As I write this, I'm looking at the Manhunt 2 wikipedia. If you haven't heard, the game has been toned down from AO to M. This is because of a few factors I won't divulge.

When I read what they took out, that is for the Non link conformists out there, is ripping a mans balls out with pliers and blurring the major death animations. What is the difference between Death and Major Death? I read that and I was stumped. Is that like Gears of War, when a Major death is Ownage+Pwnage+Chainsaw? Is that the grotesque gibbing in most games when you fire a missile? I never really understood that. Manhunt 2 is all about death and gore, so when I looked at the IGN trailers for it(thats right. All 3!)I concluded that it's going to be violent disembowelment and/or rape. Yet when I looked at what was being blurred, it was the kill scenes that the original manhunt had.(thats right.All 3!)

Wasn't that the whole point of it in the first place? It's the Hostel and Saw of video games. The unofficial tale of violence and gore wrapped in a bloody package. Hopefully, Manhunt 2 will progress a little faster in storyline then those movies. If developers can't make a game thats suppose to be over-the-top gore fest, why not? Saw and Hostel(and its sequel) are ultra violent. Yet kids underage can get in and see that too. Hell, if they have a parent that goes with them, they can get into anything. The blame always falls with the parents. The ESRB was pressured by Jackass Thompson
(thanks HertzaHaeon)
to slap an AO rating on Manhunt 2 because it was coming out for Wii. I don't think parents would care if it was on PS3 but because it was coming out on shelves next to Wiiplay and ExciteTruck, it drew all this controversy.

You see, Jack Thompson cares about your kids. He does the thing that you don't do at home to your kids. With all this flaming going on, I agree that kids shouldn't play this.WAIT A MINUTE! If i said that, then I mean don't release it right? Wrong. I want it to come out on Wii. If you SAY the title, you know whats it about. If you say Saw, you get a rough estimate about what it's going to be. At the end of the day, it's about kids buying the game with the parents money. It's about the parents not supervising what their kids watch on TV or let them see whatever movies they want. It always falls on the person even making the possibility of getting the game.

The boxes have the ESRB ratings on them for a reason. That reason is to tell parents what's in the game. They do their job well because every box has a reting right on it saying what's on it. I'm going to get up and grab the first game box I see...........Crackdown.



It's rated M for:
[b]1).Blood and Gore
That's accurate.
2).Intense Violence
I have killed somebody by throwing a corpse at them so yea.
3).Sexual Themes
Whore in Miniskirt? Check!
4).Strong Language
I can see why they said that.
5).Use of Drugs
That's in there. Stopping drug cartels.
Game experience may change during Online Play
Sure it can. I've heard it myself.

The thing I didn't say is the 17+ in the upper right-hand corner. I did mention the M on the box so that tells you the upper right-hand corner. If a parent buys this game for their children, it's not the fault of gaming companies, it's of parents. Why should a company change anything because of the ignorant consumer? You see thousands of people going into debt every year because they buy what they can't afford. So do you sue the furniture store because you needed that Grand Oak Cabinet and matching Chairs. It's because of people spending too much, not because of what they spend it on.

So in summation, what I said here is this:


READ THEM! THEY ARE THERE FOR YOUR READING PLEASURE! Thank you for your valuable freetime.

You know whats so funny? Articles and TV reports about violent games. They try to tell people not to buy, yet they already send half of their viewer base to get it. Take GTA for example. When the hot coffee mod was revealed, they had it on every news outlet from coast to coast. The only thing that did was tell people "Hey! if you buy this game, you can watch pixel on pixel sex! Don't buy it though. In other news.."

You wonder why games are trying to be over the top these days. It's because of controversy being free advertising. Hell, If I get into the position to make games and something I make gets attacked for being too shocking, i'm encouraging the controversy. I'll make it worse. You know why?
Because controversy is free advertising.

What's with games today half-assing dialog and storyline? Every game I play recently throws in the standard "Explain plot through cutscene then player plays then another cutscene" formula. Why do I need to beat a level to learn the deeper plot points? Is there anyway to mix plot and playable together? I hope to god there's a way because if games evolve, the cutscene needs to go the way of the Dodo.

I think Beta's are the way to go with games. Fuck E3, release a Beta. Wouldn't it be great if all of the game companies just made their games Betable? I understand some games can't get the Beta treatment, but with Reserving orange box and getting a TF2 beta to playing the CoD 4 beta, I just think that should be the new thing in video games. Plus, it's better then throwing a huge money draining press party. What do you guys think?

It's all of you. The gamers. Some of you make games. Some of you review them. Some of you just play them. But the truth is the gamers have all the power in this industry. You know why E3,Tokyo game show and the rest exist? To tell gamers about the game so they can tell other gamers.

Q).But what about the game makers? Don't they have power? They release the games don't they?
A).They do release the games. Yet, they would leak data on the shelves and self destruct after the idle limit hit if it wasn't for the people clawing them off the shelves. If you didn't buy them, why would they need to make another? That's because game developers think they can just recycle most ideas through multiple releases of the same game but with better graphics. The developers think they can make everything shiny but completely ignore things like control or gameplay. They think they can get big names behind it to boost sales. Well you know why they think they can do that? Because gamers gobble it up like crack rocks.

Take Dynasty warriors. That's a good example of what I was talking about. Every game I see is the same game. It doesn't matter what game. Pick one. Now look at another. What do you see? Chances are it's the same battles with the same characters and the same button mashing gameplay. Yet why the hell do you still buy it? It's the same game everytime and it flies off store shelves like it drank a Redbull. It's because of the fanboys people.

Fanboys are the sin. Because fanboys are uninformed gamers who buy out of the same love and the same opinion they had about the first one. They refuse to accept other gamers telling them the truth. They look at the first game and say "Mine forever". They buy out of blind admiration and deaf lullabies. They buy out of the eternal promise of fun forever, whenever. It's the fanboys who ruin the industry and flood it with rushed projects and halfassed ideas.

Making games should be about giving an idea all the time it needs to grow into a masterpiece. What if Bioshock came out sooner? There wouldn't be everyone saying that game owns. I wouldn't have it in my 360 ready to play after i'm done typing this and eating dinner. That game had a lot of time to make and it showed. Now i'm not a developer or in the gaming business(though I always want to), but If you want to spend loads of money on something, shouldn't you get time to work on it? Why halfass half a mil? Why make paper swans out of those 100's when you could be spreading them out to everyone? Games cost money so they should cost equal talent and quality.

So what's your favorite game?