After opening his article for The New Republic with a reference to how he and his fellow “smug old children of the ’70s” lament the passing influence of the music of their youth, critic David Hajdu discovers a cruel twist. The music games that are so popular on consoles today bring older music to younger audiences, continuing what he considers to be the lamentable tradition of letting an older generation condescend to a younger one that older music is superior music:

For another thing—and this is the main failing of music games, and it is a significant one—they have the insidious effect of glorifying classic rock, a music with an already bloated reputation that is founded on its very bloatedness. In the games’ absorption with technical prowess, speed, flash, grandiose show, and fakery, they not only affirm the enduring allure of classic rock to kids and young adults, especially males; they also advance its tyranny. People like me who have kids of video-game-playing age no doubt get many things wrong about these games, and chief among the errors of our age group, I think, is inflated generational pride in the 1970s-style arena rock that Guitar Hero and Rock Band promote to our descendants—kids who might otherwise, and perhaps more appropriately, use their after-school hours to nurture interests in music of their own. The games reassure us that our aftercomers are our heirs. They are male-oriented tools of cultural primogeniture, applications of twenty-first-century technology with a very ancient mission.

The full article will appear in the magazine’s December 2 issue.

Pretending [The New Republic]

Says the publication:

Our reviews are tough, but fair. We will not give up our independent scores for the sake of a timely review. This holds true for “Assassin’s Creed 2″. The publisher asked us to guarantee the score ’sehr gut’ [very good], otherwise we would not receive a review copy, thus we will publish our review in next month’s issue. We’d be more than glad to give the game a ’sehr gut’, but only if it deserves it.

I’ve sent an email over to Ubisoft’s PR to give them the courtesy of a response. Any that comes will be printed here.

But despite the fact this behaviour has strong precedent, keep in mind this boils down to he-said Ubi-said. And it boggles the mind, from what we’ve all seen so far, that Assassin’s Creed II would need such strong-arming to get a good score. But who knows. There is a ton of money riding on a game’s Metascore, providing motive enough.

Ubisoft Demanding High Scores for Early Assassins Creed 2 Reviews? [wearetheinternetz, thanks Lorand K.]

EDGE: Brütal Legend: A Love Story
Chris Dahlen examines Double Fine’s deft characterisation of Ophelia as the emotional fulcrum of Brütal Legend.

Fidgit: Tim Schafer on the finer points of nudity, heavy metal, and Brütal Legend
Tom Chick chats in-depth with Tim Schafer. ‘Nuff said.

Flash of Steel: Decade Feature: 2000 – Sacrifice
Troy Goodfellow revisits the strange and uncomfortable strategy of Shiny’s excellent Sacrifice.

GameCritics: Sans ethics and damn fun? Sega’s Madworld and House of the Dead Overkill
Matthew Kaplan debates whether the “stupefying satisfaction” of a dumb action game can be as valuable as one that is worthy and enlightens.

Vorpal Bunny Ranch: Raydians: Persons of Color
Denis Farr reveals a parable of race relations at the heart of bright and breezy de Blob.

Due to launch before the end of the year, the Aussie edition of Game Informer will be published by Citrus Media and backed by EB Games. Much of Game Informer’s success overseas is down to its relationship with Gamestop, the biggest games retailer in the US and owner of EB Games. Gamestop customers get cheap subscriptions, you see. And with a readership of that size, Game Informer is often the first print publication to bring news of the biggest games.

We caught up with Game Informer Australia’s launch editor Chris Stead, former editor of Australian GamePro and Gameplayer.com.au, for a quick chat about what you can expect.

Hey Chris, when’s the first issue out?
The first issue will be available before Christmas. Your readers should sign-up to the Facebook group Game Informer Australia to get updated on exact dates in the coming weeks.

So you’re the editor, but who else do you have on the local staff?
I’m the editor. We will have a local freelance team as well, headed up by Adam Mathew who I believe is one of the great reviewers on the local scene.

What’s the relationship with EB? Will EB members get it free?
EB Games will play a huge role in our distribution model, but that is the extent of the relationship. You’ll be able to pick the magazine up at the counter when you’re doing your games shopping at the bargain price of $4.95 and we’ve briefed the EB staff on just why Game Informer is considered the number 1 games magazine on the planet, so they’ll be helping us get the word out there. You’ll also be able to pick up a pretty amazing subscription offer through the stores. And that’s where the relationship stops – the magazine’s editorial independence is complete, it is solely distribution.

Will it be distributed in store and newsagents?
As well as picking it up at EB, you will be able to find it at newsagents across the country for the same price. However, I believe that most Aussie gamers will feel compelled to subscribe once they get the product in their hands and get a feel for just how ahead of the game it is… especially as subscribing is so cheap. The way we’re positioning it and the content that we have, it’ll be a no-brainer.

What’s your mission statement for the mag?
To give Australian gamers the respect they deserve by getting them access to the biggest and best world exclusives first, and to ensure that the local scene gets representation in the world’s number one gaming publication.

How do you see Game Informer as compared to your most obvious competitor, Hyper?
I am a big fan of Hyper: like many (if not all) journos in the local industry I had my ‘levelling-up’ period through the mag back in the ’90s and that affection remains. Game Informer is on another level, however. The US magazine gets the biggest and the best things first, even ahead of online. I have access to all that content, plus the opportunities that I generate locally as well. It’s powerful stuff, especially as we will be going on sale more-or-less alongside the US – we’re a concurrent publication, not an out-dated port, which I hope shows the level of respect we have for the local gamers. That said, Hyper has battled through plenty of challenges over the last two decades, and I am sure the competition will work to the benefit of both mags’ editorial.

Won’t you just be pimping EB preorders and used games?
Editorially we will not be pimping anything that we don’t think the locals will enjoy reading. I guess sometimes that may be a pre-order if it is stupid cool (like night vision goggles). But that’ll be it. I can’t see any reason to talk up used games at all: really Game Informer is all about the present and future.

And finally… isn’t print dead?
Not at all. The US magazine has 3.6 million subscribers, which is a pretty long way from dead. I’ve just spent two-and-a-half years running a games website and to be honest, I think the anarchy of the medium acts to undermine it. In general, good editorial falls flat, and crap editorial rakes in the hits and there’s too much pressure to deliver traffic on an hourly basis for a lot of sites: editorial quality is the first thing to buckle. I am really looking forward to focusing over the course of a month on one product and channelling all that is awesome into it. With the unmissable cover features that the lads over in the US consistently nail and our price point, I think we’ll be offering something that will more than compete with online. It’s certainly going to be a fun finding out!

Thanks Chris. I’m curious to hear from you: do you still buy games magazines? If so, which ones? And are you interested in Game Informer?

Above 49: Instancing Emotion
Nels Anderson acknowleges the emotional pull that fosters camaraderie in Left 4 Dead and ensures its co-operative play works.

Gamasutra: Kill Polygon, Kill: Violence, Psychology, and Video Games
Michael Thomsen examines why we enjoy video game violence and the abstraction of war.

Groping The Elephant: The fallacy of choice
Justin Keverne asserts that the lack of player choice in Uncharted 2 is one of its chief strengths.

Magical Wasteland: The Way to a Man’s Heart
Matthew Burns chews upon the many ways in which food appears in games, as mechanic, metaphor and collectible.

RedKingsDream: IKEA, and the logic of videogame design
Daniel Golding discovers the link between furniture showroom layout and level design flow.

Today, only eleven, well, now twelve games have been awarded the perfect score. The latest is multi-platform title Bayonetta. Multi-platform Bayonetta is the first game to appear on the Xbox 360 to receive this score.

To review, here are the previous 40/40 games:

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
2. Soulcalibur (1999)
3. Vagrant Story (2000)
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003)
5. Nintendogs (2005)
6. Final Fantasy (2006)
7. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
8. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)
9. 428 (2008)
10. Dragon Quest IX (2009)
11. Monster Hunter Tri (2009)

So no games in 2001, 2002, 2004 or 2007 got a 40/40, but three games in 2008 and three games in 2009 have? Either Famitsu thinks games are getting better or is giving out more perfect scores. Discuss!

And for those who care, Final Fantasy X was released in 2001, Resident Evil was released in 2002, Dragon Quest VIII and Gran Turismo 4 were released in 2004, and so on and so forth.

Critical Distance: Critical Compilation: Grand Theft Auto IV
Michael Clarkson finds the common threads running through the wealth of – yes – critical writing about Rockstar’s return to Liberty City.

Experience Points: Dead Ends
Jorge Albor reasons why we ought to pay attention when a game permanently kills off a playable character. Part two of the series can be found here.

Gamer Limit: In Defence of Grand Theft Auto IV
James O’Connor examines the way Niko makes you feel guilt in this very personal response to GTA IV.

PopMatters: Asserting Femininity in Super Metroid
LB Jeffries highlights how Super Metroid resonates with maternal metaphors and banishes any idea of Samus’ androgyny.

Red Kings Dream: Arkham Asylum and the space of traumatic memory
Daniel Golding suggests there’s a moment in Arkham Asylum where Batman’s trauma becomes our own.

The Star reports that “joy-pad” junkies will use the goggles bundled with the Modern Warfare 2: Prestige Edition for gay cruising, peeping and other activities that would qualify as “a pervy night out.”

We are also informed that “gaming nuts” have already reserved all of the prestige editions from UK chain HMV, I sign, I guess, that a lot of perversion will soon occur.

It’s hard to tell how much the Star is concerned about this pending rash of randy behaviour. Draw your own conclusions.

Goggles On For A Pervy Night Out… [UK Daily Star via Modern Warfare 2 official Twitter guy Robert Bowling]

Gabe and Joe gave a press conference in Sydney last week where the Valve man talked about the importance of the communities that thrive around their games, from Counter-Strike to Team Fortress 2. Gabe also revealed Valve’s plans to get Left 4 Dead 2 released in unedited form in Australia.

But after that press conference, the ABC’s Good Game sat down with Gabe to take a look at Joe’s campaign. This is the first time Gabe had seen the mod that is responsible for him flying halfway around the world. You can watch his reaction and listen to the advice he offers Joe over on the Good Game website in an extended version of the story that ran on last night’s episode.

Web Extended Version – Gabe & Joe [Good Game]

On Sept. 9, The New Yorker put the definitive tack in Seth Schiesel’s balloon over The New York Times writer’s eyebrow-raising praise for The Beatles: Rock Band.

It offered a selection of “previous write-ups the Times has given big games.” For nonsubscribers, this means “satire incoming.”

Acclaimed short-story writer and poet Raymond Carver died today. He was an influential force in American literature and an all around mega man. You know who else is a mega man? Mega Man, the new video-game character who will likely be bigger than Carver, Shakespeare, and even the printed word itself.

Since the dawn of man, there have been those with athletic skill and those without. For decades, those men and women without the coördination and skill to play professional football have had to sit idly by, passively watching football games on television and dreaming of futures that could never be. But thanks to Madden NFL ‘94, impossible dreams will come true. Move over, Helen Keller-there’s a new miracle worker in town!

A princess has been kidnapped. Her name is Zelda, she is beautiful, and I love her.

Next month, don’t try leaving your home. Lock the doors and barricade the windows. This is not a drill, this is the real f—-ing thing. As soon as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hits the streets, eleven-year-olds around the country will morph into rabid pit bulls out for blood. This game is evil propaganda designed to teach babies to murder. Hide your possessions and swallow your gold fillings.

Actually, in a newspaper, that last one would sound rather believable.

Video Games Bigger than Jesus [The New Yorker via Ian Bogost]