Kotaku: Game on

GameFly Prematurely Closes The Agency

Mike Fahey — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:40:00 MST

Several of you emailed us this morning, frightened after receiving email notifications from the game rental service GameFly that Sony Online Entertainment's MMO The Agency for the PlayStation 3 had been canceled by the manufacturer. Instead of panicking, we decided to contact the manufacturer to see what they had to say.

"Sony Online Entertainment’s game, The Agency™, is still in development for release on both the PLAYSTATION®3 and PC platforms. The game sku has been reinstated to GameFly’s website. Feel free to add The Agency to your GameQ!"

There we go! Nothing at all to worry about. Just remember kids, retailers and rental establishments, while lovely places to visit and procure video games from, are no substitute for news directly from the game developers and publishers themselves. That's one to grow on.

Bethesda's AAA Playlist

Mark Wilson — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:00:26 MST

It's always interesting when designers disclose what they are playing, and Bethesda recently listed a boatload of games their team was playing, broken down by occupation. Overall AAA trends include exactly what you would probably predict: Mass Effect, Rock Band, Orange Box, Super Mario Galaxy, Assassin's Creed, etc. You can also spot a dead Xbox 360, boardgames and plenty of popular (and even some older) RPGs sure to be influencing these good Samaritans who are making what will hopefully be my next favorite infatuation for a while (Fallout 3). Also of note: nobody's playing Fallout 2...at least not during weekend hours...though Oblivion is in at least one rotation.

What we're playing: Playing Catch Up with the Holiday Hits [via n4g][image]

Singapore Lifts Mass Effect Lesbian Ban

Mike Fahey — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:20:01 MST

It seems like only a couple days ago that Singapore's Media Development Authority announced a ban on BioWare's Mass Effect for the Xbox 360 due to hot, steamy, eye color-changing alien lesbian sex scenes. Perhaps between Monday and today they caught a glimpse at one of the clips of the scene online and realized it wasn't so bad. Perhaps the MDA got a little overexcited. Either way, today they've reversed said ban, allowing implied cross-species lovemaking to rain over Singapore like fairy dust, along with an M18 rating.

The Board of Film Censors (BFC) said in a statement on Friday evening that it will selectively use games ratings to 'enable highly anticipated games to be launched in Singapore' until it puts in place a games classification system in January.

The claim to be using the game as an example of the effectiveness of the upcoming games rating system for the games industry and the public at large, but we know better. Come on MDA, it's natural to have these feelings. It's part of growing up. A beautiful thing.

MDA lifts ban on game with same-sex love scene [The Straits Times via GameAxis]
Thanks Tan!

Geometry Wars: Galaxies Still On Target For NA

Mike Fahey — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:40:34 MST

Yesterday we reported that Sierra's Geometry Wars: Galaxies for the Nintendo DS and Wii had been pushed back to January 18th, 2008, and to a certain extent it was true - but only for Europe. Galaxies is still on track for the Wii release on the 20th and the DS release a week later in North America according to Sierra, who dropped us a line last night to clear things up. We report on global gaming events, and sometimes the global part gets us a little dizzy. Have you seen that thing spin? Mesmerizing I tell you. So in summary, North American gamers be happy, European gamers continue lamenting. We'll keep you updated should your emotional state need to change any further.