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Lying hypocrite Keith Vaz is at it again. The corrupt Labor politician has once again brought up the subject of violent videogames, perhaps because it distracts everybody from his shady legal deals and questionable expense accounts. In any case, he wants cigarette-style warning labels on game boxes, and states that adult videogames are worst than films. 

“A film with inappropriate content is not interactive,” bullsh*ts Vaz. “The point about video games, which is backed up by research from America, is that the player is part of the process. Players shoot and stab people in a videogame, and that is different. I accept that inappropriate content is wrong, wherever it is found, but videogames are different.

“If a young person gets hold of Modern Warfare 2, for example, they will be asked to participate in a terrorist attack; they will be asked to shoot at civilians in Moscow airport as part of the game.”

Vaz says he’s not a fan of censorship, and that adults should be allowed to play violent games. However, he still trotted out the Stephen Pakeerah case and claimed that the young boy was killed thanks to Manhunt, despite a conclusive police report saying that Rockstar’s game had nothing to do with it.

So yes, yet more misconceptions and outright lies from Mr. Vadge. Until next time! 

Keith Vaz Warns Violent Games Are Worse Than Violent Films [Negative Gamer]

Voice actor Jon St. John set the universe straight during the Music and Video Game Festival by not commenting on his role as Duke Nukem in 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever. The key here is what the blank space implies.

“I’m not allowed to speak on that subject, sir,” St. John replied when asked about DNF. He added, “Let me go ahead and tell you right now: I’m not allowed to speak about Duke Nukem Forever.” The crowd in the stuffy room booed. “No, no, don’t be disappointed. Read between the lines.

“Why am I not allowed to talk about it [DNF]?”

The need for silence on the subject might have more to do with the ongoing legal brouhaha surrounding the studio and the game rather than its ongoing development, but this world is a place of infinite and surprising possibilities. Example: Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. No-one saw that coming.

Duke Nukem Himself All But Confirms Duke Nukem Forever [Pixel Enemy, via Screw Attack]

At the Microsoft press conference, a tasty little tidbit was revealed concerning everyone’s favorite hyped-game-that-nobody’s-played, Alan Wake. Despite the game itself taking ten billion years to develop, Remedy is already looking at downloadable content for the game, with the story set to expand via DLC “episodes.”

The Xbox 360 exclusive will be “story-driven, like a TV series.” The game itself shall be broken into episodes when it launches, allowing an easy transition into extra, post-launch episodic chapters. It seems that Alan Wake will further its exposition in exactly the same was as the PS3’s Heavy Rain. 

Microsoft ED&D boss Robbie Bach calls Alan Wake “the TV show Lost, as written by Stephen King, and filmed by David Lynch.” Not that they’re overselling it or anything. 

Here’s a (pretty much) direct transcript of the final moments of my recent conversation with Capcom’s Seth Killian-

Me-”There are rumors going around that March’s Mega Man 10 will have a co-op mode, and that Bass will be the third playable character. Wouldn’t that be cool? Huh? Wouldn’t it?“

Seth-”Um, yes. Sounds fun to me. I have to go now.“

Me- “…and with Mega Man 10 coming out in less than 90 days, must you continue the madness surrounding the elusive Mega Man 9 secret. Can’t you give us a good hint for a change? Is it an item, an animation, a secret area, or just a background object? I mean come on! Throw us a bone here!“

Seth- “Did I already say I have to go? Because I do. Anyway I will probably go to internet hell when I die for acting like such a tease, but no dice. I was actually thinking of spilling the beans at the launch of Mega Man 10, just so we can all move on with our lives, but I was asked not to. That said, I will at least keep my promise to acknowledge that ‘yep, that was the secret’ should someone discover it on their own…“

Here’s the thing though, he totally didn’t have to go. He really didn’t. So why’d he leave? Part of me thinks that maybe my breath started to smell (hey, it happens), and another part  thinks that maybe I was onto something with those Mega Man 10 rumors, and that Seth wasn’t ready to spill the beans yet.

So what do you think, will Mega Man 10 have co-op and Bass, or does my breath smell, or both?

One of my most anticipated DS games of 2010 is Dark Void Zero. Why? Because I trust Capcom when it comes to NES-era gaming. Other than a few outliers like Street Fighter 2010, I loved just about every title they put out on the NES.

As poetic as it is in theory to be fueled by faith alone, it’s even better to have your pre-release videogame excitement powered by stuff you actually know. As always, Capcom-Unity manager Seth Killian is there to help. According to Seth, “Dark Void Zero feels to me a little like a cross between NES Bionic Commando in terms of level design, and Section Z in terms of mechanics. Good clean platform-y, shoot-y fun.” I hope it has a soundtrack to match. Bionic Commando and Section Z have amazing music.

Speaking of which, Dark Void Zero’s soundtrack apparently had a lot to do with the game getting made in the first place. That whole PlayChoice-10 thing? Probably all a silly ruse. Seth says that “It [Dark Void Zero)] was one of those ideas that sort of started out as a joke while listening to Bear McCreary’s 8-bit mix of the Dark Void theme, like ‘wouldn’t it be funny if we did this?’… and then we actually did it.“

You go, Bear McCreary.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer gave the keynote address at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, speaking a bit about the future of the Xbox 360.

As anyone with a single functioning brain cell could have already told you, Project Natal, Microsoft’s new camera-based motion controller, will be released during the 2010 holiday season.

During the keynote, another one of those funny little sentences popped up again: Engadget reported that executive Robbie Bach said that Natal will “work with your existing console.” We heard the same weird phrasing at E3, and that was quickly followed up with a story from 1up that spelled out their take on why Microsoft would be saying such strange things: A new Xbox may be in the works.

Game Room for the Xbox 360 will let you build your own virtual arcade by buying classic games like Atari’s Tempest.
Image courtesy Microsoft

One more big announcement: Microsoft will debut a new service called Game Room. Like Nintendo’s Virtual Console for Wii and Sony’s PlayStation Archives, it’ll let you download classic games. Unlike those services, you can access those games through a 3-D virtual world interface, using your Xbox 360 Avatar.

You can buy games for $5 each, which will let you play them on your Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Or you can pay $3 to play the game on a single platform. $3 per game, every game? That’s a pretty awesome deal, considering that classic arcade games on Wii cost anywhere from $5 to $10.

There’s also a pay-per-play option in which you can pay 50 cents to demo a game once. Microsoft says you can invite your Xbox friends over to check out the games in your Game Room, although the press release doesn’t quite make it clear exactly how much access they’ll have to your virtual goods.

Here’s the best part. Although the service will launch this spring with 30 games from the arcade, Atari 2600, and Intellivision, Microsoft says that within three years the number of games will be up to 1,000. That’s thousand. That’s awesome.

Videogame box art is rarely something to celebrate, but in Gran Turismo 5’s case it appears as though we should. This game could actually ship to retail this century.

At first glance (and subsequent ones for me) it looks like nothing remarkable is happening on the cover. The official release indicates differently. The red car featured in the lower center is described as “the gull-winged terror.” It’s a Mercedes SLS AMG, a car that can go really, really fast and a car that we’ll never, ever, be able to afford. Cute, right?

If you’re down with the car, hit the fold for a video and the gallery for some images of the thing. Those precious seconds spent should help take the edge off the yearning for this game to happen.

Every now and then, we need somebody to tell us something we already knew, and that somebody right now is Bob Jacob, Cinemaware co-founder. Jacob blames the business model of a licensed game, wherein it has to be rushed to coincide with the release of the film. Well, duh. 

“As far as games and movies, there are inherent problems. The basic reason why so many bad games have been made on film licenses is simply because of a business reality that no one has been able to overcome yet,” explains Jacob. “That reality is that the time it takes a film to [hit theaters after being green-lit] is never more than a year. What kind of a game can you do in a year? Generally a piece of crap.

“EA can get around that a little bit by throwing a few hundred guys at a project. But for the most part, it’s been a pretty sorry history, and until we can solve the basic timing issues it’s going to be tough.”

Jacob is obviously correct when he says that you can’t expect many games to be of AAA quality with less than a year of development. However, when I look at slapdash garbage like Avatar: The Game, there really is no excuse. Even in a year, you can at least borrow game engines and mechanics to create a serviceable, if generic, title. The quality of licensed games should be better with the wealth of resources available. However, there is one major problem that Jacob didn’t hit upon that I feel will never be overcome. 

The fact that developers don’t give a sh*t.

Interview: Bob Jacob On The Cinemaware Era [Gamasutra via CVG]

Until that magical day when BioWare announces Wrex Effect, it looks like we’ll have to get comfortable with controlling Mr. Blank Slate, Commander Shepard. But even though we can’t play as the rough and gruff space toad in Mass Effect 2, we can become him. Sort of.

Follow us, here. The Vanguard class in the Mass Effect universe is all about getting in enemies faces and then blasting off said faces with a combination of short-ranged weaponry and biotic powers. In Mass Effect 2 specifically, Vanguards will be able to use the “Charge” attack again, which makes Sheppard move around like The Flash after a cocaine binge. Nothing says proximity like a good old fashioned Krogan rush, right? Right?