Thank God for the clergy! Those guardians of our frail humanity are always here to set things right, and they have protected us from Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, a game that glamorizes violence and promotes the occult. Several men of the Church have attacked Capcom's latest Wii shooter, because that is exactly what the Church should be worrying about.

"If we dabble in this area we open ourselves to influences and put ourselves at risk," writes Rt Rev John Goddard. "I would regard any encouragement for children to be drawn into this behavior with extreme horror."

Capcom's Leo Tan, however, has not taken such accusations lying down: "Most games (and movies) like Resident Evil show characters fighting evil, not supporting it. Unfortunately the clergy is showing a lack of understanding of the video games industry and is too quick to splash the holy water and lump video games players into stereotypical boxes.

"Video games are entertainment and like horror movies or other scary films they are covered by a ratings system. Resident Evil for example is a 15 and not suitable for anyone under that age. Parents have to be trusted to adhere to these age restrictions and use common sense."

Pretty much.

Still, it's nice to know that Holy leaders responsible for the guidance of hundreds of people are so enlightened and have such a grasp of the modern world, isn't it? They clearly make people take IQ tests to be bishops.

Although Modern Warfare 2 has snatched all the headlines recently for its infamous "No Russian" level, we should not forget that Rockstar is the king of controversy. Even so, the Grand Theft Auto developer believes that the whole "violent videogame" debate has gotten silly, and that its own games have become pariahs.

"It feels at last like we’re moving on from that debate," says Dan Houser. "The audience is getting past 30 so it all becomes a bit silly. That’s not to say that all games are for all people; we’ve never said that. GTA has always been rated 18 and we’ve always been very happy with that. Nevertheless, we do get frustrated when video games are singled out and movies are given a free pass.

"Manhunt 2 was banned in the same week that Saw was released. The arguments become quite ludicrous quite quickly when people argue that games are somehow more dangerous than full-motion video. Within Rockstar, sometimes we feel that some of our games get singled out and held up as pariahs. All we want to do is tell a story with rounded characters. Like GoodFellas, which is a key film for us, our rounded characters happen to be criminals."

I think the fact that Keith Vaz, FOX News and The Daily Mail absolutely failed in their attempts to spark outrage over Modern Warfare 2 should indicate just how near extinction the "Ban This Sick Filth" crowd is becoming. Games are becoming too mainstream to kick at, and soon the mainstream media will be forced to find something smaller and weaker to pick on.

You know what we haven't heard enough about? Modern Warfare 2's "No Russian" level! This time, Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream has decided to weigh in on the controversy surrounding Infinity Ward's touchy subject material, naturally coming out in full support of the game.

"My take on it is very simple. I don’t see any reason why video games should be treated differently than movies, for instance," says Heavy Rain producer Guillaume de Fondaumiere. "I think that we should leave game creators free of expressing their vision as they see fit. I think the guys at Infinity Ward had something very precise in mind when they did this scene.

"The real danger for me is, when you put out such a scene out of context. I can take any movie and take a sequence and make up a story and it will look like something that’s amoral or that crosses the line. This is most of the time what happens in video games [in the media]."

Those chaps at Quantic Dream are wise indeed, and that's why I count them among my favorite developers. Here's hoping Heavy Rain gets just as many people talking as Modern Warfare 2.

It wouldn't be a videogame controversy without FOX News trying to have a ham-fisted, awkward and ill-informed debate about it. Modern Warfare 2 has generated all sorts of intelligent and interesting discussion about its infamous "No Russian" level, and FOX does not contribute to that discussion with this embarrassing mess of a segment. Check out the video.

The guy they brought in to defend the game loses his train and thought and seems totally unprepared for even the laziest and most predictable arguments, the guy they got to attack the game actually does a better job of making Modern Warfare 2 look good, and the host desperately tries to spark off a Mass Effect style wave of panic and fails miserably because he clearly knows nothing of the game and doesn't know what's so bad about it outside of "THE TERRORISM!"

Seriously FOX, you're slipping. Even by your standards, this was pathetic.

Modern Warfare 2 is now officially out, and with it will come a stream of home-cooked controversy as more and more media reporters discover the controversial airport terror attack included as an optional stage within the game. One BBC reporter has voiced his own concern, claiming that he was "saddened" by the use of shock tactics in Infinity Ward's new game.

"I wasn't shocked by it but I felt a little bit saddened," bemoans Marc Cieslak. "I thought the games industry had moved beyond shock tactics for shock tactics sake. And that's what I thought about this particular level: it was controversial for the sake of being controversial. I didn't think it necessarily needed to be included in the game."

Have beaten Modern Warfare 2's single-player campaign a few hours ago (one hour at the time of writing, but you'll be seeing this later), I have played through this controversial scene and experienced the context in which it transpires. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that it's very integral to the game's plot, and when included within the context of the narrative, it fits perfectly and works out great. I think it very much needed to be in the game.

Does it shock? Yes it does. It's brutal and unrelenting. Is it a great part of a surprising story? Absolutely! We'll be hitting Destructoid with our full review soon, but until then, let it be known that anybody judging the scene on its own without experiencing it as part of a whole story has no clue what they're talking about.

(MINI SPOILER: It's easy to assume that this is a tasteless 9/11 mockery, but the very fact that the airport isn't even American should help contextualize it a little more. The airport is in Russia and the attack is part of a very intricate scheme, not just some random act of terror. While the imagery is provocative, one would assume deliberately so, there is a very real context within the game)

Yesterday we reported on British MP and reputed liar Keith Vaz, who pursued his long-running agenda against videogames by complaining about Modern Warfare 2's controversial airport scene and promising to bring the issue up in parliament. Today, Vaz was righteously pummeled by fellow Labour MP Tom Watson, who said politicians should be encouraging, not attacking, the videogame industry.

"It carries a content warning, it is an 18 plus game," Watson told MPs after Vaz claimed he was trying to protect children. "It would be better for members of this house to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of video games."

Junior culture minister Siôn Simon also supported the game, stating that adult-rated games deserve to be released and marketed to adults: "The game you refer to is a certificate 18 game. It should not be sold to children and the government's job is to make sure that adults ... can get what adults should be able to and children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content."

Tom Watson has set up a Facebook Page for gamers who are sick of anti-videogame news, with the message, "Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I. The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up."

So there you go. Nice to know that not every politician is an out-of-touch bastard, and it's nice to see that corrupt liar Keith Vaz getting the smackdown he deserves.

Modern Warfare 2 may be one of the biggest, most mainstream games ever to be released, but it's also been the most controversial. Aside from the whole PC debacle, Infinity Ward has also generated much debate over the infamous "airport scene," in which players get to shoot unarmed civilians in an airport. Unsurprisingly, game-hating Germany has a problem with this, and so will be getting its own censored version.

In the German version of Modern Warfare 2, you will not be allowed to kill the civilians without punishment. You can certainly shoot at them, but doing so will grant you a game over screen. While other versions will give players the option to play this controversial scene however they want, the German edition makes the decision for you.

I'm actually surprised the scene was allowed to stand in the first place, so I suppose a gimped version is better than no version at all. There's no word on whether that other game-unfriendly country, Australia, will get the same treatment, so we'll just have to wait and see.

I think it's a shame that Germany is so afraid of videogames tackling subjects like these, and that what could be one of the most unique and raw scenes in gaming history has been altered in such a way. What do you think of this? Is Germany on the right track in forcing Infinity Ward's hand here? Should our morality be decided for us in all versions of the game? Does it even matter?

We hear about these situations far too much, where a publisher is accused of attempting to broker a guaranteed favorable review from a press outlet. The latest to face such allegations is Ubisoft, having been named and shamed by German magazine Computer Bild Spiele for demanding a high score for Assassin's Creed 2. SCANDAL!

"Our reviews are tough, but fair. We will not give up our independent scores for the sake of a timely review," explains the magazine in its latest issue. "This holds true for Assassin’s Creed 2. The publisher asked us to guarantee the score 'sehr gut,' otherwise we would not receive a review copy, thus we will publish our review in next month’s issue. We’d be more than glad to give the game a ’sehr gut’, but only if it deserves it."

Sehr Gut is essentially Computer Bild Spiele's version of an A-grade, meaning that Ubisoft was only willing to trade a game copy for an incredibly positive review. Of course, asking an outlet to guarantee something like that before they've played the game is asking them to trade in every ounce of integrity they've worked to build, and if these allegations are true, it's a shame that Ubisoft felt the need to barter against someone's self respect like that.

In any case, Computer Bild Spiele has probably ensured that it won't be getting any more games from Ubisoft. Good for them, and let shame rain down on any writer that actually agreed to such shenanigans.

Modern Warfare 2 infuriated the PC community with the news that it would scrap dedicated servers, then we had Rebellion ducking the subject and making it look as if Aliens vs. Predator might go the same way. Now we have another PC shooter joining the club, as id Software confesses that dedicated servers will be unlikely in RAGE.

"It's not cast in stone yet, but at this point no, we don't think we will have dedicated servers," confesses id's John Carmack. He added that he's glad Infinity Ward did this first so that his studio "won't have to be a pioneer on that. We'll see how it works out for everyone else."

Oh dear. Never before has the name RAGE seemed more appropriate.

The bad news for PC fans just keeps piling up, and it seems that Infinity Ward may very well have sparked a new fad among developers. It would appear that the old landscape is changing, and the era of free n' easy PC gaming might be largely over.

PC gamers will keep the online petition sites busy for quite a while, methinks.

PC gamers already hopping mad at Infinity Ward over the lack of dedicated servers in Modern Warfare 2 might want to skip this story. The studio has responded to a number of fan questions surrounding the controversial decision, and the answer isn't what you want to hear. Even moreso, it's been revealed that servers across all platforms, PC included, will max out at eighteen players.

"All I can say is that we changed it to make it a better and easier experience. Also, not all of the names on that list are legit," said Infinity Ward, when talking about the MW2 server petition and downplaying the significance of its 178,000 signatures. 

"402 signed it 4 times I heard," adds IW's Mackey McAndlish, while also revealing that, "Games cap out at 9v9. The software  has great latency tolerance."

Infinity Ward has infuriated many PC gamers with its server decision and subsequent defense of that decision. Of course, when you're making the biggest shooter of the year, I guess you can afford to piss off thousands of your customers and get away with it. If the lack of dedicated servers is a big deal to you, all I can suggest is that you chill out and look forward instead to Left 4 Dead 2 or something. Seems MW2 is very much a lost cause for you.

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

Modern Warfare 2 has generated an undeniable wave of controversy with the revelation that it will include a scene in which players can act out a terrorist atrocity and gun down innocent civilians during an airport raid. The controversy is, in many ways, predictable, and it would be reasonable to assume that it's a controversy Infinity Ward had banked on, although why an already guaranteed success would need to rely on shock tactics to sell copies is beyond me.

The point is, Modern Warfare 2 has now drawn a line in the sand and people are taking sides. Earlier this week, our own Brad Rice made his feelings clear, stating that he cannot stand by Infinity Ward for choosing to include this scene. I would like to stand on the other side and state why it is I support Modern Warfare 2 and the decision to include such a controversial scene.

Read on as I explain why, unlike Mr. Rice, I can support Modern Warfare 2.

Remember Manhunt 2? Of course you do, but not because it was a good game (because it definitely wasn't), or because it did anything revolutionary. Nope, we all remember Manhunt 2 because of the controversy that swirled around the game thanks to its uber-violent tendencies. The game was crap, the controversy was overblown and it pretty much faded into obscurity never to be... heard... of... oh, here it is again. 

The faux-controversy-ridden game is getting a PC release next week (Nov. 6) via Direct2Drive, and for some reason it has an AO rating, as was reported before. That's what it was originally rated, if you all recall. It was then edited down so that it could show up on store shelves for a retail release. However, digital download doesn't have any morally conscious retailers, so AO it is. There's no word on what the new or changed content will be, but we're guessing they'll just show all the kills like they originally intended to instead of the censored way it ended up. Once it is out, we'll bring you all the dirty details some time this week.

Do not panic! Playstation Home is still a priority. Please go back to whatever it is you were doing before you heard the news that it was possibly no longer a priority for Sony. Chances are whatever you were doing was not involving Home, but if it was (dressing up for Halloween?) you should be in a better mood now. Recently, Edge had quoted Pete Edwards, director of PlayStation Home, as saying that Home was no longer a business priority for Sony despite increased hours of use and money being spent by those who use it.

"It’s been a long road," he said. "We've proved there is a market out there and we’ve got a lot of people that spend a lot of time in [Home]. It’s not a priority right now but there is a business model there," he said.

This is a lie. Sony has rebuked the quote by saying that it was taken out of context and misrepresented what Edwards was trying to say. “Allow me to put your minds at ease about this recent press. The coverage of what Pete Edwards said at the London Games Conference was not only a misquote, it was a misreprentation [sic] of what he actually said,” a Home Manager explained on the official PlayStation forums, “Edwards was saying that monetizing Home was not as big a priority as building a great platform, with a compelling environment and a strong community. Home is still a top priority for Sony and will continue to release quality content and provide a positive experience to our users.”

“And yes, we will continue working on fixing bugs, login problems, and other user issues.”

There you go. I just summed up two days of internet drama for you. Seems a bit less exciting when it's all in one post.

Last night, Infinity Ward posted a short video on their YouTube account featuring an in-game version of Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels (who will be facing the New York Yankees tonight in Game 3 of the World Series). In the vignette, Hamels advised Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 players that random grenades are “for pussies”; the “public service announcement” was provided by an organization called “Fight Against Grenade Spam.”

I somehow missed the “FAGS” acronym the first time around, but the Internet certainly didn’t. Numerous Web sites and Twitterers condemned the PSA and Infinity Ward’s perceived endorsement of an anti-gay message (something that’s especially troubling in the context of the foul-mouthed gamers who comprise much of the online user base for Call of Duty).

Infinity Ward has since taken down the video, and the studio’s Community Manager, Robert Bowling, posted a couple of responses on Twitter. In reply to Philip Kollar of Game Informer, who called the PSA “stupid” and said that it “makes [him] reconsider [his] purchase [of Modern Warfare 2] more than any other controversy surrounding the game thus far,” Bowling said:

I think it was more of a social commentary joke of that stereotype than it was a fist-bump of acceptance to it.

But after freelance gaming journalist Mitchell Dyer noted that the video “was so poorly handled/executed that it looks derogatory” and “seems to enforce the [assh*le]-ry,” Bowling agreed and pulled it:

I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns.

What do you all think? Do you buy Bowling’s claim of “social commentary”? Should Infinity Ward have seen the response coming, or is the Internet overreacting to a harmless joke? Is the studio perhaps merely appealing to the people whom it hopes will buy its game, and if so, is that an acceptable explanation?

It didn't take long. Modern Warfare 2's controversial footage showing civilians gunned down in an airport was confirmed only yesterday, and already people have decided to get offended and upset. For some reason, an Australian kids group has gotten itself flustered over the game's controversial segment, even though Modern Warfare 2 has never been marketed to children.

"The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that's meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against," states the Australian Council on Children and the Media. "We understand that it's a game but ... we're not far off when you look at the images that you could actually put it on a Channel Nine news report and you'd think maybe that is real."

Michael Atkinson, the man responsible for Australia's awful age rating system, added: "Expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment."

Fortunately, not everybody has missed the point of Infinity Ward's bold decision, with Electric Frontiers Australia lobbyist Nicholas Suzor demonstrating that he actually gets it: "Films often show the villain's perspective and, by doing that, they get across the character's story and the heinous nature of people who carry out atrocities. Games, too, are becoming more expressive, and are telling more involved stories ... We may make an argument that these sorts of topics are not suitable for children, but I don't at all accept that it is unsuitable for adults."

This, my friends, is only the beginning. Only yesterday did I predict that accusations of "glorification" and "trivialization" would follow in the wake of Modern Warfare 2, and the usual gang of reactionaries and ignorant, child-obsessed fools fail to disappoint me. And this is just Australia at the moment. I can't wait for the British and American media to get their hands on this. And they will.

Infinity Ward has confirmed controversial footage showing civilians being gunned down by terrorists in an airport. The footage will appear in the game as a skippable segment, covered by a confirmation screen that players will have to acknowledge before experiencing the content.

"The scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit. By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them," explains Infinity Ward. "Players have the option of skipping over the scene. At the beginning of the game, there are two 'checkpoints' where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can’t be disabled.

"Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older."

Infinity Ward looks like it's covering its bases with this hot topic, but try telling that to the legions of reactionary Americans who are just waiting in the wings to get offended by this rather touchy imagery. I fully support what Infinity Ward is trying to do it seems like a really great story could come out of the game, but I am not looking forward to the accusations of tastelessness and trivialization that FOX News and the other mainstream vultures will predictably launch into We all saw what happened when Six Days in Fallujah was merely suggested.

Sensationalist headline is GO! While the headline up there is true I have actually twisted the words around a bit to make it seem even more shocking and appalling so as to grab your attention. However, this is simply an ABC News story about a Pediatric group warning us that overexposure to popular media is not good for children. The story is on two recent articles by the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Communications and the Media in the November issue of Pediatrics.

The AAP claims that "The evidence is now clear and convincing: media violence is one of the causal factors of real-life violence and aggression," and actually comes down harshest on the music industry for their glorification of sex, drugs and rock n' roll. However, according to the article they do state that media can cause violence and that "the associations between violence on screen or in games and really (sic) life aggression are nearly as strong as the association between cigarette smoking and lung cancer."

Don't get yourself all up in a hoopla though, they're not recommending the end of violent videogames or a world wide ban on violent media. They just want people to pay attention to what their children are doing. Hear that? Paying attention to your children is doctor recommended. The group also wants childcare physicians to ask about a child's media consumption whenever they get a check-up and to talk to parents if they feel their child is spending too much time with a certain type of media. They do call upon the entertainment industry to make media more child friendly and offer some suggestions that you can read after the jump.

When Six Days in Fallujah was first announced as an FPS based upon the real-life Middle Eastern conflict, people jumped at the chance to take a sh*t all over it. Konami lost its nerve and dropped the title, while studio Atomic Games was declared "pretty much dead." Fortunately for Atomic, it's still alive, and apparently so is Six Days.

Studio president Peter Tamte confirmed the game still has a pulse while talking to the Marine Corps Times. Right now, Tamte is working with his other company, Destineer, on a "family friendly" first-person-shooter for Wii called Marines: Modern Urban Combat. Players control a four-man rifle squad sent to Beirut to foil the schemes of Syrian and Iranian government factions. Yeah, sounds like fun for all the family, doesn't it?

Going back to the game you actually give a crap about (somewhat), Tamte has said that Atomic "remains committed" to finishing Six Days in Fallujah, and that new partners are being sought. I wish them all the best, too. I think it's important games making bold steps get made. Even if they screw it up, we won't get better at these things unless we have a chance to make mistakes.

The latest trailer for Modern Warfare 2, depicting a Washington under siege, was only revealed this Sunday, but it's already raised the ire of crybabies/pot stirrers who can't handle the concept of a videogame trying something contemporary and unique with its plot.

The Christian Science Monitor does the predictable and easy thing -- invokes 9/11 like it was Godwin's Law and insinuating that no videogame should dare even think of touching that sacred and Holy event. The article stops short of accusing Infinity Ward of "trivializing" 9/11, but it does manage to throw in the obligatory Grand Theft Auto reference. It also displays ignorance of the subject by completely skipping the Fallout 3 post-nuke Washington imagery.

"And with what’s coming out of the gaming industry these days (Grand Theft Auto IV, anyone?) is this any worse? Maybe not," explains the writer. "But this is one of the first times such striking imagery has surfaced since 9/11, when the idea of widespread destruction on US soil was suddenly thrust into reality."

Interestingly, the author of the post claims that, "Some say the images of destruction on US soil are too much for a post-9/11 audience," yet it provides no evidence of these mysterious criticisms and instead seems to indicate that somebody's trying to invent a controversy. The article also implies that showing devastation in a videogame is perfectly fine, provided it's not American devastation. 

I am mainly posting about this because I doubt this is the last we'll hear of this issue, and I fully expect the usual unimaginative outlets to jump on this "shocking 9/11 imagery" as soon as they hear about it. I could go on a rant about how, almost ten years on, people need to grow a set and stop being hypersensitive little bitches and screaming "9/11" at everything, but I'll save that until this inevitable canned controversy kicks into overdrive.

Last week we learned how Courtney Love is planning to sue Activision for turning Kurt Cobain's corpse into a performing monkey in Guitar Hero 5. For some reason, she has a problem with Activision forcing a likeness of her dead husband to perform contemporary pop songs. Thank Christ then, that Jon Bon Jovi has stepped in to support her and defend Cobain's honor.

"I don't know that I would have wanted it either," said Mr. Bon Jovi, when asked about Activision's necromantic puppetry. "To hear someone else's voice coming out of a cartoon version of me? I don't know. It sounds a little forced.

"I had the paperwork, they wanted me to be on that game and I just passed. But no-one even broached the subject with me that I would be singing other people's stuff. I don't know how I would have reacted to that."

According to Activision's lawyers, the evil publisher has done nothing wrong and hasn't used Cobain in any way that Love didn't authorize. Still, Activision better listen to Bon Jovi. If they're not careful, he won't sell them "Living on a Prayer" again.

It had to happen, really. With over 22,000 words in its vocabulary, it was only a matter of time before someone managed to find a racist angle with Scribblenauts, and that racism came in the form of the word "sambo." The word, commonly regarded as a derogatory term for black people, is in the game. Even worse, it conjures up a watermelon when used -- a fruit classically portrayed as the favorite food of a stereotypical black man. 

According to 5th Cell, this racially charged imagery occurred totally by accident. Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka told Joystiq that "sambo" is an Ecuadorian name for "fig leaf gourd." The gourd looks like a watermelon because 5th Cell reuses art for a number of in-game items.

"Fig leaf gourd looks a lot like a watermelon," he said. "It's just an alternative name in a giant list of tens of thousands of names."

Slaczka then pulled the classic, "we're not racist, look at all our not-racist stuff" card, detailing a number of black characters in the game, and going so far as to talk about 5th Cell's previous title, Lock's Quest, and pointing out that one of the characters in it was black. In addition, Slaczka also claims he had no idea that "sambo" was a racist term.

Did 5th Cell do this on purpose? I sincerely doubt it, since everybody's so terrified of looking like a racist that I can't imagine this was intentional, even as a joke. Nevertheless, I am amazed that nobody within 5th Cell knew any better and figured that using the word "sambo" was perhaps a bad idea. Anybody with a shred of social intuition should have seen this mini-controversy coming a mile away, no matter how silly it is.

It's not just Kurt Cobain's non-murdering wife who hates what Activision has done to Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5. Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, former members of Nirvana, have issued a statement criticizing Activision's use of the dead musician, stating that they believe he deserves better. 

"We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game," states the bassist and drummer. "While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

"It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."

Aw, come on. It's not like Kurt himself can get offended by it.

If you're not up to par with your American criminal history, John Dillinger was an infamous bank robber who was shot dead by the FBI in 1934. His legacy is also jealously guarded by the grandson of his half sister, who owns Dillinger LLC and will throw down the banhammer on anybody who dares to use the name. EA is one such company that dared, and is now suing Dillinger LLC for the right to name a machine gun after the robber in its Godfather games.

Electronic Arts alleges that Dillinger LLC threatened the publisher for putting "The Dillinger Tommy Gun" and "The Modern Dillinger" in Godfather and Godfather II, respectively. Dillinger LLC is said to have threatened litigation worth millions if the guns weren't removed, and EA has bitten back. 

On July 22, 2009 Dillinger LLC, through its litigation counsel, contacted EA to accuse it of violating Dillinger's right of publicity and infringing upon its trademarks. Dillinger threatened EA with litigation unless it agreed to pay Dillinger millions of dollars for the game elements ...

Following Dillinger's recent conduct, EA is faced with the choice of either abandoning its rights to develop, publish and sell the works at issue or risk liability for damages.

Apparently, Dillinger LLC has a habit of pulling these sorts of shenanigans, and I hope it gets smacked down for it. Owning the rights to a real person is ludicrous, and an example of just how screwed up our legal system has gotten. Something this nonsensical shouldn't even be happening.

A new Internet game is taking France by storm, but upsetting everybody else. Clodogame (translated simply as Trampgame) is a transient simulator in which players start off as a penniless street bum and must work their way up the food chain to become "king of the streets" and "the most talented tramp in Paris."

Trampgame invites virtual vagrants to attack other homeless folk, become a "peerless pickpocket," steal coins from candy machines, public toilets and laundrettes, play instruments and choose cute pets in order to increase their success as beggars, and take control of their alcohol intake. The game sounds pretty damn brilliant, and I wish there was an English version. 

Of course, some people take the Internet too seriously, and charity organization the Red Cross is among those who have stepped in to criticize Trampgame: "It's a disgrace, it's degrading, it's humiliating to make the homeless the butt of derision. The image portrayed is exactly the one against which we've been trying to fight."

I don't know why they're so concerned. It's not like real homeless people have a computer to play it on.

It's a question we've all asked ourselves at one point or another in our lives. Why isn't there more female screaming and people pissing on themselves in videogames? The Postal series tried to bring these noble experiences to the world of interactive entertainment, but for all the franchise's tastelessness, it were these two items that were considered too extreme for Western audiences.

"Well, it was kind of weird and amusing when we had to cut all the female moans and screams out of Postal 1 for release in Britain due to sensitivity surrounding the tragic death of Princess Diana," explains lead designer Steve Wik. "Interestingly, we had problems with the pissing in Postal II in America. It seems that some consider it a 'sex act.' It's ironic because the only reason we put it in the game was to provide a method of putting yourself out when you caught on fire! ... We were so naive ..."

It just goes to show how dirty minded the so-called moral majority are. Only someone with a truly filthy mind could see a man pissing on himself to put out a fire and instantly link it to sex, but it's ironically how the moral fundamentalist right-wingers seem to think.

That said, I think linking female screams to Princess Diana is far more stupid than linking urine to sex.

The ludicrous RapeLay controversy just hasn't stopped. The game's been booted out of the United States, torn down from Japanese store shelves, and criticized eight ways from Sunday, but still people are getting angry about it and other titles of its ilk. Now the United Nations has stepped in, urging Japan to continue the work started with RapeLay and ban all questionable games.

The call comes from the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, and specifically asks to put a stop to "the sale of video games or cartoons involving rape and sexual violence against women which normalize and promote sexual violence against women and girls."

As I stated in an article a few weeks back, I am disgusted by virtual rape games. However, I really don't agree with banning them. They cause no direct harm to anybody, being fantasy scenarios with virtual characters rather than real women, and people should have a right to create such things, no matter how grotesque it may be to normal people. Once you ban this, you have to ask where it ends. Would the UN like to ban consensual sex between a man and a woman who just happen to indulge in rape fantasies? 

Surely the UN has better things to concern itself about than RapeLay, anyway.

Because of course, Venezuela has no other more pressing problems to deal with than those evil, evil videogames. The Bill for the Prohibition of Video Games and Toy Weapons seeks to ban the sale of violent videogames in the country, and has already earned swift approval by politicians after the first debate.

The contrived reasoning for this bill is made up of two awful excuses: The first justification is of course the children, whose minds are pure and never entertain thoughts of violence until games pollute their souls. The second, slightly more bizarre reason, is that toy weapons and (somehow) videogames can be used to commit real crimes. 

Yeah. Let's ban thins because of what they might be used for. You know, cars would make excellent getaway vehicles after a bank robbery, let's ban those. Oh, and someone could stick a banana under his coat and pretend it's a gun. Let's ban bananas! Let's ban oxygen, since serial killers use it to breathe!

This is just because Chavez is butthurt over Mercenaries 2, isn't it?

[Editor's Note: We're not just a (rad) news site -- we also publish opinions/editorials from our community & employees like this one, though be aware it may not jive the opinions of Destructoid as a whole, or how our moms raised us. Want to post your own article in response? Publish it now on our community blogs.]

Should we boycott Shadow Complex?

For a game that has received almost nothing but unanimous critical acclaim and has been hotly anticipated by gamers ever since it was announced at E3, that seems to be quite a bizarre, almost ridiculous question. If you are unaware of the recent controversy surrounding Shadow Complex, you could be forgiven for thinking that the boycotters were enraged PS3 fans, lashing out at an exclusive Xbox 360 game. 

However, Shadow Complex is currently at the center of a touchy and thorny political issue, as it has become apparent that the game is based upon a world co-created by Orson Scott Card, a notorious writer who viciously campaigns against same-sex marriage and believes homosexuality to be a sexual dysfunction. 

Card will be making money from Chair Entertainment's recently released Xbox Live Arcade game. Hence the question, should we boycott Shadow Complex?

The answer is not simple. In fact, the question itself is not simple, made up as it is of many more questions that are undoubtedly brought to the surface when trying to unravel the debate.

Oh, sweet controversy! Tongue-in-cheek hack-n'-slash game Fairytale Fights may be the very first console game to reward players for murdering kids, including as it does an Xbox 360 Achievement for killing 1,000 children. At least, it does right now. Whether or not it makes the final cut is up for debate. We reckon it won't.

Publisher PlayLogic isn't too hopeful either, but it's trying its best to push the Achievement through. It has promised that even if the Cheevo gets cut, players will still be able to murder hundreds of children in the game. Quite what Sony and Microsoft will have to say about that when the game heads to PS3 and Xbox 360 remains to be seen. 

If, by some dark miracle, the Achievement or even the killings make it into Fairytale Fights, you can prepare for an absolutely sh*tstorm of controversy. People will hear about this, and it will explode the mainstream media. Get ready for that, because it's going to be a classic. 

Seriously though ... this is awesome. Can you believe it's being made in Germany?

"SHUT DOWN THE ARMY EXPERIENCE CENTER," says the freshly launched blog protesting a games-using recruitment installment at Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia. The installment, named The Army Experience Center, uses games like America's Army to draw in potential Army recruits, and the protesters have beef with that. They've already executed one protest, and now they're gearing up for another.

The next protest, set to go down on September 12, will be kicked off with new tactics. For example, they look to form "small affinity groups" so that they don't get kicked out of the mall. Nice.

It seems that the games and simulators are the issue at hand for the protesters. They don't like that kids get to play M-rated games, or that they get to check out rifles and tanks. "War is not a game," one of their protest banners reads.

If you ask me, going to the mall to shoot weapons sounds fantastic. Actually, take the virtual tour. This place looks pretty damned cool!

There's a video of the first protest after the jump.

[via Joystiq]

A Houston Chronicle blog post caused quite a stir a few weeks back when it tried to make Left 4 Dead 2's New Orleans setting sound racist, or at the very least, insensitive to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. While visiting Valve this past week, we asked how they felt about the accusations, and Left 4 Dead writer Chet Faliszek was quite frank with his response.

"Utter insanity," says Faliszek, when sharing his opinion on the controversy. "There are mixed races of zombies, there are all different races of zombies that you shoot, and since we placed it in New Orleans, that makes it racist? I honestly re-read the paragraph about five times ... but when two of the characters in your game are African-American, it's a weird thing to be accused of. We're like, 'how does this work'?

"... As far as Katrina goes, if you go down to New Orleans, Katrina's still going on. I mean, it's messed up, it is crazy that the city is still in the state it's in, and we treat that with the utmost respect. Our CEDA thing is not some subversive commentary on anything. This is a videogame, those are real people's lives, we are not trying to make a statement with that ... It's a place we love, it's dear to our hearts. We would not cheapen it. It's not a brick-for-brick representation of New Orleans; it's a fictional version, and I love that city."

Most would agree that the "controversy" over Left 4 Dead 2's setting was ridiculous, but it's good that Valve reiterates just how bizarre the accusations were. It really goes to show that you can't do anything involving black people these days without some moron (usually a guilty white person) screaming about racism.  

For more of Chet's comments on this subject, and all things Left 4 Dead, keep hitting up Destructoid. We have loads more discussion, a full interview, and a close look at some videogame content, all coming over the next few days.

Remember a few weeks back when it was alleged that Eidos had put certain conditions in place with a number of UK magazines, offering an early, exclusive review of Batman: Arkham Asylum if they were met? Rumor had it that Eidos would let reviews go up early if the game scored over 90% and got the front cover of the mag. Well guess what -- UK magazine Games Master just so happens to have an "exclusive" review, and it meets Eidos' terms to the letter.

To say the review is positive would be to severely understate the meaning of the word. The review claims that Arkham is "Not only the best Batman game ever, but one of the finest adventures of its generation." When listing the positive and negative points of the game, Games Master only has one negative: "It has no end."

With a score of 96, a cover story, and nary a bad word to say, it would appear that GM has toed the line perfectly. Whether this is the result of sordid backstage shenanigans, we'll never know for sure, but it's certainly one heck of a coincidence that this "world exclusive review" does everything Eidos supposedly wanted, isn't it?

Eidos has an alleged history of attempting to rig scores and meddle with reviews, so it's not surprising on their end. However, if GM took the bait, or indeed any other media outlet, I'd like them to let me know, just so I make sure I never, ever apply for a job there.

Capitalizing on the Dragon Quest fever that is currently spreading through Glorious Nippon, RapeLay developer Illusionsoft has announced an H-game suggestively titled Yuusha kara wa Nigerarenai (You Can’t Escape From The Hero).

The fallout over the scandal surrounding RapeLay (i.e. the banning of all rape games in Japan) has caused most eroge companies to close off their webistes to outside IP addresses, and Illusionsoft's official Web site is no different. Illusionsoft has been tight-lipped regarding Yuusha kara wa Nigerarenai, even to its Japanese audience -- most people don't even know which genre this game will fall into.  A demo will be released on Friday that should answer some of those questions, not that freedom-hating gaijin like us will ever get to play it.

What is obvous, however, is that the game's female character models coincidentally resemble the concept designs for several classes found in the Gameboy Color version Square Enix' Dragon Quest III.  Specifically, Illusionsoft seems to have taken the liberty of lifting the designs for female black mages, sages, clerics, and soldiers.

Given Square Enix' history of shutting down fan projects, it's obvious that the company takes it's intellectual property pretty seriously -- I kind of doubt that Yuusha kara wa Nigeranrenai will ever see the light of day.

Check out the gallery for some screenshots, as well as some comparison shots whipped up by GameSetWatch. As a side note, if anyone knows where GSW got those hi-res character designs, I'd like to know.

[Via Sankaku Complex]

I like Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t!, that Showtime series that cracks open anything and everything you'd be curious/passionate about and makes it look silly/stupid/trivial. Their next focus is on video games, and a new clip from the upcoming show features an anti-violent video game activist (pictured above) that we can laugh at.

Check out his "fire chart" on games and violence. Classic. One of his triangle's sides is "mass-killing simulators," or what we'd call first-person shooters. Here we go. Wait until you get a load of his idea for FPS games.

This will be part of the seventh season of P&T:B!, so be sure to check it out, Showtime subscribers. We hear that Jack Thompson will be making an appearance in this episode. Oh, goody.

[via gamestooge]

The Chinese government has banned gold farming and trading of virtual currency for real money. This is a big deal for China as about 85 percent of gold farmers are believed to be based in China. Gold farming is believed to generate between 200 million to one billion annually worldwide.

The banning is set to have an effect on the hundreds of thousands of people that farm for gold, but that may be a good thing. Most people that farm for gold go do it all day long and earn next to nothing for the work they put into it. Sure, it's not hard work at all. But being hunched over, looking at a computer screen all day and doing the same thing over and over can have a really sh*tty affect on your body and life.

[via GameIndustryBiz -- Image] 

Of course, by enter I don't mean, enter, but since this is a game by Edmund McMillien (creator of C*nt), anything's possible. How these guys will be implemented remains to be seen, but what we do know for sure is that Alien Hominid (from Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers) and Commander Video (from Bit.Trip Beat and the upcoming Bit.Trip Core) will join Tim (from Braid) as playable guest characters in Super Meat Boy; the super WiiWare upgrade of last year's Newgrounds hit Meat Boy. Also announced is the method for unlocking these little bastards. All of Super Meat Boy's guest stars will be unlocked by finding warp zones that lead to secret levels based on their games. These levels will be super hard, and involve play mechanics unlike those found in the rest of the game. 

Awesome.

For those keeping score, there are still approximately nine indie guest stars yet to be announced for Super Meat Boy. I can't think of three bigger names in indie gaming than Tim, Hominid and Commander Video. Any guesses as to who's going to show up next?

Bear with me here; my metal knowledge begins and ends with the word "metal." So Ronnie James Dio was going to be in Brütal Legend, since he's a metal legend and all and the game is about metal music. Also a metal legend is Ozzy Osborne, who was announced to be in the game this past E3. Now the theoretical drama starts (as opposed to the actual confirmed drama). It seems that Dio is no longer in the game and his character will now be voiced by Tim "Transexual Transylvannian" Curry, which is cool if you're a Curry fan, but slightly odd if you think about it, since the man isn't really "metal."

So what happened? Well no one is officially talking, but the fine fellows over at SpineLanguage have connected some dots involving a bit of controversy between Dio and Osborne. It seems that Dio took over for Ozzy when he left Black Sabbath, and now Ozzy is fighting Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi for rights to the band's name. Iommi and Dio are also both in a new metal band together that is doing better than anything Ozzy has done in the past ten years. From these loose things, SpineLanguage extrapolates that Ozzy (or -- in their opinion -- his wife, Sharon) had Dio taken out of the game.

If you ask me, that sounds like a bit of a stretch, but who knows. The real issue here is that Brütal Legend seems to be in a bit of a pickle with lawsuits and dropped actors popping up. Could the two be connected? Maybe EA thinks that Activsion will have less of a case if they drop Dio, but I don't see why.

[Thanks, Weaponeer]

I can just see Burnout's technical director, Richard Parr, reading EA's quote about the 360 being maxed out and rolling his eye to high heaven before slamming his face into his palm and muttering something about "idiots being everywhere." In response to such a claim, Parr says that any company who thinks they have "maxed out" a system already really isn't trying hard enough. "That's proof that you're not the best," he told Eurogamer's Digital Foundry channel. "It means you're out of ideas." 

Alex Fry, the games senior engineer, chimed in too, "You always find new ways to do things, the constraints lift. Not just with a new console generation but with every game you do. Whether it's a sequel or whether it's a new game, you learn to do things differently... better. The constraints go away because you learn. While it's nice to say you've maxed something out, there's not really any point."

So next time your friends start bragging about how they totally maxed out their 360 or PS3 with the last game they developed, you can come back with, "No, you didn't. You just suck at making games," and then stick your tongue out before running away. 

Lips flap a lot at E3. After all everyone is there to make a splash. Remember when Dan Greenawalt, Forza 3's creative director, mentioned once or twice that Forza 3 was going to be the definitive racing game of this generation? He might have dropped that phrase a few times here and there. Clearly his incessant claim was meant to be a subtle swipe at Gran Turismo, but Greenwalt doesn't play subtle. According to him Gran Turismo has not been living up to what it should be.

During E3 Greenwalt let the jab out while showing off some of Forza 3's new features like the rewind option. After discussing how Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi influenced him greatly in becoming passionate about cars Greenwalt went on to say that Gran Turismo had "dropped the ball," but that Forza 3 was here to "pick it up." Boom! Greenwalt steps it up.

We've all seen the stunning trailer for Froza 3, but who thinks it's really going to replace the epic realism of Gran Turismo. If you ask me they're both great racing games, but Forza is geared far more towards the arcade/real racer while Gran Turismo is gearted towards solely the real racer. I mean look at the car flipping in the Forza trailer, I don't think Gran Turismo was ever about doing stuff like that. 

Where do you go for review scores on your latest games? Destructoid? I hope so. But Metacritic is also a handy tool. They incorporate the scores from several of the major gaming sites into a handy page you can use to determine if a game is worth your time and cash. You can also read user's submitted reviews. Thought you wanted PS3 RPG Cross Edge? Maybe not.

EA's Peter Moore is shielding his eyes from Metacritic scores, especially when it comes to Wii games. He says that Wii titles sell independently of their Metacritic scores

"The thing is with the Wii, it seems to be for the gaming sites, it's the last platform they review," said Moore. "It takes a time to get an actual review score. I would pretty much guarantee that just about every Wii game ships without a Metacritic rating because [reviewers] haven't got around, to it or they're not interested in reviewing it."

Moore likes the user reviews...more. He says that while he still wants good scores, they're less important to the Wii than they would be with the other systems.

"I absolutely guarantee you, the thing we're watching most closely now [with Wii titles] is things like Amazon - and I'll go look at women's magazines that have powerful websites, and then we look at what we call 'mommy bloggers'," he says.

[via Gamasutra]

Way back in January, we heard that Danish developer Deadline Games had put Faith and a .45, its Bonny and Clide styled shooter set in the Great Depression, on hold because a publisher could not be found. It seems that was a portent of things to come, as Deadline has now filed for bankruptcy. Yes, in a case of situational irony, a developer making a game about a depression can no longer make the game due to a depression.

This news is real bummer. Not only because yet another small developer is closing down, but because I was quite looking forward to see a shooter set in an era that hasn’t already been milked to high heaven. There is a chance that someone else could pick the game up, but it doesn’t seem too likely considering how publishers weren’t showing it any interest.

As of yet, Deadline hasn’t commented if the second episode of its other franchise, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh -- which was set to come out in July -- is still going to be released.

[Via Gamasutra]

Videogames cause rape, murder, domestic abuse, obesity and now they are kind of responsible for CO poisoning. That's the word coming from a new report that says people are using gas-powered generators during electrical outages so they can continue to play games, blissfully unaware that they're filling their lungs with delicious carbon monoxide.

Hurricane Ike left millions of people without power in September 2008, and the Houston area saw twelve seperate cases of poisoning thanks to the use of generators. Of those twelve cases, five of them were because people needed some juice for their videogames. 

"This is the first study to suggest that generators are commonly used immediately after a large-scale power outage to power entertainment electronics for children," said researchers in the June issue of Pediatrics magazine. According to the US Consumer Products Safety Commission, using a gas generator is as good for your health as having hundreds of cars running inside your house at the same time. So, not an entirely splendid idea.

Videogames seem to be the biggest reason why people want to run generators in a power cut, even more popular than keeping food fresh. Obviously, the report isn't trying to demonize videogames with this story, but it kind of shows just how popular gaming has become, when people are unwittingly poisoning themselves to play. Would you risk filling your lungs with noxious fumes to get just a few more Golden Skulls? You're not alone.

[Thanks, Dexter!]

When news dropped three months ago that EarthBound -- the incredibly good Super Nintendo RPG -- would not be coming to the Virtual Console, fans of the cult classic flipped out (me included!). Rumors of the games exclusion -- from the ridiculous (Nintendo hates its fans!) to the likely (copyright issues!) -- immediately starting making their way around the Internet.

Games Radar posted a fascinating story that may get to the bottom of exactly why EarthBound is having some issues being re-released on the Wii’s retro game download service. The feature compares videogame music to the real-life songs that inspired them, with a huge section dedicated to the music of EarthBound. Even better, there are clickable samples of each track embedded in the article to make quick comparisons a snap!

Once you listen to it you will easily understand while Nintendo may be having some legal trouble with the music in the game. While it doesn’t change the fact that one of my favorite games of all time is not coming to the Virtual Console, hearing it all puts everything into a much more realistic perspective. Maybe Nintendo doesn’t hate me after all!

What do you think? Even though everyone knew the EarthBound soundtrack was inspired by a lot of real-life music, does hearing the song comparisons still surprise you?

[Image via deviantART]

It's about that time of the week where we have an ill-informed opinion on the "dangers" of videogames from someone who is completely out-of-touch with reality. Enter Liberal Democrat Baroness Walmsley, who has thrown games and DVDs in with booze, weapons, gambling and drugs as one of the things that "destroy young lives."

"Knives, guns, certain games and DVDs, alcohol, solvents and gambling," she argues, "are all very harmful and can destroy young minds and young lives." Her nobleness was joined by the Conservative Lord de Mauley who added that all those things, including games, were restricted with good reason, due to their "various harmful effects."

Of course, the House of Lords is made up primarily of very old, very rich individuals who have no idea how Britain actually works, despite their power and elevated status. The idea of these pampered nobles talking about British culture like they know a damn thing about it is pretty bloody funny. 

It's also amusing to see nobles talk about videogames destroying young minds, as if their generations of inbreeding haven't had a much worse affect on the brain.

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory, so here's some further credence to the idea that Duke Nukem Forever's death is merely a marketing ploy by 3D Realms. Apparently, the URL "savedukenukem.com" was registered on 05/07/09, the day before 3D Realms announced its closure.

Many people now believe we are being played, which is something I myself had considered briefly, since I'm convinced that everyone involved with Duke Nukem Forever has been laughing at us for the past ten years. Some suggest that the huge amounts of assets that have come flowing onto the Internet since 3D Realms' closure also hints that this is little more than a gimmick for PR purposes.

So, what do you think? Are we indeed to believe that 3D Realms has been sitting on all the hot Duke Nukem information that has suddenly come out? Has that information been made up after 3D Realms closed just to rub salt in the wound? Hell, does Duke Nukem Forever even exist, or was it all a big joke from the start? So many questions. 

Whether or not Duke Nukem Forever is officially dead, this story looks like it'll keep going for a while. A fitting tribute to the game that did nothing for a whole decade.

[Thanks, Reaprar]

You may recall me telling you about Hanuman: Boy Warrior last week, a PS2 title that got the The Universal Society of Hinduism all pissed off because it makes light of the adventures of Lord Hanuman, a monkey god who the Hindu venerate. Society president Rajan Zed now claims that Sony has agreed to investigate their claims, per GamePolitics:

Replying to the communiqué of Bhavna Shinde of Forum for Hindu Awakening, Keita Sanekata of Sony Electronics Inc wrote, “We will review this issue, and get back to you as soon as possible.”
 
Advancing the protest spearheaded by acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, Shinde earlier wrote Sanekata to “look into withdrawing this game and publishing an apology, so as to prevent further denigration of our Deity Sree Hanuman and intensifying of our protests..."

This information came out in a press release from the Society recently. It's also worth noting they had a similar reaction to the 2008 Mike Myers film The Love Guru, which you can read all about here. Bottom line: don't make movies about the Hindu. Or music, or books, or greeting cards, or interpretative dances. Just ignore any inspiration you might happen to be feeling about their culture, because you just can't do so without pissing them off. I hear taking yourself slightly less seriously works wonders, guys.

A $0.99 iPhone game has been pulled from the Apple Store after generating a wave of controversy for its tasteless (yet undeniably righteous) subject matter. The App's called Baby Shaker and is, as you may already have guessed, a game in which you must use the iPhone's motion sensitivity to shake babies in a bid to stop them crying.

"On a plane, on the bus, in a theater," reads the App's description. "Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be! They're always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!"

The game, unsurprisingly, generated outrage from various biased parties, including Jennipher Dickens from the Stop Shaken Baby Syndrome group: "As a mother of a child who was violently shaken at 7 weeks old, causing a severe brain injury, and the founder of a national organization for Shaken Baby Syndrome prevention ... I don't have to tell you how much this horrifies me!"

As well as anger over the game's release, Apple has been criticized for pulling the game. Saul Hansell of the New York Times suggested the company "caved in to pressure" and admits to being troubled over the censorship. It's true that the idea for the game is sick, but then, plenty of things are sick and hilarious at the same time. I find myself agreeing with Hansell here. It's a shame that Apple decided to pull the plug just because some people got upset. 

Personally, I find the idea of Baby Shaker brilliant, and more than justified, since babies are generally rubbish. To quote Smash TV, I'd buy that for a dollar.

As if you needed any further proof that the media loves to blame tragedy on videogames, this one takes the cake. A young boy died by jumping from a garage roof with a makeshift parachute, possibly imitating one of his favorite wrestlers. However, rather than pin the blame on the WWE, it is instead the WWE Smackdown videogame that is being burdened with responsibility.

Headlines such as, "9-year-old Damori Miles dies in jump off Brooklyn apartment, may have been imitating video game," or, "Boy fond of video game wrestler's swan dives makes plastic parachute, takes NY roof death leap," are lighting up news outlets across America, putting focus on videogames instead of wrestling. To solely blame either of these elements is retarded, but the fact that they're focusing on videogames and not the thing that the videogames are based on is amazing. 

It's no surprise that the boy's mother is trying to blame anything she can on this tragedy, claiming that he was copying "Jeff Harding" from Smackdown (she means Jeff Hardy, the stupid bint). After all, she left the 9-year-old all alone while she went to the store, basically allowing a small child -- with special needs, I should add -- to do whatever he wants. With a mother that attentive, it seems like this poor kid was doomed to die sooner rather than later.

The biggest shock of all, however, is that the WWE itself makes the most sense out of anyone: "We should allow the authorities to conduct a full investigation ... including insecure roof access, before conclusions are made about this unfortunate incident."

Simply an amazing story all round, and a testament to American media spin. It's the best in the world.

There's no denying that Konami's documentary-styled Six Days in Fallujah will be one of the most controversial titles of all time, regardless of how sensitively the content is treated. It would seem that the game is so hot, however, that the publisher may choose to skip Europe altogether and avoid the furor there.

The story goes that a European release all hinges upon how developer Atomic Games chooses to portray the action elements of the game. The suggestion seems to be that if the game is too violent, it won't come to Europe. As sad and annoying as that is, who can blame them after the Daily Mail jumped down the game's throat less than twenty-four hours after it was announced?

This Iraq-themed game is going to be an incredibly interesting release, as it pushes the boundaries of what a game is allowed to be by mainstream society. It will be a huge shame if Europe is made to miss out on that, all for the want of a bunch of whining crybabies who denounce anything as "tasteless glorification" just because it's in a videogame.

We've been covering the grimly predictable outrage over Konami's Six Days in Fallujah, a videogame based on a real-life battle during the Iraq War. While tabloids and families of war dead have already condemned the game without seeing any of its content, a number of veterans have actually expressed support for the project. Kind of undermines the grievances of those who weren't actually in the war, right?

"As a combat veteran and as a gamer, I have no problem whatsoever with the game," explains Sgt. Casey J. McGeorge, who spent 36 months in Iraq. "As long as it's made as realistically as possibly, I believe that this could be a good thing for both combat veterans and for the war in general."

Former Sgt. Kevin Smith expressed similar sentiments: "Hopefully it will bolster support for military veterans by giving civilians insight into what this war was actually like for them... I really hope that this title receives positive press and encourages more empathy towards veterans after gamers have 'experienced' what they have gone through. On a side note, I really hope this game includes co-op!"

USMC Gunnery Sergeant John Mundy added: "You will have your group of idiots that try to be the terrorists and kill Americans and shout obscenities through the TV, damning American military personnel. But hey, those individuals can make fools of themselves all because of the protection that we military people give them each day ... If someone doesn't agree with the game, they can spend their money elsewhere."

Of course, I expect tabloids and special interest groups to ignore all this. It makes it hard for them to try and argue for dead men who may not have shared their narrow views.

The ridiculous controversy about a game that we know nothing about continues apace, as families of U.S war dead have contributed to the whining mass of biased over-raction. Despite the fact that these people have never seen the game or any of its content, they too have decided that Konami is "trivializing" and "making fun" of those who died in the Iraq War. Apparently if your son dies in Iraq, you gain psychic powers like this.

"We question how anyone can trivialize a war that continues to kill and maim members of the military and Iraqi civilians to this day," exaggerates Gold Star Families Speak Out. "The war is not a game and neither was the Battle of Fallujah. For Konami and [developer] Atomic Games to minimize the reality of an ongoing war and at the same time profit off the deaths of people close to us by making it 'entertaining' is despicable."

The sister of someone who died in Iraq added her own reactionary two cents. She too has gained mystical powers to see into the future and predict this game's content: "When our loved one's 'health meter' dropped to '0', they didn't get to 'retry' the mission. When they took a bullet, they didn't just get to pick up a health pack and keep 'playing' ... they suffered, they cried, they died. We - their parents, siblings, spouses, children and friends - absolutely find it disgusting and repulsive that those so far detached (and clinging to denial of reality) find it so easy to poke fun at such a thing."

Health meters confirmed for Six Days! If these people are upset now, I can't wait until they find out about the minigame where you piss on the grave of Princess Diana while Adolf Hitler rapes Iraq babies for the masturbating audience of George Bush and The Devil. 

Again, for perspective ... this game was announced just two frigging days ago.

If there's one thing more controversial than a Grand Theft Auto release, it's Grand Theft Auto mods. While these tweaks and additions to the game are not officially endorsed, they can still cause trouble, as Hot Coffee proved. Recently, some videos have hit Youtube depicting real-life police cruisers that have been reproduced in the game, and police officials aren't happy.

Videos are currently depicting cars from Prince William County, Montgomery County, and Fairfax County in Washington D.C. More than the simple appearance of the cars, cops are upset at some of the things the car's riders are doing, such as stepping out of the vehicle in full police uniform and gunning down innocent civilians, something that the police want to assure us they do NOT do. 

"One of the reasons we find it in poor taste is because of the way the officers are depicted," said FCPD spokesman Don Gotthardt.

The modder clearly doesn't mean any harm by this and was just making textures based on real-life vehicles. Checking out the video of the guy claiming to have made them (below the jump), it doesn't look like he was deliberately trying to piss anybody off. It's understandable that the cops are upset, of course, but it's just a silly mod and I doubt anybody playing GTA: San Andreas thinks that all cops like to get out of their cars and randomly shoot people. 

Just the really dedicated cops do that.

Konami's Six Days in Fallujah was only announced yesterday with scant information, but that hasn't stopped British newspaper and sad joke book The Daily Mail from jumping all over it and spreading outrage. The Fail was all too quick to get in touch with the father of a deceased Royal Marine to try and stir up sh*t, and he naturally jumped to attention and provided all the misguided rage they needed.

"Considering the enormous loss of life in the Iraq War, glorifying it in a video game demonstrates very poor judgement and bad taste," said Reg Keys, blind to the irony of talking to a paper that regularly trivializes and sensationalizes war. "These horrific events should be confined to the annuls of history, not trivialized and rendered for thrill-seekers to play out, over and over again, for ever more.

"It's entirely possible that Muslim families will buy the game, and for them it may prove particularly harrowing. Even worse, it could end up in the hands of a fanatical young Muslim and incite him to consider some form of retaliation or retribution. He could use it to get worked up and want to really "finish the game".

"I will be calling for this game to be banned, if not worldwide then certainly in the UK."

How ironic that we go to war against a country with strict totalitarian regime, then demand that our own country bans things if we don't like them. That's not even mentioning the best part, that this moron thinks it'll encourage Muslims to blow stuff up. Meanwhile, former colonel Tim Collins OBE declares that the game is "too soon" and has accused it of being an "extremely flippant response" even though he has f*ck all idea about how the game will play out.

More OUTRAGE AAAARGH after the jump.

A group of "videogame journalists" scaled a soapbox this past week at GDC in order to rant about the industry and bad jurnalizmz, basically calling out everyone and everything in existence. While a lot of it seemed to be self-satisfactory preening, the words of one Heather Chaplin -- game critic, author and apparently the most mature and intelligent on person on Earth -- really twisted the knife. 

"I've been covering the games industry for eight years, mainly for mainstream outlets, and I often find myself acting as a translator," stated Chaplin at GDC's rant panel this week. "... It's not that the medium is in its adolescence, it's that you're a bunch of ****ing adolescents. It's even worse because you're technically supposed to be adults."

Chaplin wasn't the only one on the "Burned By Friendly Fire: Game Critics Rant" panel. There were plenty of names that you could expect to see on a panel with such a grandiose title -- Leigh Alexander, N'gai Croal, they were all there, and they all had something to say on the subject. Still, it's Chaplin that took the gold trophy by describing how immature and pathetic the industry is. There's no Bob Dylan of gaming, allegedly, because everyone in the industry is a baby. 

I could easily and happily pick the arguments apart -- talk about how there is room for both the mature and immature, how the medium is in its infancy and it takes time for game developers to grow up and have the life experiences necessary to create a truly stunning piece of interactive art. However, I'm instead going to point out that this kind of stuff is why I never want to be a "games journalist." My job as a blogger is ridiculous and I don't ever want to lose sight of that. Think about it -- I get paid to play videogames and then tell strangers what I think about those videogames. If that's not a completely ludicrous career, I don't know what is. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do and I never want to give it up, but I could never attach such self-importance to myself and call it journalism. 

I am so glad I'm a "bad journalist" if this is the attitude that comes with being a good one.

As we all know by now, it's not much fun being an Australian gamer. Your games are delayed, your prices are high, and to top it all off, you have a ratings board that constantly bans and/or forces heavy edits in the latest titles. It would seem that some gamers have simply had enough, as the Australian Classification Board has been hacked and defaced by those who feel its true nature needs reflection.

"This site contains information about the boards that have the right to CONTROL YOUR FREEDOMZ," states a message left by the hacker(s). "The Classification Board has the right to not just classify content (the name is an ELABORATE TRICK), but also the right to DECIDE WHAT IS AND ISNT APPROPRIATE and BAN CONTENT FROM THE PUBLIC."

The obvious response here is that stunts like this don't help, and certainly make those in favor of free speech on the Internet and in games look immature and reckless. That said, it's very evident now that no amount of "maturity" will ever get the message across, so I don't see how it'll cause much harm. I think it's a very clear indication that Australia's backwards ratings system and controversial plans to filter Internet access has taken a very clear toll on the patience of its people. 

I find it hard to blame frustrated Australians from taking such a drastic step.

The latest issue of Nintendo Power has been banned from a middle school library in Ohio because of the cover, which features a piece of artwork from Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. The cartoon image of a woman holding a gun was seemingly too extreme for the shool, which yanked the issue and started rolling a rather large snowball of controversy.

After Principal Brian Sharosky pulled the mag from Roxboro Middle School Library, Ohio's ACLU stepped in with condemnation. Executive director Christine Link argues that literature should never be taken out of a Library on the whims of one offended individual. 

"Literature should not be removed from a school library simply because one person may find it inappropriate," she states. "[the school board should] immediately order that the magazine be reinstated."

Unfortunately, the school board is backing Sharosky on this matter, helping to keep Nintendo Power #234 away from young hands. It seems that this decision could go so far as to result in a lawsuit.

"The principal doesn't get to say, 'Whatever I say goes.' There's got to be some mechanism by which decisions are made and a process of review," explains ACLU legal director Jeff Gamso. "Or maybe tomorrow it'll be ' "Hamlet" -- that's an iffy play.'"

Considering you could probably find all sorts of juicy murders and graphically violent content in any school Library, it does seem rather arbitrary to pull the magazine. I wonder, if it was a book on Al Capone, featuring an image of a man holding a gun, would that have to get yoinked as well?

Lets start with the facts.

Nintendo is a giant, evil corporation that is hellbent on ruining videogames, the world, and everything. The only things standing in their way are a local, "Mom and Pop" software developer called Microsoft, and a plucky, underdog electronics producer named Sony. For a while, Sony had just barely fended Nintendo off with something called the PS2, but lately it's been Microsoft leading the struggle to keep Nintendo at bay. With the record breaking sales of Halo 3, a game universally accepted as the most wonderful thing ever made, Microsoft had proven that no matter how many battles Nintendo may champion, the "good guys" were still winning the war. 

That's all over now. Via a combination of highly effective viral marketing, and insults used to humiliate the consumer into submission, Nintendo has convinced the world to buy a game that it doesn't want; a game that forces the player to become more aware of their own bodies by making them move their arms and their legs. Some people call that "exer-gaming". I call it blasphemy. 

By selling over 6 million units in the United States, Nintendo has official stolen videogames from "us" (13-24 year old males who are too sexy to even move) and given in to "them" (women, children, and old people, many of whom are not sexy at all). That's right everybody, the latest NPD numbers show that as of February 2009, Wii Fit has outsold Halo 3 in the United States. There are now more people in our country using videogames to fake-hula hoop than people using them to fake-murder their friends.  

Game over, man. Game over. 

[via Kotaku]

Lets start with the facts.

Nintendo is a giant, evil corporation that is hellbent on ruining videogames, the world, and everything. The only things standing in their way are a local, "Mom and Pop" software developer called Microsoft, and a plucky, underdog electronics producer named Sony. For a while, Sony had just barely fended Nintendo off with something called the PS2, but lately it's been Microsoft leading the struggle to keep Nintendo at bay. With the record breaking sales of Halo 3, a game universally accepted as the most wonderful thing ever made, Microsoft had proven that no matter how many battles Nintendo may champion, the "good guys" were still winning the war. 

That's all over now. Via a combination of highly effective viral marketing, and insults used to humiliate the consumer into submission, Nintendo has convinced the world to buy a game that it doesn't want; a game that forces the player to become more aware of their own bodies by making them move their arms and their legs. Some people call that "exer-gaming". I call it blasphemy. 

By selling over 6 million units in the United States, Nintendo has official stolen videogames from "us" (13-24 year old males who are too sexy to even move) and given in to "them" (women, children, and old people, many of whom are not sexy at all). That's right everybody, the latest NPD numbers show that as of February 2009, Wii Fit has outsold Halo 3 in the United States. There are now more people in our country using videogames to fake-hula hoop than people using them to fake-murder their friends.  

Game over, man. Game over. 

[via Kotaku]

MTV is reporting that third party publishers are seriously unhappy with Sony over its "bandwidth fee," a policy instituted on October 1, 2008, that demands money for every piece of DLC released on the PlayStation Network. Since fall of last year, Sony has claimed 16 cents for every Gigabyte of content downloaded from the PSN, either for the first sixty days in the case of free content like demos, or forever in the case of paid downloads.

Behind a mask of anonymity, three publishers have registered their anger with MTV, biting back at Sony's charge, which comes on top of the usual third party development fees.

"It definitely makes us think about how we view the distribution of content related to our games when it is free for us to do it on the web, on Xbox Live, or any other way -- including broadcast -- than on Sony’s platform," says one of the sources. "It’s a new thing we have to budget. It’s not cool. It sucks."

Of course, this is something consumers ask themselves in reverse. It is free to game on the web, or via PSN, but they pay to do it on Xbox Live. It's a very "swings and roundabouts" situation.

Sony itself has brushed off this thorny issue, claiming to foresee no change to the quality or quantity of its online content. So far, it would seem that this fee isn't driving away publishers, but as purse strings continue to tighten, could we see a full-scale backlash? After all, it's been pointed out that the Resident Evil 5 demo -- a free piece of content -- was downloaded over four million times across the Xbox 360 and PS3. A huge and popular demo effectively causes a publisher to piss money down the drain.

A bunch of Massachusetts high school students -- obviously idealists, too young to be dragged down by cynicism and misanthropy, bless 'em -- have attacked the Call of Duty franchise. Somewhat late to the party, the animal lovers object to killing dogs for entertainment. Even though, obviously, these dogs don't really exist.

"Killing dogs as a form of entertainment ... over and over again," claims the Animal Rights Club president, not worried about misrepresenting the facts or anything. "That's one of the objects of the game. Parents need to know what they are buying their kids. Killing animals should not be a form of entertainment ...

"My little 12-pound Pomeranian, Winnie the Pooh, is sitting next to [my brother, who is playing CoD:WaW], and I'm thinking, 'This looks horrible!' My brother is a sweetheart. He won't be killing dogs after playing. But some people might."

I think the real news story here is that someone actually named their dog Winnie the Pooh. I'm not even going to laugh at the ridiculous claim that Call of Duty encourages people to kill real dogs. Not when I can laugh at a dog called Winnie the Pooh.

Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also weighed in: "I feel like these video games are dangerous for a lot of reasons. We can all rationalize and say it's just pretend. Even so, why pretend shooting people and dogs? They really desensitize kids and adults to what that violence signifies."

We better not tell them about Modern Warfare 2. I heard that game lets players force baby seals to have sex with each other at gunpoint while a perverted walrus masturbates.