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• Too Soon? No Nukes for Japanese Fallout 3

  In a move that's somehow less surprising than Fallout 3 actually coming out in Japan, some sensitive content has been removed from Bethesda's FPS/RPG hybrid for the sake of our Eastern friends. Kotaku reports: Developer Bethesda has made changes to the Japanese Fallout 3. The side-quest The Power of the Atom has been changed. Non-playable-character Mr. Burke has been taken out of this side-quest, removing the option of detonating the nuclear bomb. That's not all, the name of a weapon was changed as it was deemed "inappropriate" for Japan. Smart money says the weapon is mini-nuke launcher "Fat Man" for obvious reasons. The online reaction from the Japanese users seems to be largely disappointment to these edits. Fallout 3 goes on sale in Japan this December. It's easy to get up in arms about censorship, but there's some significant historical baggage that's a good justification for this cut content. While it's a bit odd that the very premise of the game--a nuclear war-torn future--would fly in light of certain events in Japanese history, people generally find it easier to get hung up on the more specific, immediate things.  The overall reduction of violence in the Japanese version of Fallout 3 (mentioned in this news story) also makes me believe that Japan's days as a haven for fucked-up media have long since passed.  There was once a time, in a decade not long before our own, when you could stumble into a dorm room, see something completely wicked on TV, and ask your marijuana-addled peer "What the hell are you watching?" One answer would suffice: "It's from Japan." Read More... Posted Nov 12 2008, 08:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: xbox 360, fallout 3, japan, bethesda, censorship, bob mackey, nuclear war

• Editors, Where Are Your Manners?

  Not long ago, I ruffled my feathers over the Internet's collective, though inevitable, lack of manners. Just yesterday, I posted some rambling thing about how the ESRB is largely irrelevant, mostly through no fault of its own. Today, I'm combining the two subjects! You lucky people! I'm a bit late to the fury party, but it seems that GameTrailers is upset at the ESRB because the organisation made them yank an exclusive Fallout 3 trailer. The ESRB, which does have a say in game advertisements for television, deemed the trailer too violent and ordered it taken down. (Of course, you can see it on YouTube thanks to special Internet magic.) Some people, myself included, think the ESRB has overstepped its boundaries. The trailer was meant for GameTrailers, not television. GameTrailers has every reason to be upset, and they don't even have to be wholly polite about their displeasure. But it would have been really boss if GameTrailers' editors had consulted someone aside from their thirteen-year-old nephews for their angry words. Read More... Posted Nov 12 2008, 06:02 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: halo 3, fallout 3, censorship, controversy, nadia oxford, game violence, esrb

• The Reason Why Mother 3 Never Came to America

  None. There is no good reason why Mother 3 never came to America. Oh, there are a couple of valid reasons why we never officially received Earthbound's follow-up, but they're not necessarily good. The easiest blame can be laid on finances. We are elbow-deep in the era of the Nintendo DS right now and the heyday of the Game Boy Advance is long over. Nintendo might get away with releasing all three Mother games in a DS collection, but that's obviously not going to happen in a grand hurry. By now, the universe knows that the original Earthbound bombed on the Super Nintendo. Nintendo did a beautiful, loving job with the packaging and translation, but dropped the marketing ball hard enough to cannonball clear to China. Earthbound was marketed as a cheesy science fiction game brimming with toilet humour, which it wasn't. Alas, a mass-mailing of scratch-and-sniff stickers made to smell like rancid pizza will do a lot to kill an appetite for game. Besides, after experiencing the majesty of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, why would anyone want to fight against giant piles of barf? I sure didn't. Earthbound tanked, Nintendo made up their mind about American tastes and Mother 3 never had a chance at a ticket to America. Since the release of the translation patch, however, more than one person has claimed that maybe Nintendo's fear of another financial disaster wasn't the only thing keeping Mother 3 from the States. There was suddenly talk about in-game content being inappropriate for American audiences: the dark story, the characters (oh, the characters) and whatnot. God knows Japan has thousands of little quirks that only those born under its flag can truly appreciate, but I don't see how Mother 3 is one of them. Read More... Posted Oct 27 2008, 05:35 AM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: snes, earthbound, mother 3, super nintendo, retail, censorship, game boy advance, nadia oxford, profits

• Sackboy Vs. Muhammad Round 2

  Leave it a representative from the American Islamic Forum for Democracy to sum up much more succinctly what I tried to take on a few days ago. Edge Online recently posted a reaction from said representative, M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., who weighed in on the whole LittleBigPlanet controversy: “The free market allows for expression of disfavor by simply not purchasing a game that may be offensive.” Jasser, who has also appeared on CNN, in the Washington Times and National Review, said that not only does the First Amendment support freedom of expression, but Mohammed also “defended the rights of his enemies to critique him in any way even if it was offensive to his own Islamic sensibilities or respect for Koranic scripture.” And, as with most cases like the LittleBigPlanet fiasco, the object of censorship is getting much more attention than it ever would have before the scandal. According to a news post on Edge this Monday: The track in question, Tapha Niang by Malian kora player Toumani Diabate, has seen a surge in sales on the iTunes website. The track features two passages from the Islamic religious text: "kollo nafsin tha'iqatol mawt," meaning "Every soul shall have the taste of death"; and "kollo man alaiha fan," meaning "All that is on earth will perish." Three cheers for freedom of speech! Now if we could only convince uptight book-banners that their actions are just as useless... Read More... Posted Oct 22 2008, 11:45 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: little big planet, religion, ps3, censorship, bob mackey, islam

• Sackboy Vs. Muhammad

  The recall--and subsequent delay--of LittleBigPlanet due to the presence of Qur'an quotations in one of the game's licensed tracks has angered gamers, and rightfully so. While some of the fan hostility is coming from having to wait nearly a week to get their hands on such a long-awaited title, much of the anger--including my own--stems from the senitment sent by Sony's course of action. In a medium still trying to mature, how will progress ever be possible when content is being kept in check by special interest groups (as violent as their extremists may be)?  As I griped about in this post, there's something about how games are still viewed as products--as opposed to entertainment, or art--that's keeping their content watered down when compared to what's seen in TV, movies, music, and other media. And content is soon going to be a problem for both Sony and LBP users due to the unfortunate bigotry this incident has caused. Just go check out any of the blogs/news sites that have reported on the LPB recall; nearly half the user comments carry a creepy anti-Islamic message that will undoubtedly carry over into the game's user-made content in the weeks to come. Read More... Posted Oct 20 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: little big planet, nintendo, religion, ps3, censorship, bob mackey, islam

• Just How Far Behind Is Australia?

  To say that PAL regions like Australia receive their games later than the rest of the world is a passé understatement. Now, from the land down under, comes this roundtable discussion on violent games being banned due to the lack of a video game rating system: Read More... Posted Aug 04 2008, 03:30 PM by Derrick Sanskrit with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: derrick sanskrit, yahtzee, fallout 3, grand theft auto, porn, australia, ratings, censorship