Ben thinks this whole issue is a little silly.

Good Game returned to ABC TV in Australia this week featuring an interview with everybody’s favourite state Attorney General Michael Atkinson.

Mostly he recycled the same tired material he’s been using all along – that you actually “do” things when you’re playing games, and because of this he “thinks” they have a greater effect on people than movies or other forms of passive entertainment.  I’ll leave you all to reconcile that with his claim that  the current discussion paper on the R18+ rating issue would have been “fairer and more accessible” if it had’ve contained still images from objectionable games.

But far and away the biggest bombshell was his response to a threatening note that was slipped under his door recently by, one assumes, a disgruntled gamer.  I’ll give the quote in full, just so there’s no mistakes:

I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me.  The outlaw motorcycle gangs haven’t been hanging around my doorstep at 2am.  A gamer has.

-The Right pWnable Michael Atkinson

First of all, whoever left him that note, however threatening it may or may not have been, was an idiot.  They’ve done something illegal and they’ve achieved the exact opposite of what they wanted to.  Seriously, people need to grow up if they’re going to participate in this debate because (and I know this will come as a surprise to some people) Michael Atkinson is not stupid.  He’s been doing this for a long time and he’s got better media access than anyone else in the debate.  Someone thinks they’ve done something funny or clever and then BAM, gamers are an even bigger menace to society than biker gangs.

Hopefully the general public sees the statement to be just as ludicrous as we know it to be – note that Atkinson is talking about “a gamer” (singular) as compared to “motorcycle gangs” (plural) and has ignored the fact that he’ll be perfectly safe as long as he keeps a medkit handy, sticks to hallways so that evil gamers can’t circle-strafe around to his vulnerable side and leaves any respawn point immediately to avoid campers.

Here’s a link to the Good Game episode, here’s a link to the R18+ discussion paper (which you’re encouraged to submit your mature and helpful responses to by February 28) and because I’m feeling generous with my links today here’s a link to Gamers4Croydon who are running against Atkinson in the next state election.

Fr-fr-fr-fr-fresh!

Record Tripping is a lovely flash game by the Bell Brothers featuring a few of my favourite things: vinyl scratching, cats, and an old lady reading me Alice in Wonderland in a funny voice.

It’s a wonderful, pretty example of excellent puzzles combined with a no-nonsense interface. At most, you’ll use the scroll wheel (or trackpad for Mac fanboys!) to scrobble forwards or back, shifting time ahead or backwards. You can also hold down the mouse button to slow the track, and hence time, giving you the chance to get your puzzle on.

The entire game should take under five minutes, but what a fantastic five. Personal favourites are the cats in the box factory, bobbing head to the beat.  My best time is like 3:28 or thereabouts.

Head over to the official site to take a geez.

Piggybacks are fine, Little Sister, just don't ask for a helicopter

The 2010 sequel season (sequelganza!) continues it’s unstoppable march with the release of 2K Games’ BioShock 2.  The highly-anticipated “Deco ‘n Daddy” shooter has been a long time in the making, suffering delays in 2009 and requiring no less than five game studios to bring to fruition.  Has the result proved to be worth the wait?  Or does the sequel fall prey to the high expectations carried over from the original?

It’s been almost three years since we last descended into Andrew Ryan’s Rapture, and from the moment you stumble to your feet in BioShock 2, you’ll feel like you never left.  In-game, however, it’s been ten years since the events of Jack Ryan’s return and Fontaine’s fall, events for which our new protagonist was, for all intensive purposes, stone dead.  Subject Delta is an early model “Protector” Big Daddy, who’s line was genetically bonded to a single Little Sister to increase the effectiveness of the pairing.  Delta’s Little Sister is Eleanor Lamb, daughter of Rapture’s new leader Sofia Lamb.  In the game’s prologue Sofia gains control over Delta and forces him to commit suicide, reclaiming Eleanor in the process.  Ten years later, Delta falls out of a Vita-Chamber and discovers that he’s regained his free will.

From here Delta must make his way back to a now teenage Eleanor and effect an escape from Rapture’s grasp.  Along they way you’ll meet both new and familiar faces, and discover a whole new side of Rapture in the process.

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If you’re one of our Australian readers, you may have seen people today muttering: “Oh gawd, he didn’t just say… he did?  Really?“. And if you’re one of the poor unfortunates who didn’t get where the random resentment was aimed at, well by all means let me fill you in.

Our fearless Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy, has asked Google to censor any content on YouTube that would fall into the Australian “Refused Classification” category.  In the process, he’s compared Australian internet policy to that of China and Thailand … as though that were a good thing.

Seriously:

Google at the moment filters an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Chinese government; they filter an enormous amount of material on behalf of the Thai government.  What we’re saying is, well in Australia, these are our laws and we’d like you to apply our laws.

-Stephen “I did it for the lulz” Conroy

If your friends or co-workers struck this pose today, it's likely they read this story...

To put this in context, China is one of the 13 countries that the Paris-based NGO Reporters Sans Frontières lists as an “enemy of the internet”, putting them in the same category as Iran and North Korea.

Way to put us in the same room as the enemies of the internet, Senator Conroy!

Google has (thankfully) told the minister that they won’t comply voluntarily, citing among other things the fact that YouTube already has stringent content guidelines, the fact that the request was way too broad and the fact that they’re threatening to leave the Chinese market to get away from increasingly stringent censorship demands.

Plus there’s small stuff like the Australian government probably doesn’t have any jurisdiction over foreign-hosted websites like YouTube anyway.

You can see the whole interview with the minister on the Hungry Beast website (be patient, they’re getting spiked traffic at the moment), which is where this particular Conroy failboat set sail.  You can also read the full article over at the Sydney Morning Herald for more info and be sure to use a full strength palm moisturiser to avoid face chafing.

Visceral Games, probably best known for their work on the fantastic Dead Space, released the poetry inspired beat-em-up Dante’s Inferno this week, earning themselves a wide range of reviews.

While a hack ‘n slash based on medieval poetry sounds unlikely, we happen to think that Visceral have stumbled onto an untapped market here.  There is a wealth of gaming inspiration to be found in early literature, and it’s all royalty free!  Here’s where we suggest they begin on their next project:

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Shouldn't Cerberus Assault Armour come with three helmets?

Only a couple of days back we were speculating over the possible content included in the next free DLC pack for Mass Effect 2.  Well today Bioware’s community co-ordinator Chris Priestly has spilled the beans via the official forums, and they didn’t come in hovertank flavour:

On Tuesday February 09 2010 Mass Effect 2 fans will be able to get the new Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun DLC for free through the Cerberus network. It should be available for all fans, both on PC and Xbox 360 at 12:00pm Mountain Standard Time.

Cerberus Assault Armor
Cerberus assault armor is designed for shock troops, turn the tide of battle against creatures or forces that would decimate normal soldiers.
Increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%
Increases shields by +10%
Increases health by +10%

M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun
The M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads. This design also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22a is not distributed to militaries.

-Chris Priestly, suggesting you suit up

So now, while this wasn’t what everyone was expecting (and eight out of ten Salarian science teams apologise for building you up), further on in the thread Chris drops another post to set overzealous would-be tank owners at ease:

This is the next piece (or pieces since you get 2 things) of Downloadable contant coming for fans of Mass Effect 2. We still have more DLC on the way, such as the mentioned Hammerhead and other rumors, and we’ll have more information on more DLC in the future. Stay tuned.

So not only is the Hammerhead on the way, but “other rumours” too.  The only other major rumour circulating the DLC track is the final recruit, the thief “Kasumi”, which BioWare remains tight-lipped about.  That is, of course, unless Chris is for whatever reason taking into account a bevy of Shepard/Wrex reuniting slashfic, in which case one of the next DLC packs could be very disturbing indeed.

While “in the future” may not sound like a particularly reassuring time frame for the next announcement either, keep in mind this first pack is only a fortnight out from release, so BioWare’s DLC schedule is obviously rolling out steadily at this point.  Or at the very least, in a more timely fashion than Mass Effect: Pinnacle Station.

So enjoy your free armour and shotgun, folks.  There’s no concept art for the shotgun yet, but the Cerberus Armour has already recieved it’s entry in the Mass Effect Armoury page for you to peruse.  It’s already the 9th down here in Australia, but I guess we’ll have to wait for you Standard Mountain types to wake up.  More news if we get it, but until then all you can do is read over the announcement.

I thought I was being original - foiled again!

So in my review of Mass Effect 2 I mentioned I thought I’d managed to make my male Shepard look like Bruce Willis.

What I didn’t know about when I wrote that was the existence of Mass Effect 2 Faces, a site where anyone and everyone can post their very own reconstructed Shepard face.  All you have to do is create a character, take a screenshot of their face (or an awful digital photo of your television screen if you’re playing it on 360) and upload it.  Each new Shepard is also accompanied by it’s unique facial code, meaning if you see anything you like you can immediately create it on your own copy.

And it seems I unwittingly joined a trend with my Bruce Willis Shepard – clicking the “celebrities” filter will bring up all sorts of amusement.  A few personal favourites of mine so far include Bruce Campbell Shepard, Abe Lincoln Shepard and, of course, Michael Jackson Shepard.  Still no Ron Jeremy Shepard though, which I find disappointing.  I might feel some time in the character creation suite coming on…

Take a look at the site to post your own mugshot, rate those that have already been uploaded or just have some laughs.

ASCII art from GamesRadar's source code

OK, so no matter my personal misgivings with the upcoming Dante’s Inferno, even I have to agree that this viral idea is pretty cool.

So EA has launched a website called Hell Is Nigh, which asks the user to input six passwords to activate a download.  In perhaps one of the most original ideas to hit viral advertising in a short while, EA has purchased advertising space on major gaming sites’ source code.

What you see on your left is actually a screen capture of GamesRadar‘s source code, discoverable by anyone with the inclination to right click their page.  In the last two lines of the ASCII art are Hell Is Nigh’s URL, and the password linked to this particular image.

Stalwart lovers of medieval poetry (and probably a few gamers too) have spent the day searching for the hidden art, which has turned up on site such as Digg, Kotaku, 1UP and IGN.  Being the helpful type, they’ve also gone and compiled the complete list of passwords needed, just in case you can’t be arsed looking them all up yourself.

All password entered, users are given a package of concept art, wallpapers and game music, all of which is subject to a hauntingly damnation-filled EA Licenceing Agreement, so you’ll find no overt spoilers from me.  It doesn’t matter however, as if you’re actually looking for spoilers I’ve already told you where to go and what to do to skip the entire exercise anyway.

So the rewards are not so amazing, but I’ll be damned if I’m not impressed with the creativity of the thinking behind this viral.  Now if only they had of made a bit more effort not making the game play like a bag of cocks, that would have been great.

Visit Hell Is Nigh, and show you’re getting into the spirit of things by being slothful and cheating on the passwords.  And thanks for the initial heads up, BrentCsutoras!

It's arrived!

I’m Commander Stu Shepard and this is my new favourite game on the PC. Guess I just gave away the ending of this review, huh…

Regular readers* will know the original Mass Effect was my pick for game of the decade and I know I wasn’t the only one eagerly looking forward to the next installment. That’s a lot of pressure, so have Bioware cracked or have the delivered?

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..

Relax people, they’ve delivered.

Mass Effect 2 picks up a short while after the end of the first game and there’s a new menace in the galaxy. A species known as the Collectors are attacking human settlements and it’s fallen to Commander Shepard to assemble his or her team and put a stop to it. I won’t go into detail, but the story is involving and fans of the first game won’t be disappointed.

As promised, choices you made in the original game carry over. They don’t really affect the main plot but it’s a great touch. You did keep your save games, right? (more…)

No more needs to be said, really, I’m all preordered up and waiting for release day.  So this gorgeous looking cinematic trailer is just filling in the time: