That was the line as delivered by Electronic Arts in defense of its upcoming addition to the Medal of Honor franchise. Perhaps I reside in some Bizzaro-type universe as I cannot help but not see the problem here. Apparently, others reside here with me.
EA has taken a hard stance against the negative press it has been receiving from media outlets such as FOX NEWS, who had on Gold Star Moms’ Karen Meredith, who stated, “We’ve just come off of the worst month of casualties in the whole war,” she said. “And this game is going to be released in October. So families who are going to be burying their children are going to be seeing this and playing this game. I just don’t see that a video game based on a current war makes any sense at all. It’s disrespectful.”
Even politicians such as UK Defense Secretary Liam Fox, who, calling the game “Disgusting”, have joined in, asking both retailers and consumers to boycott the game – a request which seems to have fallen on deaf ears, while simultaneously pushing for an effective ban:
It’s shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban.
I am disgusted and angry. It’s hard to believe any citizen of our country would wish to buy such a thoroughly un-British game.
I would urge retailers to show their support for our armed forces and ban this tasteless product.
It should be noted that UK soldiers do not appear in the game, though they have served in Iraq. Only U.S. forces appear in this title.
Of course, this is not the first time a video game has been targeted due to the way it portrays the present conflict. Developer Atomic Games’ Six Days in Fallujah, a title based around the real-world experiences of Marines serving in Iraq, was left without a publisher after Konami backed out due to receiving large amounts of negative press. Of course, the difference here being that Atomic Games’ President Peter Tamte made the mistake of saying they used the input of insurgents in development.
Not to long ago, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was also targeted as a result of an (optional) scene where the player, portraying an undercover agent operating within a terrorist cell in Russia, walks through an airport terminal as the terrorist fire upon travelers, employees, and officers. In this situation, even if the player chooses to play the scene, they do not have to fire their weapon at civilians to successfully complete the mission. They do, however, have to fire at FSB troops. The scene was flagged heavily with negative media. Despite this, it continues to sell heavily, even recently earning the title of the Best Selling Game Ever in the UK.
Responding to the negative press directed at Medal of Honor, Electronic Arts’ Amanda Taggart initially released a statement saying, “We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven. If someone’s the cop, someone’s got to be the robber, someone’s got to be the pirate, somebody’s got to be the alien. In Medal Of Honor multiplayer, someone has to be the Taliban.” Strangely enough, this is nothing different than Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, in which, on multiplayer, persons can play as members of the
OpFor, who happen to be terrorist. However, I can recall nor find any controversy relating to this. I’m reminded of a statement by Christopher Mintz-Plasse of the film
Kick-Ass, “People are so angry at Chloe [Grace Moretz] for saying bad language but she murders a ton of people and no one seems to be offended by that.” It seems like
cherry picking to me.
EA Games’ President Frank Gibeau later told Develop.
“We respect the media’s views, but at the same time [these reports] don’t compromise our creative vision and what we want to do. The development teams care very much about what they’re building, and of course a bit of criticism from the media causes some to get demoralized, but at the end of the day we’re proud of what we’re doing. Bringing Medal of Honor back was no small feat.
At EA we passionately believe games are an art form, and I don’t know why films and books set in Afghanistan don’t get flack, yet [games] do,” he explained. “Whether it’s Red Badge Of Courage or The Hurt Locker, the media of its time can be a platform for the people who wish to tell their stories. Games are becoming that platform.
Games have been set in Afghanistan before. We anticipated this when we decided on the concept of the game—this is about being a special forces solider. What’s really important for us is that we partnered with the US military, and the Medal of Honor Society as well. We’ve gone out of our way to produce the best story for the game.”
Medal of Honor releases October 12th, 2010 for the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
VALVe just passed along these brand new screenshots to us of Portal 2 displayed at Gamescom, a European trade show presently occurring in Cologne, Germany. So here they are, posted below, along with some E3 photos, for your enjoyment.
According to a recent post by Ars Technica, VALVe, who recently brought it’s popular Steam client to the Mac OSX platform, has no plans to bring it to the Linux platform. When the Mac OSX client was released, rumors, based on evidence discovered while closely examining the Mac OSX port, began to circulate that VALVe was working on a Linux port of the client that would be coming soon. However, in a recent interview, Doug Lombardi – who is the VP of Marketing at VALVe, creators of the Steam platform, dispelled these rumors by confirming that VALVe is not actively working on bringing Steam to Linux.
Need For Speed: World is one of the newest entries to the Need For Speed franchise from Electronic Arts. It is an Massively-Multiplayer Online Racing game, exclusive to the PC, and the spiritual successor to Motor City Online. Unfortunately, this game is in desperate need of serious improvement or it may go the way of Motor City Online.
The game is advertised as free-to-play, however, to really get any of the true benefits of the title, gamers will have to pay $20 for the starter pack to advance beyond level 10. Truthfully speaking, the limitations imposed upon players who choose not to pay are severe, much to the point that you might as well pay or not play at all. But is the game worth the $20 to be able to reach the extra 40 levels, garner new vehicles, and earn access to new locations? From the impression gathered, unfortunately not much incentive to do so is offered at this point.
Need For Speed World was made by combining elements of Rockport (Need For Speed: Most Wanted) and Palmont City (Need For Speed: Carbon), and inserting them into one game. Through this, you have access to a vast area to explore and as you do so, you will encounter many other drivers, police, and the notorious Need For Speed taxi. You can chat with players in a chatbox located in the bottom left hand corner of your screen which is almost-always present (except when in your safe house), compare vehicles and statistics with other drivers, invite them to races or group sessions, join in races, or collide with a police cruiser to engage in a chase. Outside of that, the game does not offer much more. This results in a rather lackluster Massively-Multiplayer Online experience.
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PRESS RELEASE
Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts are looking for video game enthusiasts of all ages and fans of the Star Wars®: The Clone WarsTM animated television series on Cartoon Network to be the first to get hands-on in the open BETA testing that begins today for Star Wars®: Clone Wars AdventuresTM. Get a sneak peak of the highly anticipated free-to-play online virtual world and provide feedback to help put the finishing touches on the final game scheduled to be released later this year on September 15th.
The ultimate virtual destination for a new generation of Star Wars fans, Clone Wars Adventures is an action-packed virtual world where players can go online to experience fun minigames, daily activities, events, rewards, lively social environments and competition. Clone Wars Adventures lets players duel iconic adversaries with their own custom Lightsaber, speed through the galaxy in a custom Starfighter, defeat enemies and take down starships.
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NEW YORK, Dec 02, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Rockstar Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc., announced today that Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC is now available for purchase at retail outlets nationwide and for digital download on Steam.
“We are very proud to be releasing Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. “We have taken our time to ensure this version of the game is not just a quick port, but a perfectly tailored experience for the PC. We hope the PC gaming community appreciates all of the innovative features in the game. Grand Theft Auto began on the PC and we have tried very hard to ensure this version was worthy of that heritage.”
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VALVe has slashed the cost for Half-Life down to less than a dollar. For the low low price of $0.98, users can now buy the original Half-Life for Steam. Half-Life, built on the GoldSrc engine and released in 1998, is VALVe’s award winning title featuring protagonist Gordon Freeman. From it came many mods including the time tested Counter-Strike. And trust me when I say it’s well worth the 98 cents.
[ Joystiq ]
Reportedly, the New Xbox Experience, features more than what was desired. Reports have been popping up of users having their Xbox 360′s suffer freezing, red rings of death, and system errors after installing the new GUI. Apparently, Penny Arcade was not immune to this as well, having their Xbox 360 rendered useless upon attempting to view a friend’s list:
So I grabbed the new Xbox dashboard last night. My least favorite new feature is the one were it locks up my box when I try and look at my friends list. Then I have to restart and it freezes again. Then I do that about seven more times before I throw my controller and play WOW. I liked how in the old Dashboard I could use it without it breaking my Xbox. Maybe that’s just me.
Rockstar Games has announced that the first of two pieces of Downloadable Content for GTAIV, which will be exclusive to the Microsoft Xbox 360, is – barring any delays – set to launch on February 17, 2009 worldwide via Xbox Live.
According to GameSpot (via USA Today), this will be no small DLC. Instead, this will introduce a brand new protagonist named Johnny Klebitz, a member of the biker gang known as “The Lost”. It will also leave behind the clone of Manhattan and move onto a clone of New Jersey, effectively introducing a brand new game. Reportedly, Niko Bellic will also make an appearance.
“Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background. I can’t go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City,” Rockstar Games Vice President of Creative Development Dan Houser told USA Today.
Players will also be treated to new vehicles, weaponry, multiplayer modes, and an entirely new soundtrack. These new additions, however, have not yet been detailed.
On the heels of the NXE launch, Bungie, developers of Halo 3 is warning users against performing a full install of Halo 3 to their Hard Drives. According to Bungie, Performing a Full Install of Halo 3 will actually increase load times, resulting in the exact opposite of the desired effect.
On the Bungie official website, Bungie Chief Caching Officer Mat Noguch posted a detailed explanation as to why it would not decrease load times:
The Xbox 360 HDD has a section for games to use called the utility partition. Games can use this section for whatever they want to; Halo 3 uses the utility partition to cache maps as they will load faster off the HDD than off the DVD. As a side note, the utility partition can be deleted when other games are played. This is why maps can take longer to load when you play another game in between various Halo 3 sessions. (As was the case with Halo 1 and Halo 2.)
So when Halo 3 runs, if a HDD is present, we copy maps from the DVD to the utility partition (on the HDD). Think of it as an on demand install of Halo 3 to some scratch space on the HDD. Halo 3 doesn’t actually know where it’s running from, so it always assumes it’s running from a DVD. This is an unfortunate consequence of new features (namely, install to HDD) being added to the Xbox 360 after Halo 3 shipped. And as a result, it means that even if Halo 3 is already installed to the HDD, it will still copy maps to the utility partition.
