This week’s Australian release list is brought to you by the Shortbread Shortstack, three biscuits slapped on top of each other.
I know, I know, that’s not much of a sponsor but unfortunately there’s not much of a list this week either. Here goes, deep breaths people!
And as a jolly old gardener has said more than once, that’s your bloomin’ lot for the week!
As recommended by Ice T
Damn, son.
Without sounding like every other fanboy on the net, I’m going to try and give a critical, even-handed (if possible) opinion on this mega-title.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in this reviewer’s humble opinion, is a solid game. It continues a long history of excellent first-person-shooters and great multiplayer games, but primarily I have become a huge fan of the single player campaigns.
Traditionally the story missions have been quite short, but after cranking through the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare single campaign a little while ago, I was eagerly looking forward to this next installment.
And how was I pleased.
The game picks up where the last left off; albeit five years have passed. You now play a new range of soldiers, but some familiar faces (and voices, which for some odd reason, made me think of a fictitious uncle I have that sounds surprisingly like Bill Nighy) crop up along the way. (more…)
Not even space pirates were prepared
Here’s one reported by the BBC last night: Microsoft have banned close to 1 million Xbox Live users in the last 24 hours, all of whom apparently had chipped or modified consoles and have been playing pirated games:
Microsoft told BBC News that banned machines will be permanently barred and “unable to connect to Xbox Live”.
A message displayed on affected consoles said there was “no recourse for terms of use violations”. Microsoft has barred as many as 1m gamers from Xbox live for modifying their consoles to play pirated games.
“Users of banned Xbox consoles can recover their profile to another, unmodified Xbox 360 console to resume their Live service,” the firm told BBC News. “The banned console will be unable to connect to Xbox Live.”
However, modified consoles will still work offline.
This is apparently an on going plan to stamp out games piracy, although noise has been made that it was to curb the pirating of Modern Warfare 2. One gamer’s response to being cut off is here, though to be honest it smacks of false witness journalism, so take it with a grain of salt.
The full BBC article is here. Anyone outraged by this should note that somebody already made the angry Hitler version of events, so you don’t need to make another one.
Ice-T models the MW2 night vision goggles
You want to know why? It’s because of this awesome picture on the left right here.
That’s right. Ice-T has Modern Warfare 2: Prestige Edition. The game – encased in carbonite a spiffy metal box – also comes with a hardcover art book, a plastic bust of one of the game’s characters and working night vision goggles. The goggles run on 5 (thousand) AA batteries and apparently actually work, though they do limit your depth perception. So it’s suggested you don’t go running up and down stairs. Or something.
Costing $149 (USD of course), it’s one of those decisions you have to make every now and then. Do I want to sneak around at night looking badass? Or should I just stick to playing games the usual way?
You decide! (Ice-T obviously chose the boss option)
You simply can't touch his level of awesome
The king of the old-school cool, MC Hammer, was in Melbourne this Monday as part of the Xbox Insider Tour (pics and details soon!) and was happy to share his ideas about Twitter and gaming with the people (alongside singing a few classic hits). My voice recorder did a fine job amongst the pumped up crowd, so I managed to get his words down on tape.
But while his philosophy on Twitter is somewhat inspiring, did you also know he’s got the inside low-down on Call of Duty 5? … Well, sort of:
The message is, get your new update, get on Twitter and connect. We stay connected on Twitter, and I can travel the world, you can travel the world and we all still connected, because the world is only this big [holds his fingers millimeters apart] now, right? We just a tweet away from each other, and it’s fantastic that people want to connect that way. In particular all the people who are gaming, while I’m whooping you at Call of Duty or whatnot. All of you gamers get ready, because I’ve been in training! Call of Duty 4 … or 5 or whatever it is. Be ready!
-MC Hammer, ready to cause hammer-time online
And when the Hammer tells you to be ready, you listen. Now if only we had of found out his gamertag … that’s a multiplayer game of Modern Warfare 2 I wouldn’t want to miss! I mean the guy essentially invented the idea of side-strafing!
If you’re digging his message, maybe you should add to the 1.6 million people who follow him on Twitter. I’m sure 1.7 million can’t be that far off.
Australian newspaper The Age has published an online article concerning Modern Warfare 2, as you’d expect with the ire rising about the graphic “No Russian” airport scene.
While the article itself is an interesting read on one man/father/gamer’s view on the game, the comments themselves are what interested me. The following one by Gary of Eastwood especially:
The advantage of once being a soldier going overseas to Iraq (1991) and playing combat games is the discovery of how benign they are. It’s a sexy topic ripe for PhD’s and a contradiction to raise the gamer-nasties issue. If the effects are as horrible as feared we would be living in a state of anarchy. People are challenged and effected by games. Yet, how is it that we expose people to actual war with its killing, maiming, dying and mental health disruption and yet not be as loudly concerned about its damaging effects in in competition with the hypocritical amount of time, effort, reports, moral outrage and media attention that is given to silly games. I don’t play them only because I’m useless at them. They are as harmless as other games where killing is disguised. Books, films, stories (even music, who are these crackpots?), documentaries and news, feed the brain content and distill effects. What are the actual effects? Can there be only one kind of effect? No, I don’t think so. I think there is a ever expanding spectrum of effect that comes down to choice. Playing couch combat games as opposed to being a soldier holding a rifle, wearing heavy body armour, with webbing, pack, 50 degree heat, hunger, thirst, exhaustion, dirt, basic hygiene, chronic indecision, sick, tired and dead refugees, a lot of fear, trembling and anger, isolation, disturbing experiences and occasional moments of inappropriate and manic euphoria. So relax and have a your latte. These games are meaningless. All I ever hear about is the damaging effect of ‘games’ whilst the world is filled with real nasty wars with people who’ve never played couch combat games who would kill you for 50 cents.
-Gary | Eastwood – November 11, 2009
This is the kind of insight people need into violent/war-themed games, in my opinion.
Here's a picture of some empty shelves, for the imagination starved
The folks over at Australian Gamer have posted up a report that they know a guy, who know’s a guy who talked to a guy that assured them that there is a 90% chance that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 2 will be pulled from Australian shelves tomorrow morning after a meeting by the OFLC to discuss the game’s portrayal of playable terrorism.
One of Cav’s mates has let us know that there is a 90% chance that the OFLC will have the game withdrawn from shelves due to the Terrorism scene it contains. Supposedly, there’s a meeting at 9am on Tuesday morning about this very topic, which could determine whether the game is pulled off the shelves or not. Jae Jae, our resident snoop, is investigating if this is the case, so stay tuned and we’ll let you know how it pan’s out.
-… who then told two friends
Now while the source might be slightly questionable (although Australia has a fine tradition of passing on current events through a news network of “a bloke I met at the pub”), the idea is certainly believeable, considering our ultra-tight classification laws. And if the game isn’t pulled at some point from Australian shelves for it’s content, it’s going to leave a big question mark over what is and what isn’t appropriate for 15 year olds in the country.
If we can shoot people in an airport, why can’t we kill zombies in a swamp?
Check out the news breakers, and if you’re the cautious type, you might want to start scoping out midnight release venues.
Big W: Excercising Release Date Ignorance Since 2004
It’s great to know that, despite being a land of restrictive and backward classification laws, Australian’s can get their triple A titles before the rest of the world due to incompetent retailers.
Rumours abound today that the highly anticipated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may be on shelves early at Big W retailers around the country. A new catalogue begins today that advertises MW2 for AU$82, which is a good price to begin with, but it is a little early for the game’s official November 10th release date.
Most people would naturally assume that since the catalogue runs through to November 11th, the listing is simply advertising the game’s price in advance. However, reports have come in from the Xbox Australia forums that pre-order customers have been told thay can come in from today to collect their copies.
Understandably this has lead to a great many Australian gamers promising to be at Big W tomorrow to check it out. No actual confirmation of a broken street date yet, but if there is you can bet Mark will be there, attempting to bull-rush a pack of equally eager fanboys.
Take a look at the source of the rumour, and the catalogue in question!
Oh, and in related news, here’s Modern Warfare 2′s official trailer. Hope you like pretty explosions and Eminem, dear reader.