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Gaming, News Report: Medal of Honor Pulled from US Military GameStop Stores

Posted 09/02/10 at 10:46:56pm

If you've somehow managed to avoid the avalanche of controversy pouring down on Medal of Honor, here's the gist: you can play as Taliban in the game's multiplayer. Not “the insurgents.” Not “the guys who look suspiciously like Taliban but totally aren't, no really.” Nope. This time around, Medal of Honor's ripping its inspiration straight from the headlines. That, however, didn't fly with GameStop's stores in military bases.

According to a memo received by Kotaku, the decision to pull the game was made “out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform.”

“As such, GameStop agreed to have all marketing material pulled by noon today and to stop taking reservations. Customers who enter our AAFES stores and wish to reserve Medal of Honor can and should be directed to the nearest GameStop location off base,” it read.

“GameStop fully supports AAFES in this endeavor and is sensitive to the fact that in multiplayer mode one side will assume the role of Taliban fighter.”

Usually, this is where we make some kind of opinionated and – we like to think – well-informed comment. However, seeing as we haven't served, we'd like to ask the following question: Men and women in the military, what are your thoughts on this? Is it as touchy of a subject as GameStop makes it out to be? Or is this just another example of political correctness gone too far?

Gaming, News 3... 2... 1, Surprise! Valve Has “Three Big Surprises” Planned for Next 12 Months

Posted 09/02/10 at 01:37:23am

Valve's track record with “surprises” is a bit dodgy – for every one Alien Swarm, there's a Portal 2 on PS3 – but it's still hard not to get a little giddy when Valve's Gabe Newell starts throwing around the S-word.

"I can guarantee you people are going to be surprised at stuff we do. That isn't going to stop any time soon. I'm just laughing because... people will be shocked again," Valve boss Gabe Newell told PC Gamer.

"We have three pretty big surprises in the next 12 months at least."

Shocked, sure, but will we also be awed, or will we roll our eyes and let out an exasperated “awww”? Knowing Valve, we're expecting the former. We've also got our fingers crossed for the most shocking Half-Life 2: Episode 3-related surprise announcement possible: “It's coming out eventually.”

Gaming, News Final Fantasy XIV Beta Delayed Due to Harsh Reality of “Critical Bugs”

Posted 09/01/10 at 01:16:38am

We don't mean to laugh at your suffering, Final Fantasy XIV fans, but we have to admit that we find this whole situation pretty amusing. See, Square's slammed the brakes on its FFXIV open beta test, which was scheduled to begin on August 31.

“FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be released at a later date,” the developer wrote on FFXIV's official site.

So then, why are we conjuring up our hardest Gigglaga at your expense? Well, here's the thing: aren't beta tests all about sniffing out and squashing the daylights out of “critical bugs”? If we were to yank the phony costume mustache off this “beta test” guy, we're pretty sure we'd find our old buddy “glorified free promotional demo” underneath -- as we have with countless other recent "open betas." Can we just start calling these things by their real names already? 

Gaming, News Valve: There Won't be a Half-Life Movie Unless We're Making It

Posted 08/31/10 at 12:14:59am

These days, it seems like every videogame and its Atari 2600 grandmother is getting a movie tie-in. But hey, games are awesome and so are movies, so where's the problem? Well, see, as it turns out, game movies are not awesome. Not in the slightest. So, is it Game Over for gaming's star on the Hollywood walk of fame? Not necessarily, says Valve's Gabe Newell. We just need to change up our approach, is all.

“Where we got into this direction was after Half-Life 1 had shipped. There was a whole bunch of meetings with people from Hollywood. Directors down there wanted to make a Half-Life movie and stuff, so they’d bring in a writer or some talent agency would bring in writers, and they would pitch us on their story. And their stories were just so bad. I mean, brutally, the worst. Not understanding what made the game a good game, or what made the property an interesting thing for people to be a fan of,” he explained to PC Gamer.

“That’s when we started saying ‘Wow, the best thing we could ever do is to just not do this as a movie, or we’d have to make it ourselves.’ And I was like, ‘Make it ourselves? Well that’s impossible.’ But the Team Fortress 2 thing, the Meet The Team shorts, is us trying to explore that.”

And so, on this day, our dream of Jason Statham playing an illogically acrobatic, crowbar-kung-fu master Gordon Freeman – while wearing a phony beard, of course – died a quick death. We're not sure whether to be happy or incredibly depressed about that, honestly.  

Gaming, News Microsoft Raises Price of Xbox Live Subscriptions and Ire of Gamers Everywhere

Posted 08/30/10 at 11:38:32pm

Hi there, valued Xbox Live Gold customer! Are there any sharp objects nearby? How about firearms? We're just the messenger, after all, and would rather not be shot for this one. So, are you calm? Have you followed the late, great Bruce Lee's teachings and become as water? Ok then, here it goes:

Beginning November 1, Xbox Live Gold will cost $60 per year. That's a ten dollar price hike, for those of you who don't read your credit statements. One month and three month subscriptions have also been increased accordingly. 

So, why's Microsoft randomly kidnapping yet another one of your precious Alexander Hamiltons – especially after eight years of the same price point and Sony's constant “neener-neener" proclamations of free online multiplayer? Well, the long and short of it is that you're now getting a whole lot more stuff.

“As an Xbox LIVE Gold member, you can not only play blockbuster games, such as Halo: Reach with your friends online, you can also stream movies from Netflix and music from Last.fm right to your TV. You can even connect with friends near and far on Facebook and Twitter. Plus, you also enjoy exclusive discounts and early access to game demos,” said Microsoft, while also citing the upcoming additions of Hulu Plus, Video Kinect, and ESPN this holiday season.

Granted, some of those services require you to fork over additional subscription fees, but there's no doubting that Xbox Live Gold's a pretty slick service. The question, however, remains: is it pocket-change-worthy fool's gold, or is it the genuine, worth-$60 article? Also, what about people who bought their game consoles for, you know, games – and couldn't care less about Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, ESPN and the like? What's in it for them, if anything at all?

Tough questions, huh? So we'll let you do the heavy lifting on this one: Do you think Microsoft's decision to rip another rib out of your piggy bank is a fair one? Will you continue subscribing to Xbox Live Gold?

Gaming, News Runic: Torchlight 3 Will Be Out Before Diablo 3

Posted 08/26/10 at 04:32:18pm

Runic, you speed demons, you! You've already beaten the devil himself to the punch twice, and now – against all odds – you're looking to add even more insult to injury. Speaking with Joystiq, Runic Games CEO Max Schaefer said that he fully expects Torchlight 3 -- not 2, which is slated for a Spring 2011 release -- to hit virtual shelves before Diablo 3 finally escapes from development hell.

"I really think we will, I'm not joking about it. I'll be the first to buy Diablo 3, I'm a huge fan. I just know what it's like over there," Schaefer said when asked if he thinks his third hack 'n' slash RPG will outpace Blizzard's. 

"[Blizzard has] an impossible task. Blizzard can not get away with doing a Torchlight 1. If they put out a single player game, an RPG that's kinda stripped down for $20, people would say, 'What the hell happened to Blizzard?' They don't have that luxury. Everything has to be super epic. More epic than anything that's come before, more epic than World of Warcraft. They have to do that. It puts them in a really tough spot, I don't envy them. It has to be perfect." 

Torchlight, meanwhile, is being developed by a smaller team that – according to Schaefer – will never grow beyond 40 people, with the goal of development cycles that last less than one year.

Honestly, though, we're just happy that both games exist. Diablo's big, bombastic, and epic, and Torchlight keeps us from forfeiting our miniscule sum of sanity while waiting for Diablo 3. It's Yin and Yang. Diablo brings the noise, Torchlight brings the funk. The balance of the world, it seems, revolves around two games about clicking everything that moves and playing medieval dress-up. Without one or the other, we would all surely be destroyed.

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Thanks on
Gaming Roundup 6/25/08 Diablo III Confirmed -- No, for Real This Time, Microsoft's Glowing Comments About PC Gaming

Posted 06/25/2008 - 8:24pm

Thanks for the compliments, everyone. If ever you think something's missing from the Round-up, just let me know. In the meantime, I'm really glad you're enjoying it.

Apparently, it was actually on
Gaming Roundup 6/30/08: Treyarch Attacks Gearbox, Blizzard Doesn't Much Care for Consoles

Posted 06/30/2008 - 6:28pm

Apparently, it was actually an Activision spokesperson who said it -- not someone from Treyarch. I'll be covering that tomorrow. Still though, it's a pretty stupid comment to make. This isn't professional wrestling.

Haha, I was thinking the on
Gaming Roundup 6/30/08: Treyarch Attacks Gearbox, Blizzard Doesn't Much Care for Consoles

Posted 06/30/2008 - 7:08pm

Haha, I was thinking the exact same thing earlier today. Also, they're just about the only company that's still running full steam ahead on PC exclusives.

 With the "good games only" thing, though, Blizzard's trend sort of feeds itself. Can you think of any other company that waited nearly a decade to re-deploy one of its three pillars? Blizzard can afford it. But hey, quality over quantity works for me. The real question is, can anyone successfully imitate Blizzard's business model?  

What I meant was that on
Gaming Roundup 7/1/08: Fallout 3 vs. Diablo III, PC vs. Console, Vs. vs. Versus

Posted 07/01/2008 - 6:02pm

What I meant was that Godfather and Sopranos are superior to GTA IV in terms of plot. It's not an insult; it simply saying that GTA IV isn't Holywood caliber. Also, I altered the article to make that point a little more obvious.

Yeah, look at Blizzard's on
Gaming Roundup 7/1/08: Fallout 3 vs. Diablo III, PC vs. Console, Vs. vs. Versus

Posted 07/01/2008 - 6:53pm

Yeah, look at Blizzard's showing. Are they rigging the charts too?

I like that, as part of on
Gaming Roundup 7/2/08: All PC, Most of the Time

Posted 07/02/2008 - 7:14pm

I like that, as part of their five year anniversary, they're at least giving back to the community -- you know, for money.

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