a certain position, blow up doors and clear rooms, as well as making them cover you when you're trying a particular maneuver and they do their jobs pretty darn well.

Overall it's a nice change to command a small squad rather playing yet another "uber killing machine". However, unlike your standard FPS your character is quite vulnerable – even a few shots are more than enough to take you out – so you have to play carefully and artistically. Vegas 2 follows this same basic pattern, with a story that involves Las Vegas, funnily enough...

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50 Cent II ... Why Have You Forsaken Us Vivendi?

In a move sure to excite those with poor taste in shooters (and Vivendi's stockholders), a sequel to the dreadful 2005 "hit" 50 Cent: Bulletproof.

The cover of next month's EGM confirms that the writers did indeed suffer through what can be assumed to be another blight on games. With the original selling well over 1 million copies, it is not to surprising to see a sequel coming.

Also to be anticipated is the media backlash, with 50 Cent: Bulletproof still able to make the 10 ten most violent video games of 2007 even though it was originally released in 2005. With a game so likely to be so bad, it just doesn't seem worth defending. Maybe one of those laws against violent video games could be of some use after all.

Stop The Presses! A "Real World" Journalist Actually "Gets" Gaming

In an excellent satirical piece for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Humorist James Lileks details the failure of Minneapolis's attempt to pass an anti-violent video game law.

James points out both the ridiculousness of a $25 fine for selling to minors, as well as the Judges comparing of the violence in the Bible to the violence in a video game. While it would seem he wouldn't be opposed to a more strict way of keeping violent video games away from children, he points out the most obvious place to start: with the parents.

The exceptional humor however comes from the author's take on the violence hidden in even the most friendly looking games, including Roller Coaster Tycoon (as a drowning simulator) and Wii Bowling (a "simulator for aggression against polished dowels"). How refreshing to finally read someone in the "real media" who actually understands video games.

Gaming Steve Review: Lost: Via Domus

Lost: Via Domus
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft Montreal
Price: $29.99
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Category: Adventure
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Release Date: February 26, 2008 (US), March 7, 2008 (Europe), February 8, 2008 (Australia)

The highest compliment I can pay Via Domus, is that despite the lack of canonization deemed worthy by the show's creators – meaning none of the game's content should be considered official events that actually take place within the confines of the show – the storyline genuinely feels as if it were concocted by the writers themselves. Playing as one of the un-named 46 survivors of Oceanic flight 815 – complete with his own back-story, secrets and flashback sequences – the pitch alone is positively gripping to the typical LOST nut like myself.

Clearly made by avid watchers of the TV program then, the look, sound and mood is faithfully represented too, through some glorious presentation and superb use of music. Exploring The Hatch for instance – keying in the numbers frantically while that dreaded alarm goes off – provides that irresistibly tense LOST buzz us long-time viewers'll positively mop up.

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