2 Cents Gaming

Fall is in the air, the leaves are going from summer green to the browns, yellow’s and red’s that inspire painters to paint (or something)  This also means it’s that time of year.  Yep, where mortals become raving lunatics bent on getting the object of their desire.   While you do have this to some degree throughout the year, the slight chill in the night air brings about the feeling that yes,  It is fall, and yes, it is time for the fall/winter Videogame Launch season to begin!

Already I feel the pains of this radical season.  With Halo 3: ODST coming out yesterday, with no associates in the store to help, I had to handle this launch ALONE!  Am I bitter?  would I prefer to see all copies of ODST put into a pit and burned then piss on the ashes?  Probably not.   I can say that while I am weary after yesterday, I do know this isn’t even scratching the perverbial surface.  Who knew three years ago that the release of a new Halo game would not be the biggest launch this year?  Well thanks to Infinity Ward our plate on November 10th will be very full.  Some internal estimates are showing that Modern Warfare 2 may exceed Three Million in Pre-order’s alone, and thats not even counting the walk ins.  If these numbers hold true, we’re looking at the single biggest launch in video game history.  Goodbye Halo, Grand Theft Auto, etc.  I know it’s exciting this time of year, hell I’ll be in the middle of it myself, both on the customer and retail side.  However I would like to stress an important thing here:  please be patient with the people who sell you your games, unless they are real jerks.  Most of the time they’re having to do midnight launches, get off around 2 or 3 A.M., then have to be back at work at 9 A.M. to open and start the process all over again.  I’ll put it this way, a simple thank you can go a long way.

-Wayne Gay

In a smart move to expand their territory and bolster their already high-profile production team, Ubisoft, maker of video gaming classics such as the Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Prince of Persia series and newer games like highly-acclaimed Assassin’s Creed, has purchased the well-renowned special effects company Hybride Technologies. Yes, this is the same company that made 300 and Sin City. Yes, this is good news.

But how good? They work in two different domains, which means these two developers don’t use the same production technology at all. Sure, it would be nice to have some sweet cinematics instead of the poorly-animated garbage that Ubisoft has stained so many of it’s games with, but beyond that, this big business move seems like nothing more than that, just business. Good for them, but here’s hoping it will also be good for us gamers.

Ok, this has been a Jack heavy couple of days, with an astounding three posts about the same subject, I admit, but this latest one is just goddamn hillarious. Not only is he as good as disbarred, not only has his case against the Florida Bar (where he had alleged that the Florida Bar were “unconstitutionally barred him from representing himself before that body” after the Bar told him that, well, he couldn’t submit anymore documents because he was bathist crazy. Only in a nice way) has fallen apart at the same time, but now our Mr. Thompson has the Florida Bar right where he wants them.

Yup, Jack is going to win, again. At least, that’s the way he sees it.

See, the case was covered in the Daily Business Review, according to Gamepolitics. And because the case was covered there, it’s helped Jacko immensley. In an email which was addressed to Gamepolitics and others (improbably titled, of all things, SWEET!):

Because of the [DBR] article, which contains my entire Objections filing, I am now getting phone calls from highly respected people who are proving to me the criminal conduct of The Florida Bar… We are meeting with law enforcement officials about that. 
 
This is all wonderful.  Light is now being shone in some very dark places, and the Daily Business Review has assisted in that wonderfully.
 
I am now going to win this fight, by the grace of God and because of the First Amendment, most particularly the right to freedom of the press.  Certain Florida Bar officials need to hire criminal defense lawyers today.  The investigations are already underway.  And if you think I’m kidding, then you don’t know Jack.

Yes, Jackies got them right where he wants them.

Just like he did Take 2 when he was going to help EA take them over. Which, if I remember correctly, EA refused the help saying, again in a very nice and political way, that they wouldn’t touch him with a ten foot pole.

Just like he did when he tried to get Bully banned. Which went on to sell rather well, even in Florida.

Just like he did when he wanted to question the President of the United States in relation to his disbarrment trial.

Just like when he wanted to have famously gay Attorney Norm Kent as a purveyor of smut, a move which backfired when Jackie submitted hardcore gay pornography through the court system.

Just like when he was going to shut down every single gaming journalist site, along with Penny Arcade, because they didn’t like him. They were all still there when I took a look this morning.

Jack sees victory where there is none, and always has. It’s a very optimistic trait to have, really, but once which will eventually, as everything else has, turned around and bit him in the ass.

On another note, Thompsons accusation that Gamepolitics had received classified court documents from Judge Dava Tunis was apparently submitted as a legal court document. Which, you know, are signed, right under the part which says “I make this under penalty of perjury,” is yet another little move that will come and bite him in the ass, as it just wasn’t true. That’s not stopping him from claiming it is, while at the same time going after the person who provided Gamepolitics with the documents - one Eunice Sigler. How’s he doing that?

By demanding to see her official loyalty oath. Because that worked so well last time.

As our own Russdogg previously posted, Jack Thompson is heading for a fall, with the Judge in his disbarment trial, Dava Tunis, recommending him as guilty on 27 out of the 31 charges he faced in his bar trial last year.

Of course, it’s only a recommendation, as it’s really down to the Flordia Supreme Court to decide the mans fate, but with a recommendation like that, it’s hard to see exactly how this could end in anything other than disbarrment for our very favourite belongs-in-an-insane-asylum video game critic.

But what’s Jack been up to exactly, since the news?

Read More »

PALGN has a report up from one of it’s Aussie readers, detailing what censorship occured in the Australian release of Grand Theft Auto IV. According to the article:

According to Mick, when players pick up a prostitute in the Australian version, there is no way to select a ’service’ from the prostitute. The sexual intercourse sex animation has also been completely removed, so players will only see the car bounce from a locked rear-view. In the uncut version, after selecting a service from the prostitute, players can rotate the camera to see the prostitute’s actions.

Also in the Australian version, no blood pools will appear beneath a dead person after shooting or stabbing them to death. There are blood splatters, but no blood pools. In the uncut version, blood will slowly ooze out from under a body, and it is possible to create bloody footprints by walking through the blood, or bloody tyre tracks from driving through it. Finally, when Niko or other NPCs are injured in the uncut version, light blood patches appear on their bodies which basically represent bruises/bullet wounds.

No other changes were made. The hooker thing is just the way things were in prior GTA games, and honestly, the “sex” animations don’t add much to the game anyway, and I don’t believe I ever noticed blood oozing under a body. Then again, never really hung around the bodies much…

News found via Gamepolitics.

Could it be? Could it really be? According to 1up.com and EGM’s “Quarterman” it is. Killer Instinct 3 is on the way.

First up, he’s heard that Microsoft-owned developer Rare is currently hard at work on a new Killer Instinct offering for Xbox 360 tentatively titled Killer Instinct 3D: Death, Destruction, and Doom. Word has it that the plasticized 2D visuals and mash-happy gameplay have been wisely bulldozed in favor of fully 3D graphics and a more refined combat system. Our Q-spies in the U.K. report that the game looks “rather early” yet “promising,” and tell us to expect a hasty denial from the cheeky lads at Rare.

You can read the full article at 1up.com here

So we may be finally getting our combofests on again after all these years. Then again, we can only hope that today’s questionable Rare can do justice to the series.

Great news from Joystiq.com!:

We’re not going to make jokes on this one and save the snark until the final ruling, but the judge presiding over self-proclaimed anti-games activist Jack Thompson’s Florida Bar trial has recommended the attorney be found guilty on 27 of the 31 misconduct charges – 21 from the Devin Moore case, 4 when in 2006 he tried to declare Bully a public nuisance, and 2 unrelated to video games.

Game Politics has the full story and a list of some of the charges, including “Engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” and “Making statements that the lawyer knows to be false or with reckless disregard as to the truth or falsity concerning the qualifications or integrity of a judge.” A disciplinary hearing is being held June 4. The full report to the Florida Supreme Court is due September 2.

Too bad, so sad Jacky boy!

EDIT: Updated with a link to the Game Politics article.