Kotaku Australia

Let's Take Another Look At Aussie Left 4 Dead 2 Edits

But as only you would really know that you uncensored your version you are still sending a message with your cash to the retailers and the government (through taxes) saying “I WILL buy a censored product, no need to change the law”

Tell Us Dammit

Don’t feel bad about WoW it’s a crappy game, it just has mass appeal it’s like the Wii sports of PC gaming, only people play it more than once a month.

My gaming shame, where to start? Half-life (the wrost part is i played it for 5 minutes then quit) Half life 2 etc. L4FD, team fortress, any COD game, any total war game, the original fallouts, Metal Gear solid, final fantasy, God of War, every fighting game except DoA3, thief, psychonaughts any racing franchise besides project Gotham. And untill recently Bioshock, which I still don’t find that interesting. Also I suspect it would tarnish my credibility if people knew that I had played and finished the game “keepsake” seriously, play it and revel in the awful voice-acting.

A Letter From Michael Atkinson

Actually he has been naming games for ages, “Blitz: the league” and “Narc” seem to be his favorites. In fact most of his letter to me was naming games and all the horrible stuff they had in them, it was actually a little scary.

A Letter From Michael Atkinson

I made a forum post at australian gamer when L4D2was still under review by the classification review board, in it I stated a plan for boycotting the game (from australian retailers) if we ended getting the censored version, I stated that we ought to take down the numbers of people participating in the boycott to asses the actual economic impact and then present this in the media and also to the government. I also included a poll asking people whether they would be willing to play a censored version of L4D2. Surprisingly everyone was pretty much against my idea they said that it would be unfair to punish retailers and that they would buy the censored version anyway.

I thought that it wouldn’t be punishing retailers anymore than normal as it was simply formalizing a boycott I assumed many people would make anyway due to the censoring of the game. Also it is really the fault of the classification system not us for any lost profits as they are forcing retailers to sell an inferior product, and retailers really should be forced to stand up for themselves on this issue.

However when the details of the censored version were released on this site, the comments were in very stark contrast to those in my thread, people seemed most adamant that they would not be purchasing a censored version. So perhaps there is still some hope for my plan, anyone wanting to help me bring to fruition my plan of boycotting censored games and forcing retailers to pressure the government and also being able to collect some solid economic evidence to contribute to our arguments please send me an email at: “ayrton.coll@gmail.com”.

A Letter From Michael Atkinson

He contradicts himself in saying it is up to parents to to ensure a game is appropriate for minors but then by quoting the Bond university study he seems to indicate a lack of faith in parents being able to do this very thing. In addition he explains that once games are in the home they cannot be policed at all, which further contradicts his latter statement about parents. Also he get’s frustratingly close to mentioning DVD’s in the context of this argument which would totally destroy itself if he actually recognized that there is virtually no difference in preventing access to DVD’s to than in preventing access videogames within the home. His statements imply a view that videogames are to children like a jar of candy on a shelf whereas DVD’s hold as much interest as book. Given the difficulty of many adult themed videogames I would think it is even harder for a child to access inappropriate content in them then to simply play a DVD and fast forward to the interesting sections.

Also his comments about games not necessarily holding to more interest to adults because of certain content and that calling them art because of certain content is immature are debatable, after all imagine if the art in galleries and theaters was only allowed to contain content below an MA15 classification. Indeed increasingly these days we are seeing art in galleries that is an audio-visual interactive experience, when does this cross the line into becoming a computer game that has to be classified Ma15+ or are these things exempt from classification as virtual training programs are?

Lastly his contestant references to violent or “cruel sex” are starting to become irritating, if you look at the guidelines for classification, it clearly states that even in regards to content classified with an adult rating sexual violence and promoting drug use are still prohibited. I thin we really ought to be calling Micheal Atkinson to account for either his absolute ignorance or complete misrepresentation of the classification guidelines, although I think to some extent he believes that gamers are trying to get some “anything goes” adult rating becuase they are simply sick and twisted. Either that or he is trying to represent us in this way, however the fact that this is a single correspondence rather than a media release indicates the first theory is true.

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

Finished my exams so it’s all Lotro: MoM for me, great game.

Tell Us Dammit

I did not purchase it but if I had, it would have been on PC. Long live PC.

Everything Old Is New Again At EB

I walk into EB games after browsing games on eBay and steam, I lol then I walk out. The only time I got anything of value is when I brought Deus Ex for $5 but that is a seriously old game. Generally they’re pretty tight when it comes to lowering the price games that are getting stale.At least this is from a PC perspective where games are generally cheaper, except at EB where they really don’t seem to care about PC.

Facebook, Twitter, Movies On Demand Hit Aussie Xbox 360s Nov. 17

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our American members,”

fixed.

Bioware: What We've Learned From Bethesda, And What Makes Us Unique

I played the xbox 360 version first and then the PC version and whilst the PC one had improved the inventory system, I didn’t really have a problem with the xbox one, except for having to switch between lockers to equip my whole squad. If you want an atrocious inventory system try Two Worlds. I do like the fallout 3 system as it has stood up to my insane hoarding.

Tell Us Dammit

Hitman: Blood Money, after going a steady improvement in quality throughout the series they finally hit a gold. It got the balance right in being an accurate and somewhat realistic assassin sim, a heart pounding stealth game and tone that was dark yet fun. The storyline was also fantastic, the best ending level I have played in ages, the level pacing was also great steadily increasing in difficulty and maintaining variety. The between level stuff (ratings, upgrades, news etc.) was use full and added some extra incentive to replay the game. I only hope with Hitman 5 that they can build on their success.

Monday Musings: War Games

Paddling the school canoe, you better believe that’s a paddling!