News & Reviews

Portal 2 Is Controversial!

Well FINALLY we have got some “controversy” news in the media for video games! Is it for murder in L.A. Noire? Is it for nudity in the witcher 2? Is it for any of the other stupid things that people get mad about normally for games? NO! We have controversy because apparently the robots in Portal 2 were mean for joking that the main character was adopted.  Watch the awesome over-sensitive video below:

So fret not about violence, murder, nudity, or language in games now, mildly crude jokes about someone being adopted are the new no-no in games. Awesome.
 

If I wanted to waste $15 a month, I’d pick up a drug habit

*Check out more of Steve’s awesome posts at Ganskelaw.com
While the service is nothing new, I finally got around to trying out Gamefly. I’ve been a Netflix member for years. It’s nice for rentals to fit my schedule. I was expecting a similar level of convenience from Gamefly. What I found was less than impressive.

At $15 a month, Gamefly seems like a good deal, until you realize that services like Netflix and Blockbuster mail service have now lowered their prices to $10 or below a month. Additionally, whereas I have never really had trouble finding a movie with decent availability on Netflix, Gamefly apparently refuses to properly fund their endeavor with the necessary number of new releases to make sure even a small percentage of their clients can recieve a new release from their cue. In short, nothing is EVER available. Well nothing interesting anyway. And lastly, their shipping is so slow that over a one month period of playing a game for 5 days before getting bored with it, I got, wait for it, 2 GAMES! That’s 20 days of shipping time in a month. Don’t waste your money folks.

You’re better off going to Gamestop, playing the game for five days, and returning it for full value on trade in. Gamefly is not for me folks.

Adults Only; Witcher 2 Chooses to not Cater to Younger Audience

I have not even finished the prologue of the Witcher 2 and already I know that it is not pulling any punches or wavering on its mature-content heritage. This is a relief for an industry that has continually moved away from adult oriented games to either (A) avoid public controversy, or (B) try to expand the people who can play a game (aka kids).

Whats even better is that you don’t need to run over a hooker in order to be get an M rating on this game. Story Content, language, and even animated boobies help to make the Witcher 2 have a great game experience. After only minutes of game-play (NBA playoffs), I have already seen some prisoner beatings, talks of Dragons, and some love session interrupted by a nosy messenger.

What is even better is that released a statement saying that all DLC for this game will be FREE. Free is such a wonderful word. Especially in an industry that seems to be charging for every extra 5 minutes of content. One DLC has already been released with a 90 minute mission… regarding a Troll.

Now my only problem is finding out how to get my free DLC from my steam account… they didn’t give my CD Key as usual. I am going to have to figure out how to get my 90 minutes of Troll! Also, they neglected to give the option for inverting a mouse (yeah i know, I’m weird), so I already on trying to fix that.

PSN Offers TWO Free Games to Show It Is Really… REALLY Sorry

Well Sony PSN is finally being restored around the country and Sony wants to make it clear that they are REALLY sorry that all of your personal information may have been stolen. They are so sorry not only are they giving you a new game… they are giving you TWO. Quoting from the PSN blog:

All PlayStation Network customers can select two PS3 games from the following list. The games will be available for 30 days shortly after PlayStation Store is restored and can be kept forever.

• Dead Nation
• inFAMOUS
• LittleBigPlanet
• Super Stardust HD
• Wipeout HD + Fury

PSP users also get some games too. Personally, I expected maybe one game for free, but two well known games for free, not too horrible… you know… for having 77 million users lose their identities. It will be interesting to see if this helps to big back confidence of PSN users. Hopefully they will also detail how they will prevent future attacks too.

The Witcher 2 is Approaching, and YES I Finished the First One!

On Tuesday the much anticipated, at least by me, Witcher 2 arrives. After hearing of the sequel months ago, I got off my butt (or I guess sat on it) and finished the first game. The first Witcher began as a great monster slayer, Geralt of Rivia, thought to have been slain in battle, arrives with no memory of his past. The story progresses to a plot that throws the entire kingdom into disarray, with the Geralt, the White Wolf, right in the middle.

The First game involved a quarrel between humans and oppressed non-humans, secret forces trying gain power over the kingdom, and of course quests to kill monsters terrifying the masses.

The second game appears to be keeping in line with the first games quarrel between humans and non-humans. The teaser for the game showed an unknown character offering to collect the heads of royalty for a militant elf. The sorceress Triss makes another appearance in this game as a companion. Hopefully other characters show up in this game also.

Though the “sex-cards” of the original game are gone, the mature content of the Witcher is alive and well (as the “M for Mature” label would suggest). This game is on my pre-order list, and I have very high expectations. If the attempt to port this game to other systems besides PC takes away from the game play, as it did for Dragon Age 2, I will be very disappointed. Is anyone else besides me excited for this game?