Today I finally chucked Bioshock into my 360's disc drive for the first time.
I know, I know...like a year after it first came out...in fact, almost a year since I received it, which was last Christmas, but I've barely had time to game at all this year so it just sat on my shelf squished in between a couple of Avril Lavigne CDs and Viva Pinata.
Also, in case I haven't mentioned this enough, I suck at shooters. In fact, I am still on level two of Gears of War. My manager bought a 360 console three days ago with Gears and in less than 72 hours he's ALMOST FINISHED IT.
This is how much I suck.
Anyway...so I popped it in and sat through the opening bit, and was quite uninspired by the blocky cartoony graphics in the first five seconds in the plane...and then the plane crashed and there was fire on the water everywhere and I was blown away by the sparkles and the light dancing off the water surface.
And then I heard a pained scream as I accidentally swam my character into a wall of fire.
I only played for an hour so I'm still only at the Medical Pavilion- which I suppose is Level Two, or The-Level-After-the-Introductory-Level. The whole concept is just fascinating and the artwork and advertising is really really amazing but I am very very freaked out.
I haven't battled a Big Daddy and a Little Sister yet but I've seen them harvesting from the safety of a high beam.
And yup...still freaked out.
Favourite moment so far is finding a pool of water with two Splicers standing in it and using my electroshocky plasmid and frying everything in it.
Childish giggling ensued.
But not the kind of creepy Little Sister giggling...*shudder*
Showing posts with label xbox 360. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xbox 360. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Daphne's Wish List
1. Star Wars: Force Unleashed
2. Rise of the Argonauts
3. Mortal Kombat v DC Universe
4. Lips
5. Guitar Hero IV: World Tour
6. Spore
Now to print it out and stick it on the fridge before Christmas :D
2. Rise of the Argonauts
3. Mortal Kombat v DC Universe
4. Lips
5. Guitar Hero IV: World Tour
6. Spore
Now to print it out and stick it on the fridge before Christmas :D
Friday, September 19, 2008
Ode to My 360
On the 7th of April, 2007 at 7:01 p.m, I bought my Xbox 360.
This was a momentous occasion for me as it was basically the most money I had ever ever spent on anything.
(The financial magnitude of this was squished rather dramatically when I purchased my first car four months later.)
I tend to wax lyrical about my 360, which I'm sure must get very, very annoying to my long-suffering peers, but oh, the love I have for that little piece of plastic hardware. Warm summer nights at 12 a.m playing Assassins Creed. Late-night missions in Mass Effect with giant scorpion alien things that shoot acid. Clutching the controller to my chest and going, "Awwwww...." my Commander Shepard finally declared her love for Kaidan Alenko (followed by a very visual consummation of that love which certainly earned the MA15+ rating). Weekends with my Scene It! controllers in fierce competition with my cousins. Sweating in the summer heat while jumping around maniacally on a Dance Dance Revolution mat. Hitting brightly coloured pinatas over the head with a shovel with Kris, then feeling immediately guilty at their helplessness.
And the funny thing is, what spurred my decision to buy a next-gen console was that fact that The Force Unleashed had been announced- on every platform but PC.
So if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed will...buy the mountain.
And IN A CRUEL TWIST OF IRONY, when The Force Unleashed comes out, what does my XBox do?
IT DIES.
AAAARGGGGGH.
I rang Microsoft today. Microsoft apparently seem to enjoy employing Indian consultants with really really bad American accents.
Nevertheless, 'Nancy' was happy to process my repair, although my heart did sink when she said, "I'm just going to take you through some troubleshooting..."
She told me to turn the console on, wait ten seconds, and turn it off. I politely explained that I had done three test runs the night before doing exactly that, had checked both the status of the power supply and the AV cables, removed the hard drive and retested it, and totally confirmed that it had RROD'ed.
She said, "Oh."
Then she said, "How did you know how to do all that? Did you visit the website?"
I mentioned that I sell 360s at work. What I didn't tell her was that I'd spent part of my afternoon clutching my Xbox to my chest, rocking it back and forth telling it everything would be fine. I probably shouldn't have done this while I had a guest in the house- Sarah looked positively fearful- but she's used to my madness.
So I'm sending my little one to Chullora. Hopefully they can fix the fault, although this is what happens when you designate manufacturing to three shoddy Chinese factories and use crappy heatsinks. Hopefully I'll get it back just in time for after-exams.
To quote Ned Flanders..."God speed, little doodle."
This was a momentous occasion for me as it was basically the most money I had ever ever spent on anything.
(The financial magnitude of this was squished rather dramatically when I purchased my first car four months later.)
I tend to wax lyrical about my 360, which I'm sure must get very, very annoying to my long-suffering peers, but oh, the love I have for that little piece of plastic hardware. Warm summer nights at 12 a.m playing Assassins Creed. Late-night missions in Mass Effect with giant scorpion alien things that shoot acid. Clutching the controller to my chest and going, "Awwwww...." my Commander Shepard finally declared her love for Kaidan Alenko (followed by a very visual consummation of that love which certainly earned the MA15+ rating). Weekends with my Scene It! controllers in fierce competition with my cousins. Sweating in the summer heat while jumping around maniacally on a Dance Dance Revolution mat. Hitting brightly coloured pinatas over the head with a shovel with Kris, then feeling immediately guilty at their helplessness.
And the funny thing is, what spurred my decision to buy a next-gen console was that fact that The Force Unleashed had been announced- on every platform but PC.
So if the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed will...buy the mountain.
And IN A CRUEL TWIST OF IRONY, when The Force Unleashed comes out, what does my XBox do?
IT DIES.
AAAARGGGGGH.
I rang Microsoft today. Microsoft apparently seem to enjoy employing Indian consultants with really really bad American accents.
Nevertheless, 'Nancy' was happy to process my repair, although my heart did sink when she said, "I'm just going to take you through some troubleshooting..."
She told me to turn the console on, wait ten seconds, and turn it off. I politely explained that I had done three test runs the night before doing exactly that, had checked both the status of the power supply and the AV cables, removed the hard drive and retested it, and totally confirmed that it had RROD'ed.
She said, "Oh."
Then she said, "How did you know how to do all that? Did you visit the website?"
I mentioned that I sell 360s at work. What I didn't tell her was that I'd spent part of my afternoon clutching my Xbox to my chest, rocking it back and forth telling it everything would be fine. I probably shouldn't have done this while I had a guest in the house- Sarah looked positively fearful- but she's used to my madness.
So I'm sending my little one to Chullora. Hopefully they can fix the fault, although this is what happens when you designate manufacturing to three shoddy Chinese factories and use crappy heatsinks. Hopefully I'll get it back just in time for after-exams.
To quote Ned Flanders..."God speed, little doodle."
Friday, August 1, 2008
Cables, Trade-Ins, and Other Matters...
Today, I went searching for a VGA cable.
I thought that it would be a simple enough task.
But for some odd reason, NO ONE STOCKS THEM.
Well, I'll clarify this a bit- what I was after was a 15 pin male to female VGA extension cable, not your normal male-male (insert immature giggle here) cable. I tried FIVE stores. FIVE. Including my university computer shop, which seems to have whored itself out to Apple and now seems to be solely worshiping the shrine of Steve Jobs.
I told the guy what I was after, and he goes, "Well...we have cables to connect the Macs."
("Hi, I'm a Mac!" "And I'm a PC!" Do not distract me with your Mac words, peasant!)
And then he suggested the company for which I work.
But no, my store doesn't have male-female VGA cables. We also charge $40 for normal cables, which is just plain stupid.
Anyway...I toddled off to the industrial zone near my university, which has quite a few little computer shops nestled into it. Despite the fact that they are really quite tiny little shops, the I.T guys there were lovely. And...well, they could speak English. It was nice to have a conversation that didn't run along the lines of:
"Excuse me, do you have VGA cables?"
"VGA?"
"Yes, VGA. 15 pin male to female."
"Ahhh....we no have VGA cable. All sold out."
*Awkward pause*
"Um...do you usually stock them?"
"No more. Run out."
"Well, would you be able to order them in?"
*Uncomprehending blinking ensues*
"Never mind."
Finally, I reached the very end of the industrial area and struck gold. And the cables were like $5 each. Mentally, I uttered a joyful "WOOT!" as I handed my $10 over, while the jolly old man at the counter told me that the company I work for was basically 'daylight robbery!'.
Daylight robbery or not, my humble little electronics job has paid my way through law school :)
The cables were actually for a very good friend of mine, Kryssy. In fact, I dedicate this post to her, as she's just bloody awesome. I've shrieked through Halo on her old black brick, dragged her through JB jumping up and down at a Force Unleashed mock-up, rung her in the middle of the exam period wanting her advice whilst standing at an EB clearance table, and tottered around Chadstone with her on a PS3-buying expedition, dragging a limited-edition lead safe that came with GTAIV. (That was a brilliant expedition. She got her PS3, I got knee-length black leather boots. Happiness.)
Anyway...half an hour after I got home, she came over so we could go to my local GameTraders to trade in her all her old stuff. And there was a LOT. Like three bags full. The first was filled to the brim- and imagine a large retail bag FILLED WITH PLAYSTATION TWO GAMES- the second was filled with PS1 stuff, and the third had a Xbox Console plus games and controllers.
Suffice to say, the first bag actually broke when I'd only taken ten steps away from the car, but we managed to stumble into Game Traders- I heaved up the first bag on the counter with a large THUMP and said, "We'd like to trade."
The woman at GameTraders looked distinctly unimpressed.
We let her sort all that out while I snickered through the old Mega Drive collection and viewed their SNES collection with sweet nostalgia. Kryssy got a pretty good deal- she got Call of Duty 4 and Kane and Lynch for the PS3 and that only took up like half of her trade-in credit. Pretty sweet.
We had a most excellent day- and to Kryssy, I say thank you. For years of friendship and gaming and ranting...I have so many happy (and highly amusing) memories. Sitting on your living room floor and pouring through X-Men comics. Playing Mortal Kombat on your PS2 and yelling, "MY HAT KILLS PEOPLE!". Leaving the cinema after Iron Man two minutes before they played Samuel L. Jackson's cameo, saying to you, "Boy, I wish they'd showed Nick Fury from S.H.I.E.L.D." (Am still slapping myself over that one.)
And yeah, being defeated by a flight of stairs in Halo and then screaming and firing blindly when a bunch of beaky aliens jumped out at me behind a crate.
I'll learn how to shoot straight one of these days...
I thought that it would be a simple enough task.
But for some odd reason, NO ONE STOCKS THEM.
Well, I'll clarify this a bit- what I was after was a 15 pin male to female VGA extension cable, not your normal male-male (insert immature giggle here) cable. I tried FIVE stores. FIVE. Including my university computer shop, which seems to have whored itself out to Apple and now seems to be solely worshiping the shrine of Steve Jobs.
I told the guy what I was after, and he goes, "Well...we have cables to connect the Macs."
("Hi, I'm a Mac!" "And I'm a PC!" Do not distract me with your Mac words, peasant!)
And then he suggested the company for which I work.
But no, my store doesn't have male-female VGA cables. We also charge $40 for normal cables, which is just plain stupid.
Anyway...I toddled off to the industrial zone near my university, which has quite a few little computer shops nestled into it. Despite the fact that they are really quite tiny little shops, the I.T guys there were lovely. And...well, they could speak English. It was nice to have a conversation that didn't run along the lines of:
"Excuse me, do you have VGA cables?"
"VGA?"
"Yes, VGA. 15 pin male to female."
"Ahhh....we no have VGA cable. All sold out."
*Awkward pause*
"Um...do you usually stock them?"
"No more. Run out."
"Well, would you be able to order them in?"
*Uncomprehending blinking ensues*
"Never mind."
Finally, I reached the very end of the industrial area and struck gold. And the cables were like $5 each. Mentally, I uttered a joyful "WOOT!" as I handed my $10 over, while the jolly old man at the counter told me that the company I work for was basically 'daylight robbery!'.
Daylight robbery or not, my humble little electronics job has paid my way through law school :)
The cables were actually for a very good friend of mine, Kryssy. In fact, I dedicate this post to her, as she's just bloody awesome. I've shrieked through Halo on her old black brick, dragged her through JB jumping up and down at a Force Unleashed mock-up, rung her in the middle of the exam period wanting her advice whilst standing at an EB clearance table, and tottered around Chadstone with her on a PS3-buying expedition, dragging a limited-edition lead safe that came with GTAIV. (That was a brilliant expedition. She got her PS3, I got knee-length black leather boots. Happiness.)
Anyway...half an hour after I got home, she came over so we could go to my local GameTraders to trade in her all her old stuff. And there was a LOT. Like three bags full. The first was filled to the brim- and imagine a large retail bag FILLED WITH PLAYSTATION TWO GAMES- the second was filled with PS1 stuff, and the third had a Xbox Console plus games and controllers.
Suffice to say, the first bag actually broke when I'd only taken ten steps away from the car, but we managed to stumble into Game Traders- I heaved up the first bag on the counter with a large THUMP and said, "We'd like to trade."
The woman at GameTraders looked distinctly unimpressed.
We let her sort all that out while I snickered through the old Mega Drive collection and viewed their SNES collection with sweet nostalgia. Kryssy got a pretty good deal- she got Call of Duty 4 and Kane and Lynch for the PS3 and that only took up like half of her trade-in credit. Pretty sweet.
We had a most excellent day- and to Kryssy, I say thank you. For years of friendship and gaming and ranting...I have so many happy (and highly amusing) memories. Sitting on your living room floor and pouring through X-Men comics. Playing Mortal Kombat on your PS2 and yelling, "MY HAT KILLS PEOPLE!". Leaving the cinema after Iron Man two minutes before they played Samuel L. Jackson's cameo, saying to you, "Boy, I wish they'd showed Nick Fury from S.H.I.E.L.D." (Am still slapping myself over that one.)
And yeah, being defeated by a flight of stairs in Halo and then screaming and firing blindly when a bunch of beaky aliens jumped out at me behind a crate.
I'll learn how to shoot straight one of these days...
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Trouble With FPS
You may have heard me whine a lot on this blog about how much I suck at FPS.
Now, here is further proof!
I had a spare hour today to start Rainbow Six Vegas on my 360. I know it's a shooter so I probably shouldn't have bought it, but it was only $25 and hey, you blow up shit in a casino. Who hasn't ever wanted to leap onto the blackjack tables at Crown with an AK-47?
Anyway...here I was, happily trotting into a Mexican alleyway with my very large gun, when I reach a doorway. It happens to be one of the doorways that I can't open, since at this point in the tutorial I have not learnt the dubious joys of Snake Cam- but thinking this is Gears of War, I try to smash the door down with one meaty fist.
Except this does nothing. This is not Gears of War.
So I press the pretty little circle button on my controller.
A merry tinkling sound ensues as a teeny little round grenade thing drops at my feet.
Daphne has two seconds to go, "Oh...shit," before the grenade explodes in spectacular fashion at my feet and the whole world goes red.
Game over.
Whoops.
Now, here is further proof!
I had a spare hour today to start Rainbow Six Vegas on my 360. I know it's a shooter so I probably shouldn't have bought it, but it was only $25 and hey, you blow up shit in a casino. Who hasn't ever wanted to leap onto the blackjack tables at Crown with an AK-47?
Anyway...here I was, happily trotting into a Mexican alleyway with my very large gun, when I reach a doorway. It happens to be one of the doorways that I can't open, since at this point in the tutorial I have not learnt the dubious joys of Snake Cam- but thinking this is Gears of War, I try to smash the door down with one meaty fist.
Except this does nothing. This is not Gears of War.
So I press the pretty little circle button on my controller.
A merry tinkling sound ensues as a teeny little round grenade thing drops at my feet.
Daphne has two seconds to go, "Oh...shit," before the grenade explodes in spectacular fashion at my feet and the whole world goes red.
Game over.
Whoops.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Bad Company Trailers
New trailers for Bad Company have just come out.
And they're fucking hilarious.
One spoofs Gears of War and the other the Rainbow Six series- both of which I own, but I prefer the Gears of War parody cos I always found Mad World to be most depressing, overrated song ever.
(Mr Coulter, if you're reading this, you'd better check it out, cos I recall you once telling me about the GoW Mad World trailer back in the good old Indo days...)
And they're fucking hilarious.
One spoofs Gears of War and the other the Rainbow Six series- both of which I own, but I prefer the Gears of War parody cos I always found Mad World to be most depressing, overrated song ever.
(Mr Coulter, if you're reading this, you'd better check it out, cos I recall you once telling me about the GoW Mad World trailer back in the good old Indo days...)
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Breaking the Hiatus
Given my interest in gaming, it's actually quite a pity that I suck at it.
Yesterday I picked up my Xbox 360 controller for the first time in ages- weeks, months...and started playing Mass Effect.
This game has freaked me out more than once on occasion- there was once this terrible level which had horrible zombie husks attacking my crew and they were all coming towards me with hideous outstretched zombie hands AND THIS IS WHY I CAN'T PLAY RESIDENT EVIL.
Oh, and apparently I couldn't KILL any of the scientists additionally shooting at me because they were under mind-control so I had to shoot and destroy zombies while getting close enough to survivors in order to whack them with the butt of my rifle. (Virtue sucks.)
I can't even begin to tell you how long it took me to get past that stage.
Anyway, I was hoping for something relaxing after the stress of law exams, but OH NO, there had to be an entire level of effing Rachni, which are semi-sentient alien GIANT BUG THINGS THAT SPIT DEADLY POISON.
And after I set this weird neuron-pulse thing to kill them all, I had exactly two minutes to get out of the facility, only two medpacs, five grenades, and my sensor was swarming with red Rachni dots.
BUG THINGS. EVERYWHERE. SPITTING POISON AT ME.
I panicked.
Cue much mental swearing.
And this is why I suck at gaming.
It took me at least ten tries to get past that level- I tried being sneaky and using a pop'n'shoot technique but the time limit killed that idea, so I just started throwing grenades from a distance, using my pistols and biotics when I ventured closer.
I panic whenever anything remotely FPS comes up.
And that is why most of my games are single-player. Because no one wants to hear their partner shrieking profanities and running around in circles when there's shootin' to be done.
Yesterday I picked up my Xbox 360 controller for the first time in ages- weeks, months...and started playing Mass Effect.
This game has freaked me out more than once on occasion- there was once this terrible level which had horrible zombie husks attacking my crew and they were all coming towards me with hideous outstretched zombie hands AND THIS IS WHY I CAN'T PLAY RESIDENT EVIL.
Oh, and apparently I couldn't KILL any of the scientists additionally shooting at me because they were under mind-control so I had to shoot and destroy zombies while getting close enough to survivors in order to whack them with the butt of my rifle. (Virtue sucks.)
I can't even begin to tell you how long it took me to get past that stage.
Anyway, I was hoping for something relaxing after the stress of law exams, but OH NO, there had to be an entire level of effing Rachni, which are semi-sentient alien GIANT BUG THINGS THAT SPIT DEADLY POISON.
And after I set this weird neuron-pulse thing to kill them all, I had exactly two minutes to get out of the facility, only two medpacs, five grenades, and my sensor was swarming with red Rachni dots.
BUG THINGS. EVERYWHERE. SPITTING POISON AT ME.
I panicked.
Cue much mental swearing.
And this is why I suck at gaming.
It took me at least ten tries to get past that level- I tried being sneaky and using a pop'n'shoot technique but the time limit killed that idea, so I just started throwing grenades from a distance, using my pistols and biotics when I ventured closer.
I panic whenever anything remotely FPS comes up.
And that is why most of my games are single-player. Because no one wants to hear their partner shrieking profanities and running around in circles when there's shootin' to be done.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC...?
Yup, you heard right.
Mortal Kombat versus...DC. As in, DC Comics. As in, you're going to see Sub-Zero against Batman. Raidan versus Wonder Woman.
This is either the stupidest game premise I've ever heard or the coolest.
And frankly, it is actually that stupid that I am going to rush out and buy it when it's released. Because I want to see Raiden jam lightning down Batman's suit...(except if it's as rubbery as George Clooney's costume then Raiden is sorta screwed.)
I'm pretty sure they had that Marvel vs Capcom thing ages ago, so the idea of mashing two worlds together is nothing new- and I'm guessing that everyone is secretly thinking, "Why couldn't it have been Marvel vs DC?!" But Marvel is Marvel, DC is DC, and never the twain shall meet.
I've been waiting so long for a Mortal Kombat title to hit the 360 that y'know what? I don't really care, I just want it. I'm sick of playing the Mortal Kombat 3 demo that I downloaded from Live four months ago...I want to see some high-definition butt-kicking, although apparently this new title will be sans Fatalities.
Now at least I can stop jealously eyeing Mortal Kombat Armageddon on the shelf at work that holds the Wii games.
I hope Ashrah makes an appearance in this new one. I have a weakness for Mortal Kombat characters with cool hats.
Mortal Kombat versus...DC. As in, DC Comics. As in, you're going to see Sub-Zero against Batman. Raidan versus Wonder Woman.
This is either the stupidest game premise I've ever heard or the coolest.
And frankly, it is actually that stupid that I am going to rush out and buy it when it's released. Because I want to see Raiden jam lightning down Batman's suit...(except if it's as rubbery as George Clooney's costume then Raiden is sorta screwed.)
I'm pretty sure they had that Marvel vs Capcom thing ages ago, so the idea of mashing two worlds together is nothing new- and I'm guessing that everyone is secretly thinking, "Why couldn't it have been Marvel vs DC?!" But Marvel is Marvel, DC is DC, and never the twain shall meet.
I've been waiting so long for a Mortal Kombat title to hit the 360 that y'know what? I don't really care, I just want it. I'm sick of playing the Mortal Kombat 3 demo that I downloaded from Live four months ago...I want to see some high-definition butt-kicking, although apparently this new title will be sans Fatalities.
Now at least I can stop jealously eyeing Mortal Kombat Armageddon on the shelf at work that holds the Wii games.
I hope Ashrah makes an appearance in this new one. I have a weakness for Mortal Kombat characters with cool hats.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Violence and the R 18+ Rating
Apparently, the Australian government is still mulling over the decision on whether to introduce an R 18+ rating for video games.
This means that all those gamers looking for an even greater level of violence to exceed GTA 4 (or Manhunt 2) will have to curb those bloodthirsty fingers on their trigger sticks for just a while longer.
Personally, I'm not too fussed either way. There's plenty of violence and gore out there already- how many times have we watched losers in Mortal Kombat fall screaming to their gory death on a bed of spikes?- so an R 18+ rating shouldn't really change things.
However, it did make me think of a family I sold an Xbox 360 to a couple of weeks ago- they were Asian, with a teenage son (a rather non-communicative little teenage son if I may say so myself.) One thing with Asian parents is that they believe that their teenage son is a little paragon of virtue who would never entertain the idea of virtually disembowelling someone, or teabagging a hapless n00b in an MMORPG, or viewing porn at a friend's house. Why, not my wonderful-little-boy-who-is-top-of-his-class-in-Maths-Methods.
Anyway...
...so the kid starts looking through the shelf of 360 games. Except his mother is standing over his shoulder overseeing what he's looking at. Which is never really a good idea.
The kid laconically informed me that yeah, he'd played Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War at friends' houses, but his mum wouldn't let him play anything violent.
Inwardly, I smirked.
His mother vetoed anything that looked remotely violent. In fact, I felt like falling on the floor and howling with laughter when she finally picked up one title and tried to convince the kid to get it.
Suffice to say, he was not impressed by his mother waggling Viva Pinata in front of his face and saying, "Look, this is a nice game!"
So she asks me for my opinion on a game for his new 360.
That isn't violent.
So I start pulling stuff from shelves.
Assassin's Creed. (Involves stabbing targets in public places and watching their blood billow out into fountains, then running away in kick-ass chase scenes).
Nope.
Crackdown. (Free rein to bash everything!!!)
Nope.
Saints' Row. (It's not like it sounds.)
Nope.
Call of Duty 4. (It has SOLDIERS on the front. Go figure.)
Nope, also out.
Gears of War (Note the use of the word "war". Also note the image of Marcus Fenix looking considerably grim and on some kind of steroid.)
Nups.
Mass Effect (This is currently set to eclipse KOTOR as my favouritest RPG, which is really saying something. However, it also features a suggested alien/human lesbian sex scene, many many drug references and mentions Krogan testicles. Man, I love that game so much.)
But yeah, that was out of the question too.
The kid finally settled on some kind of FIFA game. So that was nice and relatively non-violent, and I'm sure his mother must have been somewhat pacified by ther fact that her beloved Viva Pinata was packaged with the Xbox (along with Forza).
And this is why earning money and being over 18 is so much fun. You can buy your own Xbox 360 and get whatever you want.
Or you can get your parents to buy it for you, where the maximum level of violence in your games will be limited to hitting a cartoon pinata over the head with a shovel.
That said, I did reflect on the fact that there are very few family-friendly games for the 360, and that's just because of the demographic it's aimed at. It's not like you''ve got six year old girls wanting to play Bratz on 1080p, but after playing Scene It!, and looking at the popularity of the PS2's Singstar/Buzz games, maybe it's not such a bad market to tap into.
If you're under 18 and have a console, you're probably still living at home, in which case you probably can't play an R18+ game without getting grounded. So for all the other gamers out there, an R18+ rating won't really change things, it'll just open up more ground and more titles. The only thing I'm worried about is that eventually it might lead to a whole influx of gamer porn...like Playboy the Mansion for PC on crack.
But we'll see how this all pans out.
This means that all those gamers looking for an even greater level of violence to exceed GTA 4 (or Manhunt 2) will have to curb those bloodthirsty fingers on their trigger sticks for just a while longer.
Personally, I'm not too fussed either way. There's plenty of violence and gore out there already- how many times have we watched losers in Mortal Kombat fall screaming to their gory death on a bed of spikes?- so an R 18+ rating shouldn't really change things.
However, it did make me think of a family I sold an Xbox 360 to a couple of weeks ago- they were Asian, with a teenage son (a rather non-communicative little teenage son if I may say so myself.) One thing with Asian parents is that they believe that their teenage son is a little paragon of virtue who would never entertain the idea of virtually disembowelling someone, or teabagging a hapless n00b in an MMORPG, or viewing porn at a friend's house. Why, not my wonderful-little-boy-who-is-top-of-his-class-in-Maths-Methods.
Anyway...
...so the kid starts looking through the shelf of 360 games. Except his mother is standing over his shoulder overseeing what he's looking at. Which is never really a good idea.
The kid laconically informed me that yeah, he'd played Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War at friends' houses, but his mum wouldn't let him play anything violent.
Inwardly, I smirked.
His mother vetoed anything that looked remotely violent. In fact, I felt like falling on the floor and howling with laughter when she finally picked up one title and tried to convince the kid to get it.
Suffice to say, he was not impressed by his mother waggling Viva Pinata in front of his face and saying, "Look, this is a nice game!"
So she asks me for my opinion on a game for his new 360.
That isn't violent.
So I start pulling stuff from shelves.
Assassin's Creed. (Involves stabbing targets in public places and watching their blood billow out into fountains, then running away in kick-ass chase scenes).
Nope.
Crackdown. (Free rein to bash everything!!!)
Nope.
Saints' Row. (It's not like it sounds.)
Nope.
Call of Duty 4. (It has SOLDIERS on the front. Go figure.)
Nope, also out.
Gears of War (Note the use of the word "war". Also note the image of Marcus Fenix looking considerably grim and on some kind of steroid.)
Nups.
Mass Effect (This is currently set to eclipse KOTOR as my favouritest RPG, which is really saying something. However, it also features a suggested alien/human lesbian sex scene, many many drug references and mentions Krogan testicles. Man, I love that game so much.)
But yeah, that was out of the question too.
The kid finally settled on some kind of FIFA game. So that was nice and relatively non-violent, and I'm sure his mother must have been somewhat pacified by ther fact that her beloved Viva Pinata was packaged with the Xbox (along with Forza).
And this is why earning money and being over 18 is so much fun. You can buy your own Xbox 360 and get whatever you want.
Or you can get your parents to buy it for you, where the maximum level of violence in your games will be limited to hitting a cartoon pinata over the head with a shovel.
That said, I did reflect on the fact that there are very few family-friendly games for the 360, and that's just because of the demographic it's aimed at. It's not like you''ve got six year old girls wanting to play Bratz on 1080p, but after playing Scene It!, and looking at the popularity of the PS2's Singstar/Buzz games, maybe it's not such a bad market to tap into.
If you're under 18 and have a console, you're probably still living at home, in which case you probably can't play an R18+ game without getting grounded. So for all the other gamers out there, an R18+ rating won't really change things, it'll just open up more ground and more titles. The only thing I'm worried about is that eventually it might lead to a whole influx of gamer porn...like Playboy the Mansion for PC on crack.
But we'll see how this all pans out.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Warm-and-Fuzzy-Gaming-Moment-of-the-Week
Yesterday a father and son walked into the store and asked if they could buy an XBox 360.
(Not surprisingly, the first one died in a hideous blaze of three glowing red lights and they had to return one to EB because it bricked...I'd say that '30% failure rate' is warranted)
I asked what games they had, and the father turned to me with this big smile and said, "Me and my son love to play Call of Duty together."
Awwwww.
To quote Mr Brady, "The family that plays together, stays together."
Of course, the Brady Bunch enjoyed having sack races in the backyard, rather than blowing the brains out of NPCs in bloody combat, but it's all the same thing...
(Not surprisingly, the first one died in a hideous blaze of three glowing red lights and they had to return one to EB because it bricked...I'd say that '30% failure rate' is warranted)
I asked what games they had, and the father turned to me with this big smile and said, "Me and my son love to play Call of Duty together."
Awwwww.
To quote Mr Brady, "The family that plays together, stays together."
Of course, the Brady Bunch enjoyed having sack races in the backyard, rather than blowing the brains out of NPCs in bloody combat, but it's all the same thing...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Christmas Gaming
For Christmas, my family gave me Bioshock.
My uncle gave me Assassin's Creed.
My sister gave me Test Drive Unlimited. And also Scene It!
Then I went and bought Mass Effect because I really couldn't wait any longer for what is possibly the most uber-awesome RPG to ever hit shelves.
And then I bought Dancing Stage Universe because I thought the Workout mode might compensate for my general lack of exercise (it hasn't).
And thus, friends, I am now banning myself from spending any more money on anything XBox 360 related, at least until The Force Unleashed comes out and you'll see the frightening combination of Star Wars fangirl and gamer come into fruition. I also think that with Mass Effect, I have a lot to get through, and I haven't even opened Bioshock yet (I know, I know) but I figured that the curious blend of FPS and art deco can wait until I've conquered Saren and ground him into bits of little Turian dust. (BTW, did anyone else think that Nihlus looked like the Turian equivalent of Gene Simmons? Or was it just me?)
Nihlus:
Gene Simmons:
See?!
My uncle gave me Assassin's Creed.
My sister gave me Test Drive Unlimited. And also Scene It!
Then I went and bought Mass Effect because I really couldn't wait any longer for what is possibly the most uber-awesome RPG to ever hit shelves.
And then I bought Dancing Stage Universe because I thought the Workout mode might compensate for my general lack of exercise (it hasn't).
And thus, friends, I am now banning myself from spending any more money on anything XBox 360 related, at least until The Force Unleashed comes out and you'll see the frightening combination of Star Wars fangirl and gamer come into fruition. I also think that with Mass Effect, I have a lot to get through, and I haven't even opened Bioshock yet (I know, I know) but I figured that the curious blend of FPS and art deco can wait until I've conquered Saren and ground him into bits of little Turian dust. (BTW, did anyone else think that Nihlus looked like the Turian equivalent of Gene Simmons? Or was it just me?)
Nihlus:
Gene Simmons:
See?!
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