I hate Jack Thompson. I hate Cooper Lawrence. I hate dolts who think violent video games skewer kids' perception of reality. That's your job, Mom and Dad. And my favorite part is that everyone and their mothers gets up in arms about violent video games and the images on the video game cover boxes.

Why is it then that I see this upon going to CNN.com to get news? A place I have been getting news since I was a freshman in high school nine years ago.

I saw this heartwarming image...



Kind of reminiscent of the Left 4 Dead cover, isn't it?

Why isn't CNN being attacked for this audacious display of violence just as much as video games are being bashed? At least I have the choice not to purchase a game if I think it looks violent. Going to CNN.com for news... well, I didn't really have a choice. It was just BAM! The bloodied hand of a dying protester in Iran. Awesome.

One of the reasons I am repulsed by this image is because I know this is real. It is similar to when those gunmen attacked in India and the pictures of bloodied train stations were posted on this same news website. My parents did a good job of making me understand the difference between fake and real. I am a pacifist in all regards, I hate guns and weapons and I oppose warfare and all that good junk. However, I love killing bitches in Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, BioShock, Mass Effect, Grand Theft Auto, and such violent "killing machine trainer" video games. You know, because pushing X to reload is incredibly similar to reloading an actual AK-47.

I am just incredibly peeved that parents can relinquish their responsibilities, blame video games, especially when images like this are posted on easily accessible news websites that kids most likely regularly visit for research and info for classes.

Now, I am not that upset at the picture - I could care less - I am not that uptight. It's just the conflict of interest in the censorship. I hate it.

/rant

So, two Swedes (the only Swedes who have a game show in that over thar country) managed to poke designers of StarCraft 2 with some interesting questions at DreamHack.

As I was listening to this interview (mostly because I am fortunate enough to be fluent in Swedish:P) I was again reminded why I love every game this company develops. It has something to do with the "we won't release the game until its ready" but more... it has to do with their passion to put together an experience to tell a story. The designers reminded the crowd again and again how the multiplayer part of the game was separate from the campaign and that the campaign had almost zero relation to multiplayer: playing the campaign would not prepare you for Battle.net and the campaign even allowed for features and such that would never make its way into multiplayer because they were so intent on creating an experience that could tell a story. And, folks, that's one of the reasons yours truly likes to play videogame: the story.

The heroes that were introduced in WarCraft 3 were an awesome addition to the RTS series. I am saddened, however, to know that they will not introduce this same hero system into StarCraft 2. They actually intentionally avoided it and, according to the interview, did it so to better allow battles of a grand scale and allow multiple battles to take place in a more balanced setting. The designers mentioned that when the hero was involved in a battle in WarCraft 3, the focus was always on the battle with the hero, and the hero pretty much decided the win. They wanted large battles in StarCraft 2 and they wanted multiple battles to take place. With a hero system, this would not happen as the focus would always shift to the battle(s) involved with the hero. I think.

One of the Swede interviewers mentioned that they were disappointed by WarCraft 3's soundtrack because it sounded too synth-like and lacked a melody. Good news on the front: the designers confirmed that StarCraft 2 will have full orchestra recordings for an epic soundtrack. This is pretty sweet. I smell GameStop pre-order bonus!

Blizzard is releasing each race's campaign as a separate game. When this was first announced, people all over were calling shenanigans that Blizzard just wanted to make as much money as possible a la Lords of the Rings trilogy. However, these lead designers explained that when they were initially creating the missions to tell Jim Raynor's story, the missions and the story grew, and it grew so large that there was no way they could pack it all in one game. Now, the multiplayer will be ready to rock upon the first chapter's release for all those hungry for Battle.net, but whether or not changes will be implemented into the multiplayer with each successive chapter is not yet known. The designers claim that they will have to assess the community's response to the first game before they can make any decisions. Good answer!

The beta is "not even quarters" away the designers say, and they added that their goal is to have the game release this year. I am crossing my fingers. This game has been on the to-do list for way too long. Eleven years to be exact.

The full video interview can be seen here: http://www.press2play.tv/Spel/vrldsexklusiv-starcraft-2inter-802.aspx

Yes, there are subtitles!

So, definitely saving up for a new Alienware laptop so that I can play this and Diablo III. Excitement commence!

[Power in My Hands is an inFAMOUS fan-fiction short story, viewing an event in Empire city through the eyes of an EMT who views himself as morally sound... for now]



“Thank you, doctor,” the man whispered as I cleaned out his stab wound. I threw him a fake smile before bringing my focus back to his damaged body.

“I had half a loaf…” the man whispered again. “Stabbed for a few slices…”

The man was impaled rather deeply in his abdomen, but the knife fortunately missed all the important organs. I stopped the bleeding. For now.

“Try not to talk too much, or walk. Just rest,” I told the man. “You will have a scar once this heals. I can’t stitch this up for you.” The man laid on the gurney in silence.

If he had been stabbed a few hours earlier he may have had better luck, but victims of similar assaults were flooding into my make shift clinic and supplies were rather hard to come by. That’s usually the case in a post-terrorist attack and quarantined city. I don’t think life will ever return to normal in the Neon or anywhere else in this forsaken city.

I applied a heavy bandage to the man’s gut. “Just rest and you will be fine,” I reassured him.

“Thank you, doctor,” he said again.

I walked away from the man and moved through my small maze of gurneys I had set up atop the roof of an old gas station. The homeless wandered below. Hell, we were all homeless now. Mixed amongst them were the slightly stronger, probably robbing and pillaging. The other half of the slightly stronger were trying to protect what was left and some were still debating which course of action was best to take.

The gas station’s roof was like my safe island among a sea of anarchy; anarchy that will eventually yield the results of a survival of the fittest contest. After that, who knows what will happen? At this point, waiting for the government to step in and help felt like a lost cause. It had been days, and the only thing the government had given us was an armed barricade and lethal doses of bullet rain for anyone trying to escape. At least I had my island. Of course, I had seen this so-called terrorist flying around town. Stan Lee’s idea of Spider-Man is apparently not that far-fetched. After what has happened in the past couple of days, nothing would surprise me anymore. My wife was probably cheating on me. Whore.

Gunshots will always startle me, though. A small group of Reapers, the bloody gang of drug dealers trying to own the place via AK-47s, decided to show up, guns blazing. The medicine I stockpiled to help sick people must’ve garnered their interest.

I threw myself down on the roof as the gang approached, yelling and firing in the air. Their scare tactic was working. I could hear my patients’ fear as their breathing turned to hyperventilation. Who knew what these sick bastards were going to do? The scariest part was that we all knew what they were capable of doing. In a selfish move for my own safety, I slid off the roof as stealthily as I could and dove behind an overflowing dumpster. If I live to see another day, I can help save more people, though it will be at the expense of my current patients’ lives. Funny how that works, and how in times like these, you always find a way to justify your actions. I wasn’t even a real doctor – just an EMT. But, I’m a quick learner I thought. I’m making the right choice.

I watched the scavenging bastards ungracefully climb up to the roof of the defunct gas station. I was certain I had gotten away unseen. In any case, the Reapers wore such large hoods and masks that it was a miracle they could see at all.

“Where’s the drugs?” I heard a grizzled voice shout from the roof top. Then a few gunshots. A gurney flung from the roof. I would most certainly have become a dead man had I stayed up there. Luckily I got away unseen – or so I thought.

I heard a crackle – like lightning – in the distance and then the terrorist was behind me in a split second. I froze.

“What’s going on up there?” He asked me, his voice marked by a distinct anger and frustration. I’d heard mixed stories about this human light socket – the TV hijacker claimed he was a terrorist, the cause of the blast that sunk our city to the pits, but nearly every soul I ran into had nothing but praise for him. He seemed well-intentioned right now.

“Reapers pillaging my clinic,” I finally replied, getting my head back in the game. “Probably looking for my meds, but they’re shooting up the place while they’re at it.”

He glanced up at the roof and told me to stay put. He flung himself up on the roof like a gymnast and proceeded to exercise his electrical powers on the Reapers. With a few strikes of lightning from the terrorist’s palm, the drug dealers fell from the roof, fried like a pig roast. It smelled great, too. There was nothing I could do to save those poor souls; they were victims of their own circumstance. Our so-called terrorist friend was dealing some brutal vigilante justice, but he spared one man. One heavily beaten and burned man, trapped to the pavement by what looked like sparkling electrical hand cuffs. I felt our light socket friend had the situation under control and it was safe to expose myself. I caught myself – I told myself never to refer to him as a terrorist again. He just saved my life and my clinic. Mr. Light Socket felt more appropriate. For now.

“You really think your gun-toting, crack head bastard children can prance around here doing as you see fit? I will kill all of you,” Mr. Light Socket growled as he stepped on the back of his prisoner’s head. I swear my home had turned into a comic book. What I can only describe as electrified Wolverine claws shot out of the man’s hands as he raised his arms, ready to strike.

“Wait!” I shouted, presumable saving the bastard Reaper’s life. I couldn’t let him get executed like this.

“What?” Mr. Light Socket growled at me.

“You can’t just off him like that!” I pleaded. It felt wrong… somehow. In this anarchic quarantine excuse for a society, the execution I was witnessing still just felt wrong.

Mr. Light Socket walked up to me, his nose inches from mine. “Let me understand you. These low lives pillage your clinic, shoot up your patients, and you want me to let him go so he can come back and do it again?”

I had no answer. Without thinking, I replied. “If we murder him, we are no better men. Can’t you haul him off to prison?”

He laughed. “Prison? You think there’s anything left of a prison now? Let alone people willing to guard it?”

I just stared back. I knew how dumb my question was the minute it left my lips.

“The choice is yours,” he said and pointed to the trapped Reaper's AK-47 lying on the ground. "Pick it up."

I reached down and picked up the rifle, feeling as if I had no choice but to obey the man's command.

“My binds will wear off in a while and he will be free to do as he pleases," he said. " Of course, you hold the power in yor hands, the choice to stop him from inflicting chaos and pain on countless people again or to let him run back to his gang banger family. The choice is yours.” And then he turned and walked away. I couldn’t reply. I have never held so much power in my hands before.

With Microsoft's Project Prenatal EyeToy or whatever launching with a brand new console, I must weigh in on my hopes of the new upcoming console generation. We all know that Sony won't be in a quick hurry to release anything as they are still waiting for their PS2 to finally die. I hope it's soon.

When Blizzard let slip that they were collaborating with Microsoft on the next generation of consoles because Blizzard felt the games they put out are not compatible with the controls of what today's consoles are capable of, I was excited. Are they trying to figure out a way to mash up a console and a PC's controls as to create a masterful system that will conquer all? A mix of a PC and an Xbox? I am game! But then they announced Project Natal. What the hell? I really hope that as the launch of this new system approaches, they figure out a way to let couch potatoes use this camera controller. The first thing I want to do when I come home from a long day at work is to get into my boxers, sit my cheeks into a comfy chair, relax, sip on gin n juice, lay back, and play a sweet game. The last thing I want to do is start waving my arms around like an idiot. Hence why my Wii has five feet of dust on all sides. If I wanted exercise, I would just play real basketball, not pretend on TV.

I glanced over my small PC game collection that has survived over the years. On this little shelf I noticed that both my Max Payne and Max Payne 2 were missing. I lent them to this kid a year ago and the kid no longer lives here. Dammit. I saw WarCraft, WarCraft II, and WarCraft III. StarCraft. Diablo and Diablo II. You see where my fascination with Blizzard comes in now? I was eleven when I first got my hands on the original WarCraft: Orcs & Humans on four floppy disks. Good times. I saw Half-Life and reminisced about playing Day of Defeat, Counter-Strike, Public Enemy, and various other HL Mods I cannot recall, but one definitely included a sheep rocket launcher. I think? Good times. I found Master of Magic, a game I hold near and dear and still cannot fathom to this day why another game like this has not been developed (though a game scheduled for release in 2010 called Elemental: War of Magic does look promising). Syndicate Wars was also laying on my shelf. Such a sweet game. Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2.

But, most of these games would never transpose their controls in a decent way on a control pad such as the one the current systems are sporting. A recent DS port of the original PC game Jagged Alliance turned out to be downright awful (though, I sincerely believe if this was developed for the PSP it would have been much better - the power of the DS is laughable).

Obviously most of these games greatly benefited from having a mouse and keyboard but since the release of Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution, I don't buy it. Except for FPS games, of course. The accuracy and speed of a mouse will always prevail over a controller joystick, but that's another argument. Sid Meier excellently brought a game that should've only worked on the PC to the consoles. He definitely spearheaded the most underrated revolution in the game industry last year. I know 4X games are a niche, but so are JRPGs, and there is no reason that developers shouldn't jump on this opportunity to create some stunning console games - remakes of Lord of the Realms, Jagged Alliance series, Master of Magic (rooting for this one!!) - or bring in new IPs in this category. When you break it down, 4X games are just giant tactics games (which have been successful on consoles as primitive as the GBA).

There is a PS3 controller - the SplitFish FragFX - that looks innovative, though as the linked blog suggests, it will probably never gain widespread support. It does look kind of awkward and is most likely tailored to FPS games entirely, though if such a controller were more of the norm, developers such as Blizzard could most likely create games such as WarCraft (the RTS, not MMO) and Diablo on the consoles that could be controlled in very much the same way as the PC games are. If they bundled the game with the controller? Yahtzee!

I'm lifting my morning cup of Starbucks in hopes that the new console generation will embrace these... for lack of a better word... PC-tailored games and finally bridge the gap between these two conflicting groups of gamers.

PC games reigned superior for a long time - the high resolution allowed high-def graphics before high-def was a word, the mouse and keyboard controls allowed pretty much any game to use any scheme imaginable, and with the ability to actually program your own control scheme, this was true. Consoles have always felt very limited and it wasn't until recently (as the PC games market died severely) that I sucked it up and bought into consoles.

Let's see more of these games popping up instead of our arms as we pretend to play tennis in our basement. Suck it, Milo.

The weeks before inFAMOUS was released, I would easily mistake inFAMOUS for Prototype and vice versa when I was just glancing at the trailers. And I always thought that Cole (from inFAMOUS) looked a little too much like the apprentice from Star Wars: the Force Unleashed, especially with the lightning powers.

Having played inFAMOUS, I now am convinced Cole is from a galaxy far far away. He can shoot lightning from his hands much like the Emperor, he can use a force push power much like any decent jedi, and he can deflect incoming grenades and such with these powers.

Cole feels like a mash up of heroes. He can climb any surface and fall from any height unscathed, not entirely unlike Spider-Man. He has the powers of a jedi. He can acquire a power called "Gigawatt Blades" which are basically electric Wolverine claws. And he talks like Max Payne, which is awesome. This mash up works very well, though, and not once while playing do you think "damn, this would be better suited as a Spider-Man game," or something similar. The whole collection of abilities works incredibly well.

Gamers excited for God of War III could find a temporary fill in this game also as the gameplay bares a striking resemblance to that of the previous God of War games in that you gain experience points for killing enemies, finding blast shards (that give you the ability to hold more energy, or mana), and performing stunts or special kills. You can then use these experience points to upgrade Cole's powers. Some of Cole's powers can only be unlocked if you are good or if you are evil, so you will definitely get a different result playing through the game a second time. Replay value? Check!

A big emphasis of this game was to give the player a choice to be a hero or antihero, saving Empire city or destroying Empire city. At times, you will be bluntly confronted by a choice. For example, a police officer comes to you for help because his station is being attacked by the Reapers (the token bad guys), and Cole says to himself, "I can either step in between now and help save the police station, or I can wait until the firefight's over and deal with whoever's left." So, you can either step in and help save the police station and get good karma, or you can wait for the two warring parties to duke it out, and get bad karma. You can also do as you please as you roam around the city - you can kill pedestrians for fun, or you can leave them alone. You can find injured civilians and heal them, or you can be a real dick and restrain them and execute them. All of these actions contribute to your karmic rating.

A lot of people complained saying that these karmic moments and choices are too black and white and that you never get to pick anything in between or know Cole's true motives and such. I have to disagree - the true motives and such are from you, the player. And the choices are black and white because there is no gray area. As with the police station example mentioned earlier, what gray choice could you make? Wait til only half the firefight is over? Opt to bring the police officers refreshments instead of fight? The black and white choices work very well in the situations they present.

The graphics for the game are the only real disappointment. Being a PS3 exclusive, I was hoping to see more eye popping visuals and detail. The city is pretty big and the view distance is rather generous and the environment, for the most part, is rather detailed. However, the character models look a little like this game was supposed to be a launch title. This is painfully obvious every time you start a mission and the camera zooms in on a character asking your for help. If the characters looked like those in Killzone 2, that would grab anyone's attention, but unfortunately, they do not look that good. I did expect more out of a PS3 exclusive. If you were a fan of Max Payne's comic book cut scenes, you would definitely be sucked into inFAMOUS's story.

Voice acting for the important characters is well done. Voice acting for the side missions and such is up to bar, but bland and, if you are in the right mood, will make you giggle. Also, your comic side kick Zeke will say the dumbest things, which is great. The one annoying sound in the game has got to be Cole's shoes. Every time you run, it sounds like he's running on something rubbery and metallic. Its indescribable and also rather annoying if you focus on it. Thankfully you spend most of your time dangling from buildings and hopping from power lines and such so that you don't have to dwell on it.

The game offers three difficulty settings, and the hardest difficulty will definitely give you a challenge as you can easily become overwhelmed by Reapers everywhere. They are like a plague and, sometimes, they will be out of reach of your lightning strikes but still in reach of their AKs and they will snipe you down from a distant rooftop before you even know what happened. If you are not careful, it is easy to be overwhelmed by these guys.

All said and done, inFAMOUS is a must have for any PS3 owner, not only because its exclusive but because it is a ton of fun, has a ton of missions and activities available for completing, and the story is intriguing. I've been hooked on this came since it's release and it is the reason Red Faction Guerrilla and Prototype have yet to be opened.

Raiden Fighters Aces for Xbox 360 is a re-release of the old classic arcade shooters Raiden Fighters, Raiden Fighters 2, and Raiden Fighters Jet. When I first saw this game on the shelves, I was quite curious why this game got the physical disc treatment and why it wasn't shuttled onto the Xbox Live Arcade like so many other classics such as all the Sonic the Hedgehog games or Ikaruga. I didn't really mind, though, since I would much rather have a physical copy I can snap in half when I get frustrated.

The gameplay hasn't changed much. If you are familiar with the old Raiden games, then this is really nothing new for you. A Game Clips feature has been added where you can save demos (or, at least, that's what we called them back in the day when we recorded ourselves playing Doom 2) or Game Clips to show off your best runs through the game, and you can also view other players' Game Clips over Xbox Live. Of course, this game also includes the leaderboard rankings and what not so that you can engage in the worldwide competition to have the highest score. Let me tell you, it's hard enough being the best 40 year old virgin at your local arcade, but to go against all of them in the whole world?

If you are not familiar with the old Raiden games, let me break it down to you, diggie wiggie style. Ya got to pick yo' plane and shoot up a bunch-a-bitches. Ya can pick up homies to fight with you, or as the game calls them "slaves" (Hmph!) and ya can get beefier missiles, lasers, and such so when ya be firin' yo piece, ya got so many bullets mang, they cover the whole dang screen! And tell all the bitches you da best by gettin' more points and pickin up recognition bling, aka medals! Rinse and repeat, dawg.



The graphics have a small makeover from the old original games.



The old game had that great grainy thing going on.



Not even close to being next-gen, but definitely removing what falling out of the ugly tree does to you. One disappointing aspect that was also exercised in Sonic's Ultimate Sega Genesis Collection is that the resolution for these games don't change. They makeover the graphics, fine tune them a bit here and there, but the resolution seems to be unaffected. I say this because there's a big blue Raiden Fighters banner on either side of the actual game screen. You are using only one third of the screen to play. It would be nice to see the developers push to really recreate the game so that it had a much more next gen appeal. I am playing on a giant flat screen TV, I want to use every damned pixel I paid for!

When you get far in the game, upgrading all your weapons and have two slave ships fighting underneath you, it gets a little tough to see where your ship is amongst all the bullets flying and the dozen or so enemies circling around on the screen, so this game definitely requires your undivided attention. Look away for one moment, lose focus for one second, and you are toast.

The sound was also given a minor upgrade. The original game sounded, well, you know, 8-bit. The sound now resembles what a wanna be producer would try to create in a trial version of Fruity Loops before giving up on this career and settling for bagging groceries at Stop n Shop so he can afford his weekend rave excursions. The music really hasn't changed save for a minor quality upgrade in sound, but it is still the same stress inducing, simple, hard and furious techno. The explosions and gun sounds definitely appeal to the ears more now.

The choices of different ships help extend the replay value as each ship has different capabilities, speeds, bombs, etc.



But, like in the arcade, the fact that you cannot save your game makes it tough to pick this game up again and again as you have to replay the same levels again and again. The only data this game saves are your scores and the game clips, if you so choose. Don't see this as a huge downer, though, as picking this game up when you have a few moments to spare and you just want to shoot crap, this game will never fail to deliver a casual splurge on your destructive side. Kind of like playing CoD 4 online or Counter-Strike. It's the same crap every time, but it's just fun.

This game also comes loaded with fun options. You can play the game in sepia tone, photo negatives, monotone, make the game look like its on an old projector, and so on. There are many color effects options to pick from. You can also ask the game to emulate varying amounts of scan lines, and also change the games FPS. And that's frames per second for all you first person shooter nuts!

For $19.99, you cannot go wrong. Add these games to your collection!