Why am I not allowed to play violent videogames?

Written by Ben Salter

Hot off the heals of Left 4 Dead 2 being refused classification, and effectively banned, in Australia yesterday I am left wondering why am I not allowed to play these games? This is not a new thought, nor is it one that’ll be resolved in the near future.

The R18+ rating for videogames debate is going only going to grow stronger as more and more games are not allowed to be sold in Australia, as they are deemed inappropriate for 15-year-olds. We’re meant to be living in a free nation, and yet as an adult I cannot chose what games to play. I can waste away on alcohol; I can gamble away my life savings, I can watch terribly graphic movies, and yet I cannot play in a virtual world, a world made up of rendered, not human as they are in movies, characters.

I can watch a crazed murderer take to an innocent victim with a chainsaw in a film but cannot do this in real life (every since Resident Evil 4 there's been something about chainsaws in games with me). In the middle of that, should I be allowed to control a virtual character doing it in a videogame? That seems to be what we, and the non-gaming government, cannot decide on. I can kill characters in games, even those controlled by other people, with guns and relatively known weapons, but the minute that turns to "high impact violence” it is instantly not allowed in this country. What’s the difference? I’ve still killed them, and I can watch this type of graphic violence in a film (which is a lot more graphic when it happens with real people).

What annoys me more is that a lot of this so called ‘high impact violence’ is fine in films that 15-year-olds are allowed to see. Many of the Saw movies are MA15+, and I’m sure they have a lot more “frenetic and unrelenting violence” than Left 4 Dead 2. Real people portray this violence; surely one could argue that it’s much worse than a graphic character doing the same thing (or in many cases something that isn’t as bad)? Interactivity is what they’ll say, but I can yell at my TV demanding a screwdriver to that face. I would still have the same motive even if I didn’t have the same control. The Internet, and web 2.0, is full of interactivity. We can jump onto forums and discuss our favourite parts of graphic movies and send messages to the creators telling them what we’d love to see in sequels; this too is a form of interactivity.

This leaves me thinking, surely there’s more to it than the interactive argument, and there’s no way you’ll convince me violence in a game is too realistic, especially when compared to a film. Is it because gaming stereotypes still exist? While we know the days of being labelled the school nerd for playing Tetris are over (because everyone in school now plays Tetris is the crazy sales are anything to go by), does the government? Must we all suffer because one guy in America plays Doom then goes on a shooting rampage at his school?

Our culture, in general, has a violent mindset for entertainment purposes. The highest rating shows on TV involve criminal violence, shows such as CSI and 24 have a massive supporter base, and yet we haven’t seen an influx in the amount of people getting their knee caps shot to make them talk. However, if I did that in a game would I be more likely to in real life? Research and common sense points to no, but that hasn’t changed anything.

I want to play violent games like left 4 Dead 2, but I am not a violent person. They haven’t made me more violent and I’m by no means addicted. While I like them I also like the more family friendly titles. Recently I’ve been playing LittleBigPlanet and Scribblenauts, which are fun for the whole family. Similarly I like violent movies like Saw, but at the same time I also enjoy light-hearted films like Up. I’m not going to turn into a maladjusted teenager from playing these games. I’m not going to end up sitting in my room being anti-social playing them 24/7 (although the whole games, and the Internet, being antisocial thing really annoys me. We play with friends online, we chat online, it’s a new form of being social that we fit into our busy lives. Not that it should take over going out on weekends, but that’s an argument for another time). I doubt the people in their 20s and 30s who want to play these are going to suffer from these either.

The average gamer in 30. That stat is thrown around all the time, and so it should be. To be honest, we don’t care if the OFLC says a game is not suitable for a 15-year-old, especially those of us who have celebrated our 18th birthday (or can grow an epic beard, I never could in my underage days). Yes, I could argue all day that these younglings are allowed to view films that are far more violent than the videogames we want to play, but I know - the whole interactivity thing. So I’ll give up on that and go back to the R18+ rating for videogames. It always comes back to this. Every time a game is banned it gets brought up; we feel one step closer to getting the rating introduced, then someone comes along and crushes us back down to where we were (not mentioning any names *cough* Michael Atkinson *cough*). Fortunately Left 4 Dead has a massive Australian following, so we may be in with our best chance yet of pushing the case for an R18+ rating for games further than it’s ever gone before.

Movies are for all ages, including adults; games are for all ages, including adults. It looks clear-cut to us; hopefully the powers to be see it that way as well sooner rather than later. I don’t expect them to agree with me that some of these games (some, by no means all) may be acceptable for 15-year-olds if some MA15+ movies are, but I do hope they realise that we need laws that allow an adult medium to accommodate adults.

Heller's Den Vol #2

It's been a rather slow week in the gaming world, giving you all a chance to catch up on those games you haven't finished before the end of year season is upon us.

Many of you have already finished this title, but Batman: Arkham Asylum has kept me rather busy the past week. I've really enjoyed my time on Arkham, and this is a surprise hit title for me! Still sitting on the fence after playing the demo? Why not read our feature review? Batman: Arkham Asylum.

I was one of the many lucky folks who snagged a Uncharted 2 beta code last week from EB Games Twitter give-away so I'll be waiting to get into that this Tuesday! Those who pre-order the game from EB also get access to the beta so if you can't wait to get online with this game, head down to your local EB today.

This weekend I got the chance to go through the paces of the DLC pack for F.E.A.R 2: Project Origin. Reborn runs a story parallel to that of the main game, and while it doesn't do anything to expand the story or the universe, it's a decent addition to the already great game. If you already own F.E.A.R 2 and want to extend it another 2-4 hours, then check out our review here.

So now I'm just counting down the days till Scribblenauts, Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2!

What are you guys and girls looking forward to playing?

They Don't Care About Us

Written By Stephen Heller

The journey of an Australian Wii Gamer has been a long and bumpy road, full of ridiculously late release dates (RE: Super Smash Bros Brawl) lack of “hardcore” titles, and things don’t seem to be shaping up to brighter horizons. Nintendo have just announced news regarding release dates for the highly anticipated Punch Out!!! and the new racing title Excitebots

That news is there is no release date, in fact the games aren’t even being picked up by local retailers. Excitebots sales have been dismal at best in the USA, so Nintendo Australia has made the judgement not to bring it into the country.

Punch Out!!! devotees will have to travel to their nearest JB-Hi Fi store as they will be the only stockists of the game in Australia. Rose Lappin, managing director of of Nintendo Australia issued this statement.

To be honest we didn’t have a lot of requests for the game,” she continued. “There’s a few people… there’s a lot of noise but not a lot of sales, that sort of thing. However there was one retailer that was chasing it, so that’s why we’ve decided to go that way. Of course, if it continues and consumers want it then that’s what we’re here for. At the end of the day if we don’t support consumers then we don’t have a business. We’re certainly here to work with what people want.”

Nintendo sure are giving people what they want....IF they live near a JB-Hi Fi store. For those of us in rural areas who don’t have a JB-Hi Fi within 100kms from our homes, it’s going to result in an inconvenient process to get the game.

It begs the question will this become a common trend with Nintendo First Party releases? Will we be faced with late releases, or in some cases no release at all, totally dictated by sales in the USA?

Is the global economic crisis putting so much pressure on the industry that it’s harder for publishers to take risks? Instead of taking these risks will publishers just choose to not release games on our shores to avoid the possibility of bad sales?

Due to Nintendo’s strict region coding importing titles aren’t as easy as it is for PC or the Playstation 3. If this becomes a popular trend many Wii gamers could miss out on their most anticipated games, due to sales in another country....

Do Nintendo really care about us?

Return of the Adventure?

Return of the Adventure?

Written By Stephen Heller

Adventure games dominated the PC gaming scene in the early 1990’s. Their complex stories, memorable characters, uncanny ability to sit on the edge of clever dialogue and puzzling challenges seemed to be the formula for success. Companies such as Lucasarts and Sierra On-Line ran ahead of the pack releasing what are still today, some of the greatest adventure games of all time.

With the ever increasing popularity of the First Person Shooter with the phenomenal successes of Wolfenstein 3-D, Quake and Doom, and of course the continuing increases in home console development and market share, Adventure Gaming seemed to be a dying art by the end of the 90’s. Lucasarts pulled out of the race entirely, closing up their adventure department and cancelling popular series sequels such as Sam & Max Freelance Police which left fans of the genre with a sombre outlook on their beloved genre.

Yet the past few years have seen an ever increasing buzz in the world of adventure gamers, and now with the release of a new Monkey Island series one has to wonder, could we be seeing the return of the adventure?

Telltale Games have become the front runner with their largely successful Episodic adventure games, already releasing two seasons of new Sam & Max adventures, a series of Strongbad titles, Wallace and Gromit and now a return to an old Lucasarts classic Monkey Island. Gamers across the globe have revelled in the nostalgia value of continuing on with a beloved character in Guybrush Threepwood, and newcomers alike are loving Telltale’s new series so much they are wanting to sink their teeth into the previous titles in the series.

With that in mind Lucasarts are releasing a new “re-imagining” of the original Monkey Island sporting new graphics, with an option to go back to the original graphics of yesteryear. It’s a great concept, and Lucasarts have claimed that if it sells well, we can expect more to come.

With the recently released Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings gamers had the ability to unlock the ability to play through the classic point and click adventure Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. Is Lucasarts testing the water to see if they can make a comeback to the genre after abandoning it so long ago?

Just last week Lucasarts made an important announcement from the Twitter account, stating that they will be releasing their catalogue of titles across the STEAM platform for PC users. One of the first games available was Fate of Atlantis making this the second time it has been re-released this year alone!

Aside from the frontrunners there has been a slew of popular titles in the adventure genre lately with titles such as So Blonde, Zack & Wiki and A Vampyre Story which prove that the genre is really picking up the pace.

The world of adventure gaming has been abandoned for far too long, and with recent investments into old series such as Monkey Island, along with new adventures such as A Vampyre Story it begs the question is this going to be the return of the adventure!

Pokémon a Recipe for Success

By 90's Pokémon Master Ben Salter

The Pokémon videogame series first launched on the GameBoy back in 1996. 13 years later it has become one of the best selling games of all time, and one of Nintendo’s most famous handheld series. Nintendo stated that the Pokémon franchise had sold over 175 million copies as of April last year, and these figured have definitely improved since then.

I began playing Pokémon Platinum in preparation for the review a few days ago. After growing up with the originals on the Game Boy Pocket (or even original Game Boy if you wanted to be old school) I noticed a striking similarity between the two. 10 years on and the games have hardly changed. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl are essentially exactly the same in terms of single player gameplay as Pokémon Red & Blue. Sure there are some small gameplay enhancements, but surely Pokémon heads the list of ‘most games released with so little changes’. Each generation two flavours of the same game are released and then, around two years later, a remake of that game is made to complete the trio for the generation. We essentially have the same game released three times on one platform and yet it sells like hotcakes.

That’s just taking into account what I would consider to be the ‘main series’. Beyond that we have the Mystery Dungeon & Pokémon Ranger spin-offs along with popular console games such as Pokémon Stadium and its sequels, Pokémon Snap and the Pokémon Box/Ranger games. Remakes of Pokémon Gold & Silver were recently announced for the DS and already have fans going crazy. A 10-year-old game being remade is not uncommon, but technically it has already been remade, or was at least enhanced, with Pokémon Crystal which completed the trilogy on the GameBoy Color.

What is it with Pokémon that makes gamers go crazy, despite the fact they are either playing a remake (or enhanced remake) or a sequel that is so similar to its predecessor that it may as well be considered a remake? The TV series played a role in kicking off the craze. Back in the late 90’s when the original games were released kids were going Pokécrazy with the show, videogames and trading card game. I remember school lunch time trading Pokémon cards on a daily basis or playing Pokémon Red if you dared to pull out the gameboy at recess and risk its confiscation. It’s fair to say the show is nowhere near as influential now (not to mention terrible without the original Pokemon or characters) nevertheless the series is as popular as ever with Platinum hitting the 1 million sales mark within 2 days of release in Japan.

Maybe Nintendo has perfected the formula; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I admit while visually I’m not impressed with Pokémon Platinum I’m enjoying the gameplay even though I spent 40 odd hours playing Pokémon Diamond two years ago. And I am not alone, while I find it hard to straight out recommend it to the owners of Diamond/Pearl I expect many of them to buy it. It won’t just be kids either; while it certainly appears to be a ‘kiddie game’ it’s one that gamers of all ages can appreciate. While I doubt many of you older gamers would admit it, if you have a DS you’d be a fool not to look into the Pokémon games. I’m certainly not the biggest fan of the role playing genre; however, I’m willing to spend countless hours on the Pokémon games. Raising the creatures into a fighting machine is rewarding and still fun even if you’ve done it many times before. Because the gameplay is so good you’re almost happy that it’s repetitive, you find yourself wanting to do it all again. I don’t understand why people bother importing their already trained Pokémon from past games, or use cheats that make them unbeatable. Choosing 6 new Pokemon and training them until the final gym battle is a rewarding experience. I understand that trading from Diamond & Pearl is one of the key features but to an extent I believe this is where the repetitive gameplay may come unstuck. Where’s the fun in starting a game that’s based on developing something when you begin with the finished product?

Another view could suggest that Nintendo don’t really care. They realise that anything with ‘Pokémon’ in the title will sell. I believe this is the case with games such as the rushed Pokémon Dash and some of recent Mystery Dungeon spin-offs. With so many ‘enhanced remakes’ and actual remakes, which began with the original two being reborn on the GBA as Pokémon Fire Red & Leaf Green, the same could be said for the RPG series. But with such great gameplay 13 years on I’m willing to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt with their main Pokémon series and say it hasn’t been changed simply because it doesn’t need to be.

What are your memories of the Pokémon games? Even if you haven’t played one recently chances are you did back in the Game Boy or Nintendo 64 days. Why do you think they are still so successful? Leave your thoughts, maybe even dare to admit that you still enjoy the Pokémon games despite being in your late teens or adulthood.

Pokémon Platinum will be released in Australia this Thursday, May 14. Our featured review will be up on MyDS later this week.

Sleeping Giant Will Attack?

The Playstation 3 has been the sleeping giant of the current console war since its release in 2006, boasting features missing from other consoles, yet failing to really deliver games that made it stand on it's own aside from the Xbox 360.

Early titles Heavenly Sword and Uncharted: Drakes Fortune really set the bar high for what the Playstation 3 was capable of, what it was going to bring to us in the future, but the issue is that the time between these unique titles has been too long.

The end of 2008 saw the release of LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2, both extremely high profile, large budget, and impressive exclusives for the console. Both games received praise, and both games have launched momentum for the PS3 to reach for the stars and really dominate 2009.

Followed up by the massive Killzone 2, which has truly raised the bar for what gamers can expect from their home consoles, and FPS in general, question is can Sony continue this momentum of top notch titles and continue to dominate in 2009?

With inFamous, MAG, Uncharted 2 and God of War III all slated for release this year, one would imagine this is going to be a huge year for Sony Playstation 3 owners.

Problem is that if the Playstation 3 faces another wishy washy year it could be over. The Xbox 360 has dominated the hardcore gamers collection for long enough now, and getting towards the end of the consoles lifespan, chances are Microsoft are going to be announcing a new console in the next year or so, which could see a decline in PS3 sales.

Will 2009 be the big year that Sony needs to propel it's console to greatness? What are your thoughts on the subject?

Heller's Desk Vol #14

Welcome to another edition of Heller's Desk. I hope you all had a safe and happy Easter break with family and friends, and you are now back ready for some great gaming....

First title sitting on my desk this week was the newly released Episodic title from Telltale Games, Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Episode 1: Fright of the Bumblebees. Fans of adventure games should know that Telltale always deliver an exceptional experience, and nothing less should be expected from the first episode in what looks like it will be a landmark series for the developer. It captures the look, feel and charm of the beloved TV series/Movies and plays more like an interactive TV program than a game. You can purchase the game from the Telltale Games website and it will be launching on Xbox Live in the near future. A featured review will be up on Myfrag and My360 in the next few days

It seems an eternity ago when Silent Hill V: Homecoming was released and then banned in Australia, but after a long wait it finally was released last week across store shelves. Silent Hill has always been a leader in the survival horror genre, and being the first in the series on this generation of consoles, it has big shoes to fill. Keep your eyes peeled for the featured review this week, but in the mean time why don't you brush up on your Survival Horror Origins

Chronicles of Riddick is dropping this week on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 and will be keeping many of you busy I'm sure. It includes the critically acclaimed Escape from Butcher Bay on the disc, which will give many of those who never had the chance to play the original, a chance to do so with fresh graphics. Gaetano is working on a featured review which will launch in the next few weeks.

Last but not least The Voice will be returning after a short break over the Easter holidays. We will be hitting it hard bringing you the latest news and reviews, and even have some interviews in the works. Also we will be bringing back the beloved Retrograde segment with our good friend Guyver!

A sudden urge to play Bioshock has washed over me so I'm off to do that, what are you guys playing this week?

It's that time of year again - The Games Drought

By Ben Salter

We’ve played (and completed) a range of quality titles in the first quarter of 2009. These include Resident Evil 5 on the PS3 & 360, MadWorld on the Wii, GTA: Chinatown Wars on DS and Resistance Retribution on the PSP, but what is still yet to come in the next 6 months?

One can’t help but feel that at least one masterpiece needs to be published for each console in that period, especially one for the Wii. We’ve seen Wii Play and Wii Fit dominate the sales charts, but most other Wii games have dropped out. Why? Because they are old, there has been little from Nintendo themselves and that is what is required before the year’s end, if not before. Silent Hill: Homecoming looks promising for PS3 and 360 owners, but ideally each console needs another quality exclusive this year that blows gamers away, what will it be if it comes at all?

The DS has Pokemon Platinum set for a May 14 release, but like Silent Hill it’s a game that has been out overseas for a while now. After ten years the games are starting to suffer due to the lack of originality. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, but after playing so many similar Pokemon games the formula is in dire need of a shake up. The people who really love the series will no doubt already have imported a US copy due to the region free nature of the DS, so perhaps we shouldn’t include this at all as an upcoming game to watch, as many of the eager fans will already have completed it by the time it hits Aussies shelves.

The lack of exclusives in the next 6 months is a worrying sign. Of the few games that might seriously be worth a look most of them appear on the PS3, 360 and Wii, if not the PC, DS and PSP as well. Another instalment in the Guitar Hero series will sell well in Metallica, but after so many games in such a short space of time it’s hard to get excited about this one unless you’re a diehard fan of the band. Ghostbusters: The Videogame will appeal to many childhood fans, but as a movie tie-in we have the right to be hesitant.

New Play Control Pikmin 2 on the Wii looks good, but that’s probably because it was a great game 5 years ago when we first played it. Hopefully it has stood the test of time to provide some relief to Wii owners; however, it can hardly be classed as an upcoming release, as we’ve been playing it for years now. The Conduit is set to be released in late June, but has it (or will it) received too much hype for its own good? Halo 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Killzone 2 have all recently been victims of over hype. While they are all good games, it was impossible for them to live up to their expectations. As a result they were either loved by fanboys, or criticised too harshly by gamers who expected an unrealistic experience. I hope the same does not happen to what looks to be the 3rd party game the Wii really needs.

The DS has a great chance to capitalise with the recent release of the Nintendo DSi. But there’s little besides maybe LineRider that hasn’t already been mentioned, and that’s assuming it gets a release date soon. The PSP is in an even worse situation. Many developers practically gave up on the system, allegedly due to piracy, in 2008. If the same happens this year the handheld is all but dead. Sure games such as LittleBigPlanet and Rock Band have been announced, but they are yet to be given a release date. They could easily slide over to next year which could be too late.

The PC will be as reliable as anything in the coming months, especially for those that use Steam. I’ve purposely hardly commented on the system as I’m not a PC gamer myself and would most likely misinterpret the release list. From a brief look around the MyFrag there doesn’t appear to be anything massive coming in the next few months in a similar fashion to its console counterpart.

I have no doubt that the big games will come around November, in the Christmas period. Bioshock 2 and Modern Warfare 2 are a couple of massive sequels that we’ll see towards the year’s end. But we need something big, something special to tide us over until then. Mid-2008 gave us titles such as GTAIV and Mario Kart Wii. Presumably something will be announced for the next 6 months, but the next three especially appear bare. Are we heading into a gaming drought?

Point and Click For A New Generation

Back in the early 90's PC gaming wasn't just all FPS shooters and solitare, many developers were taking charge of a genre known as Point and Click adventure games. Some of the major players in the genre included Sierra, and Lucasarts, who were responsible for bringing some of the greatest games in the genre to our PC's.

Lucasarts really ran away with the genre with successive hits in the Monkey Island series, Sam and Max Hit The Road, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tenticle and their final swan song, Grim Fandango.

Many of these titles are constantly listed on peoples top games of all time, and rightly so. They intorduced us to memorable stories, zany characters and gameplay that required a little more than run and gun tactics.

As gaming evolved it seemed that there was no need for the genre any longer, and major developers dropped out of the race. Yet we are slowly seeing a resurgence of point and click adventure titles on not only the PC platform, but also home consoles.

Telltale Games are really leading the pack with a series of critically acclaimed titles which include the Sam and Max series, Bone series and most recently the release of the Wallace and Gromit series.

Does this mean that a genre that seemed all forgotten still has a place in this gaming world of ours. Could this truly be the beginning of another "Golden Period" in gaming, with more on offer than just your average FPS, RTS and Puzzle title?

Do you have memories from the old point and click titles? Have you been one of the gamers who have only recently had a chance to experience the genre? Stay tuned for a Lucasarts Point and Click retrospective in the next few days

Heller's Desk Vol #13

Today is my 22nd birthday, and while I feel a little older, I also feel like this is going to be a good year. So instead of my usual quirky desk pictures I decided to take on of my ACTUAL desk at home. You can see a 2008 iMac sitting there, 3gb of RAM and a 2.4gbz Intel Processor. This is my primary computer since I got it in September 2008. Next to it is the screen of my gaming rig, a filthy AMD X2 Athlon 6000+ with 4gb of DDR 2 RAM, with 2x 8600GTs running SLI. It's rocking Windows 7 and it get's all my gaming needs done, but could do with some new graphics cards.

Well now onto what's been hot on my radar this past week. With Dead Space out of the way I've really been sinking my teeth into Resident Evil 5 and while it's very different from past entries into the franchise, it inspired me to write an article on the origins of Survival Horror, where it's been and where it's headed. Check it out over here

Vin Diesel has crept onto my Xbox 360 for a few hours this week with Wheelman. It's a what you see is what you get, and chances are you won't like what you see. Tano has done a featured review which you can see here

The Godfather II has been taking up most of my time this week. It's harbors some very interesting gameplay mechanics, and while lacking overall polish, if you can get past the graphics and sub-par AI is a half decent play. I'll most likely play the whole way through but you can make your own judgements when the featured review launches towards the end of the week :)

What have you guys been playing?