I was looking forward to playing Fable II last Friday when to my dismay
I discovered that if I wanted to play with the copy I bought here in
Italy, I would have to "put up" with the exclusively Italian voiceover.
May I make a heartfelt plea to Peter Molyneux, who I'm sure applies a
maniacal care to the design of his games, to please allow versions in
non-English speaking countries to include the original audio.
It may seem unimportant to anyone living in the UK etc. but if you knew
just how bad Italian dubbing can get and how it can thus ruin an
otherwise excellent game or film experience publishers would maybe not exclude the original audio.
I know also that many Italians suffer at the hands (or voices) of the
generally feeble voiceover actors chosen to dub videogames and would
revert to the English original if possible.

I’ve just been reading on Videogaming 247 all about how the Xbox 360’s days are supposedly numbered now that the PS3 is gathering steam. It seems that Microsoft have to decide either to throw in the towel or come out with a new console next year or at the latest by 2010 if they want to have a chance not at winning but simply staying in the console business.
It seems like everyone will be wanting Little Big Planet, Metal Gear Solid 4, Resistance 2 etc. and when they come out the Xbox will be wiped of the face of the Earth.
Well I for one don’t want to play with rag dolls in Little Big Planet and I’ve never really understood the appeal of seeing men in tight trousers crawling over the ground in order to get up close and wack somebody. The first Resistance was not that good a game so why should the second be so great.
If you’re into videogames the Xbox 360 is a must have because that is where Bioshock, Gears of War, Halo and the best versions of numerous other essential titles are. If you want to get the PS3 in the hope that some good exclusives will eventually come out then that’s perfectly understandable, but at the moment there is only really one necessary console.

1.
Q.: Have you got a new copy of The Orange Box for the 360?

A.: No, but it seems that The Orange Box has not come out on the 360, only on Playstation3.


2.
Q.:Do you want to pay 3 Euro to guarantee the disc for a year, because as you may know the 360 could scratch your disc!

A.: No thank you.


These conversations took place recently in a Game Stop in Milan, Italy.

Since when have video game players been characterized as casual or hardcore? Since the advent and enormous success of Wii perhaps? A stereotypical idea of a casual gamer would be a dad playing the modern version of Pong, i.e. Wii tennis, with his children.
Does this mean that anyone who is interested in videogame culture, reads blogs like this one, plays and tries to finish games like Gears of War (not necessarily on the most difficult level) is a hardcore gamer? If so, this would mean that the majority of gamers are hardcore.
Maybe another adjective is needed to describe the next level of gamer. The one who does insist on playing and finishing on the hardest level, etc., etc., and what better way to describe this type of gamer than the next level up of GoW: INSANE, and this is the finest compliment you can pay to a real gamer.

I could be wrong but in all the viral publicity/info about GTA IV I don't recall reading anything about its save system. Will the player have to head back to the save house after every completed mission as in time-honoured GTA tradition? Or will there be checkpoints that perhaps automatically save at the same time?
Personally I love a good checkpoint/save system. See Gears of War, FEAR, The Darkness. Even better Bioshock where you can save wherever and whenever you want.
Resident Evil 4 is such a masterpiece for so many reasons but not least because you have savepoints liberally spread over the game in strategic places.
Not everybody has the time, let alone the patience, to start a mission or level from scratch after getting wiped out just when you're close to finishing (see Rainbow Six Vegas). I get the impression that game developers certainly know this and design accordingly. So what has Rockstar come up with?

I recently saw the film “Reign over me” in which Adam Sandler plays a character called Charlie Fineman who is sufferering from deep post-traumatic stress after losing his wife and daughters in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Charlie pretty much tries to shut his memories and the world out by playing his I-pod loud, going to all night movie marathons and playing Shadow of the Colossus.
Does the scriptwriter’s choice of Shadow of the Colossus as Charlie’s favourite game reveal something about Charlie’s character? It has been suggested that the repeated knocking down of the colossi recalls the collapse of the twin towers and this somehow relieves the stress of the protagonist. Maybe something has escaped me but I would have thought the opposite would be true, considering that Charlie could hardly be happy about twin towers’ destruction.
Can anybody explain the particular significance, if any, of Shadow of the Colossus in this film?