Wow...did the publisher make him apologize, or did some angered gamer come to his house and threaten him? 'Cause we're all a bunch of savages apparently.

If only Jack Thompson could take a hint from this guy's admission of actually making a mistake...

Dumbass.

I was hoping he'd acknowledge that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but I guess that's asking too much.

I didn't know you could concur with yourself.

He wiped his ass with that "apology" before handing it over...

Still half hearted. Next time, do your research FIRST.

@FitzRhapsody:
The difference is that one of these men is ignorant, the other is just plain batshit insane.

I wasn't expecting him to surrender his 15 minutes of internet fame so soon.
Doubt this will be the last we see of him though.

Funny that his sincere concerns now were nowhere to be seen in his earlier positions. Flips like a pancake to win us over.
Still pathetic.

He's backtracking to make it look like his original position wasn't that Mass Effect is an orgy simulator, but he simply doesn't want kids playing the game because it contains hot alien sex.

@josh924: Had he done that, I might not have called him a dumbass . . . no, actually, he'd STILL be a dumbass, because what intelligent person pops his mouth off regarding something he knows nothing about?

[www.penny-arcade.com]

There still is no apology for his blatant lies regarding Mass Effect. The apology is far too short of acceptable. The lies, immaturity, and name calling require an apology also. What did the response total get to, last I saw it was over 800?

I'm still trying to figure out the whole "most realistic sex ever conceived" thing myself. I've seen more sex on Hannah Montana.

This apology is rather weak. He never admitted to being wrong about all the falsehoods he spewed relentlessly about Mass Effect.

what a douche.

A simple apology will not wipe your idiocy from recent memory, you jack ass. Why is it that the good always die young while the bastards are never murdered like they should be?

An apology isn't good enough. Something horrible should be done to his eyes.

He doesn't care about apologizing, or being wrong, or what have you. All he ever wanted is attention from day one. If he actually WAS concerned, he'd be sure to get his facts straight before saying all that sensationalist garbage.

You got your attention, now you can go back in your hole where you can pretend to be relevant without letting the rest of the world hear about it.

Hey Atheist, calm down. You're not making our side look good either.

@Atheist Jew: And its immature comments like that which show how unethical some people are.

Oh look he's finally gotten out of the hole he dug for himself...

Just to trip and fall into another one.

If you're going to apologize at least make it sincere. This bunch of bologna just seems forced and derogatory.

Thats not an apology, its him becoming publicly self-concious that he is indeed a fooktard.

Speaking of being removed from society... Jack would make a good friend for this guy.

Stop giving this guy more coverage.

Mass Effect is not smut.

@rollerbldes: There's enough bologna in it to make 7 sandwiches.

Brian, take Fahey's lead and don't post about this idiot any more. He is a publicity hound and you are giving him exactly what he wants.

The apology is negated by the way that he wrote it. If he had just kept it in plain text, not in bold with some capital letters, it may have retained some semblance of sincerity. As it is, it comes across as condescending to me. Just my interpretation... maybe I'm paranoid.

@Dark_Jon: Hell yeah it is! McCullough said!

Virtual. Orgasmic. Rape.

What a clever, clever person.

@rollerbldes: Ha, just noticed your post as it took me 10 minutes to write my own as I was doing other stuff (no, not that!) while I was writing it. I'm glad to see that someone saw it the same way I did.

@FitzRhapsody:
Bet it's not because he feels sorry, but he's probably getting a shit ton of hate mail and death threats right now.

@FitzRhapsody:

You say that as if JT ever makes mistakes.

Oh, wait.

Seriously though... that wasn't much of an 'apology'. D- at best, F--- at worst.

At least the guy manned up.

Please stop covering this attention starved media whore. Yes he apologized, but he should have done that from the start. He's a grown up, he should have known that lying in editorials is a no no. I think he may have not known just how passionate the gaming community is. Either way, please stop extending this dudes 15 minutes. Let us put d-bags like this behind us and focus on news that benefit the gaming community, not the detractors. He's a troll. Plain and simple. He just doesn't regurgitate his garbage on message boards, he pretends it's real journalism. Please blacklist anything this guy says from now on. He's a cancer.

That wasn't an apology. It was a dance. A beautiful dance which was choreographed by him to intentionally get under our skins once more while peacefully backing away; like the villain who puts his hands up while reaching for the gun behind his back.

I don't even know why we're still talking about this guy. He's an obscure writer (I use that term VERY loosly) who the closest thing to fame he will ever get is this. he would like the gaming community to continue to discuss and bash him, because this is as good as it's gonna get for him. Please, we should all stop encouraging him and leave that sad, sad man to continue to fade back into total obscurity.

Could that apology be any more sarcastic or condescending?

Plus people seem to forget he called us gamer-nerds!! Apologise for that!

Do you know what REALLY irritates me about all this?

I'M a parent.

I have a 4-year-old son.

A 4-year-old son that I have NO problems monitoring what games he plays, because I'm the one buying the games FOR him, and because he can't go 5 minutes before proudly announcing how far he's gotten in Sonic Adventure 2 or Lego Star Wars.

However, in a few years time (despite obvious supervision at home), I will have little-to-no ability to prevent him from seeing the TRULY perverted and oft-times ILLEGAL material that's obtainable on the internet with a few clicks of a mouse button. The kind of material that I've seen, yet which hasn't affected me because I'm further along in my mental development than he is (the worst I experienced was a Playboy magazine when I was 12).

So all I can do is hope and pray that this kind of material doesn't end up warping his young mind, because the politicians are more obsessed with restricting the sales of Grand Theft Auto and Mass Effect than they are about children watching 2 Girls 1 Cup.

nice, I respect that, escpecially the fact that he did some research now, compared to just going on a rampage

What an ass. First, calling us gamer-nerds is flat out insulting and doesn't help his credibility at all.

Second, while I have no problem with him complaining about kids getting their hands on M-rated games, I have a huge problem with his attitude towards videogames, least of all Mass Effect.

He completely undermines all of the incredibly hard work and passion that goes into making a game like this, and writes it off with zero respect. Here is a game, which is going to have a bigger effect on people than he will likely ever have in his whole life, and he doesn't even have the respect to find out what it's really about before slamming it as if he was an authority on it. Fucking prick.

People like this love to take advantage of the fact that the majority of gamers are not old enough to vote; they try and side with other potential videogame critics for personal gain. Hey McCullough, that may have been true 10 years ago, but you're so completely uninformed about MY industry you wouldn't know that, would you?!

@Providence: @DarkTetsuya: Ah, after re-reading, I took more specific note of his choice of words:

"I had been misinformed on at least two points of substance in my original column."

I now realize he really didn't admit he was wrong. He just kind of... side-stepped it. And made a half-assed apology. *sigh*

@shorty1k: You have a really good point. If he were as batshit insane as Jack, he probably would have tried to sue gamers everywhere in an opposite-class-action-lawsuit, where one plaintiff sues a massive amount of people (is that... does that even exist?). And then he'd sue Kotaku for "inciting the wrath of gamers" by being journalists.

...Isn't it kind of ironic that McCullough's article has had such a, well...
Mass Effect?

Pretty big and varied demographic to insult nowadays. I'm not surprised an apology was made.

Apology doesn't really much if he doesn't acknowledge that his claims regarding the game were way off mark.

Good that he apologized and acknowledged the error of his ways. Even better than the calmer members of the gaming community offered to help clarify his misunderstandings.

There will always be folks who rally against things they don't understand. It's our duty as *educated* gamers to not get angry and instead inform those who don't "get it" so that they put away the pitchforks. If this guy's main concern is that adult content is being marketed/sold to children, then I can understand his worry. He obviously went about his crusade all wrong and learned the hard way that there's more to such things than meets the eye.

I loved Mass Effect. I am also a parent and do not think children should play it without the consent of their parents. So even if Mr. McCullough came off as a raving lunatic (and misrepresented the facts) I can see where he is coming from. It's not good for us to react by being equally venomous or hateful, either. It just makes the problem worse.

It's every bit as unnerving that he was so grossly misinformed about the game's content as his insulting comments. I remain unsatisfied!

This dick reminds me of my dad, who firmly believes I'm a hardened and trained killer because I own a copy of Halo.

Hardened and trained with a Nerf gun...

@Archem: Nerf guns? Stay away from me killer! Police, help!

All seriousness aside, the guy shouldnt've mouthed off like that without first researching what he was bitching about. And then claims he was misinformed as though to make it someone elses fault. "Oh, 2girls1cup is a delightful story about 2 girls searching for the holy grail" "Wait, I was misinformed, even though the video is easy to get to to see what it is"

@StopTheOncoming: It's unethical to suggest a bad man pays for what he's done? Ok, fine. How about instead of doing something horrible to his eyes, he gets sacked instead? Is that somehow better? Either way, it's a punishment for his own unethical actions of lying to his readers. Do you not think that he should have some kind of penalty incurred upon him so that he doesn't do it again?

This whole debacle has gotten the jack ass more attention than he ever would have had otherwise. A simple apology is not enough, because it's a token gesture, obviously. He didn't learn his lesson, and so he will do it again. He stuck his hand into the fire, and he didn't get burned, so he won't learn anything from the experience. This isn't immature, and this isn't unethical. It's logical.

this made me laugh, I hope work is just as good >.<

"The most realistic sex ever conceived?" Like, more realistic than, say, real sex? Damn, I gotta try that shit.

"buncha savages in this town"

He's still clueless, he's just trying to keep them hatemails down.

@Jesse in Japan: You win the comments.

Talk first.

Think later.

Never research!

He's like the anti-journalist.

and to @Jesse in Japan:

Technically since no-one has had sex with aliens he's partly right on that account.

He's still a tit.

I laugh everytime I see that Mass Effect picture.

Yes, we can do better than 42%. But also compare the numbers to other forms of media where I think the Music genre is 92%?

I still hate him ^_^

Still annoyed. "engage in the most realistic sex ever conceived."

Lol, anyways, jerks like that make me want to play more visual novels.

Off to get another ending for Tsukihime.

Doesn't get him outta the doghouse for me, he's got no cred...no cred at all.

Sideshow's over, folks. Now let's get back to people that actually matter.

At least two points? He's lucky if he got that much RIGHT, and the game title is one.

Long story short: Don't piss off gamer nerds, we own the internet.

I still do concur with my original position that the objectionable content in Mass Effect is still offensive...

It's good to see that his newfound humility has in no way improved his writing.

Hack. How do these people get jobs as regular columnists?

and should be kept out of the hands of those underage.

Well NO SHIT! That's why the rating is there in the first place! Had you said that from the start, you wouldn't have come across as an uninformed hack journalist not researching the topics he writes on.

"at least two points" -- talk about shading the truth

Yes, the multitude of errors, mistatements, and outright lies in his original column is, technically, at least two. But his statement is the equ