The Stupid Gamer

The Manhunt 2 stir is still growing and other countries have moved to ban the game from retail release; such as Ireland, Italy, and Australia. Nintendo has long enforced a policy that they don’t allow AO (Adults Only) rated games to appear on their system, so it’s possible that the Wii version will either have to be edited or scrapped.

Personally, I think that Rockstar presented an overly violent cut of the game to the ESRB to earn the extreme rating to get the media in a frenzy and get people talking about the game. Now that it’s been given the AO rating, they’ll tone it down to get it back to M rated; something they mostly intended to do anyway. Once it’s been approved to ship with the M rating, the media coverage will have basically promoted the game for free, and gamers will check the title out based on curiosity or real interest. We all know that Rockstar loves to be in the headlines, so this whole “controversy” seems to fit right in with a typical game release.

I could be wrong, but I highly doubt you’re going to even see the game get delayed, let alone canceled.

From a press release issued by Konami earlier this morning:

KONAMI ANNOUNCES CONTRA 4 FOR NINTENDO DS

Developed by WayForward Technologies, Contra 4 is planned for release on the Nintendo DS in 2007. For more information on the game and the Contra franchise, please visit: www.konami.com . 

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m extremely happy to see the Contra series being continued. Shattered Soldier on the PS2 was pretty great, so I know the series can still bring it. Contra III on the SNES remains my favorite in the series; hopefully Contra 4 is up to that level of quality.

According to a Yahoo! news report, Ken Kutaragi, the father of the PlayStation, has officially called it quits. Ken Kutaragi is responsible for the PlayStation line and is a huge reason for expansion in the gaming industry in the past 10 years. Ken was always big on pushing the technological boundaries of gaming further; and some say that he might have been a little too ambitious with in that regard with the PS3. I think the gaming industry needs people like Ken, as crazy as he is.

Enjoy the retirement, Ken. Thanks for your contributions to the industry, and more importantly, for all of the blog fodder over the years.

Full Story here: Ken Kutaragi retires.

Apparently Rockstar’s Manhunt 2 is just a bit too over the top for the UK ratings board. With depictions of graphic killings and a very interactive interface, the game won’t be allowed to be sold legally in the UK region. It will be interesting to see if this controversy helps sales in other regions or not. No word on whether or not a toned-down of version of the game is going to be released for UK, but I highly doubt it.

Personally I don’t see the appeal of the Manhunt series. I think it’s definitely using the over the top violence and language as a crutch to boost sales. While I’m not in favor of censoring or banning the game, I really hope that the little tykes are kept far from the game when it hits shelves.

In response to some criticism and some less than stellar reviews, Mitch Gitelman, of the Shadowrun development team FASA, vented his frustrations on the Major Nelson podcast. When Major asked about the types of reviews that the game had been receiving, Mitch kinda lost his composure and started ranting like a fanboy. It’s pretty sad to hear, but I’d definitely recommend downloading the podcast for a few giggles. During his rant, Mitch mentioned that they did “background checks” on some of the reviewers of the game. He went on to express his disappointment in seeing a reviewer that typically did RPGs handling an FPS game. Background checks? Are you insane? So you don’t think that this reviewer knows anything about FPS games since he typically reviews RPGs? Quit being an assuming jerk. Your game isn’t up to par with the competition. Deal with it.

Here’s some news for you, Mitch. Your studio got axed because your product stinks. Your studio put out a multiplayer only game with 3 game modes (2 when you realize that a couple are the same thing) and a very small number of maps; all while charging a full $60. You go on to ask, “how many game types are in football?” Apples and oranges dude. You say that you don’t set pricing, but you can’t expect people just to be cool with the price point simply because it was out of your hands. Honestly, I’m surprised you made it this long in the industry if you can’t handle a bit of fair and honest feedback from the community. You guys took a respected IP, jumped the shark with it, and overcharged and under delivered. If anybody should be ranting, it’s the fans of the old Shadowrun name. For now, shut up and get back to message board viral marketing and shilling or something.

I’m probably going to take some crap for this, but I think it’s worth it. Before I dig into this piece, let me explain my methodology for choosing those found in this piece. Every once in a while you’ll see a message board thread inviting the community to share their gaming and/or home theater setups. Eager forum users time and time again step up and post their pictures while proudly stating, “this is my setup!” Well, if you’re going to put yourself out there, I’m going to be the jerk that saves your picture, shares it with an audience, and ridicules each and every one of your missteps. To be fair, however, I don’t make fun of people for having poor setups due to financial constraint; everybody is judged according to how well they did within their financial means.

Note: I’ll be adding to this as the need arrives. If you find worthy submissions, email them to me at jar155 [at] gmail dot com.

Ok, now I figure somebody that’s capable of travelling into the future to buy a 360 and making it back to 2003 would be more capable of a sensible setup. How does one even play this thing? Unless you’re 50 feet back from the screen, you’re going to have a sore neck in just a few short minutes of gaming. That’s just problem number one. Number two: THERE IS MORE STUFF CRAMMED IN THERE THAN IN ALL OF CHINA! I mean, I’m glad that he has several highlighters to choose from when needed, but the rest is a bit excessive. Problems three through fifty are your challenge to discover. It’s like Where’s Waldo, except for that nothing is hidden.

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I’m probably going to take some crap for this, but I think it’s worth it. Before I dig into this piece, let me explain my methodology for choosing those found in this piece. Every once in a while you’ll see a message board thread inviting the community to share their gaming and/or home theater setups. Eager forum users time and time again step up and post their pictures while proudly stating, “this is my setup!” Well, if you’re going to put yourself out there, I’m going to be the jerk that saves your picture, shares it with an audience, and ridicules each and every one of your missteps. To be fair, however, I don’t make fun of people for having poor setups due to financial constraint; everybody is judged according to how well they did within their financial means.

Note: I’ll be adding to this as the need arrives. If you find worthy submissions, email them to me at jar155 [at] gmail dot com.

I really hope this is a case of a clever photoshopper playing a joke. What’s the point of buying a $600 console capable of 1080p resolutions only to hook it up to a TV that Goodwill stores wouldn’t even try to sell? Seriously, this TV probably predates videogaming itself. I don’t even know how the guy managed to make the thing display on that set. I suspect this guy and the Radio Shack employees a few blocks away became good friends. Possibly even friends with benefits, I don’t know.

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I’m probably going to take some crap for this, but I think it’s worth it. Before I dig into this piece, let me explain my methodology for choosing those found in this piece. Every once in a while you’ll see a message board thread inviting the community to share their gaming and/or home theater setups. Eager forum users time and time again step up and post their pictures while proudly stating, “this is my setup!” Well, if you’re going to put yourself out there, I’m going to be the jerk that saves your picture, shares it with an audience, and ridicules each and every one of your missteps. To be fair, however, I don’t make fun of people for having poor setups due to financial constraint; everybody is judged according to how well they did within their financial means.

Note: I’ll be adding to this as the need arrives. If you find worthy submissions, email them to me at jar155 [at] gmail dot com.

Surround sound only works if, you know, it SURROUNDS YOU. Unless this gamer is planning on pressing his nose against that LCD display, there’s absolutely no possible way that he’s going to benefit from a 5.1 system. In fact, it’s going to sound as confusing as all get out when footsteps that should sound like they’re coming from behind come from in front of you and up in the air. Ridiculous. This is like that time when I thought I’d be clever and use a bar of soap to wash my hair instead of shampoo so I could just start at the top and work down. Well, actually, it’s nothing like that, but both things are pretty stupid. At least my decision was recognized and never repeated. This chump actually is proud of what’s going on in the pic above.

The madness continues after the jump…
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In a recent interview with The Mercury News, Todd Holmdahl, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Gaming and Xbox Products Group, offered up one of the worst set of responses in history to a set of questions. I swear, it’s like prior to this interview Todd had been beaten within an inch of his life by an MS enforcer and told, “if you say one thing…” followed by a fist shaking motion. A very powerful fist shaking motion. I would guess that in addition to the vague threat, and the shaking fist, there might have been the furrowing of brows as well. See how many times Todd either evades the question or flat out says “I’m not going to tell you because that would make us look bad and expose the truth behind the lies”. Ok, he never says that, but he might as well have.

Here’s the interview: Q&Few A with Todd Holmdahl

Edit: I’m on my 3rd Xbox 360…and it looks like it’s going to go soon. Boo!

Instead of calling out games for destroying our youth and causing spikes in violence, CNN has an article up that talks about how games are being used by parents as a way to spend time with their children and get a chance to talk to them in a comfortable environment. The article, as expected, is big on the Wii, but it’s pretty universal in its concept.

Take a look at the article here: Click