Archive for the ‘games’ Category

28.07.05 as if games need this kind of image

Sony’s stellar but gory God of War to be made into a movie.

Who should play Kratos?

I say this guy.

21.07.05 more hot coffee

15.07.05 hot coffee

I was at Game Buzz today, and a kid was asking the clerk what was new and good on PlayStation these days. The gamer in me wanted to jump up and down and excitedly recommend the best game of the year (right boys?),

“God! of! War!
God! of! War!
God! of! War!”

but the responsible adult in me thought about how violent it was, so I kept quiet. As I left, I remembered that my inner struggle had been moot, because this retailer, like many, doesn’t sell M-rated games to minors. The whole thing made me think about the recent Hot Coffee debacle, and I’m honestly interested, dear readers, in hearing what you have to say about it. It goes something like this:

Rockstar Games makes a game called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTA: SA), in which you’re basically a thug who has to work his way up the ranks of gangs in Los Alamos Santos, a clone of Los Angeles. The game is revolutionary in terms of its scope; they have actually modelled L.A., San Francisco (”San Fierro“) and Vegas (”Las Venturas“) in their entirety, and because the game is based on sandbox play (i.e. letting the player explore the environment at will, only taking “missions” to advance in the game when she feels like it), you are free to drive anywhere in those three cities. The production quality is fantastic, complete with a series of radio stations that allows you to choose your favorite tunes while driving.

It’s also known for being quite violent. I don’t really have a problem with that, but gameplay-wise, GTA:SA just isn’t my cup of tea. Like other gamers, I feel the game is too “big” and “realistic”. If I want to take a roadtrip, I’ll just get in my car and drive. To me, a good game allows me to do what I can’t do in real life.

Recently (actually, now that the game is available on PC), a downloadable modification has surfaced on the net, which allows you unlock a sexually explicit minigame (game within the game) in GTA:SA. The whole thing is branded Hot Coffee because with the mod, you’ll have the main character stop by his girlfriend’s place for coffee, and if you’re successful at a rhythm-based minigame, score more than a cup of joe.

The hacker who made the mod accessible claims he discovered unused code when snooping around his copy of GTA:SA. Rockstar claims the code was never in the release version of their game, used or unused, and that “Hackers created the ‘Hot Coffee’ modification by disassembling and then combining, recompiling and altering the game’s source code.”

MatureAssorted right-wing anti-games advocates and Hillary Clinton are up in arms. California Assemblyman Leland Yee criticizes the

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ESRB (videogames rating board) for not giving GTA:SA an Adults Only (AO) rating. The game is currently rated “Mature (M) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, Use of Drugs.” Yee says, “What I say to parents is: If I were you, I wouldn’t [buy] any of these M-rated games for my children”. Well duh, moron! Whether you agree or not that these games should even be made in the first place, the industry voluntarily submits its games to the ESRB, its self-regulatory body, for rating, and works with retailers to ensure M-games are not sold to minors.

My thoughts on this? As a game maker, I hope Rockstar is telling the truth, that the hacker actually created the minigame. It’s not in the industry’s interest for more fuel to be added to the anti-game fire (even if in this case it stems from the asinine “violence ok but sex bad” double-standard). But I think it’s more likely the minigame was originally part of the game’s design, and was essentially “commented out” (or something similar) when Rockstar decided to cut it from the final version.

But if that’s the case, do you think Rockstar should be reprimanded for leaving the offending code in there, and the game should have a higher rating, even if there is no way to access it without hacking? And what of the whole ratings system for games, which is similar to that of movies? Do you think games should be subjected to stricter rules than movies, because of their interactive nature? Does the fact that the player actually partakes in the action make him more likely to emulate the in-game character than he would a movie character?

(sources: Gamespot)

UPDATE: Wow, how’s that for timely? 27 minutes after I posted this, there is an update posted on Gamespot. The news site’s editors have confirmed that the minigame exists on the (unmoddable) PlayStation version as well, probably meaning that the code is indeed probably in the release version of the game as is, though locked. La plotte épaissit… though they go on to say the minigame isn’t all that raunchy.

30.05.05 game girls advanced

[19:50] Marie-Eve: salut!
[19:50] lightspeedchick: salut!
[19:50] Marie-Eve: Comment tu vas?
[19:50] lightspeedchick: bien! on s’pète tu la gueule?
[19:51] Marie-Eve: :( peux pas; mon chum est sur le playStation en train de jouer à God of War!
[19:51] lightspeedchick: bordel!
[19:51] lightspeedchick: mais c’était ton cadeau!
[19:51] Marie-Eve: hehe je sais! j’ai eu le malheur de lui demander de m’aider à battre le premier boss!
[19:52] lightspeedchick: t’as besoin d’un HOMME pour battre un monstre? quessé ça?
[19:52] Marie-Eve: haha, en fait, j’aurais pu l’avoir toute seule; c’est juste que y’arretait pas de tout le temps ressuciter!
[19:52] lightspeedchick: donnes-y jusqu’à 9 heures, après ça it’s Ratchet time
[19:53] Marie-Eve: et lui a découvert une place où fallait monter et “tacker” les têtes de dragons au bateau. Une fois que ya vu ça, le reste était du gâteau!!
[19:53] lightspeedchick: évidemment
[19:53] Marie-Eve: ouep, ok! à 9h c’est Ratchet!
[19:53] lightspeedchick: excellent

21.05.05 game over

It’s hard for me to find the words to describe what this week has been for me. Thousands of young-at-heart gamers, all sharing my interests, getting together simply to bask and completely immerse ourselves in fun and games. And all around us, the coolest toys anyone has ever made. I knew E3 would be fun and interesting, but when I left Montreal, I was so firmly entrenched in my life, in work and the web, that I felt a lot of separation anxiety. Well, the conference managed to yank me out of my Montreal cares and completely consume me. I’m exhausted, but feel like I truly got to escape, and I feel replenished.

As a producer of games, I’m incredibly impressed by what I’ve seen, and I just want to get back to work as soon as possible. As a consumer of games, I just want to jump up and down with anticipation at the toys coming out this year!

20.05.05 highlights of day two

A little late, so won’t be posting so much today.

- Saw XBOX 360 games: Kameo (1000 enemies on the screen, each with their individual AI), Call of Duty II. w00t!

- Saw Clive Barker in person. The trailer for his game Demonik spooked the hell out of me, although I was on the public showroom floor.

- Got lots and lots of swag (but nothing beats my Insomniacs t-shirt).

- Went to the Scottish games developers party. Hee!

- Met the Dooma!

19.05.05 highlights of day one

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Playtested:
- Jak X: A cool racing game starring Jak. It felt ok, but I don’t know how much scope a racing game can have after being an adventure/platformer for so long.
- Daxter (PSP): Yep, the famous sidekick’s now gotten his own game. The developer told me the PSP would be connectible to the Jak for PS2 game for added gaming goodness.
- Sly 3: This one has a level in 3D, as in with real 3D glasses. It also now includes a multi-player mode where you can actually play Carmelita Fox (or Sly).
- Ratchet in co-op mode: Co-op games being my favorite, the fact that Ratchet is finally going co-op is simply multiorgasmic to me. I have been spending too much time at that little booth.

Saw trailers for KillZone on the PS3 (oh boy oh boy oh boy), Rainbow Six Lockdown, Prince of Persia 3, We Love Katamari and Ultimate Spider-Man. The latter looks AMAZING. I’ve always wanted to see a game done with a real superhero comicbook look and feel to it, and now it’s been done. And it’s yummy.

Got recognized by M. Net. Saw the Batmobile. Met lots of cool people working on my favorite games: Jak, R&C, Sly Cooper, etc.

Was just strolling around when I heard the theme song for one of my games, blasting on the loudspeakers. Looked around and there was the trailer, playing on a HUGE screen above a crowd. I ran over and shot loads and loads of pictures, singing along to the music, giddy as a schoolgirl.

The Ratchet incident. Did I mention the Ratchet incident??? (see previous post) I haven’t seen the PS3 or XBOX 360 yet, but I don’t think today can be topped. I’m exhausted and happy. Goodnight.

18.05.05 eeeeeeeee!

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…three.

My laptop battery is about to die so I have to keep this short. Yesterday when I came onto the show floor, I saw something I wasn’t expecting: a booth dedicated to Ratchet Deadlocked, the latest in the Ratchet and Clank series, coming out this Christmas.

R&C is my faaaavorite game of all time. I got super excited to think I’d be playing this latest one six months ahead of its release.

Today, after spending about half an hour playing it, I actually got to meet one of the producers! I had never before gushed so much in my life. I told him that I’d played all three games several times through, and use R&C as an example and a reference so often in my work, that some of my teams actually refer to it as “Marie-Jo’s bible”. I gushed and I gushed, and left a puddle of drool at his feet.

Then I rush excitedly back to our booth to tell my colleagues.

About an hour later, I walk by R&C again, and he pulls me aside and gives me a Ratchet Deadlocked t-shirt, like the ones the Insomniac staff wear! I’m actually thinking of framing it. I mean, given to me by a producer of the game!

The best part was when he told me that he, too, gets his ass handed to him by 8-year-olds when he plays it online.

1 comment

16.05.05 to do this week

Posted under: games

Play with XBOX 360.
Meet loads of cool geeks.
Get cool freebies.
Meet a great online friend.
See Episode III.
Par-tay a-plen-tay.
Meet the maker of Ratchet and Clank.

E3, here I come!

11 comments

10.05.05 xbox 360

Posted under: games

I was encouraged at the last Yulblog meeting to blog about games on occasion, so here goes.

Today, Toine presented the impressive features of the new Xbox, supposedly coming out later this year, and wondered why they called it the 360. I heard it’s to piss off Nintendo, whose upcoming next-gen console is the Revolution (360… Revolution… tsé).

The casing of the new Xbox is pretty frikkin ugly in my opinion, if you believe some images “leaked” a couple of weeks ago. A sort of stainless gizmo that’s kind of what an X-man’s laptop might look like, if you ask me.

Would also seem that we’ll get to choose between two consoles, with a sort of “lite” version being offered without the Web TV, the Wi-fi, and especially not backward compatible with the current Xbox. Rumor has it that for a mere 100$ US more you get all the goodies… including backward compatibility.

Which settles it for me: no, I’m not getting an Xbox now… and yes, I’m really looking forward to Christmas.

5 comments