Author Archives: Guest Contributor

“Worst, the game is heavily censored. Namco Bandai, in its efforts to get a T rating, has sucked all of the blood out of the game. Normally it wouldn’t much matter, but major plot points of this game center around brutal violence – including the climactic scene in which the biggest twist in the plot of the entire series is revealed. It’s an insult to the fans that have tread the rocky path this series has taken.”

Nutt, Christian. “Xenosaga Episode III review.” Gamesradar.com

“Now, censorship isn’t new to the Xenosaga franchise–the first game featured one disturbing scene (involving jailbait Realian MOMO) that was edited for the U.S. release. I’m not entirely sure of exactly what was cut from XS3, but I’ve confirmed that at least three cut-scenes have had substantial amounts of blood/gore edited out. Yeah, Namco made these cuts in order to get a “Teen” rating from the ESRB, but I still find it all a bit upsetting. Xenosaga was always intended as a mature, complex RPG…and it’s discouraging that Namco wouldn’t allow the final chapter to come out with a Mature rating.”

Shane Bettenhausen, blog, 1up.com

Am I disappointed that XSIII had some blood clipped from it? Of course, my red American blood boils that anyone dare strip anything from a piece of entertainment. But to be honest, I have two gripes with this ruckus that the internet is feeling as role-playing game fans writhe in fury that Xenosaga’s final episode was altered for its US release:

a) I want more good RPGs to come from Japan to the United States. In the current political climate, asking a publisher to stick to its guns and include elements that make a game offensive to a run-of-the-mill consumer when they could remove them and not cost the story anything is asking them to not only take a loss of sales on this game, but to discourage other publishers from doing the same. An M rating doesn’t just get games cut from some retailers these days, as well. Beyond straight sales hits because the game isn’t on as many store shelves, an M rated game makes an easy target for hungry, sharp politicians. Shipping the game with needless blood for the benefit of lower sales, decreased exports of Japanese style games, and the risk of political attack doesn’t benefit anyone but politicians; and

b) It’s only adjusting content to get a rating. This isn’t a new institution in the United States; it took decades for the film industry to get to rate films to alleviate the need to self-censor heavily. Film viewers only rarely flip out when a movie is changed to meet a rating need during post-production. If a movie can only expect to come overseas at a rating where it won’t succeed? You don’t get to see it, or you see it an edited format. Does anyone scream censorship at that point, or does everyone really concerned just knuckle down, import the original, and learn its language?

Electronic entertainment is just one more product that is packaged for consumers; even as its consumers crow about its growing puissance they seem unaware that that means growing responsibility on the part of the providers. It’s not a long fall to be staring at a rip-off Hayes Code, so it’s important for consumers to draw their lines in the sand at more reasonable points than meaningless gore being cut so a product has a chance in an unfriendly political environment.

Into the “fun” of dropping hundreds of dollars on a video game console? How about the pain of PC gaming, which can basically cost infinite dollars? It used to be easy to write off the PC gaming costs because the consoles, your PS2s, your Dreamcasts, your Xbox360s, all needed surround sound systems and the largest, most powerful, most deadly TV possible.  No longer the case.

Yes, we’re getting closer to not having to double up on a monstrous display and surround sound systems, but that’s only really if you trust Microsoft for all your nerd needs. Which brings us to an upcoming bit of nerdery for Windows, Gothic 3.  We’ve talked about Oblivion before, and Gothic as a series has always been the gruff German cousin to Oblivion’s Elder Scrolls.  But with Gothic 3 there’s a real chance that won’t be the case.

It’s not for a few reasons.  Graphically, despite its issues, Oblivion appears to still set the gold standard for western RPGs.  And there’s no reason to think that support for Oblivion will drop off in the form of user mods or official mods.  The two things that truly impressed us during our recent hands-on with Gothic 3 are closely interlaced, and where we get into the tech part of the post.

Telling a story as a game puts a critical choice into the designer’s hands: how much freedom to give the player, in exchange for a focused, epic story with the player at the center?  Gothic’s reaction, as a series, has always been to struggle to give the player all the room they’d like to play in but such a gripping story that the player actually decides to pursue it.  In Gothic 3, the nameless main character finally returns to his homeland to find that it’s been overrun and his people are slaves.

Not save the princess, or “oh no, demons!”  Humanity enslaved.  Yes, by the traditional fantasy bad guys of Orcs, but unlike saving the world from demons, most people can relate to themes of slavery, power, and put-upon social groups rising up and taking power.  Oblivion lets you lead an assassin’s guild; Gothic 3 will let you be quisling against your race.

All of which revolves around an AI system that is looking amazing.  More play will reveal how much it can really do, but there’s something about watching the fantasy genre’s most disposable characters — town guards — employ realistic tactics to engage a character, and then watch them fly in fear, into a berserk state, or into cover to try to hide as the combat goes against them?   It’s the sort of thing that occurs in films easily and effortlessly, and that’s what the real promise of Gothic 3 can be: To finally put players into the center of a fantasy epic.

This is a step in the right direction, for those who think that AOL has a lot of ‘splainin’ to do. Forget the days of useless CDs sent in the mail; if AOL plays their cards right, this is what people will remember. AOL has announced that, starting September, www.xdrive.com will offer 5 GB of free online storage space to all users with an AOL or AIM screenname!

Additionally, there is mention of a drag-and-drop interface between online storage and your desktop. More details to come in September!

Well after a long hiatus travelling the world searching for more stupid products, I have returned with a plethora of goods ready to knock your socks off. Some are electronic, some are not. I treked the globe from one pole to the other, trying to gain knowledge of various cultures and lifestyles unfamiliar to those that I have already been introduced to. However of everything that I learned during my voyage, the one most important piece of knowledge has nothing to do with any specific culture but about who I am. And that one piece of knowledge is this – it can be pretty damn lonely not knowing a soul in a strange place. But thankfully, this little ingenious piece of useless crap gave me some company (so I guess it wasn’t so useless afterall). Yes, this beautiful invention not only gave me a friend to grow with, but also prevented me from losing my keys. So without further ado, let me introduce…..pet trees!

yes these are geniune trees that actually grow inside their little capsule and eventually can be transferred to a regular pot where it will continue to grow into a regular size tree. All they need is a little water every couple of weeks and there ya go.

These things are cooler than Bansai trees because they can go with you wherever you go. I even think it’s safe to say that these nifty trees are the best damned invention since sea monkeys!! There are two options of trees for fulfilling your horticulture desires; Victo and Rance, or in layman’s terms the prickly one and the non-prickly one. I spent thousands of dollars on my journey yet it was a 10 dollar keychain that helped me maintain my sanity. Now if someone asks me if that is a cactus in my pants or am I just happy to see them, I can finally say it’s a cactus (or i could jut use that as a coverup).

Coming to you with another wacky and useless product, this is Merv.

After some industry comments that Intel is killing PC gaming, it looks like AMD is stepping up to save it.  Epic’s Mark Rein fingered Intel’s integrated graphics chips for being their standard for low-end systems.  Any PC gamer can attest: those things stink on fire.  Try to run a game on them and they crash and burn; try to upgrade with a decent — or even a low-end — video card and it will almost always have issues with the integrated chip.  They could pack a low-end video card instead and give people a chance to enjoy PC gaming.

Of course, Mark Rein (as Joystiq points out) works at a company devoted to the graphics gods; every system that isn’t a Quad-Quad-Quad-Quadtronic slab o’power is a system that won’t look as good on an Epic game.

Now, yahoo tells us that AMD is deep in to buy ATI, which blows the whole thing into low-earth orbit where it can heckle Intel safely.  Intel won’t be able to negotiate a position with either graphics company at the best price now.  If AMD decides to put a cheap, upgrade friendly card in every system Intel will have to go to Nvidia or go home.  AMD has been the choice for gamers for quite some time, but this could be the point where they become the choice for casual shoppers and then turn them into  gamers.

Add in Microsoft’s PC gaming push, which is a blog for a day when I own a digital camera to take pictures of their eerie shrine-building in local stores and marts, and it’s an interesting week for nerds coming up.