Every Wednesday I ask you to Ask Me Stuff. If you have a burning question about the games industry, leave it in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer it this afternoon.
I’ll be doing this every Wednesday from now on. (Hopefully.)
Now, fire away with those questions.
Dean Henderson
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:23 AMWhat is the logic in banning the swat characters in LFD2 due to “violence against authority figures” When I have ensured thousands of police pensions to widows are handed out in games like GTA and Saints Row?
Newguy
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:53 AMTo add to that, did Australia get the german version of the L4D2 demo? Will the Full game have slightly more gore in it(To match L4D1)?
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:33 PMI’ve asked Valve if it’s true they have released the German version of the demo in Australia. They have not yet responded. I think this theory makes a lot of sense and would explain why L4D2 is missing “features” that were in the version of L4D1 that was passed MA15+ in Australia. However, Valve has yet to confirm it.
paul
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 10:27 PMI did the change 550 to 510 thing in the steam.inf file, works fine, you get full gore and all that, only thing is, you can only game with others who have the game set that way, cmon aussies, do it and we can all enjoy the bloodyness together
oggob
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 2:41 PMI noted the German ‘rumour’ back in the comparison thread also… and with the game due out shortly, I can’t fathom the full version of the game be any different to what is in the demo.
What the demo is, is what we are going to get… and that looks to be the German version…
Ben
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:54 AMIndeed, what is the logic? Furthermore, why have they removed the corpses, and the fire animations, both of which were present in the first Left4Dead?
Ryan Keable
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:50 PMafter having played through the “non-censored” version of the L4D2 Demo I cannot see any reason why it as refused classification.
It is tamer than Resident Evil 5 to mention one amongst many gore infatuated games that have been released with classification on our shores.
It IS however a lot more detailed than L4D1.
WiseHacker
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:54 PMI think you will find that there is no logic in how the classification system works.
Seriously, I think the base judgement on a coin toss. The consistency, in theory, matches.
Wesley Pendlebury
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 4:45 PMim glad there’s a discussion and ‘ask the wise one’ section here, i was up late last night looking over the comparisons between censored and non censored lfd2 after some chat on tf2.
hopefully this is the case, as i found the gore inclusion pretty game-making or breaking.
petty, maybe, but i stand by it, and re5, and even gow2 and fallout three had many more classification-provoking moments such as decapitating headshots, chainsaw slashes and baby disemboweling.
Daniel Silva
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:33 AMJunglist. Why, oh why is he no longer there.
Wesley Pendlebury
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 4:46 PMhahaha i knew this would come up, and having just rewatched the episode, i like how they ended the show with ‘flame barriers’ raised.
i didnt like how he was a yank on abc, i just didnt get it, but that said i think the gal ‘hex’ needs time to prove herself.
K137
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:38 AMDo you reckon that the wand or natal will bring us fights like in final fantasy 7: advent children in the next FF games, or will we be waiting till we control games with just the power of our thoughts?
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:39 PMFights like in Advent Children? You mean watching something instead of playing it?
I’d say the early games for the PS3 wand and Natal will follow fairly closely the kind of games we’re going to see using the Wii MotionPlus next year. Fast-paced action games like Red Steel 2, for example, that you might play in short bursts. Perhaps a console version of Dissidia might make use of them, but I can’t see motion control featuring in a core Final Fantasy release.
M@
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:02 PMDo you think that they’ll (Nintendo) re-engineer any of the relevant games for the wiimotion plus? E.G. force unleashed?
Andrew Hobbs
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:41 AMIs there any single-player DLC planned for Brutal Legend?
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:43 PMI don’t know. It’d be nice to see. I’ve no interest in the multiplayer so I was personally a little disappointed with the recent DLC announcement.
What would they do for single-player though? Would it be enough to add a few more missions to the existing world? Creating a whole new area would be an expensive endeavour. And how would that fit into the story?
Andrew Hobbs
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:33 PMMaybe s side-quest adventure in the real world perhaps?
Neil Williams
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 8:55 PMI’d be happy with just additional missions in the current world. Brutal Legend’s world was extremely large, and a lot of real estate wasn’t used for missions at all.
Speaking of Brutal Legend DLC, did you guys get an answer back as to why 360 owners are being asked to pay for the DLC multiplayer maps, while PS3 users get it for free?
Fenil
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:41 AMI love (LOVE) Fallout 3, replaying it now with all the DLC (I have it on PS3). I also LOVE Diablo 2, and generally hate FPS’s (Fallout 3 is not an FPS to me, more of a RPG, plus I switch to third person when needed).
Keeping that in mind, should I be more interested in Borderlands or Dragon Age?
I will be playing Borderlands single-player only, is it still good enough?
Andrew Hobbs
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:15 PMBorderlands is a very good game, however it can be pretty frustrating single-player. It really shines when you have a mate or two playing with you. That in mind, Dragon Age may be your best bet.
Aidan Daglmaier
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:25 PMI disagree hobbsy, I actually find the single player to be a much better experience, it sure has hell beats doing the same mission a few times over when helping others in co-op.
That being said, co-op is still a lot of fun.
Lorrie
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:38 PMyou should be playing torchlight on the PC
Raph Byrne
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:14 PMI agree, if you really want a loot game you should probably go for Torchlight over Borderlands, it’s also on Steam right now and it’s very cheap.
If however you want a more story driven RPG go for Dragon Age
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:45 PMSounds like Dragon Age would suit you best. If you don’t like shooters then you’re going to struggle with Borderlands. It’s an RPG in the sense you get quests, find loot and your character levels up; but it’s a shooter at heart, really.
DavidR
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 11:52 AMHeard any more about 1 vs 100 coming to Xbox Live Australia?
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:35 PMI haven’t heard anything since Xbox Australia told me a few months ago they’d love to bring it here, but right now the US is in charge of where the beta test rolls out.
Mr Explody
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:09 PMDavid,
Are you going to have access to all the Sales figures for Dragon Age?
I really want to see PC vs Xbox vs PS3, but including all PC sales (inc Steam and other forms of purchase).
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:39 PMWe don’t have access to sales figures in Australia. We can only see chart positions.
In the US they release sales figures for the top 10 selling games for the month. However you’ll never get a clear picture on the PC side since neither Steam nor any other digital distribution service releases specific sales figures.
My hunch? 360, PC then PS3 in descending order.
Elephant Fresh
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:15 PMAs to the tone of Dragon Age, is the reputed “maturity and darkness” actually done in an interesting and tasteful way? or is it just overblown?
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:41 PMI would need to play more than the couple of hours I have so far. Although quite well-written, the dialogue certainly isn’t any more “mature” or “dark” than I’ve seen in countless fantasy RPGs. The much-touted blood is more comical than anything else.
Silencer
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:20 PMDoes anyone know if it’s possible to record my custom tekken 6 character, complete with costume and win/loss record onto a Memory Stick, and take it with me to a mate’s place and upload??
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:42 PMNo idea! You might want to ask this question in today’s Tekken post or Talk Amongst Yourselves.
Max Skelton
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 12:46 PMAny news on that bioshock novel tor books is doing? The last I heard it was launching with the game when the game was planned for launch this November. But when they delayed the game I heard nothing of the future on the book
David Wildgoose
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 1:45 PMNothing since the announcement a few months ago. You’d have to expect they’d delay the book too.
GregT
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 2:06 PMKnow anything about the rumoured 1 week delay (going by release dates on EB and GAME websites) of the CE of Ratchet & Clank: ACIT.
David M
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 4:41 PMI’d also like to know about this. I have my copy pre-ordered at GAME and I haven’t received any shipping advice and I would imagine they would have shipped it by now for a release on the 5th.
I can’t recall other cases of the special edition being delayed on other games, has this happened often? What could cause the delay?
It sure does suck having to wait an extra week now …
Dominic Harman
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 2:34 PMDo you think in order for something to be done in regards to classification that retail needs to be the one taking an impact?
Lets say for example that this week because of the controversy, Modern Warfare 2 was suddenly refused classification. Obviously retailers like EB would take a massive hit if this were to happen, especially due to the fact that they have already received a lot of cash from pre orders including sell outs of the special edition. I’m not sure they would be too happy giving that money back.
oggob
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 3:20 PMOn the latter part of that, about the money… the way I see it, they have taken pre-orders, all that money still belongs to the consumers, so at any point they should be able to refund that for whatever reason.
They shouldn’t be ‘banking’ on that money for their operations until the transaction is fully complete.
The other part to the equation though and the reason why I wouldn’t have too much sympathy for them. Think of all the pre-orders they have taken, alot of these have been done months ago, when it was first announced… all the $10, $20, $50 deposits they’ve taken, all that money has been generating them interest, so even if they have to refund us what we paid, they are still going to be ahead.
Dominic Harman
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 5:58 PMI’m not saying we should feel sorry for them, I’m just questioning if this is the way to get the government to notice.
If a big business is suddenly hit by the fact they have to pay back a hell of a lot of money to consumers, they’re not going to be happy.
Oh and this is just hypothetical. I’m not all all suggesting MW2 is going to be banned, it is just the best example.
James Mac
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 3:56 PMI asked the manager at my local EB if MW2 was going to be banned because of that first level.
And he was genuinly shocked… didn’t know the first thing about it.
But he said it was already being shipped out to distributers here.
oggob
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 5:25 PMstill doesn’t mean that it can’t happen, remember…
Little Big Planet was recalled from stores before release because of the offending Quran passages, yes it was from Sony themselves, but it can happen…
Manhunt was pulled from the shelves almost instantaneously after some tragic events over in the UK…
Despite it hitting the Associated Press, don’t feel we have seen the bulk of the drama it will cause and am willing to file it under “get it early, just in case” category. Once it’s released and the material is actually seen by the mass general public, then we will have calls to have it removed from shelves…
Marathon
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 5:57 PMI agree with oggob. I expect to see some mainstream media coverage of this game within a couple of weeks of its release. Those parent activist groups and Mr Atkinson will love to make some noise over this.
Get your hard copy ASAP.
Ryan
Wednesday, November 4, 2009 at 8:48 PMIs there going to be a Half Life 2: Episode 3 or is it just going to go into purgatory with the likes of Duke Nukem Forever (and ever..)