Cal. Court Strikes Down Video Game Law

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A federal appeals court on Friday struck down a California law that sought to ban the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2005 law violates minors' rights under the Constitution's First and 14th amendments. The three-judge panel's unanimous ruling upholds an earlier ruling in U.S. District Court.

The law would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18. It also would have created strict labeling requirements for video game manufacturers. - Yahoo!

I don't see how the 9th could have possibly erred in this decision.

Funny Pic of the Day (1/2/09)

Boy Kills Mom Over Halo 3

ELYRIA — Daniel Petric shot his parents -- killing his mother -- because they wouldn't allow him to play the violent video game Halo 3, prosecutors told a judge at the boy's murder trial Monday.

The trial, on charges of murder and attempted murder, opened Monday for Petric, 17, of Brighton Township. He is being tried without a jury before Lorain County Common Pleas Judge James Burge. - Cleveland.com

A classic example of going way too far. And by the way, that kid is nuts and deserves to serve a life sentence.

NBA 2k9 Soundtrack Review

The Cool Kids - 2k Pennies
Hip-Hop
Grade: 7.8

DJ Unk - In Yo Face
Hip-Hop
Grade: 8.3

Beastie Boys - Root Down
Hip-Hop
Grade: 6.7

Santogold - Creator
Electronica
Grade: 9.2

DangerDoom - Sofa King
Hip-Hop
Grade: 8.3

Brand New Heavies - Jump N Move
Acid Jazz
Grade: 8.6

The Pharcyde - Passing Me By
Hip-Hop
Grade: 8.9

Dawn Penn - You Don't Love Me
Reggae
Grade: 8.4

Money Mark - Silly Putty
Acid Jazz
Grade: 8.7

N.E.R.D - Spaz
Hip-Hop
Grade: 8.2

Ursula 1000 - Step Back
Electronica
Grade: 8.3

Mommy and Daddy - Pretty Loser
Punk
Grade: 8.8

Jamalski - Tha Underground
Electronica
Grade: 8.3

Mochipet - Sharp Drest
Electronica
Grade: 8.7

The Bloody Beetrots - Mac Mac
Electronica
Grade: 9.1

DJ Rasta Root - Rootzilla Beez
Reggae
Grade: 8.9

Nickodemus - Funky In The Middle
Funk
Grade: 8.4

Limp Twins - Moving Closer to the Sofa
Funk
Grade: 8.7

Skeewif - Light The Fuse
Funk
Grade: 8.1

The Meters - Cissy Strut
Funk
Grade: 8.3

The Heavy - Coleen
Neo Soul
Grade: 8.6

Blockhead - Duke of Hazzard
Electronica
Grade: 8.5

No Women In Madden NFL 2009

This is completely random, but there are no women in Madden NFL 2009. Pause the game, press instant replay, and then scan the sidelines, the crowd, and beyond for women. Guess what? You won't find a damn one. No doubt at least 60% of NFL stadium-goers are male, but come on, EA could have designed at least one woman 3-D model.

Xbox 360 Lowered To $199

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp., in a move to court the mass market with its videogame products, plans to sharply cut the price of its Xbox 360 game consoles--including offering its least expensive model at $199.

The price cuts, effective Sept. 5, signal an increasing aggressiveness by Microsoft of Redmond, Wash., to boost sales of the Xbox 360 before the crucial holiday shopping season. The price cut in its low-end console, which had been priced at $279, marks the first time that one of the latest generations of consoles from game makers has fallen below $200.

Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, said three-quarters of sales for game consoles historically have occurred after hardware makers dropped the prices of their machines below that mark. - Wall Street Journal

This is absolutely nuts in a great sort of way for Microsoft. I remember just a few years ago when the PS2 was over $200.

Madden NFL 2009 Demo Review (PS3)

Graphics: 9.3 out of 10 - Madden NFL 2009 brings the most realistic player models and stadiums to date. The grass, which I thought was awesome in 2008, has budded even more out of the ground in this year's game. The player models, while still not perfect, have improved greatly. Each player's face and built has been scanned and transferred from image to 3D. Similar to the NBA 2K series, you can now see sweat on every player's forearm. Also, the sideline players, coaches, and personnel look like they are actually interested in the game.

Gameplay: 9.0 out of 10 - Again, I thought 2008 had so many different in-game features that that game couldn't be topped. Well, 2009 brings more realistic catching animations (more dropped balls, less spectacular catches) and a more realistic running game (spins are effective at the line and you can mash your way through defenders using a combination of the R stick and X). In terms of passing, the defense keeps you on your toes. You can't expect more than five seconds in the pocket without a hurd of defenders around you. Throwing the ball feels better (thanks to the 60 Frames Per Second upgrade), but user catching has gotten more difficult. The timing is a bit off (credit the new and improved on-field camera) so this will take some adjustments to get used to. Since I sucked so much in my first fifty drives (scoring a touchdown not once), I never got a chance to play defense. Kicking and punting controls are the same as last year.

Features: 10 out of 10 - I can already tell that this is going to be the deepest video game ever in terms of features. When you first turn on the demo, John Madden appears and instructs you to take part in Madden IQ, which is a system that determines which difficulties to put you at. The idea of setting different difficulties for each major aspect of the game is a good one. For instance, I blew past the defenders rushing the ball. As a result, my sliders for rushing were adjusted to All-Pro. I didn't do as great passing the ball. As a result, my sliders for passing were adjusted to Pro. To put defense into perspective, I didn't tackle the offensive player once (when they threw and when they ran!). My sliders were adjusted to the lowest level possible. At any time, you can go back to Madden IQ and play the mini-games over to improve your ratings.

Overall: 9.4 out of 10 - I might be over-rating the game a little because I have gotten a chance to play defense. In that case, hold tight for August 12 when I will do a complete review of the game.

NCAA Football 2009 Gamer?

Greetings fellow fans and NCAA gamers! As some of you may already know, http://freencaa09rosters.com is the place to go if you’re interested in downloading full rosters (that means every team!) for the new NCAA college football game. Not only is the service free but I can personally attest that they are extremely accurate. The guys there really do their homework and are just as invested in 100% accuracy as we are. Why? B/c like us they’re college football gamers who are looking to make the NCAA 09 experience as realistic as possible. Besides, isn’t it much more cool to be playing against Florida and see “Tebow” on the jersey rather than just “No. 15”?

The cool factor and realism aside, there’s another extremely important reason to become freencaa09rosters.com patrons. Several services out there also offer team rosters but for a fee. This may sound OK but it’s potentially quite dangerous. The NCAA frowns upon businesses or individuals making money off its athletes. As a result, it’s a fear of many in the NCAA gaming community that these rosters-for-pay sites will eventually attract the NCAA’s attention. Are these sites in fact profiting from the names of college athletes? Maybe, maybe not. But why chance it? Do we really want to risk the possibility that the name-editing feature will be removed from the game altogether?

Obtaining your team rosters from freencaa09rosters.com is the perfect way to ensure that the above-mentioned feature stays “in the game” and that the NCAA keeps its nose out of our business. Plus, it’s just as accurate as the pay sites (maybe even more so) and it’s free! I’ll say it again: it’s free! So please consider freencaa09rosters.com for your roster needs. Not only will you be helping yourself (save that $10 for gas!) but you’ll also be helping the gaming community as a whole. Thanks! - freencaa09rosters.com

Brian Kaldenberg, an owner of many for-profit roster sites, is gradually becoming a villain in the NCAA video gaming world. Roster editors are accusing Kaldenberg of plagiarizing their work, amongst other deceitful practices. Kaldenberg then goes on to sell his rosters for a hefty price -- up to $40.00 if people want a new memory card or USB stick. Many people purchase his rosters because they do not know how to get a hold of the free ones. Kaldenberg has made offers to free roster sites so that he can turn them into for-profit. If Kaldenberg was making his OWN rosters and not stealing them from others and selling them, then this wouldn't be a problem. My suggestion? Jam Econo. Go to a free site and download your rosters from there.

Crazy Japanese Wii Game

From Thinkgeek.com:

"As any good geek should know by now Japan has some of the wackiest and most unusual products anywhere. So when we were visiting Tokyo recently and saw lines of Japanese schoolgirls waiting to play an amazing new game for the Wii called Super Pii Pii Brothers we were only a little surprised. After all with games like WarioWare and Raving Rabbids the Wii is no stranger to crazy gameplay mechanics... but it was quite unusual to see the "strap-on" style accessory and peeing action that Pii Pii Brothers provides. Normally ThinkGeek doesn't carry video games, but we were so blown-away by Super Pii Pii Brothers that we immediately got our trusted Japanese importer on the phone and arranged to bring over a limited quantity of this amazing Wii game along with some cross regional boot discs to allow play on USA Wii consoles. The play mechanics are simple. Prepare yourself by strapping on the included belt harness and jacking in your Wiimote. A series of toilets are presented on screen and the challenge is to tilt your body to control a never-ending stream of pee. Get as much pee in the toilets as you can while spilling as little on the floor as possible. Sounds easy eh? Well the toilets open and close whack-a-mole style and occasionally the stray cat or other cute critter pops up. Spray a cat for extra points. Get too much pee on the ground and your game is over. With realistic fluid dynamics for the pee and over 100 different bathrooms from bars and palaces to automatic Japanese style toilets you'll be entertained for hours. And wait until your friends see the multi-player mode with dueling pee streams... According to the Japanese text on the box "Super Pii Pii Brothers promotes good bathroom skills and allows women to experience for the first time the pleasure of urinating while standing." What we say is that virtual peeing is damn fun!"

Gotta love those guys over in Japan. How the hell do they come up with this awesome crap?

LoL Jack Thompson

According to a report from GamePolitics, the judge who presided over Miami lawyer Jack Thompson's Bar trial has recommended to the Florida Supreme Court that he be found guilty on 27 of 31 charges of professional misconduct. Of the 27 recommendations of guilt, twenty-one are from a suit related to Grand Theft Auto and four are from an attempt by Thompson to have Rockstar's Bully declared a public nuisance.

The Bar trial judge, Dava Tunis, found the violent video game activist guilty of misconduct such as "Engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation." The state Supreme Court will have to make a ruling based on those recommendations, with a disciplinary hearing planned for the first week of June. - Kotaku

Ownage.

13 Year Old Boy Purchases Some Hookers

A 13 year old boy from Texas is convicted of fraud after using his Father's credit cards to hire escorts.

A 13 year old from Texas who stole his Dad's credit card and ordered two hookers from an escort agency, has today been convicted of fraud and given a three year community order.

Ralph Hardy, a 13 year old from Newark, Texas confessed to ordering an extra credit card from his father's existing credit card company, and took his friends on a $30,000 spending spree, culminating in playing "Halo" on an Xbox with a couple of hookers in a Texas motel.

The credit card company involved said it was regular practice to send extra credit cards out as long as all security questions are answered.

The escort girls who were released without charge, told the arresting officers something was up when the kids said they would rather play Xbox than get down to business. - Money.co.uk

This has all the makings of the funniest news story ever.

Guitar Hero 4 Information

Guitar Hero 4 (PS3, 360, Wii, PS2)
- Create a song. Although these exclude vocals due to storage and possible copyright issues.
- You'll be able to name your song as well as creating album art. After you've done all that you can upload it to GH Tunes where anyone can download it.
- You'll be limited to 5 songs at first. But depending on the ratings you get you'll possibly be able to upload 10 or more.
- The song sharing mode will be in the Wii and PS2 versions also, but GI says it's unlikely that it'll be as robust as the PS3 and 360 versions.
- Drums, bass, vocals, guitar
- Create a rocker
- Create a guitar and drums
- All songs will be master tracks
- They don't want to discuss specifics on track listing out of fear of being scooped by the competition. However they confirmed 4 bands: Van Halen, The Eagles, Linkin Park and Sublime. - Scorehero

Guitar Hero 4 = the new Rock Band?

GTA IV Hits Stores Tommorow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On Tuesday, after nearly four years of waiting, endless speculation, and numerous delays, Grand Theft Auto IV will finally be released. Gamers are sure to be pleased, but it's an event that Sony, Microsoft, and publisher Take-Two Interactive have likely been looking forward to even more.

The game's predecessor, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, became the best-selling videogame, ever, in the United States when it was released in 2004. And with the game's two platforms, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3, trailing in sales behind Nintendo's Wii, it's likely they'll get a big boost from GTA IV's release. - Wired

I can't say I've been waiting for four years, but definitely a good two. I preordered a copy so I am just about all set. How much do you guys want to bet that Jessi Dacri is absent tommorow?

Playstation Home Delayed Again

According to Sony, they won't make [the spring of 2008] deadline either. The new target is the fall of 2008, almost a year later than initially anticipated. In any case, the company plans to allow more testers into the fold until then.

When the service launches publicly, it will remain in beta. The company has provided no details as to when to expect a final release.

"We have come to the conclusion that we need more time to refine the service to ensure a more focused gaming entertainment experience than what it is today," Sony Computer Entertainment president Kazuo Hirai said in a statement. - BetaNews

I actually recently looked up Home on wikipedia. I saw that the release date was "Spring 2008" and that just seemed way too good to be true. And what do you know?

Rock Band News

We will have a specific announcement about [The Who and Who's Next] coming up soon regarding some work that we have coming down the pike with The Who in general that I think people are gonna be pretty happy about...and in general what you're gonna see sorta deep dives with particular artists, where with some artists...of the appropriate stature, you'll see us doing more than whole albums, potentially even entire catalogs. - Harmonix

I am not sure how many Rock Band fans are reading this, but this one is for you.

MLB 2k8 Soundtrack Review

The Ratings

Amazing Songs:
The Strokes — Someday
Peter Bjorn & John — The Chills

Great Songs:
Battles — Atlas
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club — Need Some Air
Dinosaur Jr. — Almost Ready
The Flaming Lips — The W.A.N.D
Kasabian — Reason Is Treason
The Presidents Of The United States Of America — Cleveland Rocks
The Cure — Never Enough

Good Songs:
Jay Reatard — My Shadow
Modest Mouse — Dashboard
The Revolution Fox Experiment — Hyper Charlie
The Cool Kids — 88

Okay Songs:
Blitzen Trapper — Wild Mountain Nation
The Cars — Moving In Stereo
The Hold Steady — Stuck Between Stations

N/A (Can't find it anywhere):
LCD Soundsystem — Watch The Tapes

Comments

One of the best video game soundtracks of all time? Yeah, uh huh. Prior to listening to this soundtrack, MVP Baseball 2005's tuneset (new word) reigned easily as my favorite ever. With the likes of then indie groups Louis XIV, Hot Hot Heat, The Bravery, and The High Speed, I at the time did not think that there would ever be a better sounding game. Well, I can now say that I guessed wrong. As you can see, there aren't any songs that are bad or terrible on MLB 2k8. The worst, in my opinion, is "Stuck Between Stations," but even that was half decent. Forget about the bad and look at the good, great, and the amazing. There is a great blend of old (The Cure; The Flaming Lips) and new (Battles; The Cool Kids) which means that there is also a great breadth of musical styles and genres in the game. Since the label "indie" doesn't really tell you too much about what KIND of music is being played, I can tell you that most of the tracks are synth-based, garage(y), and post-punk. The best song in the game is "Someday" by The Strokes. There are a bunch of songs that to me that have "Spring" written all over them. "Someday" is definitely one of them. The baseball season starts in April and for me the tennis season starts in April as well. From now until then, I like to listen to songs that pump me up. "Someday" as I just said does that. There a bunch of other ones that to do that and these include, "Reason is Treason"; "The W.A.N.D; and "Cleveland Rocks." I am not saying that you should buy the game (release date: March 4), but you should definitley download or buy these tracks. As a music listener, you should be impressed...very impressed.

Gov't To Monitor Video Games

Be careful who you frag. Having eliminated all terrorism in the real world, the U.S. intelligence community is working to develop software that will detect violent extremists infiltrating World of Warcraft and other massive multiplayer games, according to a data-mining report from the Director of National Intelligence.

The Reynard project will begin by profiling online gaming behavior, then potentially move on to its ultimate goal of "automatically detecting suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world." - Wired.com

Hey, United States government...how about no.

Still On The Fence? Use This Guide.

Still not sure which video game system to buy? (Click to enlarge)

The image really makes PS3 owners out to be loners

Guitar Hero 3: Best-Selling Game of All Time

Activision today announced that its Guitar Hero series has pushed past the $1 billion mark since its debut 26 months ago, citing NPD Group data. In North America alone, the series has sold more than 14 million units. In addition to that news, the company pointed out that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was the top-selling title in 2007, making it the best-selling video game of all time in a single calendar year—thanks to the fact that it appeared simultaneously on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360.

"Guitar Hero is one of the biggest brands and one of the most powerful distribution platforms in all of entertainment today," said Michael Griffith, president and chief executive officer of Activision Publishing Inc. "Guitar Hero's popularity with broad audiences is a confirmation that video games have become a true mass medium."

Good for Activision. But remember: the best-selling game of all time is not equal to the best video game of all time.

Virtually Killing Cancer Boosts Morale

When 12-year-old Taylor Carol contracted a rare, virulent form of leukemia, it took aggressive medical treatment to save his life. That and a video game.

Taylor gives part of the credit for his recovery to the hours he spent playing Re-Mission, a computer game that lets children with cancer fight back by zapping simulated cancer cells.

"It's just such a morale boost, being able to kill what's been keeping you in the hospital bed and away from your friends," Taylor said.

His father, Jim Taylor, a technology entrepreneur and philanthropist in Dana Point, Calif., said the game helped his son endure a painful bone marrow transplant and months of chemotherapy.

"When a kid has cancer, everything's being done to them," he said. "The game gave the kid a chance to feel like he was in charge." - The Boston Globe

"Video games harm children." Yeah right.