Eckyman.com

THIS is just idiocy!

Aside from the main fact that you cant tell much about the gameplay from the footage released so far (to judge it this early with so little shown is just laughable), buying Sonic 1 is still going to give SEGA money! The whole idea as it stands is lunacy. If you don’t like a product and you are going to threaten a boycott, the first rule is not to give the boycotted company any money.

Voting with your wallet will always be far more effective than starting some online petition (because they are always successful, just ask the L4D2 boycott group /sarcasm). It’s called Market Forces and it works folks. If you don’t like the way a product is going, the clearest message you can send is to simply not buy it.

These internet shit-storms never go anywhere and only serve to make a large portion of the fanbase look like dicks to everyone else.

Jim Sterling over at destructoid has a great article up on this exact subject, and why fans should shut up about everything.

I heartily agree with him. I can relate to his viewpoint when I think of the stink made over Capcom deciding to release Monster Hunter Tri on the Wii instead of the PS3 or Xbox360. A franchise that has only seen one console release in NA and EU, that only made it’s ground on the PSP and even then was pirated to hell and back… it made very little money, received poor reviews (although I could argue and provide solid evidence this was the fault of the reviewers not the game), and is most popular in Japan.

True fans should be glad the game is even getting a western release! The console it releases is on is irrelevant. If you are a fan of a franchise, you should be happy to see someone working on it and trying to push it forward.

If you cant afford a Wii to play the game I can understand that, but you should still be pleased the series is receiving attention. I wouldn’t  mind but half the people moaning that they don’t want to buy a Wii and it should have been made on the PS3 wouldn’t give a damn if it were PS3-bound and Wii owners had to buy a PS3. Someone will always get the shaft when it comes to exclusive releases no matter what and arguing which console owners should have got the shaft is pointless.

If you are a fan of a franchise but they do something in a way you don’t like, be happy they are at least doing something with it and understand that not everyone is going to look at it the same way as you… plus, the alternative could well be the death of that franchise forever and no ‘fan’ of anything should want that.

(SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST – Eckyman)

By now I’m sure most people have heard of this clown, iTz LUPO. If not, go catch up

*sigh*

Some kid mods his Xbox to cheat in MW2, admits it in game in front of a moderator, then proceeds to tell said moderator that he f*cked his grandma and various other insults only people under 15 think is cool. He gets banned and in the blink of an eye, changes personality to a regular guy, doing nothing wrong, who is being crushed by the mighty weight of corrupt Xbox moderators!

So, he then goes on to create a heavily edited video of his banning, taking great care to remove him admitting to cheating, and also removing the insults towards the moderator, making it look not only like he was banned for nothing, but as though the moderator was out of line…. and a bunch of idiots fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

The comments on this kids youtube channel defy logic and reason. Most posters have obviously checked their intelligence and spelling ability at the door, and instead are currently drooling on their keyboards, banging heads against monitors in outrage that someone could be banned for being an obnoxious, mouthy, little cheater.

The most common comment I have seen from his supporters regarding this.

“He paid for his Xbox, he paid for his game, he paid for Xbox live.. therefore he should be able to do what he wants with it”

Right, right… only, a lot of other people paid for their Xbox, MW2, and a Live subscription so they could play online without people glitching, cheating, and modding. See how that works?

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.. if you want to cheat on the equipment you bought, go ahead and do it offline or in a LAN game where you don’t affect the games of people who also paid and expect a fair game. It’s really not that hard kids. You wont get banned, you wont piss anyone off, and you can muck around with cheats till your little hands cant hold a controller any more.

UPDATE:

Seems iTzLuPo has admitted to lying about everything. Deleted his Twitter account, removed his modding videos from youtubte.. all references to cheating/modding have gone.

Turns out, this has come about as a result of someone posting his personal details online.

While I will never condone cheating (if you are going to do it, take it offline where it does not bother any paying Live subscribers), posting peoples personal details online is pushing it too far.

I sincerely hope nobody takes it as far as to harass the kid or his family over this. He admitted he was in the wrong, I’d imagine he’s feeling pretty worried at the moment. Time to move on guys. Internet bullying is no solution to anything.

The Church of England has weighed in again on the subject of violent videogames…. nothing new here.

However, one quote from Tom Benyon caught my eye;

A bubbling sewer of gratuitously violent and sexual pornography in DVD games are washing all around us. Byron relied on the proposition that parents have a liability or are interested in controlling what their children do. We think, sadly, that that is optimistic and a prize hope.

The Church of England does not think parents are liable or interested in controlling what their children do? So along comes The Church of England to tell them all how to do it? Really?

Enough is enough

Every console on the market right now has parental controls that will lock them down and prevent minors playing these games. If parents took the responsibility to ensure these settings were enabled, the rest of us who can play violent games and understand it is fictional can get on with our lives.

The tools are right there. Instead of throwing bullshit like this around, how about we educate people about this stuff?

I get it, it’s easier to take pot shots at the gaming industry than it is to ask people to accept personal responsibility, I’m just tired of seeing this stuff now.

When will people see reason and finally apply some logic to this situation?

via Violent Games Assailed by Church of England | GamePolitics.

Although I’m a big fan of the Last.fm service on Xbox Live, I cant help but think MS missed the target slightly with Last.fm/Facebook/Twitter integration.

Had they gone the extra mile and allowed some form of access to the services from other areas of the console, they would have been on a winner. As it is, you cannot listen to Last.fm while playing any games, only within the Last.fm area of the dash. The same goes for Twitter. Something as simple as allowing people to tweet from the guide button mid-game is sorely lacking from the service. Even some kind of pop-up notification system showing new tweets, similar to how the system deals with displaying friend logins, would have been something.

As things stand, the extra services are good, but a little extra effort and they could have been great.

Terry Cavanagh has a post up on his site Distractionware, talking about how his game VVVVVV, has been leaked on 4chan by someone who donated for beta access.

Firstly, I just want to say this is not some deep pocketed company like EA you are ripping off (not that ripping off EA is any better morally), it’s an independent developer.

Secondly, for the low donation he was asking for (to help fund the projects entry to IGF) you could have played the Beta to your hearts content and helped a small developer at the same time.

Anyone in the comments section claiming they wouldn’t have donated in ‘good faith’ for a game they have never played, you could have tried out any of his previous games to get a feel for the quality. You could have read the impressions posted about the game, or checked out a gameplay video, or looked through the screenshots available.

Your excuses are your own.

distractionware » Final Push.

Quick question to anyone who might like X-factor, Pop Idol, etc…

If Leonardo da Vinci painted the outline to the Mona Lisa on an easel, and then I coloured it in. would you think I was a good artist?

Or how about if I get a few of the worlds greatest writers together and have them knock out a masterpiece. Then I come along and read aloud from the manuscript. Would you think I was a good writer?

No?

So why is it, any idiot that can hold a tune can go on TV, sing SOMEONE ELSE’S songs, and get respect as an artist?

What happened to getting somewhere as a musician by writing YOUR OWN songs and trying to promote YOUR OWN work as opposed to queuing up outside a TV studio and waiting in line to sing SOMEONE ELSE’S SONG on TV. If you cant write your own content then you are nothing more than a hack, a blip on the radar, here today and gone tomorrow.

If we wouldn’t accept some artist colouring in a 90% finished piece of work and calling it their own, why does society accept these glory whores with open arms.

Kick them to the damn curb and make room for the REAL musicians with talent. The ones who write their own songs, and rely on their own work and promotion instead of riding on the back of Simon Cowell’s name and other peoples songs!

How to avoid the pirating of the PC version of Modern Warfare in four easy steps:

1. Increase the price
2. Remove dedicated servers
3. Cap your servers at 9v9
4. Remove ability to kick people playing music down the mic/cheaters

This is a prime example of how to screw your community in the ass with as little effort as possible. When the PC sales tank, lets see how fast IW/Activision pull out the piracy card as the reason the game failed on PC.

I’d already decided long ago to vote on this with my wallet and wait for it to pop up in the pre-owned bin for the 360. Every day my decision gets validated more and more.

I don’t get you Xbox Live players, I really don’t.

Firstly, let me say.. What you do offline with your own game is nothing to do with me as it doesn’t affect my gameplay. But when you cheat/glitch online, it affects my gameplay and I have a big problem with that.

I’ve heard a range of bullshit excuses in favour of cheating, the most popular being;

I paid for the game, I’ll do what I want with it!

..and that’s fine up to a point. But I paid for my game too, and I have the right to a fair, fun game without idiots cheating or glitching. You have the right to cheat and glitch offline, where it doesn’t affect other people that have paid money for the same game.

Offline = Good / Online = Bad

Why am I ranting about this old topic you might ask? Its been discussed to death by millions of gamers, across multiple platforms and games and the debate still rages on..

Well, last night I was playing a few rounds of Team Fortress 2, and three games go by with nothing to speak of. Until the fourth game. We were playing the attack/defend game type, with us defending, and about half way through the match I notice my entire team is floating in the air above a ledge. Meanwhile the opposition run right by and cap our last control point.

*sigh*

Correct me if I’m wrong but the idea behind glitching/cheating is to gain an advantage you would otherwise not have? So explain to me the point in throwing a match away by floating in the air while the enemy runs past to cap the control point?

Giving these idiots the benefit of the doubt, lets assume an Engineer made a teleport trap and everyone floating in the air was simply duped.. you realise you can suicide and get back in the game right? I stood watching once I realised what had happened and none of you did anything to get out of the glitch so I assume you know what you were doing. Plus I could see two members of the enemy team in the air too.

So screw the benefit of the doubt, you were all morons!

I know the industry wants us to go to digital downloads for everything, Sony are already trying to force it on customers with the new PSPGo, but I’m not convinced yet.

Firstly, I like to have a game collection. I like cases. I still have C64 games in the original cases. Digital downloads are going to require a large incentive to stop me wanting an actual physical product for my money.

Secondly, I don’t like the idea that game companies are trying to take away my right to sell a game on. Or for that matter, trying to take away the ability to try before you buy with game rentals. The way game sites and reviewers hype things up these days, I prefer to rent things I’m unsure on first and form my own opinion before throwing down £40 for a game.

Thirdly, what is going to happen to the Christmas games market with digital downloads? You cant wrap a digital download.

It seems as though digital downloads should be a great thing for gamers if you listen to the promotional bullshit. In reality it’s heavily restricting gamers choices and rights by taking away the preowned and rental markets. Lets not forget the extra cost to the consumer in bandwidth charges and monthly limits.

The only positive I can see come of it is hopefully less console failures. Take away the DVD drive and you take away a large portion of a consoles problems.

We are already seeing some companies not supporting digital downloads. Several new PSP games have been released only to UMD with no option to download them from the PSN store. Not a good start for the PSPGo or ideas of a digital download only market.

I can only hope that people see sense and oppose this move to digital downloads, if only so we can all keep our boxed games safe on our shelves.

Opening lines of Joystiq’s Brütal Legend review;

I have to start by being brutally honest with you: Brütal Legend is not the game I hoped it would be

An extract from a Joystiq post in August about Brütal Legend:

Listen, you really don’t need to try out Tim Schafer’s upcoming rock-epic-brainchild to know it’s going to be phenomenal.

Says it all really…