Oh boy. Not often we get to write celebrity goss, so you’ll excuse me if I get a little giddy at the prospect. According to *ahem* Star Magazine, Angelina Jolie thought it’d be a good idea to send Brad’s sister’s kids a game for Christmas. So she sent them bad-guy-shooting and lady-bits-punching sim Ghost Squad! Not a good idea. [Brad's sister]Julie was shocked when Angie sent her children the commando-style video game Ghost Squad. According to a family insider, Julie and her husband Rob sent it back with a note that read, “We don’t promote violence in our home.”
Master Chief’s the star of Halo. The game, that is. So he’d also be the star of Halo, the movie, should one ever get off the ground, right? Nope. Too hard! It’s waaaay too hard to try and tell a story through a giant man in armour whose face you can’t see so, as Bungie writer Joe Staten tells N’Gai Croal, they weren’t even going to bother. Instead, Master Chief would have been relegated to the ranks of the supporting cast, while humans whose emotions you could see “carried” the film: …over time I think everybody around the table agreed that the Master Chief is best left as the most important supporting cast member. Where the Master Chief doesn’t have a face, but he has a whole body to emote with, whether it’s his spine, or his shoulders. or the tilt of his head, or the way he slumps or reloads his weapon. There are these kinesthetic responses that he’ll have which will really easily communicate the character and what he’s feeling. That’s hard to carry as a main character for an entire film. But you can certainly surround him with people who don’t have helmets on and you can see their faces. They’re normal actors doing their thing.
Hey, so long as one of those people is Ron Perlman, that’s not the worst idea we’ve ever heard. And The Winner For Best Supporting Actor Is…As Master Chief? [Level Up]
Xbox Live Status Watch: Day 26 Looks like Live has gotten its act together, climbed back on the wagon. No probs here in Japan to speak of. Downloads and whatnot seem smooth and steady. Appears as though Live has gotten over it’s jitters. Same in your neck of the woods? If not, let us know.
A commercial for Stranglehold has been banned in the UK following viewer complaints over its content. Why? Seems the voice-over suggests that it’s “honourable to seek revenge and that violence was an acceptable solution to a situation”. It also, according to the country’s Advertising Standards Authority, violates British advertising rules that cover violence and cruelty, as well as health and safety. An ASA spokesman: We considered the ad was likely to be seen as encouraging and condoning violence. Because the issues raised by the ad could not be addressed with a timing restriction, we considered the only solution was to withdraw the ad from transmission completely.
And…this couldn’t have been sorted out before it was cleared to go to air? Watchdog puts stranglehold on ad for violent computer game [The Guardian, via Evil Avatar]
The last Monster Hunter PSP portable pack was so successful that Capcom decided, heck, let’s do it again! On March 27th, the ¥25,800 ($US 243) bundle goes on sale. It includes a strap, pouch, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G software and a MH PSP. Looks pretty nice, we guess, and it should sell truck loads in Japan. The front isn’t so exciting, however. That’s okay. Anwyay, take a look for yourself after the jump.
Hey, it’s Johnny Lee! You all remember Johnny Lee, right? Dude’s like Beethoven with a Wii Remote in his hands. Anyways, in an interview with Game Informer, Johnny talks about all kinds of interesting stuff, including the fact he’s less a raving Nintendo fanboy than many of you would like to imagine: I do play video games and I like video games, but I was much more excited about the capabilities of the controller than I was the Wii game console itself. It’s amazingly impressive that Nintendo just allowed the ability to connect it to a computer over Bluetooth, which I think has been great for both the hobby community as well as the research community.
If you like Johnny’s vids, you owe it to yourself to read Johnny’s words. Expanding Horizon’s: Johnny Lee Sees The Wii’s Potential [Game Informer][Image]
Crime starts small, but only gets bigger. Take K-mart employee Nathaniel A. Gustafson from Sheboygan, Wisonsin. He started stealing sodas from the retailer, but moved up to electronics by December. Here’s how he did it: Gustafson stuffed 30 DVDs, two Xbox 360 controllers and ten video games in a Crock-Pot box that he purchased days later. Clever! After that, he crammed a camcorder, ten video games and ten movies in a toaster oven box. Likewise, he purchased it a few days later. Next, he fit an Xbox 360 hard drive, two Xbox 360 HD DVD players and PS3s in boxes for a microwave and a toaster oven. Genius set off the alarm as he left the store and now faces up to three years in prison for stealing $US 7,218 worth of merchandise. They should add an extra year to his sentence for the two HD DVD players. That’s just dumb! K-mart Employee Charged [The Sheboygan Press via Gay Gamer]
Keep. The custom action figures. Coming. This one’s the latest from master craftsman Jin Saotome (who we’ve featured twice before), and finally gives the world a Gordon Freeman action figure. Purists may baulk at the cartoonish, chunky style the good doctor’s been portrayed in, but so long as you think of this as a figure from Genndy Tartakovsky’s non-existant Half-Life animated series, you’ll be OK.
Jin Saotome [thanks Fishballs!]
By now, we should be smart. See good looking screenshots, be suspicious. Dubbed “bullshots,” these doctored images show gamers what the title should look like. The end result might be a different story altogether. GamePro.com has a nice piece up on this game industry practice, which could be considered false advertising. Freelance game writer Troy Goodfellow sums up bullshots best:
Doctoring game images is different from airbrushing a supermodel, lacquering a Thanksgiving turkey, or falsifying a four-inch tall Big Mac. With video games, the screenshot or video is part of what you are buying. When you see a photoshopped model, you aren’t in the market for a model. And the proof of a burger is in its taste.
Appearances are so important in gaming. So important that developers and publishers are willing to deceive consumers. But, do people still buy games based on screenshots? Bullshot [GamePro.com][Pic]
Our 2007 Game Of The Year awards weren’t a factual representation of my game of the year. See, living in a PAL nation, I didn’t get Okami until early 2007. And had I been able to vote for it, Mario Galaxy and Uncharted may as well have packed their bags and gone home. Many of you will share similar sentiments. Which is why seeing Okami producer Atsushi Inaba teasing us with how much he’d like to do a reworked version of the game hurts. Like nails being driven into the spine. When asked which Clover games he’d like to go back and work on again, he answers: In a purely creative sense, it would be Viewtiful Joe. I’d like to really wring all of the inherent potential out of the concept. Another idea would be to redo Okami, like the recent DS Zelda. There are ideas we weren’t able to include in both games which are still in our minds.
This is probably the cruellest sentence of 2008 so far. Fuck you, Inaba. Seeds of Change [Next-Gen]
