Here is the clip of Jack Thompson on Fox News this morning, explaining how the Northern Illinois University shooting was the result of violent video games. My favorite bit is right at the beginning.

"Jack, welcome on this tragic day." "Yeah, I wish I weren't here." "You know? Us too."

We wish you weren't there either Jackie boy, but there you are anyway, immediately hijacking the interview for your own purposes. The interviewer starts by asking what the shooter's age (27) tells us about him, seeing as he is more of an adult than the usual late teens that perform these sorts of crime. Jack's answer? "If you get started playing - for example - violent video games you can uh...you are more likely to copycat the behaviors in the games."

It's like he doesn't even hear the question the guy is asking. The question merely served to pull the string on JT's back to ready the anti-gaming rhetoric. It's classic Thompson every step of the way. "You can rehearse these type of massacres on simulators which are called video games and you can...therefor made more proficient in doing this." He explains that "Counter-Strike Half-Life" was that Cho, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech Massacre trained on in High School, suggesting that the behavoir of the NIU shooter had the same sort of training. He also cites the shooter's attire...all black...was also similiar to what the hero in Counter-Strike wears. He certainly couldn't have gotten the idea to wear all black from anywhere else, could he? What kind of bad guy wears all black, other than a good 50% of them throughout the history of fiction?

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In the latest "Iwata Asks" on Nintendo's website, the company boss is still talking Wii Fit, specifically how the dev team came up with the concept of the balance (balance, not fitness) controller. At first, it was only going to register your left-and-right movement. Not good enough. So the team expanded it, crafting one able to detect movement in eight directions. Better. Now all that needed work was the design, because the initial prototype looked rubbish. So, living in constant fear of having their tea table upturned by a furious Miyamoto, the team obliged, ending up with the squat, square-ish shape the board is today. Captivating reading for Nintendo fanboys and industrial designers alike.

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PS3 Will Triumph in 2011
Comment by: chimp_o_death
Nominated by: Toasticus

Well, by 2011 the 360 will have been out for six years, which is the same as the six year period between PS2 and PS3 launches. That means that it's realistic to imagine a new Xbox in or around 2011 without accusations of rushing to market with a new box. That may monkeywrench some of Sony's plans, not to mention whatever Nintendo has up their sleeves.

And anyways, excluding the fanboy peanut gallery, isn't this whole console domination and supremacy argument more of a Sony thing? I mean, the position of Xbox seems to be one of finally starting to convince people that there's a viable alternative to a Sony or Nintendo platform, and that strategy has only recently begun to take hold. The Sony camp, meanwhile, has had the E3 2005 pre-renders, the "Next gen doesn't start until we say it does" mindset,the idea that Sony IS gaming, etc. which creates this scorched earth policy among it's supporters. And that's a hard act to follow. Other console owners were being told their machines were obsolete before the PS3's launch, and then they were told that sales of all other consoles would pretty much dry up once the PS3 launched. Once neither of these things proved to be true, it created the impression of failure around the launch. And then there's the endless chorus of "just wait until X game is released", and although some of these titles were fantastic (like Uncharted), there was still no smoking gun or death blow against other consoles.

I really think that the landscape has changed and created a more competitive environment. The fact that Sony won't pull ahead until close to the next generation should be proof of that. And remember that with this generation of hardware launches, Sony was negotiating from a position of strength since they dominated the PS2 era. Both of the other manufactures have erased much of Sony's clout, at least at this point in time.

This isn't a slam against the PS3 as an entertainment device, because not only does it have great games out now and coming soon, but it's also the multimedia center to beat this gen. And it has a great line up of games this year. But the landscape is very fluid. A Gears of War 2 announcement for these year could sell a lot of consoles come Christmas.

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Quake II on a DS? Eh, it's OK. I guess. It'd be better on an oscilloscope. Tetris sure is. Best part is that, because you can't exactly port stuff over onto the machine, the blocks are all hand-drawn, and as a bonus the whole thing even refreshes at 100Hz.
[thanks Kdawg!]

Excited about THE iDOLM@STER: Live for You's impending release later this month? We certainly are! Here's the latest trailer and color pallet. The newest song even features man-chanting. Yes, MAN-CHANTING. There are two words for this, and they are "bone chilling."

[Thanks, Muu!]

I know it, you know it, we all know that, at some stage down the line, Sony will release a PlayStation Phone. We've already heard talk that one was originally due in February, but that was just a whisper. We've already heard SCE exec Jim Ryan say the idea of one is "definitely plausible". Now this, this is from Sony's official magazine, which I'd wager is a little more credible:

A new PSP-style phone is apparently in development. There are even suggestions that it could be in shops as early as February.

Discount the February thing, as that's probably just citing the earlier rumours, but mentioning it's "apparently" in development? I wouldn't think the official magazine of the consumer electronics company in question would deal in "apparently".

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So has that new Indiana Jones trailer gotten you excited? Japanese arcades are all ready to pounce on that. Just check out this UFO catcher Indy merch. Throw the crane the whip, and it'll take your money and keep the idol! Or something. Heh.

Side note: While I am SUPER EXCITED about the movie, am I the only one who thought the trailer was so-so?

[Thanks, Jean!]

Over the past few days, stories have been circling around the place that the failure rate for the 360 had been "nailed" at 16%. This figure was taken from SquareTrade, who claimed to have issued warranties for the console, and was based on a sample group of 1000 360s. Today, Microsoft have hit back at these claims, saying they've never heard of SquareTrade:

We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it. Based on the enthusiast community's feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.

Fair point, as when releasing the 16% figure, SquareTrade disclosed neither their methodology, nor the entirety of the report.
Microsoft Responds to Warranty Report [IGN]

To: Ash and Flynn
From: Crecente
Re: Crap, So I'm Sick (Gee, Thanks!)

So, I finally fulfilled my BioShock promise. I'm fascinated with how well Ken Levine seems to grasp objectivism. I really do think that he is, in many ways, a not so closeted-fan of the philosophy.

The story ended up being way longer than I intended, but I still wasn't able to use all of my material, including a slew of quotes I pulled both from Rand's books and BioShock. Maybe I can make that its own post down the line. While I'm sort of happy with how the story turned out, it was a bit too rushed, due to unforeseeable events, so I had less time than I would have liked to synthesize the information. The end result was a story that was, perhaps, more of a skeleton than a feature with some meat on its bones.

Oh well, maybe next time.

What you missed:
Jack Thompson Blames NIU Shooting On Video Games
New "Opus" and "Valhalla" Xbox 360 Chipsets Coming Next?
Game Design Contest for Teen Dating Violence Prevention
No Gods or Kings: Objectivism in BioShock

Following the release of yesterday's NPD hardware sales figures, in which the PS3 finally landed a few decent punches on its competitors, you could expect a few things to happen. One was that Sony would dance the happiest post-NPDs sales dance they've danced in a long time. The other was that Microsoft, relegated to the arse-end of the pack, would find putting a positive spin on their performance very, very difficult. Guess what? They found it very, very difficult. The end result is so timid that it inspires pity. Sympathy, almost.

Sure, David Dennis did his best when he claimed hardware shortages, but nobody was really buying that. Instead, the official spin relies mostly on software sales and abstract revenue figures, like the fact people spent twice as much money on 360 games in January than they did on PS3 games, or that third-party publishers are enjoying better success on the 360 than on other platforms.

The full, exhaustively cherry-picked statement is below:

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Hal Halpin, head of the Entertainment Consumers Association, has issued a statement following the tragic events at Northern Illinois University, events which our dear old friend was so quick to seize upon and blame on videogames. The statement reads:

We'd like to extend our condolences to the families, friends and classmates of those who were affected in the school shooting at Northern Illinois University. Separately, we are disgusted, but no longer shocked, to find that anti-game activists are again rushing to conclusions about what drove Stephen Kazmierczak, the clearly disturbed 27 year old who police say was responsible for this tragedy, to commit such an act.

Blaming video games for the behavior of the mentally-challenged is vile on many levels. And, as Generations X and Y mature, it is extremely likely that just about all of us have played at least one video game at some point in our lives. Drawing a parallel between games and violence without any substantive proof is sensationalism for its own sake. This is a sad event, made worse by the irresponsible actions of attention-seekers and the media that has given them a platform for their reckless venom.

So sad that a statement like this has to even be issued, and that such calm, reasonable statements are ignored by types like Fox News in favour of the ravings of a spotlight-hungry, ambulance chasing loon.

Lara Croft is ten years old today (doesn't that make you feel dirty?), and to celebrate, Eidos is letting you play Tomb Raider Anniversary for free.

Of course, nothing in life is truly free, is it? You can access the game through TrialPay, an alternative payment service, but only after you sign up to try or buy an offer from one of their blue-chip advertisers. To sign up for your free subscription to Tomb Raider Anniversary, go to the TrialPay sign-up page.

See? Lara's a classy broad. She wouldn't be givin' it away for nothin'! Her momma raised her better than that!

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The original Quake running on a Nintendo DS? About as exciting as Daikatana, now that someone's hacked together a working version of Quake II for the dual screened handheld. id Software's classic first person shooter is now (nearly) a fully functional port, with working sound, graphics and on-screen keyboard support for console fun. No wi-fi support yet, but we expect it within the next 20 minutes or so.

The catch? It doesn't fit on a stock DS memory footprint, requiring a slot-2 flash card with at least 16 MB of RAM. A list of support cards is available at the offical Q2DS site. The hobby project is free to download, but we haven't tried it out yet, so homebrew enthusiast beware.

Quake II DS [Drunken Coders via Waxy]

January may have gone to the Wii and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the hardware and software sides respectively, but both were bested by an accessory as the biggest selling item, according to the NPD Group. The Wii nunchuk controller claimed that prestigious honor, selling an impressive 375,000 units in the United States.

At only $US 19.99, it's not surprising that Nintendo is pushing millions of these puppies out the door. All those people who snatched up Wii Play last year—4.12 million of them did—need to spend the earmarked Wii dollars on something. Wii Sports boxing is certainly no fun without it.

No, the video isn't "limited edition," but the game is. Coming March 18th, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Limited Edition will run you $US 69.99. This video is the salespitch that hopes to squeeze that extra $US 10 out of you with some Frag Doll teasing, a poker chip key chain, pro tips and a super over-orchestrated finish and . So go ahead and give it a watch pending that you are 18 or older, and see if the flashy marketing works on you.

By: Brian Crecente

The sunken city of Rapture, a world of art deco aesthetics, neon sales pitches and looming architecture, is home to more than just murderous splicers and lumbering Big Daddys, it's also a surprising breeding ground for introspection.

BioShock may have been conceived as a study in nuance, a place for gamers to discover and explore at their own pace, but its dip into the ethical morass of Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophies has brought her beliefs back into the mainstream spotlight and even piqued the interest of the Ayn Rand Institute's president, Yaron Brook.

Brook, a former member of the Israeli Army military intelligence and award-winning finance professor at Santa Clara University, first took notice of the game when he discovered his 18-year-old son playing it. It's a fact that didn't bother Brook despite his son's objectivist beliefs and the game's not so positive take on the philosophy.

"My son has to find his own way in life," he said. "There are certain games I wouldn't want him to play, like Grand Theft Auto, games that celebrate criminality. But a game that might lead him to think and have him challenge his ideas, I'm fine with.

"Luckily for me he doesn't agree with the game, he still seems to believe in objectivism"

Objectivism as a central theme in BioShock was actually the result of a confluence of ideas and happenstance. The heart of the game started, as do most of Ken Levine's games, as the answer to a problem.

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Dead Head Fred has walked away with the first ever WGA (Wrter's Guild of America) Videogame Writing Award. While skeptics like me worry that this award might just be a WGA manoeuvre to eventually get their hands in the small pockets of video game writers, it's positive to see the WGA recognising some of the excellent, overlooked writing in video games.

I haven't played Dead Head Fred since E3 '06—when I enjoyed it quote a bit. So would anyone else like to share some of the game's more quotable lines in the comments?

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One game that I've been, well, I won't say avoiding, but certainly not paying adequate attention to, is Rock Band. This weekend, we're gettin' the band back together, ratcheting up the difficulty and rockin' out to some newly downloaded stuff. In anticipation of next week's hands-on time with King of Fighters XII, I may bust out a little XI to refresh my memory. Other than that, I've got a wedding to attend (you won't see many posts from me today) and some prepping to do for GDC (flying up on Sunday night). Busy busy!

What you lot got planned for the weekend gaming scene? New purchase boasting is also welcome in the comments. Have at it!

If the best things in life really are free, then it might be worth your while to check out Need for Speed ProStreet's free collection of downloads at the PlayStation Store. The Energizer Lithium Extender Pack offers two new cars (the Plymouth Road Runner and the SEAT Leon Cupra) and two new tracks (Leipzig Test Track and Tokyo Expressway). The Extender Pack also give you access to purchase 14 other new cars, including two of my favorites, the Bugatti Veyron and the Aston Martin DBR9. I can't help but succumb to daydreams of being an international spy when I hear the name "Aston Martin."

If that's not enough Need for Speed ProStreet for you, EA has also announced Energizer's Community Race Weekend, starting February 22. PS3 and Xbox 360 racers can compete for prizes and bragging rights, once they're registered at the official Race Day page.

We'll be celebrating all GDC next week with a Street Fighter IV tournament—"if we have time," Crecente hedges. I take that as Crecente being frightened by my patented Chun-Li just-keep-kicking maneuver that I've never, ever seen anyone else use. But it begs the question—who will advance the furthest in the tournament? Brian "I once worked at an arcade" Crecente, Michael "I was born in an arcade" McWhertor or Mark "goddamn I look good in that picture" Wilson? Vote, and then check in next week to find out the results...if they happen.

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The virtual worlds within RPGs are getting bigger by the day, but as an ex-girlfriend once asked us, how big is too big? Fallout 3 is reportedly building a world that, off the cuff, is about 50%-80% the size of Bethesda's last opus, Oblivion. While I enjoy exploring as much as the next guy, given the size of Oblivion, that 50%-80% sounds plenty big to me.

But what would you prefer, to explore humongous, varied worlds with a little content in each place, or a smaller, more compact world with more a higher quest/location ratio?

Fallout 3 [Gameplayer via GamingToday]

The long-awaited figure of Commander Shepard is finally here. He's set to ship worldwide in Q2 2008, but there will be a limited run of 2500 pieces.

Careful, though. If you play with him inappropriately, Cooper Lawrence will have something to say about it.

Right now, recycled circuit board coasters are my living line of defense between condensation and the fragile finish of $US 30 coffee tables. (Yes, I spent as much on the coasters as the tables they protect). And even though these coasters really are pretty fantastic, they can be out-gunned during my larger gatherings that feature more condensation.

Needless to say, a coaster afficienado such as myself is consider the purchase of these Pac-Man coasters with box. For $US 22, my crappy furniture never slept so soundly. Here's a bonus pic:

Coasters [Etsy via GeekAlerts]

Activision's Guitar Hero licensing fest continues as they team up with toy maker Basic Fun for the Guitar Hero Carabiner. This pocketable Guitar Hero is about 7-inches long—75% smaller than the original controller—and it folds up even smaller to prevent dreaded unintentional pant-tenting.

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My brother just launched a Flash game design contest that I'll be one of the judges for. The object of the Life Love Game Design Challenge is for people to create a Flash game about teen dating violence prevention and to do so without violent content or a violent theme.

Quite a brain teaser, but having played innovative Flash games for years now, I'm pretty sure the design community is up to the challenge.

First prize is $US 1,000 and judges, besides myself, include Simon Carless, director of the Independent Games Festival; Stephen Totilo, of MTV and huge brain fame, and Dr. Elizabeth Richeson, a psychologist, Texas Psychological Association Board member, and my mom.

When my brother first contacted me about this, he said he wasn't sure that it was a good idea, he didn't know if a Flash game could deal with so serious an issue, but I pointed out that people like Ian Bogost do that for a living.

Life Love Game Design Challenge

Excuse us while we go uberdorky for a moment. We've all heard about the Xbox 360 chipsets Xenon (90nm CPU, 90nm GPU), Zephyr (HDMI and cooling), Falcon (65nm CPU) and rumoured Jasper (not out yet, 65nm CPU, 65nm GPU). Now a new rumour has it that two new chipsets could be coming called "Opus" and "Valhalla." Here's the skinny:

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While I certainly enjoyed Death Jr.'s two outings on the Sony PSP, I absolutely abhored the handheld controls. Now Eidos is giving gamer's another shot at the little guy, this time on the Nintendo Wii. Death Jr.: Root of Evil is a port of the PSP sequel to the original game, with slightly updated graphics and a tremendously modified control scheme, tailored for the Wiimote and nunchuk combo. You can play as Death-Lad, his goth chick friend Pandora, or team up and take on the 19 levels cooperatively. If the controls work out this could make for a pretty damn entertaining platformer for Nintendo's console. Look for Death Jr.: Root of Evil this summer.

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The consumer electronics analysts at iSuppli know exactly how this whole console war is going to end (according to the consumer electronics analysts at iSuppli). While the Wii and Xbox 360 will peak in 2010, the PS3 will continue selling strong into 2011 (when it will crush the hearts of Nintendo and Microsoft while yelling "I told you so, bitches!" at the top of its lungs).

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Hungry for some Lego Indiana Jones action but don't want to wait for the console game to come out? Head over to Lego.com and try out the new Lego Indiana Jones flash game! Developed by advergaming company Third Melon, the game features Indy on the run from a giant killer boulder after the classic idol-swapping scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. While you don't control Indy directly, you do click on flashing obstacles to get him to duck, whip, and jump his way towards the temple exit, collecting treasures with your mouse pointer along the way. Filled with secrets and hidden areas to discover, it's an excellent way to look busy as you wait for the week to officially end.

Lego Indiana Jones Flash Game [Lego.com - Thanks Fyren!]

Forget Fatal Frame and Silent Hill - Deadly Creatures is the scariest damn video game I've ever seen, and it's only just been announced. THQ and Rainbow Studios are collaborating on this Wii monstrosity, an adventure game that follows the story of a disgusting scorpion and terrifying tarantula as they struggle to survive in a world filled with even deadlier creatures, like Gila monsters, tarantula wasps, and man. As a screaming like a girl, turning pale as a sheet, cold sweats getting arachnophobe, I'm not getting anywhere near this game. You can't make me.

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