I definitely have new wallpaper. A college artist named Ben created some amazing Bioshock 2 concept art which has been posted over at Ripten for a couple days and it has already got the attention of some folks at 2k.

Whether or not you agree with Bioshock being turned into a franchise, the concept art is pretty damn cool and begins to paint a very interesting vision of Rapture.

Note to 2k: I want to fight that whale thing! Make it happen! The link to the rest of the art is below. Given that this is the first concept art I have seen from the community for a Bioshock sequel (or prequel) I would be interested in seeing what the more artistically inclined among us could put together in the same vein. I would totally do it but everything would end up looking like it was from Pearls Before Swine strip.

http://www.ripten.com/2008/03/04/bioshock-2-fan-art-catches-the-eye-of-2k-games/

As reported by Gamasutra, a review panel at Virginia Tech, created by Virginia Governor, Tim Kaine, found that video games were not a factor in the shooting earlier this year. The very concept of video games having directly or indirectly caused the events of that terrible day is something that every video game enthusiast should find offensive. However, the report itself does not address video games with an accusative tone.

In a document which is 260 pages long (damn!), they only mention video games 4 times. The first mention of video games is in regards to how the review panel set up a website to provide information and to hear input from the community. What they note is that lobby groups against video games (I am looking at you Jack Thompson!!!) flooded the site and urged their members to say that video games were responsible.

Later, the report mentions how Cho liked video games, such as Sonic the Hedgehog. Hopefully it wasn't the new one..cuz that one has bad enough press as it is. (Also it says how his favorite sports team is the Portland Trail Blazers, which is weird since he was an immigrant from Southeast Asia, and living in Virginia...and since I live in Portland).

The report states how none of the video games were violent or war games, which I think is an unnecessary thing to state. I understand why they put it in, since the media flipped shit about video games being the possible influence for the shooting, but whether he played Sonic the Hedgehog, Manhunt or Nintendogs, you cannot and will not ever be able to prove any sort of link between art and the actions of psychopaths. It is an argument that I have heard before but one which bears repeating...What video games did Hitler play? Stalin? Was he a big Atari guy? Did Pal Pot play World of Warcraft?

EA doesn’t like you, probably. They certainly don’t care much for me…and we all know how they treat their own employees. Thankfully, EA works to make sure that you or I never forget that. If anyone has seen the reviews for the new Tiger Woods game, keenly titled Tiger Woods 08, you will see that they really aren’t trying anymore, or look at CronosBlade’s posting. But this isn’t the only example of how much they loathe us like Agent Smith..no! There are many more…

Don’t get me wrong, I like, nay LOVE, many of the games put out by EA over the years…the FIFA series, Skate or Die!, Need for Speed, a few SimCity incarnations, a couple of the Command & Conquer games, but this is a what have you done for me lately kinda industry, so I ask, what have they done for us lately..


1. Madden – I can’t ignore it, and neither can you. Madden is one of the largest and strongest franchises of video games to come out every year…so much so that they show pretaped tournaments between Maddenites on ESPN! Many have complained about the fact that the game is little more than a yearly roster update for 60 bucks and as much as I have to contend with such arguments…it’s hard to disagree.

2. FIFA – The other football…which like Madden is a high selling video game worldwide. Yet, I try to find out the release date, the demo release date, anything more than marketing speak regarding the features and I am SOL. You go into the forums for this game and you see people deciphering posts from Spanish and German EA forums just to get some information about this game. They have separate sites for UK and US and both have different information about the game! The developers of the game have to host their production blogs on other sites! This is ludacris ( I know its misspelled, but he will appreciate the name drop).

3. The Sims – What a cool game!...the first 80 hours we all played it..But wouldn’t it be cool if they had pets…yeah! Awesome!....and they could like go to College or to a club or something…Yeah, totally! Why didn’t they just put it into the core Sims 2 game? Did you know they have released 5 different versions of Sims 2? Not even counting the expansion packs…of which there are 13! Now, I can hear you saying, but at least they are giving content to people who still love the game…but they are pilfering 20 to 30 bucks PER expansion…which is a lot more money than a Sims 3 would cost.

4. Next Gen – See 1 & 2…not only does EA make you spend 60 bucks for basically roster updates (which to be honest, is why I think they don’t release much info about their games pre-launch), but they screw over Next Gen gamers by improving the graphics and sacrificing the content and gameplay. They ask for gamers to submit their ideas for the next iteration of a game, but I have yet to really see any of it implemented. Instead, they just put the next logical step in, or the best ideas from a competitor (I am looking at you Pro Evolution Soccer).

So accept that EA probably does hate you. But its not the worst thing that could happen. I am excited for Skate!

I quote Robert Oppenheimer who quoted the Bhagavad Vita because yesterday was 52 years after we, the great ol’ US of A, dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima to effectively end WWII. I guess if anything is going to make you feel like you have become death, and a destroyer of worlds, it would be creating the first nuclear bomb, but the one thing that has always confused me about this is that after it was used against the Japanese, Oppenheimer expressed regret over it being used as a weapon.

I don’t think it is difficult to figure out that when the US Gov’t is funding your project to make a bomb, that they intend to use it. If he could have seen a simulation of the bomb being used, would he have had such surprise at its true power and devastation? The army uses video games as part of its training regiment, Homeland Security have developed realistic models of cities down to an inch with realistic models of people just to see how they react during disasters and combat, yet the most vivid pop cultural reference I can think of is War Games, the only non-Buehler tolerable Matthew Broderick movie I can think of (and don’t you say The Producers, so help you God). Games like WoW, Final Fantasy and other fantasy games don’t get me off. I want realism dammit. What I am left with are two questions:

1. Outside of Call of Duty, what games are out there which are popular *key term* that are realistic simulations of things going or gone on in the world? Is the derth of good simulation games a result of social pressures ala the backlash against Manhunt, Postal 2, GTA and others?

2. Is there something creepy and wrong about enjoying and wanting to play very realistic videogames or ones based on real-life events? What is off limits?

My answers to Question 1 is, outside of sports games and the 20 dollar Sim-fill in the blank-games, there really isn’t much to choose from. Even most historical games are not terribly accurate. I don’t know of a single Civil War game where you deal with soldiers getting gangrene…just saying. Maybe it is lack of technical resources, feasibility or lack of interest, but the depth and breadth of choices out there are limiting, from my vantage point at least.

Secondly, I think there is something creepy and wrong about enjoying overly realistic simulation games. Yes, I did build a city in Sim City 4 and unleashed the wrath of God on it, and yes, I did nuke the French in Civilization III because they were, well, being total dicks, but I do think that simulating things can be a bit of technology masturbation. We all, at least most of us - well maybe just me¬ – can develop a bit of a “God complex” when it comes to video games. I may sound like a Luddite, but I think when you get to the point that each living person in a city can be replicated in a virtual world then subjected to nuclear weapons and hurricanes and such, you are walking on a thin moral ice.