Posted on December 26th, 2009 at 7:23pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, video
Archives for Playstation 3 category
Yo, dawg, we heard you like screenshots so we’re gonna post a bunch of ‘em for White Knight Chronicles, developed by Level-5, the folks responsible for Dark Cloud and Rogue Gallery. The screens look pretty luscious, and we hope that this game, announced back at E3, will come through and be as good as it looks.
Posted on December 24th, 2009 at 12:56pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: News, Playstation 3, screenshot gallery, white-knight-chronicles
The Australian Classification Review Board has had a long running feud with the gaming industry as a whole. There is a long running history of games being released abroad with the global equivalent of a “Mature” rating, while getting rejected down under. Some of these banned titles include the likes of every installment in the Grand Theft Auto franchise, the original Manhunt (Rockstar never even bothered attempting to release Manhunt 2), Fallout 3, Blitz: The League, and most recently Left 4 Dead 2. Many of these games were later censored by developers so that they could see release, much to the dismay of the Aussie gaming population.
For this reason, many were alarmed earlier this month, when the console release of Sega’s upcoming Alien vs. Predator game was dealt a similar fate. Refusing to approve the game for an 15+ rating, ultimately killed all chances of the game seeing the light of day, at least in its current state.
Things then went from bad to worse when Jason Kingsley, the CEO of Rebellion (AvP’s developer) went on the record saying the following about the banning:
“The content of AvP is based on some of the most innovative and iconic horror movies, and as such we wanted to create a title that was true to the source material. It is for adults, and it is bloody and frightening, that was our intent.
We will not be releasing a sanitised or cut down version for territories where adults are not considered by their governments to be able to make their own entertainment choices.” — Jason Kingsley via GamesIndustry.biz
So if the game is deemed inappropriate by a country’s government and the developer is refusing to budge on the removal or censoring of objectionable content, that would render hopes of Aliens vs. Predator ever seeing the release moot, right? Well lets just say that the fat lady hadn’t quite sung yet…
In what seemed like a futile attempt to maintain the integrity of the product, Sega filed an appeal with the Australian Classification Review Board, citing that the context of the violence in the game was not being considered. Though this sounds like a flimsy argument at best, it is actually very similar to one used by Warner Bros. Interactive in defense of F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin, when it was banned back in November of 2008. To this date, F.E.A.R 2 was the only title to ever to have its banning overturned in Australia, without having to censor or remove content.
Well it looks as if Sega’s gamble may have payed off. Yesterday news was handed down that on appeal, they too have been granted the coveted 15+ rating, without the need to edit any material. When excitedly addressing the Review Board’s sudden shift in stance, Darren Macbeth, Sega of Australia’s General Manager was quoted as saying:
“It is with great pleasure that we announce the success of our appeal. We are particularly proud that the game will be released in its original entirety, with no content altered or removed whatsoever. This is a big win for Australian gamers. We applaud the Classification Review Board on making a decision that clearly considers the context of the game, and is in line with the modern expectations of reasonable Australians”. — Darren Macbeth via Kotaku.com
To put things very bluntly, this is a dramatically unexpected result, especially given how poorly Left 4 Dead 2’s appeal went earlier this year. Might we finally be seeing a shift in perspective from the previously stingy stances of the Australian Classification Review Board? As a red-blooded American that is a strong support of our First Amendment Right to Free Speech, I hope that this is a sign of a things to come in regards to game ratings in Australia. With two overturned bans in the last 12 months, this might very well be the case.
Posted on December 18th, 2009 at 5:07pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: Alien vs. Predator, News, PC Gaming, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, australia, avp, featured, opinion, rebellion, sega
Salem and Rios will be blasting their way on to the Playstation Network, and the Xbox Live Marketplace this Thursday, December 17th. The demo will give gamers a crack at most of the first level of the game, which puts everyone’s favorite two man private military team in the line of fire as Shanghai comes under attack. It’s also a safe bet that the demo will include some of the goofy dialogue, and top notch acting that helped make the first game such a hit. Check it out on your platform of choice this Thursday!
Posted on December 14th, 2009 at 9:18pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: News, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, dlc, ea
After Joystiq did a quick survey of some on-line European game retailers, namely GAME, Gamestation and Play.com they discovered that all of them had named a release date for Quantic Dream’s ambitious PlayStation 3 exclusive.
All sites pointed to Heavy Rain hitting stores on February 26th. In Europe games usually see release on a Friday so North America could see Heavy Rain on the 23rd although SCEA have not confirmed this yet.
At GrE we will be getting out our origami books to see if we can match the Origami Killer in skill when Heavy Rain does finally see release.
Posted on December 11th, 2009 at 5:34pm by [email protected] (The Games Are Evil Family)
Filed Under: Game, Gamestation, News, Origami Killer, Play.com, Playstation 3, heavy-rain, quantic-dream
