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Monthly Archives: June 2009
A severe issue with Australia’s proposed mandatory filtering system
If you haven’t already read about it, you’ll find that there are far more dire problems with the proposal than just the blocking of online games/games-sales or the possibility of blocking Second Life.
Now if that doesn’t get you thinking about hustling over to talk to your local MP or Senator, I’m not sure quite what will.
How to: Five tips for cheaper digital downloads
Odds are you don’t have a ton of cash to throw around. I know that I don’t. So, let’s talk about stretching your Windows gaming dollar a bit further.
There’s actually quite a number of ways, but let’s look at a simple set of tips for cheaper digital downloads.
Could Australia be barred from Second Life access?
Darn straight they could. Second Life could be on the hitlist, the more so because of the Zindra continent for adult content.
While Second Life clearly isn’t a game, I doubt that anyone involved in the process really cares about that trivial little detail. We’re all pretty sure this isn’t really about games anyway, right? After all, the current list also censors religion, political opinion, veterinarians, and school lunches.
ZeniMax buys ID Software
That puts Bethesda (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout 3, et al) under the same banner as ID Software (Doom, Quake, all of that), plus the PR bonus of having John Carmack on the mantlepiece.
Definitely a feather in the cap for Zenimax, who now have a stable of some of the strongest brands and two of the top games development studios.
[http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/24/bethesda-parent-company-buys-id-software/]
Play It Now – Grow v3
I adore the Eyemaze ‘Grow’ series of games. They’re cute, gorgeously made, surreal and fun to fiddle with.
Mostly they involve adding a number of things in the order of your choosing and seeing what happens. There are usually one or more optimal solutions, but you shouldn’t let that stop you from just enjoying yourself and seeing what happens.
They’re Flash-based and not too heavy. You can enjoy them right now in your browser. Grow v3 has just been released.
Play them now. All of them!
Louisiana Bill SB152 sinks into the swamp
SB152 was a bill that essentially started out as a zombie-like revivification of Florida ex-attorney Jack Thompson’s bill in Utah that was whacked by the Utah governor, ostensibly on constitutional grounds. Life hasn’t been much better to SB152.
Play It Now – The Path
Six girls from nine to nineteen. One forest. One errand.
A dual mandate.
Go to grandmother’s house. Stay on the path.
It’s about growing up. It’s about horror. It’s about obedience and disobedience. It’s about the wolf, who rarely goes on four legs.
It’s about terrible things.
More B-title games, please!
Ben Feder, CEO of Take 2 Interactive is urging games publishers to ditch B-title games and just stick with a smaller selection of A-grade games.
And that might be all well and good if it weren’t for a few simple truths, the first and foremost of which is that games publishers don’t seem to have a good handle on funding games that do not suck.
You can keep your E3
It’s E3 time again. What I generally consider to be the worst time of the year for gaming and gamers, edging out the November/December release season (which will be discussed another time) for the real lowlight.
Picture this. What if every upcoming television series and movie were announced at and had trailers at a single weeklong event full of underdressed women, breathless producers, crowds of journalists taking shaky-cam footage, speeches about how awesome the show was going to be, and so on? Of course, by the time the show actually airs, the cast may have changed a little, they’ve got a new director, a new writer, and the drama-thriller is now an action-adventure.
E3’s like that. For games.