Perhaps rethink our strategy

So the big debate over whether or not video games are deemed as an art form has caught even more nation-wide political attention since the federal government and the National Endowment of the Arts has stated they would like to fund video game creators anywhere from $10,000 to $200,000 to create games.



Of course Fox Friends has already weighed in on this. No surprise how they're handling this subject. I watched this video and laughed once I heard the words "fair and balanced debate". Clearly Brian Ambrozy, editor-in-chief of icrontic.com, was asked who would be getting these tax dollars and he answered very clearly that the funding is going to independent developers who are making educational games. Of course the games you hear leaving the Fox anchor's mouth is Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. Already entering into every person's mind are 2 of the most commercial and violent games out. It also doesn't help that the only two video clips that they play on games are Call of Duty: Black Ops and Super Mario Brothers. Both known for full entertainment value. Why not show a clip of Brain Age?

On the other side of the spectrum Fox decided to have a radio host, Neil Asbury, who didn't even listen to a word that was said when he wasn't talking. I understand that the general public may only know of the games that are rated M and all the sports games that are sold month after month but at least have someone who has somewhat of a valid point as to why the NEA shouldn't fund educational and artistic games. What authority does this person hold as to where and who should be getting funded? Did Fox just pick a name out of the hat or chose the first person who was available to appear on the air?

There is one thing that I must say that I agree with Neil though. He states that with the uncertainty of our economy should we be spending this much money on this funding? All over the news I have seen more and more educational program get cut from funding. From teachers to Phys. Ed. programs to music and art. Can educational games fill that void? I don't think so. What the federal government should do is lessen the amount that they are going to set aside for the NEA to fund games and throw some of that money into keeping teachers in school who can use these games to teach the next generation of scholars and leaders. My kids use computers in class to play games that help develop math skills and literacy but these are the same games that have been around for the last 10 to 15 years. Just like a textbook gets revised or changed year after year, shouldn't these games also change with the times?

Maybe the NEA should apply funding by collaborating with various local departments of education and figuring what games are more in need to be published and have them available to school systems. And hey, who's to say they can't develop a game more geared towards the university level to be played by adults majoring in chemistry, biology, politics, or radio broadcasting? Maybe that would shut Neil up and let him think about what he says before just blurting out what he read in his Alphabet soup...

WW3! er... MW3!

Tonight we were able to finally catch a glimpse of gameplay footage of Modern Warfare 3. After watching the trailer I quickly remember what makes Infinity Ward's baby such a great series - incredible visual story! For those who missed the trailer here you go:

Now yes the multi-player has been such a huge selling point with this series but the campaign is nothing to be missed. The last release of MW was nothing less than amazing. The story line was packed with action from start to end. And let's not forget that they pushed the envelop with the unforgettable No Russian Mission. To me, the campaign is the true reason I have been picking up this series every release.

This installment is showing us that even though Jason West and Vince Zampella (co-founders of Infinity Ward) are no longer with the studio and they have suffered more losses, Activision is picking up the pieces with hiring creative geniuses at Sledgehammer Games (a lot of those guys have worked on great AAA games such as Dead Space 1 & 2, The Godfather series, and various James Bond projects).

I have to say that between this and Battlefield 3, we are going to be the fortunate ones see a war of the first-person shooters. One things for sure, these won't be tame titles

May the best game win!

Guilty of a crime?

For the last several months this game has been a huge blimp on my RADAR screen. Why? The fact that Team Bondi has painstakingly worked to recreate facial gestures and details in a detective game is a major part. The other, Rockstar Games is backing it up. So how did the end product shape up? After playing for 7 hours straight I have to say that I am more impressed than I am upset.

After reading some reviews about the game I have come to the conclusion that all of these guys thought this was going to be another GTA but as a cop. This is not the case and you have to go in knowing that this is a detective story. You have to prepare yourself that it's not going your typical sandbox game. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of action to go around. But we'll get more into that later.

The game opens up with a monologue from the main character, Cole Phelps. This is very reminiscent of those flashbacks/imaginary thoughts from cartoons growing up where they would picture themselves in a private I. office waiting for a dame to walk into their office. Slow jazz in the background and a great detailed 1940's setting. You start out as a rookie cop straight out of the Marines and back home from the war. Your first case, find a gun that a murder suspect threw away after killing someone in a dark alley. After finding the gun you start using your detective skills and try to gather as much evidence as you can to solve cases.

Successful interrogations and Street Crime completions award experience points, which contribute to Rank increases. Ranks bring special bonuses, such as unlockable vehicles, extra costumes and, most importantly, Intuition Points. Intuition can be used during the course of an investigation and can be invaluable to a player who's stuck in a rut. Using an Intuition Point during a crime scene will locate all clues on the mini-map, while using it during an interview can either remove one of the possible answers (for instance, confirming that a suspect isn't lying) or activate the "Ask The Community" option, which will take the game online to find out which answer is most popular among players.

All clues that you find either through investigating a crime scene or through interrogation are kept in a notebook that you can access at all times through out the game. This comes in handy during interrogations. You do get Experience points based on how many clues you find at a crime scene and by how well you question eye witnesses and suspects.Basically, leave no stone unturned. This does take time so you must have patience in order to get everything you need.

Interrogation scenes are when you get to see Team Bondi's hard work come shining through. Every characters facial expressions, ticks, glances, whinces etc. are all clues that can let you know if someone is telling the truth or lying. You get to accuse people of with-holding information but you have to have the evidence to back it up.

How you guess if someone's telling the truth or leading you astray is up to your own life experiences. As hhumans we have all come to find out when some people are lying to you by how uncomfortable they get. The roll of the eyes, the scratch of the head. All these factors come into play. You don't have to be psychic to know when someone isn't telling you everything.

When you do accuse someone of holding back though you don't know just how Cole Phelps will question them. Sometimes he bursts right out and boldly tells person in question that he knows they're lying. This makes some interrogations tough because you don't expect this and are not sure what piece of evidence to use as backup. But there is a sense of completion when you get that person giving you the runaround and you stop them dead in their tracks.

The entire game is not based on this alone. There is a fair share of action that you can get into. While most of this action does come from side missions you do get into it during some cases. So if you're the type of person who only goes through the story line you will be missing out on some fun.

Shootouts do happen more frequently than I thought. The only gripes I had with these was that in order to go from cover to cover you had to keep hitting the buttons to get out of cover first. Fine but when you do this you open yourself up to getting shot. If it were a little more fluid it would have been nice. You also can't run and gun. This only posed a problem for me when I had to climb ladders to a rooftop and had to sit there timing between shots for a good chance to get over the edge and find cover.

Your partners stay out of your way most of the time but I did find that some AI will run into the path of your gun and came way too close to your shots. You'd think that the AI would do a better job of staying out of the way of getting shot but you can't have everything.

Car chases are pretty cool in this game. Best part, your partner can shoot at cars and tires while you drive. I don't have to try to aim/drive/shoot like in GTA! Team Bondi definitely wanted to add surprises around every corner so watch those turns and sudden stops when your careening down Los Angeles St. You never now what might get in front of you.

Cars are abound everywhere so you can commandeer any vehicle you want. You can also unlock dozens of cars in the LA area by racking up experience points. These unlocked cars are usually parked in some lot and are shown to you on the map when you gain the EP to get them.

I found the handling of the cars to be very good. They don't swerve all over the place and can drift pretty good around corners once you get the hang of it. Some cars do this better than others. I haven't had the opportunity to drive each one so I can't give you a great list. You'll have to try it yourself.

Overall this game was a great L.A. Confidential meets the best of Rockstar. If you don't have a copy yet, get one. I rate this game a solid 9.0. Well worth all the wait.

Access denied

As many of you have already heard, Sony has been compromised by what they have called "an external intrusion" on its Playstation Network some time around April 20th. This has lead to millions of users without the ability to connect to the PSN and may have exposed the personal information of members.

Playstation's blog has release some information as to what's going on. Senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold stated that Sony will be "taking steps to make our services safer and more secure than ever before." and will release "a new system software update that will require all users to change their password once PlayStation Network is restored." The release will be for both PS3 and PSP owners within a week.

This attack has become such a center of attention in security that even U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal has been demanding answers from Sony. I don't know what his ulterior motive is here. It wasn't so long ago that he was criticizing the video game industry and the ESRB rating system. But maybe he'll use this as leverage for his anti-video game laws.

Now what about all of your credit card information that Sony has recorded for PSN members? Here's some tidbits that Sony has released pertaining to any personal information that may have been exposed.


On the safety of your personal and financial information...

The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

On the credit card details that PlayStation Network and Qriocity do and do not store...

While all credit card information stored in our systems is encrypted and there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility. If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained. Keep in mind, however that your credit card security code (sometimes called a CVC or CSC number) has not been obtained because we never requested it from anyone who has joined the PlayStation Network or Qriocity, and is therefore not stored anywhere in our system.

So what exactly happened? Sometime between April 17th and 19th, a group of individuals were able to gain access to millions of members personal PSN information on Sony's network. There has not been any official word as to how or who but GeoHot and his crew were of course top suspects. They have denied taking part in the attack as that is out of their forte. I'm sure Sony is still keeping their eyes on them.

So if you think you may be a victim, have any questions about your potential data loss, or are just plain paranoid, what can you do? Well Kotaku has released some very important steps that you should follow. You can find all that information here.

Let's hope Sony can bounce back from this quickly. I'm sure there are plenty of whiny people out there that can't live this long without getting online.

Unboxing a Kollector's Edition

It's not often I buy a "Collector's Edition", "Limited Edition", or "I Think I'm Special Edition" because there really isn't a reason for me to get them. The last Collector's Edition I purchased was the Grand Theft Auto 4 Collector's Edition because I am a huge GTA fan. I love each game and always will. So I decided to buy one today and share it with you.

BEHOLD! MORTAL KOMBAT: KOLLECTOR'S EDITION!

I gave in and decided to get it for a couple of reasons.

1. I have loved Mortal Kombat since the first time playing the arcade version in a little store called Christie's.When they replaced it with Mortal Kombat II, I was ready to give them all my money just to play.
2. The statues included in the box were a big selling point for me. Not only are they nicely crafted for being bundled in a $100 edition but they also serve as book-ends.
3. It comes with redeemable codes for an original costume for Ermac and costumes for your XBLA avatar or PSN avatar.
4. A nicely illustrated book filled with tons of concept art and finalized designs.

I pre-ordered my copy just so that I can also redeem the exclusive Gamestop original Scorpion costume. After opening the package I feel it was well worth it. Without further delay here are the pictures.

Now go get your copy and enjoy the brutality of what is Mortal Kombat.

Play, Enjoy, Reboot, Repeat

I'd like to take a minute and talk about game reboots. What exactly constitutes as a game reboot? Is it going back to the beginning and changing the back story? Is it the same story but with different visualization? Is it scrapping everything that you've built and starting with a fresh new look and story to boot? What draws the line between a reboot and a remake?

We have seen a ton of old games being retouched and revamped over the last few years. Everything from classic arcade games to games that were incarnated not so long ago on the original Playstation. Reboots have been around for quite some time but are now making a huge resurgence back into the gaming community. Are gaming companies really losing ideas for new games or are we just so entangled in the classics that we are asking for more.

In any case, some game reboots have been welcomed and some not so much. The thought that a game that so many of us have fallen in love with was taken apart and changed so much that it is completely new and unrecognizable can be a scary and exciting thought for the loyal fans. Take Bionic Commando for instance. A great classic NES game that will live in my heart forever. Loved it as a kid and played it all the time. Naturally I was excited to see the reboot come to life. But after giving it some time I was not completely happy with it. The story line was kind of poor and the lame weapons that you were given made for some poor gameplay.

On the other hand you have Ninja Gaiden. The classic revived with spectacular grpahics and gameplay. Action upon action and finally a game for the new generation that had that old-school challenge to it. This wasn't the typical play in one day game.

In the near future we will be having more reboots coming out. Next weeks major release is Mortal Kombat. The much needed reboot for one of the biggest franchises in the gaming world. This is their last chance to get it all right in my book. All the demos I have played were nothing short of awesome. We will also see the much anticipated reboots of Tomb Raider and Devil May Cry. Where not much has been released on these two save for a few screen shots and quick videos, I expect greatness from both studio to complete a great game.

If you must refresh the great games, please people, do it right.