Tuesday, November 27, 2007
4 Year-Old Blues
11:40PM Brian Ashcraft | To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: Lounging Geez. Lots of birds! It’s like you are posting from a wildlife reserve. Amazing. Dangnabbit. Wanted to get Funde Razor goodies, but didn’t have time. Mini-Bash is still feeling kinda icky. Feel really bad for the kid. He’s had this stomach bug for like a week, can’t go outside, can’t go to school, can’t see his friends, can’t eat food he wants to. Lots of can’ts. Pretty frustrating! Today, he was visibly so. Like depressed even. I’d actually never seen him so down — he’s usually really upbeat. We played with his Pokémon toys together, which brought a smile to his face. I read Peter Rabbi to him (in English). Oh, I also let him beat me in Paper Rock Scissors — if only ’cause he’s sick. (Kid’s gotta learn to toss more than Scissors if he’s ever gonna hold his own on the schoolyard!) Hopefully, tomorrow he’ll be feeling better. What you missed last night Get second Rock Band guitar DS demo channel Kutaragi getting award Wii eBay prices are crazy More »
Greenpeace Say Nintendo Eat Dolphins, Kill Pandas For Sport
11:20PM Luke Plunkett | Greenpeace have just released their sixth “Guide to Greener Electronics”, which looks at electronics manufacturers and grades them according to how environmentally sound their manufacturing and product recycling processes (ie how they dispose of outdated technology) are. Where’s this start getting relevant to you? For the first time the report covers thew manufacturers of games consoles, so Microsoft and Nintendo have for the first time come up for inspection alongside trusty old warhorse Sony. So how’d they all do? More »
British Sales Charts
10:20PM Luke Plunkett | Deary me oh my. Something’s up in Ol’ Blighty. Almost as if someone took the real charts and messed them all up like a sick, sales-based jigsaw puzzle. Brain Training above Mario Galaxy? Need for Speed at only #10? No football games? Let’s chalk it up to pre-Christmas madness. 1) Assassin’s Creed (360) 2) Brain Training 3) Mario Galaxy 4) Mass Effect 5) More Brain Training 6) Call of Duty 4 (360) 7) Mario & Sonic At The Olympics 8) Assassin’s Creed (PS3) 9) High School Musical (PS2) 10) Need for Speed: Prostreet (PS2) [charts courtesy of GfK] [Image: Adrian Dennis/Getty] More »
BBFC Admits No Proven Link Between Games And Violence
9:30PM Luke Plunkett | The BBFC have been in the news a bit lately. Tonight, even! And for mostly the wrong reasons. This won’t help their cause. Taking their turn to speak at the appeal over Manhunt 2’s ban in the UK, Andrew Caldecott, who is representing the BBFC, said: The board’s position is that there is insufficient evidence to prove, as a fact, there is a causal connection between violent games and behavioural harm… It’s a perfectly fair point, and one which we accept, but it’s not by any means a complete answer to the question the [Video Appeals Committee] has to decide. So… the rest of their answer is made up of the personal opinion and conjecture of a small group of nutty fuddy-duddies instead? Wonderful. No evidence connecting games and violence, says BBFC [GI.biz] More »
Fix Your Busted Rock Band Guitar
8:30PM Luke Plunkett | Too many Rock Band stories for one day. Making me dizzy. Gonna go have a lie down. But before I do, one more. You all know that, perhaps in the rush to get the game out before Christmas, Rock Band’s guitar controllers aren’t exactly up to scratch. In other words, they’re breaking. All the time. And in the same place, too, with the majority of affected users complaining that their downstrum wasn’t working. Handily, there’s a DIY fix for the problem if you can’t be bothered sending your guitar back for repairs, which you can check out at the link below. Rock Band: My strummer broke… AND I FIXED IT [Quarter to Three, via Homotron] More »
THQ CFO RES(igns)
7:30PM Luke Plunkett | Bit over a month ago, THQ delayed a bunch of games. Then they said they were lowering their financial outlook for the year. Now Chief Financial Officer Edward Zinser has quit his job at the company. Co-incidence? Doesn’t look like it, but THQ say otherwise: [Zinser's resignation] is in no way related to the financial condition, results of operations or future prospects of THQ. Maybe he just got sick of the sell sell sell corporate lifestyle and moved to Alaska to live in a wooden hut, write haiku and fish all day. Who knows, they’re not releasing the reason for his departure, saying only that it was by “mutual agreement”. Vice president and controller Rasmus van der Colff will sit in Zinser’s rapidly-cooling chair until a replacement can be found. THQ CFO Resigns for Unspecified Reasons [Shacknews] More »
BRIEF
6:45PM Luke Plunkett | Today’s Amazon “Deal of the Day” is Halo 3’s Legendary Edition. Normally $US 130, if you get your hurry on you can grab it for $US 60. Many, including us, would say that constitutes a considerable saving. More »
Rockstar v BBFC Steel Cage Match Intensifies
6:30PM Luke Plunkett | Americans have already forgotten about Manhunt 2. Mostly because it’s rubbish. It’s still clawing out coverage in Britain, however, where Rockstar’s appeal against the British Board of Film & Literature Classification’s ban of the game is only just warming up. Called in for opinion yesterday was Tiga (The Independent Games Developers Trade Association) boss Fred Hasson, who argued that it was sensationalist tabloid media coverage of the game, and not its content, which saw it double-banned in the UK: [I was] surprised at how tame it is compared to some very graphical scenes I’ve seen in other games which have received certification. I expected it to be a lot worse… I can’t believe that this has been singled out as something that is worth banning. We, on the other hand, can’t believe Rockstar are still bothering with all this. Tiga boss, psychologist defend Rockstar’s position [GI.biz] More »
Be A Sneaky Bastard, Get A Second Rock Band Guitar
5:00PM Luke Plunkett | Ryan Shrout owns PC tech site PC Perspective. He is also a scoundrel. Guy’s found a way to cheat Harmonix into sending you a second official Rock Band guitar, so that loser in the corner at your Rock Band parties, who you’d only trust to play bass, can be included in the festivities. Here, straight from Ryan’s hand, is how you do it: Go to the Rock Band support page and tell them you have a broken guitar. Then, use the shipping method that requires a credit card to ship you the guitar first before returning the bad one. It tells you the card is used to “charge you if you don’t return the broken guitar within 20 days” I think. So, when you get the second one, don’t return it. Blam-o, two guitars and its not stealing, just cheating the system. Of course, no idea how much they charge yet… First in, best dressed. Mostly because there’s probably not many of the guitars in stock, but also because you can bet they’re sewing that loophole shut as you read this. Need a second Rock Band guitar? Here is one way to get it [Ars Technica] More »
