Ben-DutkaWell, it was a pretty eventful week, what with all those new PS3 model rumors and all, but I'll be a bit more specific in my rundown. I just gotta be me, and all that.
How do games like this get made?
This is actually a legitimate question. Last I checked, it's 2008, and while I certainly realize they're still making PS2 games, how does something like World Championship Paintball get through QA testing? More importantly, who the hell believes, even for a split second, that it's going to sell more than 27 copies worldwide? I've played the worst of the worst on the PS2 – Driven , Army Men: Green Rogue , Paris-Dakar Rally , etc. – but this one might top them all. In all honesty, the last time I played a game this horrendously bad was back in the 16-bit days, when extremely low budgets and less-than-capable hardware forced us to endure some pathetic game productions. But as I just said, this is 2008 , and World Championship Paintball would've been horrendous even during the PS1 days! Thing is, I know for a fact every game has to go through a gauntlet of approval processes from a variety of different places, and all I want to know is- how in God's name did something like this pass? How? Didn't somebody, somewhere say, "gee, this thing is really bad; maybe we shouldn't release it"?
The only conclusion one can reach is that those who made this game have never actually played a video game before. What other explanation is there? Anybody who has played a game in the past few years would take one look at this thing and know it's a mess. I just find it comical that World Championship Paintball even came to exist in the first place.
Rockstar is expecting the GTAIV backlash
So it seems Rockstar is all prepared and ready for for the angry reaction from anti-game activists in regards to Grand Theft Auto IV . It's not exactly shocking, especially considering Take-Two has spent more than enough time in courtrooms in the past five years; after all, there have been three previous installments that have raised the ire of every ignorant fool out there. Why should GTAIV be any different? I'm so sick and tired of these holier-than-thou, self-righteous know-it-alls who still believe every video game is a Mario spin-off and the average age of a gamer is 8. Well, the average age is 33 and I'm so damn tired of the archaic stereotypes, which is what Rockstar is really riling against. The rating will be "M" for Mature, which is more than enough. It has the appropriate rating, it's not designed for minors, nor is it supposed to be sold to minors. What more do you want? I don't see this kind of fallout when "Hostel 2" (which most certainly should've received an NC-17 rating) hits theaters, now do I? Nobody cares about the MPAA ratings, I guess. Movies aren't damaging to youngsters, only games.
Yeah. Like I said…SICK of it.
Personal gaming update
So I have finally completed Half-Life 2 and before I move on to Episodes One and Two, I'll be playing Devil May Cry 4 and then Unreal Tournament III . Of course, I do have to review Turok this week as well – stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Propaganda Games! – so that's going to take up a chunk of time, but I don't mind. The only real problem I have is that once DMC4 is done, I'll just be left with FPSs to play for a while. Therefore, I'm considering a Burnout Paradise purchase, just because Arnold says it's crazy long and obviously worth the $60. Either that, or I'm going to relive the glory days of the RPG on the PS1, which is something I love to do at least once a year. There is the possibility that this month's Xbox 360 release, Lost Odyssey , will be great, but I might be in the mood for something more old-school. We have a ways to go before April, which is when the likes of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue and Grand Theft Auto IV come out, so I'm going to fill the void as best I can. I'm usually pretty good at it, actually…