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Denver, 10:27 AM
Sat Dec 19
46 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/17/09
12/17/09
12/17/09
What do you think the odds are that the GTA IV DLC (what with its full frontal male dangly parts and, especially in Gay Tony, fair number of on-camera sex scenes) would've been slapped with an AO if the ESRB didn't have Rockstar and Microsoft breathing down the back of their collective neck?
Hopefully Quantic really will stick to their guns and the ESRB will have ejected their octogenarian review staff and evened out their ratings standards by the time this hits.
12/17/09
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12/17/09
Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy was in the process of being given an M rating, when David Cage got a call and was told it was going to be given an AO because of the GTA situation days earlier.
The ESRB: Spinelessly pandering to family groups and politicians since ages ago.
12/17/09
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12/18/09
It was my opinion that that game never should have left the PC anyway. As to whether the game should have been AO, I think it was only for the sex scene being interactive, which indeed is something an R-rated movie wouldn't and cannot have.
It wasn't obscene, by any stretch of the imagination, but I can understand the notion of it being 'adult content'. Though, I can't argue that it's any more 'adult' than most interactive content in M-rated games.
12/18/09
What would make you say it "never should have left the PC"? It controlled well and looked great. Are you seriously suggesting that game consoles are only for less mature gamers?
07:36 AM
No, I'm not.
The way it played just felt awkward in comparison to how it felt on the PC. I'm more of a console gamer than a PC gamer (though, as of late, it's growing toward a balance), but I still recognized that the gestures seemed better suited to a mouse.
12/17/09
And I say, let em'.
12/17/09
12/17/09
It looks to be a project which younger children wouldn't be into anyway. It seems more cerebral than that...and for that I am grateful.
12/17/09
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12/17/09
this is the laziness factor.
this game will not be for them unless it ships with a 'boob mode'...though such a thing already exists in real life.
it's called google with safesearch off.
12/17/09
I recall when I was a young man trying to get Morrigan in the original Dark Stalkers to show her boobs. But then, I was still on 14.4kbps back then.
12/17/09
Thought I suppose the concept is somewhat new and shiny to many of those stumbling into puberty.
But that can of worms is currently writhing through my fingers and I have no desire to progress further into the tangled snare of sexual whosits that boils around the madness caused by the natural anatomical object - the breasts. (And all the other 'no-no' parts)
12/17/09
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12/17/09
They made me not wanna play any game to completion for fear of the story not making sense anymore.
12/17/09
I dont approve of it, but most parents these days dont give a shit, theyre just as likely to buy an 18 for there kid as they are a T.
12/17/09
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12/17/09
An AO rating is a karate chopping action death-strike to a company's bottom line. Ultimately the project has to payoff, and it won't if people have to go out of thier way to buy it.
See, game designers understand 2 fundamental truths about Americans:
1. we like sex and violence.
2. we are very lazy, and won't go out of our way to get those things.
Striking that balance is what counts. So you often get skimpy outfits and fountains of blood with a T rating, because it hits the largest market available while incurring the least risk to a successful payback.
Of course, it would be interesting to compare average sales of say, Mass Effect, which got tons of 'negative' press in the states, with sales in a country with free-er views on sex. One wonders if pushing the sex envelope is actually a strategic business plan to generate free press in the US.
12/17/09
12/17/09
12/17/09
Curious how people're still avoiding labeling games as such.
12/17/09
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12/17/09
12/17/09
I credit you with a touch of irony. To be fair their seems to be a lot more to this in terms of interaction than many people give credit. I wish it was a little more robust myself. It does not seem a million miles away from the likes of Shenmue which many still clamour for. Especially using Farenheit as a template. Which I enjoyed a lot. Adventure is the most reasonable label, walking the line between pretention and criticism.
12/17/09
But even this year to a lesser extent, Uncharted 2 just screamed "Ha, I'm now more awesome than Indiana Jones!" when I first played through it.
12/17/09
12/17/09
I don't think any of the fine writers of Kotaku would be able to resist printing a headline next to a picture of Night Trap, if it were to pop up in a press release of a big title.
12/17/09
12/17/09
(For the record: No, it's not a plus that the game is all full of HURRSEXX, it's a plus that it's not going to be censored like IP was. No, Ubisoft, even us innocent little Americans don't shower in empty apartments in our bikinis. How they made one of the single most unique and immersive [for the first half, at least] and then decided to kill immersion entirely by pretending that people are all prudes and sex is for bad guys, I have no idea.)
12/17/09
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12/17/09
You can see naked people on TV before 6pm (made up for example as "documentary" about plastic surgery...). 0_0
12/17/09
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12/17/09
Maybe he means less in the "go where you want" sense and more in the "find out what to do next" sense.
Ie: No handy-dandy mission guide with objectives and maps.
12/17/09
12/17/09
For example, the opening sequence int eh cafe which can be completed a good 5-6 different ways.
It was fun at first, but i got tired of being penalized for overlooking certain details and having to redo the level again and again.
12/17/09
Well, Mario games typically (typically) don't have quick-time events; Mario's possible actions are, for the most part, set in stone. The difference between Mario and Indigo Prophecy would be that in the former game, the player is tasked with finding out which of Mario's abilities can get him past a given obstacle, and in the latter game, the player is tasked with, essentially, finding out what to trigger.
12/17/09
12/17/09
Ah, all right. Sorry!
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