The Day Has Come (Closer)!

Hallelujah friends, for this is a joyous day!

In case you haven't heard, a bill has finally been introduced into Australian parliament to allow the classification of R18+ on games!

Years! Years we have been fighting for this - over ten years according to the article in the technology section of News.com.au - and finally it's happening.

It is an actively foolish thing that this country, wherein there is an R18+ rating for film and television, has no such rating for video games - a landscape which contains just as much if not more violence and mature content, especially within the last decade. In the words of IGN's Luke Reilly, “This has been such a tiresome issue for so many years; it’s great to finally have some real light at the end of the tunnel".

Yes, Luke, it is nice.

The main issue seemed to be that people thought young players would "have more access" to R18+ material if the rating were to be introduced, but this concept is ludicrous. They have the same exposure to R18+ films and television, but we still have them. And kids will find a way to sneak in to watch them, too. But for some reason, that is acceptable behaviour for film and TV and not for games. Why?

It seems that the government, and those lobbying against the rating change, see video games as something that only young people do. Something that is juvenile. Something that is not R18+ material. Well, they are wrong. Those people who were young gamers when gaming first came around? They're adults now. They want to play games that are adjusted to their level of maturity. And yes, you can be mature and still play games.

And parents, if you do not want your children playing these games (just like you didn't want them watching those films or TV series) then it's simple: do not buy it for them. Pay attention to what your children are playing or, better yet, pay attention to what you are buying them. Don't just give in when they want Hack and Slash 4: The Bloodening, if that game has an R18+ rating, it is not suitable for them. If you buy it for them and you don't like it when you discover what it is months later, it's your own fault.

There, I said it.


I'm glad to finally see the government seeing reason on this topic and I hope that this bill passes. Because, honestly, I like to do things legally. I don't want to live in a place where if I want to play the original Left 4 Dead 2  - with all its bloody, gory glory - I'd either have to buy a copy from America, or download an illegal, hacked version. And I don't really want to do either of those things. I want to support the Australian businesses who sell them.

Come on, guys. Let's get this one right.

Mahalo.

Xbox "720" Rumours

Thanks to Huffington Post, IGN, Kotaku and a few other gaming sources, some rumours about the next generation Xbox - the "720" (not what it will be called, but it is what people have dubbed it for the moment) - are starting to be solidified.

There are a couple that are intriguing, but the most argued over seems to be the release date. The most recent guess, according to the aforementioned sites, seems to be in the late quarter of 2013. Sure this is a year after Nintendo releases it's new Wii U later this year, but that's no biggie.
This means we have a full year to enjoy our current games before, basically, we never play them again and use only things for the new console - which is, unfortunately, really seems to be how all this ends up working.

Another intriguing development, according to a Kotaku insider, is that the new console will come equipped with a Blu-Ray player and the "Kinect 2", a new version of the motion-detector gaming add-on for Xbox 360. It's said that it will have an on-board processor that "would enable a new Kinect to more effectively detect users' motions". So, you know, be better at doing what it's supposed to do. Good news. Not that the original Kinect is bad, mind new, but it is limited.

Numbers and letters concerning the new consoles power are also being thrown around, some saying that the "720" will be 6 times more powerful than the 360, with Kotaku's source saying that that's "the right ballpark and that Microsoft is estimating they might even get to 8x the Xbox 360". 8 times the power. The thing is already pretty damn powerful, I can only imagine what's coming next! And, knowing Xboxes (Xboxs? Xboxi?) as I do, the size of the power supply that comes with it with need its own liquid cooling system.

It is also said that the processor is being based off the Radeon HD 6670, which is currently released, which asks the question of whether the graphics on the machine will be out of date before it even hits the market. I have to trust the team at Microsoft that they know what they're doing, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Here's hoping they address that issue instead and be more like, you know, every other home electronic device currently on the market and won't need an external power supply at all. I have to tip my hat to Sony on this one in making an amazingly powerful and advanced gaming machine - with arguably better graphics than the 360 - that does not require an external power supply have the size of the console itself. Kudos.

By far the biggest development, however, has to be the fact that a purportedly reputable source from within Microsoft has said that they are working on software (or maybe its hardware, it's unclear) that will prevent the console from playing used games. This would kill business like Game Stop and reduce revenue from your local game stores like Game, JB Hi-Fi and EB. They are "unsure how they will implement the system" but Luke Plunkett of Kotaku seems to find that he understands the movement towards this kind of technology.

"In fact, if it ends up being correct, it makes total sense. Why? Over the past year we’ve seen developers, publishers and then even platform holders like Sony embrace the idea of the “online pass”, a concept designed to either prevent game trade-ins or get more money out of those skipping new purchases," he writes.

"It’s a movement that, as time goes on, will only pick up steam. And now that nearly all major publishers are on-board with the idea in one form or another, the next logical step is to embed the practice in gaming hardware."

 While he's right, it would severely limit your ability to lend your games to friends and family or any of the behaviours that gamers have so embraced in our culture.

Wired's Chris Kohler says it's possible that the games will be a hybrid of the disk, which will contain the content and likely a unique access code, and downloadable, one-user-only games like for phones and tablets.

No one knows for certain that any of this is spot on but, as the speculation of commenters is being slowly confirmed in one way or another by their contacts in the industry, I am certain that what is true is that when the "720" does come out, it will be an entirely new gaming experience to what we are used to now.

Mahalo.

Half-Life News and Blues

Odds are, if you are a fan of well-scripted, story-driven games, first person shooters or really have a love for Valve games (who doesn't? Seriously), you have played Half-Life 2 and its subsequent episodic releases, titled of course Half-Life 2: Episode One and Episode Two. Also likely is that you, like everyone else who has played these games, wants to see the series come to a conclusion in the long-anticipated Episode Three, which was announced way back in 2006, supposedly to finish "a trilogy...that will conclude by Christmas of 2007."

Well Valve Boss, Gabe Newell, has recently teased that we should be seeing an Episode Three sometimes pretty soon. Well, we certainly hope so, after it turns out that the Valve employee with the Half-Life 3 t-shirt was only trolling, with comments being made by Cheft from Valve that, "there has been no directive from Gabe [Newell] to leak anything. That is all false."

Let's hope Episode Three comes out soon, because we've all been away from the Half-Life world for too long! No release date has been set, though. Alas.

Mahalo.